Evangelium armatum, A specimen, or short collection of several doctrines and positions destructive to our government, both civil and ecclesiastical preached and vented by the known leaders and abetters of the pretended reformation such as Mr. Calamy, Mr. Jenkins, Mr. Case, Mr. Baxter, Mr. Caryll, Mr. Marshall, and others, &c.

The Independents Conclusions from the Presby∣terian Principles. Mr. John Dury's Considera∣tions concerning the present Engagement; with Mr. Caryl's Imprimatur, An. Dom. 1649.

THe Oath of Allegiance, as you know, did bind all men as Subjects in Law, to be true and faithful to the Kings Person, to his Heirs and Successors, as they were invested with the authority which the Law did give them: nor was it ever meant by the Parlament which Enacted the Oath of Allegiance, that any should be absolutely bound to the King and

his Heirs, as they were men, to be true and faithful to their Personal Wills; but onely to them and their Wills, as they had a Legal stand∣ing: that is, to the Authority conferred upon them by the consent of the People, which was testified in and under a Law; whereunto the King and his Heirs were bound for the Kingdoms good by Oath. So that the Obli∣gations of King and Subjects are mutual, and must needs stand and fall together, according as the condition by which they are begotten is kept or broken; which is nothing else but the Law, according to which he and his Subjects agree, that he shall be their King, and they shall be his Sub∣jects. For as you were sworn to the King, so he was sworn to you; as you were bound to be faithful to him, so he was bound to be faithful to his trust; nor is he your Liege further than he is faithful thereunto. If then he be found unfaithful to his trust, you are ipso facto absolved from your Allegiance unto him; and if, according to Law, he receives not his Au∣thority, you are not in Law his Subjects at all. Now the just and natural foundation of all Laws, is the Reason of the Body of every Nation in their Parlament, which hath the sole Right to propose and chuse the Laws by which they will be Ruled. Where it hath been (as I sup∣pose) a perpetual custom in this Nation, for the Commons at all times, to ask and propose the making of Laws; and for the Lords and King to give their consent thereunto: The Lords as the Judges in cases of trans∣gression, and the King as the Executor and publick Trustee for the ad∣ministration of the common good and wealth thereby; for in a King∣dom there is a Common-wealth, as the intrinsical substance of the Being thereof; for which all things are to be done by King and Lords, as the publick servants thereof; and Ministers not Masters of State therein. If the King then should set himself wilfully to be above this Reason of the Nation, which is the onely Original of the Law, and refuse obstinately the Laws which they shall chuse to be setled, he puts himself ipso facto, out of the capacity of being a King any more unto them; and if this can be made out, to have been the way wherein the late King set himself, and that it was the design of the House of Lords, to uphold and enable him to follow that way, it is evident, that so far as he did by that means actually un-King himself, as to this Nation, so far also they that assisted him in that design, did un-Lord themselves in the State thereof; and if this was the guilt of the House of Lords, by other practices and proceedings more than by an indifferencie and compliance with the Hamiltonian invasion, to help the King to such a power, I know not what to answer for them▪

It is then undeniable that the third Article of that National Cove∣nant, was •…•…ever meant by those that made it, or that took ir, to be oppo∣site

to the sense of the Oath of Allegiance, but altogether agreeable thereunto. What then the meaning of that Article is, must needs also be the true sense of the Oath of Allegiance. That Article then doth oblige you, to preserve the Right and Privileges of the Parlament, and the Li∣berties of the Kingdom in your Calling, absolutely and without any limi∣tation; but as for the Kings person and Authority, it doth oblige you onely thereunto, conditionally, and with a limitation; Namely, in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of this Kingdom. If then the King did not give to the Representatives of the Nation that assurance which was satisfactory and necessary that their Religion and Li∣berties should be preserved, none of his Subjects were bound either by their Allegiance or Covenant, to defend his person and the Authority which was conferred upon him. The Oath of Allegiance therefore was bottomed upon the Laws, which the Representatives of the Nation in Parlament had chosen to be observed concerning their Religion, and the Liberties of the Kingdom; which he refractorily either casting off, or seeming to yield unto, in such a way that no trust could be given him, that he would keep what he yielded unto; the Parlament did actually lay him aside, and voted, that no more Addresses should be made unto him, from which time forward he was no more an object of your Oath of Al∣legiance, but to be look'd upon as a Private man: and your Oath by which you were engaged to be true and faithful to the Law, by which the Reli∣gion and Liberty of the Kingdom was to be preserved, did still remain in force: which if it may be the true substantial sense of the present Engage∣ment, which you think is contradictory to this Oath and to the National Covenant, then you are to look well to it, that you be not mistaken; for to an indifferent eye, it may be thought so far from being opposite to the true sense of either, that it may be rather a confirmation of the ground, for which both the Oath of Allegiance, and the third Article of the Na∣tional Covenant was then binding.

And then also this I am confident of, to be able to let you see further, that although you may think that the effect of this Engagement is mate∣rially contrary to some intention which you had in the third Article of the Covenant; yet that by the Act of the Engagement, you are so far from breaking your Covenant, that except you take it, and observe it faith∣fully, you will not onely materially, but formally break that very Article of the Covenant, for which you scruple the taking of the Engagement.

For the words must be taken in the sense which they can directly bear, •…•…nd which do impart the main end for which the Covenant was taken; for the main end of this very Article whereof you make a scruple, was evi∣dently

to preserve the Parlament and Common-wealth for it self, and (i•…•… need so required) also without the King.

Now this is that which the Engagement doth directly also require; for which cause I say, that by vertue of this very promise, you are bound to take the present Engagement; and if you take it not, that you make your self a transgressor of that very Article which you pretend to keep; for if you refuse to be true and faithful to the Common-wealth as it is now e∣stablished, you do what in you lyeth to make the remaining Knights of Parlament, and the beginnings of our settlement void; which though at first it was not intended to be without a King, yet it was cleerly pre∣supposed in the Article it self, as possible to be without him, and conse∣quently, that although he should not be, yet that the Common-wealth by the Rights of Parlament and the Liberties of the Nation should be preserved, which is all that now is sought for by the Engagement.

Where you may take notice, that although you and I as private men, ought not to make our selves judges of the rights which superiors pretend to have, in and to their places; yet that they are not without a Judicature over them in those places, for the subordinate Officers belonging to a State, are bound to judge of the Rights of those that are over them; both by which they stand in their places of Supremacy, and by which they proceed in their actings toward Subjects, lest they be made the instru∣ments of Arbitrary power and tyranny, and then also the law-making power, which in all Nations resides by the Law of Nature in the con∣vention of the Representatives of the whole body of the people (whe∣ther it be made up of the heads of families, or of chosen Deputies, who are intrusted with a delegated power from all the rest) doth make or un∣make Rights, in all places and persons within it self, as it from time to time doth see cause.

HAving thus surveyed the dangerous Positions and Principles of the Presbyterians & their brethren, that it may be evident to the world that the enemies of our Church, are equally enemies to our Monarchy, it will not be amiss to lay down some of the Principles of the Papists and the Hobbians. In which not to multiply citations, we will, for one of the first of these take father White, who is counted the most moderate of them, in his Book Intitled the Grounds of Obedience and Government; And for the next Mr. Hobbs himself, in his Books, one called Leviathan, and the other de Cive, which he so magnifies, that he affirms that part of Philosophy to which the handling of the Elements of Government and Civil Societies belongs, is no older than that Book.