unto Porphyries Tree in which there is one Genus summum and many Genera subalterna Now 't is well known to every young Logician who hath learnt his Predicabiles that Genus subalternum is a species only as it looks up to those above it a Genus in relation unto these below it If you have so much Logick in you as to make application of this Note to the present case you will perceive inferiour Magistrates to be no Magistrates at all as they relate unto the King the Genus summum in the scale of Govenment and therefore of no more authority to resist the King or call the People unto Arms than the meanest Subject 22. Quest If so then were the Christian Subject of all men most miserable o in being utterly deprived of all ways and means by which to free his Country from Oppression and himself from Tyranny And therefore tell me if you can what would you have the Subject do in these extremities in which you have deprived him of all means to relieve himself Answ. That which the Lord himself prescribed and the Saints have practised When first the Lord acquainted those of the house of Israel how heavy a yoke their violence and importunity in asking for a King had pulled upon them he told them of no other remedy for so much affliction but that they should cry out in that day because of the King whom they had chosen p No casting off the yoke when we find it grievous nor any way to make it lighter and more pleasing to us than either by addressing our Complaints to the Lord our God or tendring our Petitions to our Lord the King Kings are accomptable to none but God if they abuse the power which he gives unto them Nor can we sue them for a Trespass in any other Court than the Court of Heaven Therefore when David had defiled the Wife and destroyed the Husband he thought himself responsal for it unto none but God against whom only he had sinned q as he saith himself And thereupon S. Ambrose gives this gloss on those words of David Homini ergo non peccavit cui non tenebatur obnoxius r David saith he confesseth no offence to man by whom he could not be impleaded but only unto God who had power to judg him St. Gregory of Tours understood this rightly when he did thus address himself to a King of France Si quis de nobis c. s If any of us O King do transgress the Laws thou hast power to punish him but it thou goest beyond thy limits who can punish thee We tell thee of thy faults as occasion serves and when thou listest to give ear thou dost hearken to us Which if thou shouldest refuse to do who shall judg thee for it but he that calls himself by the name of Justice And that you may be sure that it is no otherwise in England than in France and Iewry Bracton a great and famous Lawyer of this Kingdom doth affirm expresly that if the King proceed not in his Government according unto Law and Right there is no legal remedy to be had against him What then is to be done by the injured Subject Locus erit supplicationi quod factum suum corrigat emendet quod si non fecerit satis ei sufficit ad poenam quòd Dominum expecâ—et ultorem t All that he hath to do saith he is that the doth petition him for relief and remedy which if the King refuse to consent unto it will be punishment enough unto him that he must look for vengeance from the hands of God Which said he given this reason for it Because that no man is to call the Kings Acts in question multò fortiùs contra factuâ— suum venire must less to go about to annul and avoid them by force and violence 23. Quest We grant it to be true which you cite from Bracton as it relates to private and particular men but think you that it doth concern or oblige the Parliament which is the representative body of the Kingdom Answ. Hoc sumus congregati quod dispersi u as Tertullian tells us of the Christians in another case We shewed before that Subjects were in no case to resist their Sovereigns in the way of Arms either as private persons on inferiour Magistrates And thereupon we may conclude that the People of this Realm in the diffusive body of it having no power of levying War or raising Forces to resist the King without being punishable for the same as in case of Treason cannot enable the two Houses of Parliament which are the representative body of it to do those Acts which they want power to do themselves for no Man can confer a power upon any other which is not first vested in himself according to that good old rule Nemo dat quod non habet And therefore if it be rebellion in the English Subject out of times of Parliament to levy War against the King in his Realm or to adhere unto his Enemies and be aiding to them I know not how it can excuse the Members of the two Houses of Parliament from coming within the compass of that Condemnation if they commit such Acts in time of Parliament and under the pretence of the power thereof which are judged Treason and Rebellion by the Laws of England 24. Quest But Master Prynne hath learnedly removed that rub x who tells you that the Statute of 25. Edward 3. runs only in the Singular number If a man shall levy War against the King and therefore cannot be extended to the Houses who are many and publick persons What can you answer unto that Answ. That Mr. Prynne having so often shewn malice may have a little leave sometimes to shew his folly and make some sport unto the Kingdom in these useful times for if his learned observation will hold good in Law it is not possible that any Rebellion should be punished in a legal way because so many and some of them perhaps may be publick persons are commonly ingaged in actions of that wicked nature And I suppose that Mr. Prynne with all his learning did never read of a Rebellion that is to say of a War levyed by the Subject against his Sovereign plotted and executed by one man only in the Singular number Had Master Prynne affirmed on his word and credit that the Members of the two Houses were not men but gods he had then said somewhat which would have freed them from the guilt and danger of that dreadful Statute If he admit them to be men and grant them to have levyed War against his Majesty or to be aiding to the Rebels now in arms against him he both conclude them to be guilty of this great Rebellion with which this miserable Kingdom in almost laid desolate His Sophistry and trim distinctions touching their quality and numbers will but little help them 25. Qu. We have
another Plaister which will salve that Sore viz. The difference that is made between the King's Person and his Power by which is it made visible to discerning eyes that though the Parliament have levyed War against the Person of the King yet they do not fight against his Power but defend it rather And 't is not a resistance of the Person but the Power of Princes which is forbidden by Saint Paul How do you like of that distinction Answ. As ill or worse than of the other as being of the two the more serious folly and coming from an Author no less factious but far more learned I confess than your other was For if I do remember right Buchanan was the first that broached this Doctrine in his Book De jure regni apud Scotos in which he tells us that Saint Paul in the place aforesaid doth not speak of Magistrates Sed de functione officio eorum qui aliis praesunt but of the Magistracy it self the Function or Office of the Magistrate which must not be resisted though his Person may Which foolish Fancy serving fitly for a Cloak or Vizard wherewith to palliate and disguise Rebellions hath since been ofen used by those who pursue his Principles though never worn so thred-bare as of late in your treacherous Pamphlets but draweth after it as many and as gross Absurdities as the other did For by this strange division of the King from himself or of his Person from his Power a Traitor may kill Charles and not hurt the King destroy the Man and save the Magistrate the Power of the King in one of the Armies may fight against his Person in the other Army his own Authority may be used to his own destruction and one may lawfully set upon him beat assault and wound him in order to his preservation So that you make the King like Sosia in the ancient Comedy who being well beaten and demanded who it was that did it made answer Egomet memet qui nunc sunt domi z that Sosia who was at home in his Masters House did beat that Sosia which was abroad in his Masters business But questionless Saint Paul did better understand himself than either Buchanan or any of his followers since his time have done Who doth interpret the word power which he useth in the first and second Verses by that of Principes Ministri Rulers and Ministers which be useth in the third and fourth Which as it plainly shews that he meaneth the Magistrate and not the Function or the Office as your Masters tell you so doth it leave you liable to the wrath of God if you endeavour to defend these wicked and rebellious courses by such wretched shifts 26. Quest What say you then if it appear that the two Houses of Parliament for I use your terms are not subordinate to the King but coordinate with him y I hope then you will yield so far that the two Houses have a power if they cannot otherwise provide for the common safety to arm the People of the Realm against Him as against an Equal Answ. We grant indeed that People which have no Superiour but stand on equal terms with one another if injured by their Neighbours and not receiving satisfaction when they do desire it may remedy themselves by force and for so doing by the Law of Nations are esteemed just Enemies but so it is not in the point which is now in question the Realm of England as it is declared by Act of a Parliament being on Empire governed by one supreme Head and King having the Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the same unto whomâ— Body Politick compact of all sorts and degrees of People divided in â—erms and by Names of Spirituality and Temporality been bounden and ought to bear next to God a natural and humble Obedience Assuredly had the Lords and Commons then assembled conceived themselves coordinate with the King in the publick Government they would not have so wronged themselves and their Posterity as to have made this declaration and acknowledgment so prejudicial thereunto not only in a Parliament time but by Act of Parliament Besides if this Coordination which you dream of could be once admitted it must needs follow thereupon that though the King hath no Superiour he hath many Equals and where there is equality there is no subjection But Bracton tells you in plain terms not only that the King hath no superiour in his Realm except God alone but that he hath no Equal neither Parem autem non habet in regno suo as his words there are b And then he gives this reason of it Quia sic amitteret praeceptum cum par in parem non habet imperium because he could not have an Equal but with the loss of his Authority and Regal Dignity considering that an Equal hath no power to command another Now lest you should object that is spoken of the King out of times of Parliament but that when once the Lords and Commons are convened in Parliament the case is otherwise First you must think that had this Doctrine been on foot in the times preceding it would have been a great impediment unto frequent Parliaments and that our King as others being very jealous even of the smallest points of Sovereignty would not admit of Partners in the Crown Imperial by the assembling of a Parliament having been used to reign alone without any Rivals And Secondly you may call to mind that even sedente Parliamento during the sitting of the Court the Lords and Commons call themselves His Majesties most humble and obedient Subjects which is not only used as a stile of course in such Petitions as they use to present unto him and by the way 't is not the use for men of equal power to send Petitions unto one another but it is the very Phrase in some Acts of Parliament c for which I do refer you to the Book at large And if they be his Subjects as they say they be they cannot be his Equals as you say they are and therefore not coordinate with him but subordinate to him by consequence the levying War against the King no more excusable in them than the meanest Subject 27. Quest You take great pains to make the Parliament or the two Houses as you call them to be guilty of Rebellion against his Majesty without ground or reason For tell me seriously think you the Parliament hath not power to arm the people and put them into a posture of defence against the Enemies of the Kingdom if they see occasion Answ. Yes if the King do give consent and that there be such Enemies against whom to arm them For properly according to the ordinary rules of Polities there is no power of raising Forces and putting the People into Arms but only in the Prince or Supreme Magistrate The Civil Laws have so resolved it Nulli prorsus nobis insciis
THE REBELLS CATECHISM COMPOSED IN AN EASY and Familiar way To let them see The Heinousness of their Offence the weakness of their strongest Subterfuges and to recal them to their duties both to God and Man ROM. 13. 2. Whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation Printed 1643. To the Christian Reader REader thou must not look for all things new in a Point so agitated so throughly discussed and canvassed as this hath been 'T is well if they who come behind both in time and knowledg add any thing though it be but little unto those before them All I shall promise thee in this short discourse is that I have contracted into a narrow compass what I found scattered and diffused in many those larger Tractates which I have offered to thy view in a more easie and familiar way than hath been formerly presented And some thing thou shalt meet with here which thou half not found in any other discourses of this argument besides the fashion and the dress These are the most prevailing motives I can lay before thee to tempt thee to the studying of this Catechism which if it shall confirm thee in thy duty unto God and the King or reclaim thee from thy disaffections unto either of them it is all I aim at And so fare thee well January 25. 1643. THE REBEL'S CATECHISM Composed in an Easie and Familiar way To let them see the heinousness of their Offence the weakness of their strongest Subterfuges and to recall them to their duties both to God and Men 1. QUestion Who was the first Author of Rebellion A. The first Author of Rebellion a the root of all Vices and the mother of all mischief saith the book of Homilies was LUCIFER first Gods most excellent creature and most bounden Subject who by Rebelling against the Majesty of God of the brightest and most glorious Angel became the blackest and most foulest fiend and Devil and from the height to Heaven is fallen into the pit and bottom of Hell 2. Q. How many sorts of Rebellion are there A. Three most especially that is to say the Rebellion of the Heart the Rebellion of the Tongue and the Rebellion of the Hand 3. Quest What is the Rebellion of the Heart Ans. The Rebellion of the Heart is a rancorous swelling of the Heart against the authority and commands of the supreme power under which we live which tho it be so cunningly suppressed and smothered that it break not out either into words or deeds yet makes a man guilty of damnation in the sight of God And this is that of which the Wiseman tells us saying Curse not the King no not in thy thought for a bird of the air shall carry the voice and that which hath wings shall tell the matter Eccles. 10. v. 20. 4. Quest What is the Rebellion of the Tongue Ans. The Rebellion of the tongue is a malicious defaming of the person actions parts and government of those Sovereign Princes to which the Lord hath made us subject of purpose to disgrace them amongst their people to render them odious and contemptible and consequently to excite their Subjects to rise up against them Of this it is whereof the Lord God commanded saying thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy People Exod. 22. 28. acknowledged for a divine precept by St. Paul Acts 23. 5. See to this purpose also that of Solomon Prov. 24. v. 21. where it is said It is not fit to say unto a King thou art wicked And if it be not fit to speak evil to him assuredly it is as unfit to speak evil of him And finally of this it is that b Aristotle the Philosopher tells us saying {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} he that speaks evil of the Magistrate offends against the Common-wealth But I must let you know withal that tho this of the tongue be a distinct species of Rebellion and so judged in Law yet many times this and the other of the heart are but the ground and preparations to the Rebellion of the hand or actual Rebellion as they call it commonly And this appears most plainly in the story of Absalon whose heart first swelled against his Father for being so difficult in restoring him to his Court and Presence upon the murder which he had committed on his brother Amnon 2. Sam. 14. v. 24 28. and his tongue found the way to disgrace his government which he accused of negligence and injustice to the common-people 2 Sam. 15. v. 2 3 c. before he blew the trumpet and took Arms against him and made him flee with some few servants from the Royal City v. 14. But here we take it not for a preparation but for a species distinct as before was said 5. Quest Why do you call the swellings of the heart and the revilings of the tongue by the name of Rebellion considering that the Law which punisheth Rebellion with no less than death doth take no cognizance of mens thoughts and that when c Gervase Shelvey of Sandwich said lately to a Gentleman of that Town that if the King came thither he would shoot the Rogue for which he was imprisoned by the Major now being it was resolved by the High Court of Parliament that these words were but a misdemeanour and so he was released again Ans. The House of Commons which you call the High Court of Parliament did not so much deliver their judgment in the case aforesaid as betray their disaffection in it to His Majesty whose Person they endeavour to destroy that they may keep his power still amongst themselves Or if they did it was a very false and erroneous judgment directly contrary unto the resolution of my Lords the Judges and other Sages of the Law in all former Ages d by whom it is affirmed expresly that if any man e do compass or imagin the death of our Lord the King as all Rebels do and doth declare the same imagination by any overt fact either deed or word he shall suffer judgement as a Traitor licet is id quod in voluntate habuit ad effectum non perduxerit as f Bracton hath it altho it do not take effect and go no farther than the thought or purpose of the first contriver Upon which ground it was no question that Shimei suffered death by the hands of Solomon For altho David spared him upon submission because he would not intermix the joy of his return unto Hierusalem with any sad and mournful Accident as that must needs have been unto Shimei's friends 2 Sam. 19. 22. yet he gave order to his son to bring his hoary head down to the grave with blood because he had cursed him with a grievous curse in the day when he went to Mahanaim 1 Kings 2. 8. which was accordingly performed by Solomon v. 46. 6. Quest But Shimei's case can be no
were which he cast abroad the better to seduce the people I shall not stick to tell you if you put me to it 11. Quest I shall not trouble you with that at this present time But being you say that levying of War against the King is properly and truly to be called Rebellion I would fain ask whether you mean it only in such cases where the Subjects take up Arms out of pride and wantonness or in such also when they are necessitated and inforced unto it in their own defence Answ. I mean it equally in both cases tho of the two the former be more odious in the sight both of God and man For even defensive Arms as your Party calls them are absolutely unlawful in the Subject against his Sovereign in regard that no defensive War can be undertaken but it carrieth a resistance in it y to those higher powers to which every soul is to be subject Which powers being obtained by Almighty God it followeth by the Apostle's Logick who was a very able Disputant that they who do resist the powers resist the Ordinance of God z and consequently shall receive to themselves demnation A rule which took such deep impression in the Primitive Christians that though for personal valour numbers of men and leaders able to conduct them they were superiour to the adverse party in the Roman Empire yet they chose rather to expose their lives unto the merciless fury of the Persecutors than take up Arms against their Princes or disturb the peace of their Dominions under pretence of standing in their own defence being so tyrannically and unjustly handled For proof whereof we may alledg Tertullian a Cyprian b Lactantius c and some other d Antients whose words we will produce at large if you think it necessary 12. Quest You need not put your self to that trouble For we deny not that the Antient Christians did rather choose to suffer than to take up Arms e but when we say that tho they were exceeding numerous yet they were not formed into States and Kingdoms and that when they were once estated in laws and liberties as in France Holland Scotland Germany they made no question then to defend themselves What can you answer unto that Answ. I trow the Roman Empire was a setled State as strongly cemented with all the ligaments of power and policy as any one of these you mention and that the Subjects of that Empire had their laws and liberties which as their Ancestors had received from the indulgence of their Emperors and the Roman Senate so they transmitted them to their posterity And yet when all the Empire had received the faith in the time of Constantine and that no Religion but the Christian had publick countenance from the Laws during the most part of his reign and the whole reign of his three Sons which was for fifty five years no fewer the Subjects kept themselves to their former Principles Insomuch that when the Emperour Iulian began to intrench upon their liberties and infringe those laws which had been granted them by the grace and goodness of those Princes they knew no other way nor weapons by which to make resistance to such lawless violence but their prayers and tears {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} f and this was all the Medicine which they had to cure that Malady as we find in Nazianzen The like I could produce from St. Ambrose also g were not this sufficient And for your instances of France Holland Scotland Germany which you have mustered up to make good your cause I am sorry for the Protestant Religions sake that you have furnished me with so many examples of Rebellions since the Reformation some of which ended in the death and others in the deposition of their natural Princes Which was a point you seemed to doubt of in your tenth Question 13. Quest But tell me seriously do you conceive that all resistance of this kind made by force of Arms may be called Rebellion and that there are no cases which may make it lawful and warrantable by the Laws of God or man Answ. Your question hath two several parts and must receive two several answers And to the first I answer seriously it being now no time to trifle that all resistance of the kind you speak of nor only may be called Rebellion but is Rebellion in the true and natural sense of the word For if as the Civilians say Rebellis dicitur inobediens Principi circa concernentia prosperitatem Imperii h that every one may be said to be a Rebel who yieldeth not obedience to his Prince in all such particulars as do concern the flourishing estate of his Dominions assuredly he is a Rebel in the highest degree who takes up Arms against his Sovereign whatever his pretences be and by so doing doth embroil his Kingdoms in all these miseries which most inseparably are annexed to a Civil War Now frame the second part of the present Quere into a distinct question of it self and I will give such answer to it as I hope shall satisfie 14. Quest My question is whether the condition of the persons which are ingaged in such resistance the grounds on which they go and the end they aim at make not an alteration in the case so that Resistance qualified by these several circumstances become not warrantable by the Laws both of God and Man Answ. The answer unto this is already made in the book of Homilies where it is said that though not only great multitude of the rude and rascal Commons but sometimes also mention of great Wit Nobility and Authority have moved Rebellion against their lawful Princes though they should pretend sundry causes as the redress of the Commonwealth or Reformation of Religion tho they have made a great shew of holy meaning by beginning their Rebellion with a counterfeit service of God and by displaying and bearing about divers Ensigns and Banners which are acceptable unto the rude ignorant common people great multitudes of whom by such false pretences and shews they do deceive and draw unto them yet were the multitudes of the Rebels never so huge and great the Captains never so noble politick and witty the pretences feigned to be never so good and holy yet the speedly overthrow of all Rebels of what number state or condition soever they were or what colour or cause soever they pretended is and ever hath been such that God doth thereby shew that he alloweth neither the dignity of any person nor the multitude of any people nor the weight of any cause as sufficient for which the Subjects may move Rebellion against their Princes So far the very words of the Book of Homilies 15. Quest Why do you tell us thus of the Book of Homilies composed by a company of ignorant Bookmen men utterly unskilful in the Laws of the Land Think you that we ascribe to them so much
take up Arms against them under those pretences which is the rebellion of the hand 19. Quest What if the King be in the hands of Evil Counsellors may we not take up Arms to remove them from him Answ. Yes if the Earl of Essex may be Judg whose Father fell into Rebellion under that pretence a ut regnum ab impotenti quorundam dominatu liberaret as to free the Kingdom from some men who had got the Queen into their hands and consequently ingrossed unto themselves the principal managery of the Commonwealth But he had other aims than that as before was told you and so had they that went before him in the self same road When as Watt Tiler and Jack Straw and the residue of that Rascal Rabble had took up Arms against King Richard the second they made the Londoners believe who have been always apt to be deluded by the like pretences that when they had seized on the evil Counsellors b which abused the King and brought them to a legal trial then they would be quiet But under this pretence they broke open Prisons robbed Churches murdered the King's good Subjects and finally arrived to so high an impudence that Watt Tiler did not stick to say that within four days all the Laws of England should proceed from his mouth c And when Jack Cade had drawn the Kentish to Rebel against King Henry the sixth he gave it out that if he could get the King and Queen into his hands he would use them honourably d but if he could lay hands on any of the Traytors which were about them he would take care to see them punished for their misdemeanours But in good truth the end and aim of the Rebellion was to depose King Henry and the House of Lancaster in favour of the title of the Duke of York 20. Quest What if the King assaults a Subject or seek to take away his life may not the Subject in that case take up Arms against him Answ. Yes if e Paraeus may be Judg and some of the Genevian Doctors who have so determined But David's case which commonly is alledged in defence hereof if looked on with the eyes of judgment doth affirm the contrary For David though he had a guard of some friends and followers to save him from the hands of such wicked instruments as Saul in his unjust displeasure might have used against him yet he preserved himself from Saul not by resistance but by flight f by flitting up and down as the King removed and approached near him with his Armies For had he had a thought of War though Defensive meerly 't is probable he would have took the opportunities which were offered to him either of seizing on Sauls person when he had him all alone in the Cave of Engeddi g or suffering Abishai to smite him as he lay asleep in the Hill of Hachilah h or at the least in making sure of Abner and the Host of Saul who lay sleeping by him i But David was not so well tutored in the Art of Rebellion as to secure himself this way and wanted some of our new Masters to instruct him in it If from the practice of a pious and religious Iew we will look down upon the precept of a grave wise and learned Gentile we shall find this rule laid down in Aristotle k {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that if the Magistrate assault the person of a private Subject the Subject may not strike again nor lift hand against him Finally that you may perceive how much all sorts of men do oppose your Doctrines Calvin himself although no friend to Monarchy doth affirm thus much l qui privatus manum intulerit c. that any private person of what sort soever who shall lift up his hand against his Sovereign though a very Tyrant is for the same condemned by the voice of God 21. Quest Perhaps we may so far agree with you as to disable private persons from bearing Arms and lifting up their hands against Kings and Princes of their own authority But think you that inferiour Magistrates are not inabled by their Offices to protect the People and arm them if occasion be in their own defence Answ. 'T is true that some Divines of the Reformed Churches who either lived in popular States or had their breeding at Geneva or thought the Discipline by them defended could not be otherwise obtruded upon Christian Princes than by putting the Sword into the hands of the People have spared no pains to spread abroad this dangerous Doctrine in which they have not wanted followers in most parts of Christendom But S. Paul knew of no such matter when he commanded every soul to yield obedience and subjection to the higher powers and upon no occasion to resist those powers to which the Lord had made them subject So that although inferiour Magistrates may expect obedience from the hands of those over whom and for whose weal and governance they are advanced and placed by the Prince in chief yet God expects that they should yield obedience to the powers above them especially to the highest of all than which there is not any higher There is a golden Chain in Polities and every link thereof hath some relation and dependence upon that before so far forth as inferiour Magistrates do command the People according to that power and those instruments which is communicated to them by the supreme Prince the Subject is obliged to submit unto them without any manner of Resistance Men of no publick Office must obey the Constable the Constable is bound to speed such Warrants as the next Iustice of the Peace shall direct unto him the Iustices receive the exposition of the Law from the mouth of the Iudges the Iudges have no more Authority but what is given them by the King And thereupon it needs must follow that though the Iudges direct the Iustices and the Iustices command the Constables and the Constables may call the People to their aid if occasion be yet all must yield a free obedience without reluctancy or resistance to the King himself The reason is because as Kings or Supreme Magistrates are called Gods Ministers by S. Paul m so the inferiour or Subordinate Magistrates are called the Kings Ministers by S. Peter n Submit your selves to the King as unto the Supreme next to such Governours as are sent or authorized by him for the punishment of evil doers Besides there is no Inferior Matistrate of what sort soever but as he is a publick person in respect of those that are beneath him so is he but a private man in reference to the powers above him and therefore as a private person disabled utterly by your own rules from having any more authority to resist his Sovereign or bear defensive Arms against him as well as any other of the Common People The government of States may be compared most properly
inconsultis quorumlibet armorum movendorum copia tribuatur d let none presume to levy Forces whatsoever the pretence or occasion be without our privity or consent saith the Constitution If you consult with the Divines Saint Austin a most Learned Father will inform you thus that the natural course and arts of Government accommodated to the peace and welfare of us mortal men do require thus much Ut suscipiendi belli autoritas atque consilium penes principes sit e that all authority of making war and levying forces appertain only to the Prince And if you please to look on Bracton or any of the Lawyers of your Native Country they will tell you this that the material sword is put into the hands of the King by Almighty God f that by the material sword is meant a power and right to look to the defence and preservation of the Kingdom and that it is no less than Treason to enter into any association g or to raise a war without the Kings consent or against his will And this the Houses as it seems understood full well when purposing to levy Forces to begin the War they took the Kings authority along for company and raised them in the name of the King and Parliament the better to seduce the People to a blinded Rebellion As for the Enemies of the Kingdom against whom the Subjects were to arm themselves by the appointment of the Houses I can tell of none no nor they neither as I take it unless they saw them in their dreams And for your posture of defence as you please to phrase it besides that I have proved before that even defensive Arms are absolutely unlawful on the Subjects part the war hath been offensive plainly on the part of the Houses which as it was contrived and followed without the least colour of necessity to induce them to it so did it aim at nothing else than the destruction of the King and the alteration of the Government which are the purpose and design of all Rebellions as before was told you 28. Quest How prove you that the Parliament did begin the war that on their parts it was offensive not defensive only or that they had a purpose to destroy the King if you can make this good you shall gain me to you Answ. This point hath been so agitated and discoursed already it were but labour lost to speak further in it The Votes and Orders of the Houses for putting the Kingdom into a posture of war the taking into their own hands the whole Militia of the Kingdom raising of Money Men and Horses in all the quarters of the Land mustering their new-raised House and Foot in Finsbury-fields and Tuttle-fields seizing upon the Arms and Ammunition which the King had bought with his own money and laid up in his own Magazines before the King had either money enough to pay a Soldier powder enough to kill a Bird or Men enough about him to guard his Person from any ordinary force and violence what was all this but a beginning of the war and who did this but some prevailing Men in the two Houses of Parliament under the name and stile of the Lords and Commons Then for the managing of the war if it had been defensive only as you say it was what needed a Commission to the Earl of Essex to kill and slay all such as opposed their doings What needed they have sent some part of their Forces into Hampshire to pluck the Town of Portsmouth out of the Kings hands which by reason of the distance of it could not do them hurt another into Dorsetshire to beat the Marquess of Hertford out of Sherborne Castle a third and that the greatest part as far as Worcester and beyond it to find the King and give him battel before he was within an hundred Miles of them What needed they have sent their Emissaries into all the Counties of the Kingdom to put the People into Arms in which the King had neither Power nor Party that appeared for him or to exhaust the blood and treasure of this Nation under pretence of settling their own privileges and the Subjects liberties when the King offered more by his frequent Messages than they had reason to expect Doubtless they could pretend no danger as the case then stood which might necessitate them to take Arms in their own defence and therefore now of late they have changed their terms and do not make the war defensive meerly but in part preventive h It seems their consciences told them what they had deserved and so for fear the King might right himself upon them when he was of power they thought it best to strike the first blow and begin the Quarrel in hope to make such sure work of it that he should never strike the second But to say truth the War was not preventive neither on the Houses part but a design that had been plotted long before and was made ripe for execution when there was neither ground nor colour to possess the People with the fancy that the King intended force against them For what purpose else did Sir Arthur Haslerig and M. Pym sojourn two years together with Mr. Knightly so near the habitation of the good Lord Say to what end held they correspondence with the discontented Party in the Country and took such pains in canvassing for Knights and Burgesses when this present Parliament was called in most Counties c Or to what end and purpose had the zealous Citizens so used themselves unto their weapons frequented the Artillery Garden and stored themselves with Arms in so large a measure but that they were resolved to be in readiness when the time should come This if it were not a design must be done by Prophecy not in the way of a prevention 29. Quest But to the other point you spake off touching the purpose which you say they had to destroy the King can you make any proof of that Answ. I have already told you from the mouths of our greatest Lawyers that all Rebellions aim at no other end then the destruction of the King and the change of Government and that this end was aimed at more especially in this particular Rebellion I shall tell you now you cannot chuse but call to mind with what heat and violence multitudes of the rascal people as they flocked towards Westminster clamoured against his Sacred Majesty even at Whitehall Gates and how seditiously they expressed the secrets of their traitorous hearts some saying openly as they passed along that the King was the Traitor some that the young Prince would govern better and others of a more transcendent wickedness l that the King was not fit to live Next look upon these very Men for out of them the body of their Army was at first compounded trained to the Wars well armed and marching furiously to find out the King against whose Sacred Person and most precious
life they had before expressed such a dangerous malice Then add to this that when they came unto Edge-Hill they bent their Canon more especially and spent the hottest part of their shot and fury towards that part of the battel in which according unto that advertisement which the villain Blague had given their General a Man as full of discontent and malice as the worst amongst them the King in Person and the two young Princes meant to be Put this together and compare it with some subsequent passages which have been desperatly vented in the House of Commons touching the deposition of the King without check or censure and the inviting of a forreign Nation to Invade this Kingdom the better to effect their business and tell me if you can what is aimed at else then the destruction of the King and his Royal Issue 30. Quest I must confess you put me to it but I must take some time to consider of it before I tell you what I think In the mean season I have one more doubt to propose unto you which if you can remove I am wholly yours The name of Parliament is sacred to me and I am loth to scruple any of those actions which receive countenance and authority from the awful body Can you make proof that the Party which remains at Westminster have not the full authority of the two Houses of Parliament If you could make that clear then the work were done Answ. I dare not take that task upon me it is too invidious but I shall offer these few things to your consideration First it would seriously be considered Whether the King whose presence as the head of that awful body gives life and motion to the acts and results thereof do purposely absent himself to make their consultations frustrate and their meeting fruitless or that he hath been driven from them by force and violence Secondly Whether such considerable numbers of the Lords and Commons as are now absent from the Houses have left the Houses and the service for no other reason than for compliance with the King and to serve his ends in hope of getting honours and preferments by him or on the motion made by the rascal multitude to have the names of these given up who Voted not with Say and Pym and other the good Members of both Houses Thirdly What mischief would ensue both to the Church of Christ and the States of Christendom If when the greater and sounder part of Parliaments and General Councils shall be driven away either by the threats and practices of the lesser and the worse affected the less and the worse affected part may have the reputation of the whole body and their actions countenanced by the name thereof Fourthly Whether it be not one of the greatest prejudices which the Protestants have against the Council of Trent k that it was held in an unsafe place which they could not come to without danger and that the Prelates there assembled were so prelimited by the Popes instructions or awed with an Italian Guard which was set upon them under pretence of safety to their Persons from affronts and injuries that they had neither freedom to debate the points which were there propounded nor liberty of suffrage to determine of them Fifthly Whether the King calling the expulsed Party of the Lords and Commons to some other place and summoning all the rest also to assemble there may not with greater reason take unto themselves the name the power and reputation of a Parliament than the remaining party now at Westminster consisting seldom of above an hundred Commons and sometimes not above three Lords have challenged and usurped the name of the two Houses Sixthly and lastly 31. Quest Hold I must interupt you there The King by Writ appoints his Parliament to be held at Westminster and by a subsequent Act or Statute hath so bound himself that he can neither dissolve nor adjourn it without their consent How can he then remove it to another place than that which was at first appointed Answ. No doubt but he may do it with as good authority as the two Houses or either of them may adjourn to London which you cannot choose but know hath been often done since the beginning of this Session For tho they sit not there as Houses but by turning the either of the Houses into a Committee of the whole House yet this is but an Artifice to elude the Writ and act their business in a place of more advantage The change is only in the name but the power the same Witness those Votes and Declarations which they have passed and published in the said Committees as binding and effectual to their ends and purposes as any thing transacted in the several Houses Nor is the place so necessary and essential unto the being of Parliament but that the major part with the Kings consent may change it if they think it profitable for the Common wealth Otherwise we might say of Parliaments as once Victorinus did of Christians l Ergone pariete faciunt Christianum Is it the place and not the persons which do make a Parliament Or grant we that of common course the Houses cannot regularly be adjourned to another place but the adjournment must be made in the House it self yet this is but a circumstance or at most a ceremony not of the substance of the work And if that speech of Caesar carrieth any weight as all wise Men conceive it doth Legem necessitati cedere oportere m that even the strictest Laws must yield to the necessities and uses of the Common-wealth no question but so slight a circumstance as that of place must needs be thought in the present business is to give way unto the peace and preservation of this wretched Kingdom 32. Quest These points I shall consider of as you have advised only at present I shall tell you that I am very well resolved of the unlawfulness of this War against His Majesty and think them guilty of Rebellion who either laid the plot thereof or have since pursued it Tell me now for the close of all what punishment the Laws do inflict on those who are convicted of so capital and abhorred a crime Answ. You cannot be so ignorant of the Laws of England as not to know That a convicted Rebel is condemned to be hanged drawn and quartered his belly to be ripped up and his bowels to be taken out whilest he is yet living his head and limbs to be advanced on some eminent places for a terrible example unto others his blood attainted his estate confiscate his possessions forfeited The Civil Laws go somewhat further and execute them after death in their Coats of Arms which are to be defaced and razed in what place soever they are found Rebellium arma Insignia delenda sunt ubicunque inveniuntur n as Bartolus hath it I end as I began with the Book of Homilies Turn over and read