to a Multitude of Tyrants and the dreadfull events if the Tyrants do not restore the King to his own again The murder of the late King Charles is proved to be most illegal and how the Rebels use the liberty of the people only as a Cloak for their wickednesse and their Knavery discovered in pretending the supreme power to be in the people whereas they use it themselves and so Tyrannize over us The Laws of England described and proved that our Soveraign Charles the 1. was unjustly killed against the Common Law Statute Law and all other Laws of England WE have already clearly proved that Kings are by Divine institution that they have their power from the Heavens and not from terrestrial men and that their power is above the people and Laws We are now come to see whether the people the Kings subjects have power to destroy and put assunder that which God hath thus created and joyned together It is a sound conclusion which naturally and of necessity floweth from the premisses that they have not and having shewed 1. That God made the first King Adam in Paradise 2. That there he received his regal power from God not from the people And 3. That there he arbitrarily made Laws according to his will where he had reigned a Monarch for ever as Divines hold had not he transgressed Let us now see what became of him after his transgression for King Adam did transgress and he must give an account of his Stewardship But to whom must he give his account To man he cannot for the King hath no superiour on earth Therefore he must to God who in the 19 th verse of Gen. cap. 2. challengeth his praerogative And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him Where art thou No sooner did Adam hear God call but he presently gave an account of himself saying verse the 10. I heard thy voyce in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid my self Where note That God taketh an account chiefly of the king for his subjects offences The king is Gods Steward and God will reckon with him God sent him from Paradise out of the garden of Eden to till the ground Therefore that he may make a good account he must Parcere subjectis debellare superbos cherrish the flowers and root up the weeds He must be a nursing Father to his loyal subjects but he must batter down the swelling pride of Traytors The true Protestant Religion must florish as the best flowet in his Garden But the Anabaptists Independents Presbyterians Papists Jesuits and other wicked Sectaries must be pulled up as weeds lest they overspred and choak the good flower They must be extirpated by the root whilest they are young lest theâ— grow up and seed and their seed be sowen up and down in the whole World He must set the Bishops again in their natural soyl which is now grown over with these weeds and rubbish That that stone which these new builders refused may become the head stone of the Corner and the Bishops Lands which they did not refuse must be given to the Church again The Common Prayer Book now rejected as fit for none but the use of Papists He must bring in and make those Papists read it who now reject it as Popery for no other cause but that there is no Popery in it He must turn the Horses and other unclean beasts out of his Sanctuary now made a Stable St. Pauls c. and put in holy Bishops and reverend Pastors in their room And since our Saviour hath commanded it He must make the Lords Prayer current amongst us That our Ministers may leave off piping what they list and pipe the true tune which the Lord of life the best Musician taught them that all Gods people may dance For how can we dance when the instrument is out of order and the wrong tune is piped Good God! what a superstitious and Papistical age do we live in when we account it superstition and Popery to say the Lords Prayer the Common Prayer the ordinary means of our salvation O blessed Iesus Hast not thou commanded us not to use vain repetitions But when we pray to pray thus Our Father c Dost not thou know what we want better than our selves and hast thou not prescribed us a set form of prayer to ask it with And shall we cast thy prayer behind our backs and presume to come before thee without it are we wiser than the Lord of life or is there any nearer way to Heaven than that which he hath taught us shall we present the Lord with our own husks and trample on the Manna which he hath prepared for us Is there any other spirit to teach us to pray than the Spirit of the Lord which taught us in his Gospel When we petition to any of our superiours on earth then we premeditate and cull out filed and curious words worthy of his personage But when we should pray to the Almighty then any thing which lyeth uppermost is shot out at him like water out of a squirt and what pleaseth our foolish phantasies that we pretend to be the Spirit of the Lord. O God arise vindicate thy own cause Let not the soul of thy Turtle Dove be given into the power of the wicked For how is the Mother reviled by her Children and it grieveth thy servants to see her stones lye in the dust But rege venienti hostes fugierunt It is Gods Steward otherwise called Stewart with must remedy all this He must turn our spears into pruning hooks and our swords into plow-shares and so consequently our sword-men into plow-men The love of his Subjects must be the Magazine of his Artillery and their Loyally and obedience must be their chiefest good and honour O fortunatos nimium sua sâ— bona norint O happy multitude if they did but know their summum bonum their chiefest good which is loyalty and due obedience to their Soveraign For he will not break the Charters of their Corporations nor invade their rights and liberties He will not distrain for excessive Taxes nor impose great burdens on his Subjects The Law shall be to him as the apple of his eye and the true Protestant Religion as his dearest heart Learning shall florish and the Vniversities shall not be destroyed He will not murder the Prophets nor massacre the Citizens before their own doors He will not contrive plots with his Impes and Emissaries to catch honest men with their estate Justice shall run down the streets like streams and peace shall make the Land flow with milk and honey Every man shall eat the fruits of his vineyard under his own vines and enjoy the presence of his family with the absence of a Souldier He will not build up his throne with bloud nor establish his royal state with lyes and dissembling Flatterers will he abandon from his Court and those who keep other mens estates
He Prayed that if he must perish by the Sword that he might perish by the Sword of the Lord viz. the Pestilence and doubtless the Pestilence is a harmless dove if compared to the raging violence of lawless man For who can without horror think what cruel torments and hideous tortures bloudy Tyrants have invented for the punishment of poor Innocents I will not stain my paper with their names being so well known and so ill practised Audax omnia perpeti gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas Nothing comes amiss to them Take a view of the preceding ages and you shall finde some Caines some bad in the best of times no garden without some weeds no roses without some thorns and no field without some tares But take a glimpse of our age and without the help of Spectacles you may see our scarlet sins swiming upon the red Sea of Martyrs blood in every street The whole field is grown over with briers and thistles and all are become abominable there is none that doth good no not one Vir bonus sapiens qualem vix reperit unum Millibus e cunctis hominum consultus Apollo If Diogenes had the Sun to be his Candle and the eyes of the whole world to be his Lanthern he could not finde amongst us the man he lookt for so many ages since All such are become Exuls though not exleges And since we meet with an Exul in the way Let us salute him by his proper name and first describe what he is not and then what and who he is Ovidius Omne solum forti patria est ut piscibus aequor Et volucri vacuo quicquid in orbe patet Though many good and prudent men by the fierce Tyranny of others are forced from their native soil and hunted from place to place like the panting Hart by the multitude of raging hounds yet will they not own the name of Exuls but Travellers esteeming it the part of a pusillanimous Spirit not to make every part of the world their Country and account the whole world as one city Such was Camillus and Marcellus and many other antients whom time and paper would fail me here to Catalogue But I need not rip up antiquity for such examples enough and one too many doth our iron age afford But as little birds though hatched in as little nests make all the earth their habitations so wise and valiant men account the whole world as their private dwelling Fools are banisht in their own Country wise men are in their own Country though banisht and by their travels obtain such learning as if their banishment had been their Vniversity so much for what an Exul is not Let Cicero who best could tell you what and who he is and least you should mistrust that I belye him For Fugiere pudor verumque fidesque In quorum suliere locum fraudesque dolique Insidiaeque vis amor sceleratus habendi Shame truth and faith depart Fraud enters ignorant in no bad art Force treason and the love of wicked gain Is the motto of our times The Father cannot believe his Son nor the Son his Father he is wisest that can forge the most beneficial lies and lies are become the ammunition of our age Therefore hear him in his own Dialect Omnes scelerati impii quos leges exilio affici volunt exules sunt etiamsi solum non mutant All wicked and impious persons which deserve banishment by law are exuls Though they continue upon their native Country Sure I am they are exleges But since there are many in the world that are driven from their own native soil whose virtue will not suffer them to esteem it a banishment but rather a tryal to exercize their fortitude Yet confident I am as an unfaigned lover whose Mistress hath abandoned him from her presence whereby he contemneth her because shee contemneth him yet if once shee open her pleasant arms to receive him forgetting all her former injuries he presently imbraceth her and is capable of no greater joy so they who are so exiled would willingly return if their hard-hearted Country would once receive them For Nescio qua natale solum dulcedine cunctos Ducit immemores non sinit esse sui Home is home though it be never so homely Therefore let all those who labour with this disease of banishment apply themselves to reverend Petrack de exilio where they may finde an Antidote let their malady be of what nature soever And since the Physitian is so learned his Physick so good and the disease so obvious behold the Physitian and his patient arguing together assuming the names of Dolor and Ratio and first the Physitian Ratio Terra patris domus est nostri communis inqua Sedibus a patriis exulat omnis homo Dolor Exilio pellor injusto R. Quid tu igitur justo pelli malles exilio Nempe quod ad injuriae cumulum ais in diversum trahitur habes enim injusti exilii solatium comitem Justitiam quae injustos cives destituens te sequuta tecum exulat D. Injusto exilio pulsus sum R. An te rex expulit an Tyrannus an populus an hostis an tu ipse Nam si rex aut injustum exilium non erit aut ipse non justus at que ita nec rex quidem Si Tyrannus ab illo te pulsum gaude sub quo boni existant fures imperant Si populus moribus ille suis utitur bonos odit hic quoque multiceps Tyrannus nunquam sui similem pepulisset Non te igitur patria sed malorum caetibus arceri neque in exilium sed in partem bonorum civium cogi putes At si hostis agnosce injuriae levitatem non hostiliter saeviit qui omnia cum possit patriam abstulit spem reliquit Sui tu ipse mores populi peresus aut Tyranni abitum elegisti non modo te doleas sed etiam gloriare virtutem patriae praetulisse non tu flebilem sed honestam prorsus invidiosam bonis atque optabilem non jam exilii sed absentiae causam habes sponte Pythagoras Samon liquit Athaenas Solon Romam Scipio D. Depellor patria R. Pulsum te pessimiâ— optimis insere neque te patria sed patriam te indignam rebus proba Sentiat illa quid perdidit Tu nihil perdidisse sentias mali cives tui odio simulque praesentis odio ac suspitione careant boni autem amore absentis ac desiderio teneantur sequanturque oculis atque animis abeuntem illi se solos linqui doleant D. Mittor in exilium R. Immo in experimentum tui videris quem te in exilio praebeas si succumbis exul verus si consistis exilio clarus ut multi olim qui invicti fulgidi per asperitates incesserunt ut sequentibus rectum iter ostenderent Sine Tyrannos saevire sine populum furere sine hostes ac
enemies caused four Kings taken prisoners to draw his triumphal Chariot wherein one of them looked back with smiles to the wheel of the Chariot and being demanded his reason for it answered That he smiled to see the spoak of the wheel now at the top to be presently at the bottome and again that which is now at the bottome to be by and by at the top Which when the King heard considering the mutability of all earthly things his haughty spirit was not a little mollfiied These relations I thought good here to insert that the mighty and dreadful men of the world who have got the power of the Sword into their own hands taking Cyrus for their example whose example will be no disgrace for them to follow though he was a King for he was likewise a valiant Souldier might not exercise Tyranny over their vanquished enemies especially over their own fellow subjects Cain purchased little honour by the murder of his brother Abel Though the Heathens appeared as glorious as the Sun at their triumphs after the conquest of a forraign enemy yet mourning was their habit instead of triumph after a victory obtained in a civil war when two Noble men were convicted for affecting and aspiring to the Empire of Titus Vespasianus he proceeded no farther against them than to admonish them to desist and give over saying that Soveraign Power was the gift of Destiny and Divine Providence If they were Petitioners for any thing else he promised to give it unto them For Melius est servare unum quam occidere mille It is better to save one then to kill a thousand is a saying worthy to be written in letters of gold but more worthy to be put in practise O blessed Conqueror that is thus qualifyed O blessed prisoner that hath such a victor Having pruned the fortunate let us now stoop to the miserable whom fortune hath cast to the lowest stair of affliction Nemo desperet meliora lapsus prohibet Clotho stare fortunam vicissitude o◠Fortune is sufficient argument to keep the unfortunate from despair for though the highest spoak of the wheel be turned lowest yet it doth not tarry there but presently returneth to its former heighth Non semper imbres nubibus hispidos manant in agros Though it rain one day the Sun may shine again the next No storm without a calm nor no Winter without a Summer Post tempestatem tranquillitas The North-wind which bloweth cold may quickly turn into a warmer corner Weeping may indure for a night but joy cometh in the morning Psalm 30. vers 5. But if the brevity of time will not give ease unto thy malady declare thy grief a disease well known is half cured What art thou robbed of all that thou hast Consider what thou broughtest into the World and thou hast lost nothing this thou hast got the means to wean thee from things below and if thou wilt to set thy mind on things above Art opprest with sickness The sickness of thy body may prove the welfare of thy soul Thou learnest to pitty others and knowest that thy earthly cottage is not invincible Doth poverty knock at thy door Let her in shee will teach thee to be humble keep thee from envy and lock thee up secure It is better meekly to entertain her then proudly to oppose her Art born a bondman There is no bondage like that to sin cast of that and thou art free it is better to be born a bondman and dye free from sin than to be born a freeman and dye a bondslave to Satan Is thy fare thine Thou hast avoided two sins gluttony incontinency Thou hast wydened the way to virtue Though streightened the passage to thy belly Hunger nourisheth arts and a full belly is the ensign of an empty head Bonae mētis soror est paupertas Art thou poor and over-burdened with children Children are riches then how canst thou be poor amongst so many jewels acknowledge thy blessing and give thanks and He that feedeth the fishes of the Sea the fouls of the Air and apparelleth the flowers of the Field will both feed and cloath thy children It was harder to raise them to thee than to provide food for them Art thou rich and childness He that created thee can create thee children Sarah had a Son in her old age In the mean time make thy self the child of God and thou art better than if thou hadst many children Hast thou lost thy mony Thou hast exchanged fears and cares for quietness and carelesness liberty is better then golden chains Thou hast but paid fortune that which she lent thee For omnia tua tecum portas Thou canst not truly be called Master of that whereof fortune is mistress Art thou become a surety Thou art near a shrewd turn henceforth give away all that thou hast rather than thy liberty In the mean time let thy hand discharge that which thy mouth hath set on thy score It is no charity to pluck a thorn out of another mans foot to put it in thine own Hath nature made thee deformed Let the deformity of thy body put thee in minde of the deformity of thy soul Depart from sin and adorn thy soul with virtues as for thy body it is the work of Gods hands Beauty is at best but a fadeing vanity profitable to none hurtful to many and perhaps might have been thy destruction Pulchrius est pulchrum fieri quam nasci Si mihi difficilis formam natura negavit Jugenio formae damna rependo mea Hast thou lost thy time Thou hast lost an invaluable pearl which cannot be re-called nor superseded by riches or honor But it is never too late to repent lose time no more and thou hast made amends Hast thou lost thy betrothed mistress He that loseth his wife is delivered of many cares but he that loseth his spouse is preserved both of these are good but the last is the best Therefore grieve not too much lest thou lose thy self Hast thou buried thy wife Thou hast buried her on earth who first buried thee in the grave of sin in Paradise couldest thou be rid of sin as thou art rid of her Thou hadst cause to rejoyce and had shee not brought thee a Saviour thou hadst had cause to repent that ever thou sawest her Hath Infamy blasted thy name If it be deserved lament not the Infamy but the cause of the Infamy But if it be undeserved contemn the errours of men with a valiant courage and comfort thy self with the testimony of a good conscience It is better to be innocent and slandered than nocent and applauded Hast thou many enemies If they profess it openly thou art armed if they keep it secretly thou liest open to danger be thou a friend to justice and God will be so much a friend to thee as to deliver thee publickly from thy private enemy none are so pernitious enemies as flattering friends Hast thou lost an occasion to revenge
all men an enemy to every honest man and every honest man an enemy to him a monster more hideous than ever the Poets could feign and more noysome and destructive to humane kind than any beast the world ever bred a Devil in humane shape If you do not yet conceive his nature I will give you a further description of him A Tyrant without a Title who indeed is most properly called a Tyrant is he who levieth war against his King killeth him and takes the Government upon himself or who of his own authority against the will of the people without election or right of succession neither by lot by will by gift by just war nor speciall calling of God doth take upon him the Soveraignty Take notice Reader by he way That the Subject can have no just war against his King A forein Prince may have a just cause to levy war and if he conquer his Title is good and just by the Law of Conquest So if ones own natural Prince be kept out of his Country by the Rebellion of his Subjects and he afterwards come with a forein Army nay with fire and sword as we say that is putting all to the sword who resisted him and burning up all that they have yet if he subdue the Traytors he is no Tyrant But if any man without any right or title usurpeth the Government and aspireth unto the Soveraignty though afterwards he squareth his life according to the rules of moral honesty and liveth as one may say according to the Lawes Yet notwithstanding he is a Tyrant for all this A Thief when he hath taken a mans purse from him will in company stand upon his Terms of honesty as much if not more than an honester man Yet this after sanctity will not purge a Tyrant from his former sin He must restore home that which he wrongfully and unjustly keepeth before he can be a true penitent and nothing but true Repentance can wash away the guilt of former sins Therefore Equo ne credite Teucri trust him no further than you can see him before he hath cast off the unlawfull robes of Soveraignty and put on the honest habit of a true Subject Eor Latet anguis in berba Let his outside be never so Religious he is a knave in his heart his pretentions and his intentions are seldome of affinity But may any private hand stick this wild boar may any publick or private man stab or otherwise destroy this Tyrant before he be tried according to the Common course of the Law Grounding upon the Law of God the Law of Nations the Law of Nature and the Common Law of the Realm I give judgement against him that as a stroyer of humane kind and society every man may lay violent hands on him and execute him For which according to the Laws and writings of antient Fathers he deserveth perpetual honour propounding to every one who should kill such a Tyrant most ample rewards viz. honourable Titles of Nobility and prowesse arms statues Crowns and the goods of the Tyrant as to the true deliverer of his Countrey By the Law of God Whosoeuer sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed Gen. 9.6 And what Tyrant ever was there who did not shed mans blood Nay by the Law of God That man who will do presumptuously and not hearken to the law is to be cut off that the evil may be put away from the Land Deut. 17.12 Exod. 21.14 All the Civil Lawyers do unanimously give judgement against him and esteem that man as one who doth God and his Countrey good service who shall rid the world of this viper By the law of nature every man is obliged to preserve himself And what better means can he use for his preservation than to destroy this elf this Wolf amongst men For who can say any thing is his own who can say his life his goods or estate is secure so long as a Tyrant reigneth By the Common Law of the Realm if any one set upon me to rob or take anie thing away from me I may lawfullie pistol him stab him or otherwise destroy him and by the same reason and law for ubi eadem ratio ibi idem jus I may destroy a Tyrant for the onely difference betwixt a common highway man or Burglar and he is their strength and might the one is a little thief the other a great one As when Diomedes a pirate was taken and brought before Alexander saith he Ego quia uno navigiâ— latrocinior aâ—cusor pirata tu quia ingenti classe id agis vocaris imperator si solus captivus esses latro cris st mihi ad nutum populi famulentur vocarer Imperator I because I rob with one poor ship am accused as a Pirate thou because thou robbest with a great Navie art called an Emperor If I had as great and strong a companie of robbers with me as thou hast and thou wast alone and a Captive as I am then thou wouldest be the thief and I the Emperor So may every common thief high-way man cutpurse or Burglar say to the Tyrant when he is brought before him For mutato nomine Fahula de te narratur When the Tyrant murthereth any honest man and taketh away his estate he pretends it is for the safety and good of the Common-wealth calling him Traytor to the State So it is for the safety of a thief to kill the man he intendeth to rob But the Tyrant he dazles mens eyes with new invented names for his magna latrocinia his great thefts having nothing honest in them but the very names For when he exerciseth his robberies and sendeth some of his messengers who are indeed no better than thieves to rob men that he calleth Excise So when he setteth upon the whole Nation he compelleth them to make a purse for him that he calleth Taxes And this kind of thievery is so much the more remarkable because he maketh the owners like fools gather the monies for him themselves Nay such is the stupidity of these Dromedaries that if they have scarce monie enough to buy themselves bread or to pay their Landlord his just Rents yet they will trot about to gather monies for this Tyrant their common enemie before they will lift up a hand against him They will let their Churches drop down for want of repair and Law and Religion and all fall to the ground before they will let the Tyrant misse of a farthing of his demands Tanta est insania mundi So great is the madnesse of men And the reason why the Law alloweth every man to kill a Tyrant and take that vengeance which in other cases is reserved to God and the Magistrate is because there is no other remedy and Gods Lawes cannot be otherwise executed for the Tyrant maketh himself above all law possesseth himself of all Forts strong Holds Garisons and the Magazine of all Armour so that by the greatnesse of his villanies
person of any Tyrant Pax â—um hominibus bellum vitiis but I hate his Tyyrannie I freely forgive them all the injuries they have done to me or any of my friends and for their good I have written this Treatise but they are Gods enemies and God would be offended if we should let them sleep in their villanies Our Laws and Religion ought to be more dear to us than all things in the world for without them we should be worse than beasts and who more subverteth our Laws and Religion than Tyrants Vt imperium evertant libertatem preferunt cum perverterunt ipsam aggrediuntur saies Tacitus That they may pervert the legal Government they pretend liberty for the people and when the Government is down they then invade that libertie themselves Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium atque ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellent To rob to murther to plunder Tyrants falsely call to Govern and to make desolation they call to settle peace These are they which God sayes Hosea 8.4 Ipsi regnaverunt sed non ex me They have reigned but not by me They have made Princes and I knew it not and have cast off the thing that is gâ—od There is no power indeed but of God but the abuse of power is from the Devil These men do not rightly use but abuse the power and as Satan is called the Prince of the world so these men are called Governors of the Realm not because they are so by right but by Treacherie Rebellion and Treason their power is by Gods permission not by his Donation Therefore these are not the Dignities and higher powers which the Apostle commands us to be subject to for then we must be subject to the Devil too for Tyrants and Devils have powers both alike lawfull and both by Treason and Rebellion No we should resist and arm our selves against these enemies it is Disobedience to obey them Rebellion not to rebell against them and Treason not to plot Treason against them Therefore let everie one be readie with his dagger like Jodes to stab this devourer of mankind Bad Kings must be converted onelie with praiers and tears but Tyrants must be subdued with clubs and swords for Quis constituit te virum Principem Judicem super nos Exod. 2.14 Who made them Princes and Judges over us the King we know and the Kings son we know but who are they They are not of Gods making but of Beelzebubs their Master and their own making Therefore let everie good Christian arm himself against these Caterpillers devotion and action must go together let him not bribe his Conscience with self interests but take courage and fight the good fight that so he may deliver himself and his Countrie from slaverie and bring the Tyrants to the Rope their best winding sheet All other Governments are but the corruption and and shreds of Monarchy which is the most glorious and most profitable of all sorts of Governments when and how Aristocracy and Democracy begun rather by Gods permission than institution The proper Character of a Common-wealths man or the Definition of an English Changeling with his flexible and mutable qualities The absence of our King is the cause of the presence of our many sins and divisions IF you remember in my Division of Governments I made mention of Aristocracy and Democracy c. which indeed had their first Original from the corruption of Monarchy and are but shreds of Monarchy as all Politicians hold Therefore I will not spend time and paper to abuse your patience with anie thing but a Description of them For Virg. Verum haec tantum alias inter caput extulit urbes Quantum lent a soleni inter viburna cupressi Monarchy doth as far excell all other sorts of Government in glory profit conveniencie for the people and in all other good qualities as the Sun doth the Moon or the Moon the twinckling stars and is like the lofty Cedar amongst the servile shrubs Hence it cometh that even the Republicans who hate a King because he is their Soveraign Master are compelled to suffer and use Petite Monarchies as one may say under them as one Master over everie Familie one Maior over everie City one Sheriff over everie Countie one Rector over everie Parish Church one Pilot over every ship one Captain over everie Troop one Admiral over the Fleet and manie other Offices of trust and places wherein Pluralitie of persons would prove most obnoxious But Monarchie is and alwaies hath been proved and approved the best and most absolute lie good Aristocracy is the Government of a Common-wealth by some select number of the better sort of the people preferred for their wisdome and other vertues for the publick good Oligarchy is the swarving or distortion or Aristocracy or the Government of a few rich yet wicked men whose private end is the chiefest end of their Government tyrannizing over Law Religion and the people Democracy or popular estate is the Government of the multitude Where the people have the supream power and Soveraign autority Ochilocracy or a Common-wealth is the corruption and deprivation of Democracy where the rascal Rabble or viler sort of the people govern by reason of their multitude These kinds of Government were not heard of a long time after Monarchy began and the impulsive causes of them were contention and confusion and were rather permitted than ordained by God as the bill of Divorce was by Moses For non erat sic ab initio there was no such Government at the beginning for God did not create it as he did Monarchy when he made all things but the people being stragled up and down in the world and so in processe of time became out of the knowledge of their lawfull King rather than they would indure the miserable effects of Anarchy for Plebs fine Rege ruit there can be no family no society indeed no living without rulers they reâ—igned up their whole power and libertie to some few select men or else to many who made Laws for them and so tied up the hands of the unrulie and wicked and defended the just from the violent tempests and storms of the unjust to which before they lay open and naked which God seeing that it was better for them to have such a Government than none at all did allow of it but it hath no comparison with Monarcâ—y becuase that was instituted by Gods primarie Ordinance and the further men go from Gods original institution they have the more corruption Nay if compared to Monarchy it is a curse for Solomon saith Prov. 28.2 For the transgressions of a Land many are the Princes thereof but by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged summo dulcius unum Stare loco sociisque comes discordia regnis How sweetlie doth the Poet sing when he saith that it is most sweet for one to govern for a companie of Governors
the due course of Law smote the Shepherd and so the sheep of the Protestant flock were all scattered abroad Bradshaw indeed that Pontius Pilate pressed the King very earnestly and by subtil and crafty inventions thought to have wrought upon the King to have submitted to their summa injuria their Arbitrary High Court of Injustice and pleaded So that his Example might have been urged as an irrefragable precedent against the lives and liberties of the whole Kingdome and that after ages might cite King Charles his case as an authority to kill Kings But the King foreseeing their delusive and abominable intentions rather than he would betray the lives and liberty of his free born subjects to the Arbitrary Lusts of these Tyrants told them of the great wickednesse they were about and shewed to his people how these Traitours endeavoured to inslave the whole Realm and so patiently suffered himself to be murdered dying a most true Martyr both for our Lawes and Religion but for plea he said nothing So Bradshaw more wicked than Pilate for instead of washing his hands he impudently bathed them in his Masters innocent blood gave the sentence of their wicked wills against him and delivered him over to the blood-thirsty to be crucified who spit upon him threw Tobacco pipes at him mocked him cryed out Away with him away with him Crucifie him Crucifie him cut off his Head with their wicked Engines and then cast lots for his Garments and Estate giving each Souldier a part But instead of writing over his head This is Charles the King of the Jews his true Title or rather the King of the Devils they writ over his head Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus anno libertatis Angliae restitutae primo although in truth the best of Kings then went out and the greatest Tyranny under the Heavens then entred into our England comming far short of the Jews in all that is good but exceeding them in all wickednesse treachery perfidiousness and villany Now all this impious Council sought false witnesse against the King to put him to death but found none Therefore that they might do nothing without wickedness but proceed in all their Actions contrary almost to the very colour of Justice and make themselves the greatest and most illegal Tyrants that ever the world heard of they made themselves both Judges Jury Witness Party and Accuser in their own quarrel against the King For whereas by the Laws of the Land our gracious King alwayes made the Judges of the Land Arbitrators between his Subjects and himself in all cases from the lowest offence and trespass to the highest offence Crimen laesae Majestatis High Treason This Amalekite the House of Commons made part of themselves the Judges of the King who had committed the greatest Treason against the King and by the Laws of the Land deserved rather to hang at Tyburn than sit in the Chair of Justice likewise they made the Souldiers his Judges who professed themselves to be the Kings inveterate Enemies by their Remonstrances and Speeches and that they desired nothing more than his Blood and Life fought against him with their Guns and Swords Yet forsooth of this Hotchpotch of Traytors was their high Court of Justice made up Most of them being Collonels of the Army and other Souldiers who fought against him abroad and others Parliament men who conspired his ruine at home By the Laws of the Land it is a just exception to any Jury man who is to try the basest or poorest Felon and a legal challenge for which he must be withdrawn That he is a professed Enemy and Prosecutor who seeks his life and therefore no lawful nor indifferent tryer of him for it yet these bloody Butchers who professed themselves to be the Kings greatest Enemies and Prosecutors seeking after nothing so eagerly as the Kings life were both the Judges and Jury-men too to try the King Perjured O. Cromwell who then intended and afterwards effected to have the supreme power over these three Kingdoms was one of the Tryers to judge whether the King or himself with the rest of his brethren in iniquity deserved death and whether the King and his Royal Progeny ought not to be distroyed and Oliver and his stinking stock take possession O unparraleld lump of impiousness Aliquis non debet esse Judex in propria causà It is a Maxim in Law that no man ought to be Judge in his own cause Yet these villains made themselves the only Judge whether they committed Treason against the King or the King against them Nemo tenetur prodere seipsum No man is bound to accuse himself and it would have been a wonder indeed if these Rebels should have spoke the truth and said that they had committed high Treason against the King Therefore for fear the Law should punish them according to their deserts they thought good to prevent that mischief punish the King as they pleased according to their lusts And that they might make themselves the greatest Tyrants and the people the basest Slaves in the world they took upon them the Governing power which by Law only belongeth to the King 2. The Legislative power which likewise belongeth to the King with the concurrence of the upper and Lower House And 3. The Judicative power which belongeth to the Judges who are known Expositors and Dispencers of Law and Justice in all Causes brought before them So that these Trayterous Tyrants by their boundless and arbitrary wills put us to death when they please for what cause they please and take away our Estates when they see occasion And yet they have the impudence to tell us and many the sottishness to believe that the Parliament having the Supreme power doth all these villanies by Law O Abominable How these Tyrants mock the people with the name of a Parliament the Parliament consisteth of the King the head and about 600 of his Subjects and there were not above 50 or 60 of the Parliament who caused the King to be murthered and ruined his people yet these Schismaticks call themselves a Parliament and so having nothing good but their name Tyrannize over us They may as well say that the parings of the nailes of the toes are the whole man and have the power of all the other members as say that they are the Parliament or have any lawfull power they being nothing but the dregs and lees of the inferiour House from whom we must never expect any thing pleasing to any honest mans palate If the Parliament had power to depose the King yet what power can these few Gaol-Birds have who are scarce the tenth part of the Parliament and no Representatives of the People but only of their own Devilish ambitions By what authority do these Ignes fatui abolish Kingship and the House of Lords as dangedangerous and useless which all our Ancestors have found most profitable and glorious for our Kingdom These Currs have several times been kicked out of
the House by the martial violence of the Souldiers their Masters whose Journy-Men they are yet no sooner do they find the door open but in they slip again like Dogs into the Buttery where they sit and eat the fat of the Land and the fruits of our labours for which they now and then shite us an Act of Parliament whereby they destroy our fundamental Laws and Liberties and invent new high Treasons against them such as our Law-Books nor Statutes never told us of by which they maintain themselves in their Robbery and the people in their Slavery As for the oath of Supremary Vows Protestations and Covenants which they made in the presence of God with hands lift up to heaven for vengeance if they did not perform them and all other oathes of Homage Fealty and Allegiance which the People took to be true and faithfull to the King These they discharge themselves and the People of by an Act of Parliament as if these Caterpillers could discharge debts due to the Almighty But to make God amends they passed another Act that the People should swear to be true and faithfull unto them To go about to number their villanies deceits treacheries perjuries and other their wicked Actions were to go about to number the sands of the Sea or the fraudulent devices of Belzebub their Master they being the Genus generalissimum of all Treason Rebellion Murther Blasphemy Hypocrisie Lying Swearing and For-swearing abounding in Wâ—oredom Drunkenness Leachery Treachery Covetousnesse Pride Ambition and all other detestable vices They are a pack of rotten putrefied Members glued together in the stinking body of sin And if I should give you a Character of each Simple wherewith this Compound is contracted it would fright you out of your wits for I speak really I think they are the very Quintessence of all the Devils in Hell And although this beast cannot well agree which horn or legge shall go foremost they being somwhat troubled in dividing the spoil and their usurped authorities which is caused by their pride and covetousness and although they differ in Ceremonies and Ciâ—cumstances yet they make it one of their Fudamentals upon which themselves and all their proceedings are builded to murther Charles the second as they did Charles the first when they can lay their unhallowed Claws upon him and although they hate and bark and snarle at one another like dogs yet in the great work of their Salvation like Pilate and Herod they all agree to be Traytor and Rebels against their King And so long as these Mastives Lord it over us we must never expect peace but alwayes live like dogs fighting and biting for what we have We must with them account vice vertue and vertue vice we must hold their words more canonical than Gods word and say that is law which they say is law though it be neither law truth nor reason Unlawfull wars set them up and we shall alwayes have wars and rumours of wars amongst us untill they are pulled down To be short we must resolve to forsake God and serve the Devil if we intend to keep any thing safe so long as this Phalaris the Tail of the House of Commons domineereth over us For the Children of this world being in their Generation wiser than the Children of Light Luke 16.8 These Worldlings are so wise and subtil to do mischief that when they commit the most deadly sin They make it passe to the world as the best service done to God and when they themselves make plots to murther honest Royalists then they get some of their hirelings to discover it and swear that the Royalists invented the plot against them and presently forsooth they vote and command that their three Kingdomes give God thanks for their great deliverance ascribing that which was done by their own providence to the Providence of the Almighty Nay they have their Lillies and other lying Astrologers whom they consult with before they commit any great wickednesse and make them publish to the world that the Heavens ruled and voted what these Beagles please to perform It is as natural for their Judges to judge unjustly if it be for the profit or pleasure of their Masters at Westminster as it is for them to live For how many innocent Gentlemen have they condemned to death for doing their duty in defending the King from unjust violence which we are all bound to do by the law of God Nature and of the Realm They have their Balaam Prophets and Priests too almost in every parish and pulpit which they make the Organs to sound forth their own praises so that the ignorant country multitudes who scarce know that there is a God but that they heard their Minister tell them so thinking that he doth God the best service and credit who hath the finest ribbond on his hat or that weareth the best cloaths on his back at Church these Momusses believe that the Saints at Westminster are the only supreme power on Earth and that no men in the world for some of them think that the sea side is the end of the world are to be compared to them either for wisdome learning or honesty and the only reason of their thoughts is Ipse dixit their Minister said so but last Sunday And this was the chiefest reason wherefore the countrey Peasants flocked in so fast to the Armies of those Neroes at Westminster raised against the King who alwayes made the ignorance of the people their greatest Champion And lest we should see the superiority of the King above and over the Knaves and other Cards they abolish and prohibit Card-playing as a great sin in their Commonwealth Why did they not give the superiority to the Knaves How these godly Villains stumble at strawes and leap over blocks They prohibit innocent recreations on the Sabbath day purposely because they would have the people esteem them zealous in Religion and stricter observers of Gods Commandments than the King But in truth they serv'd God only to serve themselves In nomine Domini incipit omne malum acting all their wickednesse in the name of the Lord. For when they have got a good name amongst the people they think under that shadow to act any wickednesse and yet to the world seem saints Murther their King too and yet be accounted good Christians nay Reformers of the Christian Religion O Religious Impostors To these Quacksalvers belongeth two Speakers alias dictos Lyars viz. the private Speaker Lenthall now called by the common souldiers the Father of their Country Can you blame the little Thieves if they applaud the great Thief and the publick Speaker Needham the one rough hammereth lyes at the forge the House of Commons the other fashioneth them in his Mercurius Politicus Thus they fill our eares with as many lies as their breasts be yet forsooth none must dare not to believe what they publish by authority Now the Presbyterian Judasses when they saw that the King
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