which he calls a Remedy is ten times worse then the disease itselfe even such a Remedy as the luke-warm blood of Infants newly slain is for the Leprosy and in this respect worse that a Leprosy is a disease indeed but where shall a Man almost read in story of a Father slaughtering his Son except perhaps some franticke Anabaptist in imition of Abraham it will not be difficult to find two Sons that have made away their Fathers for one Father that hath made away his Sonne notwithstanding the Fathers Authority So this case is inter raro aut nunquam contingentia and may be reckoned amongst the rest of the Observers incredible suppositions which are answered before in the beginning of this Section But if the Observers Doctrine were once received into the world throughly for one instance of a Parracide now we should hear of an hundred A Mischief is better then an inconvenience a Mischief that happens once in an Age then an inconvenience which is apt to produce a World of Mischiefes every day as where the King is able to make good his Party res facile redeunt ad pristinum statum or where Forrein Princes shall engage themselves on the behalfe of Monarchy it selfe or perhaps doe but watch for an opportunity to seise upon both parties as the Kite did on the Frog and the Mouse and howsoever where Ambition Covetousnesse Envy Newfanglednesse Schisme shal gain an opportunity to act their mischievous intentions under the cloake of Justice and zeal to the Common-wealth We are now God knowes in this way of Cure which the Observer prescribes I may say it safely This Kingdom hath suffered more in the tryall of this remedy in one year then it hath done under all the Kings and Queenes of England since the union of the two roses I think I may inlarge it since the Conquest except onely such seditious times Leave a right to the Multitude to rise in Arms as often as they may be perswaded there is Danger by the Observer or some such seditious Oratours for their own ends and every English Subject may write on his doore Lord have mercy upon us Thirdly I doe grant that to levy Arms against the authority of the King in the absence of his Person is to warre against the King otherwise we should have few Treasons Some desperate Ruffian or two or three Raggamuffins sometimes but rarely out of revenge most commonly upon seditious principles and misled by some factious Teachers may attempt upon the Person of the Prince but all grand conspiracies are veiled under the maske of Reformation of removing greivances and evill Councellours Fallit enim vitium specie virtutis umbra I goe yet further that when a Kings Person is hâ—…ld captive by force and his commands are meerely extorted from him by duresse and fear of further Mischief contrary to the dictate of his own reason as it was in the case of Henry the sixth there his commands are to be esteemed a nullity of no moment as a forced marriage or a bond sealed per minas But where the King hath Dominion of his own Actions though he be actually misled and much more though he be said to be misled the case is far otherwise These three truths with these Cautions I doe admit in this distinction of the Kings Person and Office But yet further here are sundry rocks to be avoided in it The first is not onely to distinguish in reason but actually and in deed to divide the Kings Person from His Authority that is to make the King a Platonicall Idea wiâ—…out personall subsistence or as the Familists doe make their Christ a Quality and not a Man as if the King of England were nothing but Carolus Rex written in Court hand without flesh blood or bones To what purpose then are those significant solemnities used at the Coronation of our Kings Why are they crowned but to shew their personall and Imperiall Power in Military Affaires why inthroned but to shew their judiciary Supremacy why inoâ—…led but to expresse their Supremacy in matters of Religion That the Kings Authority may be where His Person is not is most true that His person may be without Authority is most false That his Office and Authority may be limited by Law is true but a King without personall Authority is a contradiction rather then a King such a King as the Souldiers made of Christ with a scarlet Robe a Crown of Thornes a Scepter of a Reed and a few Courtesies and Formallities The Person of a bad King is to be honoured for his Office sake to what purpose if his Person and his Office mâ—…y be divided How dull were the Primitive 〈◊〉 that suffered so much because they were not capâ—…ble of this distinction By this distinction S. Paul â—…ight have justified his calling Ananias whited Wall without pleading that he knew not that he was Gods High-Priest and have told him plainly that be reverenced his Office but for his Person and illegall commands â—…e did 〈◊〉 respect them When Maximian commanded â—…he Christian Souldiers to sacrifice to Idols this â—…as an unlawfull command yet they câ—…ose rather to â—…e cut in pieces then to resist When the same Maximian and Dioclesian published a cruell Edict â—…t Nicomedia agâ—…inst Christians That their Churâ—…hes should be demolished their Scriptures burned â—…heir Apostate Servants infranchised this was but a Personall Arbitrary Edict A principall Professor â—…ore it in pieces and suffered death for it even in the judgement of his Fellow Christian deservedly A second Danger is to leave too great a Latitude of Judgement uâ—…to Subjects to censure the doingâ—… of their Soveraigne and too great a Liberty not onely to suspend their obedience but also to oppose his commands till they be satisfied of the legallity thereof A miserable a condition for Princes as it is pernicious for Subjects and destructive to all Sâ—… cieties A Master commands the Servant an unjuâ—… act in the opinion of the Servant yet the Servaâ—… must submit or be beaten Doth not the Master hiâ—… selfe owe the same Subjection to his Prince tâ—… Master denyes the act is unjust so doth the Prince who shall be Arbiter it were too much sawcinesâ—… for a Servant to arrogate it to himselfe what is then for a Subject will a Judge give leave to an Eâ—… ecutioner to reprive the Prisoner till he be satisfie of the Legallity of the Judges sâ—…ence A Supâ—… riour may have a just ground for his Command whicâ—… he is not alwaâ—…es bound to discover to his Subjects nor is a Subject bound to sift the grounds 〈◊〉 his Superiourâ—… Commands In summe a Subjeâ—… should neither be tanquam scipio in manu like staffe in a mans hand alike apt to all motions read to obey his Prince though the act to be done be eâ—… dently against the Law of God or Nature nor yeâ—… on the other side so scrupulouâ—… as to demurre upon aâ—… his commands untill he understand
bird with a stone and no stone on a Tree and no Tree In this Riddle there may be something in Nature which seems to be intermedious to salve the contradiction in shew but in their case no manner of Difference to make the same thing just and unjust but Self-love and Partiality Was it Treason in the Northern Rebells to make an Insurrection and is it now become Pâ—…ty I delight not in Domesticall Examples let us rather cast our eyes beyond Sea and see where ever Protestants were accused for Rebellion but where either Anabaptisme or this Discipline did take place and yet none of them I except onely Anabaptists were halfe so criminous as ours They had sundry pleas which we cannot make for our selves As first that they did not rise up against their lawful Prince but onely against a Protector to whom they did owe no Allegiance but an honorable Acknowledgement but our Laws binds us not onely to owe Allegiance but to swear it Or secondly that they did not rise up against the Person of their Prince but against some enraged Minister of his reserving still their Obedience to their Soveraigne inviolate but we have not onely resisted but invaded the Kings Person There were more great shot made at the very place where the King was at Edge-hill then the same proportion of Ground throughout the Field the â—…ery liâ—… Cuâ—…esy was offered to the Queen at â—…urlington to welcome her into England Or thirdly their Princes did go aboâ—…t to force their Consciences withot Law or against Law and by an Arbitrary Power set up an Inquisition among them but good King Charles is so farâ—… from this that for the â—…ase of his Subjects he hath taken away an High-Commission established by Statute and is still ready to condiscend to any thing that can be reasonably proposed for the ease of tender Consciences What is it then Hath His Majesty been a hard Master No. Heare a Witnesse that will not violate his Conscience to doe Hiâ—… Majestie service I see many hâ—…re the most â—…toriously obliged indeed as much as Servâ—…s can be to a Master in this good Cause hâ—…ve â—…stered those vulgar Considerations and had the Courage to despise him that is the King to His Face A good Panegyricke and His Majesty may live to requite them as Caâ—…us did 〈◊〉 the Traytor when his Sonne had slain 〈◊〉 Ironside and he saluted the King with Aâ—… Rex solus his Reward was a Good Gibbet Ego te bodie ob â—…nti Obsequii meritum cunctis Regni 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These Seditious and Schismaticall Principlâ—… were not the â—…esults of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and uningaged Judgemenâ—… but rather the excuse of criminous or the 〈◊〉 oâ—… neâ—…ssitated Persons wheâ—… 〈◊〉 produceth new Opinions and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 followeth the Dictates of the Will there is small hope of Tâ—… When Men oâ—… Belial Factious Persons had shaken off 〈◊〉 yoake of a just Government being neither Pretenders themselves in point of Right nor capable of Soveraignity by reason of their obâ—…curity that they might retaine that iâ—… part which they could not graspe in the whole they broached these desperate Devises of the Omnipotency of the People wheâ—… others oâ—… the same Men either having expelled Bishops to gaine their Revenues upon pretence of Superstition or living under a Soveraigne of another Communion could not have Bishopâ—… of their own and yet did find the necessity of Discipline then they fancyed the new form of Presbiteries in imitation of the Jewish Synedriums throughout their Synagogues though that be most uncertaine and all Men know this for certain that the Synagogues were but humane Institutions Acts 15. 21. not from the Law but from old Time Which new form of Discipline was so adapted and accomodated to the Politicke State of the Citty of Genevah that as it was there established it cannot possibly â—…it any other place except it have fower Syndicks a greater a lesser Councell Then as all Sects are modest in their beginnings they desired their Neighbour Churches onely to certifie that their Discipline was not repugnant to the word of God yet now they would obtrude it on the world as the Eternall Gospell So our new upstart Independents which run gadding about the World like Lapwings with their shels upon their Heads having been kept under the hatches here in old England performing their divine Offices in Holes and Corners and having no Assemblyes but such as did of their own accord associate themselves to them now deny the name of true Churches to all Societies but such blind Conventicles And shall we make their excuses to be our grounds shall we that live in the most temperate part of the temperate Zone injoy a Government as temperate as the Climate it selfe we who cannot complain either of too much Sun or too little Sun where the Beames of Soveraignty are neither too perpendicular to scorch us nor yet so oblique but that they may warm us shall we goe about in a madding humour to dissolve a frame of Government which made our fore-Fathers happy at home and famous abroad shall we whose Church was the Envy and Admiration of Christendome neither too garish nor too sluttish excelling some as far in Purity as it did others in Decency now learn Religion out of Tubbs as if the little toes could see further then the eyes If they have an extraordinary calling where are their Miracles mendaâ—…ia video miracula non video we heare there lyes not see their wonders Saint Paul became all things to all Men but that was compatiendo non mentiendo as St. Augustine saith Shall we without need put our life 's into the hands of crackbrain'd unskilfull Empericks which have taught us already to our losse that a new Phisitian must have a new Church-yard rather mutemus clipeos let us leafe them old England and content our selves with new England It will be better to live in hollow Trees among Savages and Wild Beasts then here to be chopping and changing our Religion every new Moon Be not deceived as if these men did desire no more then onely the rectifying of some former Obliquities and Irregularities we are now told in plain English that it is to subdue the pride of Kings Monarchy it selfe is the onely Object worthy of these men Wrath. May not one here exclaime as the great Turk did to his Councell when the Templers and Hospitaliers advised him by letter how Fredericke the Christian Emperour might be taken Ecce fidelitas Christianorum behold the Loyalty of our great Reformers But what is this pride of Kings If we will believe one of their Authors in his application of the Story of Cleomedes his Daughter to the Domestick Custome of the Spartan Kings pater hosâ—…es manus non habet it is a one piece of their pride to have a man to pull off their shooes and yet they say the Author had one to brush his Cloathes Now they stick not to let us know why they
though it had not when the jarring strings of mens minds are turned again it is probable it may sleep for eveâ—… It were much better to pur it off as the Areopagites did knotty questions to a very long Day or with the Jews for Elias to resolve when he comes But good Sir if it may be without offence satisfie me in one doubt what Sect you are of whether some newly sprung up Mushrome or you derive your self from those Non Conformists which were in the Dayes of Queen Elizabeth and King Iames. They have solemnly Protested in Print that no Christians under Heaven doe give more to the Regall Supremacy then they yea without Limitation or qualification that for the King not to assume such a power or for the Churches within his Dominions to deny it is damnable Sinne mark it although the Statutes of the Kingdom should deny it him and Statutes are more then bare Votes That it is not tyed to their Christianity but their Crown from which no Subject or Subjects have power to seperate it If no Subjects collectively then not one or both Houses But they goe further and I pray you make it one of your Observations that though the King command any thing contrary to the Word of God yet we ought not to resist but peaceably forbear Obedience and sue for Grace and when that cannot be obtained meekly submit our selves to punishment How you have practised this of late the World sees and this Kingdom feels They declare That it is utterly unlawfull for any Christian Churches by armed Power against the will of the Civill Magistrate to set up in publique the true worship of God or suppresse any Superstition or Idolatry They abjure all Doctrines repugnant to these as Anabaptisticall and Antichristian They condemne all practises contrary to these as Seditious and sinfull I forbear sundry other things avouched by them in the same Protestation as that the King onely hath power within his Dominions to convene Synods of Ministers and by his Authority Royall to ratifie their Canons yea that if it should please the King and Civill State to continue Bishops they could be content without envy to suffer them to injoy their State and Dignity and to live as Brethren with those Ministers that should acknowledge homage unto them By this time I suppose you hâ—…ve enough of the Protestation my quaere is but short whether you can change your Doctrine as the Châ—…aelion her colours according to the present exigence of Affaires or will acknowledge your opinions to be Anabaptisticall and Antichristian your practise Seditious and Sinnefull in the Judgement of your Predecessors And yet I am not ignorant that both before and after and about the time of this Protestation a Cockatrice Egge was hatching when a Subject durst stile the great Senate under which â—…e lâ—…ved tumultuosa â—…erditorum hominum sactio a tumultuous Faction of desperate Men and the Judges discordiaram Duces then the Mistery began to work closely but shortly after it shewed it selfe openly when his Successor did publish to the world that if Kings observe not those pactions to which they were sworn subordinate Magistrates have power to oppose them and the Orders of the Kingdom to punish them if it be needfull till all things be restored to their former Estate That what power â—…ae Generall Councell hath to depose a Pope for Heresy the same the People have over Kings that are turned Tyrants A wofull Argument drawn from an elective Pope to an hereditary King from a free and oecumenicall Councell to a Company of limited and sworne Subjects from an action grounded on known Law to an Arbitrary Proceeding The Kings Crown sits closer The Councells Power is greater The like Law is wanting Others teach that the People must bridle Princes if the Nobility will not Our Countryman Cartwright speakes very suspitiously To think the Church must be framed according to the Common-wealth and the Church Government according to the Civill Government is as if a man should fashion his house according to his hangings whereas indeed it is cleane contrary that as the hangingâ—… are made fit for the house so the Common-wealth must be made to agree with the Church and the Government thereof with her Government Adde to this their other tenet that the Government of the Church with them is Democraticall or at best bur Aristocraticall and what will follow that the Civill Government must be the same or at the least if it be inconsistent with the form of Discipline which they fancy it must be regulated and conformed thereunto I omit the Trayterous Opinions of Goodman Gilby Whitingham teaching Sheriffes and Jailers to let loose them whom they call Saints teaching Subjects to reduce their Soveraignes into order by force yea to depose them or put them to Death But these seditious principles were suppressed then by the Learning and Authority of Grindall Sands Parkburst Iewell Beacon Nowell Coxe Barlow c. who being exiled for Religion at Franckford accused Knoxe of High Treason about them and put him to make use of his heeles Let this very Confusion of them in this matter be a warning to us how we have the the faith of our Lord Iesus Christ in respect of Persons or be so glued to the Persons of our Teachers that we suck up their errors as greedily as their good Lessons forgetting that they were but men and that particular Relations and Ingagements have an insensible influence upon the best temper'd minds Observer The King attributes the originall of his Royalty to God and the Law making no mention of the grant consent or trust of Man therein but the the truth is God is no more the Author of Regall then of Aristocraticall Power nor of Supreme more then of Subordinate Command Nay that Dominion which is usurped and not just yet while it remaines Dominion and till it be again legally divested refers to God is to the Authour and Donor as much as that which is hereditary Answer That Royalty and all lawfull Dominion considered in the abstract is from God no Man can make any doubt but he who will oppose the Apostle the powers that be are ordeined of God and God himselfe who saith by me Kings raigne and Princes decree Iustice But the right and application of this Power and Interest in the concrete to this particular man is many times from the grant and consent of the People So God is the principall Agent man the Instrumentall God is the Root the Fountain of Power Mâ—n the Stream the Bough by which it is derived the Essence of Power is alwayes from God the Existence sometimes from God sometimes from Man yet Grant and Consent differ much and Consent it selfe is of severall kinds explicite or implicite antecedent or subsequent a long continued Prescription or Possession of Soveraignty without Opposition or Reluctatation implies a full Consent and derives a
proceed from mutuall pactions but from acts of Grace and Bounty I would know to what purpose the Observer urgeth this distinction of Laws will it â—…er â—…he State of the question or the obligation of Subjects Nothing lesse Whether the calling of the Prince be ordinary or extraordinary mediate or immediate the title of the Prince the tye of the Subject is still the same Those Ministers who were immediately ordeined by Christ or his Apostles did farre exceed ours in personall perfections but as for the Ministeriall Power no tract of time can bring the least diminution to it God was the first Instituter of Marriage yet he never brought any couple together but Adam and Eve other marriages are made by free election yet for as much as it is made by vertue and in pursuance of Divine Institution we doe not doubt to say and truely those whom God hath joyned together His Majesties title is as strong the obligation and relation between him and his Subjects is the very same as if God should say from Heaven take this Man to be your King Again if the Libertie of the Subject be from Grace not from pactions or agreements is it therefore the lesse or the lesse to be regarded what is freer then gift if a Nobleman shall give his Servant a Farme to pay a Rose or Pepper-corn for an acknowledgement his title is as strong as if he bought it with his Money But the Observer deales with his Majesty as some others doe with God Almighty in point of merit they will not take Heaven as a free gift but challenge it as Purchasers In a word the Authour of these Observations would insinuate some difference betwixt our Kings and the Kings of Israell or some of them who had immediate vocation wherein he would deceive us or deceiveth himselfe for their request to Samuell was make us a King to judge us like all other Nations Observer Power is originally inherent in the People and it is nothing else but that might and vigour which such or such a society of Men containes in it selfe and when by such or such a Law of common consent and agreement it is derived into such and such hands God confirmes that Law and so Man is the free and voluntary Author the Law is the Instrument and God is the Establisher of both and we see not that Prince which is most potent over his Subjects but that Prince which is most potent in his Subjects is indeed most truely potent 〈◊〉 for a King of one small Citty if he be intrusted with a large Prerogative may be said to be more potent over his Subjects then a King of many great Regions whose Prerogative is more limited and yet in true reality of Power that King is most great and glorious which hath the most and strongest Subjects and not he which tramples upon the most contemptible Vassalls This is therefore a great and fond error in some Princes to strive more to be great over their People then in their People and to Eclipse themselves by impoverishing rather then to magnifie themselves by infranchising their Subjects This we see in France at this Day for were the Peasants there more free they would be more rich and magnanimous and were they so their King were more puissant but now by affecting an adulterate power over his Subjects the King there loses a true power in his Subject embracing a Cloud in stead of Juno Answer It hath ever been the wisdome of Governours to conceal from the promiscuous multitude it s own strength and that rather for the behoof of themselves then of their Rulers Those Beasts which are of a gentle and tractable Disposition live sociably among themselves and are cherished by Man whereas those that are of a more wild and untameable nature live in continuall Persecution and Feare of others of themselves but of late it is become the Master-piece of our Modern Incendiaries to magnifie the power of the People to break open this Cabinet of State to prick forward the headie and raging multitude with fictitious Devises of Bulls and Minotaurs And all this with as much sincerity as Corah Dathan and Abiram said to Moses and Aaron you take too much on you seeing all the Congregation are holy I desire the Observer at his leisure to reade Platoes description of an Athenian Sophister and he shall find himselfe personated to the life that one egge is not liker another if the Coate fit him let him put it on The Scripture phraseth this to be troubling of a Church or of a State It is a Mâ—…taphor taken from a Vessell wherein is Liquour of severall parts some more thick others more subtile which by shaking together is disordered and the dreggs and residence is lifted up from the bottome to the toppe The Observer hath learned how to take Eeles It is their own Rule they that would alter the Government must first trouble the State Secondly posito sed non concesso admitting but not granting that Power is originally inherent in the People what is this to us who have an excellent forme of Government established and have divested our selves of this Power can we play fast and loose and resume it again at our pleasures Lesbia was free to choose her selfe an Husband when she was a Maide may she therefore doe it when she is a Wife Admitting that His Majesty were elected in His Predecessors yea or in His own Person for him and His Heires is this Power therefore either the lesse absolute or lesse perpetuall Admitting that before election we had power to covenant yea or condition by what Laws we would be governed had we therefore power to condition that they should be no longer Laws then they listed us This were to make our Soveraigne not a great and glorious King but a plain Christmasse Lord or have we therefore Power still to raise Arms to alter the Laws by force without Soveraigne Authority This seems to be the Observers main Scope but the conclusion is so odious as which hath ever been confessed Treason and the consequence so miserably weak that he is glad to deale altogether Enthemematically Thirdly admitting and granting that the last exercise or execution of Power that is the posse commitatus or Regni is in the People is the right also in the People or from the People Excuse us if we rather give credit to our Saviour Thou could'st have no Power at all against me except it were given thee from above If Pilate had his Power from Heaven we may conclude strongly for King Charles Nil dat quod non habet some power the People qua talis never had as power of Life and Death it is the peculiar right of God and his Vicegerents Put the case the King grants to a Corporation such and such Magistrates with power also to them to elect new magistrates which yet holds but somtimes from whom do those Magistrates hold their power not from the
obedient Subjects the Lords spirituall and temporall and Commons in Parliament assembled or thus We Your Majesties loving faithfull and obedient Subjects representing the three Estates of Your Realme of England c. except we should overmuch forget our Duties to Your Highnesse c. do most humbly beseech c. Here the three Estates of the Kingdom assembled in Parliament doe acknowledge their subjection and their duty do beseech Her Majesty Where by the way I desire to know of the Observer whether that of the three Estates were a Fundamentall Constitution of this Kingdom and who were the three Estates at this time and whether a third Estate have not been since excluded Howsoever we see they doe but rogore legem pray a Law the King enacts it and as he wills or takes time to advise so their Acts are binding or not binding They challenge no dispensative Power above the Law he doth In a word He is the Head not onely of the Hand or of the Foot but of the whole Body These things are so evident that all our Laws must be burned before this truth can be doubted of But to stop the Observers mouth for ever take an Authentick Testimony in the very case point blanck By divers old Authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared that this Realme of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the World governed by one Supreme Head and King having the Dignity and royall Estate of the Imperiall Crown of the same unto whom a Body Politick compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided into terms and by names of Spiritualty and Temporalty being bounden and owen next to God a naturall and humble obedience he being instituted and furnished by the goodnesse and sufferance of Almighty God with plenary whole and entire Power Preeminence Authority c. Now Sir observe first that not onely individuall Persons but the whole compacted Body Politicke of the Kingdome are not onely lesse then His Majesty but doe owe unto him a naturall and humble obedience how farr is this from that Majesty which you ascribe to the representative Body Secondly that the Spiritualty were ever an essentiall part of this Body Politick Thirdly that His Majesties Power is plenary Fourthly that he derives it not from inferiour compacts but from the goodnesse of God It is true were His Majesty as the Prince of Orange is or you would have him to be not a true Possessor of Soveraigne Power but a Keeper onely as the Roman Dictator or an arbitrary Proctor for the People your rule had some more shew of reason but against such evident light of truth to ground a contrary assertion derogatory to His Majesty upon the private authority of Bracton and Fleâ—… no Authentick Authors were a strange degree of weaknesse or wilfulnesse especially if we consider first upon what a trifling silly Homonomie it is grounded quia comites dicuntur quasi socii Reqis et qui habent socium habent Magistrum If he had called them the Kings Attendents or subordinate Governours of some certain Province or County as the Sheriffe Vice Comes was their Deputy there had been something reall in it Secondly if we consider that this assertion is as contrary to the Observers own grounds as it is to truth for what they Bracton and Fleta doe appropriate to the House of Lords curiae Comitum Baronum he attributes to the collective Body of the whole Kingdom or at the least to both Houses of Parliament that is farr from the Observers meaning and nothing to the purpose This Catachresticall and extravigant expression with the amphibologicall ground of it is either confuted or expounded by the Authors themselves as saying the King hath no Peere therefore no Companion that he is Vicarius Dei Gods Vicegerent that he is not sub homina under Man And if the words have any graine of truth in them they must be undestood not of an Authorative but onely of a Consultive Power to advise him or at the most approbative to give their assent to Laws propounded he having limited himselfe to make no Laws without them So we may say a Mans promise is his Master as if a man should say that the Judges in the House of Peers who have no Votes but are meere assistents yet in determining controversies in point of Law are in some sort superiour to the Lords not in Power which they have none but in skill and respect of that dependence which the Lords may have upon their Judgement and integrity Neither will your logicall Axiom quicquid efficit â—…ale est magis tale helpe you any thing at all for first your quicquid efficit must be quando efficit If a cause have sufficient vigour and efficacy at such time as â—…he effect is produced it is not necessary that it should â—…eteine it for ever after or that the People should reâ—…ein that power which they have divested themselves of by election of another To take your case at the â—…est they have put the staffe out of their own hands and cannot without Rebellion and sinne against God â—…doe what they have done Secondly for your magic tale there is a caution in this Canon that the same quality must be both in the cause and in the effect which yet is not alwayes not in this very case it must be in causes totall essentiall and univocall such as this is not The Sun is the cause of heat yet it is not hot it selfe Sol homo generant hominem viventem yet the Sun lives not If two Litigants consent to license a third Person to name another for Arbitrator between them he may elect a Judge not be a Judge Yet I shall not deny you any truth when and where the antecedent consent of free societies not preingaged doth instrumentally conferr and convey or rather applie power and authority into the hands of one or more they may limit it to what terme they please by what covenants they please to what conditions they please at such time as they make their election yet Covenants and Conditions differ much which you seem to confound breach of Covenant will not forfeit a Lease much lesse an Empire I have seen many Covenants between Kings and their People sometimes of Debt and many times of Grace but I doe not remember that ever I read any Conditions but with some old elective Kings of Arragon if they were Kings long since antiquated and one onely King of Polonia You adde and truely that there ought to be no dissolution of Soveraignty but by the same power by which it had its Constitution wherein God had his share at least but this will not serve your turn if you dare speak out plainly tell us when a King is constituted by right of Conquest and long Succession yea or by the election of a free people without any condition of forfeiture or power of revocation reserved as the Capuans gave themselves to the
Wealth Peace and Godlinesse but also to promote their Good But this Protection must be according to Law this Promotion according to Law Now if a good King at seasonable and opportune times so it may not be like the borrowing of a shaft for the Hatchet to cut down the great Oake nor like the plucking off one or more feathers out of the Eagles wings wherewith to feather an arrow to pierce through that King of Birds shall freely according to the dictates of his own Reason part with any of those Jewells which do adorn his Royall Diadem for the behoofe of his Subjects it is an act of Grace not onely to individuall Persons but to the collected Body of his People so both Houses have acknowledged it yet you say it is meere duty that both Honour and Justice do challenge it from him It is a strange and unheard of piece of Justice and Duty which is without and beyond all Law You say the word Grace sounds better in the Peoples mouth then in His O Partiallity how dost thou blind mens eyes The Observer sees that Grace sounds ill in the Kings mouth and yet he doth not or will not see how ill duty and meere duty sounds in his own mouth being a Subject towards his Soveraigne The truth is it is most civill for Receivers to relate benefits sufficit unus huit operi si vis me loqui ipse tace But where the Receivers forget themselves yea deny the favours received as this Observer doth it is very comely for the Bestowers to supply their defect Next to your taking away of Ship-Money Star-chamber High Commission c. It is an easy thing to take away but difficult to build up both in nature and in respect of mens minds which commonly agree sooner in the destructive part then in the constructive All the danger is either in exceeding the golden mean by falling from one extreme to another or in taking that away which by correcting and good ordering skill might have been of great use to the Body Politick We are glad to be eased of our former Burthens yet we wish with all our hearts that our present ease may not produce greater mischiefes that in true reall necessities and suddaine dangerous Exigences the Common-wealth may not be left without a speedy Remedy That if the Laws have not sufficiently provided for the suppressing of riots and tumultuous disorders in great men yet the ordinary Subject may nor be left without a Sanctuary whither to fly from oppression That in this inundation of Sects which doe extremely deforme our Church and disturbe the Common-wealth there may be a proper and sure Remedy provided before it be too late and we be forced in vaine to digge up Antigonus again out of his Grave As for the taking away of Bishops Votes at this time I doe not doubt but that great Councell of the Kingdom had reasons for it and may have other Reasons when it pleaseth God to restore them again There is much difference betwixt a coercive and a Consultive Power No Nation yet that ever I read of did exclude their Religious from their Consultations To make a Law perfectly good Piety must concurre and who shall judge what iâ—… piouâ—… shall they first be excluded from all other Professions and then from their owne Brittish Bishop have been of noâ—…e in great Councells Forrein and Domestique these one thousand four hundred and thirty years It is your own Rule quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari debet All other Professions in the Kingdome are capable â—…oth of electing and being elected but for this I doe submit and leave it to time to discover what is good for the Kingdome Observer This directs us then to the transcendent achme of all Politicks to the Pâ—…ramount Law which shall give Law to all Humane Laws whatsoever and that is salus Populi The Law of Prerogative it selfe is subservient to this Law and were it not conducing thereunto it were not necessary nor expedient Answer If this Author could commit the Law of Prerogative and this Supreme Law of salus Populi together as opposite one to another he had said something but he cannot see Wood for Trees the same transcendent achme which he magnifies is the Law of Prerogative it selfe because a generall Law cannot take notice of the equity of all particular circumstances nor of the necessity of all particular Occurrences therefore the supreme Prince is trusted with this Power Paramount That which the Law of Nature warrants in a private Man as in a scathfire to pull down a Neighbours House to prevent the burning of a Citty to cast another mans corne overboord in a Tempest to defend himselfe from Thiefes in cases where he cannot have recoarse to the Magistrate or the suddainesse of the Danger will admit no formall Proceeding in Law So publicke necessity doth justifie the like Actions in a King where the exigence of the State is appâ—…tant If this Power be at any time misimployed if this Trust be violated yet the abuse of a thing cannot take away the use and lawfull and necessary right which is grounded upon the universall and perpetuall Law of salus Populi which comprehends the good of the Soveraigne as well as of the Subject But it is now grown into fashion for Subjects without Authority Equity or Necessity to urge this Law upon all occasions Salus Populi is like the Foxe in AEsops Fables it is in at every end Mens Persons are imprisoned their Houses plundered there Lands sequestred their Rights violated without the Judgement of their Peeres contrary to the known Law contrary to the great Charter and nothing pretended for this but the Law Paramount Truely Sir if this be salus Populi uâ—…a salus sanis nullam sperare salutem A remote Jealousie or Suppofition is no good ground for the exercise of this Law as to pull down another Mans House for fear of a Scathfire to come God knows how or when perhaps foretold in a Prognostication The Dangers must be very visible before this Rule take place not taken upon Trust or an implicit Faith like Seoggins fiery Draggons in the aire All true Englishmen will desire to be governed by their known Laws and nor to hear too often of this Paramount Law the application or misapplication whereof hath been the cause of the past and present Distempers of this Kingdom Extraordinary Remedyes like hot Waters may helpe at a Pang but being too often used spoyle the Stomack Observer Neither can the Right of Conquest be pleaded to acquit Princes of that which is due to the People as the Authours and ends of all Power for meere Force cannot altar the course of Nature or frustrate the tenour of the Law and if it could there were more reason why the People might justifie force to regaine due Liberty then the Prince might to subvert the same And it is a shamefull Stupidity in any Man to think that our Ancestors
as a thing that is not onely lawfull but necessary to which they are bound by a higher duty unlesse they will be fellonious to themselves and rebellious to Nature That it is not just nor possible for any Nation so far to enslave themselves that there are tacite trusts reservations in all publicke Commands To give him an answer once for all in this point of Resistence First I affirme though it be nothing to us who are free Subjects and might well have been omitted by him as making nought to his purpose that even by the Laws of Nature of Nations and of God one Man or a Society of Men might enslave themselves to another for sustenance or protection All Histories both sacred and profaine are full of Examples and the Law of God is plaine Exod. 21. 6. Levit 25. 47. c. And it seems strange that the Observer should so farr over-reach or beat the aire to no end at all this confessed truth quite overthrowes his whole structure of tacite trusts and conditions and rebellions against Nature Secondly to come nearer our own case I answer that though the Law of Nature cannot be destroyed or contradicted yet it may be limited by the positive Laws of the Land And so it is the Observer will not deny it in his own case though he mete with another measure to his Soveraigne The Charter of Nature intitles man-kind indefinitely to â—…e whole Earth will the Observer therefore give â—…is Neighbour leave to enter as a Coparcener into his Freehold I beleive not but would tell him readily â—…here is a new Charter made by which he holds it that is the Law of the Land It is usuall with these Men to divest Men of all due relations as if it were â—…he same to be a Subject and a Man A Man qua â—…alis might doe many things which in a Subject is â—…lat Treason notwithstanding the Charter of Nature Thirdly beyond and above both these there is the Law of God there is the last Will and Testament of our Saviour by which we hold our hopes of happinesse which to Christians must be as the Pillar of Fire to the Israelites a direction when to go where to stay Here we read of Tyrants and of the sufferings of the Saints but not a word of any tacite trusts and reservations or of any such rebellion against Nature or dispensation with Oaths nor of any resistence by Arms. Certainly there is no one duty more pressed upon Christians by Christ and his Apostles then Obedience to Superiours Give unto Caesar that which is Caesars saith our Saviour Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake saith Saint Peter Put them in mind to be subject to Principallities and Powers saith Saint Paul and in that well known place to the Romans Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers whosoever resisteth the Powers resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation To this evidence of Holy Scripture for want of one good answer the Observer hath devised three bad ones ut quae non valeâ—…nt singuâ—… multa juvent the clearing of which will helpe to 〈◊〉 an end to the Controversy First they say The Apostle tells us not which Poâ—… is highest but that that Power which is the highest 〈◊〉 to be obeyed A strange Evasion the Apostle elsâ—… where names these two together Principallities 〈◊〉 Powers yea in this very Text he expresseth himselfe that by the higher Powers he understands thâ—… Magistrate vers 3. him that beareth the Sword verse 4. him to whom tribute is payed verse 7. none of all these will agree either to the People or to the Senatâ—… but to the supreme Magistrate onely which Saint Peter tells us is the King whether it be to the King 〈◊〉 Supreme A second Evasion is this Saint Paul speakes to 〈◊〉 few particular dispersed Men and those in a primitive condition who had no meanes to provide for their own preservation It skills not whether he borrowed this from the Jesuits defuerunt vires they wanted strength or of Buchanan Finge aliquem e nostris Doctoribus Imagine one of our Doctors did write to the Christians which live under the Tunke to poorâ—… faint-hearted and unarmed Men what other Counsails could he give then Saint Paul did to the Romans Thus they transforme a Precept into a Counsaile I had thought they had allowed no Evangelicall or Apostolicall Counsails and what the Apostle enjoynes to be doâ—… for Conscience sake verse 5. under paine of Damnation verse 2. they say is to be done for discretion sake under pain of plundering Doe not these Men deserve well of Christian Religion to infuse such prejudicate conceits into the breâ—… of Monarchs that Christians are like the frozen snake which if they take into their bosome so soone as â—…he is warmed and inlived they shall be sure to feele â—…er sting for their favours Let Christians be guiltâ—…esse and let the Mischief fall upon the heads of the â—…editious Contrivers That it was not weaknesse or want of Courage but strength of Faith that kept the Primitive Christians quiet under the persecutions of â—…he Heathen Emperours Tertullian and the Ancients â—…oe abundantly witnesse and it hath been sufficiently cleared by our Divines against the Jesuits This is â—…s Saint Iude saith to have mens persons in admiraâ—…ion because of advantage The third answer whereupon they doe most insist 〈◊〉 that this subjection is due to the Authority of the â—…ing not to the Person of the King that this Authority resideth in his Courts and in his Laws that â—…he Power which Saint Paul treateth of is in truth the Kingly Office that to levie Force or to raise Arms against the Personall commands of a King accompanied with his presence is not levying Warr against the King but Warr against his Authority residing in his Courts is warr against the King Yet â—…et me give the Observer his due he is more favourable to Princes then many of his Fellowes in this that he would have the Person of his Prince inviolable And good reason for what can the poor Kingdome expect where the Person of the Prince is not held sacred but Combustion and confusion witnesse our owne Civill Warres witnesse the Histories of the Gothish Kings and the Romane Emperours from Iulius Caesar to Constantine the great bâ—… ing five and sorty whereof thirty perished by uâ—… timely deaths diverse of them good Princes and aâ—… that while the Common-wealth sympathized in thâ—… common Calamity No offence can be so great 〈◊〉 that it deserves to be punished by parricide Bâ—… this is a greater Courtesy in shew then in deed if aâ—… arrow shot at adventure did wound the King of Iâ—… rael mortally between the joynts of his harnesse whâ—… shall secure King Charles from a bullet so all thiâ—… moderation ends in this to give the King waâ—… ning to avoide the field or otherwise to
the legallity anâ—… expedience of each circumstance which perhaps he 〈◊〉 not capable of perhaps reason of State will not peâ—… mit him to know it The House of Commons havâ—… a close Committee which shews their allowance oâ—… an implicit confidence in some cases yet are theâ—… but Proctors for the Commonalty whereas the Kinâ—… is a Possessor of Soveraignty But it is alleged thaâ—… of two evills the lesse is to be chosen it is better to disobeâ—… Man then God Rather of two evills neither is to bâ—… chosen but it is granted that when two evills arâ—… feared a Man should incline to the safer part Noâ—… if the Kings Command be certain and the other danger but doubtfull or disputable to disobey the certain command for feare of an uncertain or surmised evill is as Saint Austin saith of some Virgins who drowned themselves for feare of being defloured to fall into a certain crime for fear of an uncertain A third error in this distinction is to limit the Kings Authority to his Courts All Courts are not of the same Antiquity but some erected long after others as the Court of Requests Neither are all Justices of the same nature some were more eminent then others that were resident with the King as his Councell in points of Law these are now the Judges Others did justice abroad for the ease of the Subject as Iustices of Assise Iustices in Eire Iustices of Oier and Terminer Iustices of Peace The Barons of the Exchequer were anciently Peeres of the Realme and doe still continue their name but to exclude the King out of his Courts is worse a strange Paradox and against the grounds of our Laws The King alone and no other may and ought to doe justice if he alone were sufficient as he is bound by his Oath And again If our Lord the King be not sufficient himselfe to determine every cause that his labour may be the lighter by dividing the burden among more Persons he ought to choose of his own Kingdome wise Men and fearing God and of them to make Iustices These Justices have power by Deputation as Delegates to the King The Kings did use to sit personally in their Courts We reade of Henry the fourth and Henry the fift that they used every day for an houre after dinner to receive bills and and heare causes Edward the fourth sate ordinarily in the Kings Bench Richard the third one who knew well enough what belonged to his part did assume the Crown sitting in the same Court saying He would take the Honour there where the chiefest part of his duty did lye to minister the Laws And Henry the eight sate personally in Guild-Hall The Writs of Appearance did â—…un coram me vel Iusticiariis meis before me or my Justices Hence is the name of the Kings Bench and the teste of that Court is still teste meipso witnesse our selfe If the King be not learned in the Laws he may have learned Assistents as the Peeres have in Parliament A clear and rationall head is as requisite to the doing of Justice as the profound knowledge of Law It is a part of his Oath to doe to be kept in all his judgments Right Iustice in Mercy and Truth was this intended onely by Substitutes or by Substitutes not accountable to him for injustice we have sworne that he is supreme Governour in all causes over all Persons within his Dominions is it all one to be a Governour and to name Governours David exhorts be wise now therefore O yee Kings Moses requires that the King read in the booke of the Law all the dayes of his Life Quorsum perâ—…itio haec what needs all this expence of time if all must be done by Substitutes if he have no Authority out of his Courts nor in his Courts but by delegation When Moses by the advise of Iethro deputed subordinate Governours under him when Iehosophat placed Judges Citty by Citty throughout Iudah It was to ease themselves and the People not to disingage and exinanite themselves of Power It is requisite that His Majesty should be eased of lesser burthens that he may be conversant circa ardua Reipublicae about great affaires of State but so as not to divest his Person of his royall Authority in the least matters Where the King is there is the Court and where the Kings Authority is present in His Person or in his Delegates there is his Court of Justice The reason is plain then why the King may not controule his Courts because they are himselfe yet he may command a review and call his Justices to an account How the Observer will apply this to a Court where neither His Majesty is present in Person nor by his Delegates I doe not understand The fourth and last error is to tie the hands of the King absolutely to his Laws First in matters of Grace the King is above his Laws he may grant especiall Privileges by Charter to what Persons to what Corporations â—…e pleaseth of his abundant Grace and meere motion he may pardon all crimes committed against the Law of the Land and all penaltyes and irregularityes imposed by the same the perpetuall Custome of this Kingdome doth warrant it All wise men desire to live under such a Government where the Prince may with a good Conscience dispence with the rigour of the Laws As for those that are otherwise minded I wish them no other punishment then this that the paenall Laws may be executed on them strictly till they reforme their Judgements Secondly In the Acts of Regall Power and Justice His Majesty may goe besides or beyond the ordinary course of Law by his Prerogative New Laws for the most part especially when the King stands in need of Subsidies are an abatement of Royall Power The Soveraignty of a just Conquerer who comes in without pactions is absolute and bounded onely by the Laws of God of Nature and of Nations but after he hath confirmed old Laws and Customes or by his Charter granted new Liberties and Immunities to the collective Body of His Subjects or to any of them he hath so farr remitted of his own right and cannot in Conscience recede from it I say in Conscience for though humane Laws as they are humane cannot bind the Conscience of a Subject and therefore a fortiore not of a King who is the Law-giver yet by consequence and virtue of the Law of God which saith submit your selves to every ordinance of Man for the Lords sake and again Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe they doe bind or to speak more properly Gods Law doth bind the Conscience to the Observation of them This is that which Divines doe use to expresse thus That they have power to bind the Conscience in se sed non a se in themselves but not from themselves non ex authoritate Legislatoris sed ex aequitate Legis not from the authority of the Law-giver but from
the equity of the Law many who doe not grant that to violate the Law of Man is sinne universally yet in case of contempt or scandall doe admit that it is sinnefull So then the Laws and Customes of the Kingdome are Limits and bounds to His Majestyes Power but there are not precise Laws for each particular Occurrence And even the Laws themselves doe ofâ—…en leave a latitude and a preheminence to His Majesty not onely for circumstances â—…d forms of Justice but even in great and high Privileges These we call the Prerogative Royall as to â—…e the fountain of Nobility To coyne Money To â—…eate Magistrates To grant Protection to his Debâ—…rs against their Creditours To present to a Beneâ—…ce in the right of his Ward being the youngest Coâ—…arcener before the eldest Not to be sued upon an orâ—…inary writ but by Petition and very many others â—…hich are beyond the ordinary course of Common-Law being either branches of absolute power or Preâ—…ogatives left by the Laws themselves Thirdly in the câ—…se of evident necessity where the whoâ—…e Commonwealth lyeâ—… at stake for the safety of King and Kingdome His Majesty may go against partiâ—…ular Laws For howsoever fancyed pretended invisible dangers have thrust us into reall dangers and unseasonable Remedyes have produced our present Calamityes yet this is certaine that all humane Laws and particular proprietyes must veile and strike top-sayle to a true publick necessity This is confessed by the Observer himselfe every where in this Treatise that Salus Populi is the transcendent achme of all Politicks the Law Paramount that gives Law to all humane Laws and particular Laws cannot act contrary to the legislative intent to be a violation of some more soveraigne good introducible or some extreme and generall evill avoidable which otherwise might swallow up both Statutes and all other Sanctions This preservative Power the Observer ascribes to the people that is to say in his sense to the Parliament in case the King will not joyn with them Though we all know a Parliament is not ever ready nor can be sâ—… suddenly called as is requisite to meet with a suddeâ—… Mischief And he thinks it strange that thâ—… King should noâ—… allow to the Subject a right to rise iâ—… Arms for their oâ—…n necessary defence without his consent and that he should assume or challenge such a share iâ—… the Legislative â—…ewer to himselfe as that without hiâ—… concurrence the Lords and Commons should have no right to make temporaâ—…y orders for putting the Kingdoâ—… into a posture of Defence Strange Phrases and unheard of by English eares that the King should joyn with the People or assume a share in the legislative Power Our Laws give this honour to the King that he can joyn or be a sharer with no man Let not the Observer trouble himselfe about this division The King like Solomons true Mother challengeth the whole Child not a divisible share but the very Life of the Legislative Power The Commons present and pray The Lords advise and consent The King enacts It would be much for the credit of the Observers desperate cause if he were able but to shew one such president of an Ordinance made by Parliament without the Kings consent that was binding to the Kingdome in the nature of a Law It is a part of the Kings oath to protect the Laws to preserve Peace to His People this he cannot doe without the Power of the Kingdome which he challengeth not as a Partner but solely as his own by virtue of his Seigniory So the Parliament it selfe acknowledged It belongs to the King and his part it is through his royall seigniory straitly to desend sorce of armour and all other force against his peace at all times when it shall please him and to punish them which shall doe contrary according to the Laws â—…nd usages of the Realme and that the Prelates Earles â—…arons and Commonalty are bound to aide him as their â—…overaigne Lord at all seasons when need shall be Here is a Parliament for the King even in the point The Argument is not drawn as the Observator sets it own negatively from Authority or from a maimed â—…nd imperfect induction or from pâ—…rticular premisâ—…es to a generall conclusion every one of which is â—…ophisticall is thus Such or suâ—…h a Parliament did â—…ot or durst not doe this or that therefore no Parliaâ—…ents may doe it or thus Some Parliaments not comâ—…arable to the Worthies of this have omitted some good â—…t of supinesse or difficulty therefore all Parliaments â—…ust doe the same but it runns thus no parliaments did ever assume or pretend to any such Power some Parliaments have expressely disclaimed it and acâ—…nowledged that by the Law of the Land it is a â—…ewell or a Flower which belongs to the Crown Therefore it is His Majesties undoubted right and â—…ay not be invaded by any Parliament Yet further â—…t were well the Observer would expresse himselfe â—…hat he meanes by some more Soveraigne good introducible the necessity of avoiding ruâ—…ne and introducing greater good is not the same Dangers often â—…come like torrents suddainly but good may be inâ—…roduced at more leisure and ought not to be brought â—…in but in a lawfull manner we may not doe evill that good may come of it Take the Observers two instances When the Sea breakes in upon a County a bank may be made on any Mans ground without his consent but may they cut away another mans Land to make an Harbour more safe or commodious withâ—… the owners consent No. A Neighbours Hoâ—… may be pulled down to stop the fury of a Scath-fire bâ—… may they pull it down to get a better prospect 〈◊〉 gaine a more convenient high way No. We desâ—… to know what this Soveraigne good introduciâ—… meanes and are not willing to be brought intoâ—… Fooles Paradise with generall insinuations Let it aâ—… pear to be so Soveraigne and we will all become suâ—… ters for it but if it be to alter our Religion or our foâ—… of Government we hope that was not the end of thâ—… Militia Lastly when necessity dispenseth with paâ—…ticular Laws the danger must be evident to all tâ—… concurrence generall or as it were generall one oâ—… two opponents are no opponents but where thâ—… danger is neither to be seen not to be named so uâ—… certaine that it must be voted whether there be anâ—… danger or not or perhaps be created by one or twâ—… odde Votes this is no warrant for the practise oâ—… that Paramount Law of salus Populi By this which hath been said we may gather a reâ—… solution whether the King be under the Law anâ—… how farr I mean not the Law of God or Nature but his own Nationall Laws First by a voluntarâ—… submission of himselfe quod sub Lege esse debetâ—… evidenter apparet cum sit Dei Vicarius ad similituâ—… dinem Iesu Christi cujus vices gerit in terris buâ—… Christ was under
the Law no otherwise then by voluntary submission Secondly the Law hath a directive Power over Kings and all good Kings wilâ—… follow it for example sake to their Subjects for Conscience sake to themselves Tacitus saith of Vespasian that being antiquo cultu victuque observing the old customes in his Diet and his apparrell he was unto the Romans praecipuus adstricti moris Author an excellent pattern of Frugalitie But the Law hath no coercive Power over him This besides his Power of pardoning and dispensing may appear by these two reasons First that no writ lyes against him in Law but the party grieved hath his remedy by Petition or supplication Secondly that if upon petition he doth not right the wronged party there is â—…o course in Law to compell him satis sufficit ei â—…d paenam quod Dominum expectet ultorem and elsewhere incidit in manus Dei viventis he falls into the hands of the living God which the Scripture saith is a fearfull thing wiâ—…nesse Pharaoh Senacherib Nero Domitian Dioclesian Deciâ—…s Aurelian Iulian c. Some slain by themselves some by others some drowned some smitten with Thunder some eaten with Wormâ—… how seldome Tyrants escape punishment even in this World I see not why the Obserâ—…er should be so angry that this Doctrine should be pulpitted as he phraseth it or why he should accuse it of flattery whether is the greater curbe to restreine Princes the fear of Man or of God of temporâ—…ll onely or of temporall and eternall punishment Si genus humanum mortalia temnitis arma At sperate Deosmemores fandi atque nesandi The Observer acknowledgeth as much in effect The King is not accountable for ill done Law hath only a directive no coercive force upon his Person There is a fourth answer to this Text by distinguishing between private Persons and subordâ—…te Magistrates but because the Observer makes no use of it I passe by it Observer But Freedome indeed hath diverse degrees of Laâ—…tude and all Countries there in dâ—… not participate alâ—… but positive Laws must every where assigne those 〈◊〉 The Charter of England â—…s not strait in Privilegâ—… 〈◊〉 us â—…ther is the Kings Oath of small strength to 〈◊〉 Charter oâ—… that though it be more precise in the care 〈◊〉 Canonicall Privileges and of Bishops and Clergy-meâ—… is having been penned by Popish Bishops then of thâ—… Commonalty yet it confirmes all Laws and rightfull Customes amongst which we most highly esteeme Parliamentary Privileges and as for the word eligerit whether it be future or past it skills not much â—…or if by thâ—… Oath Law Iustice and Discretion be executed amongâ—… us in all judgements as well in â—…s out of Parliaments and if Peace and godly agreement be 〈◊〉 kept amongst us all and if the King defend and uphold all ouâ—… Laws and Customes we need not â—…eare but the King 〈◊〉 bound to consent to new Laws if they be necessary aâ—… well as defend old for both beiâ—…g of the same necessity the publike trust must needs equally extend to both anâ—… we conceive it one Parliamentary Right and Custome that nothing necessary ought to be denied And thâ—… word eligerit if it be in the perfect tense yet shews thaâ—… the Peoples election had been the ground of ancienâ—… Lawes and Customes and why the Peoplâ—…s Eleâ—…ion in â—…arliament should not be now of as great moment as ever I caâ—…not discover Answer â—…omento fit cinis diu silva The Observer hath 〈◊〉 long weaving a Spiders Webbe and now he â—…selfe sweepes it away in an instant for if 〈◊〉 Laws must every where assigne the degrees of liâ—… what will become of those tacite trusts and reâ—…ions of those secret and implicite but yet neâ—…ry limits and conditions of Soveraignty which if the Prince exceed the Subject is left free nay 〈◊〉 is bound by a higher duty then Oathes and all Ties of Allegiance whatsoever to seek his own preservation and defence Calvin wâ—…s of another mind Superior si pâ—…testate suâ—… abutituâ—… rationem quidem olim reâ—…det Deo non tamen in presentia jus suum amitâ—…it Admitting this Doctrine that there are such secret reservations and condition and these as generall as â—…afety Liberty and Necessiâ—… and make the People their own â—…udges wâ—…en necessiâ—…y iâ—… what is a violation of Liberty and what doth indanger their safetâ—… and all that great and glorious Power which we give unto Princes will become but like the Popes infallibility and his temporall Dominion which his Flatterers doe give unto him with so many cautions and reservations that they may take it away when they please Take nothing and hold it fast But leaving these flegmaticke speculations I doe readily joyn hands with the Observer herein That the positive Laws of a Kingdome are the just measure and standard of the Lâ—…berty of the Subject To say nothing of the great distance that is between ouâ—… Euroâ—…aean Pâ—…nces in extent of Power over their 〈◊〉 â—…o come â—…ome to our selves we see some Corporâ—…ons are indowed with more liberties and Privileges then others thanks to a favourable Charter not to any anâ—…ecedaneous Pâ—…ctions we see what difference of Tenures is amongst uâ—… some are Coppy-holders some are Free-holders some hold in Villeâ—… 〈◊〉 some in Knight service some in free soccage 〈◊〉 in Franke Almaine whence springs this diverâ—… but from custome and the pleasure of the Doâ—… who freely imposed what conditions he liked at such time as he indowed the ancestorâ—… of the present Possessors with such and such Lands We have a surer Charter then that of Nature to hold by Magna Charta the English Mans jewell and Treasure the fountain and foundation of our Freedome the Walls and Bulwarke yea the very life and soule of our security He that goes about to violate it much more to subvert it in whole or in part I dare not curse him but I say for my selfe and let the Observer do the like let him prove the shame and abject of Men and his Posterity slaves But doe you think it was penned by Popish Bishops faire fall them for it certainly they did that as English Bishops and as Christian Bishops not as Popish Bishops long may their reformed Successors injoy the fruit of their Labours if they doe not others may looke to themselves Jam tua res agitur paries oum proximus ardet It is no new thing to beginne with Bishops and â—…end with Nobles It troubles you that they were so â—…recise in the care of Canoicall Privileges T is probable they did it out of Dâ—…otion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 call instinct as foreseeing or feâ—…ring 〈◊〉 Times Yet you confesse withall that it confirmes 〈◊〉 Laws and rightfull Customs to all Subjects 〈◊〉 Now Sir we are come to a fairâ—… Issue hold 〈◊〉 foote there your next taske must be to shew â—…at part of Magna Charta is violated by His Majesty what Liberties there granted are by him deteâ—…ned from the Subject if
you doe not this you have made us a very long discourse to little purpose Your Argument consists of a Proposition and an Assumtion The Proposition is this All Laws and lawfull Customs are confirmed to the Subject by Magna Charta and His Majesties Oath for observation thereof Your Assumtion stands thus But to have nothing necessary denyed us is a lawfull Custome a Parliamentary Right and Privilege you amplifie your Proposition as the blind Senatour commended the fish at dextra jacebat piscis It is your assumtion Sir which is denyed bend your selfe the other way and shew us in what particular words of Magna Charta or any other Charter or any Statute this Privilege is comprehended or by what prescription or president it may be proved if you can doe none of these sitte down and hold your peace for ever The Charter of Nature will be in danger to be torn in pieces if you stretch it to this also To be denyed nothing 〈◊〉 is a Privilege indeed as good as Foâ—…natus his purse or as that old Law which one found ouâ—… for the King of Persia that he might doe what he would But you limit it he ought to deny them nothing which is necessary what necessity doe yoâ—… meane a simple and absolute necessity that hath no Law indeed or a necessity onely of convenience 〈◊〉 but conveniences are often attended with greater inconveniences A cup of cold Water to one who 〈◊〉 a feverish distempâ—…r is convenient to assâ—…ge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sent thirst but pernicious to the future habit 〈◊〉 of his body Many things may produce prâ—…sent 〈◊〉 yet prove destructive to a State in their consequents These things therefore must be carefully ballanced and by whom will you be your own Judge or will â—…ou permit His Majesty to follow the Dictate of his own reason so it is meet and just if you will have him supersede from his own Right Lay your hand upon your heart if you have any Tenents who hold of you in Knight-service and they shall desire to have their tenure changed to free Soccage as being more convenient conducible for them â—…re you bound to condiscend It is well known to all this Kingdome that the Kings thereof have ever had a negative voice otherwise they had lesse power then a Master of a College or a Major of a Corporation That no Act is binding to the Subject without the Royall Assent That to say the King will advise was evermore a sufficient stop to any Bill Yet the ground of this bold demand is but the Authors conceit We conceive it to be one Parliamentary right and his reasons are such as may make a shew but want weight to beget a very conceit The former is that new Laws and old being of the same necessity the publike trâ—… must equally extend to both How often must he be told that the publicke trust is onely a trust of dependence which begets no such Obligation as he conceits Offices of inheritance are rather maâ—…ters that â—…ound in interest then in confidence Neither is there neither can there be the same necesity of observing 〈◊〉 old Law to which a King is bound both by His â—…ter and by His Oath and of a new Law to â—…hich he hath not given his Royall Assent If Magâ—… Charta did extend to this it were Charta maximâ—… the greatest Charter 〈◊〉 ever was granted If the Kings Oath did extend to this it were an unlawfull Oath and not binding To sweare to confirme all Laws that should be presented to him though contrary to the Rule of Justice contrary to the Dictate of his own reason Among so many improbable suppositions give leave to the other party to make one The Author is not infallible nor any Society of Men whatsoever Put the case a Law should be presented for introducing or 〈◊〉 of Socinianisme or Anabaptisme or the new upstart independencâ—… is His Majesty bound to give his Assent Surelâ—… no Not to assume his just power of Supremacy as your late new Masters confesse were damnable sinne His other Reason is this it kills not whether the word eligerit he should say elegerit in the Kings Oath be in the future tense or in the perfect tense whether he sweares to all such Customes as the People have chosen or shall choose for it shews that the Peoples election was the ground of anciâ—… Laws and that ought to be of as great moment noâ—… as ever It is a rare dexterity which the Observeâ—… hath with Midas to turn all he toucheth into Gold whatsoever he finds is to his purpose past or â—…o come all is one but he would deceive us or deceives himselfe for the Peoples election never was nor now is the sole cause of a Law or binding Custome but the Peoples election was the Sociall or Subordinate Cause and the Royall Assent concurring with iâ—… they were ever joyntly the adaequate ground of 〈◊〉 and still are of the same moment that they weâ—… joyntly and severally which the Observer mighâ—… have discovered with halfe an eye But because His Majesties oath at his Coronation is so much insisted upon as obliging him to passe all Bills that are tendred unto him by His Parliament it will not be amisse to take this into further consideration which I shall doe with all due Submission First It must be acknowledged by all Men that the King of England in the eye of the Law never dyes Watson and Clarke two Priestâ—… 〈◊〉 that they could not be guilty of Treason because King Iames was not crowned The Resolution was that the Coronation was but a Ceremony to declare the King to the People so they were adjudged Traytours The like measure in the like case suffered the Duke of Northumberland in Queen Maryes daâ—…es onely with this difference Watsons and Clarks Treason was before the Coronation but the Dukes before the very Proclamation Coâ—…sensus expressuâ—… per verba de presenti facit matrimonium a contract in words of the present tense is a true Marriage and indissolvable and yet for Solemnity sake when the partyes come to receive the Benediction of the Church The Minister though he knew of the contâ—…act yet he askes wilt thou have this Woman to thy Wedded Wife There is no duty which our Kings do not receive as Oaths of Fealty of Allegiance no Acts of Royall Power which they doe not exercise as amply before their Coronation as after And therefore M. Dolman otherwise Parsons the Jesuit from whom these Men have borrowed all their grounds erred most pittifully in this as he did in many other of your Tenets that a King is no more a King before his Coronation then a Major of a Corporation is a true Major after his Election before he have taken his Oath To thinke a few scattered People assembled without any procuration have the power of the Commonalty of England is an Error fitter to be laught at then to be confuted Secondly the words of the
Oath which beares markes enough in it selfe of the time when it was made are not to be pressed further then Custome and practice the best Interpreters of the Law doe warrant otherwise the Words quas vulgus elegerit cannot without much forcing be applied to the Parliament But admit the word vulgus might be drawn with some violence to signifie the House of Coâ—…ons by virtue of their representation yet hoâ—… have the House of Lords lost their interest if the King be boâ—…nd to confirme whatsoever the House of Commons shall present Thirdly it cannot be denyed that if the King 〈◊〉 bound by a lawfull Oâ—…th to passe all Bâ—…lls it is not the form of denying it but the not doing it which makes the pâ—…rjury Therefore the form of the Kingâ—… answer Le Roy Savisera canâ—… excuse the perjury in not doing Neâ—…her doth it prove that the King had no power to deny but that â—…e is tender of a flat dâ—…nyall and attributes so much to the judgement of His great Councell that he will take further advice This would be strange Doctrin indeed incredible that all the Kings of England who have given this answer have been forsworn and neither Parliament nor Convocation to take notice of it in so many Ages nor in the nâ—…t succeeding Parliament after so long advise to câ—…l for a further answer Fourthly it is confessed that in Acts of Graâ—… the King is not bound to assent it is well â—…f he have not been restreined of this Right That in all Acts where His Majesty is to depâ—…rt from the particular Right and Interest of His Crown he is not obliged to assent and was not that of the Militia such a case Lastly that though he be bound by oath to consent yet if he doe not consent they are not binding Laws to the Subject Thus farre-well But then comes a handfull of Gourds that poisons the pottage except in cases of necessiâ—… Give to any person oâ—… Socieâ—…y a Legislative power without the King in case of necessity permit them withall to be sole Judges of necessity when it is how long it lasts and it is more then probâ—…ble the necessity will not determine till they have their own desires which is the same in effect as if they had a Legislative Power Necessity excuseth whatsoever it doth but first the necessity must be evident there needs no such great stirre who shall be Judge of necessity when it comes indeed it will shew it selfe when extreme necessity is disputable it is a signe it is not reall Secondly the Agent must be proper otherwise it cuts in â—…under the very sinews of Government to make two Supremes in a Society and to subject the People to contrary commands If the Trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall prepare him selfe to Battell There can be no necessity so pernicious as this very Remedy Fifthly the great variety of Forms and presidents seems to prove that one precise form is not simply necessary and the words adjiciantur quae justa â—…erint and King Henry the eights enterlining it with his own hand do prove that it is arbitrary at least in part To interline it to interline it with his own hand to leave it so interlined upon Record O stange If this clause had been of such consequence we should have heard of some question about it eitâ—…er then or in some succeeding Parliament but we find a deep silence Thomas 〈◊〉 Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in Parliament chargeth Henry the fourth with his Oath which he did voluntarily make But to the forms First the Oath which King Iames and King Charles did take runns thus Sir will you to grant to hold and keep the Lawes and rightfull Customes which the Commonalty of this Kingdom have Here is neither have chosen nor shall choose The Oath of Edward the sixth was this Doe you grant to make no new Laws but such aâ—… shall be to the Honour and glory of God and to the good of the Common-â—…lth and tâ—…at the same shall be made by the consent of your People as hath been accustomed Here is â—…o â—…gerit still yet â—…is Age freed him from the very thught of improving His Prerogative King Henry the eight corrected the form then presented to Hiâ—… thus And affirme them which the Nobles and Peâ—…ple have chosen with my consent Here is have chosen aâ—…d the Kings Consent added to boote Doctor Cowâ—… in his Interpreter recites the Kings Oath out of tâ—… old abridgement of Statuâ—…es set out in Henry tâ—… eights Dayes much different from this as that the King should keep all the Lands Honours c. of the â—…rown whole without diminution and reassume those whâ—…h had been made away And this clause in questin runnes thus He shall grant to hold the Laws and Customs of the Realme and to his Power keep them aâ—…d affirme them which the Folke and People have made â—…nd chosen and this seems to have been the Oath of His Predecessors But perhaps if we looke up higheâ—… we shall find a perfect agreement in thiâ—… point Our next step must be to Henry the fourth and Richard the second a Tragicall Time when the State run contrary waves like a whirligigge fiâ—…ter for the honour of the Nation to be buried in oblivion then drawn into president But this Oath being no Innovation it may serve well enough Yet the Oaths of these two Kings do not agree so exactly as to settle a certain forme as to instance onely in the clause in question Henry the â—…ourths Oath runs thus concedis justas Leges constudines esse tenendas promittis pro te eas esse proâ—…gendas ad honorem Dei corroboraâ—…d quas vulgus â—…gerit which last word signifies indifferently either â—…ave chosen or shall choose Neither doth the Reâ—…ord say that this was the very 〈◊〉 taken by Henry â—…e fourth but that it was the usuall forâ—… taken by â—…e Kings of England and twice by Richard the â—…econd and for proof of what it saith referres us â—…o the Registers of the Arch-Bishops or Bishops proâ—…t in libris pontiâ—…calium Archiepisâ—… et Episc. plenius â—…ontinetur This prout is a clear evidence that this preâ—…se Form had no ground in Statute or in Common â—…aw but was a Pontificall rite The Oath of Riâ—…hard the second related in the close Rolls of the first Year of his Raigne even in this very clause differs â—…n two materiall things one is that to justas Leges Consuetudines there is added Ecclesiae the other is that to elegerit is added juste rationabiliter which the People have chosen or shall choose justly and reasonably which limitation if the Oath look forward to future Laws must of necessity be either expressed or understood otherwise the Oath is unlawfull and doth not bind jusjurandum non debet esse vinculum iniquitatis Here also the word elegerit is doubtfull whether past or future If it be urged that to corroborate must de understood
of such Laws as have not passed the Royall Assent the answer is easy that the best confirmation of Laws is the due execution of them Now from our English and Latin Formes our last step is to the French which was taken by Edward the second and Edward the third as it is said and runnes thus Sire grantes voâ—… a tenir garder lesleys lâ—…s custumes droiture les les qâ—… els la communante de vostre Royaume aur esâ—…u les deâ—… fenderer afforcerer al honnâ—…ur de dieu a vostre poâ—… First how it shall appear that this Oath was takeâ—… by Edward the second and Edward the third we are yeâ—… to seek A Bishops Pontificall and much more 〈◊〉 Heraulds notes taken cursorily at a Coronation doâ—… not seem to be sufficient Records nor convincing proofe in our Law And Bracton who lived abouâ—… the same times sets down the Oath otherwise Debâ—… Rex in Coronatione sua in nomine Iesu Christi prâ—…stito Sacramento haec tria promittere populo sibi Subdito primo se praecepturum pro viribus impenâ—…urum ut Pax Ecclesiae omni populo Christiano omni suo tempore observetur Secundo ut omnes rapacitateâ—… omnes iniquitates omnibus gradibus interdicat Tertio ut in omnibus judiciis aequitatem praecipiat misericordiam Here is neither have chosen nor shall choose Secondly though the French doe agree with the Latin much for Sense and substance yet it is not the same Forme Thirdly the King grants to defend the Laws and Customes but it is no Law till it hath received Royall Assent it iâ—… no Custome till it be confirmed by a lawfull prescription Fourthly that the word Elect is joyned immediately to Customes which seems not so proper if reddendo singula singulis it ought to be referred to Laws aâ—…d not to Custome Fiftly what the Norman French may differ from the Parisian or both of them then from what they are now or both then and now from our Law French I cannot determine But take it at the worst the words in question aur eslu make lesse for the Observer then 〈◊〉 it selfe and doâ—…â—…gnifie have chosen or in the most Grammâ—…ticall Peâ—…nticall construction that can be mâ—…de shall have 〈◊〉 whereas if it were shall choose it should be 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 If the Herauld did take his notes as â—…l as he translates his remembrances are but of small â—…oment Before all these Formes I reade of others 〈◊〉 late Authors for I have not opportunity to see â—…e originall Records as that of King Richard the â—…rst agreeing much with Bracton To oâ—…rve â—…eace â—…onour Reverence to Almighty God to his Church â—…nd to the Ministers of the same To administer Law â—…nd justice equally to all To abrogate evill Laws and â—…ustoms and to mâ—…intein good Here is indeed a refeâ—…ence to future Lawâ—… but no depâ—…ndence on other â—…ens judgements And to this King Iohns Oath â—…ame nearest of any Form yet mentioned though â—…ot exactly the same as differing in the first clause in â—…his To love and defend the Catholicke Church To summe up all thâ—…n in a word First here is no cerâ—…ain forme to be found Secondly for those Formes â—…hat are the Parliament Rolls referre us to the Biâ—…hops Register Thirdly few of those Formes have â—…e word elegerit or â—…hoose in them and those that â—…ave it haveit doubtfully either have chosen or shall choose Fourthly admitting the signification to be fuâ—…ure yet the Limitation which is expressed in the Oath of Richard the second juste rationabiliter justly â—…easonably must of necessity be understood in all otherwise the oath is unlawfull in it selfe to oblige the King to pâ—…rform unjust and unreasonable Propositions and binds not Whether it be expressed or understood it leaves to the King a latitude of Judgement 〈◊〉 examine what is just and reasonable and to follow thâ—… Dictate of his own understanding the practise of aâ—… Parliaments in all Ages confirmes this expositioâ—… Lastly admitting but not granting the word elegerâ—… to be future and admitting that the limitation oâ—… juste rationabiliâ—…er could be suspended yet it woulâ—… not bind the King to confirme all Laws that are tenâ—…dred but only exclâ—…sively to impose no other Laws oâ—… his Subjects but sâ—…ch as shall be presented approveâ—… in Parliament Iâ—… hath been questioned by some 〈◊〉 whom the Legislâ—…ive Power did rest by Law whether in the King â—…lone as some old Forms doe seeâ—… to insinuate Coâ—…ssimus Rex concedit Rex ordinaâ—… Rex statuit Dâ—…inus Rex de communi suo concilâ—… statuit Dominus â—…ex in Parliamento statuit or iâ—… the King and Pâ—…liament joyntly And what is thâ—… power of Parliaâ—…ents in Legislâ—…tion Receptivâ—… Consultive Apâ—…obative or Cooperative Anâ—… whether the maâ—…g of Laws by Parliament be aâ—… some have said 〈◊〉 mercyfull Policy to prevent coâ—…plaints not alterâ—…le without great perill or as 〈◊〉 seemes rather aâ—… absolute requisite in Law and 〈◊〉 matter of necessity there being sundry Acts inferâ—… our to Law-makâ—…g which our Lawyers declare iâ—…valid unlesse theâ—… be done by King and Parliamenâ—… Yet howsoever it be abundans Cautela non nocet foâ—… greater Caution it yeelds more satisfaction to thâ—… People to give sâ—…ch an Oath that if the King haâ—… no such power he would â—…ot usurpe it if he had sucâ—… a Power yet he would not assume it And this 〈◊〉 clearly the sense of that oath of Edward the sixâ—… That he would make no new Laws but by the consent of His People as had been accustomed And this may be the meaning of the clause in the Statute Sith the Law of the Realme is such that upon the Mischiefes and Dammages which happen to this Realme He is bound by his Oath with the accord of His People in His Parliament thereof to make Remedy and Law Though it is very true that this being admitted as then it was to be a Law in Act the King is bound by another clause in his Oath and even by this word elegerit in the perfect tense hath chosen as well or rather more then if it were in the future shall choose And so it follows in that Statute plainly that there was a Statute Law a Remedy then in force not repealed which the King was bound by his Oath to cause to â—…e kept though by sufferance and negligence it hath been sincâ—… attempted to the contrary So the Obligation there intended is to the execution of an old Law not the making of a new Richard the second confesseth that he was bound by his oath to passe a new grant to the Justices of Peace But first it appears not that this was a new Bill Secondly if it did yet Richard the second was then but fourteen yeares old And thirdly if his age had been more mature yet if the thing was just and beneficiall to the People without prejudice to the rights of his Crown and if his own reason did
note to be the first Parliament iâ—… England and that the Kings before that time were never wont to call any of their Commons or People 〈◊〉 Councell or Law making It may be the first held by the Norman Kings or the first held after the Norman manner or the first where the people appeared by Proctors yet we find the name of Parliament before this either so called then indeed or by a Pâ—…olepsis as Lavinia Littora And not to contend abouâ—… the name this is certain that long before in the dayes of the Saxon Kings there was the Assembly of Wise Men or Mickle Synod having an Analogy with our Parliaments but differing from them in many things So doth that Parliament in Henry the first his time differ from ours now Then the Bishops had their votes in the House of Lords now they have none Then Proctors of the Clergy had their Suffrages in the House of Commons now they are excluded Then there were many more Barons then there are now Burgesses every Lord of a Mannour â—…ho had a Court Baron was a Parliament man natus â—…y right Then they came on generall summons afâ—…er upon speciall Writ But both the one and the â—…ther were posteriour to Kings both in the order â—…f nature and of time How should it be otherwise â—…he end of Parliaments is to temper the violence of â—…overaigne Power the Remedy must needs be later then â—…e Disease much more then the right Temper â—…egenerate Monarchy becomes Tyranny and the cure â—…f Tyranny is the mixture of Governments Parliments are proper adjuments to Kings Parliaments â—…ere constituted to supply the defects in that Governâ—…ent saith the Observer himselfe here you may apply your Rule to purpose that the end is more â—…xcellent then the meanes I deny therefore that the â—…ingdome is the essence of Parliaments there is a â—…hreefold Body of the State the essentiall Body â—…he representative Body and the virtuall Body the â—…ssentiall Body is the diffused company of the whole Nobility Gentry Commonalty throughout the Kingâ—…ome the representative Body are the Lords Citâ—…yzens and Burgesses in Parliament assembled and inâ—…rusted the Virtuall Body is His Majesty in whom â—…ests the life of Authority and power legislative exeâ—…utive virtually yet so as in the excercise of some â—…rts of it there are necessary requisites the consent and concurrence of the representative Body From this mistaken ground the Observer draws fundry erroneous conclusions Posito uno absurdo sequuntur â—…mille Hence proceeds his Complaint That severance hath been made betwixt the Parties chosen and the Parties choosing and so that that great privilege of all privileges that unmoveable Basis of all Honour and power whereby the House of Commons claimes the intire right of all the Gentry and Commonalty of England hath been attempted to be shaken A power of representation we grant respective to some ends as to consent to new laws to grant Subsidies to impeach Offenders to find out and present grievances and whatsoever else is warranted by lawfull Customes but an intire right to all intents and purposes against Law and lawfull Custome we deny An intire right what to out Wifes and Children to our Lands and Possessions this is not tollerable Hence also he tells Magistrally enough of an arbitrary Power in the Parliament That there is an arbitrary Power in every State somewhere it is true â—…is necessary and no inconvenience followes upon it every man hath an arbitrary power over him selfe so every State hath an arbitrary power over it selfe and there is no Danger in it for the same reason if the State intrust this to one Man or few there may be danger but the Parliament is neither one nor few it is indeed the State it selfe Now the Maske is off you have spunne a fair threed is this the end of all your goodly pretences if this be your new Learning God deliver all true English men from it Wee chose you to be our Proctors not to be our Lords We challenge the Laws of England as our Birthright and Inheritance and dislike Arbitrary Government much in one but twenty times worse in more There is no Tyranny like many-headed Tyranny when was â—…ver so much Blood shed and Rapine under one Tyrant as under three in the Triumvirate And the more they are still of necessity there will be more â—…ngagements of Love and Hatred and Covetousnesse and Ambition the more packing and conniving one with another the more Danger of Factious and Seditious tumults as if the evills of one Forme of Government were not sufficient except we were overwhelmed with the deluge of them all and he that is most popular who is most commonly the worst will give Laws to the rest Therefore it hath ever been accounted safer to live under one Tyrant then many The Lust Covetousnesse Ambition Cruelty of one may be sooner satisfied then of many and especially when the power is but temporary and not hereditary nor of continuance We see Farmers which have a long terme will husband their grounds well but they that are but Tenents at will plough out the very heart of it No Sir I thanke you we will none of your Arbitrary Government And supposing but no way granting that the Parliament were the essentiall Body of this Kingdome or which is all one were indowed with all the power and Privileges thereof to all intents and purposes yet it had no Arbitrary Power over it selfe in such things as are contrary to the Allegiance which it owes to His Majesty and contrary to its Obligation to the received Laws and Customs of this Land Hence be ascribes to Parliaments a power to call Kings to an account heare himselfe That Princes may not be now beyond all Limits and Lawes by any private Persons the whole community in its underived Majesty shall convene to doe iustice Here we have it expresly that the Parliament is the whole Communâ—…ty that it hath a Majesty that this Majâ—…sty 〈◊〉 underived that it hath power â—…o â—…ry Princâ—…s â—…e 〈◊〉 doe justice upon them Hitâ—…erto we have misunderstood Saint Peter Submit your selfes to every Ordinance of Man for the Lorâ—… sake whether it be to tâ—… King as Supreme It seems the Parliamentâ—… whicâ—… passed the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance did noâ—… understand their own right till 〈◊〉 third Cato droppâ—…d from Heaven to inform them And above all oâ—… Non-Conformist Ministers in their solâ—…e Protestation are deepâ—…st in this guilt wâ—…o affirme so confidently that for the King â—…ot to assume 〈◊〉 or for the Church to deny it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea though the Statutes of the Kingdome should deâ—… it unto Him What maâ—… his fellow Subjectâ—… expeâ—… from the Oâ—…server who is â—…o sawcy with his Soveraigne But before I leave thiâ—… poiâ—…t I desire to be informed 〈◊〉 this new Doctrin agrees with that undeniable principle of our Law The King can do 〈◊〉 wrong The Observer glosseth it thus That He can doe no wrong de
jure but de facto he may which is the drowsiâ—…st dreaming devise that â—…ver dropped from any Manâ—… pen in his right Witts Iudas or the Devill himselfe can doe no wrong de jure unlesse both 〈◊〉 of a contradiction can be true A fair Privilege to give a Prince which a high way Thiefe may challenge It may with more probabillity be expounded thus That the King is to discharge the publick Affâ—…ires of the Kingdome not by himselfe but by His Officerâ—… and Ministers therefore if any thing be amisse or unjust they are faulty they are accouncountable for it not He. But there seems to be something more in this principle then thus For first 〈◊〉 the same reason a man might say the King can doe no right if he can doe nothing by himselfe he â—…s not capable of such thanks as Tertullâ—… gave to â—…elix Secondly it would be very strange that a King should be excluded from the personall discharge of all manner of dutyes belonging to his high calling â—…nd might occasion the renewing of the Womans complaint against Philip of Mâ—…edon why then art â—…hou King this were to make His Majesty anoâ—…er Childerick one of the old Ciphers or titulary Kings of France and put all the power into the hands of a Major of the Pallace or a Marshall or some other Subjects What is it then there â—…ust be something more in this old Maxime of â—…ur Law that The King can doe no wrong And it â—…s thiâ—… doubtlesse that in the intendment of Law his Person is sacred he is freed from all defects as though he be a Minoâ—… or an Infant yet in the eye of â—…he Law he is alwayes of full age he owes account of his doings to God alone the Law hath no coercive power over him This is that which Samuel cals The Law of the Kingdom not to shew what a King may lawfully doe but what a Subject ought to bear from a lawfull King To the alone have I sinned said David he had trespassed against Uriah and Bathsheba yet he saith to thee onely have I sinned quia Râ—…x erat because he was a King and accountable to none but God as Clemens Alexandrinus Arnoâ—…ius Saint Ierome Saint Ambrose Venerable Bede Euthymius and sundry others do all affirme upon this one place and Gregory of Towers Si quis de nobis If anyone of us O King doe passe the bounds of justice you have power to correct him but if you exceed your limits who shall chastise you We may speake to you if you list not hearken who can condemne you but that great God who hath pronounced himselfe to be Righteousnesse And even Antoninus whom the Observer so much commends for a renowned and moderate Prince yet is positive in this Solus Deus Iudex Principis esse potest God alone can be Judge of a Soveraigne Prince In the Parliament at Lincolne under Edward the first the Lords and Commons unanimously affirme the same with a wonder that any Man should conceive otherwise That the King of England neither hath answered nor ought to answer for his Right before any Iudge Ecclesiasticall or Secular ex praeeminentia status sui by reason of the preheminence of His Regall Dignity and Custome at all times inviolably observed To try Princes and to doe justice Some man would desire to know how farre this Justice may be extended whether peradventure to depose them and dethrone them to exalt them depresse them Constituere destituere construere destruere fingere diffingere But for this they must expect an Answer from the Observer by the next post when he sees how the people will dance after his pipe and whether his misled Partners will goe along the whole journy or leave his Company in the mid way when he hath sufficient strength then it is time and not before to declare himselfe Till then he will be a good child and follow Saint Pauls advice in part Stoppage is no payment in our Law Suppose the Prince faileâ—…â—…n his duty are the Subjects therefore free from that â—…bligation which is imposed upon them by the Law of God and Nature When His Majesty objects â—…hat a deposition is threatned at least intimâ—…ted what doth the Observer answer he doth not disclaime the power but onely deny the fact Thus he saith It may truely be denied that ever free Parliament did truely consent to the dethroning of any King of England for that Act whereby Richard the second was dethroned was rather the Act of Henry the fourth and His victorious Army then of the whole Kingdome Marke these words that any free Parliament So it seemes that some Parliaments are not free And again did truely consent there may be much in that word also First whether they who are overawed with power of unruly Mermidons may be said to consent truely and ex animo Secondly whether they who consent meerely for hope of impunity to escape questioning for their former oppressions and extortions may be said to consent truely Thirdly whether they who consent out of hope to divide the spoyle may be said to consent truely Fourthly whereas by the Law of Nations the rights and voices of Absentees do devolve to those that are present if they be driven away by a just and probable fear whether they may be said to consent truely Lastly they that follow the Collier in his Creed by an an implicit Faith without discussion resolving themselves into the Authority of a Committee or some noted Members may they be said to consent truely That which followes of Henry the fourth and his victorious Army shews the Observer to be as great an Heritick in â—…olicy as Machiavell himselfe he 〈◊〉 better have said the Usurper and his rebellious Aâ—…my For a Subject â—…o raise Aâ—… against his Soveraigne to dethrone him as Bullenbrooke did and bâ—… violence to snatch the Crown to him selfe in prejuâ—… of the right Heireâ—… is Treason confessed by all men His acquisition is meere usurpation for any Persoâ—… or Society of Men to joyn with him or to confirmâ—… him is to be partakers of his sin But Gods judgemenâ—… pursue such disloyall Subjects and their posterity as it did them The greatest Contrivers and Actors in that Rebellion for a just Reward of their Treason did first feele the edge of Henryes victorious Sword and after them Henries Posterity and the whole English Nation smâ—…rted for Richards blood It is oâ—…served that all the Conspirators against Iulius Caesar perished within three yeares some by judgement of Law others by Ship-wracke upon the Sea others by battail under the sword of their conquering Enemyes others with the fame boâ—…k in wherewith they had stabbed their Emperour one way or other vengeance o ertooke them every Man What others say of Richards resignation is as weake which was done by duresse and imprisonment or at the best for fear of imminent Mischief To conclude this Section God and the Law operate both in Kings and Parliaments but
States come to have peace a while then let them take heed of falling in pieces The condition of the English Subject when it was at the worst under King Charles before these unhappy broiles was much more secure and free from excises and other burdens and impositions then our Neighbours the Netherlanders under their States If His Majesty should use such an Arbitrary Power as they doe it would smart indeed I wonder the Observer is not ashamed to instance in Hanniball he knows the Factions of Hanno and Hannibal did ruine themselves and Carthage whereas if Hannibal had been independent Rome had run that fortune which Carthage did How near was Scipioes Conquest of Affricke to be disapointed by the groundlesse suggestions of his Adversaryes in the Roman Senate When he had redeemed that Citty from ruine how was he rewarded Sleighted called to the Barre by a factious Plebeian and in effect banished from that Citty whereof he had been in a kind a second Romulus or Founder but if he had been independent he had been a nobler gallanter Scipio then he was And if Caesars Dictatorship had not preserved him from the like snuffles he might have tasted of the same sawce that Scipio did and many others It is true he was butchered by some of the Observers Sect a Rebell is a civill Schismatick and a Schismatick an Ecclesiasticall Rebell the one is togata the other is armata seditio and some of them as notoriously obliged as Servants could be to a Master but revenge pursued them at the heeles as it did Korah and his Rebellious Crew Zimri Absalom Adonijah Achitophel Iudas c. Frost and falshood have alwayes a foule ending Neither is it true altogether That Parliaments are so late an invention What was the Mickle Synod here but a Parliament what were the Roman Senates and Comitia but Parliaments what were the Graecian Assemblies Amphictionian Achaian Boetian Pan-AEtolian but Parliaments what other was that then a Parliament Moses commanded us a Law even the inheritance of the Congregation of Jacob. And he was King in Jesurum when the Heads of the People and Tribes of Israell were gathered together Here is the King and both Houses with a legislative power Non de possessione sed de terminis est contentio the difference is not about the being of Parliaments but the bounds of Parliamentary Power As Parliaments in this latitude of signification have been both very ancient and very common so if he take the name strictly according to the present constitution of our Parliament he will not find it so very ancient here at home nor a Policy common to us with many Nations yea if the parts of the comparison be precisely urged with none not so much as our Neighbour Nation I pray God it be not some Mens aime to reduce our setled Form to a conformity with some forrein Exemplars But if it be understood to have such a fulnesse of power as he pretends according to his late found out art to regulate the moliminous body of the People it is neither ancient nor common nor ours He may seek such presidents in republicks but shall never find so much as one of them in any true Monarchy under Heaven I honour Parliaments as truely as the Observer yet not so as to make the name of Parliament a Medâ—…saes head to transform reasonable Men into stones I acknowledge that a compleat Parliament is that Panchreston or Soveraigne salve for all the Sores of the Common-wealth I doe admire the presumption of this Observer that dare find holes and defects in the very constitution of the Government by King and Parliament which he should rather adore at a distance as if he were of the posterity of Iack Cade who called himselfe Iohn Aâ—…ead all It is lâ—…wfull for these Men onely to cry out against innovations whilest themselveâ—… labour with might and maine to change and innovate the whole framâ—… of Government both in Church and 〈◊〉 We reade of Philip of Macedâ—…n that he gâ—…thered all the naughty seditiouâ—… fellowes in his Kingâ—…ome together and put theâ—…â—…ll into 〈◊〉 Câ—…y by themsâ—…lves which he called 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 Cheâ—…er I wish King Charles would doe the like if a Citty would contein them and make the Observer the head of the Corporation where he might molde his Governmâ—…nt according to hiâ—… prâ—…vate conceit And yet it cannot be denyed but the greatest and most eminent Councells in the World mâ—…y be either made or wrought by their Major Part to serve private endâ—… I omit the Lay Parliament 1404 and Sir Henry Wottons younge Parliament 18. Iacobi our Historians tell us of a Mad Parliament 1258 and the Parliament of Bâ—…tts or Bâ—…ttownes 1426 a kind of Weapon fitter for Cavâ—…leers then peaceable Assemblyes The Statuâ—…es of Oxford were confirmed by the Parliament at Weâ—…minster 1259 and ratified by a course against the breakers of them shortly after the King and Prince were both taken Prisoners yet in the Parliament following at Winchester 1255 all the said Acts were rescinded and disâ—…nulled and the King cryed quittance with his Adversaryes In the raigne of Edward the second after the Battell at Burton we see how the tydes of the Parliament were turned untill the comming of Qâ—…een Izabell and then the Floods grew higher then ever In the dayes of Richard the second how did the Parliamentâ—… change their Sanctions as the Câ—…maelion her colours or as Platina writeth of the Popes after Stephen had taken up the body of Formosus out of his grave It became an usual thing for the Successors either to infringe or altogether to abrogate the Acts of their Predecessors The Parliaments of 1386. and 1388. were contradicted and revoked by the subsequent Parliaments of 1397. and 1398 and these again condemned and disanulled by the two following Parliaments in 1399. and 1400 yea though the Lords were sworn to the inviolable observance of that of 1397 and Henry Bullenbrooke who was a great Stickler for the King in that Parliament of 1397. against the Appealants yet in that of 1399 was elected King by the Trayterous deposition of Richard and the unjust preterition of the right Heires Parliaments are sublunary Courts and mutable as well as all other Societyes If we descend a little lower to the times of Henry the sixt we shall find Richard Duke of Yorke declared the Lord Protector in Parliament yet without Title to the Crown in 1455. Shortly after we find both him and his Adherents by Parliament likewise attainted of High Treason in 1459. The yeare following 1460 he was again by Parliament declared not only Lord Protector but also Prince of Wales and right Heire to the Crown and all Acts to the contrary made voide and the Lords sweare to the observance thereof It rests not here the very next year 1461. his Sonne Edward the fourth not contented to be an Heire in reversion assumes the Imperiall Diadem and in Parliament is received actuall King The end is
Augustane confession and Apology That Bishops might easily have reteined their places if they would they protest that they are not guilty of the diminution of Episcopall Authority And for the Helvetian Churches it appeares by that letter of Zuiâ—…glius and ten others of their principall Divines to thâ—… Bishop of Constance in all humility and observancâ—… beseeching him To favour and helpe forward their beginnings as an excellent Worke and worthy of a Bishop they call him Father Renowned Prelate Bishop the implore his Clemency Wisdome Learning that 〈◊〉 would be the first Fruits of the Germaine Bishops favour true Christianity springing up againe to heaâ—… the wounded Conscience They beseech him by the coâ—…mon Christ by our Christian Liberty by that Father affection which he owes unto them by whatsoever was 〈◊〉 vine and humane to looke graciously upon them or he would not grant their desires yet to connive at theâ—… So he should make his Family yet more illustrious aâ—… have the perpetuall Tribute of their Prayses so would but shew himselfe a Father and grâ—…â—…he request of his obedient Sonnes They coâ—…clude God Almighty long preserve your Excellenâ—… Thirdly for the French Churches it is plain Calvine in one of his Epistles touching a Reform Bishop that should turne from Popery that he mâ—… retein His Bishoppricke his Diocesse yea even 〈◊〉 Revennues and his Iurisdiction Lastly it is objected that Bishops have been 〈◊〉 â—…troducers of Anti-Christian Tyranny and all otâ—… abuses into the Church One said of Phisitians tâ—… they were happy Men for the Sunne revealed their Cure and the Earth buried all their inâ—…mities contrarywise we may say of Governours that in this respect they are most unhappy Men for the Sun reveales all their infirmities nay more all the Ennormities of the Times and the aberrations of their Inferiours are imputed to them but the Earth buries all their cures Episcopacy hath been so farre from being an adjument to the Pope in his Tyrannicall invasion of the Libertyes of the Church that on the other side it was a principall meanes to stay and retard his usurpation as did well appeare at the Councell of Treat how little he was propitious to that Order and by the Example of Grodsted Bishop of Lincolne who was malleus Romanorum and many others And now much the rather when Bishops acknowledge no dependency upon him No Forme of Government was ever so absolute as to keep out all abuses Errors in Religion are not presently to be imputed to the Government of the Church Arrius Pelagius c. were no Bishops but on the other side if Bishops had not been God knows what Churches what Religion what Sacraments what Christ we should have had at this Day And wee may easily conjecture by that inundation of Sects which hath almost quite overwhelmed our poor Church on a suddain since the Authority of Bishops was suspended The present condition of England doth plead more powerfully for Bishops then all that have writ for Episcopacy since the Reformation of our Church I have made this digression by occasion of the Observers so often girding at Bishops he may either passe by it or take notice of it at his pleasure There are some small remainders of his worke but of no great moment as this That there is a disparity between naturall Fathers Lords Heads c. and Politicall Most true though the Observer hath not met with the most apposite instances otherwise they should be the very same thing every like is also dislike He conceives that there is onely some sleight resemblance between them but our Law saith expresly otherwise That His Majesty is very Head King Lord and Ruler of this Realme and that of meer droit and very right First very Head and Lord and then of meer droit and very right It is impossible the Law should speake more fully But the maine difference which may come near the question is this that the Power which is in a Father Lord c. moderately and distinctly is joyntly and more eminently in a Soveraigne Prince as was long since declared at Rome in the case between Fabius Maximus and his Sonne No Father could deserve more reverence from a Sonne yet he knew that Domestick command must veile and submit to Politicall and that the Authority of a Father of a Family doth disappear in the presence of the Father of a Country as lesser Starres do at the rising of the Sun But his maine ground is that the King is the Father Lord Head c. of His Subjects divisim but not conjunctim if you take them singly one by one but not of an intire collective Body So it seemes His Majesty is the King of Peter and Andrew not of England nor yet so much as of a whole Towne or Village yet the Observer himselfe can be contented to be the Lord of a whole Manour I conceive he learned this doctrine out of Schola Salerni Anglorum Regi c. If this assertion were true how extrmely hath the World been deceived hitherto and we have all forsworne our selves in our Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance His Majesty is much bound to him for making him King of so many pretty little Kingdoms but as Titus Quinctius said of Antiochus his Souldiers when their Friends did set them out by parcells for Armies of Medes Elemites Cadusians That all these in one word were but Syrians So His Majesty is well contented to reduce all these Kingdoms of Microcosmes into one Kingdome of England if he may hold that in peace Such another Paradox is that which follows that Treason or Rebellion in Subjects is not so horrid in nature as oppression in Superiours One of the most absurd opinions and most destructive to all Societies that ever was devised By this new learning when the Master shall correct his Servant without sufficient ground in the Servants conceit he may take the Rod by the other end give His Master some remembrances to teach him his Office better If it be a little irregular yet it is the lesse fault upon these grounds Doth any Man think that the Observer instructs his Family with this doctrin at home out of his chaire beleeve it not By the very equity of this conclusion it should be a greater sinne for a Man to mispend what is his owne then to robbe or steale that which is not his own The Superiour though he abuse his power yet hath a right to it but the inferiour hath none How discrepant is this from the judgement of former times they thought no crime could be so great as that it ought to be punished with Parracide or that for discovery thereof a Servant should be examined against his Master or a Child against his Parent The Law of Parricides denyed lucem vivo fluctuanti mare naufrago portum morienti terram defuncto Sepulchrum Tully saith they were to be sowed up quick in a Sack and so cast into the River not to the wild Beasts
it will be pealed into their eares dayly I shall deale more ingenuously with the Observer then he hath done with his Soveraigne to catch here and there at a piece of a Sentence and passe by that as mute as a Fish to which he had nothing to say If His Majesties cleare Demonstrations which to a strong judgement seeme to be written with a beam of the Sun and like the principles of Geometry doe rather compell then perswade did leave any place for further confirmation the Observers silence were sufficient to proclaime them unanswerable There needs no other proofe of His Majestyes Lenity and Goodnesse then this That a Subject dare publish such observations in a Monarchy and maintain argument with his Liege Lord Multa donanda ingeniis sed donanda vitia non portenta sunt He deserveth small pitty who priseth his word more then his Head King Lewes said of some seditious Preachers in France If they tax me in their Pulpits I will send them to preach in another Climate Pollio said of Angustus Non est facile in eum scribere qui potest proscribere The King of the Bees though he want a sting yet is he sufficiently armed with Majesty So should King Charles be to the Observer and his pew-fellowes if they were profitable Bees as they are a nest of Waspes and Hornets I find two branches of this Family I cannot call them the Family of Love as a verse one to another as Sampsons Foxes It is hard to say whether is the ancient House for they both sprung up the one in Spaine the other at Geneva about the same time the yeare 1536. The Captaines of the one are Bellarmine Simancha Mariana c. The chieftains of the other are Beza if it be his Book de jure Magistratus as is believed Buchanan Stephanus Iunius c. The former in favour of the Pope the latter in hatred of the Pope yet both former and latter may rise up in Judgement with our Incendiaries and condemne them for if they had had as gracious a Prince as King Charles they had never broached such tenets to the World I have busied my selfe to find out the Progenitors of these two different Parties and for the former I cannot in probabillity derive them from any other then Pope Zachary Who it seemes as the Oestridge left an egge in the Sand which after a long revolution of time was found and hatched by the care of some Loyolists for thus he in Aventine A Prince is subject to the People by whose benefit he reignes whatsoever Power Riches Glory Dignity he hath he received it from the People Regem Plebs constituit eundem destituere potest As for the latter because I know they will scorn to ascribe their Originall to a Pope I cannot fine one of their Ancestors in all the Church of Christ for fifteen hundred yeares untill I come as high as Saint Iudes dreamers or the Pharisees of whom Iosephus saith that they were a Sect cunning arrogant and opposite to Kings And they have one Pharasaicall virtue in great eminency that is self-love and partiallity to make their own case different from all other mens as may appeare by these particulars First a question is moved concerning the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiasticall Affaires They give Power to Kings to reforme the Church just as Bellarmine gives to the Pope to depose Princes not certainly but contingently in the case of an ungodly Clergy that is in their sense all other but themselves but if they be once introduced neither King nor Parliament have any more to doe but execute their Decrees then the whole Regiment of the Church is committed by Christ to Pastors Elders and Deacons so Cartwright then Magistrates must remember to subject themselves submit their Scepters thrâ—…w down their Crownes to the Church and as the Prophet speaketh to lick the dust of the feet of the Church that is of the Presbitery what is this but kissing of the Presbiters toes Secondly where they have hope of the King there the Supreame Magistrate may nay he ought to reforme the Church yea though the Statutes of the Kingdome be against it so say the Authors of the Protestation printed 1605. But what if the King favour them not then he is but a conditionall trustee it belongeth to the States and representative body of the Kingdom but what if the Nobility will not joyne then the People must so said Field since we cannot bring this to passe by Suite or Dispute the People and Multitude must doe it yea though it be with blood as Martin threatens in his Protestation The People saith Buchanan have as much power over Kings as Kings have over particular Persons Nobility saith the Book of Obedience is the Bounty of the People to some Persons for delivering them from Tyrants which prerogative the Children kept by the Peoples negligence And of late have not the Peers been exhorted to mingle themselves with the meanest of the People and for the procuring a parity in the Church to consent to a parity in the State and for the subduing of the pride of Kings for a time to part with the power of Noblemen For a time what 's that that is according to the former Doctrine till the People be pleased out of their Bounty to advance them according to their severall Talents for their zeale to shed the blood of the ungodly The Misery beginns now to open itselfe and I trust will shortly appeare in its right colours By these reverend Fathers I mean the Rabble the Discipline was brought into Genevah it self against the will of the Syndicks and two Councels In illa promiscua colluvie suffragiis fuimus superiores saith Calvin Thus these men make Kings and Nobles but as Counters which stand somtimes for a pound somtimes for a penny pro arbitrio supputantis just like Chawcers Frier he knew how to impose an easy Pennance where he looked for a good Pittance Thirdly the wheele of Heaven hath not yet wound up one thred more of the â—…lew of our Life since we heard nothing but Encomiums of the Law Treason against the Fundamentall Laws and Declarations against Arbitrary Government Now the Law is become a Formallity a Lesbian Rule Arbitrary Government is turned to necessity of State It is not examined what is just or unjust but how the party is affected or disaffected whether the thing be conducible or not conducible to the cause we are governed not by the known Laws and Customs of this Realme but by certain farrfetched dear-bought Conclusions or rather Collusions drawn by unskilfull Empericks without Art or Judgement from the Law of Nature and of Nations which may be good for Ladyes by the Proverbe but not for English Subjects Now are we taught down-right that the Laws of the Land are but mans-inventions morall precepts fitter for Heathens then Christians that we must lead our Lifes according to Gods word as if Gods word and the Law of the Land
maligned Episcopacy whilest Bishops stood they could not fill all the Pulpits of the Kingdome with their Seditious Oratours who might incite the people that their zeal to God may not be interrupted by their Duty to the King that by the Christian Labours of their painfull Preachers they may not want hands to bring their wishes to passe they are their own words Is this the reason we have not a word of Peace and Charity from that Party but all Incentives to Warr and to joyn in making that great Sacrifice to the Lord. Yet whilest they are so busy in in getting hands too many of them perjured hands let them remember Rodolphus the Duke of Sweveland his hand in Cuspinian who being drawn into a rebellious Warre against the Emperour and in the Battell having his right Hand cut off held out the Stump to those that were about him saying I have a just reward of my Perjury with this same Hand I swore Allegiance to my Soveraigne Lord. Yet the good Emperour buried him Honourably which being disliked by some of his Friends he replied utinam omnes mei Adversarit eo ornatu sepulti jacerent We have sworn Allegiance as well ashe and God is the same he was a severe Avenger of Perjury Onely Zedekiaâ—… of all the Kings of Iudah a perjured Person to Nebuchadnezzar had his eyes put out because saith one he had not that God by whom he sware before his eyes Another instance of Perjury we have in Uladislaus when Huniades had made Truce with Amurath for ten yeares the King by the incitement of Cardinali Iulian did break it the Turk in distresse spreads the Articles towards Heaven saying O Iesus if thou be a God be avenged of these false Christians presently the Battell turned Uladislaus was slaine in the Fight the Cardinall in flight When God had justly punished Corah and his rebellious Company the Common People murmured against Moses and Aaron saying Ye have killed the Lords People Numb 16. 49. What was the Issue the Lord sent a Plague which swept away fourteen thousand and seven hundred of them So dangerous a thing it is onely to justify Traytors Dost thou desire to serve God purely according to his word So thou mayest without being a Traytour to thy Prince if our practise were but conformable to the truth of our Profession we might challenge all the Churches in the World God Almighty lighten the eyes of all those that mean well that we may no longer shed one anothers blood to effect the frantick Designes of Fanaticall Persons and by our contentions pull down what we all desire to build up even the Protestant Religion the Law of the Land and the Liberty of the Subject Treason never yet wanted a cloake we are not to judge of Rebells by their Words but by their deeds their voice is Iacobs voice but their hands are the hands of Esau. The Adulterous woman eateth and wipeth her mouth and saith what have I done yet sometimes God suffers the contrivers of these Distractions unwittingly to discover themselves that unlesse we doe willfully hoodwinke our eyes we cannot but see their aimes Among others that Speech which exhorts us to subdue the pride of Kings to purchase a Parity in the Church with a parity in the State to shed the blood of the ungodly that sleights all former Oaths and Obligations and vilifies the Laws of the Land as the inventions of men may be a sufficient Warning-Piece to all Loyall Subjects and good Christians And so may the late Petition be though from meaner Hands to a Common Councell wherein they doe nakedly and professedly fall upon His Majesties Person without any Mask and sawcily and traytorously propose the alteration of the Civill Government which every true-hearted English Man will detest Say not these are poor vulgar Fellowes These have been the Intelligences that have of late turned the Orbe of our State about or at least the visible Actors And who sees not that this is cast abroad thus by the cunning of their sublimated and Mercuriall Prompters to try how it will rellish with the palate of the People as an Introduction to their actuall Designe that when it comes to passe the World may not wonder at it as a Prodigie So was it given out among the People by Richard the third that his Wife was dead when she was in good health but she wisely concluded what was intended by her kind Husband to be her next part Where are our English Hearts why doe we not at last all joyn together to take a severe account of them who have blemished our Parliament subjected our Persons and Estates to their arbitrary Power who have sought to de-throne our Soveraigne and to robbe us of our Religion Laws and Liberties But now to the Observator Observer IN this Contestation between Regall and Parliamentary power for method sake it is requisite to consider first of Regall then of Parliamentary Power and in both to consider the efficient and finall Causes and the meanes by which they are supported Answer Stay Sir before we enter into these Consideratitions let us remember the Rule in Rhetorick cui bono what advantage will this inquiry bring us Doe you desire to be one of the Tribunes or Ephori of England to controule your King or would you have the great Oâ—…ke cut down that you might gather some sticks for your selfe Thus we are told lately the wisest men will not thinke thems elves uncapable of future Fortunes if they use their uttermost power to reduce him that is the King to a necessity of granting Or would you have us play the Guelphes and Gibellines to cut one anothers throats for your pastime Pardon us Sir we cannot thinke it seasonable now when poore Ireland is at the last gaspe and England it selfe lies a bleeding when mens minds are exasperated by such Trumpeters of Sedition to plunge our selves yet deepeâ—… in these Domestick Contestations what could the Irish Rebells desire more Comparisons are alwayes odious but Contestations are worse and this between a King and His Parliament worst of all This dismall question did never yet appeare in this Kingdom but like a fatall Screech-owle portending blood Death and publique Ruine This was the Subject of the Barons Warre the consequent of this in the wrong offered to a lawfull Prince was the fountain of those horrid Dissentions between the red Rose and the White which purpled all our English Soile with native Blood we have had too much of this already Halfe of that Money which of late hath been spent of that blood which hath been shed about this accursed Controversie would have regained Ireland and disingaged England whereas now the sore festers dayly more and more under the Chirurgeons Hands Our Fore fathers have setled this question for us we desire to see what they have done before we goe to blind-mans buffet one with another If it hath been composed well or but indifferently it is better then Civill Warr And
People who elect them but from the King who creates them Fourthly you tell us that the Power of a King is to have powerfull Subjects and to be powerfull in his Subjects not to be powerfull over his Subjects Your reason halts because it wants a caeteris paribus several Kings may have severall advantages of greatnesse The truth is neither many powerfull Subjects without obedience nor forced obedience without powerfull and loving Subjects dâ—… make a great and glorious King But the concatenation of Superiours and Inferiours in the Adaman tine bonds of Love and Duty When Subjects are affected as Scillurus would have his Sonns for concord as Scipio had his Souldiers for obedience which they prised above their lifes being ready to throw them selves from a Tower into the Sea at their Generallâ—… command this is both to be great in Subjects and over them The greatest Victoryes the greateâ—… Monarchyes are indebted for themselves to this lowly beginning of obedience It is not to be a King of Kings nor a King of slaves nor a King of Devills you may remember to whom that was applied but to be the King of Hearts and Hands and Subjects of many rich loving and dutifull Subjects that makes a powerfull Prince As for the present puissance of France can you tell in what Kings Reigne it was greater since Charlemaine Neverthelesse admitting that the Peasants in France as you are pleased to call them suffer much yet nothing neare so much as they have done in seditious times when Civill Warrâ—… raged among them when their Kings had lesse power over them which is our case now God blesse us from Tvrany but more from Sedition If the Subjects of France be Peasants and the Subjects of Germany be Princes God send us Englishmen to keep a mean between both extremes which our Fore-Fathers found most expedient for all parties Observer But thus we see that Power is but secondary and derivative in Princes the Fountain and efficient cause is the People and from hence the inference is just the King though he be singulis Major yet is he universis Minor for if the People be the true efficient cause of Power it is a Rule in Nature quicquid efficit tale est magis tale And hence it appears that at the founding of authorities when the consent of Societies conveyes rule into such and such Hands it may ordaine what conditions and prefix what bounds it pleases and that no dissolution ought to be thereof but by the same power by which it had its Constitution Answer Thus we see your Premisses are weake and naught your argument proceeds from the staffe to the corner and your whole discourse is a Rope of Sand. First your ground-work that the People is the Fountain and efficient of Power totters and is not universally true Power in the abstract is not at all Power in the concrete is but sometimes from the People which is rather the application of power then Power itselfe Next your inference from hence which in this place you call just and a little after say that nothing is more known or assented unto that the King is singulis major but universis minor greater then any of his Subjects singly considered but lesse then the whole collected Body is neither just nor known nor assented unto unlesse in that Body you include His Majesty as a principall Member And yet if that should be granted you before it would doe you any good these universi or this whole Body must be reduced to the Major or greater part and this diffused and essentiall Body must be contracted to a representative Body unlesse we may believe your new Learning that the Essentiall and Representative Body are both one But waving all these advantages tell me Sir might you be perswaded to follow Licurgus his advise to try this Discipline at home before you offer it to the Commonwealth could you be contented that all your Servants together or the Major part of them had power to turne you out of your Mastership and place your Steward in your roome or your Children in like case depose you from your Fatherhood No I warrant you the case would soone be altered And when the greatest part of the sheep dislike their Sheepheard must be presently put up his Pipes and be packing Take heed what you doe for if the People be greater then the King it is no more a Monarchy but a Democracy Hitherto the Christian World hath believed that the King is post Deum secundus the next to God solo Deo minor onely lesse then God no Person no Body Politick between that he is Vicarius Dei Gods Vicegerent The Scriptures say that Kings reigne not over Persons but Nations that Kings were anointed over Israell not Israelites onely Saul is called the head of the Tribes of Israell Our Laws are plain we have all sworn that the Kings Highnesse is the onely Supreme head if Supreme then not subordinate if onely Supreme then not coordinate and Governour of this Realme His Highnesse is Supreame Governour that is in his Person in his Chamber as well as in his Court The ancient Courts of England were no other then the Kings very Chamber and moveable with him from place to place whence they have their name of Courts Supreme Governour of this Realme collectively and not onely of particular and individuall Subjects In all causes and over all Persons then in Parliament and out of Parliament Parliaments doe not alwayes sit many Causes are heard many Persons questioned many Oaths of Allegiance administred between Parliament and Parliament The same Oath binds us to defend him against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever which shall be made against his Person or Crown to defend him much more therefore not to offend him against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever that Oath which binds us to defend him against all attempts whatsoever presupposeth that no attempt against him can be justified by Law whether these attempts be against his Person or his Crown It will not serve the turn to distinguish between his Person and his Office for both the Person and the Office are included in the Oath Let every Subject lay his hand upon his heart and compare his Actions with this Oath in the fear of God When the great representative Body of Parliament are assembled they are yet but his great Councell not Commanders He calls them he dissolves them they doe not choose so much as a Speaker without his approbation and when he is chosen he prayes His Majesty to interpose his Authority and command them to proceed to a second choise plane propter modestiam sed nunquid contra veritatem The Speakers first request is for the Liberties and Priviledges of the House His Majesty is the fountain from which they flow When they even both Houses do speak to him it is not by way of mandate but humble Petition as thus most humbly beseech your most excellent Majesty your faithfull and
Romans and so according to your position it is established by God can the People or the Major part without grosse Treason attempt to dethrone this King or send him a writ of ease They that are so zealous in Religion to have every thing ordered according to the expresse word of God let them shew but one Text where ever God did give this Power to Subjects to reduce their Soveraignes to order by Arms. If this were so Kings were in a miserable condition Consider the present Estate of Christendome what King hath not Subjects of sundry Communions and Professions in point of Religion upon these mens grounds he must be a Tyrant to one party or more Moses seemed a Tyrant to Korah and his rebellious Company Queen Elizabeth and King Iames did seem Tyrants to Squire Parry Sommervill and the Powder-Traytors Licurgus of whom Apollo once doubted whether he should be numbred among the Gods or Men was well neere stoned and had his eyes put out in a popular tumult Thus Barabbas may be absolved and the King of Kings condemned What Divellish Plots would this Doctrine presently raise if it were received what murthers and assassinates would it â—…sher into the World especially considering that the worst men are most commonly active in this kind to whom nothing doth more discommend a King then his Justice Observer As for the finall Cause of Regall Authority I doe not find any thing in the Kings papers denying that the same people is the finall which is the efficient cause of it indeed it were strange if the People in subjecting it selfe to command should aime at any thing but their own good in the first and last place T is true according to Machavills Politicks Princes ought to aime at greatnesse not in but â—…ver their Subjects and for the atchieving of the same they ought to propose to themselves no greater good then the spoyling and breaking the spirits of their subjects nor no greater mischiefe then common Freedome neither ought they to promote and cherish any servants but such as are most fit for rapine and oppression nor depresse and prosecute any as Enemies but such as are gracious with the populacy for noble and gallant acts And a little after His Dignity was erected to preserve the Commonalty the Commonalty was not created for his Service and that which is the end is farre more valuable in Nature and Policy then that which is the means Answer Still this Discourse runs upon elective Kingdoms As for those which have had other originalls here is a deep silence sâ—…is tu simulâ—…e â—…upressum quid hoc you can paint a Cypresse Tree but what is this to the purpose Let it be admitted that in such Monarchies the aime of the People is their own Protection Concord and Tranquillity Rulers are the Ministers of God for our good so on the other side Soveraigne Princes have their ends also who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milke thereof So there are mutuall ends and these ends on both sides are lawfull and good so long as they are consonant to the rules of Justice And though Prince and People doe principally intend their own respective good yet it were folly to imagine to atteine to such high ends of such consequence and concernment without the mixture of some Dangers Difficulties Troubles and Inconveniences as Saint Ambrose saith that since the fall of Adam thornes often grow without roses but no true roses without thorns we must take the rose with the thorn the one with the other in good part for better for worse fructus transit cum onere the benefit passeth with the burthen If we can purchase tranquillity which we intend with Obedience and Subjection which we must undergoe we have no cause to complain of the bargain It is a most wretched Government where one reall suffering is not compensated with ten benefits and blessings Again this publicke good of the people is to use your own phrase either singulorum or universorum publicke or private of particular Subjects or of the whole Common-wealth howsoever the actuall intentions of individuall Members of a Society may aime at the private yet when these two are inconsistent as sometimes it falls ouâ—… a good Governour must preferr the publick and particular Members must not grumble to suffer for the generall good of the Body Politick But you say the end is farr more honourable then the meanes and the Preservation of the Commonalty is the end of Regall Dignity True but this preservation must be understood sub modo according to Law which is not alterable at the discretion of humorous Men but with the concurrence both of King and Subjects Likewise this is to be understood where the ends are not mutuall as here they are the King for the People and the People for the King and where the end is not partiall but adaequate as this is not Lastly the end is more valuable how qua finis as it is the end in the intention of the efficient not alwayes in the nâ—…ture of the thing If the Observer had argued thus the publicke Tranquillity of King and People is the end of Government therefore more valuable hiâ—… inference had been good but as he argues now it is a meere Paralogisme which I will clear by some instances The Tutor is elected for the preservation of his Pupâ—…ll yet the Pupill qua talis is lesse honourable The Angells are Ministring Spirits for the good of Man-kinde are men therefore more honourable then Angells The Redemption of the World is the end of Christs Incarnation is the World therefore more excellent then Christ Whether the Observer cite Machiavell true or false I neither know nor regard Such a Character might fit Caesar Borgias a new Intruder but not King Charles who derives his Royalty from above an hundred Kingly Predecessors whom Malice itselfe cannot charge with one drop of guiltlesse Blood nor with the teare of an innocent such a Prince as Vespaâ—…ian of whom it is said that justis suppliciis illâ—…chrimavit ingemuit But I offer two issues to the Observer out of these words of Machiavell if he please to accept the challenge First that more Noble Worthies have been cruâ—…hed to nothing by the insolency of the People proportion for proportion then by the Power of Kings As in Athens for instance Socrates Aristides Themistocles Alcibiades and many more The Second that gallant and veruous Actioâ—…s doe not more often ingratiate men with the People then a rouling tongue a precipitate head vain glorious Profusion oily Insinuations feined Devotions Sufferings though deserved from Superiâ—…rs and above all opposition to the present Staâ—… So that he that is a Favorite to the King is ipso facto hated by the People or the major Part â—…nd to be sleighted by the Prince is frequently a reâ—…y way to be honoured by the People Iudas of â—…lilee was a great Favorite of the Commons how did he indeare
dictate so to him he might truely say that he was bound to doe it both by His Oath and his Office Yet his Grand-Father Edward the third revoked a Statute because it waâ—… prejudiciall to the rights of his Crown and was made without his free consent Observer That which results from hence is if our Kings receive all Royalty from the People and for the behoofe of the People and that by a speciall trust of safety and Liberty expresly by the people limited and by their own grants and Oaths ratified then â—…ur Kings cannot bâ—… said to have so inconditionate and high a propriety in all our Lifes Libertyes and Possessions or in any thing else to the Crown apperteining as we have in their dignity or in our selves and indeed if they had they were â—…ot born for the People but meerely for themselveâ—… neither were it lawfull or naturall for them to expose their Lifes and Fortunes for their Country as they have been bound hitherto to doe according to that of our Saviour Bonus Pastor ponit vitam pro oâ—…ibus Answer Ex his praemissis necessario sequitur collusio All your main Pillars are broken reeds and your Building must needs fall For our Kings doe not receive all Royalty from the People nor onely for the behoofe of the People but partly for the People partly for themselves and theirs and principally for Gods glory Those conditionate reservations and limitationâ—… which you fancy are but your own drowsy dreames neither doth His Majesties Charter nor can His Oath extend to any such fictitious privilege as you devise The propriety which His Majesty hath in our Lifes Libertyes and Estates is of publicke Dominion not of private Possession His interest in things apperteining to the Crown is both of Dominion and Possâ—…ssion the right which we have in him is not a right of Dominion over him but a right of Protection from him and under him and this very right of Protection which he owes to us and we may expect from him shews clearely that he is born in 〈◊〉 for his People and is a sufficient ground for him to expose his Life and Fortunes to the extremest perills for his Country The Authours inference that it is not lawfull or naturall according to these grounds is a silly and ridiculous collection not unlike unto his similitude from the Shepheard whom all men know to have an absolute and inconditionate Dominion over his Sheep yet is he bound to expose his Life for them Observer But now of Parliaments Parliaments have the same efficient cause as Monarchies if not higher For in truth the whole Kingdome is not so properly the Authour as the essence it selfe of Parliaments and by the former Rule it is magis tale because we see ipsum quid quod efficit tale And it is I think beyond all Controversy that God and the Law operate as the same causes both in Kings and Parliaments for God favours both and the Law establishes both and the act of Men still concurres in the sustentation of both And not to stay longer on this Parliaments have also the same finall â—…use as Monarchyes if not greater for indeed publicke Safety and Liberty could not be so effectually provided for by Monarchs till Parliaments were constituted for supplying of all defects in that Government Answer The Observer having shewed his teeth to Monarchs now he comes to fawn upon Parliaments the Italians have a proverbe He that speakes me fairer then he useth to doe either hath deceived me or he would deceive me Queen Elizabeth is now a Saint with our Schismaticall Mar-Prelates but when she was alive those rayling Rabshekehs did match her with Ahab and Ieroboam now their tongues are silver Trumpets to sound out the praises of Parliaments it is not long since they reviled them as fast calling them Courts without Conscience or Equity God blesse Parliaments and grant they may doe nothing unworthy of themselves or of their name which was Senatus Sapientum The commendation of bad men was the just ground of a wise mans fear But let us examine the parculars Parliaments you say have the same efficient cause as Monarchyes if not higher it seemes you are not resolved whether Higher How should that be unlesse you have devised some Hierarchy of Angells in Heaven to overtoppe God as you have found out a Court Paramount over his Vicegerent in Earth But you build upon your old sandy Foundation that all Kings derive their power from the People I must once more tell you the Monarchy of this Kingdome is not from the People as the efficient but from the King of Kings The onely Argument which I have seen pressed with any shew of probability which yet the Observer hath not met with is this That upon deficiency of the Royall Line the Dominion escheats to the People as the Lord Paramount A meere mistake they might even as well say that because the Wife upon the death of her Husband is loosed from her former obligation and is free either to continue a Widdow or to elect a new Husband that therefore her Husband in his Life time did derive his Dominion from Her and that by his Death Dominion did escheat to Her as to the Lady Paramount yet if all this were admitted it proves but a respective Equallity Yes you adde that the Parliament is the very essence of the Kingdome that is to say the cause of the King and therefore by your Lesbian Rule of quod efficit tale it is in it selfe more worthy and more powerfull Though the Rule be nothing to the purpose yet I will admit it and joyne issue with the Observer whether the King or the Parliament be the cause of the other let that be more worthy That the King is the cause of the Parliament is as evident as the Noon-day light He calls them He dissolves them they are His Councell by virtue of His writ they doe otherwise they cannot sit That the Parliament should be the cause of the King is as impossible as it is for Shem to be Noahs Father How many Kings in the World have never known Parliament neither the name nor the thing Thus the Observer In the infancy of the World most Nations did choose rather to submit themselves to the discretion of their Lords then to relye upon any Limits And litle after yet long it was ere the bounds and conditions of Supreme Lords were so wisely determined 〈◊〉 quietly conserved as now they are It is apparent then Kings were before Parliaments even in time Ouâ—… Freâ—…ch Authours doe affirme that their Kingdomâ—… was governed for many Ages by Kings without Parliaments happily and prosperously Phillip the fairâ—… was the first Erecter of their Parliaments of Paris and Mountpelliers As for ours in England will you heaâ—… Master Stow our Annalist thus he in the sixteenth of Henry the first in the name of our Historiographers not as his own private opinion This doe theâ—… Historiographers
present and posteriour consent is not â—…cessary to His Majesty for the excercise of any â—…anch of that Imperiall power which by Law or â—…wfull custome is annexed to his Crown And â—…erefore Edward the first his Summons ad tractandum â—…dinandum faciendum which is the same in effect â—…ith all summons since will doe your cause no good 〈◊〉 the world unlesse you may have leave to doe as â—…e Devill did with Christ leave out in viis tuis 〈◊〉 you may put out in quibus dam and thrust in place â—…ereof in omnibus as you doe in the next page In â—…ll things perteining to the People Leave these friâ—…olous these false suggestions your own-Conscience â—…nnot but tell you that reddendo singula singulis in â—…omethings the Houses of Parliament have power â—…o consent in somethings to order in somethings to â—…ct but in all things they have neither power to act â—…or order nor consent and that will appear by your â—…ext Section Observer It is true we find in the Raigne of Edward the third that the Commons did desire that they might forbear counselling in things de queux ils nount pâ—…s cognizance the matters in debate were concerning some intestine commotions the guarding of the Marches of Scotland and the Seas and therein they renounce not their right of consent they onely excuse themselves in point of counsell referring it rather to the King and his Councell How this shall derogate from Parliaments either in poiâ—… of consent or counsell I doe not know for at last thâ—… they did give both and the King would not be satisfieâ—… without them And the passage evinces no more but this that the King was very wise warlike had a very wisâ—… Councell of Warre so that in those particulars the Commons thought them most fit to be consulted as perhaps the more knowing men Answer This is the first time that the Observer is pleased to honour his adverse Party with the mention of one Objection and that with so ill successe that he cannot unty the knot again with all his teeth I will put it into form for him thus That which the Parliament in the raigne of Edward the third had not that no succeeding Parliament hath but that Parliament had no universall cognizance Therefore the same Rule holds in this and all other Parliaments The Proposition is infallibly true grounded upon an undeniable Maxime that quod competit tali qua tali competit omni tali that which is true of one Parliament not by accident but essentially as it is a Parliament must of necessity be true of every Parliament The Assumtion is as evident confessed by the Parliament itselfe who best knew the extent of their own power that there was somethings of which ils nount pas cognizance they had no cognizance And if we will believe the Observer these things which did not belong to their cognizancâ—… were the appeasing some intestine or Civill Commotions and the guarding of the Seas and Marches why these are the very case now in question concerning the Militia And doth a Parliament here confesse that they have no cognizance of these yes what saith the Observer to this he saith they doe not renounce their right but onely excuse themselves in point of Counsell Most absurdly as if there were either consent or counsell without cognizance But he saith they did give both consent and counsell and the King could not be satisfied without them It may be so but there is a vast difference between giving counsell when the King licenseth yea and requireth it and intruding into Counsell without calling between an approbative consent such as the Saints give to God Almighty the onely Authoritative Judge of Heaven and Earth and an active consent without which the Kings hands should be so tied that he could do just nothing The former all good Kings doe desire so farre as the exigence of the service will give way to have their Counsells communicated But the latter makes a great King a Cipher and transformes an Emperour into a Christmasse Lord. You tell us that King had a very wise Councell of Warre and perhaps more knowing in these things then the Commons It were strange if they should not be so if the Commons who are Srangers to the affaires ingagements of State should understand them better then those who have served sundry Apprentiships in that way qui pauca considerat facile pronunciat he that knows not or regards not the circumstances gives sentence easily but for the most part is mistaken Ignorance of the true state of things begets Iealousies and Feâ—…es where there are no Dangers and confidence whâ—…e the Perill is nearest It makes a field of thistles 〈◊〉 Army of pikes and an Army of pikes a field of thiâ—…les Let old States-Men sitte at the Helme still aâ—… steere the Ship of the Common-wealth The Coâ—…ons are the best Councell in the World for redreâ—…ng of grievances for making of new Lawes for â—…inteining the publike interest of the Kingdome abâ—…d and private interest of the Subject at home â—…et this be their Worke and their Honour Observer Now upon a dâ—… comparing of these passages with some of the Kings laâ—…e papers let the World judge whether Parliaments have â—…ot been of late much lesned and injured The King in one of his late Answers alledgeâ—… that his Writs may teach the Lords and Commons the extent of their Commission and Trust which is to be Counsellours not Commanders and that not in all things but in quibusdam arduis and the case of Wentworth is cited who was by Qâ—…een Elizabeth committed sitting the Parliament for proposing that they might advise the Queen in some things which she thought beyond their cognizance although Wentworth wâ—…s then of the House of Commons And in other places the King denyes the Assembly of the Lords Commons to be rightly named a Parliament or to have any power of any Court and consequently to be any thing but a meer convention of private Men. Many things are here assâ—…rted utterly destructive to the Honour Right and being of Parliaments For first because the Law hath trusted the King with a Prerogative to discontinus Parliaments c. Answer Having laid these former groundâ—… the Observer proceeds to some exceptions against some passages in his Majestyes Papers that 's his phrase as if they were old Almanacks out of date fit for nothing but to cover Mustard pots metuentia carmina scombros aut thus His first exception is that His Majesty is trusted by the Law which the Observer calls now a formallity of Law with a Prerogative to discontinue Parliaments leaving no remedy to the People in such a case which he saith is destructive to the Honour Right â—…nd being of Parliaments and may yet be mischiâ—…vous in the future dissolution of them and make our Trienniall Parliaments of litle service if it be not exploded now What is this to the Observers grounds or His Majestyes Declaration
This is rather an exception against the Law it selfe then the King So the Observer and his pewfellowes deal with Laws and Law-makers if they make for them suscipiunt ut Aquilas they admire them as Eagles if they make against them despiciâ—…nt ut graculos they despise them as Dawes the Fundamentall Constitutions of the Kingdome must be streight exploded the Law is become a Formallity Are you in earnest Sir that this is destructive to Parliaments you might have said more truely the productive cause of all Parliaments that ever were in England or of any Assembly that had an Analogy with Parliaments I tooke you only for a Reformer of some abuses newly crept in but it is plain you intend to be another Licurgus to alter the whole frame of Government Truely Sir you beginne very high and jumpe over the backs of a great many Generations at once Doubtlesse you are either very wise or have a great opinion of your owne Wisdome But to the point It is confessed that sometimes some evills doe flow from inconsiderate trust but many more from needlesse Jealousy incommoda non solvunt Regulam Inconveniences doe not abrogate a Law Restraint commonly makes pâ—…ssion more violent When you have done what you can there must be a trust either reposed in one or many and better in one then many Doe but looke home a little without trust a Man knows not his owne Father without trust a man knowes not his own Children Some trust there must be and who fitter to be trusted then he that hath the Supremacy of power unlesse you will make two Supremes You confesse that Parliaments ought to be used as Phisick not as constant Diet. And the Law hath â—…ow set down a faire terme for the continuance of an ordinary Parliament unlesse you would be continually in a course of Phisick The second exception is His Majesty declares that the Parliament hath no universall power to advise in all things but in quibusdam arduis according to the Writ and cites the president of Wentworth a Member of the House of Commons committed by Queen Elizabeth the Parliament sitting for proposing to advise Her in a matter She thought they had nothing to doe with The Observer magnifies Queen Elizabeth for Her Goodnesse and Clemency but withall he addes But we must not be presidented in apparent violation of Law by Queen Elizabeth A grave Historiographer tells us of a close and dangerous kind of Enemies tacitum inimicorum genus such as make a mans praises an introduction to their venemous invectives as if it were not malice but pure love of truth that even forced them to speak so much such an one is a good Man but c. So Queen Elizabeth was a good Queen but in this particular she played the Tyrant To violate Laws to violate them apparently therefore wilfully to have no respect to the House of Commons whereof Wentworth was a Member was no signe of Grace and Clemency Certainly Queen Elizabeth a wise and mercifull Princesse one that so much courted Her People would not have done it but that She thought She had just grounds or if She might erre in her judgement yet She had as wise a Councell as any Prince in Europe and a businesse of this consequence could not be done without their advice who doubtlesse were some of them Members of the same House or if both She and they should be mistaken yet why were the House of Commons themselves silent whilest such a known Privilege was apparently invaded why did they not at least in an humble Petition represent this apparent violation of their Libertyes that it might remaine as a memoriall to plead for them to Posterity that they were not the betrayers of the Rights of Parliaments She that was so gracious as he Observer acknowledgeth and whose goodnesse was so perfect and undissembled could not choose but take it well and thanke them for it Neither will it suffice to say She gained upon them by Courtesy such an apparent violation so prejudiciall to the Highest Court of the Kingdome passed over in deep silence shews as litle Courtesy on the one side as Discretion on the other In brief as I cannot conceive that these words in quibusdam arduis are so restrictive that the House may consult of nothing but what shall be proposed or was intended at the time of the Summons so on the other side I doe not see how either the Commission or Prescription doe give them such an universall Cognizance or Jurisdiction Queen Elizabeth declared Herselfe oftner then once in this point in Her first Parliament when in reason She should be most tender to the Speaker and the Body of the House of Commons out of their Loves humbly moving Her to Marriage She answered that She tooke it well because it was without limitation of Place or Person if it had been otherwise She must needs have misliked it and thought it a great presumption for those to take upon them to bind and limit whose duties were to obey The third exception is the King saith they must meerely counsell and not command a strange charge if you marke it For it is impossible that the same trust should be irrevocably committed to the King and His Heires for ever and yet that very trust and a power above that trust be committed to others The Observer answers first little to the purpose that though there cannot be two Supremes yet the King is universis minor lesse thâ—n the collective Body of His Subjects as we see in all conditionate Princes such as the Prince of Orenge c. His Maxime that the King is singulis Major univerversis Minor except the King himselfe be included in the universi hath been shaken in pieces before The Law is plain The Kings Most Royall Majesty of meer droit very Right is very Head King Lord and Ruler of this Realm And doth he now intend to include the King of England in his c. among condionate Princes Take heed Sir this will prove a worse c. then that in the late Canons Secondly he answers that though the Kings power be irrevocable yet it is not universall the people have reserved something to themselves out of Parliament and something in Parliament It were to be wished that he would distinctly set down the particular reservations a deceitfull Man walkes in Generallityes Still the Observer dreams of Elective Kingdoms where the people have made choise either of a Person or a Family To us it is nothing they that give nothing can reserve nothing Trusted and yet reserved How the Observer joynes Gryphins and Horses together if trusted how reserved if reserved how trusted but how doth the Observer prove either his trust or reservation nay it is a tacite trust in good time so he proves his intention by a Company of dumbe witnesses In conclusion his proofe is that it is a part of the Law of Nature A trimme Law of Nature indeed which
is Diametrally opposite to the Law of God and of Nations The Observer deales in this just as if he had a Kinsman died testate and he should sue for a part of his goods and neither allege the Will nor Codicill not Custome of the Country but the Law of Nature onely for a Legacy Next the Observer raiseth a new Argument out of His Majestyes words A temporary Power ought not to be greater then that which is lasting This is first to make Draggons and then to kill them or as Boyes first make bubbles in a shell and then blow them away without difficulty The Sinewes and Strength of His Majestyes Argument did lye in the words to Him and to His Heires and not in the word above but if he will put the word above to the tryall if he reduce it into right Form it is above his answer To give a power above His Majesty sufficient to censure His Majesty to a Body dissolvable at His Majestyes pleasure is absurd and ridiculous as if the King should delegate Judges to examine and sentence the Observers seditious passages in this Treatise and yet withall give power to the Observer to disjustice them at his pleasure in such a case he need not much fear the Sentence The Observer pleads two things in answer to his own shadow First that then the Romans had done unpolitickly to give greater power to a Temporary Dictator then to the ordinary Consulls Secondly that it was very prosperous to them sometimes to change the Form of Government neither alwayes living under circumscribed Consulls nor under uncircumsâ—…ibed Dictators We see what his Teeth water at he would have His Majesty a circumscribed Consull and gain an Arbitrary Dictatorian Power to himselfe and some other of his Friends But in the meane time he forgets himselfe very farre in his History for first the power of the Dictator and of the Consulls was â—…ot consistent together but the power of the King and the Parliament is consistent Secondly the change of Government was so farre from being prosperous â—…o the Romans that every change brought that State even to Deaths doore To instance onely in the exâ—…ulsion of their Kings as most to the purpose How â—…ear was that Citty to utter Ruine which owes its subsistence to the valour of a single Man Horatius Coâ—…les if he had not after an incredible manner held a whole Army play upon a Bridge they had payed for their new fanglednesse with the sacking of their Citty Thirdly the choosing of a Dictator was not a change of their Government but a branch of it a piece reserved for extremest perills their last Anchor and Refuge either against Forre in Enemyes or the Domestick Seditions of the Patricii and Plebei and is so farr from yeelding an Argument against Kings that in the judgement of that Politick Nation it shewes the advantage of Monarchy above all other Formes of Government The Observer still continues His Majestyes Objection To make the Parliament more then Counsellers is to make them His Commanders and Controllers To which he answers To consent is more then to counsell and yet not alwayes so much as to command for in inferiour Courts the Iudges are so Counsellours for the King that he may not countermand their judgement yet it were a harsh thing to say that therefore they are His Controllers much more in Parliament where the Lords and Commons represent the whole Kingdome If there were no other Arguments to prove the Superiority of Parliament above the other Courts then this that it represents the Kingdome as they doe the King it would get little advantage by it To consent is more then to counsell and yet not alwayes so much as to command True not alwayes but to couâ—…sell so â—…s the pâ—…ty counselled hath no Liberty left of dissenting is alwayes either as much as to command or more a man may command and goe without but here is onely advise and yet they must not goe without What a stirre is here about consent If he understâ—…nd consenâ—… in no other notion then Laws and lawfull Customes doe allow it is readily yeelded but makes nothing to his purpose One said of Aristotle that he writ waking but Plato dreaming The one had his eyes open and considered Men as they were indeed the other as he would have them to be but if ever Man writt dreaming it was this Observer his notes may serve rather for the Meridian of new England then old England and of Eutopia rather then them both He calls the Judges the Kings Counsellers as if they were not also his Delegates Deputies and Comissioners what they doe is in His name and His Act yet if they swerve from justice he may grant a review and call them to account for any misdemeanour by them committed in the excercise of their places and this either in Parliament or out of Parliament But the inference hence That because the Parliament may take an account of what is done by His Majesty in His inferiour Courts therefore much more of what is done by him without the Authority of any Court seemes very weake It is one thing to take an account of Himselfe another to take an account of His Commissioners His Majesty hath communicated a part of his judiciary power to his Judges but â—…ot the Flowers of his Crown nor his intire preroâ—…ative whereof this is a principall 〈◊〉 to be free from all account in point of â—…ustice except to Goâ—… and His own Conscience The last exception is That the King makes the Parliament without his consent A livelesse convention without all virtue and power saying that the very name of Parliament is not duâ—… unto them Which Allegation saith the Observer at one blow confounds all Parliaments and subjects us to as unbounden a Regiment of the Kings meere Will as any Nation under Heaven ever suffered under For by the same Reason that the Kings dissertion of them makes Parliaments virtuelesse and void Courts He may make other Courts voide likewise Here is a great cry for a little Wooll if he proves not what he aimes at yet one thing he proves sufficiently that himselfe is one of the greatest Calumniators in the World in such grosse manner â—…o slander the Footsteps of Gods Anointed Agnosâ—…as primogenitum Sathanae Where did ever the King say that Parliaments without his presence are virtuelesse and void Courts but he denieth them the name of Parliaments which is all one yes if a Goose and a Feather be all one The name Parliament with us signifies most properly the Parâ—…y of the King and his People in a secondary sense it signifies a Parly of the Subjects among themselves neither of these virtuelesse but the one more vigorous then the other So the Body is sometimes contradistinguished to the Soule and includes both Head and Members sometimes it is contradistinguished to the Head and includes the Members onely It is one thing to be 〈◊〉 True Parliament and another to be
Government both in Church and State and subject both King and People to their own Arbitrary power and Government a little of this Logick is better then a great deale of Rethorick as the case now stands If the King will please now to publish the particular Crimes of such as he hath formerly impeached of Treason and the particular names of suâ—…h as now he sets forth in those characters will therein referre himselfe to the strength of his proofes and evidences of his matter it is impossible that any jealousie can cloud his integrity or check his power any longer Et eadem pagina By the performance of this promise he shall not onely do right to himselfe but also to the whole Kingdom for the distracted Multitude being at last by this meanes undeceived shall prostrate themselves and all their power presently at his feete Answer There is no dealing with the Observer without a Notary publick and good store of Witnesses The King sayes So he the Contrivers of the Declaration say so the King It is nothing to mistake an objection for a position but it is something more to thrust in Cabinet Counsellers Bishops and Souldiers though I suppose never an one of these will love their Profession the worse for a dash of his Tongue or Pen. Are there none for the King but those whom he terms in disgrace Cabinet â—…ouncellers Bishops Souldiers he will find many as eminent for piety virtue wisdome Courage Nobility Estate as our Brittish World affords such as want no Titles no meanes that the condition of a Subject is capable of or if they did need not make use of such oyly wayes to flippe into preâ—…erment Admit some few have raised themselves by sinister courseâ—… what are they in comparison of such a cloud of worthies but as the gleanings to the vintage Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto He saith he can name Dukes and Earles and â—…ords and Knights if he can let him look where he finds them now they that can serve the time dextrouâ—…y will apply themselves to one as well as another I â—…m not so wilfully blind as not to see that some have â—…gratiated themselves by dissembled goodnesse or â—…y such services as are not warrantable by Law though â—…hen they were justified by the Professors of the â—…aw much lesse am I so childishly credulouâ—… to beâ—…eve all those hideous Lyes which Envy or Selfeâ—…ve hath cast upon Favorites or publick Ministers of â—…tate Now to let us see he can shoot short as well â—…s over he tells us that he never heard that promotion â—…ame to any Man by serving in Parliament If he â—…d not it is because he hath stopped his ears 〈◊〉 his eyes when he looked that way otherwise â—…e might have seen both in this Parliament and forâ—…er Parliaments within forty yeares honours offiâ—…es and estates gained either by service in Parliaâ—…ent or disservice or both though I doe not love â—…o particularise as the Observer doth Some Mens advancements doe shew it is a good way to get preferment to put the King to a necessiâ—…y of granting Good Woodmen say that some have used Deaâ—…-stealing as an introduction to a Keepers place and I have seen a Non-Conformists mouth stopped with a good benefice as if he did but shew them before that if he were not satisfied he could â—…ape as wide as his Neighbours Next he makes it neare a prodigy a mistery above if not contrary to Nature that a few Hipocrites should beguile the Parliament or the Major part be mastered by a Septemvirate I will nor argue with the Observer utrum sit whether it be so my Reverence to the great Councell of the Kingdome pullâ—… me by the eare but utrum possit whether it may be so Then for the present we will change the Scene to Grece or Italy And I wonder why the Observer should think it so strange that few should have an influence upon many or that affections passions love hatred fear hope grief c. should betray Mens judgements Let him peruse all Historyes and take a view of all Free States and Senates as Rome Areopagus Delphos c. Consular Tribunitian Pretorian c. of all kinds and he shall find siding and faction and packing and conniving and an implicit dependence of many Followers upon few Leaders Hâ—… may be pleased to remember the bragge of an Athenian boy that his Father ruled all Athens his Mother ruled his Father and he ruled his Mother There are many Dames in the World that woulâ—… thinke much not to have as great an influence eitheâ—… upon their Husbands or the State as Madam Themistocles had Even say Sir doe you thinke that private quarrells and the memory of former sufferingâ—… did never worke upon any Man That discontenâ—… and envy at other Mens preferment whom theâ—… conceived to be lâ—…se deserving then themselves diâ—… never transport some others further then the bias oâ—… judgement did draw them That fear of the lasâ—… and a desire to seâ—…re themselves hath never force any men to personate a part from the teeth outwards That great Offices and Honours have never been apearle in any Mens eyes to hinder their sight though like Lapwings they made least noise when they were nearest their nests That others have never been like organ pipes to whom the wind of popular applause hath onely given a sound Is it never possible for a party who have premeditated their parts and before their designe be discovered to exclude or vote out those whom they conceive to be their opposites upon some pretences or others suppose of an unlawfull election or being Monopolists or the like I say nothing of the bewitching power of Oratory nor of that sheepish Humour of following the Drove nor of the vehement impression that fancyed dangers make in some men as of him that died in an innocent Bath when the By-standers onely told him that his hearts blood was comming out now But you may say these will never hold on to the journyes end Though we often see that when Men are too farr ingaged have passed the Waters of Rubicon and cannot retire with safety they grow desperate and run head long upon the mouth of the Cannon yet considering the gracious disposition of our Dread Soveraigne whose joy it is as it was his Saviours to find the sheep that was lost I doe verily believe they will not hold on to the last indeed why should they lose themselve to be laught at for their labours by them that had other ends then they But yet till this departure be they make one body visibly When the Body naturall is infested with contrary distempers that which is used as a good cure â—…or the one may be poyson to the other So in the Body Politick they who are aptly chosen for the â—…emedy of one Grievance suppose the violation of Liberty may be most unfit and never would have bâ—…en chosen for the settlement of Religion In summe
Thomas Moore then Speaker for the House of Commons made in his Oration to King Henry the eight which I thinke hath been observed by all Speakers that ever were since That if in communication or reasoning any Man in thâ—… Commons House should speake more largely then of duty they ought to doe that all such offences should be pardoned Secondly these Privileges ought not to be destructive to the essence or Fundamentall Ends or righâ—… Constitution of Parliaments and such a Privilege iâ—… that the Observer claimes to be denyed nothing For whereas our Parliament is so sweetly tempered anâ—… composed of all estates to secure this Nation from the evills which are incident to all Formes of Government he that shall quite take His Majestyes negative voice away secures us from Tyranny but leaves us open and starke naked to all those popular evilâ—… or Epidemicall diseases which flow from Ochlocracy as Tumults Seditions Civill Warres and that Ilias of Evills which attends them and seemes to reduce the King be it spoken with reverence to the â—…ase of the old Woman in the Epigrammatist when she had coughed out her two last teeth Iam libere possis totis tussire diebus Nil isthic quod agat tertia tussis habet From hence appeares a ready answer to that question so often moved what great virtue is in the Kings single vote to avert evills from us that an ordinance of both Houses may not be binding to the whole Kingdom without His consent The case is plain it is of no great virtue against the evills of Tyranny but is a Soveraigne Remedy against the greater Mischiefes which flow from Ochlocracy and I trust God will ever preserve it to us Thirdly these Privileges must not transcend the condition or capacity of Subjects by making destructive reservations or so as to deck the Temples of inferiour Persons with the flowers of the Crowne Such a Privilege seemes this to be which the Observer here claimes a Dictatorian Immunity from all question to owe no account but to God and their own Consciences and yet by this new Learning they may take an account of the King What is this but to make Kings of Subjects and Subjects of Kings When some Ancients more skilfull in Theology then in Philosophy or Geography did heare of the Antipodes they reasoned against it as they thought strongly that then there were pensiles homines and pensiles arbores men that did goe with their heads downwards and Trees that did grow with their tops downwards they forgot that Heaven is still above and the Center below but what they did but imagine the Observer really laboureth to introduce to make whole Kingdomes to walke with their Heads downwards and their heeles upwards Fourthly the just measure or standard whereby all Privileges ought to be examined and tryed is not now the Law of Nature which is applyable though not equally to all Formes of Government this were to put the shoe of Hercules upon an Infants foote The Law of Nature may be limited though not contraried by the known Laws and Customs of this Realme as they shall appear by Charters Statutes Presidents Rolls Records Witnesses His Majesty cites a confession of the Parliament it selfe to prove that their Privileges extend not to the cases of Treason Felony or breach of Peace which heretofore hath been the common beliefe of all Men. And it seemes no satisctory Answer to say that therefore they extend not to these Cases because the Houses do usually give way in these cases for them to come to tryall either in Parliament if it be proper or otherwise in other Courts For it is a great doubt how a Commoner in case of Treason can be tryed in Parliament per pares by his Peeres and if it be in their own power to give way or not to give way the Privilege extends to these cases as well as others The case being thus why doe we quarrell one with another why doe noâ—… we all repair to the common Standard that is the Law of the Land and crave the resolution or information of those that are Professors in that study This will determine the doubt without partialiâ—… or blood and he that refuseth it let him be accounted as one that desires not to uphold but subvert the Fundamentall Laws of the Land upon a supposition of Feares and such cases as never happened in the World Now it appeares how the former objection is not applicable to the case in question where the Partyes are Commoners and ought to be tryed by their Peers where His Sacred Majesty is the Informer where the crimes are specified where a speedy tryall according to the known Law is desired where the Partyes themselves out of a love to their Country out of a care to prevent the effusion of Christian and of English blood out of a desire to vindicate their own reputations should themselves become Suiters for a lawfull hearing that they might not still suffer under such a heavy charge at which tryall they may legally plead the Privilege of Parliament if there be any such Lâ—…wfull Privilege Observer But let us consider the Lords and Commons as meer Counsellers without any power or right of counsailing or consenting yet we shall see if they be not lesse knowing and faithfull then other Men they ought not to be deserted unlesse we will allow that the King may choose whether he will admit of any Counsell at all or no in the disposing of our Lives Lands and Libertyes But the King sayes that He is not bound to renounce His owne understanding or to contradict His own Conscience for any Counsellers sâ—…ke whatsoever T is granted in things visible and certain That Iudge which is a sole Iudge and has competent power to see his own judgement executed ought not to determine against the light of nature or evidence of fact The Sin of Pilaâ—…e was that when he might have saved our Saviour from an unjust Death yet upon accusations contradictory in themselves contrary to sâ—…range Revelations from Heaven he would suffer innocence to fall and passe sentence of Death meerely to satisfie a blood-thirsâ—…y Multitude But otherwise it was in my Lord of 〈◊〉 case for the King was not sole Iudge nay He wâ—…s uncapaâ—…le oâ—… sitting Iudge at all c. And therefoâ—…e the King might therein with a clear Conscience have signed a Warrant for his Death though He had dissented from the judgement So if one Iudge on the same Bench dissent from three or one Iuror at the Barre from eleven they may submitt to the major number though perhaps lesse skilfull then themselves without imputation of guilt and if it be thus in matters of Law a fortiori t is so in matters of State where the very satisfying of a Multitude sometimes in things not otherwise expedient may prove not only expedient but necessary for the setling of Peace and ceasing of strife c. Where the People by publick Authority will seek any inconvenience
and Arragon and that this should be assented to by the Observers advise would not the present or succeeding Ages give him many a black blessing for his labour God helpe the Man so wrapt in errors endlesse traine First to say that the People mâ—…y seek to obtein â—…heir desires of the Prince by publick Authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too Mâ—…gistrall or flâ—…t no 〈◊〉 a pâ—…rase inuâ—… to English eares Heary the sixt wâ—…s noâ—… Fyâ—…ht nor awefull Soverâ—…igne 〈◊〉 when thâ—… 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 presented a just reqâ—…st unto 〈◊〉 â—…ey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kâ—…ling upon their knee no siâ—… of Authorâ—…y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly the King oâ—…es a strict 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God of his Government and is bouâ—…d by his Ofâ—…ce to promote the good of His 〈◊〉 To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aâ—… 〈◊〉 may be impeditive to this end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…isfaction of an humorous 〈◊〉 is noâ—… 〈◊〉 with this Obligation Thirdly His Mâ—…jesty conâ—…eive the thing now desired to be moâ—…e then a â—…ple 〈◊〉 single inconvenience that â—…selfe is deeply inteâ—…essed in it and not himselfe onely but his 〈◊〉 and all succeeding Kings and that it is not the desire of all His Subjects not yeâ—… of the greater â—…art much lesse of the sounder â—…art who 〈◊〉 it and therefore even upon the Observers grounds 〈◊〉 is â—…ot bound to give his assent Observer So much for the ends of 〈◊〉 Power I come now to the true Nature of it publick Conâ—…nt c. Answer We had done with Consent before but now we meeâ—… with it again such Windings and Meaâ—…ders there aâ—… in this Treatise But though Consent be like the titlâ—… set upon the outside of an Apothecaryes box yet iâ—… we look into the subsequent Discourse we shall find little or nothing of it The Observer tells us a long stâ—…ry that after the fall of Adam the Law written 〈◊〉 Mans brest was not sufficient to make him a sociaâ—… ble Creature that without Society Men could 〈◊〉 live and without Laws Men could not be sociablâ—… that without Magistrâ—…tes Law was a voide and vaâ—… thing it was therefore quickly provided that Lawâ—… agâ—…ble to the Dictates of Reason should be ratâ—…fied by common consent and that the execution aâ—… interpretation of those Laws should be intrusted 〈◊〉 some Magistrate To all which I readily assenâ—… witâ—… this animadversion that the rule is not catâ—… pantos or universally true Aâ—… for the order of Lawâ—… or Magistrateâ—… it is confessed on the one side thaâ—… sometimes the People did choose their Magistratâ—… and Law both together and sometime the Law before the Magistrate especially upon the extinctioâ—… of a Royall Family but oâ—…â—…he other side it cannoâ—… be denyed that many times very many times Magisâ—…es did either assume Soveraignty by just Conâ—… oâ—… were absoluâ—…ely elected without any sucâ—… restriction So much the Observer coâ—…fesseth a liâ—… after that in the infancy of the World most Nationâ—… did choose rather to submit themselves to the meere disdiscretion of their Lords then rely upon any limits and be ruled by Arbitrary Edicts rather then written Statutes In which case it is plaine that the Law is posteriour to the King both in order of Nature and of Time The Observer proceeds to shew That intrusted Magistrates did sometimes tyrannize over their People that it was difficult to invent a Remedy for this mischief First because it was held unnaturall to place a Superiour above a Supreme Secondly because the restraint of Princes from doing evill by diminuâ—…ion of Soveraigne Power doth disable them also from doing good which may be as mischievous as the other That the World was long troubled between these extremityes That most Nations did choose absolute Governours That others placed Supervisors over their Princes Ephori Tribuni Curatores which remedy the Observer confesseth to have proved worse then the disease and that the issue of it commonly was to imbroile the State in blood That in all great distresses the Body of the People was constreined to rise and by the force of a Major party to put an end to all intestine Strifes That this way was too slow to prevent suddain Mischiefes That it produced much spoile and effusion of blood often exchanging one Tyranny for another That at last a way was found out to regulate the moliminous Body of the People by Parliament where the People may assume their own power to doe themselves Right where by virtue of Election and Representation a few act for many the wise for the simple That the Parliament is more regularly formed now then when it was cal-called the Mickle Synod or where the reall Body of the People did throng together That the Parliament yet perhaps labours with some defects that might be amended that there are yet some differences and difficultyes concerning it especially the Privileges of it which would be resolved This is the summe of his Discourse here and a little after in the 21. page and the three pages following he falls into a needlesse commendation of the Constitution of Parliaments of their Wisdome and Justice how void they are of danger how full of advantage to the King and People how Princes may have sinister ends but that it was never till this Parliament withstooâ—… that a Community can have no private ends to misleaâ—… it In all which there are not many things to be mucâ—… misliked saving some results of his former false anâ—… seditious Principles as that the People are the Primogenious Subject of Power that the essentiall anâ—… representative Body of the Kingdome are all oneâ—… he might as well say that a whole County and 〈◊〉 Grand Jury are convertible terms To place a Superiour above a Supreme is monstrous and opens 〈◊〉 ready way to an infinite progresse which both Aâ—… and Nature abhorre I joyne with him in this thaâ—… to limit a Prince too far is often the cause oâ—… much mischief to a State But the Observer havinâ—… given a good meale casts it down with his Foot foâ—… after in the 40 page he tels us that the People had better want some right then have too much wrong done them It may be so it may be otherwise but ordinarilâ—… the sufferings of one year in a time of Sedition aâ—… more burthensome to the Subject then the pressures they sustein from a hard Soveraigne in a whole Age. A limited Commission may now and then bring ease to a Society but an unsufficient Protection exposeth them to an hundred hazards and blowes from Superiours Inferiours Equalls Forreiners Domesticks The Observer would have such a Prerogative as hath great power of Protection and little of oppression Can you blame him he would have his fire able to warm him but not accidentally to burn him Protection is the use oppression the abuse of power To take away power for fear of the abuse is with Lycurgus to cut down all the vines of Sparta roote and branch for fear of Drunkennesse By the same reason he will leave neither a Sunne in Heaven nor any Creature
of eminency on Earth If he will have no Bees but such as have no stings he may catch Drones and want his honny for his labour To limit Princes too farr is as if a Man should cut his Hawkes â—…ings that she might not fly away from him so he may be sure she shall never make a good flight for â—…im Saint Bernard tells us a Story of a King who â—…eing wounded with an arrow the Chirurgeons deâ—…ired Liberty to bind him because the lightest moâ—…ion might procure his Death his answer was non â—…ecet vinciri Regem it is not meet that a King should â—…e bound and the Father concludes Libera sit Regis semper salva potestas In two particulars this third Cato is pleased to expresse himselfe he would have the disposition of great offices power of calling and dissolving Parliaments shared betwen the King and the People Yesthe great Offices of the Kingdome and the Revenues of the Church have been the great wheeles of the Clock which have set many little wheeles 〈◊〉 going doubt you not the Observer meant to lick 〈◊〉 own fingers These speculations might be seasonabâ—…e in the first framing of a Monarchy Now when a Power is invested in the Crown by Law and lawfulâ—… Custome they are sawcy and seditious Howsoever his bolt is soone shot He that is wise in his own eyes there is more hope of a Foole then of such a Man Otherâ—…â—…s much wiser then he is almost as he conceives himâ—…lfe to transcend them are absoluâ—…ely of another miâ—… that this were to open a sluce to Faction and Sediâ—…on to rolle the Apple of Contenâ—…ion up and down both Houses of Parliament and each County and Burrough in the Kingdom to make labouring for places packing for votes in a word to disunite and dissolve the contignation of this Kingdom This in Policy They say further that in Iustice If the King be bound by His Office and sworn by His Oath to cause Law Iustice and Discretion in mercy and truth to be executed to His People If he be accountable to God for the Misgovernment of his great Charge that it is all the reason in the World why he should choose his own Officers and Ministers Kings are shadowed by those brazen Pillars which Hiram made for Solomon having Chapiters upon their heads adorned with Chaines and Pomgranates If these Sonnes of Belial may strip Majesty by Degrees of its due Ornaments first of the chaines that is the power to punish evill Doers and then of the Pomegranates the ability to reward good deserts and so insensibly to robbe them of the dependence of their Subjects the next steppe is to strike the Chapiters or Crownes from of their heads But how can this be except all Parliaments were taken as deadly Enemyes to Royalty Still when the Observer comes to a piece of hot Service he makes sure to hold the Parliament before him which devise hath saved him many a blow They that are not haters of Kings may be Lovers of themselves We are all Children of Adam and Eve He would be a God and she a Goddesse His instance that this is no more then for the King to choose a Chancellour or a Treasurer upon the recommendation of such or such a Courtier is ridiculous there His Majesty is free to dissent here is a necessity imposed upon him to grant Yet saith he the Venetians live more happily under their conditionate Dukes then the Turks under their absolute Emperours The Trophees which Rome gained under conditionate Commanders argue that there could be no defect in this popular and mixt Government Our Neighbours in the Netherlands being to cope with the most puissant Prince in Christendom put themselves under the conduct of a much limited Generall which streigthned Commissions have yeelded nothing but victoryes to the States and solid honour to the Prince of Orange Were Hanniball Scipio c. the lesse honoured or beloved because they were not independent was Caesar the private Man lesse succesfull or lesse beloved then Caesar the perpetuall Dictator Whatsoever is more then this he calls the painted rayes of spurious Majesty and the filling of a phantasticall humour with imaginary grandour Whose heart doth not burn within him to heare such audacious expressions yet still he protests for Monarchy A fine Monarchy indeed a great and glorius Monarchy an Aristo-Democracy nicknamed Monarchy a circumscribed conditionate dependent Monarchy a Mock-Monarchy a Monarchy without coercive Power able to protect not to punish that is in effect neither to protect nor punish a Monarch subordinate to a Superiour and accountable to Subjects that may deny nothing a Monarchy in the Rights whereof another challengeth an interest Paramount Quorsum haec he is more blind then a Beetle that sees not whither all this tends To advance King Charles to the high and mighty Dignity of a Duke of Venice or a Roman Consull whilest this Gentleman might sit like one of the Tribunes of the Common People to be his Supervisor It were to be wished that the Observer would first make tryall of this modell of Government in his own House for a yeare or two and then tell us how he likes it That Form may fit the Citty of Venice that will not fit the Kingdome of England I beleeve he hath not carefully read over the History of that State Though now they injoy their Sun-shines and have their Lucida intervalla yet heretofore they have suffered as much misery from their own Civill and Intestine Dissentions as any People under Heaven and so have their Neighbour States of Genoah Florence c. And of Florence particularly it is remarkeable that though their Prince huâ—…band his Territory with as much advantage to himselfe and pressure to his People as any Prince in Europe yet they live ten times more happily now then they did before in a Republick when a bare legged Fellow out of the Scumme of the People could raise Tumults surprise the Senate and domineere more then two great Dukes so that now they are freer then when they did injoy those painted rayes of spurious Liberty If thâ—… Romans had not found a defect in their popular Government they had never fled to the choise of a Dictator or absolute Prince as a sacred Anchour in all their greatest extremityes And for the Netherlands it is one thing for a free People to elect their owne forme of Government another for a People obliged to shake off that Forme which they have elected It is yet but earely of the day to determine precisely whether they have done well or ill The danger of a Popular Government is Sedition a common Enemy hath hitherto kept them at unity and the King of Spaine hath been their best Friend Scipioes opinion that Carthage should not be destroyed was more solid and weighty then Catoes as experience plainly shewed Those Forrein Warres preserved Peace at home and were a Nursery of Souldiers to secure that State When the United
discover I would every Englishman had it ingraven in his forehead how he stands affected to the Commonwealth We Beetles did see no signes of civill Warre but all of Peace and Tranquillity but the Observer and his Confederates being privy to their own plots to introduce by the sword a new form of Government both into State and Church might easily foresee that they should stand in need of all the strength both in Hull and Hell and Hallifax to second them whereof yet all true Englishmen do acquit the Parliament in their hearts desires though the Observer be still at his old ward shuffling Sir Iohn Hotham out and the Parliament in so changing the state of the question But what weight that consideration hath follows in his next and last Allegation Sir John Hotham is to be looked on as the Actor the Parliament as the Author in holding Hull And therefore it is much wondred at that the King seems more violent against the Actor then the Author but through the Actor the Author must needs be pierced c. And if the Parliament be not virtually the whole Kingdome it selfe If it be not the Supreme Iudicature as well in matters of State is matters of Law If it be not the great Councell of the Kingdome as well as of the King to whom it belongeth by the consent of all Nations to provide in extraordinary cases Ne quid detrimenti capiat Respublica Let the brand of Treason stick upon it Nay if the Parliament would have used this forcible means unlesse petitioning would not have prevailed or if the grounds of their Iealousie were meerly vain or if the Iealousie of a whole Kingdome can be counted vain Let the reward of Treason be their guierdon Hitherto the Observer like the wily Fox hath used all his sleights to frustrate the pursuit of the Hounds but seeing all his fetches prove in vain he now begins to act the Catte and flyes to his one great helpe to leape up into a Tree that is the Authority of Parliament ut lapsu graviore ruat that he may catch a greater fall By the way the Observer forgets how the King is pierced through the sides of Malignant Counsellers Three things are principally here considerâ—…ble First whether Sir Iohn Hotham had any such Command or Commission from the Parliament Secondly if he had whether he ought to have produced it Thirdly supposing he both had it and produced it whether it be valid against His Majesty or whether an illegall Command do justifie a Rebellious Act. To the first of these I take it for granted That a Commission or an Ordinance for Sir Iohn to be a meer Governour of Hull doth not extend to the Exclusion of His Majesty ouâ—… of Hull nor Warrant Sir John to shut the Gares against His Soveraign if it did every Governour might do the same and subordinate Command might trample upon Supreme Neither can a posteriour approbation warrant a precedent excesse for this is not to authorise but to pardon the sole power whereof is acknowledged to be in His Majesty without any sharers To the first question therefore the answer is Sir John Hotham had no such Warrant or Commission from the Parliament He himselfe confessed That he had no positive or particular Order How should he know of His Majesties comming by instinct or a Propheticall Spirit A negative can not ought not to be proved the proofe rests whollyon Sir Johns side and can be no other then by producing the Ordinance it selfe or his instrument whereby he can receive the sense of the House from Westminster to Hull in an instant If he have not a precedent Ordinance to shew it is in vain to pretend the Authority of Parliament To the second question Admitting but not granting that he had such an Ordinance whether could it be availeable to him being not produced when it was called for and demanded so often by His Majesty De non apparentibus non existentibus eadem est ratio Whether there was no such Ordinance or no such Ordinance did appeare is all one both in Law and reason He that can reade and will not make use of his Clergy suffers justly He that hath a Warrant and will not produce it may cry Nemo laeditur nisi a seipso No Man is hurt but by himselfe A known Officer so long as he keeps himselfe within the sphere of his own activity is a Warrant of himselfe But he that it imployed extraordinarily or transcends the bounds of Common Power must produce his Authority or take what falls Sir John hath not yet gained so much credit that his ipse dixit his word should be a sufficient proofe or his Testimony in his own case taken for an Oracle Thirdly admitting that Sir John had such an Ordinance and likewise that he did produce it for if we admit neither he can prove neither yet the question is how valid this Ordinance may be as to this act I doubt not at all of the Power of Parliament that is a compleat Parliament where the King and both Houses doe concurre but an ordinance without the King against the King alters the case this may have the Authority of both Houses perhaps but not of a complete Parliament Secondly the Power of both Houses is great especially of the Lords as they are the Kings Great Councell and in that relation are the Supreme Judicature of the Kingdome but before the Observer said it I never thought the Commons did challenge any share of this Judicature except over their own Members or preparatory to the Lords or that they had power to administer an Oath which the Apostle saith is the end of all strife who ever knew any Judicature without power to give an Oath This makes the Observers new devise of the people meeting in their underived Majesty to doe justice a transparent fiction It is not the Commons but the Lords or the Kings Councell that challenge Supreme Judicature But take both Houses with that latitude of Power which they have either joyntly or severally yet His Majesty saith they have no power over the Militia of the Kingdome or over his Forts or Magazines he avoucheth for it the Common Law Statute Law Presidents Prescriptions we have not yet heard them answered nor so much as one instance since the beginning of this Monarchy given for a president of such an Ordinance or of any new Ordinance binding to the Kingdom without his Majestyes concurrence in Person or by Commission If the Observer have any Law or President or Case he may do well to produce it if he have none he may sit down hold his peace his remote inconsequent consequences drawn from the Law of Nature are neither true nor pertinent Yet I never heard that Sir Iohn did allege any authority from the House of the Lords but from the House of Commons onely This brings the Parliament still into a straiter roome as if it were totum homogeneum every part to
are so many grave Solid Lawyers no Body So many of the Loyall Commons no Body Sir you doe see and you will see dayly more That His Majesty is not single in His Course Lastly It is the part of good Counsellers to present their whole advise together what they desire to remove and what they desire to introduce as well what they desire to build up as what theâ—…â—…esire to pull down So the Observer himselfe pâ—…eth in another case Before we demolish old structures we ought to be advised of the fashion of new His Majesty hath required one intire full view of their demands that He might judge more perfectly what to assent to and what to advise further upon This is a sure way not to be over-reached not to cut down an old Tree before there be a new one ready to be planted in its place many Men will agree in the destructive which will never agree in the constructive part The old Senators first of Capua and after of Florence found this to be true by experience the People did not agree so well in taking them away but they disagreed ten times as much in the choise of new and they that were voted down whilest they looked upon them positively were voted to stand when they looked upon them comparatively they were not so worthy as they desired but much more worthy then those that should be subintroduced To instance in the case of the Church there are many Schismaticall Factions at this day never an one of these can have their own ends except the present government be taken away so farre they agree yet if it should be taken away not one of six should have his own ends here of necessity they must fall in pieces and in probability will cry out with the Capuans and the Florentines The old is the better of the two If every Mans single suffrage were ascertained to his proper object as it is in the election of our Knights and Burgesses we should soone see who would have most voices and perhaps the old in a free meeting might have more then all the new put together Observer But little need to be said I thinke every mans hearâ—… tells him that in publick Consultationâ—… the many eyes of so many choise Gentlemen of all parts see more then fewer Answer T is not sufficient for an adviser to see unlesse he can let another see by the light of Reason A Man ought not implicitly to ground his actions upon the authority of other Mens eyes whether many or few but of his own Many see more then few True caeteris paribus if all things be alike Or otherwise one Phisitian may see more into the state of a Mans Body then many Empericks one experienced Commander may know more in Military Affaires then ten Fresh-water Souldiers and one old States-Man in his own Element is worth many new Practitioners one Man upon an Hill may see more then an hundred in a Valley But yet if all things be alike you will say many eyes see more then one They doe so commonly but not alwayes one Paphnutius did see more in the Councell of Nice then many greater Clerks How often have you seen one or two Men in the Parliament change the Votes of the House certainly the Eyes of so many choise Gentlemen see the Grievances of the Kingdome better then any other Councell That is their proper object Observer And the great interest the Parliament has in common Iustice and tranquillity and the few private ends they can have to deprave them must needs render their Counsell more faithfull impartiall and religious then any other Answer The interest is the Kingdoms and each Subjects To be Parliament Men adds to their trust not to their interest The Observers grounds are presumptuous and tend onely to beget an implicit confidence what Mens private ends are is not known to us but to God above This we know that good ends cannot justifie bad meanes nor bad actions Men may have good ends and yet be led hoodwinked by others whose ends are worse and private ends will steal upon well affected Men. Discontent works strongly upon some vain glory upon others Delinquents may aime at their own impunity and timorous Persons at private Security But this is to be left to God that is the searcher of hearts Obsever That dislike which the Court has ever conceived against Parliaments without dispute is a pregnant proofe of the integrity and salubrity of publick advise and is no disparagement thereof for we have ever â—…ound Enmity and Antipathy betwixt the Court and the Country Answer If you make a strict survey of the Parliaments party I believe you will find as many Courtiers as Countrymen proportion for proportion To see the Revenues of the Crown be not diminished by needlesse profusion to see His Majesty be not prejudiced in the accounts of his Officers To take away Monopolyes and the like are the proper Workes of Parliaments and in probability cannot be so pleasing to some Courtiers but this is farre from a fancyed Omnipotence Here he falls into his old Complaint of the Peoples not adhering to the Parliament but we have had this Dish oft enough upon the Table Observer The King sayes T is improbable and impossible that His Cabinet Counsellers or His Bishops or Souldiers who must have so great a share in the misery should take such paines in the procuring thereof and spend so much time and run so many hazards to make themselves Slaves and to ruine the Freedome of this Nation How strange is this we have had almost forty yeares experience that the Courtway of preferment has been by doing publick ill offices and we can nominate what Dukes what Earles what Lords what Knights have been made great and rich by base disservices to the State and except Master Hollis his rich Widdow I never heard that promotion came to any man by serving in Parliament but I have heard of trouble and imprisonment but now see the traverse of Fortune the Court is now turned honest and there is no fear now but that a few Hipocrites in Parliament will beguile the Major part And pag. 23. The whole Kingdome is not to be mastered against consent by the traine Bands nor the Traine Bands by the Lords or Deputy Lieutenants nor they by the Major part in Parliament nor the Major part in Parliament by I know not what Septemvirat There is some mistery in this which seemes yet above if not contrary to nature but since the King hath promised to open it we will suspend our opinion and expect it as the finall issue of all our disputes And pag. 22. We are now at last fallen upon an issue fit to put an end to all other invectives whatsoever let us stick close to it The King promiseth very shortly a full and satisfactory narration of those few Persons in Parliament whose designe is and alwayes was to alter the whole frame of