there is Ultimum Potentiae so in the politick body when the King and the Lords Spititual and temporal Knights Citizens and Burgesses are all by the Kings command assembled and joyned together under the head the King in consultation for the Common good of the whole Realm there is Ultimum Sapientiae But it was never known in any age that the Members without the head had either power or wisdom and it would be prodigious if our age should produce such a Monster No man can tell the contrary but that our Realm of England hath been Governed by Kings ever since the Creation of the World clear it is by all Historians that ever since we heard of any Government in England it hath been a Royal State and although our Governours have been often changed yet our Government was never turned out of the regal road it is as easy to pull the Sun out of the Firmament and make the Stars to rule the day as it is to abolish Monarchy and establish Aristocracy or Democracy in our Kingdom For that which is bred in the bone will never out of the flesh As Monarchy is the most divine and most natural kind of Government so it is most natural to and esteemed most divine by all true born English men For such is the Courage and so great is the Loftiness of English Spirits that they disdain to be ruled by any but by his sacred Majesty our Soveraign Lord the King For as it was long before King William the Conquerour so did our Government continue still without interruption a Royal Monarchy until the chief Priests and the Scribes and the Elders as they call them of the People to wit Presbiterians Independents Anabaptists Jesuits c. assembled together and consulted that they might take Charles the first whose undeserved sufferings have made him immortal on Earth as well as in Heaven by subtilty and kill him But they said let us not kill him suddenly and openly lest there be an uproar among the people night time is the only day for wickedness The Gunpowder Treason was hatched in darknesse and these Godly Villains thought that the best way to catch their prey was to beat on the dark side of the hedge They cut the Throat of Religion when they seemed to lay a plaister and they murthered their Soveraign when they swore they intended nothing but to make him a Glorious King Then entred Satan into Judas surnamed the House of Commons being one of the two Houses of Parliament And these Judasses went their way and communed with the chief Priests and Captains how they might betray him unto them And they were glad and covenanted to give them mony who then promised and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude And since the innocent Birds are oftentimes easier catcht with silent and gentle snares than roaring Guns at first these Judasses thought to betray their Master with kisses courting his Majesty with high-flying Complements of Obedience and that they might make him believe them to be what indeed they were not they made many Oathes Protestations Vows and Covenants that they were his Graces most dutyful Subjects and desired to live no longer than to do his Majesty service But it seems they did but play the Fox speak fair only to get their prey for by these sophistical insinuations they charmed his Majesty and wrested from him divers marks of his Soveraignty they were intrusted with the Navy obteined a Triennial Parliament were acquitted of Ship-mony and other impositions and at length made themselves perpetual for his Majesty passed an Act not to Dissolve them without their consent So that they now wanted nothing but his Majesties life which to obtain they procured by their wickedness the Earl of Strafford's head to be cut off and many other Nobles which stood in their way which props being removed they thought they might with more ease pull down the Soveraignty of the King that these Negroes might make themselves compleat Devils they got the head of the Earl of Strafford others cutoff for committing Treason against the King whose head they afterwards intended to cut off for committing treason against them O incomparable villany What they made a capital offence in others they esteemed more than a Cardinal virtue in themselves It was High Treason in others to think to do the King any harm but it was a high piece of Godlinesse in them to cut off his head The Earl of Strafford must dye as a Traitour because they said he intended to levy warre against the Kings will But these Saints raised Armies to fight against his Majesties own person Levied warre against the King and Kingdome murthered the King and destroyed the whole Realm Yet forsooth they must be canonized as the only true servants of Jesus Christ and all those who speak against them they kill and massacre as if they had committed Treason and Blasphemy against the Almighty Nay the great offence against the Holy Ghost they esteem more pardonable than the least against them And as it now plainly appeareth to the world all their oaths vowes and protestations of obedience to the King and performing of their duty towards him were but preparations for their great wickednesse of murthering the King For as the Gunner when he laboureth to kill the innocent bird walketh gently and treadeth softly holding down his gun as if it was the least of his thoughts to shoot when he mindeth nothing more or as the greedy Huntsman stealeth upon the Hare or Deer looking another way untill he is gotten close by and then letteth out his bloudy hounds to take and kill his prey So these Vipers more wise than Serpents only to do mischief did steal upon the King and undermined him by cutting off his Nobles whom they knew would be true and trusty servants to him and then when they thought they had him within their reach They let fly their doggs the bloudy souldiers for this Judas the House of Commons then having received a band of men and officers from the chief Priests and Pharisees John 18.3 who first set them on work came forth with a great multitude with swords and staves Matth. 26.47 48. to take and kill their Soveraign Now they that betrayed him gave the souldiers a sign saying Whomsoever we have sworn to be the only supreme Governour in all causes and over all persons That same is he hold him fast In that same time said the King to the Multitude Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me I sate daily with you in the Parliament House making many good lawes and ye laid no hold on me But all this was done that their wickednesse might be fulfilled John 18.12 Then the band and the Captain and the Officers of these Jews took the King and led him away to their Council and contrary to all legal proceedings and
as to take upon them a power to depose and powr out the sacred blood of their lawfull Soveraign Yet is there no such power in rerum natura It is the off-pring of the Devil The cloak Sanctuary and refuge of Treason Rebellion and Tyranny to blinde the people taking advantage of their ignorance and lead them hood-winckt into everlasting destruction unless the God of mercy prevent not With this new upstart Doctrine have our Apochryphal Dogmatists in England led the rascal rabble of the people about like a Dog in a string buzzing in their ears that the Monarchy of England is composed of three kinds of Commonwealths and that the Parliament hath the form of an Aristocracy the three estates of a Democracy and the King to represent the state of a Monarchy which is an opinion not only false absurd fond foolish and impossible but also worthy of the most severe punishment For it is high treason to make the Subject equal with the King in authority and power or to joyn them as Companions in the Soveraignty For the power of a Soveraign Prince is nothing diminished by his Parliament but rather much more thereby manifested The Majesty of a Prince consists in the obedience of his Subjects and where is the obedience of the Subjects more manifested then in his Parliament where the Lords and Commons the Nobility and Comminalty and all his Subjects from the highest Cedar to the lowest Shrub with bended knees and bare heads do cast down themselves at his feet and do homage and reverence unto his Majesty Humbly offering unto him their requests which he at his pleasure receiveth or admiteth So that it plainly appeareth that if the Parliament be not extravagant and leap over the bounds limited by the laws of God and our Realm of England the majesty and authority of our Soveraign is not decreased by the assembly of Parliament but rather augmented and increased For the Peers cannot assume Aristocracy nor the Commons Democracy without violation of their Oaths with which they are tyed in obedience to their Soveraign as well as with the Laws Indeed our Prince doth distribute places of command Magistracy and preferments to all his Subjects indifferently and so the Government is in a manner tempered with Democracy But yet notwithstanding the State doth continue a pure and simple Monarchy because all authority floweth and is derived from the King and the Soveraignty doth still continue in him as the fountain from whence those streams of power run and the Parliament is so far from sharing in this Soveraignty that the whole current of our acts of Parliament acknowledge the King to be the only Soveraign stiling him Our Soveraign Lord the King And the Parliament 25 H. 8. saith This your Graces Realm recognizing no superior under God but your Grace c. And the Parliament 16 Rich. 2.5 affirmeth the Crown of England to have been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly subjection but immediately to God in all things touching the Regality of the said Crown and to none other And without doubt these Parliaments and many others had as much might and right though not so much Knavery as our Anabaptists and Puritans and other Sectaries have now who pretend that the Government originally proceedeth and habitually resideth in the people but is cumulatively and communicatively derived from them unto the King and therefore the people not denuding themselves of their first interest but still retaining the same in the collective body that is to say in themselves suppletive if the King in their Judgement be defective in the administration or neglect the performance of his duty may question their King for his misgovernment dethrone him if they see cause and resuming the Collated power into their own hands again may transfer it to any other whom they please These men would make themselves extraordinary wise or else our Ancestors extraordinary fools for surely if there had been such a power residing in the people as these men blab of it would have been preached up before these new-lights ever saw the light some busie-head like themselves would have awakened it and not let it sleep so long But it is impossible and a meer foppery to think that such a power should be for suppose that the people had at first Elected their Governour and gave him Soveraignty over them could they with justice and equity dethrone him again Surely no. For sive electione sive postulatione vel successione vel belli jure princeps fiat Principi tamen facto Divinitus potestas adest Let the King be made by election lot succession or conquest yet being he is a King he hath Divine power And therefore they have no power to take away that which God hath given The Conceit of a mixed Monarchy that the supreme power may be equally distributed into two or three sorts of Governours is meerly vain and frivolous because the supreme power being but one must be placed in one sort of Governors either only in Monarchy or only in Aristocracy or only in Democracy Our Parliaments of England never until now claimed either Aristocracy or Democracy Therefore as hitherto it hath been granted so the Government must of necessity still be Monarchical And the gracious Concessions of our Soveraign not to make Laws without a Parliament do not make the Parliament sharer or his equal in the Soveraignty because as I shewed before the Parliament hath no power but what is derived from the King His limitation of his Prerogative doth no way diminish his Supremacy God himself who is most absolute may notwithstanding limit himself and his power as he doth when he promises and sweareth that he will not fail David and that the unrepentant Rebels should never enter into his rest so a man that yieldeth himself to be bound hath his strength restrained but not lessened neither is any of it transferred to them who bound him So our Soveraign doth limit his power in some points of his administration and yet this limitation neither transferreth any power of Soveraignty unto the Parliament nor denyeth the Monarchy to be absolute nor admitteth of any resistance against him Monarchy is either Lordly or Royal. Adam proved to be the first King and made by God in Paradise not by the people All Kings are made by God The Son hath more right and it is more pleasing to God for him to murther his Father the Wife her Husband and the Servant his Master than it is for the people to kill their King Though in truth he be wicked The Kings institution and authority declared by Divine and Humane Writers The Horrible Labyrinth of sins which Regicides plunge into with their guilt The most famous Nations in the World have and do live under Monarchy Englands glory and love to Kings in times past and her Apostacy in times present Pater familias were petite Kings and how little Kingdoms grew great Kingdoms The Kings power is
own again which these most unjustly keep from him We cannot serve God and Mammon both at one time Good and evil cannot stand both together If the King come in and rule these men must fall If we serve the King as we ought we cannot serve these at all If God re-establisheth his Anointed Lucifer must call down his Children wickednesse must be abolished when righteousnesse takes place therefore the Gaolers of the Liberty of England must down when Charles the Second our only lawfull Soveraign is restored to his Crown and Kingdome Which they very well know therefore they would fain keep as long as they can their Empire which cost them their Souls and Reputation But let us return to our King When the Conquerour came in He got by right of Conquest all the Land of the Realm into his own hands the whole Kingdom was his direct and proper inheritance in demeasn so that no man can at this day make any greater title than from the Conquest to any Lands in England for the King being owner and sole Lord of the whole Land and the People therein did as he lawfully might dispose of the Land and people according to his will and pleasure he gave out of his hands what Lands he pleased to what persons he pleased and reserved what tenures and services he pleased So that in the Law of England we have not properly Allodium that is any Subjects Land that is not holden We all hold our Lands mediately or immediately of the Crown neither have we any right to our Lands any longer than we are faithfull and loyal to the King who first gave us them upon that condition for by the Laws of the Realm if we take up arms against the King imagine his death or commit any other offence which is high Treason we forfeit our estates to the King so that they return from whence they were first derived the greatest and highest title or property which a Subject hath to his Lands is Quod talisseisitus fuit in dominico suo ut de feodo Now though this word Feodum doth as Littleton teacheth legally signify inheritance and so Feodum Simplex signifieth a lawfull or pure inheritance yet it is apparently manifest that Feodum is a derived right and doth import with it a trust to be performed which trust broken forfeiteth the Estate to the King who only hath as Camden observeth Directum imperium cujus nullus est Author nisi Deus For all the Lands within this Realm were originally derived from the Crown and therefore the King is Soveraign Lord or Lord Paramount either mediate or immediate of all and every parcel of Land within the Realm 18 E. 3.35.44 E. 3.5 48 E 3.9.8 H. 7.12 Therefore though in other places he which findeth a piece of Land that no other possesseth or hath title unto entreth into it gaineth a property by his entry yet in England property to Land cannot be gained any such way for the Subject can have no property but what was first by the Kings grant therefore those Lands are still appropriated to the Crown which the King did not give away to his Subjects as if Land be left by the Sea this Land belongeth to the King and not to him that hath the Lands next adjoyning or to any other but the King Caelum Caeli Domino terram autem dedit filiis hominum All the whole Heavens are the Lords the Earth hath he given to the Children of men for which he only reserved their service as an acknowledgement of his bounteous liberality so the whole Kingdom is the Kings but the Land therein he hath given to his Children the people for which he only reserved their allegiance and service as a remembrance and recognition of his Royal bounty in which reservation the King as my Lord Bacon writeth had four institutions exceeding politick and suitable to the State of a Conquerour First Seeing his people to be part Normans and part Saxons the Normans he brought with him the Saxons he found here he bent himself to conjoyn them by Mariages in Amity and for that purpose ordains that if those of his Nobles Knights and Gentlemen to whom he gave great rewards of lands should dye leaving their Heir within Age a Male within 21 and a Female within 14 years and unmaryed then the King should have the bestowing of such Heirs in Mariage in such a Family and to such persons as he should think meet which interest of Mariage went still imployed and doth at this day in every Tenure called Knights service The Second was to the end that his people should be still conserved in Warlik exercises and able for his defence when therefore he gave any good portion of Lands that might make the party of Abilities or strength he withall reserved this service That that party and his Heirs having such lands should keep a Horse of service continually and serve upon him himself when the King went to Warrs or else having impediment to excuse his own person should find another to serve in his place which service of Horse and Man is a part of that Tenure called Knights service at this day But if the Tenant himself be an Infant the King is to hold this land himself untill he come to full Age finding him Meat Drink Apparel and other necessaries and finding a Horse and a Man with the overplus to serve in the Warrs as the Tenant himself should do if he were at full Age. But if this Inheritance descend upon a Woman that cannot serve by her Sex then the King is not to have the Lands she being 14. years of Age because she is then able to have an Husband that may do the service in person The Third institution that upon every gift of Land the King reserved a Vow and an Oath to bind the party to his Faith and Loyalty that Vow was called Homage the Oath of Fealty Homage is to be done kneeling holding his hands between the knees of the Lord saying in the French tongue I become your Man of Life and Limb and of earthly honour Fealty is to take an Oath upon a Book that he will be a faithful Tenant to the King and do his service and pay his Rents according to his Tenure The Fourth institution was that for Recognizance of the Kings bounty by every Heir succeeding his Ancestor in those Knight service lands the King should have Prâ—mer seisin of the lands which is one years profit of the lands and untill this be paid the King is to have possession of the land and then to restore it to the Heir which continueth at this day in use and is the very cause of suing livery and that as well where the Heir hath been in ward as otherwise Many other Tenures with services did the Conquerour institute as Grand Serjeanty Petit Serjeanty Tenure in Burgage Soccage Escuage c. which being holden of the King are called Tenures in capite which
or Precinct to be holden there only and remove the Courts at Westminster to what place he pleaseth and adjourn the Terms as he sees cause this is book-Law 6. H. 7.9.6 Eli. Dier 226. But I pray what Law set up the new slaughter-house in England viz. the high Court of Justice Doubtlesse it was not the Kings Law and if not his Law it was no Law for England never heard of any other but the Kings Laws You have already heard that the King was before Parliaments that the King first instituted Parliaments not Parliaments the King that the House of Commons is but as it were of yesterday and that both Houses are nothing else but what the King made them Let us now see what the King did make them with what power this Idol the House of Commons is invested since they have nothing else to shew for what they are than the Kings Writ that being their Basis and only legal authority Take a view of the Writ The King to the Vicount or Sheriff Greeting WHereas by the advice and assent of our Counsell for certain arduous and urgent affairs concerning us the State and defence of our Kingdom of England and the Anglican Church We have ordained a certain Parliament of ours to be held at our City _____ the _____ day of _____ next ensuing and there to have conference and to treat with the Prelats Great-Men and Peers of our said Kingdom We command and strictly enjoyn you that making Proclamation at the next County Court after the receit of this our Writ to be holden the day and place aforesaid you cause two Knights girt with Swords the most fit and discreet of the County aforesaid and of every City of that County two Citizens of every Borough two Burgesses of the discreeter and most sufficient to be freely and indifferently chosen by them who shall be present at such Proclamation according to the Tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided and the names of the said Knights Cittizens and Burgesses so chosen to be inserted in certain Indentures to be then made between you and those that shall be present at such Election whether the parties so elected be present or absent and shall makâ— them to come at the said day and place so that the said Knights for themselves and for the County aforesaid and the Citizens and the Burgesses for themselves and the Cominalty of the said Cities and Burroughs may have severally from them full and sufficient power to do and to consent to those things which then by the favour of God shall there happen to be ordained by the Common Counsel of our said Kingdom concerning the businesse aforesaid So that the businesse may not by any means remain undone for want of such power or by reason of the improvident election of the aforesaid Knights Citizens and Burgesses But we will not in any case that you or any other Sheriff of our said Kingdome shall be eâ—ected And at the day and place aforesaid the said Election being made in a full County Court you shall certifie without delay to us in our Chancery under your Seal and the Seals of them which shall be present at that Election sending back unto us the other part of the Indenture aforesaid affiled to these presents together with the Writ Witnesse our self at Westminster This Writ is the foundation of the Parliament upon which the whole fabrick of their power and proceedings is grounded It is that which setteth up a Parliament Man and is the only Commission which distinguisheth him from another man for without that every man in the Kingdom hath equal right and authority to sit and vote in Parliament Now by Law no man ought to exceed his Commission Therefore if the Lords or Commons act beyond the bounds of their power limited in this Writ their only Commission they are transgressors and incur the punishment of Malefactors The Writ telleth you that both Houses are but as it were the production of the Privy Council for though the King ordaineth the Parliament yet it is by the advice and assent of his Council why then may not the Kings privy Council being prius tempore lay claim to the Soveraignty as well as his Common Council surely both have like right The Lords are only enabled by their call tâ— Conferr and Treat and that not without but with the King It is their Counsel to advise not their power to authorize which the King requireth For why had not the King ordained a certain Parliament to be and there to â—ave Conference and to treat with them they â—ad not come to give him Counsel and as they â—annot come but when the King commands them â—o neither can they chuse but come when the King â—oth command except the King excuse them â—nd being come they are but as Judge Jenkinsâ—ith â—ith Consiliarii non Praeceptores Counsellors â—or Commanders for to Counsel is not to Comâ—and They are only to advise not to controul â—r compel the King The Parliament is ordained â—y the â—ing as appeareth by the Writ only for â—ertain arduous and urgent affairs 1. Touching â—he King 2. The State of the Kingdom â— The defence of the Kingdom 4. The â—tate of the Church And 5. The â—efence of the same Church Though it â—e arduous yet not urgent occasion to destroy â—ingship To condemn the King to death and â—unishment is not touching the King but a Maleâ—ctor To kill the King is to destroy the kingdom â—ot to defend it and his death is the death of â—e Church and Religion O how have the Long â—arliament swarved from the true ends for â—hich Parliaments were ordained Indeed the Lords not as the upper House of â—arliament but as a distinct Court of the Kings Baâ—ns have power to reform erroneous judgeâ—ents given in the Kings Bench But there is first Petition of Right made to the King and his anâ—wer to it viz. Fiat Justitia The Court of Parliament is only the House of Lords where the King sitteth and they are his common-Counsel it belongs to them to receive all Petitions to advise his Majesty with their Counsel and to consent to what Laws the King shall make by their advice Not to speak of the qualities of the persons of the House of Commons being most of them to wit Citizens and Burgesses Tradesmen brought up in their Shops not in any University or Academy of Law and Learning and as fit to Govern and make Laws God wot as Cows are to dance The rest of them being Knights of Shires chosen commonly rather for their Mony than their Wit having greater wealth than head-pieces I pass from their education to the authority which the King vouchsafed to bestow upon them which is only what is contained in the Writ viz. facere consentire to do consent but to what Not unto such things which they shall ordain but unto such things which are ordained by the King and
politick in which he may purchase to him and his heirs Kings of England or to him and his Successors Yet both bodies make but one indivisible body Plowden 213.233.242 li. 7.12 6. Justice The King can do no wrong Therefore cannot be a disseisor He is all Justice Veritas Justitia saith Bracton circa solium ejus They are the two Supporters that do uphold his Crown he is Medicus regni Pater patriae sponsus Regni qui per annulum is espoused to his Realm at his Coronation he is Gods Lieutenant and is not able to do an unjust thing 4 Ed. 4.25 5 Ed. 4.29 Potentia injuriae est impotentia naturae His Ministers may offend and therefore are to be punished if the Laws are violated but not he 7. Truth The King shall never be estopped Judgement finall in a writ of right shall not conclude him 18 E. 3.38 20 E. 3. Fitz. Droit 15. 8. Omniscience When the King licenceth expresly to aliente an Abbot c. which is in Mortmain he needs not make any Non obstante of the Statutes of Mortmain For it is apparent to be granted in Mortmain And the King is the head of the Law and therefore shall not be intended misconusant of the Law For Praesumitur Rex habere omnia jura in scrinio pectoris sui 1 Jnst 99. And therefore ought to have a Negative voice in Parliament For he is the fountain of justice from whence the Law floweth 8. The Opinion of the two Spencers in Ed. 2. Who held that the oath of allegiance was more by reason of the Kings Crown that is his politick capacity than by reason of his person Is a most detestable excreable damnable and damned invention 7 Rep. fo 11. Calvins case 9. High Treason can be committed against none but the King neither is any thing high Treason but what is declared so to be by the Statute 25 Ed. 3. c. 21. To leavy war against the King to compass or imagine his death or the death of his Queen or of his eldest Son to counterfeit his Money or his great Seal to imprison the King untill he agree to certain demands to leavy war to alter Religion or the Law to remove Counsellours by arms or the King from his Counsellours be they evil or good by arms to seize the Kings Forts Ports Magazine of war to depose the King or to adhere to any State within or without the Kingdome but the Kings Majesty is high Treason For which the Offendor should have judgement First to be drawn to the Gallows 2. There to be hanged by the neck and cut down alive 3. His Intralls to be taken out of his belly And he being alive to be burnt before him 4. That his head should be cut off 5. That his body should be cut in four parts and 6. That his head and his quarters should be put where the Lord the King pleaseth 10. Treason doth ever produce fatal destruction to the Offender either in body or soul sometimes in both and he never attains to his desired end 3 Par. Jnst pag. 36. Peruse over all Books Records and Histories and you shall finde a Principle in Law a Rule in Reason and a tryal in experience that Treason doth ever produce fatal and final destruction to the Offender and never attains to the desired end two incidents inseparable thereunto and therefore let all men abandon it as the Poysonons bait of the Devil and follow the precept in holy Scripture Serve God Honour the King and have no company with the seditions 11. That Kings have been deposed by their Subjects is no argument or ground that we may depose ours A facto ad jus non valet argumentum Because Children have murdered their own fathers is no warrant for us to murder ours Judas betrayed his Soveraign yet should not we follow his example unless we strive for his reward There was never King deposed but in tumultuous and mad times and by might not by right 12. The King is Principium caput finis Parliamenti the begining head and end of a Parliament The body makes not the head nor that which is posterior that which is prior Kings were before Parliaments There were not in England any formed bodyes called the two Houses of Parliament untill above 200. years after the Norman Conquest 13. The King of England is armed with diverse Counsels one whereof is called Commune consilium the Common counsel and that is the Court of Parliament and so it is legally called in writs and judicial proceedings Commune Consilium Regni Angliae Consilium non est praeceptum Consiliarii non sunt praeceptores It is not the office or duty of a Counseller to command and make precepts but only to advise 14. The King is the fountain of justice and the life of the Law The two Houses frame the body the King giveth the soul for without him it is but a dead carcase And Si componere magnis Parva mihi fas est If I may compare small things with great As in a bond though one find paper and another write it yet if the obligor do not seal and deliver it it is nugatory and no obligation So if the King assent not to an act of the two Houses it is void and no Statute It is the royal Scepter which gives it the force of a Law Witnesse the whole Academy of the Law perspicua vera noâ— sunt probanda It would be foolish to light the Sun with Candles 15. Originally The King did make new Laws and abrogate old without the assâ—nt of any known body oâ— assembly of his Subjects But afterwards by his gracious goodnesse perceiving that his people could best know their own soars and so consequently apply the most convenient remedy he vouchsafed so much to restrain his power that he would no make any Law concerning them without their assent For at the first Populus nullis legibus tenebatu sed arbitria regum pro legibus erant Which truth iâ— so clear that it shines almost in every History The oldest and best stile of an act of Parliament is Be it enacted by the Kings Majesty with the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons c. which proves where the virtual power is 16. The Commons have no Authority but by the Writ of Summons That Writ gives them no power to make new Lawes but onely to do and consent to such things which shall happen to be ordained by Common Counsel there in Parliament which are the words of the writ and all their Jurisdiction At a Conference the Commons are alwayes uncovered and stand bare when the Lords sit with their hats on which shews that they are not Colleagues in Judgement with the Lords Every Member of the House of Commons takes the oath of allegiance and supremacy before his admission in the House and should keep it too 17. It is Lex consuetudo Parliamenti The Law and Custome of a Parliament
That no Arms are to be borne in London or Westminster in the time of Parliament Lest the proceedings in that high Court pro bono publico should thereby be hindred or disturbed For it is more congruous for Red-coats with their Pikes Muskets Swords and other ammunition to keep a Den of Theeves than to keep the Members of so honourable a Court. 3 Jnst 160. 4 Jnst 14. 18. When an Act of Parliament is against Common right or reason as that Debtors should not pay their debts c. or repugnant or impossible to be performed the Common Law shall controle it and adjudge it to be voyd And such is an Act for a perpetual Parliament or to kill the King Dier 313. li. 8.118 Doctor Bonhams case 19. The premisses being rightly and duely considered if any person be so impudent insolent and arrogant as to deny the King his Negative voyce in Parliament They may aswell deny him his life and take upon them to frame a new Law and Commonwealth to themselves Shall the Commons have a Negative voyce who are most of them Tradesmen and not educated in the Law but in Mechanick handy-crafts And shall not the King have this priviledge who is assisted by the advice of the Judges his Counsel at Law Sollicitor Atturney Masters of Chancery and Counsel of State consisting of some great Prelates and other great Personages versed in State affairs 20. The Parliament is actually dissolved by the demise of the King For the Individuum Carolus Rex being gone from whence they derived their power consequently their authority is gone likewise For cessante statu primitivo câ—ssat derivativus And Derivativa potestas non potest esse major primitivo The Division of Governments Monarchy is the most natural and Divine The King hath no equal in his Kingdome Soveraignty can not be divided beâ—ween the King and the People Neither can the People either jointly or singlely have the supreme power where the Government is Monarchical The tenets of our new Statesmen yet old Knaves confuted as damnable Parliaments have no power but from the King neither did ever any Parliament unless our late Rebels ever claim any power but what came from the King But all Parliaments ever since they had their being by the very Statutes which the King made with their consent have acknowledged the supreme power to be in the King and have sworn it with sacred oaths So did that Parliâ—mâ—nt which murthered their King swear that the only supreme power and Soveraignty was in the King next to God and that there was no power on earth above his which being true I would fain know what power they had not only to remove their King from his evil Counsellers which they did in removing him from themselves but also from the Land of the living Quos Deus sed c. HAving dissolved the Parliament and set foot on the ground of the Politician let us travel a little further and take a survey of the main Triangle upon which the art of Government consists viz. 1. Monarchy 2 Aristocracy 3. Democracy or popular estate which degenerate into 1. Tyranny 2. Oligarchy 3. Ochlocracy or Commonwealth And first of Monarchy For a principalioribus seu dignioribus est inchoandum The most excellent must have precedency Monarchy which we may call a Kingdome is where the absolute Soveraignty lyeth in the power of one only Prince for so much the word Monarchy of it self importeth who ruleth either according to the rule of Law and equity or contrary Which form of Government doth as far transcend and excel all others as the glorious Sun doth the pale-fâ—ced Moon or the Moon the lesser Stars It is the Embleme of the Almighty For behold the blessed Trinity where there are three persons but one God There is an Arch-angel The Angels adore but one Lord and Soveraign Take a view of the heavenly Orb where you shall see the caelestial creatures give place to the Kingly Sun The Moon ruleth Queen regent amongst the Stars Behold the Eagle the King of the Birds of the air The Lyon the King of the beasts on the earth And the Whale the King of fishes in the sea Fire hath the majestick preheminence above the other Elements among granes the wheat among drinks the wine among spices the baulm among metals the gold The Devills themselves will not be so disorderly as not to have a King for Satan is their Prince and chiefest Leader The Members of the Natural body are subjects to the Head their Soveraign and the same Congruity and Harmony is there in the Politique body of Monarchy And such is the stately preheminence of this Government that the Monarch can admit of no Peer in his Kingdome no more than the Sun can of an other Sun in the Firmament Si duo soles velint essâ— periculum ne incendio omnia perdantur Serinus If two be equal in power in a Commonwealth it is Aristocracy or rather Duarchy and not Monarchy For one of them hath not Soveraignty over the other For Par in parem non habet potestatem he only is a Soveraign who commandeth all others and can himâ—elf by none be commanded Then no less foolish than wicked and detestable is their opinion who confess their Government to be Monarchical yet would have Duo summa imperia and hold that the Universe of the people are of equal if not higher power than their Monarch and may call him in question for his actions and prosecute him even unto death if they please who make their dreadfull Soveraign a Jack a Lâ—nt a Minister of trust at the best to be turned out of his Office at their pleasure when God and all the World knows that by the Law of God as I shewed before and shall more fully shew hereafter the Law of Nations the Law of Nature and the Law of England both Common and Statute They ought not to touch him though in truth he were so wicked as they would have and pretend him to be No they ought not so much as to think an evil thought of him Quod summum est vnum est Soveraignty is a thing indivisible and cannot at one and the same time be divided between the King and his Subjects If the Soveraignty be in the people then is the Government either Popular or Aristocratical and not Monarchical To mix the estate of a Monarchy with Democratical or Aristocratical estate each having a share of the Soveraignty is altogether impossible For if every one of the three estate or but two of them hath power to make Laws who should be the Subjects to obey them or who could give the Law being himself constramed to receive of them unto whom he himself gave it Then might the King make the acting of his people against him treason and the people make the acting of their King against them treason which would bring all to Anarchical confusion And although our age had produced such a Monster
from God not from the People neither did the people at first chuse Kings but they were born subjects by nature MOnarchy is either Lordly or Royal Lordly is where the Monarch by the Law of Arms in a lawfull war becometh Lord of the goods and persons of the Conquered governing them as the Master of a family doth his slaves how he pleaseth And it is concluded by all that Nimrod was the first Lordly Monarch Royal is where the Monarch maketh the Law the Rule of his actions permitting his subjects to injoy their Meum and Tuum aswell as himself the Law being the Arbitrator between them both I am not ignorant of the infinite sorts of Monarchies which many men make by the different means of the obtaining the State but all of them may be comprised in these two unless Tyrannical of which hereafter I shall speak be they haereditary by succession by election by gift or by devise For the difference of Monarchs is not to be gathered by the means of the coming to the State but by the means of governing Among the many Prerogatives which the State of Monarchy may challenge above other Governments it hath none so glorious as it's Author and Antiquity For he that denyeth that the Almighty was the founder of Monarchical Soveraignty may aswell deny that there is a God being himself the Monarch of all creatures Therefore to this Almighty Monarch will I lift up my head and hands and humbly implore his sacred Majesty to guide my pen in the road of truth whilest I travel to the head of this river for I will dive into the depth of it and make a scrutiny in the very foundation Primaque ab origine mundi Ad mea perpetuum deducam tempora Regem The first caelestial King which made Heaven and Earth and all things therein was the Almighty The first terrestial King which was made for Heaven and of Earth and Governour of all things therein was Adam If thou art so much a Basileu-mastix as to doubt this truth behold his Patent by which he was made Lord and King over all Genes 1.28 Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth and subdue it and have Dominion over the fish of the Sea and over the foul of the Air and over every living thing that moveth upon the Earth This royal Commission did the King of Kings give to our Father Adam which is so much the larger by reason of the word Dominare which is more than regere Which may serve to reâ—ell that absurd opinion and worse than humane invention of those men who impudently aswell as ignorantly call Kingship humanum inventum a humane ordinance and say that Kings were originally instituted by the suffrage of the people and so may be deposed by the people whereas it plainly appeareth that there were no people when the first King was ordained and doubtless let the opposers of Royal Government spet what venome they will it is an undoubted truth an irrefragable axiome that Children have asmuch right by the Law of God and nature to depose their natural Father and chuse another as the people have to depose their natural haereditary Soveraign and make choise of another For the King is the Father of the people the Husband of the Commonwealth and the Master of his subjects and suppose him to be evil can you finde any warrant in Scripture that Children should murder their Father the Wife her Husband or the Servant his Master because they were wicked surely not no more can you finde any authority for Subjects to murder their Soveraign but our age hath created such a power or rather a Monster and cloathed it too with such piety and Religion as if they did intend to binde it up with the Bible and make it Canonical but without doubt they will be so far from making future ages to take it for Gospel as they will hardly have Rethorick enough to make them believe that ever such a wickedness could be committed Let us now look into humane Writers and see what their Histories afford us which we will make rise of only as an illustration to what we have said not as an authority because there is no greater authority than Scripture although Historia non est vilis authoritas great is the authority of History Principio rerum gentium nationumque imperium penes Reges erat saith Justin li. 1. From the begining of things that is frâ—m the begining of the world the rule and Government of the people and of all Nations was in the hands of Kings which Learned Cicero doth with no lesse truth Confirm saying Certum est omnes antiquas gentes Regibus primum paruisse which is the same in effect with Iustin. That Monarchy is most natural and as it were instituted by the laws of Nature is a Conclusion by the common consent of the best Philosophers and Historians Let Tacitus and Seneca speak for them all Vnum imperii Corpus unius Animo regendum videtur the whole Commonwealth makes but one Body and it is most natural for one body to be ruled by one Soul Seneca Natura certe commenta est Regem quod ex aliis animaliâ—us licet cognoscere surely Nature found out Kings which we may learn even of the brute beasts And Multitudes of antients preach Monarchy to be Divine Callimach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ex Jove sunt Reges Kings were instituted by their Gods Plato in Polit. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rex Deus quispiam humanus est The King is as one may say a God upon Earth Liv. lib. xxvi Regnum res inter Deos hominesque pulcherrima Therefore let none so stupidly deny that Monarchy is not Divinum institutum a Divine institution If they do blind Homer will prove them blinder than himself For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à Jove educatos Reges saith he The Gods constituted and educated Kings therefore let every one use his uttermost endeavour and make these supplications with Homer to his lawfull Soveraign 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 herus unicus esto unicus Rex Be thou our only Lord and our only King O most legal and dreadfull Soveraign Rege incolumi mens omnibus una Amisso rupêre fidem Let us all be of one mind to establish our King for he being unsafe we are all unsafe and perjured I know not of what constitution thou art who perusest these lines But be thou a Puritan Presbyterian Brownist Independent Anabaptist fift Monarchy-man Quaker Millenarie Arminian Socinian Antitrinitarian Theaurau John Antinomian Adamite Familist Jesuit Ranter or what thou wilt Learn this though perhaps it agree not with thy constitution That Kings are ordained by Gods constitution and by Gods constitution we are commanded and ought for to obey them as out of holy Writ I have already and shall farther prove and as that man who maketh a question whether there is a God or no ought to be answered with Stripes rather than verball
Caesari Render to Caesar that which is Caesars saith our Saviour Quot verba tot argumenta His words should be to us commands his actions our instructions and his obedience should be our pattern shall the Lord of life submit himself unto the King and shall not we shall he give Caesar his due and shall not we shall he suffer himself to be murthered by the King and shall we murder the King This is the Popes Doctrine to take away the lives of Princes and â—re not we his true Disciples when we put his words in practice His Disciples did I say nay we scorn that for every man now is a Pope and exerciseth the fame authority But let us forsake the Pope and learn the obedience of true subjects from the subjects of Ioshua chap. 1.16 18. And they answered Joshua saying All that thou commandest us we will do and whithersoever thou sendest us we will go Whosoever he be that doth rebel against thy Commandments and will not hearken unto thy words in all that thou commandest him He shall be put to death only be strong and of a good courage Behold here the Kings Soveraignty to command the Subjects duty to obey and the punishment of a Rebel is death If the King hath not the supreme power how can he command If the subjects are not his inferours why should they obey If the people have a power co-ordinate and equal with the King then must there be duo summa imperia two supreme powers which the Philosophers tell us cannot be Nam quod summum est unum est Soveraignty cannot be divided diverse supreme powers are no more compatible in on State than two sunns are in the firmament Omnisque potestas Impatiens consortis erit Non bene cum sociis regna Venusque manent Kings and Lovers admit of no Rivals Soveraignty being an individual must be in one sort of Governours either in one man as in Monarchy or else in one specifical kinde of men as the optimates as it is in Aristocracy or in the people as in Democracy saith Aristotle Necesse est aut unum esse penes quem summum sit imperium aut paucos aut multos But the Government of England is Monarchy and therefore the people have no supreme power It would be a monstrous body if the inferior members were equal in power or could command the head But suppose there should be such an Vtopia as our Novelists feign where the prople might call their King in question for his actions when they thought he offended we should then have a new King every new moon or oftner and would any man be so mad as to be their King For my part I think he had betrer be hanged for what beast is more Salvage and uncertain than the headlesse blind multitude Virgil. Scinditur incertum studia in contraria Vulgus Discord is the only Ensign of a multitude and sooner will the Stars gather into one body than a multitude unite themselves into one mind Quot homines tot sententiae and would not a man have a rare place of it to be servant to all these beares The Cynical Puritan would hang him if he was not in all things so pure a Saint as himself and the Independent would pende him if he did not solely depend on him as on God almighty the rigid Presbyterian would bend his knotty brows at him if he was not as obedient to him as a water Spaniel and the dreadfull Anabaptist would hang both Puritan Independent Presbyterian and King and all if they would not be Baptized according to his sacred tenet the Quaker would make him quake and Theaurau John would crack his crown unlesse he did esteem them as the greatest part of Christs kingdom And can any wise man think that this kingdom thus divided can stand A man cannot serve two Masters saith our Savior but that he will love the one and hate the other and Jove himself cannot please this many headed monster Therefore if the almighty God had not put the bridle of Government into the peoples mouths and the reigns into the hands of their Superior like the unruly horses of Phaeton or the masterlesse winds of Eolus let loose they would have torn the world asunder and brought all things with themselves into Confusion Tanta est discordia Fratrum So great is the discord even of Brethren No King can be so well accomplished as to please all men neither indeed is it a sign of an honest man to be so flexible as to please every one Populo placere non potest cui placet virtus the just love him whom the wicked hate and the wicked love him whom the just hate what King so pious just religious and mild as Moses the meekest of all men and what greater treason was ever hatched and plotted against any man than him Korah Dathan and Abiram with two hundred and fifty Princes of the Congregation lead the people to Sedition and then to Rebellion telling Moses to his face he took too much upon him and had not God Vindicated the sacred Soveraignty which he had placed in Moses even Moses himself had become a prey to the blood-thirsty and Rebellious appetite of these Traytors For it came to passe that the ground clave asunder that was under them and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up and their Houses and all the men that appertained unto Korah and all their goods they and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit and the earth clozed upon them and they perished from among the Congregation and all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them for they said lâ—st the earth swallow us up also And there came out a fire from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense as you may read in Numbers 16. A fearful example one would think enough to deterre the hearts of all Traytors from rebellion This was the first rebellion we read of in the Scripture and how God approved of it doth appear by the exemplary punishment These Traytors did but only murmur and rebel with their tongues yet see how God rewarded them then what punishment is reserved for them who do not only murmur and rebel with their reviling tongues more sharp than a two edged sword but also murder the Lords anointed and powr out his sacred bloud like water upon the ground Doubtless they have just cause to fear that although they flourish here like the green grass yet at the day of Judgement Hell it self will open it's mouth and swallow them up both bodies and souls into everlasting fire and damnation where there shall be nothing but weeping and wailing and guashing of teeth Lento gradu ad vindictam sui divina procedit ira tarditatem supplicii gravitate compensat The longer the blow is a fetching the heavier it will be when it falleth Divine vengeance cometh though with a slow yet
with a sure foot Though King David was a man after Gods own heart yet could he not please the people for Absolom his own Son made a conspiracy against him and forced him to flye for his life But mark the end of this Traytor though the earth did not open her mouth and swallow him up yet the very Trees took vengeance and caught him up by the head so that he hung between heaven and earth as unworthy to go to heaven or to live upon the earth 11 Sam. 18.9 Then how dare these Pulpit Hunters blaspheme God and prophane his Word and Sanctuary so much as to preach that Rebellion is obedience nay a necessary duty commanded of God and a great means to carry on the work of Salvation inciting the people to cry out for justice accounting all things injustice unless that they have their wicked ends So Absolom did steal the hearts of the people who had controversies telling them that there was no man deputed of the King to hear them 11 Sam. 15.4 And Absolom said moreover O that I were made judge in the Land that every man which hath any sute or cause might come unto me and I would do them Justice A true Lecture of a Traytor for you shall never find Traytors without Law and Justice on their sides to colour their actions The King hath not deputed a man say they to distribute Justice He is popishly given and would bring into the Kingdome the popish Religion He infringeth your Charters breaketh the Laws and destroyeth your Rights and Liberties But O that we were made Judges in the Land how equally and impartially would we give justice to all men we would not take away your Charters nor encroach upon your Liberties The preservation of the Law and Religion is the only cause for which we take up arms But when with their charms and sorcery they have intoxicated the people got the hilt of the sword into their own hands and a power to do what they list then down goeth both Law and Religion and the King too like Jonas must be thrown down from the stern of Government to appease the tempest of the multitude And then and not untill then like the head of a Snail or a Tortoise out of it's shell not seen before doth appear their own cause and indeed the only cause for which they took up arms which is their own private interest and the destruction of the whole Kingdome with their own bodies and souls hereafter Hor. Suis ipsa Roma viribus ruit And Englands own Sword destroyeth poor England But let Traytors pretend what they will yet this is a Principle whose original is the Bible confirmed by our Saviour and the Apostles by all the Fathers of the Church and by all Christian people by all reason and Religion That Kings have the Supreme power over their people and consequently the people no power to resist them either to save their Laws Religion or for what other pretence soever For Rex si supra populum optimatesve agnoscat proprie non est Rex He cannot be a King which hath not the supreme authority and Soveraignty Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet It is God and the King to whom Soveraignty belongeth the people are their Vassals and not sharers in so high a dignity Our Saviour alone was both God and Man and it is a thing impossible for the people to be both king and Subject too at one time But why should I seek stars to light the noon day or press that with arguments to be true to them who with their oaths have confirmed it for a truth swearing I William Lenthal do utterly testify and declare in my conscience that the Kings Highness is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm and all other his Highness Dominions and Countries aswell in all spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or Causes as Temporal And that no forein Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Pre-eminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spâ—ritual within this Realm And therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all forein Jurisdiction Powers Superiorities and Authorities and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear faith and true allegiance to the Kings Highnesse his heirs and lawfull Successors and to my power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Privileges Pre-eminences and authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highnesse his heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of the Realm So help me God and by the Contents of this Book What greater exemplification confirmation or demonstration of the kings Soveraignty can there be than this Sacred Oath of Supremacy For this is the thing which the Lord hath commanded saith Moses Num. 30.1 2. If a man Vow a Vow unto the Lord or swear an Oath to binde his soul with a bond he shall not break his word he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth And is there any English-man so impudently wicked and prophane as presumptuously to break Gods Commandement break his own vows and impiously turn perjured Traytor vix ipse tantum vix adhuc credo malum scarce I even I who have seen it with my own eyes can yet hardly believe so great a villany can be perpetrated Haec facere Jason potuit Could the betrothed do this Heu pietas Heu prisca fides Alas the antient piety Alas the fidelity of old time Debuit ferro obvium Offerre pectus I would have dyed first Quid non mortalia pectora cogis Auri sacra fames What doth not gold more sacred to them than their oathes compel mortals to atchieve Vid. 1. Eli. cap. 1. That the Kings power is above the Law is demonstrated by reason and proved by authority In the beginning were no Laws but the Kings will and pleasure Adams absolute power The King can do no wrong It is better and more profitable that one King than many Tyrants do what they lift with us The King hath no Judge but God That place in learned Bracton which Bradshaw and others used as an authority to kill the King explained and their damnable opinion and false Commentary upon him confuted The King is bound to observe Gods Law yet absolute King That God not the people instituteth kings and that the House of Commons which is but the tail of the Parliament nor any whole Parliament can have power over the king or disinherit him HAving made it evidently manifest that the King hath the supreme power and Soveraignty over the people I will now ascend a step higher and make it as manifest that he hath the supreme power and Soveraignty over the Laws as well as over the people Quidvis facere id est regem esse saith Salustius To do what one will is to be a King Cui quod libet licet Qui legibus solutus est Qui leges dat non accipit proiude qui omnes judicat a nemine
without arbitrary power most men of a late edition allow it in Aristocracy and Democracy Why then not in Monarchy If it be Tyranny for one man to govern according to his will Why should it not be far greater Tyranny for a multitude of men to govern how they please without being accountable or restrained by Law But though silent leges inter arma Yet Rex est viva Lex as our books say The king is a living Law Indigna digna habenda sunt Rex quae facit Those things which are unlawfull for the subject are lawfull for the king to do Imperatorem non esse subjectum legibus qui habet in potestate alias leges ferre saith B. Augustine The king cannot be subject to the Laws because he hath power to make other Laws What then after he hath established a Law That his subjects shall quietly injoy their estates may the king legally without offending God take away their estates and break that Law Because his will is a Law I answer he may But distinguenda sunt tempora causae The King hath a Conscience aswell as another man which must be ruled according to Gods Law and Equity otherwise God to whom vengeance only belongeth will judge him It is lawful for the king ad supplendam reipub necessitatem supportandam regiam majestatem to supply the necessity of State and to support his Royal Majesty notwithstanding any former Law to take away the estates of his subjects without their leave and that legally too because in that case his will makes a Law And therefore doth the common Law of England allow him many prerogatives which to explain would require a volume of it self and are very copiously in our Law books demonstrated But the summe of them is The king upon just cause may do what he please both with his subjects and their estates and no body is to be judge whether that cause be just or no and take vengeance but only God his own conscience If it be unjust Habet Deum Judicem Conscientiae ultorem injustitiae He hath God the Judge of his conscience and the Revenger of his injustice And satis sufficit ei ad paenam quod Dominum expectet ultorem It is punishment enough for him to think that God will take vengeance on him saith Bracton doth Bracton say so Why there are some a amongst us who make Bracton the only instrument and authority to kill kings But to vindicate the Law and Reverend Bracton I will make bold to tell them for veritas audentes facit truth makes a man bold that they belye Bracton and scandal the Law and their profession And that it may appear it is not my opinion only I will recite that warrant out of Braston li. 2. c. 16. fol. 34. which they build upon and the answer to it of the Lord Bishop of Osory a man worthy of eternal renown both for his Law Learning and Religion for saith he Yet because this point is of such great concernment and the chiefest Argument they have out of Bracton is that he saith Rex habet superiorem legem curiam suam Comites Barones quia Comites Dicuntur quasi socii Regis qui habet socium habet Magistrum ideo si Rex fuerit sine fraeno id est sine lege debent ei fraenum ponere nisi ipsimet fuerunt cum rege sine fraeno And all this makes just nothing in the World for them if they had the honesty or the learning to understand it right For what is above the King the Law and the Court of Earls and Barons But how are they above him as the Preacher is above the King when he Preacheth unto him or the Physician when he gives him Physick or the Pilot when he sayleth by Sea that is quo ad rationem consulendi non cogendi they have superioritatem directivam non coactivam For so the teacher is above him that is taught and the Counseller above him that is counselled that is by way of advice but not by way of command And to shew you that this is Bractons true meaning I pray you consider his words Comites dicuntur quasi socii they are as fellows or Peers not simply but quasi And if they were simply so yet they are but Socii not superiours And what can Socii do not command For par in parem non habet potestatem that is praecipiendi otherwise you must confess habet potestatem consulendi Therefore Bracton adds qui habet Socium habet Magistrum that is a Teacher not a Commander and to make this yet more plain he adds si Rex fuerit sine sraeno id est sine lege If the King be without a bridle that is saith he lest you should mistake what he means by the bridle and think he means force and arms the Law they ought to put this bridle unto him that is to press him with this Law and still to shew him his duty even as we do both to King and people saying this is the Law this should bridle you but here is not a word of commanding much less of forcing the King not a word of superiority nor yet simply of equality And therefore I must say hoc argumentum nihil ad rhombum And these do abuse every Author So much the Bishop and I think this answer will satisfy every reasonable man And I add further that it would be very strange that Bracton should say in this place that the King hath a Superiour when he denyes it in several other places of his book and presseth it with arguments that he hath not saying Omnis quidem sub eo ipse sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo All are under the King and the King under none but God Rex non habet superiorem nisi Deum The King hath no superiour but God Nemo quidem de factis suis praesumat disputare multo fortius contra factum suum venire Let no man presume to dispute against the Kings actions much less withstand his actions with force and arms and rebel against him fol. 6. Ipse autem Rex non debet esse sub homine sed sub Deo The King is under none but God Exercere Rex debet potestatem sicut Dei vicarius in terra Minister quia ea potestas solius Dei est The King ought to exercise power as the Vicar and Minister of God because he receiveth his power from God only Therefore they who would fain have Bracton say that the Law and the people are the Kings Superiours would make him as uncertain as themselves and do very much abuse that venerable Author and no man can finde so much as scintilla legis a spark of Law in all the Law books that ever the People or Law were above the king so as to punish him and doubtless if there had been any such thing the learned Lawyers would have reported it to posterity And A
was condemned repented themselves saying We have sinned in that we have betrayed Innocent blood and were all of them ready to hang themselves But it was not out of any love or allegiance they did bear to the King but because they could not have those ends upon the King which they intended They would have had the King buckled to their bent and it grieved them to see the Independents c. out-knave them foâ— the greatest part of the religion of these factions consists in their animosities one against the other not only the Presbyterians but also the Independents Anabaptists c. are both almost and altogether such as the proud Pharisees were Therefore their greatest care and study is to domineer and master it one over the other which makes the prevalent faction alwayes outragious and that which sinketh alwayes envious So that the Presbyterian being at this time undermost he would fain insinuate himself into the favour of the honest Royalist and because he hath not force to be so much Knave as he would be therefore he is compelled to be honest against his will and would have his injured King to rule over him again But get thee behind me Dagon what hast thou to do with peace Didst thou not in thy youthfull age revile thy Innocent King with thy mouth and persecute him with thy bloudy hand and wouldst thou now in thy old age serve him Thy service is Hypocrisie and thy words but the vapours of a deceitfull head Let the Presbyterians rigid actions judge the rigid Presbyterians Having related of what persons the Parliament doth consist viz. of the King above all and the three Estates sharing no more with the King in the Soveraignity than the body doth with the head and how King Charles the first was most traiterously murthered by those who have the impudence to call themselves a Parliament though in truth they are nothing else but a den of Tyrannical Traytors and Rebels I will further proceed to explicate the Soveraignity of the King and the legal power of the three Estates with their first institution and creation Sapiens omnia agit cum consilio saith Solomon a wise man doth nothing without counsel Pro. 13.16 Therefore the King of England Ex mero motu et speciali gratia out of his meer good-will and special favour hath vouchsafed his Subjects that honour as to make them his Counsellours not only concerning Ardua Regni but also arcana imperii even in his most privie affairs wherefore As my Lord Cook observeth the King is armed with diverse Councills one whereof is called Commune Concilium and that is the Court of Parliament and another is called Magnum Concilium this is somtimes applyed to the upper House of Parliament and somtimes out of Parliament time to the Peers of the Realm Lords of Parliament who are called Magnum Concilium Regis Thirdly as every man knoweth the King hath a privie Council for matters of State The fourth Council of the King are his Judgâ—s of the Law for Law matters as appeareth in our Law-Books This word Parliament was never used in England untiâ—l the time of William the Conquerour who first brought it in with him For as King David called a Parliament when he intended to build an house for the name of the Lord 1 Chro. 28. and assembled all the Princes of Israel the Princes of the Tribes and the Captains of the Companies that ministred unto the King by course and the Captains over the thousands and Captaines over the hundreds and the Stewards over all the substance and possession of the King and of his Sons with the Officers and with the mighty men and with all the valiant men unto Jerusalem And when they were assembled the King himself shewed the cause of calling that Parliament for then David the King stood up upon his feet and said Hear me my Brethren and my People as for me I had in my heart to build and House of rest for the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord and for the footstool of our God and had made ready for the building c. Whereupon all the people offered their Gold and Silver willingly towards the work which made the People and David their King rejoice exceedingly with great joy as you may there read So the Kings of England from the beginning in all extraordinary cases when they intended to make new Laws or abolish old have always convoked an assembly of their Subjects what persons and of what number they thought fit Not because they could not do what they pleased without their Subjects consent but because their Subjects best knowing what shooes would fit their own feet might as they often did by Petitions humbly supplicate his Majesty to grant what they shewed him was most convenient and necessary for them by their requests which he refused or granted at his pleasure Which Councils and Conventions they called Witenage Mote Conventus sapientium Michael Smoth Michael Gemote c. that is to say the great Court or meeting of the King To which the King convened only the Nobles and Bishops The Rustick Commons were not then admitted into the presence of the King And doubtlesse they had then small hopes and lesse thoughts that they should ever take the Regal Diadem from off their Soveraigns head and become Lords Paramount ruling both King and People by no other Law than Hoc volo sic Jubeo stat pro ratione voluntas by their own lusts and unstable except to do mischief wills But I have seen servants upon Horses and Princes walking as Servants upon the Earth saith Solomon And pray who hath not seen as much as Solomon of this For behold Tinkers Taylors Spicket and Fosset makers and those who were Servants even to the basest of the people having murthered their Soveraign Lord the King doe take possession of his sacred Patrinomy and now sit Lords over all ruling and domineering in his Palace at Westminster Feign that the people did intrust the King with his Royal Office yet why should it escheat to these Hypocrites why not to the people And if his Office with the Lands which he held Jure Coronae yet by what Law do they seise upon those Lands which he held in his natural Capacity and those Lands which he purchased For if a man forfeit an Office he only forfeiteth those Lands which belonged to the Office But if all his Lands escheat by what Law do they detain and keep the Queens Dower from her By what Law did I say By that Law whereby they subdue all things to themselves to wit their own wicked Appetites Ambition and Covetousnesse which is all the Law they can shew for any of their Actions to which we must be Slaves so long as they command over us Pro. 30.21 For three things saith Solomon the earth is disquieted and for four which it cannot bear For a Servant when he reigneth and a Fool when he is filled with meat For and
odious woman when she is married and an Hand-maiâ— that is Heir to her Mistresse Is not our Englanâ— disquieted with all these Oh who can bear it yet these Tyrants rejoce at it Delight is not seemly for a Fool much lesse for a Servant to have ruâ— over Princes Pro. 19.10 Yet these Slaves tryumph over their Prince and scoff at his Miseries And as the Jews in a deriding manner said of oâ— Saviour This is Jesus King of the Jews So thesâ— Jews scoffingly call their Soveraign Lord The King of Scots yet keep his Kingdom from him jeeâ—ing him out of his Estate O Heavens As perpetually afterwards so allwayes before the Conquerour the legislative power did continue in the King tanquam in proprio subjecto as in the true and proper subject of that power and the Kings Edicts were the only positive Laws of the Realm and indeed who can be a King without this power for what difference is there between the King and Subject but that the one gives the Laws the other receiveth them And most clear it is by all Historians that the Common Council of our antient Kings were composed only of Prelates and Peers the Commons were not admitted to any Communication in affairs of State Camden in his Britannia telleth us that in the times of the Saxon Kings and in after Ages the Common Council of the Land was Praesentia Regis Praelatorum Procerumque collectorum The presence of the King with the Prelates and Peers Ingulphus who dyed before 1109 saith Rex Eldredus Convocavit Magnates Episcopos Proceres Optimates ad tractandum de publicis negotiis Regni He did not call the Commons So Edward the Confessor that great Legislâ—tor made all his Laws without the consent of the Commons Now when the Norman Conqueror one of the Praedecessors of Charles the Martyr came in who had a triple title to this Kingdome to wit by Donation Conquest and by the Consent of the people for as it is well known when Edward the Confessor lived in Normandy he gave this Kingdom after his decease to William Duke of Normandy as he was his kinsman near of bloud so that the Conquerour was heir of the Crown to the Confessor by adoption Which title if it was invalid you must know he was a Conquerour and no man will deny that Conquest maketh a legal title Jure Belli But suppose both those titles were as they were not invalid yet by the Law of Nations the Consent of the people maketh an inviolable title even to an Usurper in continuance of time if they have no other lawfull King much more to a lawfull Soveraign And his people our Ancestors ever since the Conquest for the space of about six hundred yeares have all done allegiance to and unanimously resolved that the Conquerour and his Successors were our only true Kings Liege Lords and Soveraigns having the supreme power over us and never did the people claim power to depose the King until those Monsters at Westminster under pretence of such a power murthered Charles the first and against all Law Justice and Equity and against thâ— wills of the people make themselves masters of our lives and fortunes and of all that we have taking them away when they please It would make a man cry and it would make a man laugh to see what fools these fellowes make of us Royal Government by Kings hath been used here time out of mind and approved by all our Ancestors to be the best of Governments and most natural and profitable for us yet these few stinking Members at Westminster made an Act March 17. 1648. contrary even to their own Oaths and Protestations to abolish the Kingly Government as unnecessary I use their own words burthensome and dangerous to the people as if this small company consisting of fifty or sixty at the most of the Scum and tail of the people were wiser and knew what was better for us than all our Ancestors both noble and ignoble in all ages But what was their reason to abolish Kingship To make each of themselves Kings nay Tyrannical Kings over us So may the slave say that the government of his Lord over him is unnecessary burthensome and dangerous and therefore he will murther his Lord and make himself Maâ—ter changeing the name and execute the office worse So may High-way men take away the true owners purse and tell him it was unnecessary for him to keep it or by the same law may thieves murther and rob the Master of his house and then vote the Master burthensome and dangerous to his family Yet notwithstanding while these Tyrants destroy our fundamental Government Lawes Religion Freedoms and Liberties making of us absolute slaves villains only to satiate their lust and pleasure yet even then they stile themselves The Keepers of the Liberty of England by Authority of Parliament Close and trusty keepers of our liberty indeed for we can come at none of it they keep it from us not for us so Wolves may call themselves keepers of the Lambs which they have caught or by the same law may a Cut-purse be called the keeper of the purse and be said to have the same care of it for they are heepers of our liberty only to keep themselves For by what authority was this Individuam vagum the Keepers erected By what authority why they will tell you by authority of Parliament Cunning Curres How they take the people with this word Parliament when God knows they themselves were all the Parliament by whose authority the thing called Keepers I know not what they be for I never yet heard them named were invented So may Adulterers vote themselves keepers of Chastity or so may I murther a man against his will and then call my self keeper of his life by his authority For they destroyed the Parliament when they destroyed the King and there hath been no Parliament since Vide 1 H. 4. Rot. Parl. n. 1.14 li. 4. Coke 4 Inst p. 46. and 4 C. 4. f. 440. Therefore they most falsly call themselves a Parliament Neither are they the Representatives of the people as I shewed before but a company of Ungracious Tyrants acting against the wills of the people Yet forsooth they tell us that the people have the supreme power and that they act for the people being their Representatives Just as if I should take away all that another man hath against his will and then tell him that he hath the supreme power over his goods and that I took them away by his authority and power or as if I should take away his money without his leave and tell him that I am his Representative So these Foxes cozen the people with nonsensical cheats and in all things are Representatives of the Devil not of the People for they all well know and some of them have declared so that if the people might chuse their Representatives those Representatives would restore the King to his
but it was fifty or sixty rotten tainted Members of the lower House small in number but great in transgression So may the Tayl nay a piece of the Tayl destroy the whole body and reign sole Lord Paramount Oh what multitudes of impieties can the wicked accomplish in an instant Seneca Nullum ad nocendum tempus angustum est malis In no longer space than betwixt the Father and the Son did these Horse-Leaches subvert our fundamental Government destroy King and Kingdom Parliament and People and all our Laws and Religion so that the question is not whether the Parliament be above the King but whether a little company of great Traytors and Usurpers the Dregs and Lees of all Tyranny be above both King and Parliament For the Parliament as you see by the joyfull recognition made to King James c. enacted and most humbly acknowledged the King to be above both Parliament and People and the Crown to be hereditary to the King and his Royal Progeny but these men and only these who by violence make themselves above both King and Parliament defending their persons from the Justice of the Law with Armed Red-Coats and the greatness of their villanies These are they who deny it though the Laws of the Realm and all Histories and all Kingdoms teach them otherwise God calleth himself a King in several places of the Scripture to note and signifie his Soveraignity which surely he would not do was the King the Peoples vassal or under Officer as the Bedlam franticks of our age feign Thou art my King O God saith David Command delâ—verance for Jacob. The King and the Power to command are Individua He is a Clout no King which cannot command And who should be under his command What The People taken particularly and distributively as single men and not collectively as the whole Kingdom according to the fanatick opinion of our Lunaticks Why is he not then called King of single men If he be King of a Kingdom then all the People jointly or severally in his Kingdom are under his command and if under his command then he only hath power to give them Laws be they in one collective body as in Parliament at the Kings house or simple bodies at their private dwellings Le Roy fait les leix avec le Consent du Seigneurs et Communs et non pas les Seigneuns et Communs avec le consent du Roy is the voice of the Common Law The King makes Laws in Parliament with the consent of the Lords and Commons and not the Lords and Commons with the consent of the King Virg. 7 Eneid Hoc Priami gestamen erat cum jura vocatis More daret Populis And 5 Eneid Gaudet regno Trojanus Arestes Indicitque forum patribus dat jura vocatis The Lords and Commons have power only to propound and advise it is only the Kings Le roy le veult which makes the Law their propositions and advice signifie nothing if the King saith Le Roy se avisera They have not power to grant him any subsidies untill the King saith Le Roy remercieses loyaulx et ainsi le veult Therefore much less the Soveraignity It would be strange if the assembling of the Subjects together should make them Masters over the King who gave them power to assemble and hath power to turn them home again when he pleaseth Legum ac edictorum probatio aut publicatio quae in curia vel Senatu fieri solet non arguit imperii majestatem in Senatu vel curia inesse saith Bodin de Rep. li. 1. ca. 8. The publishing and approbation of Laws and Edicts which is made ordinarily in the Court of Parliament proves not the Majesty of the State to be in the said Court or Parliament It is the Kings Scepter which giveth force to the Law and we have no Law but what is his Will The King surely would never call his Subjects to bind him with Laws against his will much lesse to take his Dominion from him and make himself a Vassal and Officer to his two Houses or either of them who were not capable themselves of any Office without his Gift and Licence The Kings of England have called many Parliaments yet the Government hath alwayes continued Monarchical and the King not under but above the people inferior only to God even Forein Polititians will tell you so Let famous Bodin who tanketh our Kings amongst the absolute Monarchs speak for all lib. 1. cap. 8. Habere quidem Ordines Anglorum authoritatem quandam jura vero Majestatis imperji summam in unius Principis arbitrio versari The States saith he of England have a kind of authority but all the rights of Soveraignty and command in chief are at the will and pleasure of the Prince alone Learned Cambden in his Britannia fo 163. teacheth us As touching the division of our Common wealth it consisteth of a King or Monarch Noblemen or Gentry Citizens freeborn whow we call Yeomen and Artisans or Handicrafts-men The King whom our Ancestors the English Saxons called Coning and Gining in which name is implyed a signification both of power and skill and we name contractly King hath Soveraign power and absolute command among us neither holdeth he his Empire in Vassalage nor receiveth his investure or enstalling of another ne yet acknowledgeth any superiour but God alone Now if Reason and the Judgement of our Ancestors would satisfie our frenzy upstarts what greater authority would they have But that they are troubled with so many visions and false revelations of their own I would commend to them a true vision in the Reign of Edward the Confessor viz. One being very inquisitive and musing what should become of the Crown and Kingdom after King Edwards death the blood Royal being almost extinguished he had a strange vision and heard a voyce which forbade him to be inquisitive of such matters resounding in his ears The Kingdom of England belongeth to God himself who will provide it a King at his pleasure But now forsooth it belongeth to the people and they will provide it a King at their pleasure It is the people now which make the King if so why ever had we any Kingdoms why were they not called Peopledoms The Kings of England with them of France Jerusalem Naples and afterwards Scotland were antiently the only anointed Kings of Christendom And as the Kings in Scripture as Asia Jehoshaphat Hezechiah c. so the Kings of England have alwayes had the supremacy in Ecclesiastical causes Reges sacro oleo uncti sunt capaces spiritualis jurisdictionis 33 Ed. 3. Rex est persona mixta cum Sacerdote habet ecclesiasticam et spiritualem jurisdictionem 10 H. 7.18 And although Kings ought not to be Ministers of the Chutch so as to dispense the word and Sacraments For No man taketh this honour unto himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron Hebrews 5.4 Yet since they
dear Trade dyeth thousands of Families are ready to starve Millions of men are ruined and undone the whole Realm groaneth under the burthen of excessive Taxes and Wars and rumors of Wars continually plague our Kingdom which hath lost its glory both abroad and at home and become a meer laughing-stock to all Nations and all this misery ariseth from the Tyranny of these Rebels who unjustly banish our lawfull haereditary King Charls the second and take possession of his three Kingdoms making themselves absolute Tyrannical Kings over us and so I believe they intend to make their Heirs for being accustomed to lye they declare in their Declarations that the People shall be governed by their Representatives in Parliament Yet their actions contradicting their words they will not suffer the People to chuse their Representatives or come into the House but they tell us that they will chuse men of fit qualities So one Thief chuseth another Similis simili gaudet We may be sure never to have an honest man amongst them if they have the chusing So that we may conclude that unlesse we arise and destroy these self-seekiâ—g self-created Tyrants and restore our gracious King to his Crown both we and our heirs shall be Slaves to the worlds end for no legal Government can be established without the King I have sufficiently proved that it is unlawfull for Subjects to rebel against evil Kings How much more then is it unlawfull to rebel against a pious and mercifull Soveraign which addeth to the bulk of the sins of our English Rebels For the whole world knoweth that Charls the Martyr whom they so trayterously murthered was the best of Kings and meekest of men He was Charls le bon Charls le grand good in his greatnesse and great in his goodnesse Some have said that a good King cannot be a good Christian but it is proved manifestly false in him for to the admiration of the whole Earth he was the best of Christians and no less to be admired as a good King So that his misfortune in his Government did not proceed from his deficiency in the art of Governing but from the excesse of the Rebels sins who transcended all Traytors since the creation of the world in sin and treachery as far as Hell is distant from the Earth Wherefore we may most truly say that he was murthered only because he was good For every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation if Satan also be divided against himself how shall his Kingdom stand Therfore if the King had been evil these evil Traytors would never have cast him out but seeing he was a pious and Religious King and so an evil Member to their evil Common-wealth They all united their hearts and hands to cut him off and lay to his charge all the Treasons Murthers Rapines Burnings Spoils Desolations Damage and Mischief to this Nation which they themselves committed So Thieves and Murtherers may spoil burn and make desolate all places and Massacre and kill many Noble and trusty Servants to the end they might take their Master and kill him and then having taken him lay all to his charge and execute him as the only Author of all those villanies which they themselves acted and occasioned O heavens Could the Almighty suffer this Why not The Lord made all things for himself yea even the wicked for the day of evil Pro. 16.4 As for our rising Sun Charls the second though hitherto obscured by the foggy mists of Treason and Rebellion in his own Kingdoms yet do the rayes of his sacred Majesty shine throughout the world beside and his renown ecchoeth in every part of the Earth to the admiration of forein Kingdoms and to the envy hatred of the Rebels in his own Yet cannot their malice but marvel at the virtues and patience of their King whom they so much wrong And it grieves them to see that royal progeny whose ruine they so greedily hunt after flourish with such glorious splendour amongst the Kings and Princes of the Earth growing in favour both with God and Man Whilst they odious to all but themselves by their Tyranny and Rebellion incurr the displeasure both of Heaven and Earth and become a Ridiculous Rump The object of the scorn and derision both of Old and Young Rich and Poor And had not these infatuated Rebels brasen faces to deny what their own Conscience telleth them is true They would presently declare that the only way to settle our distractions and restore our Nation to its pristin happinesse and glory were to call in the King and re-establish him in his own which they unjustly pocket from him For so long as there is one of the race of the Stewarts which God long preserve and any forein King or People remain alive we must never look for peace or plenty but as publick Thieves alwayes live in a posture of Warr and ever expect forein Nations to come in and swallow us up Who account it as indeed it is the greatest piece of Justice under the Sun to revenge with our bloods and utter destruction the bloody Murther of Charls the first and the unnatural Banishment of Charls the second our only lawful Soveraign Therefore let all English Spirits who have not washed their hands in the Innocent blood of Charls the Martyr joyn their prayers to God and their Forces to one another and lance this Ulcer and cut off this proud flesh whose growth destroyeth our King Laws and Religion Behold the Duke of York wiâ—l be your leader whose very name striketh terror to the greatest men of Warr and our Rebels tremble to think of his Martial atchievements It is he who will be our Champion to hunt out these treacherous Foxes who Rebel against his King and Brother and then make our Nation dreadful to the Pope and other forein Invaders Therefore let us not dream like Goats whilst we have this Lyon to be our Captain but follow him and destroy these Wolves who make us their continual prey keeping us in Slavery under a false pretence of Liberty and let us obey our King and Father Charls the second who will blesse us with the blessings of Jacob and weed out of our Church and State those Jesuits and Popish Blasphemors who now under the colour of a free State are working and contriving the ruine both of our Laws and Religion And then we shall prosper into a Kingdom Ezekiel 86.13 and once more be a glorious people under so glorious a King which God Almighty speedily grant for the glory of his Holy Name and for the welfare and happinesse of all Christian people Every one knoweth that in 1648. after the long tempest of a horrid VVarr and Rebellion raised by the Refractory and Treacherous House of Commons under a pretence of removing evil Counsellours from the King but in truth only to promote their own private Interests and factious designs The Currish Army who had for a long
time hunted the distressed King and his Royal party pretending to be set on only by their Master Rebels the Commons but it seems they had a game to play of their own which on the sixth of December 1648. they begun to shew And therefore when the Trayterous Commons had obtained what they could ask or desire of their Soveraign then their Prisoner at the Isle of Wight being such Concessions which never any King before him granted nor Subjects ever demanded So that shame compelled them to vote them satisfactory Then the bloody Souldiers thinking themselves lost if the King and Parliament should find a peace went up to the House of Commons and by force kept out and imprisoned those who voted the Kings Concessions satisfactory which the militant Saints pleased to call purging of the House so that body is purged which hath poyson left in it and nutriment taken out of it by the purge yet this purge would not do the Lords must be turned out too and only 40. or fifty packt Members of the House of Commons who had sworn to be as very if not worse Knaves than the wicked Souldiers would have them to be were only left in the House who presently took upon them what power their own lusts could desire or the over-ruling Sword help them to Murthered the King and the chiefest of the Royal Party and yet to colour their Tyranny caâ—led themselves a Parliament by which name blowing up King Lords Spiritual and Temporal and all our Lawes and Religion with them they still Domineer and Rule over us yet not so but that the Army Rule them as the Wind doth a weather-cock turning them which way and how they please sometimes up and sometimes down and no doubt but that shortly they will be cast down for altogether for the wicked shall not last but vanish as a shadow Blessed art thou O Lord when thy King is the Son of Nobles Eccles 10.17 But alas Servants have ruled over us and there is none that doth deliver us out of their hands Lamen 5.8 The Crown is fallen from our head Wo unto us that we have sinned Verse 16. For now they shall say we have no King because we feared not the Lord What then should a King do unto us Hosea 10.3 ENGLANDS CONFUSION OR A True Relation of the topsy turvy Governments in mutable England since the Reign of Charls the Martyr The Tyranny of the Rump further manifested And that we shall never have any setled State untill Charls the second whose right it is injoy the Crown Though frantick Fortune in a merriment hath set the Heels above the Head and gave the Scepter unto the Shrubs who being proud of their new got honour have jarred one against the other during the Interregnum Yet Charls the second shall put a period to this Tragedy and settle our vexed Government which hath changed oftner in twelve years than all the Governments in the whole world besides Oh the heavy Judgment when Subjects take upon them to correct their King AS a distracted Ship whose Pilate the rageâ—ng violence of a tempestuous storm hath cast down headlong from the stern staggereth too and fro amongst the unquiet waves of the rough Ocean somtimes clashing against the proud surly Rocks and somtimes reeling up and down the smoother waters now threatening present Shipwrack and Destruction by â—nd by promising â— seeming safety and secure arrival yet never setled fast nor absolutely tending to the quiet and desired Haven So the vexed Government of frantick England ever since the furious madnesse of a few turbulent Spirits beheaded our King and Kingdom threw down Charls the Martyr our only lawfull Governour from the stern of Government and took it into their unskilfull and unlawfull hands it hath been tossed up and down somtimes falling amongst the lawless Souldiers as a Lamb amongst Wolves or as a glass upon stones and somtimes happening amongst Tyrants calling themselves a Parliament who are so much worse than the Souldiers by how much wickednesse covered with a colour of Justice is worse and more dangerous than naked villanies Yet in all our Revolutions although many gaps have been laid open that way hath not the Government steered its course directly to Charls the second it s only proper right and quiet Haven to which until it come we must never expect to have the Ship of our Common-wealth so secure but that Tempests and Storms will still molest and trouble if not totally ruine it Though it stand so fast one day that it seemeth impossible for humane strength to remove it yet the next day it moultereth away to nothing I vouch every mans experience to warrant this truth And were not our blind Sodomites intoxicated with Senselesse as well as Lawlesse Counsels They would never gape after preferment nor hope for continuance in their imaginary Commonwealth where the greatest one hour is made least the next and they themselves swallow up each the other never having rest or peace no not in their own House And can this divided Monster which is the cause of all our divisions cloze up our divisions and settle our Nation in peace and happinesse 'T is madnesse to think it So fire may quench fire and the Devil who was the first Author of wickedness put an end to all wickedness Examine the condition of the times since the Reign of Charls the first and you may see what times we shall have until the Reign of Charls the second Tyranny and Usurpation Beggery and Slavery Warrs and Murthers Subversion of our Laws and Religions changing the Riders but we must alwayes be the Asses Hunger and Famine Guns and Swords Drums and Trumpets Robberies and Thieveries Fornication and Adultery Brick without Straw Taxes although no bread These must be the voices which will alwayes sound in our Ears untill we cast off this old man of Sin viz. The Long called Parliament and submit as we ought to Charls the second our only lawfull King VVe may read of many Kings who have been suddainly killed by the rash violence of an indiscreet multitude who in the heat of Blood do that which they repent of all their life after mad Fury being the only cause of their unjust Actings But to commit sin with reason and piety to kill their King with discretion formally and solemnly is such a premeditated Murther that the Sun never saw until these Sons of perdition brought it to light For a long time before the fact they machinated and plotted the Kings death and contrived how they might with the best colour and shew of Justice effect it At length as if their Votes were more authentique than all Srcipture they passed amongst others this Vote Die Jovis Jan. 4. 1648. viz. That the People under God were the original of all just power This was the foundation upon which the superstructure of all their murthers and villanies which they call just Judgments were built which granted it consequently followeth that all
their free will and pleasure So that the peoples Representatives must represent these Traytors in all their wickednesse otherwise they shall be no free-Statesmen for they account that Government most for the liberty of the people wherein themselves may have liberty still to continue in their Treason Rebellion and that they call slavery and oppression of the people which would suppresse their wicked and infandous Tyranny All the reason which they can give against Monarchy is because say they many of the people would lose their interests in their new purchased estates and we should be turned out of our possessions and perhaps lose our lives too A good argument indeed if maintained by the Logick of the sword So thieves and murtherers may argue against the Sessions because then perhaps they should lose their stollen goods and be hanged for their murthers and robberies O abominable that English men should degenerate into such impious impudence for this is the truth of their case might they but still have the Kings and Bishops lands which they have gotten by their horrible Treason and Rebellion and be sure to live secure from the punishment which the Law of the Land would inflict upon them they would easily confesse if the Devil have not made them contradictors of all manner of truth that Monarchy is the best of all Governments especially for the English Nation where as one may say it grew by nature until these destroyers of the Lawes of God Nature and the Realm rooted it up and endeavoured to plant their fancied Commonwealth in its room which will grow there when plums grow in the sky or when rocks grow in the air not before as you may see by the small root it hath taken ever since the reign of Charles the Martyr Dig and delve they may yet they will never set it in so fast but that if the right heir do not which God grant he soon may the wind and ambition of some one of their own sect and faction will quickly blow it down as did Oliver the wicked c. As Monarchy is the best sort of all govetnments so the Monarchy of England is the best of all Monarchies and hath in it the perfection and all that is good either in Aristocracy Democracy or Free-State For every one knoweth that Charles the Martyr though a King yet alwayes made himself a subject to his lawes accounting his prerogative safer being locked up in the custody of the law than in the absolutenesse of his own will And what lawes of any Nation in the world did ever maintain the liberty and freedome of the people more than the Kings Lawes of England I may most truly answer none more nor so much for what greater freedome can the people wish for than not to have any lawes imposed on them than what they please and desire The Kings of England never make any law but what the people consent to the Lords and Commons have a Negative voice as well as the King Although the inferiour Members receive all their authority from the head yet cannot the head act without their consent and privity so neither â—oth the King impose any lawes on his subjects without their concurrence and approbation The House of Lords resembleth Aristocracy and the House of Commons Democracy or a free State yet the King like the Sun which doth not diminish its own light by giving light to others continueth stil a royal Monarch and without any Solecism in State I may truly say that the House of Lords did excel Aristocracy and the House of Commons Democracy in preserving the Peoples rights and wel-fare because the necessity of their joyning votes each with the other and both of them with the King in making of a Law did inhibit either of them from having an unlimited arbitrary power which either of them without the other would have and so enslave the People as the House of Commons now do according to their lusts having destroyed their Master the King and the House of Lords their Moderators Whilest the King Lords and Commons like the three Graces joined hand in hand in passing votes approved by this triple touchstone then were our Laws like Gold seven times refined which made our Nation most glorious abroad and to overflow with peace and plenty at home we were then feared not derided by all forein Kings and Princes Religion not Faction then reigned in our hearts and our industry was then to preserve not to destroy Gods Sanctuary But now since the hand hath said to the eye I have no need of thee and the feet to the head I have no need of you the whole body of our Kingdom hath groaned and every Member therof as with a Consumption is wasted and grieved The Crown is fallen from our head and we are become a reproach and hissing amongst all Nations Oh therfore to redeem our credit and long lost happiness Let us all unanimously agree to be loyal Subjects to Charls our King and let all his loyal Subjects pray for and earnestly desire his safe arrival into our England that we may once more eat the Manna of our old Laws and Religion with the sweetnesse wherof we surfeited in the reign of Charls the Martyr Then shall we beat our Swords into plow-shares and our Spears into pruning hookes faction shall not rise up against faction neither shall we learn war any more For if we be willing and obedient we shall eat the good of the Land Isa 1 19. Hor. Concines laetosque dies urbis Publicum ludum super impetrato Fortis Augusti reditu forumque litibus orbum Tum meae si quid loquor audiendum Vocis accedet bona pars O Sol Pulcher O laudande canam recepto Cáesare falix Tuque dum procedis Io triumphe Non semel dicemus Io triumphe Civitas omnis dabimusque divis Thura benâ—s Then shall we sing the publick plays For his return and holy days For our Prayers heard and Law 's restor'd From Rebels Sword Then I if I may then be heard Happy in my regained Lord Will joyn ' i th' close and O! I le say O Sun-shine day The City leading wee 'l all sing Io triumph and agin Io triumph at each turning Incense burning Thus when we have received our gracious Soveraign from his long unnatural banishment what then can the Lord do more for us that he hath not done Wherefore when he looketh that we should bring forth good grapes let us take heed that we do not bring forth wild grapes let us fear God and honour the King and meddle not with them that are given to change as God hath commanded us for if we refuse and rebel we shall be devoured with the Sword for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it and so our last rebellion will be worse for us then the first General Monk hath amply repaired his honour which he lost by pulling down the City Gates and Perculisses and
in stead of proving a Keeper to the Trayterous Keepers he hath approved himself a glorious Dâ—â—ender of our Liberties for which Trophies of honour shall be erected to his eternal renown neither will our King spare heaping of rewards upon his so memorable merits at his return to his own house which the General hath swept for him and turned out them who made it aden of thieves On Tuesday the 21. day of February 1659. a day which deserveth more solemnization than Gunpowder Treason day for then we were delivered from those who only intended to destroy King and Parliament but now we are delivered from those who actually did destroy both King and Parliament and so consequently the whole Kingdome General Monk our famous Patron conducted the secluded Members to the House of Commons where according to their former agreement with the General they voted themselves in a short time to be dissolved and a free Parliament to be elected Now I hope no man will presume to conceive the General so insipid as to think there can be a free Parliament without the King and House of Lords No it is ridiculous to think so for a free Parliament without the King would be but like salt which hath lost his favour thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be troden under foot of men Mat. 5.13 It would be but a Rump fatned and grow bigger For we are all sick of the Kings Evil therefore nothing but the touch of his Sacred Majesties hands can cure us And I may with confidence and truth affirm that every one of that infinite number of people which so much rejoyced at the destruction of the Rump and at the voice of a free Parliament would mourn and cry at their sitting if they do not bring with them the good tidings of restoring their King the hopes whereof only made them rejoyce And indeed they would have more cause to bewail a free Parliaments sitting without the King than the sitting of the Rump for this we may be sure of that the King will come in either by fair means or by soul if by soul that is by war then the war will be greater with a free Parliament and so consequently more grievous to the people than with the Rump because a free Parliament will have greater force and power to levy a war than the Rump and so the combustible matter being more the flame will be the higher But it is Atheism to think that a free Parliament will withstand the King therefore I will not taint my Paper with such detestable words I let fall a blot of ink upon Mr. Prynne's Soverain Power of Parliaments and Kingdomes a Book which I am sure deserves a greater blurre But Mr. Prynne hath since repaired his credit and got the applause of the people by writing for the King and against the Rump and other sectaries Therefore to give him his deserts there is no man in the Nation hath so much merited as himself in pulling down the many Tyrannies over us since the murther of Charles the Martyr He hath been our Champion whose pen hath fought against the scriblings and actings of the Traytors and Rebels for which I shall ever love and honour him and without doubt our Gracious King will sufficiently reward him if he continueth constant in his loyalty which God grant he may And although the Presbyterian held the head of Charles the Martyr to the block by his hair whilst the Independent cut it off yet now I hope the many evils which we have sustained by that royal fall for which he shewed the first play will teach the rigid Presbyter moderation and make him confesse notwithstanding his violent Covenant against that Apostolical constitution of Bishops that Episcopacy is the best form of Church Government and the only way to extirpate and keep down those infinite number of s31y'sects and factions which have taken root and budded since Episcopacy was rooted up and blasted No Bishop No King was the Symbole of our Solomon King James who I think was as wise and as much a Christian as any of our Lay-Elders therefore in vain do the Presbytery think of enjoying Monarchy unlesse they first resolve to lay aside all their schismatical Tenets and stick to Episcopacy For as the same King sayes A Scottish Presbitery and Monarchy agree as God and the Devil Our Soveraign Charls the Martyr in his sacred writings hath so clearly approved and vindicated Episcopacy from the false aspersions of the Presbiterian faction and also laid open the absurdities of Presbitery so fully that it would be arrogance in me to say any thing after him and not only ignorance but impudence in any man to look upon his writings and still remain a Presbiterian Therefore O Heavenly Father asswage the pride and open the Eyes of these rigid Zelots that in seeing they may see and in hearing they may hear and understand and not professe themselves wiser than our Saviour that great Bishop and his Apostles which were Bishops and appointed successive Bishops as you may read in the Epistles of St Paul to Timothy and Titus c. And the Government of Bishops hath been the universal and constant practice of the Church so that as Charls the Martyr writeth ever since the first age for 1500 years not one example can be produced of any setled Church wherein were many Ministers and Congregations which had not some Bishop above them under whose Jurisdiction and Government they were Therefore let not the aspiring currish Presbiterian who would pull down a Bishop in every Diocesse but set up a Pope in every Parish no longer spet venom against the Reverend Bishops And truly I think their grounds are so slender against Episcopacy that if the King would but make them Bishops they would then be as violent for Episcopacy as they are now against it Therefore rest content Presbiter for though not thy deserts yet State Policy may in time make thee a Bishop The Antipodes indeed viz. the Long called Parliament who acted all things contrary to all Law and Religion voted that Bishops should never more vote as Peers in Parliament But why was it not because the Religious Bishops should not withstand their Irreligious and Blasphemous proceedings in Murthering the King Destroying the Church and all our Laws and Religion with them Surely no man can deny but that was the only reason Que enim est respublica ubi Ecclesiastici primum non habeant locum in Comitiis publicis de salute Reipub Deliberationibus For which is that Commonwealth where the Ecclesiastical persons had not the first place in all meetings and publique consultations about the Welfare of the Commonwealth Surely none but the Utopian Commonwealth of these Rebels For it is the practice of all Nations nay the Rebels themselves who voted it unlawful for Bishops and other grave Prelates of the Church to meddle the least in Civil Affairs could approve it in their new
and lawful for the King alone to command money and assistance of his subjects to subdue the Rebels and oppose a forein Navy who are coming to destroy and swallow up both King and people Surely none but a mad-man will deny but that it is most lawful just and the only safety of the people and their estates Indeed as it is the best way for a thief to binde the honest man he doth intend to robb so it is the safest and best way for that Parliament who do intend to murther the King and take away all that he hath to binde the King as fast as they can to take away his Negative voice and all his just praerogatives to make all his legal power whereby he might withstand their violence illegal Nay it is their best way to tye the King up from his meat to make him stand for a Cypher a meer nothing that so they being the predominant figures may chop off his head or do what they list with him as did the long Parliament who from trespass to high Treason against God and the King have omitted no offence undone But their soundest Doctrine will prove but Apochrypha to all honest Parliaments I do confesse that except it be in cases of necessity the King can lay no tallage upon the people without their consent in Parliament and so not shipmoney which in truth is condemned by the Statutes of 25 E. 1 34 E. 1. de Tallagio non concedendo Dangelit Englishty because the King hath restrained his power by his Statutes But if the King could not tax the people with shipmony and other impositions in extraoâ—dinary cases of necessity aa when a forein Enemy doth suddenly invade the Land being invited in by a prevalent faction in a refractory Parliament who would ruine themselves and the whole Kingdom so that they might ruine their King and fulfill their wicked wills who will not grant shipmoney or any thing else to the King lest he should be provided to oppose them and defend himself and the people in safety I say that if in this and such like cases the King may not lawfully lay tallages on the people and command their assistance I had rather be a slave than a King and should account my self the Vassal of the people not their King But in truth the King cannot denude himself of this power nor by any Statute or Law tye himself from it For it is inseparable from the Crown Et quod sceptro inhaeret non potest tolli nisi sublato sceptro And therefore cannot be taken from the King unless the Crown with it which rule the long Parliament have truly verifyed For when they had taken away his chiefest praerogative they could not forbear but presently took off his Crown from his head and then his head from his shoulders Sic transit gloria mundi (e) Aposiopesis est * Omnibus esse Lupos licet in regione Lupoporum Gal. 2.18 If I build again the things which I destroyed I make my self a transgressour * The strifes and divisions now amongst the Rebels do further the Kings Restauration to his own of which they robbed him Vid. Epist 2 part of Soveraign power Inde illis potestas unde spiritus Tertul Apol. pa. 6.5 Co. Lit. 1.12 l. 7.20 4 Inst 1. 1 Inst 110 Bodin de Rep. l. c. 8. Camden in Britan. descript Mat. 26.34 Luke 22 3 4 5 6. Ovem in fronte vulpem in corde gerentes The Nobles which were faithfull to the King they called Evil Counsellers Witness their Oath of Supremacy Dangerous and useless only to their villany Witnesse all their actions Bodin li. 2. ca. 5. King Charles his title had been good to the Crown of England though he had borrowed no part of this Claim from the Conquerour See reverend Heylin's life of King Charles Co. Lit. 1. Who then ought to have the Militia but the King Co. Lit. 108. Co. Lit. 64. Mr. Howels Philanglus â— Inst 25. Summum jus summa injuria Decl. of the Treaty p. 15. 4 Inst 9. Yet forsooth these the Lowest set up the Highest Court viz. The high Court of Justice So Servants may set up a high Court to try and condemn their Mastets Asperius nihil est humili cum suâ—git in altum 4 Inst 11. 5 Eli. ca 1. 4 Inst 8. 4 Inst 2. They are dead Members who do not Davis Irish Rep. so 90. Jer. 6.16 Psal 10.16 29.10.47.2.7.44 4. Cambdens Remains See 2 Chro. 15 17 29 30 31. Isa 49.23 Teste Anglia Bract. fo 1. Justin Institutes Fleta Davis Irish Reports fo 58. Fitz. n. 6.113.233 Calvins case so 7. 19 E. 4.46.22 E. 4. 25 E. 3.2 Leges Auredi ca. 4. Co. Lib. 4.124 See 3 Inst pag. 4. and 6. The People declare for a free Parliament but these Rebels only for themselves Read his incomparable heavenly Book which will make thee weep for our loss but rejoice and admire at his piety Luk. 11.18 See their charge against him Vulgarly called the Secluded Members So he which playeth at Knave out of doors getteth the Knave to beat all the rest of the Cards Our Soveraign Charls must be no King because pious but Oliver must be a King because a Rebel Oh the mystery of their iniquiâ—yâ— Though the Kings Nobility might not yet Cromwels might be a House of Peers Tristius haud illis monstrum nec saevior ulla Pestis ira Deum Slyâ—iis sese extulit undis What pretty names these State Thieys have for their Robberies and Tyranny viz. The titular Parliament Alas not for so good a use I commend you to the History of Independency 11th of February 1659. Cressa ne careat pulchra dies aota Brave for thieves if they might qualifie their Judges But I think they can scarce pick out men enough in England to fill up the House who will admit of their wicked Qualifications To be short saith Comines in mine opinion of all the Seigneuries in the world that I know the Realm of England is the Countrey where the Commonwealth is best governed the people least oppressed and the fewest buildings and houses destroyed in Civil war and alwayes the lot of misfortune falleth upon them that be the Authors of the war Magnae discordia pereunt concordiavalent You may guesse with what a countenance the Rump looked upon them Episcopacy was a bulwork against Popery and other factions Therfore the Papists and the Factions did batter down that to make way for their Sects which they call liberty of conscience (a) Rex (b) O Cromwel (c) Ironice [a] The King O. Cromwel c. Ironice