same language Omnis quidem sub eo ipse sub nullo nisi tantùm deo Omnis not singuls to take off your singùlis maior universis minor and tantùm sub deo spoken negatively to exclude this eclipse this interposition of the people But of this sufficiently already is spoken It cannot be objected to the Martyrs of the first age that they could not resist the torture they were at the least seemingly willing to undergo Tertullian in his Apologie telleth the Emperour the Christians were more in number and stronger and able to defend themselves his Scholar Cyprian is of the same Language Quamvis nimins copiosus noster populus non tamen adversus violentiam se ulciscitur Lactantius confirmeth him lib. 5. and August in many places of his De Civitate Dei Of all other the passage between the Thebean Legion is most considerable and the Emperour Maximian they consisted of 6666 Souldiers the Emperour sent unto them upon pain of death to commit formall idolatrie they refused to obey his command they were able enough to resist him and his power they knew and confessed it they laid their heads to the blocke and lifted no hand against him his command was injust was impious by natures dictates they were to conserve themselves yet they relinquished nature yielded to die Let us compare Hothams action to this primitive passage the King would have entred the gates of Hull a Town within his Dominion Hotham being within the Kings alleageance shut the gates against him resisting his entrance with armed men Hotham conceived his entrance would put his life in jeopardie and the Kingdomes safetie endangered he conceived it probably not inevitably to follow thereupon suppose the ruine of both had inevitably ensued yet it is not so farre prest The Thebean example doth not warrant the resistance they obeyed to the losse of life this desire to enter the Town came from the Cavaliers and ill Councellours not from the King himselfe Caesars taxation was by his ministers assessed collected and probably invented Maximians servants brought the command to the Thebean Legion to commit idolatrie they brought the punishment and executed it and it was very probable they were the authours of both yet no resistance made against the Emperours command though delivered by his ministers yet our King in person and vivâ voce demanded entrance and was resisted and resistance of the Kings authoritie is to resist the King as was declared by this present Parliament upon the Earle of Strafford triall you will object the Emperour had a more absolute Dominion than our King hath over his Subjects persons and estates I confesse it the Emperours power was in most things illimited the Kings limited by our municipall Lawes obliged by a solemne Oath to keep them and if he commandeth any thing opposite to these Lawes we are not bound to obey this command but we are not warranted by this Law to resist the King with force of Armes if other Christians made a conscience actually to resist their Kings command even in things contrary to the Law of Nature and the divine Law and those that concerned salvation and can the conscience of our Christianitie allow us to raise Armes to resist the Kings commands supposed by inferences to prove destructive to our positive Lawes Our Law doth not warrant us and if it did there is no warrant for that Law given by the supreme Law-giver But this resistance is approved by Parliament by Parliament is meant by you the representative Bodie of the Lords and Commons assembled by the Kings Authoritie I denie this to be Parliament by the Constitution of this Kingdom without the concurrence of the King and if it were I deny that the greater part is conscious of this resistance and if the greater part were I deny an infallibilitie tied to them and if they were infallible I deny that they alone without the King are competent Judges makers and declarers of Law if they were then they should be both parties and Judges and disposers of that which belongeth to the King jure personae without his consent himselfe being neither there in person nor represented by them or any of them an opinion dissonant to reason or conscience and the institution of nature for the Members to raise Armes against the Head Aesop giveth us an example and the effect of such War and hereupon we will digresse a little to examine the definition and properties given by your Observations to the Parliament which you define pag. 5. to be the essence of the Kingdom that 's false for a thing cannot be separated from its essence the Kingdom and Parliament can A thing hath no being when the essence is destroyed the Kingdom hath its being when the Parliament is suppressed dissolved or not in rerum natura as in the vacancie of a Parliament the same numericall qualities that inhere in the Parliament do not inhere in the Kingdom and so è eontra the Parliament may be sicke at the time the Kingdom is well the Parliament may erre when the Kingdom doth not in the same manner that generall Councels the representative Bodie of the militant Church may erre when the Church generall doth not This representative Bodie is a select number of men intrusted for a greater with a large Commission to treat and conclude for the trusters good the trusters are men and subject to ercour unlesse a supernaturall assistant spirit of infallibilitie is necessarily pinned to their sleeves that they are remoter than ordinary Courts from erring I allow you but not absolutely free from it as you averre pag. 8. The praises you give to Parliaments swell up most of your Observations and much are I confesse deservedly attributed For mine own part as I was borne under the English Government so I conceive it without affectation the exquisitest I know of and in these the Parliament shineth above other Constitutions ut inter ignes Luna minores Let a Parliament run within its own channell if it breake the bankes it overwhelmes it destroyeth publique Libertie and looseth its being and the end for which it was instituted I love the fundamentall Libertie of this Kingdom as well as the Observatour doth but without dotage as the Observator professeth to love monarchicall Government pag. 41. Parliaments have done wrong witnesseth the deposall of Richard the Second therefore it is good Logicke to say they may do wrong But you say they were forced by Henry the Fourth his victorious Armie p. 32. I say so too then they may be forced and force we know are of severall nature I pray God the present be not conscious of it I leave to the effect ofevery Parliament to elogize it selfe Parliaments are of a soveraigne good but as in naturall so in politickes I believe Corruptio optimi est pessima and so much for Parliaments We shall now reflect upon the next member of our division that falleth next in order to be discussed that this Supremacie
AN EXAMINATION OF THE OBSERVATIONS Vpon His MAJESTIES ANSWERS Wherein the absurdities of the OBSERVATORS Positions and Inferences are discovered Nunquámne reponam Vexatus toties rauci Theseide Codri Juvenal Sat. 1. Printed in the Yeare of our LORD M.DC.XLIII AN EXAMINATION OF THE OBSERVATIONS Vpon his MAJESTIES ANSWERS WE shall for methods sake first take a generall examination of the Observators chiefest Positions and their supposed properties then fall to a stricter examination of them upon a particular survey of the whole discourse not omitting the least argument materially urged by him which we purpose to discusse in that order the nature of the thing examined and examination doth prompt us to not limiting our selfe to any particular government but looking upon all in their efficients and ends descending to particulars only and as often as the Observator goeth before us The principall subject of his discourse is That power is originally inherent in the people pag. 1. and transferred by them alwayes upon certaine limitations and conditions of reentry pag. 4 5. he taketh this admitted and then urgeth the following properties incident to the people The people more noble than the King pag. 3. He proveth this by two reasons 1. From the end The King is for the people instituted not the people for the King pag. 3. 2. From the cause Quod facit tale est magis tale pag. 2. The King is singulis major universis minor pag. 2 44. What Parliaments be and the prayses of them pag. 5 6 7 8 9 10. Hothams resisting the Kings entrance into Hull is justifyed pag 25 26 27 28 29 30 31. These opinions are maintained saving that of the Parliament and Hothams act by Cardinall Bellarmine with all the reasons used by the Observator L 1. de pont c. 7. et de Clericis c 28. and Theologically answered by our late Brittish Solomon of happy memory the first that I observed of English Protestants that seemeth to favour this opinion is the Gentleman who delivered upon the Earle of Straffords tryal these words If a King by the right of a Conquerour gives laws to the people shall not the people by the same reason be restored to the right of the conquered to recover their liberty if they can if indifinitely meant for all people if by conquered is meant the people it seemeth to me that he supposeth the originall of all governements to proceed from the people The Observators arguments pretend to be drawne from the fundamentals of nature which shall be discussed in their proper places a Christian Writer in a businesse of this weight should haue had his recourse to Scripture and measured nature by it which is the true Lydian stone to distinguish spurious from genuine principles of nature the sacred booke is copious and evident in this matter but because not urged by the Observator I shall content my selfe to passe by the great advantage Scripture giveth me and touch it only with that caution I limited my selfe in the ensuing Treatise Power you say is originally inherent in the people You say so but offer no proofe of it What power to make Kings all Kings or some Kings at all times or some times and is this power originally inherent in them de facto or de jure if de jure is it divino naturali or jure Gentium De facto Ignorance it selfe hath not the face to averre it dominion is the chiefe ingredient of Royalty Adam had it and used it over man and beast a gift not of man but of God Genes c. 1. v. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after his likenesse after his image God created man his image in the substance especially soule of man his likenesse in the qualities he endowed man with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like God as he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strong powerfull strength and power being essentiall properties of soveraignty the posterity of the first man before the law when they were a law to themselves had potestatem vitae et necis derived to their first borne in their generations the holy booke averreth this no moderne no antient authority oppugneth it Potestas vitae et necis are infallible markes of Soveraignty constantly exercised by the first borne before the Law without limitation without condition or contract had with them over whom they exercised this authority how then is Power originally inherent in the people did the constant practise of the first age runne a course contrary to nature in morall businesses for the space of sixteen hundred years for from the creation to the deluge about so many yeares are reckoned by the best Chronologers neither is this birth-right of soveraignty during that time suspended interrupted or crost in the lyne of Seth for ought I ever heard or read of no man I believe is of that unbeliefe to say that nature from its cradle was dispossessed of this birth-right and could not regaine it in so many ages it is said Naturam expellas furcâ licet usque recurret lesse time than this might make custome nature unlesse this custome did crosse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prima naturae which we shall examine in its proper place the purity of nature probably in morall actions grew more corrupted in processe of ages witnesseth the increase of lawes occasioned by the encrease of vice After the Deluge Nimrod put up the first Monarchy the People had not the chiefe hand to elect him but you reply he was a Hunter of men a Tyrant an Inverter of Natures Institutions what Nature meant or assented to shall be examined in one consideration of Inherent power De jute naturali that he was a Monarch and not elected by the People fully satisfieth our present purpose he is branded with Tyranny not so properly for usurpation of Soveraignty but for the unnaturall and inordinate exercise of his Dominion for he in whom Soveraignty is lawfully vested be it from People or Patrimoniall and inheritable from his Ancestours by the unnaturall exercise of his power is ordinarily and properly stiled a Tyrant the World being Peopled severall Dominions arose of severall natures one man sometimes and in some places ingrossing Soveraignty and some times the people the passions of depraved Nature still breaking our for their seeming best advantage to run upon particulars is needlesse nor much to the purpose examples of both natures are numerous though questionlesse unequall the foure Monarchs and the practice of the first age owne not their births to popular elections examples parallell to these for antiquity and fame the continued voyce of History assureth me cannot be found in any election made by the people hence it is evident that it cannot without much Immodesty or Ignorance be alleadged that Power is originally inherent in the People de facto in respect of practice in the People to make all Kings and at all times Whether this power is originally inherent in the People de jure of right falleth next to be examined if
this power is originally inherent in the people de jure it is then so inherent in them jure Divino by Divine right naturally by the law of Nature or jure Gentium by the law of Nations to averre the people intituled to this power by any Civill law that is by the law of any particular Nation commeth not to the purpose for your tenent is indefinite not limited to any particular government and endeavoured to be maintained by indefinite arguments therefore if the people hath any right to this power we must finde it out in one of the three rights proposed by us and we will here first enquire after this power in the Divine law God is donour of all Dominions witnesseth your selfe page 1. therefore not the people but you will say God and the people to prove this I finde not one argument drawne from Scripture in all your Observations and if any text had the least colour of advantage for you without doubt it had beene urged and sacred History is most energeticall and too frequent in the mouth of conscious Heterodoxy we shall to keepe closer to you decline to examine your Observations according to the rule of Scripture and keep our discourse to runne within the Channels of naturall Reason touching only Divinity as we passe along so far as it descendeth to communicate it selfe with reason if you must needs therefore justle in man to share with God in the constitution of Royalnesse reason reason and nature being the Idols of your discourse forceth you to confesse that God is either the mediate people immediate or the people mediate God the immediate or both immediately concurre as immediate efficients of principalities no other sort of operation or influx can be assigned to efficient Causes and reducible to the Observations advantage if God is made to be mediate people immediate efficients it followeth of necessity that the people must either be a meer instrument or a free Agent enabled by the first cause to settle this power in whom they please and that in an absolute or conditionall estate a meere instrumentall Cause I am assured you will deny the people to bee for Instrumentum non movet nisi motum and the effects of it are properly and usually called the effect of the mover I meane by mover not the finall cause but efficient or Agent which indeed hath the most influence upon the effect and whose quality still specificates and denominates accordingly this efficient and not the instrument he that killeth a man with a Sword is called the man-slayer not the Sword a virtuous or vicious exploit is attributed to the man not the sword wherewith he did it to take God and people in this state is to allow God to be the Well from whence doth flow principality and the people the Conduit-pipe and he that hath the least drop of Reason will not averre the water to have its being from the Conduit-pipe that conveyeth it people in this notion have not the powers dreamed of by the Observations either originall or inherent in them nor can your quod fecit tale est magis tale be applyed to them that have not sufficiency fit to denominate them tale we shall looke then upon the people as free Agents enabled by God the mediate or remoter Cause with power by them grantable and transferrable upon whomsoever their publike voyce and consent electeth this power is by them grantable absolutely or conditionally or both if they may doe it both wayes wee will for methods sake looke upon them in their first capacity if they make an absolute grant they are irrevocably concluded neither is it of any purpose to urge that the nature of the thing granted is incompatible with an absolute conveyance of it this is to deny our supposition neither doth the nature of the thing granted gainsay an absolutenesse of grant for power ever lives and estates is at most the thing conveyed which was and may be absolutely and irrevocably given a free man by the law of this Land may by confessing himselfe a villaine in a Court of Record bind himselfe and his heires to servitude and estate to the disposall of their Lord a man sui juris in the Romane Law usually called the Civill law may subject himselfe and posterity to another man over whom and fortunes he hath an absolute Dominion Gell. l. 11. c. 8. and Instinian Institut de servis the Jewish Law hath an expresse testimony for this addition in 21. Chapter of Exodus verse 6. his Master speaking of Servant he shall boare his eare through with an Awle and he shall serve him for ever the Logicke of these examples is evident by the same reason that one so many that are sui iuris may convey to one or more absolute dominion over themselves and posterity And though I would admit unto you that it is pag. 20. Vnnaturall for any Nation to give away its owne propriety in it selfe and yet this gift is both naturall and necessary to the being of all Societies and States for if every man reserveth to himselfe the power given him by nature to resist violence and injury though offered by a Magistrate then every man would be a law to himselfe to the extirpation of all Societies and civill Justice The inconveniency arising from the supposition of such absolute grant objected by the observator faleth to the ground for conditionall as well as absolute tralation of power is obnoxious to inconveniences neither is it insisted so much by us whether this power is ever or more usually granted but whether rightfully grantable irrevocably which no reasonable judgement will deny by the examples urged by us drawn from the Constitutions of those three most considerable Common-wealths neither is this absolute subjection as the Observator falsly urgeth contrary or dissonant to the Law of Nature by the Law of Nature hee understandeth that which right reason assenteth unto pag. 44. Naturall reason many times approveth and consenteth to this irrevocable conveyance poverty sometimes or inability to defend themselves by the strength of their owne Lawes compelleth the people irrevocably to subject themselves to another power and right reason assenteth to this grant induced thereunto by these or the like exigences of State Campani said incomparable Grotius olim necessitate subacti populo Romano se subiecerunt in hunc modum populum Campanum vrbemque Capuam agros delubra Deum Divina Humanaque in vestram ditionem P. C. dedimus here is an absolute conveyance over lives and fortunes by the people without reservations or conditions neither standeth this example single in History Learned Grotius in his exquisite book De Jure Belli pacis fol. 49. reckoneth many Conveyances of the same nature which for brevitie we passe over referring the scrupulous if any can be in a matter so evident to the foresaid cited Author to be fully satisfied and shall further view the superstructure of your discourse upon the foundation your selfe have
laid Admit Supremacie derived from the people hence Quod facit tale est magis tale The people more noble than the King because he is for them not they for him instituted Salus populi Suprema Lex and the Law of prerogative is subservient to this the King singulis major universis minor the right of conquest cannot bee pleaded to acquit Princes of that which is due to the people as the authors and ends of all power for meere force cannot alter the course of Nature or frustrate the tenour of Law and if it could there were more reason why the people might instisie force to regaine due Liberty then the King might subvert the same And this is all I finde in your Observations reducible to maintaine the principall subject of your observation the residue being either matter of fact admonitions or reprehensions I shall not meddle with being Heterogencous to our present purpose Quod facit tale c. Wine maketh a man drunk therefore Wine it selfe is more drunke than man the inference holdeth not you see in causes by accident Sol homo generant hominem therefore the Sunne is more man then the man generated this I am assured you will confesse to bee a very bad consequence so then the Maxime is not current in partiall efficients and the people are at most but partiall causes for you allow God also a sharer of this Supremacie but I will admit further unto you Supremacie wholly derived from the people the maxime is not true in all totall causes Adam was the author or cause of sinne God was the totall Author or cause of Adam therefore God was more Author or Cause of sinne your Religion will not allow this Logick the axiome therefore holdeth not in totall free agents and though I admit you the people to be whole cause of this power yet I know you will say they are free Agents in conferring of it and if you allow them that freedome your Axiome you see is ill applyed To come yet nearer unto you a Servant giveth the Master the title of Master Relatives as these are are Causa sibi invicem doth it follow therefore that the servant is more Master then he that is made master by him the passage betweene Valentinian and his Souldiers recorded by Sozom. in his Ecclesiasticall History cleareth the point Vt me ad imperandum vobis eligeretis in vestra situm erat potestate ô milites at postquam me elegistis quod petitis in meo est arbitrio non vestro vobis tanquam subditis competit parere mihi quae facienda sunt cogitare That I was chosen your Emperour lay in your power Souldiers but after I am so chosen by you what you demand of me lyeth now in mine not your power it befits you as subjects to obey and me to consider what I am to doe Your Quod facit iale in point of government holdeth true in him or them whose power continually dependeth upon the will of him or them that gave it not in them who have it transacted by one Act bee it absolute or with certaine limitation that this power is transactable is allowed by your selfe and that absolutely some thing is alreadie proved the conditionall relation of it we shall referre to be further examined in the second member of the division of immediate efficients and here we will sift the second propertie you annex to the subject of your discourse this supposed popular Supremacie The People more noble than the King because he for them not they for him is instituted that universally taken is apparently false some Government is onely for the Governour not the Governed erected as that between the Master and Servant whom the Master taketh for his own not his Servants profit and though the Servant gaineth by the service yet his gain was neither the cause nor end of this dominion not of that gained by conquest the end and efficient of some Government are both the Governour and Governed as that between the Husband and the Wife whose subjection still referreth to her and her Husbands goods So the Campani subjected themselves to Rome for their own safetie and the Roman Honour and greatnesse both you see proved the object of this Government the Conquerour is the efficient and end of his Government by his contract with the people to limit his power with certain caution over them maketh them thereby a partiall end of his Supremacie it is false then that all Kings are erected for the people and not the people for them but that you may perceive the weaknesse of your inference I shall admit unto you that all Kings are for the people and not the people for them doth it follow therefore they are more noble than the King tutorage is instituted for pupillage not pupillage for it is the pupill therefore more noble than the tutour that hath power over him the tutour upon misusage of his power over the pupill I confesse is removed but by a positive Law made by those above him where that positive Law is by whom made appeareth not in any considerable Monarch of the world some but sew and inconsiderable Antiquitie make mention of Mezentius in Virgil seemed to be of such conditionall powers Ergo omnis furiis surrexit Etruria justis Regem ad suppâ—â—sium prasenti morte reposcunt This pretended Nobiâ—itie we have quitted the people of by what is already said Next your Salus populi suprema lex commeth to be discussed if you mean by People a Common-wealth with all the parts of it I allow you that Salus populi suprema lex but if you understand by people the Subject contrà distinguished fom the King if you take people for the Members without the Head of a Societie your Salus populi is not Suprema lex if you take Members apart the worthier Member challengeth the first respect and consequently the King who is the Head of the Common-wealth claimeth in reason the preheminence of the inferior Members Art imitateth Nature and if the Reason of Nature giveth it so Reason of policie being grounded upon that of Nature cannot deny this prerogative and so much concerning that adjunct Rex singulis maior universis minor you understand maior minor in respect of Supremacie and by universis singulis simul sumptis all the Subjects and the representation of them the Parliaments for they you say are essentially the same pag. 5. He can command all singly but all ioyntly can command him This of all your opinions carrieth most absurditie with it The people you say give a power over them to the King and yet reserve it to themselves In the Oath of Supremacie you confesse the King supreme next under God but by this you introduce an interposition of the people the representative Bodie of the Kingdom the Parliament which is the Kingdom it selfe so you terme it pag. 5. do joyntly and universally in most acts preface the King with May it please your
most Excellent Majestie if it proceedeth from an inferiour to his superiour he cannot choose but take it as a jeare or at least a complement of ignorance mistakes and ignorance are incompatible with that infallibilitie you deifie the Parliament with the King in respect of the universi all the Subiects must of necessitie be considered as Head of them or a subordinate Member If a Head Supremacie must be incident to it the Head commandeth the parts to obey if a Member He must obey them to be cut off or left according to the Head the universi'es Judgement this is to meet more than halfe way with the Jesuits let not your popular Kinglinesse stoop to a dishonourable league with the children of Belial I shall not more enlarge my selfe to confute this absurditie though I conceive this enough to any unpreiudicated man Another hath gone before me upon this subiect who did very rationally discover the sillinesse nay contradiction of this paradox I shall passe over that of the holy Text Statuam supra me Samuel and urge some authoritie drawn from Heathens to shame this opinion from a Christian Head Marcus Aurelius Magistratus de privatis principes de magistratibus Deum de principibus judicare Hor. Regum timendorum in ipsos greges in ipsos reges imperium est Jovis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. Il. 1. Otanes in Heredotus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do what he will and not bound to give an account to any Dion Penseensis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So to governe that he is not accomptable to another Dion lib. 5.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is free having power over himselfe and Law so what he pleaseth he doth what displeaseth him he doth not this indefinitenesse of power few Kings at this day have time and experience upon occasionall reasons of State bring Kings to descend to limit their power to certain rules agreed upon by themselves and people and these rules have divers degrees of latitude which the positive Lawes of many Countries do manifest and distinguish but to whom the King is to yeild his accompt for breach of his Covenant we shall touch hereafter and here fall to discusse the last remarkable propertie your observation attributed to this supposed Ochlo-Supremacie The right of Conquest cannot be pleaded to acquit Princes of that which is due to the People as the Authours and ends of all power for meer force cannot alter the course of nature or frustrate the tenor of Law and if it could there were more reason why the People might justifie force to regain due libertie than the Prince might to subvert the same People are not the sole end or Authours of this power and if they were the nature of the thing granted may be absolutely transferred by them without expresse or tacit condition as is fully proved already then it followeth the right of Conquest may be pleaded to acquit Princes of that which is due you mean to acknowledge the people the end and Author of Government to acknowledge them the Authours of it with power to cancell the Authoritie given when they please to acknowledge a supremacie in the Prince derived from the People and neverthelesse still to reside in the People how then doth meer force alter the course of nature or frustrate the tenor of Law the Law of Nature you intend if a Prince gaineth a Principalitie from him upon whom it was absolutely conferred suppose from People the Conquerours Title standeth firme against all but the rightfull Owner and the People if they have a Title or interest in this power more than seldome conclude them for ever the examples we have already urged questionlesse force any impartiall Judgement to believe it The most considerable Monarchies and the greatest Govenments were Monarchies the present or past age presenteth to us were begun and setled by Conquests and that these Monarches descended to covenant with their Subjects to regulate their power by certain limitation desired and approved by the People hath more of the Princes bountie than obligation in it being a free donative bestowed upon the people and if the Covenant in part or in all is infringed or broken by the King what advantage the people hath by it passeth my understanding to apprehend a Title of re-entry cannot be reserved by them from whom no estate passed and if it did this reservation must be expressed or implied we have no expression of it urged by you and we are assured you cannot produce any popular Charter with this expresse reservation and if this is implied this impliednesse you must discover unto us either by reason or authoritie this Supremacie is of that indifferencie that may be transferred conditionally or absolutely and I demand of you whether a tacit condition is ever annexed naturally I mean by the Law of Nature to take off the Constitutions of municipall Lawes therein to a businesse conveyable with such indifferencie to affirme it destroyeth the nature of all absolute grants The Jewes claimed themselves free from all Pagan Jurisdiction and Caesar was their King by that right the sword did give him if that right was not warrantable the edicts grounded upon that right might iustly be disobeyed by the Jewes Christ preached obedience to them for he paid the generall taxation imposed by Caesar upon the Jewes and others in the Roman dition exhorted those to the same actuall obedience who came with an intent to entrap him where then is your frequent distinction All lawfull Powers come from God and are to be obeyed unlawfull are not of God and therefore not to be obeyed this power is unlawfull I am assured you are ready to averre in most respects in respect of title and in respect of the thing enioyned for a free Nation to pay a tribute to part with their goods to a Pagan to a stranger in Israel yet though the thing commanded though the title is by your own confession unlawfull it is enioyned not onely not to be resisted but unfainedly obeyed by the supreme Law-giver and the last Expositour of it our blessed Saviour The Christians of the first age sealed this obedience with their dearest bloud here then falleth your example of the Generalissimo pag. 4. to be considered his souldiers are exempted from his subiection if he turneth the Cannons upon his own people I grant it his Commission is derived from the King who giveth him power over his Souldiers to destroy or punish them onely and as often as they do transgresse positive edicts but they are not his Souldiers or his Subiects in so large a manner as they are to their King and if they were the one is entituled to them by God at least partially the other wholly by man Sir Edward Cooke a strong Champion for the English Libertie in his Institutions l. 1. fol 1. sayth that the King holdeth the Lands hehath as King immediately from God because he hath saith he no superiour but the Almightie Bracton is of the
the oppressed did encrease the oppressour in case he prevailed was Lord over his Captives lives and estates whose encrease and number encreased his Dominion swelling by degrees to the extent of a considerable Monarchie the oppressed whether one or more it began with few being not able to resist violence fled without question for succour to him whom they thought was able to defend them and that he made himselfe King over them seemeth to me more probable than that he was made by them for it will be admitted on both sides the oppressed hath power to subject himselfe and the protectour power to command it for the oppressed sheltreth himselfe probably under a stronger patronage than himselfe without question then the Patron would erect and enlarge his Dominion with more speed and will than the oppressed would undergo perpetuall slaverie the one being dissonant to Nature the other congruous to humane ambition hence we gather by our consideration of the probable actions of the first oppressours and oppressed Principalitie forced by oppression cannot claime in any likelihood its originall from the People and Dominion thus gained whilest it is not accompanied with tyrannie cannot be called unnaturall or to crosse the dictates of reason reason embraceth that which it forseth best to prevent violence and settle quietnesse and that which Nature delighteth most in can no way be held unnaturall witnesse the workes of it all woven in subjection and dependencie only oppression too frequent a companion of Soveraigntie in corrupted Nature is that which is contrariant to Nature and the chiefe cause of all contracts between King and people Lastly let us see what footing your popular Supremacie hath in the Law of Nations which is defined to be a humane voluntary Law and obligative among all or most Nations that Law Supremacie was acknowledged by all or most Nations to be the end and efficient of all powers is neither affirmed nor proved by you Their constant practice as we have touched already disallowing your opinion and if you joyne this issue with me you will never be able to give in evidence any convincing testimonie but we shall expect your palinodia with Tu vicisti me ego errorem orthodoxally concurring with our opinion that power is not originally inherent in the people de facto or by any Law The result of our discourse is that Monarchies and all other Govenments owe their originall to God who is the Donor efficient and ultimate end of them the people are by him made the instrument to convey this but not all people nor at all times The King and people are the subordinate end of the Government they live in Kings contracts with their Subjects in a Government gained by Conquest is more the Princes bounty than a discharge of his dutie and if otherwise Princes so settled cannot be removed or forcibly resisted by the people without traiterous Rebellion against God and his Deputie The residue of your discourse is either matter of fact admonitions or sarcasmes for the matter of fact as I do not disallow the truth of any of them so I do not much credit a single testimonie especially of him whose eyes are infected with 〈◊〉 Jandize sees the Kings actions all of one colour Sarcasme◠are disallowed by the holy Text against the sacred person or a King Ne maledices principi in populo tuo Deuter. 22.28 or foment Rebellion with malitious paradoxes against Gods Annointed and if by a Pythagorean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thersites liveth in your Antipathie to Regall Government most English hearts will with me returne unto you the checke Thersites had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS