of Religion Laws and Liberties which are the very fundamentals of this Contract and Covenant may be controlled and opposed and if he set himself to overthrow all these by Arms then they who have power as the Estates of a Land may and ought to resist by Arms Because he doth by that opposition break the very Bonds and overthroweth all the Essentials of this Contract and Covenant This may ☜ serve to Justifie the proceedings of this Kingdom against the late King who in an hostile way set himself to overthrow Religion Parliaments Laws and Liberties I think this needs no Comment About the same time Smectymnuus was revived by Mr. Manton a most auspicious welcome doubtless to his Majesty wherein five Champions of the Cause take up the Cudgels against one Bishop on the behalf of scandalous Pamphlets and Tumultuary Petitions against Episcopacy This is the naked Truth what ever the Jolly Priest may tell the Reader of the Faction against which they dealt Five Orthodox Divines he says were the Authors Four of the Five I shall not mention the Fifth was Marshal of whose Divinity a Taste that by the sweet Agreement we may the better judge of Mr. Manton's In a Letter printed 1643. arguing for the Authority of the two Houses page 14. Thus. Let every soul in England be subject to King and Parliament for they are the higher Powers ordained unto you of God whosoever therefore resisteth King and Parliament resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation The man was no Conjurer yet he had wit enough when Presbytery went down to Court the rising Interest and ' though the Common-prayer was an Abomination to marry his Daughter by it for fear of After-claps But I suppose 't was huddl'd up as 't is in Mr. Manton's Church that no man might be able to make Oath 't was not the Directory If the Case had been concerning the Allowance of Christian Burial to a Gentleman that was Quartered for his Loyalty Or to determine in the great Point of the late Kings Death upon an Anniversary Fast whether or no 't was Murther Truly considering the potent Arguments brought on both sides 't is possible that Mr. Marshal would have contented himself as well as his Neighbours barely to put the Case and leave the point at last undecided to his Auditory Not to spend time and paper needlesly The whole stream of the Disciplinarians runs this way onely perhaps more or less Bold and Open according to the present strength or weakness of the Faction But to return Can any thing be more gentle then A Reformation and due Regulation of things in Church and State words smoother than Oyle yet are they very Swords First To Reform and Regulate belongs to the Supreme Magistrate if they intended That they were to blame Now to take it in a Qualifi'd and softer sense 't was a Due Regulation they intended To put this General notion in more Intelligible terms upon this point depends no less then all that 's dear to every honest man The Dignity of the King the Liberty of the Subject the Freedome of Parliaments and the Honor of the Nation God knows my thoughts I do not envy any man either the Benefit of his Majesty's Mercy or the Blessing of his Favour that hath the Grace at last not to Abuse it I look upon his Royal Act of Pardon with Reverence and upon every Soul within that pale as in a Sanctuary But yet I do not understand a Pardon for one Rebellion to be a Dispensation for another nor how the Argument lies from Fact to Right Under these two words Due Regulation Thus much is comprehended waiving less Differences and Greater 1. The transferring of the Power of chusing Great Officers and Ministers of State from the King to the Two Houses 2. All matters of State in the Interval of Parliaments must be Debated and Concluded by a Counsel so chosen and in number not above twenty five nor under fifteen and no Publick Act esteemed of any Validity as proceeding from the Royal Authority unless it be done by the Advice and Consent of the Major part of that Counsel Attested under their Hands And These too sworn to the sense of Both Houses 3. The Lords and Commons must be intrusted with the Militia 4. His Majesty may appoint but the Two Houses or the Counsel in such manner as aforesaid must Approve of All Governors of Forts and Castles Lastly No Peers hereafter made must Sit or Vote in Parliament unless Admitted thereunto by the Consent of Both Houses Upon these Terms his Majesty shall be supported in Honor and plenty by his most Humble and Faithful Subjects who have in their Thoughts and Desires nothing more precious next to the Honor and immediate Service of God than their just and faithful performance of their Duty to the King and Kingdom This is the Due Regulation they Intended for sure they Meant what they Proposed to our Late Soveraign I speak not this of Persons but of the Gross of the Party nor to reproach That neither but to remove a Scandal from the Ashes of that Blessed Martyr and to direct a Reverence towards his Successor What provocation have these restless People now to revive This Question but an unruly Impotency of Passion against the Government This is their way In Generals they justifie from first to last the Presbyterians Cause The multitude they look into Particulars and from those Injuries which the late King suffered draw Inferences Dis-honourable and Dangerous to this In the next Periode me-thinks he falls upon a Non-sequitur The Re-admission of the Secluded Members he says did necessarily draw after it the Restoring of King Lords and Commons according to the antient Constitution Not Necessarily under favour according to the antient Constitution I will not say nor probably but there were two shrewd Blocks cast in the way The First in the Militia where no Commissionated Officer was to Act that should not first acknowledge in these words viz. I do Acknowledge and Declare that the Warre undertaken by both Houses of Parliament in their defence against the Forces raised in the Name of the late King was Just and Lawful and that Magistracy and Ministery are the Ordinances of God The Second was in the Exclusion of the Royal Party from the next Choice as followeth Resolved that all and every Person who have advised or voluntarily aided abeited or assisted in any War against the Parliament since the first day of January 1641. his or their sons unless he or they have since Manifested their good affections to this Parliament shall be uncapable to be elected to serve as members of the next Parliament Now how a Choice thus limited in the House and Principled in the Field should Necessarily set us right does not to me appear Perhaps it was the most the Time would bear but God forbid That Declaration charging the Guilt and
Monarchy shall have a place by it self yet I might very well content my self with what arises from his own words as they lie here before us to Prove what he Denies for in the same Breath he both Starts the Question and Resolves it Did not the English and Scotch Presbyters go about to dissolve Monarchy What is the Analysis of Monarchy but a Government by a Single Person and as I take it the Injur'd Father of our present Soveraign was That Person to whom of Right the Regal Dignity belonged Did not these Presbyters he talks of place the Supreme Power in the Two Houses and under Their Commission seize the King's Towns and Forts Levy Arms Tax the People Plunder and Kill their Fellow-Subjects Impose Oathes Share His Majesty's Revenues Persue and Jewishly sell and betray His Sacred Person If to do all this not onely Without but expresly Against the King's Commission be not to go about to dissolve Monarchy I know not what is Or if the Gentleman had rather dispute the Royal Prerogative than confess his own Mistake in this Particular we 'l look a little that way too but I doubt the Prospect will be none of the pleasantest Upon the Trial of Cook and Peters This was Delivered for Law See the Narrative Page 182 and 183. It is the Law of this Nation That no One House nor Both Houses of Parliament have any Coercive power over the King That the Imprisoning of the King is Treason And a little further Thus The King of England is one of those Princes who hath an Imperial Crown What 's That It is not to do what he will No but it is that he shall not be punished in his own Person if he doth That which is in it selfe Unlawful This is a short and clear decision of the Case nor will it serve the good man's turn to argue their Integrity from what they were bound to by their Covenant and Declarations It matters not what they Profess'd but what they Did. If this be all they have to say some Heads are now upon the City-Gates that said as much What was the Covenant but a Popular Sacrament of Religious Disobedience a Mark of Discrimination who were against the King and who were for him And this the Marquis of Montross soon found who being at first unwarily engaged in it with the Kirk-party quickly perceived his error and retired Living and dying the Honor of his Nation and of the Royal Cause Mark this His Loyalty was charged upon him at his Death for Breach of Covenant The Presbyterian Casuists would fain perswade the Nation to think themselves obliged by that Engagement Who Vnderstands it first And certainly we cannot be bound to do we know not what Next 't is impossible either to Keep or Break it 't is made up of so many Contradictions But once for All there is a Nullity in the Institution No man can oblige himself in things wherein he is subject without leave from his Superior And again The Oath of One who is under the power of Another without the others consent is neither Lawful nor Obligatory Thus the Reverend and Learned Bishop Sanderson Now to my Presbyterian again After the violent change of Government they came slowest and entred latest into those new Engagements imposed by the Vsurped Powers and some utterly refused even to the forfeiture of their preferments and the hazzard of their livelyhoods when the Nation in general submitted to the yoke and many of those who thus object against them did in temporizing run with the foremost The truth is the generality of Conscientious Presbyterians never ran with the current of those times Some more eminent among them Ministers and others hazzarded their lives and others lost their lives in combining to bring our Soveraign that now is to the rightful possession of this his Kingdom And those in Scotland adventured no more then all to uphold him and when he lost the Day they lost their Liberty and when he fell it was said by the Adversary Presbytery was fallen Where I must either leave the Story foul on the Kings side or prove it so on the Other my choice is pardonable but otherwise I shall be very tender of engaging the Honest Presbyterians with the Guilty That many of them lov'd His Majesty and suffer'd for him I will not question and that they all submitted most unwillingly to that Violent Change here mention'd I do as little doubt But I must needs say the Action had been Nobler and the Loyalty much Clearer had they consulted the Kings Security before they lost their own This does not yet oblige me to the same Charity for the Scotish Party who first during a Treaty with His Majesty basely and brutishly murthered Montrose and after that Treated the King himself liker a Prisoner than a Prince He urges that the Presbyterians first divided and then dissipated the Sectarian Party and so made way for his Majesties return in Peace Lambert and his Nine Worthies did as much I do believe him too that the sense of the Covenant quickned many men's Consciences in their allegiance to the King So did the Cock-crowing mind St. Peter of the denial of his Master But he went out and wept bitterly So does not every body Alas alas the Saints have no faults what should they weep for It may be peradventure said the Presbyterians would enervate Monarchy but surely says our Discourser I cannot find the rise of this Objection unless from hence that they were not willing to come under any yoke but that of the Law of the Realm or to pay Arbitrary Taxes levied without consent of Parliament Observation From hence these two Deductions First That the Subjects free from that which binds the King namely the Yoke of Law Suppose He breaks that Law by what Law can we question him At best 't is but to punish One Transgression by Another The Second Hint is Dis-ingenuous as if Arbitrary Taxes had been the subject of the Difference All the world knows before a blow was strook the King had stript himself to his Honour and his Conscience to gratifie his People But 't was the Government they aim'd at and that they fought for Here is yet another gentle slip What are Taxes to Presbytery But this is a Devil that will hardly be kept within his Circle Just so in their Practices do they reduce all Civil Actions under the Cognizance of their Courts of Conscience as he brings here by head and shoulders Arbitrary Taxes to Matter of Religion I confess says he there are none that more reverence their Liberties and value the native-happiness of the free-born Subjects of England And verily their true knowledge and sense of the nature of Christian Religion makes a due freedom exceeding precious For this Religion is not variable according to the will of man but grounded upon an unchangeable and eternal truth and doth indispensably bind
that 's the King's So that effectually the passing of a Bill is but the granting of a Request So much for Parliaments in propriety of speaking Now to the Power of the Two Houses by my Antagonist mis-call'd The Parliament of England upon which Bottom stands the Presbyterian Fabrick He tell us They Act in Two Capacities As Subjects or Petitioners first and Then as Sharers of the Soveraignty As if he said They are sent to Ask what they List and Take what they Please The Petitioning Capacity is not for the Presbyterians purpose wherefore he waves That and sticks to the Other What their Power is will best appear from the King 's Writ of Summons which both Commands and Limits them Pro QUIBUSDAM arduis urgentibus negotiis c. ORDINAVIMUS c. He states it otherwise and places a part of the Legislative Power in the Two Houses which is not Doctor-like For the Legislative Power is totally the King 's They do but make the Bill He makes the Law 'T is the Stamp not the Matter makes it current Nor do I comprehend what he can mean by Part of the Legislative Power to my thinking he might as well have said Part of an Indivisible Point This will come to a pretty Fraction Two Thirds of a Parliament shall make Two Thirds of a Law Is it not enough that the King can do nothing without the Two Houses unless they may do every thing without the King Grant this and of all people living we are the greatest Slaves as of all Constitutions ours is the most Ridiculous Touching the power of the two Houses to Redress Grievances and Question all Ministers of State and Justice The Power they have is either from Prescription or Commission To the Former I think Few will pretend and to the Latter None Never was the House of Commons at any hand reputed a Court of Justice They cannot give an Oath impose a Fine not indeed exercise any Empire but over their own Members 'T is true the Lords House hath in some Cases a Right of Judicature but Claiming by Prescription they are likewise Limited by Custom Further Both Houses are no Court of Judicature and with due Reverence to his Majesty the King himself in Parliament joyn'd with the Three Estates claim not a right of Judication but very rarely and with great Tenderness It is the proper business of a Parliament to Make Laws Alter or Repeal them not to Interpret them unless in matters of very great Importance That 's left to the Judges and to determine of their Validity For Acts of Parliament either Repugnant in themselves or of impossible Supposition or against Common Right are deem'd not Binding The Common and most specious shift of all the rest is that the Government of this Nation is in King Lords and Commons This must be swallowed with great wariness or 't will choak half the Nation By the KING Architectonicè and by the other TWO Organicè as Walker distinguishes it the King as the Architect and the Two Houses as his Instruments If there were neither Practice Law nor Interest in the Case me-thinks the very odds of Honor in the Deputation should be Enough to carry it The King is God's Representative They are but the Peoples Say I should now admit them all they challenge as Delegated by the People so tickle is the point yet that if any one single Person of the number should be illegally debarr'd the Freedom of his Vote that nicety avoids and nulls the whole Proceeding I can hardly think any thing clearer than the error of placing part of the Supreme Power in the two Houses It implies a Contradiction A part of a Thing with leave Impartible But Drowning men will catch at Straws However I perceive that his Majesty's best Friends and the Church's as they style themselves are resolved to serve both King and Bishops alike That is just as the Bishop is to rule in Consociation with his Presbyters so shall his Majesty with his Fellow-Princes the Presbyterian Members It cannot but exceedingly dispose the King to grant these people all DUE LIBERTY that will give him so much Crowns are but Troublesome and Government sits heavy upon the shoulders of a Single Person They 'l ease him of that Care and Weight and for the honor of their Prince and their Country's good divide the Glorious load among themselves This being past which heaven avert We may says the late King be waited on bare-headed we may have our Hand kiss'd the style of Majesty continued to us and the King's Authority declared by both Houses of Parliament may be still the style of your Commands we may have Swords and Maces carried before us and please our Self with Sight of a Crown and Scepter But soft the Man relents and tells us though the Law says the King can do no wrong That This part of the Supreme power is indeed capable of doing wrong yet how it might be Guilty of Rebellion is more difficult to conceive Observation Put case the two Houses should take up Arms against the King because he will not Banish the one half of his Friends and hang up the rest would not that be Rebellion I could start twenty Suppoâ—itions more but I 'll stop here and the rather because our Author professes that in this high and tender point it belongs not to him to Determine Yet he goes on and certainly believes that the world is divided into Fools and Presbyterians he would not otherwise have thrust upon us so gross a Juggle as that which I am now about to examine Touching the much debated point of resisting the higher Powers without passing any judgment in the great Case of England I shall onely make rehearsal of the words of Grotius a man of Renown and known to be neither Anti-monarchical nor Anti-prelatical which are found in his Book De jure Belli Pacis by himself dedicated to the French King Si Rex partem habeat summi Imperii partem alteram populus aut Senatus Regi in partem non suam involanti vis justa opponi poterit quia eatenus Imperium non habet Quod locum habere censeo etiamfi dictum sit belli potestatem penes Regem fore Id enim de bello externo intelligendum est cum alioqui quisquis Imperii summi partem habeat non possit non jus habere eam partem tuendi lib. 1. c. 4. s. 13. Observation Here we find Grotius cited to justifie that the Lords and Commons may make war against the King to defend their Title to the Supreme Power Pythagoras his opinion concerning Wild-foul had been as much to the purpose For the English Reader 's sake I 'l turn it and in this point desire a more than ordinary attention Where the Supremacy is in the King in some Cases in Others in the People or Senate That King invading the others Right may be lawfully resisted for his power reaches
therefore let the Episcopal Party never look to be rid of these difficulties till they remove the matters in Question whereat a knowing people are always ready to stumble Go to then since the Gentleman will have it so grant for dispatch the thing he presses to wit that they do Hesitate and Stagger 'T is hard that when upon a private search the Question hangs in Ballance the casting in the Authority of the Church and the great weight of Christian Charity should not be yet enough to turn the Scale He that doubts Sins will not excuse that man who because he thinks he stands refuses to take heed of falling But let him doubt nay more let him resolve all is but for himself still not for me When he comes once to muster up his Thousands and talk of parties his plea of Conscience is gone and doublesse these Violent and publick sticklers for the Scrupulous that is in such and such particulars are the greatest enemies they have It casts a Scandal upon the very cause of Conscience when those who evidently want it in themselves plead for it in others Upon this Subject exceedingly well says Mr. Lloyd in a late Treatise of Primitive Episcopacy Pag. 80. It becomes not good men to câ—nsure us for using thâ—sâ— Rights and Ceremonies which we are perswaded not to be prohibited by Gods Law and both they and we do surely know to be commanded to be used by mans Law duly made which is Gods Ordinance to which we must be subject for Conscience sake And a little after If any will attempt to be Authors of Combinations to extort by shew of multitudes and by tumults the alteration or abrogation of any part of the established Laws Civil or Ecclesiastical they will thereby evidently manifest themselves to be but meer pretenders to a tender Conscience and power of Godlinesse for they that labour to extort a part if they prevail must have the whole in their power And can they that attempt so great Robbery love God and the Power of Godlinesse By this cursed fruit we know these to be most vile-Hypocrites Now to our Adversary The Gentleman desires to clear the Presbyterians of being no Phanaticks and we 'll give him the hearing It is said that the Presbyterians promoted the Kings Return not out of good will to His Majesty or a love of Order and Vnity but out of fear of being destroy'd by the Phanaticks To this I shall say little but that I believe there was more in 't than so Let him argue upon it The pretended reason of their insincerity seems to me to add much to their reputation in that behalf For if the Phanaticks would destroy them it is manifest that they are none of them Phanaticks would not destroy themselves willingly The several various Sects will wrangle with each other in verbal contests but they never knowingly plotted or banded against each other upon the account of their different Opinions but did all unite in one common Principle of pretended Liberty of Conscience and in one common cause of Vniversal Toleration A pleasant Reasoning A man would think Christianity as strong a tye as Phanaticisme and yet we see Christians destroy one another But come to the point What 's more familiar then for a couple of Curs to hunt the same Hare and when they have catch'd her worry one another for the Quarry I 'll tell this Gentleman a thing now shall make him take me for a Conjurer I 'll tell him the true reason why those Presbyterians help'd His Majesty in that are not quiet now they have him Not for feare of the Phanatiques he made that Objection himself for ought I know but Here ' t is Still saving to my self the freedome of Interpreting my own words I speak only of those Presbyterians that since His Maiesties happy Return are yet fomenting of new Troubles The Presbyterian Faction have been ever constant to the rule and method of doing their own Businesse in the Kings name and this went far with the simple and well meaning people but let not any man believe this Interest did their work The ruin of His blessed Majesty was that unhappy Agreement with the Covenanters in 1639. after so horrid an expence of Time and Mony as gave the greatest benefit imaginable to their Interest and an equal disadvantage to his own The King by his expence being grown poor and they strong by the Delay was more and more oppressed till at the last the Field was clear'd He and His Party in appearance lost What did these great Pretenders then for the good of King and Church but share the booty and exercise a Power themselves ten thousand times more Turkish then ever they called that they had abolished what hindered then the Settlement of this Nation upon its legal Basis as they phrase it if the good people had but had a mind to it Who kept the King from his Parliament or was he ever nam'd but with relation to the Losse of Right as well of Power Well but at last these people take their turns too and then the King 's a Gracious Prince again These Factions are of Kin to Montaignes Family where the Son beats the Father from generation to generation Now we come near our purpose Look back into the Scotch defeat in 1648. Not any thing more clear sure then that the Presbyterian party would they but frankly have closed with the Kings Tryed Friends in that Engagement without a Miracle they must have carried it Those Few they had did well nigh all that was considerable in the Action See afterward in 50 and 51. how dirtily upon this very accompt the Presbyterian crew treated his Majesty and look quite through their Interregnum they have observ'd the same indisposition of uniting with the Kings Party but still shaking the Head with an Alass poor Gentleman at the mention of our persecuted Soveraign Not to insist upon English Particulars They never would joyn with Vs to help his Majesty we never refused with them Now comes the Mysterie of the Reserve Say they If we can order Matters so as to get the King's Person in the head of us and keep out his Party Their hands are ty'd by a Principle of Duty Our Power is enlarged upon an Interest of favour and we can play our Game at pleasure That is Wee 'l not forget to mind him of his RESTORERS and now and then a Whisper how DEBAUCHD the Gentry's grown how unfit this man is for Trust that for Temper and a Third for Conduct We may then propose the naming of Officers and wee 'r to blame if we forget our selves By these Degrees and wayes Time and a little Patience will wear them out or if it were nothing else the very Poverty we have reduced them to would make them â—oon Contemptible Whereas should we but offer once a General agreement with that Party our Design 's spoyl'd for they 'll be more than we
of the Nation I cannot Comprehend If they are so they should do well to cast their Cause upon a Popular Vote and try the Issue by the Poll. For Quiet sake no matter Many or Few there may be Equity where there wants Number We 'l rather see in point of Right what 't is they insist upon Which if exemption from Episcopal Authority in things Indifferent and of Humane Institution We must plead judgment of Discretion too as well as They A Freedom and Capacity to distinguish betwixt a Scandal Given and Taken betwixt a Dis-conformity proceeding from Conscience and from Passion Where the Dissent proceeds from Conscience a Toleration clears That Scruple but our good peoples Liberty consists in Burthening Others as well as Freeing Themselves and that 's Intolerable How many strange Indecencies are here one upon the neck of another I First here 's the Minor part imposing upon the Major Secondly a Novel and Vulgar Imagination bearing down an Apostolical Institution Thirdly a Private Opinion contesting with a Solemn and Publike Sanction and Finally the Subject of all this Earnestnesse in their own phrase is but a very Accommodable difference From what I have said I am perswaded that Severity to the Pertinacious Presbyter is the true interest of this Nation allowing yet Indulgence to the Conscientious Well but our Authour tells us that Abolition if possible is perillous and Toleration only an Imaginary Remedy Is not this to intimate that the Party makes less Conscience of a Tumult than of a Ceremony and to argue the necessity of Complying from the danger of Refusing What would these people do if they had Power that are so Bold without it And yet our Politician makes it the Kings Interest to Close with them He means perchance According to the Covenant The Coalition There of all Schisms and Heresies into One Interest was of great Reason and Important Service to the Commune work but we are now advising how to Settle not to Disjoynt a Government and to Incorporate Dis-agreements were to begin upon a Principle of Confusion As the Case stands with us in my weak Judgement Persons should rather be Indulg'd than Parties My Reason is this Some Individuals of that Perswasion have done His Majesty some Service but to the best of my Remembrance the Entire Party never any Yet one Reflexion more Allow these People all their Askings in what concerns their Discipline will they rest Quiet There without a further Hankering after more the Legislative Power perhaps the Militia or some such Trifle I am the more suspitious because I do not well remember where ever That Party was satisfied with less than All. Nor need I look far back for Instances to justifie my Fears But having in some measure hitherto Discovered his Foundation we 'l forward now and see what work he makes upon this Sandy Bottom taking his Title-page in my way for to my thinking he stumbles at the Threshold It runs thus The Interest of England In the Matter of RELIGION Unfolded in the Solution of these three QUESTIONS I. Qu. VVhether the Presbyterian Party should in Justice or Reason of State be Rejected and Depressed or Protected and Encouraged II. Qu. VVhether the Presbyterian Party may be Protected and Encouraged and the Episcopal not Deserted nor Disobliged III. Qu. Whether the Upholding of both Parties by a just and equal Accommodation be not in it self more desirable and more agreeable to the State of England Then the absolute Exalting of the one Party and the total Subversion of the other Written by J. C. Observation I would fain know what is meant by The Matter of Religion as it stands here related to Civil Interest Doctrine it cannot be for That were to advise a yielding upon a Principle of Policy in Opposition to a Rule of Conscience subjecting Interest of Religion which is Eternal Happiness to Reason of State which regards but Temporal Convenience If it be Discipline What 's that to the Interest of England Our Settlement depends upon a due Obedience to the Establish'd Law not the Encouraging of froward Humors by an Audacious and Mis-govern'd Zeal under pretext of Conscience to Affront it Let Authority Reform and Private Persons either Obey or Suffer we are to Answer for our own faults not those of the Government And in fine If the Hill will not come to Mahomet let Mahomet go to the Hill After a pleasant Breviate of the Story of our late Troubles handsomely Penn'd indeed in his tenth Page he takes his Biass At length says he a full Tide of Concurring Accidents carries him the Duke of Albemarle then General to a closure with the sober part of the Parliamentary Party who from first to last intended onely a Reformation and due Regulation of things in Church and State but abhorred the thought of destroying the King or changing the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Observation I thought the Act of Pardon and Oblivion had quieted all Animosities and silenc'd all Discourses of this Quality but 't is it seems The Interest of England in the matter of Religion to keep the Quarrel waking and by Asserting the proceedings of the two Houses in the late War to engage this King within the danger of his Fathers President To be as free with the Authour as he is with his Majesty I 'le put his meaning in a little plainer English Beside the Grand Division of the Nation into a Royal and a Popular Party that Party which he here calls Parliamentary is again Split and under this Subdivision are Comprised those which did Actually destroy the King and those which by good Fortune did it not Presbyterians and Independents The Sober part meaning the Presbyterian He justifies from first to last even to their very Intentions I must tread warily for I am here upon a narrow and a slippery path Not to Dispute the Gentlemans Intuitive Knowledge we 'l rather modestly believe that They mistook their way then He their meaning for certainly the Murther of the King was not the onely Unlawful violence Acted upon that Sacred Person and he that stops there does as much as nothing I would not touch upon this Subject were I not bound by Oath and Duty to discharge my Soul in what concerns the Honor and the Safety of my Prince Can the first Cause asserted by both Houses in opposition to his late Majesty be justifi'd and not the King condemn'd And is not the Honor and Safety of his Majesty that now is concern'd in these Indignities upon his Murther'd Father What was Then lawful is so still and he that but implicitly charges the Last King strikes at This. The Text will bear no other sense without a Torture But I shall by-and-by compare him with himself In the mean while we may explain one Presbyterian by another Douglas in 1651. preach'd the Kings Coronation-Sermon Which since his Majesties Return is over and over again Reprinted A King says he abusing his Power to the overthrow
give good Evidence As touching Ceremonies the Contest began early even in King Edward's Reign between Hooper and other Bishops The Consecration of Hooper Elect Bishop of Glocester being stayed because he refused to wear certain Garments used by Popish Bishops he obtained Letters from the King and from the Earl of Warwick to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and others that he might not be burthened with certain Rites and Ceremonies and an Oath commonâ—y used in the Consecration of Bishops which were offensive to his Conscience Nevertheless he found but harsh dealing from his fellow-Bishops whereof some were afterwards his fellow-Martyrs and Ridley among others who afterwards thus wrote unto him when they were both Prisoners for the Gospel However in time past in certain Circumstances and By-matters of Religion your wisdom and my simplicity I grant hath a little jarred each of us following the abundance of his own sense and judgment Now be assured that even with my whole heart in the Bowels of Christ I love you in the truth and for the truth's sake which abideth in us Some godly Martyrs in Queen Mary's days disliked the Ceremonies and none of them died in the defence of Ceremonies Liturgy and Prelacy in opposition to all other Ecclesiastical Government and Order It was the Protestant verity which they witnessed and sealed in blood in opposition to Popery especially the prodigious Opinion of Transubstantiation and the Abomination of the Romish Mass or Sacrifice In the same bloody days certain English Protestants being fled for refuge into Germany and setled at Frankford were divided amongst themselves about the Service-book even with scandalous breach of Charity and in the issue the Congregation was sadly broken and dissipated What is intended by Due Liberty might be a Doubt did not the Coherence explain it to be a Freedom of Acting to all intents and purposes at pleasure whether without Law or against it no matter according to such presidents of Former times as our Resolver refers unto and justifies He tells us The contest about Ceremonies began early and so in truth it did For in the time of King Edward there was a wambling toward the Geneva Discipline but neither very earnest nor very popular and That so far as I can learn procured even by the Author of that Platform Calvin himself Concerning Godly Martyrs in Queen Mary's days Some suffered that disliked the Ceremonies Others that liked them That none died in defence of them is a Remarque might have been spared For the Question was matter of Faith not Discipline The Frankford Breach indeed was a sad Story but yet considering the Dividers of no great Honor or Authority to our Friends purpose Knox and Whittingham were the prime Ring-leaders in this Disorder who upon some Disputes started about the Service-book joyning with others of the Consistorian stamp drew such an extract of it as they thought fit and sent it to Calvin requesting his Opinion of it Such was the Answer they received as blew the whole Congregation into a flame from whence arose that scandalous breach ensuing viz. The English Service being established Whitingham Gilby Goodman with some others Divided and went to Geneva whence both by Letters and Discourses they tampered the Ministers and People of England and Scotland into a revolt encouraging them to set up their new Discipline in despite of all Opposers whatsoever The Gospel returning under Queen Elizabeth these differences were revived and held up by Disputes Writings and Addresses to several Parliaments and there were great thoughts of heart for these Divisions Observation Why this is English yet it is but turning now to Queen Elizabeth's Reign to understand these people and unriddle the Due Liberty they plead for But of This in its proper place Having drawn down the Quarrel from Edward the Sixth to the blessed Restauration of Charls the Second whom God protect he proceeds to descant upon the Present The greatest part of the Ministers named Puritans yielded conformity to those controverted Rites and Forms that were by Law or Canons established as to things burdensome not desirable in their nature supposed indifferent but in their use many ways offensive and groaning more and more under the yoke of bondage as they conceived they waited for deliverance and were in the main of one soul and spirit with the Nonconformists And even then the way called Puritanism did not give but get ground But now the Tenents of this way are rooted more than ever and those things formerly imposed are noâ— by many if not by the most of this way accounted not onely burdensome but unlawful Observation But is it so that Matters by Law established in themselves Indifferent and onely Burthensome to day rebuâ—sic stantibus may become Vnlawful to morrow By the same Rule Kings may be taken away as well as Bishops all Dignities and Powers being alike submitted to a Popular Level For if the People shall think fit to say the Magistrate is unlawful as well as the Ceremony by the same reason he may destroy One with the Other and Virtually he does it We know the Rites and Forms of Worshipping are not of the Essence of Religion and the huge bustle about Discipline is onely an Appeal to Ignorance and Tumult The Church must be Reformed By whom Not by the Rabble What means this application then of so many factious Sermons and Libels to the People They are not Judges of the Controversie But in a Cause more capable of Force than Argument they do well to Negotiate where Clamour and Pretence weigh more than Modesty and Reason If a man asks by what Commission Act these Zelots They answer readily 'T is God's Cause and better obey God than Man He that said Give not Credit to every Spirit I suppose knew as much of Gods mind as our Illuminates Is not mistaken or perverted Scripture the ground of all Schism and Heresie Counsels may erre they say and cannot Presbyterians How comes this Party to be more infallible than their Neighbours If they are not let but all other people of Different Judgments take the same Freedom they do of out-cries against any thing under pretext of Conscience let any man imagine the confusion For where every man is his own Judge All men shall dispute till each Particular condemns himself so that the Strife is Endless and the Event Restlesness and Confusion This comes of not submitting to some Final and over-ruling Decision Upon this pinch at a dead lift they fly to their Judgment of Discretion which leaves them still at Liberty to shape their Duty to their Profit They tell us They 'l be tryed by the Word of God not heeding how That is again to be tri'd by Them so that in Issue their private Interpretation of the Scriptures must pass for the Law Paramount to which both King and People are equally and indispensably subjected Undoubtedly what God commands we ought to do and not to do what he forbids This in few
words comprises the Duty of Reasonable Nature without distinction either of Offices or Persons But these inviolable Fundamentals apart the Accidents of Worship the Modes of doing this or that The How When Where c. are left various and variable according to the several Requiries of Manners Times and Places at the Discretion of those Rulers whom God sets over us Where we find matters of this middle nature orderly setled and dispos'd we are commanded to submit to these Humane Ordinances for the Lords sake and not to Obtrude upon the Word for Conscience such Disagreements as effectually arise from Peevishness or want of due Enquiry But why do I talk to those that stop their Ears Their minds are fix'd in this Opinion after a long time of search and practice and are not like to be reduc'd to the practice of former times This is but Martin Junior Revived who says That it will be very dangerous to our State to maintain two contrary Factions That the Magistrates are then bound even for the quieting of our State to put down the one That those that stand for the Discipline neither can nor will give it over so as they will not be put down and that the said Magistrates cannot maintain the corruption of our Church namely Arch-bishops and Bishops without the discontentment of their Subjects Me-thinks the man of peace grows peremptory Will not this Argument from Search and Practice absolve them from Obedience to the King as well as to the Church Has not the Regal Power been scann'd and sifted as well as the Ecclesiastick or have their practises been more favourable to his Majesty than to the Clergy But their minds are fix'd and not to be reduc'd This is to say that if the Law and they cannot agree they 'l tug for 't upon this supposition thus he concludes That in all reason the imposing of such matters of Controversie as by so many are held unlawful and by those that have a Zeal for them judged indifferent not necessary cannot procure the peace of Church and Kingdom Observation I say on the Contrary That the peace of Church and Kingdom cannot be preserved where every private and Licentious spirit shall dare to Question the Authority of either In fine admit the Scruple truly conscientious It would be well yet that such as fault the present Government would Frame another that should be liable to no exceptions before they alter This. If that cannot be done let us Rest Here for if we are bound to change till all are pleas'd never must we expect to be at quiet Some Consciences will have no Magistrates at all Others will Govern those they have or Quarrel with them To Reconcile these Two in any end of Settlement is as Impossible as 't is Unsafe to put much power into the Hands of People so dangerously principled But to Destroy a Government none agree better and this we speak upon Experience From hence to his 40th page I find little but Rapture in commendation of the Presbyterians with now and then a snap at the late Prelates which is beside my purpose See now his Complement to the King Blessed be God for our gracious Soveraign who makes it his care and study to allay distempers and compose differences by his just and gracious Concessions already published concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs Observation For fear his Majesty's Concessions should be taken for a pure Act of Grace they are epitheted Just as well as Gracious to lessen the Favour by intimating the Duty what Return gives the Presbyterian Party for this Indulgence Are they not troublesome as ever both in their Writings and Contrivements That Declaration was no sooner publique but a Petition was exhibited from divers Ministers in and about London for more Liberty with some formalities indeed of Gratitude for That How many bold and scandalous Invectives since that time both from the Press and Pulpit against the Rites of the Church and the Episcopal Clergy Nay and against the Sacred Majesty of That very Person to whose Incomparable Clemency they owe their Heads and Fortunes One observation here to shew that onely severity can work upon this Faction The single imprisonment of Crofton hath quieted that Party more than all the multiply'd and transcendent Mercies of His Majesty That worthy Gentleman in his Epistle Dedicatory to the Liturgical Considerator tells us that The Common-prayer-book hath been expell'd by a lawful Authority referring to an Ordinance of January 3. 1644. If this be not Treason then Scot and Peters were no Traitors The Considerator further assures us Page 34. That very few Christians that know the Power of Godliness care for medling with the Liturgy I hope his Majesty may pass for one of those Few A great Assertor of his Principles is the Authour of the Covenanters Plea although in some Respects more plausibly couch'd in others Bolder treating His Majesty with a most unpardonable Insolence and with a Suitable regard all his Episcopal Friends as they fall in his way I should exceedingly wonder how he scap'd a lash from the last Convention especially Dedicating that reverend piece to the Commons then Assembled did I not consider that Those very Pamphlets whereof His Majesty complains in His Declaration touching Ecclesiastical Affairs were by my self at their first comming forth delivered to several Members of that Session which notwithstanding they were still sold in the Hall all the Interest I had being too little to get them suppressed But now return we to our Author who complains that The Presbyterians are loaded with many Calumnies as that they are against the Interest of Civil Magistracy especially of Monarchy That they are giddy factious schismatical domineering and what not But no such matter he assures us for They yield unto the Supreme Magistrate a Supreme political Power in all Spiritual Matters but they do not yield that he is the Fountain of spiritual power there being a spiritual Power belonging to the Church if there were no Christian Magistrate in the world They assert onely a spiritual power over the Conscience as intrinsecally belonging to the Church and acknowledge that no Decree nor Canon of the Church can be a binding Law to the Subjects of any Kingdom under temporal penalties till it be ratified by the Legislative power of that Kingdom And they do not claim for the Convocation or any other Ecclesiastical Convention an Independency on Parliaments if they did surely the Parliament of England would resent such a Claim Neither are they Antimonarchical Did the English or Scotish Presbyters ever go about to dissolve Monarchy and to erect some other kind of Government In no wise for in the Solemn League and Covenant they bound themselves to endeavour the preservation of the King's Person and Authority and declared they had no intent to diminish his Majesty's just Power and Greatness Observation How far their Principles comport with the Interest of Civil Magistracy or
every soul high and low to one divine Law and Rule perpetual and unalterable And therefore doth strongly plead the expedience of a due civil Liberty on the behalf of its Professors yet such a liberty as will not enfeeble Monarchy nor the Legal power of the Kings of England Observation Truly I think I have not seen words so well put together that signifie so little Because Religion is not variable but grounded upon an unchangeable and eternal Truth c. Therefore the Professors of it must have a due civil Liberty c. Is not a Due Liberty Due to all people Again What is civil Liberty to matter of salvation And yet again Why should the Presbyterians challenge that liberty to themselves which they refuse to others upon the very same Plea and not rather submit their Discipline to the Law then stoop the Law to their Discipline There is a Liberty which is a cloak for Maliciousness and I am afraid Theirs and That are much a-kinn One thing is very notable they never state what they would have their terms are general and indefinite hard to be understood because they are resolv'd not to be satisfi'd A Due Freedom a Due Civil Liberty The Legal Power What means all this but any thing they shall be pleased to make of it A King ruling a free People hath a Power much more noble and more free than he that ruleth over perfect Vassals that have no Propriety The power is more noble because it hath a more noble subject of Government it is more honorable to rule Men than Beasts and Freemen than slaves Likewise the power is more free For whatsoever Prince hath not his power limited by his people's legal freedom he will be bound up some other way either by the potency of subordinate Princes and great Lords within the Realm or by a veterane Army as the Turkish Emperor by his Janizaries and the Roman Caesars by the Pretorian Bands and the Legions Vpon which account to be a powerful Monarch over a free people is the freedome and glory of our Soveraign Lord above all the Potentates on earth Observation A King ruling a free people is a kind of Presbyterianism and sounds better in the mouth of a Lawyer than of a Divine The Correlate to Rule is Subjection nor will their Title to a Propriety yet justifie the common usage of the Term. 'T is of a dangerous Intimation and seems to give the people more than comes to their share I speak with reverence to the benignity of our English Laws and the Indubitable right which every Subject hath to the Benefits thereof That it is more honorable to Rule Free-men than Slaves is but a Complement For I can make those Slaves Free when I please whereas the other way of my power 's confin'd that is in Equity a Prince is bound to observe the Law as his own Act and if he fails the people may compel him to it if they can shew a Law for 't To end this point What Prince soever shall suffer every bubling brain to controvert the bounds of King and Subject the Royal Authority and the Peoples Freedom that Prince I say runs a great hazzard of his Soveraignty The very moving of the Question is to prophane the Sacredness of Majesty and by degrees begets irreverend and sawcy habits in the people But Rebellion he tells us and Disobedience is the loud out-cry of some against this Party And this were a crying sin indeed But let not sober minds be hurried into prejudice by such exclamations and out-cries It were to be wished for common peace and amity that the late publick Discords were eternally forgotten But seeing some in these times of expected Reconciliation will not cease to implead and condemn the honest minded and render them odious to the higher Powers a necessity is laid upon us to speak something Apologetical at least to mitigate the business and remove prejudice Observation Sure this loud out-cry of Rebellion aad Disobedience comes from within himself for truly I have a little watch'd the Press and since his Majesty's Return nay a good while before upon my conscience I have not met with one syllable of bitterness against that Party but Defensive Yet I dare undertake to produce forty Presbyterian Pamplets and Discourses of fresh date exceeding foul against the King and his Adherents It really makes me blush and tremble to consider how great a mercy they abuse how sad a vengeance they provoke Had but these people the least spark of natural affection and remorse the venerable ruines of a glorious Chuch and State would work upon them Or now and then a thought how matters stand betwixt God and their Souls But their great care of others make them neglect themselves and become true Anathemaes for a pretended publick good However they do well to cry Whore first and call that a Necessitated Apology which seems to me a palpable and causeless Slander We have heard much and often of the Presbyterians Loyalty and Religion we 'l look a little now into their Law which very fairly gives us to understand that the Vnbishopping of Timothy and Titus will not do their trick They are at work already upon the two main props of Royalty the King 's Negative Voice and the Power of the Sword A blessed Age the while when the Pulpit shall pretend to dispose of the Crown Kerve out the Government and every scribling Priest vent his seditious and crude Politiques to the People But now it works The Presbyterian Party in England never engaged under a less Authority than that of both Houses of Parliament I have read that the Parliament of England hath several capacities and among the rest these two First that it represents the People as Subjects and so it can do nothing but manifest their grievances and petition for relief Secondly That by the constitution it hath part in the Soveraignty and so it hath part in the Legislative power and in the final Judgment Now when as a part of the Legislative Power resides in the Two Houses as also a Power to redress grievances and to call into question all Ministers of State and Justice and all Subjects of whatsoever degree in case of Delinquency it might be thought that a part of the Supreme Power doth reside in them though they have not the honorary Title Observation Me-thinks we should do well to leave calling the Two Houses the Parliament of England having already paid so dear for that mistake Concerning the Power of the Parliament of England 'T is beyond doubt onely inferiour to the Fountain of all Power even God Himself But then an Agreement is imply'd neither King Lords nor Commons nor any Two of them can pretend to a Parliamentary Authority without the Third This is not to suppose Co-ordination neither The Two Houses are still Subjects Their Office being onely Consultive or Preparatory The Character of Power rests in the final Sanction and
not so far And this I think will stand good although I have already placed the right of making War in the King for that must be understood of a forreign War Since whosoever hath a part of the Supreme Power hath consequently a right of maintaining such part as he hath There is one line yet remaining which our Author hath very prudently kept for a Reserve till the Presbyterians shall have gotten the better of the King Quod ubi fit potest Rex etiam suam Imperii partem belli jure amittere That is Where thus it happens the King's encroachment upon the Peoples Right may fairly amount to a forfeiture of his own Is it not pity that people of these milde and complying Principles should be charg'd with Disobedience If this be the case of England the Question is no longer the Presbyterians Liberty but the King's Title to his Crown That Chapter of Grotius whence he takes his Quotation treats De Bello subitorum in Superiores Where and where not Subjects may take up Arms against their Superiors This learned man among other Cases tells us in this they may and the Reason is evident For where the Soveraignty is thus dispos'd half to the King half to the People that Prince is but a Subject to some purposes a King to others So that in any point of Soveraignty formally vested in the People He is not their Superior but they his How finely he hath match'd the Case of England where Kings have no Restraint but what they put upon themselves for the Laws are their proper Acts But mark the process of his Reasonings and how in his own phrase he feels his way step by step The Presbyterians were ever in the right he says Why if he would be quiet who says the contrary But then the King was in the wrong To bring the Case up to Grotius his determination we must admit First that by the constitution of England the Soveraignty is shared betwixt the King and the two Houses and Next that the late King did actually invade the Popular Prerogative from whence arises the lawfulness of resistance and after that Potest Rex etiam suam Imperii partem Belli jure amittere They have at last the same right to the Crown they had at first to the Quarrel He that peruses the first eight Sections of the fore-mentioned Chapter will find Grotius no favourer of his Opinions that quotes him Be the Prince what he will he tells us Summum Imperium tenentibus resisti jure non posse Bodin yet more expresly that England and Scotland are absolute Monarchies That the Supreme Power is onely in the King Iura Majestatis ac Imperâ—i summam in unius Prinoipis Arbitria versari Further In Senatu nullum est Imperium Nor onely so but whoever urges the contrary meditates a Commotion Isti qui Imperium Senatui tribuunt Reipublicae interitum ac status eversionem moliuntur As to the point of Loyalty now in question the subversion of the Fundamental Government of this Kingdom could not be effected till those Members of Parliament that were Presbyterian were many of them imprisoned others forcibly secluded by the violence of the Army and the rest thereupon withdrew from the House of Commons Observation Then it seems till that violence by the Army upon the Presbyterians there was none acted by the Presbyterians upon the King To seize his Towns and Magazines Hunt and Assault his Royal Person Part his Revenues Hang up his Friends All this is Justifi'd in Case his Majesty refuses to be rul'd by his Two Houses Alas the Fundamental Government was safe I warrant ye so long as the Rights of Soveraignty were exercis'd first by the Assembly in Scotland and then by a pack'd Party in a close Committee And the Presbyterians never the less honest men for selling the King first Then voting him a Prisoner and after that for Pinching him even upon the very Point of Presbytery Surely they are much to blame that charge these Innocents with disloyalty If the Presbyterian Members had not been Forced they say all had been well Truly it may be so yet if I mistake not there was a time when the Episcopal Members were Forced too and had that Violence been spared it had never come to This. But I suppose the City-Tumults against BISHOPS the Outcries of the Rabble at White-hall the Multitudes that Baul'd for Reformation Posting up such and such for Straffordians as honestly opposed the Torrent of the People This in the VVell-affected passes for Christian Liberty But our Author follows his Opinion with a Proof For they says he meaning the Presbyterians had voted the King's Concessions a Ground sufficient for the Houses to proceed to settle the Nation and were willing to cast whatever they Contended for upon a Legal Security Observation Waving their Former Vote of Non-Addresses and that foul Declaration of their Reasons for it We will in Charity believe they were over-aw'd and that it was extorted by the Army But what excuse for the Matter of the Propositions That they were actuated by a Presbyterian Spirit appears in This that they demanded a Settlement of a Presbyterian Government It remains now onely from Hence to gather the Fair Equivalence of this Gentleman's Doctrine and to discover what 't is the Presbyterian Faction calls a Legal Security They hold That if the King of England will not comply with the Two Houses the People may Chase Sequester and Imprison Him And when they have him in Distress they may without Disloyalty press Him to these or the like Conditions for His Liberty 1. By a Publick Act to justifie that Violence and condemn himself 2 ly To Renounce and Abolish Episcopacy although bound by Oath and Judgment to defend it 3 ly To Transfer the Right of Levying Men and Monies to the Two Houses by them to be raised and disposed of at pleasure without rendring any Accompt to his Majesty 4 ly To deliver up the Lives Liberties and Fortunes of all that served him to the Mercy of that Party 5 ly To grant that all Offices of Trust may be disposed of by the Appointment of Both Houses This is a short and modest Accompt of Presbyterian Loyalty the Due Liberty they contend for which being setled upon a Legal Security with such further Concessions as their Modesty shall vouchsafe to require puts an end to the Dispute His late Majesty observes upon Uxbridge Treaty That it was a grand Maxim with them always to ask something which in Reason and Honor must be denyed that they might have some colour to refuse all that was in other things granted And so we find it But what 's the Reason of this peevishness Is there any thing in the Nature of Prelacy that frames the mind to Obedience and Loyalty Or is there any thing in Presbytery that inclines to Rebellion and Disobedience Observation Truly I think there is Prelacy holds a better proportion in
the Scale of Order as a more regular Subordination of Duties and Relations Nature and Providence do not move by Leaps but by Insensible and Soft Degrees which give Stability and Beauty to the Universe Is not the World compos'd of Disagreements Hot and Cold Heavy and Light And yet we see those Oppositions are by the means of middle and Conciliating mixtures wrought into a Compliance 'T is the same case in Subject and Superior Higher and Lower betwixt Top and Bottom are but as several Links of one providential Chain where every Individual by vertue of this mutual Dependency Contributes to the Peace and Benefit of the Whole Some are below me and This sweetens the Thought that I am below Others By which Libration are prevented those Distempers which arise either from the Affectation of more Power or the Shame of having none at all As these Degrees of Mean and Noble are beyond doubt of Absolute Necessity to Political Concord so possibly the Closer the Remove the better yet as to the point of Social expedience provided that the Distances be such as to avoid Confusion and preserve Distinct Offices and Powers from enterfering Nor is this Gradual method onely suited to Humane Interest as being most accommodate to publick Quiet and to defend the Sacredness of Majesty from popular Distempers But 't is the very Rule which God himself Imposes upon the whole Creation Making of the same Lump one Vessel to Honor and another to Dishonor Subjecting by the Law of his own Will This to That That to what 's next above it Both to a Further Power all to Himself And here we rest as at the Fountain of Authority From God Kings Reign They appoint their Substitutes and so on to inferior Delegations All Powers derive from a Divine Original This Orderly Gradation which we find in Prelacy must needs beget a Reverence to Authority the Hierarchy it self depending upon a Principle of Obedience whereas our Utopian Presbytery advances it self upon a Level of Confusion It is a kind of Negative Faction united to dissolve a laudable and setled frame of Government that they may afterward set up they know not what We may have learn'd thus much from late and sad experience Let him that would know more of it read the Survey of pretended Holy Discipline I think it would be hard to shew one eminent Presbyterian that stickles not for an Aristocracy in the State as well as in the Church and he that said No Bishop No King gave a shrewd judgment not as implying a Princes absolute dependance upon Bishops but in effect the King's Authority is wounded through the Church the Reformation of what is amiss belonging to the Ruler not to the People I do not yet condemn all Presbyters nor justifie all Prelates We are told That in antient times and for a series of many Ages the Kings of England have had tedious conflicts with Prelates in their Dominions 'T is Right and the same cause is now espoused by our more than ordinary Papal Presbyterians to wit Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction over the Civil Power But we are further Question'd If Presbytery and Rebellion be connatural how comes it to pass that those States or Kingdoms where it hath been established or tollerated have for any time been free from broils and commotions Observation It is as true that those places have been quietest where Presbytery hath gain'd footing as 't is that Presbyterians have never disclaimed or abandoned their lawful Prince that they have never ceased to solicite and supplicate his Regards and Favours even when their power hath been at the highest and his sunk lowest This is something which in good manners wants a name How far the Presbyterians have Abandon'd their Prince I shall not press but rather refer the Reader to examine how far and in what manner they have Solicited him Cujus contrarium His late Majesty after forty messages for Peace and a Personal Treaty finding himself most barbarously laid aside in a Declaration from Carisbrook Castle Dated Janu. 18. 1647. Expostulates the matter in these Termes Now would I know what it is that is desired Is it Peace I have shewed the way being both willing and desirous to perform my part in it which is a just Compliance with all chief Interests Is it Plenty and Happiness They are the inseparable effects of Peace Is it Security I who wish that all men would forgive and forget like Me have offered the Militia for My time Is it Liberty of Conscience He who wants it is most ready to give it Is it the right Administration of Justice Officers of trust are committed to the Choice of My two Houses of Parliament Is it frequent Parliaments I have legally fully concurr'd therewith Is it the Arriers of the Army Upon settlement they will certainly be paid with much ease but before there will be found much difficulty if not impossibility in it Thus all the world cannot but see My real and unwearied endeavours for Peace the which by the grace of God I shall neither repent me of nor ever be slackned in Notwithstanding My past present or future sufferings But If I may not be heard let every one judge who it is that obstructs the Good I would do or might do Where the right lies a Presbyterian may better Determine than a Royallist Question Magno se judice quisque tuetur Here 's the Testimony of a Pedant in Ballance against the Authority of a Prince He tells us by and by that Prophaneness Intemperance Revellings Out-rages and filthy lewdness were not at any time in the memory of the present age held under more Restraint than in the late distracted times by means of a Practical Ministery Observation These Generals spell nothing and to name Particulars were not so candid I could else make up Scot and Peters at least a score even out of the select Tribe of the Reformers and these I think are not as yet Canoniz'd for Saints 'T is no prophaneness is it to play the Hocus Pocus in a Pulpit with Rings and Bodkins to talk Treason by Inspiration and entitle the holy Ghost to Murther and Rebellion To appoint Mock-Fasts and thank God for Victories he never gave them To swear for and against the King in the same breath To convert Churches into Stables and for fear of Superstition to commit Sacrilege Nor is it Out-rage sure or Intemperance to seize the Patrimony of the Church the King's Revenues pillage and kill their fellow-Subjects To set up Ordinances against setled Laws and subject the Ten Commandements to the superior Vote of a Committee To justifie Tumults against Authority and suffer the most damnable Heresies to scape without reproof But what if there were Disorders by whom were they caused It is most unreasonable to object that the late wild postures extravagancies and incongruities in Government were the works of Presbytery or Presbyterians The Nation had never proof of
Nation turning up their Tails to a pack of Pedants Yet hateful as it is even that it self establish'd by Authority might challenge our Obedience I have digress'd too far yet in convenient place I must say something further upon this Subject If our new fangled Polititian had consider'd that the Kings Interest leads him to support that which the Presbyterians strive to overthrow the Protestant Religion I am perswaded he would have spared the Duke of Rhoan in this particular The Maxime even as it lies before us affording matter of dangerous Deduction to his disadvantage but taken in Coherence nothing can be more sharp and positive against him That great and wise Captain the Duke of Rhoan discoursing upon what reasons of State Q. Elizabeth acted toward Spain France and the United Provinces tells us particularly how much she favoured the Protestants in France Germany Par toutes ces maximes dit il cette sage Princesse a bien fait comprendre a ses successeurs que outre l' interest que l' Angleterre a commun avec tous les Princes c. By all these Maximes says he this wise Princess hath given her Successors to understand that besides the Interest which England hath common with other Princes yet one particular it hath which is to advance the Protestant Religion with the same zeal the King of Spain does the Catholick Be it here noted that when the Queen was most concern'd and busie to promote the Protestant Cause even at that very time was She as much employ'd to crush the Presbyterian Faction viz. Cartwright Coppinger Arthington Hacket and their Confederates The First of these was imprison'd and fined for Seditious and Schismatical practises against the Church and State The Second starved himself in a Gaol The Third repented and publickly recanted The Fourth was put to Death for horrid Blasphemies These people talk'd of a practical Ministery too The Men are gone but their positions are still in being and only attend a blessed opportunity to be put in execution This may appear from divers late discourses which are effectually no other then Cartwrights Principles and Model couch'd in warier terms and other Authority than these or such as these I think the very Authors of them will scarce pretend to One Observation more Our Paraphrast renders the advancement of the Protestant Religion Enmity with Rome to the great scandal of the Reform'd Profession We have no Enmity but with Errour which in a rigid Puritan to us is the same thing as in a Papist But Popery he tells us hath been ever infamous for excommunicating murthering and deposing Princes I am no advocate for the Roman Cause but upon this account I think betwixt the Jesuite and the Puritan it may be a drawn Battel And yet he follows with an assurance that the Protestant Religion aims at nothing but that the Kings Prerogative and popular Liberty may be even Ballanced That is the Puritan the Presbyterian Religion as he explains himself a little lower I cannot call to mind one single passage in this whole Discourse concerning the Kings Power or the Peoples Liberty which is not either worded Doubtfully or with some popular Limitation upon the Royal Authority What does he mean by even Ballancing Cheek by Joul Or by what Warrant from the word of God does a Presbyters Religion intermeddle with Popular Liberty Unless the holy man intends to bring Homage to Kings within the compass of Ceremonies of Humane and Mystical Institution Yet once again The Presbyterian Principle he sayes is for subjection to Princes though they were Hereticks or Infidels and if they differ herein from the Prelatical Protestant I was afraid we had been all Papists it is only that they plead for Liberty setled by known Laws and fundamental Constitutiont Still ad Populum these are the Incantations which have bewitch'd this Nation This Charm of qualify'd Disloyalty and Conditional Obedience Behold the very Soul of the Faction in these five lines a fair profession first to his Majesty and with the same breath a seditious hint to the People What is that Liberty he talks of but a more colourable title to a Tumult That Legal Freedome to which both by the Royal Bounty and our own Birth-right we stand entituled we ought not to contest for with our Soveraign and God be prays'd we need not Now for another fit of kindnesse His Majesty our Native King may govern as he pleases without fear of Hazards by continuing to shew himself a Common Father Observation What 's this cause a kin to the third Article of the Covenant To preserve and defend the Kings Majesties person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms as who should say if he does otherwise let him look to himself The excessive Dominion of the Hierarchy with the rigorous imposition of humane Ceremonies was accounted much of the malady of former times which ended in those deadly Convulsions of Church and State Observation Since this pragmatical Levite will provoke a Controversie I am content to entertain it If the Bishops excesses were the Cause of War how came the Kings ruine to be the effect of it But 't is no new thing for a Presbyterian to saddle the wrong Horse Just in this manner did the Covenanters treat his late Majesty and by those very Troops that cryed down Bishops was the King murther'd Ridiculous Brutes to boggle at a Surplice and yet run headlong into a Rebellion The grand source of our Miseries was the Covenant by which as by a Spell in the Name of the blessed Trinity the people were insensibly bewitched into an aptnesse to work any wickednesse which the Interpreters of that Oracle should say was the Intendment of it The first notorious Rupture was in Scotland in 1637. attended with a COVENANT which without Question was formerly agreed upon by the confederate Faction of both Kingdoms as the most proper and least hazardous way of tasting the Kings patience and the Peoples humours That their design was laid and carried on by Counsels and Intelligence as aforesaid may be collected from the Consequent and brotherly Agreements and truly the Retrospect of the Act of Indemnity seems to hint no lesse for it commences from the first Scottish Broyls tho' four or five years before the War brake out in England what was begun by Covenant was so prosecuted By virtue of the Covenant the Kirk-party supply'd themselves with Men and Monies Armies were brought into the Field and beyond doubt many that truly loved the King not knowing what they did ingaged against him To keep up this delusion the Press and Pulpit did their parts and to deal freely after this advance I should as much have wondred if they had stop'd short of his death as I find others wondering how they durst accomplish it Death with a Bullet or an Axe is the same Mischief to him
In 87. The Discipline was received and put in practise in Northampton-shire In 88. A Classical Assembly at Coventry In 89. A general Meeting in Cambridge and another at Ipswitch In 1590. Vpon the detection of the Premises they refused to answer upon Oath Being thus Associated they appropriate to their Meetings the name of the Church and use the style The Offices of the Lord Arch-bishops and Bishops c. says Martin Junior are condemn'd by the Doctrin of the Church of England By these degrees the Schismaticks advanced to a dangerous heighth and Boldness and of this temper and extraction are our Presbyterians After the aforemention'd discovery a stricter eye and hand was kept upon them divers of the Ring-leaders were imprison'd and the Covy broken Upon the coming in of King James they began to stir again but he knew them too well either to Trust or Suffer them How they behaved themselves towards the late King is to the eternal Infamy not onely of the Faction but of the Nation too notorious What they design toward the present Government That 's the Question And now I come to enquire Whether in Justice or Reason of State the Presbyterian Party should be Rejected and Depressed or Protected and Incouraged Before I fall upon the Question once again I explain my self By PRESBYTERIAN I intend a Faction that under colour of setling a Reform'd DISCIPLINE seeks to dissolve the frame of an establish'd Government And first I am to prove that Party so distinguish'd such a Faction which both from their own Practises Positions and from Common Observation and Authority I think I shall make good and that their last aim is to exercise that Tyranny themselves which they pretend to punish We 'l first examine how they treat the Civil Power If Princes be Tyrants against God and his Truth their Subjects are freed from their Oaths of Obedience Kings Princes and Governors have their Authority of the People and upon Occasion the People may take it away again Ministers ought not to obey the Prince when he prescribes Ceremonies and a Fashion of Apparel Evil Princes ought by the Law of God to be deposed Andrew Melvil being cited to answer for Treason delivered in a Sermon declined the judgment of the King affirming That what was spoken in Pulpit ought first to be tried and judged by the Presbytery and that neither the King nor Counsel might in primâ instantiâ meddle therewith although the speeches were Treasonable Strike the Basilique vein nothing but this will cure the Plurisie of our State Let us never give over till we have the King in our power and then he shall see how good Subjects we are Delivered in a Sermon It is lawful for Subjects to make a Covenant and Combination without the King But to come nearer Home to shew that the whole Gang is of the same Leaven Worse than all this was daily printed against the late King even by those Persons that were in pay to the Presbyterian Faction and yet at last those outrages are justifi'd against the Father by such as would be thought Loyal to the Son If Parliaments think to scape better they are deceived If the Brethren cannot obtain their will by suit nor dispute the Multitude and People must do the Feat One preached That though there were never so many Acts of Parliament against the Covenant yet it ought to be maintain'd against them all The Parliament can make no Law at all concerning the Church but onely ratifie what the Church decrees and after it hath ratifi'd it yet if the Assembly of the Church shall prohibite it and repeal that Decree of the Church all the Subjects are discharged from yielding obedience to that Act of Parliament An Assembly may abrogate Acts of Parliament if they any way reflect upon business of the Church Reformation of Religion belongs to the Commonalty Of the Parliament in the 24 year of the Queen says the Supplication if the desired Reformation be not granted There shall not be a man of their seed that shall prosper be a Parliament man or bear Rule in England any more Concerning Laws established They Fall in Consequence with the Power that makes them Presbyterians opinion of Bishops Let us see now with what modesty they treat the Church and first the Bishops They are Ordinances of the Devil Proud Popish presumptuous prophane paltry pestilent pernicious Prelates and Vsurpers Robbers Wolves Simoniacks Persecutors Sowers of Sedition Dragons and so to the end of the Chapter Their Clergy an Antichristian Swinish Rabble The Ministers are neither Proved Elected Called nor Ordained according to Gods Word The Ceremonies Carnal Beggerly Antichristian Pomps Presbyterian Reformation Hitherto the Faults of Governors and Government now their Proposals of Amendment and Reformation by what Rules and by what Means we may be Governed Better Thus then Let the whole Government of the Church be committed to Ministers Elders and Deacons Very good and to whom the Government of the State Why to Them too For the Church wherein any Magistrate King or Emperor is a Member is divided into some that are to Govern viz. Pastors Doctors and Elders and into such as are to obey viz. Magistrates of all sorts and the People The Question is next about the Extent of the Ecclesiastical Power and in what manner that Assumption hooks in all Civil Actions within their Cognisance In Ordine ad Spiritualia Forsooth by which rule nothing scapes them 'T is the desire of the Admonitor That he and his Companions may be deliver'd by Act of Parliament from the Authority of the Civil Magistrates as Justices and others and from their Inditings and Finings The Eldership shall suffer no leud customs to remain in their Parishes either Games or otherwise And further The Office of the Church-Governors is to decide Controversies in Doctrine and Manners so far as pertaineth to Conscience and the Church-censures Every Fault says Cartwright that tendeth either to the Hurt of a man's neighbour or to the hindrance of the glory of God is to be examined and dealt in by the Orders of the holy Church Nay Knox goes further yet The bare Suspition of Avarice or of Pride Superfluity or Riotousness in Chear or Rayment Even this Nicety falls within their Censure Now would I know what need of a Civil Magistrate when even our private thoughts are subjected to the Scrutiny of a Presbytery But will some say What signifies the intemperance of Particular tongues as to the General of the Party I am challenged by the Author of the Interest of England to produce their Actions and That 's my next immediate Business The Presbyter has now the Chair see how he manages his Greatness None of that Tyranny ye found in Bishops I warrant ye no groaning now under the Yoke of Antichrist the intolerable burthen of canonical Subscription the Imposition of
Impostors and after all our wandrings brought once again into the Channel We have our Prince our Laws our Freedoms our Interest lies before us and certainly we cannot be so mad as now to dash a second time upon the same Rock Yet they shall lose nothing for want of offering at it The Arguments of 1641. are set on foot again The very same with Cartwright's that Consistorian Patriarch as Bancroft terms him nay they are advanc'd already beyond pleading of their Cause to pressing of it by sawcy Importunities and peremptory threatnings From what I have deliver'd it cannot be deny'd but their Positions are destructive to all Civil Government And for their Practices the story is written in Blood This might suffice to end the Controversie concerning Reason of State for certainly a Faction so Principled cannot with safety to the Publick be incorporated into any Politick Constitution But I shall add some further Reasons why by no means they are to be admitted 1. They 'r a Party never to be gain'd by Obligations and this is manifest from their proceedings toward the late King whose most unhappy Tenderness of Nature rost him his Life And at this instant that irreclaimable ingratitude is yet more clear toward his Majesty in beeing whose unexampled Mercy so much as lies in them is converted to his Dishonor and Destruction 2. They ground their claim upon the Equity of their Cause which if allow'd by the same reason they may serve this King as they did his Father 3. Their Demands are Endless as well as Groundless and it is not prudential to grant any thing to a Faction that will be satisfi'd with nothing It is but Giving them a power to Take the rest 4. They Expostulate and what they get upon those Terms they look upon rather as a Submission than a Concession The very manner of their Address has a spice of Mutiny in it and they will hardly make an honest use of what they compass by dishonest means 5. It is not advisable to encourage Tumultuary combinations by Rewarding them 6. The Dispute is not so much what their Consciences will Bear as what their Importunities can Obtain and to feel the Pulse of the Supreme Authority In fine It is a contest betwixt the Law and a Faction and a fair step toward a New Rebellion So much for Reason of State Now to the Justice of their pretences The Quaere is Whether in Justice or Reason of State the Presbyterian Party should be Rejected and Depressed or Protected and Incouaged 'T is one thing what the King may do in point of Justice and another thing what the Presbyterians may demand upon that score There is a Justice of Conscience Honor and of Prudence By the First His Majesty is ty'd up in common with the meanest of his Subjects That is if the King find himself in Conscience bound to maintain Episcopacy in the state he found it Legally settled he is not free to alter it In point of Honor There 's more Liberty and whatever the King does in that particular is well done But his Majesty not having as yet declar'd himself what do we know how far even upon That Point he may concern himself to reject the Presbyterian's Demands Partly out of Reverence to his Royal Father In part out of a Princely Strictness to His own Dignity and partly out of a Generous tenderness toward his Ruin'd Party First as to what may seem relating to His Majesty's Father That which these people urge is what the late King chose rather to Die than Grant which in His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is intimated in these words In these two points the preservation of establish'd Religion and Laws I may without vanity turn the reproach of my sufferings as to the worlds censure into the honor of a kind of Martyrdom as to the testimony of My own conscience the troublers of My Kingdoms having nothing to object against me but this that I prefer Religion and Laws established before these alterations they propounded Every word hath its weight which fell from the Pen of that pious and judicious Prince Nor can I over-pass a Caution of his learned Father's when I consider the sum of their Proposals which in effect is but a condemnation of the late King in the bold needless justification of Themselves These are the words As for offences against your own Person and Authority since the fault concerneth your self I remit to your own choice to punish or pardon therein as your heart serveth you and according to the circumstances of the turn and the quality of the Committer Here would I also eike another Crime to be unpardonable if I should not be thought partial But the Fatherly love I bear you will make me break the bounds of shame in opening it unto you It is then the false and unreverent writing or speaking of malicious men against your Parents and Predecessors And a little further It is a thing monstrous to see a Man love the Child and hate the Parents as on the other part the infaming and making â—dious of the Parents is the ready way to bring the Son into contempt And for conclusion of this point I may also alledge my own experience for besides the judgments of God that with mine eyes I have seen fall upon all them that were chief Traitors to my Parents I may justly affirm I never found yet a constant biding by me in all my straits by any that were of perfect ☞ age in my Parents days but onely by such as constantly bode by them I mean specially by them that served the Queen my Mother for so that I discharge my Conscience to you my Son in revealing to you the truth I care not what any Traitor or Treason-allower think of it Thus far his Majesty may find himself concern'd in Honour to his Fathers Ashes now to his dying Counsels Take heed of abetting any factions or applying to any publick Discriminations in matters of Religion contrary to what is in your judgement and the Church well setled I cannot yet learn that lesson nor I hope ever will you that it is safe for a King to gratifie any Faction with the perturbation of the Laws in which is wrapt up the publick Interest and the good of the Community What in effect do these people now desire but that his Majesty would rather take their Counsel than his Fathers In the next Page the King expresses a more than ordinary earnestness in these words My Counsel and Charge to you is that you seriously consider the former real or objected miscarriages which might occasion my troubles that you may avoid them Herein his Majesty is tacitly conjured against them it being a most notorious Certainty That The late King lost both his Crown and Life by Over-granting The now-pretended cause of the quarrel was not mentioned till after the War was begun The colour of raising an Army being to
there will not be many Offenders where an early severity is used But however if any hazzard be he that prints it dictates encourages and promotes it and deserves to suffer with the foremost But the Gentleman begins now to talk like a Christian. I detest says he and abhor the Tumults and Insurrections of the People and the resisting of the Soveraign Power Observation This is honestly said yet But hold a little What is that Soveraign Power which he abhorrs should be resisted by the Tumults of the People Even the Two Houses in co-ordination with the King A little further I am perswaded says he that the Generality of the Presbyterian denomination would endure extremities before they would revenge or defend themselves by unlawful means as rebelling against their Lawful Soveraign Observation This we shall understand too by confronting it and find it onely the old Fallacy a little better colour'd This part says he of the Supreme Power meaning the two Houses is indeed capable of doing wrong yet how it might be guilty of Rebellion is more difficult to conceive Now if the Two Houses cannot Rebel as being part of the Supreme Power by his Argument neither can the Presbyterians in compliance with that Party So that by this mis-placing of the Supreme Authority whatever hath been acted by vertue of any Commission from the Two Houses may be done over again and no Rebellion By this device he onely disavows Rebellion so far as This or That is not Rebellion according to his Proposition although the Law determine otherwise This is no more then what was ever maintained even by those that stood themselves upon the highest terms of Disobedience Did ever any man say This is Rebellion and I 'll justifie it Nay I should be glad to hear any of them say This was Rebellion and I 'm sorry for it But it is evident that the Presbyterians love the King and Kingly Government and account themselves happy in his Majesty's Clemency allowing them a just and inoffensive Liberty in certain matters of Conscience Observation The Presbyterians may find many things to thank his Majesty for but I would they could hit upon a handsomer manner of doing it and not perpetually to be craving more when they should be doing him service for what they have receiv'd already They love the King they say but then their Love is Conditional they must have something for it Would they expose themselves for twenty years together to Gaols and Gibbets all sorts of Hazzards and Misfortunes for their Prince and at the last sit down and sterve contentedly out of a sense of honorable Loyalty That Subject is not right who hath not brought his mind up to this Frame however unhappy he may think himself in such encounters as put him to the Trial of his utmost Virtue Wise men inform us that a Prince by adhereing to one Faction may in time lift it up above his own Imperial Interest which will be forced to give way to it as the lesser to the greater And the prime Leaders of the potent Faction will sway more than the Prince himself They will become arrogant unthankful and boundless in their ambitious designs This is a good Rule but ill apply'd unless return'd upon himself I hope he will not call That Party a Faction which submits all its Actions to the clear Letter of the Law and he will hardly prove That to be none which crosses This. If so let Common Reason judge betwixt us There is a saying which by many hath been taken up for a Proverb No Bishop no King I do not well understand the rise of this saying and therefore dare not speak in derogation of their Judgements who were the Authors of it But upon the matter it self I crave to make this modest Animadversion And first it is some degrading to the transcendent Interest of Soveraignty to affix unto it a necessity of any one partial interest for its support for Independency and Self-subsistence without leaning upon any Party is a Prince his strength and glory Also it makes that Party over-confident and its opposite too despondent Such sayings as import a Princes necessary dependence on any particular Party may in the mouthes of Subjects be too presumptuous and in the mouth of a Prince too unwary If we are not yet instructed in the Weight and Reason of that saying NO BISHOP NO KING sure we are past Learning any thing We found the sad truth of this Judgment in the event of the late War but that 's no Rule By No Bishop no King is not intended that Bishops are the props of Royalty nor do the Episcopalians understand it so but that both one and the other are Objects of the same Fury onely the Church goes First so that without presumption a Subject may affirm it and without loss of Honor a Prince may grant it I might draw Arguments from the Agreement of their Original the likeness of their Constitution the Principles by which they are supported and that they lye exposed to the same Enemies and the same method of Destruction But this would seem to imply a more Inseverable Interest then I aim at and raise the Clergy above the proper State and Orb of Subjects My meaning is more clear and open All Popular Factions take the Church in their way to the State and I am to seek where ever any Prince quitted Episcopacy and saved Himself That is his Royal Dignity for the empty name of King is but the Carkass of Majesty It is with the unruly Populacy as it is with raging Tides they press where the Bank is weakest and in an instant over-run all If they had either Modesty or Conscience they would not force so far if they have neither will they stop There what did the late King Grant or rather what Deny till by their mean Abuse of his unlimited Concessions he lost his Crown and Life Yet what assurance Words could give him he wanted not Words wrapt up in the most tender and Religious Forms imaginable But what are Words where a Crown lyes at stake In fine Treason 's a Canker and where it seizes that Prince must early cut off the Infected part if he would save the Sound The true Church lies in the middle between two extremes Formalists and Fanaticks They are of circumspect and regular walking no way forward in attempting or desiring alterations in a Civil State A Prince doth hold them in obedience under a double bond For they know they must needs be subject not only for wrath but for Conscience sake Indeed we will not conceal that in lawfull wayes they assert that Liberty which is setled by the known Laws and Fundamental Constitutions the maintaining whereof is the Prince's as much as the Peoples safety If to be no way Forward in promoting Changes in the Civil State be a marque of the Church The Presbyterians are out of the Pale It 's truth