again Hath shewed mercy to his Anointed To which if any man shall object that this was spoken of a good King a man after his own heart I answer That not only Josiah who also was a good King is called the Anointed of the Lord but Saul a King whom God is said to have given in his anger has this sacred Title attributed to him in eight places in the first Book of Samuel and in two other in the second And the same also we find God giving to Heathen Emperors Thus saith the Lord to his Anointed Cyrus to Cyrus whose hand I have holden to subdue Nations before him And ver 4. I have surnamed thee tho thou hast not known me Howbeit tho he knew not his Founder at first it is not long e're we find him acknowledging him Thus saith Cyrus the King All the Kingdoms of the Earth hath the Lord God of Heaven given me c. And he that gave the title of Anointed to Cyrus gave the stile of his Servant to Nebuchadnezzar who yet had sack'd Jerusalem and led the People thereof into captivity when he calls him Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my Servant which also is but the same wherewith he so often favours Moses Joshua and David Neither is this truth that Kings derive their power from God less acknowledg'd by the Heathens than us Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kings are from Jupiter saith Hesiod and elsewere you find 'em stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 born of Jove and nourish'd by Jove whereby God is made their procreant cause as well as their conservant not as deriving their pedigree from Jupiter but their Kingly honor And what the Poet ascribes to Jupiter the Apostle gives to God For saith he as certain of your own Poets have said we are also his off-spring And what other does the Psalmist's calling them Gods import than that they receive their Authority from God whose place they supply and whose person they represent Many also of the most ancient Philosophers acknowledg the Regal Office to be a Divine good and the King as it were a God among men and that God had given him dominion as we have it at large in The Power communicated by God to the Prince and the Obedience required of the Subject written by the most Reverend the late Lord Primate of all Ireland In short the Psalmist is direct in this point Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands And therefore when S. Peter calls Government an Ordinance of man it is not that it was invented by men but as proper to them and ordained of God for the good and conservation of human kind and exercised by men about the government of human Society SECTION II. That Adam held it by Divine right Cain a Monarch By the Kingdoms of the most ancient Gentiles not God's but Monarchs were denoted That the original of Power came not from the People by way of Pact or Contract The unreasonableness and ill consequence of the contrary Noah and his Sons Kings A Family an exemplary Monarchy in which the Pater-familias had power of life and death by the right of Primogeniture Examples of the exercise of it in Judah Abraham Jephthah Brutus Vpon the increase of Families they still continued under one head Esau. The four grand Monarchies Ancients and Moderns universally receiv'd it as precedent to all other Governments THat God Almighty was the first King will not be deny'd and that Adam was the next appears by his Commission as I have shewn before a large Commission and of as large extent as having made him a mighty King and universal Monarch and given him an unqestionable right to his Kingdom which was all the inferior world the Earth the Sea and all that therein were insomuch that it might not improperly be said of this matter Jupiter in coelis terras regit unus Adamus Divisum imperium cum Jove Adamus habet And now as all things were created in order and that the infant world might not sit in darkness nor their posterity want a light to guide and direct them what wonder is it that for the preservation of that order God erected a Dominion himself and declar'd his Vicegerent Afterward when the world began to enlarge and men liv'd so long that they begat a numerous posterity Cain with his own Colony went into a strange Land and built a City and called the name thereof after his Sons name Enoch which double act carries the character of a Kingdom in it and that he was as well the King as Father of the Inhabitants neither do the ancientest Gentiles otherwise speak of those elder times than with a clear supposition of Monarchy Those Kingdoms of Saturn Jupiter Neptune Pluto and the like denoting as much and that under those names applied to distinct Kingdoms not Gods but the Monarchs of Land and Sea in the first times were understood And so Cicero Certum est omnes antiquas gentes regibus paruisse And with him agrees Justin Principio rerum gentiumque imperium penes Reges erat But not a word all this while do we hear of the People or that the original of Government came from them by way of pact or contract for if the power of Adam upon his Children and his Posterity and so all mankind whatever depended not on any consent of his Sons or Posterity but wholly proceeded from God and nature then certainly the Authority of Kings is both natural and immediately Divine and not of any consent or allowance of man and consequently the people had no more right to chuse their Kings than to chuse their Fathers Besides to examin it a little farther if this power of paction or contract had been in the people then it must lie in all the people as an equal common right or in some particular part if in all of them they would do well to shew how they came by it or if in any more peculiar part by what Authority were the rest excluded it being a Maxim in Law Quod nostrum est sine facto vel defectu nostro amitti vel in alium transferri non potest Whatever is mine cannot be lost or transferr'd unto another without my own act or defect Nor would it be less enquir'd who were the persons suppos'd to have made the contract or whether all without difference of Sex Age or Condition were admitted to drive the bargain and if so Wives and Children were not sui juris and consequently could not conclude others nor themselves for any longer time than during the disability Which once remov'd they were free again Or if all were admitted whether it were with an equal right to every one or with some inequality was the Servants interest if yet such a thing could be among equals equal with the Masters and if not who made the inequality or if
of Peace and War and this appears within the very letter of their demands viz. That he might judg them which is the power of Peace and go out before them and fight their Battels which is the power of War And what Authority he had in matters of the Church may be seen in this That Solomon of himself thrust out Abiathar the High-Priest and appointed Zadok in his room And that even the Horns of the Altar were no Sanctuary against him in case of Treason may be also seen in Adonijah and Joab and yet we cannot so much as gather that God was offended with him for his so doing or that his person was the less acceptable to him by reason of those matters To which if it be objected That God gave them a King in his anger I answer Moses having foretold the Israelites that when they came into the Land they would be asking a King charges them to set him over them whom God should choose which shews That a popular Election was utterly forbidden them yet they weary of such Judges as had succeeded Moses and whom God had raised to rule them as Kings demand a King like all the Nations i. e. of a more absolute power than those Judges had and therefore not staying Gods time but taking upon them to be their own Carvers he is said to have given them a King in his wrath in that they had not rejected Samuel but himself who had appointed Samuel In acknowledgment of which and as sensible of their error they ever after accepted their Kings by Succession unless only when their Prophets had anointed and ordained another by Gods special designation Nor do we find any one in Holy Writ chosen King by the Children of Israel but Abimelech the Bastard of Gideon and Creature of the People who also came in by Conspiracy and Murder And as it seems probable Jeroboam who made Israel to sin for they had sent to him at that time a discontented Fugitive in Egypt and he headed them in a complaint of Grievances to Rehoboam which occasion'd the revolt of the ten Tribes both which yet reigned as wickedly as they entred unjustly and perish'd miserably SECTION V. What is here intended by a Supreme Monarchy The marks of Sovereignty as the Power of making Laws and exemption from any coactive obedience to them The Power of Peace and War c. That the Kingdoms of England c. are Supreme Imperial Monarchies Those two marks of Sovereignty and seven others prov'd to be no other than what has ever been the undoubted Right of the Kings of England The Kings Sovereignty by the Common Law The like from the Statute Law Power in Ecclesiasticks And that they have justly used those Titles of King and Emperor and that from ancient times and before the Conquest I Have now brought my Discourse whither I first design'd it and therefore to avoid confusion which ever attends the being too general I shall first shew my Reader what I mean by a Supreme Imperial Monarch at this day and in the next place prove the Kings of England c. are such And lastly that however the Emperors of the West and East have so much striven about that great Title of Emperor or Basileus that yet the Kings of England as Supreme within their Dominions have also and justly from ancient Ages used it as no less proper to their own independent greatness As to the first The Regal Estate and Dignity of a King is of two sorts The one Imperial and Supreme as England France Spain c. who owing no service to the Majesty of another is his own Master and hath an absolute Power in himself no way subject to the controul of another and of such a one speaks Martial Qui Rex est Regem Maxime non habeat The other an Homager or Feudatary to another King as his Superior Lord such as that of Navar and Portugal of old to Castile Granada and Leon to Aragon Lombardy Sicily Naples and Bohemia to the Empire six parts of the Saxon Heptarchy who acknowledged the seventh Anglorum Rex primus and such was Aella King of Sussex the Kings of Man and others of whom I shall have occasion to speak hereafter hereafter The first of these is what I intend and will be the better made out if we cast our eyes a little on the marks of Sovereignty and then consider wherein they differ from our own Laws And amongst others we find these 1. The Power of making Laws and so what our English Translation calls Judah my Law-giver is in the vulgar Latin Juda Rex meus Judah my King This power being one of the principal ends of Regal Authority and was in Kings by the Law of Nature long before Municipal Laws had any Being the people at that time being govern'd by a natural equity which by the Law of Nature all were bound to observe And so the Poet Remo cum fratre Quirinus Jura dabat populo The like of King Priam Jura vocatis More dabat populis And of Augustus Legesque tulit justissimus Auctor So Cicero speaking of Julius Caesar as a Law-giver saith thus Caesar si ab eo quaereretur quid egisset in Toga Leges se respondisset multas praeclaras tulisse Though many yet received Laws at the will of their Prince and thus Barbaris pro legibus semper imperia fuerunt which word barbarous at that time carry'd no disgrace with it but was apply'd to them that spoke a strange Language And so the Hebrews called the Egyptians of all other Nations the most civiliz'd and learned for that they us'd the Egyptian Tongue and not the Hebrew as we have it in the Psalmist When Israel came out of Egypt and the house of Jacob de gente barbaro from a people of strange language And as they gave Laws to others so were they loosed from the force of them themselves i. e. from all coactive Obedience or Obligation to any written or positive Law Thus M. Antony when press'd by his Cleopatra to call Herod in question answer'd It was not fitting a King should give an account of what he did in his Government it being in effect to be no King at all And to the same purpose Pliny Ereptum principi illud in principatu beatissimum quod non cogitur Another mark of Sovereignty is the power of Peace and War and which as Bodin says was never doubted to be in a King In like manner to create and appoint Magistrates especially such as are not under the command of others The power of the last appeal To confer Honors To pardon Offenders To appoint the Value Weight and Stamp of his own Coin and make Forein Coin currant by Proclamation To receive Liege Homage of an inferior King And bear those Titles of Sacred and Majesty only proper to Sovereign Princes apart from all others of
Elizabeth Most dread Sovereign Lady c. We your most Humble Faithful and Obedient Subjects the Lords c. So to Queen Mary We your Highness most Loving Faithful and Obedient Subjects c. do beseech your most Excellent Majesty that it may be Enacted c. So to H. 8. In their most humble wise shewn to your most Royal Majesty the Lords c. And so to Rich. 3. and backward By the Advice and Assent of the Lords c. at the request of the Commons To Edw. 4. By the Advice and Assent of his Lords Spiritual and Temporal and at the special Request of his Commons To H. 6. By c. and at the special instance and request To H. 5. the same To H. 4. At the instance and special request To R. 2. the same In Edw. 3.'s time These things underwritten at the request of the Commons be Established and Enacted by our Lord the King his Prelates Earls and Barons so by the Assent and Prayer of the Great men and the Commons And in Edw. 1.'s time At the request of the Commonalty by their Petition made before him and his Council in Parliament as may be further seen in the Statutes at large till ye can go no further backward than the King commandeth In which also I have been the larger that by the consent of all times I might shew that this is not after the manner of Corporations or the Language of Equals and shall be my first Argument why the King is none of the Three Estates 2. This will further appear if we shall consider who these Three Estates are And those I take to be the Lords Spiritual viz. Arch-Bishops and Bishops who sit in Parliament by Succession in respect of their Baronies parcel of their Bishopricks 2. The Lords Temporal as Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons who sit there by reason of their Dignities which they hold by Descent or Creation and the third Estate the Commons of the Realm viz. Knights of Shires Citizens of Cities and Burgesses of Burroughs respectively Elected by force of the Kings Writ which three Estates Sir Edw. Coke saith the French-men call Les Estates or L' Assemble des Estates And Philip de Comines speaking how the English grant Subsidies Convocatis saith he primis ordinibus assentiente Populo The first or chief Estates being call'd together and the People assenting And Bodin who by his Conference with the English Embassador for so himself confesseth wherever he speaks of the Constitution of England calls it the King and the Three Estates of the Realm Like which The Republick of the Kingdom of Poland in the Interregnum between the Death of one King and the Election of another is stiled Serenissimae Reipublicae Regni Poloniae c. Congregati Ordines The Estates Assembled And such were the Amplissimi Ordines among the Romans viz. the Senate of whom the Emperor was no part and signifies with us The Estates of People among our selves viz. The Clergy The Nobility and the Commons which being duly Assembled we call a Parliament And so Sir Henry Spelman speaking of the word Parliament saith it is Solenne Colloquium omnium Ordinum Regni authoritate solius Regis ad consulendum statuendumque de negotiis regni indictum A Parliament saith he is a Solemn Conference of all the Estates of the Kingdom commanded together by the sole Authority of the King to Consult and Order the Affairs of the Realm From whence it must necessarily follow that the King is none of them but as the Apostle says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as having the preheminence over them for Quicquid efficit tale est magis tale Whatever is the cause of any thing is greater than the thing caused 3. To presume the King to be one of the Three Estates were to make him but a Co-ordinate Power and consequently concludible by the other two for Par in Parem non habet imperium Among Equals there is no Authority whereas the Supreme Title of King is distinguish'd from others in this that it acknowledges no other Superior And Bodin speaking of a Supreme Monarch saith He is next to God of whom he holdeth his Scepter and is bound to no man And to the same purpose Berkly Regum cognata Potentia coelo Whence it naturally follows that this Honor is not to be shar'd with another 4. Which is a negative instance And one Negative instance saith the Lord Bacon is of more force to unfix a pretending Rule than two Affirmative to establish it If the King were one of the Three Estates he should be Summon'd by Writ but because all Writs Issue in his Name it cannot be said that he can Summon himself or Supplicate himself as both Houses do him or not to have Power to depart without leave i. e. of himself seeing they have no Power to Assemble Determin or Depart part without the Kings express Commandment 5. If the King were one of the Three Estates then it follows of course as undeniable that before the Commons became a Third Estate and a Constituent part of a Parliament as they are at this day That the King must have been one Estate The Lords Spiritual a second The Lords Temporal a third or otherwise there could not have been Three Estates and now the Commons since the Writs for their Election being become another what hinders but that they make a fourth unless perhaps we deny the Lords Spiritual to have been one and then before the Commons there could be but two To examin it a little That Great Councils of Kings their Nobles Wise men and Chief Officers were frequently held of Ancient time there is hardly any thing more obvious but whether the Commonalty scarce yet civiliz'd or if so for the most part if not wholly without Literature were any essential or constituent part of those great Councils and Government might be a question at this day if there were any sufficient ground on which to raise it Convocavit David omnes Principes Israel Duces tribuum Praepositos turmarum qui ministrabant Regi Tribunos quoque Centuriones qui Praeerant substantiae Regis filiosque suos cum Eunuchis Potentes robustissimos quosque in exercitu Jerusalem David called together all the Princes of Israel the Leaders of the Tribes and the Captains of the Companies that served under him and the Captains over the thousands and the Captains over the hundreds and the Stewards over all the substance and possession of the King and his Sons with the Officers and mighty men and valiant men unto Jerusalem By which you see of what persons this great Council consisted all men of the first note and not a word of the people In like manner Solomon Congregavit majores natu Israel cunctos Principes tribuum Capita familiarum de filiis Israel in Jerusalem He
and then thus altered viz. By the Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and at the special instance and request of the Commons and in the fifth of the same King By the Advice and Assent of his Lords Spiritual and Temporal and at the request of the Commons which so continued without any variation in substance until the 18th of Henry 6. at what time it became as we have it now viz. By the Advice and Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons Besides if the Lords Spiritual were not a third Estate what is the reason that at the making of the Statute of Praemunire that the Commons having declared that they would stand to the King in the defence of his Liberties and praying that all the Lords as well Spiritual as Temporal severally and all the Estates of Parliament might be examined how they thought of that matter The Lords Temporal being so demanded answered every one by himself and in like manner the Lords Spiritual severally examin'd answered by themselves which affords me a double Argument 1. That by all the States of Parliament there must be necessarily intended more than two if it were for no other reason than mere propriety of Speech 2. That the King could not make up that other or third Estate because he is desired to examin all the States severally which he could not do if he had been one of them himself so in the 40th of Edw. 3. which I should have named first when the King asks advice of his Parliament Whether King John could have subjected the Realm as what in him lay he did The Prelates by themselves the Dukes Earls and Barons by themselves and the Commons by themselves answered That he could not From which nothing seems clearer to me than that the Lords Spiritual are one Estate distinct from the Lords Temporal or otherwise what needed they have been examin'd by those several names of Spiritual and Temporal or as severally answer'd by the same appellations 5. And now if yet there remain'd any doubt we have one Act of Parliament clear in point where the question being whether the making of Bishops had been duly and orderly done according to Law the Statute says which is much tending to the slander of all the State of the Clergy being one of the greatest States of this Realm And so having found Three Estates without the King I think in good manners we ought to spare him I have hitherto offered some Reasons nor without their Authorities I come now to somewhat more direct if yet those of the 40th of Edw. 3. the 16th of Rich. 2. and the 8th of Qu. Eliz. last mentioned could be thought otherwise I 'll begin with the Statute of H. 8. where this Kingdom is called an Empire governed by one Supreme Head and King unto whom a Body Politick compact of all sorts and degrees of People divideth in Terms and by names of Spiritualty and Temporalty been bounden and who can believe that the Authority of a Parliament should utter any thing in Parables or under double meanings contrary to the common sense of the express words or that there was ever intended by the words divided in Terms and by names of Spiritualty and Temporalty so many mere words and no more However to take off all doubt Sir Edw. Coke says The High Court of Parliament consisteth of the Kings Majesty sitting there as in his Royal Politick Capacity and of the Three Estates of the Realm viz. the Lords Spiritual the Lords Temporal and the Commons And so Cowel The word Parliament in England we use it for the Assembly of the King and the Three Estates viz. the Lords Spiritual Lords Temporal and the Commons And Title Statute he saith it signifieth a Decree or Act of Parliament made by the Prince and the Three Estates unto whom as I said before they are subordinate in the Legislation and of no Power of themselves but joyned to their Figure have the full strength of their places which in short we may thus farther demonstrate under the familiar instance of a Dean and Chapter of whom the Dean is no part but Caput Capituli the Head of them And now if any one shall demand why this term of the Three Estates does not so frequently occur to us of Ancient time I answer That before the Commons were brought in there was no thought of it and since that time no dispute of it until of late where many a worse twig was even learnedly made use of to stilt and bolster a Ricketed Cause· However it is not too late that the Point is cleared now And so we have it in the Act for Unifermity of Publick Prayers made the 14th of this King where the Form of Prayer for the Fifth of November is thus entitled A Form of Prayer with Thanksgiving to be used yearly on the Fifth day of November for the happy deliverance of the King and the Three Estates of the Realm c. And with this agrees the Kingdom of Scotland of which Mr. Cambden in his History of Britain says That their Supreme Court is their Parliament which consisteth of Three Estates The Lords Spiritual the Lords Temporal and the Commons for Cities and Burghs of which the King is Directus totius Dominus And so a Parliament of that Kingdom reckons them It is ordained by the King by Consent and Deliverance of the Three Estates And the Act of asserting the Kings Supremacy over all Persons and in all Causes Ecclesiastical and the late Indictment against Argile and the Acts for the Acknowledging and Asserting the Right of Succession to the Imperial Crown of Scotland And that other for ratifying all former Laws for the security of the Protestant Religion agree in point with it Nor is it strange they should inasmuch as neither their Langue nor their Laws especially such as are criminal as may be seen by comparing their Regiam Majestatem with our Glanvil De Legibus written in Henry the Second's time much differ from ours And the Union of the two Crowns in the Person of King James is called An Union or rather a re-uniting of two Mighty Famous and Ancient Kingdoms yet anciently but one And that the Laws of Ireland a distinct Realm or Kingdom from both say nothing of this matter I take it to be for the same reason that the Romans made no Law against Parricide They never dreamt it SECTION VII Admitting what has been before offer'd wherein has our present King merited less than any of his Royal Ancestors with a short recapitulation of Affairs as they had been and were at his Majesties most happy Restauration and that he wanted not the means of a just Resentment had he design'd any I Have hitherto shewn that the Crown of England c. is Supreme Sovereign and Imperial nor will it be from the purpose now to demand Wherein has our present King less merited than
some may I could not be content to do but I must over-do and yet permissu Superiorum I conceive not for besides that my design in it is plain and honest as only tending to the continuance of that peace which his Exclusion may probably endanger it is none of the non disserenda nor is there that I know any Law against it And therefore I shall without further Apology put my self upon the favourable interpretation of my Reader as placing more assurance in the innocence of my own meaning than the most reserv'd caution or wariness of words He that would hit the mark must take his level before he part with his Arrow and he that would not be cheated had need see the Scales try'd as well as weigh the Commodity In like manner he that will give a true judgment of this matter must begin with the end that by viewing the advantage and disadvantage of either hand his judgment and election may be the more clear and the less apt to slide into error We 'l take the case then as it has been of late in relation to his Royal Highness the Duke of York The People were upon a pin and nothing will satisfie them but he must be Excluded The advantage propos'd by it not a little plausible The security of the Protestant Religion and very well Depositum custodi was the advice of S. Paul to Timothy and 't is a good account of a Steward that he has lost nothing But here the question will arise Whether the Protestant Religion profess'd at this time in this Kingdom may not be sufficiently secured against Popery albeit the right Heir should happen to be of that Persuasion himself And with submission I conceive it may for if such a person could be excluded it must be done by Act of Parliament and if so where lies the difference that an Act of Parliament for the security of the now Establish'd Religion against any Popish Successor may not be of the same force as an Act of Parliament for excluding him in as much as the Authority is the same to which because I seem to hear some one more than whispering that in the one case he will not have the opportunity in the other he may I answer That it is morally impossible to introduce the Romish Religion into this Kingdom albeit the Prince were of that Persuasion for tho the Kingdom follow'd Edw. 6. his Reformation and Queen Mary tackt them about to the Church of Rome and Queen Elizabeth bore up again for Edw. 6. yet it will not be the same at this day for as to Edw. 6. it was no great wonder that the Kingdom follow'd his Reformation for besides that it was in the hurry of a Change Henry 8. who tho he forsook not the Church but Court of Rome had yet shaken it out of its Authority and by dispersing the Abby Lands among such as help'd him put it out of a condition of recovering suddenly And now Religion being not the only question who can tax the Politicks of that time for not standing to the Pope when by setting up that Authority again they must infallibly have hazarded if not lost their new interests whereas by complying with the Reformation they were certain of keeping what they had already and in a fair way of getting more And withal considering there were several Opinions at that time boiling up what mighty matter was it to bring them to cry Erravimus cum patribus nostris And as to the Kingdoms tacking again with Queen Mary that also is not so much to be wonder'd at for considering that under Edw. 6. the Harvest was as yet small and the Laborers many and those too not altogether knit among themselves and that he liv'd not long enough to see the last stone laid and that the Queen coming in so near after her Father Henry 8. found ribs and planks enough of the old Ship left to patch up another for the present occasion or till a better could be had And the main obstacle of securing the Abby Lands in the hands of the Temporalty as they lay then dispers'd among them being first reconciled no wonder I say if the Kingdom footed it to the Queens measures and that the note was chang'd to Super vias antiquas In like manner that the Kingdom follow'd Queen Elizabeth in the Reformation begun by her Brother Edw. 6. it is not so strange for considering also how short a time Queen Mary reign'd and an inexcusable fault in Musick that she began a Note too high and by that means was forc'd to run it up even to cracking the strings and that the Reformation had by that time gotten some face and credit in the world and therefore the violent Persecution of it like Winds to young Trees not overthrowing it had but fasten'd its Roots and withal that such as had gotten any Church Lands knew not what another Parliament might do or what flaws in after times might be found in the former and that the probable way of making all sure was to order it so that it should not be in the Popes power to hurt them if he would neither here also was it a wonder that the Kingdom joyn'd with Queen Elizabeth and alter'd the Carol to a Canticum novum But the case will not be the same at this day for besides that we have the Authority of a Church confirm'd by several Acts of Parliament even the People now pronounce Schibboleth without lisping Fox his Martyrs are not yet forgotten and tho the Writ De Haeretico combruendo be taken away the crackling of the Faggots still rattle in their ears Nor of less concern are the Loaves than the Doctrin the Land on which the Faggots grew than the Faggots themselves It is now 150 years since those Abby Lands were given out and by this time they are assimulated in Succum Sanguinem and the fear of losing them has begot more ill blood than the first grant of them did good I have heard of one Impropriation given back to the Church but the Lands remain much as they were tho not altogether in the same hands they yield good Rent and many men are of Vespasian's mind That all Gold has the same scent Sell all thou hast and give it the poor lost our Saviour a Disciple and would be thought as hard a saying now Men are loath to part with their Wedding garment especially where it may so happen to be the best to their backs Add to this the vast improvements made upon them in so many years and the several exchanges intanglements and dispositions from hand to hand that it would puzzle even the Church it self to say which were her Sons Coat from whence I close this That let the Rabbies talk what they will of Venient Romani Nay till they lay the way half plain before them it will be yet morally impossible for them to
equal who could summon the rest or when met regulate preside or moderate and thus new Atlantis-men run round the maze not knowing how to disentangle themselves and like men in a mist lose their way by seeking to find it Whereas on the other hand if we should admit the thing and that Princes had no more right than what the People shall think fit to entrust them withal which also they may enlarge or restrain at pleasure Then what follows but that their Power is precarious and ambulatory and subject to be varied according to the exigency of times and occasions whereas the Jus gladii i. e. the Sovereign Power belongs to the King by the ordinance of God not the donation of the People for he beareth the Sword as the Minister of God from whom he receiv'd it and not as the Minister of the People who had no right to give it because they never had it themselves and consequently could not bestow it upon another it being also another maxim in Law Nemo potest plus juris in alium transferre quam ipse habet No man can give another what he has not himself And be this sufficient to have been said against that humor That the original of Government came from the People But to proceed and omitting those traditional Kings who are said to have reigned before the Flood and of whom Xisuthur in whose time the Flood came is supposed to be no other than Noah himself we have great reason to believe that after the Flood the sole Government was at first in Noah and that whatever property in several or share of Government in any part of the world afterwards his Sons had they had it by his sole allotment and authority and transmitted the same to their posterity merely on that account those words seeming to import as much These are the families of the Sons of Noah in their generations after their Nations and by them were the Nations divided in the earth after the flood And so the Son of Sirach In the division of the Nations of the earth he appointed a ruler over every People Besides if we examin Families a Family being in nature before a publick Society we shall find them no other than so many exemplary Monarchies wherein the Paterfamilias and the first-born after him exercised all kind of Government Ecclesiastical and Civil so Noah curs'd Cham and bless'd Shem and Japhet Abraham cast out Hagar and Ismael and had the power of life and death in the Family Patris in liberis est regia potestas The Father has the authority of a King over his Children for the better understanding of which it will be requisite e're I go further to shew what the Paterfamilias truly was and give some instances where he us'd this regal Authority As to the former Paterfamilias imports no more than Familiae Pater the Master or good man of the house who had the care of the Estate and ordering the Family and so Tully uses it C. Quintius suarum rerum Paterfamilias prudens attentus which in English we would call a discreet and careful manager of his Estate And in another place Bono patrifamilias colendi aedificandi ratiocinandi quidam usus opus est had need of some skill in Plowing Building and keeping Accounts all which as yet carry no more in it than a bare care of the Family And to the second that this Paterfamilias had the power of life and death Pater vitae necisque potestatem habebat in filios A Father has the power of life and death over his Children saith the same Tully not simply and quatenus Pater or Paterfamilias which is the same but by a regal Authority annex'd to it by the right of primogeniture whereby the elder was by the law of Nature to rule and govern the younger he being prior in donis major in imperio And so Aristotle Parens quod amicus natu major est praeficitur quae species est regiae potestatis In which sense God speaking to Cain of his younger Brother Abel saith Sub te erit appetitus ejus tu dominaberis illi Subject to thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him which made Jacob so eager in supplanting his elder Brother Esau of that birth-right and Elisha alludes to it when he pray'd Elijah that a double portion of his spirit might be upon him i. e. in comparison of the rest of the remaining Prophets among whom he had obtained the place of an elder Brother and to whom afterwards he became a Father The exercise of this regal Authority is found every where and because examples give a quicker impression than arguments take a few for the rest by this power Judah pass'd sentence upon Thamar and Abraham shew'd his readiness to Sacrifice his Son Isaac which had he done and had not withal had a regal Power in himself which own'd no Superior less than him that gave him the command what justification for him had that command been among a people unto whom at that time the God of Abraham was altogether unknown In like manner Jephthah who as 't is more than probable actually Sacrific'd his Daughter for the Text says he did with her according to his Vow which was If thou shalt deliver the children of Ammon into my hands whatsoever cometh forth of my house to meet me when I return holocaustum offeram Domino I will offer it up a burnt-offering c. and is the same word which Isaac uses to his Father Behold the fire and the wood but where is victima Holocausti the sacrifice for a burnt-offering which is argument enough for me that her Father Sacrific'd her And that he did it by virtue of that regal power annex'd to him as Father and not of any power deriv'd to him from the People when they made him their Captain will appear in this that albeit such an Officer had an absolute and independent Authority when once elected yet he was seldom chosen but in times of imminent danger which overpast he retir'd to a private life again as did Gideon after he had deliver'd Israel from the Midianites and that 's the reason why we find such chasms and vacancies between the cessation of one Judg and the election of another and therefore that Samuel judged Israel all his days was extraordinary and extraordinary examples neither make a rule nor break one so that in short their Judges were the same in effect with the Roman Dictator some Centuries after who was neither Sovereign Prince nor Magistrate but simply commissionated on some sudden occasion for the making of War suppressing Sedition or the like which ended he was no more than a Subject himself Neither can that of Brutus the first Consul his beheading his two Sons be taken to be done
impunity and how much it was improv'd for the better in our late times among our selves I appeal to the yet calamitous remembrance of it when every man did what was best his own eyes and for the same reason also There was no King in Israel And now who would not rather wish a Tyranny than an Aristocracy or Democracy for as many wise skilful Pilots hinder one another in striving to govern the Helm so will many men of what condition wisdom or virtue soever they may be when every one shall seek to govern the Common-wealth according to the vain images of his own fancy or abus'd imagination In short in the multitude of Counsellors there is wisdom but the determinative part is better performed by one who having digested their opinions will the readier execute that which the other would scarce resolve on without contention it being the nature of Ambition rather to see all lost than admit another wiser than it self or hazard the disrepute of changing its opinion But to proceed and here not to weary my Reader with the state of Athens under the thirty Tyrants or the Lacedemonians under their Ephori who tho they carried the specious shew of restraining their Kings were indeed a scourge and plague to the people I shall only insist on the Romans whose infancy for about 250 years for so Florus reckons it was under Kings And to the same purpose Tacitus Urbem Roman à Principio Reges habuere After this upon expulsion of the Tarquins they set up two Consuls but not satisfied with this also the people take Arms and leaving the City declare they will not return unless there be appointed some Tribunes of the People who might bridle the Disorders of the Consuls and the wealthier sort and 't is granted nor would this yet satisfie they must now know what the Law was and to that end it must be written in twelve Tables for the doing of which the Consuls were laid by and the Decemviri created with the Power quam modo Consules olim Reges habuissent interim cessare omnes magistratus alios donec juxta leges creati fuerint but they as says the same Author having made an agreement among themselves and bound it with an Oath that no one should oppose another but what was approv'd by one should be approv'd by all that they would admit no other to be joyn'd to them but hold an equal Authority among themselves Maximamque partem rerum pro imperio multa tyrannice agerent the People took Arms again and wholly destroy'd their power and as saith Florus laid their persons in chains the third year from the time they were first set up and thereupon the Consuls were again restor'd Add to this the several Seditions of Tiberius Gracchus slain by Scipio Nascica that other of his Brother Caius slain by the Consul Opimius A third of Appuleius Saturninus suppress'd by Marius and that other of Livius Drusus by Philippus the Consul As also the bloody outrages between Marius and Cinna against Sylla of which last not to excuse either of the former Plutarch says that he had slain 100000 men 90 Senators 15 of Consular Dignity and 2000 Gentlemen And touching Marius that of Ovid may not improperly be applied Ausus è media plebe sedere Deus Yet all this will be little more than the beginnings of evil if we consider that Monster of three heads for so those times call'd it viz. Crassus Caesar and Pompey the first was wealthy even to a Proverb Crasso divitior and yet still gaping for more the second was for bringing himself into Estimation and Authority and the latter for keeping what he had already gotten all were alike greedy of Power and therefore no wonder if they so easily agreed for invading the Common-wealth Caesar takes upon him Gaul Crassus Asia and Pompey Spain This rope of Sand held together for 10 years and such I call it for Crassus being slain in Parthia and there wanting a third to ballance the other two they quickly broke asunder Pompey begins to suspect Caesar's Wealth and Caesar casts an ill eye on Pompey's new Authority Nec hic ferebat parem nec ille superiorem Nefas Sic de Principatu laborabant tanquam duos tanta imperii fortuna non caperet The one brook'd not an Equal nor the other a Superior Impossible they made such work who should be Chief as if the fortune of so great an Empire were too little for two In short they made such havock between them that any one region of the world was too little to contain it and therefore it spread thro the whole for Pompey having the ill fate of surviving his Dignity in the loss of his Army at Pharsalia and to be as treacherously murdered by his friend Ptolomy King of Alexandria to whom he had fled for succor his Sons took up the quarrel of whom Cnaeus the younger flying wounded from the Battle of Munda in Spain was pursued by Caesar and slain from which Sextus the elder escaping and having gotten together 350 Ships he was after the death of Caesar overthrown in a Sea-fight near Sicily whence flying into Asia he fell into Anthony's hands and was there slain of which Martial Pompeios juvenes Asia atque Europa sed ipsum Terra tegit Libyes si tamen ulla tegit Quid mirum toto si spargitur orbe jacere Uno non poterat tanta ruina loco And now every thing following the good fortune of Caesar it was not said to the Senate And will ye be last to bring the Conqueror home No they prevented it for besides the bringing his Statues into their Temples inscribing a month of the year to him c. they met their Enemy in the way and having new studded the word Imperator welcom'd him in with the supernumerary Titles of Pater Patriae Consul in decennium Dictator in perpetuum Sacrosanctus Imperator But O the uncertainty of human condition deprav'd natures are never reconcil'd and such those his Flatterers prov'd to him for upon a Conspiracy of Brutus and Cassius and other Senators he was murder'd in the Senate they not longer nevertheless surviving it themselves than in the effects of that Parricide to have beheld that liberty lost they had made such bustle to restore And here again Rome found the want of a Head for Sextus Pompeius having as I said before set up at Sea to recover what his Father had lost by Land and failing in it Octavius must be reveng'd of the murderers of Caesar who had adopted him Antony of them who had declar'd him an enemy and Lepidus whose only business in hopes of Wealth was to fish in troubled waters comes in as fuel to a flame and joyning with Octavius and Antony they made a Triumvirate and under the common pretences of revenging the murder of Julius Caesar and
setling the Common-wealth which was much out of order had chief Power and Authority for five years which expiring they refus'd to resign but held it other five enacting or reversing what laws they pleas'd and that without the consent of the Senate or People and having divided one Common-wealth into three Monarchies viz. Africk both the Sardinia's and Sicily to Octavius All Spain and Gallia Narbonensis i. e. Languedoc Daulphine and Provence to Lepidus and the rest of France of either side the Alps to Antony the defence of Rome and Italy is left to Lepidus while the other two advance against Brutus and Cassius who by a mistake having lost the day kill themselves Upon this the Conquerors return to Rome and exercising all cruelty whatever without any regard of person or condition they proscribe and banish at pleasure Lepidus gave up his Brother Lucius Paulus to gratifie Octavius Antony his Uncle L. Caesar to requite Lepidus And Octavius his friend Cicero whose advice had given him the Empire to appease inexorable Antony concerning the Philippicks And now nothing but slaughter bestrid the Streets when besides the incredible number of Roman Knights and Citizens kill'd in the broil there were no less than 130 Senators proscrib'd between them and of whom those last mentioned were three And now one would think all had been at quiet the Common-wealth as I said before being divided into three Monarchies and Antony married to the Sister of Octavius yet all would not do for Antony being gone for Egypt and Sextus Pompeius overthrown Octavius makes War on Lepidus whose softness and irresolution made him submit with the loss of his share of the Triumvirate and thence to keep a War as he had never less than reason to suspect it from home he follows Antony whose sensuality and unpursutiveness lost him the sole Empire of the World for Octavius having overcome him and Cleopatra in the Naval Battle of Actium the Morning and the Evening of the Roman State made but one day and the Sovereignty once more coming into one hand the Temple of Janus was now the third time clos'd Upon which applying himself to preserve that peace he had so happily restor'd he made severe Laws to restrain those evils a peaceable Age is but too prone to run into in due sense of which it was debated in Senate An quia condidisset imperium Romulus vocaretur sed sanctius reverentius visum est nomen Augusti And it may be observ'd that from the expulsion of the Roman Kings to the Reign of Octavius Augustus about 450 years there was seldom above 10 years without some Civil War or some Sedition whereas Augustus kept the Empire in peace for above 50 years and so it continu'd after his death till the Pretorian Bands began to chaffer for the Empire and others to comply with them gave an Empire for an Empire And now e're I close the Argument it may not be amiss to recollect what the Historians and Poets that speak of those times thought of it Neque aliud discordantis reipublicae remedium quam ut ab uno regeretur saith Tacitus Nor is Florus who wrote not long after him in any thing short of him Gratulandum tamen in tanta perturbatione est quod potissimum ad Octavium Caesarem summa rerum rediit qui sapientia sua atque solertia perculsum undique perturbatum ordinavit imperii corpus Quod ita haud dubie nunquam coire consentire potuisset nisi unius praesidis nutu quasi anima mente regeretur We have this yet in so great a confusion to be glad at that the upshot of all came back to Octavius Caesar rather than another who by his Wisdom and Policy brought the shatter'd and disorder'd body of the Empire into frame again which without dispute had never met and joyn'd together had it not been actuated by one chief Ruler as with a Soul and Intelligence And to the same purpose L. Ampelius who wrote before the division of the Empire speaking of the several turns of the state of Rome and the uncertain condition of the people Donec exortis bellis civilibus inter Caesarem Pompeium oppressa per vim libertate sub unius Caesaris potestatem redacta sunt omnia Until those Civil Wars between Caesar and Pompey began and the publick liberty over-born by violence all things were reduced under rhe obedience of one Caesar. And what the much ancienter Homer's sense of having many Lords was we have every where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec multos regnare bonum Rex unicus esto And the reason of it is clear Nulla fides regni sociis omnisque potestas Impatiens consortis erit And so another Summo nil dulcius unum est Stare loco sociisque comes discordia regnis From all which we may gather That all Governments of what kind soever have a natural tendency to Monarchy and like Noah's Dove find no rest till they return to the same station whence they first departed It being impossible otherwise but that as Lines from the Center the farther they run the farther they must separate SECTION IV. That the Kingdom of the Jews was a Supreme Sovereign Monarchy in which their Kings had the absolute Power of Peace and War and were Supreme in Ecclesiasticis And an Answer to that Objection That God gave them a King in his wrath I Have hitherto according to my method propos'd discours'd of Monarchy in general it remains now that I bring it down to some particulars I 'll begin with the Kingdom God erected among the Jews his own People and shew That the Monarchy among them was supreme and independent And here we 'l take the case as we find it in Samuel Samuel was become old and his Sons not walking in his ways had distasted the People who ask of him a King to judg them like all the Nations Samuel is displeas'd but God commands him to hearken to them howbeit to protest solemnly against them and shew them the manner of the King that was to reign over them which he accordingly does viz. He will take your sons and appoint them for himself for his chariots and to be his horsemen and some shall run before his chariots He will take your fields and your vineyards and your oliveyards even the best of them and give them to his servants c. A hard saying no doubt whether we respect their persons or their possessions and yet he calls it Jus Regis qui imperaturus est vobis thereby also implying that such was the manner of all other Nations And when he wrote it in a Book and laid it up before the Lord he calls it Legem Regni The Law of the Kingdom and yet a King they must have and had him adding to that of Samuel this other of their own desires that he might have the absolute power
to the known Laws of the Land for Omnis sub Rege ipse sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo Every man is in subjection to the King and he to none but God and so the Oath of Supremacy declares him the onely Supreme Governor of this Realm of which more hereafter when I come to speak of the Statute-Law and therefore if the King refuse to do right seeing no Writ can issue against him there is a place for Petition and if that prevail not Satis ei erit ad poenam saith the same Bracton quod Dominum habeat ultorem And with this agreeth that of Horace Regum timendorum in proprios greges Reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis And in this respect a Prince is not loosed from the Law for as much as concerneth the directive Power of it but having not the Law becomes a Law to himself as well knowing Observantior aequi Fit Populus nec ferre negat cum viderit ipsum Auctorem parere sibi 2. As to the Power of Peace and War It is the right of the King saith Fitzherbert to defend his Kingdom as well against the Sea as against Enemies which implies that it is his right to defend it against Enemies and how can he do it without the right of his Sword when if he should be oblig'd to pray in Aid of others perhaps they may be of another mind or take up so much time in the Debate that the Kingdom may be lost ere they resolve what to do And this I take to be one of the effects of Con-si-de-ra-ti-on in those matters whose good or ill fortune solely depends on Expedition and Secresie for Dangers as the Lord Bacon saith are better met half way than by keeping too long a watch upon their approaches for if a man watch too long 't is odds he will fall asleep But to proceed Sir Edw. Cooke says no Subject can levy War within the Realm without Authority from the King unto whom it only belongeth and that it was High-Treason at the Common Law before the Statute De proditionibus And in Calvin's case he makes it clear That to make Leagues or denounce War only belongs to the King who without his Subjects may grant Letters of safe Conduct and Denization and that this high point of Prerogative Royal cannot be conferred upon any other it being a right of Majesty and among the badges of Supreme Power And now one would think this were enough and yet a late Statute of this Kingdom makes it yet clearer it being thereby declared That the sole Supreme Government Command and disposition of the Militia and all Forces by Sea and Land and of all Forces and places of Strength is and by the Law of England ever were the undoubted right of his Majesty and his Royal Predecessors Kings and Queens of England and that both or either of the Houses of Parliament cannot nor ought to pretend to the same nor can nor lawfully may raise or levy War Offensive or Defensive against his Majesty his Heirs and lawful Successors c. all which is not introductive of a new Law but declaratory of the old as may be further seen by the penning thereof And now what can be added more but the Purse without which what 's the Sword but as the Greek Proverb has it A Bow without a Bow-man For in as much as Mony is the Sinews of War and Peace firmamentum belli ornamentum pacis they that hang the Sword on one side and the Purse on the other seem to me to hazard both for neither can any sudden danger of which the King was ever thought the Judg be stav'd off nor War carried on nor the Publick Peace be long preserv'd without it And therefore on such occasions have Parliaments advis'd and assisted the King in supplying his Wants without directing him it seeming hard that he should have Power to Proclaim War and not be able to maintain it and be bound to defend his Subjects but deny'd the means Qui dirimit medium destruit finem 3. As to the creation and appointing Magistrates and Officers especially such as are not under the command of others this also resides solely in the King for besides what I have said in the last Paragraph touching his sole Power in the ordering and disposing the Militia and all Forces by Sea and places of Strength by Land His is the appointing all the great Officers and Ministers of the Realm whether Spiritual or Temporal the highest immediately by himself the inferior mediately by Authority derived from him and as it were De lumine lumen So the King appoints the Lord Commissioner and all other the grand Ministers and Officers of Scotland and the Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy Lords Justices and all other the grand Ministers and Officers of Ireland who also but in his Kings name appoint under him according to the extent of their respective Commissions so the Kings of England have and may at this day by Letters Patents make a Prorex Locum tenens or Guardian of the Realm before whom in their absence in remotis a Parliament may be held And such was Edward Duke of Cornwal 13 Edw. 3. Lionel Duke of Clarence 21 Edw. 3. John Duke of Bedford 5 Henry 5. And the Test of the Writ of Summons shall be in the Guardians name or by Commission under the great Seal to certain Lords of Parliament authorise them to hold a Parliament the King being then in the Realm but indisposed and such was that 3 Edw. 4. to William Lord Arch-Bishop of York and that other 28 Eliz. to John Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and others ad inchoandum c. ad Procedendum c. ad faciendum omnia singula c. nec non ad Parliamentum adjournandum Prorogandum c. And so are Parliaments held in Scotland and Ireland before the Lords Commissioners Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy c. of the respective Kingdoms 4. The Power of the last Appeal i. e. from whose Sentence no Appeal lies The only person besides the Kings of England that ever pretended to it here was the Pope tho yet the first attempt ever made that way was by Anselme Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in the Reign of King William Rufus but it took no effect And the Arch-Bishop concerning himself too much touching the Jurisdiction of the Pope in England the King told him Ad Officium Imperatoris spectat c. That it belong'd to the Emperor to make whom he pleas'd Pope and that for the same reason no Arch-Bishop or Bishop within his Realm should yield any subjection to the Court or Pope of Rome and chiefly in this respect cum ipse omnes libertates haberet in regno suo quas Imperator vindicabat in Imperio That he had the same Prerogative in his Kingdom that the Emperor claim'd in the Empire And
assembled the Elders of Israel and all the rulers of the Tribes and the heads of the families of the children of Israel to Jerusalem And here too not a word of the People and yet Sir Edw. Coke calls them both Parliaments and so no doubt but they were somewhat like it or otherwise so many succeeding Centuries had never took pattern from them Not to run so far from home What was our Saxon Witenage mote Micel Synods Micel Gemotes or Great Councils but so many Assemblies of the Wise men concerning whom it is not to be presumed but that they were of the first rate the lump of the People as I so lately toucht it being for many Ages before and after not bred to Letters and consequently more apt for Blows than Arguments and readier to cut the knot in two with their Swords than unty it with their Tongues and in all the Saxon Annals we find the principal or chief Wites or Wise men of the Nation the Assembly of Gods Servants the Clergy then so called Aldermen or Earls Great men Chiefest men Noblemen the constituent parts of those great Councils but no Commons to be found or any that represented them Neither does Sir Edw. Coke in any Authority of his before the latter years of Henry 3. prove any where that the Commons at that time were any such part of those Parliaments for if they had there is no question but he would have nam'd them also as he doth those others that made up those Parliaments Rex Eldredus convocavit Magnates Episcopos Proceres Optimates ad tractandum de publicis negotiis regni King Eldred saith he call'd together his Earls Bishops Barons and Chief men but not a word again of the Commonalty And with this agrees the learned Mr. Selden where we have several other instances to the same purpose but not one word in any of them touching the Commons And as the Saxon Great men were only present in their Great Councils so were only the Norman Barons and their Great men in those of the Conqueror for we often meet Arch-Bishops Bishops Earls Barons but no where find the least mention of the Commons neither is it to be believ'd that his new acquest would yet suffer him to trust a People he had so lately conquer'd or that he made to himself other measures than what he took from his Sword And as to William Rufus his time we find it the same for in the sixth year of his Reign there was a Great Council held at Winchester and in the seventh another at Rockingham and in the tenth De statu regni acturus Episcopos Abbates quosque regni Proceres in unum praecepti sui sanctione egit Being to order some Affairs of the Realm he commanded together the Bishops Abbats and all the Nobility of the Kingdom and yet all this while not a word of the Commons In like manner albeit in the first of Henry 1. Clerus Angliae Populus universus c. the Clergy and all the People were Summon'd to Westminster yet here the word Populus is used as contradistinct to the Clergy to which it is opposed and denotes not any distinct State or Order among Secular men or Laicks but an Order and Estate of men distinct from the Ecclesiasticks or Clergy these two words of Clerus and Populus being the two general States or Orders into which all mankind is divided And so he cites it as quoted by Sir Will. Dugdale touching the Coronation of King Egbert Veniunt Wintoniam Clerus Populus The Clergy and People came to Winchester To which also Mr. Selden gives a great light when of the same Council he saith Ad commune concilium Baronum meorum is mentioned in it Or what means that other of the third of the same King wherein they are call'd Primates utriusque ordinis The Chiefs of both Orders i. e. of the Clergy viz. the Lords Spiritual and of Laity viz. the Nobles who are also called Principes Regni The Chief or Head men of the Kingdom of which also we have several instances in that beloved Physician 's ingenuious learned Answer to Mr. Petit. Neither does it appear that the Great Councils in King Stephen's time consisted of any other than the Clergy and the Nobility there being not the least mention of the Milites or Liberi homines Knights or Free-men or that they acted in them But from these Usurpations we come to Hen. 2. who Robert Duke of Normandy being dead came in upon a rightful Title from his Grand-father Henry 1. and yet the Great Council at Clarendon which was the 10th of his Reign consisted only of Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbats Priors Earls and Chief men of the Kingdom and albeit Mr. Selden as himself from Hoveden says That Clerus and Populus Regni the Clergy and People of the Land were then Assembled it appears not that any other Estate was meant by the word Populus than the Lay Nobles For at the great Council of Northampton which was the following year Rex Statuens celebrare solenne Concilium omnes qui tenebant de Rege in Capite mandari fecit The King having resolv'd to hold a Great Council he Summon'd thither all those that held of him in Capite i. e. in Chief Now to hold in Chief of the King is to hold of him immediately and merely as King and of his Crown as of a Seigneury in Gross and in Chief above all other Seigneuries and not as of or by means of some Honor Castle or Mannor belonging to the Crown And in the preceding leaf Mr. Selden says Tenere de Rege in Capite habere possessiones sicut Baroniam are Synonimies and to hold in Chief and to have their Possessions as Baronies was to have the right of sitting in Councils with the rest of the Barons concerning which it does not yet appear that the Commonalty at that time had any From thence and during the Reign of King Richard the First and until the 15th of K. John we find it the same only at that time the King being at Rochel in France commits the custody of England to the Bishop of Winchester then Chief Justice and writes to his Barons Knights and to all his Feudataries or Vassals thro England That he had received the Popes Letters touching the release of the Interdict under which the Kingdom then lay and of which I toucht before which he had sent to the said Bishop and therefore requires them as of whose kindness and fidelity he had full confidence that according to what the said Bishop should then say unto them they would effectually give their advice and aid as in like manner he writes to several other Cities and Burroughs thereby earnestly requiring them that according to what the said Bishop shall give them to understand that they effectually apply themselves to give him a supply towards the relaxation
That first of all supplications prayers c. be made for all men forgets not more especially Kings and all that are in Authority In short the Primitive Christians resisted not their Idolatrous Persecutors and yet contrary to the opinion of Bellarmin and Buchanan they wanted not numbers Vestra omnia implevimus saith Tertullian urbes insulas castella municipia conciliabula castra ipsa decurias Palatia forum Senatum cui bello non idonei non prompti fuissemus qui tam libenter trucidamur si non apud disciplinam nostram magis occidi liceret quam occidere We fill saith he the whole Empire your Cities Princes Houses Castles Corporations Councils your very Camps Courts of Justice Palaces Market-places Senate with whom are we not able to make a War who so willingly offer our selves to the slaughter did not our Religion teach us that in such cases it is better to be killed than kill But instead of it pray'd That God would give them Vitam prolixam Imperium securum domum tutam exercitus fortes Senatum fidelem Populum probum orbem quietum quaecunque hominis aut Caesaris sunt vota A long Life a secure Empire safe House valiant Forces a faithful Council loyal People quiet State and whatever were the desires of a man or Emperor They preferr'd God before Julian's Idolatry yet when he said March they obey'd him And if Idolatry be not ground for a Subject to resist his Prince much less then may cases of lesser consequence which touch not the Foundation but are only circumstantials And of this kind are all Adiaphora things in themselves indifferent whether to be made use of or not made use of however coming to be commanded by a lawful Authority the indifferency ceases and every man is obliged in Conscience to comply with the Command as especially in such cases where he has made himself a party by his Representative and from which if he might retract by saying it was not the sense he meant why also might not the King in some other case say he was mistaken when he gave the Royal Assent for I do not find that the Subject here shall be in a better condition than the King And then make the consequence who will which is as easily done off-hand as other matters that require no study And here I might instance several Ceremonies which albeit they were first devised by man for the more decent order in the Church and tho the keeping or omitting them is in it self but a small thing yet the wilful and contemptuous transgression and breaking of a common Order and Discipline is no small offence against that rule of the Apostle Let all things be done in a seemly and due order and is no more of private interpretation than is Scripture which like the Law pronounceth nothing but in the mouth of a Judg. To speak once for all our Saviour who was an Hebrew amongst whom the Roman Customs were not so altogether in use gives us a remarkable example in this matter and I think no man will question his Authority Solem quis dicere falsum Audeat He was I said before an Hebrew and yet if we examin his converse among the Romans we shall find it generally comporting to their manners To pass the rest that one of Instituting his last Supper seems to me to carry no small force The Triclinium a Bed not unlike our Couches without backs but broader on which the Romans at their Feasts lay in a manner extended on their Sides Breasts or Elbows was not in use among the Jews that ever I yet met or learn'd yet when our Saviour was to keep the Passover which the Jews did their Loins girt their Shoes on their feet their Staves in their hands and in hast the Text says Discumbebat cum duodecim which signifies the manner how the Romans used those Beds and from whence S. John is said to have leaned on his bosom yet admitting that he sate down it is enough to prove that it was not the Jewish custom for they stood besides the form of the Table seems to have been Roman viz. Orbicular or Oval of which kind we have several figures in Rosinus Lipsius and others and the reason of it was that every ghest might put his hand in the Dish without reaching over another and this is further plain by that answer of our Saviour to his Disciples asking him who should betray him Qui intingit manum in Paropside c. He that dippeth his hand with me in the Dish the same shall betray me neither is it possible it could have been a long Table for then how could our Saviour as we have it in another Evangelist have given him the Sop in as much as Judas being the last of the twelve and perhaps for that reason also carrying the Bag must in all probability have sate lowest and out of reach of the Sop as well as of the Dish from all which I infer that if our Saviour who was no Roman conform'd himself to the customs of the Roman Empire to which the Jews were at that time Tributary how much more then ought this be a sufficient ground to us whereby to follow his example especially in matters otherwise indifferent where they are not commanded it being but reasonable that in standing weight even a grain of Authority should turn the Scale Least of all then is injury any ground for a Subject to oppose his Prince inasmuch as no man can be said to be injur'd by him of whom by the Law of God and man he can take no revenge without a greater injustice S. Peter was reproved by our Saviour for drawing his Sword against Authority tho in defence of his Master S. Paul checks himself for a bare slip of his Tongue against the High-Priest And look back into the Old Testament those times also hold no such custom but rather the contrary Thus Moses and six hundred thousand footmen besides children and a mixt multitude fled from Pharaoh David in the head of an Army and those if we consider the persons desperate enough from Saul And Elias from Jezabel seven thousand men yet left in Israel that had not bow'd their knees unto Baal And as they fled others supplicated So Jonathan for David to Saul Ebedmelech for Jeremiah to Zedechiah And Esther a Queen for her Nation to Ahasuerus In short if any cause should be admitted for which Subjects might resist that cause would never be wanting against any Prince let him reign never so justly whom the people shall call an Idolater or Tyrant and how easie it will be to conclude him one or both especially where they that take upon them to give the Sentence shall make the case I leave it to every man Impiety must be the ground to accuse him and that the common pretence whereby to depose him as if
Hebron for the Text says They went in their simplicity and knew not any thing Yet it was not to be expected that Religion alone should carry on the work or that the same old drudg Cloak should still hold out Rain without a new Lining Wisdom built her house on more Pillars than one and a mere Foundation was too hazardous for their new Jerusalem without Props and Buttresses And therefore to prevent the question Do any of the Scribes follow him there must be Hinters as well as Holders-forth Leading-men to countenance that for Law which their Assembly had predetermin'd should pass for Gospel Corah and his Companions were of the Tribe of Levi Dathan and Abiram of the Tribe of Reuben Heads of Families men famous in the Congregation Clergy and Laity dissembled Sanctity to usurp'd Authority And that their Quarrel was Government under the pretence of Religion too appears by what they said to Moses and Aaron Ye take too much upon you seeing all the Congregation are holy every one of them and the Lord is among them wherefore then lift ye up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord So Adoniah when his Father David the Kingdom of the Jews being not yet become Hereditary had caused Solomon to be Crowned King while he yet lived the better to colour his pretence to it took to him Abiathar the High-Priest and Joab the Captain of the Host And who would think it strange that a short-sighted Sand-blind Multitude should scruple to follow where such Guides lead them I have hitherto with what briefness I could accounted some slights of hand within our own memories and shall it be reckoned to our inadvertence or folly that they pass twice in the same Age That the Devil was once in the Herd we have Authority enough but that he never should quit it we hold no such Prophesie And yet methinks the Game is playing over again or else what meaneth this bleeting of the Sheep and lowing of the Oxen this talking with the People upon the Wall or making them believe that they that came into the world as Cato into the Theatre only to go out again should yet be the Saints that are to judg and inherit it why must they that carry their Souls in their Eyes and their Brains in other mens Heads be once more buzz'd with Laws Liberties Conscience Dissatisfaction or like Larks dar'd to the Net with every thing Prognostications Prophesies Prodigies c. which albeit like Mercenary Soldiers they may be brought to fight on either side yet every man superstitiously interprets them to his own advantage and lets them speak no other Language than what his wishes hope or fear put in their mouths In short we have had enough of the Arts by which the people have been already impos'd on nor will it be unworth the while if we consider of what ill consequence such or the like impressions may further be to them inasmuch also as those Spiritual Druggists give out the Commodity without garbling and vend what they please among the Rabble for staple Goods and warrantable Man as he is a rational so also is he a compound gradual Creature the way to his reason being by his sense and appetite which being disturb'd or prepossess'd how is it possible for him to take any thing aright more than for him that is out in the premisses not to be worse mistaken in the conclusion or than that a Bowl deliver'd short or narrow at hand should ever come up with the Block some Birds are whistled into the Snare others driven and Dotterils caught by imitation of such postures as others put themselves into Argus had an hundred eyes and yet was surpriz'd sleeping The evil one in the Gospel sow'd tares while the Husbandman slept and what worse effects may not such impressions have upon the multitude whose whole life is but one long slumber or at best Per pocula noctes And therefore considering them as the Athenians in the Acts ever spending their time in nothing else but either to tell or hear some new thing or taking them as they are weak in judgment but violent in will believing as they affect and presaging as they believe how easie is it to make them serviceable to any aspiring design shall be cast before them And if so how are they to be entrusted with themselves much less to be lasht down-hill especially if when we have any credit to the Poet we also allow him in the advice to Phaeton Parce puer stimulis fortius utere loris Sponte suâ properant labor est inhibere For tho they would be quiet enough if their drivers would let 'em yet if once they get the Bitt in their teeth or find the Reins lie loose on their necks they grow wild unruly seditious and no longer apt to be govern'd or ruled and as another on the like occasion Non audivere jugales Imperium prono nec sat stetit orbita coelo And therefore the Psalmist that reckons it among the Prerogatives of God to still the raging of the Sea subjoyns immediately and the madness of the People Who would have thought that Jack Cade alias Captain Mend-all in Henry 6th.'s time Jack Straw and Wat Tyler in Richard 2.'s time and their Rabbles could have done any mischief and yet they put the Kingdom into such a Convulsion that it required some time ere it recover'd its limbs And here I wonder any Citizen of London can look upon the Bloody Dagger in the dexter Canton of the City Arms and not remember the Loyalty of Sir William Wallworth then Lord Mayor of London who with his own hand knockt down Wat Tyler in the Kings presence in Smithfield and and thereby dispers'd the Rabble in memory of which action that Augmentation was first given them In like manner That of Thomas Anello or Massinello in Naples about 34 years since where so inconsiderable a thing as the Gabel on a Basket of Fruit or Fish rais'd the People into a Rebellion of above 200000 men in less than five days wherein ere it ended 't was odds but the Neapolitan Courser had for all the Bridle and Saddle thrown his Rider had not the Policy of that time thought the acquest of a disputable Crown of less concern than the setting up again a declining but popular emulous not to say pretending Family and giving it once more the opportunity of an Estate that was but too mighty in Obligations already Add to this the late Assassination of De Witt and his Brother in Holland by a wild Rabble which also had not been so easily quieted were it not natural with the common People enragedly to vent themselves on the stone that hurt them and never regard the hand that threw it And yet in all this there was no pretence of Religion but it heightens the case when that shall be edg'd in to