Army, in the glorious way wherein Justice and Victory hath fet them; the only warrants through all ages, next under immediat Revelation, to excercife fupream power, in those proceedings which hitherto appeare equal to what hath been don in any age or Nation heretofore, juftly or magnanimouflie. Nor let them be difcourag'd or deterr'd by any new Apoftate Scarcrowes, who under show of giving counsel, fend out their barking monitories and memento's, empty of ought elfe but the spleene of a frustrated Faction. For how can that pretended counsel bee either found or faithfull, when they that give it, see not for madness and vexation of thir ends loft, that thofe Statutes and Scriptures which both falfly and fcandaloufly, they wreft against thir Friends and Affociates, would by fentence of the common adverfarie, fall first and heaviest upon thir own heads. Neither let milde and tender difpofitions be foolishly fofin'd from thir duty and perfeverance, with the unmaikuline Rhetorick of any puling Prieft or Chaplain, fent as a friendly Letter of advice, for fashion fake in privat, and forthwith publifht by the Sender himself, that wee may know how much of friend there was in it, to cast an odious envie upon them, to whom it was pretended to be fent in charitie. Nor let any man be deluded by either the ignorance or the notorious hypocrifie and self-repugnance of our dancing Divines, who have the confcience and the boldnefs, to come with Scripture in thir mouthes, glofs'd and fitted for thir turnes with a double contradictory fenfe, transforming the facred verity of God, to an Idol with two Faces, looking at once two feveral ways; and with the fame quotations to charge others, which in the fame cafe they made ferve to juftifie themselves. For while the hope to bee made Claffic and Provincial Lords led them on, while pluralities greas'd them thick and deep, to the fhame

and scandal of Religion, more then all the Sects and Herefies they exclaim against, then to fight against the Kings perfon, and no lefs a Party of his Lords and Commons, or to put force upon both the Houses, was good, was lawfull, was no refifting of Superior powers; they onely were powers not to be refifted, who countenanc'd the good, and punish't the evil. But now that thir cenforious domineering is not fuffer'd to be univerfal, truth and confcience to be freed, Tithes and Pluralities to be no more, though competent allowance provided, and the warme experience of large gifts, and they so good at taking them; yet now to exclude and seize upon impeach't Members, to bring Delinquents without exemption to a faire Tribunal by the common National Law against murder, is now to be no less then Corah, Dathan, and Abiram. He who but erewhile in the Pulpits was a curfed Tyrant, an enemie to God and Saints, lad❜n with all the innocent blood spilt in three Kingdoms, and so to be fought against, is now, though nothing penitent or alter'd from his first principles, a lawfull Magiftrate, a Sovran Lord, the Lords anointed, not to be touch'd, though by themselves imprison'd. As if this onely were obedience, to preserve the meere useless bulke of his person, and that onely in prison, not in the field, and to disobey his commands, deny him his dignity and office, every where to resist his power but where they thinke it onely furviving in thir own faction.

But who in particular is a Tyrant cannot be determin'd in a general difcours, otherwife then by fuppofition; his particular charge, and the fufficient proof of it must determin that: which I leave to Magiftrates, at least to the uprighter fort of them, and of the people, though in number less by many, in whom faction leaft hath prevaild above the Law of nature and right reafon, to judge as they find cause.

But this I dare owne as part of my faith, that if such a one there be, by whofe Commiffion, whole massachers have been committed on his faithfull Subjects, his Provinces offerd to pawn or alienation, as the hire of those whom he had follicited to come in and destroy whole Citties and Countries; be he King, or Tyrant, or Emperour, the Sword of Justice is above him; in whofe hand foever is found fufficient power to avenge the effusion, and so great a deluge of innocent blood. For if all human power to execute, not accidentally but intendedly, the wrath of God upon evil doers without exception, be of God; then that power, whether ordinary, or if that faile, extraordinary fo executing that intent of God, is lawfull, and not to be refifted. But to unfold more at large this whole Question, though with all expedient brevity, I shall here fet downe from first beginning, the original of Kings; how and wherfore exalted to that dignitie above thir Brethren; and from thence shall prove, that turning to Tyranny they may bee as lawfully depos'd and punish'd, as they were at first elected: This I fhall doe by autorities and reasons, not learnt in corners among Scifms and Herefies, as our doubling Divines are ready to calumniat, but fetch't out of the midst of choicest and most authentic learning, and no prohibited Authors, nor many Heathen, but Mofaical, Chriftian, Orthodoxal, and which must needs be more convincing to our Adverfaries, Prefbyterial.

No man who knows ought, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were borne free, being the image and resemblance of God himself, and were by privilege above all the creatures, born to command and not to obey: and that they liv'd fo. Till from the root of Adams tranfgreffion, falling among themselves to doe wrong and violence, and foreseeing that fuch courfes must needs tend to the deftruction of

them all, they agreed by common league to bind each other from mutual injury, and joyntly to defend themselves against any that disturbance or opgave pofition to fuch agreement. Hence came Citties, Townes and Common-wealths. And because no faith in all was found fufficiently binding, they faw it needfull to ordaine fom authoritie, that might restrain by force and punishment what was violated against peace and common right. This autoritie and power of felf-defence and prefervation being originally and naturally in every one of them, and unitedly in them all, for eafe, for order, and leaft each man should be his own partial Judge, they communicated and deriv'd either to one, whom for the eminence of his wisdom and integritie they chose above the reft, or to more then one whom they thought of equal deferving: the firft was call'd a King; the other Magistrates. Not to be thir Lords and Maifters (though afterward those names in fom places were giv'n voluntarily to fuch as had been Authors of inestimable good to the people) but, to be thir Deputies and Commiffioners, to execute, by vertue of thir intrusted power, that juftice which elfe every man by the bond of nature and of Cov'nant must have executed for himself, and for one another. And to him that shall confider well why among free Persons, one man by civil right should beare autority and jurisdiction over another, no other end or reason can be imaginable. These for a while govern'd well, and with much equity decided all things at thir own arbitrement: till the temptation of such a power left abfolute in thir hands, perverted them at length to injuftice and partialitie. Then did they who now by tryal had found the danger and inconveniences of committing arbitrary power to any, invent Laws either fram'd, or confented to by all, that should confine and limit the autority of whom they chose

to govern them that so man, of whose failing they had proof, might no more rule over them, but law and reafon abstracted as much as might be from perfonal errors and frailties. While as the Magiftrate was fet above the people, fo the Law was set above the Magistrate. When this would not ferve, but that the Law was either not executed, or misapply'd, they were constrain'd from that time, the onely remedy left them, to put conditions and take Óaths from all Kings and Magistrates at thir first instalment to doe impartial juftice by Law: who upon those termes and no other, receav'd Allegeance from the people, that is to fay, bond or Covnant to obey them in execution of thofe Lawes which they the people had themselves made, or affented to. And this ofttimes with express warning, that if the King or Magiftrate prov'd unfaithfull to his truft, the people would be difingag'd. They added alfo Counselors and Parlaments, nor to be onely at his beck, but with him or without him, at fet times, or at all times, when any danger threatn'd to have care of the public safety. Therefore faith Claudius Sefell a French Statesman, The Parliament was fet as a bridle to the King; which I instance rather, not because our English Lawyers have not faid the fame long before, but because that French Monarchy is granted by all to be a farr more abfolute then ours. That this and the rest of what hath hitherto been spok'n is most true, might be copiously made appeare throughout all Stories Heathen and Christian; ev'n of those Nations where Kings and Emperours have fought meanes to abolish all ancient memory of the Peoples right by thir encroachments and ufurpations. But I fpare long infertions, appealing to the known conftitutions of both the latest Chriftian Empires in Europe, the Greek and German, befides the French, Italian, Arragonian, English, and not leaft the Scottish Histo