vocatis more daret populis Because this was the custome of the Kings of Scythia Assyria Aegypt c. long before Moses and Pharonaus when municipall lawes first began to give lawes unto their people according to the rules of naturall equity which by the law of nature they were all bound to observe And though some Kings did graciously yeeld and by their voluntary oathes for themselves and their successors binde themselves many times to stricter limits then were absolutely requisite as William Rufus King Stephen Henry the fourth Richard the third and the like granted many priviledges perhaps to gaine the favour of their Subjects against those which likely had a better title to the Crowne than themselves or it may be to satisfie their people as the guerdon or compensation for the sufferance of some fore-passed grievances as Henry the first Edward the second Richard the second and the like yet these limitations being agreeable to equity and consistent with Royalty and not forcibly extracted ought in all truth and reason to be observed by them And hence it is that the Kings of this Realme according to the oathes and promises which they made at their Coronation can never give nor repeale any law but with the assent of the Peeres and People But though they have thus yeelded to make no lawes nor to repeale any lawes without them yet this voluntary concession of so much grace unto the people doth no wayes translate the legislative power from the King unto his assistants but that it is formaliter and subiectivè still in the King and not in them else would the government of this Kingdome bee an Aristocracy or Democracy and not a Monarchy because the supreame power of making and repealing Lawes and governing or judging decisively according to those lawes Cassan in catal glorlamundi are two of those three things that give being to each one of these three sorts of government Therefore the King of England being an absolute Monarch in his owne Kingdome as Cassaneus saith and no man can deny it the legislative power must needs reside solely in the King 22 Ed. 3.3 pl. 25. Vid. The view of a printed booke entituled Observations c. where this point is proved at large p. 18 19 21 22. ut in subjecto proprio and the consent of the Lords and Commons is no sharing of that power but only a condition yeelded to be observed by the King in the use of that power and so both the Oath of Supremacy and the form of all our ancient Statutes wherein the King speakes as the Lawmaker doe most evidently prove the same unto us Le Roy voit Neither durst any Subjects in former times either assume such a power unto themselves or deny the same unto their King for you may finde how the House of Commons denying to passe the Bill for the pardon of the Clergy which Hen. 8. granted them when they were all charged to be in a Premunire unlesse themselves also might be included within the pardon received this answer from the King that he was their Soveraigne Lord and would not be compelled to shew his mercy nor indeed could they compel him to any thing else but seeing they went about to restraine him of his Liberty he would grant a pardon unto his Clergie by his great Seale without them Sir Rich. ◠in vita Her though afterwards of his owne accord he signed their pardon also which brought great commendation to his judgement to deny it at first when it was demanded as a right and to grant it afterward when it was received as of grace And yet the deniall of their assent unto the King is more equitable to them and lesse derogatory to him then to make orders without him and this manner of compulsion to shew grace unto themselves is more tolerable than to force him to disgrace and displace his most faithfull servants onely because others cannot confide in them when no criminall charge is laid against them And therefore for the Lords and Commons to make Orders and Ordinances without the King and in opposition to the King is a meere usurpation of the Regall power a nullifying of the Kings power and a making of the Royall assent which heretofore gave life to every law to be an empty piece of formality which is indeed an intolerable arrogancy in the contrivers of these Orders and the makers of these Ordinances a monstrous abuse of the Subjects and a plaine making of our good King to be somewhat like him in the Comedy a King and no King And where as no Subject and under favour be it spoken not the King himselfe after he hath taken his Oath at his Coronation is free from the observation of the established lawes yet they make themselves so farre above the reach of Law that they freed him which the Lord chiefe Justice Bramston had committed to Newgate for felony in stealing the Countesse of Rivers goods they hindered all men as we found in their journall from proceeding against Sir Thomas Dawes they injoyned the Judges by their orders to forbeare to proceed in their ordinary courses in the Courts of Justice contrary to the eaths of those Judges and some Parliament men came to the Bench to forbid the Judges to grant Habeas Corpuses which is as great an iniquity and as apparent an injustice as ever was done by any Parliament And that which is a note above Ela The most abominable wickednesse of these factious Rebels above all that could be spoken whereas the Law of God and man the bonds and obligations of civility and Christianity tie us all to be dutifull and obedient unto our King in all things either actively or passively and no wayes for no cause violently to resist him under the greatest penalties that can be devised here and damnation hereafter yet these men contrary to all Lawes doe injoyne us and compell us as much against our consciences as if they should compell us with the Pagan tyrants to offer Sacrifice unto Idols to war against our most gracious Soveraigne whom we from our hearts doe both love and honour and they proscrible us as malignants and as enemies to the Common wealth if we contribute not money horse and armes to maintaine this ungodly war Ps 50.22 August contra Faust l. 22. c. 75.76 and so become deadly enemies unto our owne soules O consider this yee that forget God lest for tearing us he teare you in pieces while there is none to helpe you for considering what the Apostle saith Rom. 13.1.2 And what Saint Augustine saith ordo naturalis mortalium paci accommodatus hoc poscit ut suscipiendi belli authoritas atque consilium penes Principem sit and lest men should thinke they ought by force of armes to resist their king for religion he answereth that objection by the example of the Apostles isti non resistendo interfecti sunt ut potiorem esse docerent victoriam pro fide
One of them uttered in a Taverne and God will avert it from his Servant That they would make the King as poor as Job Sober Sadnesse p. 22. unlesse he did comply with them 2. 2. Wrong If any man which they like not attend the Kings Person though he be his sworne servant or assist him in his just defence which he is bound to do by the Law of God and man yet he is presently voted and condemned for a Malignant popish disaffected evill Councellour and an enemie to the State and that is enough if he be catched to have him spoiled and imprisoned at their pleasure nay my selfe was told by some of that Faction that because I went to see the King I should be plundered and imprisoned if I were taken 3. 3. Wrong Though they do solemnly professe that his Majesties personall safetie and his royall honour and greatnesse are much dearer unto them than their own lives fortunes The Petition to his Majestie the 16. of July 1642. which they do most heartily dedicate shall most willingly imploy for the support maintenance thereof yet for all this hearty Protestation they had at that very time as the King most acourately observeth in his Answer directed the Earle of Warwicke to assist Sir John Hotham against him appointed thier Generals Non turpe est abeo vinci queÌ„ vincereest nesas neque ei inhonestè aliqueÌ„ submitti quem â—eâ—… super omnes extulit Dictum Armeâ—… Pompeio and as Alderman Garroway testifieth raised ten thousand armed men out of London and the neighbour Countries before the King had seven hundredâ— and afterwards though the King sent from Nottingham a gratious Message and sollicitation for peace yet they supposing this proceeded from a diffidence of his own strength or being too confident of thier own force sleighted the Kings Grace and most barbarously proceeded in the most hostile manner waged war and gave battaile against the Kings Armie where they knew he was in his own Person and as one of their Preachers taught the Sunday before the Battaile that they might with a good conscience as well kill the King horresco dicere as any other man so according to Captain Blagues directions as Iudas taught the high Priests servants we know what Troopes and Regiments were most aimed at whereas they doe most ridiculously say they have for the defence of his person sent many a Canon bullet about his eares which he did with that Kingly courage and heroike magnanimity yea and that Christian resolution and dependance on Gods assistance passe through that it shall be recorded to his everlasting honour and their indeleble shame and reproach so long as the world endureth 4. 4. Wrong They have most disloyally and traiterously spoken both privately and publikely such things against his Majesty as would make the very Heathens teare them in peeces that should say the like of their tyrannous Kings and such as I could not believe they proceeded from the mouth of a Christian against so Christiana King but that I finde most of them were publikely uttered made knowne unto his Majesty and related by himselfe and those that were eare witnesses thereof as horresco referens that he was not worthy to be our King not fit to live Sober sadnesse P 3 The Viewer p. 4. His Majesties Declaration Trussell in the supplement to Daniels history that hee was the traitor that the Prince would governe better and that they dealt fairely with him they did not depose him as their fore-fathers had deposed Richard the second whom all the world knoweth to be most traiterously murdered and the whole progresse of that act whereby hee was deposed is nothing else but the scandall of that parliament and an horrid treason upon the fairest relation of any Chronicle and the good Bishop of Carlile was not then affraid in open house to tell the Lords so to their faces and I would our parliament men would read his speech 5 They command their owne Orders 5. Wrong Ordinances and Declarations to be printed Cum privilegio and to be published in publike throughout the whole Kingdome and they are not a little punished that neglect it and whatsoever Message Answer Declaration or Proclamation commeth from the King to informe his subjects of the truth of things and to undeceive his much seduced people they streightly forbid those to bee printed and imprison if they can catch them all that publish them as they did many worthy Ministers in the City of London and in many other places of this Kingdome 6 They have publikely voted in their house and accordingly indeavoured by Messages to perswade our brethren of Scotland to ioyne in their assistance with these grand rebels 6. Wrong to rebell against their Soveraigne but I perswade my selfe as I said before that the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland are more religious in themselves more loyall to their liege Lord and indeed wiser in all their actions then while they may live quietly at home in a happy peace to undertake upon the perswasions of rebellious subiects such an unhappy warre abroad 7. It is remonstrated and related publikely that as if they had shaken off all subiection 7. Wrong and were become already a State independent they have treated by their agents with forraigne states and doe still proceed in that course which if true is such an usurpation upon Soveraignty as was never before attempted in this Kingdome and such a presumption as few men know the secret mischiefes that may lurke therein 8. They suffer and licence their Pamphleters Pryn 8. Wrong Goodewin Burges Marshall Sedgwicke and other emmissaries of wickednesse to publish such treasons and blasphemies and abominable aphorismes as that the negative vote of the King is no more then the dissent of one man the affirmative vote of the King makes not a law ergo the negative cannot destroy it and the like absurd and senslesse things that are in those aphorisms and in Prins booke of the Soveraigne power of Parliament whereby they would deny the kings power to hinder any act that both the Houses shall conclude and so taking away those iust prerogatives from him that are as hereditary to him as his kingdome compell him to assent to their conclusions Why the two â—… Spencers dyed for which things our histories tell us that other Parliaments have banished and upon their returnes they were hanged both the Spenters the father and the sonne for the like presumption as among other Articles for denying this Prerogative unto their king and affirming that if he neglected his duty and would not do what he ought Per asperte vid. Elismere postâ—…atip 99. for the good of the kingdom he might bee compelled by force to performe it which very thing divesteth the king of all Soveraignty overthroweth Monarchy and maketh our government a meer Aristocracy contrary to the constitution of our first kings and the iudgement of all ages
for we know full well from the practise of all former parliaments that seeing the three States are subordinate unto the king p. 48 in making lawes wherein the chiefest power consisteth they may propound and consent but it is stil in the kings power to refuse or ratifie and I never read that any parliament man till now did ever say the contrary but that if there be no concurrence of the king in whom formally the power of making of any law resideth ut in subiecto to make the law the two Houses whose consent is but a requisite condition to compleat the kings power are but a livelesse convention like two cyphets without a figure that of themselves are of no value or power but ioyned unto their figures have the full strength of their places p 19 20 21 which is confirmed by the viewer of the Observations out of 11. Hen. 7.23 per Davers Polydore 185. Cowell inter Verbo prerog Sir Tho. Smith de republ Angl. l. 2. c. 3. Bodin l. 1. c. 8. for if the kings consent were not necessary for the perfecting of every act then certainly as another saith all those Bills that heretofore have passed both Houses The Letter to a Gentleman in Gloucester shite p 3 and for want of the Royall assent have slept and beene buried all this while would now rise up as so many lawes and statutes and would make as great confusion as these new orders and ordinances have done And as the Lawyers tell us that the necessity of the assent of all three states in Parliament Lamberts Archeion 271. Vid. he Viewes p. 21. is such as without any one of them the rest doe but loose their labour so Le Roy est assentus câ—o faict un act de Parliament and as another saith Nihil ratum haâ— betur nisi quod Rex comprobarit nothing is perfected but what the King confirmeth But here in the naming of the three States I must tell you that I find in most of our Writers about this new-borne question of the Kings power a very great omission that they are not particularly set downe that the whole Kingdome might know which is every one of them and upon this omission I conceive as great mistake in them that say the three States are 1. the King 2. the House of Peeres 3. Which hee the three States of England the House of Commons for I am informed by no meane Lawyer that you may find it upon the Rowles of Hen. 5. as I remember and I am sure you may find it in the first yeare of Rich. 3. where the three States are particularly named and the king is none of them for it is said that at the request Speed l 9 c 19 p. 712. Anno 1 Ric. 3 and by the assent of the three estates of this Realm that is to say the Lords Spirituall the Lords temporall and Commons of the Land assembled it is declared that our said Soveraign Lord the king is the very undoubted king of this realm wherein you may plainly see the king that is acknowledged their Soveraigne by all three can be none of the three but is the head of all three as the Deane is none of the Chapter but is caput cepituls and as in France and Spaine so in England I conceive the three estates to bee 1. the Lords Spirituall that are if not representing yet in loco in the behalte of all the Clergie of England that till these anabaptisticall tares have almost choaked all the Wheat in Gods field were thought so considerable a party as might deserve as well a representation in Parliament as old Sarum or the like Borough of scarce twenty Houses 2. The Lords Temporall in the right of their honour and their posterity 3. The Commons that are elected in the behalfe of the Countrey Cities and Burroughs and what these three States consult and conclude upon for the good of the Church and kingdome the king as the head of all was either to approve or reiect what he pleased and though we finde with some difficulty as the viewer of the Observations saith where the Parliament is said to be a body consisting of King Lords and Commons ergo without the king there is no Parliament yet herein the king is not said to be one of the three states but the first and most principall part that constitutes the body of the parliament p. 2â— 25. H 8 21. but John Bodin that had very exactly learned the nature of our parliament both by his reading and conferring with our English Embassador as himselfe confesseth saith the States of England are never otherwise assembled no more then they are in the Realmes of France and Spaine then by parliament write and the states proceed not but by way of supplications and requests unto the king Bodin de repub l. 1. c. 8 and the states have no power of themselves to determine or decree any thing seeing they cannot so much as assemble themselves nor being assembled depart without expresse commandement from the king In all this and for all the search that I have made I finde not the king named to be one but rather by the consequence of the discourse to bee none of the three but as I said the head of all the three states for either the words of Bodin must bee understood of two states in all the three kingdomes which then had beene more properly termed as we call them either the two Houses or the Lords and Commons or else they must be very absurd because the three states if the king be one of them can not bee said to be called by parliament writs when as the king is called by no writ nor can hee be said to supplicate unto himselfe or to have no power to depart without leave that is of himself Therefore it must needs follow that this learned man who would speake neither absurdly nor improperly meant by the three states 1. The Lords Spirituall 2. The Lords Temporall 3. The Commons of the kingdome and the King as the head of all calling them consulting and concluding with them and dismissing them when he pleased And Will. Martyn saith King Hen 1 at the same time 1114. devised and ordained the manner and fashion of a Court in Parliament appointing it to consist of the three estates of which himselfe was the head so that his lawes being made by the consent of all were not disliked of any these are his words And I am informed by good Lawyers that you may finde it in the preambles of many of our Statutes and in the body of some other Statutes and in some Petitions especially one presented to Queene Elizabeth for the inlargement of one that was committed for a motion that he made for excluding the Bishops out of the House of peeres Such is the difference betwixt Queene Elizabeths time and our times the three states are thus particularized and the Lords Spirituall are nominated
the first of the three and are termed one of the greatest states of this realme And this I conceive to be the right constitution of a Parliament therefore now to cast off one of the three States Anno octavo Elizabeth c. 1. and to cut off the head of all three by making the King but one of them that so both the King and the two Houses might be onely co-ordinate when as indeed they are as in some respect concurrent so also subordinate unto him as to their Head is such a change and alteration as would quite overthrow the fundamentall constitution of the Government of this Kingdome and make our King if these men might have their will to have no more power than the Duke of Venice And to that end this Faction have by themselves and their Pamphleters The false grounds of the originall of our Kings The disclaimer p. 17 18 19. laid down such false grounds of the originall of our Kings as are exceeding derogatory to the Crown of England as that they are Kings by paction and covenant with their people which at first chose them and intrusted them with their Government and for the preservation of their Lawes against the incroachments of the King and the making of new Lawes as occasions required ordained the great Councell which they call Parliament and which should have full power to restrain the King if he did abuse his Power and therefore the people may withdraw their trust when the Kings neglect their duty and nullifie their faith unto their Subjects for whosoever is indifferently read in Histories and the Chronicles of our Kingdom may easily finde how falsly and maliciously they would make this free Monarchie to have been elective and to be a conditionall Government because England France Post mortem Maximi Constans postular mi à Britannis But not a word in all the storie that any one of the British Kings was electus Anonymus MS. in Bibl. Oxon. qui scripsit hist omnium regum qui regna verunt in Anglia and Spain were parts and parcels of the Roman Empire and when the Emperours by reason of their intestine broyles at home could not look into the parts abroad the right Heit unto the Crown of Britain assumed unto himselfe all the Royaltie and power that the Emperour had over us and succeed him not by any pact or covenant with the people though not as then for some reasons without the request of the people but by that right which God and nature allowed unto Kings and was due either to the Roman Emperour or to any other absolute Monarch of any Nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the old Chronicles of those 〈…〉 the regaining of the Crown by Vortigerne after that the people had rebelliously rejected him and received but not elected his son Vortimer in his place do most sufficiently clear the case And therefore what Soveraigne Power soever is due to any absolute Monarch and what obedience soever S. Paul affirmeth to be due to the Roman Emperours that then ruled over us or Saint Peter commandeth to be given to other Kings the same is in all things due to our Kings ever since Aurelius Ambrosius that succeeded Vortigerne or if you will not ascend so high yet without all contradiction ever since William the Conquerour whom you cannot say was elected nor any other that succeeded him and therefore cannot be debarred or denied any of those Prerogatives and Soveraignties that belong unto the most absolute Monarch save onely in those things which of their speciall grace and favour they granted unto their Subjects and bound themselves at their Coronation to performe those promises of priviledge and freedom which they made unto them and that distinction of the disclaimer of an absolute and a Politique Monarch P. 17 18 19 20. with his two leaves discourse upon the same is so false and so frivolous that as Saint Bernard saith of the fooleries of Abailardus it deserveth rather Fustibus contundi quà m rationibus refelli Aristot. Polyt l. 4. for Aristotle tels us that the supreme Power of all Government which resideth in every absolute Monarch and doth constituere Monarcham give being unto the Monarch consisteth chiefly in these three distinct branches 1. The supreme power of every Government wherein it consisteth Legislative to make and repeal Lawes 2. Bellative to pronounce War and conclude Peace 3. Iudicative decisively to determine all crimes and causes whatsoever And when this threefold power is not penes annus but penes optimates then it is no Monarchis but an Aristocracie and when it is penes populum then it is neither of those but a meer Democracie or popular Government And therefore out Kings having the sole power first to make War and conclude Peace at their own pleasure and have called Parliaments onely to supply their wants and to adde their councell and assistance therein Secondly to make Lawes and repeal them when they please save onely that they promised to their People and obliged themselves not to do it without the advice of their Parliament And thirdly to judge all their Subjects according to their Lawes it is most apparent that our Kings are most absolute Monarches as Cassaneus Bodinus Sir Thomas Smith and all that wrote of this Kingdom do peremptorily affirme and though I deny not Bodius distinction of a Lordly Monarch a royall Monarch and a tyrannicall Monarch Bod. l. 2. c. 2. 3. which sheweth onely the Power and the Practise of the Monarch yet I say that the distinction of an absolute and mixed Monarchie which designeth the manner of the Government is a meer fopperie and a ridiculous distinction because that Government which extendeth it selfe to more than one can never be a Monarchie as every man knoweth that understandeth the word Monarch These and many more such injuries and insufferable indignities they have offered unto our King and so indeed unto the whole Kingdom which they durst not have offered to any tyrannicall King that would have ruled them with his iron rod but as the mercie of God emboldeneth wicked men to proceed in their abominations so the lenitie and goodnesse of this pious Prince nothing else in him encouraged these factious ambitious men the people greedy of a licentious libertie the Nobilitie and Gentrie of rule which is their naturall disease thus to usurpe the rights of our King and to raise this miserable war CHAP. XII Sheweth the unjust proceedings of this Faction against their fellow Subjects set down in four particular things 2. 2. Their proceedings against the Subjects wherein I shall in most points set down what I finde in the Remonstrance of the Commons to the House of Commons and what I collected out of other Writers of the best credit LEst they should be thought juster to their fellow Subjects than they are to their Severalgue King you may observe what I finde related of them 1. That besides the Act which they
as unreasonable and as senslesse a Priviledge as ever was challenged and was never heard of till this Parliament for why should any man refuse his Triall or the House deny their Members to the justice of the Law when as the deniall of them to be tried by the Law implyeth a doubt in us of the innocencie of those whom we will not submit to justice and their Triall would make them live gloriously hereafter if they were found innocent and move the King to deliver those men that had so wickedly conspired their destruction to the like censure of the Law But for them to cry out The King is misinformed and We dare not trust our selves upon a Triall may be a way to preserve their safetie but with the losse of their reputation and perhaps the destruction of many thousands of people If they say they are contented to be tried but by their own House which in the time of Parliament is the highest Court of justice it may be answered said a plain Rustique with the old Proverbe Aske my fellow if I be a thief for mine own part I reverence the justice of a Parliament in all other judgements betwixt partie and partie yea betwixt the King and any other Subject yet when the partie accused shall be judged by his own Societie his Brethren and his own Faction I believe any indifferent Judge would see this to be too great partialitie against the King that he shall not have those whom he accuseth to be tried by the Lawes already established and the ordinary course of Justice and if the Iudges offend in their sentence the Parliament hath full power undenied them by his Majestie to question and to punish those Judges as they did for that too palpable injustice as they conceived in the case of the Ship money but they will be judged by themselves and all that dissent from them must be at their mercie or destruction And yet it is said to be evident that no Priviledge can have its ground or commencement unlesse it be by statute grant or prescription and by the stat 26. Hen. 8. cap. 13. it is enacted that no offender in any kinde of high Treason shall have the priviledge of any manner of Sanctuarie so all the Grants of such a priviledge if any such should be made are meerly void 1. Hen. 7. Staffords case and not one instance could hitherto beproduced whereby such a Priviledge was either allowed or claimed but the contrary most clearly proved by his Majestie out of Wentworths case And therefore seeing your own Law-bookes tell us that the Priviledge of Parliament doth not extend to Treason the breach of the Peace and as some thinke against the Kings debt it is apparent how grossely they do abuse the People by this claim of the Priviledge of Parliament 4. 4. Conniving with their Faction for any fault When they connive with their own compeeres for any breach of priviledge as with Master Whitakers for searching Master Hampdens pockets and taking away his papers immediately after the abrupt breaking up of the last unhappy Parliament and those that discovered the names of them that differed in opinion from the rest of the Faction in the businesse of the Earle of Strafford and specially with that rabble of Brownists and Anabaptists which with unheard of impudencie durst aske that question publiquely at the Barre who they were that opposed the well affected partie in that House as if they meant to be even with them whosoever they were and likewise that unruly multitude of zealous Sectaries that were sent as I finde it by Captain Ven and Isaac Pennington to cry Justice Justice Justice and No Bishops no Bishops and this to terrifie some of the Lords from the House and to awe the rest that should remain in the House as they had formerly done in the case of the Earle of Strafford and when others that they like not are for the least breach of pretended Priviledge either imprisoned or expelled for I assure my selfe there cannot be higher breaches of Priviledges than these be nor greater stainec to obscure the honour and vilifie the repute of this Parliament 5. 5. The ingaging one another in civill causes When there is such siding and ingaging one another in civill causes that they may be conglutinated together for their great Designe to do things not according unto justice but for their own ends contrary to all right and their favour is scarce worth the charge of attendance to them that speed best by their Ordinances but the complaint is that men have the greatest injuries done them in this that themselves call the highest Court of Justice which others say hath now justified all other inferiour Courts and made all unrighteous judges most just 6. 6. The surreptitious carrying of businesses When as we have been informed a matter of the greatest importance hath been debated and put unto the question and upon the question determined and the Bill once and again rejected yet at another time even the third time when the Faction had prepared the House for their own purpose and knew they could carry it by most voyces the same question hath been resumed and determined quite contrary to the former determination when the House was more orderly convened as it is said they did to passe the Ordinance for the Militia which many men dare avouch to their faces to be no Priviledge of Parliament but a great abuse of their fellow Members and a greater injurie unto all their fellow Subjects 7. 7. Their partiall questioning of some men and not questioning of some others When the elections of some of their Members have been questioned and others have been accused for no lesse than capitall crimes as Master Griffith was yet if these men incline and conspire with this Faction to confirme those positions which they proposed to themselves to overthrow the Church and State and to uphold their usurped Government and tyrannicall Ordinances they will pretend twenty excuses as the great affaires of the State the multiplicitie of their businesses the necessitie of procuring monies the shortnesse of their time though they sate almost three yeares already that they have no leisure to determine these questions which in truth they do purposely put off least they should leese such a friend unto their partie but when any other which dissenteth from their humours doth but any thing contrary to the straitest Rules of the House they do presently notwithstanding all their greatest affaires call that matter into question and it must be examined and followed with that eagernesse as in my Lord Digby's case that he must be forthwith condemned and excluded The L. Digby in his Apolog. for we say this cannot be any just priviledge but an unjust proceeding of this Parliament 8. When they delegate their power to some men to do some things of themselves without the rest 8. The delegating of their power to particular men as it
seemes they did unto Master Pym when an Order passed under his sole teste for taking away the Rayles from the Communion Table for this is a course we never heard of in former times 9. 9. The multiplying of their Priviledges When their Priviledges are so infinitely grown and inlarged more than ever they were in former Parliaments and so swelled that they have now swallowed up almost all the priviledges of other men so that they alone must do what they please and where they will in all Cities and in all Courts because they have the Priviledge of Paliament 10. When according to the great libertie of language 10. Their speaking and sâ—…ing in other Courts which we deny them not within their own wall they take the Priviledge to speak what they list in other places and to governe other Courts as they please where as they did in Dublin and do commonly in London they sit as Assistants with them that are priviledged by their Charters to be freed from such Controllers 11. When above all that hath been or can be spoken 11. Their close Committee they have made a close Committee of safetie as they call it which in the apprehension of all wise and honest men is not onely a course most absurd and illegall but also most destructive to all true Priviledges and contrary to the equitable practice of all publique meetings that any one should be excluded from that which concerneth him as well as any of the rest and this Committee onely which consisteth of a very few of the most pragmatical Members of their House must have all intelligences and privie counsels received and reserved among themselves and what they conclude upon must be reported to the House which must take all that they deliver upon trust and with an implicite Roman faith believe all that they say and assent to all that they do onely because these forsooth are men to be confided in upon their bare word The greatnesse of this abuse when their House hath no power to administer an Oath unto any man in the greatest affaires happinesse or destruction of the whole Kingdom for this is in a manner to make these men Kings more than the Roman Consuls and so as great a breach of Priviledge and abuse of Parliament as derogatory to his Majestie that called them to consult together and as injurious to all the people as can be named or imagined CHAP. XIV Sheweth how they have transgressed the publike lawes of the Land three wayes and of foure miserable consequences of their wicked doings 2. 2. Against the publike laws of the land FOr those publike written and better known laws of this Land they have no lesse violated and transgressed the same than the other and that aswell in their execution and exposition as in their composition for 1. 1. In the execution of the old lawes When they had caused the Archbishop of Canterbury to be committed to the Tower Judge Berkeley to the Sheriffe of London sir George Ratcliffe to the Gate-house for no lesse crimes than high Treason and many other men to some other prisons for some other faults yet all the world seeth how long most of them have beene kept in prison some a yeare some two some almost three and God onely knoweth when these men intend to bring them to their legall tryall which delay of iustice is not only an intolerable abuse to the present subiects of this kingdome to be so long deprived of their liberty upon a bare surmise but also a far greater iniury to all posterity when this president shall be produced to be imitated by the succeeding Parliaments and to iustifie the delayes of all inferiour Iudges 2. 2 In expounding the lawes Whereas wee believe what judge Bracton saith and Judge Britton likewise which lived in the time of Edward the first Si disputatio oriatur justiciarii non possunt eam interpretari sed in dubiis obscuris Domini regis erit expectanda interpretatio voluntas cum ejus sit interpretari cujus est condere Citatur a Domino Elism in post-nati p. 108 if any dispute doth arise the Judges can not interpret the same but in all obscure and doubtfull questions the interpretation and the will of the King is to be expected when as he that makes the law is to bee the expounder and interpreter of the law yet they have challenged and assumed to themselves such a power that their bare Vote without an act of Parliament may expound or alter a knowne law which if it were so they might make the law as Pighius saith of the Scripture like a nose of wax that may bee fashioned and bended as they pleased but we doe constantly maintaine that the House of Commons hath no power to adjudge of any point or matter but to informe the Lords what they conceive and the House of Peeres hath the power of Iudicature which they are bound to doe according to the rules of the knowne established lawes and to that end they have the Judges to informe them of those cases and to explaine those lawes wherein themselves are not so well experienced though now they sit in the House for cyphers even as some Clergie did many times in the Convocation and if any former Statute be so intricate and obscure that the Iudges cannot well agree upon the right interpretation thereof then as in explaining Poynings Act and the like either in England or Ireland the makers of the Act that is the King and the major part of both Houses must explaine the same 3. 3. In composeing and setting forth new laws Whereas we never knew that the House had any power to make Orders and Ordinances to bind any besides their own members to observe them as lawes yet they compell us to obey their orders in a stricter manner than usually we are injoyned by Law and this course to make such binding ordinances as they doe to carry the force though not the name of an Act of Parliament or a Law is a mighty abuse of our lawes and liberties for Sir Edward Cooke tels us plainly that as the constitution of our Government now standeth neither the House of Commons and the King L. Cooke in the preface of the Stat. of Westminster the second Lamberts Archeton 27.1 can make any binding law when the Peeres dissent nor the Lords and King when the Commonalty dissenteth nor yet both Houses without the Kings consent but all three King Peeres and Commons must agree before any coactive law can be composed Nay more it is sufficiently proved that dare jus populo or the legislative power being one principall end of regall authority was in Kings by the law of nature while they governed the people by naturall equity long before municipall lawes or Parliaments had any being for as the Poet saith Remo cum fratre Quirinus jura dabat Virgilius Hoc Priami gestamen erat cum jura
THE DISCOVERY OF MYSTERIES OR The plots and practices of a prevalent faction in this present PARLIAMENT To overthrow the established Religion and the well setled Government of this glorious Church and to introduce a new framed Discipline not yet agreed upon by themselves what it shall be to set up a new invented Religion patched together of Anabaptisticall and Brownisticall Tenents and many other new and old errors And also To subvert the fundamentall Lawes of this famous Kingdome by devesting our King of His just rights and unquestionable Royall prerogatives and depriving the Subjects of the propriety of their goods and the Liberty of their persons and under the name of the Priviledge of Parliament to exchange that excellent Monarchicall government of this Nation into the Tyrannicall Government of a faction prevaling over the major part of their well-meaning brethren to Vote and Order things full of all injustice oppression and cruelty as may appeare out of many by these few subsequent collections of their proceedings By GR. WILLIAMS L. Bishop of Ossory Printed in the Yeare M.DC.XLIII TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTIE Most Gracious Soveraigne THough the wisest man in all the Kingdome of Persia saith great is the truth and stronger then all things yet the father of lies hath now plaid his part so well that as the Prophet saith truth is fallen in the streete and equity cannot enter in and your Majestie whom the God of truth hath anointed his sole vicegerent to be the supreame protector of them both in all your dominions hath accordingly listed up your standard against their enemies and I may truly say of you as Menevensis saith of that most noble King Alfred Si modò victor erat ad crastina bella pavebat Si modò victus erat ad crastina bella parabat Neither doe I beleive that Lucans verse can be applied to any man better then to your Majestie Non te vidère superbum Prospera satorum nec fractum adversa videbunt As the height of your glory and prosperity never swelled your pious heart so your greatest crosses and adversities never dejected your royall spirit But as the Prophet saith of the Captaine of the hoast of the Lord so I say to you that are his Lieutenant ride on with your honour or ride prosperously because of the word of truth of meekenesse and righteousnesse the people shal be subdued unto you and because the King putteth his trust in the Lord and in the mercy of the most highest he shall not miscarry especially while he fighteth as he doth the battaile of the Lord in defence of the Church of Christ who hath promised to be his shield and buckler which is the daily faithfull prayer of Your Majesties most loyally devoted Subject and most faithfully obliged servant GR. OSSORY To the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of ENGLAND Most deare Christian Brethren and fellow Subjects I Call God for a record upon my soule that I have proceeded in this Discovery of Mysteries to discharge my duty as my conscience directeth me and if I perish Iperish the Lord hath hitherto most mercifully preserved mee I have read of an ingratefull begger that when a pious man seeing his nakednesse and having a full web of cloth did freely give him as much as was requisite to make him a faire garment yet he was no wayes satisfied therewith but would have violently snatched all the web in despite of the right owners teeth and shall we that have so freely received so many acts of grace from our King more then ever any other King hath granted exact so much more as to make him no King In the life of Henry 3. presented to King Iames pag. 29. Choron Santh Albam or a King of no power like Henry the 3. in the Parliament at Oxford where the good King met so many undutifull demands that he was forced to render up to their rebellious will his royall power and when others managed the State he was left a cypher alas who hath bewitched us when men do rent the regall justice they make themselves of so many Subjects whilst they live in duty totidem tyrannos when they have left their loyalty and promises made by men which can not say they are at liberty are weake when force hath no power to make a just interest Therefore let not a faction prevaile to destroy us all I assure my selfe most of our two Houses of Parliament are very noble and very pious and many of them would willingly yeild to His Majesties perswasions for accōmodation but our Saviour saith a little leaven leaveneth the whole lumpe and a small faction may insensibly seduce if it were possible the very elect I will appeale to your owne consciences if we have not a most religious and a most gratious King if he hath not aboundantly granted his favours to all this Kingdome if the faction doth not still demand what he may lawfully and ought justly to deny then I beseech you let me not become your enemy for speaking truth let not the kingdome be made more miserable and the Church more despicable by your assisting of such a faction to the new moulding of them and let it not be thought strange that we beleeve one seditious schismatique in a Parliament may prove a treacherous rebell against his King and this Traytor may possibly seduce many those many not unlikely to prevaile to infect the major part of both Houses and if so * Shall we deeme them a Parliament and thinke it fitter to have them Jvdged by themselves then by the knowne lawes of the land then the first plotters of so great a mischeife having so far transcended the limits of truth and justice to wound their consciences and to confound the State that they know not how to retire and thinke they can not finde grace is it any wonder that such men with Iudas run on from bad to worse from worse to worst of all till at last they come to the highest step that hell can teach them But we being Gods olive though some of the Branches be broken off Rom. 11.17 yet I hope God hath not cast away his people and therefore if you take not pleasure in wickednesse and love not to become more miserable let us all feare God honour the King forsake the rebels and defend the Church so the God of all mercy will yet be mercifull unto us that we shall finde grace both with God and our King which is the hearty prayer of Your most affectionate Christian brother that doth most heartily wish your happinesse GR. OSSORY Christian Reader AS this Treatise was ready for the Presse I lighted upon Os ossorianum wherein I saw neither learning nor truth nor modesty nor honesty nor any one thing worth reply but a most distempered rage and moody choler that transported the silly man beyond his sence for omitting those his rarest passages which some discreete welwiller of the man collected in
thing they say they get many of them to be accused of High-Treason and they doe but accuse them and not proceed to any tryall against them which was a pretty plot of their policie because that hereby they kept them and the rest of their fellow Judges that had any finger in the missentenceing of the Ship-money and were therefore in the same predicament and to be under the same censure under the lash and to be still silent for very feare of their proceeding against them for they saw by many presidents that those men which favoured their designe or contradicted not their wayes were winked at by this Faction though they were the greatest Delinquents and therefore redimere se captos to free themselves out of the hands of these men they might conceive it their safest course to gain-say none of their conclusions which was a plot of no small value to further their designe by this removall of this second impediment 3. The third impediment of their designe The third let that stood in their way to make stop of their impious designe was the royall power to dissolve the present Parliament as formerly to dissolve any other which they knew to be an inseperable flower of the Crowne timor undique nostris this brought them in feare on every side lest if they were too soone discovered they might suddainly be prevented and their plot might prove abortive like the untimely fruit of a woman that perisheth before it seeth the Sun or as the apples of Sodome vanishing when they are touched into nothing or at the best but to stinking blasts therefore to escape this rocke they saile about and like cunning water-men they looke towards you when they row from you their eyes and mouthes are one way when their hearts and mindes are another way for they tell the King that the discontinuance of Parliaments hath produced aboundance of distempers in this State and a world of grievances both in the Church and Common-wealth besides they say The faire pretences for the continuance of he Parliament what the King and every man else saw to be true that the Scots were entred into our Land and setled in the bosome of this Kingdome and though perhaps if some things had beene better looked into we mought at first most easily have kept them out yet now duriùs ejicitur quà m non admittitur hostis it was too late to shut the doore and it is not so easie to expell and drive them out except we made them a bridge of gold to passe over the river and so to goe homewards againe And this cannot be done without a great deale of money which moneys though the Parliament should grant them as we are most willing to doe to free your Majestie from these guests and to prevent the dangers of an intestine warre yet they cannot suddenly be levyed and collected as the times and occasions now required therefore it must be borrowed to supply our present necessities and lenders we shall finde none except we can shew them a way how they shall be repaid againe and the experience we have lately had in these latter yeares of so many Parliaments so unhappily suddenly dissolved puts us out of all hope to finde any way to secure their debts except your Majestie will passe an Act for as yet they durst not say they needed not His assent to what they did that this Parliament shall not be dissolved untill it be agreed upon by the consent of both Houses This and the like were their faire pretences How the King was seduced by their pretences like the Syrens voices very sweet and very good and the good King that ever spake as he thought could not thinke that His great Councell whom He trusted with all the affaires of His Kingdome meant any otherwise then they said or looked any further then they shewed Him Hee never dream'd that they intended to have an everlasting Parliament and so perfidiously to over-reach both the King and the Kingdome But though our gracious King being not so much versed with the dissembling subtilty and serpentine windings of wicked hypocrites that are to be removed from the King and expelled out of His house supposed all them to meane syncerely and to deale fairely as they seemed to doe yet I doe admire that the wisedome of the Kings Councell but that they which as the Apostle saith are not ignorant of the devices of Satan are not permitted by these men to be of His Councell could not espie what mischiefe might lurke under this faire shade or what might be the consequences of such a Parliament that is inconsistent with a Monarchy and therefore must in a convenient time be ended or else will make an end of all Monarchicall government why then might not a yeare or two or three or more so the yeares were limited suffice to determine all businesses but that the life of this Parliament should be endlesse and the continuance thereof undetermined this is beyond the age of the Councell of Trent that they say lasted above 40 yeares for I presume if some of the contrivers of this designe might have their desires the youngest of us should hardly see the Dissolution of this Parliament What the faction could be contented with Complaint p. 19. till the earthly Houses of our Tabernacles be dissolved for it is likely they could be well contented as one saith to make an Ordinance that both Houses should be a Corporation to take our lands and goods to themselves and their successours and when any of that Corporation dieth toties quoties the surviver and none else should choose a successour to perpetuity so they should be Masters of our estates and disposers of all we have as they are now for ever and therefore this was a plot beyond the powder plot and beyond the device of Semiramis that with a lovely face desired her husband she might rule but 3 dayes to see how well she could mannage the State and obtaining her request in the first thereof she removed all the Kings officers in the second she placed her owne minions in all the places of power and authority as now the faction would doe such as they confide in The plot of Semiramis in all places of strength and in the third day she cut off the Kings head and assumed the government of all the Kings Dominions into her owne hands for not 3 dayes nor 3 yeares will serve their turne for feare they shall not have ability in so short a space to finish all their strange intended projects and therefore that they might not be hindered their request is unlimited that the Parliament should not be dissolved till both Houses gave consent which they were contented should be ad Graecas Calendas Yet God that knew best what punishments were due to be inflicted for their former actions and for all the subtle devices of their hard hearts gave way for this also that this third Impediment of
their projects might be removed that so at last their sinnes like the sinnes of the Amorites by little and little growing unto the full might undergo the fulnesse of Gods vengeance which as yet I feare was not fully come to passe for till the Parliament was made perpetuall the things that they have done since were absolutely unimaginable because that while it was a dissoluble body How the faction hath strengthened it selfe they durst not so palpably invade the knowne rights either of King or Subjects whereas now their body being made indissoluble they need not have the same apprehension of either having strengthened themselves by a Bill against the one and by an Army against the other and therefore all the dissolutions of Parliaments from the beginning of them to this time have not done halfe that mischeife as the continuâ—ance of this one hath done hitherto and God onely knowes what is to succeed hereafter But seeing themselves have publiquely acknowledged in their Declarations that they were too blame if they undertooke any thing now which they would not undertake if it were in His Majesties power to dissolve them the next day and they have since used this meanes which was given them to disburthen the Common-wealth of that debt which was thought insupportable What many wise men do say to plunge it irrevocably into a farre greater debt to the ruine of the whole Kingdome to change the whole frame of our government and subjecting us to so unlimited an arbitrary power that no man knowes at the sitting of the House what he shall be worth at the riseing or whether he shall have his liberty the next day or imprisonment many wise men doe say they see no reason that this trust being forfeited and the faith reposed in them betrayed the King may not immediately re-assume that power of dissolving them into his owne hands againe and both our unjustly abused King and out much injured people declare this act to be void when as contrary to their owne faith and the trust of the King they abuse it to overthrow the fundamentall Lawes of this Kingdome though I could heartily wish that because it still carrieth the countenance of a Law the faction would be so wise as to yeeld it to be presently dissolved by a Law CHAP. IV. Sheweth the abilities of the Bishops the threefold practice of the faction to exclude them out of the House of Peeres and all the Clergy out of all civill Judicature 4. THere was one stop more that might hinder The fourth impediment of their designe or at least hardly suffer their plots to succeed according to their hearts desire and that is the Bishops votes in the upper House nay they cannot endure to call it so but in the House of the Lords for they rightly considered therein these 2 speciall things 1. their number 2. their abilities which are 2. maine things to stop and hinder many evils For 1. They had 26. voices which was a very considerable number and might stop a great gap and stay the streame or at least moderate the violence of any unjust prosecution 2. They were men of great learning men of profound knowledge both in divine and humane affaires and men well educated a cunabulis that spent all their time in books and were conversant with the dead that feared not to speake the truth and have wearied themselves in reading Histoties comparing Lawes The abilities of the Bishops and considering the affaires of all Common-wealthes and so were able if their modesty did not silence them to discourse de quolibet ente to untie every knot and to explaine every riddle and being the immediate servants of the living God set apart as the Apostle speaketh to offer Sacrifice and to administer the Sacraments of God to prepare a people for the Kingdome of heaven it ought not and it cannot be otherwise imagined by any child of the Church that is a true beleever but that they are men of conscience to speake the truth and to doe justice in any cause and betwixt any parties more then most others especially those young Lords and Gentlemen whose yeares do want experience Pardon mee good Lords for so plainly speaking truth and the course of their lives some in hawking and hunting and others in dicing and bowling and visiting blacke-friers play-house or perhaps in worser exercises doth sufficiently shew how weake their judgement must needs be in great affaires and how imperfect their conscience is as yet in holy things I hope not to be preferred before these grave and reverend men And therefore lest these grave men should prove great hinderances of their unjust proceedings before any of their worst intentions be well perceived there must be an exclusion of them from Parliament and from those Lords whose consciences and knowledge they may then the better captivate and bring them the sooner to side with them for to effect their great designe And it is a world of wonders to see with what subtlety and industry with what policy and villanie this one worke must be effected It would fill a volume to collect the particulars of their Devices I will reduce them to these heads 1. They used all meanes to render them odious in the eyes of all people 2. A threefold practice against the Bishops They brought the basest and the refuse of all men watermen porters and the worst of all the apprentices with threats and menaces to thunder forth the death and destruction of these men 3. Upon a pretended treason they caused 12 of them besides the Arch-Bishop that was in the Tower before to be clapt up at once into prison where they kept them in that strong house untill they got it enacted that they should be excluded from the upper House and both they and their Clergy should be debarred from the administration of any secular act of Justice in the common-wealth 1. They endeavoured to make them odious unto the people 2 wayes 1. In making that Order or giving that notice unto the people that any man might exhibit his complaint against scandalous Ministers 1 To make the odious tvvo wayes 1 Way and he should be heard which invitation of all discontented sheepe to throw dirt in their Pastors faces was too palpably malicious for our Saviour told us we should be sent as sheepe into the mids of wolves but here is a sending for the wolves to destroy the Shepheards and it came to passe hereby that no lesse then 900 complaints and petitions were brought in a very short space as I was informed by some of their owne House that feelingly misliked these undue proceedings against many Learned and most faithfull servants of Jesus Christ that were therefore hated because they were not wicked The Ministers why persecuted and persecuted because they were conformable to the Lawes of the King and the Church And the rest of our calling that were factious seditious were both countenanced and applauded
omnium sapientum seniorum populorum totius regni per praeceptum regis Inae and in the second Charter of King Edward the Confessour granted to the Church of Saint Peter in Westminster How former times respected the Clergie it is said to be Cum concilio decreto Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Comitum aliorumque suorum optimatum with the councell and decree of the Archbishops Bishops Earles and other Potentates And so not onely the Saxon Kings but the Norman also ever since the Conquest had the Bishops in the like or greater esteem that they never held Parliament or Counsell without them And surely these Princes were no Babes that made this choice of them neither was the Common wealth neglected nor justice prejudiced by these Governours And whosoever shall reade mores gentium or the pilgrimage of Master Purchas Livie Plutarch Appian and the rest of the Greek and Latine Histories I dare assure him he shall finde greater honour given and farre lesse contempt cast upon the Priests and Flamins the Prophets of the Sybils then we finde of this faction left to the Servants of the living God who are now dealt withall worse than Pharach dealt with the Israelites that took away their straw and yet required their full tale of brickes for these men would rob us of all our meanes and take away all our Lands and all our rights and yet require not only the full tale of Sermons and Service as was used by our Predecessours but to double our files to multiplie our paines How the Clergie are now used and to treble the Sermons and Service that they used to have of our forefathers more than ever was done in any Age since the first Plantation of the Gospell and when we have done with John Baptist the utmost of our endeavours like a shining and a burning lampe that doth waste and consume it selfe to nothing while it giveth light to others they onely deal with us as Cartiers use to do with their packe horses hang bels at their eares to make a melodious noise but with little provander lay heavie loades upon their backes and when they can bear no more burdens take away their bels withdraw their praises call them Jades exclaim against their lazinesse and then at last turne them out to feed upon the commons and to die in a ditch and thus we have now made the Ministers of Christ to be the emblems of all miserie and in pretending to make them more glorious in the sight of God we have made them most base in the eyes of all men And therefore the consequence of this Act is like to prove most lamentable when the people considering how that hereby we are left naked of all comfort and subject to all kinde of scorne and distresse and how that this being effected is but the praeludium of a farre greater mischiefe they will rather with no great cost make their children of some good Trade and their children will choose so to be than with such great costland more care and yet little hope to bring them up to worse condition than the meanest of all Trades The Clargie alone are deprived of Magna Charta or the lowest degree of all rustickes when as they can challenge and it shall not be denied them to have the priviledges of the Law and a propertie in their goods which without their own consent yielded in their persons or their representours cannot be taken from them and the Clergie onely of all the people in this Kingdom shall be deprived of the right and benefit of our great Charter which so many famous Kings and pious Princes have confirmed unto us and when we have laboured all the dayes of our lives with great paines and more diligence to instruct our people and to attain to some competencie of meanes to maintain our selves and our families we shall be in the power of these men at their pleasure under the pretence of Religion contrarie to all justice to be deprived of any part of our freehold when we shall have not one man of our own calling to speak a word in our behalfe on no Seat of Justice throughout the whole Kingdom O terque quaterque beati queis ante ora patrum contigit oppetere O most miserable and lamentable condition of Gods Ministers I must needs speak it though I should die for it and if some did not speak it I thinke the stones would crie against it and proclaim it better for the Clergie were their hope onely in this world never to have been borne or at least never to have seen a book then to fall into the hands and to be put under the censure of these men that do thus love Christ This Act more prejudiciall to to the future times than now by hating his Ministers who as I said before by this one Act are made liable to undergo all kinde of evils which shall not onely fall upon the present Clergie for were it so our patience should teach us to be silent but also to the increase of all prejudices to the Gospell more than my foresight can expresse in all succeeding Ages And therefore I may well say with Jeremie Jer. 5.9.29 Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this And we need not wonder that such plagues calamities and distresses have so much encreased in this Kingdom ever since the passing of this Act and yet the anger of the Lord is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still and I fear his wrath will not be appeased till we have blotted this and wiped away all other our great sinnes and transgressions with the truest teares of unfained repentance These are like to be the consequences of this Act and yet our good King who we know loved our Nation and built us a Synagogue and was as I assure my selfe most unwilling to passe it was notwithstanding over-perswaded considering where thirteen of the Bishops were even in prison and in what condition all the rest of them stood in question whether all they should stand or be cut down root and branch to yield his assent unto the Act though if the case in truth were rightly weighed not much lesse prejudiciall to his Majestie than injurious to us to be thus deprived of our right How the King hath been used ever since this Act passed and exposed to all miseries by excluding us from all Civill Judicature and I would to God the King and all the Kingdom did continually consider how his Majestie was used ever since the confirmation of this Act for they no sooner had excluded the Bishops and Clergie out of their right but presently they proceeded and prosecuted the designe ever since to thrust out the King from all those just rights and prerogatives which God and nature and the Lawes of our Land have put into his hands for the government of this Kingdome neither was it likely to succeede any other wise as
I have fully shewed and I would all Kings would read it in the Grand Rebellion But I see no reason why it may not and why it should not be retracted and annulled That the act should be annulled when the Houses shall be purged of that Anabaptisticall and Rebellious faction that contrived and procured the same to passe for these three speciall reasons 1. 1. Reason Because that contrary to all former precidents that Bill for their exclusion was as it is reported at the first refused and after a full bearing among the Lords it was by most votes by more then a dozen voices rejected and yet to shew unto the world that the factions maltee against the Bishops had no end their rage was still implacable at the same Session which is very considerable immediatly assoone as ever they understood it was rejected the House of Commons revived it and so pressed it unto the Lords that if I may have leave to speake the truth contrary to all right * For I conceave this to be an approved maxime that no light not proved forfitea by some of fence can be taken away wuhout wrong 2 Keasom In His Majesties answer to the Petition of the Lords and Commons 16 of July p. 8. it must be againe received and while the Bishops were in prison it was with what honour I know not strangely confirmed 2. Because this Bill had the Royall assent after that a most riotous tumult many thousands of men with all sorts of warlike weapons both on land and water most disloyally had driven His Majestie to fly from London that most Rebellious City not without feare for his owne safety even for the safety of his life as himselfe professeth and when they had so cunningly contrived their plot as to get some of the Kings servants and friends that were about him and imployed in the Queenes affaires to perswade Her Majesty to use all her power with the King for the passing of this Bill or else Her journey should be slaied as formerly they had altered her resolution for the Spaw and at Rochester she should understand the sense of the House to stop Her passage unto Holland whereas the passing of this Bill might make way for Her passage over and many other such frights and feares they put both upon the King and Queene to inforce him full sore against his will as we beleive to passe this harsh Bill for the exclusion of the spirituall Lords out of the House of Peeres and of all the Clergy from all Secular Judicature But Master Pym will tell us he did Ald. Gar. speech at Guild hall that it was the opinion of both Houses there was no occasion given by any tumults that might justly cause His Majesties departure To whom I answere with the words of Alderman Garroway if the Houses had declared that it had beene lawfull to beat the King out of Town I must have sate still with wonder though I should never beleive it but when they declare matters of fact which is equally within our own knowledge and wherein we cannot be deceived as in the things we have seene with our eyes if they dissent from truth they must give me leave to differ from them as if they should declare they have paied all the money that they owe unto the city or that there was * For now I understand it is pulled down no Crosse standing in Cheapside we shall hardly beleive them And therefore seeing we all remember when the alarme was given that there was an attempt from Whitehall upon the City how hardly it was appeased and how no babies thought the designe of those subtle beads that gave that false alarme was no lesse then to have caused Wite hall to be pulled downe and they that loved the King and saw the Army both by Land and water which accompanied the persons accused to Westminster the next day after His Majesties departure as if they had passed in a Roman triumph conceived the danger to be so great that I call Heaven to witnesse they blessed God that so gracioussly put it in the Kings heart rather to passe away over night though very late then hazard the danger that might have ensued the day following The meaning therefore of both Houses may be that there was nothing done which they confessed to be a tumult and no mervaile because they received incouragement as we beleeved from their defence and no reproofe that we found was made for this indignity offered unto the King but if I be constrained and in danger it is not enough for me that I am voted free and safe for if that which lookes as like a tumult as that did or as the representation of my face in the truest glasse is like my face doth come against me and incompasse me about though I may be perhaps in more safety yet I shall thinke my selfe in great feare and in no more security then His Majestie was at Edge-hill 3. 3 Reason p. 7 Because as the veiwer of the Observat hath very well exprest it no act of Parliament can prevaile to deprive the King of His right and authority as an attainder by Parliament could not barre the title to the Crowne from descending on King Hen. 7. nor was an act of Parliament disabling King Hen. 6. to re-assume the government of his people of any force but without any repeale in it selfe frustrate and void 7. rep 14. Calvins case an act of Parliament cannot take away the protection or the Subjects service which is due by the Law of nature 11. rep Sur de la Wares case William de la Ware although disabled by act of Patliament was neverthelesse called by Queene Elizabeth to sit as a peere in Parliament for that it seems the Queen could not be barred of the service and councell of any of Her Subjects 2. H. 7.6 a statute that the King by no non obstante shall dispence with it is void because it would take a necessary part of government out of the Kings hand and therefore I se not how this act can deprive the King of the service and councell of all his Bishops and clergy but that it is void of it selfe and needeth no repeale or if otherwise yet seeing that besides all this 13 of the Bishops were shut in prison when this act passed and their protestation was made long before this time and it was so unduly framed so illegally prosecuted and with such compulsive threats and terrours procured to be passed I hope the wisedome of the next Parliament together with their love and respect to the Church and Church-men will nullifie the same CHAP. VI. Sheweth the plots of the faction to gaine unto themselves the freindship and assistance of the Scotts and to what end they framed their new protestation how they provoked the Irish to rebell and what other things they gained thereby ANd thus the Sectaries of this Kingdome and the faction in
therefore if we have any regard of our goods that God hath given us we have great reason to look about us for these are the greatest Cheaters in Christendome and as they have made us Malignants so they will make us reprobates when they please that they may enjoy those things that we have 3. They thinke themselves free from all sin Numb 23.21 Tit. 1.15 3. Because Balaam saith God beheld no iniquitie in Jacob and the Apostle saith To the pure all things are pure they teach their proselytes that in them which are the holy Brethren there is no sin and their adulterie drunkennesse cozenage and the like odious crimes are no crimes because God loving them so tenderly as a fond mother seeth no fault in her untoward childe so he takes no notice of any offence that they commit but for the ungodly their Prayers are sinnes their Almes are odious and whatsoever commendable dutie they do performe To the unbelieving nothing is pure Titus 1.15 God accounteth their best actions to be heinous trangressions and to adde the more weight of punishment to their damnation which Doctrine how abominable it is to God and how destructive to all men to make these holy Brethre and their sanctified Sisters senslesse in all sinnes uncapable of repentance Matth 9.12 when the whole hath no need of the Physician and to discourage all other ignorant men from doing good duties when the performance of them shall multiplie their stripes is so apparent to all men that I need not stand to confute it for if Coniah though he wear the signet upon my right hand Ier. 22.24 or as the apple of mine eye doth offend I will cut him off and if the wicked forsake his wickednesse Ezech. 33.15 and do that which is just love mercie and speak truth he shall be accepted and the Lord will not call light darknesse nor good evill in any one 4. 4. They allow the women to offend while their husbands slâ—ep Ioh 11.11 1 Cor. 7.39 Because our Saviour saith Our friend Lazarus sleepeth when as indeed he was dead and the Heathens say Sleep is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brother of death they take this colour to hide their adulteries that while the husband sleepeth the wife is as free from him as if he were dead a foolerie so ridiculous that the naming of it is a sufficient confutation of it and yet you shall hardly withdraw our London Anabaptists from it 5. 5. They justifie many kindes of lyes and equivocatious Gen. 12.13 Acts 23.5 Because Abraham said that Sara was his sister and Saint Paul said I wist not brethren that he was the high Priest they hold it as an Article of their Creed that for officious lyes and equivocations being for the furtherance of their cause the good worke which they pretend they may and ought to use them to swallow them down like water they make no bones of them and therefore it is dangerous to treat and weaknesse to give credit without sufficient pledges to the faith of these men whose profession may as lawfully deceive us as their Religion teacheth them to destroy us and I believe the experience which his Majesties Officers had of them in the performance of their promises and conditions of departure from Winchester Reading and other Townes surrendered unto them may sufficiently confirme this equivocall point of their Publique Faith 6. 6. They would root out all those that they terme wicked Deut. 7.2 1 Sam. 15.23 Psal 58.8 Because the Lord straitly charged the Israelites to root out the wicked Canaanites and the rest of those cursed Nations and translated the Kingdom of Israel from Saul unto David because he spared Agag and our Saviour bids us succidere ficum to cut down that unprofitable tree which bare no fruit they are so filled with such unmercifull crueltie towards all those they terme wicked and judge Malignants that they had better fall into the hands of heathen Tyrants than of these their holy brethren who embruing their hands in the blood of so many faithfull Christians do sing with the Psalmist The righteous rejoyce when they see this vengeance they shall wash their feet in the blood of the ungodly for as Solomon saith The tender mercies of the wicked are meer crueltie Prov. 12.10 And I believe the first inventers of that Designe to root out all the Papists in Ireland and to get that Act to purchase all the Lands of the Rebels had tasted too much of this bitter root of such destructive Doctrine whereby you see how the Religion of these men robbes us of our Estates keepes no faith with us and takes away our lives 7. Though among the workes of God 7. They would have a paritie among all men both in Church and Common wealth Gal. 5.6 Col. 3.11 every flower cannot be a Lillie every beast cannot be a Lion every bird cannot be an Eagle and every Planet cannot be Phaebus yet in the School of these men this is the Doctrine of their to be new erected Church that with God there is no respect of persans and neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but whether they be bond or free masters or servants few or Gentile Barbarian Scythian a countrey Clown or a Court Gallant rich or poor it is all one with God because these Titles of Honour Kings Lords Knights and Gentlemen are no entities of Gods making but the creatures of mans invention to puffe him up with pride and not to bring him unto God and therefore though for the bringing of their great good worke to passe they are yet contented to make the Earle of Essex their Generall and Warwicke their Admirall and so Pym and Hampden great Officers of State yet when the worke is done their Plot perfected and their Government established then you shall finde that as now they will eradicate Episcopacie and make all our Clergie equall as if all had equally but one talent and no man worthier than another so then there should be neither King Lord Knight nor Gentleman but a paritie of degrees among all these holy Brethren and to give us a taste of what they mean as the Lords concurrence with them inabled them to devour the Kings power so they have since with great justice prevailed with the House of Commons to swallow up the Lords power and have most fairly invaded their priviledge when they questioned particular Members * As my Lord Duke and my Lord Dighte for words spoken in that House and then the whole House when they brought up and countenanced a mutinous and seditious Petition which demanded the Names of those Lords that consented not with the House of Commous in those things which that House had twice denied 8. 8 They would have no man to pray for temporall things Mat. 6.33.34 Matth. 6.11 Because our Saviour saith Seek ye first the Kingdom of of Heaven and the righteousnesse thereof and all these
true which the King ingeniously acknowledgeth and most graciously promiseth to redresse them yet in all things full of gall and bitternesse against the King could not so fully poyson the love and loyalty of the Kings Subjects as they desired especially the love of those that knew his Majestie who the better they knew him did the more affectionately love him and the more faithfully serve him they thought to doe it another and a surer way with apparent lyes palpable slanders and abominable accusations invented printed and scattered over all the parts of this Kingdome by their trencher Chaplaines and parasiticall Preachers and other Pamphleters some busy Lawyers and Pettifoggers to bring the King into an odium disliked and deserted of all his loving Subjects And what created power under heaven was able to dissolve that wickednesse which subtiltie and malice had thus treacherously combined to bring to passe Hereupon after many threatning votes 1 Lye that he intended to war against his Parliament and actuall hostility exercised against his Royall person the King is forced to raise a guard for the defence of himselfe and those his good Subjects that attended him then presently that small guard that consisted but of the chiefe gentry of the Countrey was declared to be an army raised for the subversion of the Parliament and the destruction of our native liberties an invincible army is voted to be raised the Earle of Essex is chosen to be their Generall with whom they promise both to live and die the Earle of Bedford Generall of the Horse moneyes are provided and all things are prepared to fetch the King and all delinquents or to be the death of all withstanders and that nothing might hinder this designe though the King in many gracious Messages attested by the subscription of many noble Lords that were upon the place assured them he never intended any warre against his Parliament yet they proceed with all eagernesse and declare all those that shall assist the King either with Horse money or men to be malignants and enemies unto the King and Kingdome and such delinquents as shall be sure to receive condigne punishment by the Parliament Hoc mirum est hoc magnum And among the rest of their impudent slanders this was their Master-piece which they ever harped upon that hee countenanced Papists and intended to bring Poperie into this Kingdom and to that end had an Armie of Papists to assist him But to satisfie any sensible man in this point I would crave the resolution of these two Questions 1. Two questions to be resolved Whether every Papist that is subject to his Majestie is not bound to assist and defend his King in all his dangers 2. Whether the King should not protect his Subjects that are Papists in all their dangers so farre as by the Law he ought to do it 1. All Papists bound to assist their King and accept of their service when himselfe is invironed with dangers For first I believe there is no Law that inhibiteth a Papist to serve his King against a Rebellion or to ride post to tell the King of a Designe to murder Him or any other intended Treason against Him or being present to take away a weapon from that man that attempted to kill the King because his not comming to Church doth not exempt him from his Alleageance or discharge him of his dutie and service unto the King and therefore if a Fleet from France or Spain or any other forreigne part should invade us or any Rebellion at home should rise against his Soveraigne and seck to destroy those Lawes and Liberties whereof himselfe and his Posteritie hath as good an interest as any other Subject I say he is bound by all Lawes to assist his King and to do his best endeavour both with his purse and in his person not onely to oppose that externall Invasion but also to subdue as well that home-bred Rebellion as the forreigne Invasion 2. 2. The King bound to protect dutifull Papists If a Papist should be injured his estate seized upon his house plundered and his person if taken imprisoned not because he transgressed any other Law but that he dispenceth not with the Law of his conscience to be no Papist and being thus injured should come unto his King and say I am your Subject and have lived dutifully I did nothing which the Law gives me not leave I have truly paid all duties and humbly submitted my selfe to all penalties and yet I know not why I am thus used and abused by my neighbours I am driven from my house by force of Armes and I have no place to breathe but under your Majesties wings and the shelter of your power therefore I beseech you as you are my King and are obliged to do your best for the safetie of your true Subjects let me have your protection and you shall have my service unto death I would fain know what the King should do in such a case denie his protection or refuse his service the one is injustice the other not the best wisedom especially if he needed service for as the Law of nature and of nations requireth all Subjects to obey their Kings and faithfully to serve them of what Religion soever their Kings shall be so Lege relationis every King is bound to protect every faithfull Subject that observeth his Lawes or submitteth to their penalties without corrupting of his fellow Subjects of what Religion soever he is because they are his Subjects not as they are faithfull Christians but as obedient men and he is to rule not over the faith of their soules but the actions of their bodies and it is an Axiome in Divinitie that Fides non cogenda and if Kings cannot perswade their Subjects to embrace the true Faith they ought not to cut them off so long as they are true Subjects and therefore with what reason can any man blame the King either for protecting them in their distresses or accepting their sevice in his own extremities I cannot understand And yet for the goodly companie of Papists which his Majestie entertaineth in all his Armies they cannot all make up so much as one good Regiment as an Officer in his Majesties Armie confidently affirmeth but it will serve their turne to taxe the King to lay imputations upon him even the very things that belong unto themselves as the whole summe of those things that are expressed in Englands Petition to their King Pag. 10. mutatis mutandis might truly be presented to the two Houses that have now almost destroyed us all and to make them mightie faults in him which are no faults at all in themselves because there is no fear of their favouringPoperie though as they have very many so they should have never so many more in their Armie 3. Lye that he caused the Rebellion in Ireland Another Slander they not onely whispered but also dispersed the same farre and near among the
anger with such horrible abominations 5. The fifth mischiefe As Jerusalem justified Samaria so this Faction hath just fied all the Romanists and shewed themselves worse Christians lesse Subjects and viler Traitors than all the Papists are for these facticus rebels justifie their Rebellion and to the indeleble shame of their profession they maintain that it is not only lawfull but that it is their duty to bear Armes and to wâ—ge War against their King when the King doth abuse his power whereas the Doctrine of the Church of Rome * Christopherson tract contr rebell Rhemist in Nov. Test p. 301. Goldastus de Monarchia S. Imper. Rom. to 3. Dr. Kellison in his Survey Aquin de Regim Princip c. 6. Concil Constan Sess 15. Stephan Cantuar. Ando 8. H. 3. Tolet. in summa l. 5. c. 6. Gr. Valentia p. 2. q. 64. Bellar. Apol. c. 13. Lessins l. 2. c. 9. Serrarius Azorius c. utterly denieth the same and concludes them no Children of the Church that do it and Doctour Kellison giveth this reason for it because Faith is not necessarily required to Jurisdiction or Government neither is authority lost by the losse of Faith therefore it is not lawfull for any Subjects to rebel against their King though their King should prove a Tyrant or should apostate from the Faith of Christ so that now the Papists boast they are better Subjects than these rebellious protestants and therefore I fear that this Faction Defendens Christum verso mucrone cecîdit By their unjust defigne to propagate the Gospell have most grievously wounded the Faith of Christ and given a more deady blow to the protestant religion than ever it had since the reformation when it is impossible that the true religion should produce rebellion And therefore seeing we are free borne Subjects and persons interessed in the good and safety of this Kingdome as well as any of them we must crave liberty to expresse our grievances and to crave redresses and seeing my selfe am called to be a Preacher of Gods Word and a Bishop over many of the soules of my brethren for which I must render an account to my God both for my silence when I should speake and speaking any thing that should not be spoken I resolved to feare my God and neither out of flattery to the King and his party nor out of hatred or malice to those factious men but as I am perswaded in my conscience fully satisfied and guided by Gods Truth to set forth this discoverie of these mysteries what danger soever I shal undergoe and if I shal become their enemy for speaking truth I shal fare no worse than S. Paul did and it shal be with them if they doe not repent as it was with the Israelites Ezek. 7 25 27. When their destruction commeth they shal seeke peace and shal not have it but calamitie shal come upon calamitie CHAP. XV. Sheweth a particular recapitulation of the Reasont whereby their Designe to alter the Government of the Church and State is evinced and a patheticall disswasion from Rebellion ANd thus I have set down not any thing to render these men more odius then they are If I have beere mis-informed of any thing that shall appeare false I shall not blush to retract it by an ingenious confession or to abuse my Reader with falshood or uncertainties but to report what I knew and what I collected out of the present writings of best credit and attested by men of known truth and integrity whereby it is most apparent to any discerning eye that the faction of Anabaptists and Brownists and some other of the subtillest heads in the House of Commons had from the first convention of this Parliament secretly projected this designe and insensibly to the rest of their wel-meaning brethren prosecuted the same to alter and change the ancient government both of the Church and Kingdom which the author of Sober sadnesse proveth by these subsequent reasons Sober Sadnes p. 44 45 46. as for the first 1. By suspending all Ecclesiasticall lawes and censures Their designe to change the Church Government proved 4 waies which indulgence of all vices hath drawn all offendours to comply with them 2. By setting the people on worke to petition against the present Government and the Service of the Church 3. By the Bill concluded for the abolishing of our Government 4. By the chiefe persons countenanced and employed by them in that businesse who are Anabaptists and Brownists and all sorts of Sectaries he evinceth their designe to change our our Church Government and to convert the patrimony of the Church which our religious Ancestors dedicated for the advancement of Gods worship not to establish learning and a preaching Ministery as they pretended but to dis-ingage their publique faith which otherwise would never prove a saving faith And I wish there might be none about His Majesty that pretending great loyalty unto him doe comply with them herein and either to raise or to secure their owne fortunes would perwade S. Paul to part with S. Peters keyes so he may still hold the sword in his hand or to speake more plainly to purchase the peace of the Common-wealth with the ruine of Gods Church but for this let me be bold 1. To crave leave to tell His Majesty it was not His sword that hath brought him from a flying Prince out of Westminster and as yet unsecured at Nottingham to be a victorious King at Edge-hill and immediately to be the terrour of all the Rebels in London but it was God whose Church and Church Service he defended that protected him hitherto and gave him the victory in battaile and let him be assured that he which is yea and amen wil be his shield and buckler stil to defend him from the strivings of his people and to subdue them that rise against him while he defendeth them whose eyes next under God are onely fixt on him to be as God hath promised their nursing father 2 To assure those that would suffer the Church to fall or perhaps sell the same out of a by-respect unto themselves that taking their rise from the fall of the Church or laying the foundation of their houses in the ruine of the Clergy they doe but build upon the sands whence they shal fall and their fall shal be great 1 Reg. 16.34 â—…sh 6.26 when the successe thereof shal be as the successe of the City of Iericho that was built by Hiel who laid the foundation of it in Abiram his first borne and set up the gates thereof in Segub his youngest sonne and had her destiny described by Joshua and all the possessions that they shall get shall prove Acheldama's fields of blood and we hope God will raise deliverance to his Church from some better men when as they and their fathers house shall all perish and shall stink in the nostrils of all good men for their perfidiousnesse in Gods cause But if any man