But he hath found one firme Axiome , That when part of any thing is cut off , the whole qua tale is destroyed quià dum cessat forma , cessat formatum ; ergo the late force on the Parliament hath made this no Parliament .

I wish he had taken the paines to give either a distinction or an instance in his Axiome , or have drawn up his inference into a Syllogisme ; for I feare we shall finde wide impertinence in the first , and a grosse non sequitur , in the last as he hath ordered it . The question disputed here is not whither the denominated Parliament now sitting at Westminster be a Parliament according to the old forme and composure of Parliament or no , but whither tht Parliament now sitting at Westminster , be the supreame power of the Kingdome or no , and to be obeyed in lawfull things . His Argument runs thus ;

The surpeme power of the Kingdome consists in a Parliament of King , Lords and Commons .

But at Westminster there is not a Parliament consisting of King , Lords and Commons .

Ergo at Westminster , there is no true Parliament at all nam dum cessat forma , cessat formatum .

I thought he had been so good a Logician , as to have understood that the conclusion of his Syllogisme ought to have been contradictory to the question , from which it is as distant as if he would have concluded that two and three make five , which is very true , but how is it any thing to the purpose ?

However I will doe him the favour to deny his Major — For we speake of powers which now are , and he himselfe hath all along condoled the e●ection of the King , and of house of Lords , as things which are not . Sed non entium nultae sunt affectiones ; & so consequently they who are now nothing , make nothing now at Westminster , or anywhere else . But doth it follow however , that there can not be now any supream power at Westminster ? at all If he had proved this , he had proved something . But pe●●aps the very word Parliament poses him , or else he would thereby impose on others . I must confesse words are dangerous , when they are not fully explained : and possibly the King mistook himselfe very much upon the very Alphabet and word of his Title , supposing he could not be named King , unlesse he were ab●olute , as he observed other Kings were ; whereas by our constitution he was but one of three , who concurred to the making and abrogating a Law , and it belong'd to the Commons alone , to lay an universall taxe ; so that he was in most things rather Prince by office , then King by power , in tanto , non in toto . Even so the word Parliament , as it hath been popularly understood , signifies the assembly of severall houses , deliberating and concluding what was judged for the good of the publique .

But it is a contradiction to say a Parliament cannot at all be truly so called , unles so understood ; we know there are eight Parliaments in France , which are not of such a constitution , though of the same Denomination . And if severall persons plenipotentiarily deputed to conclude for the publique good of the people , sit now at Westminster , and that the other concurrent powers be civily dead ; why may not we congruously enough still call them a Parliament ? His axiome therefore serves onely against himselfe , and the true English of dum cessat form● cessat formatum ; is this , That seeing the old forme of this state , as it was in the supremacy of Kings Lords and Commons ▪ hath in that relation ceased to be , and is civilly dead , not being able any longer to act any thing ; and that a civill body as well a naturall , cannot live without a head one day ; it followes then by this position , that the Regall Government is gone , and that we are in the state of a Republique ; no other power now informing or actuating us , besides that which pretends to such a state ; and where I pray you is that to be found now , but at Westminster .

In the next place he offers a case , If the King , when hee came to accuse the five Members , had detained all but forty and the Speaker ; and had forc't them to Vote , that the whole Legislative power resided in himselfe ; would we have deemed this a valid Vote ? Especially seeing some Votes since this Session were adjudged Null , because the House was under a force . By which it seemes ( quoth he ) that with some new veritas non est perpetua ; and Duo dum faciunt idem , non estidem .

To the first I answer positively , That such a Vote attained by the King , had beene no wayes duely valid .

But what is this to the purpose ? For the question should have beene after the King had detained such a Vote , and had got us all into his full possession , whether we of the people might have obey'd him ever after in lawfull things .

Secondly , if he would have the people understand this case to be parallel , to the late exclusion of the Members , he prevaricates grosly againe ; For he supposes the very forty in the House , with the King , to have been under a force ; whereas in the Parliaments late case , none but those who were out of the House , were under restraint ; the former were supposed to be forc't to a particular Vote , the latter were kept from Voting at all : Besides they who de facto Voted in the House , have publiquely declared that they past their Votes , with all wonted freedome , and were rescued as it were from an overawing power , which concludes against his Argument abundantly . As in this Argument he hath done truth little service ; so he hath ( by his mistake ) done Kingly Government lesse . For if Princes who have us in their full possession , may be obey'd in no lawful things , after they acquire an addition of some other powers unlawfull ; then he would dislove most of their Governments , and have absolv'd us from Allegiance to King Charles long before this Parliament began ; by which sort of arguing the Royallists I see will have no great prise this Gentleman .

But the Parliament hath already declared the Votes made under a force are null ; This Vote I suppose he meanes past , after Boyes and apprentices of the Towne , had entred the House , and made the Speaker propound , and the Members Vote what they pleas'd . Here indeed there were forced Votes ; But surely this proves not , that they who Voted , when the Members were last excluded , Voted in that manner . Besides the Parliament which knowes better then we of the people , what their owne disorders within their House are , are only fit to Vote , what Votes have beene forc't upon them , and they since that time have declared , they never transacted things with greater freedome and lesse overawing . From whence I easily see that his Axiomes will serve him nothing at all . For we acknowledge Veritatem esse perpetuam , if we speake of naturall and Mathematicall truths , where there is no medium proportionis , to varie the thing ; as , all number are even or odd ; because there is no middle number , so all lines are either crooked or straight : But morall & civil things are alwaies in change , because humane actions are invested with such an infinity of circumstances and accidents ; for which reason Duo dum faciunt idem non est idem ; For no two men in the world can act the same thing in all the same circumstances : Thus we heare that Omnis des●nitio in jure est periculosa ; and summum jus aliquando sit summa miuria , which cannot be but in regard of those various accidents which perplex our actions , and make them like that famous flower the Marvell of Peru , which changes the colour of it 's Leaves every day . His last axiome , That no man ought to take advantage of his owne wrongfull act or of anothers : is impertinent and no way beloning to us of the people . If he intends it to the present Governours , he had best to take heed againe , that he determine not against severall lines of our Kings : For the clearing of whose titles after usurpations , the Judges were ancienty sore put to it , to make this one Axiome for all . That the imposition of the Crowne takes away all defects , and stops in blood . And if this be true , then we and our forefathers for the most part , have live'd ●nder no better Titles then Plenary possession , to which they submitted , either because they knew no better Titles , or could have none of better to command them , or because they were resolved they might lawfully submit in lawfull things , which therefore as it now seemes , is not so much our present question as our present passion .

Two principall inconveniences hee findes in this present Government , and by the goodnesse of the fruit hee hopes hee may judge of the Tree . where I must againe admonish him , that the civill fruit of a Government is alike in all Governments , especially as to the Meum and Tuum of a people besides , if the tree and the fruits here were alike , then a good Axiome were spol'd ; Malus homo potest esse bonus civis , & bonus magistratus , A man bad to himselfe , may be a good Magistrate and a good Common-wealths man . His first inconvenience is ,

That wee have now made the basis of the State , a quick-sand ; and it stands like Nebuchadnezzars Image , upon a mixt footing , part iron , part clay .

I answer , that it stands not now on so mixt a footing as before ; For the concurrence of King , Lords , and Commons , for the product of a supream act , was a mixture of things very heterogeneous , to enter into one and the same composition : By reason whereof , supremacy confin'd as it were on a Battable ground ; and if we will believe Persidents , King sometimes gain'd upon the other two , sometimes the Lords topt both , and now all is more united then ever in the sole sufferage of the people .

Toleration is the next inconvenience , it being but equitable , That if wee thinke it lawfull to force people to submit to the Orders of the State , the same people be compel'd to adhere to an established confession of faith in Religion . For it is presum'd that Obedience is fully as due to God as to man .

I answer , the Christian Religion is not tolerated amongst us , it is enjoyn'd , as much as one man can passe it upon another ; For , the finall penalty of neglecting it here is not to be required of us mutually in this life .

Secondly , The confessions of faith , which he would have men forc't too , are ( as I conceive he meanes ) but logicall deductions out of Scripture , Ergo not indubitably , true enough to be by force obtruded on mens faiths ; It is not enough to say here , that they who compile them verily believe them true , and intend not to deceive , which is all that can be said . For then they doe no more but quote themselves , and we are taught that it is a Popish opinion to beleeve any company of men are infallible , in what they purpose : wherefore the Magistrate can doe no more safely , then recommend not force , their notions and Logick on the people . But in a case of meum and tuum , or in a morall thing he may be more peremptory then in a divine , because those things are certainlyer knowne to us as men , then what is of divine revelation and inference .

He feares that by an obedience to an unlawfull power , he may assert its unlawfulnesse ; and should our servants rise against us , and command us by threats to performe a lawfull Act , which is but transient we might yeild to avoid their force : But if they should affirme that the Government of the family were theirs by right , and that they intended to perpetuate it over us ; we should thinke it a great sinne to betray that place and power wherein God hath naturally and morally placed us .

This indeed is a very fine subtilty to end in nothing : and I am sure what ever the basis of the State be , the Basis of his Argument is put on a quick-sand . For if he intend truth thereby , he should have proved this maine thing ; That the former Magistrate was our naturall parent , and that we all derive from him , as from a Genarcha , which being so evidently false , is as ill supposed . For in this confusion of Families in the world , in which the originall Families are lost ; we owe no naturall duty to any , but to those from whose blood we derive .

Secondly , Though it were true , that the chiefe Magistrate were our naturall Parent , yet it followes not , but there may be a case wherein he might be refrained from Government ; the law supposes many , which is sufficient to oppose this Gentlemans single judgement ; And if he be indeed a Presbyterian , he hath already concluded as much in the last Kings case , by concurring to invest his person with the accidents of Warre , in detayning him prisoner at Holmby , and Newcastle &c.

Thirdly , I understand not what he meanes by Gods placing a Magistrate morally over us . For God he is our Divine and supreame Magistrate ; our Parent is our naturall and domestik Magistrate , and those who command the State wherein we are , are our civill publique subordinate Magistrates under God ; and every particular man who is arrived to the maturity of reason , is , ( if any such be ) his owne morall or private Magistrate . For the principle of a humane or morall action , is a minde acting freely according to vertue , and those lawes which are written within us . But if by a morall Magistrate , he meanes such a one only , as is seated over us , and hath a care that we live conformably to vertue , and honesty in relation to others ; then it followes , that whoever hath the capacity so to hold inspection over us , is a sufficient Magistrate ; but that can onely be he under whose full possession we actually are . Moreover he is to know againe , that States cannot looke so strictly after vertue , as after publique quiet . For morall vertue is a private thing , and by reason of the free concurrence of the will , cannot be discovered certainely , but by those who are able to look within a man : But that which is ad alterum , and concernes rather wrong , then right , belongs to the Politicall Magistrate , as a thing which cannot without confusion have redresse otherwayes . For the chiefe convenience of a State , is , that people might be kept from inconvenience , or incommoding one another ; and that they may be conserv'd in a liberty to doe other good things according to Piety and honesty : So that he who doth things in themselves good , though under an unlawfull civill Magistrate , doth not by those acts assert any Magistrates right ; but his only who originally gave Law and Rules for those internall acts , and that is Gods right alone .

Lastly , whereas in this argument , he saith a Father of a family so abused should in his required submission , sin , if he betrayed his place and power which God had naturally given him . I answer that there is a difference betwixt betraying a place so given , and loosing it by force ( which indeed is his first supposition ) The one cannot be done without sin , because it is done voluntarily and totally by himselfe , but it is not our sin if we be forc't out of a place ; to which we are compelled by a principle without us , and totally besides our power .

But there is a lawfuller power visible enough to religious eyes , though for the present in an Ecclipse , and suspended . It is not lawfull for a man to marry another woman whilst his owne wife is in a sound , or for a woman to marry another man , whilst her husband is in captivity or restraint , and willing to come to her if he might .

To this I answer ; First , How knowes he certainely that the other power is onely in an ecclipse or suspended ? or if it be onely in an Ecclipse , doth it follow that we of the People might not doe lawfull Actions by the suppliment of other lights , whilst we cannot have that of the Sun ? Must we all that while cease to be men for the absence of that which we cannot help ? The Presybterian party would not have that understood so ; when the King was in prison at Holmby . There be no more suns in the world but one , but there are many Magistrates , and such who give better light one then the other , for which reason God first chose not Monarchy for the Jewes , certainly in an Ecclipse , the Sun is never out of his naturall Orbe , though his light and influence may be suspended and intercepted from us , but when a Prince is in a forraigne Country , and lives under the Lawes of another Magistracy , and that all Lawes and di stributions of Justice and Magistracy in the Country he pretends to , are made without him and against him , will you according to the Lawes of Nature , Nations , or Policy , say he alone , and in that condition , is the supreame power or Authority of that Country , or rather that we of the People do nothing but sinne in his absence , though we do things in themselves lawfull ? If you will aske how he came to be out of his Orbe or Country , ? I am sure it was against the advice either of Presbyterian or Independent . It is easily granted , That a man may not marry another woman , so soone as his wife falls into a swound . But you must againe be reminded that the nature of Marriage and of Government differ extreamly there , where you suppose them most to agree . For Marriage is not alwaies necessary to every particular man . But the publique body of a people cannot be without Government one day , no more then a man can be without a Head , because a smalltime serves to the ruine of a man . Secondly , to take this or that woman to wife , is a thing of free choice ; but it is not so alwaies with the People in relation to Kings , who have many of them committed great Rapes upon them , as I beleeve this Gentleman will acknowledge .