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
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
their Mungrel Magistrates that Din'd with the Mayor and Supp'd with the Committee of Safety those honest people will if need be bear witness for us and in like manner the whole Nation that by Action Counsel Writing we did all that was possible in the Business Neither does what I have delivered in defence of the Royal Party disagree with his Majesty's testimony of the Other in His Gracious Speech to the House of Peers for hastning the Act of Indempnity which yet our Author cites against us My Lords If you do not joyn with Me in extinguishing those fears which keep mens hearts awake and apprehensive of safety and security you keep Me from performing My promise which if I had not made I am perswaded that neither I nor you had been now here I pray you let Vs not deceive those who brought Vs or permitted Vs to come together Observation The King does not There say so much who Brought Him in as who Permitted His Restoring implying that He was fain to Condition for that too but withal a great Earnestness to perform His promise Had but this Gentleman considered as well what the King said at the Passing of the Indempnity as at the Hastning of it this wrangle would have been saved I 'l do him the service to mind him of it I do very willingly pardon all that is pardoned by this Act of Indempnity to that time which is mentioned in the Bill Nay I will tell you That from that time to this day I will not use great severity except in such Cases where the Malice is Notorious and the Publick Peace exceedingly concern'd But for the time to come the same Discretion and Conscience which disposed me to the Clemency I have express'd which is most agreeable to My Nature will oblige me to all Rigour and Severity how contrary soever it be to My Nature towards those who shall not now Acquiesce but continue to manifest their Sedition and Dislike of the Government either in Actions or Words And I must conjure you all My Lords and Gentlemen to concur with me in this just and necessary Severity and that you will in your several Stations be so jealous of the publick Peace and of My particular Honor that you will cause Exemplary Justice to be done upon those who are guilty of Seditious Speeches or Writings as well as those ☜ who break out into Seditious Actions And that you will believe those who delight in reproaching and traducing My Person not to be well affected to you and the publick Peace Never King valued himself more upon the Affections of his People than I do Nor do I know a better way to make My Self sure of your Affections than by being Just and Kind to you all and whilst I am so I pray let the World see that I am possessed of your Affections Thus far the Ground-work now the goodly Structure His Majesty thus brought back to a willing and free-spirited people by their own Act beholds his undoubted Interest set forth to his hand and made plain before him which is no other than a well-tempered and composed state of Affairs both Religious and Civil in all his Dominions by the abolishing of former Differences and the reconciling of all reconcileable Parties and especially of those grand Parties which if made one do upon the matter carry the whole Nation And this His Majesties Wisdom hath already observed in that excellent Proclamation against vitious debauched and prophane persons in these words That the Reconciliation and Union of hearts and affections can onely with God's blessing make Us rejoyce in each other and keep Our Enemies from rejoycing And this is the earnest expectation and hope of the Religious and well affected to the publick Tranquillity that the King our supreme Head and Governor whose gracious Disposition doth not suffer him to cleave to any divided part of his Subjects and to reject others that are alike Loyal will as a common Father protect and cherish all those that are found capable and worthy and become our great Moderator by his Authority and Wisdom to lessen Differences and allay Animosities between dissenting Brethren which already agree in the main points of Religion Having hitherto asserted that those who fought under the late King's Banner were not his Majesty's Friends and that those who fought against it ever were he proceeds now to a Conclusion suitable to his premises and states the Interest of the King in favour of that Voluntary Mistake directing an Accord betwixt all Reconcilable Parties and an indulgence toward all those that are found Capable and Worthy In Both and in All Cases the Presbyterian himself must be the Judge and then we know what will become of Royallists and Bishops The Kings Friends have ever had the Honor to be Divided by these People into persons Popishly affected Evil Counsellors and Loose Livers and it is evident that they design under these Limitations of Reconcilable Capable and Worthy to cast all such as Conscientiously and frankly adhere to Monarchy and Episcopacy out of the terms of their pretended Pacification All those that They find Capable and Worthy and esteem Reconcilable shall be admitted Now to the Question 1. Quest. Whether in Justice or Reason of State the Presbyterian party should be Rejected and Depressed or Protected and Encouraged Observation It would be first agreed what 's meant by the Presbyterian Party We 'l weigh the Justice and Reason of the Proposition after His own Remarque upon it is not amiss As concerning their true Character the Notation of the name whereby they are called is both too shallow and too narrow for it The word Presbyterian hath not sufficient depth to go to the root of the Matter nor breadth sufficient to comprehend this sort of men That Form of Ecclesiastical Government by Parochial and Classical Presbyteries Provincial and National Assemblies is remote enough from their main Cause and those firm Bonds that make them eternally one in respect whereof many that approve a regulated Episcopacy will be found of their number Observation 'T is truly and well said Their Cause is not the Form but the Exercise of Government for they like well enough to have that Power Themselves which they condemn in Others Nor do I doubt but that many of them approve a regulated Episcopacy that is a Presbyter in a Bishop's seat where the Office appears Regulated by the Person as 't is in a Regulated Monarchy Where the King 's subject to the Law and the Law to the two Houses But I condemn not All that wear that Character The Wise and Honest Few of that Denomination who keep themselves within the terms of Duty and the Question such as can talk of the Church without disturbing the State and debate their private Opinions without giving publick Scandal For these I have much Charity and Reverence and wish as great a tenderness toward them as they themselves desire But where I see
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
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
Presbytery for it was never setled but rather decry'd and expos'd to prejudice by those that were in sway and that in the more early times of the late Wars Observation I must confess indeed that Presbytery was never setled nor ever likely to be so much did the whole Nation stomach it But yet how this agrees with his former Reasoning pag. 29. I do not understand There he pretends that by long practise mens minds are fix'd in this opinion and that the Party is numerous Here he contents himself to acknowledge that the Presbyterians lost their power early and that they never recovered it since This will not serve his turn to acquit the Faction so denominated of our late Miseries Our Soveraign of blessed memory brings the contest down to his surprisal at Holmby and the Distractions in the two Houses the Army and the City ensuing upon it These says that excellent Prince are but the struglings of those Twins which lately one Womb enclosed the Younger striving to prevail against the Elder What the Presbyterians have hunted after the Independents now seek to catch for themselves In fine One finish'd what the other began for the King died at last but of those wounds which he at first received in his Authority His Majesty upon his leaving Oxford and going to the Scots clears this yet further where he calls it Adventuring upon their Loyalty who first began his troubles The truth of this matter says he is cleared by a passage of our late Soveraign in a Let-to his Majesty that now is All the lesser Factions were at first officious Servants to Presbytery their great Master till time and Military success discovering to each other their particular advantages invited them to part stakes and leaving the joynt stock of uniform Religion pretended each to drive for their party the trade of profits and preferments to the breaking and undoing not onely of the Church and State but of Presbytery it self It follows which seem'd and hop'd at first to have engross'd all Observation The last line is as true as any of the rest but all truths are not to be spoken Indeed this Slip is somewhat with the grossest Not to trouble my self with their formal Fopperies of Deacons Elders and their Parish-meetings Those are but popular amusements We 'll pass to what 's more pertinent and see how he acquits his friends of joyning with the Independents The truth is Sectarianism grew up in a Mystery of Iniquity and State-policy and it was not well discerned till it became almost triumphant by Military successes Observation 'T is a strange thing the Presbyterians should not see what they themselves contrived what all others took notice of and what the late King offered to prove In his Declaration of August the 12th 1642. The Insolence of Sectaries being not onely wink'd at but publickly avow'd and the Law thwarted to protect them See what one says no stranger to their practises to prove and evidence the Combination The Leading-men or Grandees first divided themselves into two Factions or Juncto's Presbyterians and Independents seeming to look onely at the Church but they involv'd the Interests of the Common-wealth These having seemingly divided themselves and having really divided the Houses and captivated their respective Parties judgments Teaching them by an implicite Faith Jurare in verba Magistri to pin their opinions upon their sleeves They begin to advance their projects of monopolizing the profits preferments and power of the Kingdom in themselves To which purpose though the Leaders of each party seem to maintain a hot opposition yet when any profit or preferment is to be reach'd at it is observ'd that a powerful Independent especially moves for a leading Presbyterian or a leading Presbyterian for an Independent And seldom doth one oppose or speak against another in such Cases unless somewhat of particular Spleene or Competition come between which causeth them to break the Common-rule By this means the Grandees of each Faction seldom miss their mark since an Independent moving for a Presbyterian his Reputation carries the business clear with the Independent party and the Presbyterians will not oppose a Leading man of their own side I find we are not like to Agree for these people cannot see their own Faults nor we their Virtues I would take a good Journey to meet any man stiff in that way that would but Confess he was ever in any error Of all the prejudices and scandals taken against this way there is none greater than this that it is represented as tyrannical and domineering and that those who live under it must like Issachar crouch under the burdens We do indeed account the Presbyterian Discipline very Tyrannical and by and by we 'l give our reasons for it Not because this Discipline censures Scandalous Disorders as he insinuates but for that it subjects all Civil matters to a Consistorian cognisance and rapt by an Impulse of Passion calls many things Scandalous which measured by the rule of Piety and Reason are found Praise-worthy and of laudable Example The usage of the Common-prayer book is to Them Scandalous though setled by the Law but to eject a Minister for reading it though both without Law and against it That They esteem no scandal We the contrary I Have now brought the Gentleman to his first Stage where I might very fairly leave him for having already done my business what I do more is but for Company So far as I can judge I have not scap'd one syllable material to his purpose nor have I either broken his Periods or unlink'd his Reasonings to puzzle or avoid his meaning How fairly I have dealt with what I have expos'd whether in matter of Fact Deduction or good Manners the Subject of the Difference duely weighed That I submit to the Reader and where the reason lies betwixt us I have indeed omitted a great part of the Debate as not at all related to my Design nor to speak freely much to the point in Question His frequent and Rhetorical Raptures extolling to the Heavens the Wisdom and Sanctity of the Presbyterians but above all the Legions of the Saints what does this florid vanity â—ignifie more than the putting of his own Name to a fair Picture when yet for ought he proves and for ought we discern there 's not one line betwixt them of Agreement The contrary course he takes with the Prelatick party They forsooth are Not so and so and from his Generals There he is pleased to enter into prohibited particulars taxing in special manner the excesses of some of our late Prelates but without any instances of good in the Other Party which does but spitefully and weakly imply that Bishops have more Faults than Presbyterians have Virtues It will not be now expected that we that differ in the Premises should agree in the Conclusion But for that we 'll take our Fortunes Vpen the whole matter