CHAP. II. Whether a Prince or other Magistrate, la∣bouring to suppress, or punish a Rebel∣lion of the People, be tied to those rules are necessary for the justifying of a War, if it were made between equals.

WAr was first brought in by necessity, where the determining of controver∣sies between two strange Princes of equal Po∣wer, could not be had, because they have no superiour: A Rebel therefore cannot pro∣perly be called an enemy, for Hostis nomen notat aequalitatem; and when any such Arms are borne against Rebels, it is not to be cal∣led a War, but an Exercise of Jurisdiction upon trayterous and dissoyal Persons, atque est ratio manifesta, saith Albericus Gentilis, qui enim jure judex est & superior, non jure cogitur * ad subeundas partes partis & aequalis, & non est bellum cum latronibus praedonibus aut piratis quanquam magnos habeant excercitus, & proin∣de nec ulla cum illis belli jura, saith Besoldus: * The Romans who were so exact and curious in their publick denouncing of War, and sen∣ding Ambassadors before they made War a∣gainst any other Nation, did not do it in ca∣ses of Rebellion and defection; and there∣fore Page  43 Fidenatibus & Campanis non denunciant * Romani. And Cicero, that was of opinion, that nullum bellum justum haberi videtur nisi nuncia∣tum, nisi indictum nisi repetitis rebus stood not upon those solemnities in the Cataline conspi∣racy; for the rules of justifying a War against an enemy or equals as demanding restituti∣on, denunciation, and the like, are not re∣quisite in that of punishing Rebels; Pompey justifies tbe War maintained by the Senate a∣gainst Caesar (not then their Soveraign) with neque enim vocari praelia justa decent &c. Cicero * did not think it convenient to send Ambassa∣dors to Anthony, nor intreat him by faire words; but that it was meet to inforce him by arms to raise his siege from Mutina; for he said, They had not to do with Hambal an ene∣my * to the Commonwealth, but with a rebellious Citizen. The resisting of the Kings Authority when the Sheriff of a County goes with the posse Comitatus, to execute it, was never yet so much as called a War, but Rebellion and Insurrection, or Commotion, were the best terms bestowed upon it [such attempts are not called Wars, but Robberies, of which the Law taketh no other care of, but to pu∣nish them] The haste that all our Kings and Princes in England have made in suppressing Rebellions (as that of the Barons Wars by Henry the 3. and his sending his Sonne the Prince to besiege Warren Earl of Surrey in his Castle of Rygate, for affronting the Kings Justices, saying, That he would hold his Lands Page  42 by the Sword: That which Rich. 2. made to suppress Wat. Tiler, H. 6. Jack Cade, H. 8. Ket and the Norfolk Rebels, and Queen Eli∣zabeth to suppress the Earls of Northumber-land and Westmerland) may tell us that they understood it no otherwise than all the Kings and Magistrates of the world have ever pra∣ctised it [by the Laws of England, if English∣men that are Traytors go into France, and confederate with Altens or Frenchmen, and come afterwards and make a War in Eng∣land and be taken prisoners, the strangers may be ransomed, but not the English, for they were the Kings Subjects, and are to be reckoned as Traytors, not strangers:] And the Parliaments own advice to the King to suppress the Irish Rebels that ploughed but with their own Heyfer, and pretended as they did to defend their Religion, Laws and Li∣berties; and the opinion also of Mr. President Bradshaw (as Sir John Owen called him in his late sentence given against the Earls of Cam∣bridge, Holland, and Norwich, Lord Capel and Sir John Owen, whom he mistakenly (God and the Law knows) would make to be the Subjects of their worfer fellow-Subjects, may be enough to turn the question out of doors.

But lest all this should not be thought suf∣ficient to satisfie those can like nothing but what there is Scripture for, we shall a little turn over the leaves of that sacred Volume, and see what is to be found concerning this matter.

Page  43 Moses who was the meekest Magistrate in the world, and better acquainted with him that made the fifth Commandement, than these that now pretend Revelations against it; thought fit to suppress the rebellion of Corah, Dathan and Abiram as soone as he could; and for no greater offence than a de∣sire to be coordinate with him, procured them to be buried alive, with all that appertained unto them.

When Absolom had rebelled against his fa∣ther David, and it was told him, That the * hearts of the men of Israel were after him, Da∣vid, a man after Gods own heart, without any message of peace, or Declaration sent un∣to his dear son Absolom, or offering half or any part of his Kingdome to him, sent three several Armies to pursue and give him bat∣tell.

When Sheba the sonne of Bichri blew a Trumpet and said, We have no part in David, every man to his tent, O Israel; and thereupon * every man of Israel followed after him and for∣sook their King; David (who knew that Mo∣ses would not make a War upon the Amo∣rites, though he had Gods commandement for it without offers of peace, and messen∣gers sent first unto them) said to Amasa, As∣semble me the men of Judah within three daies; and when he tarried longer, said unto him, Take thou thy Lords Servants and pursue after him, lest he get him fenced Cities, and escape us.

Page  42 For they that would take heed of Cocatri∣ces, have ever used to kill them in the shell. * And diligenti cuique Imperatori ac magistrains danda est opera (saith Bodin) ut non tam sedi∣tiones tollere quam praeoccupare student. For se∣dition (saith he) once kindled, like a span of fire, blown by popular fury, may sooner fire a whole City than be extinguished. Et tales igitur pestes opprimere derepenté necess• est; Princes and Soveraigns who are bound to protect and defend their Subjects, are not to stand still, and suffer one to oppress ano∣ther, and themselves to be undone by it af∣terwards.

But put the case the Parliament could have been called a Parliament when they had dri∣ven away the King, which is the Head and Life of it, or could have been said to have been two Houses of Parliament, when there was not at that time above a third part of the House of Peers, nor the half of the House of Commons remaining in them, and what those few did in their abfence was either for∣ced by a Faction of their own, or a party of seditious Londoners (for indeed the Warre rightly considered, was not betwixt the Par∣liament and the King, but a War made by a factious and seditious part of the Parliament against the King, and the major part of the Parliament) and had been (as it never was nor could be by the Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom) coordinate and equal with the King, and joint-tenan•• of the Kingdom; Page  47 it would have been necessary to make • War as just as they could, and to have done all that had been in order to it: and there∣fore we hope they which pretend so much to the Justice of the Kingdom, will not be of∣fended to have the Justice of their Wars som∣thing examined.