Error in Politicks the sowers of all Rebellion and Annarchy that Kings and all in Authority have their power from the People which is as truly false in it self as fatal to this Nation For though the People do nominate Kings c. in elective kingdoms or consent to them in Hereditary as ours is and the Crown ought to be transmitted to our most gracious Soveraign from a long series of his numerous and royal progenitors yet their nomination or consent is either by way of foâ—m or order to declare an approvement of or submission to the King as the supreme Power of the kingdom which is derived by divine institution from God himself the sole most obsolute eternal Monarch and fountain of all lawfull Power it being no more in the People to give Power to Kings then in their own Power to give themselves being All Power being Authoritative originally or radically in God as the first founder in the King Representative per modum subjecti as a subject capable of the just managery of it and in the People materially per modum patientis in the nomination of the Person not the constitution of Power in their choise in Elective kingdoms and by their consent do not give a Power be an attribute of obedience in their due subscription to it in hereditary We have Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it per me Regis regnant by me Kings reign By me Constitutive efficienter per modum Authoris as the supreme Agent and Kings do reign Ministerialiter per modum Dei locum tenentium as Gods Vicegerents their Power being a Ray of Divinity by whose benigne influence mankinde the flower of the universe watered in showers of graces from above and streams of Justice below receiveth its bud and perfection under his propitious conduct in a happy planting and orderly maturing all things in this inferiour world And therefore Kings and all in Authority are not of the Peoples but of Gods christionizing and that after his own Name I said ye are Gods whereupon for his sake and by virtue of his Commission as his Deputies the People are liable to pay a just tribute of obedience to them But suppose that Kings and those who are in Authority shall as the Phanaticks of this age object neglect the great end of Government and improve all opportunities and advantages of their Power and Grandeur unto their own personal and family interest especially when they shall wilfully and against universal reason and the apparent danger of the common safety then say they they determine their Authority and having in such cases quitted their care and respects to the Peoples protection they likewise quite the People from their Allegeance and obedience To this damnable and Jesuitical Position I thus reply It is rare to find Kings they and their People being Correlatives to have so much cruelty for themselves as in bauishing the universal Dictates of Reason in the common ruine of their kingdoms theirs and the Peoples being one joynt interest and their greatest concern next the glory of God is a mutual opposition of enemies and a joynt concurrence in vigorous endeavours for the support and promotion of each others happiness But grant that Kings should so far degenerate as to cancel all obligations to God and nature in order to Liberty and Propriety of their People it is no more then is clearly described in the sacred Oracles where Samuel stateth the absolute Prerogative of a King 1 Sam. Chap. 8. ver 2. to the 17. And he said this shall be the manner of the King that shall reign over you he will take your sons and appoint them for himself for his Chariots And let them take their much admired Calvins authentick Paraphrase on the text out of his care done to truth rather then Kings in the latter end of the 26 Paragraph De publica Administratione Ac si dixisset Samuel eo se proripiet licentiae Regum libido quam cohibere vestrum non erit quibus hoc restabit unum jussa excipere ac dicto audientes esse To such a height of Tyranny shall the will of Kings break forth which to restrain is not your duty in you this onely remaineth to hearken to his words and obey his commands with which you are in humble submission to comply and not in a rebellious resistance to dispute And to that effect is that most signal place of Scripture Jer. chap. 27. ver 6. and 8. And now have I given all those lands into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my servant c. Who this Nebuchadnezzar was is sufficiently known who had conquered Jerusalem the holy City and had by his absolute power invaded other Territories yet God styleth him Nebnchadnezzar my servant though a great Tyrant and Usurper by virtue of his unquestionable Commission which none but God himself could take from him And once more be pleased to take Calvins Comment upon the recited Text Videmus quanta obedientia Dominus tetrum illum ferocemque Tyrannum coli voluerit non alia ratione nisi quia Regnum obtinebat You see saith he with what obedience the Lord would have that cruel Tyrant observed upon no other account but as he was by himself invested with the Royal Throne And Calvin further urgeth in the same Paragraph Eodem decreto constitui etiam nequissimos Reges quo Regum authoritas statuitur nunquam in animum nobis seditiosae illae cogitationes venient tractandum esse pro meritis Regem nec aequum esse ut subditos ei non praestemus qui vicissim Regem nobis se non praestat By the same Commission are wicked Kings constituted by which the Authority of Kings in general is enacted and we must never entertain within our minds such Rebellious thoughts how that the King is to be treated according to his demerits neither is it fit we should with draw our obedience as subjects though he doth not express his gracious clemency and Moderation as a King Therefore these Phanatick objections of this latter age since 1642 are very unjustifiable that service and obedience is to be wholly devoted onely to the just commands of superiors this is that disloyal principle which hath introduced so much Barbarisme and confusion among us which hath an ill aspect upon our Oeconomicks as well as Politicks and hath gained an opinion with wives children and servants that no service is to be given by the one to their Masters nor duty by the other to their Parents nor obedience by the third to their Husbands if Masters Parents or Husbands do as they conceive impose their severe commands upon them and if they act any thing contrary to their fancy they deem they may justly infringe all obligations whatsoever due by Religion Law and the right of Nature to their several Relations But suppose that Kings and all in Authority shall neglect the great ends of Government and improve all opportunities and advantages to
their own personal interest to the apparent danger of of common safety say the Phanaticks they determine their authority and having quitted their care of the Peoples protection they quit the People from their Allegiance and Obedience To this I answer That Kings though most absolute Tyrants cannot be justly deposed by the People I confess the end of all Government is the common good in a due administration of Justice to the promotion of which all their royal endeavours as so many lines ought to concenter themselves as in a point in the publick safety of their subjects And although Kings do not perform their duty in governing according to Law yet their Authority doth not determine it being supreme is lyable to give an account onely to God who onely determineth both the Power and Person And although the people do by Election or Consent confer a trust on Kings and Governors which is absolute no Governour being so weak as to take it on the condition of his good behaviour durante Populi beneplacito the will of the people being as mutable as fond and having not alwaies Reason for its Conduct and solid principles for its Basis under pretence of ill managery will speak a determination to the lawful power of a supreme Governour and the best modelled Government of a Nation It is very reasonable to grant that the people do give a very high trust to Kings and those in Authority which is sealed to them by Gods power Be subject to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake from whom Kings receive the Patent of their Authority which no body under any gloss how fair soever can cancel he being in no capacity to forfeit that power to man which he hath immediately derived from God alone I mean the sword of Justice it being not in the power of the people originally to kill one another without a Magistrate they being endued with an equality in nature and cannot exercise this soveraignty over each other And if the King could forfeit his trust by not discharging it according to the intention of the Donors and the Laws to which he hath obliged himself that the people cannot resume that trust when it hath received the approbation and confirmation of Gods power which the people cannot assume to themselves without the most impious arrogating one of the supreme Attributes of God to themselves But then it will be replyed that the people are in a sad condition having no sence against the arbitrary power of Kings to which I briefly answer they have for their refuge Tears and Prayers the Arms of the Church in their greatest straits and perplexities and God in whose hands the hearts of Kings are to turn them as he pleaseth according to his holy wisdom and for my part I shall ever deem it better to live under the Tyranny of Kings then under the Anarchy of the people I desire you would be pleased to make a deep inspection into those two erroneous principles so much cried up by the Phanaticks that salus populi est suprema lex and Rex est singulis major universis minor which they conceive are most absolute rules to walk by and a firm basis to secure their cursed actions from the titles of rebellion perjury sacriledge murder oppression c. To the first that the safety of the people is the supreme law I thus answer the safety of the people in strict speech is not a law but an end of it the law being made for the just conservation of the peoples safety but grant it in common language to be a law and then sure none is so void of sense and reason if an end may be called a law but to give to the ultimate end the attribute of supremacy and then Gloria Deiest suprema lex and indeed his word is a law and it is his glory to maintain it Rom. 13.1 Let every soul be subject to the higher powers and God so far condescendeth as to give a reason of it for the Powers that are are ordained of God Now the debate will be who is supreme the King or the people I confess the people de facto have of late made themselves so but I hope they have not the boldness de jure to think so the Legislative power being ultimately in the King by whose Royal consent the results of the two Houses who are called and dissolved by his power receive the signature of Laws the house of Commons being Commissioned by him ad inquireddum and the house of Lords ad consulendum and in him their legal head is the supreme power ad determinandum de ordine negotiis regni it is his right with the advice of Parliaments his great Council to determine what is the safety peace and the just Rights of the nation and not in the people who are not a head of law but the body of the kingdom to be governed by it And if the People should deem in their private sense which cannot be so discerning and impartial as the publick judgement of those that are placed on the hill of government who see much more then they that kneel in the valley of subjection that the known fundamental Laws instituted by them who are Gods Ministers are diametrically opposite to the just interest of a nation yet if they cannot it being repugnant to their conscience to give an active observance to those laws made as they apprehend against the safety of the people yet they are oblieged to give a passive obedience to the Governours who as they are ordained if good are to give him onely an account of their actions in an humble submission to whatsoever punishments shall be imposed by them And here the people are readily to write after our blessed Saviours excellent copy who submitted to an unjust power in the loss of his life contrary to all law rather then dispute his own ordinance and so it is better for them in Christian patience to die Martyrs then by an illegal resistance to be rebells To that their maxime being a main foundation upon which the Phanaticks have at first built and still endeavour to support that most unhandsome superstructure of Rebellion Sacriledge Perjury and in a word their violation of all humane and divine Laws that Rex est singulis major universis minor the King is greater then any single person and lesser then the community of the people to which I reply that the body of the people cannot pretend to be superior or rival with him except his two Houses of Parliament who have no being unless they receive birth by his summons consulere de arduis negotiis regni and so they may be justly styled his Counsellours to advise and not his superiours to command The Legislative power which to vindicate he is armed with the Militia of the Nation being principally seated in him that those wholesome laws which derive their rough draught and first delineation of parts from the two Houses and
afterward their life and maturity from the signature of his Excellent Majesties Royal consent Again the King may challenge a preeminence over the whole body of the people in respect of his right of dominion over them upon which account he is indued with the more peculiar image of God which as a King is imprinted in him and therein doth represent the person of God in his soveraignty which the whole community of the people cannot pretend to in relation they are subjects and that notion speaketh an inferiority And though subordinate Magistrates in a sort represent Gods Person yet it is not directly they immediately representing the Kings as he doth Gods so that the best of the people who are Magistrates or the Kings Vicegerents as he onely is Gods who is the sum of all power and the King is his Ray and all inferiour Magistrates are but shadows of that ray of Divinity The Phanatiques insisting on the pretended principles of publick safety peace and liberty have practised licentiousness war and ruine to the kingdom and therefore they most confidently assert that all Laws Statutes Ordinances Covenants Engagements Promises Protestations all acknowledgements Vows and Covenants and all manner of obligations and expressions hereof are onely binding unto the publique safety and not at all as they will have it to the persons of the Governours but with reference thereto Pray be pleased strictly to perpend these damnable Positions anciently contrived by the Romanists and lately distilled into the factious spirits of this nation to teach us first to destroy our lawfull Governours by the plausible pretences of new-modelled principles of Common Reason justice and equity have almost nulled all Religion and Government according to the ancient fundamental common and Civil laws at last to make us a rasa tabula if not somewhat worse that we might be forced to deem it more rational to have their Religion a bad one rather then none at all imprinted in us This plot is much more subtile then that of Gun-powder Treason when the old Jesuits or the new Quakers by the under-hand insinuations of Religion peace and liberty have put the Phanatiques on the most horrid contrivances immaginable and by a blasphemous impulse of spirit did advise them to justifie many extraordinary strange and very illegall actions as taking up arms raising and forming Armies against the King fighting against his person imprisoning impeaching arraigning trying and executing him cutting off his head banishing his children abolishing Bishops Deans and Chapters took away Kingly Government and the House of Lords brok the Crowns sold the Jewels Plate Goods Houses and Lands belonging to the Kings of this Nation erected extraordinary Courts of justice and therein impeached arraigned and condemned his Majesties most loyall subjects Persons eminent for moral honesty and great piety as so many notorious enemies to the publick Peace of the kingdom when the laws in being and the ordinary Courts of justice could not reach them these were unknown strange practises in this nation and not at all justifiable by any known Laws and Statutes And now I have been bold to present you with a view of the gross crimes of the late times most humbly desiring the honourable Houses to concurre with the King in the constitution of such wholesome Laws as a sanctuary to defend the nation from the like horrid perpetrations for the future and to give an impression and terror to others not to dare to commit the like violations upon the incuring of penalties proportioned to their demerits Now I offer to your most serious consideration in your most retired thoughts how God out of a continued series of justice hath pleased in these various scenes of his Providence to give to divers actors in those late fatal tragedies a true sight of their great Errors in a grievous sense of their high sufferings First a faction of the Houâ—e in the beginning of their Session connived at tumultuary commotions assaulting the late Kings most sacred Person in disfavour of that noble Hero the Earl of Strafford as a means where they could not conquer by strength of argument to out-talk with clamor of the multitude pretending to satisfie their just importunities which indeed were arrogant mutinies concluded to judge him whose powerfull wisdom would have bounded their insolence by a new coined word law of accumulative treason when it had served their turn they condemned the law with the person and truly more guilty then him lest it should rise up in judgement against them to make them exemplary for their injustice Not long after these new Justiciaries were secluded the House by the minor part of it by power of the Army to make them sensible how by a force of the tumults they first sentenced Strafford and afterwards by listed tumults they themselves were ejected by their fellow-members who not long after having pulled down the House of Lords murdered the Lords Anointed and banished his royal relations and ruined his loyal subjects were twice ejected by Cromwell and the Army to give them a reflection of their wicked actions and speak a check to their farther disloyalty oppression and ambition And now at last the late Juncto whose being and base contrivances had been entombed in their own empty sculls had they not been hatched by the warmth of a military power have well requited the army their former civilities in cashiering them their commands and paid them their long score of Arrears with a short empty vote of indemnity which I hope will make them sensible of their gross misdemeanours in the just turn of their miseries And here I cannot but eternally give my thanks to that great God who after so many strange alterations of Governors and governments will make you instrumental in your sage counsels to make a perfect settlement in our distracted State and distressed Church And this putteth me in mind of paying of my most humble gratitude to that most excellent Gen. Monke who out of a great principle of honor hath preserved the ancient and famous City the Metropolis of the kingdom from being made the prey of some Boutefeus of the late Juncto who intended as I am informed had not they been prevented by the infinitte mercy and power of God after they had pulld down the Gates rased the Walls and imprisoned the most considerable persons for Religion and loyalty in the Common Council whom they would at last have executed at their own doores and then burnt the Charter of the City and disarmed and plundred the most conscientious Citizens if they would not prostitute the honour of their souls in a base compliance with them in the acknowledgement of the late barbarous Juncto to be the supreme Authority of the Nation My most humble desires unto your Excellency are that as you have been already pleased in a handsome act of clemency to open the doores to the secluded members you will adde a further obligation of your justice in protecting the two honourable
the King and people and all sacred moral and national laws and liberties to their own base tyranny and avarice Though for the present for the breaches of priviledges of Parliament and the unlawful resistance of Kingly power we have been lately whipped by the divine hand inflicting great sufferings on us as a due punishment for our greater sins into a thought of restoring the supreme Magistrate to whom as Gods Vicegerent we truly intend to pay a just duty of Allegiance Yet succeeding ages being not sensible of our smarts and ills may be so dandled with the same vain phantasies the people being naturally adorers of power and licentiousness should being led by their forefathers example whom they may count honourable to imitate when before prepossessed with their own ambitious desires may by our fault fall into our errors and miseries if the King being disarmed in the loss of his Militia shall not be able to defend himself and his loyal subjects against the insolence of his rebellious oppressors Be not pleased to entertain your selves with the least suspicion that the King will not weild the sword of justice in the most prudent and pious Managery of his government over us with the greatest moderation and integrity imaginable be pleased seriously to consider in his low ebbe of condition being exposed to the charity of forreigners how obnoxious he was rendered to a sea of temptations when he was highly imbarqued among them courting him with a powerfull assistance in order to the restauration of his Royall dignities if he would innovate his Religion choosing rather to dure the worst of fortune then by a forreign invasion to gain a Crown in the forfeiture of his honour conscience and religion What can be more pleasing to God and advantageous to the nation then honourably to possess the King with his own without ugly obligations which will reasonably induce him he being so much a friend to himself to improve his utmost endeavours to free himself from those bonds which shall be unjustly imposed upon him and this will create such a perpetual jealousie between him and his people that it must necessarily speak them both mutually unhappy But the great Remora and obstruction of the Kings Royal and free inauguration in order to civils is the opposition of those who have possessed themselves of the Crown Bishops Dean and Chapter Lands and Revenues in answer to which the King out of his gracious condescension to a firm peace will vouchsafe not to be his own carver wholly refering himself to the Honourable Houses who will assuredly treat them with all the justice and equity imaginable And for his own part let them read for their ample satisfaction his late Declaration wherein he promiseth they shall have his lands and the Churches till they are reimbursed of the money principal and interest which they have paid for them and they are bound in conscience to restore them to the true owners the Church and Crown In order to Ecclesiasticks the onely way to make up the sad breaches of the Church in point of doctrine and discipline is to restore the ancient and Reverend Fathers of it instituted by the holy Apostles as conservatours of it against heresie and schisme and our gracious Soveraign when he shall be intrusted with the government out of his Princely care and Royal inclinations will preserve the unity of of the Church that nothing shall be imposed on truly consciencious persons contrary to their different judgements professing the same fundamentals of Orthodox Christian Religion and differing onely in circumstancials conditionally they deport themselves with humility not intrenching on the publick in giving a disturbance to the unity of the Church and peace of the nation Nothing can give me a greater truth and admiration then by sad experience to see England most eminent heretofore for Religion and Loyalty should in this present age so far degenerate from the principles of our Church and the ancient honour of the nation who have had so high a duty for their native Prince that they had rather quit thier lives then their sense of Allegiance Wherefore my most humble request to the two honourable Houses our faithful Trustees is that they would be pleased to repair the honour of the nation so lost abroad that no traveller dareth own himself an English man being in danger of being sacrificed except he recant the publick errors of the nation in the most honourable reception of the King most Illustrious in vertue and Religion According to his just Rights by law and vindicate the ancient priviledges of Parliament and the due liberty and propriety of the subject which will speak glory to God and honour to your selves and the Nation FINIS
HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE DIEV ET MON DROIT An Humble ADDRESSE To the Right Honourable LORDS COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT In vindication of KINGLY POWER AND GOVERNMENT Against the Damnable Positions of Jesuits and Phanatiques desiring they would be pleased to call in the King without dishonourable conditions according to his Just Right Written by the Author of a Letter to a Member Rom. Chap. 13. ver 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers for there is no Power but of God c. LONDON Printed by Peter Lillicrap for Henry Marsh and are to be sold at his Shop at the Princes Arms in Chancery-lane 1660. An Humble ADDRESSE To the Right honourable LORDS and COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT In vindication of Kingly Power and Government against the damnable Positions of Jesuites and Phanatiques desiring they would be pleased to call in the King without dishonourable conditions according to his just rights NOthing in this world can present this sad nation with so pleasant a sight as your Honourable Session in Parliament which giveth a rapture of joy to all Loyal and Religious hearts transporting them with the high contemplation of the inexhaustible Treasure of Divine mercy that God out of the wise conduct of his ever to be admired providence after our great and various Tragick scenes of Governours and Governments acted by the politick Jesuits the great State-mongers in their secret influence on the Counsels of this nation should dispose your much prayed for Convention the delight of our hearts and desire of our souls as the onely expedient left us under God to reedifie the ruined Church and to repair the sad breaches of the decaied State You are the expected Center in which the several lines of different interests meet that after their diverse unhappy motions in you their proper place they may receive rest and perfection you are that benigne Constellation in the sphere of Government by whose propicious influence all things in our lower orbe receive the more refined production of their better being in the conception birth and maturity of our blessed restauration Me thinketh these many years in the sad winter of our afflicted Clymate all things seem to have been void of fire and spirit but your pre ence like a warm spring reviveth our withered expectations and inliveneth our dull bodies with a new soul full of like opperations and after the long Lent of our most low condition we are blessed with an Easter of your meeting which after the death of our hopes giveth a resurrection of our happines which offereth us an argument for ever to magnifie Gods unspeakable goodness and an opportunity to congratulate the prosperous estate of the Kingdom in you our most faithfull Trustees and to speak our thanks that you are pleased to take upon you the trouble to redress our intolerable grievances and to redeem the distressed Nation long groaning under many heavy pressures from high slavery and eminent ruine The best way to prevent it is to find out the first original on which as a prime cause the great complication of our miseries dependeth and truly without any curious disquisition you may perceive it to flow from disobedience to that Authoty which God hath set over us and the grand Error in principles hath proved so fruitful that it hath had many branches springing out of it according to the Phylosophers received maxime in his Physicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one Capital Error begetteth a thousand It is that unhappy dispute which the two Houses had with the King first embroiled the Nation in a Civil war and then involved it in a Labrinth of miseries when blood is once drawn it is very dissicult to stench the flux of it the surviving always being acted with a bitter animosity to revenge the quarrell of their murdred friends each party being ambitious to gain the glory of a conquest and soverainty over others are so much biassed with their own interest of an earthly enjoyment of themâ—elves as they aim to be Masters of other mens estates and fortunes which giveth a high disturbance to the conquered party who will be always unwilling to sit down with loss of liberty and livelyhood Pray be pleased to use the utmost of your industry in your prudent Counsels to make such a provision for the future to take away all occasions and lay aside such disputes which will inevitably produce a new War which to hinder nothing is so rational as to fix the Government of the Kingdom upon the antient basis which is the means to satisfie all honest interests and as for the other it is as fond as disingenious to gratifie them they being so inconsiderable cannot pretend to merit any bodies esteem I know it is your Christian intention and the peoples great advantage to make a firm and lasting peace which will be crowned with so good a product as the Kingdoms flourishing estate and the conâ—ecâ—ation of your blessed memories to posterity Nothing can be more honourable to the Nation and suitable to the genius of the people then the antient established Government which speaketh great Attributes of glory and wisdom to our forefathers who have founded such an admirable fabrick of Polity among us that after ages have rendred themselves no less miserable then contemptible in the alteration of it The late unfortunate revolutions will easily convince the refractory opposers that Monarchy is the best modell of all Polities whatsoever holding a correspondence in some manner with Gods Government all inferiour Creatures as his subjects by a natural impress serving each other in an admirable order Naturals serving the Plants and Plants the Animals and Animals the Rationals and at last Heaven and Earth and all the several orders of Entities out of a principle of Nature reason or religion pay a tribute of obedience and devotion to God their supreme omnipotent Monarch This Loyalty of the Creature is presidentary to men indued with a more sublime principle of Reason and united in a common society are oblieged to be subservient to each other in their superiour or inferiour degrees of subjection or command to promote the common wellfare and most conscientiously to perform all service and duty to the King by his lawful inheritance and Gods divine institution their supreme governor And as more naturals that Elements ought of a universal dictate move upwards and downwards contrary to their particular inclinations in silling up a vacuum to serve the common good of the universe and to keep inviolable the law of the Creator I wish none placed in a sphere above them being courted by their example would be so farre elevated above their private concerns and endeavour though contrary to their self advantages by all means possible to advance the publike good in their regular subordination to the King the supreme Governour of the Nation And therefore I desire you would nighly diâ—countenance that base Jesuiticall principle a fundamental
Houses of Parliament from the further violence of the Phanatiques who by open force have dissolved many Parliaments contrary to the known Laws in which they have rendred the Nation sinful to God shameful to themselves and a scorn to the world Into your hands it is put by divine providence to stop the rage and ambition of the Anapaptists highly acted with pernicious principles of the Jesuits who at this time design in the dissolution of this Parliament a total subversion of the true Reformed Religion and our ancient and well-established civil government and cunningly to introduce under the notion of new lights the old darkness of Roman Error and superstition and under fair pretences of liberty and common safety in a Free State to ruine and enslave us to the power of forreign Princes The onely way to render your selves high in the esteem of the world is to make your selves a full Parliament consisting of the three estates of the kingdome an excellent frame and composition of the three governments so rightly balanced according to the Ancient institution of it in a well-tempered Monarchy in the King Aristocracie in the Lords and Democracie in the Commons each particular interest complying so handsomely in a fair correspondence with each other the inferiour still subscribing to the superiour in a regular subordination without animosity or dispute So that this admirable constitution may be justly styled Monarchy without Tyranny Aristocracie without ambition and Democracie without Anarchy every man a freeholder concurring by his representatives to redress his grievances and to constitute the Laws of the nation to which he is in all justice obliged in a due observance most readily to subscribe when by his power in the advise of his delegates they are enacted And to that end in compleating the Parliament he being head of it you will give a great honour to your selves happiness to the nation and glory to God in being instrumental under him to bring in the King a most glorious person of Majestick aspect beautified with rare proportions of body polished in an excellent deportment all subservient to the more noble operations of his soul communicating the choice notions of it in an elegant purity of speech his significant expressions in great variety of languages being so many different emblemes that plainly interpret and clearly comment upon the inward characters of his acute fancy and profounder judgement And his heroick habits of personal valour justice prudence magnanimity clemency meekness humility temperance faithfulness constancy in his Religion and above all his most eminent charity in forgiving his enemies speak him most illustrious and highly accomplished in moral intellectual and Theological virtues so that if he had no title to the Crown by right of inheritance in its descent to him through so many Royal ancestours yet his incomperable merits would justly challenge your election of him to be your King But if these ingenuous principles will not obliege you to your duty pray be pleased to consult the great nationall advantages Our high born King being allied to most if not to all the Princes of Europe his Royal interest will make our peace with them and give the banquerupt kingdom such a repute with forreign Princes and Nations that it will highly advance our decaied trade in transporting our various manufactures the great imployment and support of the meaner sort of the kingdom You cannot give your selves a greater boon nor the kingdom a grerter satisfaction then to call in the King without signing such conditions which in effect will make him a Duke of Venice it is not consistent with the duty of Subjects to impose such restrictions on their Soveraign which shall render null in him the sacred function of supreme Magistracy which is not of humane institution and therefore it cannot be resumed with the hands of the people without giving an affront to God himself the true doner of it and let those look for the full viols of Gods wrath to be powred out upon them in being given into the hands of a military power for the administration of justice as a due punishment for taking away the Militia from the true owner as of late we have been two sensible of in imposing such articles in treating with the late most pious King to which in honour and conscience he could not consent I hope God will vouchsafe you more gracious tempers then to dispute the Kings most indubitate right and Regal dignities with which his Royal Auncestours have been formerly possessed do not study to gratifie the pusillanimous fear of those who think they have so highly disoblieged him in their unparalleled actions that they have no security for their persons and fortunes except he be rendred incapable of deserving them in the loss of his power this is to punish him because they have offended and to keep him from doing civil justice to the nation to protect their injustice from a due censure in the old current of the Law Do not blast your own reputation and those great hopes the kingdom conceiveth of you in not giving the King his ancient Rights the Parliament its due priviledges do not abridge the power of the Militia and deem you do him right in giving him an empty title without power to vindicate it which is no more then to let him wear a fair scabbard and take away his sword His late gracious Father chose rather to quit his life then that just power of the sword in which by divire Right and his own inheritance he was estated now is the time to make satisfaction to his glorious son as his immediate heir for those matchless violations which have been offered to his Fathers sacred person do not think to expiate the guilt of former times which long hath laid heavy on the nation in ingaging in the same errors with which they were justly branded The Militia is that which speaketh him the chief Magistrate which protecteth his sacred person and his subordinate magistrates in the exercise of justice and in pressing of the severe execution of those penal laws upon malefactours to the due loss of their lives liberties and fortunes to which though never so just they would not out of a partial love to themselves submit unless compelled by a stronger coercive power It is but a vain speculation to style him supreme and at the same time invest the people with the power of the sword who may when they please dispute his commands though never so lawfull if they hold not a compliance with their desires having a design to abrogate or lessen the just rights of the Crown which though never so much according to the law of God and man yet they may easily pretend as heretofore hath been done in the late Juncto that they are tyrannicall and inconsistent with the liberty of the freeborn people of England in that they give a check to those incendiaries who under the fair glosses of common safety and liberty have sacrificed