Treasons Masterpiece, Date · Date 1
Colonel Jones, 16. April.
MAy it pleaſe your Highneſſe, I am unwilling to ſpend the time in ſpeaking after thoſe two learned and honourable perſons that ſpake laſt, and therefore ſhall endeavour in what I have to ſay to thoſe doubts you were pleaſed to make when this Committee had the honour laſt to attend you, to be as brief as may be. Your Highneſſe was pleaſed then to ſay, that though the arguments brought to the maintenance of the title King, in the Petition preſented to you by the Parliament, were weighty, yet in your anſwering them you muſt not grant them neceſſarily concluſions, but take them as having much of conveniency and probability of, towards concluding; for if an expedient may be found, they are not then neceſſary. And you were pleaſed to tell us that though Kingſhip be not a Title, but an Office interwoven in our laws, yet it is not ſo natione nominis, but from what it ſignifies, that being a name of office plainly implying the Supreme Magiſtrate, and therefore whatever name it be, wherein the Supreme Magiſtrate reſides, the ſignification will give to the thing, and not to the name, and ſeeing this Title had a Commencement, and alſo hath been unfixed, why may not a new one now commence and be now fixed by the legiſlative authoritie, and thereby be made to run through the law, as well as the Title King; from whence may be inferred this Title is not neceſſary,) but may it pleaſe your Highneſs, if it be conſidered the intention of the Parliament in this their humble addreſſe to you, (viz.) that it is a Settlement: it would then be likewiſe conſidered, whether a new name will not be found, in this caſe to make a new office alſo, and whether then the novelty thereof will not hazard it nor fruſtrate that great end of ſettlement, the Antiquitie and tryal of laws, being that which doth beget the greateſt reverence and ſatisfaction of them in the people, and that the change of the name makes it a new office will appear both in reſpect of his authoritie, who bears the office and in reſpect of the peoples obligation in matter of obedience to that new officer; for by the ancient law he cannot claim ſubjection from them, nor can the people thereby claim protection from him, the ſtrength then of the ſettlement, and of their rights and liberties, as farre as they relate to this new Supreme Magiſtracy, will reſt upon a new and untried conſtitution, and this authority upon the ſame foundation, the wiſdome of our Anceſtours, even in leſſer matters when they introduce a new Law, made it for the moſt part a probationer onelyonly; and I may humbly ſay, we have now ſome years been making probationeries of new governments, and therefore the Parliament finding the people not yet ſettled with any of them, return to that which by long experience and cuſtome hath been found to ſuit with their minds, and rights, the people having not the ſame ſatisfaction nor acquieſcence in any new thing which they have in long approved laws and cuſtoms, a new thing being in it ſelf uncertain, not onelyonly whether it will prove good or no, but alſo in this caſe, in reſpect that one main property of the ſettlement being a co-ordinate power, depends upon it, and will be ſubject to be controverted whether one co-ordinate is well put up by another, or may not by the like power that ſets it up, be pulled down again, which cannot but leave mens minds as doubtful of ſettlement as ever, things uncertain and diſputable, naturally carrying unſettlement with them. Time and experience hath grafted this Name and Office in the minds of the people, and that (as I ſaid already) begets reverence and ſatisfaction in their minds. Alſo they were the exorbitances of the office (which in great meaſure this petition provides againſt) that was complained of, and not the Office nor Name, which are founded upon the ancient laws, the altering of either, alters the conſtitution, and lays it upon a foundation leſſe certain, and eaſier to be ſhaken; and therefore to take up the office without the title will be to take it up with all the objections of Scandal: or otherwiſe it is ſaid to be liable to, and yet to want the ſupport of the ancient laws it carries with it, and the advantage of ſatisfying and ſettling the minds of ſuch of the people of theſe Nations, as by the conſideration of novelties, and what in this caſe attends it, will otherwiſe reſt doubtful and unſettled. Theſe are ſome of the grounds I obſerved in the debate of the Parliament, to induce them to judge this title not only expedient, but in reſpect of ſettlement neceſſary. Your Highneſs was pleaſed to object alſo the diſſatisfaction of good men which you judged in things indifferent were to be conſidered.
They are ſo, and it hath been ſo judged by the Parliament, who manifeſted great tenderneſſe in that kind, and I hope ever will: but in this matter found by the Parliament not to be indifferent, but neceſſary for the ſettlement of theſe Nations, they hope that wherein good people have not already been ſatisfied, they will endeavour for ſatisfaction: and it is to be hoped that when the matter of this Petition will be made more publick, they will find ſuch care and proviſion made for good men, and of good things, that will certainly give them ſatisfaction, I think I may ſafely ſay, ſuch a poſitive proviſion for their liberties and incouragement hath not been found under any former King, nor any other form of government, to which your Highneſs hath been pleaſed your ſelf to give that teſtimony, ſo that it is not Kingſhip alone, as formerly the Parliament adviſeth your Highneſſe unto, but to the office with ſuch a proviſion made for the good intereſt; and if then your Highneſſe (of whoſe faithfulneſſe to their intereſt, good people have received ſuch ample teſtimony) will be pleaſed to conſent to this Petition of the Parliament, an authority always of no ſmall eſteem and reverence with the beſt men; I doubt not but when it is done they will chearfully acquieſce, though while it is doing they may have ſcruples for that of providence laying aſide the title, I thinking the argument whence will be as cogent againſt the office it ſelf, and againſt government by a ſingle perſon under any title, the acts of Parliament mentioned are as expreſſely againſt the one as the other; and therefore the exerciſe of the Supreme power by a ſingle perſon under any title, is as much a contradiction of providence and theſe acts of Parliament, as the exerciſe thereof under the title of a King: but certainly the laying aſide of a thing de facto, which though indeed it be an act of providence, yet it cannot be conſtrued, that the intendment, of that providence is finally to lay it aſide, never to be reaſſumed again: the conſequences of ſuch a poſition are many and may be dangerous, for what by that rule is not to be laid aſide.
I remember here an objection made, that your Highneſs in another place, which I had almoſt forgotten, which was that we did enjoy our laws, and that the juſtice was freely adminiſtred under ſeveral changes and titles, as that of the Keepers of the liberty, and the title your Highneſſe now bears. To which I humbly anſwer, that if ſo it may be ſaid, thanks are rather to be given to the perſons into whoſe hands the power fell, than to the conſtitutions. However I crave leave to ſay this, that changes imply not a ſettlement, and ſince providence led us from our old conſtutition, we have in a few years had 4. or 5. changes, and that theſe changes have not been accompanied with more hazards, it is a matter of praiſe to the Lord, and of commendation to the powers we have been under, but if one providence both laid aſide Kingſhip, another led it in, and calls upon you to take it up: and it is to me a remarkable thing, that providence hath caſt it under ſuch conſtitutions and laws, as if when we have thrown out the Tyrant that oppreſſed in our ſpiritual and civil rights, we can by our ancient laws graft another in, that may be a fit inſtrument to preſerve both; who (as the learned perſon that ſpoke laſt ſaid) may make up as it were but one King: this 500 years the law not admitting an Inter-Regnum, from whence I inferre, that as it was not the end of our Warre, as appears by ſix or ſeven Declarations of Parliament, one whereof was ordered to be read in all Churches; ſo our providence led not to lay aſide either the Name or Office, but that Family which oppreſſed us, then all mens lives and liberties depend on this ſettlement, it is neceſſary then to lay it in the ſtrongeſt foundation that may be.
And as for that of ſafety, it is not for me to ſpeak much to it, but certainly it is to be hoped, that as a Parliament adviſe your Highneſſe to things honeſt and lawful, and by them judged neceſſary for a good ſettlement, and therein take care and provide for our Rights as men and Chriſtians, and your Highneſs thereunto, all dangers by Gods bleſſing upon your Highneſs wiſdom, backed with ſuch an Annuity, and an Army under the conduct of ſo many religious and faithful perſons, ſo well principled to the obedience of lawful powers, may be prevented. And therefore I humbly hope God will incline your Highneſs to grant the Petition and advice of the Parliament.