F H Van Hove Sculpsit CAROLUS Secundus Dei Gratia Angliae Scotiae Franciae et Hiberniae Rex Fidei Defensor etc. HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE THE COMMON INTEREST OF KING and PEOPLE Shewing the Original Antiquity and Excellency OF MONARCHY Compared with Aristocracy and Democracy And particularly of Our English MONARCHY AND THAT Absolute Papal and Presbyterian Popular Supremacy Are utterly inconsistent with Prerogative Property and Liberty By JOHN NALSON LL. D. LONDON Printed for Jonathan Edwin at the Sign of the Three Roses in Ludgate-street 1677. TO THE READER IN this following Discourse I have endeavoured to pursue the Point I had before made an attempt upon in the Countermine without any other Passion or Design than a Loyal Zeal to my Prince and Country and a Conscientious Discharge of my Duty which because every person is in his station obliged to do will I hope render an Apology as unnecessary as it is disagreeable to Your most faithful Servant JOHN NALSON The CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE two great Principles of Nature Self-preservation and the Ardent desire of Happiness the Foundation of Society and Government Mr. Hobs refuted in his Impolitick Position That Fear was the first Origination of Society The Origine of Monarchy The occasion of the Primitive Wars The Original of Laws Monarchs or the first Leaders of Colonies the Primitive Legislators The reason of the Coercive power of Magistrates The Dangerous Error of those who make Law the Foundation of Monarchy when in truth all Laws were the Concessions of Kings and Legislators The Ill consequences of this mistake The Laws of Nature and Nations are of Divine Institution CHAP. II. Of the danger of Anarchy The necessity of Laws and Government to prevent it All People not fit for one kind of Government Of the three kinds of Government Democracy Aristocracy and Monarchy Some considerations and necessary Animadversions upon our late English Government by a Republick CHAP. III. The Government of a Republick examined whether in its own Nature so good for the Ends of Society as it is pretended The end of all Government the Happiness of the Society it consists in Protection Property and distributive Justice Democracy cannot in probability attain those Ends. It obliges the Supreme Magistrates to maintain a private separate Interest distinct from that of the Publick and the inconveniences that necessarily attend that imperfection Domestick Peace not secured by Democracy No security of Property or equal Distribution of Justice in a Republick in regard of the constant Factions which are inseparable from that form of Government CHAP. IV. Of Monarchy and its excellency proved from its Antiquity The first Essay to a Democracy the Rebellion of Corah and his Accomplices Secondly from the Universality of Monarchy The first popular State at Athens A. M. 3275. Thirdly Monarchy most agreeable to humane Nature by answering the three forementioned great Ends of Society and the Happiness of Mankind CHAP. V. Of the Excellency of the English Monarchy It is not apt to degenerate into Tyranny the King having by his gracious Concessions given Limits to his absolute Sovereignty Of the Interest which the three Estates have in preparing Bills for the Royal Assent to be by that past into Laws and the great obligation which thereby the People have to Subjection and Obedience CHAP. VI. Of the Priviledges of the English Government And first of the prerogative of the King The Imperial Crown of this Realm Hereditary Absolute and Independent The greatness of his power according to Laws The Kings person Sacred The priviledges of the People First in sending their Representatives to the Parliament Secondly in their Property secured Thirdly in the excellent and constant method of Justice In particular Priviledges and Franchises In all imaginable care to prevent the growth of the Poor and in providing for such as are so In committing the Execution of the Laws to such hands as will act with Justice And of the care that is taken to prevent all abuses of Laws CHAP. VII The great misfortune of Religion which is made the great pretence to ruine Monarchy A stratagem of the Devil to extirpate all true Religion The two opposites and enemies of Monarchy Papacy and Presbytery The opinion of the Catholick Doctors about Papal Supremacy and the new Roman Creed to confirm it Papal Supremacy devests the Prince of his absolute Sovereignty of his Legislative power and renders Monarchy insecure of Possession or Succession by bereaving it of the guard of Laws of the strength of Alliances of the Fidelity of their People Several Impolitick inconveniences which attend that Religion Papal Supremacy destructive of the peoples Liberty and Property CHAP. VIII Presbytery inconsistent with Monarchy proved from five of their Fundamental principles 1. That it is not the best form of Government 2. That the Right of Kings is not from God but the People 3. That Kings may be called in question for their Administration of the Government 4. That they may by the people be deposed 5. That they may be punished with Capital punishment CHAP. IX Presbytery in reality as great an enemy to Democracy and Parliaments as to Monarchy A short view of their Tyrannick Consistorian Government over the Magistracy Clergie and Laity Of the latitude and power of Scandal to draw all affairs into the Consistory Of their kindness to their Enemies The small difference betwixt a Jesuit and Geneva-Presbyter Both aim at Supremacy CHAP. X. Presbytery as destructive of the Peoples Liberty and Property as it is dangerous to Monarchy and all Government Some necessary Conclusions from the former Discourse Licensed Sept. 20. 1677. THE COMMON INTEREST OF KING and PEOPLE c. CHAP. I. The two great Principles of Nature Self-Preservation and The ardent Desire of Happiness the Foundation of Society and Government Mr. Hobs refuted in his impolitick Position That Fear gave the first Origination of Society The Origine of Monarchy The occasion of the Primitive Wars The Original of Laws Monarchs or the first Leaders of Colonies the Primitive Legislators The reason of the Executive and Coercive Power of Magistrates The dangerous Error of those who make Laws the Foundation of Monarchy whereas in Truth all Laws and Establishments were the Concessions and Sanctions of Kings and Law-givers The Ill consequences of this Mistake The Law of Nature and of Nations anâ— of Divine Institution AMONGST all those Principles of Nature which Mankind and indeed the greatest part of the Creation receive at the same Instant with their Being there are two which as they are the most Universal so they are of the greatest Necessity and most constant Use The two great Principles of Nature Self-preservation and the ardent Desire of Happiness the Foundation of Society and Government THE first is that of Self-preservation or an inseparable Desire to keep themselves in Being by the obtaining and enjoyment of all those things which contribute towards the continuance of it or which give them a
Love and not Fear one of another lest they should be separated and that they might have the glory of such a famous building together with the advantages of Society which were the Causes of their early Combination and Design Had they been jealous distrustful or fearful one of another that would naturally have made them separate flie from one another but they were fearful of being parted and dispersed which is the true and proper effect of Love which always covets an Union with its Object as Hatred Fear and Aversion lead us to a desire of separation from the things or persons we stand in dread of or do not affect BUT after the most Wise Eternal Being for the accomplishment of his own glorious Designs had crossed theirs by confounding their Language and dividing their Tongues there was then a necessity which obliged them also to divide and separate and so all those who were of one Language embodied and joyned into one Society and parted from the rest who could be of no use or advantage to them in regard their Dialect was not understood By which means they spread themselves into several remote Regions and by degrees the whole Earth came to be inhabited THE people who were thus separated in process of Time came to be as different in all other things as in their Language and still as they multiplied in Numbers new Colonies were necessitated to part from the old stock and they also became distinct Companies and Societies of Men Now he who undertook to be their Leader The Origine of Monarchies and Captain-conductor in their travels and removes was therefore the chief and principal man amongst them and usually gave his Name and Laws to the Nation or People which he carried with him This distinction of Nations and People as it restrained the Love and kindness which before their Parting was common to all only to those of their own Tribe and Name thereby manifesting the particular respect they had one for another so likewise it came to distinguish that Property of Territories and Possessions The occasion of the Primitive Wars which every Nation pretended a sole Right Title and Interest in as belonging only unto them and not to any other of their Neighbours This occasioned Differences and Quarrels about the Limits of their Pastures Fields Woods Rivers Springs c. as appears both by the Sacred and Prophane Histories For this reason parted Abraham and Lot Gen. 13.7 9. upon a strife that arose betwixt their Servants which obliged them to separate And upon this account it was that Romulus and his Young Citizens had so many quarrels with the Sabines and their other neighbours concerning the Pomoeria of their new erected City Rome even from its very Infancy being born with the desire of Soveraignty and given to Usurpations and incroachments upon her Neighbours FROM these differences arose Tumults Wars hostile Invasions and Depredations which did necessitate Men for their own safety and the preservation of their Property to enter into mutual promises and obligations to defend themselves and the Publick from the injuries of their Enemies and such were all lookt upon and suspected to be who had not the same Property in the Territories where they did inhabit and because many times even whilest they were at Peace with their Neighbours they found themselves infested with Domestick Discords Mischiefs and Injuries Thefts Murders The Original of Laws and Government Adulteries and other violations of the Rights and Properties of the members of their own Community from hence there sprung a necessity of Laws and Government to prevent such intestine Quarrels no less ruinous to the happiness of Society than foreign force and to restrain such amongst themselves whose unbounded Wills rendred their Actions prejudicial and dangerous to the well-being of the Community in whole and in every part as also that by Unity amongst themselves they might be the better enabled to repress the Insolencies and Injuries of their foreign Enemies NOW generally if not universally these Primitive Laws were for the reasons named Monarchs and Leaders of Colonies the first Legislators compiled by the Governours and Rulers and in probability the first of them by those who first lead the Colony Thus Moses amongst the Hebrews gave directions as supreme Judge in all Civil affairs as for the Ecclesiastical he had them under Gods own hand-writing Thus Numa amongst the Romans was their King and Legislator And in regard experience taught them The reason of the Executive and Coercive Power of Magistrates that the best Laws were altogether insignificant to the greatest part of Men unless they were intrusted in the hands of such who would strictly look to their effectual Execution therefore the coercive and executive vertue of Laws was always in the disposal of the supreme Magistrate as being the only Person or Persons who were vested with such a power as could give life and activity to those Laws to which they had first given a Being and to whose hands could the care of the Government by a just execution of those Laws be more safely committed had it been originally in the People to dispose of it than to such Persons as had manifested their Wisdom Prudence and ability in framing such good just wholsom and necessary Constitutions But the true reason is they as Supreme over the People had the only Power of making Laws and to exact obedience and subjection to them by which means they being the best Interpreters of the Laws which they had made the Safety Preservation and Happiness of the Society was most likely to be secured continued and preserved AND this manifests the Fundamental error in Politicks of those Persons who make Laws to have a priority before Kings and Governors as if the Laws made Kings Magistrates when in truth God Nature vested Primogeniture with the Right of Kings and Magistrates and they made the first Laws This is a mistake of such dangerous consequence that if it come to be allowed and Popular it robs all Kings of the most valuable Jewel of their Crowns and which was set there by God himself who set them upon their Heads viz a Divine Right and Title to their Sovereignty and Dominion and this open a way to perpetual Changes and alterations in Government and Governours For all Laws are in their own Nature alterable and may either for the convenience of the Prince or People whâ— are to Govern or be Governed by them be changed abrogated and new one Enacted and by consequence the Right of the King if it be only from them may be so too I have often heard it proverbially spoken New Lords New Laws but this would alter the stile and introduce an unhearâ— of proverb New Laws New Lords which at last by the perpetual uncertainty of Government and alteration both oâ— Lords and Laws must of necessity come to No Lords and No Laws and indeed nothing but Anarchy Confusion and Tyranny
is truly Pater Patriae the Father of his Country and as such must have a certain Natural tenderness care and concern for its Safety Peace and Happiness which he looks upon as it is to be his own BESIDES it is to be considered That there is an Art in Governing which Monarchs from their very Infancy are trained up and accustomed to which makes them by Experience and the second Nature of Custom come to a true Understanding of the great Affairs and secret Reason of State and therefore more ready in all publick dispatches more quick apprehensive and sagacious in perceiving what is conducive to the Common Good and what not than such who have not been Educated with all those advantages to Govern And then their Continuance for Life and the succession of their Posterity gives them the desire of Designing well for the publick good safety and security and the opportunities of finishing what was well begun Whereas all Governours in a Commonwealth must at first be much to seek in all great Affairs and one may as well expect that a man taken from the Plough should be able to Conn a Ship and carry her an East-India Voyage as that a Person though of the greatest Natural or acquired parts should at first be fit to Pilot the Government or skilful and dexterous in so great a Charge as is the steerage of the important affairs of a publick State And by that time that he is arrived to a competent skill he must resign his Place and Power to others as Raw and Unexperienced as he was and so must leave that Work which it may be was well laid and designed to the conduct and management of such Persons who possibly neither understand it nor how to conduct it if they did or if they do both yet may have envy enough to cross or ruine it because they had not the Glory of the first Invention SO that upon all accounts Monarchy appears to have been the most Ancient the most Universal the most Natural the most Useful and by unavoidable consequence the most excellent Government for promoting preserving and continuing the Common Happiness of all Mankind CHAP. V. Of the Excellency of the English Monarchy and Government It is not apt to degenerate into Tyranny The King having by his gracious Concessions given Limits to his absolute Sovereignty Of the Interest which the three Estates have in preparing Bills for the Royal Assent to be by that past into Laws and the great obligation which thereby the People have to Subjection and Obedience Of the Excellency of the English Monarchy THUS have we taken a view of the several Governments in the World amongst which Monarchy justly challenges the precedency in all respects And against which there can be no objections made but such as may with ease be retorted upon any other form of Government and not only so but many more and more rational and just Exceptions may be made against all other kinds of Regiment AS for that thread-bare Topick out of Aristotle which is so perpetually in the mouths of all Democratick Factious people That Monarchy is apt to degenerate into Tyranny It is only possible to be true where Monarchy is absolute Arbitrary and unbounded But in our English Monarchy the case is clearly different for though the King be so absolute that where he has not precluded himself by his gracious Concessions to his People It is not apt to degenerate into Tyranny the King having by his gracious Concessions given Limits to his absolute Sovereignty his will is his Law and is not to be limited by any other Power than that of his own Royal pleasure Yet in this particular the condescensions of our English Sovereigns have been so many and so great and those compliances having been formed into Laws as measures and standards of Government are the Bounds and Limits which Monarchy has no less prudently than indulgently been pleased to give it self thereby to ease the Subjects of any just occasion of Fears or Jealousies which might receive their birth from the formidable redundancy of their absolute Power And by this means the Government is secured from the danger of falling into an Arbitrary and Tyrannical way of Ruling and the minds of the Subjects are freed from the dreadful apprehensions of slavery under it And as by this incomparable method of goodness and generosity in our Princes the people their Subjects of all degrees and conditions are the more powerfully obliged to all dutiful Allegiance to their Temperate Government so the Government it self is thereby rendred more capable of effectually answering all the Ends and Intentions of Society Let us therefore take a short view of this most admirable Monarchy which will discover unto us the matchless excellency and goodness of our present Government as it is now Established The English Monarchy Hereditary and admits of no Interregnum NOW the Excellency of it appears first in that the Monarchy is Hereditary and not Elective But the Son or Daughter or in defect of them the nearest of the Royal Line does upon the expiration of the former King so immediately succeed that our Law does not allow the Interregnum of one moments space and therefore holds it as an establisht Maxim Rex non moritur The King of England is Immortal and the young Phoenix stays not to rise from the spicy ashes of the old one but the Sour of Royalty by a kind of Metempsychosis passes immediately our of one body into another And this certainly is not the least of the advantages of our Monarchy For whereever there happens an Interregnum not only all Laws are for that time at a stand as to force and execution but also all lawless and disorderly persons take the greatest and most unlawful Liberties Thus at the death of the Ottoman Heir they Janizaries and other Martial men rifle and plunder the houses of the Jews and Christians at Constantinople and cease not to commit all manner of out-rages till the new Grand Seignior by his publick appearance and bounty to them puts an end to those Disorders Which may chance at that new Rome to verifie the saying of the Popes Jester who being ask'd which was the best Holy-day to the people of Rome repli'd The day on which the Pope dies because there likewise the common people by prescription plunder the Palace of that Cardinal who is elected Pope And this custom amongst the Turks which is become a certain expectancy to them and which they look for at the death of their Emperor as a priviledge and part of their salary though at first permitted them in malice to the Jews and Christians may in time prove so ill policy as may occasion the dispatch of the Ottoman Family one after another to their great Prophet and his Paradise in greater haste than ever Nature did intend or the safety of that great Monarchy can allow AND for the disadvantages of Elective Monarchies we need not
Superior nor owes either Tribute or Homage to any other besides the Almighty Sovereign the Supreme Majesty of Heaven and Earth from whom as the King receives it so to him only is he accountable for the managery and administration of it The King is the sole Fountain of all Honour The greatness of his Power according to Laws and the Foundation of all Law nay the very Soul and Life of it for by his Royal word he gives it a Being and by his * Le Roy le veult Affirmative breath that which before was a dead and inanimate Bill becomes a living and an Active Law And in like manner by his powerful negative or ‖ Le Roy s' avisera suspending his consent any intended Sanction becomes abortive and never sees the Sun And as it is both his and his Peoples happiness that his Will is not his Law but that his Law is his Will so it is but highly reasonable that he should have the liberty and freedom of the choice of those Laws by which he obliges himself to Rule and Govern In him is the sole Power of the Sword the Power of making Peace and War and in order thereunto of raising Forces granting Commissions both for Land and Sea In him is the sole Power of Calling Adjourning Proroguing and dissolving Parliaments when and where he judges it most expedient In his power it is to remit the severities of the Penal Laws whereby he may manifest his goodness and clemency as well as his greatness and justice by graciously pardoning both the smaller breaches of his Laws and the more capital offences which he might most justly punish From him all metals receive their Impress and according to the Standard he puts upon them they become valuable and currant Coin From him all places of high Trust derive their Authority by his Commission they Act and put his Commands and the Laws in execution And in short without him or against his Will and Consent nothing can be legally acted or done The Person of the King most Sacred AND as his Power is thus Great so his Person is most Sacred and is therefore most strictly guarded by the Laws which like Solomon's Lions stand on each side of the steps and ascents of his Imperial Throne 13 Car. 2. and with no less Terror than Majesty declare That it is High Treason within or without the Realm to Compass Imagine Invent Devise or Intend Death or Destruction or any bodily harm tending to death or destruction maim or wounding imprisonment or restraint of the Person of the King or to deprive or depose him from the Stile Honour or Kingly Name of the Imperial Crown of this Realm or any other of his Dominions or Countries or to levy War against him within or without the Realm or any other of the Kings Dominions or Countries being under his Obeysance THESE amongst many others are the principal Jewels which adorn the glorious Diadem of the English Sovereigns whose Government being so remote from Arbitrary that it is altogether by the exact Rule of Law Justice and Equity as it must needs be easie for the people so it contributes extremely to the Happiness and prosperous tranquillity of the Princes Reign And were it possible to add one Prerogative more to the Crown That the King might rule in the Hearts and kind affections of his People as well as over their Persons certainly there could no greater happiness befall both the King and his Subjects in this World And as such a blessed Union and Agreement would be their great and Common Interest where the one ruling with Love the other should obey their Ruler from a principle of affection so it is to be hoped that time and a right understanding of the most obliging Temper of their Prince or some other wise expedients will at last allay that dangerous Democratick fury the only present visible obstacle to this desired Happiness which whereever it prevails or enters possesses men with the principles of Usurpation upon many other but more especially upon this fundamental prerogative of the Sovereign by devesting him of the loyal and sincere affections of his People HAVING thus taken such a short view of it as the dazling Lustre of Majesty will permit let us pass from the Sovereign to the Subjects and there likewise we shall most convincingly see the effects of the most prudent easie safe and happy constitution of the English Government under which there is no person who lives in obedience to it who escapes the particular care and cognizance of the Laws The Priviledges of the People first in the sending their Representatives to the Parliament THE first great and fundamental Priviledge of the Subjects consists in the free Choice which the Commons of England have of Delegates or Representatives to be sent to the most Honourable Assembly of the Parliament there to make known the just grievances of the People and to offer such good wholsome and necessary Bills in order to their being promoted into Laws by the Royal Will as may be most for the advantage and happiness of those whom they represent By reason whereof all those Laws by which the people are governed for the present or are to be Governed for the future are such as they themselves have a share in the propounding and preparing there being nothing that can by the Royal assent pass into an obliging Statute or Act of Parliament either against or without their knowledge and consent as is evident from the Proem to most of those Acts which compose our Statute-Law which are in these or the like words Be it Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by the Advice and with the Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same So that they must be the most unreasonable amongst mankind who are not contented to be obedient to those Laws which are by their King Enacted and Established not only according to their own preparation and with their free and full assent but at their earnest request and humble Importunity NOR are they only highly irrational but most barbarously treacherous and perfidious who make no account of such mutual stipulations and lawful contracts with which they have obliged themselves as the whole Nation does when by the Parliament they Petition the King to make such or such Laws and upon that condition that he will please to give them the force and power of Laws they will live in obedience to him according to the direction of those Laws For Obedience is the end of all Laws and solemn Faith of Contracts is the essential Foundation upon which all Government and Happiness in this World does depend and there can no Bill pass into an Act of Parliament but it obliges Universally all Subjects to obedience by vertue not only of Royal Authority but of every individual persons promise For whoever gives his Voice
any modest regular and unambitious desires And far more and greater would not be capable to satisfie the ambitious and unbounded Humour of perpetually craving Democracy which is like the meager and ill-favoured Cows in Pharaoh's dream Gen. 41. the very picture of envy and ill luck or rather the thing it self which would devour all our fat well-favoured and pleasant years of Plenty and be never the better it self after so full a Meal but in stead of the Liberty which it does flatteringly promise us would oblige us like the Egyptians in that dreadful Famine to pawn all for bread to eat and at last to offer up our selves and posterity its voluntary or rather necessary slaves for ever And in which it would exceed the severities of that calamitous time the Lands of the Priests which there met with a favourable exemption would here be the first Morsel with which rapacious Democracy would feast it self The truth is this Factious Republican Humour is like the hideous Gulph into which the noble Curtius leapt to satisfie the more cruel than ambiguous Oracle which cannot be perswaded to close its terrible Jaws with the richest appeasments of Silver Gold Pearl or Jewels unless it drink in whole Rivers of Innocent Bloud and at last the best Man become an attonement and Victim to that voracious Prodigy of a Factious Populace when inspired with a Religious Rebellion call'd a thorough Reformation TO conclude this particular All imaginable care used to prevent the growth of the Poor and to provide for such as are so the goodness of the English Government does not appear more in protection of the Rich Great and Noble than in providing for the Poor In which affair it is the constant care of the Government first if possible to prevent the growth and increase of them by incouraging Industry providing of stocks to set them at work upon and punishing all dissolute Idleness And in the next place by making such competent necessary and constant provision for all such as are truly Poor Aged or Decrepit or who by unavoidable accidents or misfortunes come to be distressed and necessitous that in some Places and amongst some Natures the certainty of a future provision for them and their posterity by the respective Parishies and Places of their aboad does rather make them careless and improvident than thankful and Industrious which at the same time manifests the compassionate and charitable temper of the Government and the slothful Ingratitude of those persons who take a Commission to be careless and Idle from the encouragement of those Laws which were intended in pure compassion to preserve them from misery and starving All possible care taken to commit the Execution of Laws to such hands as will act with Justice and to prevent all Abuses Frauds Perjuries and Delays of Law and Justice IN short as the Laws are in their own nature choice prudent safe advantageous and universal and by long experience found to be such as correspond to all the Intentions of the durable happiness of Society so there is the most exact Government by those Laws and a constant administration of Justice by persons of the greatest Integrity and ability as also a constant care taken to prevent all miscarriages oppression or perverting of Justice by Bribes Forgery Perjury or Partiality and there can scarcely a speck of Rust appear upon the bright sword of Justice or the least grain of corruption be thrown in to turn the equal balance of the Law but by the curious eye of vigilant Authority it is taken notice of corrected prevented and amended for the future And what can be more desirable or desired in any humane Society who pretend to be bounded either with Modesty or Reason I am yet to learn If there be any thing wanting to make the Happiness of the Subjects of the English Monarchy complete they must expect it from themselves and their own peaceable acquiescence under the Laws and Government And if they are not utterly Incapable of satisfaction his most gracious Majesty has made his repeated Instances to the two Houses of Parliament that they would consider what is wanting and has given such constant and unquestionable assurances of contributing all his Authority to whatsoever shall be thought fit to be offered for a further security of every mans Interest as to Property and Religion as will not permit the least scruple but that we live at present under the best of Princes as well as under the best of Laws and Government CHAP. VII The great misfortune of Religion which is made the great pretence to ruine Monarchy A stratagem of the Devil to extirpate all true Religion out of the World The two Opposites and Enemies of Monarchy Papacy and Presbytery The Opinion of the Catholick Doctors about Papal Supremacy and the new Roman Creed to confirm it Papal Supremacy devests the Prince of his Legistative Power of his absolute Sovereignty and renders Monarchy insecure as to Possession or Succession bereaving it of the Guard of Laws of the Strength of Alliances of the Fidelity of the People Several Impolitick inconveniences which attend that Religion Papal Supremacy destructive of the Peoples Liberty and Property FROM what has been most truly said as being matter of most evident fact and of so publick demonstration that no person can deny it who will not at the same time manifest shameless Confidence and notorious Ignorance of that Constitution and those Laws the benefit of whose Goodness he does continually enjoy it does appear that there can be nothing wanting to complete the happiness of all sorts and conditions of Men who live under this admirable Government but the knowledge of it which would bring them to a real belief that they are the most Happy People in the World that so they might be satified of the great obligations they have to Unity amongst themselves and all ready compliances of Obedience to the Commands of the Supreme Authority in those Laws which are so much both their own Choice and Interest which is the only rational way to continue increase and secure their Happiness and to render this most happy Government impregnable against all the malicious attempts of theirs because its implacable Enemies ONE would difficultly be perswaded if unerring Experience did not afford an unquestionable conviction that it were possible to find either so great Malice or Mistake as could be capable to transport any person so far beyond the confines of Reason as to endeavour so much as in a thought much less by their actions to alter or subvert a frame of Government so beautiful and in all its parts most exact and excellent And if nothing besides were able one would judge That the impregnable strength of so well a built and fortified a Constitution were sufficient to discourage the most daring Villains and desperate Natures amongst Mankind To attempt such an enterprize as appears in all Humane probability the very next thing to impossible to be
the Coast of Loyalty made Shipwrack of their Lives and Fortunes as before they had done of their Allegiance and a good Conscience witness Mr. Love and several others with whose Martyrdom as they call'd it and some other trifling assistances to his Majesties happy Restauration which they could not avoid they would perswade the World that they have made such an attonement for the last that now they may run upon the score with us and have credit enough for a new Rebellion THAT they believe the People to be above the King which is a fair step towards one is plain for they take it for a fundamental of Government and the Liberty of the People That they may appeal from the King to the Parliament as did the Scottish Kirk whose words are That the Parliament ever retained a Jurisdiction in it self both over the Church and Crown though as I shall shew hereafter this is but a Presbyterian wheedle to a Parliament to make them give the King the Mate and the People I say the Good People are the Men in whom the Supreme Power resides that is the Presbyters and Elders assembled in the Great Sanhedrim who represent both Church and State which the Parliament as they would have it being dismembred of the Episcopal Clergy cannot properly do But to take them at their word for once though I know they do not mean as they speak and let it pass for one of their piae fraudes at which art they are more dexterous than an old Jesuit we know no appeal with hopes of redress can lie but from an inferior to a superior Power and all they aim at in it is to ruin Monarchy by advancing a Popular Supremacy above it which till by them they have accomplished their design they make Semblance as if it were in the Parliament yet Ultimately they intend it for themselves and the Spiritual Cabal for if the Parliament as the Peoples Representatives be Superior to the King all his Right as to Possession Power and Succession depends upon them and how incompatible a Superior Jurisdiction within the same Dominions is with absolute Monarchy we have already made appear since it is the same thing whether the Pope or Parliament in the name of the People have the Supremacy over the Unfortunate Prince The third Principle of Presbytery That Kings may by the People be called in Question for their Administration of the Government A third Principle of Presbytery and which is the natural consequent of the former is That Kings may by their People or their Representatives the Parliament by which word they always understand the Commons the Lay-Lords as well as the spiritual being in truth their great aversion and abomination as experience has told us be called in Question for their Miscarriages or ill Administration of the Government This is the Doctrine of Calvin and of Devils those Primitive Rebels and perpetual Incendiaries of the World the malicious disturbers of the peace and happiness of Mankind Our blessed Jesus the Everlasting Prince of Peace taught no such Doctrine for the word which God sent was preaching Peace by Jesus Christ he is Lord of all Obedience to Magistrates Acts 10.36 and to render to Caesar the things that are Caesars which by his great Example in paying tribute and working a Miracle for himself and St. Peter he confirmed and it may be in that single instance has cut the sinews of the Papal as well as popular Plea to Supremacy over Earthly Sovereigns But what sayes Mr. Calvin with his new Geneva Gospel Cal. Inst lib. 4. p. 540. cap. 20. §. 31. Audiant Principes terreantur Hear O ye Kings and be terrified and well they may at what follows if what he says be as true as the Gospel which though his believers credit I must beg their excuse if I dare not for saith he if there be any popular Magistrates appointed to moderate the lawless lusts of Kings such as were formerly the Ephori opposed to the Kings of Sparta the Tribunes of the people to the Roman Consuls the Demarchi to the Athenian Senate and with which Power it may be as things now stand the three Estates in all Kingdoms are vested when they meet in Parliament I do not forbid them to interpose as it is their duty against the fierceness of Kings so that if their impotent rage trample upon or insult over the meanest of the Populace and they wink at it I do affirm that such their dissimulation cannot be excused from a most wicked perfidiousness because they do thereby fraudulently betray the Liberty of the People of which they know themselves by Gods appointment the Preservers or Defenders according to the Commonwealth translation of the place the Keepers or as Nol render'd it the Protector of the Liberty of the People Private Men indeed he there teaches must submit but a Parliament may nay must Rebel by their own Authority and of necessity HERE is in little a true Landscape and prophetical direction of all our late Rebellion The Parliament he sayes the three Estates but his Disciples are greater Artists than their Master and can effect their design with a quarter of one of them are by Gods appointment the Keepers of the Liberties of the People they must not betray their trust by a base and wicked perfidiousness The King as they foreplot their suggestion to bait the people into Rebellion designs to take away these Liberties of the people and to enslave them under Episcopal Hierarchy in the Church Monopolies Purveyance Protections c. in their politick Liberties he insults over and tramples upon the Populace therefore the Parliament may and ought to defend them all Remonstrances and Petitions are in vain all the fair offers of Majesty in order to their satisfaction and a pacification are but pretences of kindness revocable at his pleasure and therefore there is a necessity to throw the fatal Dye of War and do themselves Justice by the Sword that Vltima Ratio Perduellionis rather than betray the trust reposed in them and which if it be true that he affirms that they know themselves appointed by God they have a Divine Authority to do and the Sovereign Power resides in them and the King is to be accountable for his ill administration of the Government and so farewel Monarchy for it is come to its Conclamatum est and must expire beyond all hope of recovery or resurrection A fourth Principle of Presbytery That Kings may by their People be deposed for miscarriages in Government AND this leads them to a fourth Principle by an unavoidable necessity for he that draws his Sword against his Prince must throw away the old Scabbard and find a new one for his own security in his Sovereigns breast Such dangerous Quarrels as are Competitions for Empire are not to be determined but by the fall of one Party and there is no hopes of comprimising where supreme Sovereignty is the apple
delivered from by a Miracle makes even that appear small in comparison of our being again deluded by those Persons whose hands were washt in Rebellion and Murder instead of Innocence whose tongues are tipt with lies calumnies and blasphemy and whose Garments over which they throw the Prophets Mantle to keep them from discovery yet wear the indelible stains of that humane blood in which they were rolled of so many thousands of Illustrious and Innocent Lives as in that Unnatural War whereof they were the Occasions Maintainers and Defenders fell as Sacrifices to their fury and their Sovereigns Right and Countries Liberty I shall not attempt a solemn confutation of these Positions judging them far more fit for the conviction of the Law than of the Gospel to both which they are directly contrary as also in regard it has been so often done by others of greater abilities and better oppertunities However that Kings Reign by a Divine Right and if they do then all these Positions are Treason Rebellion and Usurpation not only against them but God I refer these Haters of Monarchy and Plagues of Mankind the implacable Enemies of our Peace and Happiness to that place in Daniel Dan. 4.25 to which if they do not assent they are Insidels and no Christians and deserve the strange doom of Nebuchadnezzar to be driven from amongst Men and to have their dwelling amongst the Beasts of the Field to eat grass as Oxen and to be wet with the dew of Heaven till they know and acknowledge that the most highest ruleth in the Kingdom of Men and giveth it to whomsoever he pleaseth From which place it is as clear as the brightest Day That the sole Sovereignty and disposal of Crowns is immediately in the hands of the most high God and that they who have them hold them of his Gift and if that be not a Divine Right there is no such thing in Nature and if they have a Divine Right no People or Parliament or Earthly Power can pretend by calling them to an account deposing or punishing them to rob Kings of this Title and Authority which they hold by the immediate Grant of Heaven but at the same time they invade the Prerogative of the most High Ruler of Heaven and Earth and rob him of his incommunicable Right in the disposal of Crowns I cannot believe them so ignorant but that they know what must be the end of such an audacious Sacriledge If they admit Kings to have a Divine Right which they must either do or deny this to be Scripture they cannot pretend to any Power to take it from them for nothing can invalidate any Grant but the same or a greater Power than that which gave it and therefore if Kings offend though Subjects may in all humility Remonstrate and Petition for Redress yet are they by the Laws of Religion utterly prohibited to make use of force or violence either to obtain their desires or satisfie their Revenge for as our learned Bracton religiously observes Deum expectat Vltorem And if God Almighty reserves vengeance as his peculiar Prerogative and will not permit us to execute it upon private men Dearly Beloved avenge not your selves for vengeance is mine saith the Lord and I will repay it how can any person in reason think that private Men and Subjects should have a power to execute it upon Princes who bear his immediate Characters and are his Vice-gerents and as he himself stiles them Earthly Gods Or if they dare attempt to do it 1 Sam. 26.9 Or if they dare attempt to do it Who can lift up his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless Undoubtedly whoever does it is guilty not only of Treason against the King but of Rebellion against God and whoever is so audacious to draw his Sword against his Sovereign does so far as he is able indeavour to wrest the dreadful Sword of the Lord out of the hand of Omnipotence to carve out vengeance for himself and I dare boldly say that whoever takes that Sword against his Will shall perish by the Sword for this is an Honour which he will not part with Hear him speak himself and he who will not believe God when he speaks is not to be believed to have any Religion which is properly the fear of God whatever he may pretend Deut. 22.34.35.40.41.42 Is not this saith the Almighty laid up in store with me and sealed up amongst my Treasures To me belongeth vengeance and recompence for I lift up my hand to Heaven and say I live for ever if I whet my glittering Sword and my hand take hold of Judgment I will render vengeance to my Enemies And what greater Enemies to God than such persons as indeavour to rob him of that which he has not only laid up but sealed amongst his Treasures And they who are so audacious as to attempt this Sacrilegious Felony against Heaven to break up his treasury whatever they may say of themselves cannot be supposed to fear either God or the Devil and certainly all Mankind have a great deal of reason to fear and indeavour to suppress men of such daring confidence and mischievous Principles CHAP. IX Presbytery in reality as great an Enemy to Democracy and Parliaments as to Monarchy A short view of their Tyrannique Consistorian Government over the Magistracy Clergy and Laity Of the latitude and power of scandal to draw all affairs into the Consistory Of their kindness to their Enemies The small difference betwixt a Jesuit and Geneva Presbyter Both aim at Supremacy THUS have we seen that Presbyterian Supremacy is by its avowed Principles not only inconsistent with but destructive of Monarchy Let us examine it a little more severely and we shall find that it is absolutely inconsistent with all Government except it s own oligarchique Spiritual Tyranny and even that adored Democracy Presbytery in reality as great an Enemy to Democracy and Parliaments as to Monarchy which it pretends to hug and embrace with so much tenderness and affection and the kindness which it seems to have espoused to a Parliament which has so unfortunately decoy'd some people into that party is nothing else but a politick flattery and temporizing godly fraud the real design is to dash a Parliament against a King to break them both in pieces and like the Ape in the story to make a Cats foot of a House of Commons to pull the Nut out of the Hot Ashes of Rebellion into which they shall have reduced the Monarchy for when once by that assistance they shall have procured their own establishment they will render it as absolute a Slave as they would do Monarchy For according to the Model of their Consistorian Government the supreme and ultimate underivative Authority is resient in the High and Mighty Sanhendrim or annual Assembly of Presbyters and Elders to whose definitive sentence a Parliament must be subordinate the Authority of that being from Christ the Power of the Parliament
their Party against it and therefore as they can blame no body but themselves so certainly all the loyal and good Subjects have a great deal of reason to complain of them who are the principal occasions of those Impositions which lye so heavy upon them AS for their conclusion that these and multitudes of other grievanceâ— should be taken away by turning the Monarchy into a Free State These were but fair words and fine promises to deceive the ignorant and credulous multitude for a miserable experience taught us the contrary And for one King who according to the most mild and easie Laws governed with the greatest wisdom and clemency they set up and established an Oligarchical Democratick Tyranny like that of the Thirty Athenian Tyrants And every one of these Parliament Demarchs was as absolute by himself as the Law of his own Will could make him Nor could any person question either their Actions or Authority without paying his Life and Fortune or one of them for so great a presumption And I remember when the late King at his Trial before their pretended High Court of Justice questioned their Authority they gave him no other answer but that they were abundantly satisfied with their own Authority and from his dreadful example it was easie to conclude that whoever would not be satisfied with their Power was certain to follow him in suffering under it and 't is easily remembred how arbitrarily all things were managed and the whole Kingdom brought into a slavery far greater than theirs who wear Canvass-cloaths and Wooden-shooes and look like Ghosts for they did not only amongst the multitudes of grievances which were redrest make men look like such but really made such of all those whom they either feared suspected or hated AND for their observation of the situation of the Nation for Trade and Manufactures it was so pretty a new Nothing to pin upon the peoples sleeves that it could not but please extremely As if all our Monarchs had liv'd in such profound Oscitancy and Ignorance that they never knew what Ports Havens or Creeks they had within their Dominions or as if the Sea-men knew not without this new Chart of discovery that Portsmouth lay more conveniently for a Trade with France than Robin Hoods-Bay or John-a-Groats-house in the remotest Orcades Or as if the common people whose great interest and constant employment it is from their very leading-strings were by these sons of Bacchus to be taught the art of Agriculture and under Monarchy could not tell the nature of their Lands or what Countries were fit for such or such Manufactures or any other thing relating to Trade or Husbandry but these great Ingeniosos of the Republick must have the honour of these happy Inventions which the people understood before far better than they could instruct them as is but too evident to all those Gentlemen who of late years having their Lands by the universal fall of Rents thrown upon their hands could never make those improvements and advantages of them which the Rusticks did by their better understanding of the Lands and the methods of Husbandry in which they had their education which the Gentlemen who are owners of the Land wanted And for their taking care for the Poor in one sence it was true enough they took all the care they could to keep the Nation as poor as it was possible that if ever they should have any such intentions or inclinations they might never have the power or the purse to effect their Design in bringing back their banish'd Sovereign to his undoubted Right the Royal Throne of his Illustrious Ancestors for which purpose they kept a continual standing Army at Land and a Navy at Sea to the incredible charge oppression and impoverishment of the Subjects of these Realms both their Friends and Enemies though they had the policy to lay the heaviest load upon the backs of their Enemies if possible to break them and they kept the Loyal Gentry and Nobility so poor that many of them have not been able or ever will to forget the kindness of that Government which was the utter ruine of them and their families SHOULD the same method be made use of with them sure then they would make a horrible out-cry but some people may better steal a Horse than others look over the Hedge and what was Wisdom Prudence and Justice in a Republick would be Tyranny Oppression and Cruelty in a Monarch AS for the last clause that Monarchy never had the leisure effectually to advance or encourage the Trade of the Nation How comes our Statute-Law to be so full of such Acts as are for the Improvement and Regulation of all Trades and Manufactures How come all those Charters and Grants to Corporations Fairs Markets and to the several Companies of the City of London However we will agree to them that some of our late Monarchs have not had the leisure effectually to look after these affairs but who was it that gave the obstruction and how come they not to have so much leisure Even these kind publick-spirited Commonwealths-men who from the very moment that our Nation began to look abroad into the World and by Navigation to advance the Interest of our Country even these great Merchants of Faction Sedition and Rebellion began to set up for themselves and to spoil our Markets by giving such disturbances to Queen Elizabeth in the last years of her Reign to King James during all his and to the Royal Martyr whom at last they bought and sold that Monarchy had something of nearer concern to mind than Foreign Trade viz. Domestick Peace and found work enough to quench those flames which they saw ready to blaze out or already broken out in the State which were kindled and blown up by the fiery Zeal of these hot-headed Republicans And our Kings by that Charity which begins at home were obliged first to take care of their own Preservation which yet so violent was the rage of that unruly combustion that they were not able to effect but all was laid in heaps and ashes thank the good honest men of the Commonwealth for their industry and successful pains they took about it God reward them for it BUT God have the praise who had compassion upon our Ruines and pitied to see us lye in the Dust we have seen a glorious Resurrection of Monarchy we have seen all these frivolous calumnies confuted We have seen Monopolies taken away and yet the Court remain Purveyance restrained and both the Waggoner and Barge-man paid for serving the King to their own content we have seen unnecessary Protections taken away and Courtiers obliged to pay their just Debts which the Democratick Government for all their publick Faith never did We have seen all incouragement given to Manufactures Navigation and Merchandize the Pooâ— taken care of and all this done mosâ— effectually And much more we mighâ— see England the most Potent flourishing and quiet Kingdom in thâ— World
his people and at such times as there was no extraordinary Judge amongst them the High Priest was their Supreme and single Governour from whose determination there was no appeal protection or wager of Law as is plain both from Gods command and matter of fact From Gods command in these words And the man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken unto the Priest that standâ—th to minister there before the Lord thy God or unto the Judge even that man shall die and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel and all the People shall hear and fear and do no more presumptuously Now that by the Priest that standeth to minister before the Lord is meant the High Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is evident in that the High Priest was the Supreme over all the other Priests and therefore this must be spoken in the case of the ultimate Appeal and Determination for otherwise this command would have brought in a Parity amongst the Priesthood and so every little Levite according to the Calvinian Doctrine would have had as absolute Power as he who wore the Golden Mitre and the now unintelligible Urim and Thummim which as they were then certainly distinctions of the High Priest so an equality in the Priesthood was far from both Gods command and design in exalting the house of Aaron to the peculiar Dignity of that eminent Office And matter of fact demonstrates the truth of this for Eli who judged Israel forty years did it by vertue of his Office 1 Sam. 4.18 and not of any extraordinary Call or Commission that can be proved to intitle him to the Government I know those places are urged against the Judges being Kings that in those days there was no King in Israel But that is not to the purpose for though they had not the Title or Ensigns of Royalty yet they had all the Power and their Government was Monarchical and besides the meaning of those places seems to be that there was at that time no particular Judge who governed and exercised Regal Authority as also that the High Priest whose office it was was supine negligent and careless in the management of publick affairs as is apparent both by the History and the many notable miscarriages which happened in those Interregnum's And though those places sound sweetly in the ears of some people who therefore hate Kings because they would enjoy the same wicked Liberties which then those Kingless people took yet how pleasing it was to God will appear by the remark the holy Spirit always adds to those words viz. When there was no King in Israel every man did what was good and right in his own eyes And what a brave time that Liberty afforded is plain in that we never find it mentioned but either it introduces or follows as the occasion or reason of some remarkable Disorder intimating that they happened for want of a King or Judge which was an effect of Gods displeasure against his people and not of his dislike of the Government of Monarchy or by a single Person The first time that it is mentioned it immediately follows as the reason of Micha's Idolatry making himself a house of Gods Judg. 17.6 an Ephod and Teraphim and consecrating one of his own sons to be his Priest The next place that it is mentioned in leads us as the consequence of it to the notable Theft and Sacriledge of the Danites Judg. 18.1 who stole Mincha's Gods and his Priest too from him V. 25. and it was well he took their advice otherways some of the angry fellows had stollen away his Life This establisht an Idolatry all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh V. 30.31 And gave incouragement to that remarkable defection of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel sin by the Golden Calf of Dan which as it was the occasion of it continued till the Babylonish captivity In the next place it precedes and is given as the reason of that horrible fact of the Benjamites of Gibeah Judg. 19.1 against the travelling Levite and his Concubine not much inferior to that sin for which God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha and which brought on a Civil War in which the whole Tribe of Benjamin was extinguished to six hundred men Judg. 20. and of Israel in two Battels there fell forty thousand men The last place is the conclusion of the Book of Judges and follows as the reason of the Politick counsel of the men of Israel who to prevent their perjury by a rash Oath gave incouragement and permission to the remaining Benjamites to commit a Rape upon the daughters of Shiloh at a solemn Feast so that here is Idolatry Theft Sacriledge Murder Civil War Perjury and an allowed Rape upon six hundred young Women against their wills and that of their Parents against a Popular solemn League and Covenant all admirable as well as natural and necessary effects of there being no King in Israel From which mischiefs I think all people who love themselves and their peace and happiness ought to insert it into their private Litany with a Good Lord deliver us AND that God was so far from disliking the Government by Monarchy over his own people that he did design it for them so soon as they should come to a setled condition in the Land of Canaan is most evident from the early prophecy of Jacob Gen. 49.10 That the Scepter should not depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his feet till Shiloh came which did plainly foreshew the Royal dignity of the Tribe of Judah Scepter being the Ensign of Royalty and Law-giving the Prerogative of Kings And therefore God makes provision for their King and gives such positive directions about him When thou art come to the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee Deut. 17.14 15. and shalt possess it and dwell therein and shalt say I will set a King over me like as all the Nations that are about me Thou shalt in any wise set him over thee whom the Lord thy God shall chuse One from among thy Brethren shalt thou set over thee thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy Brother From which place we may fitly observe That God Almighty reserves it to himself as his peculiar Prerogative to appoint Kings And that the Peoples Election is not an Original Title to a Crown God appoints and the people assent and for that assent are said to set him over them whom the Lord had chosen And when the men of Sechem had of their own heads made Abimelech King Judg. 9. it prospered accordingly And therefore when the people were resolute to have a King 1 Sam. 8. the choice was not made by suffrages or popular Election 1 Sam. 10.20 but by Lot Which amongst the Hebrews and many other Nations was a Sacred solemnity and Divine Invocation of God to decide and determine any great
doubt or difference as will appear from that place about Saul 11 Sam. 14.41 and Jonathan's eating the prohibited Hony where Saul said unto the Lord God of Israel Give a perfect Lot And therefore Solomon Prov. 16.33 tells us That the Lot is thrown into the Lap but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. AND though we find Samuel extremely displeased at their proposition we ought to attribute it to humane frailty he looking upon it as a rejection of himself from the Government Yet I do not find in that place that God was offended at it Or if from the words of Hosea I gave them a King in mine anger and took him away in my wrath Hos 13.11 it may be conjectured he was displeased with them Yet it was not because he did not approve the Government by a King but because they had rejected him to be King over them For they have not rejected thee 1 Sam. 8.7 〈◊〉 says God to Samuel who appeared discontented upon that humane jealousie but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them And upon their repeated instances to have a King like the Kings of the neighbouring Nations who should reign by succession that so in their distresses they might not be at a loss for a Captain to lead them and fight their Battels as at that time they were The Prophet tells them You have this day rejected your God 1 Sam. 10.19 who himself saved you out of all your adversities and tribulations And that therefore God was justly displeased with them was not for desiring such a form of Government as was not agreeable to his will since by owning himself their King he visible declares himself for Monarchy but it was for their Infidelity upon the approach of Nahash King of Ammon 1 Sam. 12. as is evident from the words of Samuel where he briefly recounts unto them that particular care and Providence which God had all along taken of them and their Fathers when in all their extremities he raised up eminent persons for their preservation and deliverance as Moses Aaron Jerubaal Bedan Jephthah and Samuel And that it was this Diffidence and not the Government at which God was displeased does most manifestly appear from that particular Order which God took about the succession of the Royal Government after it was once constituted by sending Samuel to anoint the son of Jesse to be by the most extraordinary methods of Providence which he made use of to preserve David from the hand of Saul and of all his enemies and at last in despight of their malice conducting him to the Throne of the promised Kingdom A preservation and establishment which was without a parallel till the most miraculous Protection and Restauration o◠our most gracious Sovereign the present most August Monarch of Great Britain whom God long preserve with glory to sway the peaceful Scepter of the English Nation The extraordinary effects of Providence manifested to these two Illustrious Princes if they were throughly considered were enough for ever to stop the mouths of all such as are against Monarchy being such publick and signal Declarations of the kindness and favour of the Supreme Monarch of Heaven and Earth both to that Government and to these Persons that they must be more obdurate than Pharaoh and more inchanted than his Magicians if they do not confess that digitus Dei hîc here was the immediate finger of God And let them take care lest whilest they refuse to see the hand of his Providence he force them to feel the heavy hand of his Vengeance Shimei the son of Gera though a great example of the clemency of Princes yet went not to a bloudless grave but his cursing came upon his own head And Sheba the son of Bichri who blew the trumpet of Rebellion against his Sovereign by the wisdom of a Woman paid the forfeiture of his own for attempting against the Supreme Head and Governour 2. Sam. 20.22 FROM what has been said it appears evidently from the Testimony of all the oldest Records of Time amongst the Heathens and from the Sacred writings of Moses more credible and ancient than any of them That Monarchy was the Primitive Government of the World and most agreeable to the will of God who as S. Chrysostom well observes from the Creation Chrysost Hom. 34. in 1 Ep. ad Cor. c. 13. That God made one man not many to intimate unto us that he did design Monarchy not Democracy for the Government of the World And that his posterity were his subjects both by the Law of God and of Nature I cannot think any person will question who has not a desire to teach his own Children disobedience both to God and Man by breaking the first Commandment with promise and that God should by his Charter grant to Adam Dominion over all the inferior Creation Gen. 1.28 and renew it to Noah with more ample conditions cum potestate vitae necis over every living Creature and leave the most glorious part of it which was created in his own Image under the confusion of Anarchy or Parity Gen. 9.1 2 3. is both most absurd and unreasonable to believe Monarchy proved the most Excellent form of Government from the Vniversality of its Limits and Extent THUS have we seen the first particular wherein the Excellency of Monarchy consists viz. Antiquity Nor i◠the Universality and Extent of its Limits less evident which is the second particular which shews the goodness of this way of Government and as before has been proved all the Ancient Records do with one consent give us an account of the Monarchical Government of all the inhabited Regions of the Earth The first Popular State at Athens Anno Mundi 3275. THE first Popular State we read of was at Athens after the expiration of the ten years Reign of Erixias which happened about the latter end of the Reign of Manasseh King of Judah and near the year of the World 3275 according to the computation of Chronologers And till that time the Earth knew no other power but Monarchy After that several other Cities of Greece as Sparta Corinth c. followed their examples and expelling their Kings erected in the room of them little Commonwealths but great Tyrannies And as Justin gives us an account of them they were in continual broils either amongst themselves about the Magistracy or with their Neighbours for precedency till the time of Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Empire to whose winged fortune all these little quarrelsom Republicks submitted and never after recovered that form of Government again and this happened about the year of the World 3630. THE Roman Commonwealth begun upon the Regifugium and therefore confesseth it self the younger Government commencing about the year of the World 3457 and for our modern Republicks the date of them is easily known And let any persons travel a◠far as they can
without a great measure of caution and due examination so it is very unlikely he should be perswaded to make any alterations of his Judgment in regard that there is nothing that can prostitute Authority so as to make it cheap and contemptible like easiness and instability frequent changes and alterations in things established with due deliberation For this represents the things so determined not good necessary oâ— expedient and by consequence the Legislators either very unwary or unwise Which are as low thoughts as can be entertained of the worst things or most inconsiderable persons And therefore the establishments and determinations made by Monarchy are in probability likely to be most durable and people are likely to enjoy the greatest settlement peace and quiet in regard it cuts off the hopes of many great sudden or frequent changes to which for the before-mentioned reasons a single Person is not so liable as a popular State which must of necessity be composed of dissenting Parties and Interests and which by its very fundamental Constitution must frequently change the Persons Governing and by an unavoidable consequence many determinations of the former Government And let it be observed where you will this effect is so natural that those persons who are so Zealous for change of Governours in a Common wealth are always for some change in the Government it self hoping for effects answerable to their desires from the New ones which they have not tried which they cannot from those whom they have and whom by experience they find resolute to oppose their Interests and Designs And as certainly those who in a Monarchy are for an alteration in any of its fundamental Constitutions Priviledges or Supporters are in reality against the Monarchy it self And therefore we may conclude that they who do so industriously endeavour to pull the Mitre which has ever been a sure friend to it from the Crown design by weakening of its Interest to pull the Crown from off the Royal head of Majesty that wears it BUT further Monarchy will appear the most natural Government if we consider how all other Governments do of their own accord insensibly fall into it which apparently shews that the Genius of Humane Nature grows this way And though it may by force violence custom or convenience be bent and strained to some other form of Government yet upon the least relaxation and native liberty like a bow unbent it returns to its natural and proper state and position Thus we see that the so famous Roman Commonwealth could not subsist without a Dictator an Office that for six months had all the Power and wanted only the Title of a King or Emperor And when ever the Senate was in danger Trepidi ad Dictatorem confugiunt their fear made them seek for a sanctuary in the Courage Counsel and Conduct of a single Person though when the storm was over the Saint was most usually forgotten and those services which were above their reward by their greatness became crimes and did most commonly prove fatal to their great Defenders who though they had freed the Republick from their dangers and Enemies could not free them from their fears and jealousies of such grand abilities courage and merit And even in times of peace and calmest deliberation in a popular Senate all affairs are generally managed by one leading active Man who draws the rest after him either with the strength of his Parts or the power of his Party So that when any publick Debate happens it is always determined by the prevailing opinion of one Person who by the power of his Eloquence or the strength of his Arguments induces the rest or at least so many of them as are necessary to joyn with him in their Opinions For of all the variety of Judgments which may be propounded one only can be chosen and that must certainly proceed from one Man at first to whom after it is weighed by deliberation if it be by the major part approved they give their assent whereby it is established Thus when the Senate of Rome was in a warm debate An delenda esset Carthago whether Carthage should be utterly destroyed Cato by shewing them the Grapes which grew at Carthage not many hours before from the dangerous vicinity of such potent Rivals as had thrice contested with them for the Universal Empire and wanted but only the skill of an Uti victoria Vincere scit Hannibal uti victoria nescit to pursue their point to have succeeded in the attempt he brought the whole Senate to an Affirmative determination That Carthage was utterly to be demolished which was accordingly put in execution by the great General Scipio Africanus Thus Cicero upon many occasions both at the Bar and Senate-house carried the Senate in the determination of differences by the force of his prevailing Rhetorick in those Orations of his upon several occasions which are so deservedly famous as to remain to this day the true standards of the Roman Language and Eloquence A thousand instances of the like nature might be brought to shew That the Results of all the Counsels and Debates of a Republick are generally if not universally the effects of a single Judgment and Perswasion to which the rest accord and who therefore is pro tempore the Monarch of the Council BUT there is nothing that manifests Monarchy to be so Natural to Mankind as that all Commonwealths do sooner or later run back again into that Ocean of Government Monarchy which is the Fountain from whence like other Rivers from the Sea they first took their original and into which therefore all these wandring Politick Meanders of Aristocratick and Democratick Government do insensibly slide Thus all the little Commonwealths of Greece fell at last to the prevailing Throne of Macedon The Roman run into the Empire And it is the necessary Fate of all Commonwealths their very fundamental principles as before has been manifested inclining them to it And the Head of a Faction in a Republick is a King in disguise or rather enjoying and using the Power whilest he wants the true Title he is a Tyrant Incognito in the dress of a private Man And that perpetual separate Interest and distinction of Parties which is inseparable from a Commonwealth must at last occasion its fall and ruine if a change into a better Government may be called so For it is a Maxim in Politicks as well as Divinity That neither Kingdom nor Republick divided against it self can possibly stand And if a Commonwealth falls it must be either into Anarchy and Confusion or Monarchy as the first principle from which it came and into which all other forms of Government must be resolved AND if the State of Venice has lasted a considerable time above a thousand years or if our Neighbours of the Belgick Union hope to do the same the first is obliged already and the last must be if it expects to continue to that little mixture of Monarchy amongst
not willing by an over-zealous confidence to erect a Trophy upon the Ruines of my modesty and if I transgress the limits of the decency which ought to bound every private quill I hope it will be attributed to fear and apprehension of danger which sometimes authorizes or at least renders a freedom pardonable which it may be cannot be reconciled to the severe rules of prudence or discretion And that this practice is not without most manifest danger former experience in whose severe School we have lately been disciplin'd into an unhappy certainty does sufficiently convince us Since it is beyond denial that we owe all those desperate misfortunes of our late dreadful revolutions to this great Art of Faction and making a party which by the secret and successful Industry of some people gave a prevalency to those Men who being in their principles opposite to the Interest of the Church and Crown in a short time by their furious practices ruin'd and overturn'd them both And the present prospect of the restless and unwearied Machinations of the same Faction may likewise make it appear no less necessary now it having always been esteemed as a wise and approved Maxim in the Physick of the Body Politick as well as Natural in times of spreading and Epidemick Contagions to prescribe Prophylacticks as well as Alexipharmacks one of which has and ever will be Principiis obsta venienti occurrite Morbo For Fatal Dangers Ill Events Early Prudence oft prevents And because I would shew a good precedent for these little shreads of the Muses I have seen it upon a quarry of Glass in the window of a publick house at Huntington written with the hand of the late glorious Martyr our Sovereign Charles the First agreeable to this purpose Errors in time may be redrest The shortest Follies are the best What from a Tragical experience he found fatally true certainly cannot be ill resented when from so great an authority offered as a necessary Caution for the future CHAP. VI. Of the Priviledges of the English Government and first of the Prerogative of the King The Imperial Crown of these Realms absolutely Independent The greatness of his Power according to Laws The Kings Person Sacred The Priviledges of the People First in sending their Representatives to the Parliament Secondly in having their property secured Thirdly in the Excellent and Constant method of Justice In particular Priviledges and Franchizes In all imaginable care to prevent the growth of the Poor and in providing for such as are so In committing the Execution of the Laws to such hands as will act with Justice and the care that is taken to prevent all abuses of Laws THUS have we taken a view of those choice Ingredients which compose the Government of the British Isles in which there appears the very refined extract and most sublime quintessence of all the several forms of Regiment in the World And from such a noble and well-temper'd mixture it is impossible there should naturally result any thing but the most sound and healthful Constitution in the Body Politick and a frame of Government built for wonder and Ages Certainly that bright Star to whose shining glories we owe the Day does not in all his travels round the Earthly Globe survey a more happy spot of Ground And if any place since the loss of Paradise can pretend to it this may justly challenge the name of Albion the Happy the Fortunate Island O nimiùm foelices bona si sua nôrint Anglicolae Pardon kind Reader the Pedantry of this little remaining Apollo which warms me with these fragments of his almost extinguisht fire O more than Happy â—ritish Land If our own Good we understand Happy by Nature Happy by Arts but much more Happy by the best Laws and Government that the whole Earth can shew THERE is nothing does so evidently demonstrate the excellency of a Cause as the noble effects which it does produce nor can any thing so plainly speak the goodness of a Covernment as the mutual happiness of the Governed and Governours To manifest this I wish my power carried a just proportion to my will and that my Pen were capable of keeping pace with my Intentions and both with the real worth and merits of this most incomparable Government IT is not without some degrees of arrogance to attempt it but it would be the most insupportable vanity and certain indication of a crazed fancy to pretend to the accomplishment of such a 〈◊〉 design He that will undertake to draw the picture of the Sun when he is mounted in his Meridian Chariot of Light and attended with all his dazling guards of Brightness can expect no other reward of his audacious folly but to lose his labour and his eyes The best and safest prospect of that glorious Planet is in his agreeable Reflections and benign Influences And for my own particular I am not so familiar with Majesty as to approach it though but with my Pen without some certain tremblings of my hand occasioned by that awful veneration which the very name of Dread Sovereign raises in my mind Nor can I believe that Great things and greater Persons are to be treated or so much as treated of but with the greatest respect and deference caution and the most profound submissions And therefore if whilest I endeavour to display their amazing glories and excellencies with a design of rendring them the greatest services I am capable of I draw them in the Miniature of this short Discourse I retain some faint hopes that the imperfections of so small a Piece being so much more pardonable by being little will be attributed to my timerous hast Fear is a passion which is apt not only to disorder the Fancy but even to discompose Reason it self And it is not uncommon for great Persons and generous Spirits to pardon with a gracious smile the effects of that veneration which they have occasion'd and which is apt to give such confusions to their Inferiors as sometimes makes them mistake the necessary decencies of their Duty even whilest they would endeavour most respectfully to preserve themselves within its Limits Let us therefore with all due humility look upon the Robes of Majesty the Ornaments and Ensigns of Royal Dignity those unvaluable Jewels whose radiant Lustre adorn the English Diadem and which is it self adorned by the Head that wears it Which will with ease convince us how happy that People must needs be who live under the kind Beams of such a Monarchy and such a Monarch Of the Priviledges of the English Government and first of the Prerogative of the King THE Excellency of the Ancient Flourishing and August Monarchy of Great Britain which God long preserve in Peace Glory and Prosperity consists principally in this That it is absolutely Independent and That the Sovereign and Imperial Crown of these Realms The Imperial Crown of this Realm absolute and Independent though it does admit of Foreign Equals knows no
over all Temporal affairs LET us now consider how inconsistent this fundamental Article of the Roman Faith is with the Monarchy of the Prince and the Liberty and Property of the people which we shall easily discover by considering the practical Inferences which are necessarily to be deduced from it AND first this devests the Prince of his absolute and Independent Sovereignty Papal Supremacy devests the Prince of his absolute Sovereignty For it is impossible there should be two Supremes in being at the same time over the same places persons and things If the King be Supreme the Pope ought to obey him if the Pope be Supreme the King owes obedience to him and by plain consequence is no more than a greater and Crowned subject and must have a dependence on the Papal power which if it be admitted only purely in Spirituals will yet take away the Divine Right of Kings and if once you remove that foundation down goes Monarchy For it must have either a Divine or Humane right if their right be from Men as it must necessarily be if we admit a superior to it or a dependency upon any humane Creature the power upon which it has a dependency and is superior to it may whensoever it pleases reassume that Right Which would render the condition of Kings more unhappy because more uncertain than that of the meanest private Man by subjecting them to the Caprichio of any humane Authority whereby they may be deposed a degraded greatness being more subject to the greatest inward agonies and affliction and outward contempt than downright poverty and no misery being comparable to a fuisse foelicem NAY further if once you admit this superiority of the Papacy over Kings they thereby become only his Vice-Roys and Deputies and if he judges it expedient to exercise the Authority himself he may supersede theirs as superfluous and you destroy the absolute necessity of inferior Monarchy and the Kingly Office according to the doctrine of Zamorensis Rod. Sanccius Ep. Zamor ut citatur à Carrerio lib. de potest Rom. Pont. p. 131. who boldly tells us That the Papal Sovereignty being the of the World in Temporals as well as Spirituals the Secular Power is neither of pure nor expedient necessity but only where the Church cannot Act. Which in explicite terms is that it is absolutely unnecessary where the Government of the Church is established There is but one step between the unnecessariness and uselesness of Princes and their abolition Thus the second Rome bids fair for a Regifugium in order to the establishment of her Spiritual Empire and Temporal Dominion which can never be effected without destroying this Claim and Title of Princes to the Supreme and absolute Authority within their own Dominions BUT secondly This does intirely ruine and abolish the Legislative power Secondly it â—â—â—es away the Legislative Power of Princes and Executive Dominion of the Prince For if the Pope be superior to him all Laws must depend upon him for their ratification For no inferior Power can make a Law without or against the consent of the superior every such action being a manifest infringement of the Right and Prerogative of that Power which is Supreme nor can any Establishment or Law be put in execution by the Prince but there will lie an appeal against him if there can be any exception found which will never be very difficult Thus Bellarmine tells us That the Pope has power to make or abrogate Laws not as a Political but a Spiritual Prince if they be for the health of Souls or he may repeal them if he judged them dangerous in that particular So that it seems he may do it nor is it material how it is done whether as a Political or Spiritual Prince since how much soever he gains the Prince loses his Legislative power being thereby taken from him and vested ultimately in the Pope And the Gloss upon the Roman Law is clear in the case That if the Imperial Law contradicts the Papal if there may be the danger of Souls the Imperial Law is ipso facto abrogated by the Pontificial Now to disbelieve the Popes Supremacy being against an Article of Faith must needs be dangerous to Souls and by consequence to believe he may not make alter or abrogate any Temporal Law which would be a manifest Heresie and damnable Sin Laws are the Guard of Princes and the sword of Justice is one of their principal securities and if once they come to be disarmed they must lye at the mercy of all Enemies Affronts Insolencies and Injuries which the Envious Ambitious or Discontented with the ungenerous baseness of prevailing Cowards will dare to throw upon naked and exposed Majesty AND without all dispute the belief of this Doctrine of the superiority of the Papal Power and that for Heresie Disobedience and many lesser Crimes Bos de Sig. Eccl. l. 17 c. 3 4. pag. 406. and even unpardonable old age if Eosius be a Catholick Doctor Princes may be excommunicated deposed and punished with Capital punishments as it gave incouragement to the Infamous writings of Pope Urban the second Bar. Ann. vit Vrb 2. Ann. 1089. n. 11. Marian. Inst Reg. pag. 61. Suarez Def. Fid. Cath. adv Angl. l. 6. c. 4. n. 18. Sect. Ergo. Mariana Suarez and others not fit to be named amongst Christians and at which the very Heathens and savage Indians would turn pale so if we will give any credit to the Catholick Historians Sigonius Nauclerus Urspergensis Guicciardine and the French Chronicles the practice has not come short of the principle Instances of which are amongst a multitude Leo Isaurus Henry the Fourth of Germany John King of England Henry the Third of France and Henry the Fourth the most Illustrious Life and greatest Character in Europe and it may be in the whole World and since Treason Rebellion and even the murders of Princes if done in defence of the Papal supremacy will not only find Advocates but narrowly miss of Canonization no Prince can promise himself any security against the Dangers of this Doctrine which is always able to inspire the Race of Ravailac to adventure at the fatal blow Thirdly it renders them insecure as to Possession and Succession AND this conducts us to the third consequence of this Faith That no Prince can be secure either as to Person Possession or Succession of his Crown which by admitting a Power superior to his own must of necessity depend upon its pleasure supposing the Papacy in a condition by Coercion to justifie the Right it claims It bereaves them of the guard of Laws TO manifest this we must consider upon what humane grounds the Establishment of Crowns depends and they are principally these Laws Consederations and Alliances or the Love and Fidelity of their people upon the account of Conscience and Religion As for the Divine Right we see that is not allowed to any Crowned head by the Roman Doctrine
and for Laws you have heard their sence already Of the strength of Alliances Nor can the Royal Masters of the Universe expect more security from the strictest Alliances and strongest Confederations which knots cannot be so closely drawn but the Papal breath can effect that which the great Alexander was obliged to do with his conquering Sword Hear the Determination of Pope Urban the Sixth sent to Charles the Emperor Bull. Vrb 6. Ann. Pontif. â— and Wenceslaus King of Bohemia before the Council of Constance in which he declares That all Contracts Confederations Leagues and Alliances made with Hereticks who are separated from the Unity of the Holy Church or who shall afterwards come to be so are by the Divine Law Rash Unlawful Null and Void even though they be confirmed by giving the most solemn Faith and strengthened by Apostolical confirmation What Prince can now be secure in any of his Leagues or Alliances unless he will tamely take the Roman Yoke of Supremacy which to refuse is Heresie and that debars of any advantage of solemn Faith Leagues and Apostolically confirmed confederations if these be Tow Flax and green Wit hs what Bonds will avail against the Roman Sampson sure nothing but cutting off the winding Curles of this overgrown Supremacy Of the Fidelity of the People NOR shall the Sovereign Princes of the Earth find any Refuge by retreating to the Fidelity and Allegiance of their people founded upon the principles of Conscience For if this be taken for a Rule of Conscience which by being an Article of Faith it must necessarily be That the Papal Authority is Superior to the Imperial all men are bound to obey the Supreme power before the Inferior And so soon as a King for disobedience or any other Crime is declared Excommunicate his subjects are obliged not only to a non-obedience but to disobedience so that Rebellion and Treason are not only established by a Law but cease to be Crimes and become necessary Duties This gave the Original to all those Conspiracies and Treasons against Qu. Elizabeth and her miraculous Successor King James Viz. The Excommunicatory Bull of Pius the Fifth afterwards revived by Gregory the Thirteenth If we dare believe Hieronymus Gatena who writ the Life of the said Pope which was by licence from Sixtus Quintus then Pope printed at Rome Anno 1588. So that if kind Heaven as hitherto it has constantly done did not appear the solicitous Defender and Revenger of injured and oppressed Innocence and more particularly the Refuge and Protection of sacred Sovereignty which wearing its immediate character has rarely been exposed to contempt or been manifestly affronted without remarkable vengeance and were there not more Fidelity to be expected and found in the Generosity of Humane Nature than in this Religion all Kings would by this new Roman Faith be stript not only of all their Royal Robes their Divine Right and Title but left naked and exposed despoiled of all Humane helps and assistances to assure their Scepters in their hands or to recover them should they be lost NEITHER is it possible that they should be upon much better terms for their Succession and Posterity He who cannot assure himself of his own security and establishment is in little probability to do it for another though his Son and by right immediate lawful Successor You shall hear Bellarmine's opinion and judge whether I put an abusive construction upon their Faith If to this The Roman Church for Elective Kings Bell. de Rom. Pont. l. 1. cap. 3. says he were added that neither the chief King nor those inferior Princes should enjoy these as Hereditary Dignities but that the best Men should by the choice of the People be promoted to them it would be the best and in this mortal life most to be desired Government in the World Undoubtedly to the Roman Court to whose absolute will this pretended popular Right of Elections would presently devolve but a material Quaere whether to any other But adds he It would certainly be most agreeable to all Mankind I beg of his Eminence to except Sovereign and Successive Princes out of the number of the All for it would not be very agreeable to them who are the most considerable though not the Most because all love that sort of Government best of which they may hope to have a share such as without doubt this proposed by us is where Power shall be annexed to Vertue and not Descent The Cardinal might at least in his Levelling proposal have spared this last reflection upon those Illustrious persons as if generally they wanted that vertue which should be the ornament to a Crown THERE are several other most Impolitick inconveniencies which of necessity do attend the admission of the Roman Religion and are directly against the Interest of Princes as first that Hereby the Pope maintains a constant Intelligence and exact Correspondency with his Votaries of the Religious Orders who own a dependence only upon him for the Generals of every Order being usually resident at Rome receive a constant account from those of their Order who are Confessors to Kings Queens and great Ministers of State of all the affairs of those Courts where they are permitted the greatest freedoms which if it be of moment is immediately communicated to the Pope or Cardinal Patron SECONDLY He has a Spiritual Militia in constant pay of the Jesuites Dominicans Franciscans and other Orders who do not only strangely influence the people but are able of themselves to compose a formidable power if another Julius or Boniface the Eighth Plat. in vita Bon. 8. should as Platina writes of him repeat the design of striking a terror into Kings Princes Emperors Nations and People IN the last place Hereby a vast and immense Treasure is Yearly drawn out of any Kingdom whilest men purchase from Rome Heaven and Earth by Pardons Indulgences Templa Saccrdotes Altaria Sacra Coronae Ignes Thura preces Coelum est venale Deusque Mantuan Calam lib. 3. Dispensations Investitures Palls Suits Appeals c. So that a Martial Pope has all the furniture of War Men Mony and Intelligence provided at the cost of the Prince and his People to keep them under or reduce them to Obedience if they venture to affront his absolute Power and Supremacy HAVING thus seen what treatment Sovereigns must expect from the Papal Supremacy Papal Supremacy destructive of the Peoples Liberty and Property it is easie to conjecture what must become of the Subjects and that Power which pretends to Excommunicate and Depose Princes and dispose of their Crowns must make no difficulty to be most Arbitrary in the disposal of all private fortunes and if it be Heretical to think that our Lord God the Pope has not Power to Enact what he does Extra Jo. 22. Sect. cum inter nonnullos Gloss ibid. Sect. declar as the Extravagant properly so called and the Gloss there tells us the Power of the
frequently to do But he proceeds I do freely confess Idem ibid. that as I think no kind of Government more happy than this where Liberty observe that dangerous word which has cost England so many Millions of Treasure and such Rivers of Blood accompanied with Moderation is established for duration So I think that People most happy who enjoy that condition of Life and Government Do you think so good Mr. John I wish you had thought twice on 't for the Proverbs sake that second thoughts are best before you had as an Institution Printed this fatal principle of Liberty of Conscience and Moderation as you call it or rather it is to be wish'd you had never thought such a pernicious Position I am sure though after all your musing your thought was not worth a penny we have paid dearly for your thinking this Liberty for us and wanted but little of falling by it into the greatest slavery that can be thought of called Presbyterian Liberty and Government in Church and State and by their restless indeavours one may be confident that some of your party and perswasion will want of their wills but they will both think us and act us into the same or a worse condition again if God be not the more propitious to us and it is but little comfort for us to think after all the mischiefs we have and may suffer for this thought that the Disciples of this great Master will repay us with a second thought as bad as the first and the Character of Fools a Non putaram we did not think it would have come to this or who would ever have thought it BUT he goes on to push them vigorously forward in the enterprize and his following words are able to give encouragement to the most languishing Presbyterian and to revive the fainting good Old Cause with a dram of the Bottle of his Aqua Mirabilis otherwise called by the Sons of Hermes Aqua Stygia Stygian Water or Aqua Fortis which will eat the Gates of Brass and the Iron Bars of Monarchy in pieces Idem ibid. For says he if People do most stoutly and constantly indeavour to preserve and keep this Liberty I will grant that they do no more than they ought to do Certainly the Devil of Delphos never gave a plainer Oracle to inspire all People with Rebellion against Princes and to throw off the Government of Monarchy and that ambiguous Sentence directed to Sir John Maltravers and Sir Thomas Gurney concerning King Edward the Second did not more assure them what they were to do with him being interpreted as all such doubtful speeches are according to the desire and interest of the Faction Edvardum nolite occidere timere bonum est To shed your Sovereign Edwards blood Be sure you do not fear is good This double-barrel'd pocket Pistol did not more certainly hit King Edwards Life than these words of Calvin interpreted by the Presbyterian Faction did contribute to the late horrid Rebellion ruine of the Church to introduce this Liberty and Moderation Extirpation of Monarchy Murder of Sacred Majesty in Person in Fame and in Effigie which last I saw with my Eyes in the Old Exchange where the Statue of the Martyr being pull'd down triumphant Treason was in golden Characters exalted and written in these words Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus Anno Libertatis Angliae primo Such a profanation of the Image of the Deity as all Kings are as it seems nothing but those dreadful flames which since laid it in ashes could purge and expiate and as the conclusion of all from hence sprung the model of the Republick The Custodes Libertatis Angliae The Keepers of the Liberties of England as in all their publick Instruments they falsely stil'd themselves AND that this was the natural and easie consequence or to speak in their Cant the Use of Exhortation and Encouragement is plain for it is lawful for all men to seek after Liberty especially of Conscience The People of these Nations are a freeborn People It is the greatest felicity and they the most happy People who may enjoy this Dear Liberty all men are bound to promote their own Happiness they cannot do too much to preserve it and if they do indeavour most stoutly and constantly to maintain it by War and Rebellion they do no more than their duty does command them The King was a Tyrant and under the notion of Prerogative did daily intrench upon the Peoples Priviledge and Liberty he had a design to enslave them The Commons were oppressed both in their Civil and Religious Rights The Parliament were the Peoples Representatives and from them had a power to defend their Liberties and that stoutly with Sword and Pistol Powder and Bullet and to call the King to an account and to judge him for these miscarriages as from Calvins own words I shall presently show The King had rendred himself unworthy to reign as from his words and Knoxes another of their fiery Doctors I shall shew Therefore they might in defence and for the preservation of their Dear Liberties especially Liberty of Conscience and Moderation and the Rights of the People make War against him for Preces Lachrymae the Prayers and Tears those ancient Arms of the Catholick Church are of no request or force with the Church of Geneva they might by the incouragement and prevalency of their prosperous villanies alter the establisht form of Government Civil and Ecclesiastical depose the King take away his Crown and Life banish his Successor and the whole Royal Family which was a favour some of them never intended for I have heard it confidently reported that it was hotly urged by some of those Barbarous Villains to put his Royal Highness the Duke of York Apprentice to some mean Mechanick Trade thereby to bring the utmost contempt and debasement upon that Illustrious Family and Person and in short this taught them to support the mischiefs they had done by doing greater and having murder'd the Possessor to seize upon his Inheritance JUDGE now O Heaven and Earth Ye Princes and all People how consistent this Doctrine is with the safety and security nay the very being of Monarchy and particularly with that of the English Nation A second Principle of Presbytury That Kings have no Divine Right but only from the Peoples Election or the Constitutions and Laws of the Nation A second Principle of Presbytery is That Kings have no divine Right to their Crowns but that the Peoples Election is the only true Title to them or which is as bad that only the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation give them their Right John Knox the Disciple of Calvin who like a Fireship of Rebellion set all Scotland into Combustions and treated Kings and Queens at that Imperious rate as if they had been his Subjects the first Founder of the Kirk Militant in a literal sense seems to have borrowed this from that Pest of Writers Buchanan or else
their Graves there cannot be many betwixt their being deposed brought to Tryal and Execution and therefore you shall see the Conclusion of the whole matter and what a certain Catastrophe unavoidably follows and must fall upon Princes from the former premises The Conclusion of the former Principles of Presbytery That Kings may be brought to Capital punishments THE last result of all their Positions may more properly be called a conclusion than a principle of Presbytery That Princes may be punished with Capital punishments and loss of Life as well as Dignity and Power I need not give my self the trouble or the Reader the Fatigue by a long proof of the truth of this horrible and tragical Assertion which is the natural and proper effect of the former Principles which you see bring a King to the Infamous Block from whence there is no instance of any Prince that ever returned alive They have done it themselves Vestigia nulla retrorsum must be the devilish policy of such procedures and their late actions are still so fresh in all mens Memories that it were an endless pain Infandos renovare Dolores to repeat them over again and the very rehearsal of such unexampled miseries when the breath of our Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their Pits Lament 4.20 of whom we said under his shadow we shall be safe and live among those Heathens would be so sensible an affliction as would be next to the suffering of them The deep Tragedy to the Eternal Infamy of the Villanous Actors was not done in a Corner or behind the Curtain but by a prodigious Excess of remorseless Impudence upon the publick Theater of the World and by the glorious Lamp of Heaven which with amazement beheld an Action to the Parallel of which his bright Beams had never before contributed their Assistance and I hope he will never see such another gloomy Day I am not willing to do that over again and by an Ingrateful task Copy over this Horrid Piece which has been so well and often done by others and particularly by Mr. Fowlis in his History of the Wicked Plots and Conspiracies of our pretended Saints to which Book if any persons can want satisfaction in these too well known Truths they may have recourse and there receive it in most ample measure from the Records and Evidences of the Actors themselves AND though I cannot think them so dangerous to the State whose Principles and natural subdivisions will crumble them into confusion yet must not the off-spring of Presbytery think to plead exemption from the guilt of being Antimonarchical or scape scot-free more than their Brethren in Iniquity of the Kirk The common saying has but too much truth in it to excuse them from the Plea of Not guilty That the Presbyterians brought the late King to the Scaffold and held him by the Hair whilst the Independants cut off his Royal Head For a short tast of their Natures and a little of this is enough to surfeit a Loyal Ear take the words of one of the Chief of them who pretends to be a great Friend to the Parliament Army and Congregational Churches but a greater to himself in concealing his name to one of the most Infamous Pamphlets that ever blotted Paper Printed by J.M. and Lodowick Lloyd and H. Cripps and sold at their Shops in Popes-Head Ally 1650. p. 57. which he Intitles One blow more at Babylon c. It is well known saith he that the late King was not Murdered by the Parliament but fell by the stroke of Justice and that so Legally and righteously administred for his bloody Crimes he became guilty of in the Face of Heaven that we doubt not but God was well pleased with it and will clear the inflicters of it if they keep their Integrity against all their Accusers and Condemners whatsoever HERE is a short Diagram of the Religion of Independency The King they say was guilty of bloody Crimes though never any one could be proved against him It was lawful for the Parliament to Question Judge and Condemn him this was Righteous and Legal Judgment and acceptable to God the taking away his life was not Murder but the stroke of Justice righteously administred All the misfortune is this man either was a false Prophet or God was not well pleased or the inflicters of this dismal stroke did not keep their Integrity for Divine vengeance by the miraculous and peaceable Restauration of the Gracious Son not only eagerly pursued but quickly overtook these villanous Murderers of the glorious Father and their Crimes were so publickly notorious and infamous to the whole world that they found not so much as a possibility of being clear'd against all their accusers and condemners or of the benefit of that general amnesty and pardon which speaks the Son as great and generous in forgiving as the unshaken Father was in suffering as some of their trayterous Heads still tell the World without a Tongue and make better speeches upon London bridge and the Prinnacles of the Parliament-House than ever they or any like them made within it whilest in their grinning Language they speak a terrible Talis eris to all Fire-brain'd Traytors and read a constant Lecture of Horror and Eternal Infamy to all perfidious and audacious Rebels who in those Monuments of Justice may see the inevitable destiny of Treason and Usurpation So that you may see Qualis Pater talis Filius Like Father Like Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Egg and Bird Independency the true though undutiful Son of Presbytery is as like it as if it had been spit out of its mouth but with this difference in the truth of the Case that the Presbyterians murthered the King the Independants only the Man As for the Anabaptist Leveller Quaker c. let Munster eternally complain of the first and England of them all The Rebel Army was a moving Amsterdam where it is said if a man has lost what he calls his Religion he may either find it or a new one every whit as good and most of these Sects and Opinions drew their Original from those Nurseties of Rebellious Saints and the People are like to be well tutor'd in Loyalty and the Principles of Allegiance who blinded by their bright pretences to light and sanctity commit themselves to the guidance and instruction of them scum and spawn of those trayterous Legions who are little inferior either in malice or design at least eventually to those who by the powerful command of divine humanity having quitted the miserable inhabitant of the Tombs enter'd by his permission into the prohibited Herd of the Gadarenes St. Mark cap. 32. for having once possest their followers and Disciples with their Devillish Doctrines they are not at quiet till they rush them violently down the steep Precipice of Rebellion to be drowned and swallowed up in the Ocean of Ruine and Confusion and the miseries we were so lately
being only from the People For it is not the Persons or Names but the superiority of the Authority against which this Faction of Geneva levels all its aims and though for the accomplishment of their ambitious designs which they vail over with the name of Religion they are pleased in words to vest the Parliament in the name of the People and as their Representatives with Authority both over Church and Crown Yet do they at the same time declare that all men of what degrees ranks or conditions soever must be subject to the Scepter of Christ which Scepter they say is committed to their hands So that here is a Yoke ready for the Neck of a Parliament whose intolerable heaviness has already discovered that it is none of Christs but of these Modern Scribes and Pharisees who lay heavy burthens upon other Men but by advancing themselves into the Chair of Supremacy will not touch them with one of their Fingers For these Saints who pretend to a power of binding Kings in Chains will without scruple so claim the honour of shackling the Nobles with Fetters of Iron That this is most certain will appear if we consider that a Parliament can pretend to no right to Government but a Monarch may do the same and upon far better grounds now you see how all their Doctrines vest the people with a Superiority over Monarchy the same Arts and Arguments which subject the Regal Authority to their Will and Jurisdiction must of necessity bring a Parliament within their Power and it is no more but a Mutato Nomine de te narratur fabula turn the Tables and they will play the same Game at the one as the other for if a King for opposing which they stile persecuting them and their seditious practices may be called in question Excommunicated deposed and deprived of his Royal Authority for the same Crimes a Parliament and the Government by Democracy may be altered abrogated and the several members of it may by the people be punished with loss of Life Estate and all other lesser punishments and disgraces And all this must be fathered upon the Good People who shall be flattered into a belief that they have the Supreme Authority when in truth a few it may be one leading politick Presbyters who shall have gained the Sovereignty over the inferior Clergy and by their means and the severities of their Discipline over all the populace who must of necessity have their heads tyed under their Uncanonical Girdles will have under Christ the whole management of all the affairs of Church and State and whoever will venture to dive to the bottom of the Lake of Geneva wil find the fifth Monarchy of the Church which the Papists have so long been setting up but by an Earthquake was tumbled in thither which the Presbyters are weighing up again in order to the new trimming it and putting in a better figure that so it may pass upon the Princes and People of the World under the Notion of the Scepter of Christ and that it is the defire of Sovereignty under the Colour of Religion at which they aim and to which whatsoever is an obstacle whether King Parliament Prelates Lords or Commons shall all be declared Antichristian and Unlawful Powers THE little respect they have shewn to all Parliaments that have opposed them demonstrates the little value they have either for those Honorable Assemblies or their Constitution and they who could pull down the House of Lords because it stood in their light and are so eager to dislimb the Parliament of the Lords Spiritual cannot in reason be supposed to esteem the lower House further than they frame to themselves a prospect that it may be serviceable to their present Interest I need not go back to fetch instances from former times either in Scotland or England of which I could produce a Cloud of Evidences the rude and insolent treatment which this present Parliament has met with from their blades of the Pen is a conviction beyond exception Nor would a new one of which they appear so fond receive any better entertainment at their hands unless to advance the slavery of the Nation in promoting their interest it should imbarque in their design A short view of their Tyrannick Consistorian Government BUT because some peoples ignorance of their intentions is in probability the reason why they admire this Government let me present them with a short view of it in its proper Colours without the shining varnish which they usually lay upon it to deceive the credulous and unwary THAT they are the true Sons of Ishmael whose hands are against all Men will in short appear if we consider their procedure against all sorts of people whom they indeavour to reduce to Obedience to Christ by the method of their Consistorian Discipline Over the Magistracy WE will begin with the Magistracy If they do not their duty in promoting the Holy Discipline by which name is meant Presbyterian Tyranny of Parochial Ministers and the Lay Elders over their Parishes of the Classis or Presbytery over their Division and of the yearly Assembly over the whole Nation or much more if they oppose it or establish any other Church Government they may and ought to be excommunicated deposed and punished and the rule is Universal as to all and all manner of Magistrates whether Kings Parliaments Judges Counsellors or other inferiour and subordinate Governours Now what is the duty of the Magistrate and whether he performs this duty as he ought what means ways and methods of Government are conducive to the Salvation of Men and the good of the Society in order to the establishment of the Kingdom of Christ they are the only Judges and though they pretend to follow the direction of the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures yet will they put their own Interpretation upon them which though manifestly contrary to the construction of the most learned men in all Ages and to the universal practice of the Church as is plain in the Case of Episcopal Government Yet herein must they be obey'd under pain of Excommunication and though nothing be more manifest that herein their Will is their Law yet must the Magistrate as well as the People submit to this Arbitrary Supremacy premacy which hereby is manifestly vested in the Presbytery as to direction ultimate Judgment and final determination and the secular Magistrate is no more but the Executioner of their Commands No Law can be binding which they declare contrary to the great design of promoting the Gospel though by seditions violence and tumults and this interest of the Gospel is in reality their own absolute Sovereignty No Obedience is due to the Magistrate further than they assure the People the things commanded are lawful To them may be made all appeals even from the highest Courts of Judicature So that down goes Magistracy and its Power or however must receive its limits bounds measures and rules of Government
help and assistance of their tumultuous Power the Leaders of Faction are exalted to Dignity Riches and Authority none are more Arbitrary and Imperious than the one or greater Slaves than the other For Asperius nihil est humili cum surgit in altum Exalted meanness still we see Proves the most rugged Tyranny And it can be nothing but their ill destiny in the common People of England who appear so inclinable to have a good esteem of these Ring-leaders of the Faction of Presbytery which blinds their Eyes with pretences of Sanctity from seeing that these People are the most malicious Enemies they have in the World who will not permit them quietly to enjoy that happiness which they do at present possess under a most peaceable and excellent Monarchy and Monarch but with the Witchcraft of Liberty of Conscience fears and jealousies of Popery and I know not what fine words to please Children and Fools they drill them still on towards the Confines of Rebellion into which if they do unluckily plunge them their Lives Liberties and Estates must either fall a Sacrifice to the offended and prevailing Justice of their exasperated Sovereign or become a prey to Ambitious Usurpation should they happen to be unfortunately victorious so that what side soever gets the better they are certain still to be losers and go by the worst For even those persons to whom they have made themselves a footstool to mount them into the supreme Power will be sure to keep them down and trample them underfoot lest they should turn to some other Party for the same Reasons and by the same Arts by which they before gained them to be of theirs there being nothing more certain which these men know well enough and that the People are never contented with their present condition than that a discontented Populace who have made no difficulty to shake hands with their Allegiance to their Lawful Prince will upon the least disgust wheel about either to their King again or to any other Power which speaks them fairest and bids most for their kindness by promises never intended to be kept AND if the Commons of England who are infected with this Lunacy of Presbytery will not be perswaded to believe this but that all their Prophets must have poor Cassandra's Fate Nunquam credita Teucris never to be credited when they speak the greatest truths it must be because to use their own word they are predestinated to Ruine according to the Adage Perdere quos vult Jupiter prius dementat Where Jove to ruine has design'd First he does always strike Men blind SO the Presbyterians first blind the common people with pretences of Piety and Liberty that they may more securely lead them either into certain Ruine or Democratique Slavery None so bold as blind Bayard is a great Proverb amongst the Countrymen I wish they could apply it to themselves and their present circumstances THAT the practice of these People carries a just proportion and exact correspondence respondence to these Principles all their former Actions have manifested beyond the possibility either of excuse or evasion It would be an ingrateful task to rip up all the transactions of the Late Times and it would be happy for us if they could be so buried in the Grave as well as with the Act of Oblivion as not to afford an Eternal precedent to succeeding Ages to dance a second Jigg to the same tune of these py'd Pipers as 't is said the Boyes and Girls of a City in Germany did after the Rat-Catcher till they lead them into the Gulph of Ruine and give occasion to date a new Aera Anno libertatis amissae though they should say as they did before restauratae But it is but too evident that the Presbyterian Anabaptist c. however in other things they differ'd as to Judgment yet they did all agree in the practice and though in the end they fell out amongst themselves and verified the Proverb That when Thieves fall out honest Men come by their own yet they were unanimous in the pursuance of those Principles and all the distances in the circumference of Religion met kindly together in the central point of Rebellion Nor were their odious practices any other thing but a manifest demonstration of their belief of this Doctrine That Kings are inferior to Parliaments and the People nay to the very fragments shreds and excrements of a Parliamentary Name That Subjects may take up Arms against them that they may enter into Leagues Covenants Combinations and associations against them and all the rest before-recited which I am tir'd with repeating IF the present Presbyterians c. are not of the same Judgment let them testifie to the World in a publick Manifesto and be ready to subscribe and confirm it with sacred Oaths that they do willingly renounce all these trayterous Positions and seditious Principles and Practices which is the least vindication they can make for themselves the smallest reparation they can make for the mischiefs they have done and the least satisfaction and assurance they can give to Authority that they will not do so again or indeavour it and let their actions go along with their words that we may believe them without which they are so low in Reputation by the monstrous breach of all their Promises Vows Protestations and solemn Oaths to the late King except the making him a glorious King that no person in his wits will now take their word any more so that they must get their Actions to become their Sureties for their good abearing towards the Kings Majesty and all his Liege People BUT instead of all this which is no more than if they mean honesty toward the Government they would willingly do they are taking a course by their present practice to manifest that they are still the same Men and as true to their Principles as steel or as Rebellion is to those Principles as if they were resolved to verifie the saying of a worthy Gentleman That men may possibly repent of Presbytery but Presbytery never yet repented of any thing And that they are plying their Sails and Oars for a second prize it is almost past time of day now to make a doubt do they not boldly print and spread abroad in publick their seditious Pamphlets Speeches Letters to their Friends from persons of Quality Benchers and God knows what who or where those are reflecting upon the Government the great Ministers of State the Learned Pious and Innocent Bishops not sparing even the King himself with which pocket Pistols hand Granadoes and Fire-balls of Rebellion they indeavour to murder the Government and set all into Flames and Combustion pestering the Country with those pernicious Pamphlets as the City is with their Writers the design of all which restless Indeavours and devilish Industry is only to delude the Subjects of these Nations by perswading them that they are upon the very brink of Slavery and Ruine to withdraw them from
that will satisfie them I appeal to their own practice when in Power That this is a great necessary and Universal Truth That Lawful Government is not to be disobeyed in Lawful Commands but that therefore the Violators of Laws especially the Principal ought for example and in terrorem to feel the force and penalties of those Laws they break since to be merciful to those few were to be cruel to the whole Body of the Society and to ruine the very Foundation of all Government For what was it that brought so many Noble Heads to the infamous Scaffold and some Ilustrious Lives to most ignominious Deaths was it not for transgressing their Ordinances opposing their Way Government and Usurpations in defence of the Ancient Establisht Fundamental Laws Priviledges Rights and Liberties both of the Prince and People What was Justice Prudence and of necessity to be done by them for the safety and support of their ill-gotten Dominion must much more be so now unless they can convince us that their Power was Lawful but the present is not which how good soever their will may be and though it appears to be what they believe and aim at yet they will never be able to prove by Law Reason or Religion and I hope they will never be in the Capacity to demonstrate it a second time by force and violence the rude and compulsive Logick of the Sword or Cannon Law Lastly it follows That this generation of Men the Presbyters with their Confederates are never to be trusted but upon the Demonstration of their sincere Repentance and Conversion attested by their Actions in regard that whosoever owns a Power Superior to his Prince does at the same time find an easie refuge and evasion against all the verbal Assurances he can give or that can be taken of him that he will be a good Subject For no person can oblige himself to an inferiour Power against the Right of a Superior for if a Country Justice of the Peace a Judge of Assise a Deputy or a Vice-Roy should exact any subscriptions or promises of fidelity from any Persons or by threatnings and severities compel them to give such to the prejudice of the King his Lawful Superior in Power there is no Person but knows that the one having no lawful Authority to require it nor the other to consent to give away the Right of his Prince over him all such Actions Promises c. must therefore be as null and void as if I should promise to give the City of London to the King of Spain THIS is the plain Case The King as with good reason for his own security and the safety of the publick he may expects assurances from these People they for fear of the Laws make some faint promises for an Oath of Allegiance to renounce their Trayterous Positions is too binding to be taken with this reserve That the Presbytery or Popular Authority is superior to the King and that therefore he has no just right to require such promises and assurances from them to the prejudice of that supreme Power nor they to give it away and that therefore they are not binding in foro Conscientiae but being prejudicial to the right of such a Power as may call him to an account and by the Grand Charter of Salus Populi both free them from all such Obligations and punish him for exceeding his limits by intrenching upon their native right of being a free-born People all such stipulations being forced and violent the effects of fear without the consent of the will are therefore null and void And their Actions speak this Language however their Tongues may sometimes seem to be of so ill breeding as to give them the Lye by protestations of great Kindness Love and I know not what to his Majesty and the Government of which they are in some humours prodigal enough only to deceive the credulous and cover their ill designs LET them not therefore think to deceive us by the smooth flatteries of soft words their usual blandishments and pretences of Innocence and that they mean us no more harm than they do their own Souls which is true in their sense for they would have us believe that it is much for our advantage to be setled upon the true Fond and Basis of Popular or Consistorian Supremacy If they do believe these Principles we cannot be too secure against their dreadful and necessary consequences and if they do not believe them let us see it in their Actions by a hearty submission to the King and his Laws and Government Ecclesiastical and Civil and let them never pretend the obstacle of Conscience for if they were as really tender against Rebellion as they are against Loyalty they might nay they must do this without prejudice to the most nice and scrupulous amongst them nor can they refuse to do it if they mean honestly and to keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and all Men. And if they persist in the refusal of giving this Authentique and only creditable testimony of their Innocence and Loyalty and continue obstinately in the old road of their former practices no person can judge but that they are still managed by the same desperate Principles and though it is easie to determine from their own methods upon all that opposed them when in Power what they deserve according to the strictness of the Lex Talionis yet I will not pretend to Prophecy what they will receive they know by Experience which ought to have had another effect upon them and not this dis-ingenuous encouragement which they have taken from it that our Government is mild and gentle and has not taken any of its measures towards them from their proceedings But this they may assure themselves that their actings are too hot to hold long and they drive on too furiously in their desperate designs the dust which rises in such Clouds will give notice that their Troops are upon a hasty march and that the Conspirators of the zealous Reformer Jehu that furious driver are mounted in the Chariot of Rebellion which is drawn by the wild Horses of Ruine and Confusion In short I desire that all Judicious Sober and considering persons will without prejudice and partiality weigh in the just ballance of sacred Truth and convincing Reason whether the fore-mentioned Principles do not infallibly lead to the fatal consequences which have been shewn and if I have not been able to accomplish so great an affair as clearly to demonstrate the truth of it the defect is in my understanding not in my will and therefore may be my affliction but can never be my Crime However I flatter my self with the hopes of having the pleasure to see this small Essay give encouragement to some other hand which is furnished with more ability better opportunities and advantages than my present circumstances will allow me to evidence the greatness of these necessary truths and to give finishing strokes to this piece which I have according to my talent only rudely designed and though to some it may possibly appear too rough and bold yet the Masters of the Pencil say that freedom is no fault where it draws to the Life The imperfections are my own and no person shall be more ready to charge me with them than I shall be not only to own them but to indeavour to correct and amend them and from how inconsiderable a Person soever it comes Saepè olitor est valdè opportuna locutus Fools and Children speak Truth nor is it or ought it to be less considerable because it comes from them yet let it be remembred That Presbyterian Popular Consistorian Supremacy is and ever will be the unchangeable irreconcilable Enemy of Monarchy Law Liberty Peace Property and the true Protestant Catholick Religion FINIS Some Books Printed and Sold by Jonathan Edwin at the three Roses in Ludgate street THE Countermine or a short but true discovery of the dangerous Principles and secret practices of the Dissenting Party especially the Presbyterians shewing that Religion is pretended but Rebellion is intended And in order thereto the Foundation of Monarchy in the State and Episcopacy in the Church are Undermined The true Liberty and Dominion of Conscience vindicated from the Usurpations and Abuses of Opinion and Perswasion