from this Authority they can have no proof and from Wise Men can be gathered nothing but such as were Noble or chief of the Realm for the meaner sort and that which we now call the Commonality were then far enough from having any great share of Learning or common Understanding and then besides these Wisest of the People were only such whom the King should think Wise and admit to his Council far from being sent by their Borroughs as elected Senators King Alfred had his Parliament and a great one was held by King Athelstan at Grately ' which only tells us there were Assembled some Bishops Noble-Men and the Wise-Men whom the King called which implies no more then those he had a mind should come But the Antiquity of a Parliament or that of an House of Commons is not so much the thing these Factious Roll and Record Mongers contend for 't is its Superiority Supremacy and there endeavours to make them antient is but in order to the making their Power Exorbitant and not to be controul'd by that of their King whom in the next place this Re-publican can scarce allow the power of calling them at his Pleasure and dissolving them when he pleases But so great is the Power of Truth and the Goodness of the Cause he Opposes that he is forc't to contradict himself to defend his Paradoxes For he tells us the King is obliged with an hear-say Law which his learned in the Faculty and Faction can't find out yet Page 111. to call Parliaments as often as need should be that is they think fit And also not to dissolve them till all their Petitions were answered that is till they are willing to be gone But then will I defie the Gentleman to shew me the difference between this their desired Parliament and a Perpetual sitting do not these industrious Endeavours for such a perpetuity of them plainly tell us 't is that 's the only thing they want and that they are taught experimentally that that alone run the three Kingdoms into absolute Rebellion and ruined the best of Kings and can as certainly compass the Destruction of the present But I 'll tell the lump of Contradiction first the words of our greatest Lawyer and then his own Cooke says none 4. Insti 27. 2. 1. Inst Sect. 164. can begin continue or dissolve a Parliament but by the Kings Authority Himself says that which is undoubtedly the Plato Red. page 105. Kings Right is to call and dissolve Parliaments 'T is impertinent to labour to contradict that which he here so plainly confutes himself the Statesman being so big with his Treasonable Notions so full of his Faction that his Memory fails him makes him forget his own Maxims and makes his subsequent Pages wrangle with the Concessions of those that went before His next Observation is a perfect Comment upon his Text that had in it implicit Treason before he tells us in Justification of the Barons Wars which all our Historians represent as a perfect Page 107. Rebellion That the Peers were fain to use their Power and can he tell me by what Law Subjects are impowred to Rebel He calls it arming of their Vassals for the defence of the Government That Bill by which they would have associated of late that I confess had it past into Act would have made Rebellion Statutable And they themselves must indeed have had the Sovereign power when they had gotten their Sovereign to suffer himself to be sworn out of his Supremacy they might well have armed their Vassals then when they had got his Majesties leave to commence Rebels and Traytors for the Protection of his Person and the Preservation of his Crown and Dignity But these humble Boons were no more than that Bill must have begged and these kind Concessions no more than was expected from the Grant of a King so Gracious a Petition that might well have been answered like that of Bathsheba's by bidding them ask the Kingdom also The Barons standing in open defiance Ibid. page 108. to the Laws tho they stood up too so much for them He calls the Peers keeping their Greatness and this is the Sovereign Power the Rebel would have them again set up for to be great in their Arms as well as Quality and demand with the Sword again the Prerogative of their Kings and the grant of the Regalia which in their preposterous Appellations was abused with the pretence of priviledge and right and which the force of the Field can soon make of the greatest Usurpation and wrong But in the very next Page 't is 109. expounded clearly what has may and must be done in such Conjunctions that is to your Arms. He tells us after they had obtained the framing of their Charters and I think they were as much as the most condescending Monarchs could grant or the most mutinous malecontents require Then arose another grievance unseen and unprovided for This was the Intermission of Parliaments which could not be called but by the Prince and he not doing it they ceast for some years to be Assembled if this had not been speedily remedied The provoking Rebel for certainly he is as much so that Animates a Rebellion as he that is actually engaged in it and is by Law so declared tells us the Barons must have put on their Armour again and 25. Ed. 3. Plat. pag. 109. the brisk Assertors of their Rights not have acquiesc'd in this Omission that ruined the Foundations of the Government After all the kind Concessions of the Prince the putting him upon that which was the taking away of the very remains of Royalty puts me in mind of one of our late Expressions of a popular Representative that could declare in open Assembly as attested by some of the very Members of it that tho this their Bill of Exclusion were past which was more we see than the most mildest Monarch could grant or even our House of Peers sure the better part of our Nation could in Modesty require yet still there was more work to be done and a Reformation to be made in the Church as well as the State The Patriot was prepared to lanch out in such kind of Extravagancies and told the truth of the Plot before his time had not calmer Heads interposed and cool'd his hot one into common Sense Several of the Speeches spoken in Parliament for which its Publisher deserves to be Pillor'd if not Authentick and True and brought before them on his Knees at least for his Presumption if they are it being here as Criminal to Print Truths at all times without an Imprimatur as 't is to tell it without leave even in several of those Speeches Publisht in that Paper I reflected on in the beginning where the Pedantick Author has exposed me in the Tail of his History that lookt like the Narrative of a Rump History of the Association Printed by Janeway there are as bold Expressions of
they shall as Samuel says cry out because of their Verse 18. King yet even this after he was by the same Prophet anointed and endowed with all that formidable Power he so fearfully represented we don't find even him reproach'd for a Tyrant or upbraided for violating the Laws or any breach of Trust whereas their Brutus in his Description of a Tyrant calls it Tyranny only for a Prince to bring in Foreigners Tyrannus est qui exteros in praesidiis collo cat Vindiciae quest 3. Page 139 140. for his Gaurd and then our Haringtons Hunts Nevels and Needhams might have made it Treason too against the Majesty of the People for our Kings that have suffered several French Souldiers in their Troops I say seriously they might have made use of such a Ridiculous Argument of this Authors for accusing our Princes of their Arbitrary Power as well as they have borrowed from the same Senseless Soul as silly and Seditious stuff But least our Republicans as they really do should rely too much upon Samuel's frightful Description of an Arbitrary Prince which they now-a-days too much make the Bugbear of the People as if their Dogs can worry the best Government when drest in a Bear-Skin 't is the Sense of some Learned Men that the Prophet gave them only this draught of a Monarch to let them know the extent of his power and as Sir Walter says to teach the Subject to suffer with patience any thing from the Hands of his Soveraign and I think Raleigh Hist Chap. 16. §. 1. that unfortunate Gentleman when he Pen'd most of that Excellent piece as a Prisoner had no Reason to be suspected for a Dissembling Flatterer of Kings as Postscript pag. 68 69. Brutus representsany one that defends his Soveraign's Right for a Traytor Betrayer of the People as Hunt has it or as Merc. Pol. Num. 92. Needham Debauch'd with the Brutish Principles of MONARCHY but I am sure may be allowed to have had more than them all In the next place the Laws of Nature of all Nations and particularly our own all absolutely exclude the People from being Judges in the Case of their King For the first It is the most Preposterous and Unnatural Inversion in the World that inferior Subjects should be invested with such a Power as common Sense will not admit to be Pedes elevabuntur supra Caput part of the Oxford Oracle Vid. Baker lodg'd tny where but in the Supream they may as well invert the common Course the constant Order of unalterable Nature it self expect the Sun and Lamp of Heaven should no longer move in an Orb so high but Stars of the meanest Magnitude set up for the sole Dispensers of the day and the simile for ought I see is not so Foreign neither for we find there is more than a mere ordinary Analogy between that Harmonious Symmetry of the World and such a System of Government as if that Eternal Protoplast had found it most agreeable for the frame of the Universe which he the very God of Unity had form'd as if the Institution of the one were nothing less Divine than the Creation of the other And for this I dare appeal even to the Almighty and that with better Authority than Mr. Harrington with his Antient Prudence The God of Heaven who by all unless they be Barbarous ‖ And even Homer a Heathen was of that Opinion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom I◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hes Theog v. 96. Heathens is allowed to be but one and he himself is pleased to call Kings his very Vice-gerents here on Earth and the very Polytheists of Old Rome that had their Gods for almost every day as numerous as they say the Modern Romanist in his Calendar of Saints yet they among the many Deities they ador'd still lodg'd the Supremacy in one and ascrib'd all the Government all the sole Supream Power to their Mighty Jove For this he framed one Sun to Rule by Day and a Moon Gen. 1. verse 16. by Night For this he Justified that paternal Right in one Man which even their Aristotle a Heathen Born bred under a Republick reckons for a sort of Monarchy But I confess such a sort of Argument can not be concluding with Men that will oppose Heaven it self and all the Harmony of its Creation rather than be convinced That their own Models end commonly in Confusion and are best represented in the Primitive Chaos For the Second Consult but the Imperial Laws and the Codes of Justinian Laws that were Collected from other Nations as well as made by their own Laws that their Solon and Lycurgus with all their Attick Legislators all the great Republicks of Greece which these Seditious Souls so much extol could never have reform'd and you 'll find what provisions those make for the Supream Magistrates being the sole Judge The resolutions of some of those Heathens of the Royal Authority their Humble Submission to the Supream Jurisdiction in all Causes and over all Persons as our Protestant Oaths have it one would think should make the boldest of our Christians blush that can run up resistance at the same time they are Sworn to submit and obey these their Laws which for their equity have obtain'd even thro the universe these tell us That the * Imperator solus Conditor interpres Legis Zouch Element part 4. §. 4. p. 103. and c. 1. 14. 12. King is both the Maker and sole Interpreter of the Laws that what ever ‖ Quod princi placuit Legis vigorem habet D. 1. 4. 1. pleases the Prince has the Power and efficacy of a Law and that 't is a Crime equivalent to * Sacrilegii instar est principis rescripto obviare C. 1. 23. 5. Sacrilege it self to resist a Proclamation or Edict of their Soveraign that he himself is bound by no Law and then I am sure can't be Judg'd by any and that he is †In omnibus Imperatoris excipitur fortuna cui ipsas Leges Deus Subjecit Nov. 105. 2. exempted from them here on Earth because Subject to none but the Judge of Heaven And for fear least Arguments drawn †Si summo dare urgetur ad Regem provocato Lambert in his Laws Edgar 1. 23. 5. from the Laws of Nature and all Nations should be insufficient to convince men of such Seditious Sentiments we 'll for Confirmation of the Third Subjoin the Resolution of the very Lawyers of our Land and they tell us too what the God of Heaven and almost the Universal Concurrence of all the Nations upon Earth have agreed in before our Britton as I 've shown before has in effect with the very digest of the Imperial Law made our Statutes to consist in the Will The words of Bracton Chief Justice in Henry the 3d's time Rex non alius debet Judicare and in another place Illius est Interpretari cujus
destroyed because some Persons can maintain another no more than the Systeme of Plolomy was presently False only because Copernicus had invented his for True for the bare contradiction and Clashing of positions convinces no more than the giving the Lye but when it is prov'd upon them in one that even from their own Principles and Premisses they cannot draw the very Conclusion they design as it was since in the other that from their own Hypothesis they could not solve all the Phrases and Phaenomenons themselves would make to appear then certainly they must allow that themselves are in the wrong tho they will not Confess their Foes in the Right And now having at lenght examin'd their Original Power of People let us a little consider how long and from whence our Kings have had their Original If we must make words only instead of an Argument and cavil about an Idiom in Speech as sâ—me of their critical Contenders about this Origen of Kings have very vainly and as Foolishly quarrel'd at then we must consult our Dictionaries and the Dutch Tongue for without doubt till the Saxons settled here they had some other appellation and were only from them call'd Konyngâ— and since Kings but if we consider the Nature of the Government it is that which from the Greeks we call Monarchy which from its own Etymology best signifies and expresses the Sense that it bears which is the Governing part and the Supream power plac'd in the sole hands of some single Person and then the Queston will be only this how long that has obtain'd in the World by whom first instituted and in whom it first commenc'd For the first 't is undeniable that its Original was with that of the World and God himself gave it by the Name of * 1. Cen. v. 28. Dominion to his Adam he had Created which in express Terms was given him first over all the Living Creatures and then over thâ— product of his own Loins his Wife anâ— 4. Gen. v. 7. after that as if Providence did desigâ— to prevent the dispute about the Precedency of Primogeniture it gave in express words a Superiority to Cain that the younger should be in some sense his Subject that to him should be his deâ—â—re and that he should Rule over him from whence it was assoon Communicated to the Several Heads of the Families that were the product of their Loins and so succeeded in a sort of subordinate Government according to the Antiquity of the Tribe or Family That this was then such Authority as we now call Kingly is both nonsense to assert and as great a Folly for any to require that we should maintain for they may as well quarrel with us when we say there were Kings of Israel and Judah and yet cannot prove that there Courts and Revenues were as Stately and Great as now they are in England and France 't is enough if the Government of those Primitive times was but Analogous to what we call Kingly now And now that we have brought it both to a right of Primogeniture and a Paternal Right from whence will result the Divine we 'll consider what it is Mr. Sidney and his Advocates can say against it and see if there be any such absurdities in it as they more Seditiously then with any Sense and Reason suggest first for the right of Primogeniture that themselves will allow but 't is only because not able to contradict and besides as they imagin it makes for them and their Cause for by that course of descent they think our Asserters of a Divine right are oblig'd to deduce their Pedigree of their Kings form the Creation of the World in a right Line and therefore Mr. ‖ Vid. Paper at Execut Sidney says that such a supposition makes no King to have a Title to his Crown but what can deduce his Pedigree from the Eldest Son of Noah But for that absurdity which is truly their own by supposing it ours when it can't be truly deduced from the Doctrine and defence of a Divine Right we shall answer anon when we come to treat of the Paternal That Primogeniture had the Preheminence in the very Worlds Infancy if we do but believe the word of God which tells us that himself told Cain he should Rule over his younger Brother we cannot doubt of the truth of it besides Abraham's being a Prince and having a Precedence to his Brother Lot is also there recorded and Esau ‖ 25. Gen. v. 34. selling of his Birth-right Condemn'd as a Contempt of that preheminence to which God and Nature had prefer'd him and which himself only disposed of when he presum'd he was upon the point to dye and for his disregard of this Priviledge was he punisht too in the prevention of the * C. 27. Blessing and which is perhaps the only Instance in Sacred writ where a Lineal Discent and the Succession was interrupted and this too only occasion'd by his own Act. ‖ And we are expressly told the first born must not be disinherited no not for Private Affection Deu. 21. v. 15. If a man have two Wives the one hated the other lov'd and the first born be of her that was hated he may not make the Son of the belov'd first born before the Son of the hated that is indeed the first born but must give him a double Portion because the beginning of his strenght and the Right of the first-born is his vers 15 16 17. And that God himself did appropiate this precedency to the first-born may be gathered out of all the History of the Old Testament the only account that is extant and from which Authors gather all the Authentick Relation of the two first Epooches and most Memorable Periods or Intervals of time viz. That from the †First Period contain'd An. 1656. 2d 1518. SecunduÌ„ Intervallum a Varrone Mythicum appellatur Creation to the Flood and from the Flood to the first Olympiad i. e. to Ann. Mund. 3174. for the profane History of those times is accounted Fabulous and by Historians call'd so and from those Sacred Oracles it will appear that all their Kings of * So Jehoram succeeded his Father Jehoshaphat tho he had several younger brothers Chro. 21. v. 2. And after him Ahaziah his young Son because says the text all the Elder were slain Ibid. Chap. 22. v. 1. Which implies that they had succeeded if alive by Birth and Primogeniture Israel and Judah succeeded according to this Right of Primogeniture or where that fail'd by ‖ Numb 27. v. 9. Proximity of Blood And as the Almighty Countenanc'd such a Succession So does Nature it self which among Heathens was distinguisht from the Deity and may be so amongst Christians too if they consider it as the Work and Order of the Divine will for if she shall decide it she presumes the Eldest in years to be always the wisest too and 't is not Nature but a
was opposed even when moved unanimously that Treason too might be Publisht with a Nemine contradicente 't was presumed I suppose the better Pen-men were their own and I grant them the more pestilent that could spread their Contagion as fast as the Plague and to the Monarchy as mortal for almost five years the Distemper was Epidemick and the State Empericks had poysoned the body Politick almost beyond the Antidote of true Medicine and Art it Sympathis'd with Pestilence in the Natural almost incurable reigned most populously in Towns and Cities and turned every Corporation into a politick Pest-House Appeals vox Patriae Liberties of England Fundamental Rights were exposed in Capital Letters upon every Stall and that dedicated to Representatives and some Penn'd by them too for the Information of the People or in a less prepostorous Phrase for their Confusion Sedition seemed to be countenanced with suffrages and seconded as they thought with the supream power of the Nation They expected Treason should have been enacted for Law and Laws repealed that had declared High Treason 'T is almost preposterous and incredible tho' unhappily too true that more Sedition was fomented from the discovery of this Popish Plot than all the Jesuits in Hell could have raised while yet undiscovered we forged out one anothers ruin from the very deliverance and to fall with harder fate the less to be lamented by our selvs and just escapt the storm we strove to perish more miserably â—n the Port. Such was the state of affairs when some of our Loyal Hearts first ventured to stem the Tide the fierce influx of an Impetuous Rebellion that like a true torrent came rolling on with noise and clamor and threatned ruin from afar The first that opposed the Great Goliahs of their Cause that defyed too even the Armies of the living God and the strength of his Anointed was he who from his Youth had serv'd the Crown with his Pen as well as his Sword and before him too did their Dagon fall one whom they had designed formerly for a Victim when they sacrificed their Prince whom Providence reserved for their Scourge and for which since some of them have publickly curst its dispensation Libelled him in their Emblematical Representations in which I confess they neither spared their King breaking his Halter like a Dog and running for his Life and Neck and that by the very same hands of Villains that had forfeited their own to the Government and were afterward faster noosed How Zealous were our Popular Patriots against the least animadversion that was made on the most audacious Libel and even Judges themselvs arraigned for daring to execute those Laws the meanest villain could daily dare to violate How curious to enquire for the least accusation against the worthy Person above described and only because he dared to do his duty when 't was dangerous to do so It was a pretty sort of expedient tho the most absurd Politicks for the countenancing of the Popish-Plot to bring every one concerned in it that would not swallow the whole Mass of it raw crude and undigested and that before they had cook'd it up with Nartative too while their Protestant rashness at the same time precipitated them but into a Romish Doctrin of Resignation to their Senate instead of a Church and believing their house of Commons with a Faith implicite yet this was all done too and this Gentleman whose Writings only declared him a little scrupulous in matters of belief when even by the most credulous in all Ages it has been allowed to doubt and by the Great Des Cartes the wisest Philosopher as a step to the knowledg of the Truth Him 't was expedient to Metamorphose with the power of an Oath which was then Omnipotent from an avowd Protestant into a profest Papist I use that poetical Expression because they might as well have sworn him through all the transformations of Ovid into Bull Bear or Dragon born a profest Son of the Church conformed through all his Life to all its Ceremonies a Champion for her with his Pen and with it a publisht Enemy to Rome even in his own Works having about him Eyes Nose Ears And from Head to Foot all the true shapes of a Protestant Humane Creature but the Spell of Affidavit beyond that of Circe turned Him all into the Beast of Babylon all his Hair vanisht into a shaven Crown The Whore came riding on his very back and the fleecy Cowl of Priests came tumbling o're his Shoulders and the Common-Prayer he held in his Hand ran all into red Letters and the Mass-book His being a Papist and a Priest was as much credited as the Plot it self and might have had the Resolution of the House of Commons to the point of his Religion as well as the truth of the Conspiracy not a Member but was well satisfyed of his Apostacy and could Menace him in Publick with a Topham or a Tyburn And he the first Instance that under a Government yet establisht a Religion then Laboured for with Zeal who for Writing in the defence of both was forc't to fly for his security and Preservation tho as publickly cleared from the perjur'd Accusation before his King before his Council as good Judges at least as the Credulous Commons these careful Patriots being often abused by their Country-men for whom they were so Zealous Oaths Affidavits and that Cloud of Witnesses had almost obscured the light of Reason and Vnderstanding Another Worthy Person tho' unknown that at the same time blest our Land with the Benefit of his Pen while with the bounteous river he hid his head whose Ingenious Dialogues only Corrected their sawcy Libels with a smile and with a pleasant reproof of their Falshoods made them feel the smartness of his Truth Him they Libelled too for Popish Mercenary Pensioner to the Party So Zealous were they for the subverting of the Government that they could damn all that did but dare to assert it Break the very Laws of society in their Censures and what they could not prove with their Affidavits condemn upon Presumption With what sawcy Petulant Animadversions did they treat the Dean of Paul's Sermon of Separation A piece penn'd with that Judgment and Moderation that it was only envyed for being so commended and applauded by the Pen even of one of their most virulent Scriblers that had engaged Himself for the vilifying of the Church in which he was Christned and fighting against the Banner of his Christ for which he had vowed himself a Souldier * And with the subtile Insinuation of righting Vid. Hunts Postscript of her Prelates wrong'd and abused her whole Hierachy yet such an one could allow that peaceable and pious piece to be without exception but what Reason could not resist must be baffled by a Buffoon and a Pen employed to Burlesque the very Bible rather than want an answer to the Text and the sacred service of the Church prophaned Vid. Mischief
of Imposition with the tropes of Trinkets and the Metaphor of an Hobby-horse tho upon other Occasions she can be transformed into the more terrible beast of the Revelations The Author was Anonymous and so escap't the thanks of the House but what ever were the scurrilous Animadversions on the foresaid and the like Ingenious Loyal and elaborate pieces 't is observable they had so much Influence on some of our blindest Zealots as to open their eyes brought some of their Villanies to light that had been so long transacted in the dark and drove the Faction to stand a little at bay that had ran the Nation almost out of her Wits coold their brutal Zeal down into Humane Sense acquainted them with what was truly Religious and heartily Loyal instead of a devout Phrensy and a mistaken Loyalty All that I can arrogate to my self is but what I shall always be proud of of having done my Duty and that to my Soveraing as well as his Subjects in a seasonable Animadversion on as damnable a piece of Treason as ever was brooded by the most perjur'd heads that ever hatcht a Rebellion That specious pretext of an Association That Covenant to Rebel against the Life and Honor of their Prince with Scripture warranty and in the fear of God tho' the very Text tells them touch not mine Anointed And next to fearing their God follows honouring their King I cannot say I was Instrumental in the following Abhorrences but hope the God of Heaven blest my poor endeavours so far as to encourage but an Abomination of the draught of Hell which I hope too I there represented as black as the Devil that contriv'd it or to give it its true Colour almost in its own blackness my foreboding thought shewed me in it like a Glass all the Villanies and Treasons that have since succeeded tho' not prospered The very Scheam and Embryo of this teeming Plot The very Metaphor of the Trojan horse that carryed Fire and Sword in its Belly brought within the Walls of our House of Commons as they themselvs assure us I am sure as unhappily as that within those of Troy by almost Vid. Proceedings at the Old-Bayly pulling them down and exposing the whole Kingdom to the flame and that too by the treachery of as false a Sinon of our Age as great a Renegado to Prince and People and whom they too had saved from being Justly sacrificed only for their ruin and destruction And that I have done in spight of those Censures I have laboured under of having been Mercenary and set a Work of having been more Zealous than Wise Vid. Postscript to the History of the Association As an Anonimous Scribbler has been pleased to represent to the World but I thank my Stars that have envolved me with the fate of the Government and when ever that can't stand I desire to fall but the puny pedantick Soul shall know I can give him a prefatory Animadversion for his Postscript Reflexion As to my being Mercenary whoever condemn me for that are as Ignorant in their Censures as unreasonable for I did for the Prevention even of that very Callumny decline the taking of a single Penny the least sort of gratuity for any Copy or single Letter that in the plain Litteral Sense I might be said to serve the Government for nought I thank my God that has allowed me that Competency that I can write with pure Affection and not for Bread with the sense of my Soul not of my Belly Tho' it has appeared on Evidence that the great Patron of their Cause kept open entertainment for the pampering Sedition and feeding the flames of Rebellion with the very sops of his Table discommending there the most virulent Satyrs Vid. Settles Recantation only because not bold enough in expressive Treason but too little favouring Rebellion And as for the Presumption of my being set a work of which they have accused me too in their Prints that 's more false than it is truly malicious the villains thought none bold enough of himself to defend the Government when they could with so much Impudence invade it I was so far from being instigated by Persuasion that even my own acquaintance my most familiar Friends were unconsulted and my Person at this very time unknown to any single Person of that Court Party they would have me to serve I urgd this to let them know the falseness of their sordid Suggestions and the real truths of their most malicious falsehoods and moreover and above all the goodness and equity of that Cause I shall ever defend and that more willingly with all my dearest blood than one drop of Ink that Persons refusing profit or emolument without application for interest or preferment discourag'd disgusted and hardly dealt with even by some of those seats of Literature where they say the Doctrine is nothing but absolute Dominion and the best of teaching Tyrany tho indeed nothing but the solid Seminaries of true learning and Loyalty But to satisfy such themselvs and their Treasons set me a work both black anough to have exasperated the dullest Soul And even a Dumb Son would break into Speech to see the Father of his Countrey ready to be slain But besides one whose age will scarce permit him to be prejudiced with much reading or Authority having had but little time to Consult much so that whatever my sentiments are they must proceed from the agreeableness of so good a Government to pure natural and unprejudiced Reason to the Principles and Instinct of uncorrupted Nature it self and the very well Being of an Humane and Civil Society But for this Gentleman or rather that spattering Scavenger who for Expressions of an unfeighned and hearty Loyalty only for a specimen of his profession would return to his throwing of Dirt and stampt my Character as they did then themselvs and their Treasons in Print I shall scarce retort his calumnies for fear of wearing the badg of his Office in a filthy stile and foul Fingers 't is enough to repeat them and his own stroaks will return best in the rebound I were more Zealous than Wise to turmoyl in a thing never owned by any Person and calls it a hard shift to beg a Question As for my Zeal I will even acknowledg to Him for my Wisdom shall submit to better Judges but if the Sot had not been so silly as to be beyond the sence of Impudence his Countenance of hardened Brass could never have called that begg'd which was sworn upon the Bible and openly produc'd and that not by Beggars rak't out of their own Dunghils their dirty Bogs of Irish Affidavit fitter to be carried out with our night Weddings than woed as they were to come over for the drudgery for sending a poor Priest and a Plunket to our Tyburn But when at last they were like to stick in their own Mudd then their own Mercenaries with an Ingenious Malice were fob'd off
not as much an Invader as his Grandfather the Conqueror only that came from Normandy this out of Boleign that was forct to fight first with Harold an hardy Foe this his Invasion facilitated by the Weakness of a Woman but as weak as she was He knew her Title to be strong and as strong as this Author would have him with the People yet he found himself too weak only with the pretence of his Election to defend his Vsurpation found an Army of Flemmings would give him a better Title to the Crown than all this Power of Parliament to the Peopledom and that a good Garrison would hold out longer in his defence than our Authors House of Commons and in truth his being so good a Souldier would not suffer him to be long a precarious King an hundred thousand Pound of the good old Kings Treasure did him more good than all their suffrages it brought Men and Arms out of Britany and Flanders and built so many Castles for those sort of Monarch-makers till the whole Kingdom seemed all over but one CITADEL and all its Government but an entire Garrison Yet as secure as he thought himself Exarserat namque rabies tanta contra eum ut pene ab omnibus quateretur ibid. Paris both in Subjects and his Strength the prevalency of Right and Justice soon encompast him with as many Dangers His Nobility begin to be incensed â—â—â—inst him and that out of a sence of his having injured an Heir The provok't Empress Lands with a strong party and her presence soon proclaimed the Justice of her Cause and made that Oath they had swallowed for her without any Operation or Effect to work now as strongly a pitcht Battle and a fierce one too is fought his Souldiers forsook him at last as well as his People and he forc't to fight so desperately for a cause that was ever as desperate till himself is taken a Prisoner by her from whom he took the Crown and tho she brought a War for her Right was received peaceably entered Her Capital City in Triumph and by her Loyal Londoners welcom'd with Acclamation and Joy And pray what was the Consequence now of this debarred Right but what always attends it BLOOD the Scots had with a Savage sort of a Revenge shed some for her before she spilt a great deal before she came to this and before the ground which had drunk so much Gore could be said to be dry at Winchester 't is moistened with a fresh supply and that too with a War of Women MATIL'D the Queen invades Maud the Empress the worst cause as it is wont prevails best and here the Right Heir is again driven from the enjoyment of her Right by that which commonly does it the SWORD and then at last after all the various events Mat. Paris Justitia de Caelo prospiciente of WAR which whatever the Fortune be must still end in the loss of Lives that Just Astraea which then too seemed to have left the Earth and upon it nothing but wrong look't down from Heaven Henrici jus Haereditarium recognovit Paris his own Words 1153. this fierce King in fuller Assembly than in what he was chose acknowledges that Hereditary Right against which he had fought and Henry in the Right of his Mother Maud to be the Lawful Successor And one would think now this succeeding Monarch's Right should have been allowed Hereditary beyond dispute beyond Contradiction when so much Blood had been spilt in the Defence of it when acknowledged so by this Popular Advocates own People and before them owned too by him that had interrupted the Succession and excluded the Right and Lawful Heir But what cannot Malice suggest or Faction invent till this transport against Government this rage of Rebellion suspends the calm Operations of the Soul and the dictates of common Sense till it hurry these blind Pretenders to verity into the greatest falsehoods transports them into perfect Lyes and Absurdities and to labour even against the Contradictions of Truth and Reason Here he still impudently tells us against plain matter of Fact the Confessions of his own Creatures the People and the Acknowledgment of his own Favourite the Vsurper That in all these Transactions there was no Consideration of any Right but what universal consent conferr'd And his Exception to our Henry the Second's Right must also now result from his Mother Mawds Title before I am glad we can get him to tolerate any such thing as Title at all but I would ask this Gentleman if he has any thing to dispose of whether he might not cedere de bonis as the Civilians in another Case Phrase it only for the letting his Successor and Heir Inherit it or whether upon such a Cession or making it over his Son should not succeed into this Patrimony till he had knockt his bountiful Father in the head or he was pleased to step aside into the next World to let his Successor have more Room in this I fancy he would be glad such a Resignation might pass without an Attournment of his LIFE too Maud the Empress was sufficiently pleased only with the Succession of her Son and as Writers say quitted her Title too which was apparently acknowledged in letting him succeed Is the Mothers Right ever the less when the Son does succeed in her Right and is there no Difference between altering a Succession and a refusing to succeed Matt. Paris makes her live thirty years after Stephen's Death time enough to have resented her wrong if she thought she had sustein'd an Interruption of her Right and she must be supposed to be willing to consent to those Conditions of peace being all concluded with her privity and she having suffered sufficiently with a troublesom War in England went over to Normandy for Peace This Henry knowing his Right to the Crown was resolved to secure the same Right of Succession to his Son and this Vid. Baker p. 48. Stow p. 146 very endeavour for a Lawful and a Lineal discent does this perverse Author turn into an Argument for Election and because he only called his Barons Bishops and Abbots to let them know he would have him to be secured his Successor by making him a Copartner in the Government and to prevent his being wronged after his Death was resolved to see him enjoy part of his Right in his Life therefore from these fine Premises he draws this Illogical Conclusion that he was elected by their Consent and when from Gervas himself whom he Cites it appears they were by the Kings express Command call'd to his Coronation and Paris says 't was at his Summons they came to Crown his Son and by his Fathers own bidding and if this Ad Mandatum Regis Patre jubente Paris 1170. solemnity shall make our Crown Elective since the Conquest we have had none Hereditary and our Kings must never suffer any Nobles or Commons at their Coronation for fear of
Claws the Doctor the Dr. our English man and he the Doctor and Venetian one of them must be somewhat of the Ass among them and then 't is Demonstrable they have a great share in it all and because the great Galen of the Times is so bold with his Catharticks as to set up for his Purging of the Court of Chancery tho I Page 129. am no Practiser in it yet I shall take the pains to defend it against the Doctor in its due place and since the Mountebank for the Body Natural is here all along made an Empirick for the Diseases of the POLITICK and from his Colledg brought to the Coffee-House to talk only of the Marasmus of State I 'll give him my sence tho no States-man of this whole Work in his own Phraseology The Piece seems to me like a sort of Preparation among the Doctors a meer Amalgama the Chymical Operator understands it better than many a Politician the Marasmus 't is a Composition of meer Quick-silver and Lead tho this Political Spagyrist perhaps will call it Saturn and Mercury here this Author with the help of the Fire of his hot Brain has incorporated his volatile thoughts and his dull ones together gay Compliments and Air Faction and Hell in a lump And tho this homely Physician won't allow himself to have been abroad tho the courteous Venetian contended for his breeding in Padua Page 81. yet the frequency of Murders here too would make a Body mistrust it and however their Human Bodys escape such Principles I am sure have Poyson'd some of their Souls and thus I have plac'd my Pleasant Observation upon their Ridiculous Stuff together that I might only reflect hereafter on what they would have thought serious and I shall worth a Reflection without the Mixture of Mirth Their mingl'd Foppery must otherwise provoke a little Laughter as well as their Principles of Sedition incense and I cannot Trim my Passions so well as to keep them in a pure Medley of Mirth and Anger If any affected to the Cause or disaffected thinks his Introduction deserv's a more serious Reply let him take the pains to give it a more solid Elaborate Confutation In the Second day they wisely agreed not to play the Fool and 't is well they slept upon 't for the sake of their Senses and the first Observation of the Venetian is as long as his Noble gown down to the very heels of two Pages but for brevity you shall have it in as many words Why that our English Nation signifies so Plat. Red. Page 16. little abroad yet makes such a great sight at home our Author having been so much Conversant with Dons and French can't forbear falling to his Formality agen and after a soft sort of Compliment to the Courteous Stranger and the Government thus Thunders out his Negative Reason Evil Counsellors Pensioner Parliament Thorough pac'd Judges Flattering Ibid p. 20 Divines designing Papists French Councils So I have seen at another sort of Cabal where such Disputants use to assemble for Edification and Doctrine not Dialogue and Dispute the Jack-Pudding of their Pulpit has seem'd to whisper his God Almighty in the Ear as a common Zany does his Mountebank for Instruction and then raves out to the list'ning and Attentive Rabble his Choledochons Phlegmagogons Balms of Gilead Conscience Salve Curse ye Meroz Sword of Gideon and for this Enthusiasm too those Harleqins of their Assemblies the Burlesques of the Bible shall Blaspheme with the very Book and vouch the Almighties coming to them in a still voice and sometimes in a rushing wind and the Devil of Sedition shall be countenanced with the word of God I should hardly pardon my self the Liberty of fullying the sacred Text with so much as the repetition of such a Simile did not I know the Zealots themselves had vouch't it for a Iustification of their sudden Raptures and Inspiration and for this Preacher of the Politicks tho I never saw him in his Geer and Gestures I am sure he makes just such another Figure in his Speech on a sudden 't is all Aposeiopesis soft and fair and assoon all in Exclamation and Ecphone and these heats and lucid Interval's of raving run through his whole Work But first for his Forreigner with his Observation is it a Mathematical Postulate that our Nation is so despicable with our Neighbour's that it must be granted assoon as ask't or has he rather beg'd the Question or can the Noble Student from his Geometry measure the fame and reputation of the Kingdoms of the Earth but whatever his skill be in the Doctrine of Triangles I am sure he is much out here in his Measures and whatever reputation England has at Venice or a compleat Monarchy with a mixt Republick I am sure with better Governments it has as much esteem and when ever it loses any it must proceed from the Scandals and Infectious breath of such Authors and Seditious Vipers that wound the Reputation as well as the Bowels of their Dam. But that matter of Fact may contradict what Malice does but suggest near the very same Time this most Impudent About 80. or 81. Observation was made did they propose to our present Prince the League of Guaranty and desire HIS entrance before that of the Empire But I can tell him what once brought a Scandal indeed upon the Nation made it a reproach to it's Neighbours in a thing of the like Nature not to mention the Murder of their King for that supersedes all hopes of regaining it's former Esteem for did not the Proceedings of that Rebel Parliament make us a by-word to the Heathen and a Scandal even to the revolted Holland did not the very Turks bless themselves at the Villany and the Dutch since in Derision cut off the Tails of their Currs to let us know we made less of a Kings head than a Dogs Neck But this we mean to apply related to it's reputation upon a League too this was a Scandal also brought upon it by a Parliament this was the effect of unjustly altering the Succession And this was in the Time of Henry the 8 when the Princes of the Empire would have made him Head of the Protestant League but upon hearing of his Extravagant Parliamentary Proceedings of their repudiating what Wives he pleas'd and allowing a more cruel Divorce of a Pious Protestant Queen from her Life as well as his Bed and severing her Head from her Shoulders as well as the Crown when they saw the Senate of England so Inconsistent with themselves as to Legitimate Bastards and then make Bastards of those they thought Legitimate Then began our Nations Reputation to be low with our Neighbours Then began our Parliament's to be look't upon as insignificant and the Supream Power of our great Assembly to Forreign Councils seem inconsistent and their mighty Credit so mean that they could not be trusted and thereupon all the Leaguer's unanimously rejected Henry
Cook 4. Inst C. 2. Evil Counselling of their King invented very cunningly this popular Opinion to preserve themselves and please the Rabble they had so much enraged And could after so many Centuries after so long a series of time the Principles even of their execrated Enemies by themselves too be put into practice and what is worse still shall the sad effects that succeeded the practising it so lately encourage our Seditious Libellers for its Reimpression if this most Rebellious Nonsense must re-obtain all their declaratory Statute the determin'd Treasons of their good King †25. Ed. 3. Edward may pass for a pretty piece of Impertinence they may do as once they truly did they may Fight Shoot at Imprison Butcher the Natural Body the Person of their Soveraign and tell us the Laws designed them only for Traytors when they could destroy him in his politick The same Laws make it Treason to compass his Queens Death or Eldest Sons and must it be meant of their Monarchs being Married in his politick Capacity as well as murdered or of his Heirs that shall be born by pure political Conception they might e'n set up their Common-wealth then if these were to be the Successors to the Crown But yet with the same sort of silly Sophistry that they would separate the Kings natural Capacity from his political did the same Seditious Rebels as I remember make their own personal Relation to a politick Body Inseparable Rebellious Lumps of Contradiction shall not your Soveraigns sacred Person be preserved by that Power and Authority derived even from the Almighty and whose very Text tells us touch not mine Anointed and yet could your selves plead it as a Bar to Treason because perpetrated under a political Denomination and a Relation only to that Lower House of Commons that was then only an incorporated Body of Rebels and Regicides and this was told us by that Miscreant * Vid. Tryal of the Regicides page 50. Harrison the most profligate the vilest the most virulent of all the Faction concerned in that bloody Villany the MVRDER OF A KING the silly Sot had it infused by his Councel as Senseless as Seditious That it was an Act of the Parliament of England and so no particular Members questionable for what was done by the Body I confess the good excluded Members and the bubbl'd Presbyterian Senate would not allow it for a Parliamentaty Process and why because themselves did not sit in it and truly upon that unexpected and most blessed Revolution might â—hugg themselves and shrink up in a silent Joy that they were kept out And I cannot but smile to see * Vid. Ibid pag. 52. two or three sit upon the Bench and upbraiding the Prisoner for pulling them out of the Parliament and making themselves none †This was pleaded too by Carew p. 76. Treasonable words sworn against Scot. spoken in Parliament he pleads Priviledges of the House for speaking Treason tho 't is expressly declared not pleadable no not so much as for the breach of the Peace 17. Ed. 4. Rot. Parliament N. 39. Persons whom Policy had only placed there when the poor Prince was forc't to compound with a party for a Crown forc'd to prefer those that had â—dethroned his Father before only the better to settle himself in it and to compass more easily the punishment of those that murdered him after Persons and a great one too that I could name that have serv'd him as ungratefully since and been as deservedly rejected Persons that had his late Majesty's Arms been but as Victorious as his Cause was good had been as much liable to the Laws and their Crimes as Capital for fighting him in the Field with an Ordinance of the House as those that brought him to the Scaffold and Butchered him on the Block from the time that their Tumults forc'd him to fly from their Houses they were no more a Parliament than those were afterward that pulled them out and it lookt a little loathsome to see some sit a simpering and saying all Acts must be past by the King who themselves once had helpt Tryal of the Regicides pag. 52â— to pass many without and they could no more justify themselves had it been but their turn to be brought to Justice by their Memberships political Referrences to the two Houses then the Criminal at the Bar by his Relation to the Rump I have their own Authority for it their very * Answer of the Commons to the Scots Com. that the King had forfeited the executing the Duties of his Place and therefore could not be left to go where he pleased Anno. 1646. Imprint Lond. p. 20. Houses Act that they declared designed and actually made their King a Prisoner For they told the perfidious Scot that his denying their Propositions and what were those but Expedients to destroy Him had debar'd him of his Liberty and that they verifyed too when they had got their poor purchase at Holdenby in a usage of their Prince with a restraint that would have been Cruelty to a Peasant and which even his very Murderers enlarged when their Joyce took him from his Jaylers And I am sure 't is provided that to Imprison him till He assent to Proposals shall be * Parliam Roll. Num. 7. Lex Consuâ—tudo Parl. 25. Ed. 3. El. 1 Jac. High-Treason by particular Act as well as to Murder him is made so by the 25. And whatever the Mildness of ‖ H. postsc p. 89. Mr. Hunt the Moderator of Rebellion would have this Mystery of Iniquity would not have it so much as remembered it was these his own darling Daemagogues whom he defends and adores and that even for †Ibid p. 11. Restorers who script him in his politick Capacity anticipated his Murder and then left his naked Person to be persued by the * Salmasiuâ— has the same sort of simile page 3â—3 defensio Regia Wolves that worried it they had turned their House into a Shambles and that of Slaughter and were the Butchers the less Bloody that only bound Him and left to their Boys the cutting of his Throat yet this Barbarity must be defended this extenuated by them and the help of their Hunts and such Advocates the guilt not to devolve to each Individual Member because an Act of an Aggregated House But base Caitiffs to use even the very * Hunt page 94. Lawyers own Language your selves know that a politick Body may be guilty of a most political Treason and tho the †21. Ed. 4. 13 14. and noted Calvin's Case Laws tell us it has no Life or Soul and so can't suffer yet it s constituent Members may lose both be Hang'd and Damn'd in their proper Persons and that for committing it too against such another political Constitution It would otherwise be a fine Plea for Corporators that have been many times Defendants in the Case when their King has been Plaintiff And
depended upon their permission And how it could otherwise well be no man can well imagin when their standing Armies were continually in the Field and a new Monarch commonly created with a Shout and Salutation of a Legion so uncertain was their Succession that they seldom had so much as Certainty for their Lives Look upon the List which I have leisurably examined and you 'll find from Caesar that was stab'd in the Senate to their Apostate Julian whom they would have a Christian assassinate in Persia I am sure half if not more were Murdered or destroy'd by some prevalent Faction or a mutinous Army and most of the Purples they wore were dy'd in their own Blood Julian's * Vid. Juliâ—â— the Apostâ—â—â— Caesars are just as well apply'd here to the Succession of our Prince of Wales as the Postscript has the Confirmation Post p. 47. of the Prince of Wales to prove the Legislative of the House of Commons On the other side our own Monarchy for fifteen hundred years Hereditary and that to be proved from all Chronicle and History have the same sort of Pens and whom this Author vindicates too with his * Brief History of Succession own endeavoured to make merely Elective I can't resolve this Spirit of Contradiction into any thing less than an absolute Conspiracy among themselves for the Vindicating rather Pagans and Infidels the Government of Rome or Constantinople before the Constitution of our Church or the Establisht Monarchy Upon the Publishing this pernicious piece and its falling into my hands I remember tho not much read in the History of the Church or the works of a Socrates or a Sozomen that I had casually lighted in one of them heretofore upon the passage of Jovian's this Apostat 's immediate Successor being saluted Emperor where the pious Prince told them he would never Reign over Pagans upon which they Reply'd they were all Christians and as such had submitted and not opposed the Government of a Julian because their Lawful Emperor a President so directly contradictory to those he brings that it was a sufficient Prepossession to me against the profest Sincerity of the piece Paganism is as much obliged to this Apostate Church-man as the Christian Religion has receiv'd from him the greatest disservice he represents to us in several places his Pagan Emperor even with the Meekness Page 37. of a Moses and with such a command of Spirit and Temperament of mind as if he would have him rather Worshipt as a Saint than Curst for a Persecutor he makes him to take Reviling patiently as if he 'd let us know he also could imitate his Christ who reviled not again with such mollifying expressions in several places to the very reproaches of the meanest as if he would recommend the admiring of him for an Hero which makes me remember his dying Words I met with once in Ammianus Marcellinus so full of Magnanimity and all the highest Expressions of a Moral Vertue that of an Expiring Pagan he seem'd to me the most like a dying Christian But on the other side those Pious Souls those Glorious Martyrs fam'd for their Primitive Meekness and Moderation that in the midst of Tortures have accounted it worthy to suffer for the sake of their Saviour blest their Persecutors in Groans in imperfect sounds and unarticulated accents of Agony and Anguish that tir'd the Invention of their Tormentors as well as baffl'd their Tortures and with exalted Affection of Spirit Triumph'd in the midst of Flames These has he fairly represented for the most Malicious Seditious and Rebellious Brood of Christians that ever breath'd under any Government altogether Pagan What good the Protestant Religion can receive from such a Representation of the Primitive Christians must be in pleading prescription to a warrantable Rebellion and what Obligation Christianity it self has to such a Protestant is the making her much worse than the Wildest Paganism Had he consider'd how unreasonable it was only from the selected Instances of some Turbulent Spirits how Irreligious and Vncharitable it is from a few furious provok'd Persons to have cast such an industrious blemish and blot upon the Practices of all the Primitive Christians of those Times certainly he would have found it much unbecoming his Profession more his Religion Why does he not conclude from thence too that in those days we never had any Martyrs or that all Fox's mighty Martyrology is nothing but a mere Romance for he 'll find Her Majesty the persecuting Mary in many places as severely handled Why does he not tell us in her time Wyat Crofts and Rudston REBELL'D And then conclude we had no Cranmer †22. Aug. 1554. Latimer and Ridly that suffer'd Why does he not tell us of the Protestant Tumults of her time that there were those then could throw Stones and Daggers at a Bonner or a Bourn and not a word of the more Meeker men a Bradford ‖ Vid Burnets Abridgment 2d pt 3. l. or a Rogers that bid them be Patient and appeased them for his Maiden Virgin that Reviled Julian he could tell us too that of one Crofts a Maid that Mutter'd out as much Sedition against Queen * Baker p 329. Mary from the Wall and let him but deal as disingenuously in Conclusions here too the Reform'd Protestant will be as little Obliged to him as the Primitive Christian In short if Julian abounded with such a Spirit of Meekness as he in many places makes him to demonstrate where then was this Terrible Persecution with which he makes such a dismaldin If they were really Persecuted and Opprest how came they to be so powerful as to make such a signal resistance If his Old man in * Jul. p. 39. Berea was only rebuk'd by him for raging so hotly against his King and his Religion and only bid by his Prince in so much mildness as Friend forbear railing if at the Reproaches of the Antiochians he only declared against seeing them any more if as in his ridiculous Instance of old Father Gregory's kicking of his King he pag. 35. was so terrify'd and awd what is become of the Tyranâ— and all the Bloody Persecution that attended him to the Throne And if as in another place he has prov'd there was much the greater part that remain'd Christian where was this General Apostacy to the Pagan In my poor Apprehension the several Examples he has cited did in some sense tho beyond his design as much oblige his Adversaries cause and the late Case of Succession as some of the Loyal hearts that labour'd so much in its defence for they most of them prove that notwithstanding the perswasion of their Pagan Prince the Christian Religion flourisht as much as ever and he never Punisht any Person but for reviling him for his Apostacy to his Face and that they might have enjoy'd their own opinions quietly had they not so much molested and opposed his And must the Christian
prevent these very Rebels and Republicans in such Factious Inferences did they for two hundred years agon in the first of Richard the Third Resolve what was â—â—gnified by the three Estates of the Realm for say they That is to say the Lords Exact Abridgem Fol. 117. p. 1. H. 3. â—piritual Temporal and Commons and even long since that much more lately out in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth in that Act of Recognition of her Right where they endeavor to advance her Royalty as much as possible they can and â—â— make the Crown of this Realm as much Imperial there they tell her 'T is WEE your Majesties most faithful and Keeble Stat. 1. El. C. 3. and does not their own Oracle tell them so L. Coke 4 Inst C. 1. Parliam Obedient Subjects that represent the THREE ESTATES of your Realm of England and therefore in King James and Charles the First 's time â—hen the Commons began to be mutiâ—ous and encroach upon the Crown â—hen they having with the help of their â—â—merous Lawyers which were once by â—articular Act excluded the House and H. 6. if less had State in it perhaps it might have been once less Rebellious too those Gentlemen knowing too well the weight â—f Words and what Construction and Sense Sedition and Sophistry can deduct 4. Inst Stat. de Bigamis concordatum per Justiciarios 2. Inst ibid. Stat. West 2. 13. Ed. 1. Dominus Rex in Parlia mento suo Statuta edidit 2. Inst 331. Stat. Circumspectâ— agatis 13. Ed. 1. begius Rex talibus Judicibus Salutem and tho some would not have it an Act of Parliament my Lord Coke says 't is prov'd so by the Books and other Acts 2. Iust page 487. from a single Syllable I am confident it was they contriv'd the Matter and Method so as to foist in the Factious form of this Be it enacted by the King Lords and Commons for that is the General Stile of the Enactive part of most of the Statutes of those Times and this was most agreeable with their mighty Notion of his Majesties making but up one of the THREE that so they might the better conclude from the very Letter of their own Laws That the TWO States which the Law it self implyed now to be Co-ordinate must be mightier and have a Power over their King whom the same Laws confest to be but ONE and the Reason why the forms of their Bill and the draught of the Lawyers and the Lower-House might be past into Act without any Alteration or Amendments of this Clause was I believe from a want of Apprehension that there ever could be such designing Knaves as to put it in to that Intention or such Factious Fools as to have inferred from it the Commons Co-ordinacy For the Nobility and Loyal Gentry that have commonly the more Honesty for having the less Law cannot be presumed so soon to comprehend what Construction can be drawn from the Letter of it by the laborious cavil of a Litigious Lawyer or a cunning Knave and therefore we find that those Acts are the least controverted that have the fewest Words and that among all the multiplicity of Expressions that at present is provided by themselves that have commonly the drawing of our Statutes themselves also still discover as many Objections against it to furnish them with an Argument for the Merits of any Cause and the Defence of the Right of their Clyent at the same time they are satisfied he is in the wrong And for those Enacting forms of our Statutes whatsoever Sense some may think these Suggestions of mine may want That some Seditious Persons got most of them to run in so low so popular a Stile in the latter end of King James and Charles the first 's time such as Enacted only by the Authority of the Parliament 21. Jâ—â—â— by the Kings Majâ—sty Lords and 6. Car. p. 1. C. 1â— 12. Car. 2. C. â—5 Staâ— 2. 13. Car. 2d Commons yet upon the Restauration of Charles the Second the Words With the consent of the Lords and Commons were again reviv'd and afterward 13 14. Car. 2. C. 10. 19. Car. 2. 8. 25. Car. 2. C. 1. 25. Car. C. 9. they bring it into this old agen With the Advice and Assent of Lords Spiritual Temporal and Commons according to the form of Richard the 3d. and Queen Elizabeth that resolv'd them to be the THREE STATES and this runs on through all the Acts of his Reign and even in several of them the Commons humbly beseech the King that it may be so enacted I thought it necessary to bring home Buchanan and his Disciples in Scotland maintain'd the same Doctrine of the King 's Co-ordinacy and therefore their Acts in the Rebellion too ran in the Name of the three States But when the King was returned to his Crowu and they to their Obedience the old form was retrieved The King with advice and consent of to our present tho most profligate time as much Acknowledgement as possible I could of my Kings Prerogative from the Laws of our Land and the very Statutes themselves because that some great Advocates for the power of the People some times pretend to plead for them too from Acts of Parliaments tho I think in this last lewd and Libellous Contest against the Crown that lasted for about five year in that Lustrum of Treason there was but one that was so laboriously Seditious so eminently popular as to endeavour to prove the Peoples Supremacy from Rolls and Records and Acts of State and for that recommend me to the good Author of the Right of the Commons Asserted tho I should rather approve of such an undertaking when endeavored to be done from the tracing the dark and obscure tracts of Antiquity and the Authority of a Selden than the single Assertion of a Sidney and the mere Maxims of some Modern Democraticks that have no other Foundation for their Establishments than the new Notions of their Rebellious Authors and that ipse dixit of such Seditious Dogmatists But I am satisfied too that this Gentleman who has laboured so much in vindicating the Commons Antiquity and their constituting an essential part of our Saxon Parliaments did design in it much more an Opposition of our Antient Monarchy and the Prerogative of the Crown than a mere clearing the dark foot-steps of our Old Chronicle and a real defence of Matter of Fact and the Truth And this is too clearly to be prov'd from the pestilent Pen-man's P-tyts own Papers that were publish'd at such a time when there was no great need of such an Asserting the Commons Right when themselves were more likely to have Usurp'd upon the Crown and as Mr. Sidney and his Associates would have it made themselves and the People Judges of their own wrong For to see such a task undertaken at a time when we are since satisfied such dangerous designs were a-foot looks only like a particular