become Zealots He is a Prince that can deliberate and consider and will conclude that it is better for him to betake himself to a Monastery now before he hath filled the Land with Blood and Slaughter and all the mischiefs that the hellish Plot designs upon us than to take Sanctuary in one hereafter loaded with the melancholy considerations of a lost design and intolerable guilt if he himself should chance to survive and not perish ingloriously in the enterprize never to be gathered to his Fathers and shut out of the Sepulchres of Kings He is a great lover of his Brother as he ought in gratitude to be who lets him live and in his good opinion too after he had departed from his Allegiance and become a Member of another Hostile Polity and Regimen and after in consequence thereof the King's Life is brought in conspicuous danger Besides that it was natural and necessary that attempts upon the Life of the King should ensue upon his publick declaration of himself to be a Papist And we cannot without thinking too meanly of him think him without a foresight thereof there remains therefore no way for him to avoid the guilt of his Brother's Murder we tremble at the probability of it than by renouncing the Crown The King cannot in probability die before him except he falls to the Interest of that Religion which his Highness doth profess So that the Duke will relinquish nothing by the consenting to the Bill but the hopes to succeed upon his Brother's Murder but he would not the one so virtuous we will think him to obtain the other Admit him to be King he must be a King without Subjects for he must be a Slave to one part of the people to destroy the other these may not be the other will not be his Subjects To be an open Enemy is more Princely than to submit to the sordid methods of Falshood and Treachery than to betray us and deceive us in the confidence we justly should have in him if he should succeed to the Crown by a legal appointment He hath already departed from the Government which is Treason in a common person but we will give it in him an honester name and call him onely an Enemy to our State and Religion and his departure to be an overt declaration of Hostility let him therefore be consistent with himself purchase the Government by Conquest by the assistance of the Arms of France his Popish Adherents and home-bred Traitors But let him not assume the Crown by Title and Succession under obligations to govern by Law and to preserve us in our Religion which is our Legal Right and more precious to us than any thing else the Law entitles us unto Let him not add falshood to his mistaken and cruel zeal and do all the mischiefs the Plot designs while he pretends to Govern Let him openly assault us Miscreants subdue us Infidels that already stand Cursed and Excommunicated whom he hath Warrant enough from his Religion to destroy with an utter destruction He is an excellent Son of King Charles the First of blessed Memory who died a Martyr for the Government of Church and State and lost his Life as well as his Government when he could not preserve it any longer by his Sword And do you think that James his Son who carries the Royal Name of his Grandfather though the first of England yet the Sixth of that Name in Scotland will suffer the Government to be altered and to be a King and no King It is more just for him to chuse an Exclusion from the Succession than to suffer the Government to be changed we must therefore suppose him to be willing rather to consent to the Bill and renounce the Succession conformably to the recent example of his never-to-be-forgotten Father than to consent to or be bound by any Act of Parliament that shall alter the Government They are not his Friends nor agreeable to him that would spoil the Government more valuable in his esteem as well as his Father's than a personal Reign That would make him a King in mockery That conspire against the Government it self which he will not he ought not to sustain and endure as long as there is any Iron and Steel in the hands or Blood in the Veins of Loyal Roman Catholicks He is an equal Prince and will not take it so much to Heart that he sees the People of his Nativity not stupid Sots but that they can be sensible of the dangers that he urgeth them with and provide apt remedies against the evils which threaten us But if these Reasons will not obtain his express Consent to that Law for his Exclusion they will be allowed Inducements sufficient enough to pass it and conclude his Assent for the nature of a Law is to be first reasonable and to make those willing that should be consenting to it as reasonable and fit but are not and to render them obedient and submitted For this is one of the greatest benefits of Government that they that cannot or will not chuse what is best for themselves the Laws will chuse for them with regard to the Publick Good For the better clearing the matter of the Constitutions of this Realm in relation to the Succession I thought it necessary to add the substance of an Act of Parliament yet in force made 13 Elizabethae 13 Elizebthae Cap. 1. An Act whereby certain Offences are made Treason FOrasmuch as it is of some doubted whether the Laws and Statutes of this Realm remaining at this present in force are vallable and sufficient enough for the surety and preservation of the Queens most Royal Person in whom consisteth all the happiness and comfort of the whole State and Subjects of the Realm Which thing all Faithful Loving and Dutiful Subjects ought and will with all careful study and zeal cnosider foresee and provide for By the neglecting and passing over whereof with winking Eyes thâ—…e might happen to grow the subversion and ruine of the quiet and most Happy State and present Government of this Realm which God defend Therefore c. to Declare c. during her Maiesties life that the Right of the Crown was in any other Person should be Treason And such Person that should during her Maiesties Life Vsurp the Crown or the Royal Stile Title or Dignity of the Crown or Realm of England c. they and every of them so offending shall be utterly disabled during their natural Lives onely to have or enjoy the Crown or Realm of England or the Style Title or Dignity thereof at any time in Succession Inheritance or otherwise after the Decease of our said Sovereign Lady the Queen as if such Person were dead any Law Custom Pretence or matter whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding After which these words follow And be it further Enacted That if any Person shall in any wise hold and affirm or maintain That the Common Laws of this Realm not altered by Parliament ought not to direct the Right of the Crown of England Or
when it is made apparent that these mistakes are made serviceable to the Popish Plot and the means which the Popish party prosecute to compass and bring about the ruine of our Church But that nothing may be wanting that lies in my poor power for pulling their Foot out of the Snare I shall more distinctly consider them First I shall desire them to consider what our Government is and where the true knowledge of it is to be found And where can it be found but in our Statute-Books the Commentaries of our Law the Histories of our Government and of the Kingdom Search them if you be at leisure if you are not consult those that have read them and whose business and employment it is to understand them and you cannot fail to be informed That the King hath no power to make Laws that both Houses of Parliament must joyn with the King in making a Law It can with no more reason be concluded that the King hath the Legislative Power because his Assent makes the Bills in Parliament Laws than it can because the third Unit added to two makes a Triad that the other two do not go to the making of that number When a matter 's moved from the King in Parliament to pass into a Law the Commons consent last The Letters Patents of Ed. 3. for making the Eldest Son of a King in Succession Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwal Sir E. Cook 8. R. was confirmed as they must have been otherwise they would have been void by the House of Commons And yet we will not say that the House of Commons can make a Prince of Wales or Duke of Cornwal And yet upon no better reason than this some men will talk as if they believed themselves that the Legislative power is in the King when no King of England yet ever pretended to it but by their process of Law have punished such officious and mischievous Knaves They also will tell you that the Laws are the measures of our Allegiance and the Kings Prerogative and declare the terms of Obedience and Government That a Legislative authority is necessary to every Government and therefore we ought not to want it and therefore Parliaments in which our Government hath placed the making of Laws cannot be long discontinued nor their Conventions rendred illusory and in vain which is all one as to want them That to Govern by Laws implieth that great fundamental Law that new Laws shall be made upon new emergencies and for avoiding unsufferable mischiefs to the State By the Statutes of 4 Ed. 3. c. 14. 36 Ed. 3. c. 10. it is provided that Parliaments be holden once every year The Statute of this King required a Parliament every three years which being an affirmatory Law doth not derogate from those of Ed the 3. But if the King doth not call a Parliament once in a year he neglects these Laws and if he delays calling a Parliament three years he neglects the other Law of his own time too And for that he is by the Law intrusted with the calling of Parliaments he is at liberty to call them within the times appointed And that Laws ought to be made for Redress of mischiefs that may ensue appears by the Statute of provisors 25 E. 3 cap. 23. In which we have these words Whereupon the Commons have prayed our said Soveraign Lord the King that sith the right of the Crown of England and the Law of the said Realm is such that upon the mischiefs Dammage which happeneth to this Realm be ought and is bound of the Accord of his said People in his Parliament thereof to make Remedy and Law in avoiding the mischief and damage which thereof cometh which that King agreed to by his Royal Assent thereto given I dare be bold to say that never any Bill in Parliament was lost and wanted the Royal Assent that was promoted by the general desires of the people If Popery therefore which is the greatest mischief that ever threatned this Kingdom can be kept out by a Law we ought to have such a Law and nothing can hinder such a Law to be past for that purpose but want of an universal desire to have it I desire these Gentlemen to consider how they will answer it to our Saviour at the last day if they suffer his true Religion and the professors of it to be destroyed and persecuted when nothing but their desires of a thing lawful to be had and of right due was requisite to prevent it Their sufferings will be just and righteous from God if their sin occasioneth it and very uncomfortable to themselves The extent of the Legislative Authority is nowhere to be understood but by our Acts of Parliament in which it hath been exercised and used and by such Acts that declare the extent of its power By the 13 Eliz. cap. 1. it is made Treason during that Queens Life and forfeiture of Goods and Chattels afterwards To hold maintain affirm that the Queen by the Authority of the Parliament of England is not able to make Laws and Statutes of sufficient force and validity to limit and bind the Crown of this Realm and the descent limitation inheritance and Government thereof And this authority was exercised by Entailing the Crown in Parliament in the times of Richard the 2d Henry the 4th Henry the 6th Edward the 4th Richard the 3d Henry the 7th thrice in the time of Henry 8th and upon the Marriage of Queen Mary to King Philip of Spain both the Crowns of England and Spain were Entailed whereby it was provided that of the several Children to be begotten upon the Queen one was to have the Crown of England another Spain another the Low-Countries The Articles of Marriage to this purpose were confirmed by Act of Parliament Those that are truly Loyal to our present Soveraign have reason to recognize with high satisfaction that such a power of altering and limiting the descent of the Crown is duly lodged in the King and States of the Realm For under the Authority of an Act of Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland we derive our selves to the happiness of his Government and He his Title to the Crown of Scotland which drew to him the Imperial Crown of England For Robert Stewart first King of Scotland of that Family lived in concubinate with Elizabeth Mure and by her had three Sons John Robert and Alexander afterwards he Married Eufame Daughter to the Earl of Ross and after was Crowned King of Scotland He had by her Walter Earl of Athol and David Earl of Straherne When Eufame his wife died he Married Elizabeth Mure. After that by one Act of Parliament he made his natural Children first Noble that is to say John Earl of Carrick Robert Earl of Menteith and Alexander Earl of Buchquhane And shortly after by another Parliament he limited the Crown in Tail Successively to John Robert and Alexander his Children by Elizabeth Mure
will slander himself and belie the Devil For observe he saith they use Fanatical Logick and Antichristian Logick The true Fanaticks being impatient of the restraints of Reason and to be confined to sober sense call Logick and Reasoning by that which they would seem most to hate Antichristian The true Antichristians and Papists being impatient of the light reproof and discovery of Reason call sound Reason Fanaticism But our Writer is so vengeancely angry with reasoning that with the same breath he calls Logick for the sake of reason Antichristian and Fanatical too and renders himself suspected of being an Antichristian Fanatick And yet any one may see that it is not the thing it self that he is thus angry with but the name of Logick that he thus exposeth for what it is he knows not he seems to think it comes by Inspiration and that there are two sorts of Logick one good but he is not acquainted for all that appears to us with the Spirit from whence that is derived and another bad which he says is inspired by the Spirit of Belial whereas most certainly there is no such Devil amongst all the Orders of the Apostate Angels Sons of Belial I have heard of indeed that did evil without profit without design for evils sake but these are such men as need no Tempter for they will be wicked without a Tempter according to the fatal propensions of their vitious Natures and are not to be managed by the Devil himself And to this sort of men doth our Pamphleteer seem somewhat to approach for that he is an unaccountable Transgressor No reason can be given of him why he should with so much seeming earnestness concern himself to perswade the People to abandon to an utter neglect those things that of all others are of most value to them their Religion Government Lives Liberties and Estates To perswade a whole Nation to lay violent hands upon themselves to cut their own Throats to burn themselves alive and their Houses and to destroy themselves their Wives and Children Bodies and Souls too for Conscience-sake That there can be a Subject not subject to Laws and that offences that cannot be rated because their mischiefs are infinite for that very reason must not be punished and he would have us reckon it a sin of the most heinous nature to punish the Offender with a diminution only in his power to do those evils which are most notoriously by him designed and will be effected by means of his own making and causing if he himself should relent and refuse to execute them If in this Age of License immodesty could entitle any man to be a son of Belial our Writer of Considerations might fairly pretend to it who is immodest for impudence sake which spends it self in waste and cannot effect any thing but the exposing it self In saying this I should think my self very severe but that he hath published his own shame and if I would it is not in my power to cover it But he hath not shewed the worst of himself yet he attempts further upon the Understanding of the People he will have us believe that we owe Allegiance to the Presumptive Heir that we have as many Kings as Princes of the Bloud and that a Son hath a right to his Fathers Estate before he is dead For the probable Successor can have no more right to the effect of the Oath of Allegiance than the eldest Son to receive the Profits of his Fathers Estate without his leave in his Fathers Life-time If this Gentleman's Father had had any Land he would have understood the difference between his right to the Land after his Father's Death and his hopes and possibility onely to have it during his Father's Life The word Heir is joyned with Successor in the Oath of Allegiance to signifie that it means Heirs in the proper sence which is such that succeed to the Inheritance and not such as are in expectancy or possibility of having the Inheritance who are improperly and equivocally so called And tho' the thing is so plain that every man as well as the Lawyers agree what is said yet my Lord Cook for saying the same is called by this Gentleman Silly and Ridiculous Fallacious and Impertinent The Lawyers tell me that it is a Rule in the Law Non est hoeres viventis that is No man can have an Heir while he lives and they likeways say of all the Reguloe Juris There is not one of greater extent and rule than this that it hath governed Ten thousand Cases near upon in the Common Law and they withal assure me that notwithstanding this man amongst other civil terms calls the Lord Cook Fallacious they firmly believe if a Fee had been offered to him of the value of his Estate which is about 200000 l. he would not have signed an Opinion with a Videtur to the contrary but he is resolved that all Mankind shall be mistaken and he will call their reasonings in this matter what he pleaseth New Machiavillian Logick a word that dishonestly he took up on purpose to expose the Bill to the Vulgar imagining in his profound Consideration that some of the Multitude will upon the hearing of Machiavillian fall thereupon into an unwitting dislike of the Bill Nay he will conclude an Heir Apparent to be an Heir because he could not be Heir Apparent unless he were an Heir when the word Apparent and the word Presumptive more especially joyned to Heir is a term of Abatement or Negative and distinguisheth him from being a real Heir and speaks him no Heir but onely one in a near possibility of being so But says he it is a manifest contradiction for one to be Heir Apparent and not to be Heir as it is to be a Learned man and no man Prius est esse quam esse tale I wish we had his Name that we may mark the most absurd reasonings by it for the everlasting Honour of this Pretender to Reasoning and Discourse We all know that the word Heir is a Name to design a Person under such a relation and respect and imports nothing of entity and we may use our own abstract Terms properly or improperly and without any correspondent reality to an equivocal sense But he adds Profaneness to his Levity and as if the Holy Scriptures were writ to so trifling a design as to be an Oracular Dictionary and Infallible Nomenclature he tells us how the word Heir is used in Scripture when the holy Writers formed their Language by the vulgar Idiomes amongst the People of the Jews and never intended to write Law-Cases much less to declare the Common Law of England or imagined that their stile should be produced to expound our Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy But now thou vain Considerer wilt thou hence conclude that the Duke of York is Heir and Successor That we now owe him Faith and Allegiance That he is already in the Throne and that this Bill though it
that our said Severaign Lady the Queens Majesty that now is with and by the Authority of the Parliament of England is not able to make Laws and Statutes of sufficient Force and Validity to limit and bind the Crown of this Realm and the Discent Limitation Inheritance and Government thereof Or that this present Statute or any part thereof or any other Statute to be made by the Authority of the Parliament of England with the Royal Assent of our said Soveraign Lady the Queen for limiting of the Crown or any Statute for Recognizing the Right of the said Crown and Realm to be Iustly and Lawfully in the most Royal Person of our said Soveraign Lady the Queen is not are not or shall not or ought not to be for ever of good and sufficient Force and Validity to Binde Limit Restrain and Govern all Persons their Rights and Titles that in any wise may or might claim any Interest or Possibility in or to the Crown of England in Possession Remainder Inheritance Succession or otherwise howsoever And all other Persons whatsoever every such person so holding affirming or maintaining during the life of the Queens â—…elly shall be adjudged a High Traitor and sufâ—…r and forfeit as in Cases of High Treason is acâ—ustomed and every Person so holding affirming or maintaining after the Decease of our said Soveraign â—ady shall forfeit all his Goods and Chattels AN ANSWER TO A BOOK Published 1679. Intituled A LETTER FROM A GENTLEMAN of Quality In the COUNTRY to his Friend c. Relating to the Point of SUCCESSION to the CROWN c. BY several accidents the former sheets have stopt in the Press from a few days afteâ— the Great and Weighty Consideration were published and being now ready to comâ— forth we have a Gentleman of Quality as hâ— calls himself undertaking from Scripture Law History and Reason to shew how improbable 〈◊〉 not impossible it is to bar the next Heir in thâ— right Line from the Succession in a Letter to his â—onoured Friend A. B. And now after so long a time of consideration one should think the many men of great Parts â—nd Learning that are dependents on the Duke â—pirited with zeal and ambition should have offered all that they have to say against the Bill â—or excluding his Royal Highness And this â—eing as may be reasonably concluded the last endeavours of the most learned and best parted men of that Interest This Letter for that reason onely but not for any thing of moment that â—t offers deserves to be considered We will not follow him from Paragraph to Paragraph since the greatest part of it is vain and empty pedantick bombast and putid affectation I shall onely draw you up short Summaries of his several Reasons and give them all the advantages they can challenge and improve them by just and natural Inferences And that I think will be enough of confutation and a sufficient countercharm against his deceiving the People He first lays down for a Ground That the Succession to the Crown of England is inseparable annexed to Proximity and nextness of Bloud by the Laws of God and Nature And all Statute-Laws contrary to the Laws of God and Nature are ipso facto null and void That it is contrary to the Laws of God he proves by the Law of God given by Moses to the Jews in the 7th of Numbers that directs how the Succession of Lands should be amongst the Jews and whatsoever Statute-Laws are contrary to those Laws are null and void he saith The consequence of this Argument is this That the Laws given by God to the Jews are Laws to all Mankind That our common-Law and Statute-Law is against the Law of God and null and void because not agreeable to the Law of Moses That the eldest Son is not to take by Descent the whole inheritance but a double portion onely and that the Crown must be disposed of in Descents accordingly That not the first Son only and one Daughter but all the Daughters of a King if never so many must succeed together to the Crown That no Father can sell his Patrimony for that was the Jewish Law and established in that Chapter he quotes He proves it to be a Law of God further for that God saith to Cain of Abel That his desires shall be subject and thou shalt rule over him The consequence of this is that because Cain could not kill Abel notwithstaning he was to have the Primacy That Abel much more could not kill Cain his Elder Brother And further he proves that to be a Law of God because God maketh choice of the first-born to be Sanctified and Consecrated to himself And therefore it most certainly follows with this Gentlemen that he which is not the first-born must be so too I wish his Royal Highness the second born the Consecration of a Priest which the Text means notwithstanding the Text doth not allow it him so that he will not pretend to the Consecration of a King which is clearly out of the meaning of the Text. He says Consonant hereunto are the Suffrages of the Doctors of the Civil and Imperial Law The Consequence of this is first That he is not bound to be coherent to himself for he was before proving the Law of God to be That the Succession of the Crown is inseparably annxed to proximity of bloud and now he tells us of some Opinions of Fathers and Doctors that are consonant thereunto when they do not at all relate in their Opinions to what he had produced out of Moses his Law Secondly it follows that he is impertinently troublesome to his Reader by telling him of the Opinions of great names in this matter that the Eldest Son by ordinary right is to have his Fathers Estate in some Countries or that the Crown doth so ordinarily descend where the Succession is hereditary he should have spared them for another time when he shall say something that all mankind doth not agree in Thirdly That he is a man of little reading otherwise he would have been insufferably impertinent by 10000 quotations in this matter Fourthly That he is no Civilian for that in this place he calls the Soveraignity a Fee when all men agree that a Crown is of that fort of Inheritancs which they call Allodiums that are held 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This would have made a swinging Argument for his Jure Divino if he had thought of it but we will give it them gratis He tells us the Duke of York is in the same condition as the Eldest Son of the King Reigining though his Brother be King That the second Son of a King Regent when the first is dead living his Father is within the 25. of E. 3. that makes it Treason to compass the death of the King 's Eldest Son and that such Second Son is Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwal The
Consequence whereof is that he very impertinent or else the Duke of York is now Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwal and that he is within the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. This Argument of his he leaves to be further illustrated and pursued by the Church-men and Civilians But lest they should fail this Epistoler for I now am well assured that this question and cause is to be managed by the Sword by Massacres and the French Plot and not by Writing I have adventured and will proceed to illustrate his Arguments and pursue them into their Consequences leave the Epistoler of Quality to be pursued with laughter for he deserves no worse if it be true that he professeth that he is a Protestant and Lover of the Government Now he will he saith as best sorting with his profession and with a discourse of the nature drive proofs from the Authority of the Common and statute-Statute-Law of England From whence it follows That the common-Common-Law and statute-Statute-Laws of England are proper to be consulted with for declaring the Laws of God and the Laws of Nature which they never yet pretended to do And Secondly it follows from thence that this Epistoler no more understands the Common and statute-Statute-Laws of England and what places they are to have in the Conduct of our manners and guidance of our Consciences than he doth as appears by what he hath said before what is the Law of God or Nature He lays it down as most evident That all the humane Acts and Powers in the World cannot hinder the Discent of the Crown upon the next Heir of the Blood because though they may hinder the Possession and Enjoyment of it This is a Dowry which the great King of Kings hath reserved to his own immidiate Donation and hath placed above the reach of a mortal Arm and mankind can no more hinder or intercept it than it can the Influences of the Stars or the Heavens upon the Sublunary world or beat down the Moon The Consequence of this is that the man is Lunatick and of insane memory and hath forgot and denies what in the same breath he affirms Eor he agrees humane Power may hinder the possession and enjoyment and yet it is no more possible to hinder the Descent than to stop the Influences of Heaven and to pull down the Moon Secondly It follows that that which is done is impossibe to be done Thirdly that there is no Right at all by Descent nor can be any Descent of the Crown for that it is reserved as he says to Gods immediate Donation And we never yet heard of any immediate Gift or Donation thereof from God And if the Duke will stay until that be done we most solemnly declare we will accept him for our King and he shall be a King to intents and purposes as he terms it we will be kinder and juster to him than his Freinds of the same perswasion with the Epistoler who will give him the Name and Style and would Abridge him as they pretend of the Power and Authority of a King He says further That when the Duke is King that the Legiance and Fidelity of the Subject is due to him by the immutable Law of Nature from whence it clearly follows that he must stay until that time come That when he is a Loyal and Foyal King we are to be Loyal and Foyal Liege-men and Subjects For Calvin's Case which he cites by the general Opinions of all considerable Lawyers is Apocryphal where it makes Allegiance absolute and more extensive than the Legal Power of Kings But here he subjoyns such loathsom Pedantry that I cannot but remark it He subjoyns to his mention of Calvin's Case that Aristotle Nature's Amanuensis as he calls him agrees with that Case in that he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Seneca's Natura commenta est Regem But for my promise sake I will make no further Observations upon him than by bare repeating of it to expose it That the King and his Successors are Kings by Nature he proves For that the Statute Laws do frequently stile the King our Natural Liege-Lord And for further proof tells us that in Indictments it is set forth that the Treason is commited contra debitum Fidei Ligeantiae quod naturaliter de jure impendere debet And the King in Indictments is sometimes styled Natural Lord. Whence it follows that we are born under Allegiance that no man that is born under any form of Government can deny Faith unto it though he never expresly swore Allegiance That the King of France is not our Natural Lord neither doth the Oath of Allegiance bind us to that Form of Government if introduced because the King was born to no such Kingship Nor is our King a Natural Lord to any Forreigners that come hither and the Form of the Indictment against Forreigners as the Lawyers know must be in another Form And further it followes That in all changes of Government the word natural is to be adjoyned to Allegiance in all Indictments of Treason committed against the Government in its several changes that it may suffer And this all the Lawyers with one voice pronounce He sums up all that he hath said before thus No humane Power can hinder the Descent of the Crown upon the Right Heir the Descent makes the King Allegiance is due to the King by the Law of Nature The Law of Nature cannot be abrogated by humane Power That Common-Law is more worthy than Statute-Law and the Law of Nature more worthy than both But upon better consideration of the whole matter it follows with better Consequence That Nature hath made no Laws about Property nor about Governments otherwise all Laws of Right and Property and all Governments would have been the same for what she makes are Universal as the Nature of man Besides that if he knew where she became a Legislatrix or if this Gentleman could direct us to a veiw of her Pandects we ought to acoord all our Laws to them Secondly That Common-Law is not to be preferred before Statute-Law For the Judges who declare the Common-Law are not wiser than Parliaments and the Common-Law appears so bad a Rule that it requires oftentimes amendment Thirdly It follows that no Legislation is Lawful for that which is to be preferred is best and that which is best is to be a Law for ever Fourthly That no Allegiance is due to any Prince but whom the Law appoints and as the Law appoints That he that is not King to him no Allegiance is due That humane Power is competent enough to alter as well as make any humane Constitution That which by humane Authority was made and made also descendible for all Crowns are not descendible can be altered by the same Authority in its Discent The greater part of this ensuing Discourse is the remembrance of the Tragedies that have been acted upon the English Nation by our Kings For we have not only suffered