AN ESSAY Upon The ORIGINAL AND DESIGNE OF MAGISTRACIE OR A Modest Vindication of the Late Proceedings IN England By one who Equally hates Rebellion and Tyranny Printed in the Year MDCLXXXIX AN Essay upon the Original and Design of MAGISTRCY OR A Modest Vindication of the late Proccedings in ENGLAND AS the Right knowledge of the Supream Magistrate is the Basis and Foundation of our Submisions and the cause of all the Blessings which flow from a well tempered Government so the Misapprehensions and false Notions that many People either through Ignorance or the prejudice of Education frame to themselves of his Power are no less remarkable for their contrary effects We fall into two Extremes equally Dangerous if either we give the People so much Liberty that the Magistrate cannot go about these great Ends fâ—r which he was designed but like a Weather-Cock is turned about at the pleasure of the Mobile or such a boundless power to the Magistrate as makes the Property of the Subject altogether Precarious depending upon the Caprice of an insatiable Monacch To keep a just Ballance we must consider Magistracy as it was first Institute by God Almighty before it was depraved by the Ambition Pride and Avarice of those who were invested in it So that in its Original it may be defined a Power delegat from God for maintaining Order rewarding the Vertues and punishing the Crimes of Mankind The Application of which power is left free to any independent People or Nation It cannot be doubted but that God as Creator of all things might in his own Person have Exerced a Soveraign Power over all his Creatures which since he was not pleased to do He thought fit in His infinite Wisdom to appoint his Lieutenants here on Earth to whom he Communicats some Rays of his Divine Majestie both to beget a greater Reverence for their Persons and procure a chearful Obedience from those that were to be Subject So that the profound Deference and blind Submission which Millions of Men pay to a Mortal perhaps subject to as many Infirmities as the most part of those he Rules over can be ascribed to nothing else but the firm Perswasion of a Divine Institution But that we may the more admire the Goodness of God in ordaining Magistracie he hath no less proposed Mans happiness then his own Glory that we might find it our Interest as well as Duty in Obeying For tho Man was born free And consequently by Nature desirous of Liberty yet an unbounded freedom could have done him very little Service in a natural State when Innocency was no protection from the oppression of the Stronger But Rapines Violence and Murder were the chief wayes of acquiring Right in this Universal Chaos where homo was homini Lupus nothing was thought Vnlawful that Ambition Malice or Cruelty could propose so that the Weaker were driven to a necessity of uniting their Forces against the Stronger Then began they to Errect Societies and make Laws for Regulating them the executing of which Laws was Committed to one or moe Persons as the Major part of the Society thought fit to Trust who had the Name of Captain General or King It was He who led them out to Battel who disposed of Prises and punished Malefactors His Commands were easily obeyed because but few and all Just Honest and profitable These had not Learned the Arcana Imperij or secret ways to enslave their People but their Eminent Virtue and singular Valour both procured their Dignity and maintained them in it and having no Sycophant Flatterers about them to abuse their easie Credality they had not forgot that the Peoples Liberty was resigned for no other end but for obtaining a greater happiness under their Protection then what they could have proposed if every Individual had retained it in his own Person There is no other Original of Magistracie to be Learned from Sacred or Profane Historie for tho the Patriarchs had the Government of their own Families which by reason of their long Age were very numerous yet that right was derived from the Law of Nature and not from any Civil Obligation They had for the most part no fixt Habitation but lived as Strangers and Sojourners by the favour of other Princes and were never model'd into a Common wealth When Domanions were enlarged and Empires began to be erected different forms of Government were established according to the various inclinations of People when the Conqueror gave Laws to the Conquered it was called Despotick But when a free People did enter into a Contract and gave up their Liberty on certain Conditions it was called a Limited Government and these conditions the Fundamental Laws This Soveraignty was either entailed upon a particular Family for considerable services done to the Common wealth or it was only to be held during Life whence Succession and Election There is a Majestie in every free State which is nothing else but an Independent Power upon Earth tyed to no Laws but these of God these of Nature and Nations and the Fundamental Laws of a Kingdom This Majestie is either Real or Personal Real is that Independencie which every free State hath in Relation to one another Personal that Right when it s lodged in a particular Person which tho it be inseparable from the Soveraign Power for the greater Splendour yet it may be violate when the Real remains entire otherwise the freedom and Independencie of a Nation would be extinct by the Death or Captivity of the Prince To Majesty or Soveraign Power are annexed the Regalia or Regal Rights which are less or more according to the measure of Liberty given from or reserved to the People or the Representatives at the first Constitution For instance a King may have powâ—r to make Warr and Peace and yet cannot raise Money the Legislative Power may be also divided as it s in England betwixt King and Parliament and generally in all mixt Governments For that Maxim That jura Majestatis sunt indivisa does only take place in an Absolute Monarchy That Power which the People reserveth from the Soveraign is called Liberty and its eitheir Tacite or Express Tacite Liberty is the Exemption of such things as cannot fall under the Cognisance of the Supreme Power which may be reduced to three 1st Religion or the Empire over the Conscience which belongs only to God Almighty 2dly The Power of Life and Death till we forefault them by the Divine Law or Municipal Laws of a Kingdom 3dly Our Goods and Heritages which cannot be taken from us without a Judicial Process or when the good of the Common wealth we live in requires a share of them These three Priviledges were ever reserved in the most Ample Resignation of Liberty The First we cannot give away because not ours we have right to the second as Men who are to be Governed by Reason to the Third as Members of a Societie or Common-wealth Express Liberty is a Stipulation whereby somethings
are by express paction eximed from the Power of the Soveraign by the People or their Representatives which Reservations are called Priviledges and are either thus established by Contract and Agreement at the first Constitution or are afterwards granted by Princes when they would either oblige or gratifie their People as was the Magna Charta in England and Edict of Nants in France or when they desire any favour from them as was the Golden bull wherein the Emperour Charles the 4th granted considerable Immunities to the Electors to engage them to chuse the stupid Vensiaslus his Son Successor in the Empire This Property of the Subject hath ever been the Eye sore of Monarchs tho he has as just a claim to it as these have to their Crowns and whoever goes about to subvert it dissolves the Constitution and Forefaults his own Title since the same Laws that bestowed this at the same time secured that and maintaining the one was made an inseparable condition of possessing the other Neither can a Rape committed on our Liberty be excused upon pretence that Authority is derived from Heaven For the Great Soveraign of the Vniverse ordained Magistracie for the preservation not the destruction of Mankind and he never sent down any person or Family from Heaven with a Commission to enslave a People or Nation to whom the Application of the Civil power was left Absolutlie free So that they might bestow it on whom and after what manner they pleased For tho God loves order yet he never approved of Tyranny and Oppression and he who is all Justice and Mercy can never be supposed to Authorize what is contrary to both So that whosoever Acts beyond his Commission and destroys the Flock instead of protecting it Is so far from being Gods Vicegerent that he is to be lookt on as the Common Enemie of Mankind The Violation of the Subjects property is called Tyranny A name which at first did only signifie the Regal power but when Liberty began to be oppressed through the Ambition Wickedness or Evil management of the Governours it was made use of to denot the excess of power There are two sorts of Tyrants those in Title and those in Administration of the Government The first sort is he who Usurps the Crown without any Title or just pretence as did Oliver Cromwel in England of the other one who hath a just right to the Crown but postponning the publick good Acts Arbitrarly and contrary to Law Such a Tyrrant was Philip the Second of Spain The want of a Title or a Bad one may be supplied by prescription or the subsequent consent of the people to which perhaps the most part of Princes must at last recurr unless they would derive their Pedegree from one of the Sons of Noah and instruct an uninterrupted Succession ever since Tyranny is the most miserable condition a common-wealth can be in it dissolves the Union betwixt King and Subject and exposes both to all the miseries that attend a civil Warr and to the hazard of falling under a Forreign power Yea even tho a Tyrrant should be successfull in his Attempt yet is he as farr from his happiness as ever for besides the inward remorses that incessantly gnawes his Conscience he suspects all Men fears every thing and is most justly hated by all so that they did not Represent a Tyrrant ill who drew him siâ—ting under a Cannopy of State feasting in great Riot with a naked Sword hanging over his Head. What Remedie is there then against so great an Evil are we tamely to subject our Necks to a Yoke so insupportable to the more refined sort of Men or are we to resist the Supreme Magistrate and Reclaim him by Arms when other means prove ineffectual The difficulty is great and each opinion hath had its Champion who writ Volumes in defence of their cause The horrid Paricide of King Charles the 1. in the middle of this Age was with great heat and zeal defended by Milton and Impugned by the Learned Salmasius who being a stranger to our Constitution and the Transactions of our Country I speak it with Reverence to so great a Man did but weakly defend so good a Cause in endeavouring to prove that Tyranny was not to be resisted whereas he should have Evinced as easily he might that Charles the 1st was a good Prince and no Tyrant The present Revolutions in England revives the dispute and engages me contrary to my humour to Impart my thoughts to the publick with no other design then to contribute my mâ—an endeavours for vindicating the Nations Honour from the heavie Imputations of Treason and Rebellion and if I can make out that Resistance in some case is Lawful I doubt not but I shall be easily able to Demonstrate that the present taking up Arms by the Nobility and Gentry of England in Defence of their Religion Laws and Liberties is both just and necessary There are three Degrees of Resistance The first is the taking up Arms against the Civil Magistrate The second is The Deposing him and shakeing off our Allegiance The third proceeds to the inflicting of capital punishment Which last seems inhumane because GOD has placed a certain Sacredness in the Person of Princes so that none can touch the LORDS Anointed and be guiltless and the depriving them off their Crowns is a great enough punishment and our injuries are sufficiently repaired when we are out of the hazard of being any more obnoxious to them The other two may be allowed of providing the Remedies be applyed by fit persons after a due manner and with such caution as a matter of so great importance does require First By fit persons as the Nobility Gentry and other Representatives of the Nation who as they are most concerned in the Laws are supposed to understand them and consequently are the best Judges of Liberty And they are persons of so much Honour that it were a piece of ill Breeding to suspect them of partiality Secondly The Tyranny must be Evident and Manifest some few Tyrannical Acts do not constitute Tyrannie private injuries must be suffered rather than hazard the publick peace there must be a wilful subversion of the Laws not those of lesser moment but such as shake the very Foundations of Government Davids Murder and Adultery were very Arbitrary and Tyrannical and yet did not make him a Tyrant for Humane Frailty is still to be indulged seing on this side of time perfection is not to be expected Thirdly This is a violent Remedy and consequently should be the last it ought to be gone about with the greatest Deliberation and circumpection imaginable when Addresses petitions Supplications and such gentle Methods prove ineffectual Fourthly The Common-wealth must be in such Danger that the whole Fabrick would otherwise be Dissolved and Overturned Lastly The effectuating of the Design must be certain otherwise we fall into a worse Evil then what we seek to shun for Confusion and Anarchy are worse
was by vertue of this Dispensing Power that the Ecclesiastick Commission was established the Bishop of London suspended the Fellows of Magdalen Colledge turned out And because the Bishops of England would not so farr Justifie his Illegal Pretences as to cause their Clergy read the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience from their Pulpits they quickly saw all the fair promises made to them Evanish and the Loyal Church of England was first branded with the infamous Character of Trumpeters of Rebellion and afterwards treated as the worst of Criminals a very bad recompense for that great zeal with which they had ever Preached up the Impracticable Doctrine of Non-Resistance 4. In Prosecution of the Blessed Design of Reducing Heretieks to the See of Rome all ways were taken to discourage Protestants who were not only debarred from Offices and Imployments of any Trust unless upon such Conditions as the Court pleased to Impose but were even turned out of these that had been Heritable to their Families and a great part of the Militia was intrusted to Roman Catholicks of purpose to Overâ—aw the Parliaments in case the next Assembly should have proved stuborn 5. Tho by many Laws the holding correspondance any way with Rome be declared high Treason yet hath his Majestie had his Resident there and received his Nuncio here to the great scandal of all good Protestants and true hearted Englishmen For it s in effect a Subjecting the Kingdom to a Slavery from which our Ancestors had most gloriously delivered us These things were acted in face of the Sun and none can deny them without renouncing the most comfortable of all his senses Yea the King himself did sufficiently acknowledge them by his sudden restoring the City Charters Magdalan Colledge and some other of the grosser sort of Abuses upon the first Information â—e got of the Princes Declaration The Kings old Age and the fair Prospect of a Protestant Successor made us suffer these things patiently because we hoped to be very shortly delivered from them but to despaire us and cut off all our hopes and to punish the Prince and Princess of Orange for refusing to comply with the Kings Will there is a sudden rumour spread of the Queens being with Child which as it did allarm the whole Kingdom so it made these who were most concerned be at some pains to be assured of the truth of it and yet after their most exact enquiry their doubts were encreased The Court was not ignorant of all this and yet would not give themselves the least trouble to satisfie them tho they had the greatest Interest in the world to do it The place of the Queens lying in was so uncertain and the management of the Birth so misterious the sending away the Princess of Denmark the Imprisoning the Bishops in the Tower gave more then probable grounds to suspect an Imposture and tho these be but presumptions and have not the strength of a full Probation yet they transfer a necessity of eliding them by clearer evidences Thus our Religion Liberties and Laws being ready to sink when Gentle methods had proven ineffectual when Addresses and Supplications even from the most Loyal part of the Nation were counted so many Acts of Treason it was high time to recur to that remedy which nature seems to dictate to every individual in its own defence That zeal with which his Highness the Prince of Orange had ever espoused the Protestant Interest against all its Adversaries made the Nobility and Gentry of England unanimously pitch on him as the fittest person to be their deliverer and both He and his Princess being so nearly interested in the Succession No rational Man can blame him for appearing in Arms and demanding satisfaction that way which hitherto had been refus'd him If the Remedie had been delayed it s more then probable the greater part of the Nation had fallen a Sacrifice to Popery and Arbitrary Government I shall conclude all with a short Reflection upon his Majesties leaving the Kingdom and going for France which Action alone hath done him more hurt than all the rest together for by Depriving Us of that protection which we might expect from his Government He looses his Subjects from that Allegiance they swore unto upon no other Condition then so long as they should enjoy so great a benefit Neiâ—her can any who knows his Majesties Temper impute his flight to Fear or Cowardise but rather of his being conscious of a certain guilt which did banish him from one of the greatest Stations in the World and robbed him of that Bravery and Resolution that he is naturally ended with and which tho he had wanted yet Innocency had supported him and made him outbrave all the Malicious Calumnies of his Enemies with such a heroick constancie of mind as seldom or never fails to come of Victorious The Prince had also acquainted him in his Declaration that he had no other design in coming to England than to referr all the Grivances of the Nation and his own Pretences to a Free Parliament Neither the King nor any man else could ever accuse this Prince with the least breach of promise And tho he had been wanting in that Reverence that is due to the Character of an Vncle and Father in Law yet the Princes own Interest had secured the King from any harsh Treatment for if any thing had been attempted against his Person the Nations Eyes had been opened and would have seen clearly that these specious pretences of Liberty and Property were but so many Delusions and such a Treatment certainly had deserved the greatest Resentment But if the King must needs go can he find no place for shelter but France Where so much Protestanr Blood hath been so lately shed with the greatest Cruelty and Barbarity that ever was heard He cannot be ignorant that his Subjects have a natural Aversion for that Nation and that his closs and constant Correspondence with its Monarch gave them just Jealousies to apprehend that there was more than an ordinary Friendship betwixt them which was every day encreased by his Copieing so near the methods that had been used in that Nation for suppressing the Protestant Religion and establishing Arbitrary Government And if the King have any hopes to reduce his Subjects by Invading them on the Head of a French Army he will find them but ill grounded for instead of reconciling them to him so dangerous and improper a method would even alienate the hearts of his best Friends and Britain would show it self as forward to Fight against Popery and Tyranny as it was averse from giving proofs of its Courage when it must needs have been fatal to Liberty and the Protestant Religion FINIS