ordinances The King might as well presse the Commons to consent to what he and the Lords shall thinke fitting because otherwise they void the Parliament for it is of no use if it may not be active without their assent which they resolve not to passe This constitution of the negative voyce in either of the three estates was made in favour of the present governement the goods of which were knowne by experience that no innovation the evills of which are hardly discovered before tryall might be introduced without a joint consent of all three The whole Kingdome is greater then the King Answ If they meane by whole Kingdome both King and people it is very true but nothing pertinent for it onely signifies that the head is not so great as it self and the rest of the body But if they understand as they must if they meane to conclude any thing the body in opposition to their Soveraigne it is false that universitas subjectorum est major Rege The same reason which makes him above one makes him above two and so above ten so ten thousands so ten millions of thousands for their assembling together doth not dispense with their duty of alleagiance many or few alters not the quality of the act an universall revolt from a lawfull Soveraigne is equally Rebellion as a particular defection of one or more Countyes The Orators art is much used in these unhappy times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 misdemeanors were once raised into high Treason and now evident treason is lessened into necessary defence That rhapsody of quotations intituled the treachery and disloyalty of Papists to their Soveraignes c. brings a very merry plea to take them off from being Traytors The stat of the 25 Edw. 3. c. 2. runnes in the singular number if a man shall levy warre against the King c. it ought to be judged high Treason therefore it extends not to the Houses who are many and publique persons p. 31. If he had sadly considered how deeply conscience is ingaged in the present warre against the King he would not have endeavoured to seduce so many into Rebels and make them forfeit their soules upon such pittifull subtilties If forraigners should inquire under what kind of government wee live the answer must be wee live over a King Certainly they will much wonder at the unnecessary humility of the Houses they challenging to themselves superiority as the representative all and conclude them very great Courtiers who in their addresses to the Prince their Subject stile themselves His Majesties most loyall and faithfull Subjects the Lords and Commons in Parliament They will shrewdly suspect if Majesty be His due that Supremacy is so also while Rome was a popular State the supreme dignity being in the people was expressed by majestas populi Romani and after when they had resigned up their power to Emperours it was changed into Augustalis Majestas taken for the person of the Emperour Câ—ubi apud quem l. cum scimus or Imperialis majestas C. de quadriennii praesc I bene à Zenone and so Keyserlich Maiestaet at this day for the German Emperour The custome of petitioning him and such humility in the title of their addresses and the preface suppose it should reach no further yet it cannot be wholely taken of by the imperiousnesse of the matter Some of that side seeme to be scrupled at it and therefore plaine scottish tells you they hold Declarations to be more sutable to the soveraignty of so supreme a Court whose power is coordinate with Princes wee must hold superior then petitions I have proved in a former discourse that the King is supreme head not in respect of single persons but the universitas subjectorum For this is comprehended in body politique compact of all sorts and degrees of people which is sayd to owe next to God a naturall and humble obedience 24 H. 8. c. 12. And it is evident that hee is not the head of this or that man but of all the members in conjunction of the whole body for else he would be the head of millions of bodies and by consequence have as many distinct Kingdoms as particular Subjects It is needlesse to multiply quotations as the 25. H. 8. 21. This your Graces Realme recognises no superior under God but only your Grace or Queene Elizabeths publique declaration that shee had next under God the highest and supreme government and power over all Estates of the Realme of England Ecclesiasticall or Temporall Camd. hist pag. 31. I will summe up the reasons in briefe which prove that the King is not minor universis First if the Houses are above Him He hath no right of Empire upon them because inferior in superiorem non habet imperium but this is false for they are subject by Law to His commands when he bids them come they are bound to come and when he bids them goe they are bound to go that is when he calls them by his Writ they ought to attend praescriptis die loco and he prorogues the assembly or dissolves it when he thinks fitting It is no prejudice to this right that he was graciously pleased to restraine the exercise of it in this present Parliament without their consent to the end those vast debts which were brought upon this Kingdome might be discharged and in order to that good security might be given to such persons as were willing to ingage their estates for the benefit of the common-wealth I will make no advantage by urging their abuse of trust by which they were enabled to take off that great burthen which they have made infinitely more heavy and whereas they might in short time have eased this State our debts hourely grow upon us and the Subjects estates are but the fuell to feed that fire which sensibly consumes this unhappy Nation Notwithstanding they have deceived both King and people yet His Majesty cannot satisfie Himselfe in their Logique and suffer Himselfe to be perswaded he may lawfully reassume His right because they doe contrary to trust Though the perpetuity of this Parliament was never intended and it hath beene of most pernicious consequence yet the King will not allow Himselfe any liberty to dissolve it against law upon most reall good intentions Because the president is full of danger and though in the present case it would be used for the benefit of His people yet hereafter it probably might be abused to their greater disadvantage Secondly the division of all persons in this Land is into King and Subjects liege Lord and liege people and therefore they must be placed in the latter ranke It is a strange phansie to abstract the body politique from all the particulars whereof it is compacted and to salve the Oath of Allegiance by telling us the universe or body politique never swore alleagiance or supremacy to the King neither is it possible it should Reply to answer to
betweene King and people and this violated by him dissolves the compact I have in this discourse punctually examined these and what farther grounds of scruples I could finde in the replyer as will appeare more fully in the following Section Being to answer so many I would not trespasse upon the Readers patience by an exact view of his particular mistakes which might have beene confuted with great ease but with no great advantage to the cause to which I have spoken more closely and as fully as I was able I will discover to him one desperate consequence from his principle which it concernes him to blush and repent for There is a mutuall Covenant betweene King and People and the breach of it dissolves the compact if so his Crowne is forfeited and he ceases to be King de jure upon such violation which he is now charged with because they could not have any colour for taking up Armes but upon this pretence Therefore the plaine conclusion is it is no want of duty in them though they depose him for it is no injury to take away what he can challenge no right to his claime was by vertue of compact which is dissolved by his not standing to conditions and so the bargaine is unmade the bonds of allegiance are broken asunder The Houses have laboured to cleare themselves from this wicked doctrine by telling us the deposition of the second Edward and Richard was not to be numbered amongst the presidents of Parliament and that no free Parliament ever attempted the like and yet a private man dares publish such manifest Treason I am perswaded that the Author supposing a breach of covenant of His Majesties part and then telling us such a breach dissolves the compact was not fully apprehensive that this pernitious principle unkings his Soveraigne When he sees his treasonable errour he will finde that Logick ill managed is a more dangerous weapon then a sword in the hands of mad men To returne to further proofes of the Kings supremacy Kings supremacy further proved That which makes a State one is the union of supreame power and this according as it is placed in one or more persons gives denomination to the forme so that all those Acts of Parliament which confesse this a Monarchy are so many solid testimonies of the Kings supremacy The Answer is Though this be demonstrably true in an absolute Empire yet it concludes not in a mixt Monarchy I am very confident a mistake of this mixt Monarchy hath engaged many well-meaning men against the King to the overthrow of our Lawes which the simpler part are perswaded they fight for Honestâ voluntate rebelles sunt there are some who contribute their forces to destroy this Kingdome in behalfe of the Common-wealth The true meaning of that which is called a mixt Monarchy and they are so farre deceived as to be made unhappy instruments to advance private interests with publique hearts And therefore it will be necessary to discover their errour by which their unfortunate Country hath suffer'd as much as by the saults of others They have not any shadow of excuse to countenance their Rebellion from this distinction unlesse mixt Monarchy doe signifie either that the people in their diffusive body or by their representatives have a greater or at least an equall power with the King The reason of which is because inferiours by the acknowledgement of all have not any jurisdiction over superiours and equalls though they have not imperium right to governe yet if injur'd and they require satisfaction and upon denyall of it attempt to compasse it by force they are esteemed by the Law of Reason and Nations just enemies whereas Subjects if they make warre upon their Soveraigne though when wronged are worthily accompted Rebels First the diffusive body of the people hath not greater nay not equall power with the King because they have not any legall way of expressing themselves Our Lawes determine it Treason to enter into any association or raise a Warre without the Kings consent and much more against his expresse commands Secondly the representative body hath not greater nor equall power with the King The same argument overthrowes their claime for the people cannot authorize them to doe beyond what themselves were enabled to therefore if actions of this nature were unwarrantable in the diffusive body they are so in the representative Representative Body is not the People to all purposes It may be not unfit to observe that the representative body is the people onely to some ends and purposes whereto they were intrusted by them according to Law and therefore no illegall ordinances such as all those are which the King denyes to ratifie ought to be called the Acts of the people They are no more concerned in it then if they should take upon them contrary to Law to stampe and coyne money with the inscription of Senatis populúsque Anglicanus or to send Ambassadors or denounce warre against or enter into a League of friendship with forreigne Princes or bestow the great offices of State or dispose of Wardships or take to themselves a power to raise Armes without His Majesties consent Againe because they represent the people but to some purposes onely though their principles were firme as they are extreamely weake that the King is lesse then His Subjects conjunctim and that they collectively are more honourable then He c. yet they bring not the conclusion home to the two Houses Because it doth not appeare and they had no reason to take it for granted that the two Houses which they call the Parliament are the people in this consideration A Jury is the representative people as experience teaches and we may finde it in Sir Thomas Smith l. 2. c. 26. The legall answer to that interrogatory How will you be tryed is Dei populique judicio by God and my Country and the Clerke of the Sizes replyes Ecce tibi hi probi viri populum repraesentant and the Sophistry would be easily discovered if we should argue they are therefore more honourable then the King We may take notice also that their arguments are onely capable of concluding for the House of Commons and if they follow the necessary consequences of them they must maintaine the Lower is above the Upper House for the Lords sit onely in personall capacities being inabled thereto by the prudence of our Lawes which thought it reasonable they should have as great a share in the government as a negative voyce came to because they injoyed such ample revenues that they were likely not to agree to any thing prejudiciall to the present setled State I shall prove more fully in the next Section that those who represent Subjects and that but to some purposes and not the King to any for this would overthrow that fundamentall constitution of three distinct Estates cannot be equall to much lesse above their Soveraigne And that groundlesse invention which denyes subordination and introduces
Armes then twenty if twenty be accused and then a hundred then a thousand then ten thousand if ten thousand be accused and so more or lesse as occasion serves for there is the same reason for two as for one for a hundred as for twenty for a thousand as for a hundred and take away this power from the Parliament and 't is no longer a Parliament But the King and His Forefathers have by Law setled these Liberties of Parliament and therefore according to Lawes they have ae power to send for by force those that are accused to be tryed before them which they cannot doe unlesse they raise an Army when the accused are kept from them by an Army Master Bridge in his Wound consci pag. 6. Answ First the House of Commons is no Court of justice it hath indeed by speciall priviledge for it's better regulation power over it's owne members to imprison or turne out and this power though at any time abused against justice and equity and contrary to the trust reposed in them both by King and people as if men should be committed for delivering their opinions freely because their reason was not so happy as to concurre with the sense of the House which may possibly be the passions of the major part or if some should be accused and others past by though of knowne guilt in the very same particulars as having an hand in monopolies c. and so not the cause but the person he made the measure of right wrong yet this misused authority hath the effects of justice and right makes the act legally valid But the House of Commons hath no jurisdiction over those who are without except at most in case of breach of Priviledge it cannot judge or condemne any no not so much as examine upon oath so that the argument is the Parliament that is the House of Lords as the highest Court of justice may legally raise an army without the consent nay against the command of the King it concludes too without the consent and if they please against the expresse will of the Commons declared to the contrary This doctrine once since this Parliament sate would not have been so pleasing to the lower House that they would have taken care for printing it by Order from their Committee There was a time when one of this House professed openly he hoped to see that skie fall too and the Lords were put in minde they sate but in personall capacities whereas Knights were shires and Burgesses were townes and Cities and therefore it was thought fit to give them warning and to admonish them to take heed how they thwarted the representative Kingdome Secondly by the same reason Judges of inferiour Courts out of Parliament at least may raise an army to fetch in delinquents if the framers of this objection had consulted with those Sages they would have better instructed them in the lawes In cases of such high consequences it was the custome of the House of Peeres to advise with these Oracles to take directions from them at least to know their opinion and the reasons of it because they had employed their whole time and studies to finde out the true meaning of the lawes Thirdly To discover their mistake and the inconsequence of the argument There is the same reason for twenty as for one and so for an hundred for a thousand for an army c. The reason is not the same because when a few are sent out the administration of justice doth not indanger the common peace But because a warre doth put the whole Kingdome in manifest perill of being ruined therefore when either reall delinquents or pretended to be so are so many as to make the tryall doubtfull the liberty and right of inferiour Magistrates to fetch them in by force is in this case restrained by expresse lawes which provides very prudently that no warre shall be made except authorized by the supreame governour And therefore also the lawes permit the King to pardon all offences against his crowne and dignity supposing he will doe it as sometimes out of goodnesse of nature so sometimes out of the strength of his understanding because not mercy only but wisedome and prudence may prevaile with him to forget offenders when they are so potent that the uncertaine punishment of nocents for the worst cause may prevaile as in the case of the tribe of Benjamin so Victrix causa Deis placuit sed victa â—atoni must be bought with the unavoydable destruction of many innocent and gallant persons Wherefore Serjeants at armes and officers may be sent by the House of Peeres and consequently by Judges of inferiour Courts and ordinary Justices to force delinquents to appearance though their crime ought to be specified for to call them malignants or delinquents is no legall charge if they be not so many as that they make such resistance as cannot be punished without an Army for a civill warre endangers all and begets more faults then it punishes and therefore the lawes referre the ordering of the common-wealth to him who is supreme least inferiour magistrates violently carried on should out of indiscreet zeale to justice expose the Kingdome to contributions plunderings and thousand remedilesse injuries more greivous then those they seeke to punish Exc. Warre against the person of the King is not resistance of the higher power but warre against his authority only Buchanan right Non igitur hîc Paulus de iis qui magistratum gerunt agit sed de ipso magistratu h. e. de functione officio eorum qui alis praesunt dial de jur reg Answ This separation of the officer from the office which hath created bella plusquam civilia the King in this army fighting against himselfe in the opposite army is made without all colour or shadow of reason for though the authority of the King be some times where his person is not yet his person cannot be where his authority is not This is evident by the 25. Edw. 3. c. 2. which makes it Treason to compasse the Kings death by which must be meant to endeavour his personall ruine because Regall authority never dyes in England I have shewed formerly that by not resisting powers is meant not resisting persons invested with such power For when Saint Paul hath forbid to resist the power he explaines it by adding a reason drawne from the persons in authority to encourage them to obedience for Rulers are not a terror to good workes and so after for they are Gods Ministers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the masculine gender which cannot be applyed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might leave no ground of scruple but plainly instruct us that honour is due to their persons and that all resistance to their persons is sinne because of their authority Saint Peter is as cleare Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours
which States are setled overthrowne if the people be made Judges of their safety and allowed to use any meanes which they fancy conducing thereto without any consideration of the ground-workes Populi salus suprema lex is the Engine by which the upper roomes are torne from the foundation and seated upon fancy onely like Castles in the aire For the safety of the people is really built upon governement and this destroyed the other non jam aedes sed cumulus erit will be soone swallowed in the common confusion but this is evidently and demonstrably ruined by these principles For government is an effect not of a people 's divided naturall powers but as they are united and made one by civill constitution so that when we call it supreame power we impose an improper name and have given occasion for mistakes yet I shall not endeavour to alter the common use of speaking but onely to prevent a misunderstanding of it because indeed this power is simply one and when it doth expresse it selfe by one person or more according to different formes who yet are but severall parts of one governour there is not left in the Kingdome or Common-wealth any civill that is any legall power which can appeare in resistance because all of them have bound their naturall hands by a politique agreement Hence it followes those that will allow any power to Subjects against their ruler let it be Liberty to resist those in whom the Law places jus gladis the right of the sword destructive to the very nature of governement one man or many united by one common forme which is the consent of the major part and this is not capable of division do thereby dissolve the sinewes of government by which they were compacted into one and which made a multitude a people and so breake the Common-wealth into as many peices as they have set up opposers against it For there cannot be two powers and yet the Kingdome remaine one This is that which distinguishes Francs and England and Spaine from one another because they have three powers legally distinct and are the same in relation each to other as three particular men meeting in some wildernesse and considered as not having agreed to any Lawes of Society I am fully perswaded no sober man can imagine the policy of this State is so defective as to open a necessary way to its owne ruine that is to divide the Kingdome legally in it selfe and therefore it must necessarily be granted those that take up armes being not authorized so to do by law are guilty of rebellion and the consequences of it murder and rapine It is very easy to determine whom the Law hath armed with power because not any part of the people not the two Houses but the King alone is sworne to protect us which is an evident argument he is enabled to effect this end and that the necessary meanes to compasse it which is the posse regni is at his disposall By these generalls throughly digested and rightly applied we shall be able to rule particular decisions I shall desire one thing especially may be remembred as which hath great influence upon all cases Though what is truly the right of any one doth not cease to be so naturally by anothers sentence to the contrary yet after positive constitutions upon a Judges decision he can challenge no title to it because by his owne deed and consent he passeth it away in that judiciary determination And equity and prudence both dictate that it was a most honest and reasonable agreement as conducing to publique peace and the quiet of mankind that persons publikely constituted and more unconcerned in the decisions should put an end to all debates Because otherwise the controversie was not likely to be ended but with one of the parties For each man out of naturall favour the strongest corruptive of judgement inclining to his owne Interest there was nothing left but force to determine it There cannot be a more unhappy administration of Justice then when strength is made the measure of right and when all Iudges are bribed as passing sentence to their owne advantage §. 1. THe following Section shall be spent in proving the proposition by which the consciences of all Subjects must be directed It is unlawfull to resist him or them in whom the supreame authority that is all the legall power of the Kingdome is placed and no dispensation grounded upon what persons soever as inferiour Magistrates or upon any cause as the extreame abuse of this power to their oppression can excuse such resistance from the sin of rebellion Upon this pillar not onely monarchy stands firme but all other governements are equally supported the generall reason being applicable according to the difference in severall formes In the third Section I will bring the case home to our selves by proving this assumption The King of England hath this supreame power and then I shall leave it to every mans conscience to inferre the conclusion therefore it is unlawfull to make resistance against their Soveraigne In the fourth Section I will answer all the evasions how plausibly soever founded which I could meete with in the severall writings of those men who though they strike at the King downe right and more immediately yet by plaine and evident cousequences they destroy all civill society By way of conclusion I will shew though such a power of resistance as they or any others have yet openly pleaded for should be granted lawfull as when in their owne defence or when he that hath the highest authority and is bound by the law of God and his owne oath to administer justice equally yet after frequent representations of their grievances and most just Complaints of their great sufferings affords no redresse yet this can be no justification of the present warre against the King nor acquit the Actors in it from being rebels Because this case is evidently not now as will appeare after a view taken of the causas of this unnaturall and illegall division The proposition to be proved is It is unlawfull to resist him or them in whom the supreame authority that is all the legall power of the Kingdome in order to raise armes is placed and no dispensation grounded upon what persons soever as inferiour magistrates or upon any cause as the extreame abuse of this power to their oppression can excuse such resistance from the sin of Rebellion I make no question every man will apprehend that by resistance here Differences betweene not obeying against law and hostile resistance to a lawfull Soveraigne is meant only hostile opposition and not a refusall to put unjust commands measured by divine or humane laws in execution for the truth is if they are or seeme repugnant to Gods law for then they are so really in respect of those who have that apprehension idem est esse apparere in this case of good and bad because whatsoever is not of
place him It is high time to make particular application of the former discourse concerning the originall of government and by a distinct state of it to give light to all which followes Non est potestas nisi à Deo True state of government in generall with application to that of this Kingdome saith the Apostle Rom. 13. There is no power but of God that is the right by which the Magistrate governes and all the jurisdiction he exercises is derived from divine ordinance This may be conveyed either immediately as amongst the Jewes when God designed the person which now no State will pretend or else mediante populi consensâ—… the consent of the people intervening and this two wayes either by a free election upon hopes from his extraordinary goodnesse or by conquest attended with a voluntary submission upon feares from his extraordinary power that he may be willing to protect who was able to injure whether of these motives presented the person is not certaine in the first times but it is cleare their Empire was absolute I exclude not the bounds of justice according to the Lawes of right reason and equity usually knowne by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which arbitria principum pro legibus erant Though this continued long in the world and the Easterne people enjoyed a great measure of happinesse under it and therefore with great reason to use the expression of Tacitus addictè admodum regnabantur they were subject most devoutly yet the sense of some sufferings as the fate of humane things is interwoven with a mixture of good and evill suggested a remedy which was to bound his power within the limits of positive Lawes From hence proceeded the different qualifications of Regall power in severall Kingdomes Some though restrained by Lawes yet were truly Monarchs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being not responsable for any breaches as supreame though not absolute others had the name and title of Kings only but were subject to a superiour jurisdiction as Theseus to the people the Spartan Kings to the Ephori It is not necessary to determine that question whether the frequent debates about the not observation and the breaches of these agreements which a discontented part of the people challenging the liberty of being Judges in this case and the King thinking he had as much right did produce civill warres and most unnaturall distractions have not heretofore and will probably hereafter make States more unhappy then they were even in their worst times and when they suffer'd most under the abuses of one mans power whilest there was though sometimes an unjust yet alwayes a certaine way of ending controversies when a sentence if it did not finde yet made a right and res judicata pro veritate accipiebatur To decide this I say is not altogether necessary because the obligations which lye both on King and people have their strength from this not that he might better governe the people in such or such a way but because this particular government is established by the consent of both parties their wills give the forme to the regiment and not the conveniences of it To come nearer home and grant as much as reasonable men and those which understand the nature of government can require For I thinke they doe ill service to the cause though with good affections who out of a desire to make it more firme and stronger place it upon any other then the naturall foundation and that which is onely fit to support it and take the rights which God gave to the Kings of Judah for the measure of all regall authority which if they were all Kings would have equall power but this evidently varyes according to different Lawes and is more or lesse according to severall constitutions That which is pleaded for in this discourse as common to them and our Kings is onely jus regni the right of Monarchy not to be accomptable to any inferiour jurisdiction I shall not deny a Kingdome may be so constituted but then it is no Monarchy that upon a reall breach of such or such conditions named in the compact and a forfeiture being expressed the sword of Justice may be taken up by some Magistrates appointed by law as the Ephori amongst the Lacedaemonians or by the people as at Rome when the last appeale did legally lye unto them for it did not alwayes as when a Dictator was created he was the whole people for six moneths and though the time of his reigne was limited his power was not bounded he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accomptable to none for what he did in his regency no not when a private man again and so under the Emperours as appeares by the Lex Regia quoted by Vlpian which transferred all the peoples power upon him L. quod D. de constit prin A mistake upon this hath seduced so many of the Kings Subjects into Rebellion For because it is made appeare a State may be so established and they are induced to beleeve it is more reasonable it should be so established upon these premises they conclude most inconsequently that our State is so established and in the strength of this fight against His Majestie and did their best to kill Him contrary to Gods ordinance applyed to our civill constitutions and repugnant to their owne oath in which they swore to be loyall in reference to His Person and that they would defend His life with their utmost power That a Kingdome may be so established a considering man will not gainsay If the State of Venice should call their Duke King this new name would not convey any new power into him Election or succession cannot rule the case for an elective Kingdome may be conferred absolutely as will appeare in the Roman Empire and a successive may be subject to forfeiture if this be exprest in the Covenant For succession is not a new title to more right but a legall continuance of what was first gotten 2. That it is more reasonable so to establish a Kingdome that the Prince shall be accomptable to a higher power either placed in some Magistrates or in the people and then by the way it is not a Monarchy but either an Aristocracy or a popular State though this be very false yet if it were true it cannot justifie this warre now undertaken as things are ordered in this Land against the King Because Policy is no dispensation against observing knowne Lawes and we may not destroy our Governours out of reason of State Machiavell must not give Law to the Gospell If we might challenge such liberty there were not such a thing as Justice our oaths would be of no force against Interest profit should be the measure of our actions and we must conclude all right what ever was advantageous Since then not such persons as they could better fancy but those onely whom the Law hath consided in and enabled to that end can put Armes into the
have small reason to challenge a priviledge of breaking all Lawes by vertue of that paramount Law populi salus when as their unwarrantable courses ventured on in order to the safety of the people doe manifestly conduce even the People being Judges and repenting their former folly to the poverty slavery and ruine of all It remaines I lay downe my promised conclusion of the whole that notwithstanding such a power of resistance as they or any others have yet openly pleaded for should be granted lawfull as when in their owne defence or when he that hath the highest authority and is bound by the Law of God and his owne promise or oath to administer justice equally after frequent representations of their grievances and most just complaints of their great sufferings affords no redresse yet this can be no justification of the present warre against the King nor acquit the Actors in it from being rebells Because this case is evidently not now The Armes taken up against the King were not as is pretended defensive nor in maintenance of any thing which the Subject can challenge as of right If we call to minde that unhappy time This warre offensive of the Subjects part when His Majesty forced to preserve himselfe by flying the City that he might be free at least by absence from the scornes and dangers of unreprehended I will not say encouraged tumults was immediately accused to have rebelled against himselfe At Kingston upon Thames and was furnished with an Army by Vote when he had not so much meanes left him as could honestly feed his family and it was Ordered that this formidable Hoast should be apprehended by the ordinary Ministers of justice in that County if our memories will but render a faithfull accompt of this contempt harder to be digested then the former popular fury wee may perceive their behaviour towards him was a sufficient confutution of their feares of him They told the people they were afraid of His power and yet answered their owne jealousies by shewing to the world they were able to take it from Him He was so farre from being in a condition to invade their rights He had not wherewith to defend His owne His inability to revenge indignities was so notorious they durst be even wanton in abusing Him When He wooed them in that gracious Message from Windsor His yeelding so much did but tempt them to use greater rigour Nothing would satisfie unlesse he would make their votes the measure of His obedience for what priviledge had they above private Counsellors if their advice should not sway with Him more then reason when He requested them onely to make knowne what was wanting to the Kingdomes happinesse and He would chearefully supply it they thinke it losse of time to represent particular defects but put him into such a way as will effect it to be guided in all things as they shall direct that is to let them manage His Royall power who knew better how to governe Because He will not submit to their blanke desires by confessing His Vote to be legally involved in their Orders nor resigne up that power which the law hath intrusted Him with and which cannot be separated from the Crowne without dissolution of this government and therfore He is obliged both in justice and honour to preserve it as the necessary meanes whereby He is inabled to protect His people Because I say He will still be King and not part with those Rights which God and the Law gives Him they will dispense with their duty of being Subjects and challenge a priviledge to take away those Rights which He will not when petitioned fairely deliver After this he retires to Yorke onely desirous to live safely and contented to suffer such an eclypse of glory till such time as the abused people should recover their understandings and these clouds should be dispelled by a cleare apprehension of His innocence and undeserved sufferings Thither the storme pursues Him His Rents are stopped that He might become a burthen to the Northerne people and that they might be tempted to part with Him with as much cheerfulnesse as they would be rid of the poore of their County Commissioners were pickt out and sent amongst them to incense the lesse knowing and to awe the more honest party from receiving their naked Soveraigne into their protection The dangers they would incurre by their perverse loyalty are laid open They will certainely be Voted high Malignants and notorious Delinquents if they frustrate the pretended Parliaments injustice by their charity for to what purpose did they take his revenues from him if others should be allowed to give Him sufficient wherewith to cloth and feed Himselfe Though such order was taken by seizing His demaines He should not live amongst them as a King yet the sweetnesse of His private and familiar conversation with them made Him an extreamely popular Gentleman And therefore misdoubting a generall defection to obedience upon tryall of so great goodnesse which increased with their injuries and finding the people not able to conceale their love of His extraordinary virtues openly betraying an honest pity of their much wronged Master they thought it necessary to give law to their feares by usurping His power and exercising it in their oppression whom unwary respect towards their Soveraigne had made suspected for loyall Subjects Accordingly all His Arms and those of the Kingdome besides least the people should prevent their own wrongs by a timely revenge of His are seized on they possesse themselves of His Forts Castles Townes and Navy After such unparalell'd usurpations Regall power being invaded by private hands a small Guard of honest York-shire gentlemen attend the King for His Personall safety not knowing where their injuries would stop for the bonds of law being once shaken off their power to oppresse or ruine was as unbounded as their will by the same justice He was kept out of Hull they might have kept him in what Village what House what Prison they pleased This Guard of a much smaller number then they had kept together many Moneths was scornfully Voted an Army and Commissions are illegally issued out to raise Forces to suppresse this second Warre made by the King upon Himselfe The publique motive was feare of violence intended by His Majesty the private encouragement to lesse forward Souldiers was the Kings inability to make the least opposition An Army is levyed against Him upon publique pretence of His strength and perswaded to march against Him upon their private assurance of His weaknesse Thousands are listed not to fight but travell and are promised to know nothing of warre besides the wages but to injoy the security and delights of a progresse After all this to prevent effusion of bloud and these visible calamities which the wild ambition of a few men hath pull'd upon their unhappy countrey He twice sues for Peace in those most gracious Messages from Nottingham with offer of such large