THE SERPENT SALUE, OR, A REMEDY For the Biting of an ASP: WHEREIN, The Observators Grounds are discussed and plainly discovered to be unsound, Seditious, not warranted by the Laws of God, of Nature, or of Nations, and most repugnant to the known Laws and customs of this Realm.  
For the reducing of such of His Majesty's wellmeaning Subjects into the right Way who have been misled by that Ignis fatuus.  
Printed in the year 1643.   

To the READER.  
WHen that Sign or rather M●…teor called Castor and Polinx appears single to the Seafaring Men, it portends a dangerous Tempest, because of the density or toughness of the matter which is not easily dissolved: And when it appears double divided into two, it presageth Serenity and a good Voyage. But it is otherwise in the Body Politic. When the King and Parliament are united, it promiseth Happy and Halcionian Days to the Subject; and when they appear divided, it threatens Ruin and Dissipation to the whole Kingdom. This is our present condition, the Heads are drenched with the oil of Discord, and it runs down to the skirts of the Garment. Of all Heretics in Theology, they were the worst who made two beginnings, a God of Good and a God of Evil: Of all Heretics in Policy, they are the most dangerous, which make the Commonwealth an Amphisbena, a Serpent with two heads, who make two Supreames without subordination one to another, the King and the Parliament. That is to leave a Seminary of Discord, to lay a Trap for the Subject to set up a Rack for the Conscience, when Superiors sends out contrary Commands (as the Commission of Array, and the Order for the Milita.) If they were subordinate one to another, we had a safe way both to discharge our Conscience towards God, and secure our Estates to the World, that is by obeying the Higher Power according to that golden Rule, in presentia Majoris cessat authoritas Minoris. But whilst they make them coordinate one with another, the Estate, the Liberty, the Life, the Soul of every Subject lies at Stake: what passage can poor Conscience find between this Scylla and Charybdis, between the two horns of this Dilemma? No Man can serve two Masters.  
All great and sudden Changes are dangerous to the Body Natural, but much more to the Body Politic. Time and Custom beget Reverence and Admiration in the minds of all men; frequent Alterations produce nothing but Contempt, Break ice in one place, it will crack in more. Mountebanks, Projectors, and Innovators, always promise golden Mountains, but their performance is seldom worth a cracked Groat. The credulous Ass in the Fable believed, that the Wolf (his counterfeit Phisiitian) would cure him of all his Infirmities, and lost his skin for his labour. When the Devil tempted our first Parents, he assured them of a more happy Estate, than they had in Paradise: but what saith our common Proverb seldom comes the better. It is the Ordinance of God, that nothing should be perfectly blessed in this World, yet it is our weakness to impute all our sufferings to our present condition, and to believe a change would free us from all Imcombrances. So thought the Romans, when they changed their Consuls into Consulary Tribunes: So thought the Florentines when they cashiered their Decem-Viri; both found the disadvantage of their Novelties; both were forced to shake hands again with their old Friends. Other Nations have used to picture an English man with a pair of shears in his hand, thus deriding our newfangledness in attire: But it is far worse to be shaping new Creeds every Day, and new forms of Government, according to each man's private humour. When a sick man tosseth from one side of his bed to another, yet his Distemper follows him. They say our Countryman never knows when he is well, but if God Almighty be graciously pleased once again to send us Peace, I trust we shall know better how to value it. In the mean time, let us take heed of credulity and newfangledness. Those States are most durable, which are most constant to their own Rules. The glory of Venice is perpetuated not so much by the strong Situation, as by that Sanction or Constitution, that it is not lawful for any man to make mention of a new Law to the grand Counsel, before it have been first discussed and allowed by a selected Company, of their most intelligent most experienced Citizens. Among the Locrians no man might propose a new Law, but with an halter about his neck, that if he did not speed in his suit, he might presently be strangled. The Lacedæmonians did so far abhor from all study of change, that they banished a skilful Musician, only for adding one string 〈◊〉 to the Harp.  
I desire that no man will interpret what I say in this Discourse as intended to the Prejudice of the lawful Rights, and just privileges of Parliament. The very name of a Parliament was Music in our ears; at the Summons thereof our hearts danced for joy. It is rather to be feared that we idollized Parliaments, and trusted more in them then in God for out temporal well being. God who gave the Israelites a King in his anger, may at his pleasure give us a Parliament in his anger. That we reap not the expected fruit (next to our sins) we may thank the Observator, and such Incendiaries. I confess myself the most unfit of thousands to descend into this Theatre, as one who have lived hitherto a Mute; but to see the Father of our Country threatened and vilified by a common Soldier, is able to make a dumb man speak, as it did sometimes the Son of Croesus. Quando doler est in capite (saith Saint Bernard) when the head aches the tongue cries for assistence, and the very lest members, the Toe, or the little Finger is affected. We are commanded to be wise as Serpents. Math. 10. 16. A chief wisdom of the Serpent is in time of Danger to wrap and fold his head in the circles of his body, to save that from blows. I pretend not to skill in Politics, the Observator may have read more Books and more Men, but let him not despise a weak Adversary who comes armed with evident truth, I know I have the better cause, the better second. The Birds in Aristophanes fancying an all-sufficiency to themselves, did attempt for a while to build a City walled up to Heaven, not much unlike such another Fiction of the Apes in Hermogenes, but at length the one for fear of jupiters' Thunder, and the other for want of convenient tools, gave over the Enterprise. Believe it, the frame of an ancient, glorious, well-tempered, and settled Monarchy, though it may be shaken for a time, will not, cannot be blown upside down, with a few windy Exhalations, or an handful of Sophistical squibbes. The World begins to see something through the holes of these men's cloaks, and to espy Day through the midst of the Millstone. And now that men may borrow a word edgeway with them, it will be pealed into their ears daily.  
I shall deal more ingenuously with the Observer, than he hath done with his Sovereign, to catch here and there at a piece of a Sentence, and pass by that as mute as a Fish, to which he had nothing to say. If His Majesty's clear. Demonstrations (which to a strong judgement seem to be written with a beam of the Sun, and like the principles of Geometry do rather compel then persuade) did leave any place for further confirmation, the Observers silence were sufficient to proclaim them unanswerable. There needs no other proof of His Majesty's Lenity and Goodness than this, That a Subject dare publish such observations in a Monarchy, and maintain argument with his Liege Lord, Multa donanda ingeniis, sed donanda vitia, non portenta sunt. He deserveth small pity, who prizeth his word more than his Head. King Lewes said of some seditious Preachers in France, If they tax me in their Pulpits I will send them to preach in another Climate. Pollio said of Angustus, Non est facile in eum scribere, qui potest proscribere. The King of the Bees, though he want a sting, yet is he sufficiently armed with Majesty. So should King Charles be to the Observer and his pewfellows if they were profitable Bees, as they are a nest of Wasps and Hornets.  
I find two branches of this Family (I cannot call them the Family of Love) as a verse one to another as Sampsons' Foxes. It is hard to say whether is the ancient House; for they both sprung up, the one in Spain, the other at Geneva, about the same time, the year 1536. The Captains of the one are Bellarmine, Simancha, Mariana, etc. The chieftains of the other, are Beza (if it be his Book de jure Magistratus, as is believed,) Buchanan, Stephanus junius, etc. The former in favour of the Pope, the latter in hatred of the Pope; yet both former and latter may rise up in Judgement with our Incendiaries and condemn them; for if they had had as gracious a Prince as King Charles; they had never broached such tenets to the World, I have busied myself to find out the Progenitors of these two different Parties: and for the former, I cannot in probability derive them from any other then Pope Zachary, Who it seems (as the Oestridge) left an egg in the Sand, which after a long revolution of time, was found and hatched by the care of some Loyalists, for thus he in Aventine, A Prince is subject to the People, by whose benefit he reigns; whatsoever Power, Riches, Glory, Dignity he hath, he received it from the People, Regem Plebs constituit, eundem destituere potest. As for the latter (because I know they will scorn to ascribe their Original to a Pope) I cannot fine one of their Ancestors in all the Church of Christ, for fifteen hundred years, until I come as high as Saint judes' dreamers, or the Pharisees of whom josephus saith, that they were a Sect, cunning, arrogant, and opposite to Kings. And they have one pharasaical virtue in great eminency, that is, self-love and partiality, to make their own case different from all other men's, as may appear by these particulars.  
First, a question is moved concerning the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs. They give Power to Kings to reform the Church, just as Bellarmine gives to the Pope to depose Princes, not certainly, but contingently, in the case of an ungodly Clergy (that is in their sense, all other but themselves:) but if they be once introduced, neither King nor Parliament have any more to do, but execute their Decrees, than the whole Regiment of the Church, is committed by Christ to Pastors, Elders, and Deacons, so Cartwright; then Magistrates must remember to subject themselves, submit their Sceptres, thr●…w down their Crowns to the Church, and as the Prophet speaketh, to lick the dust of the feet of the Church, that is, of the Presbytery, what is this but kissing of the Presbyters toes?  
Secondly, where they have hope of the King, there the Supreme Magistrate may, nay he ought to reform the Church, yea though the Statutes of the Kingdom be against it, so say the Authors of the Protestation printed 1605. But what if the King favour them not? then he is but a conditional trustee, it belongeth to the States and representative body of the Kingdom: but what if the Nobility will not join? then the People must, so said Field, since we cannot bring this to pass by Suit, or Dispute, the People and Multitude must do it, yea, though it be with blood, as Martin threatens in his Protestation. The People (saith Buchanan) have as much power over Kings, as Kings have over particular Persons. Nobility (saith the Book of Obedience) is the Bounty of the People to some Persons, for delivering them from Tyrants, which prerogative, the Children kept, by the People's negligence. And of late, have not the Peers been exhorted to mingle themselves with the meanest of the People, and for the procuring a parity in the Church, to consent to a parity in the State, and for the subduing of the pride of Kings, for a time, to part with the power of Noblemen. For a time, what's that? that is, according to the former Doctrine, till the People be pleased out of their Bounty to advance them according to their several Talents, for their zeal to shed the blood of the ungodly. The Misery begins now to open itself, and I trust will shortly appear in its right colours. By these reverend. Fathers (I mean the Rabble) the Discipline was brought into Genevah itself, against the will of the Syndicks, and two Counsels. In illa promiscua colluvie suffragiis fuimus superiores, saith Calvin. Thus these men make Kings and Nobles, but as Counters which stand sometimes for a pound, sometimes for a penny pro arbitrio supputantis, just like Chawcers Friar, he knew how to impose an easy Penance, where he looked for a good Pittance.  
Thirdly, the wheel of Heaven, hath not yet wound up one thread more of the ●…lew of our Life, since we heard nothing but Encomiums of the Law, Treason against the Fundamental Laws, and Declarations against Arbitrary Government. Now the Law is become a Formality, a Lesbian Rule, Arbitrary Government is turned to necessity of State. It is not examined what is just or unjust, but how the party is affected or disaffected, whether the thing be conducible or not conducible to the cause; we are governed not by the known Laws and Customs of this Realm, but by certain farrfetched, dear-bought Conclusions, or rather Collusions, drawn by unskilful Empirics, without Art or Judgement from the Law of Nature and of Nations, which may be good for Ladies by the Proverb, but not for English Subjects. Now are we taught downright, that the Laws of the Land are but mans-inventions, moral precepts, fitter for Heathens than Christians; that we must lead our Life's according to God's word, (as if God's word and the Law of the Land, were opposite one to another) and that notwithstanding the Law, men must not think that God's Children in doing the work of their Heavenly Father (that is, reforming Religion) will faint in their Duty (that is, in raising Arms.) So, farewell Magna Charta, and the Laws of England for ever, if this man may have his will: and welcome the judicial Law of Moses. Now I see the reason, why they have taught so long, that the King cannot pardon any crime condemned by the judicial Law; because no Man can dispense with the Law of God, But how many▪ thousands have been drawn into this action which never Dreamt of such a bottomless Gulf of Mischief, and when they do see it will abominate it, and the Contrivers of it.  
Fourthly, they have cried Bishops out of Parliament, because no man that warreth must entangle himself with the affairs of this Life: yet they themselves have been humble Motioners, both in England and in Scotland, to have a number of wise and grave Ministers admitted into Parliament, in stead of Bishops. It was the men then, not the thing they misliked.  
Fifthly, they say, to be a Clergyman and a Privie-Councellour, are incompatible: yet Calvin and Bezae were of the Council of Sixty at Genevah▪ and the Syndicks and Counsellors there of the Ecclesiastical Senate: yea, 〈◊〉 home in a great Treaty of late, and in a Commission now on foo●…, we have seen a 〈◊〉 a prime Commission●… and their greate●… P●…vie-Councellers are of their Lay-Elders, which by their new Learning are a part of their Ecclesiastical Hierarchy.  
Sixthly we have heard a great noise lately about an Oath decreed in the Convocation; about another Oath called Ex officio, as if it were against the Law of Nature, for a man to accuse himself, Nemo tenetur prodere sseipsum▪ and lastly ab●…ut the Subscription which is ●…equired to o●… Articles of Religion: yet for the first, the Citizens of Genevah took the like Oath f●… their new Discipline (which the Sun had ne●…r beheld before) that we prescribed here fo●… our old Discipline. There every Minister at his Admission takes an Oath in these words I do promise and swear to keep the 〈◊〉 Ordinances, which are passed by the sm●…ll, great, ●…d General Counsels of this City. This is a n●…te higher than ours. And of late we know w●…o they were, that took an Oath to stand to●…ose 〈◊〉 and Decisions, which should be m●…de in an Assembly to come. For the second, ●…at is, the Oath Ex Officio, it is allowed in th●…r Presbiteries; Calvin in an Epistle to Favellus ●…cknowledged, that he himself admini●…red it▪ And for Subscriptions they are so miliar among them, that there is not a Minister admitted to a ●…harge, nay not a Boy metriculated in a College, but he knows it. Is not this Partiality?  
Seventhly, they complain, that the Ecclesiastical Courts did extend their Jurisdiction to Civil Causes: yet there is not that offence in the World, from Dancing and Feasting to Treason and murder, which is either a violation of our piety towards God, or Charity towards Man, which they do not question in their Presbiteries: And which is worse, their Determinations are not Regulated by any known Law, but are merely arbitrary, secundum sanas Conscientias. Neither doth there lie any appeal from them (as their did from Ecclesiastical Courts,) he that durst but bring a prohibition to one of their Elderships, he would quickly feel, what it was to pull the Sceptre of Christ out of his hands.  
Eightly, they groaned hard under the burden of the High Commission: yet themselves would erect an high Commission in every Parish; I do not know whether all their Presbi●…eries be endowed with the like Power, but ●…re I am, some of them have had both their Prisons and their Pursuivants▪ And where the High Commission here was confessed to be a temporary Institution, they plead for the other as a Divine Institution. Yet fearing this Parrochiall Jurisdiction might not produce an uniform Reformation, some of them have desired, others accepted general Commissions; for Nationall-Superintendency.  
Ninthly, they s●…ieght all old Counsels, and new Convocations, and call their Cannons in scorn, the precepts of Men: yet where they have power to call a Synod or Assembly, every man must submit at his uttermost peril, as if themselves were not men, but a Company of Angels.  
Lastly, they call for Liberty of Conscience; yet no Men impose a heavier yoke upon the Conscience. They cry out against Martial Law in others, and approve it in themselves. They hate Monopolists, but love Monopoli●…, They condemn an implicit Faith, yet no Men more con●…iding and implicit; grounding their actions neither upon Reason, Law, no●… Religion, but upon the authority of their Leaders and Teachers. They magnify the obligation of an Oath, yet in their own case, dispense with all Oaths, Civil, Military, Religio●…s, (witness Master Martial and Master 〈◊〉) we are now taught that the Oa●… we have taken, must not be examined according to the interpretation of Men, no? How then? surely according to the Interpretation of 〈◊〉.  
They complained that Excommunication●… was used for trivial Causes, yet themselves stick not to cast abroad this thunderbolt, for Feasting, or Dancing, or any the least 〈◊〉. They complain of severity against their Pastors; yet themselves do teach in their own case, that they are more rigorously to be dealt withal, who poison the Soule●… of Men with false Doctrine, than they that infect their Bodies with poison. A false Principle I confess, and repugnant to the practice of all the world: men are willingly perve●…d, but not willingly poisoned: The Poison●… knows the power of his Poisons, the false Teacher doth not always know his own Error: Repentance may be a Remedy for the one, but there is no Cure for the other. The Diseases of the Soul, are indeed, greater than the Diseases of the Body, if you consider them in the same Degree; otherwise, a sullen ●…it of Melancholy (though an infirmity of the Mind) is not ●…o terrible as a raging ●…it of the Stone, yet is it but an infirmity of the Body. They cry out against the Disorders of our Ecclesiastical Courts, but will not see the beam in their own Eye, that in their Consistories the same man is both Precedent and Register, the same Parties both Accusers, Witnesses, and Judges; the proof sometimes upon Oath, sometimes without Oath, sometimes taken publicly, sometimes privately, so as the Person accused neither knows who is his Accuser, nor what is proved; sometimes Records are kept, sometimes not kept,: As for matter of lawful exception and defence, it is accounted superfluous and superstitious. I plead not for any former abuses, I desire not to abridge the lawful power of any other Church, but only show the extreme Partiality of these Men: Yea, what is that which themselves have condemned in others, that themselves do not practise where▪ they have power in a much higher Degree? Is not this fine hocas po●…as? a Man and no Man, hit a bird and no bird, with a stone and no stone, on a Tree and no Tree. In this Riddle there may be▪ something in Nature which seems to be intermedious, to salve the contradiction in show, but in their case no manner of Difference to make the same thing just and unjust, but Self-love and Partiality. Was it Treason in the Northern Rebels to make an Insurrection, and is it now become P●…ty▪ I delight not in Domestical Examples, let us rather cast our eyes beyond Sea, and see where ever Protestants were accused for Rebellion, but where either Anabaptism, or this Discipline did take place, and yet none of them (I except only Anabaptists) were half so criminous as ours: They had sundry pleas, which we cannot make for ourselves. As first, that they did not rise up against their lawful Prince, but only against a Protector to whom they did owe no Allegiance, but an honourable Acknowledgement; but our Laws binds us not only to owe Allegiance, but to swear it: Or secondly, that they did not rise up against the Person of their Prince, but against some enraged Minister of his, reserving still their Obedience to their Sovereign inviolate; but we have not only resisted, but invaded the King's Person: There were more great shot made at the very place where the King was at Edge-hill, than the same proportion of Ground throughout the Field▪ the ●…ery li●… Cu●…esy was offered to the Queen at ●…urlington, to welcome her into England: Or thirdly▪ their Princes did go abo●…t to force their Consciences, withot Law or, against Law; and by an Arbitrary Power set up an Inquisition among them; but good King Charles is so far●… from this, that for the ●…ase of his Subjects▪ he hath taken away an High-Commission established by Statute, and is still ready to condescend to any thing that can be reasonably proposed for the ease of tender Consciences. What is it then? Hath His Majesty been a hard Master? No. Hear a Witness that will not violate his Conscience to do Hi●… Majesty service. I see many h●…re, the most ●…toriously obliged, indeed as much as Serv●…s can be to a Master, in this good Cause h●…ve ●…stered those vulgar Considerations, and had the Courage to despise him (that is the King) to His Face. A good Panegyricke, and His Majesty may live to requite them, as Ca●…us did 〈◊〉 the Traitor, when his Son had slain 〈◊〉 Ironside, and he saluted the King with A●… Rex solus, his Reward was a Good▪ Gibbet, Ego te bodie ob ●…nti Obsequii meritum▪ cunctis Regni 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
These Seditious and Schismatical Principl●…, were not the ●…esults of a 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉, and uningaged Judgemen●…, but rather the excuse of criminous, or the 〈◊〉 o●… ne●…ssitated Persons, whe●… 〈◊〉 produceth new Opinions; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 followeth the Dictates of the Will, there is small hope of T●…▪ When Men o●… Belial, Factious Persons, had shaken off 〈◊〉 yoke of a just Government, being neither Pretenders themselves in point of Right, nor capable of Sovereignty by reason of their ob●…curity, that they might retain that i●… part, which they could not grasp in the whole; they broached these desperate Devises of the Omnipotency of the People: whe●… others, o●… the same Men, either having expelled Bishops to gain their Revenues, upon pretence of Superstition, or living under a Sovereign of another Communion, could not have Bishop●… of their own, and yet did find the necessity of Discipline; then they fancied the new form of Presbiteries, in imitation of the Jewish Synedriums throughout their Synagogues, though that be most uncertain and all Men know this for certain, that the Synagogues were but humane Institutions, Acts 15. 21. not from the Law, but from old Time. Which new form of Discipline, was so adapted and accommodated to the Politic State of the City of Genevah, that (as it was there established) it cannot possibly ●…it any other place, except it have four Syndicks, a greater & a lesser Council: Then (as all Sects are modest in their beginnings) they desired their Neighbour Churches only to certify that their Discipline was not repugnant to the word of God; yet now they would obtrude it on the world as the Eternal Gospel. So our new upstart Independents, which run gadding about the World like Lapwings with their shells upon their Heads, having been kept under the hatches here in old England, performing their divine Offices in Holes and Corners, and having no Assemblies but such as did of their own accord associate themselves to them, now deny the name of true Churches to all Societies but such blind Conventicles: And shall we make their excuses to be our grounds? shall we that live in the most temperate part of the temperate Zone, & enjoy a Government as temperate as the Climate itself, we who cannot complain either of too much Sun, or too little Sun, where the Beams of Sovereignty are neither too perpendicular to scorch us, nor yet so oblique but that they may warm us, shall we go about in a madding humour, to dissolve a frame of Government, which made our forefather's happy at home, and famous abroad? shall we whose Church was the Envy and Admiration of Christendom, neither too garish, nor too sluttish, excelling some as far in Purity, as it did others in Decency, now learn Religion out of Tubbs, as if the little toes could see further than the eyes? If they have an extraordinary calling, where are their Miracles? menda●…ia video miracula non video, we hear there lies, not see their wonders. Saint Paul became all things to all Men, but that was compatiendo non mentiendo, as St. Augustine saith. Shall we without need put our lifes into the hands of crackbrained unskilful Empirics? which have taught us already to our loss, that a new Physician must have a new Churchyard: rather mutemus clipeos, let us leaf them old England, and content ourselves with new England. It will be better to live in hollow Trees, among Savages and Wild Beasts, than here, to be chopping and changing our Religion every new Moon. Be not deceived, as if these men did desire no more, then only the rectifying of some former Obliquities and Irregularities: we are now told in plain English, that it is to subdue the pride of Kings, Monarchy itself is the only Object worthy of these men Wrath. May not one here exclaim (as the great Turk did to his Council, when the Templars and Hospitaliers advised him by letter, how Frederick the Christian Emperor might be taken) Ecce fidelitas Christianorum, behold the Loyalty of our great Reformers! But what is this pride of Kings? If we will believe one of their Authors in his application of the Story of Cleomedes his Daughter, to the Domestic Custom of the Spartan Kings, (pater hos●…es, manus non habet,) it is a one piece of their pride to have a man to pull off their shoes, and yet they say the Author had one to brush his clothes. Now they stick not to let us know why they maligned Episcopacy; whilst Bishops stood, they could not fill all the Pulpits of the Kingdom with their Seditious Orators, who might incite the people that their zeal to God may not be interrupted by their Duty to the King, that by the Christian Labours of their painful Preachers, they may not want hands to bring their wishes to pass, (they are their own words.) Is this the reason we have not a word of Peace and Charity from that Party, but all Incentives to War, and to join in making that great Sacrifice to the Lord. Yet whilst they are so busy in in getting hands, (too many of them perjured hands,) let them remember Rodolphus the Duke of Sweveland his hand in Cuspinian, who being drawn into a rebellious War against the Emperor, and in the Battle having his right Hand cut off, held out the Stump to those that were about him, saying, I have a just reward of my Perjury, with this same Hand I swore Allegiance to my Sovereign Lord. Yet the good Emperor buried him Honourably, which being disliked by some of his Friends, he replied, utinam omnes mei Adversarit eo ornatu sepulti jacerent. We have sworn Allegiance as well ash, and God is the same he was, a severe Avenger of Perjury. Only Zedekia●… of all the Kings of judah (a perjured Person to Nabuchadnezzar) had his eyes put out, because (saith one) he had not that God by whom he swore before his eyes. Another instance of Perjury we have in Uladislaus, when Huniades had made Truce with Amurath for ten years, the King by the incitement of Cardinali julian, did break it; the Turk in distress, spreads the Articles towards Heaven, saying, O jesus, if thou be a God, be avenged of these false Christians; presently the Battle turned, Uladislaus was slain in the Fight, the Cardinal in flight. When God had justly punished Corah and his rebellious Company, the Common People murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the Lords People. Numb. 16. 49. What was the Issue? the Lord sent a Plague which swept away fourteen thousand and seven hundred of them: So dangerous a thing it is only to justify Traitors. Dost thou desire to serve God purely according to his word? So thou mayest without being a Traitor to thy Prince, if our practice were but conformable to the truth of our Profession, we might challenge all the Churches in the World. God Almighty lighten the eyes of all those that mean well, that we may no longer shed one another's blood, to effect the frantic Designs of Fanatical Persons, and by our contentions, pull down what we all desire to build up, even the Protestant Religion, the Law of the Land, and the Liberty of the Subject.  
Treason never yet wanted a cloak, we are not to judge of Rebels by their Words, but by their deeds; their voice is Jacob's voice, but their hands are the hands of Esau. The Adulterous woman eateth and wipeth her mouth, and saith, what have I done? yet sometimes God suffers the contrivers of these Distractions, unwittingly to discover themselves, that unless we do wilfully hoodwink our eyes, we cannot but see their aims. Among others, that Speech which exhorts us to subdue the pride of Kings; to purchase a Parity in the Church with a parity in the State; to shed the blood of the ungodly; that sleights all former Oaths and Obligations, and vilifies the Laws of the Land as the inventions of men: may be a sufficient Warning-Piece to all Loyal Subjects and good Christians. And so may the late Petition be, though from meaner Hands to a Common Council, wherein they do nakedly and professedly fall upon His Majesty's Person without any Mask, and saucily and traitorously propose the alteration of the Civil Government, which every truehearted English Man will detest. Say not these are poor vulgar Fellows: These have been the Intelligences that have of late turned the Orb of our State about, or at least the visible Actors. And who sees not that this is cast abroad thus by the cunning of their sublimated and Mercurial Prompters, to try how it will relish with the palate of the People, as an Introduction to their actual Design, that when it comes to pass, the World may not wonder at it as a Prodigy. So was it given out among the People by Richard the third, that his Wife was dead, when she was in good health: but she wisely concluded what was intended by her kind Husband to be her next part. Where are our English Hearts? why do we not at last all join together, to take a severe account of them who have blemished our Parliament, subjected our Persons and Estates to their arbitrary Power; who have sought to de-throne our Sovereign, and to rob us of our Religion, Laws, and Liberties? But now to the Observator.   

Observer.  
IN this Contestation between Regal and Parliamentary power, for method sake, it is requisite to consider, first of Regal, then of Parliamentary Power, and in both to consider the efficient and final Causes, and the means by which they are supported.   

Answer  
Stay, Sir before we enter into these Consideratitions, let us remember the Rule in Rhetoric, cui bono, what advantage will this inquiry bring us? Do you desire to be one of the Tribunes or Ephori of England to control your King? or would you have the great O●…ke cut down, that you might gather some sticks for yourself? Thus we are told lately, the wisest men will not think thames elves uncapable of future Fortunes, if they use their uttermost power to reduce him (that is the King) to a necessity of granting. Or would you have us play the Guelphs and Gibellines, to cut one another's throats for your pastime? Pardon us Sir, we cannot think it seasonable now when poor Ireland is at the last gasp, and England itself lies a bleeding, when men's minds are exasperated by such Trumpeters of Sedition, to plunge ourselves yet deepe●… in these Domestic Contestations; what could the Irish Rebels desire more? Comparisons are always odious, but Contestations are worse, and this between a King and His Parliament worst of all. This dismal question did never yet appear in this Kingdom, but like a fatal Screech-owl, portending blood, Death, and public Ruin. This was the Subject of the Baron's War; the consequent of this in the wrong offered to a lawful Prince, was the fountain of those horrid Dissensions between the red Rose and the White, which purpled all our English Soil with native Blood, we have had too much of this already. Half of that Money which of late hath been spent, of that blood which hath been shed about this accursed Controversy; would have regained Ireland, and disengaged England; whereas now the sore festers daily more and more under the Surgeons Hands. Our Fore fathers have settled this question for us, we desire to see what they have done, before we go to blindman's buffet one with another: If it hath been composed well, or but indifferently, it is better than Civil War: And though it had not, when the jarring strings of men's minds are turned again, it is probable it may sleep for eve●…. It were much better to pur it off as the Areopagites did knotty questions to a very long Day; or with the Jews for Elias to resolve when he comes.  
But good Sir, if it may be without offence satisfy me in one doubt, what Sect you are of? whether some newly sprung up Mushroom, or you derive yourself from those Non Conformists, which were in the Days of Queen Elizabeth and King james. They have solemnly Protested in Print, that 
a In the face.  no Christians under Heaven, do give more to the Regal Supremacy than they; yea, 
b Pag.  without Limitation or qualification, that for the King 
c Pag.  not to assume such a power, or for the Churches within his Dominions to deny it, is damnable Sin (mark it) although the Statutes of the Kingdom should deny it him (and Statutes are more than bare Votes.) That it is not tied to their Christianity, but their Crown, from which no Subject or Subjects have power to separate it. If no Subjects collectively, than not one or both Houses. But they go further, and I pray you make it one of your Observations; that 
d pag.  though the King command any thing contrary to the Word of God, yet we ought not to resist, but peaceably forbear Obedience and sue for Grace, and when that cannot be obtained meekly submit ourselves to punishment. How you have practised this of late, the World sees, and this Kingdom feels. They declare, That 
e pag.  it is utterly unlawful for any Christian Churches by armed Power against the will of the Civil Magistrate, to set up in public the true worship of God, or suppress any Superstition, or Idolatry. They abjure all Doctrines repugnant to these as 
f pag.  anabaptistical and Antichristian. They condemn all practices contrary to these, as 
g pag.  Seditious and sinful. I forbear sundry other things avouched by them in the same Protestation, as that 
h pag▪  the King only hath power within his Dominions to convene Synods of Ministers, and by his Authority Royal, to ratify their Canons, yea, that if it should please the King and Civil State to continue Bishops, 
l pag.  they could be content without envy, to suffer them to enjoy their State and Dignity, and to live as Brethren with those Ministers that should acknowledge homage unto them. By this time I suppose you h●…ve enough of the Protestation, my quaere is but short, whether you can change your Doctrine as the Ch●…aelion her colours, according to the present exigence of Affairs? or will acknowledge your opinions to be anabaptistical and Antichristian, your practice Seditious and Sinful, in the Judgement of your Predecessors.  
And yet I am not ignorant, that both before, and after, and about the time of this Protestation, a Cockatrice Egg was hatching; when a Subject durst style the great Senate under which ●…e l●…ved, tumultuosa ●…erditorum hominum sactio, a tumultuous Faction of 
〈◊〉. Ep. 40, ●…p. 10.  desperate Men; and the Judges discordiaram Deuces: then the Mystery began to work closely, but shortly after it showed itself openly, when his Successor did publish to the world, that if Kings observe not those pactions to which they were sworn, subordinate Magistrates 
●…jure ●…ist. pag. 〈◊〉 95.  have power to oppose them, and the Orders of the Kingdom to punish them if it be needful, till all things be restored to their former Estate. That what power ●…ae General Council hath to depose a Pope for Heresy, the same the People have over Kings, that are turned Tyrants. A woeful Argument drawn from an elective Pope, to an hereditary King, from a free and ecumenical Council, to a Company of limited and sworn Subjects, from an action grounded on known Law to an Arbitrary Proceeding. The King's Crown sits closer, The Counsels Power is greater, The like Law is wanting. Others teach that the People must bridle Princes if the Nobility will not. Our Countryman 
●…de in●…ni, p. 57  Cartwright speaks very suspiciously, To think the Church must be framed according to the Commonwealth, and the Church Government according to the 
Reply Whitg●… pag. 181.  Civil Government, is as if a man should fashion his house according to his hangings; whereas indeed it is clean contrary; that as the hanging●… are made fit for the house, so the Commonwealth must be made to agree with the Church, and the Government thereof with her Government. Add to this their other tenet; that the Government of the Church with them is democratical, or at best burr Aristocratical, and what will follow? that the Civil Government must be the same, or at the least if it be inconsistent with the form of Discipline which they fancy, it must be regulated and conformed thereunto. I omit the Traitorous Opinions of Goodman, Gilby, Whitingham, teaching Sheriffs and Jailers to let lose them whom they call Saints; teaching Subjects to reduce their Sovereigns into order by force, yea, to depose them, or put them to Death. But these seditious principles were suppressed then by the Learning and Authority of Grindall, Sands, Parkburst, jewel, Beacon, Nowell, Cox, Barlow, etc. who being exiled for Religion, at Frankford accused Knox of High Treason about them, and put him to make use of his heels. Let this very Confusion of them in this matter be a warning to us, how we have the the faith of our Lord jesus Christ in respect of Persons, 
James▪  or be so glued to the Persons of our Teachers, that we suck up their errors as greedily as their good Lessons, forgetting that they were but men, and that particular Relations and Engagements, have an insensible influence upon the best tempered minds.   

Observer  
The King attributes, the original of his Royalty to God and the Law, making no mention of the grant, consent, or trust of Man therein; but the the truth is, God is no more the Author of Regal, then of Aristocratical Power, nor of Supreme, more than of Subordinate Command. Nay, that Dominion which is usurped and not just, yet while it remains Dominion, and till it be again legally divested, refers to God, is to the Author and Donor, as much as that which is hereditary.   

Answer  
That Royalty and all lawful Dominion considered in the abstract, is from God, no Man can make any doubt, but he who will oppose the Apostle, the 
13. 1.  powers that be are ordained of God; and God himself who saith, by me Kings reign and Princes decree justice. 
8. 15.  But the right and application of this Power and Interest in the concrete to this particular man, is many times from the grant and consent of the People. So God is the principal Agent, man the Instrumental; God is the Root, the Fountain of Power; M●n the Stream, the Bough by which it is derived; the Essence of Power is always from God, the Existence sometimes from God, sometimes from Man: yet Grant and Consent differ much, and Consent itself is of several kinds, explicit or implicit, antecedent or subsequent, a long continued Prescription or Possession of Sovereignty, without Opposition or Reluctatation, implies a full Consent, and derives a good title of Inheritance, both before God and Man. These grounds being laid, take notice of four gross Errors, which the Observer runs into in this Section.  
First he supposeth that all Dominion, is from the grant or consent of the People; whereas in truth all Dominion in the abstract is from God. The People could not give what they never had, that is, power of Life and Death: But true it is, that Magistrates in the concrete, are styled the Ordinance of Man; subjectively because they are Men, objectively because 
1 Pet. 2. 13.  they reign over Men, and many times effectively, because they are created or elected by Men. But this last holds not in all cases, I say nothing of such Kings as were named immediately by God: Those whose Predecessors or themselves have attained to Sovereignty by the Sword, by Conquest in a just War, claim immediately from God. Those also who were the first Owners or Occupants of waste Lands, might admit Tenants or Subjects upon such Conditions as they themselves would prescribe. Thirdly, those who plant at excessive Charge in remote parts of America, will give and not take Laws from their Colonies. Fourthly, upon the spreading of a numerous Family, or the great increase of Slaves and Servants, ditis examen domus, how often have the Fatherly or Magistral power been turned into Royalty? And though these were but petty Kingdoms at the first; yet as great Rivers grow from the Confluence of many little Brooks; so by Wars, Marriages, and Treaties, they might be enlarged. In all these Cases there is no Grant of the people. This i●… one Error.  
His S●…cond Error rests in the Hypothesis; His Majesty's original Title to this Kingdom was not Election, either of the Person, or of the Family, but Conquest, or rather a Multitude of Conquests, the very last whereof is confirmed by a long Succession of four and twenty royal Progenitors and Predecessors, glorious both at home and abroad, in Peace and War, except ●…hen this dismal and disastrous question, did eclipse t●…eir lustre, and hinder the happiness of this Nation, ●…n the D●…yes of King john, Henry the third, Edward and Richard the second, or in the bloody Wars between the two Houses of York and Lancanster, which were nothing else but the fruits and consequents thereof. Neither can the Observer collect from he●…e, that this is to enslave our Nation as Conquered Vassals. It is a gross fallacy to dispute ae dicto simpli●…ter ad dictum secundum quid, from the right of absol●…e Conquerors, to His Majesty now, as if so many good Laws, so m●…ny free Charters, so many acts of Grace in so long a succession had operated nothing. This is a second Error.  
Thirdly, the Observer teacheth, that subordinate Commm●…nd is as much from God as Supreme. His Majesty i●… much bound unto him, to make his Royal Commands of no more force by God's Institution●… then a Pe●…ty Constables. We have hitherto learned otherwise, that Kings hold their Crowns and Sceptres from God, and subordinate Magistrates have their places by Commission from them. But it is familiar with these men, to leap over the backs of intermedious Causes, and derive all their fancies from God as the Heathens did their Genealogies; whereby they destroy the Beauty and Order of the World, and make many superfluous Creatures, which God and Nature never made. In sum, Subordinate Commands are from God, yet neither so immediately, nor so firmly as supreme: but as a row of iron rings touchching one another, and the first touching the Loadstone, 
Philo.  in their several degrees, some more loosely, some more remotely than others; The case is not altogether like for Regal and Aristocratical Power: One God in the World, one Soul in the Body, one Master in a Family, one Sun in the Heaven, and anciently one Monarch in each Society. All the first Governors were Kings. Both Forms are warranted by the Law of Nature, but not both in the same Degree of Eminency. If an old Man had the eye of a young Man, he would see as well as a young Man (said the Philosopher) the Soul of an Idiot is as rational, as the Soul of a State's man, the difference is in the Organ: So the Soul of Sovereign Power, which is infused by God into Democracy or Aristocracy, is the same that it is in Monarchy: but seeing the Organ is not so apt to attain to the end, and seeing that God and Nature do always intend what is best; and lastly, seeing that in some Cases the existence of Government as well as the essence is from God, who never inst●…tuted any form but Monarchical, the Observer might well have omitted his comparison.  
The fourth and last Error is worst of all, [That usurped and unjust Dominion is referred to God as its Author and Donor, as much as hereditary.] This is right, we have been taught otherwise, before a se●… vain upstart Empirics, in Policy troubled the world, that Dominion in a tyrannical Hereditary Governor, is from God even in the concrete, (I mean the power not the abuse) that such an one may not be resiste●… without Sin, that his Person is sacred: But contrariwise, that Dominion in a tyrannical Usurper or Intruder is indeed from God permitting, whereas he coul●… restrain it, if it pleased him; or from God concurring by a general influence, as the Earth giveth nourishment to Hemlocks, as well as Wheat, in him w●… live, we move, and have our being, or from God ordering and disposing it as he doth all other accidents and events to his own glory; but that it is not from God as Author, Donor, or Instituter of it. Neither dar●… we give to a Tyrannical Usurper the essential Privileges of Sovereignty; we deny not that any Subject may lawfully kill him as a public Enemy, without legal eviction. Much less dare we say wit●… the Observer, that Power usurped and unlawful, is as much from God, as Power Hereditary and lawful. If it be so, cough out man, and tell us plainly, that, God is the Author of Sinne.   

Observer  
And the Law which the King mentioneth, is not to b●… understood to be any special Ordinance sent from Heaven, by the Ministry of Angels or Prophets, 〈◊〉 amongst the jews it sometimes was. It can be nothing else among Christians, but the pactions and agreements, o●… such an●… such Corporations.   

Answer.  
There is a double right considerable; the right to the Crown, and the right of the Crown: the right and title to the Crown is with us undoubted, there needs no Angel from Heaven to confirm it, where no man can pretend against it. The Right of the crown is the only subject in question. This is from the Law of God, the Law of Nature, and the Law of Nations. That this Power in an absolute Conqueror may be limited by Statutes, Charters, or municipal Laws, in Court of Conscience, in Court of Justice, to God, to his People, I grant, without communicating Sovereign Power to subordinate or inferior Subjects, or subjecting Majesty to censure: Which Limitation doth no●… proceed from mutual pactions, but from acts of Grace and Bounty. I would know to what purpose▪ the Observer urgeth this distinction of Laws, will it ●…er ●…he State of the question, or the obligation of Subjects? Nothing less. Whether the calling of the Prince, be ordinary or extraordinary, mediate or immediate, the title of the Prince, the tye of the Subject is still the same. Those Ministers who were immediately ordained by Christ or his Apostles, did far exceed ours in personal perfections: but as for the Ministerial Power, no tract of time can bring the least diminution to it. God was the first Instituter of Marriage; yet he never brought any couple together but Adam and Eve; other marriages are made by free election: yet for as much as it is made by virtue and in pursuance of Divine Institution, we do not doubt to say and truly, those whom God hath joined together. His Majesty's title is as strong, the obligation and relation between him and his Subjects is the very same, as if God should say from Heaven, take this Man to be your King. Again, if the Liberty of the Subject be from Grace, not from pactions or agreements, is it therefore the less? or the less to be regarded? what is freer than gift? if a Nobleman shall give his Servant a Farm, to pay a Rose or Pepper-corn for an acknowledgement, his title is as strong as if he bought it with his Money. But the Observer deals with his Majesty, as some others do with God Almighty in point of merit; they will not take Heaven as a free gift, but challenge it as Purchasers. In a word, the Author of these Observations, would insinuate some difference betwixt our Kings and the Kings of Israel, or some of them who had immediate vocation, wherein he would deceive us or deceiveth himself, for their request to Samuel was make us a King to judge us like all other Nations. 
●…am. 8. 5.    

Observer.  
Power is originally inherent in the People, and it is nothing else but that might and vigour, which such or such a society of Men contains in itself; and when by such or such a Law of common consent and agreement, it is derived into such and such hands, God confirms that Law: and so Man is the free and voluntary Author, the Law is the Instrument, and God is the Establisher of both: and we see, not that Prince, which is most potent over his Subjects, but that Prince which is most potent in his Subjects, is indeed most truly potent 〈◊〉 for a King of one small City, if he be entrusted with a large Prerogative, may be said to be more potent over his Subjects, than a King of many great Regions, whose Prerogative is more limited: and yet in true reality of Power, that King is most great and glorious, which hath the most and strongest Subjects, and not he which tramples upon the most contemptible Vassals. This is therefore a great and fond error in some Princes, to strive more to be great over their People, then in their People▪ and to Eclipse themselves by impoverishing, rather than to magnify themselves by infranchising their Subjects. This we see in France at this Day, for were the Peasants there more free, they would be more rich and magnanimous, and were they so, their King were more puissant; but now by affecting an adulterate power over his Subjects, the King there loses a true power in his Subject, embracing a Cloud in stead of Juno.   

Answer.  
It hath ever been the wisdom of Governors, to 
Sect. 4  conceal from the promiscuous multitude it's own strength, and that rather for the behoof of themselves then of their Rulers. Those Beasts which are of a gentle and tractable Disposition, live sociably among themselves, and are cherished by Man; whereas those that are of a more wild and untameable nature live in continual Persecution and Fear of others, of themselves; but of late it is become the Masterpiece of our Modern Incendiaries, to magnify the power of the People, to break open this Cabinet of State, to prick forward, the heady and raging multitude, with fictitious Devises of Bulls and Minotaurs. And all this with as much sincerity, as Corah, Dathan, and Abiram said to Moses, and Aaron, you take too much on you 
●…mb. 16. 〈◊〉 10. ●…to, lib. 6. Repub. ●…ing 18. & 〈◊〉. 5. 2.  seeing all the Congregation are holy. I desire the Observer at his leisure, to read Plato's description of an Athenian Sophister, and he shall find himself personated to the life, that one egg is not liker another: if the Coat fit him, let him put it on. The Scripture phraseth this to be troubling of a Church, or of a State: It is a M●…taphor taken from a Vessel wherein is Liquor of several parts, some more thick, others more subtle, which by shaking together is disordered, and the dregs and residence is lifted up from the bottom to the top. The Observer hath learned how to take Eels; It is their own Rule, they that would alter the Government, must first trouble the State.  
Secondly, posito sed non concesso, admitting, but not granting, that Power is originally inherent in the People, what is this to us who have an excellent form of Government established, and have divested ourselves of this Power? can we play fast and loose and resume it again at our pleasures? Lesbian was free to choose herself an Husband when she was a Maid, may she therefore do it when she is a Wife? Admitting that His Majesty were elected in His Predecessors, yea or in His own Person for him and His Heirs, is this Power therefore either the less absolute or less perpetual? Admitting that before election, we had power to covenant, yea, or condition by what Laws we would be governed, had we therefore power to condition that they should be no longer Laws, than they listed us? This were to make our Sovereign not a great and glorious King, but a plain Christmas Lord: or have we therefore Power still to raise Arms to alter the Laws by force, without Sovereign Authority? This seems to be the Observers main Scope, but the conclusion is so odious, (as which hath ever been confessed Treason) and the consequence so miserably weak, that he is glad to deal altogether Enthemematically.  
Thirdly, admitting and granting that the last exercise or execution of Power, that is the posse commitatus, or Regni, is in the People, is the right also in the People, or from the People? Excuse us if we rather give credit to our Saviour, Thou couldst have no Power at all against me, except it were given thee from 
John 19  above. If Pilate had his Power from Heaven, we may conclude strongly for King Charles; Nil dat quod non habet, some power the People qua talis never had, as power of Life and Death, it is the peculiar right of God and his Vicegerents. Put the case the King grants to a Corporation such and such Magistrates, with power also to them to elect new magistrates (which yet holds but sometimes) from whom do those Magistrates hold their power? not from the People who elect them, but from the King who creates them.  
Fourthly, you tell us that the Power of a King, is to have powerful Subjects, and to be powerful in his Subjects, not to be powerful over his Subjects. Your reason halts, because it wants a caeteris paribus: several Kings may have several advantages of greatness. The truth is, neither many powerful Subjects without obedience, nor forced obedience without powerful and loving Subjects, d●… make a great and glorious King: But the concatenation of Superiors and Inferiors in the Adaman tine bonds of Love and Duty. When Subjects are affected, as Scillurus would have his Sons for concord as Scipio had his Soldiers for obedience, which they prised above their lives, being ready to throw themselves from a Tower into the Sea at their Generall●… command: this is both to be great in Subjects, and over them. The greatest Victories, the greate●… Monarchies, are indebted for themselves to this lowly beginning of obedience. It is not to be a King of Kings, nor a King of slaves, nor a King of Devils, (you may remember to whom that was applied,) but to be the King of Hearts, and Hands, and Subjects, of many rich, loving, and dutiful Subjects, that makes a powerful Prince. As for the present puissance of France, can you tell in what Kings Reign it was greater since Charlemagne? Nevertheless admitting that the Peasants in France (as you are pleased to call them) suffer much: yet nothing near so much as they have done in seditious times, when Civil Warr●… raged among them, (when their Kings had less power over them,) which is our case now. God bless us from Turany, but more from Sedition. If the Subjects of France be Peasants, and the Subjects of Germany be Princes, God send us Englishmen to keep a mean; between both extremes, which our Forefathers found most expedient for all parties.   

Observer.  
But thus we see that Power is but secondary and derivative in Princes the Fountain and efficient cause is the People, and from hence the inference is just, the King though he be singulis Major, yet is he universis Minor, for if the People be the true efficient cause of Power, it is a Rule in Nature, quicquid efficit tale est magis tale. And hence it appears that at the founding of authorities, when the consent of Societies conveys rule into such and such Hands, it may ordain what conditions, and prefix what bounds it pleases, and that no dissolution ought to be thereof, but by the same power by which it had its Constitution.   

Answer.  
Thus we see your Premises are weak and naught, 
Sect. 5.  your argument proceeds from the staff to the corner, and your whole discourse is a Rope of Sand. First, your groundwork (that the People is the Fountain and efficient of Power) totters, and is not universally true. Power in the abstract is not at all; Power in the concrete is but sometimes from the People, which is rather the application of power then Power itself.  
Next, your inference from hence which in this place you call just, and a little after say, that nothing is more known or assented unto, that the King is singulis major but universis minor, greater than any of his Subjects singly considered, but less than the whole collected Body, is neither just, nor known, nor assented unto unless in that Body, you include His Majesty as a principal Member. And yet if that should be granted you, before it would do you any good, these universi, or this whole Body, must be reduced to the Major or greater part, and this diffused and essential Body must be contracted to a representative Body (unless we may believe your new Learning, that the Essential and Representative Body are both one.) But waving all these advantages, tell me Sir, might you be persuaded to follow Lycurgus his advice, to try this Discipline at home, before you offer it to the Commonwealth? could you be contented that all your Servants together, or the Major part of them had power to turn you out of your Mastership, and place your Steward in your room; or your Children in like case depose you from your Fatherhood? No I warrant you, the case would soon be altered. And when the greatest part of the sheep dislike their Shepherd, must be presently put up his Pipes and be packing? Take heed what you do, for if the People be greater than the King, it is no more a Monarchy but a Democracy. Hitherto the Christian World hath believed, that the King is post Deum secundus the next to God, solo Deo minor, only less than God, no Person, no Body Politic between; that he is Vicarius Dei, God's Vicegerent. The Scriptures say, that Kings reign not over Persons, but Nations; that Kings were anointed over Israel, not Israelites only. Saul is called the head of the Tribes of Israel. Our Laws are plain, we have 
●…am 15. 17  all sworn that the King's Highness is the only Supreme head, if Supreme, than not subordinate; if only Supreme, than not coordinate; and Governor of this Realm, His Highness is Supreme Governor, that is, in his Person, in his Chamber, as well as in his Court. The ancient Courts of England, were no other than the King's very Chamber and movable with him from place to place, whence they have their name of Courts. Supreme Governor of this Realm collectively, and not only of particular and individual Subjects. In all causes and over all Persons, then in Parliament and out of Parliament. Parliaments do not always sit, many Causes are heard, many Persons questioned, many Oaths of Allegiance administered between Parliament and Parliament. The same Oath binds us to defend him against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever, which shall be made against his Person or Crown; to defend him, much more therefore not to offend him; against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever, that Oath which binds us to defend him against all attempts whatsoever, presupposeth that no attempt against him can be justified by Law, whether these attempts be against his Person or his Crown. It will not serve the turn to distinguish between his Person and his Office, for both the Person and the Office are included in the Oath. Let every Subject lay his hand upon his heart, and compare his Actions with this Oath in the fear of God. When the great representative Body of Parliament are assembled, they are yet but his great Council, not Commanders. He calls them, he dissolves them; they do not choose so much as a Speaker without his approbation: and when he is chosen he prays His Majesty to interpose his Authority, and command them to proceed to a second choice; plane propter modestiam, sed nunquid contra veritatem? The Speakers first request is, for the Liberties and Privileges of the House: His Majesty is the fountain from which they flow. When they, even both Houses do speak to him, it is not by way of mandate, but humble Petition as thus, most humbly beseech your most excellent Majesty, your faithful and obedient Subjects, the Lords spiritual and temporal and Commons, in Parliament assembled; or thus, 
●…ab. 30.  We Your Majesty's loving, faithful, and obedient Subjects representing the three Estates of Your Realm of England etc. except we should overmuch forget our Duties to Your Highness etc. do most humbly beseech etc. Here the three Estates of the Kingdom assembled in Parliament do acknowledge their subjection and their duty, do beseech Her Majesty. Where by the way I desire to know of the Observer, whether that of the three Estates were a Fundamental Constitution of this Kingdom, and who were the three Estates at this time, and whether a third Estate have not been since excluded? Howsoever, we see they do but rogore legem pray a Law, the King enacts it, and as he wills or takes time to advise, so their Acts are binding or not binding. They challenge no dispensative Power above the Law: he doth. In a word, He is the Head not only of the Hand or of the Foot, but of the whole Body. These things are so evident, that all our Laws must be burned, before this truth can be doubted of. But to stop the Observers mouth for ever take an Authentic Testimony, in the very case point blank, By divers old Authentic Histories and Chronicles, it is manifestly declared, that this Realm of England is an Empire, and so hath been accepted in the World, governed by one Supreme Head and King, having the Dignity and royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the same, unto 
24. He●… cap. 12  whom a Body Politic compact of all sorts and degrees of people, divided into terms, and by names of Spiritualty and Temporalty, being bounden and owen next to God a natural and humble obedience, he being instituted and furnished by the goodness and sufferance of Almighty God with plenary, whole, and entire Power, Preeminence, Authority etc. Now Sir observe, first that not only individual Persons, but the whole compacted Body Politic of the Kingdom, are not only less than His Majesty, but do owe unto him a natural and humble obedience, (how far is this from that Majesty which you ascribe to the representative Body?) Secondly, that the Spiritualty were ever an essential part of this Body Politic. Thirdly that His Majesty's Power is plenary. Fourthly, that he derives it not from inferior compacts, but from the goodness of God. It is true, were His Majesty as the Prince of Orange is, or you would have him to be, not a true Possessor of Sovereign Power, but a Keeper only, as the Roman Dictator or an arbitrary Proctor for the People, your rule had some more show of reason: but against such evident light of truth to ground a contrary assertion, derogatory to His Majesty, upon the private authority of Bracton and Fle●… (no Authentic Authors) were a strange degree of weakness or wilfulness, especially if we consider, first, upon what a trifling silly Homonomie it is grounded, quia comites dicuntur quasi socii Reqis, et qui habent socium habent Magistrum. If he had called them the King's Attendants, or subordinate Governors of some certain Province or County, as the Sheriff Vice Comes was their Deputy, there had been something real in it. Secondly, if we consider, that this assertion is as contrary to the Observers own grounds, as it is to truth, for what they (Bracton and Fleta) do appropriate to the House of Lords curiae Comitum & Baronum, he attributes to the collective Body of the whole Kingdom, or at the least to both Houses of Parliament: that is far from the Observers meaning and nothing to the purpose. This catachrestical and extravigant expression, with the amphibologicall ground of it, is either confuted or expounded by the Authors themselves, as saying, the King hath no Peer, therefore no Companion; that he is Vicarius Dei Gods Vicegerent, that he is not sub homina, under Man. And if the words have any grain of truth in them, they must be understood not of an Authorative, but only of a Consultive Power to advise him, or at the most approbative, to give their assent to Laws propounded, he having limited himself to make no Laws without them. So we may say a Man's promise is his Master; as if a man should say that the Judges in the House of Peers, who have no Votes, but are mere assistants, yet in determining controversies in point of Law, are in some sort superior to the Lords, not in Power which they have none, but in skill and respect of that dependence, which the Lords may have upon their Judgement and integrity.  
Neither will your logical Axiom, quicquid efficit ●…ale est magis tale, help you any thing at all, for first your quicquid efficit must be quando efficit. If a cause have sufficient vigour and efficacy at such time as ●…he effect is produced, it is not necessary that it should ●…eteine it for ever after, or that the People should re●…ein that power which they have divested themselves of by election of another. To take your case at the ●…est, they have put the staff out of their own hands, and cannot without Rebellion and sin against God, ●…doe what they have done. Secondly, for your magic tale, there is a caution in this Canon, that the same quality must be both in the cause and in the effect, which yet is not always, not in this very case, it must be in causes total essential and univocal, such as this is not. The Sun is the cause of heat, yet it is not hot itself, Sol & homo generant hominem viventem, yet the Sun lives not. If two Litigants consent to licence a third Person to name another for Arbitrator between them, he may elect a Judge, not be a Judge. Yet I shall not deny you any truth, when and where the antecedent consent of free societies not preingaged, doth instrumentally confer and convey, or rather apply power and authority into the hands of one or more, they may limit it to what term they please, by what covenants they please, to what conditions they please, at such time as they make their election: yet Covenants and Conditions differ much which you seem to confound, breach of Covenant will not forfeit a Lease, (much less an Empire.) I have seen many Covenants between Kings and their People, sometimes of Debt, and many times of Grace, but I do not remember that ever I read any Conditions, but with some old elective Kings of Arragon (if they were Kings) long since antiquated, and one only King of Polonia.  
You add and truly, that there ought to be no dissolution of Sovereignty, but by the same power by which it had its Constitution, wherein God had his share at least: but this will not serve your turn, if you dare speak out plainly, tell us, when a King is constituted by right of Conquest and long Succession, yea or by the election of a free people, without any condition of forfeiture, or power of revocation reserved (as the Capuans gave themselves to the Romans,) and so according to your position it is established by God, can the People, or the Major part without gross Treason attempt to dethrone this King, or send him a writ of ease? They that are so zealous in Religion, to have every thing ordered according to the express word of God, let them show but one Text, where ever God did give this Power to Subjects, to reduce their Sovereigns to order by Arms. If this were so, Kings were in a miserable condition. Consider the present Estate of Christendom, what King hath not Subjects of sundry Communions and Professions in point of Religion? upon these men's grounds he must be a Tyrant to one party or more. Moses seemed a Tyrant to Korah and his rebellious Company; Queen Elizabeth and King james did seem Tyrants to Squire, Parry, Sommervill, and the Powder-Traytors. Lycurgus of whom Apollo once doubted whether he should be numbered among the Gods or Men, was well near stoned, and had his eyes put out in a popular tumult. Thus Barrabas may be absolved, and the King of Kings condemned. What Devilish Plots would this Doctrine presently raise, if it were received? what murders and assassinates? would it ●…sher into the World? especially considering that the worst men are most commonly active in this kind, to whom nothing doth more discommend a King than his Justice.   

Observer.  
As for the final Cause of Regal Authority, I do not find any thing in the King's papers denying, that the same people is the final which is the efficient cause of it, & indeed it were strange if the People in subjecting itself to command, should aim at any thing but their own good in the first and last place. 'tis true according to Machavills Politics, Princes ought to aim at greatness, not in but ●…ver their Subjects, and for the achieving of the same, they ought to propose to themselves no greater good than the spoiling and breaking the spirits of their subjects, nor no greater mischief then common Freedom, neither ought they to promote and cherish any servants, but such as are most fit for rapine and oppression, nor depress and prosecute any as Enemies, but such as are gracious with the populacy for noble and gallant acts, And a little after, His Dignity was erected to preserve the Commonalty, the Commonalty was not created for his Service, and that which is the end, is far more valuable in Nature and Policy, then that which is the means.   

Answer.  
Still this Discourse runs upon elective Kingdoms: 
Sect. 6.  As for those which have had other originals, here is a deep silence, s●…is tu simul●…e ●…upressum, quid hoc? you can paint a Cypress Tree, but what is this to the purpose? Let it be admitted that in such Monarchies, the aim of the People is their own Protection, Concord, and Tranquillity, Rulers are the Ministers of God for our good; so on the other side, 
〈◊〉. 13. 4.  Sovereign Princes have their ends also, who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk thereof? So there are 
Cor. 9 7.  mutual ends, and these ends on both sides are lawful and good, so long as they are consonant to the rules of Justice. And though Prince and People do principally intend their own respective good, yet it were folly to imagine to attain to such high ends of such consequence and concernment, without the mixture of some Dangers, Difficulties, Troubles, and Inconveniences: as Saint Ambrose saith, that since the fall of Adam, thorns often grow without roses, but no true roses without thorns: we must take the rose with the thorn, the one with the other in good part, for better for worse, fructus transit cum onere the benefit passeth with the burden. If we can purchase tranquillity which we intent, with Obedience and Subjection which we must undergo; we have no cause to complain of the bargain. It is a most wretched Government, where one real suffering, is not compensated with ten benefits and blessings.  
Again, this public good of the people, is (to use your own phrase) either singulorum or universorum, public or private, of particular Subjects, or of the whole Commonwealth: howsoever the actual intentions of individual Members of a Society may aim at the private, yet when these two are inconsistent (as sometimes it falls ou●…) a good Governor must prefer the public; and particular Members must not grumble to suffer for the general good of the Body Politic.  
But you say the end is far more honourable than the means, and the Preservation of the Commonalty is the end of Regal Dignity. True, but this preservation must be understood, sub modo, according to Law, which is not alterable at the discretion of humorous Men, but with the concurrence both of King and Subjects. Likewise this is to be understood, where the ends are not mutual (as here they are) the King for the People, and the People for the King: and where the end is not partial but adequate (as this is not.) Lastly, the end is more valuable, how? qua finis as it is the end in the intention of the efficient, not always in the n●…ture of the thing. If the Observer had argued thus, the public Tranquillity of King and People is the end of Government, therefore more valuable, hi●… inference had been good, but as he argues now, it is a mere Paralogism, which I will clear by some instances. The Tutor is elected for the preservation of his Pup●…ll, yet the Pupil qua talis is less honourable: The Angels are Ministering Spirits for the good of Mankind, are men therefore more honourable than Angels? The Redemption of the World is the end of Christ's Incarnation, is the World therefore more excellent than Christ?  
Whether the Observer cite Machiavelli true or false, I neither know nor regard? Such a Character might fit Caesar Borgia a new Intruder, but not King Charles, who derives his Royalty from above an hundred Kingly Predecessors, whom Malice itself cannot charge with one drop of guiltless Blood, nor with the tear of an innocent, such a Prince as Vespa●…ian, of whom it is said, that justis suppliciis ill●…chrimavit & ingemuit. But I offer two issues to the Observer, out of these words of Machiavelli, if he please to accept the challenge. First, that more Noble Worthies have been cru●…hed to nothing by the insolency of the People, (proportion for proportion) then by the Power of Kings. As in Athens for instance, Socrates, Aristides, Themistocles, Alcibiades, and many more. The Second, that gallant and veruous Actio●…s do not more often ingratiate men with the People, than a rolling tongue, a precipitate head, vain glorious Profusion, oily Insinuations, feigned Devotions, Sufferings (though deserved) from Superi●…rs, and above all opposition to the present Sta●…. So that he that is a Favourite to the King, is ipso facto, hated by the People or the major Part: ●…nd to be slighted by the Prince, is frequently a re●…y way to be honoured by the People. judas of ●…lilee was a great Favourite of the 
●…s 5. 37.  Commons, how did he endear himself? by seditious Orations. Wh●… more popular than Simon Magus? 
〈◊〉 8. 10.  'tis megas so●… great one, and this only with juggling. When Abs●…om sought to ingratiate himself 
●…m. ●…5.  with the vulgar, wh●… course did he take? to be more eminent in virtue? No such thing; but ostentation, lying, flattery and ●…ucing the present State. Who hath not heard, ho●… ●…stratus and Dionysius two execrable Tyrants, did cut ●…d sl●…sh themselves, and perswa●… the credulous ●…titude, how it was done by the Malignants for their zeal to the Commonwealth, till by these Arts they had first gotten a guard allowed for themselves, and after invaded the Government.   

Observer.  
To be deliciae humani generis is grown fordid with Princes, to be public torments and Carnificines, and to plot against those Subjects, whom by nature they ought to protect, is held Caesar- like, and therefore bloody Borgia by mere treachery and cruelty hath gotten room in the Calendar of witty and of spirited Heroes. And our English Court of late years hath drunk too much of this State-poyson, for either we have seen Favourites raised to poll the People, and razed again to pa●…ifie the People; or else (which is worse for King and People too) we have seen engines of Mischief preserved against the People, and upheld against Law, merely that mischief might not want encouragement.   

Answer.  
Curse not the King (saith the Wiseman) no not in thy thought. Thou shalt not revile the Gods, nor speak 
Sect, 7. Eccl. 10. Exo. 22. & Act 5. 2. Pet. 2●… & Ju●…  evil of the Ruler of thy People. Two Apostles bear record that there cannot be a surer note of a Schismatic, then to despise Dominion, and speak evil of Dignities. Evil language against a Sovereign Prince, hath ever been reputed an Injury to all his Subjects: but this age hath hatched such Vipers, which dare not only like some Rabshakeh, ●…aile against some foreign Prince, but cast dirt in the face of their natural Lord; as if they were the colls of a wild Ass in the Wilderness, subject to no man, accountable to no Man: and that not only in thought, which Solomon disliked, or in a word, which God did forbid, but even to make the Press groan under daily bundles of Lies and slanders and fictitious Fables. I say the Press, which hath been ever esteemed a peculiar Privilege of Supreme Majesty, N●…y, one King is not an object worthy of their wrath, but as it is said of julian, that he sought to destroy both Presbyteros and Presbyterium, not Priests only, but Priesthood itself: So it is not one or two Monarches, but the destruction of Monarchy itself which these Men aim at; witness our Observer here, to be public torments and Carnificines, is held Caesar- like with Princes, and one of his Friends lately, He errs not much who saith, that there is an inbred hatred of the Gospel in all Kings, they do not willingly suffer the King 
●…eiae adelphi  of Kings to rule in their Kingdoms, the Lord hath his among Kings, but very few, one perhaps of an hundred. Increpet te Deus Satan. The Lord himself will one day call them to an account for these Blasphemies against his anointed. Is this a Coal taken from the Altar, or rather from the fire of Hell? There is hope our Countrymen will rob the Jesuits shortly of their reputation: Anabaptism hath got it loose to be the Liars and the Rebel's Catechism. Sir, lay aside your eye of envy, which cannot endure the beams of Majesty, and tell us what it is in King Charles which doth so much offend you? take Diogenes his lantern, and look at Noonday among all his Opposers throughout your Classes and Forms, if you can find one to match or parallel him, for piety towards God, justice towards Man, Temperance in His Diet, truth in His Word, Chastity in His Life, Mercy towards the oppressed; yea take your multiplying glass and look through His Government from end to end, if you can find His Crown sprinkled with one drop of innocent blood. He needs not with Caius the Emperor assume Mercury's Rod, Apollo's bow and arrows, M●…rs his sword and shield, to make himself resemble God, He hath better ensigns of the Deity. Unhappy we only because we do not know our own good, that might enjoy a temperate and sweet Government, Sunshine days under our own Vines and Figtrees, the free Profession of true Religion, equal administration of Justice, Peace and Plenty, with a daily growth of all arts that may enrich or civilize a Nation, under the radicated succession of a Princ●…ly Family. If the Observers eyes had not been like the old Lamiaes, to take out and put in at his pleasure, he might have seen a Titus at Home, a Darling of Mankind.  
But what is the ground of all this great cry? forsooth we have had Favourites. I do not yet know any hurt in a good Favourite, such an one as joshua was to Moses, or Daniel to Darius, or Maecenas and Agrippa to Augustus, or Craterus and (for any thing I know) Ephestion also to Alexander. Wise men think a well-chosen Favourite may bring great advantage both to King and People. But I leave the discourse: it is well known, His Majesty is as opposite to Favourites as the Observer, and never raised any to th●… height, but they might be opposed and questioned ●…y their Fellow-Councellers. But if the Observer have a mind to see some of those Favourites, (whom he call●… Pollers, engines of Mischief, or Monopolists) he may find them moving in another Sphere: To side with His Majesty is no ready way to impunity.   

Observer.  
But our King here doth acknowledge it a great business of His Coronation Oath to protect us: and I hope under this word protect, he intends not only to shield us from all kind of evil, but to promote us to all kind of Political happiness, according to his utmost Devoir: and I hope he holds himself bound thereunto, not only by his Oath, but also by his very Office and by the end of his Sovereign Dignity. And though all single Persons ought to look upon the late bills passed by the King, as matters of Grace with all Thankfulness and Humility: yet the King himself looking upon the whole State, aught to acknowledge, that he cannot merit of it, and that whatsoeven he hath granted, if it be for the prosperity of his People, (but much more for their ease) it hath proceeded but from mere duty. If Ship-money, if Star-Chamber, if the High Commission, if the Votes of Bishops and Popish Lords in the upper House be inconsistent with the welfare of the Kingdom, not only Honour, but justice itself challenges that they be abolished. The King ought not to account that a Profit or Strength to him, which is a loss or wasting to the People, nor ought he to think that perished to him, which is gained to the People: The word Grace sounds better in the People's mouth then in His.   

Answer.  
His Majesty is bound in Conscience both by his 
Sect. 8.  Oath and Office, not only to protect his People committed to his charge in Wealth, Peace and Godliness, but also to promote their Good: But this Protection must be according to Law, this Promotion according to Law. Now if a good King at seasonable and opportune times, (so it may not be like the borrowing of a shaft for the Hatchet to cut down the great Oak, nor like the plucking off one or more feathers out of the Eagles wings, wherewith to feather an arrow to pierce through that King of Birds,) shall freely according to the dictates of his own Reason, part with any of those Jewels which do adorn his Royal Diadem, for the behoof of his Subjects, it is an act of Grace, not only to individual Persons, but to the collected Body of his People, & so both Houses have acknowledged it: yet you say it is mere duty, that both Honour and Justice do challenge it from him. It is a strange and unheard of piece of Justice and Duty, which is without and beyond all Law. You say the word Grace sounds better in the People's mouth then in His, O Partiality how dost thou blind men's eyes! The Observer sees that Grace sounds ill in the King's mouth, and yet he doth not or will not see how ill duty and mere duty sounds in his own mouth, being a Subject towards his Sovereign. The truth is, it is most civil for Receivers to relate benefits, sufficit unus huit operi, si vis me loqui, ipse tace: But where the Receivers forget themselves, yea deny the favours received (as this Observer doth) it is very comely for the Bestowers to supply their defect.  
Next, to your taking away of Ship-Money, Star-chamber, High Commission, etc. It is an easy thing to take away, but difficult to build up, both in nature and in respect of men's minds, which commonly agree sooner in the destructive part then in the constructive. All the danger is either in exceeding the golden mean (by falling from one extreme to another) or in taking that away, which by correcting and good ordering skill, might have been of great use to the Body Politic. We are glad to be eased of our former Burdens, yet we wish with all our hearts, that our present ease may not produce greater mischiefs, that in true real necessities and sudden dangerous Exigences, the Commonwealth may not be left without a speedy Remedy. That if the Laws have not sufficiently provided for the suppressing of riots and tumultuous disorders in great men? yet the ordinary Subject may nor be left without a Sanctuary whither to fly from oppression. That in this inundation of Sects, which do extremely deform our Church, and disturb the Commonwealth, there may be a proper and sure Remedy provided before it be too late, and we be forced in vain to dig up Antigonus again out of his Grave. As for the taking away of Bishop's Votes at this time. I do not doubt but that great Council of the Kingdom had reasons for it, and may have other Reasons (when it pleaseth God) to restore them again: There is much difference betwixt a coercive and a Consultive Power: No Nation yet that ever I read of, did exclude their Religious from their Consultations: To make a Law perfectly good, Piety must concur, and who shall judge what i●… piou●…? shall they first be excluded from all other Professions, and then from their own? British Bishop have been of no●…e in great Counsels Foreign and Domestic these one thousand four hundred and thirty years. It is your own Rule, quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari debet: All other Professions in the Kingdom are capable ●…oth of electing and being elected; but for this I do submit, and leave it to time to discover what is good for the Kingdom.   

Observer.  
This directs us then to the transcendent achme of all Politics, to the P●…ramount Law, which shall give Law to all Humane Laws whatsoever, and that is salus Populi. The Law of Prerogative itself is subservient to this Law, and were it not conducing thereunto, it were not necessary nor expedient.   

Answer.  
If this Author could commit the Law of Prerogative, and this Supreme Law of salus Populi together, 
Sect. 9  as opposite one to another, he had said something; but he cannot see Wood for Trees: the same transcendent achme which he magnifies, is the Law of Prerogative itself: because a general Law cannot take notice of the equity of all particular circumstances, nor of the necessity of all particular Occurrences; therefore the supreme Prince is trusted with this Power Paramount. That which the Law of Nature warrants in a private Man, as in a scathfire, to pull down a Neighbour's House to prevent the burning of a City; to cast another man's corn overboard in a Tempest; to defend himself from thieves, in cases where he cannot have recoarse to the Magistrate, or the suddenness of the Danger will admit no formal Proceeding in Law: So public necessity doth justify the like Actions in a King, where the exigence of the State is app●…tant. If this Power be at any time misemployed, if this Trust be violated; yet the abuse of a thing cannot take away the use and lawful and necessary right, which is grounded upon the universal and perpetual Law of salus Populi, which comprehends the good of the Sovereign, as well as of the Subject. But it is now grown into fashion for Subjects without Authority, Equity, or Necessity, to urge this Law upon all occasions. Salus Populi, is like the Fox in Aesop's Fables, it is in at every end. men's Persons are imprisoned, their Houses plundered, there Lands sequestered, their Rights violated without the Judgement of their Peers, contrary to the known Law, contrary to the great Charter; and nothing pretended for this, but the Law Paramount, Truly Sir, if this be salus Populi, u●…a salus sanis nullam sperare salutem. A remote Jealousy or Suppofition is no good ground for the exercise of this Law: as to pull down another Man's House, for fear of a Scathfire to come, God knows how or when, perhaps foretold in a Prognostication. The Dangers must be very visible, before this Rule take place, not taken upon Trust or an implicit Faith, like Seoggins fiery Dragons in the air. All true Englishmen will desire to be governed by their known Laws, and nor to hear too often of this Paramount Law, the application or misapplication whereof, hath been the cause of the past and present Distempers of this Kingdom. Extraordinary remedies like hot Waters, may help at a Pang, but being too often used, spoil the Stomach. 
Sir H. 〈◊〉    

Observer.  
Neither can the Right of Conquest be pleaded to acquit Princes of that which is due to the People, as the Authors and ends of all Power, for mere Force cannot alter the course of Nature, or frustrate the tenor of the Law, and if it could, there were more reason why the People might justify force, to regain due Liberty, than the Prince might to subvert the same. And it is a shameful Stupidity in any Man, to think that our Ancestors did not fight more n●…bly for their free Customs, and Laws, of which the Conqueror and his Successors had in part disinherited them by violence and perjury, than they which put them to such conflicts; for it seems unnatural to me, that any Nation should be bound to contribute its own inherent puissance, merely to abet Tyranny, and support Slavery; and to make that which is more excellent; a prey to that which is of less worth. And questionless a native Prince if mere force be right, may disfranchise His Subject as well as a Stranger, if he can frame a sufficient party, and yet we see that this was the foolish Sin of Rehoboam, who having deserted and rejected out of an intolerable Insolence the Strength of ten Tribes, ridiculously sough●… to reduce them again with the Strength of two.   

Answer.  
This Author intends not to halt on one side only in this Discourse, qui s●…mel verecundiae limites transiverit, 
●…ct. 10.  guavit●… 〈◊〉 esse oportet. First, That just Conquest in a lawful War, acquireth good right of Dominion, as well as Possession, is so consonant to the universal Opinion and Practice of all Nations, yea, to ●…he infallible and undoubted Testimony of holy Scriptures, that he that denies it, may as well affirm, Nil intra est ●…leam, nil extra est in nu●…e durum. Force is not mere Force, where Justice goes hand in hand ●…ith it, Omnia dat qui justa negat. Neither is this to alter the course of Nature, or frustrate the ●…enour of Law, but itself is the Law of Nature and of Nations,  
Secondly, Tha●… Subjects who have not the power of the Sword committed to them, after a long time of Obedience and lawful Succession, after Oaths of Allegiance, may use force to recover their former Liberty, or raise A●…ms to change the Laws established, is without all ●…ontradiction bo●…h false and Rebelliou●…. They t●…at are overcome (saith josephus most truly) and have long obeyed, if they seek to shake off the yoke, they do●… the part of desperate Men not of Lovers of Liberty▪ Surely, if any Liberty might warrant such Fo●…ce, it is the Liberty of Religion, but Christ never planted his Religion in blood: He cooled his Disc●…ples heat with a sharp Redargution, ye know not of what spirit ye are of. It is better 
Luke 9 5●…  ●…o die innocent then live nocent, as the Thebaean Legion, (all Christians of approved valour) answered the bloody Emperor Maximian, Cognosce Imperator, know O Emperor that we are all Christians, we submit our Bodies to thy Power, but our free Souls fly to our Saviour, neither our known Courage nor Desperation itself hath armed us against thee, because we had rather die inn●…cent, then live guilty; thou shalt find our Hands empty of Weapons, but our Breasts a●…med with the Catholic Faith. So having power to resist, yet they suffered themselves to be cut all in pieces. The Observer is still harping upon Tyranny and slavery, to little purpose; he is not presently a Tyrant, who hath more Power than Nature did comm●… to him, nor he a Sl●…ve who hath subjected himself to the Dominion of another: That which is done to gain Protection or Sustenance, or to avoid the evils of Sedition, or to perform a lawful Engagement, is not merely done to abet Tyranny and support Slavery.  
Thirdly, to the Observers instance of our Ancestors in the Baron's Wars, I know not whether Wars he intends, the former or the latter, or both: This is certain, no party gained by them. They p●…oved fatal and destructive sometimes to the King, sometimes to the Barons, sometimes to both, and evermore to the People. And howsoever the name of free Customs and Laws was mae use of as a plausible pretence, yet it is evident, that Envy, Re●…enge, covetousness, Ambition, Lust, Jealousy, did all act their several parts in them. And if there were any (as I doubt not there were many) who did solely and sincerely aim at the public good, yet it cannot be denied there was too much stiffness, and animosity on both side●…: a little yielding and bending is better than breaking outright, and more especially Conscience requires it of them who are Subjects, and of them who contend for an alteration. Pliny relates a Story of two Goats that met in the midst of a narrow plank, over a swift current, there was no room for one to p●…sse by another, neither could turn backward, they could not fight it ou●… for the way, but with certain peril of dro●…ning them both; that which only remained, was that the one couching on the plank made a Bridge for the other to go over, and so both were saved. But the Subject is so direful and tragical, and the remembrance of those times so odious to all good Men, that I pass by it, as ●…ot much material to the Question in hand: Both Parties are dead and have made their accounts to God, and know long since whether they did well or ill: neither can their example either justify or condemn our actions. It is probable there were some Shebahs, Trumpeters of Sedition in those days, as this Author proves himself now: yet none so apt as these Catiline's to cry out against Incendiar●…es. It is a good wish of Saraviah, that such seditious Authors might ever be placed in the front of the battle. Yet thus far the Author's ingenuity doth lead him, to distinguish the Barons then, from His Majesty's Opposites now. The Barons then fought for their Laws▪ not to change the Laws and alter the Government both in Church and Commonwealth, which was the very case of the Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and Northern Rebels in the Days of Henry the eight, and Queen Elizabeth. I wish none of His Majesty's Subjects were involved in it at this present.  
Fourthly, whereas he urgeth that a native Prince may disfranchise His Subjects by Force, if He can make a Party, as well as Strangers: either he intends that he may do it de facto, that is true; so may a Thief take away an honest man's purse▪ or else that he may do it de jure, lawfully and conscionably; that is most untrue: There is a vast difference betwixt a just War and an unjust Oppression. His instance of Rehoboam is quite beside the Cushion, his error was threatening and indiscretion, the fault they found was with Solomon, thy Father hath made our yoke grievous: And yet it is most certain, they never had so gracious so happy a Reign as solomon's was for Peace & Plenty, who made Silver as plentiful as stones, and Cedars 
1. King. 27.  as Sicamores in jerusalem. So unthankful we are naturally, so soon troubled with trivial matters as Haman was, and like flies feed upon sores, leaving the whole Body which is ●…ound. This is sure, that against Rehoboam, was a meditated Rebellion, witness the place chosen Shechem, in the midst of the Faction; witness their Prolocutor jeroboam, a seditious Fugitive, and ungrateful Servant of solomon's, by 
1 King 3.  whom he had been preferred; they sent for him out of AEgipt. And howsoever the Author makes Rehoboams attempt ridiculous, yet it proved not so shortly 
2. Chr●… 13. 1●…  after, His Son Abijah discomfi●…ed jeroboam, and ●…lew of his Soldiers five hundred thousand men; the the greatest number that we have read of slain at once; yet had jeroboam all the advantages in the World, of numbers, Stratagems, and every thing except the justice of the Cause. And that which is mo●…e for our learning, the House of judah had many pious and virtuous Kings after this Revolt, but the House of Israel not one but Tyrants and Idolaters.   

Observer.  
I come now from the cause which conveys Royalty, and that ●…or which it is conveyed, to the nature of the conveyance. The word trust is frequent in the King's papers, and therefore I conceive the King ●…oes admit that His Interest in the 〈◊〉 is not absolute, or by a mere Donation of the People, ●…t in part conditionate and ●…duciary. And indeed all good Princes, without any express contract betwixt them and their Subjects, have acknowledged, that there did 〈◊〉 a great and high trust upon them; nay Heathen Pri●…es that have been absolute, have acknowledged themsel●…es Servants to the public, and born for that service, a●…d professed that they would manage the public Weal, ●…s being well satis●…ed populi ●…em esse non suam: And we cannot immagi●…e in the fury o●… Warr (when Laws have the least vigour) that any Generalissimo can be so unc●…rcumscribed in Power, ●…ut that if he should turn hi●…●…ons on his own Soldiers, they were ipso facto absol●… of all Obedience, and of, all Oaths, and ties of Allegi●…e whatsoever for that time, and bound by a higher Duty to seek their own preservation by Resistance and De●…e▪ Wherefore if there be such tacit trusts and reserv●…tions in all public Commands, though of most 〈◊〉 nature that can be supposed, we cannot but admit, that in all well form Monarchies, where Kingly Prerogative has any Limits set, this must needs be one necessary condition, that the Subject may live safe and free. The Charter of Nature entitles all Subjects of all Countries whatsoever to safety by its supreme Law.   

Answer.  
The Observer needs not bring any confessions of 
Sect. ●…11  Princes, Christian or Heathen, to prove that good Kings account themselves great, though glorious servants to their Subjects, like a Candle burning away itself to give light to others; which a German Prince stamped on His Coin with this inscription aliis serviens meipsum contero: Whilst other men ●…lept Ahasuerosh waked, and thoughts troubled Nebuchadnezars' Head. They have many Causes of care, which private Persons want, & patet in cura●… a●… 〈◊〉 su●…s: Queen Mary said, they would find Callic●… written in her heart. He is very incredulous who will not believe readily, that these Distractions have pierced deeper into the breast of King Charles, then of this Observer; and this because he knows & populi rem esse & suam: Yet further, His Majesty will acknowledge a trust from His People, a subsequent and implicit consent implies a trust but not a gift: But the inference which this good Man (I can neither call him good Subject nor good Logician) makes f●…om hence, that the King hereby admits that His Interest in the Crown is not absolute but a mere Donation, yea a conditional donation from the People, is such a pretty treasonable (I should say topical) Argument, drawn just from Te●…erden Steeple to Goodwin Sands, confounding Gods r●…st with man's trust, and in man's trust a trust of 〈◊〉 with a trust of dependence, a trust recoverable with a trust irrecoverable, a trust absolute with a trust conditional, a trust antecedent with a trust consequent: I hope the Author trusts in God, will he therefore make God his Donee, yea his conditionate Donee? In plain terms, Sir, your collection is foundered of all four, and will not pass current in Smithfield, and man well take your Generalissimo by the hand: But good Sir, without offence may I ask you, what Countryman your Generalissimo was? For no man that I meet with, will believe that there ever was such a Creature in the World: But certainly if there was, he was stark mad. Now Sir in the first place, he that shall go about to shake in pieces an healthful and beneficial Institution, for fear of such a Danger, as was never yet produced into act, since the Creation of the World; deserves the next Room in Bedlam to your Generalissimo. These groundless panicall Fears, these ifs and suppositions of incredible Dangers, have been the Raiser's and Fomenters' of these present Distractions: Dic mihi si sius tu leo qualis eris? If the Sky should fall, what price will Larks bear? Secondly, it is a piece both of incivility and knavery, for a Servant first to withdraw his Obedience from His Master undutifully, and then to plead saucily that some Masters have been mad. Thirdly, hath a Generalissimo as large an extent of Power in all respects, as unlimited for time as a Sovereign King? When a Generalissimo runs into such a fran●…cke Error, it is si●… he should lose his place: but when a●… Hereditary King falls into it, it is just he should have a Pro●…ex named, a Deputy or Protector (which you will) during his Distraction, always saving the right both to himself and his Posterity. I have read such rebellious suppositions as this in late Pamphlets, as of a Pilot seeking to split his Ship upon the rocks: of a Patient calling to his Physician for poison; but never read one of them urged in a Classicke Author. Put the case a man is to sail by Sea, the Pilot may run mad, and seek to split the Ship upon rocks; shall we therefore make an Ordinance, that it shall not be lawful for a Pilot to move his rudder according to the alterable face of Heaven, or different disposition of Wind and Wether, before he have consulted and gained the consent of all the Passengers, or at the least of every inferior Mariner, or of the Major part of them? Interea perit Nau●…agus, before this can be done the Ship may be cast away: howsoever it leaves small hope of a prosperous Voyage. If you will prescribe Limits and Bounds and Conditions to Kings, you must find them written in plainer Characters than any you produce hitherto. The Charter of Nature, Lex nata non data, is indeed to preserve ourselves, as Water contracts itself into a Globe or Circle in a dusty place; an Emblem of Association, which cannot be without Nerves, Bonds, Ligaments, Laws, and Kings. What is this against the Magistrate, who is the Minister of God for our preservation and safety? The Subject never finds more safety or more Liberty, then under a gracious King, neque unquam Libert●… gratior aut tutior extat quam 〈◊〉 Re●…e pio.  
But because the Observer doth so often press the Charter of Nature, even to the dissolving of all Oaths and ●…es of Allegiance and all mutual Compacts and Agreements: as also to animate Subjects to raise Arms against their Sovereigns, as a thing that is not only lawful but necessary, to which they are bound by a higher duty, unless they will be felonious to themselves and rebellious to Nature: That it is not just nor possible for any Nation so far to enslave themselves, & that there are tacit trusts & reservations in all public Commands. To give him an answer once for all in this point of Resistance. First, I affirm though it be nothing to us, (who are free Subjects and might well have been omitted by him, as making nought to his purpose) that even by the Laws of Nature, of Nations, and of God, one Man, or a Society of Men might enslave themselves to another for sustenance or protection. All Histories both sacred and profaine are full of Examples, and the Law of God is plain Exod. 21. 6. Levit, 25. 47. etc. And it seems strange, that the Observer should so far overreach or beat the air to no end at all: this confessed truth quite overthrows his whole structure of tacit trusts and conditions and rebellions against Nature.  
Secondly, to come nearer our own case, I answer, that though the Law of Nature cannot be destroyed or contradicted, yet it may be limited by the positive Laws of the Land. And so it is; the Observer will not deny it in his own case, though he meet with another measure to his Sovereign. The Charter of Nature entitles mankind indefinitely to ●…e whole Earth, will the Observer therefore give ●…is Neighbour leave to enter as a Coparcener into his Freehold? I believe, not; but would tell him readily ●…here is a new Charter made by which he holds it; that is, the Law of the Land. It is usual with these Men to divest Men of all due relations, as if it were ●…he same to be a Subject and a Man. A Man qua ●…alis, might do many things, which in a Subject is ●…lat Treason, notwithstanding the Charter of Nature.  
Thirdly, beyond and above both these, there is the Law of God, there is the last Will and Testament of our Saviour, by which we hold our hopes of happiness, which to Christians must be as the Pillar of Fire to the Israelites, a direction when to go, where to stay. Here we read of Tyrants, and of the sufferings of the Saints, but not a word of any tacit trusts and reservations, or of any such rebellion against Nature, or dispensation with Oaths, nor of any resistance by Arms. Certainly there is no one duty more pressed upon Christians by Christ and his Apostles then Obedience to Superiors. Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, saith our Saviour. Submit yourselves to every Ordinance of Man, for the Lords sake, saith Saint Peter. Put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers, saith Saint Paul: and in that well known place to the Romans, Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers, whosoever resisteth the Powers, resisteth the Ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation. To this evidence of Holy Scripture for want of one good answer, the Observer hath devised three bad ones, ut quae non vale●…nt singu●… multa juvent, the clearing of which will help to 〈◊〉 an end to the Controversy.  
First, they say, The Apostle tells us not which Po●… 
Observ. de●…ended pag. 7.  is highest, but that that Power which is the highest 〈◊〉 to be obeyed. A strange Evasion, the Apostle els●… where names these two together, Principalities 〈◊〉 Powers: yea in this very Text he expresseth himself, that by the higher Powers, he understands th●… Magistrate vers. 3. him that beareth the Sword, verse 4. him to whom tribute is paid verse 7. none of all these will agree either to the People or to the Senat●… but to the supreme Magistrate only, which Saint Peter tells us, is the King, whether it be to the King 〈◊〉 Supreme. 
Pet. 2. 13.   
A second Evasion is this, Saint Paul speaks to 〈◊〉 few particular dispersed Men, and those in a primitive 
Obs. defen●…ed. pag. 8.  condition, who had no means to provide for their own preservation. It skills not whether he borrowed this from the Jesuits defuerunt vires, they wanted strength; or of Buchanan, Finge aliquem e nostris Doctoribus, Imagine one of our Doctors did write to 
●…ucha.  the Christians which live under the Tunke, to poor●… faint-hearted and unarmed Men, what other Counsels could he give, than Saint Paul did to the Romans, Thus they transform a Precept into a Counsel, I had thought they had allowed no Evangelicall or Apostolical Counsels: and what the Apostle enjoins to be do●… for Conscience sake verse 5. under pain of Damnation verse 2. they say is to be done for discretion sake, under pain of plundering. Do not these Men deserve well of Christian Religion to infuse such prejudicated conceits into the bre●… of Monarches? that Christians are like the frozen snake, which if they take into their bosom, so soon as ●…he is warmed and inlived, they shall be sure to feel ●…er sting for their favours. Let Christians be guilt●…esse, and let the Mischief fall upon the heads of the ●…editious Contrivers. That it was not weakness or want of Courage, but strength of Faith that kept the Primitive Christians quiet under the persecutions of ●…he Heathen Emperors, Tertullian and the Ancients ●…oe abundantly witness, and it hath been sufficiently cleared by our Divines against the Jesuits. This is 
vers. 16.  ●…s Saint jude saith, to have men's persons in admira●…ion, because of advantage.  
The third answer whereupon they do most insist, 〈◊〉 that this subjection is due to the Authority of the ●…ing, not to the Person of the King, that this Authority resideth in his Courts and in his Laws, that ●…he Power which Saint Paul treateth of, is in truth the Kingly Office, that to levy Force or to raise Arms against the Personal commands of a King, accompanied with his presence, is not levying War against the King: but War against his Authority, residing in his Courts, is war against the King. Yet ●…et me give the Observer his due, he is more favourable to Princes then many of his Fellows in this, that he would have the Person of his Prince inviolable. And good reason, for what can the poor Kingdom expect, where the Person of the Prince is not held sacred? but Combustion and confusion: witness our own Civil Wars; witness the Histories of the Gothish Kings, and the Roman Emperors from julius Caesar to Constantine the great, being five and forty, whereof thirty perished by u●… timely deaths, divers of them good Princes: and a●… that while the Commonwealth sympathized in th●… common Calamity. No offence can be so great 〈◊〉 that it deserves to be punished by parricide. B●… this is a greater Courtesy in show then in deed: if a●… arrow shot at adventure, did wound the King of I●… rael 
〈◊〉 King 22. 34.  mortally between the joints of his harness, wh●… shall secure King Charles from a bullet? so all thi●… moderation ends in this, to give the King warning to avoid the field, or otherwise to take what fall●… at his peril. But that I may not deny truth to an Ad●… versary, I grant three truths in this Answer.  
First, that the Person and Office of a King at●… distinguishable: a good man may be a bad King, an●… a bad man a good King. Alexander the great ha●… his two friends Ephestion and Craterus; the one wa●… Alexander's Friend, the other was the King's Friend the one honoured his person, the other his Office▪ But yet he that loved Alexander did not hate th●… King, and he that loved the King, was no enemy t●… Alexander.  
Secondly, I grant in active Obedience, if th●… King command any thing which is repugnant to the Law of God or Nature, we ought rather to obe●… God then Men. The Guard of Saul refused justl●… to slay the Priests of the Lord; and Hanania●… 
Act. 5. 29. 〈◊〉 Sam. 22. 17  Mishael and Azariah to worship Nebuchadnezar●… golden Image; it is better to die then to do tha●… which is worse than Death: Da veniam Imperato●… pardon me, O Sovereign, thou threatnest me wit●… 
Austin.  prison, but God with Hell. In this case it is not lawful to yield active obedience to the King. Again if the King command any thing which is contrary to the known Laws of the Land, if it be by an injury to a third Person, we may not do it: as for a Judge to deliver an unjust sentence, for every Judge ought to take an Oath at his admission, that he will do right to every person, notwithstanding the King's letters 
Anno 18. Ed. 3. Stat  or any other persons; there is danger from others as well as from the King: And generally we owe service to the King, but innocency to Christ. But if this command entrench only upon our own private Interest, we may either forbear active Obedience, or in discretion remit of our own right, for avoiding further evil: So said Saint Ambrose, If the Emperor demand our fields, let him take them if he please, I do not give them, but withal I do not deny them. Provided always, that this is to be understood in plain cases only, where the Law of God, of Nature, or the Land is evident to every man's capacity: otherwise if it be doubtful, it is a Rule in Case Divinity, Subditi tenentur in favorem Regis & Legis judicare: It is better to obey God then Man, but to disobey the King upon Surmises, or probable pretence, or an implicit dependence upon other men's judgements, is to disobey both God and Man: and this duty (as the Protesters say truly) is not tied to a King's Christianity, but his Crown. Tiberius was no Saint when Christ bid give unto Caesar that which was Caesar's. Thus for active obedience, now for passive. If a Sovereign shall persecute his Subjects, for not doing his unjust Commands; yet it is not lawful to resist by raising Arms against him: They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. But they ask, i●… there no limitation? I answer, ubi lex non distingui●… nec nos distinguere debemus, how shall we limit where God hath not limited, or distinguish where he hath not distinguished? But is there no remedy for 〈◊〉 Christian in this case? yes, three remedies.  
The first is to cease from sin, Rex bonus est dextra, malus sinistra Dei, a good King is God's right hand, a bad his left hand, a scourge for our sins: as we suffer with patience an unfruitful year, so we must do an evil Prince as sent by God. Tollatu●… culpa ut cesset Tyrannorum plaga, (said Aquinas,) remove our sin, and God will take away his rod.  
The second remedy is prayers and tears, In that day you shall cry unto the Lord because of your King. 
Sam. 7. 18.  Saint Nazianzen lived under five persecutions and never knew other Remedy: he ascribed the death of julian to the prayers and tears of the Christians. jeremy armed the jews with prayers for Nebuchadnezar, not with daggs and daggers against Nebuchadnezar. Saint Paul commands to make prayers and supplications for Kings, not to give poison to them. Saint Peter could have taken vengeance with a word as well on Herod as Ananias, but that he knew that God reserves Kings for his own Tribunal. For this cause Saint Ambrose a Man of known courage, refused to make use of the forwardness of the People against Valen●…ian the Emperor. And when Saul had slain the Priests of God and persecuted David, yet saith David, who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords anointed and be guiltless? It was Duty 
Sam. 26. 9  and not a singular desire of perfection that held David's hands; who can stretch out his Hand? No Man can do it.  
The third remedy is flight, this is the uttermost which our Master hath allowed, when they persecute you in one City fly to another. But a whole 
Mat. 10.  Kingdom cannot fly, neither was a whole Kingdom ever persecuted by a lawful Prince: private men tasted of Domitian's cruelty, but the Provinces were well governed: The raging desires of one Man cannot possibly extend to the ruin of all. Nor is this condition so hard for Subjects, This is thankworthy 
1 Pet. 2.  if a man for Conscience towards God endure grief, and if a man suffer as a Christian let him glorify God on 
1 Pet. 4.  this behalf. This way hath ever proved successful to Christian Religion: the blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church; caedebantur, torquebantur, nrebantur, & tamen multiplicabantur.  
But all these Remedies are not sufficient, they are nothing, and they that think otherwise are stupid fellows in the judgement of the Observer; unless the People have right to preserve themselves by force of Arms, yea notwithstanding any contracts that they have made to the contrary; for every private man may descend himself by force if assaulted, though by the force of a Magistrate, 
Pag. 17.  or his own Father, etc. First I observe how the Observer enterferes in his Discourse, for in the forty fourth page he telleth us quite contrary, that the King as to his own Person is not forcibly to be repelled in any ill doing. But passing by this contradiction, I ask two questions of him, by his good leave, The first is, if a Father should go about only to correct his Child and not to kill him or maim him, whether he might in such a case cry Murder Murder, and try M●steries with his Father, and allege his own judgement against his Fathers to prove his innocency? My second question is, if an enraged Father should offer extreme violence to his Son, how far he might resist his Father in this case, whether to give blow for blow, and stab for stab, or only to hold his Father's hands? For if it be a mere resistance without any further active violence, (which is allowable,) if it be only in extreme perils where the life is endangered, and against manifest rage and fury; what the Observer gets by this, he may put in his eye and see never the worse. But to give his remedy and his instance for it a positive answer, I say further, that this which he calls a Remedy is ten times worse than the disease itself, even such a Remedy, as the lukewarm blood of Infants newly slain is for the Leprosy: and in this respect worse, that a Leprosy is a disease indeed, but where shall a Man almost read in story of a Father slaughtering his Son (except perhaps some frantic Anabaptist in imition of Abraham:) it will not be difficult to find two Sons that have made away their Fathers, for one Father that hath made away his Son, notwithstanding the Father's Authority. So this case is inter raro aut nunquam contingentia, and may be reckoned amongst the rest of the Observers incredible suppositions, which are answered before in the beginning of this Section. But if the Observers Doctrine were once received into the world throughly, for one instance of a Parricide now, we should hear of an hundred. A Mischief is better than an inconvenience; a Mischief that happens once in an Age, than an inconvenience which is apt to produce a World of Mischiefs every day: as where the King is able to make good his Party, res facile redeunt ad pristinum statum; or where Foreign Princes shall engage themselves, on the behalf of Monarchy itself, or perhaps do but watch for an opportunity to seize upon both parties, as the Kite did on the Frog and the Mouse; and howsoever, where Ambition, Covetousness, Envy, newfangledness, Schism shall gain an opportunity to act their mischievous intentions, under the cloak of Justice, and zeal to the Commonwealth. We are now God knows in this way of Cure which the Observer prescribes. I may say it safely, This Kingdom hath suffered more in the trial of this remedy in one year, than it hath done under all the Kings and Queens of England, since the union of the two roses, I think I may enlarge it, since the Conquest (except only such seditious times.) Leave a right to the Multitude to rise in Arms, as often as they may be persuaded there is Danger, by the Observer or some such seditious Orators for their own ends; and every English Subject may write on his door, Lord have mercy upon us.  
Thirdly, I do grant, that to levy Arms against the authority of the King, in the absence of his Person is to war against the King; otherwise we should, have few Treasons. Some desperate Ruffian or two or three Raggamuffin's sometimes (but rarely) out of revenge, most commonly upon seditious principles, and misled by some factious Teachers, may attempt upon the Person of the Prince: but all grand conspiracies are veiled under the mask of Reformation, of removing greivances and evil Counsellors, Fallit enim vitium specie virtutis & umbra▪ I go yet further, that when a King's Person is h●…ld captive by force and his commands are merely extorted from him by duresse and fear of further Mischief▪ contrary to the dictate of his own reason, (as it was in the case of Henry the sixth) there his commands are to be esteemed a nullity of no moment, as a forced marriage or a bond sealed per minas. But where the King hath Dominion of his own Actions, though he be actually misled, and much more though he be said to be misled; the case is far otherwise. These three truths with these Cautions I do admit in this distinction of the King's Person and Office.  
But yet further here are sundry rocks to be avoided in it. The first is not only to distinguish in reason but actually and in deed to divide the King's Person from His Authority; that is, to make the King a Platonical Idea wi●…out personal subsistence, or as the Familists do make their Christ, a Quality and not a Man: as if the King of England were nothing but Carolus Rex written in Court hand, without flesh blood or bones. To what purpose then are those significant solemnities used, at the Coronation of our Kings? Why are they crowned? but to show their personal and Imperial Power in Military Affairs: why enthroned? but to show their judiciary Supremacy: why ino●…led? but to express their Supremacy in matters of Religion. That the King's Authority may be where His Person is not, is most true: that His person may be without Authority, is most false. That his Office and Authority may be limited by Law, is true: but a King without personal Authority, is a contradiction rather than a King; such a King as the Soldiers made of Christ, with a scarlet Robe, a Crown of Thorns, a Sceptre of 
Mat. 27. 2●…  a Reed, and a few Courtesies and formalities. The Person of a bad King is to be honoured for his Office sake, to what purpose? if his Person and his Office m●…y be divided: How dull were the Primitive 〈◊〉, that suffered so much, because they were not cap●…ble of this distinction. By this distinction S. Paul ●…ight have justified his calling Ananias whited Wall, without pleading that he knew not that he was God's Highpriest, 
Acts 23.  and have told him plainly that be reverenced his Office, but for his Person and illegal commands, ●…e did 〈◊〉 respect them. When Maximian commanded ●…he Christian Soldiers to sacrifice to Idols, this ●…as an unlawful command; yet they c●…ose rather to ●…e cut in pieces then to resist. When the same Maximian and Dioclesian, published a cruel Edict ●…t Nicomedia ag●…inst Christians; That their Chur●…hes should be demolished, their Scriptures burned, ●…heir Apostate Servants enfranchised, (this was but a Personal Arbitrary Edict) A principal Professor ●…ore it in pieces, and suffered death for it (even in the judgement of his Fellow Christian▪) deservedly.  
A second Danger is to leave too great a Latitude of Judgement u●…to Subjects to censure the doing●… of their Sovereign, and too great a Liberty, not only to suspend their obedience, but also to oppose his commands, till they be satisfied of the legality thereof. A miserable a condition for Princes, as it is pernicious for Subjects, and destructive to all S●… cieties. A Master commands the Servant an unju●… act in the opinion of the Servant; yet the Serva●… must submit or be beaten: Doth not the Master hi●… self owe the same Subjection to his Prince? t●… Master denies the act is unjust; so doth the Prince who shall be Arbiter? it were too much sawcines●… for a Servant to arrogate it to himself; what is then for a Subject? will a Judge give leave to an E●… ecutioner to reprieve the Prisoner, till he be satisfy of the legality of the Judge's s●…ence? A Sup●… riour may have a just ground for his Command, whic●… he is not alwa●…es bound to discover to his Subjects nor is a Subject bound to sift the grounds 〈◊〉 his Superiour●… Commands. In sum a Subje●… should neither be tanquam scipio in manu, like staff in a man's hand, alike apt to all motions; read to obey his Prince, though the act to be done be e●… dently against the Law of God or Nature: nor ye●… on the other side, so scrupulou●… as to demur upon a●… his commands, until he understand the legality an●… expedience of each circumstance, which perhaps he 〈◊〉 not capable of, perhaps reason of State will not pe●… mit him to know it. The House of Commons hav●… a close Committee, which shows their allowance o●… an implicit confidence in some cases; yet are the●… but Proctors for the Commonalty, whereas the Kin●… is a Possessor of Sovereignty. But it is alleged, tha●… of two evils the lesse is to be chosen, it is better to disobe●… Man then God; Rather of two evils neither is to b●… chosen: but it is granted that when two evils ar●… feared, a Man should incline to the safer part: No●… if the Kings Command be certain, and the other danger but doubtful or disputable▪ to disobey the certain command for fear of an uncertain or surmised evil, is (as Saint Austin saith of some Virgins, who drowned themselves for fear of being deflowered,) to fall into a certain crime for fear of an uncertain.  
A third error in this distinction is to limit the King's Authority to his Courts. All Courts are not of the same Antiquity, but some erected long after others▪ as the Court of Requests: Neither are all Justices of the same nature, some were more eminent than others, that were resident with the King as his Council in points of Law; these are now the Judges: Others did justice abroad for the ease of the Subject; as justices of Assize, justices in Eire, justices of Oier and Terminer, justices of Peace. The Barons of the Exchequer were anciently Peers of the Realm, and do still continue their name: but to exclude the King out of his Courts is worse, a strange Paradox, and against the grounds of our Laws, The King alone 
Bract. 3. cap. 9  and no other may and aught to do justice, if he alone were sufficient, as he is bound by his Oath. And again, If our Lord the King be not sufficient himself to determine every cause, that his labour may be the lighter, 
Cap. 10.  by dividing the burden among more Persons, he ought to choose of his own Kingdom, wise Men and fearing God, and of them to make justices. These Justices have power by Deputation, as Delegates to the King. The Kings did use to sit personally in their Courts: We read of Henry the fourth and Henry the fifth, that they used every day for an hour after dinner to receive bills and and hear causes: Edward the fourth sat ordinarily in the King's Bench: Richard the third (one who knew well enough what belonged to his part) did assume the Crown sitting in the same Court, saying, He would take the Honour there where the chiefest part of his duty did lie; to minister the Laws: And Henry the eight sat personally in 
●…we.  Guild-Hall. The Writs of Appearance did ●…un coram me vel justiciariis meis, before me or my Justices; 
●…rtin.  Hence is the name of the King's Bench, and the teste of that Court is still teste meipso, witness ourself. If the King be not learned in the Laws, he may have learned Assistants, as the Peers have in Parliament. A clear and rational head is as requisite to the doing of Justice, as the profound knowledge of Law: It is a part of his Oath, to do, to be kept in all his judgements, Right justice, in Mercy, and Truth; was this intended only by Substitutes, or by Substitutes not accountable to him for injustice? we have sworn that he is supreme Governor in all causes, over all Persons within his Dominions, is it all one to be a Governor, and to name Governors? David exhorts be wise now therefore O ye Kings. Moses requires that the King read in the book of the Law all the days of his 
●…ut. 17.  Life. Quorsum per●…itio haec? what needs all this expense of time, if all must be done by Substitutes, if he have no Authority out of his Courts, nor in his Courts but by delegation? When Moses by the advice of jethro deputed subordinate Governors under him; when jehosophat placed Judges City by City throughout judah: It was to ease themselves and the 
●…hron. 19  People, not to disengage and exinanite themselves of Power. It is requisite that His Majesty should be eased of lesser burdens, that he may be conversant circa ardua Reipublicae, about great affairs of State, but so as not to divest his Person of his royal Authority in the least matters. Where the King is, there is the Court, and where the King's Authority is present in His Person or in his Delegates, there is his Court of Justice. The reason is plain then, why the King may not control his Courts; because they are himself: yet he may command a review, and call his Justices to an account. How the Observer will apply this to a Court, where neither His Majesty is present in Person, nor by his Delegates I do not understand.  
The fourth and last error is to tie the hands of the King absolutely to his Laws. First in matters of Grace, the King is above his Laws, he may grant especial Privileges by Charter to what Persons, to what Corporations ●…e pleaseth, of his abundant Grace and mere motion; he may pardon all crimes committed against the Law of the Land, and all penalties and irregularityes imposed by the same: the perpetual Custom of this Kingdom doth warrant it. All wise men desire to live under such a Government, where the Prince may with a good Conscience dispense with the rigour of the Laws. As for those that are otherwise minded, I wish them no other punishment than this, that the paenall Laws may be executed on them strictly, till they reform their Judgements.  
Secondly, In the Acts of Regal Power and Justice, His Majesty may go besides or beyond the ordinary course of Law, by his Prerogative. New Laws for the most part (especially when the King stands in need of Subsidies) are an abatement of Royal Power. The Sovereignty of a just Conqueror, who comes in without pactions, is absolute, and bounded only by the Laws of God, of Nature, and of Nations; but after he hath confirmed old Laws and Customs, or by his Charter granted new Liberties and Immunities, to the collective Body of His Subjects or to any of them; he hath so far remitted of his own right, and cannot in Conscience recede from it. I say in Conscience, for though humane Laws as they are humane, cannot bind the Conscience of a Subject, and therefore a fortiore not of a King who is the Lawgiver, yet by consequence and virtue of the Law of God, (which saith submit yourselves to every ordinance of Man for the Lords sake, and again Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself) they do bind, or to speak more properly, God's Law doth bind the Conscience to the Observation of them. This is that which Divines do use to express thus; That they have power to bind the Conscience in se 
●…d of the ●…rch.  sed non a se, in themselves but not from themselves; non ex authoritate Legislatoris, sed ex aequitate Legis, not from the authority of the Lawgiver, but from the equity of the Law: many who do not grant that to violate the Law of Man is sin universally, yet in case of contempt or scandal do admit that it is sinful. So then the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom, are Limits and bounds to His Majesty's Power; but there are not precise Laws for each particular Occurrence, And even the Laws themselves, do of●…en leave a latitude and a pre-eminence to His Majesty, not only for circumstances ●…d forms of Justice, but even in great and high Privileges. These we call the Prerogative Royal, as to ●…e the fountain of Nobility, To coin Money, To ●…eate Magistrates, To grant Protection to his Deb●…rs against their Creditors, To present to a Bene●…ce in the right of his Ward being the youngest Co●…arcener before the eldest, Not to be sued upon an or●…inary writ, but by Petition, and very many others ●…hich are beyond the ordinary course of Common-Law, being either branches of absolute power or Pre●…ogatives left by the Laws themselves.  
Thirdly, in the c●…se of evident necessity, where the who●…e Commonwealth lye●… at stake; for the safety of King and Kingdom, His Majesty may go against parti●…ular Laws. For howsoever fancied & pretended invisible dangers have thrust us into real dangers and unseasonable remedies, have produced our present Calamities: yet this is certain, that all humane Laws and particular proprietyes, must veil and strike topsail to a true public necessity. This is confessed by the Observer himself every where in this Treatise, that Salus Populi is the transcendent achme of all Politics, the Law Paramount that gives 
Obs. deaf ded pag.  Law to all humane Laws, and particular Laws cannot act contrary to the legislative intent to be a violation of some more sovereign good introducible, or some extreme and general evil avoidable, which otherwise might swallow up both Statutes and all other Sanctions. This preservative Power the Observer ascribes to the people, that is to say in his sense, to the Parliament in case the King will not join with them. Though we all know a Parliament is not ever ready, nor can be s●… suddenly called as is requisite to meet with a sudde●… Mischief. And he thinks it strange that th●… King should no●… allow to the Subject a right to rise i●… Arms for their o●…n necessary defence, without his consent, and that he should assume or challenge such a share i●… the Legislative ●…ewer to himself, as that without hi●… concurrence the Lords and Commons should have no right to make tempora●…y orders for putting the Kingdo●… into a posture of Defence. Strange Phrases and unheard of by English ears, that the King should join with the People, or assume a share in the legislative Power, Our Laws give this honour to the King, that he can join or be a sharer with no man. Let not the Observer trouble himself about this division; The King like Solomon's true Mother challengeth the whole Child, not a divisible share, but the very Life of the Legislative Power: The Commons present and pray, The Lords advise and consent, The King enacts. It would be much for the credit of the Observers desperate cause, if he were able but to show one such precedent of an Ordinance made by Parliament without the King's consent, that was binding to the Kingdom in the nature of a Law. It is a part of the King's oath to protect the Laws, to preserve Peace to His People: this he cannot do without the Power of the Kingdom, which he challengeth not as a Partner, but solely as his own, by virtue of his Seignory. So 
Edu. pri●…i  the Parliament itself acknowledged, It belongs to the King and his part it is, through his royal signory straight to descend source of armour, and all other force against his peace, at all times when it shall please him, and to punish them which shall do contrary according to the Laws ●…nd usages of the Realm, and that the Prelates, Earls, ●…arons, and Commonalty, are bound to aid him as their ●…overaigne Lord, at all seasons when need shall be. Here is a Parliament for the King even in the point. The Argument is not drawn as the Observator sets it own negatively from Authority, or from a maimed ●…nd imperfect induction, or from p●…rticular premis●…es to a general conclusion; (every one of which is 
Obs. defended pag. 4.  ●…ophisticall:) is thus, Such or su●…h a Parliament did ●…ot or durst not do, this or that, therefore no Parlia●…ents may do it, or thus, Some Parliaments not com●…arable to the Worthies of this, have omitted some good ●…t of supinesse or difficulty, therefore all Parliaments ●…ust do the same: but it runs thus, no parliaments did ever assume or pretend to any such Power, some Parliaments have expressly disclaimed it, and ac●…nowledged, that by the Law of the Land, it is a ●…ewell or a Flower which belongs to the Crown, Therefore it is His Majesty's undoubted right, and ●…ay not be invaded by any Parliament. Yet further, ●…t were well the Observer would express himself, ●…hat he means by some more Sovereign good introducible; the necessity of avoiding ru●…ne, and introducing greater good is not the same: Dangers often ●…come like torrents suddenly, but good may be in●…roduced at more leisure, and ought not to be brought ●…in but in a lawful manner; we may not do evil that good may come of it. Take the Observers two instances, When the Sea breaks in upon a County, a bank may be made on any Man's ground without his consent: but may they cut away another man's Land, to make an Harbour more safe or commodious with●… the owner's consent? No. A Neighbours Ho●… may be pulled down to stop the fury of a Scath-fire: b●… may they pull it down to get a better prospect, 〈◊〉 gain a more convenient high way? No. We des●… to know what this Sovereign good introduci●… means, and are not willing to be brought into●… Fools Paradise with general insinuations. Let it a●… pear to be so Sovereign and we will all become su●… ters for it: but if it be to alter our Religion, or our fo●… of Government, we hope that was not the end of th●… Militia. Lastly, when necessity dispenseth with pa●…ticular Laws, the danger must be evident to all, t●… concurrence general, or as it were general; one o●… two opponents are no opponents: but where th●… danger is neither to be seen not to be named, so u●… certain that it must be voted whether there be an●… danger or not, or perhaps be created by one or tw●… odd Votes; this is no warrant for the practice o●… that Paramount Law of salus Populi.  
By this which hath been said we may gather a re●… solution, whether the King be under the Law an●… how far, I mean not the Law of God or Nature but his own national Laws. First by a voluntar●… submission of himself, & quod sub Lege esse debet●… evidenter apparet, cum sit Dei Vicarius ad similitu●… dinem 
Bract lib. 1. ●…ap. 8.  jesu Christi cujus vices gerit in terris: bu●… Christ was under the Law no otherwise then by voluntary submission. Secondly, the Law hath a directive Power over Kings, and all good King's wil●… follow it for example sake to their Subjects, for Conscience sake to themselves. Tacitus saith of Vespasian that being antiquo cultu victuque observing the old customs in his Diet and his apparel, he was unto the Romans, praecipuus adstricti moris Author, an excellent pattern of Frugality. But the Law hath no coercive Power over him. This (besides his Power of pardoning and dispensing) may appear by these two reasons. First that no writ lies against him in Law, but the party grieved hath his remedy by Petition or supplication. Secondly, that if upon petition he doth not right the wronged party, there is ●…o course in Law to compel him, satis sufficit ei ●…d paenam quod Dominum expectet ultorem, and elsewhere, incidit in manus Dei viventis he falls into the 
Bracton  hands of the living God, which the Scripture saith is a fearful thing; wi●…nesse Pharaoh, Senacherib, Nero, Domitian, Dioclesian, Deci●…s, Aurelian, julian, etc. Some slain by themselves, some by others, some drowned, some smitten with Thunder, some eaten with Worm●…. how seldom Tyrants escape punishment even in this World I see not why the Obser●…er should be so angry, that this Doctrine should be pulpitted (as he phraseth it,) or why he should accuse it of flattery; whether is the greater curb to restrain Princes, the fear of Man or of God; of tempor●…ll only, or of temporal and eternal punishment? 
Si genus humanum & mortalia temnitis arma,  
At sperate Deosmemores fandi atque nesandi.   
The Observer acknowledgeth as much in effect, The King is not accountable for ill done, Law hath only a directive no coercive force upon his Person. There is a fourth answer to this Text, by distinguishing between private Persons and subord●…te Magistrates, 
〈◊〉. 44.  but because the Observer makes no use of it, I pass by it.   

Observer.  
But Freedom indeed hath divers degrees of La●…tude, and all Countries there in d●… not participate al●… but positive Laws must every where assign those 〈◊〉 The Charter of England ●…s not straight in Privileg●… 〈◊〉 us, ●…ther is the King's Oath of small strength to 〈◊〉 Charter, o●… that though it be more precise in the care 〈◊〉 Canonical Privileges, and of Bishops and Clergy-me●… (is having been penned by Popish Bishops) then of th●… Commonalty, yet it confirms all Laws and rightful. Customs, amongst which we most highly esteem Parliamentary Privileges▪ and as for the word eligerit whether it be future or past it skills not much, ●…or if by th●… Oath, Law, justice, and Discretion be executed among●… us, in all judgements, (as well in ●…s out of Parliaments) and if Peace and godly agreement be 〈◊〉 kept amongst us all, and if the King defend and uphold all ou●… Laws and Customs, we need not ●…eare but the King 〈◊〉 bound to consent to new Laws, if they be necessary, a●… well as defend old, for both bei●…g of the same necessity the public trust must needs equally extend to both; an●… we conceive it one Parliamentary Right and Custom that nothing necessary aught to be denied. And th●… word eligerit if it be in the perfect tense, yet shows tha●… the People's election had been the ground of ancien●… Laws, and Customs, and why the Peopl●…s Ele●…ion in ●…arliament, should not be now of as great moment as ever I ca●…not discover.   

Answer.  
●…omento fit cinis, diu silva, The Observer hath 
Sect 12.  〈◊〉 long weaving a Spider's Web, and now he ●…selfe sweeps it away in an instant: for if 〈◊〉 Laws must every where assign the degrees of li●… what will become of those tacit trusts and re●…ions, of those secret and implicit, but yet ne●…ry limits and conditions of Sovereignty, which if the Prince exceed, the Subject is left free, nay 〈◊〉 is bound by a higher duty than Oaths and all▪ Ties of Allegiance whatsoever, to seek his own preservation and defence. Calvin w●…s of another mind, Superior si p●…testate su●… abutitu●…, rationem quidem olim re●…det Deo, 
In 1 Pet▪  non tamen in presentia jus suum amit●…it. Admitting this Doctrine that there are such secret reservations and condition, and these as general as ●…afety Liberty and Necessi●…, and make the People their own ●…udges w●…en necessi●…y i●…; what is a violation of Liberty, and what doth endanger their safet●…: and all that great and glorious Power, which we give unto Princes, will become but like the Pope's infallibility, and his temporal Dominion, which his Flatterers do give unto him with so many cautions and reservations, that they may take it away when they please: Take nothing and hold it fast.  
But leaving these phlegmatic speculations, I do readily join hands with the Observer herein, That the positive Laws of a Kingdom are the just measure and standard of the L●…berty of the Subject. To say nothing of the great distance that is between ou●… Euro●…aean P●…nces in extent of Power over their 〈◊〉, ●…o come ●…ome to ourselves▪ we see some Corpor●…ons are endowed with more liberties and Privileges than others (thanks to a favourable Charter, not to any an●…ecedaneous P●…ctions;) we see what difference of Tenors is amongst u●…, some are Copyholders', some are Freeholders'; some hold in Ville●… 〈◊〉 some in Knight service, some in free soccage, 〈◊〉 in Frank Almain: whence springs this diver●… but from custom and the pleasure of the Do●… who freely imposed what conditions he liked at such time as he endowed the ancestor●… of the present Possessors with such and such Lands. We have a surer Charter then that of Nature to hold by, Magna Charta, the English Man's jewel and Treasure, the fountain and foundation of our Freedom, the Walls and Bulwark, yea the very life and soul of our security: He that goes about to violate it, much more to subvert it in whole or in part, I dare not curse him; but I say for myself, and let the Observer do the like, let him prove the shame and abject of Men, and his Posterity slaves. But do you think it was penned by Popish Bishops? fair fall them for it: certainly they did that as English Bishops, and as Christian Bishops, not as Popish Bishops: long may their reformed Successors enjoy the fruit of their Labours, if they do not, others may look to themselves. 
Jam tua res agitur paries oum proximus ardet.   
It is no new thing to begin with Bishops and ●…end with Nobles. It troubles you that they were so ●…recise in the care of Canoicall Privileges. 'tis probable they did it out of D●…otion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 call instinct, as foreseeing or fe●…ring 〈◊〉 Times. Yet you confess withal, that it confirms 〈◊〉 Laws and rightful Customs to all Subject's 〈◊〉. Now Sir we are come to a fair●… Issue, hold 〈◊〉 foot there: your next task must be to show ●…at part of Magna Charta is violated by His Majesty; what Liberties there granted, are by him dete●…ned from the Subject: if you do not this, you have made us a very long discourse to little purpose. Your Argument consists of a Proposition and an Assumption; The Proposition is this, All Laws and lawful Customs are confirmed to the Subject by Magna Charta, and His Majesty's Oath for observation thereof. Your Assumption stands thus, But to have nothing necessary denied us is a lawful Custom, a Parliamentary Right and Privilege: you amplify your Proposition (as the blind Senator commended the fish) at dextra jacebat piscis; It is your assumption Sir which is denied, bend yourself the other way; and show us in what particular words of Magna Charta or any other Charter, or any Statute this Privilege is comprehended, or by what prescription or precedent it may be proved: if you can do none of these, sit down and hold your peace for ever; The Charter of Nature will be in danger to be torn in pieces, if you stretch it to this also. To be denied nothing? 〈◊〉 is a Privilege indeed, as good as Fo●…natus his purse, or as that old Law which one found ou●… for the King of Persia, that he might do what he would. But you limit it, he ought to deny them nothing which is necessary: what necessity do yo●… mean, a simple and absolute necessity? that hath no Law indeed; or a necessity only of convenience 〈◊〉 but conveniences are often attended with greater inconveniences. A cup of cold Water to one who 〈◊〉 a feverish distemp●…r, is convenient to ass●…ge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sent thirst, but pernicious to the future habit 〈◊〉 of his body. Many things may produce pr●…sent 〈◊〉 yet prove destructive to a State in their consequents. These things therefore must be carefully balanced, and by whom? will you be your own Judge? or will ●…ou permit His Majesty to follow the Dictate of his own reason? so it is meet and just if you will have him supersede from his own Right. Lay your hand upon your heart, if you have any Tenants who hold of you in Knight-service, and they shall desire to have their tenure changed to free Soccage, as being more convenient & conducible for them, ●…re you bound to condescend? It is well known to all this Kingdom that the Kings thereof have ever had a negative voice, (otherwise they had less power than a Master of a College or a Major of a Corporation,) That no Act is binding to the Subject without the Royal Assent, That to say the King will advise was evermore a sufficient stop to any Bill. Yet the ground of this bold demand is but the Author's conceit, We conceive it to be one Parliamentary right; and his reasons are such as may make a show, but want weight to beget a very conceit. The former is, that new Laws and old being of the same necessity, the public tr●… must equally extend to both. How often must he be told that the public trust is only a trust of dependence, which begets no such Obligation as he 
Lord. Ver●… lamb.  conceits, Offices of inheritance are rather ma●…ters that ●…ound in interest then in confidence. Neither is there, neither can there be the same necessity of observing 〈◊〉 old Law, to which a King is bound both by His ●…ter and by His Oath, and of a new Law to ●…hich he hath not given his Royal Assent. If Mag●… Charta did extend to this, it were Charta maxim●… the greatest Charter 〈◊〉 ever was granted▪ If the King's Oath did extend to this it were an unlawful Oath and not binding▪ To swear to confirm all Laws that should be presented to him, though contrary to the Rule of Justice, contrary to the Dictate of his own reason. Among so many improbable suppositions, give leave to the other party to make one; The Author is not infallible, nor any Society of Men whatsoever. Put the case a Law should be presented for introducing or 〈◊〉 of Socinianism or Anabaptism, or the new upstart independenc●…; is His Majesty bound to give his Assent? Surel●… no, Not to assume his just power of Supremacy (as your late new Masters confess) were damnable sin. His other Reason is this, it kills not whether the word eligerit (he should say elegerit) in the King's Oath be in the future tense or in the perfect tense, whether he swears to all such Customs as the People have chosen, or shall choose; for it shows that the People's election was the ground of anci●… Laws, and that ought to be of as great moment no●… as ever. It is a rare dexterity which the Observe●… hath, with Midas to turn all he toucheth into Gold, whatsoever he finds, is to his purpose, past or ●…o come all is one, but he would deceive us or deceives himself; for the People's election never was, nor now is the sole cause of a Law or binding Custom▪ but the People's election was the Sociall or Subordinate Cause, and the Royal Assent concurring with i●… they were ever jointly the adequate ground of 〈◊〉 and still are of the same moment that they we●… jointly and severally, which the Observer migh●… have discovered with half an eye.  
But because His Majesty's oath at his Coronation, is so much insisted upon, as obliging him to pass all 
〈◊〉 Kings ●…th.  Bills that are tendered unto him by His Parliament, it will not be amiss to take this into further consideration, which I shall do with all due Submission.  
First, It must be acknowledged by all Men, that the King of England in the eye of the Law never dies. Watson and Clarke (two Priest●…) 〈◊〉 that they could not be guilty of Treason, because King james was not crowned: The Resolution was, that the Coronation was but a Ceremony to declare the King to the People, so they were adjudged Traitors. The like measure in the like case suffered the Duke of Northumberland in Queen mary's da●…es, only with this difference; watson's and Clarks Treason was before the Coronation, but the Dukes before the very Proclamation. Co●…sensus expressu●… per verba de presenti facit matrimonium, a contract in words of the present tense, is a true Marriage and indissolvable: and yet for Solemnity sake, when the parties come to receive the Benediction of the Church, The Minister though he knew of the cont●…act, yet he asks will't thou have this Woman to thy Wedded Wife? There is no duty which our Kings do not receive; as Oaths of Fealty, of Allegiance; no Acts of Royal Power which they do not exercise, as amply before their Coronation as after. And therefore M. Dolman (otherwise Parsons the Jesuit, from whom these Men have borrowed all their grounds) erred most pitifully in this, (as he did in many other of your Tenets,) that a King is no more a King before his Coronation, than a Major of a Corporation is a true Major after his Election, before he have taken his Oath. To think a few scattered People, assembled without any procuration have the power of the Commonalty of England, is an Error fitter to be laughed at then to be confuted.  
Secondly, the words of the Oath (which bears marks enough in itself, of the time when it was made) are not to be pressed further than Custom and practice (the best Interpreters of the Law) do warrant, otherwise the Words quas vulgus elegerit, cannot without much forcing be applied to the Parliament. But admit the word vulgus might be drawn with some violence to signify the House of Co●…ons, by virtue of their representation: yet ho●… have the House of Lords lost their interest, if the King be bo●…nd to confirm whatsoever the House of Commons shall present?  
Thirdly, it cannot be denied, that if the King 〈◊〉 bound by a lawful O●…th to pass all B●…lls; it is not the form of denying it, but the not doing it, which makes the p●…rjury. Therefore the form of the King●… answer Le Roy Savisera, can●… excuse the perjury in not doing. Ne●…her doth it prove that the King had no power to deny, but that ●…e is tender of a flat d●…nyall, and attributes so much to the judgement of His great Council, that he will take further advice. This would be strange Doctrine, (indeed incredible) that all the Kings of England who have given this answer have been forsworn, and neither Parliament nor Convocation to take notice of it, in so many Ages, nor in the n●…t succeeding Parliament after so long advise to c●…l for a further answer.  
Fourthly, it is confessed that in Acts of Gra●…, the King is not bound to assent (it is well ●…f he have not been restrained of this Right,) That in all Acts where His Majesty is to dep●…rt from the particular Right and Interest of His Crown, he is not obliged to assent (and was not that of the Militia such a case?) Lastly, that though he be bound by oath to consent, yet if he do not consent, they are not binding Laws to the Subject. Thus farewell But than comes a handful of Gourds that poisons the pottage▪ except in cases of necessi●…. Give to any person o●… Socie●…y a Legislative power without the King in case of necessity; permit them withal to be sole Judges of necessity, when it is, how long it lasts: and it is more than prob●…ble the necessity will not determine till they have their own desires, which is the same in effect as if they had a Legislative Power. Necessity excuseth whatsoever it doth, but first the necessity must be evident: there needs no such great stir who shall be Judge of necessity, when it comes indeed, it will show itself; when extreme necessity is disputable, it is a sign it is not real. Secondly, the Agent must be proper, otherwise it cuts in ●…under the very sinews of Government, to make two Supremes in a Society, and to subject the People to contrary commands: If the Trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to Battle? 
1 Cor. 1●…  There can be no necessity so pernicious as this very Remedy.  
Fifthly, the great variety of Forms and precedents seems to prove that one precise form is not simply necessary: and the words adjiciantur quae justa ●…erint, and King Henry the eights enterlining it with his own hand, do prove that it is arbitrary at least in part. To interline it, to interline it with his own hand, to leave it so interlined upon Record, O strange▪ If this clause had been of such consequence, we should have heard of some question about it, eit●…er then or in some succeeding Parliament; but we find a deep silence. Thomas 〈◊〉 Archbishop of Canterbury, in Parliament chargeth Henry 
Stow p.  the fourth with his Oath which he did voluntarily make. But to the forms. First, the Oath which King james and King Charles did take runs thus. Sir will you to grant to hold and keep the Laws and rightful Customs which the Commonalty of this Kingdom have. Here is neither have chosen, nor shall choose. The Oath of Edward the sixth was this, Do you grant to make no new Laws, but such a●… shall be to the Honour and glory of God, and to the good of the Common-●…lth, and t●…at the same shall be made by the consent of your People, as hath been accustomed. Here is ●…o ●…gerit still, yet ●…is Age freed him from the very thught of improving His Prerogative. King Henry the eight corrected the form then presented to Hi●… thus, And affirm them which the Nobles and Pe●…ple have chosen with my consent. Here is have chosen a●…d the Kings Consent added to boot. Doctor Cow●… in his Interpreter, recites the King's Oath out of t●… old abridgement of Statu●…es set out in Henry t●… eights Days much different from this, as that the King should keep all the Lands Honours etc. of the ●…rown whole without diminution and reassume those wh●…h had been made away. And this clause in questin runs thus, He shall grant to hold the Laws and Customs of the Realm, and to his Power keep them a●…d affirm them, which the Folk and People have made ●…nd chosen; and this seems to have been the Oath of His Predecessors. But perhaps if we look up highe●… we shall find a perfect agreement in thi●… point. Our next step must be to Henry the fourth and Richard the second, a Tragical Time when the State run contrary waves like a whirligig, fi●…ter for the honour of the Nation to be buried in oblivion then drawn into precedent. But this Oath being no Innovation, it may serve well enough. Yet the Oaths of these two Kings do not agree so exactly as to settle a certain form, as to instance only in the clause in question: Henry the ●…ourths Oath runs thus, concedis justas Leges & constudines esse tenendas, & promittis pro te eas esse pro●…gendas & ad honorem Dei corrobora●…d quas vulgus ●…gerit: which last word signifies indifferently either ●…ave chosen or shall choose. Neither doth the Re●…ord say that this was the very 〈◊〉 taken by Henry ●…e fourth, but that it was the usual for●… taken by ●…e Kings of England, and twice by Richard the ●…econd, and for proof of what it saith, refers us ●…o the Registers of the Arch-Bishops or Bishops pro●…t in libris ponti●…calium Archiepis●…. et Episc. plenius ●…ontinetur This prout is a clear evidence that this pre●…se Form had no ground in Statute or in Common ●…aw, but was a Pontifical rite. The Oath of Ri●…hard the second, related in the close Rolls of the first Year of his Reign, even in this very clause differs ●…n two material things: one is, that to justas Leges & Consuetudines, there is added Ecclesiae: the other is, that to elegerit is added just & rationabiliter▪ which the People have chosen or shall choose justly and reasonably: which limitation, if the Oath look forward to future Laws, must of necessity be either expressed or understood, otherwise the Oath is unlawful and doth not bind, jusjurandum non debet esse vinculum iniquitatis. Here also the word elegerit is doubtful whether past or future. If it be urged that to corroborate must the understood of such Laws as have not passed the Royal Assent; the answer is easy, that the best confirmation of Laws is the due execution of them. Now from our English and Latin Forms, our last step is to the French, which was taken by Edward the second and Edward the third, (as it is said) and runs thus. Sire grants vo●… a tenir & garder lesleys & l●…s custumes droiture les les q●… else lafoy communante de vostre Royaume aur es●…u & les de●… fenderer & afforcerer all honn●…ur de dieu a vostre po●… First how it shall appear that this Oath was take●… by Edward the second and Edward the third, we are ye●… to seek. A Bishops Pontifical, and much more 〈◊〉 Herald's notes taken cursorily at a Coronation, do●… not seem to be sufficient Records nor convincing proof in our Law: And Bracton who lived abou●… the same times sets down the Oath otherwise. Deb●… Rex in Coronatione sua in nomine jesu Christi pr●…stito 
Bracton lib. 〈◊〉 cap. 9  Sacramento, haec tria promittere populo sibi Subdito; primo se praecepturum & pro viribus impen●…urum, ut Pax Ecclesiae & omni populo Christiano omni suo tempore observetur: Secundo ut omnes rapacitate●… & omnes iniquitates omnibus gradibus interdicat, Tertio ut in omnibus judiciis aequitatem praecipiat & misericordiam. Here is neither have chosen nor shall choose. Secondly, though the French do agree with the Latin much for Sense and substance, yet it is not the same Form. Thirdly the King grants to defend the Laws and Customs, but it is no Law till it hath received Royal Assent, it i●… no Custom till it be confirmed by a lawful prescription. Fourthly, that the word Elect is joined immediately to Customs, which seems not so proper if reddendo singula singulis, it ought to be referred to Laws a●…d not to Custom. Fiftly, what the Norman French may differ from the Parisian, or both of them then from what they are now, or both then and now from our Law French, I cannot determine: But take it at the worst, the words in question aur eslu make less for the Observer than 〈◊〉 itself, and do●…●…gnifie have chosen, or in the most Gramm●…ticall Pe●…nticall construction that can be m●…de shall have 〈◊〉; whereas if it were shall choose, it should be 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉. If the Herald did take his notes as ●…l as he translates, his remembrances are but of small ●…oment. Before all these Forms I read of others 〈◊〉 late Authors (for I have not opportunity to see ●…e original Records,) as that of King Richard the ●…rst, agreeing much with Bracton. To o●…rve ●…eace ●…onour & Reverence to Almighty God, to his Church ●…nd to the Ministers of the same, To administer Law ●…nd justice equally to all, To abrogate evil Laws and ●…ustoms and to m●…intein good. Here is indeed a refe●…ence to future Law●…, but no dep●…ndence on other ●…ens judgements. And to this King john's Oath ●…ame nearest of any Form yet mentioned, though ●…ot exactly the same as differing in the first clause in ●…his, To love and defend the Catholic Church.  
To sum up all th●…n in a word, First, here is no cer●…ain form to be found. Secondly, for those Forms ●…hat are, the Parliament Rolls refer us to the Bi●…hops Register. Thirdly, few of those Forms have ●…e word elegerit or ●…hoose in them, and those that ●…ave it, haveit doubtfully, either have chosen or shall choose. Fourthly, admitting the signification to be fu●…ure, yet the Limitation which is expressed in the Oath of Richard the second just & rationabiliter, justly & ●…easonably, must of necessity be understood in all, otherwise the oath is unlawful in itself, to oblige the King to p●…rform unjust and unreasonable Propositions, and binds not: Whether it be expressed or understood, it leaves to the King a latitude of Judgement, 〈◊〉 examine what is just and reasonable, and to follow th●… Dictate of his own understanding; the practice of a●… Parliaments in all Ages confirms this expositio●… Lastly, admitting, but not granting, the word eleger●… to be future, and admitting that the limitation o●… just & rationabili●…er could be suspended, yet it woul●… not bind the King to confirm all Laws that are ten●…dred, but only excl●…sively to impose no other Laws o●… his Subjects, but s●…ch as shall be presented & approve●… in Parliament. I●… hath been questioned by some 〈◊〉 whom the Legisl●…ive Power did rest by Law, whether in the King (●…lone as some old Forms do see●… to insinuate,) Co●…ssimus, Rex concedit, Rex ordina●… Rex statuit, D●…inus Rex de communi suo concil●… statuit, Dominus ●…ex in Parliamento statuit,) or i●… the King and P●…liament jointly▪ And what is th●… power of Parlia●…ents in Legisl●…tion, Receptiv●… Consultive, Ap●…obative, or Cooperative. An●… whether the ma●…g of Laws by Parliament be (a●… some have said) 〈◊〉 merciful Policy to prevent co●…plaints not alter●…le without great peril; or (as 〈◊〉 seems rather) a●… absolute requisite in Law and 〈◊〉 matter of necessity, there being sundry Acts infer●… our to Law-mak●…g, which our Lawyers declare i●…valid, unless the●… be done by King and Parliamen●… Yet howsoever it be, abundans Cautela non nocet, fo●… greater Caution it yields more satisfaction to th●… People to give s●…ch an Oath, that if the King ha●… no such power he would ●…ot usurp it, if he had suc●… a Power, yet he would not assume it. And this 〈◊〉 clearly the sense of that oath of Edward the six●… That he would make no new Laws but by the consent of His People, as had been accustomed. And this may be the meaning of the clause in the Statute, Sith the Law of the Realm is such, that upon the Mischiefs 
25 Edu. 3.  and Damages which happen to this Realm, He is bound by his Oath with the accord of His People in His Parliament, thereof to make Remedy and Law. Though it is very true, that this being admitted (as then it was) to be a Law in Act, the King is bound by another clause in his Oath, and even by this word elegerit in the perfect tense hath chosen, as well or rather more than if it were in the future shall choose. And so it follows in that Statute plainly, that there was a Statute Law, a Remedy then in force not repealed, which the King was bound by his Oath to cause to ●…e kept, though by sufferance and negligence it hath been sinc●… attempted to the contrary. So the Obligation there intended, is to the execution of an old Law not the making of a new. Richard the second confesseth that he was bound by his oath to pass a new grant to the Justices of Peace. But first it appears not that this was a new Bill: Secondly, if it did, yet Richard the second was then but fourteen years old: And thirdly, if his age had been more mature, yet if the thing was just and beneficial to the People, without prejudice to the rights of his Crown, and if his own reason did dictate so to him, he might truly say that he was bound to do it both by His Oath and his Office. Yet his Grandfather Edward the third revoked a Statute, because it wa●… prejudicial 
anno 15. E●…ward. 3.  to the rights of his Crown, and was made without his free consent.   

Observer.  
That which results from hence is, if our Kings receive all Royalty from the People, and for the behoof of the People, and that by a special trust of safety and Liberty expressly by the people limited, and by their own grants and Oaths ratified, then ●…ur Kings cannot b●… said to have so inconditionate and high a propriety in all our Lives, Libertyes and Possessions, or in any thing else to the Crown apperteining, as we have in their dignity or in ourselves, and indeed if they had, they were ●…ot born for the People, but merely for themselve●…, neither were it lawful or natural for them to expose their Lives and Fortunes for their Country, as they have been bound hitherto to do according to that of our Saviour, Bonus Pastor ponit vitam pro o●…ibus,   

Answer.  
Ex his praemissis necessario sequitur collusio. All your main Pillars are broken reeds, and your Building 
●…ct. 13.  must needs fall: For our Kings do not receive all Royalty from the People, nor only for the behoof of the People, but partly for the People, partly for themselves and theirs, and principally for God's glory: Those conditionate reservations and limitation●… which you fancy, are but your own drowsy dreams; neither doth His Majesty's Charter, nor can His Oath extend to any such fictitious privilege as you devise: The propriety which His Majesty hath in our Lives, Libertyes, and Estates, is of public Dominion not of private Possession: His interest in things apperteining to the Crown is both of Dominion and Poss●…ssion: the right which we have in him is not a right of Dominion over him, but a right of Protection from him and under him: and this very right of Protection which he owes to us, and we may expect from him, shows clearly that he is born in 〈◊〉 for his People, and is a sufficient ground for him to expose his Life and Fortunes to the extremest perils for his Country. The Authors inference, that it is not lawful or natural according to these grounds, is a silly and ridiculous collection, not unlike unto his similitude from the Shepherd whom all men know to have an absolute and inconditionate Dominion over his Sheep, yet is he bound to expose his Life for them.   

Observer.  
But now of Parliaments. Parliaments have the same efficient cause as Monarchies, if not higher: For in truth the whole Kingdom is not so properly the Author as the essence itself of Parliaments, and by the former Rule it is magis tale, because we see ipsum quid quod efficit tale. And it is I think beyond all Controversy, that God and the Law operate as the same causes both in Kings and Parliaments, for God favours both, and the Law establishes both, and the act of Men still concurres in the sustentation of both. And not to stay longer on this, Parliaments have also the same final ●…use as Monarchies, if not greater, for indeed public Safety and Liberty could not be so effectually provided for by Monarches, till Parliaments were constituted, for supplying of all defects in that Government.   

Answer.  
The Observer having showed his teeth to Monarches, 
●…ct. 14.  now he comes to fawn upon Parliaments: the Italians have a proverb, He that speaks me fairer than he useth to do, either hath deceived me or he would deceive me. Queen Elizabeth is now a Saint with our Schismatical Mar-Prelates; but when she was alive, those railing Rabshekehs did match her with Ahab and jeroboam: now their tongues are silver Trumpets to sound out the praises of Parliaments; it is not long since they reviled them as fast, calling them Courts without Conscience or Equity. God bless Parliaments, and grant they may do nothing unworthy of themselves or of their name, which was Senatus Sapientum: The commendation of bad men, was the just ground of a wise man's fear. But let us examine the parculars. Parliaments (you say) have the same efficient cause as Monarchies, if not higher, (it seems you are not resolved whether) Higher? How should that be? unless you have devised some Hierarchy of Angels in Heaven to overtoppe God, as you have found out a Court Paramount over his Vicegerent in Earth. But you build upon your old sandy Foundation, that all Kings derive their power from the People. I must once more tell you, the Monarchy of this Kingdom is not from the People as the efficient, but from the King of Kings. The only Argument which I have seen pressed with any show of probability (which yet the Observer hath not met with) is this, That upon deficiency of the Royal Line, the Dominion escheats to the People as the Lord Paramount. A mere mistake, they might even as well say, that because the Wife upon the death of her Husband is loosed from her former obligation, and is free either to continue a Widow, or to elect a new Husband, that therefore her Husband in his Life time did derive his Dominion from Her, and that by his Death, Dominion did escheat to Her as to the Lady Paramount: yet if all this were admitted it proves but a respective Equality. Yes, you add that the Parliament is the very essence of the Kingdom, that is to say, the cause of the King, and therefore by your Lesbian Rule of quod efficit tale it is in itself more worthy and more powerful. Though the Rule be nothing to the purpose, yet I will admit it and join issue with the Observer; whether the King or the Parliament be the cause of the other, let that be more worthy. That the King is the cause of the Parliament, is as evident as the Noonday light; He calls them, He dissolves them, they are His Council, by virtue of His writ they do (otherwise they cannot) sit: That the Parliament should be the cause of the King, is as impossible as it is for Shem to be Noah's Father. How many Kings in the World have never known Parliament, neither the name, nor the thing? Thus the Observer, In the infancy of the World most Nations did choose rather to submit themselves to the discretion of their Lords, then to rely upon any Limits; And▪ little after, yet long it was ere the bounds and conditions of Supreme Lords, were so wisely determined, 〈◊〉 quietly conserved as now they are. It is apparent then, Kings were before Parliaments even in time: Ou●… Fre●…ch Authors do affirm, that their Kingdom●… was governed for many Ages by Kings without Parliaments happily and prosperously; Philip the fair●… was the first Erecter of their Parliaments of Paris and Mountpelliers. As for ours in England, will you hea●… Master Stow our Annalist; thus he in the sixteenth of Henry the first, in the name of our Historiographers, not as his own private opinion, This do the●… Historiographers note, to be the first Parliament i●… England, and that the Kings before that time were never wont to call any of their Commons or People 〈◊〉 Council or Law making. It may be the first held by the Norman Kings, or the first held after the Norman manner, or the first where the people appeared by Proctors, yet we find the name of Parliament before this, either so called then indeed, or by a P●…olepsis as Lavinia Littora. And not to contend abou●… the name, this is certain, that long before in the days of the Saxon Kings, there was the Assembly of Wise Men or Much Synod, having an Analogy with our Parliaments, but differing from them in many things. So doth that Parliament in Henry the first his time differ from ours now: Then the Bishops had their votes in the House of Lords, now they have none; Then Proctors of the Clergy had their Suffrages in the House of Commons, now they are excluded; Then there were many more Barons than there are now Burgesses, every Lord of a Manor ●…ho had a Court Baron was a Parliament man natus ●…y right; Then they came on general summons, af●…er upon special Writ. But both the one and the ●…ther were posteriour to Kings, both in the order ●…f nature and of time: How should it be otherwise? ●…he end of Parliaments is to temper the violence of ●…overaigne Power, the Remedy must needs be later than ●…e Disease, much more than the right Temper. ●…egenerate Monarchy becomes Tyranny, and the cure ●…f Tyranny is the mixture of Governments; parliaments are proper adjuments to Kings; Parliaments ●…ere constituted to supply the defects in that Govern●…ent, saith the Observer himself; here you may apply your Rule to purpose, that the end is more ●…xcellent than the means. I deny therefore that the ●…ingdome is the essence of Parliaments: there is a ●…hreefold Body of the State, the essential Body, ●…he representative Body, and the virtual Body: the ●…ssentiall Body is the diffused company of the whole Nobility, Gentry, Commonalty throughout the King●…ome; the representative Body are the Lords, Cit●…yzens and Burgesses in Parliament assembled and in●…rusted: the Virtual Body is His Majesty, in whom ●…ests the life of Authority and power legislative, exe●…utive virtually: yet so as in the excercise of some ●…rts of it, there are necessary requisites, the consent and concurrence of the representative Body. From this mistaken ground the Observer draws fundry erroneous conclusions, Posito uno absurdo sequuntur ●…mille.  
Hence proceeds his Complaint, That severance hath been made betwixt the Parties chosen and the Parties choosing, and so that that great privilege of all privileges, that unmoveable Basis of all Honour and power, whereby the House of Commons claims the entire right of all the Gentry and Commonalty of England, hath been attempted to be shaken. A power of representation we grant respective to some ends, as to consent to new laws, to grant Subsidies, to impeach Offenders, to find out and present grievances, and whatsoever else is warranted by lawful Customs; but an entire right to all intents and purposes against Law and lawful Custom we deny. An entire right, what to out Wives and Children, to our Lands and Possessions? this is not tolerable.  
Hence also he tells Magistrally enough, of an arbitrary Power in the Parliament, That there is an arbitrary Power in every State somewhere, it is true, ●…is necessary and no inconvenience follows upon it, every man hath an arbitrary power over himself, so every State hath an arbitrary power over itself, and there is no Danger in it; for the same reason, if the State intrust this to one Man, or few there may be danger, but the Parliament is neither one nor few, it is indeed the State itself. Now the Mask is off, you have spun a fair thread, is this the end of all your goodly pretences? if this be your new Learning, God deliver all true English men from it: We chose you to be our Proctors not to be our Lords: We challenge the Laws of England as our Birthright and Inheritance, and dislike Arbitrary Government much in one, but twenty times worse in more. There is no Tyranny like many-headed Tyranny: when was ●…ver so much Blood shed and Rapine under one Tyrant, as under three in the Triumvirate? And the more they are, still of necessity there will be more ●…ngagements of Love and Hatred and Covetousness and Ambition, the more packing and conniving one with another, the more Danger of Factious and Seditious tumults, as if the evils of one Form of Government were not sufficient, except we were overwhelmed with the deluge of them all; and he that is most popular (who is most commonly the worst) will give Laws to the rest. Therefore it hath ever been accounted safer to live under one Tyrant then many: The Lust, Covetousness, Ambition, Cruelty, of one, may be sooner satisfied then of many, and especially when the power is but temporary and not hereditary nor of continuance: We see Farmers which have a long term, will husband their grounds well; but they that are but Tenants at will, plough out the very heart of it. No Sir (I thank you) we will none of your Arbitrary Government. And supposing, but no way granting, that the Parliament were the essential Body of this Kingdom, or (which is all one) were endowed with all the power and Privileges thereof to all intents and purposes; yet it had no Arbitrary Power over itself, in such things as are contrary to the Allegiance which it owes to His Majesty, and contrary to its Obligation to the received Laws and Customs of this Land.  
Hence be ascribes to Parliaments a power to call Kings to an account, hear himself, That Princes may not be now beyond all Limits and Laws by any private Persons, the whole community in its underived Majesty shall convene to do justice. Here we have it expressly, that the Parliament is the whole Commun●…ty, that it hath a Majesty, that this Maj●…sty 〈◊〉 underived, that it hath power ●…o ●…ry Princ●…s, ●…e 〈◊〉 do justice upon them. Hit●…erto we have misunderstood Saint Peter, Submit yourselves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lor●… sake, whether it be to t●… 
Pet. 12. 3.  King as Supreme. It seems the Parliament●… whic●… passed the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance, did no●… understand their own right, till 〈◊〉 third Cato dropp●…d from Heaven to inform them: And above all, o●… Nonconformist Ministers in their sol●…e Protestation are deep●…st in this guilt, w●…o affirm so confidently, that for the King ●…ot to assume 〈◊〉 or for the Church to deny it, were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea, though the Statutes of the Kingdom should de●… it unto Him. What ma●… his fellow Subject●… expe●… from the O●…server, who is ●…o saucy with his Sovereign? But before I leave thi●… poi●…t, I desire to be informed 〈◊〉 this new Doctrine agrees with that undeniable principle of our Law, The King can do 〈◊〉 wrong? The Observer glosseth it thus. That He can do no wrong de jure, but de facto he may; which is the drowsi●…st dreaming devise, that ●…ver dropped from any Man●… pen in his right Wits: judas or the Devil himself can do no wrong de jure, unless both 〈◊〉 of a contradiction can be true: A fair Privilege to give a Prince, which a high way Thief may challenge. It may with more probability be expounded thus, That the King is to discharge the public Aff●…ires of the Kingdom, not by himself, but by His Officer●… and Ministers▪ therefore if any thing be amiss or unjust, they are faulty, they are accouncountable for it, not Herald But there seems to be something more in this principle then thus: For first 〈◊〉 the same reason a man might say the King can do no right, if he can do nothing by himself, he ●…s not capable of such thanks as Tertull●… gave to 
Acts. 24. 2●…  ●…elix: Secondly, it would be very strange, that a King should be excluded from the personal discharge of all manner of duties belonging to his high calling, ●…nd might occasion the renewing of the Woman's complaint against Philip of M●…edon, why then art ●…hou King? this were to make His Majesty ano●…er Childerick, one of the old cyphers or titulary Kings of France, and put all the power into the hands of a Major of the Palace, or a Marshal, or some other Subjects. What is it then? there ●…ust be something more in this old Maxim of ●…ur Law, that The King can do no wrong. And it ●…s thi●… doubtless, that in the intendment of Law his Person is sacred, he is freed from all defects, (as though he be a Mino●… or an Infant, yet in the eye of ●…he Law he is always of full age,) he owes account of his doings to God alone, the Law hath no coercive power over him. This is that which Samuel calls The Law of the Kingdom, not to show what a King may lawfully do, but what a Subject aught to bear from a lawful King. To the alone have I sinned, said David; he had trespassed against Uriah and Bathsheba, yet he saith to thee only have I sinned, quia R●…x erat, because he was a King, and accountable to none but God, as Clemens Alexandrinus, Arno●…ius, Saint Jerome, Saint Ambrose, Venerable Bede, Euthymius, and sundry others do all affirm upon this one place: and Gregory of Towers, Si quis de nobis, If anyone of us O King, do pass the bounds of justice, you have power to correct him, but if you exceed your limits who shall chastise you? We may speak to you, if you list not hearken, who can condemn you, but that great God, who hath pronounced himself to be Righteousness. And even Antoninus whom the Observer so much commends for a renowned and moderate Prince, yet is positive in this, Solus Deus judex Principis esse potest, God alone can be Judge of a Sovereign Prince. In the Parliament at Lincoln, under Edward the first, the Lords and Commons unanimously affirm the same, with a wonder that any Man should conceive otherwise, That the King of England neither hath answered, nor aught to answer for his Right, before any judge Ecclesiastical or Secular, ex praeeminentia status sui, by reason of the pre-eminence of His Regal Dignity, and Custom at all times inviolably observed.  
To try Princes and to do justice; Some man would desire to know how far this Justice may be extended? whether peradventure to depose them and dethrone them, to exalt them & depress them, Constituere destituere, construere destruere, fingere diffingere? But for this they must expect an Answer from the Observer by the next post, when he sees how the people will dance after his pipe, and whether his misled Partners will go along the whole journey or leave his Company in the mid way; when he hath sufficient strength, than it is time and not before to declare himself: Till than he will be a good child, and follow Saint Paul's advice in part; Stoppage is no payment in our Law. Suppose the Prince faile●…●…n his duty, are the Subjects therefore free from that ●…bligation which is imposed upon them by the Law of God and Nature? When His Majesty objects ●…hat a deposition is threatened, at least intim●…ted, what doth the Observer answer? he doth not disclaim the power but only deny the fact: Thus he saith, It may truly be denied that ever free Parliament, did truly consent to the dethroning of any King of England, for that Act whereby Richard the second was dethroned, was rather the Act of Henry the fourth and His victorious Army, then of the whole Kingdom. Mark these words, that any free Parliament. So, it seems that some Parliaments are not free: And again did truly consent, there may be much in that word also; First, whether they who are overawed with power of unruly Myrmidons, may be said to consent truly and ex animo? Secondly, whether they who consent merely for hope of impunity to escape questioning for their former oppressions and extortions, may be said to consent truly? Thirdly whether they who consent out of hope to divide the spoil, may be said to consent truly? Fourthly, whereas by the Law of Nations, the rights and voices of Absentees, do devolve to those that are present; if they be driven away by a just and probable fear, whether they may be said to consent truly? Lastly, they that follow the Collier in his Creed by an an implicit Faith without discussion resolving themselves into the Authority of a Committee or some noted Members, may they be said to consent truly? That which follows of Henry the fourth and his victorious Army, shows the Observer to be as great an Heritick in ●…olicy as Machiavelli himself: he 〈◊〉 better have said the Usurper and his rebellious A●…my. For a Subject ●…o raise A●… against his Sovereign, to dethrone him (as Bullenbrooke did,) and b●… violence to snatch the Crown to himself in preju●… of the right Heire●…, is Treason confessed by all men▪ His acquisition is mere usurpation, & for any Perso●… or Society of Men to join with him, or to confirm●… him is to be partakers of his sin. But God's judgemen●… pursue such disloyal Subjects and their posterity, as it did them. The greatest Contrivers and Actors in that Rebellion, for a just Reward of their Treason, did first feel the edge of Henry's victorious Sword, and after them Henry's Posterity, and the whole English Nation sm●…rted for Richard's blood. It is o●…served that all the Conspirators against julius Caesar, perished within three years, some by judgement of Law, others by Shipwreck upon the Sea, others by battle under the sword of their conquering Enemies, others with the fame bo●…k in wherewith they had stabbed their Emperor; one way or other vengeance o ertooke them every Man. What others say of Richard's resignation, is as weak, which was done by duresse and imprisonment, or at the best for fear of imminent Mischief.  
To conclude this Section; God and the Law operate both in Kings and Parliaments: but not in both alike. God is the immediate cause of Kings, the remote of Parliaments. Kings and Parliaments have the same ultimate and architectonical end, that is, the tranquillity of the whole Body Politic: but not the same proper and next ends, which in the Parliament is to advise the King, supply the King, and 〈◊〉 the constitu●…ion of new Laws to concur with the ●…ng: I grant (to spe●…ke in his Majesty's own words ●…s more full than the Observers,) That Parliaments are so essential a part of the constitution of this Kingdom, that we can a●…ein ●…o happiness without them. But to conclude from hence their Sup●…riority above Kings, or equality with Kings, is to subject the principal efficient to every secund●…ry cause, subordinate, i●…strumentall, or sine qua●…on.   

Observer.  
Two things are aimed at in Parliaments, not to be at●…eined to by ot●…er means. First, that the interest of the People might be satisfied, Secondly, that Kings might ●…e better counselled. In the summons of Edward the first (claus. 7. 111. 3. dors.) we see the first end of Parliaments expressed: for he inserts in the writ, that whatsoever affair is of public concernment, aught to receive ●…ublicke approbation, quod omnes tang 〈◊〉, ab omnibus approba●…i debet or tract●…ri. And in the same writ he sith, this is Lex notissima & provida circumspectione stabilita, there is not a word here but it is observable, public approbation, consent or treaty is necessary in all public expedients, and this is not a mere usage in England but a Law, and this Law is not subject to any doubt or disp●…e, there is nothing more known, neither is this known Law extorted from Kings, by the viole●…ce and injustice of the people, it is duly and formally established, and that 〈◊〉 a great deal of ●…eason, not with●…t the providence and circumspection of all the States. Were there no further Antiquity than the Reign d●… Edward the first to recommend this to us, certainly s●… there ought to be no reverence withheld from it, fo●… this Prince was Wise, Fortunate, just and valiant b●…yond all his Predecessors, if not Successors also, and therefore it is more glory to our Freedoms that as weak and peevish Princes have most opposed them, so that he first repaired the breaches, which the conquest had made upon them. And yet it is very probable, that this La●… was far ancienter than his Reign, and the words Le●… stabilita & notissima seems to intimate, that the Conquest itself had never wholly buried this in the public ruin and confusion of the State. It should seem at this time Llewellins troubles in Wales were not quite suppressed, and the French King was upon a design 〈◊〉 invade some pieces of ours in France, and ther●…fore he sends out his summons, ad tr●…ctandum, ordinandum, faciendum, cum prelatis 〈◊〉 & aliis incolis Regni, for the prevention of these dangers. Thes●… words tractandum, ordinandum, faciendum, do fully prove that the people in those days were summoned ad consensum as well as consilium, and this Law quod omnes tangit etc. shows the reason and ground upon which that consent and approbation is founded.   

Answer.  
The Observer is just like a winter Brooke, which 
●…ct. 15.  swells with water when there is no need, but in summer when it should be useful, is dried up: for all the absurd Paradoxes which he brings in this treatise, he produceth not one Authority but his own; and here to confirm a known truth which no man de●…es, he citys Rolls and adorns them with his glosses. ●…r my part I know no man that did ever en●…y or ●…aligne the honour of Edward the first, except Io●…nnes Major, who was angry with him for his Nor●…ren Expedition, Edvardus Longshanks c●…m long●…s ●…biis suis venit in Scotiam. But what is this to your ●…rpose? yes, it makes for the glory of our Freedoms, ●…at as weak and peevish Princes opposed them, so he re●…ired the breaches of them: How do you know that? 〈◊〉 this summons also? I see you are dextrous, and ●…n soon make an ell of an inch: but in truth you are ●…ry unfortunate in your instances, Edward the first ●…as a much greater Improver of the Royalty then ●…y of his Predecessors, in which respect he is styled ●…y our Chroniclers, the first Conqueror after the Con●…erer. That which was urged to his Fathers, was ●…ever that I read of tendered to him, for the Parlia●…ent to have the nomination of the chief Justice, ●…hancellour, and Treasurer, but only once in his ●…hole time, and then being rejected with a frown ●…as never moved more. It is more probable or rather ●…pparent, that the Lenity, irresolution, and mutable ●…isposition of Princes, have been that which hath im●…oldened Subjects to make insolent and presumptu●…us demands to their Sovereigns.  
Thus for the Man, you are as ample for the Law, ●…hat it is Lex notissima, & not only notissima but stabilita, lastly stabilita provida circumspectione. A trim gradation, quid tanto dignum feret Observator hiatu? who reads this and believes not that some great mountain is travelling? yet in very deed it is with nothing but a ridiculous mouse: postquam incruduit p●… na, after the fray grows hot, dishes and trenchers a●… turned to weapons, said Erasmus. Let your La●… speak itself, That which con●…erns all Men ought to 〈◊〉 approved or handled by all Men. Who denies it? 〈◊〉 shall easily grant you that this Law is not only a●… cienter than the first Edward, but even as ancient 〈◊〉 the first Adam; a part of the Law of Nature, 〈◊〉 least in the grounds of it. But that you may not s●… away in a mist of Generalities, (as it is your use) o●… word of your tangit, another of your approbari debe●… That which concerns all Men, Sir all Men may be sai●… to be concerned two ways, either in the consequen●… of affairs, or in the management thereof. This latt●… concernment gives a right sometimes to counsel only sometimes both to counsel and approve, sometime both to counsel approve and act according to the private constitutions of Societyes, but the former implies no right, neither ad approbandum nor yet ad tractandum. As for example, the meanest Freshmen ar●… concerned in the Statures and Orders of the University; yet are none admitted to deba●…e them but the Visiters, Heads, and at the lowest the Regent Masters. And this exception holds in all cases, wher●… either Inferiors or their Predecessors have legally divested themselves of this power by their proper act, or where this trust is committed to Superiors, by the Laws divine, natural, or national.  
Secondly the Counsel, Consent, or act of Proctors, Atturnyes, and generally of all trusties, whether one or more, whether rightfully elected or imposed, according to the latitude of their trust ought to be interpreted as the counsel, consent, act of thos●…●…ersons by whom, or over whom, or for whom they ●…e so trusted, and whose power virtually they do re●…ine. So as a present and posteriour consent, is not ●…cessary to His Majesty, for the excercise of any ●…anch of that Imperial power, which by Law or ●…wfull custom, is annexed to his Crown. And ●…erefore Edward the first his Summons ad tractandum, ●…dinandum, faciendum, which is the same in effect ●…ith all summons since, will do your cause no good 〈◊〉 the world, unless you may have leave to do as ●…e Devil did with Christ, leave out in viis tuis: 〈◊〉 you may put out in quibus dam and thrust in place ●…ereof in omnibus, as you do in the next page, In ●…ll things pertaining to the People. Leave these fri●…olous these false suggestions; your own-Conscience ●…nnot but tell you, that reddendo singula singulis, in ●…omethings the Houses of Parliament have power ●…o consent, in somethings to order, in somethings to ●…ct, but in all things they have neither power to act, ●…or order, nor consent, and that will appear by your ●…ext Section.   

Observer.  
It is true we find in the Reign of Edward the third, that the Commons did desire that they might forbear counselling in things, de queux ils nount p●…s cognizance; the matters in debate were concerning some intestine commotions, the guarding of the Marches of Scotland, and the Seas; and therein they renounce not their right of consent, they only excuse themselves in point of counsel, referring it rather to the King and his Council How this shall derogate from Parliaments either in poi●… of consent or counsel, I do not know, for at last th●… they did give both, and the King would not be satisfie●… without them. And the passage evinces no more but this that the King was very wise & warlike, & had a very wis●… Council of War, so that in those particulars, the Commons thought them most fit to be consulted, as perhaps the more knowing men.   

Answer.  
This is the first time that the Observer is pleased to 
●…ect. 16.  honour his adverse Party, with the mention of one Objection; and that with so ill success, that he cannot untie the knot again with all his teeth, I will put it into form for him thus; That which the Parliament in the reign of Edward the third had not, that no succeeding Parliament hath, but that Parliament had no universal cognizance, Therefore the same Rule holds in this and all other Parliaments. The Proposition is infallibly true, grounded upon an undeniable Maxim, that quod competit tali qua tali, competit omni tali, that which is true of one Parliament not by accident, but essentially as it is a Parliament, must of necessity be true of every Parliament. The Assumption is as evident, confessed by the Parliament itself, who best knew the extent of their own power, that there was somethings of which ills nount pass cognizance, they had no cognizance. And if we will believe the Observer, these things which did not belong to their cognizanc●…, were the appeasing some intestine or Civil Commotions, and the guarding of the Seas and Marches: why, these are the very case now in question concerning the Militia. And doth a Parliament here confess that they have no cognizance of these? yes, what saith the Observer to this? he saith they do not renounce their right, but only excuse themselves in point of Counsel; Most absurdly, as if there were either consent or counsel without cognizance. But he saith they did give both consent and counsel, and the King could not be satisfied without them. It may be so: but there is a vast difference between giving counsel when the King licenseth, yea and requireth it; and intruding into Counsel without calling: between an approbative consent such as the Saints give to God Almighty, the only Authoritative Judge of Heaven and Earth; and an active consent, without which the King's hands should be so tied that he could do just nothing. The former all good Kings do desire, so far as the exigence of the service will give way to have their Counsels communicated: But the latter makes a great King a Cipher and transforms an Emperor into a Christmas Lord. You tell us, that King had a very wise Council of War, and perhaps more knowing in these things than the Commons. It were strange if they should not be so, if the Commons who are Srangers to the affairs & engagements of State, should understand them better than those who have served sundry Apprenticeships in that way: qui pauca considerat facile pronunciat, he that knows not or regards not the circumstances, gives sentence easily, but for the most part is mistaken. Ignorance of the true state of things, begets jealousies and Fe●…es where there are no Dangers, and confidence wh●…e the Peril is nearest: It makes a field of thistles 〈◊〉 Army of pikes, and an Army of pikes a field of thi●…les. Let old Statesmen sit at the Helm still, a●… steer the Ship of the Commonwealth. The Co●…ons are the best Council in the World for redre●…ng of grievances, for making of new Laws, for ●…inteining the public interest of the Kingdom ab●…d, and private interest of the Subject at home; ●…et this be their Work and their Honour.   

Observer.  
Now upon a d●… comparing of these passages, with some of the Kings la●…e papers, let the World judge whether Parliaments have ●…ot been of late much lessened and injured. The King in one of his late Answers alledge●…, that his Writs may teach the Lords and Commons the extent of their Commission and Trust, which is to be Counselors not Commanders, and that not in all things, but in quibusdam arduis, and the case of Wentworth is cited, who was by Q●…een Elizabeth committed (sitting the Parliament) for proposing that they might advise the Queen in some things, which she thought beyond their cognizance, although Wentworth w●…s then of the House of Commons. And in other places, the King denies the Assembly of the Lords & Commons, to be rightly named a Parliament, or to have any power of any Court, and consequently to be any thing but a mere convention of private Men.  
Many things are here ass●…rted utterly destructive to the Honour, Right and being of Parliaments. For first because the Law hath trusted the King with a Prerogative to discontinus Parliaments etc.   

Answer.  
Having laid these former ground●…, the Observer 
Sect. 17  proceeds to some exceptions, against some passages in his Majesty's Papers, (that's his phrase) as if they were old Almanacs out of date, fit for nothing but to cover Mustard pots, metuentia carmina scombros aut thus. His first exception is, that His Majesty is trusted by the Law, (which the Observer calls now a formality of Law, with a Prerogative to discontinue Parliaments, leaving no remedy to the People in such a case, which he saith is destructive to the Honour, Right ●…nd being of Parliaments, and may yet be mischi●…vous in the future dissolution of them, and make our Triennial Parliaments of little service, if it be not exploded now. What is this to the Observers grounds or His Majesty's Declaration? This is rather an exception against the Law itself then the King: So the Observer and his pewfellows deal with Laws and Lawmakers; if they make for them, suscipiunt ut Aquilas, they admire them as Eagles, if they make against them despici●…nt ut graculos, they despise them as Daws, the Fundamental Constitutions of the Kingdom, must be straight exploded, the Law is become a Formality. Are you in earnest Sir, that this is destructive to Parliaments? you might have said more truly the productive cause of all Parliaments, that ever were in England, or of any Assembly that had an Analogy with Parliaments, I took you only for a Reformer of some abuses newly crept in: but it is plain, you intent to be another Lycurgus, to alter the whole frame of Government. Truly Sir you begin very high, and jump over the backs of a great many Generations at once: Doubtless you are either very wise, or have a great opinion of your own Wisdom. But to the point, It is confessed that sometimes some evils do flow from inconsiderate trust, but many more from needless Jealousy. incommoda non solvunt Regulam, Inconveniences do not abrogate a Law. Restraint commonly makes p●…ssion more violent. When you have done what you can, there must be a trust either reposed in one or many; and better in one then many. Do but look home a little, without trust a Man knows not his own Father; without trust a man knows not his own Children. Some trust there must be, and who fitter to be trusted than he that hath the Supremacy of power: unless you will make two Supremes. You confess that Parliaments ought to be used as Physic, not as constant Diet. And the Law hath ●…ow set down a fair term for the continuance of an ordinary Parliament, unless you would be continually in a course of Physic.  
The second exception is, His Majesty declares, that the Parliament hath no universal power to advise in all things, but in quibusdam arduis, according to the Writ, and citys the precedent of Wentworth, a Member of the House of Commons, committed by Queen Elizabeth, (the Parliament sitting,) for proposing to advise Her, in a matter She thought they had nothing to do with. The Observer magnifies Queen Elizabeth, for Her Goodness and Clemency, but withal he adds, But we must not be presidented in apparent violation of Law by Queen Elizabeth. A grave Historiographer tells us of a close and dangerous kind of Enemies, tacitum inimicorum genus, such as make a man's praises an introduction to their venomous invectives, as if it were not malice but pure love of truth that even forced them to speak so much: such an one is a good Man, but etc. So Queen Elizabeth was a good Queen, but in this particular she played the Tyrant. To violate Laws, to violate them apparently, therefore wilfully, to have no respect to the House of Commons (whereof Wentworth was a Member,) was no sign of Grace and Clemency. Certainly Queen Elizabeth (a wise and merciful Princess, one that so much courted Her People) would not have done it, but that She thought She had just grounds: or if She might err in her judgement, yet She had as wise a Council as any Prince in Europe, and a business of this consequence could not be done without their advice, who doubtless were some of them Members of the same House, or if both She and they should be mistaken, yet why were the House of Commons themselves silent, whilst such a known Privilege was apparently invaded? why did they not at least in an humble Petition represent this apparent violation of their Libertyes that it might remain as a memorial to plead for them to Posterity, that they were not the betrayers of the Rights of Parliaments? She that was so gracious as he Observer acknowledgeth, and whose goodness was so perfect and undissembled, could not choose but take it well, and thank them for it. Neither will it suffice to say She gained upon them by Courtesy: such an apparent violation, so prejudicial to the Highest Court of the Kingdom, passed over in deep silence, shows as little Courtesy on the one side, as Discretion on the other. In brief, as I cannot conceive that these words in quibusdam arduis, are so restrictive that the House may consult of nothing but what shall be proposed, or was intended at the time of the Summons: so on the other side I do not see, how either the Commission or Prescription, do give them such an universal Cognizance or Jurisdiction. Queen Elizabeth declared Herself oftener than once in this point; in Her first Parliament (when in reason She should be most tender) to the Speaker and the Body of the House of Commons, out of their Loves humbly moving Her to Marriage, She answered that She took it well, because it was without limitation of Place or Person, if it had been otherwise, She must needs have misliked it, and thought it a great presumption, for those to take upon them to bind and limit, whose duties were to obey.  
The third exception is, the King saith, they must merely counsel and not command, (a strange charge if you mark it) For it is impossible that the same trust should be irrevocably committed to the King and His Heirs for ever, and yet that very trust, and a power above that trust be committed to others. The Observer answers first (little to the purpose) that though there cannot be two Supremes yet the King is universis minor, less th●n the collective Body of His Subjects, as we see in all conditionate Princes, such as the Prince of Orange etc. His Maxim that the King is singulis Major, univerversis Minor (except the King himself be included in the universi) hath been shaken in pieces before. The Law is plain, The Kings Most Royal Majesty of mere droit & very Right, is very Head, King, Lord and 
26 Hen. 20.  Ruler of this Realm. And doth he now intent to include the King of England in his, etc. among condionate Princes. Take heed Sir, this will prove a worse etc. then that in the late Canons. Secondly, he answers that though the King's power be irrevocable, yet it is not universal, the people have reserved something to themselves out of Parliament, and something in Parliament. It were to be wished that he would distinctly set down the particular reservations; a deceitful Man walks in Generallityes. Still the Observer dreams of Elective Kingdoms, where the people have made choice either of a Person or a Family: To us it is nothing, they that give nothing can reserve nothing. Trusted and yet reserved? How the Observer joins Gryphins and Horses together? if trusted how reserved? if reserved how trusted? but how doth the Observer prove either his trust or reservation? nay it is a tacit trust; in good time, so he proves his intention by a Company of dumb witnesses. In conclusion his proof is, that it is a part of the Law of Nature. A trim Law of Nature indeed, which is Diametrally opposite to the Law of God and of Nations. The Observer deals in this just as if he had a Kinsman died testate, and he should sue for a part of his goods, and neither allege the Will nor Codicill, not Custom of the Country, but the Law of Nature only for a Legacy.  
Next the Observer raiseth a new Argument out of His Majesty's words, A temporary Power ought not to be greater than that which is lasting. This is first to make Dragons and then to kill them; or as Boys first make bubbles in a shell, and then blow them away without difficulty. The Sinews and Strength of His Majesty's Argument did lie in the words to Him and to His Heirs, and not in the word above: but if he will put the word above to the trial, if he reduce it into right Form it is above his answer. To give a power above His Majesty, sufficient to censure His Majesty, to a Body dissolvable at His Majesty's pleasure, is absurd and ridiculous: as if the King should delegate Judges, to examine and sentence the Observers seditious passages in this Treatise, and yet withal give power to the Observer to disjustice them at his pleasure; in such a case he need not much fear the Sentence. The Observer pleads two things in answer to his own shadow. First, that then the Romans had done unpolitickly, to give greater power to a Temporary Dictator then to the ordinary Consuls. Secondly, that it was very prosperous to them sometimes to change the Form of Government, neither always living under circumscribed Consuls nor under uncircums●…ibed Dictator's. We see what his Teeth water at; he would have His Majesty a circumscribed Consul, and gain an Arbitrary Dictatorian Power to himself and some other of his Friends. But in the mean time he forgets himself very far in his History: for first the power of the Dictator and of the Consuls was ●…ot consistent together; but the power of the King and the Parliament is consistent. Secondly the change of Government was so far from being prosperous ●…o the Romans, that every change brought that State even to Death's door. To instance only in the ex●…ulsion of their Kings as most to the purpose; How ●…ear was that City to utter Ruin, which owes its subsistence to the valour of a single Man, Horatius Co●…les: if he had not after an incredible manner held a whole Army play upon a Bridge, they had paid for their new fangledness, with the sacking of their City. Thirdly, the choosing of a Dictator was not a change of their Government, but a branch of it, a piece reserved for extremest perils, their last Anchor and Refuge either against Forre in Enemies, or the Domestic Seditions of the Patricii and Plebei: and is so far from yielding an Argument against Kings, that in the judgement of that Politic Nation, it shows the advantage of Monarchy above all other Forms of Government.  
The Observer still continues His Majesty's Objection, To make the Parliament more than Counsellors, is to make them His Commanders and Controllers. To which he answers, To consent is more than to counsel, and yet not always so much as to command, for in inferior Courts, the judges are so Counselors for the King, that he may not countermand their judgement, yet it were a harsh thing to say that therefore they are His Controllers, much more in Parliament, where the Lords and Commons represent the whole Kingdom. If there were no other Arguments to prove the Superiority of Parliament above the other Courts then this that it represents the Kingdom as they do the King; it would get little advantage by it. To consent is more than to counsel, and yet not always so much as to command. True, not always: but to cou●…sell so ●…s the p●…ty counselled hath no Liberty left of dissenting, is always either as much as to command or more: a man may command and go without; but here is only advise, and yet they must not go without. What a stir is here about consent? If he underst●…nd consen●… in no other notion than Laws and lawful Customs do allow; it is readily yielded, but makes nothing to his purpose. One said of Aristotle, that he writ waking, but Plato dreaming, The one had his eyes open and considered Men as they were indeed, the other as he would have them to be: but if ever Man writ dreaming, it was this Observer; his notes may serve rather for the Meridian of new England then old England, and of Utopia rather than them both. He calls the Judges the King's Counsellors, as if they were not also his Delegates, Deputies, and Commissioners, what they do is in His name and His Act: yet if they swerve from justice, he may grant a review and call them to account for any misdemeanour by them committed, in the excercise of their places; and this either in Parliament or out of Parliament. But the inference hence, That because the Parliament may take an account of what is done by His Majesty in His inferior Courts, therefore much more of what is done by him without the Authority of any Court, seems very weak. It is one thing to take an account of Himself, another to take an account of His Commissioners. His Majesty hath communicated a part of his judiciary power to his Judges, but ●…ot the Flowers of his Crown nor his entire prero●…ative, whereof this is a principal 〈◊〉, to be free from all account in point of ●…ustice except to Go●… and His own Conscience.  
The last exception is, That the King makes the Parliament without his consent, A liveless convention without all virtue and power, saying that the very name of Parliament is not du●… unto them. Which Allegation (saith the Observer) at one blow confounds all Parliaments and subjects us to as unbounden a Regiment of the King's mere Will, as any Nation under Heaven ever suffered under▪ For by the same Reason, that the King's dissertion of them makes Parliaments virtuelesse and void Courts, He may make other Courts void likewise. Here is a great cry for a little Wool: if he proves not what he aims at, yet one thing he proves sufficiently, that himself is one of the greatest Calumniators in the World, in such gross manner ●…o slander the Footsteps of Gods Anointed, Agnos●…as primogenitum Sathanae. Where did ever the King say that Parliaments without his presence are virtuelesse and void Courts? but he denieth them the name of Parliaments which is all one? yes▪ if a Goose and a Feather be all one. The name Parliament with us signifies most properly, the Par●…y of the King and his People, in a secondary sense it signifies a Parley of the Subjects among themselves, neither of these virtuelesse, but the one more vigorous than the other So the Body is sometimes contradistinguished to the Soul, and includes both Head and Members, sometimes it is contradistinguished to the Head, and includes the Members only. It is one thing to be 〈◊〉 True Parliament, and another to be a Complete Parliament, Complete to all intents and purposes, and particularly in respect of the Legislative power. In this latter sense only His Majesty denies it, and in this sense the Observer dares not affirm it. To dispute about the name is a mere Logomachy, and from the name to infer this height of Power is a trifling Homonomy. But the Observer will either be Caesar or no body, either all power o●… no power: just like a little Child who if he wants some one thing he desires, throws away all he hath and falls a crying. To his fear of his Majestie●… deserting his other Courts; he may as well fear hi●… deserting of himself. This may go amongst th●… rest of his improbable possibilities, which never were, never will be deduced into Act. If he will admit no institution which is subject to any abuse, he must seek for precedents in the new World of the Moon.  
Here he takes occasion to declaim against ou●… new Masters of Division, whose Founder is Machiavelli, their rule divide & impera, their first erection was since the third of November 1640. Hi●… Majesty is the Principal of the College whose paper●… (saith the Observer) are freighted scarce with any thing else but such Doctrine of Division, tending to the subversion of our Fundamental Constitutions, yet find such applause in the World. His plea against them consists of a fourfold charge; first, they have divided between the King and the Parliament. Secondly betwixt the Parliament and the Kingdom withdrawing themselves from their representatives, Yet there is nothing under Heaven (if we may trust him) next to the renoun●…ing of God, can be more perfidious and more pernicious to the people than this. Thirdly, by dividing between the Parliament and a part of the Parliament. And fowerthly, in the Major part between a Faction misleading and a party misled. Who reads this and would not take the Observer for another Cal●… or Constantine for peacemaking, whereas in truth all this is but a personated passage of Demetrius, or one of his craftsmen, railing against the Town Clerk of Ephesus, as a Ringleader of Division, and a Disturber of them in their service to Diana, the Idol of their own brains, and an Hinderer of them in doing Gods own Work, that is, shedding the blood of the ungodly Apostles, and is done with the very same grace that Athaliah cried out Treason, Treason. 
Sic oculos, sic illa manus, sic ora ferebat.   
He is ever snarling at His Majesty's Papers, and and I do not much blame him: for where these Papers have had free passage, they have sweyed down the scale of men's judgements with the weight of unanswerable reason, that this Observer and all his Fellows may compare their notes, and put their hands and heads and shoulders and all together, and never be able to lift it up again to an equilibrium. If they could have purchased every paper of them at the same price that the Romans gave for the Sibyls Books, it would have been well bestowed for their cause, to have them suppressed. I plead not for Masters of Division, God's abomination, the Devil's Factors, th●… bane of the Commonwealth; Da unum & habeb●… populum, tolle unum & habebis turbam. It was not Philip, but the dissensions of Athens, Thebes, Sparta, that destroyed Greece. It was not Scipio, but the Factions of Hannibal and Ha●…o that destroyed Carthage: we have had too many such Masters of Division, indeed. Our Schisms in the Church proclaim it, the question is not now of round or square, or black or white, or sitting or kneeling: our burying and marrying, our christening, our communicating are all questioned; our Churches, our holy Orders, our public Liturgy, the Lords Prayer, the Creed, our Scriptures, the Godhead of Christ, the doctrine of the Trinity, all our Fundamentals are questioned. It is not twins but litters of Heretics that struggle in the womb of the Church; Disciplinarias, Independents, Brownists, Anabaptists, Familists, Socinians, etc. 
— pudet haec opprobria nobis,  
Et dici potuisse, & non potuisse refelli.   
Our Sedition in the State proclaims it, whilst some are for the King, some for the Parliament, some for the Law, some for Arbitrary Government, some for a Monarchy, some for Democracy. The Superiority of the King or Parliament is questioned, the King's negative voice is questione●… the right of the Militia is questioned, the privileges our Parliament, the liberty of the Subject, e●…ry thing is questioned. Thus to use the Observers words, Those rock Foundations are razed, upon which this State hath been so happily settled, for so many ages now past, The Pillars of Law and Policy (and Religion,) are taken away, and the State (and Church) set upon a new Basis: each day produceth new opinions, new precedents, new questions; and woe be to those Men who are not only occasionally, but intentionally the Authors of these Divisions: They are guilty before God of all that blood which is poured out like water upon the face of the Earth, of all that Spoil which is committed: better were it for them that a Millstone were hanged about their necks, and they cast into the bottom of the Sea. How deep the Observers share is herein, I leave it to his own Conscience. This is certain, a Man may keep his Possession by Force, but he that shall go about to thrust another out of his lawful Possession, is the true Author of the tumult, and whatsoever he suffers, he can blame no man but himself.  
Now to your four Charges. First, who divided the King and Parliament. There may be a quaere of others, but it is beyond all question that those base tumults and disorders at Westminster and upon the Thames tending to the danger of His Majesty's Person, but much more as they were unsufferable affronts to Sacred Majesty, and all those who are accessary to them, as Contrivers, Fomenters, or Connivers, are the principal grounds of this cursed Division: they that make two Supremes coordinate one with another, make a division with a witness. Next, for your separation between the Parliament and the Kingdom. First your mouth runs over extremely when you call it the most pernicious thing that can be, next to the renouncing God: we have stricter obligations to others then to our Proctors. Secondly, to regulate their trust, according to their first intentions and former Precedents, is not to withdraw ●…epresentation; if it were who taught it them, but those who first practised the same to their King? But that you may clearly discern who are the Authors of this separation, hear a near Friend of yours in his plain English or rather plain Sedition, thus he, If ever the Parliament should agree to the making up of an unsafe unsatisfying Accommodation, this will beget a new question, whether in case the representative Body can not ●…r will not discharge their trust, to the satisfaction not of fancy, but of reason in the People, they may resume if ever yet they parted with a power to their manifest undoing, and use their power so far as conduceth to their safety? You see the high ad ultimate Judicature is neither now the Kings, nor the Parliaments. Your third division is between the Parliament and a part of it. Of this charge they are guilty who made the distinction, of good and b●…d Lords, of well affected and ill affected Members. The votes of Absentees doubtless by the Law of Nations devolve to those that are present: but if the place of the Assembly be not free, if the absence be necessitated by unjust force or just fear, the case is otherwise. Your fourth division is between the Major part misled, and a Faction in the major part misleading. I wonder you should think this so impossible. near instances may be dangerous; let us look upon the great Council of A●…iminum, the question was of no less consequence than the Deity of Christ, the Major part of the Cou●…cell voted for the Arrians, and in the major part the misleading Faction were but few, the well meaning party were far the more, but misled by the subtle manner of proposing the question, whe●…her they would have Christ or Homoousio●…? which ●…either being discussed, nor understood as it ought to ●…ave been, they voted wrong and repent at lei●…ure.  
In the last place you distinguish between deserting ●…nd being deserted, If the Wife leave her Husbands ●…ed and become an Adulteress, 'tis good reason she ●…ose her dowry, but if her Husband ca●…selesly reject ●…er, it is injustice she should suffer any detriment, Your case is true as you propose it: but suppose the Adultress should stay at home and outbrave her Husband, or by her power in the Family thrust him good Man out of doors; suppose she should refuse to cohabite with him, except she may be Mast●…r and do what she will without controlment, and forget her Matrimonial Vow of Obedience. This altars the case.   

Observer.  
Now of that Right, which the Parliament may do the King by Counsel, i●… the King could be more wisely or faithfully advised by any other Court, or if his single judgement were to be preferred before all advise whatsoever, it were not only vain, but extremely inconvenient, that the whole Kingdom should be troubled to make elections, and that the Parties elected should attend the public business.   

Answer.  
We have had both Counsel and Consent befo●… but now we must have them again. The questio●… 
●…ect. 18.  raised by the Observer are of such an odious natur●… that no good Subject can take delight in them, whos●… duty is to pray for the like consent among the sev●…rall orders of this Kingdom, that is supposed t●… be among the several orbs of Heaven. His Majesty is undoubtedly the primum mobile, (whatsoeve●… the Observer in sundry parts of this Treatise prattl●… to the contrary,) The two Houses of Parliament, t●… great and privy Council are the lower Spheres, whic●… by their transverse yet vincible motions ought to allay the violence of the highest Orb for the good an●… preservation of the universe. Where there are no such helps and means of temper and moderation, there Liberty is in danger to be often trodden under Foot by Tyranny. And where these adjuments by the unskilfulness or sinister ends of some young or ambitious Phaeton's become impediments, by a stiff froward and unseasonable opposition, in stead of a gentle vincible reluctation, it sets the whole body Politic in a miserable combustion, as daily experience shows. But I must trace the Observer. The calling of Parliaments is not vain and inconvenient, but his inference is vain and inconsequent; there are other ends of Parliaments besides Counsel, as consenting to new Laws, furnishing the public with Money, (the nerves and sinews of great actions,) maintaining the interest of the Kingdom, and liberty of the Subject. From removing one social end to infer ●…at an action is superfluous, deserves no answer but 〈◊〉 and contempt.  
Secondly, even in point of advice, there is more re●…uired in a good Counsellor then natural wisdom ●…nd fidelity; our fancies are not determined by na●…ure to every thing that is fit for us, as in Birds and Beasts: but we must serve apprenticeships ●…o ●…ble us to ●…erve one another. There is a thing called experience, of ●…igh concernment in the managery of public affairs. He that will steer one Kingdom right, must know ●…he right constitution of all others; their strength, their ●…ffections, their counsels and resolutions, that upon each different face of the sky, he may alter his rudder. The best Governments have more Counsels ●…hen one, one for the public interest of the Kingdom, another for the affairs of State; a Council for War, and a Council for Peace: and it were strange if it were not as requisite to have a Council for the Church. Every Man deserves trust in his own Profession: many are fittest for resolving, few for managing. The exigence of things require, sometimes secrecy, sometime speed. We see the House of Commons, though they be but deputed by the People (and a Delegate cannot make a delegate, where their right is in confidence rather than in interest) yet they have their Committees and a Council in a Counsel. Neither are all Parliaments of the same temper, if we may believe Sir Henry Wotton (one that was no Fool,) thus he, in the eighteenth of King James, many young ones being chosen into the House of Commons, more than had been usual in great Counsels (who though of the weakest wings, are the highest flyers,) there 〈◊〉 a certain unfortunate unfruitful Spirit in some places not sowing but picking at every stone in the field rath●… then tending to the general harvest.  
Thirdly, let them be as wise and as faithful Councillors as the Observer pleaseth, only let them be but Councillors. Let their conclusions have as much credit as the premises deserve; and if they can necessitate t●…●…rince to assent by weight of reason, an●… convincing evidence of expedience, let them do it o●… God's name, necesse est ut lancem in libra ponderib●… impositis deprimi, sic animum perspicuis cedere: But 〈◊〉 hope they will never desire to do it out of the authority of their votes, or obtrude a conclusion on His Majesty, before he understand how it is grounde●… upon the Premises. This seems to be the same, which the Disciplinarians would impose upon the King in the Government of the Church, to be the Executor of their decrees, His Respect to their judgement ought to make him t●…nder in denying, but infers no necessity of granting.  
Fourthly, I wonder the Observer is not ashamed to tell of His Majesty's preferring his single judgement before all advise whatsoever, when the Observer chargeth him with following the advice of his Cabinet Council, when he hath his Privy Council with him, when in the great Council, if they might meet freely, he believes that two third parts approve of his doings. Are the most part of the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom, no Body? Are the flower of the Clergy and Universities, no Body? are so many grave Solid Lawyers, no Body? So many of the Loyal Commons, no Body? Sir, you do see, and you will see daily more, That His Majesty is not single in His Course.  
Lastly, It is the part of good Counsellors, to present their whole advice together, what they desire to remove, and what they desire to introduce; as well what they desire to build up, as what the●…●…esire to pull down. So the Observer himself p●…eth in another case, Before we demolish old structures, we ought 
First obse●… vat. pag.  to be advised of the fashion of new. His Majesty hath required one entire full view of their demands, that He might judge more perfectly what to assent to, and what to advise further upon. This is a sure way not to be overreached, not to cut down an old Tree, before there be a new one ready to be planted in its place: many Men will agree in the destructive, which will never agree in the constructive part. The old Senators first of Capua and after of Florence, found this to be true by experience; the People did not agree so well in taking them away, but they disagreed ten times as much in the choice of new: and they that were voted down whilst they looked upon them positively, were voted to stand when they looked upon them comparatively, they were not so worthy as they desired, but much more worthy than those that should be subintroduced. To instance in the case of the Church, there are many Schismatical Factions at this day, never an one of these can have their own ends, except the present government be taken away; so far they agree: yet if it should be taken away, not one of six should have his own ends; here of necessity they must fall in pieces, and in probability will cry out with the Capuans and the Florentines, The old is the better of the two. If every Man's single suffrage were ascertained to his proper object, as it is in the election of our Knights and Burgesses, we should soon see who would have most voices: and perhaps the old (in a free meeting) might have more than all the new put together.   

Observer.  
But little need to be said, I think every man's hear●… tells him, that in public Consultation●…, the many eyes of so many choice Gentlemen of all parts see more than fewer.   

Answer.  
'tis not sufficient for an adviser to see, unless he 
●…t. 19  can let another see by the light of Reason. A Man ought not implicitly to ground his actions upon the authority of other men's eyes, whether many or few; but of his own. Many see more than few; True caeteris paribus if all things be alike: Or otherwise one Physician may see more into the state of a Man's Body then many Empirics, one experienced Commander may know more in Military Affairs, than ten Freshwater Soldiers, and one old Statesman in his own Element is worth many new Practitioners, one Man upon an Hill may see more than an hundred in a Valley. But yet if all things be alike, you will say many eyes see more than one? They do so commonly, but not always: one Paphnutius did see more in the Council of Nice, than many greater Clerks. How often have you seen one or two Men in the Parliament change the Votes of the House? certainly the Eyes of so many choice Gentlemen see the Grievances of the Kingdom, better than any other Council; That is their proper object.   

Observer.  
And the great interest the Parliament has in common justice and tranquillity, and the few private ends they can have to deprave them, must needs render their Counsel more faithful, impartial, and religious than any other.   

Answer.  
The interest is the Kingdoms and each Subjects; To be Parliament Men adds to their trust not to their 
Sect. 2●….  interest. The Observers grounds are presumptuous, and tend only to beget an implicit confidence: what men's private ends are, is not known to us but to God above. This we know, that good ends cannot justify bad means, nor bad actions. Men may have good ends, and yet be led hoodwinked by others whose ends are worse: and private ends will steal upon well affected Men. Discontent works strongly upon some, vain glory upon others; Delinquents may aim at their own impunity, and timorous Persons at private Security. But this is to be left to God that is the searcher of hearts.   

Obsever.  
That dislike which the Court has ever conceived against Parliaments, without dispute is a pregnant proof of the integrity and salubrity of public advice, and is no disparagement thereof, for we have ever ●…ound Enmity and Antipathy betwixt the Court and the Country.   

Answer.  
If you make a strict survey of the Parliaments 
●…ct. 21.  party, I believe you will find as many Courtiers as Countrymen (proportion for proportion). To see the Revenues of the Crown be not diminished by needless profusion, to see His Majesty be not prejudiced in the accounts of his Officers, To take away Monopolies, and the like, are the proper Works of Parliaments, and in probability cannot be so pleasing to some Courtiers: but this is far from a fancied Omnipotence. Here he falls into his old Complaint of the People's not adhering to the Parliament, but we have had this Dish oft enough upon the Table.   

Observer.  
The King says, 'tis improbable and impossible that His Cabinet Counsellors, or His Bishops, or Soldiers, who must have so great a share in the misery, should take such pains in the procuring thereof, and spend so much time, and run so many hazards, to make themselves Slaves and to ruin the Freedom of this Nation. How strange is this? we have had almost forty years' experience that the Courtway of preferment, has been by doing public ill offices, and we can nominate what Dukes, what Earls, what Lords, what Knights, have been made great and rich by base disservices to the State, and except Master Hollis his rich Widow, I never heard that promotion came to any man by serving in Parliament: but I have heard of trouble and imprisonment: but now see the traverse of Fortune; the Court is now turned honest, and there is no fear now but that a few Hypocrites in Parliament will beguile the Major part. And pag. 23. The whole Kingdom is not to be mastered against consent by the train Bands, nor the Train Bands by the Lords or Deputy Lieutenants, nor they by the Major part in Parliament, nor the Major part in Parliament by I know not what Septemvirat. There is some mystery in this which seems yet above, if not contrary to nature, but since the King hath promised to open it, we will suspend our opinion and expect it as the final issue of all our disputes. And pag. 22. We are now at last fallen upon an issue fit to put an end to all other invectives whatsoever, let us stick close to it. The King promiseth very shortly a full and satisfactory narration of those few Persons in Parliament, whose design is and always was to alter the whole frame of Government both in Church and State, and subject both King and People to their own Arbitrary power and Government; a little of this Logic is better than a great deal of Rhetoric as the case now stands. If the King will please now to publish the particular Crimes of such as he hath formerly impeached of Treason, and the particular names of su●…h as now he sets forth in those characters, & will therein refer himself to the strength of his proofs, and evidences of his matter, it is impossible that any jealousy can cloud his integrity, or check his power any longer. Et eadem pagina. By the performance of this promise, he shall not only do right to himself but also to the whole Kingdom, for the distracted Multitude being at last by this means undeceived, shall prostrate themselves and all their power presently at his feet.   

Answer.  
There is no dealing with the Observer without a Notary public and good store of Witnesses. The 
●…t. 22  King says, So he: the Contrivers of the Declaration say, so the King. It is nothing to mistake an objection for a position: but it is something more to thrust in Cabinet Counsellors, Bishops and Soldiers; though I suppose never an one of these will love their Profession the worse for a dash of his Tongue or Pen. Are there none for the King but those whom he terms in disgrace Cabinet ●…ouncellers Bishops & Soldiers? he will find many as eminent for piety, virtue, wisdom, Courage, Nobility, Estate, as our British World affords, such as want no Titles, no means that the condition of a Subject is capable of: or if they did, need not make use of such oily ways to flippe into pre●…erment. Admit some few have raised themselves by sinister course●…, what are they in comparison of such a cloud of worthies, but as the glean to the vintage? 
Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto.   
He saith he can name Dukes, and Earls, and ●…ords, and Knights: if he can, let him look where he finds them now; they that can serve the time dextrou●…y, will apply themselves to one as well as another. I ●…m not so wilfully blind as not to see that some have ●…gratiated themselves by dissembled goodness, or ●…y such services as are not warrantable by Law, though ●…hen they were justified by the Professors of the ●…aw: much less am I so childishly credulou●…, to be●…eve all those hideous Lies, which Envy or Selfe●…ve hath cast upon Favourites or public Ministers of ●…tate. Now to let us see he can shoot short as well ●…s over, he tells us that he never heard that promotion ●…ame to any Man by serving in Parliament. If he ●…d not, it is because he hath stopped his ears & 〈◊〉 his eyes when he looked that way: otherwise ●…e might have seen both in this Parliament and for●…er Parliaments within forty years, honours offi●…es and estates, gained either by service in Parlia●…ent, or disservice, or both; though I do not love ●…o particularise as the Observer doth. Some men's advancements do show it is a good way to get preferment, to put the King to a necessi●…y of granting. Good Woodmen say that some have used Dea●…-stealing as an introduction to a Keeper's place, and I have seen a Non-Conformists mouth stopped with a good benefice, as if he did but show them before that if he were not satisfied he could ●…ape as wide as his Neighbours.  
Next, he makes it near a prodigy, a mystery above if not contrary to Nature, that a few Hypocrites should beguile the Parliament, or the Major part be mastered by a Septemvirate. I will nor argue with the Observer utrum sit whether it be so; my Reverence to the great Council of the Kingdom pull●… me by the ear: but utrum possit whether it may be so. Then for the present we will change the Scene to Grece or Italy. And I wonder why the Observer should think it so strange that few should have an influence upon many, or that affections & passions, love, hatred, fear, hope, grief, etc. should betray men's judgements. Let him peruse all Histories, and take a view of all Free States and Senates, as Rome, Areopagus, Delphos etc. Consular, Tribunitian, Praetorian, etc. of all kinds: and he shall find siding and faction and packing and conniving and an implicit dependence of many Followers upon few Leaders. H●… may be pleased to remember the brag of an Athenian boy, that his Father ruled all Athens, his Mother ruled his Father, and he ruled his Mother. There are many Dames in the World that woul●… think much not to have as great an influence eithe●… upon their Husbands or the State, as Madam Themistocles had. Even say Sir, do you think that private quarrels and the memory of former suffering●… did never work upon any Man? That disconten●… and envy at other men's preferment, (whom the●… conceived to be l●…se deserving then themselves) di●… never transport some others further than the bias o●… judgement did draw them? That fear of the las●… and a desire to se●…re themselves, hath never force any men to personate a part from the teeth outwards? That great Offices and Honours have never been apearle in any men's eyes to hinder their sight (though like Lapwings they made least noise when they were nearest their nests?) That others have never been like organ pipes to whom the wind of popular applause hath only given a sound? Is it never possible for a party who have premeditated their parts, and before their design be discovered, to exclude or vote out those whom they conceive to be their opposites, upon some pretences or others, (suppose of an unlawful election, or being Monopolists or the like?) I say nothing of the bewitching power of Oratory, nor of that sheepish Humour of following the Drove, nor of the vehement impression that fancied dangers make in some men, as of him that died in an innocent Bath, when the Bystanders only told him, that his heart's blood was coming out now. But you may say these will never hold on to the journeys end: Though we often see that when Men are too far engaged, have passed the Waters of Rubicon and cannot retire with safety, they grow desperate and run head long upon the mouth of the Cannon: yet considering the gracious disposition of our Dread Sovereign, whose joy it is as it was his Saviour's to find the sheep that was lost, I do verily believe they will not hold on to the last indeed; why should they lose themselves to be laughed at for their labours by them that had other ends than they? But yet till this departure be, they make one body visibly. When the Body natural is infested with contrary distempers, that which is used as a good cure ●…or the one, may be poison to the other: So in the Body Politic, they who are aptly chosen for the ●…emedy of one Grievance, suppose the violation of Liberty, may be most unfit and never would have b●…en chosen for the settlement of Religion. In sum, the Observers Argument may be thus paralleled, It ●…s not discernible how the whole City and State of Athens could be mastered by a Militia consisting but of three thousand, or those three thousand by the Major part of thirty Tyrants, or the Major p●…rt of thirty by Critias and one or two more: Or thu●…, It is not discernible, how the World should be mastered by Italy, or Italy by Rome, or Rome by I know not what Triumvirate. A very poor Mercury may reconcile the Observers understanding in this, if he be pleased. A trained Band of eighty or an hundred thousand fight men, well armed; well exercised, are able to master a greater Kingdom than England; Armies are not so soon raised, armed, disciplined; he that is ready for the Field may easily suppress another, upon his first motion, or but offering to stir. It is as easy to conceive how the train Bands may be at the disposition of their Commanders, who pay them, reward them, punish them: and it is certain that they who have the naming of them will choose such as they may confide in. The Observer talks much of Nature, what Arms hath Nature given but teeth and nails? these will do little service at push of pike or against a volley of muske●…s.  
This brings us to the issue which is propounded by the Observer, and is accepted by His Majesty, which may put an end to all other invectives: God grant it ●…ay prove true, we see no signs of it yet. The Ob●…erver saith, Let us stick close to it; and I say, he that ●…tarts from it, let him be reputed guilty of all the ●…nnocent blood that is shed. He adds, which will ●…ring the distracted multitude to prostrate them●…elves at His Majesty's Feet. Alas the countenance ●…s not always to be credited, but speech is the Arch-Deceiver. If this be not a vain flourish, an empty airy offer, but meant in good earnest, there is hope we may be happy. His Majesty hath satisfied this demand long since, by His Declaration of the 12. of August 1642. and yet we find not these fruits here promised with so much confidence; He hath named the parties, He hath specified the crimes. Take the accusation in his own words, 1. Of entering into a solemn Combination for altering of the Government of Church and State, 2. Of designing Offices to themselves and other Men, 3. Of soliciting and drawing down the Tumults to Westminster, 4. Of bidding the people in the height of their rage and fury go to Whitehall, 5. Of their scornful and odious mention of His Majesty's Person, 6. Of a design to get the Prince into their hands, 7. Of treating with Foreign Power to assist them. He is willing also to refer himself to the strength of his proofs, and evidence of the matter, which is all the Observer desires. Hear Him for that also, We desire that the L. K. M. H. M. P. M. H. Sir A. H. M. St. M. M. Sir H. L. A. P. and C. V. may be delivered into the hands of justice, to be tried by their Peers, according to the known Law of the Land. If we do not prove them guilty of High Treason, they will be acquitted and their innocence will justly triumph over Vs. Now if they desire to show themselves great Patriots and Lovers of their Country indeed, here is a fair opportunity offered, if they have as much courage as Codrus had to leap into the gaping gulf of Division, and to reduce the Kingdom to its former continuity and unity, if they dare trust to the touchstone of Justice, and if the bird in their breast sing sweetly to them that they are innocent: here is a course provided whereby they may vindicate their good names, and out of the feigned reports of malignant Sycophants make themselves a triumphant Garland or Crown of lasting Honour. But we see no haste, I know not men's hearts. There is an unhappy story in Plutarch, (but I dare not apply it,) of Pericles a Stickler in the Athenian Commonwealth, who being busy and private in his study to make his account to the State, was advised by his Nephew Alciliades (it was pestilent Counsel) rather to study low to make no accounts: which he did effect by engaging the Commonwealth in a War, so as they had no leisure to call for his accounts after that. There can be nothing pleaded in bar●…e to the performance of this Proposition, but the privilege of Parliament. A great plea indeed; so the Observer, That none of the Members of the Parliament may be apprehended in case of suspicion, where no information or Witnesses appear to make good the prosecution, without acquainting the Parliament, if leave may be conveniently obtained. He adds that by the same Act the whole House might have been surprised. And in another place, that by this means, the mere imputation of Treason shall sweep away a whole Parliament. And his reason is thus grounded, That if way be given to this, so many Members of either House may be taken away at any time, upon groundless pretences, as may make a Major part of whom they will: And then farewell to the Freedom of Parliaments. Which truly seems to be urged with great show of equity, where the parties are taken away by dozen or greater numbers, and the trial is long deferred to serve a turn. You shall find the same Argument used & pressed after the same manner by Steven Gardiner to the Parliament, alleging that nothing could be of worse Example then to 
Auno 154  allow such a precedent, that by that means it shall be at the pleasure of him that ruleth to do the same in more. But for all that we do not find that either the Parliament did afford him relief, or were sensible of any such danger: doubtless it stands both with natural equity & the known Law of the Land, that they who have the honour to be the great Council of the King & Kingdom, should have all such Privileges & immunityes as are conducible to the furtherance of those ends for which they are convocated; such are free access and recess, to be exempted from attendence upon Inferior Courts, so long as they are in that employment, To have their Servants free from arrests, that whilst themselves are busy about the great Affairs of the Commonwealth, their Estates and occasions may not suffer in their absence, and that universal privilege of all Councillors, that whilst their intentions are real, they should not be questioned for a slip of the tongue, or a mistake in their judgements. We see ordinary Courts do not only protect their Ministers of Justice in the excercise of their places, but even those Witnesses which a●… summoned to appear before them. A Clerk o●… the Chancery cannot be called to any other Cou●… to answer in any Cause that is cogniscible in tha●… Court.  
But here are sundry things considerable, as fir●… that His Majesty is the true fountain of these Privileges, not any mutual compacts. This is plain by that petition, which Sir Thomas Moor (than Speaker for the House of Commons) made in his Oration to King Henry the eight, which I think hath been observed by all Speakers that ever were since, That if in communication, or reasoning, any Man in th●… Commons House should speak more largely then of duty they ought to do, that all such offences should be pardoned.  
Secondly, these Privileges ought not to be destructive to the essence or Fundamental Ends or righ●… Constitution of Parliaments: and such a Privilege i●… that the Observer claims, to be denied nothing. For whereas our Parliament is so sweetly tempered an●… composed of all estates, to secure this Nation from the evils which are incident to all Forms of Government: he that shall quite take His Majesty's negative voice away secures us from Tyranny, but leaves us open and stark naked to all those popular evil●… or Epidemical diseases which flow from Ochlocracy; as Tumults, Seditions, Civil Wars, and that Ilias of Evils which attends them; and seems to reduce the King (be it spoken with reverence) to the ●…ase of the old Woman in the Epigrammatist, when she had coughed out her two last teeth, 
jam libere possis totis tussire diebus  
Nil isthic quod agat tertia tussis habet.   
From hence appears a ready answer to that question so often moved, what great virtue is in the King's single vote to avert evils from us, that an ordinance of both Houses may not be binding to the whole Kingdom without His consent? The case is plain, it is of no great virtue against the evils of Tyranny, but is a Sovereign Remedy against the greater Mischiefs which flow from Ochlocracy: and I trust God will ever preserve it to us.  
Thirdly, these Privileges must not transcend the condition or capacity of Subjects by making destructive reservations, or so as to deck the Temples of inferior Persons with the flowers of the Crown. Such a Privilege seems this to be which the Observer here claims, a Dictatorian Immunity from all question, to owe no account but to God and their own Consciences: and yet by this new Learning they may take an account of the King. What is this but to make Kings of Subjects and Subjects of Kings? When some Ancients more skilful in Theology then in Philosophy or Geography, did hear of the Antipodes, they reasoned against it (as they thought) strongly, that then there were pencils homines and pencils arbores, men that did go with their heads downwards, and Trees that did grow with their tops downwards; they forgot that Heaven is still above, and the Centre below: but what they did but imagine the Observer really laboureth to introduce, to make whole Kingdoms to walk with their Heads downwards and their heels upwards.  
Fourthly, the just measure or standard, whereby all Privileges ought to be examined and tried, is not now the Law of Nature, which is appliable (though not equally) to all Forms of Government; this were to put the shoe of Hercules upon an Infant's foot. The Law of Nature may be limited, though not contraried by the known Laws and Customs of this Realm, as they shall appear by Charters, Statutes, Precedents, Rolls, Records, Witnesses. His Majesty citys a confession of the Parliament itself, to prove that their Privileges extend not to the cases of Treason, Felony, or breach of Peace, which heretofore hath been the common belief of all Men. And it seems no satisctory Answer to say, that therefore they extend not to these Cases because the Houses do usually give way in these cases for them to come to trial, either in Parliament if it be proper, or otherwise in other Courts. For it is a great doubt how a Commoner in case of Treason can be tried in Parliament per pares by his Peers: and if it be in their own power to give way or not to give way, the Privilege extends to these cases as well as others. The case being thus, why do we quarrel one with another? why do no●… we all repair to the common Standard (that is the Law of the Land,) and crave the resolution or information of those that are Professors in that study? This will determine the doubt without partiali●… or blood, and he that refuseth it, let him be accounted as one that desires not to uphold but subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Land, upon a supposition of Fears and such cases as never happened in the World. Now it appears how the former objection is not applicable to the case in question, where the Parties are Commoners and aught to be tried by their Peers; where His Sacred Majesty is the Informer; where the crimes are specified; where a speedy trial according to the known Law is desired: where the Parties themselves out of a love to their Country, out of a care to prevent the effusion of Christian and of English blood, out of a desire to vindicate their own reputations, should themselves become Suitors for a lawful hearing, that they might not still suffer under such a heavy charge: at which trial they may legally plead the Privilege of Parliament, if there be any such L●…wfull Privilege.   

Observer.  
But let us consider the Lords and Commons as mere Counsellors, without any power or right of counselling or consenting, yet we shall see if they be not less knowing and faithful than other Men, they ought not to be deserted, unless we will allow that the King may choose whether he will admit of any Counsel at all or no, in the disposing of our Lives, Lands, and Libertyes. But the King says, that He is not bound to renounce His own understanding, or to contradict His own Conscience for any Counsellors s●…ke whatsoever. 'tis granted in things visible and certain, That judge which is a sole judge, and has competent power to see his own judgement executed, ought not to determine against the light of nature or evidence of fact. The Sin of Pila●…e was, that when he might have saved our Saviour from an unjust Death, yet upon accusations contradictory in themselves, contrary to s●…range Revelations from Heaven, he would suffer innocence to fall and pass sentence of Death, merely to satisfy a blood-thirs●…y Multitude. But otherwise it was in my Lord of 〈◊〉 case, for the King was not sole judge, nay He w●…s uncapa●…le o●… sitting judge at all etc. And therefo●…e the King might therein with a clear Conscience have signed a Warrant for his Death, though He had dissented from the judgement. So if one judge on the same Bench descent from three, or one juror at the Bar from eleven, they may submit to the major number, though perhaps less skilful than themselves, without imputation of guilt: and if it be thus in matters of Law a fortiori, 'tis so in matters of State, where the very satisfying of a Multitude sometimes in things not otherwise expedient, may prove not only expedient but necessary for the settling of Peace and ceasing of strife etc. Where the People by public Authority will seek any inconvenience to themselves, and the King is not so much interested i●… it as themselves, 'tis more inconvenien●…e and inju●…ice to deny then grant it; what blame is it the 〈◊〉 Prin●…es, when they will pretend reluctance of Conscience and Reason, in things beh●…vefull for the People?   

Answer.  
That which His Majesty saith that a Man may not go against the Dict●…te of Hi own Conscience, 
〈◊〉. 23.  is so certain, that no Man that hath his eyes in his head can deny it. The Scripture is plain, he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of 
Rom. 14.  Faith, for whatsoever is not of Faith is Sinne. Reason is as evident, that all circumstances must concur to make an action good, but one single defect doth make it evil. Now seeing the approbation of Conscience is required to every good action, the want thereof makes it unlawful, nor simply in itself, but relatively, huic, hic, nunc, to this Person, at this time, in this place. Therefore all Divines do agree in the case of a scrupulous Conscience, that where a Man is bound by positive Law to do any Act, and yet is forbidden by the Dictates of his own Conscience to do it, he must first reform his understanding, and then perform obedience. And this in case where a thing already is determined by positive Law: but in His Majesty's case where the question is not of Obedience to a Law already constituted and established, but of the free election or assenting to a new Law before it be enacted, it holds much more strongly. But yet this is not all, there is a third obligation (& a threefold cord is not easily broken.) Take one instance, the King i●…●…nd by His Coronation oath to defend the Church, to preserve to the Clergy all Canonical Privileges & the free franchises granted to them by the glorious King Saint Edward and other Kings. Now suppose such a Bill should be tendered to His Majesty to deprive them of their temporal goods, as was tendered to Henry the fourth in that Parliament called the Lay Parliament; suppose that His Majesty is very sensible of the obligaon of His Oath, but sees no ground of dispensation with his oath.; the Clergy (as then Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury) are his Remembrancers and consent not to any alteration; what should a King do in this case? in the one ●…cale there is Law, Conscience, and Oath, in the other the tender respect which he bears to a great part (yet but a part) of his people. I presume not to determine: but our Chroniclers tell us what was the event then, That his Majesty resolved to leave the Church in as good State or better than he found it, That the Knights confessed their error, and desired forgiveness of the same Archbishop, That when the same motion was renewed after in the same year of his Reign, the King commanded them that from thenceforth, they should not presume to move any such matter. Even as his Predecessor Richard the second in the very like case had commanded the same Bill to be canceled: Kings than did conceive themselves to have a negative voice, and that they were not bound by the votes of their great Council.  
These grounds being laid, the Observers instances will melt away like Winter ice. First the Oath and obligation is visible and certain, but the dispensation or necessityof alteration, is invisible and uncertain. Secondly the rule that a man may not contradict his own Conscience for the advice of any Counsellor, is universal, and holds not only in actions judiciary whether sole or social, but generally in all the actions of a Man's Life. Thirdly the understanding is the sole Judge or Director of the will: the sin of Pilate was not to contradict Revelations (which he never had,) but for fear of complaints, and out of a desire to apply himself to an enraged Multitude, to condemn an innocent Person. The ●…bservers instance in the Earl of Strafford, might well ●…ave been omitted, as tending to no purpose, unless 〈◊〉 be to show his inhumanity and despite to the dead ●…shes of a Man, who whilst he was living might ●…ave answered a w●…ole Legion of Observers: and at ●…is death by his voluntary submission, and his own ●…etition to His Majesty, did endeavour to clear this ●…oubt and remove these scruples. Take the case as ●…he Observer states it, yet justice is satisfied by his ●…eath: and if it were otherwise, yet it is not meet for ●…im or me for to argue of what is done by His Majesty ●…r the great Council of the Kingdom; That rancour ●…s deep which pursues a Man into another World.  
But where the Observer adds, That His Majesty was not the sole Judge and that he was uncap●…ble of sitting Judge at all: I conceive he is much mistaken. His Majesty may be Authoritative Judge where he doth not personally sit: and the naming of a Delegate or High Steward to be a pronunciative Judge, doth not exclude the principal. The instance of a Judge giving sentence according to the major number of his Fellow Judges though contrary to his own opinion, is altogether impertinent: for this is the judgement of the whole Court not of the Person, and might be declared by any one of the Bench as well as another. Such a Judge is not an Authoritative Judge, but pro●…unciative only: neither can he make Law but declare it, without any negative voice. The other instance of a Juror concurring with the greater number of his Fellow Jurors, contrary to his Conscience, is altogether false and direct Perjury. Neither of them are applic●…ble to Hi●… Majesty, who 〈◊〉 pow●…r both to execu●…e and pardon▪ It is true, necessi●…y of St●…te justifies many thing●… which otherwise were inexcusable: and it is as tru●… that it is not lawful to do evil that good may com●… of it.  
His last assertion, that where the People by publick●… authority will seek any inconvenience to themselves, an●… the King is not as much interessed as themselves, it 〈◊〉 more injustice to deny then grant it, i●… repugnant to wha●… he saith a little after, that if the People should be s●… unnatural as to oppose their own pr●…servation, the Kin●… might use all possible means for their safety, and muc●… more repugnant to the truth. The King i●… the Father o●… his People; he is a bad Father that if his Son ask●… him a stone in stead of bread, or a Scorpion in stea●… of a Fish, will give it him. That Heathen was muc●… wiser who prayed to jupiter to give him good thing●… though he never opened his lips for them, and to withhold such things as were bad or prejudicial, though he petitioned never so earnestly for them. Suppose the People should desire Liberty of Religio●… for all Sects; should the King grant it, who is constituted by God the Keeper of the two Tables? Suppose they should desire the free exportation of Arms, Monies, Sheep, (which they say Edward the fourth for a present private end granted to the Kings of Castille and Arragon) and that this should be assented to by the Observers advise; would not the present or succeeding Ages give him many a black blessing for his labour? 
God help the Man so wrapped in errors endless train.   
First to say that the People m●…y seek to obtain ●…heir desires of the Prince by public Authority, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too M●…gistrall or fl●…t no 〈◊〉, a p●…rase inu●… to English ears. Heary the sixth w●…s no●… Fy●…ht nor awful Sover●…igne, 〈◊〉 when th●… 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 presented a just req●…st unto 〈◊〉, ●…ey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 k●…ling upon their knee, (no si●… of Author●…y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.) Secondly the King o●…es a strict 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God of his Government, and is bou●…d by his Of●…ce to promote the good of His 〈◊〉 To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A●… 〈◊〉 may be impeditive to this end, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ●…isfaction of an humorous 〈◊〉, is no●… 〈◊〉 with this Obligation. Thirdly, His M●…jesty con●…eive the thing now desired, to be mo●…e than a ●…ple 〈◊〉 single inconvenience, that ●…selfe is deeply inte●…essed in it, and not himself only, but his 〈◊〉 and all succeeding Kings, and that it is not the desire of all His Subjects, not ye●… of the greater ●…art, much less of the sounder ●…art who 〈◊〉 it: and therefore even upon the Observers grounds, 〈◊〉 is ●…ot bound to give his assent.   

Observer.  
So much for the ends of 〈◊〉 Power, I come now to the true Nature of it, public Con●…nt etc.   

Answer.  
We had done with Consent before, but now we mee●… 
〈◊〉 ●…4.  with it again: such Windings and Mea●…ders there a●… in this Treatise. But though Consent be like the titl●… set upon the outside of an Apothecaryes' box, yet i●… we look into the subsequent Discourse, we shall find little or nothing of it. The Observer tells us a long st●…ry, that after the fall of Adam the Law written 〈◊〉 Man's breast was not sufficient to make him a sociable Creature, that without Society Men could 〈◊〉 live, and without Laws Men could not be sociabl●… that without Magistr●…tes Law was a void and va●… thing: it was therefore quickly provided that Law●… ag●…ble to the Dictates of Reason, should be rat●…fied by common consent, and that the execution a●… interpretation of those Laws should be entrusted 〈◊〉 some Magistrate. To all which I readily assen●… wit●… this animadversion, that the rule is not cat●… pantoes or universally true. A●… for the order of Law●… or Magistrate●…, it is confessed on the one side tha●… sometimes the People did choose their Magistrat●… and Law both together, and sometime the Law before the Magistrate, especially upon the extinctio●… of a Royal Family: but o●…●…he other side it canno●… be denied that many times, very many times, Magis●…es did either assume Sovereignty by just Con●…, o●… were absolu●…ely elected without any suc●… restriction. So much the Observer co●…fesseth a li●… after, that in the infancy of the World, most Nation●… did choose rather to submit themselves to the mere disdiscretion of their Lords, then rely upon any limits, and be ruled by Arbitrary Edicts, rather than written Statutes, In which case it is plain, that the Law is posteriour to the King, both in order of Nature and of Time.  
The Observer proceeds to show; That entrusted Magistrates did sometimes tyrannize over their People; that it was difficult to invent a Remedy for this mischief. First because it was held unnatural to place a Superior above a Supreme. Secondly, because the restraint of Princes from doing evil, by diminu●…ion of Sovereign Power, doth disable them also from doing good, which may be as mischievous as the other; That the World was long troubled between these extremityes; That most Nations did choose absolute Governors; That others placed Supervisors over their Princes, Ephori, Tribuni, Curatores, (which remedy the Observer confesseth to have proved worse than the disease, and that the issue of it commonly was to imbroile the State in blood;) That in all great distresses the Body of the People was constrained to rise and by the force of a Major party to put an end to all intestine Strifes; That this way was too slow to prevent sudden Mischiefs; That it produced much spoil and effusion of blood, often exchanging one Tyranny for another; That at last a way was found out to regulate the moliminous Body of the People by Parliament, where the People may assume their own power to do themselves Right, where by virtue of Election and Representation, a few act for many, the wise for the simple: That the Parliament is more regularly form now then when it was cal-called the Much Synod, or where the real Body of the People did throng together; That the Parliament yet perhaps labours with some defects that might be amended, & that there are yet some differences and difficultyes concerning it, especially the Privileges of it, which would be resolved. This is the sum of his Discourse here, and a little after in the 21. page and the three pages following, he falls into a needless commendation of the Constitution of Parliaments, of their Wisdom and Justice, how void they are of danger, how full of advantage to the King and People, how Princes may have sinister ends, but that it was never till this Parliament withstoo●… that a Community can have no private ends to mislea●… it.  
In all which there are not many things to be muc●… misliked, saving some results of his former false an●… seditious Principles; as that the People are the Primogenious Subject of Power, that the essential an●… representative Body of the Kingdom are all one●… (he might as well say that a whole County and 〈◊〉 Grand Jury are convertible terms.) To place a Superior above a Supreme is monstrous, and opens 〈◊〉 ready way to an infinite progress, which both A●… and Nature abhor. I join with him in this tha●… to limit a Prince too far is often the cause o●… much mischief to a State. But the Observer havin●… given a good meal casts it down with his Foot: fo●… after in the 40 page he tells us that the People had better want some right, then have too much wrong done them▪ It may be so, it may be otherwise: but ordinaril●… the sufferings of one year in a time of Sedition, a●… more burdensome to the Subject, than the pressures they sustain from a hard Sovereign in a whole Age. A limited Commission may now and then bring ease to a Society, but an unsufficient Protection exposeth them to an hundred hazards and blows, from Superiors, Inferiors, Equals, Foreigners, Domestics. The Observer would have such a Prerogative as hath great power of Protection and little of oppression. Can you blame him? he would have his fire able to warm him, but not accidentally to burn him. Protection is the use, oppression the abuse of power. To take away power for fear of the abuse, is with Lycurgus to cut down all the vines of Sparta, root and branch, for fear of Drunkenness. By the same reason he will leave neither a Sun in Heaven, nor any Creature of eminency on Earth. If he will have no Bees but such as have no stings, he may catch Drones, and want his honey for his labour. To limit Princes too far is as if a Man should cut his Hawks ●…ings that she might not fly away from him: so he may be sure she shall never make a good flight for ●…im. Saint Bernard tells us a Story of a King who ●…eing wounded with an arrow, the Surgeons de●…ired Liberty to bind him, because the lightest mo●…ion might procure his Death: his answer was non ●…ecet vinciri Regem, it is not meet that a King should ●…e bound, and the Father concludes 
Libera sit Regis & semper salva potestas.  In two particulars this third Cato is pleased to express himself, he would have the disposition of great offices, & power of calling and dissolving Parliaments, shared between the King and the People. Yesthe great Offices of the Kingdom and the Revenues of the Church have been the great wheels of the Clock, which have set many little wheel's 〈◊〉 going; doubt you not the Observer meant to lick 〈◊〉 own fingers. These speculations might be seasonab●…e in the first framing of a Monarchy: Now when a Power is invested in the Crown by Law and lawful●… Custom, they are saucy and seditious. Howsoever his bolt is soon shot, He that is wise in his own eyes, there is more hope of a Fool then of such a Man. Other●…●…s much wiser than he is, almost as he conceives him●…lfe to transcend them, are absolu●…ely of another mi●…; that this were to open a sluice to Faction and Sedi●…on, to roll the Apple of Conten●…ion up and down both Houses of Parliament and each County and Burrough in the Kingdom, to make labouring for places & packing for votes, & in a word to disunite and dissolve the contignation of this Kingdom; This in Policy. They say further, that in justice, If the King be bound by His Office and sworn by His Oath, to cause Law, justice, and Discretion, in mercy and truth to be executed to His People, If he be accountable to God for the Misgovernment of his great Charge, that it is all the reason in the World why he should choose his own Officers and Ministers. King's are shadowed by those brazen Pillars which Hiram made for Solomon, having Chapiters' upon their heads adorned with Chains and Pomegranates. If these Sons of Belial may strip Majesty by Degrees of its due Ornaments, first of the chains, that is the power to punish evil Doers, and then of the Pomegranates, the ability to reward good deserts, and so insensibly to rob them of the dependence of their Subjects; the next step is to strike the Chapiters' or Crowns from of their heads. But how can this be, except all Parliaments were taken as deadly Enemies to Royalty? Still when the Observer comes to a piece of hot Service, he makes sure to hold the Parliament before him, which devise hath saved him many a blow. They that are not haters of Kings may be Lovers of themselves: We are all Children of Adam and Eve: He would be a God and she a Goddess. His instance that this is no more than for the King to choose a Chancellor or a Treasurer upon the recommendation of such or such a Courtier, is ridiculous; there His Majesty is free to descent, here is a necessity imposed upon him to grant. Yet saith he, the Venetians live more happily under their conditionate Dukes, than the Turks under their absolute Emperors. The Trophies which Rome gained under conditionate Commanders, argue that there could be no defect in this popular and mixed Government. Our Neighbours in the Netherlands being to cope with the most puissant Prince in Christendom, put themselves under the conduct of a much limited General, which straightened Commissions have yielded nothing but victories to the States, and solid honour to the Prince of Orange. Were Hannibal, Scipio etc. the less honoured or beloved because they were not independent? was Caesar the private Man less successful or less beloved than Caesar the perpetual Dictator? Whatsoever is more than this, he calls the painted rays of spurious Majesty, and the filling of a fantastical humour with imaginary grandour. Whose heart doth not burn within him to hear such audacious expressions? yet still he protests for Monarchy, A fine Monarchy indeed, a great and glorius Monarchy, an Aristo-Democracy nicknamed Monarchy, a circumscribed, conditionate, dependent Monarchy, a Mock-Monarchy, a Monarchy without coercive Power, able to protect, not to punish; that is in effect neither to protect nor punish, a Monarch subordinate to a Superior and accountable to Subjects, that may deny nothing, a Monarchy in the Rights whereof another challengeth an interest Paramount. Quorsum haec? he is more blind than a Beetle that sees not whither all this tends, To advance King Charles to the high and mighty Dignity of a Duke of Venice or a Roman Consul: whilst this Gentleman might sit like one of the Tribunes of the Common People to be his Supervisor. It were to be wished that the Observer would first make trial of this model of Government in his own House for a year or two and then tell us how he likes it. That Form may fit the City of Venice that will not fit the Kingdom of England. I believe he hath not carefully read over the History of that State; Though now they enjoy their Sunshines and have their Lucida intervalla; yet heretofore they have suffered as much misery, from their own Civil and Intestine Dissensions as any People under Heaven: and so have their Neighbour States of Genoah, Florence, etc. And of Florence particularly it is remarkable, that though 
●…ngtons ●…y of ●…ny  their Prince hu●…band his Territory with as much advantage to himself and pressure to his People, as any Prince in Europe: yet they live ten times more happily now, than they did before in a Republic; when a bare legged Fellow out of the Scum of the People could raise Tumults, surprise the Senate, and domineer more than two great Dukes; so that now they are freer than when they did enjoy those painted rays of spurious Liberty. If th●… Romans had not found a defect in their popular Government, they had never fled to the choice of a Dictator or absolute Prince, as a sacred Anchor in all their greatest extremityes. And for the Netherlands; it is one thing for a free People to elect their own form of Government; another for a People obliged to shake off that Form which they have elected. It is yet but early of the day to determine precisely whether they have done well or ill. The danger of a Popular Government is Sedition; a common Enemy hath hitherto kept them at unity; and the King of Spain hath been their best Friend. Scipio's opinion that Carthage should not be destroyed was more solid and weighty than Cato's, (as experience plainly showed.) Those Foreign Wars preserved Peace at home, and were a Nursery of Soldiers to secure that State. When the United States come to have peace a while, then let them take heed of falling in pieces. The condition of the English Subject when it was at the worst under King Charles (before these unhappy broils) was much more secure and free from excises and other burdens and impositions, than our Neighbours the Netherlanders under their States. If His Majesty should use such an Arbitrary Power as they do, it would smart indeed. I wonder the Observer is not ashamed to instance in Hannibal: he knows the Factions of Hanno and Hannibal did ruin themselves and Carthage: whereas if Hannibal had been independent, Rome had run that fortune which Carthage did. How near was Scipio's Conquest of Africa to be disappointed, by the groundless suggestions of his Adversaries in the Roman Senate? When he had redeemed that City from ruin, how was he rewarded? Slighted, called to the Bar by a factious Plebeian, and in effect banished from that City whereof he had been (in a kind) a second Romulus or Founder: but if he had been independent, he had been a nobler gallanter Scipio than he was. And if Caesar's Dictatorship had not preserved him from the like snuffles, he might have tasted of the same sauce that Scipio did and many others. It is true he was butchered by some of the Observers Sect, (a Rebel is a civil Schismatic, and a Schismatic an Ecclesiastical Rebel, the one is togata, the other is armata seditio,) and some of them as notoriously obliged as Servants could be to a Master: but revenge pursued them at the heels as it did Korah and his Rebellious Crew, Zimri, Absalon, Adonijah, Achitophel, judas etc. Frost and falsehood have always a foul ending.  
Neither is it true altogether, That Parliaments are so late an invention. What was the Much Synod here but a Parliament? what were the Roman Senates and Comitia, but Parliaments? what were the Grecian Assemblies, Amphictionian, Achaean, Boetian, Pan-AEtolian, but Parliaments? what other was that then a Parliament, Moses commanded us a Law, even 
●…tr. 33. 4.  the inheritance of the Congregation of Jacob. And he was King in Jesurum, when the Heads of the People and Tribes of Israel were gathered together? Here is the King and both Houses with a legislative power. Non de possessione sed de terminis est contentio; the difference is not about the being of Parliaments, but the bounds of Parliamentary Power. As Parliaments in this latitude of signification have been both very ancient, and very common: so if he take the name strictly, according to the present constitution of our Parliament, he will not find it so very ancient here at home, nor a Policy common to us with many Nations; yea, if the parts of the comparison be precisely urged, with none, not so much as our Neighbour Nation. I pray God it be not some men's aim to reduce our settled Form to a conformity with some foreign Exemplars. But if it be understood to have such a fullness of power, as he pretends, according to his late found out art, to regulate the moliminous body of the People; it is neither ancient, nor common, nor ours. He may seek such precedents in republics, but shall never find so much as one of them in any true Monarchy under Heaven.  
I honour Parliaments as truly as the Observer, yet not so as to make the name of Parliament a Med●…saes head, to transform reasonable Men into stones. I acknowledge that a complete Parliament is that Panchreston, or Sovereign salve, for all the Sores of the Commonwealth. I do admire the presumption of this Observer, that dare find holes and defects in the very constitution of the Government by King and Parliament, (which he should rather adore at a distance,) as if he were of the posterity of jack Cade, who called himself john A●…ead all. It is l●…wfull for these Men only to cry out against innovations, whilst themselve●… labour with might and main to change and innovate the whole fram●… of Government both in Church and 〈◊〉. We read of Philip of Maced●…n, that he g●…thered all the naughty seditiou●… fellows in his King●…ome together, and put the●…●…ll into 〈◊〉 C●…y by thems●…lves, which he called 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 Che●…er. I wish King Charles would do the like (if a City would contain them,) and make the Observer the head of the Corporation, where he might mould his Governm●…nt according to hi●… pr●…vate conceit.  
And yet it cannot be denied, but the greatest and most eminent Counsels in the World, m●…y be either made or wrought by their Major Part to serve private end●…. I omit the Lay Parliament 1404, and Sir Henry Wotton's young Parliament 18. jacobi: our Historians tell us of a Mad Parliament 1258, and the Parliament of B●…tts or B●…ttownes 1426; a kind of Weapon fitter for Cav●…leers then peaceable Assemblies. The Statu●…es of Oxford were confirmed by the Parliament at We●…minster 1259, and ratified by a course against the breakers of them: shortly after the King and Prince were both taken Prisoners: yet in the Parliament following at Winchester 1255, all the said Acts were rescinded and dis●…nulled, and the King cried quittance with his Adversaries. In the reign of Edward the second after the Battle at Burton, we see how the tides of the Parliament were turned, until the coming of Q●…een Isabella and then the Floods grew higher than ever. In the days of Richard the second, how did the Parliament●… change their Sanctions? as the C●…maelion her colours, or as Platina writeth of the Popes, after Stephen had taken up the body of Formosus out of his grave, It became an usual thing for the Successors either to infringe or altogether to abrogate the Acts of their Predecessors. The Parliaments of 1386. and 1388. were contradicted and revoked by the subsequent Parliaments of 1397. and 1398, and these again condemned and disannulled by the two following Parliaments in 1399. and 1400: yea though the Lords were sworn to the inviolable observance of that of 1397, and Henry Bullenbrooke who was a great Stickler for the King in that Parliament, of 1397. against the Appealants; yet in that of 1399, was elected King by the Traitorous deposition of Richard, and the unjust preterition of the right Heirs. Parliaments are sublunary Courts, and mutable as well as all other Societyes. If we descend a little lower to the times of Henry the sixth, we shall find Richard Duke of York, declared the Lord Protector in Parliament, yet without Title to the Crown in 1455. Shortly after we find both him and his Adherents by Parliament likewise attainted of High Treason in 1459. The year following 1460, he was again by Parliament declared not only Lord Protector, but also Prince of Wales and right Heir to the Crown, and all Acts to the contrary made void, and the Lords swear to the observance thereof. It rests not here, the very next year 1461. his Son Edward the fourth not contented to be an Heir in reversion, assumes the Imperial Diadem, and in Parliament is received actual King. The end is not yet, ten years after this 1471, King Henry is admitted King by Parliament again, and King Edward attainted of High Treason, declared an Usurper, and the Crown entailed upon King Henry and his Heirs Males, and for want of such issue, to George of Clarence and his Heirs. But this lasted but a while; disinherited Edward and Clarence are reconciled, and the very next Year, Edward is Crowned again, and received King in Parliament. You see here, 
Signa pares aquilas & peila minantia peilis,   
Parliaments against Parliaments: and this in that very question which you say is properly to be judged by Parliament, who is the right King? When the election is not of a particular person and his Heirs, but of a Person and his Family, so as the People have liberty to elect whom they please of that stock, (as it was long since in Scotland, till it was rescinded by Act of Parliament to take away those storms of discord and Faction which it raised,) The Parliament was the most proper Judge who should succeed: but where the Crown is hereditary, there needs little question of the right Heir, which for the most part every Country Man knows as well as the great Council of the Kingdom. How easily were Queens raised and deposed in Henry the eights time by Authority of Parliament? Add to this with what facility Religion was reform in part by Henry the eight, more by Edward the sixth, altered by Queen Mary, & restored again by Queen Elizabeth, & all this by Authority of Parliament within the compass of a few years; and it will evidently appear out of all that hath been said, that Parliaments are not excepted from the defects of all humane Societyes, Nescience, Ignorance, Fear, Hope, Favour, Envy, Self-love, and the like, That they may err both in matters of Fact, and in point of Right, That it is the incommunicable property of God alone, to be the same Yesterday, to Day, and for Ever, That though we owe a tender respect to Parliaments, yet we may not follow their directions as infallible, nor resolve our reason into their mere Authority, as if their sole advice or command were a sufficient ground for our actions, which is the main scope which this jehu our Observer doth so furiously drive at in all his writings, That no evil is to be presumed of the representative Body of the Kingdom. And so far he is right; it ought not indeed to be presumed without proof. But he goes further that it may not be supposed or admitted, It is of dangerous consequence to suppose that Parliaments will do any injustice, it looseth one of the firmest sinews 
first ob. p●… 7.  of Law to admit it.  
But such Communities can have no private ends. What had the Shechemites by the suggestion of a worthy Member of their City? Or the Brethren of joseph? 
Gen. 34 Gen. 37.  If any Man boggle at it, may he not be overvoted or overawed, as Reuben was? What ends had the Romans when they made that arbitrament, quoth in medio est, populo Romano adjudicetur? What had the whole City of Ephes●…, being persuaded by Demetrius and his Craftsmen, that there was a strange plot against Diana? The High Priests, and Scribes, and Elders, and if you add to these, Pilate, judas, the Soldiers and the Devil, all had their private ends. The High Priests and Elders to satisfy their envy, Pilate to keep his place, judas to get the thirty piece●…, the Soldiers for Christ's Garments: yet all these concurred in a general design to take away C●…rist. Which shows us thus much, That a Community may have private ends, yea, and contrary ends, all te●…ding to mischief, though upon contrary grounds: and yet all agree well enough so long as they keep themselves in a negative or destructive way. I intent these instances no further then to show the weakness of the Observers grounds; Parliaments are more venerable: yet till this corruptible have put on incorruption, private ends will seek to crowd into the best Societyes. When a Bill was tendered to Richard the second to take away the temporalties of the Clergy, there was old sharing: And Thomas Walsingham saith, he himself did hear one of the Knights swear deeply, that he would have a thousand marks by year, out of the Abbey of Saint Albon. The very like Bill was put up to King Henry the fowerth, with this motive or addition, That those temporal Possessions would suffice to find an hundred and fifty Earls, fifteen hundred Knights, six thousand and two hundred Esquires, and an hundred Hospitals more than there was in the Kingdom, (it had been a great oversight if they had not stuck down a few feathers.) Do you not see private ends in those days? but even then they found themselves mistaken in their accounts. And now when the Lord Verulam and sundry others of our most eminent Countrymen have acknowledged (I have heard the very same fro●… Sir Ed●… Sands) that all the Parliament●… since the 27. and 31. of King Henry the eight, seem in some sort 
Considerations dedicated to Kin●… James  ●…o stand obnoxious and obliged to God in Conscie●… to 〈◊〉 somewhat for the Church, to reduce the Patrimony thereof to a competency. Now I say when the Temporaltyes of the Clergy are so inconsiderable in comparison of the Honour of the Nation and the Order of the Church, and so unable to satisfy the appetite and expectation of 〈◊〉; in so much as I dare speak it confidently, that all the Temporaltyes of the Arch-Bishops, Bishops, Deans, Arch-Deacons, Deans and Chap●…ers, Preben●…, Petty Canons, Vicar's Choral, (which are recited in folio to make a show,) and of all the Ecclesiastical Dignita●…yes and Corporation●… whatsoever, let them take Masters of Hospitals in to boo●…, (except the two Universityes and 〈◊〉 of Benefices with cure,) do not all amount in penny rend to the Revenues of some two Earls: Such a proposition seems now to be much more unseasonable than it was then, yet even then the Bill was commanded by the King to be canceled. I confess the true and uttermost value, may be double or triple to this, but what is redundant above the rent is in the hands of the Gentry and Commons, who will think much to lose either their Interest or Tenent-right. I confess likewise that besides their Temporaltyes, they have Spiritualtyes consisting of Tithes and Oblations: but to think of taking these away also, will highly displease their Leaders of the old Edition. Hear the humble 〈◊〉, It is the duty of the Commonwealth to convert those things which by their foundation were meant to the service of God to that very use, that Reformation be not rather thought a bait to feed our bellies, then to proceed of godly zeal. He calls it a plain mockery of God, a scorn of Godliness, the most Devilish Policy in the World, that upon pretence to further Gods Service, Men should rob and ransack the Church. To the same purpose Mr. Cartwright, This is our meaning, not that these goods should be turned from the Possession of the Church, to the filling of the bottomless sacks of their greedy appetites, who gape after this prey, and would thereby to their perpetall shame purchase to themselves a field of blood. After he calls them Cormorants and protests against it as plain Sacrilege. A supply from hence, As it is Sacrilegious in the opinion of their greatest Reformers: so it would be inconsiderable either to enrich the Crown, or to disengage the Kingdom, or to satisfy the appetites or private ends of necessitous Persons.   

Observer.  
Having now premised these things, I come to the main difficulties lying at this time in dispute before us, etc.   

Answer.  
We have now done with all the Observers grounds; The remainder of his Treatise is either a repetition 
〈◊〉. 25.  of the same matter in a new and divers dress; as the Host of Chalcis served Titus Flaminius, when he gave him several services of a tame Hog, and yet by Cookery made him believe he fed upon choice variety of Venison; Fair fall a good Cook: or else it is but superstructions builded upon the former Grounds, which (the foundations being substracted) remain as Castles in the air, ready to fall of themselves without any further battery: or else it is matter of fact, which howsoever it be disguised by fictions in this feculent Age, when the Father of lies is let loose; yet it is well enough known to the greater and better part of the Kingdom. Such is the question of the Militia, so often iterated by the Observer, both in point of right and in point of fact: such is the case of the impeached Members: and that of the Tumults and Commotions at London and Westminster: and that of those infamous Libels and invectives against his Majesty's Government, both out of the Pulpit and Press, if not with encouragement yet without any restraint; and some of them not only against his Government, but against Monarchical Government in general, as this very Treatise of the Observers. Concerning the first, His Majesty hath set forth an express Declaration of the first of july, yet unanswered: to say more in this were to bring Owls to Athens. Concerning the latter, His Majesty passing by ordinary and misled Persons, chargeth the Heads and Contrivers of these Distractions and Libellous Invectives, in his Declations of the 12 of August etc. so as it seems needless to take any further notice of them. Such others are that of the Scotch Army, and the surprising of Newcastle, and the Earl of strafford's case: whereas the Observer knows well enough that for the two former there is an Act of Oblivion, and for the latter a proviso that it shall not be drawn into precedent, which in effect is as much. He cannot choose but know, that otherwise something might be said in these cases which perhaps would trouble him to untwist: To insult over one that hath his hands tied, or to brave one who i●… bound to the peace, argues a degenerous Adversary. Therefore to omit these and the like, and to insist upon such only as afford us either new matter, or have more weig●…t of Reason added to them.  
Whereof the principal without comparison is the 
Hull and john ●…ham.  business o●… Hull or S●…r john Hotham, which runs so much in the Observ●…s mind, that he falls upon it nine or ten times in thi●… little Treatise, and after he professeth to have done with it pag. 30; yet he relapseth into it again thri●… in the 33. 35. and 43. pages. I shall not omit any thing that hath the least, scruple of weight or moment to advantage Sir john Hothams' cause.  
First it is confessed b●… the Observer, That to possess a Town and shut the g●…es against the King is Treason. A liberal concessio●…●…e had an hard forehead that should deny it. To d●…in one of the King's ships or Castles only, with●…t danger to His Person, is Treason: what is it then, ●…rst to in●…rude forcibly, and then to detain injuriousl●… not a Pinnace or little Tower, but one of the pri●… Ports and Strengths of the Kingdom, and in it t●… Kings whole Magazine or provision of War, a●… to raise His Majesty's own Subjects to keep it with Muske●…s bend against His Royal Breast? They ha●… need to be very saving Circumstances that can alte●… the nature of such an act, or have virtue to transubstantiate Catiline into Camillus, and change Treason into Loyalty. Who made the Observer a Distinguisher where the Law doth not distinguish? But let us view his Reasons without prejudice.  
Three things are alleged, first the circumstances of the action, Secondly, the intention of the Actors, Thirdly the Authority of the Commanders. For the first he saith, The King was merely denied entrance for the time, his general Right was not denied. I do easily believe, that Sir john meant not to hold Hull for ever: If he did, he is not such a Child to say so. When the Lord Grace and his Complices had plotted to surprise the Tower or Dover Castle, and to possess themselves of the Persons of King james & his Council, it was not their design to hold those Forts, or detain them Prisoners for ever: but until they had gained their own conditions, which were the alteration of Religion, and the distribution of the great Offices of the Kingdom among themselves; yet it was never the less adjudged Treason, and they condemned for it.  
He adds, No defying language was given to the King. No more did judas give the King of Kings when he cried, Hail Master & kissed him. The Prophet complaineth, of some that the words of their mouth●… were softer than butter, but War was in their hearts. It was as true as tarta censure, which johannes Capocius a noble Roman, gave of Innocent the third, who did privately blow the coals betwixt Otho and Frederick, O Holy Father, your words are the words of God (peaceable & pious) bu●… your deeds are the deeds of the Devil.  
He proceeds, No act of violence was used, though the King for divers hours together did stand within musket shot, and did use t●…rms of defiance, and this makes the act merely defensive o●… rather passive. Passive! how can that be? notwithstanding the intrusion of Sir john, the King is still the Possessor, and the detaining is forcible in the eye of the Law. This very plea argues a rotten and a traitorous heart: To kill an innocent and an anointed King in the sight of the Sun, requires an height of impiety, a longer preparation of Partners, and instruments fleshed in Blood and Mischief. He that should have commanded such a shot, had need to have given his charge in ambiguous terms, as Edvardum occidere nolite timere bonum est, or otherwise might have been thrown over the walls for his Labour. If such a shot had failed, it had been destructive to the Actor and all his Partakers: if it had taken it would have made them stink in the 〈◊〉 of all good Men; but for my part I do not believe there was any such intention. Howsoever we have been told that in the place of the Baron's Wars, we should expect the Commons Wars: yet generally the English Nation delights not so much in Democracy as the Observer doth; and a more gracions King they could not have, whose death would have dissolved many men's hopes. Howsoever as King Alphons●…s answered his Physician, when he persuaded him not to handle the works of Livy (which were sent unto him by a great Florentine) for fear of poison, The 
●…s Syl●…  Lives and Souls of Kings are secure under the providence and protection of God: or as a Traitor answered the King of the Danes, That he wanted neither 
Saxo.  mind nor sufficient means to have effected his intentions, but the assistence and concurrence of God was always wanting. Which was verified in a conspiracy against King James, when the Murderer smitten into an amazement by God's just judgement, could neither stir hand nor foot.  
It follows, How should this administer to the King any grounds to levy guards at York? etc. Did the King without fear treat with Sir john Hotham as a Traitor in the face of his Artillery, and offer to enter Hull with twenty horse unarmed, and continue such a harsh Parley so many hours; and yet when he was in York, in a County of so great assurance, could nothing but so many Bands of Horse and Foot secure him from the same Sir john Hotham? I wonder the Observer doth not blush to be His Majesty's Remembrancer how much he descended from his Royal State that day, in his attendence so many hours, and his courteous proffers. Is it because he thinks good Subjects take delight to hear of such an audacious affront put upon their Sovereign? Or of that base scandalous picture so much gazed at in Foreign parts, of Sir john Hotham standing aloft armed Cap a●…pe, encircled with Gallants and great Ordinance, like another Achilles, 
Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer;   
Whilst His Sacred Majesty was pictured below like a Chancery Petitioner with his hat in his hand, pitifully complaining and suing to Sir john for admission? But the King called Sir john Traitor, and gave him harsh language. Did he so? you may remember what Philip answered for the Macedonians, when some of his own wicked instruments complained they called them Traitors; that his Countrymen were plain dealing men to call things by their right names, and could not for their lives think one thing and say another. If Philip a Prince benefited by those Creatures, pleaded so for his Subjects; why might not King Charles who was injuried, and a loser, have leave to speak for himself to his own Subjects? But if the King were so confident there, why did he raise Forces at York, a place of more assurance? First show us your Commission to take his Majesty's answer, or at least tell us why Sir john began to raise Forces first? His Majesty is authorized by God and the Law to raise Forces, and owes no account to the Observer. And to His Majesty's confidence then, and diffidence after, I can say nothing positively: if it were in another case, there might be sundry reasons given. Perhaps the second cogitations are the sounder; or Men may hope for better measure than they find; or the latter day is a Scholar to the former; or a Man may desire to surprise him and cannot, whom he hath no desire to kill if he could; or Mischief grows not to maturity in an instant, but by Degrees.  
But, The King might have prevented this repulse, by sending a Messenger before hand, or by coming without such considerable Forces in so unexpected a manner. How considerable His Majesty's Forces were, and what was His manner of coming to Hull, Him●…elfe hath published in a true satisfactory. Declara●…ion long since: if it had been otherwise, how could ●…is Majesty imagine or expect such a repulse against ●…ll Laws, beyond all precedents. An impartial man ●…ould rather think that Sir john Hotham should ●…ave taken it to heart, that His Majesty should so ●…arre suspect his Loyalty as to send such a Message ●…efore him. This is certain, if there were an omis●…ion in point of discretion or good manners, it was ●…n Sir john Hothams' part, who was privy to his own ●…esolutions: and though he h●…d forgotten his Allegiance, yet in point of Courtesy, he ought to have given His Majesty a fair advertisement. It is very hard the Observer should go about to reduce his King to the condition of an ordinary Passenger, that must send his Harbinger before to try whether he may have entertainment at his Inn or nor.  
Nondum finitus Orestes, His circumstances are not yet done; He adds, the things remaining at Hull in the King's trust for the use of the Kingdom were Arms, & by consequence of more danger than other kind of Chattels. If I intrust my cloak to another's custody, I may not take it again by force, but if it be my sword, and there is strong presumption that it may be drawn upon me, I may use any means to secure it. I wish all the Observers Faction had been of his opinion in one point; His Majesty and many of His good Subjects have been plundered deeply, and have had both their Cloaks and their Coats &c. taken away by force, wherein they challenged a right of interest, which is more than trust. Still the Observer builds upon his former extravigants: His Majesty is not Rex ad placitum one that hath merely the custody of Regal power, as the Lord Keeper hath of the great Seal, or as the Observer may give his Cloak to his Neighbour to hold: but he is the very owner and Possessor of Sovereignty to him and to his Heirs; and this not by the antecedent trust, nor by the gift of the People, but by the goodness of God. It would be known what presumptions the Observer had that the sword should be drawn upon him; except he that hath given his Superior a box on the ear may lawfully disarm him when he hath done, for fear least being provoked he should strike again. The Observer intimates no less, Whether is more probable at this time, 
●…ag 43.  that the King is incensed against the Parliament or the Parliament against the King? That very Argument which he useth here is sufficient to convince himself. What is the thing detained? The Magazine. To whom doth the right of Armour belong? To the King alone and not to the Parliament; witness a Parliament itself 7. Edvardi primi: much less to the Observer or Sir john Hoth●…m. Uzza was smitten 
Sam. 16.  dead for presuming but to take hold of the Ark of God: God will rather have the Ark of the Church or Commonwealth to shake and totter under his own immediate protection, then to have such men presume to lay hold on it, who have no calling from him.  
There is only one saving circumstance left behind, Hear it, The King's interest in Hull is not such an in terest as in other movables, neither is the Kings inte●…est taken away, the same things are reserved for him in better hands: and if it were the same, yet the State hath an interest Paramount in cases of public extremity. The State hath an interest Paramount; what State? have we any State in England without the King? the Observer is still in his old dreams. Well, what is the interest of this imaginary State? an imaginary interest. An interest Paramount in cases of extremity. What a mixture of pleas is here? extremity is the plea of private Persons. In case of extremity where a Man can not have recourse to the Magistrate, every Man becomes a Magistrate to himself: an Interest Paramount is the right of Superior Lords. But first, here was no such extremity, if there had, still his plea is stark naught: necessity doth arm a private Man against a Thief, but not authorise a private Man to disarm a lawful Magistrate. His other plea of an interest Paramount is well worse; If the People (to comply with his own sense,) have an interest Paramount in whatsoever the King holds either jure Coronae, or jure Personae, than they are the Sovereign, and he but a Subject. But it was reserved for him in better hands. Reserved for the King? how do you mean? as Tophet is said to be prepared for the King; that is to shoot at the King at Edgehill or elsewhere: otherwise I do not see how it was reserved for the King. This plea or the like, might serve a highway Robber or any Oppressor, to say it is taken into more needful hands, or into their hands that knew better how to use it; or that it was but borrowed, and should be repaid (at the Greek Calends.) None so fit to judge in what hands a thing should be kept as the true owner of it. But the Kings right is not the same in Hull that it is in other moveables. True he hath not the same right of property or possession to sell it, or give it, but he hath a right of Dominion, and Sovereignty, & protection, which is altogether inconsistent with his exclusion or shutting out of Hull. If he be held out of it by force, he is a King de jure, but not the facto, even as he is King of France, or at least of Normandy Aquitaine etc. or as the King of the Romans is King of Rome. The King hath another interest in Hull beside that of Dominion: other Towns are indebted to the King for their Protection, but this Town for its very Foundation. The Crown purchased it when it was capable of nothing but herds of cattle and flocks 
Camden.  of sheep, The Crown builded it, the Crown endowed it with Privileges & Possessions, made it a distinct County and able to support such a Dignity, the Crown fortified it and made it so strong as it is: and was all this done with an intent to be thrust out of it? O that Edward the third who builded it, or Henry the eight who fortified it with Blockhouses, were but in it for a day or two, with a Regiment of their old Cavaliers to try who should be King of Hull and Humber. The proper name of it is not Hull, but Kingston upon Hull. The Observer doth well to decline the right name, for according to his notions, it may be called Kingston per Antiphrasin, because it is none of the King's Town.  
If the circumstances will not justify the action, the Observer flies to the Common Sanctuary of Transgressors; a good intention: so he goes on, The next thing considerable is the Parliaments intention. If the Parliament have hereupon turned any of the Town's Men out of their estates, or claimed any interest in it themselves, or have 〈◊〉 the King, utterly denying his right for the future, or have made any other use of their possession, but merely to prevent Civil War, and to disfurnish the King's Soldiers of Arms and Ammunition, Let the State be branded with Treason: but if none of these things be by any credit, though their Enemies should be judges, the essential property of Treason must needs here be absent in this Act. There needs no Enemies to be made Judges; if it were before a Court of Areopagites, this plea would be laughed at or hissed out of Court. How shall we judge of men's intentions best, by their words or by their actions? Who 
Tully.  ever Proclaimed in the Streets that he had rotten Wares to sell? Who ever confessed that his meaning was naught? men's intentions may be pleaded at the Bar of Conscience before God for mitigation, not at the Bar of Justice before Man for Justification. Nei●…s it likely that Sir john and his Partners had all the same Intentions; their Actions speak their Intentions sufficiently. And admitting their Intentions were good, yet that cannot justify an unlawful Action; They 
john 16. 2.  shall put you out of the Synagogues, yea, whosoever killeth you, will think he doth God service: Those Persecuters had good Intentions, but their Actions were stark naught. You sa●…, they claimed no Interest, yet yourself claim an Interest Paramount for them. You say they disseised not the King, because they denied not His Right for the future; as if there might no●… be a disseisure without such a denial. You say they made no other use of the possession: The Inhabitants say, they m●…de o●…her use of their Houses and dwelled in them; They made other use of their Victuals and paid not for them: The Merchants say, they made other uses of their Wines, Spices, and Wares, and sold them, and took Money for them: The Countrymen say they made other use of themselves, and their Servants, and their Goods, and disposed them as freely as if they had been their own: The whole Country complains, That Hull hath been used as a Nest and Refuge for seditious Persons, A Seminary of War, to the great damage of the Subject thereabouts, besides all the blood that hath been spilt upon that occasion; Whom shall a Man trust, the Townsmen, or the Observer? But you say, They turned none of the Townsmen out of their Estates; Perhaps not so soon as you Writ; Either there are Liars, or some men's eyes were more upon Yorkminster and Cawood-Castle, then upon Hull or any Houses in Hull: But since, that Faction hath turned out whomsoever they either disliked or suspected, and have seized men's Estates at their pleasure, and sent out their Emissary Legions roaming and Plundering about the Country, as if Satan were sent out from the face of the Lord, to scourge the World; Trojan or Tyrian, Papist or Protestant, all was fish that came to their Nets. And if there can be no forgiveness of sin without restitution, some of them have a great account to make either in this World, or in the World to come. He tells us, this was the only means to prevent Civil War, and to disfurnish the King's seducers of Arms and Ammunition: But the truth is, this hath been the only Source and Fountain from whence all our Civil Wars have sprung. Whether the King or Kingdom have been seduced, and by whom, the God of Heaven will discover? I would every Englishman had it engraven in his forehead, how he stands affected to the Commonwealth. We Beetles did see no signs of civil War, but all of Peace and Tranquillity: but the Observer and his Confederates being privy to their own plots, to introduce by the sword a new form of Government both into State and Church, might easily foresee, that they should stand in need of all the strength, both in Hull and Hell and Hallifax to second them: whereof yet all true Englishmen do acquit the Parliament in their hearts desires; though the Observer be still at his old ward, shuffling Sir john Hotham out, and the Parliament in, so changing the state of the question. But what weight that consideration hath, follows in his next and last Allegation.  
Sir John Hotham is to be looked on as the Actor, the Parliament as the Author, in holding Hull. And therefore it is much wondered at, that the King seems more violent against the Actor, than the Author, but through the Actor, the Author must needs be pierced, etc. And if the Parliament be not virtually the whole Kingdom itself, If it be not the Supreme judicature as well in matters of State, is matters of Law: If it be not the great Council of the Kingdom as well as of the King, to whom it belongeth by the consent of all Nations to provide in extraordinary cases, Ne quid detrimenti capiat Respublica; Let the brand of Treason stick upon it: Nay if the Parliament would have used this forcible means, unless petitioning would not have prevailed, or if the grounds of their jealousy were merely vain, or if the jealousy of a whole Kingdom can be counted vain; Let the reward of Treason be their guierdon. Hitherto the Observer like the wily Fox, hath used all his sleights to frustrate the pursuit of the Hounds: but seeing all his fetches prove in vain, he now begins to act the Cat, and flies to his one great help, to leap up into a Tree, that is, the Authority of Parliament, ut lapsu graviore ruat, that he may catch a greater fall. By the way the Observer forgets how the King is pierced through the sides of Malignant Counsellors.  
Three things are principally here consider●…ble. First whether Sir john Hotham had any such Command or Commission from the Parliament. Secondly, if he had, whether he ought to have produced it? Thirdly, supposing he both had it, and produced it, whether it be valid against His Majesty, or whether an illegal Command do justify a Rebellious Act.  
To the first of these. I take it for granted, That a Commission, or an Ordinance for Sir john to be a mere Governor of Hull, doth not extend to the Exclusion of His Majesty ou●… of Hull, nor Warrant Sir John to shut the Gares against His Sovereign; if it did, every Governor might do the same, and subordinate Command might trample upon Supreme. Neither can a posteriour approbation warrant a precedent excess; for this is not to authorize, but to pardon, the sole power whereof is acknowledged to be in His Majesty, without any sharers. To the first question therefore, the answer is, Sir John Hotham had no such Warrant or Commission from the Parliament: He himself confessed, That he had no positive or particular Order. How should he know of His Majesty's coming by instinct, or a Prophetical Spirit? A negative can not, ought not to be proved; the proof rests whollyon Sir John's side, and can be no other than by producing the Ordinance itself, or his instrument whereby he can receive the sense of the House from Westminster to Hull in an instant: If he have not a precedent Ordinance to show, it is in vain to pretend the Authority of Parliament.  
To the second question. Admitting, but not granting, that he had such an Ordinance, whether could it be available to him, being not produced, when it was called for and demanded so often by His Majesty? De non apparentibus, & non existentibus eadem est ratio, Whether there was no such Ordinance, or no such Ordinance did appear, is all one both in Law and reason; He that can read and will not make use of his Clergy suffers justly: He that hath a Warrant and will not produce it, may cry, Nemo laeditur nisi a seipso, No Man is hurt but by himself. A known Officer so long as he keeps himself within the sphere of his own activity, is a Warrant of himself: But he that it employed extraordinarily, or transcends the bounds of Common Power, must produce his Authority, or take what falls. Sir John hath not yet gained so much credit, that his ipse dixit, his word should be a sufficient proof, or his Testimony in his own case taken for an Oracle.  
Thirdly, admitting that Sir John had such an Ordinance, and likewise that he did produce it, (for if we admit neither, he can prove neither,) yet the question is how valid this Ordinance may be as to this act. I doubt not at all of the Power of Parliament, that is, a complete Parliament, where the King and both Houses do concur: but an ordinance without the King, against the King, altars the case; this may have the Authority of both Houses perhaps, but not of a complete Parliament. Secondly the Power of both Houses is great, especially of the Lords as they are the King's Great Council, and in that relation are the Supreme Judicature of the Kingdom: but before the Observer said it, I never thought the Commons did challenge any share of this Judicature, except over their own Members, or preparatory to the Lords: or that they had power to administer an Oath, which the Apostle saith is the end of all strife; who 
●…eb. 6. 19  ever knew any Judicature without power to give an Oath? This makes the Observers new devise, of the people meeting in their underived Majesty to do justice, a transparent fiction. It is not the Commons, but the Lords or the King's Council that challenge Supreme Judicature. But take both Houses with that latitude of Power, which they have either jointly or severally, yet His Majesty saith they have no power over the Militia of the Kingdom, or over his Forts or Magazines: he avoucheth for it the Common Law, Statute Law, Presidents, Prescriptions; we have not yet heard them answered, nor so much as one instance, since the beginning of this Monarchy given for a precedent of such an Ordinance, or of any new Ordinance binding to the Kingdom, without his Majesty's concurrence, in Person or by Commission. If the Observer have any Law, or Precedent, or Case, he may do well to produce it: if he have none, he may sit down & hold his peace; his remote inconsequent consequences drawn from the Law of Nature are neither true nor pertinent. Yet I never heard that Sir john did allege any authority from the House of the Lords; but from the House of Commons only. This brings the Parliament still into a straighter room; as if it were totum homogeneum, every part to bear the same name with the whole: so he may give the Authority of Parliament to a particular Committee, or perhaps to a particular Member. He saith it is virtually the Kingdom. Not so, it is virtually the Commons of the Kingdom: not to all intents neither, but to some purposes. He adds, that it is the great Council of the Kingdom, to which it belongs to provide that the Commonwealth receive no prejudice. It is a part of the Great Council, and should provide for its safety, as the grand inquest doth for the whole County; by finding out the dangers and grievances, and proposing remedies: but to prattle of a Majesty or plenitude of Sovereign Power, derived now at this time of the day from the People, is to draw water out of a Pumice, or to be mad with reason.  
I have now answered all that the Observer hath brought throughout his Book, either concerning Hull or Sir John Hotham. Now will he hear with patience what Hull Men say? They say that Sir John hath been a prime occasion of these Distempers, as the most severe and zealous Collector of 
1634. and 1635.  Shipmoney that ever was, in his She●…ivealty, a precedent to the rest of the Kingdom, not only an Executor of the commands of others, but also a Plotter and Contriver of this business: That he hath had, not 〈◊〉 Months mind, but sixteen years' mind to the Government of Hull, (ever since the Wars with Spain) upon all occasions, and as an introduction to his designs hath gotten the Train bands of Hull added to his Regiment: That his Friends have been the Raiser's and Fomenters' of these Fears and Jealousies, of the surprising of Hull, sometimes by the Lord of Dunbarres Men that were trained under ground, (surely they were not men, but Serpent's Teeth that should be turned into armed Men,) sometimes by Mr. Terret a Lincolnshire Gentleman and his Troops of Horse; a fine devise indeed to have surprised Hull on a sudden, with horse, and with horse from Lincolnshire, who knows how they should have got over Humber, unless they were winged? They say that before ever the K●…ngdome took any notice of a breach between the King and the Parliament, Master Hotham openly divided them at Hull, They that are for the King stand there, and they that are for the Parliament stand here; did he know nothing then? judge you. They tell who it was that threw away His Majesty's Letter in scorn, and told the Major of Hull it was worth nothing: who it was that commanded the Burgesses upon pain of Death to keep in their Houses, and not to appear when His Majesty repaired to Hull: who it was that caused the bonfires to be put out upon the day of His Majesty's inauguration upon pretended fear of the Magazine; whereas at the same time his Soldiers had a great fire under the very Walls of it: who it was that desired of the Town's Men of Hull a certificate to the Parliament, that His Majesty came against Hull in an Host●…le manner, with greater numbers than he had; which was refused by the greater and sounder part, as good reason they had, both because it was untrue, and also because during all the same time they were confined to their Houses upon pain of Death: who it was that administered an Oath or Protestation to the Town's Men of Hull, so directly opposite both to their Oath of Allegiance, and to the Oath which they take when they are admitted Burgesses or Freemen of that Corporation. They say Mr. hotham's Mot●…o of his Cornet is, For the public liberty but that it was not for the public Liberty either for him to promise the Town's men that none should be troubled with billeting Soldiers against their wills, and so soon as he was gotten into Hull to fill their houses with Billiters, and tell them it was Policy of State to promise fair till they were in possession; or for his Father to hold a Pistol to the breast of the King's Lieutenant, to beat and imprison their Persons, to banish them from their habitations, to drown their Corn and Meadow, to burn their Houses, to rob them of their goods, and allow the owner but ten pounds out of a thousand, for the maintenance of himself, his wife, and Children; to suffer his Officers to charge an honest Woman with felony, for coming into her own house, because her Husband was a Delinquent, and Sir john had disposed his goods. If you desire to know where was the first forcing of billets? it was at Hull: where was the first plundering of goods? at Hull: the first drowning of Grounds? at 
a July 5.  Hull: where was the first burning of Houses? at 
b July 9  Myton near Hull: where was the first shedding of blood? at 
c July 27.  Anlaby near Hull; and to aggravate the matter in a time of Treaty and expectation of Peace. They say the first men banished from their Habitations, were Mr. Thornton, Mr. Cartwright, Mr. Perkins, Mr. Faireburne, Mr. Kerny, Mr. Topham, M●…. Watson, Mr. Dobson of Hull. They say the first Impositionof four pound a Tun upon some kind of Commodities was at Hull: and wish that the Father had been translated into Lincolnshire with the Son, that Yorkshire might have sung, Laetentur Caeli etc.  
You have seen what they say, whereof I am bu●… the Relater, if it seem too sharp●…, blame the Pellica●… and not me. Now I must crave a word with the Town. Besides the oath of Allegiance which every good Subject hath taken or ought to take, every Burgess of that Town takes another Oath at his admission, to keep that Town and the Blockhouses to the use of the King and his Heirs, (not of the King and Parliament.) I cannot now procure the Copy to a word: but I shall set down the like Oath for York; and of the two, the oath of Hull is stricter. I desire the Londoners and all the strong Towns in the Kingdom, who I conceive have taken the same form of Oath, to take it into serious consideration for their Souls health. 
This hear ye my Lord Major, Mr. Chamberlen●…, and good Men that I from hence forth shall be trusty and true to Our Sovereign Lord the King and to this City. And this same City I shall save and maintain to our said Sovereign Lord the King His Heirs and Successors etc. So help me God.   
The Oath begins as solemnly as that of the Roman Faeciall, Hear O jupiter, and thou Iu●…, Quirinus thou etc. And being affirmative, though it bind not a Townsman ad semper, to be always upon the Walls in Arms; yet it binds him semper, to be ready upon all necessities, it binds him never to do any thing that may be contrary to his Oath. And was not that Protestation contrary, which was by Sir john Hotham imposed upon the Inhabitants of Hull and by them taken? 
Forasmuch as the King being seduced by wicked and evil Counsel, intends to make War against this Town of Hull, who have done nothing but by Order of Parliament: We therefore whose names are here under written, do protest before Almighty God and all good Christians, to be ready with all chieerfulness and willingness to our powers with our Lives and Estates, to defend the same against all opposition whatsoever.   
Observe first what Gudgeons he makes them swallow. How do they know that the King is seduced? Sir john tells them so: Or that His Majesty intended to make War against Hull, unless because their Consciences told them they had given him just grounds to do so? It was Sir John Hotham, not the Town of Hull, which was accused by His Majesty. Observe how he makes his act, the act of the whole Town, who have done nothing: and yet they poor men were mewed up in their Houses whilst it was a doing. Lastly how they affirm that he hath done nothing but by order of Parliament: yet it is certain many who were require to protest, and were banished for not pro●…esting, I believe not one of them all did ever yet see this Order: (how could they see that which never was?) for these men to know that he had an Order, to know that he did not exceed his Order, is miraculous. Upon these feigned grounds they build their solemn Protestation; what to do? To defend Hull against all opposition whatsoever, His Majesty is not excepted: and the first words, For as much as th●… King being seduced etc. shows that His Majesty is principally intended. To save and defend the Town to Our Sovereign Lord the King and His Heirs; So saith the Oath: To defend it against all opposition whatsoever, yea of the King seduced; so saith the Protestation. Now if these two be not repugnant directly one to another, if every man that hath taken this Protestation, be not directly perjured; Reddat mihi minam Diogenes, Let him that taught me Logic give my money again. What is this but to entangle and engage God in Rebellion, and to put his broad Seal to Letters counterfeited by themselves? They suffered much who were banished for not protesting: but they more who stayed at home with such hazard of their Souls. Some men may be so silly as to ask whether of these two engagements, the Oath or the Protestation ought to be kept? The case is clear the former Obligation doth always prejudge the latter: the latter Will is best, but the first Oath: The Protestation is plain perjury, and to persevere in it, is to double the sin: Dura promissio, aecerbior solutio, to make the Protestation was ill, to keep it 
●…nbr.  is worse; David protested as much against Naball, yet upon better consideration, ensem in vagina●… revocavit, he retracted it.  
Secondly, an Oath made by one that is not sui juris, who hath not power over himself, in that which he swears, is void even when it is made: As for a Child or a Wife to swear against their Filial or Conjugal Duty, or for a Subject to swea●… against his Allegiance, (and such an one was that Protestation,) this is sufficient to make it void. To which much more might be added, as that the former Oaths were grounded both upon a natural and a civil Obligation, were freely assumed, but this Protestation was merely forced: the former were taken before a lawful Magistrate, the latter before an Intruder, who had no power to administer such a Protestation. But I have dwelled long enough on this point: I wish our great Cities who have taken the like Oath may lay it to heart.  
In the close of this point, the Observer tells us, that if Faux had fallen by a private man's sword in the very instant when he would have given fire to his train, that act had not been punishable. What then? will he compare the Sovereign Magistrate to a Powder Traitor; or his undermining the Parliament House with the Kings repairing to his own Town; or his blowing up His Majesty and the Peers, with the Kings requiring his own goods. This is false and painted fire, the train was laid the other way, 
Quicquid ostendat mihi sic, incredulus odi.   
The next considerable Observation is concerning 
Irish Rebellion  Ireland: A Tragical Subject which may justly challenge our tears and prayers. The Observer falls upon this in the 17. 29. and 36. pages of this Treatise, and likewise in his Observator defended, and other Discourses lately published, either without a name or under another name. The condition of Ireland is so much the more to be deplored, by how much the less it could then be expected: when Religion began to show its beams over the face of that Kingdom, yea without any pressure to the Conscience of any man, except such as were introducers of innovations into the public service of the Church; when the Law had obtained a free current throughout the whole Island; when the scale of equity gave the same weight to Gold and Lead, and the equal administration of Justice to Rich and Poor, did secure the inferior Subjects from oppression; when there was a daily growth of all Arts and Trades and Civility; when that which was formerly so great a burden to this Crown in the ordinary accounts every year, was now become able not only to defray its own charge, but also make a large supply to His Majesty's Revenue; when all the orders of that Kingdom had so lately given an unanimous expression of their Zeal and Devotion to His Majesty's Service: That on a sudden the Sky should be so totally overcast, with a pitchy cloud of Rebellion, That all our fairest hopes should be so unexpectedly nipped in the bud; deserves a little inquisition into the true reason of it.  
Some who have long since learned, that a dead man cannot bite, are bold to cast it on the Earl of strafford's score; how justly let these two considerations witness. First that the prime Actors in this War, were as great opposers and Prosecutors of the Earl: Members of the same Faction may feign quarrels among themselves in public, only to gain upon a credulous party, and to enable themselves to do more mischief, but this never proceeds so far as blood. Secondly, look who they are in Ireland whose Heroical actions, in such a scarcity of necessary supplies, have maintained the English and the Protestant cause, and you shall find very many of them the intimate Friends of the Earl of Strafford, and principal Commanders in the Irish Army called the Popish Army, which was said to be intended against England: if you inquire further into the long Robe for Counsel, you will find the same observation made good. Then let the Earls ashes rest in peace for this.  
Others bred out of the excrements of those Giants who made War against Heaven, cast this upon his sacred Majesty. (To use the Observers words) An absurd, unreasonable, incredible supposition, That he who may boast more truly than Pericles could upon his deathbed, that never one Athenian did wear black for his sake: Now, as if all his former goodness were but personated, or Nero's Soul had transmigrated into his Body, should delight in the blood and slaughter of his Subjects. To what end? to exhaust his Treasure, lose his Revenues, weaken his Friends, & deprive himself of the certain assistence of his Subjects, at a time when he conceives it to be so useful for his affairs. They had need be strong proofs indeed, that can incline the judgement of any rational Man, to such a senseless Paradox. Let us view them.  
First, The Rebels said so, They pleaded the King's Authority, They called themselves the Queen's Army. Is not this a doughty Argument? By the same reason we may accuse Christ, as the Patron of all Schismatical Conventicles, because they say, here is Christ, and there is Christ, some out of a credulous simplicity, others out of a deep subtlety: or ascribe the Primitive Heresies to the Apostles, because the false Teachers did use their names, to make their Heresies more current: So Sir john Hotham and Serjeant Major Skippon, do pretend the Authority of King and Parliament; the King disclaims both the one and the other: many who are now in Arms against the King, do verily believe they fight for the King, against some bad Counsellors, whom they cannot name. The same Rebels sometimes pleaded an Ordinance of Parliament. Nothing is more usual with Pirates then to hang out a counterfeit Flag.  
A second reason is, Sundry Commanders of note were passed over into Ireland, by his Majesty's warrant, who were seen presently after in the head of the Rebels. His Majesty hath long since answered this, and demanded reparation of such a groundless Calumny. I only add two things. The one how ignorant our intelligencers are of the State of Ireland, to feign such a devise of a Brother of Sir George Hamletons: yet Sir George hath no Brother there but Sir Frederick, who was then and long after in Manor Hamleton, as opposite to the Irish Rebels as the Observer himself. The other is, if this were true, yet it were but a poor collection; There are many who have had not only Warrants under the King's hand, but Letters Patents under his Broad Seal, who owe their very subsistence to His Majesty's bounty; yet have made a shift to creep from his bosom, out at his sleeve. If such a thing had been, (as it is an impudent Fiction;) yet these are neither the first nor the last, that have betrayed the trust of a Gracious King.  
The third and last reason is, because His Majesty was not so active to repress this insurrection, nor so ready to proclaim them Traitors: so the Observer, He that will not accuse the King of zeal against the Irish Rebels, yet he may truly say, there is not the same 
1. Obser pag. 11.  zeal expressed that was against the Scots etc. The proffered supplies of the English and Scottish Nation are retarded, opportunityes neglected, nice exceptions framed. This plea is pertinent to make the King, though not the Contriver, yet the Conserver of that Rebellion: but is as false as the Father of Lies, from whom it proceeds Hear His Majesty himself, The Irish Rebels practise 
Declarati●… upon the R●… monstran●… pag. 21.  such unhuman and unheard of outrages upon our miserable People, that no Christian care can hear without horror, nor Story parallel. And as we look upon this, as the greatest affliction it hath pleased God to lay upon us, so our unhappiness is increased in that by the distempers at home, so early remedies have not been applied to those growing evils, as the necessity there requires. And we acknowledge it a high Crime against Almighty God, and inexcusable to our good Subjects, if we did not to the utmost employ all our powers and faculties, to the speediest and most effectual assistence and protection of that distressed People. He conjures all His loving Subjects to join with him in that Work, He offers to hazard his sacred Person in that War, To ing●…ge the revenues of his Crown; what can the Observer desire more? perhaps he may say these Offers came late and unseasonably. Then let us look backward to His Majesty's Proclamation of the first of january 1641, soon after his return from Scotland, in a time of so great Distractions here at home, when that Remonstrance which ushered in all our Fears and Troubles, was ready to be published. Let them show, that any Course was presented to His Majesty before this, either by his great Council to whom he had committed the care of it, or by his Lords Justices and Council of Ireland, who were upon the place? We abhorring the wicked Disloyalty and horrible Acts committed by those Persons, do hereby not only declare our just indignation thereof, but also do declare them and their Adherents and Abetters, and all those who shall hereafter join with them, or commit the like acts on any of our good Subjects in that Kingdom, to be Rebels and Traitors against our Royal Person, and Enemies to our Royal Crown of England and Ireland, etc. Commanding them to lay down Arms without delay, or otherwise authorising and requiring his Lord justices there, and the General of His Majesty's Army, to prosecute them as Traitors and Rebels with fire and sword. But if we look further still; when the first tidings of this cursed Rebellion came to His Majesty in Scotland, he did not sleep upon it, but presently acquainted both His Parliaments with it, required their assistence, recommended it to their care, promised to join in any course that should be thought fit. Neither did His Majesty's care rest there, but at the same time he named six or seven ●…olonels in the North of Ireland, to raise Forces instantly to suppress that insurrection, which was done accordingly: and they say, if some had been as active then, as they were made powerful by the confluence of that part of the Kingdom, in all probability that Cockatrice egg had been broken sooner than hatched; before that ever any of the old English, and many of the mere Natives had declared themselves. In pursuance of these premises, when the Act for Undertakers was tendered to His Majesty, he condescended freely to give away all his Escheats to this Work (an Act not to be paralleled among all his Predecessors:) yea though some clauses in that Statute, (especially for the limitation of His Majesty's Grace,) might seem to require a further discussion. The wants of Ireland and the present condition of England do speak abundantly, whether those great Sums of Money, or those great Forces raised for that end, have been employed to the use for which they were solely designed: yet Rabshekeh will not want a pretext to rail a●… good Hezekiah, though Spider like, he suck poison out of the sweetest Flowers. Surely there must be some fire whence all this smoke hath risen. Perhaps they conceive that His Majesty was not willing without good advice, upon the first motion to put all his strong Forts in the North of Ireland, into the hands of the Scotch Army; can you blame him, considering the present State of Affairs there? I dare refer it to any man's judgement that is not wholly prepossessed with prejudice, whether it was expedient at that time, or conducible to the speedy settlement of Ireland, for them to make that demands To divide a little Army, sixty miles one part from another, as far as betwixt London Derry, and Carigfergus or the Newry, where impassable Rivers and Mountains, and an uncertain passage by Sea would not permit one part to assist another; was a ready way either to a long War, or certain overthrow, and not to bring it to a quick conclusion. Neither did these places stand in need of any addition of Forces to secure themselves, whose Service and Victories against the Rebels, may compare with any Forces in the North of Ireland: all their desire was that this Army would but show themselves the Masters in the Field, to carry the War home to the Rebels own doors. Or if they had desired more Garrisons, Dungannon or Charlemount in the heart of Tyrone, had been much more convenient to distress the Enemy, then to have all their Forces lie scattered up and down the Sea coast. But these things were accorded quickly, and week after week, and Month after Month passed before any Forces moved out of Scotland for the Relief of Ireland.  
Or perhaps His Majesty was not willing in a preamble of a Bill to Press Soldiers for Ireland, to divest Himself altogether of the power of the Militia here in England: We cannot be contented of late to gather the fruit, unless we may break the bough that did bear it, or to quench our present thirst, unless we may alter the property of the Fountain. Howsoever to extinguish all questions, His Majesty did freely offer to raise with speed 10000 English Volunteers for that Service; or to pass a Bill without any mention of the right, which might do the Work without prejudice to any Person.  
What is it then which may in probability be thought the ground of this Rebellion? It requires not so long a search as the head of Nilus; for though I deny not, but that the Hen might be sitting, and some Irish have been long plotting such a thing in foreign Parts; yet they sat so far from their Nests, that they 
Guiccardine  could never have hatched it, without some extraordinary helps. Some say that by weak management, Sovereign Authority was grown contemptible; or that desperate Estates or crying Debts, did engage the Ringleaders both in Ireland and elsewhere, into such courses; or that Personal quarrels and Revenge might challenge a share. Some say that there was a general desire to shake off the English Government: but omitting these and the like, there are two grounds visible enough. The one is the Example of the late Covenant of their Neighbour Nation: As the Loadstone draws Iron to it; so Examples especially if they be successful, have an attractive virtue and influence. I doubt not but the one went upon much safer grounds than the other in point of Policy, neither do I desire to argue the Lawfulness in point of Justice, being a mere Stranger to their national Laws. This is certain, there was a vast difference in the manner of prosecution, the one being more bloody than the other: which whether it be to be ascribed to their several Principles, or to some particular and accidental reasons I leave every man to his own Judgement. This is all I say, That if the one had not piped, in probability the other had not dan●…  
A second reason was a general apprehension 〈◊〉 Jealousy and Fears at that time, That the Liberty both Civil and Religious, of the Subject and o●… Conscience, and the exercise of their Religion should be qui●…e taken away from them; occasioned by some indiscreet threatenings, and some highflying Petitions, and nourished and augmented by turbulent and seditious Persons, who persuaded the Common People that there was no security, to be expected, either for Life or for Religion, Soul or Body, without such a general insurrection. Thus Men plunge themselves into real dangers, out of fancied and imaginary Jealousies and Fears.  
The next thing in the Observer concerning Ireland, is the disparity between the proceedings of the true Rebels in Ireland, and the misnamed Rebels here in England. Their actions are all Blood, Rapine, Torture; All Ages, Sexes, Conditions, have tasted of their infernal Cruelty; Their intentions were to extirpate Religion, etc. to massacre the English Nation; their chief Leaders, are jesuits and mere Bandetto●…s, etc. far be it from me to justify, or so much as qualify those barbarous Acts, which have been committed in Ireland. Cruelty is an Argument of a Coward, not of an Heroical Nature. But it ill becomes the Observer to inveigh against the jesuits, until he have first taken the beam our of his own eye. He that shall compare Dolman or Parsons the jesuit with this Observer, either for dangerous positions or virulent detractions, may say aut Philo Platonizat, 〈◊〉 Plato Philonizat, Good Wits jump. The Observer doth but sup up what Parsons and some others had disgorged before, that he might vomit it up again. When once the Banks are broken, it is hard for him that was the cause of the inundation to prescribe limits to it. Had the Observer and his Partners been as much the Major part of England as the Papists were of Ireland, we should have seen what men they were. In the mean time the Observer hath given a Caution, that whilst Christians remain in a Primitive condition, that is, are the weaker part and want strength, it is discretion (not duty) to conceal themselves. The Irish Rebellion is against the Authority of the King, not against his Person, this both against his Person and Authority: the Irish seek a Liberty of Conscience to themselves, these not only a Liberty, but to impose a necessity upon all others: the Irish desire a capacity of Preferment, yet at his Majesty's discretion to cull out whom he pleaseth; these Men will be their own Carvers and not leave the King such a latitude: The Irish fight against Men of another Religion, of another Nation; We like wild Beasts fight Protestant against Protestant, Englishman against Englishman, Brother against Brother, Parent against Child: they fight for to recover what they had lost; we fight to lose what we have: they know what they fight for; the greatest part of us fight for we know not what: like the two Paduan Brethren the one supposing he had as many Oxen as there were Stars, and the other supposing that he had a Pasture as large as the Heavens; the mortal quarrel between them was, whether the one's conceited Oxen might feed in the others supposed ground. But believe it, they that cannot make rational Men understand, why they put them by the ears together, have secret reasons to themselves, that they dare not manifest to others.  
The last passage concerning Ireland, is an Answer to His Majesty's Objection, That if the Major part of both Houses in Ireland, should vote a danger to their Religion, or that Kingdom, and thereupon by Ordinance settle the Militia, in the hands of such Persons as they may confide in, of the Roman Communion; they had the same grounds and pretences that our Men have. The Observer answers, That this is improperly urged, for England and Ireland are the same Dominion. That there is as true and intimate an Union betwixt them, as between England and Wales. And though they do not meet in one Parliament, yet their Parliaments to some purposes, are not to be held several: And therefore if the Papists in Ireland were Stronger and had more Votes, yet they would want. Authority to overrule any thing voted and established here in England. The reason why the minor Part in all Suffrages subscribes to the Major, is that blood may not be shed, 〈◊〉 in probability the Major part will prevail, 〈◊〉 Strife and Bloodshed would be endless, wherefore the Major part in Ireland ought to sit down and acquiesce, because Ireland is not a several Monarchy from England. Nor is that a Major part of Ireland and England too, for if it were, it would give Law to us, as we now give Law there, and their Statutes would be of as much virtue here as ours are there, etc.  
Such Doctrine as this, hath helped to bring poor Ireland, to that miserable condition wherein now it is. Will you hear with Patience, what the Irish themselves say of this? If any Ordinance may be imposed upon us, without an approbative, or so much as a receptive power in ourselves, where is our Liberty then? Our Government is merely Arbitrary, our condition is slavish. We had Magna Charta granted to us as well as England, and since that time, all other Liberties and Privileges of the English Subject: Shall that which is ours be taken from us without our own Act, or our own Fault; and we never heard either in our Persons or by our Proctors? We desire the Observer to remember what he said before, That which concerns all, aught to be approved by all; We have no Burgesses nor representatives there: and that it is unnatural for any Nation to contribute its own inherent puissance, merely to support Slavery. Let the Definition be according to the Major Part of the Votes; but shall the Minor Part be denied a Liberty to discuss or vote at all? As we deny not but the Kingdom of Ireland is united and incorporated to the Crown of England: So we understand not, by what right any power derived from the English Subject, can extend itself over us. That power which they have over us is relative, as they are the King's Council, wherein he confides: or by virtue of his Delegation to his Judges representing his own Person. Thus they.  
For further Answer. First, this is a mere trifling and declining of the Force of His Majesty's Argument, which lies not in this, whether Ireland be 〈◊〉 distinct Kingdom: but supposing it to be a distinct Kingdom, (as without doubt it either is or might be,) whether that in such a case as is propounded by His Majesty, it were lawful for them to assume such a Power contrary to the Law of God and of Nations; or if Ireland were as much bigger than England as France is, (it is no strange thing for a greater Kingdom to be conquered by a lesser,) whether in such a case they might give Law to us, or their Statutes be of as great virtue here, as ours are there, merely because it is so voted, by the Major part of the representative Body. An absurd incredible Assertion.  
Secondly, there is not the like reason of Ireland and Wales. Wales is encircled with the same Sea, a part of the same Island, and originally in the Days of the Britons, a branch of the same Kingdom. Wales was incorporated to the Realm of England by Act of Parliament 27. Henrici 8. cap. 26: so was not Ireland. Wales have their Peers and Burgesses sitting in the English Parliament: so hath not Ireland. Wales hath no distinct Parliaments of its own: but Ireland hath.  
Thirdly, as the Irish readily grant, that their Common Law is the same with ours: so they will not easily believe, that the English Statutes are all of force in Ireland. What all? even to an Act of Subsidies? who ever heard that. It is true, there hath been a question moved among some Lawyers, and those perhaps who were not the most concerned or versed in it, of the English Statutes, what Statutes and in what cases, and how far they are binding to the Irish Subject? but I have not heard their opinion was so high as the Observers, or that ever the Bell was rung out yet. If all English Statutes be of force in Ireland, what need was there for Henry the seventh to make an express Statute in Ireland, to authorise and introduce all the English Statutes before his time to be of force in that Kingdom? this Act had been supervacaneous and superfluous. And since that time we see many Statutes of force in England, that are of no force at all in Ireland: and many both before and since that time of force in Ireland, that have no power in England.  
Lastly, this Observer might be well one of Father Garnets' Disciples; when he was asked about the Powder-Treason, whether it was lawful to take away some Innocents' with many Nocents? he answered yes; so it was compensated by a greater benefit or profit, which may perhaps be true sometimes (as in time of War) accidentally, in public and necessary, but not in private and voluntary Agents. So the Observer makes profit and strength, to be the only rule and measure, of all actions of State: Justice and Piety are banished by an Ostracism out of his Utopia. This is to enslave Reason, and Crown bodily strength; to silence Law and Justice, and to Deify Force and Power.  
The Observer is every where girding at the Clergy; it is well that his new superstition reversed, will allow them that name. Have they not great cause to thank him, as the poor Persians did their King, when they were condemned, That he was pleased to remember them? Sometimes he scoffs at the Tribe; There were seditious Schismatics of all Tribes. Sometimes he derides their Pulpetting, (it may be he likes a Chair better) because they teach a Divine Prerogative, which none understand but these ghostly Counsellors who always express sufficient enmity and antipathy, 〈◊〉 Public Acts and Pacts of Men. He that accuseth another, should first examine himself. I do not believe that ever there was any Divine in the World, that made Kings such unlimited Creatures, as this Observer doth the People. I have read some discourses of this subject, but I did never see any one so pernicious to a settled society of men, or so destructive to all humane compacts, as this seditious bundle of Observations; which makes the Law of Salus Populi, to be a dispensation from Heaven, for the breach of all Oaths of Allegiance, and all other Obligations whatsoever; which measures Justice by the major part, and makes strength and power the rule of what is lawful; which gives the People the last Judgement of necessity, and upon this Judgement a power to rise in Arms. If any Divine have unwittingly slipped into any such errors, in not distinguishing between an absolute and respective Sovereignty, (which I can hardly believe,) yet the Observer might have held his peace for shame; The one is so intent upon the Law of God, the other upon the Law of Nature, that they both forget the known Laws of the Land.  
Especially he shows his spleen against Bishop, sometimes calling them Popish Bishops. If Popery 
●…he Calling 〈◊〉 Bishops ●…t Popish.  were as ancient as Episcopacy, the Observer might shake his Ears at it to small purpose. Sometimes he styles them the Praelaticall Faction. If that be a Faction which is established by the Fundamental Law of the Land, and hath ever been a radicated Order of the Kingdom, What may a man think, of hi●… Rev●…rend Co●…hmen and Bu●…ton makers, and the rest of that diversified Schismatical ●…ie? Sometimes he makes Levi and Sim●…n, Hierarchists and Papists, the heads of the main Malignants. I ●…ope the Observer will allow some Government in the Church, either of Counsels, or Synods, or Assemblies, or Consistoryes, or Senates, or Presbyteryes either 〈◊〉 as it is at Genevah, or Parochial as it is in the Low-Countries; either of Precedents, or Moderators, or Visiters, Pastors, Doctor's Curate or not Curate, Elders perpetual or Annual, Deacons, Widow●…, or some of them for they are not yet well agreed about any of these: In one place Elders are Commissioners to the Seignory, are placed and displaced by the Magistrate, take an Oath of Obedience to the Magistrate▪ in other places the King hath not so much as the place of a Lay-Elder, except he be chosen. Or perhaps the Observer is for none of all these ways, but as errand an Independent in the Church, as he desires to be in the Commonwealth. Here are many things very considerable in this business.  
First, That in doubtful cases, Melior est conditio vossident is, Possession is a strong plea, especially if it be of long continuance, as this of Episcop●…cy is; ever since Christianity was planted in this Kingdom. This is certain, British Bishops have been of Note in Foreign Counsels, since the second Council of Arles, which is above thirteen hundred years; to say nothing of Aristobulus, mentioned in the Epistle to the Romans, whom some good Authors make a Bishop in this Island. They that shall go about to shake in pieces such an ancient Institution, which was brought into the Church, either by the Authority, or at least, by the approbation of the Apostles, had need to bring clear proofs, not blind conjectures, about which they themselves cannot agree one with another. Bishops flourished long in this Kingdom, even when the British Church enjoyed the Cyprian privilege, and acknowledged no subjection to any foreign See whatsoever.  
Secondly, That which the Observer saith of Monarchy, that our Laws are locked and Cabinetted in it, in such manner, that the wounding of the one, is the bleeding of the other, (though he forget it throughout his Discourse,) is likewise true of Episcopacy, that it is woven and riveted into the body of our Law. Hear a Witness beyond exception, For the Government of Bishops, I for my part not prejudging the precedents of 
●…ord Vern●…ams Consilerations.  other Reformed Churches, do hold it warranted by the Word of God, and by the practice of the ancient Church in the better times, and much more convenient for Kingdoms, than parity of Ministers or Government by Synods. And presently after, It is worth noting that the Scripture saith, Translato Sacerdotio, necesse est ut & legis fiat Translatio: It is not possible in respect of the great and near sympathy between the State Civil, and the State Ecclesiastical, to make so main an alteration in the Church, but it would have a perilous operation upon the Kingdom. And therefore it is fit that Controversy be in Peace and Silence. It would not be forgotten what was cited before, out of Cartwright, That as the hangings must be shaped according to the House; so must the Civil Government, be conformed to the Government of the Church. The Anabaptis●…●…egan with Bishops, but at length the Emperor was ●…ith them but Carolus a Gandavo, Charles of Gant▪ 〈◊〉 leave it to others to Judge by what fate or fortune it ●…omes to p●…sse, beyond the Sea, That wheresoever any ●…ther Regiment of the Church takes place, if the fa●…ourers of it be the Major part, and have power in their ●…ands, it either finds or makes a popular State; every ●…ans own imagin●…ion will supply him with instances. And this may be the reason why Calvin (a wise man) 〈◊〉 an Epistle to the King of Polonia, doth represent, ●…ot the Disciplinarian, but Episcopal Government as ●…tter for Monarchies. Having showed the Regiment ●…f the Primitive Church by patriarchs, Primates, and ●…ishops, he proceeds thus: As if at this Day one Arch-●…ishop 
Ep●…st. 100  should be over the illustrious Kingdom of Polonia, ●…t to domineer over the rest, or arrogate their right unto ●…imselfe, but for order's cause, etc. And further, there ●…ould be a Bishop in each City or Province, to attend pe●…uliarly to the preservation of Order, (mark his Rea●…on,) even as Nature itself doth dictate to us, that in ●…very College one ought to be chosen, upon whom the prin●…ipall care of the College should rest.  
Thirdly, Episcopacy is not only ancient and ce●…ented into our Laws, but also was universally re●…eived, without any opposition, or so much as a que●…tion throughout the whole Christian World, among ●…ll sorts of Christians of what Communion or ●…rofession soever they were, Grecian, Latin, Rus●…an, Armenian, Abissine &c: yea even among those ●…ho by reason of the great distance and remoteness ●…f their Countries, never heard of the Pope, nor of the name of Rome, ever since the Apostles did tread upon the face of the Earth until this last Century of Years; so far is it from being a Relic of Popery. And the Observer is challenged to name but one Church, or so much as one poor Village, throughout the whole World, from the Days of the Apostles, till the year of Christ 1500, that ever was governed without a Bishop; (I except the Acep●…ali or such disordered Persons that had no Governmen●… at all:) or to name but one Lay-Elder, or one Ambulatory Bishop that governed by turn or course in th●… Primitive times, in the whole Catholic Church before the year 1536, when Calvine came to Genevah. We find the proper and particular names of Apostles, Evangelists, Bishop, Presbyters and Deacons in the Scriptures, in Counsels, in Ecclesiastical Histories, in the Fathers: if he and all his Friend●… be not able out of all these Authorities, to name on●… particular Lay-Elder or ambulatory Bishop; th●… reason must be, because there never was such a Creature in rerum natura. And his Elders in Saint Ambrose and Saint Jerome, are much mistaken; ho●… should they be otherwise, the one Author being 〈◊〉 Bishop himself, and the other deducing Bishop's i●… Alexandria from Saint Mark, and telling us plainl●… (that which we find to be true,) that without Episcopal 
●…pist. ad E●…  Authori●…y, there will be as many Schisms as Pries●… in the Church? The Hierarchists (as he calls them▪ will be contented ●…o wave all other Authors, and 〈◊〉 ●…ed by either of these. The seven Angels in th●… Revelation cap. 2. & 3, cannot be the seven Chu●…ches, for the Angels and the Churches are 〈◊〉 distinguished, Rev. 1. 20: but it must be the seven Bishops of the Churches. These were not Parochial Churches, each of them had many Pastors, and many particular Flocks. Beza confesseth that these Angell●… were Precedents over the other Presbyters: but 
Answ to S●… ravia p. 160▪  he believes not they had a priority: of Power, or that this Presidency was permanent, but went by course. If the Government went by turns, I would gladly know, why one of them is called an Angel more than the other. Surely he that shall read the seven Epistles, how some of them are comm●…ended for their constancy and perseverance in their Government, and others reprehended for suffering Heretick●… to continue in their Churches: will find sufficient ground in every one of these Epistles to believe, that they were not changeable every week, or Month, or quarter of a Year: but constant and permanent Governors, having power of Jurisdiction to repress abuses; otherwise why are they taxed for the abuses done in their Dioceses, if it were not in their power to remedy them? And if he will give credit to the Testimony of the Primitive Fathers, he may find both who sundry of these Angels or Bishops were, and also who were their Successors.  
Fourthly, though in such variety of new Forms of Church Regiment, he hath not expressed himself to what Form he inclines, saving that in one place ●…e speaks of a jancto of Divines, (I cannot think but himself would have the naming of them:) yet we will suppose that which we are far from believing, that a few green Heads see more than all the Fathers, and Counsels, and Schoolmen; and that the Observers busy working brain, could mould a Church better than all the Apostles. Notwithstanding all this, Saint Augustine's rule to januarius is very considerable, if you will not err, do that which I use to do, to whatsoever Church I come, I apply myself to the Ceremonies thereof: He would have added the Discipline also, if there had been sundry Forms, but there was none but Episcop●…y then in the world. God is a merciful God, and looks upon his Creatures with all prejudices of Education, Habitation, etc. Faction is more offensive to him, and breach of Charity more dangerous to the Soul, than any unknown error in Disc●…pline; much more where the error is but supposed or feigned, and the Schism apparent. Now for the Discipline of the Church of England, all Men know and grant that it hath ever been Episcopal. In the public Liturgy of our Church, confirmed by Act of Parliament, we pray for Bishops. In our Book of Ordination confirmed by the same Authority, it is directly affirmed, as evident by Scriptures and ancient Authors, that from the time of the Apostles there have ever been these Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church, Bishops, Priests and Deacons; and that these Orders are appointed by the Holy Ghost. In our Book o●… Articles, which contains the received doctrine of our Church, (and therefore without doubt comes within the compass of our late Protestation,) the same Book of Ordination is maintained, and it is plainly affirmed, That there is nothing contained in it, which ●…s either superstitious or ungodly. In the 
Artic. 37.  Apol●…gy of our Church, published to the whole Christian World, and by all Protestant Churches approved and applauded, We declare that ●…e believe that there be divers degrees of Ministers in the Church, whereof some be Deacons, some be Priests, some Bishops. Which being so it deserves some consideration, which King james saith in the latter end of his Proclamation for Uniformity, Such is the unquietness and unstedfastness of some dispositions, affecting every year new forms of things, as if they should be followed in their unconstancy, would make all actions of States ridiculous and contemptible; whereas the steadfast maintaining of things by good advise established, is the weal of the Commonwealth. I should not enlarge myself any further about this Consideration, but for two reasons. The one is, I find it said by some, that scarce any but Bishops have hitherto maintained Bishops. Take only three Testimonies of many; they were all Members of the English Church, yet all Strangers, and all had lived in places opposite to Episcopal Government, none of them either Bishops, or their Chapleins, or Expectants. The first is King james, the most learned 
Preface t●… Christian Moua●… c●…  of Kings, I have always thought that there ought to be Bishops in the Church, according to the Apostolical institution, and by consequence Divine Ordination. The second is Learned Bucer, a German, and employed in the first Reformation of this Church, to read Divinity in Cambridge: one that was so opposite to Popery, that after his Death, his very bones were taken out of his Grave and burned by the Papists. He is full in many places, take one. From 
De reg●… Christ●… cap. 〈◊〉  the perpetual observation of the Churches, from the very Apostles themselves, we see that it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, that among the Ministers, to whom the charge of the Church was especially committed, one should undergo a singular care of the Churches and the whole Ministry, and in that care and solicitude was before all the rest: for which cause the name of a Bishop was peculiarly attributed to these highest Procurators of the Church. The third is Peter Martyr, at the same time employed to read Divinity at Oxford; having expressed his consent & concurrence with Saint ●…erome concerning Episcopacy, he proceeds. So far it is from us to 
●…sp. ad ●…rd. ad 50. ●…ject.  bring confusion into the Church, that rather we follow the same way: for there is no Diocese with us, or City, where of many Pastors, there is not some one chosen excelling in Learning and Experience, whom they call the Superintendent of the Church. He convocates all the rest, he admonisheth them, he governs them according to the Word of God, as the State of things requires. The second reason is, that I see it lately published to the World in Print, that Doctor Whitakers, Doctor Fulke, and Doctor Reynolds, were all Oppugners of Episcopacy. Perhaps of Popish Episcopacy, that is, the 
●…face to ●…r. Ba●….  abuse not the thing, or of an absolute necessity by Divine Right of such and such an Episcopacy endowed with such or such degrees of Power or Pre-eminence, or of such an Episcopacy as is held to differ from Presbiterate in the very power of Order: but surely not of Episcopacy itself. I wondered at the impudence of the Man. It is a bad cause which stands in need to be underpropped with such pious impious frauds, & is only fortified with hideous & palpable Lies: if he fable in this, let him have the just reward of a Liar not to be trusted in other matters. And first for Doctor Whitakers; Bellarmine objects against the Protestants, that they take away Bishops: He answers, Neq●… 〈◊〉 tot●…m Episcopo●… or●… 〈◊〉, 
Cont. 2. de Eccles. qu. 〈◊〉 cap. 3.  ●…t ille falso ●…lumniatur, sed Pseud●… Episcop●… tantum Pontificios. We do not condemn all the order of Bishops, as he (that is Bellarmine: we may say the Prefacer,) falsely slanders us, but only 〈◊〉 fals●… Bishops of the Church of Rome. And about the same place, speaking of that ancient constitution, that three Bishop●… should be present at the Ordination of a Bishop, he affirms that it was a good and a godly sanction, and fit for those good times. Doctor Fulke expresseth 
upon Titus cap. 1.  himself home, That among the Clergy for order and seemly Government, there was always one Principal to whom the name of Bishop or Superintendent hath been applied, by long use of the Church: which room Titus exercised in Crete, Timothy in Ephesu●…, others in other places. That though a Bishop and ●…n El●…r is of one Order and Authority in preaching the Word and administering the Sacraments: yet in Government, by ancient use of Speech, he is only called a Bishop, who in Scripture is called proesta●…enos, proest●…s, ●…egoumenos, Rom. 12. 8. 1 Tim. 5. 7. Heb. 13. 17. that is, the chief in Government, to whom the Ordination or Consecration by imposition of Hands, was always principally committed. So according to Doctor Fulke, the name is from Man, but the Office from God. I I beseech thee Reader view the three places cited by him at leisure, and thou shalt see who are the Rulers ●…nd Governors and Ruling Elders mentioned in Ho●…y Scrip●…ures, in the judgement of Doctor Fulke. Lastly, Doctor Reynolds is of the same mind, That the Elders 
Reynold. ad●… Hart. p. 53●…  ordained by the Apostles, did choose one among them to be Precedent of their Company, and Moderator of their actions, as of the Church of Ephesus though it had sundry Elders and Pastors to guide it: yet among these sundry, was there one chief, whom our Saviour calleth the Angel of the Church, etc. And this is he whom afterwards in the Primitive Church, the Fathers called Bishop, etc. So that by Doctor Reynolds, though not for the name, yet for the thing Episcopacy was in the Church, even when Saint john writ the Revelation, and was approved by our blessed Saviour from Heaven.  
Fifthly, In a difference of Ways, every pious and peaceable Christian, out of his discretion and care of his own salvation, will inquire which is via tutissima, the safest way. Now the Separatists themselves (such as have either Wisdom or Learning,) do acknowledge that Holy Orders are truly (that is validly,) given by the Ordination used in our Church, (I mean not such as either hold no outward calling to be needful, as the Anabaptists, or make the Church a mere Democracy, as the Independents:) but on the other side, a very great part of the Christian World, and among them many Protestants, do allow no Ordination to be right, but from Bishops. And even Saint Jerome, who of all the Fathers makes the least difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter, yet saith, What can a Bishop do, which a Presbyter doth not, except Ordination? And seeing there is required to the essence of a Church, 1. a Pastor, 2. a Flock, 3. a Subordination of this Flock to this Pastor; where we are not sure that there is right Ordination, what assurance have we that there is a Church? I write not this to prejudge our Neighbour Churches, I dare not limit the extraordinary operation of God's Spirit, where ordinary means are wanting without the default of the Persons; he gave his People Manna for food whilst they were in the Wilderness. Necessity is a strong plea▪ Many Protestant Churches lived under Kings and Bishops of another Communion; others had particular reasons, why they could not continue or introduce Bishops: but it is not so with us. It was as wisely as charitably said of Saint Cyprian, If any of my Predecessors through ignorance or simplicity have not holden that which our Lord hath taught, the mercy of the Lord might pardon them, &c: So if any Churches through necessity, or ignorance, or newfangledness, or Covetousness, or Practise of some Persons, have swerved from the Apostolical rule, or Primitive institution, the Lord may pardon them, or supply the defect of Man; but we must not therefore presume. It is Charity to think well of our Neighbours, and good Divinity to look well to ourselves. But the chief reason is, because I do not make this way to be simply necessary, but only show, what is safest where so many Christians are of another mind. I know that there is great difference between a valid and a regular Ordination, and what some choice Divines do write of case of Necessity: and for my part am apt to believe, that God looks upon his People in mercy, with all their Prejudices, and that there is a great Latitude left to particular Churches, in the constitution of their Ecclesiastical Regiment, according to the exigence of Time and Place and Persons, So as Order and his own Institution be observed.  
Sixtly, those Blessings which the English Nation have received from that Order, do deserve an acknowledgement. By them the Gospel was first planted in the most parts of England: By their Doctrine and Blood, Religion was reform and restored to us: By the learned writings of them and their Successors, it hath been principally defended; Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Hooper, were all Bishops, Coverdale exercised Episcopal Jurisdiction. With what indignation do all good Protestants see those blessed Men, styled now in Print by a young novice, halting and 
●…wo Books 〈◊〉 Reforma●…on.  time-serving Prelates, and common stales to countenance with their prostituted gravities every Politic fetch. It was truly said by Seneca, that the most contemptible Persons ever have the losest tongues. The Observer confesseth that Magna Charta was penned by Bishops; (no ill service.) Morton a Bishop of Ely was the Contriver and Procu●…er of the Union of the two Roses; (a great blessing to this Nation.) Bishop Fox was the instrument employed to negotiate and effect the union of the two Kingdoms. In former Distractions of this State, Bishops have been Composers and Peacemakers, according to their Office: now they are contemned, and in their rooms such Persons are graced, whose Tongues are like that cursed Bay-Tree which caused brawling and 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  contention wheresoever it came. England owes many of her Churches, Colleges, Hospitals and other Monuments of Piety and Charity, to Bishops. It requires good advice before we expel that Order which of Infidels made us Christians, and that the the reasons should appear to the World. An Act of any Society how eminent soever, wherein are none of the Clergy, may sooner produce submission then satisfaction to the Conscience.  
Seventhly, we have had long experience of Episcopal Government: if it have been accidentally subject to some abuses; I desire to know what Government in the World is free from abuses: yet late and dear experience hath taught us, that much of that rigour which we complained of, was in some sort necessary. If the Independents should prevail, who are now so busy breaking down the Walls of the Church, to bring in the Trojan Horse of their Democracy, or rather Anarchy▪ do but imagine what a confused mixture of Religions we should have: Africa never produced such store of diversified Monsters. But to pass by them as unworthy of our stay, and to insist only in that Form of Church Regiment, which of all new Forms is most received. I intent not accidental abuses, which from ignorant and unexperienced Governors must needs be many: but some of those many Grievances which flow essentially from the Doctrine itself. First for one High Commission, we shall have a Presbytery or young High Commission in every Parish. Our Bishops are bound to proceed according to Law: but this new Government is merely Arbitrary, bounded by no Law but their own Consciences. If the Bishops did us wrong we had our Remedy by way of appeal or prohibition: but they admit no appeal, except to a Synod, which in a short Session cannot hear the twentieth part of just grievances. Our Law allows not a Judge to ride a Circuit in his own Country, lest Kindred, or Hatred, or Favour might draw him to injustice: what may we then expect from so many Domestical Judges, whose affections are so much stronger than their reasons, but siding and Partiality▪ yet they blush not to tell us, that this is the Tribunal of Christ: Ch●…st hath but one Tribunal in Heaven, his Kingdom is not of this World. That these are the Laws of Christ: the Laws of Christ are immutable, They alter theirs every Synod. That their Sentence is the Sentence of Christ: alas, there is too much Faction, and Passion, and Ignorance. Heretofore we accused the Pope, for saying that he had one Consistory with Christ: do we now go about to set up Petty Popes in every Parish? and are they also become infallible in their Consistoryes, at least in their conclusion, not only in matters of Faith, but also of Fact? These are general Grievances.  
In particular, His Majesty shall lose His Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical, His Patronages, His first Fruits, H●…s Tenths, and worse than all these, the dependence of His Subjects, He shall be subjected to Excommunication, by which Engine the Pope's advanced themselves above Emperors: The Nobility and Gentry shall be subjected to the censures of a raw rude Cato▪ and and a few Artificers, They shall lose their Advowsons' (the People must elect their own Ministers,) They shall hazard their impropriations: The two eyes of the Kingdom, the Universities, shall be put out: The Clergy shall have their straw taken away, and the number of their bricks doubled: The People shall groan under the Decrees of a Multitude of ignorant unexperienced Governors, be divided into Factions about the choice of their Pastors, be subject to censure in sundry Courts for the same offence, be burdened with Lay-Elders, who if they please may expect, according to the Apostolical institution (upon their grounds,) double ●…onour, that is, maintenance: If there arise a private ●…arre between the Parent and the Child, the Husband and the Wife, they must know it and censure it, 
Scire volunt secreta domus atque inde timeri:   
All men must undergo the danger of contrary Commands, from coordinate Judges; than which nothing can be more pernicious to the Consciences or Estates of Men, Nulla hic arcana revelo. These are a part of the Fruits, of their most received Government who oppose Bishops: if they do not all show themselves in all places, remember the Observers Caution, They wanted power to introduce them as yet. As some Plants thrive best in the shade: so if this Form of Regiment shall agree best with the constitution of some lesser Commonwealths, much good may it do them, so they will let us enjoy the like favour, 
Petimus damusque vicissim.   
Eightly, those Arguments which they urge out of Scripture against Episcopacy, are mere mistakes, confounding the power of Superiority itself, with the vicious affectation or Tyrannical abuse of it; and are none of them to the purpose. As those two Texts that are most hotly urged, The Kings of the 
Luke 22.  Gentiles excercise Dominion over them, but ye shall not be so: and that of Saint Peter, Neither as being Lords 
1 Pet. 5.  over God's Heritage, but being Ensamples to the Flock; do admit as many Answers almost as there are words in each of them, but they are not needful. For no man that ever I read of, did say that Bishops had any such despotical or Lordly Dominion annexed to their Office, but only a Fatherly power. And if these Places be to be understood in that sense which they would have them, they do as much overthrow all their new Precedents, and Moderators, and Visiters, and their whole Presbytery, as they would have them to do Episcopacy. Neither Christ nor Saint Peter did ever distinguish between temporary and perpetual Governors: between the Regiment of a single Person, and a Society or Corporation. They like not the name of Lord, but that of Master they love dear: yet that is forbidden as much as the other, Neither be ye called Master, for one is your Master, even Christ. 
●…at. 23. 10.  And whilst they reject the Government of a Precedent or chief Pastor, yet they style their own new devised Elders, Ruling Elders: and understand them still in the Scripture by name of Governors.  
Ninthly, waving all these and all other advantages of Scriptures, Fathers, Counsels, Histories, Schoolmen: because it is alleged that all other Protestant Churches are against Episcopacy, I am contented to join the issue, whether Bishops, or no Bishops have the major number of Protestant Votes. First the practice of all the Protestant Churches in the Dominions of the King of Sweden and Denwarke, and the most of them in High Germany, do plainly prove it; each of which three singly, is almost as much as all the Protestant Churches which want Bishops, hut together, (to say nothing of His Majesty's Dominions;) all these have their Bishops or Superintendents, which is all one. But for the point of practice, hear Reverend Zanchy, a Favourer of the Disciplinarian way, In Ecclesiis Protestantium non desunt reipsa Episcopi, etc. In the Churches of the Protestants, Bishops, and Arch-Bishops are not really wanting, (whom changing the good Greek Names into bad Latin Names) they call Superintendents, and general Superintendents. Where neither the good Greek names, nor bad Latin names take place, yet there also there use to be some principal Persons, in whose hands almost all the authority doth rest. Neither is their practice disagreeing from their Doctrine. To begin with those who first were honoured with the name of Protestants, who subscribed the Augustane Confession, among whom were two Dukes of Saxony, two Dukes of Luneburge, the marquis of Brandburge, the Prince of Anhalt, and many other Princes, Republics, and Divines: Thus they, Facile possent Episcopi legitimam obedientiam retinere, etc. Bishop's might easily retain lawful obedience, if they did not urge us to keep Traditions, which with a good Conscience cannot be kept. Again, Nunc non id agitnr, etc. It is not now 
Cap. sept. potest Eccl●…  sought that the Government be taken away from Bishops but this one thing is desired, That they will suffe●… the Gospel to be purely taught, and release some few Observances, which cannot be kept without sin. This general Confession may stand for a thousand Witnesses, under which all the Protestants in Germany did shelter themselves. To this I may add the Apology for the same Confession, Hac de re in hoc conventu, etc. We have often 
Cap. de n●… & us●… S●…  testified of this matter in this meeting, that we desire wi●… all our hearts, to conserve the Ecclesiastical Policy, an●… the degrees made in the Church by Humane Authorit●… Again, This our Will, shall excuse us both before God an●… all the World, that it may not be imputed to us, that th●… Authority of Bishops was weakened by our means. Th●… confession of Saxony is subscribed by seventeen Superintendents of Bishops. The Suevick Confession i●… 
Harm. confe●… Sect. 19 p. 290. Harm. confess. Sect. 11. p. 65.  so far from opposing the spiritual power of the Praelates, that they do not exclude them from secular Government; and complaineth of great wrong done t●… their Churches, as if they did seek to reduce the powe●… of Ecclesiastical Praelates to nothing: And most plain lie they declare for the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction o●… Bishops, in the 33. Chapter of the secular Magistrat●… I might produce the Articles of the Protestants, and more Confessions, and many Witnesses to this purpose, if it were needful. But perhaps some may say●… That these are all Lutherans, and no good Protestant●… That were strange indeed, that they who made th●… Protestation, and from thence were called Protestants keeping themselves to the same grounds, should become no Protestants; and they who made no Protestation, nor have right to the name, but by communio●… with them, should become the only Protestants. Bu●… to satisfy them in this also.  
Upon the Words of the Augustane Confession●… before recited, the Observations set forth in the nam●… of the French and Belgic Churches, at the latte●… end of the Harmony of Confessions, do divide Bishops into three kinds; 1 Apostolical, of Orde●… 
〈◊〉. 1.  not of Degree, common to all the Ministers of the word; 2. Humane, both of Order and of Degree, which they confess to ●…e ancient, and defined, and circumscribed with many old Canons; 3. Tyrannical, in the Church of Rome, wand'ring not only without the word of God, but also extra Canones aequissimos, without those most equal or just Canons: which last they abominate; but of this more in the next Consideration. They say further, that it is the Office of god●…y 
Obs. 3.  Magistrates, to see how far it may be expedient for Bishops, to have some kind of Civil Dominion: and upon the Saxonick confession they acknowledge, that Bishops may make Laws belonging to Order 
Obs. 1.  ●…nd Decency, so it be not done Arbitrarily, but by the judgement of a lawful Synod; and what do we say more? You have also seen the confession of the Church of England, directly for Episcopacy; which neverthe●…esse was so approved and applauded by the Tigurine Divines, That they made no end of praising of it, that ●…hey judged nothing to have been published more perfect 
Pet. Mart. Ep. ad Jewellum.  in those days, that they promise themselves that the Protestant Church shall never want a Champion, so long as the Author thereof did live: yet it was both for Bishops, and by a Bishop. Calvine was no Lutherane, yet he subscribed the Augustane Confession, o●… the Apology for it, or both. And in his Institutions, he describeth at large the Regiment of the Primitive Church, after the days of the Apostles, That though the Bishops of those times, expressed more in their Canons 
Lib. 4. cap. 4. Sect. 1. 2. 3. 4.  then was expressed in the word of God, yet they composed the whole Oeconomy of the Church with that caution, that it may easily appear that it had almost nothing strange from the word of God, That in each City the Presbyters did choose one of their number to whom they gave the Title of Bishop, specially lest dissension might spring from equality as commonly it comes to pass. He shows out of Saint Jerome, that this institution was as ancient in Alexandria as from Saint Mark. He proceeds to show the end of Arch-Bishops, and the Constitutio●… of patriarchs: and concludes, That this kind of Government some called an Hierarchy, by a name improper, at least not used in the Scriptures: but if we pass●… by the name and look upon the thing itself, we sha●… find that the Ancient Bishops did go about to devise no other Form of governing the Church, then that which God hath prescribed in his word. There might be sundry other places alleged out of his Epistle, and his Answer to Sadolet, to the same purpose; but I omit them only with this note, that one of the most conspicuous place●… in his Epistle to Sadolet, Talem nobis Hierarchiam, etc. (against those that shall reject Episcopacy, being reduced to its due submission to Christ, and Society with their Brethren,) is purged out in the two latter Edition●… of Beza and Gallasius; to let us see, that the Romanist●… are not the only men, who cut out the Tongues o●… their own Witnesses. Zanchy delivers the very same grounds, and adds, That nothing is more certain●… 
De Relig. Christ. c. 25. Sect. 10. 11. & Observat. in eundem locum.  than this, That Episcopacy was received into the Church communi consensu totius Reipublicae Christianae with the common consent of the whole Christian Commonwealth, That it was free for them to do so, Tha●… it was done for honest or just causes, That it cannot b●… misliked, That those things which are defined and received by the Godly Fathers, congregated in the nam●… of the Lord, by the common consent of all, without an●… contradiction to the Holy Scriptures, though they be no●… of the same Authority with the Scriptures, yet they ar●… from the Holy Ghost. Quae hujusmodi sunt, ea e●…o ●…probare nec velim, nec audeam bona Conscientia, ●…uch as he had neither Will, nor Confidence, nor 〈◊〉 to disallow. Which very place being ●…rged by ●…arraviah against Beza, he closeth with it, A quo ma●…ime 
Resp. pag. 116.  certe dissentimus, cum Episcopatum illum mere di●…inum & Apostolicum, ab humano non quasi sint illa ●…nter se repugnantia, sed tantum ut diversa & imparis ●…uctoritatis discernimus. From which opinion of Zan●…y we do not descent, nor distinguish between that Apostolical and merely Divine Episcopacy, from this other which is humane, as if they were re●…ugnant one to another, but only divers and of unequal Authority. The same Book is full of such places, Quod si nunc Ecclesiae Anglicanae instauratae, etc. 
Pag. 3.  If the English reformed Churches do now stand underpropped with the authority of Bishops and Arch-Bishops, as it hath come to pass in our memories, that they have had Men of that order, not only notable Martyrs, but most excellent Pastors and Doctors; let them enjoy that singular Blessing, which I pray God may be perpetual to them. And elsewhere speaking of humane Episcopacy (as he is pleased to call it,) he adds, Quo sane fruantur, etc. Which let them enjoy who persuade themselves 
Pag. 177.  that the right use of it may be observed by them. And again, Absit ut hun●… ordinem, etc. far be it from me to reprehend this Order as rashly or proudly erected, though 
Pag. 144.  it be not a Divine or merely Apostolical Constitution: whereof rather no man can deny that there may be great use, as long as good and holy Bishops are over the Church; Let them enjoy it therefore that will and can. This & poterint, and can, was well put in: it was not the unlawfulness of the order, but the inconsistency with the present State of Genevah, which excluded it thence. And having spoken of the Apostolical Canon, and the Superiority of the Archbishop above his Fellow Bishops, he concludes, quid aliud hic statuitur, etc. 
●…g. 116.  What else is here decreed, but that order which we desire to be restored in all Churches?  
It appears then plainly, by the confessions of Protestant Churches, by the Testimonies of the most learned Divines, yea, even of those that lived under another Government, that if Bishops be not necessary, yet at the least they are lawful. It appears that three parts of four of the Protestant Churches, have either Bishops or Superintendents, which is all one: and that those Churches which have neither, yet they have some principal Men, Primarios, which have as much power as Bishops, viis & modis. But if we should be contented to leave three parts of Protestants to join with the the fourth, shall we find them unanimous in this? No such thing. The Helvetian and other Churches ascribe the Government of the Church to the Magistrate and allow no Lay-Elders: But Genevah and her Daughters to their Pre byteries, yet neither the Mother is like the Daughters, nor the Daughters very like one another; as hath been showed in part before in this Treatise: and the Independents are for neither of these ways: And all learned men do acknowledge our English Episcopacy to be lawful, yea even the present Precedent and Pastors of Genevah do the same. So if we desire consent either of Protestants in particular, or of Christians in general, yea of the whole Catholic Symbolical Church; it is best for us to keep us where we are.  
My tenth and last Consideration riseth higher, That according to their grounds, who have been the greatest Oppugners of Episcopacy, the Government of our English Bishops is not only lawful, but for the most part necessary, nor only necessary but even an Apostolical and Divine Institution. This seeming Paradox is yet most certain, and their opposition hath been but beating the air. For the clearer manifestation whereof, we must know.  
First that the greatest impugners of Episcopacy, do not seek to bring such a Parity into the Church: but that by the Ordinance of God and Dictate of Nature, one Presbyter ought to be Precedent above the rest, Ex Dei ordinatione perpetua, necesse fuit, est & ●…rit, ut in Presbyterio quispiam & loco & dignitate 
Bezae defence. pag. 153.  primus, actioni gubernandae praesit, cum eo quod ipsi Divinitus attributum est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was, it is, it ever shall be necessary, by the perp●…uall Ordinance of God, that some one in the Presbytery as chief both in place and Dignity, be set over the Action to govern it. He saith that even then, whilst the appellation of Bishops and Presbyters was common: yet the Presbytery had suum aliquem primum & proest●… Presbyterum, Some one to be their ruling or presidential Presbyter. 
Pag. 140.  He saith Saint Jerome did not so dote as to dream that no one of the Presbytery was set over the whole company in the Apostolic times: and takes it as a great injury, that any Man should think that they did go about to abolish omnem unius Episcopen, in vel supra 
Pag. 160.  caeteros compresbyteros, All Superspection or Superintendency of one above his Compresbyters. To the same purpose saith Calvine, it is no marvel that the 
●…nst. lib. 4. c. 6. Sect. 8.  twelve Apostles had one among them to govern the rest; this we have from Nature, the disposition of Men requires it, that in every Company though they be equal in power, yet one should be as Moderator.  
Secondly, they teach (notwithstanding their drowsy, groundless, new-hatched conceit, that this Presidency went successively by turns among the Presbyters,) that either in the days of the Apostles, or immediately from them, this Episcope or office of Superintendency, became Elective and perpetual to ●…e man, Quod certe, reprehendi nec potest nec debet, which certainly neither can, nor aught to be blamed; especially seeing this ancient Custom was observed in the famou●… 
〈◊〉 defence. pag. 141. 142. ●…43.  Church of Alexandria; I am inde a Marco Evangelist●… Even from Saint Mark the Evangelist. So as the Office is of Divine Institution, the form of Application only is Humane: yet not merely humane neither; Humanum non simpliciter tamen sed comparate, ●…lla cum Patrum & tot Ecclesiarum injuria appellavero, I may caell it humane not simply, but comparatively, without injury to the Fathers, or so many Churches; Indeed all the Churches in the World, and all the Fathers that ever were.  
Thirdly, This Presidency of Order, which they give to one man, even upon their own grounds is not destitute of all kind of Command and power. He hath jus regendae communis actionis, a right to moderate the 
Pag. ii4. 887.  Action of the College, or to govern the common Action, and that cert is l●…gibus, according to certain Laws. First, a right to moderate the Action, that is, to 〈◊〉 the Presbyters, to appoint the time and place, to propose matters, to collect the Suffrages either by himself or by such as he appoints, to pronounce Sentence. Secondly, certis legibus, according to certain Laws; this brings us to the true question where the water sticks: The Law of God and the lawful Constitutions of the Church, must be the just measure and limits of this Precedents commands, of his Compresbyters obedience. So that Tyrannical absolute Arbitrary power which is usurped by the Bishop of Rome and his Instruments, is rejected by all Parties on the one side, and all Anarchy, Ataxy and Disorder on the other side; yet this is not all.  
Fourthly, this Precedent hath another power by Divine Right, or at least by Divine Right is capable of another power: that is, not only to moderate the whole Action by his Authority, but also to execute 
Calv. J●… lib. 4. cap Sect. 2.  that which is decreed by common consent. Neither can this executive Power in reason be limited to the mere execution of Personal Decrees, concerning particular Persons: but every where it extends itself to preparatory Actions and matters of Form. Neither doth it rest here, but admits, or at least may admit a greater latitude, even to the execution of Laws; especially where the Law is clear, the Fact notorious or evidently proved, where Succession and the public are not concerned, where the presence of the whole College is not so useful or convenient, and might rather encumber then expedite the business: and all this more or less according to their certain Laws, the several constitutions of several Churches: always reserving to the whole Body of the Clergy, or those who by election or prescription do represent them, the power of making and altering Laws and Canons Ecclesiastical, and to His Majesty His Royal power of assenting and confirming, and to the representative Body of the Kingdom their power of receiving, principally in cases of moment: and likewise reserving to the Clergy, either Rural or Cathedral, according to their distinct capacities, their respective power of counselling, consenting, or concurring, according to the constitutions of the Church, and Laws and Customs of the Realm, which as they are grounded upon natural reason and equity, so they are no way repugnant to the Law of God, whereof there are yet some Footsteps to be seen in our Ordinations, our Deans and Chapiters', our Semestriall Synods, etc. And if these old neglected Observations, were a little quickened and reduced to their primogenious temper and constitution,: perhaps it might remedy sundry inconveniences, and add a greater degree of Moderation and Authority to the Government of the Church. Who can be so stupid a to imagine, that the State, and Church, and People of Genevah at this day, do not, or may not give to the Precedent of their Ecclesiastical Senate a perpetuity of Government for his Life: or enable him to execute some Ecclesiastical Laws, so far as they shall see it to be expedient for the good of that Church and Commonwealth, without swerving from the institution of Christ? This might yet further be made plain, by those comparisons and representations which 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 do bring of this Episcopal or Presidentiary power, of a Consul in the Senate, of a Praetor in the Court, of a Provost in a College, of a Steward in a Family: They ought to look upon him as their Superior and Governor, and be upon them as Brethren and Fellow-Elders. This is that which our English Bishops claim, whereunto they are entitled by the Fundamental Laws of the Land. How far the power of the keys, of Ordination or Jurisdiction, is appropriated or committed to them, singly or jointly by Divine Ordinance, (of which Subject great Authors upon great reasons have declared themselves:) yet in our case it is not so questionable, where another Lawful Right is certain: and this clear satisfaction of Conscience they want, who are so busy seeking after new devised forms of Ecclesiastical Regiment. And herein I may as justly admire the excellent temper of our Church Government, asthe Observer doth of the Civil; I hope it is not in either of us, ut Pueri junonis avem, As Boys praise the Peacock, with a desire to pluck his feathers. The Clergy present, the Bishops approve, His Majesty confirms, the Parliament receives: all parties have their concurrence, so as no Man can be prejudiced without his own act. If we alter this Frame, we shall have a better in Heaven; I fear not upon Earth.  
So then we see that upon these very grounds, which have been laid by the greatest Opposers of Bishops in this Age, 1 there is a subordination of many Pastors to one Precedent by Divine Ordinance, 2 This Presidency, or Superintendency, or Episcopacy, (all is one,) may without violation of Divine Ordinance be settled upon one Man for his life, 3 This Person so qualified, hath a power essentially belonging to his place, to rule and moderate the public meetings and Actions of the Church; yea to execute the decrees of the whole College, 4 This executive power may receive a further latitude or extent, from the positive Laws of Men. What is the result of all this? but that as Presbyterate or the Office of a Priest, Presbyter, or Minister, (I shall wrangle with no man about a name, whilst we agree upon the thing) is of Divine institution, yet nevertheless there is something Humane annexed to it; as for instance the Assignation of a single Pastor to a particular Parish, (which custom was first introduced by Evaristus, long after Bishops were spread over the World:) so likewise Episcopacy itself is of Divine Right, yet something may be added to it, some extent of Power which is humane, and yet very lawful and expedient; wherein every Church is to be its own Judge. If to this which hath been said of the Antiquity, Universality, Aptitude, Security, of this way, &c, we shall add that Ambrose, Austin, Chrisostome, Cyprian, Basile, Athanasius, and very many others, the lights of their times, were not only Defenders of Episcopacy, but Bishops themselves; there can remain no scruple to us of this Nation what Church Regiment is to be desired.  
But some do say, why then do sundry eminent Protestant Authors inveigh so much against Bishops? I answer, It is not simply against, their Function, but against the sloth of some for not preaching, or the pride and Tyranny of some particular Persons; and more especially it is against the Romish Bishops. I might cite many Witnesses to make this as clear as the Sun; take one of many: Neque vero cum hoc dico, 
Beza resp. pag. 1589.  ●…jus Tyrannidis eos Episcopos veram Christi Religio●… prositontes & docentes intend●…, absit a me tam im●…dens arrogantia. Neither while I say these things, do ●…ccuse those Bishops of Tyranny, which profess and teach ●…e true Religion of Christ, Far be such impudent Arro●…nce from me. And further he saith, that they are to be 
Pag. 126.  knowledged, observed, reverenced, as faithful Pastors the Christian Church. And in an Epistle to the ●…en Archbishop of Canterbury, he expresseth him●…fe, that such invectives were never intended against ●…e Government of the English Church, but against ●…ti-Christian Tyranny.  
Secondly, it is objected that they did put away Bishops. I answer, that some Reformed Churches were ●…der Bishops, who were out of their Territories; as ●…e Helvetian Churches under the Bishops of Con●…e: others were under Bishops of another Com●…union; as the French Churches: others could not both ●…ntinue Bishops and bring in the Reformation of Re●…ion; as the Church of Genevah: others did retain ●…shops under the name of Superintendents, because ●…e old name had been abused by the Psu●…do Episcopi or ●…se Bishops, in the Church of Rome; by the same ●…son we should neither use the name of Christ, nor ●…postle, nor Gospel, nor Sacrament, because there ●…ve been false Christ's, false Apostles, false Gospels, ●…se Sacraments: lastly, many retained both the name ●…d the thing; as the Churches of England Sweden, 〈◊〉. And generally all Reformed Churche●… were de●…ous to have retained Episcopacy, if the Bishops that ●…en were, would have joined with them in the Reformation. This is evident for the German Churches by the Augustane confession, and Apology, That Bishops might easily have retained their places, if they would, they protest that they are not guilty of the diminution of Episcopal Authority. And for the Helvetian Churches, it appears by that letter of Zui●…glius and ten others of their principal Divines, to th●… Bishop of Constance; in all humility and observanc●… beseeching him, To favour and help forward their beginnings as an excellent Work and worthy of a Bishop they call him Father, Renowned Prelate, Bishop; the implore his Clemency, Wisdom, Learning, that 〈◊〉 would be the first Fruits of the German Bishops, favour true Christianity springing up again, to hea●… the wounded Conscience; They beseech him by the co●…mon Christ, by our Christian Liberty, by that Father affection which he owes unto them, by whatsoever was 〈◊〉 vine and humane, to look graciously upon them: or he would not grant their desires, yet to connive at the●… So he should make his Family yet more illustrious, a●… have the perpetual Tribute of their Praises, so would but show himself a Father, and gr●…●…he request of his obedient Sons; They co●…clude, God Almighty long preserve your Excellen●… Thirdly, for the French Churches, it is plain 
Epist. ●…73.  Calvine in one of his Epistles, touching a Reform Bishop, that should turn from Popery: that he m●… retain His Bishopric, his Diocese, yea even 〈◊〉 Revenues and his jurisdiction.  
Lastly, it is objected, that Bishops have been 〈◊〉 ●…troducers of Antichristian Tyranny, and all ot●… abuses into the Church. One said of Physician's t●… they were happy Men, for the Sun revealed their Cure, and the Earth buried all their in●…mities: contrariwise we may say of Governors that in this respect they are most unhappy Men, for the Sun reveals all their infirmities: nay more, all the Ennormities of the Times, and the aberrations of their Inferiors, are imputed to them; but the Earth buries all their cures. Episcopacy hath been so far from being an adjument to the Pope, in his Tyrannical invasion of the Libertyes of the Church, that on the other side it was a principal means to stay and retard his usurpation; as did well appear at the Council of Treat, how little he was propitious to that Order, and by the Example of Grodsted Bishop of Lincoln, who was malleus Romanorum, and many others. And now much the rather when Bishops acknowledge no dependency upon him. No Form of Government was ever so absolute as to keep out all abuses. Errors in Religion, are not presently to be imputed to the Government of the Church; Arrius, Pelagius, etc. were no Bishops: but on the other side if Bishops had not been, God knows what Churches, what Religion, what Sacraments, what Christ we should have had at this Day. And we may easily conjecture by that inundation of Sects, which hath almost quite overwhelmed our poor Church on a sudden, since the Authority of Bishops was suspended. The present condition of England doth plead more powerfully for Bishops, than all that have writ for Episcopacy since the Reformation of our Church.  
I have made this digression by occasion of the Observers so often girding at Bishops; he may either pass by it or take notice of it at his pleasure. There are some small remainders of his work, but of no great moment; as this, That there is a disparity between natural Fathers, Lords, Heads, etc. and Political. Most true, (though the Observer hath not met with the most apposite instances) otherwise they should be the very same thing; every like is also dislike. He conceives that there is only some sleight resemblance between them: but our Law saith expressly otherwise, That His Majesty is very Head, King, Lord, and Ruler of this Realm, and that of mere droit and very right. First very Head and Lord, and then of mere droit and very right: It is impossible the Law should speak more fully. But the main difference which may come near the question is this, that the Power which is in a Father, Lord, etc. moderately and distinctly, is jointly and more eminently in a Sovereign Prince; as was long since declared at Rome, in the case between Fabius Maximus and his Son. No Father could deserve more reverence from a Son: yet he knew that Domestic command, must veil and submit to Political, and that the Authority of a Father of a Family, doth disappear in the presence of the Father of a Country, as lesser Stars do at the rising of the Sun. But his main ground is, that the King is the Father, Lord, Head, etc. of His Subjects divisim, but not conjunctim, if you take them singly one by one, but not of an entire collective Body. So it seems His Majesty is the King of Peter, and Andrew, not of England, nor yet so much as of a whole Town or Village: yet the Observer himself can be contented to be the Lord of a whole Manor. I conceive he learned this doctrine out of Schola Salerni, Anglorum Regi, etc. If this assertion were true, how extrmely hath the World been deceived hitherto? and we have all forsworn ourselves in our Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance. His Majesty is much bound to him for making him King of so many pretty little Kingdoms: but as Titus Quinctius said of Antiochus his Soldiers, when their Friends did set them out by parcels, for Armies of Medes, Elemites, Cadusians, &c. That all these in one word were but Syrians. So His Majesty is well contented to reduce all these Kingdoms of Microcosmes, into one Kingdom of England, if he may hold that in peace.  
Such another Paradox is that which follows, that 
Pag. 19  Treason or Rebellion in Subjects is not so horrid in nature, as oppression in Superiors. One of the most absurd opinions, and most destructive to all Societies, that ever was devised. By this new learning, when the Master shall correct his Servant, without sufficient ground in the Servants conceit; he may take the Rod by the other end, give His Master some remembrances, to teach him his Office better: If it be a little irregular, yet it is the less fault upon these grounds. Doth any Man think that the Observer instructs his Family with this doctrine, at home out of his chair? believe it not. By the very equity of this conclusion it should be a greater sin, for a Man to misspend what is his own, then to rob or steal that which is not his own. The Superior though he abuse his power, yet hath a right to it, but the inferior hath none. How discrepant is this from the judgement of former times? they thought no crime could be so great, as that it ought to be punished with Parricide: or that for discovery thereof, a Servant should be examined against his Master, or a Child against his Parent. The Law of Parricides denied, lucem vivo, fluctuanti mare, naufrago portum, morienti terram, defuncto Sepulchrum. Tully saith, they were to be sowed up quick in a Sack, and so cast into the River: not to the wild Beasts, lest the very Beasts should become more inhuman by such nourishment, not naked lest they should pollute that Element which purgeth all things. Our Saviour calleth Judas a Devil, Have not I chosen you twelve and one of you is a Devil? why a Devil? because he was a Traitor. Let the Observer find out a worse name if he can.  
Such another is his comparison, between the thirty Tyrants at Athens and the Cavaliers at York. Comparisons are odious, I desire not to meddle with them. But it is well known what the thirty Tyrants were. 1 They were a Company packed together by Lysander for his purpose. 2 They were called Optimi, good Patriots, and Administratores Reipublicae, the Administrators of the Commonwealth. 3 They had the placing and disposing of the Senators or Counsels. 4 They made the Magistrates of Athens out of their own Faction and Clients. 5 They were great Profaners of Temples and Contemners of Religion, as appeared by their command to pull Theramenes from the Altar. 6 They armed 3000 of their own party, and disarmed all others. 7 They filled all Greece with Athenian Exiles. 8 They killed more in eight Months, than the Spartan Wars had done in ten years. 9 Condebant Leges, They usurped both the legislative power; and more than that, an Arbitrary power without Law,: so as there was need of a Law, that no Man whose name was written in such a Catalogue, should be slain sine judicio without lawful trial; other Men might. And yet as if both these were not sufficient, they assumed an absolute Power over the Law and against the Law: ego vero ne lege hac se tueri possit, nomen ejus deleo & morte condemno, to depriye him of the benefit of this Law, I blot out his name and condemn him to die. Lastly, they had their turns, according to that Prophetic Predication of Theramenes, when he had drunk up the cup of poison and cast the snuff upon the ground, saying, propino hoc Critiae pulchro, a health to gallant Critias the Arch-Tyrant; (which Story saith Tully in his Tuscula●…s no Man can read without tears;) and shortly after Critias followed him into another world to give an account of his bloody Administration.  
Such flowers as these we find strawed here and 
Pag. 35.  there in his Book. And so he concludes abruptly, I find my reason already captivated, I can no further—. Whether it were done to amuse the World, as if he had much more matter, but that the Press prevented him; or that all this while he hath been uttering, his mysterious Enthusiasms and Oracles, and now (propiore Deo,) he is rapt into an ecstasy or trance: or lastly, because he was as confident of the success of his Observations, as the Spaniards of their Invincible Armado. Zeno sometimes wanted opinions, but 
Anti-●…  never wanted Arguments: What weighty reasons did the Franciscans urge on both side, pro & contra, and with what fervour, even about the Colour and fashion of their Habits? I have heard of a like stir at Amsterdam about Starch: When Men stretch and tenter their Wits to uphold a party, They will find something to say, though it be in praise of Helen, or commendation of Folly. It is dangerous to leave old received 
●…ov. 22. 28.  rules, upon probable and specious pretences: Remove not thou the ancient bounds, which thy Fathers have set. It is the Wisdom of the Serpent, to stop her ears, against the Voice of the Charmer: It is the Wisdom 
●…al. 58. 5.  of a good Christian, a good Subject, to preserve his Faith to God, and his Loyalty to his Prince, and to bless himself from the Magical Spells of all such Charmers and Observers.  
FINIS.   

GOod Reader, whereas an anabaptistical Speech is ●…ked in the Epistle which some say is of dubious Faith, bemoan with me the licentiousness of the times, when the Press hath brought the just reward of a Liar upon itself, and an Academical uncertainty upon us; but know that in this case it is not material, nothing being cited but what agrees with the very grounds of the Anabaptists.   

Errata.  
EPist. page 2. line 11. for Milita read Militia. p. 9 l. 7. for fine r. find. p. 19 l. 4. after insurrection add for Religion. p. 23. l. 3 for leaf r. leave. Lib. Pag. 2. l. 25. for turned r. tuned. p. 22. l. 18. for anthorative, r. authoritative. p. 35. l. 6. for four hundred, r. three hundred. p. 44. l. 5. for recoverable irrecoverable, r. revocable irrevocable. p. 84. l. ●…4. for oxibus r. ovibus. p 142. l. 12. for same year, r. eleventh year. p. 156. l. 24. for course r. curse. p. 158. l. 11. for peila peilis, r. pila pilis. p. 178. for Heb. 6. 19 r. Heb. 6. 16. And such like as sends for send. presentia for praesentia. Phis●…tian for Physician. Catiline, for Catiline. ahe or he for the. Idollised for Idolised. psuedopiescopis, for pseudoepiscopis ennormities for enormities, conjacture, for conjecture, Jesurum for Jesurun. And the like.