TEmporall Power, or Dominion, is eyther Naturall or Nationall: Naturall, as that of Parents over their Children, for their education and preservation, (for God hath ordayned Parents not only Tem­porary instruments of B [...]ing, but also of well-being; in which Office they ought to imitate the Heavenly spirits, amongst whom the superior illu­minate by Intellectuall communication * the inferior in Verbo men­tis. Degree with perpetuall Amity, not with Rigour and severity, as it is probable the Divels doe domineer one over the other, for our Saviour saith, they have a A note for Rulers. Kingdome:) Nationall Power is that, which after the fall of Man, God by his fore knowledge and providence for the Rule of worldly affayres preordayned, and orde­red to be changed according to place, time, and circumstan­ces, &c. This Nationall power is either Rationall or Impe­riall: Rationall, as when a People, or Province of self-ac­cord, * agree to have such Lawes and Rules, as they con­ceive In this is in­cluded the Magisteriall Power of Masters o­ver Appren­t [...]ces and servants. convenient for their Good and Preservation, to be administred by one or more. Such was the ordinary Government of the Jews; sometime by Princes, or ra­ther Elders of the People, sometime by Judges, some­time by Kings, sometime by a great Councell (or San­hedrim) somewhat resembling the State of Venice, sometime by Dukes or Chiefetains: and such was and is to this day the severall Government of the Nations, [Page 2] whom God admitteth to make use of ordinary meanes (however determined hy his Divine will) for their Po­liticke and Civill welfare: so God admitted the Ro­mans to change their Government from Kings, to Con­suls, to Triumviri, Decemviri, and the like; too tedi­ous it were to instance the severall Presidents, both an­cient and moderne, which History, and the Records of Nations abundantly manifest. Power Imperiall is that which many times is induced upon a Nation, partly by force, and partly by Acceptation or Condition. As when a People or Province being invaded, and in part actu­ally overcome, or otherwise in great danger to bee en­slaved by a conquering Enemy, doe submit themselves to his yoak, upon such conditions as their exigency and necessity will admit: so did the Jewes and many other Provinces submit themselves to the Romans: & amongst other Nations the English, to William Duke of Nor­mandy, afterwards called the Conqueror. This Power Imperiall, is called Legall, for that it is comprehended by certaine Lawes or Rules, compacts, and conditions: under this Imperiall or Legall Power, doe all Nations Christi­an, or the major part live: albeit some in better, some in worse conditions of servitude: for the Polack Nobi­lity are masters over their Kings; and the French Kings are masters (I will not say Tyrants) over their Peasant subjects: in our Country of England, heertofore Kings had the highest power Juritenen [...], or Law-administring, and a partiall Power Juridicent, or Law-speaking; for the Requests and desires of the Commons were heere­tofore by Kings ratified or consummate: Notwithstan­ding the House of Commons being the Peoples Repre­sentatives, were the chiefe Juridicent, or Law-speaking [Page 3] Power; for our Kings were tied by Oath to propagate and conserve Justas Leges & consuetudines quas vulgus ele­gerit, the just Lawes and customes which the People may or can chuse heerafter: The Verb must needs bee con­strued in the Potentiall mood, not in the Optative nor Subjunctive, because there is neither Adverb nor Con­junction; and in the Potentiall mood it must needs be construed in the Future tense, otherwise it were against Reason, that any King should swear to conserve Res in­definitas quondam in potentia praeterita: viz. the just Laws which the People might have chosen, would have cho­sen, should have chosen, or ought to have chosen; eve­ry Oath in nature of compact or condition, ought to be de Re determinabili, of a thing Determinable, not of a thing indeterminable never in Act, nor producible into Act, the People being not able to chuse, their choice being past (if elegerit bee taken in the preterperfect tense) nor the King able to conserve what they might have chosen, they omit­ting to chuse it. In other things concerning this subject, in my Answer to Mr. David Jenkins his Tenents, I have sufficiently cleared all doubts, (as I suppose, in that no Answer or Replication is made to me by any) and also made it appeare, (at what time there was a King) that salus Populi, not Majestas Imperii, was the ultimate object and end of Government: and that the People their Representatives, or Trustees, are and ought to bee Jud­ges of the Lawes Jure primitivo, or primario: for confir­mation of this last, and the Peoples interest, I now fur­ther argue: First, 1

The Power Juridicent, or Law-speaking, must chiefly reside in the Power Active, which formerly tied and obliged by Oath, not in the Power Passive, which was tied and obli­ged by Oath.

The People are the Power Active, which formerly tied and obliged by Oath, our Kings to conserve the just Laws &c: which the People may heerafter chuse.

Therefore, the Power Juridicent, or Lawspeaking, must chiefly reside in the People, their Representatives or Trustees.

The major or precedent is manifest in Reason & Law, betweene Covenanter and Covenantee; the minor or subsequent is evident by the words of the Oath. Se­condly, Power Juritenent or Law-administering, is orde­red 2 to the Power Juridicent or Law-speaking, as the meanes to the end (the lesse noble to the more noble) for all Ministers of Law from the highest to the lowest are intended onely for conservation of Law and Rule; but the Power Juridicent or Law-speaking ordereth the Power Juritenent or Law-administering, as the cause, the meanes, (the more noble, the lesse noble) for all Law-speaking intendeth Law-administering for its owne conservation, as aforesayd.

Wherefore, I can not but marvell that some Divines by alleadging some Texts of Scripture appropriated to Kings, as they were Monarchs without qualification or tye by Oath to the people [not one Text of Scripture mentions that the Kings of Juda or Israel tooke, or were obliged to take an Oath to the People] should perswade this People or Nation of England, that they were, and ought to bee wholly devoted to the will and pleasure of their Kings, and that in no case they might withstand, or oppose their Commands, though de­structive to their Fundamentall and Primitive Rights: Such men should first consider the nature and difference of Kings; for some Kings either by the Peoples admis­sion, [Page 5] or by usurpation had a domineering, or the high­est power (in civill or mundane affaires) both Juridi­cent or Law-speaking, and Juritenent or Law-admini­stering; but the Kings of England had no such, for they could make no Law at any time without the con­sent of the Peoples Representatives, &c. and even in their Juritenent or Law-administering Power they were restrained and limited, and their proceedings were questionable by Parliament. And whereas some alleadge that Kings writ, and doe write themselves Kings Dei gratia, &c. And from thence they would in­fer that Kings are as it were specially appoynted by God himselfe, and no way intrusted by the People, or tyed or obliged to them; such men are heerein greatly mistaken, for the reason why Christian Kings and Po­tentates write Dei gratia, &c. Is, or should bee, to shew their humility and thankes towards God, to acknow­ledge him the Authour (according to the Text, By mee Kings raigne) by his free gift, of their Dignity and Power, whether more or lesse qualified and limited, and that they should not arrogantly attribute their Dominion to themselves, as either causers, or other­wise sole deservers of it, as did Nabucadonezer, saying, Is not this Babylon? &c. As also Sapores the proud Persi­an, with divers others; so doe some of the Asian and African Monarchs, or rather Tyrants at this day. Thirdly, where the Power Juritenent or Law-admini­stering 3 (being the lesse noble) shall become destructive de facto (by irregular exorbitancy, or willfull defect) to the Power Juridicent or Law-speaking (being the more noble) there the Power Juridicent may determine the Power Juritenent, and constitute and apply such other [Page 6] meanes as shall seeme convenient for selfe-preservation, that being the very end of all Regulated Government.

If it bee sayd, that sometime the Power Juridicent (the People their Representatives or Trustees) hath er­red, and may erre in constituting and applying meanes for selfe-preservation; It may sometime be so, I grant it: but as beyond the highest Heaven there is no Mathe­maticall, or farther Dimension, so beyond a Nationall Of Govern­ment gene­rally ad [...]it­ted by the Nation. constitution of Government, there ought to bee no farther Progression Politicall, or farther Progresse, but all men of the same Nation ought therein to acquiesce: I shall conclude with this,