A brief examination and consideration of the unsound princples upon which the armies plea (lately committed to publick view) is grounded wherein the repentance of those army-men and the conversion of all other persons from the error of their ways who have (in what capacity so-ever) acted by the said principles is most earnestly desired and specially aimed at / by a friend to the truth.

That though Supreme Magistrates be above every indivi∣dual, yet are they beneath, and inferior unto the whole.

Certainly, the too much boldnesse, or the too little brains of such as being but a handful in comparison of the whole will yet pretend the authority of the whole for their lawlesse practises, may justly be wondred at. There never was a Schisme in the Church, but the parties to it immediately took upon them the Name and Title of the Church, as if there were no Church, nor

any true Christians beside themselves, the unworthiest indeed of all other to be so accounted. And exactly so it is in the Civil State: Any number of persons once com∣bined and formed into a faction, (especially having gain∣ed power enough, as they think, to prevail over the rest,) will immediately bestow upon themselves very liberally the Name and Title of the Nation, the whole people, and the Common-wealth; and will certainly call their own Se∣curity in their unrighteous wayes, the Publick Safety, and the Common good; and all other men, that justly hate their grosse unrighteousnesse, the Common Enemy. And here, a Party not very considerable in comparison of the whole, takes upon them to talk of the whole, as if there were no people in England, or none of any note beside themselves. Or, if they speak, as in behalf of the whole, (whose mind and will they either know not, or know to be justly op∣posite to theirs,) they should remember, that when the whole should appear and shew themselves in their Univer∣sal capacity, in choosing freely their full and equal Repre∣sentative, they were to have the base bondage put upon them, to be so limited therein, as to be made the Instru∣ments of their own destruction. Have any of the Kings or Queens of England so tyrannically encroached upon the Peoples Right, as to limit them in their Choise, be∣yond or beside the limit of known Law and Custome? But the whole people (after too palpable Experiment of the Losse of their ancient Liberty,) will never be flatter'd into eternal bondage to any Party or Faction by being told of a new Discovery of an unknown right, by those men that have deprived them of their old; Nor will they ever be made believe, that their Lawful Supreme Magi∣strate, whom (they very well know) God hath set over them, is inferiour to them.

But, how little truth there is in the fore-recited Prin∣ciple,

[That Supreme Magistrates are inferiour to the whole, though about every individual,] it evidently appears, in that it plainly signifies little lesse than a contradiction: For, what is it but every individual in any number what∣soever, that makes up the whole? Or if it be meant not of every, but of any one, severally taken, it signifies no∣thing; unlesse it be, That the Supreme Magistrate is su∣periour only to Thomas, and William, and James and John, to wit, severally, but not joyntly: And, if this were true, it would indeed be a brave encouragement to any power∣ful party that should oppose the Publick Weale, and seek the subversion of the Fundamental Laws, Customes, and Constitution of the whole Civil Body of the Kingdome. And how soon such a Party, well armed, will call them∣selves the Whole, experience enough hath taught all men to know: And then all the rest of the whole Nation is at their mercy, and that without remedy: For the Supreme Magistrate hath no authority over them as they are a combined pack of Rebels conjoyned in a close conspiracy, whatsoever authority He may have over every individual, in severalty from the rest, now call'd the whole. Who sees not that this Doctrine is meerly Anabaptistical, striking at the root of all Magistracy properly so called? For what∣soever power can be pretended or imagined to be in the whole people, (which is indeed the whole,) it is no such thing as Magistracy. And if there be any such power that can justly nullifie or check all Magistracie, the most rigid Anabaptists will require no more, to warrant any enter∣prize for the utter subversion of it. But, that there should indeed be any power in a Nation, (beside the natural vi∣gour that is in them,) but only the Civil power of Magi∣stracy, is a meer Chimaera. All the individuals, and every one put together (the Magistrate excepted) are but pri∣vate persons, endur'd with no more civil authority than any

one of them is by himself alone: Consequently, the Su∣preme Magistrate must needs be above and Superiour to the Whole number of them all. There is a sure way of ar∣guing in Logick, which they call Induction; by which, out of a full enumeration of every individual, an Universal is undoubtedly concluded: And Universal is that Whole that is made up of nothing else but of every particular or individual contain'd under it. That the Supreme Magistrate therefore is Supreme to every individual (without excepti∣on,) (which are meer private persons all) but inferiour to the Universal or whole, (for all that) is too much a nicety (at best) for the whole weight of mens salvation to rely up∣on; it being no lesse than damnation that God hath already denounc'd against them that practically er in this particular.

Besides, it may be here considered, that that which in every Nation makes the several individuals to become one Whole, is that whereby they are incorporated as members of the Civil Body of a Kingdom or Common-wealth; and that is, the anciently received, accustomed fundamental constitution of it: This therefore dissolved, either in all, or in any of the Essentials of it, the whole Compages and joynting together of this Body is utterly dissolved with it. If therefore the Supreme Magistrate, (who, in every an∣cient Kingdom can be no other but the King,) being the sole Head of the Civil Body of such, be taken away, sup∣pressed and banished, and the Kingdom (by consequence) cease to be what it was and hath ever been, the people are no more one Whole (however held together by constraint) than a heap of stones; and the only foundation of true ju∣stice, and of all civil administration that can be just, is ta∣ken away And, to prevent this fatal mischief, and for no other cause, it hath ever been a maine and fundamental Maxim in the Law of England, That the King can never dye.

It can never therefore be possible in this or in any other

Kingdom, for the Whole Body to destroy the Head, but that Body must be felo de se, and utterly cease to be any Body at all. This Whole therefore can never in Law, or right reason, or common justice have any Superiority above the Supreme Magistrate, to any such effect.

Notes

• The ninth.