Fortunes to their Children but what they themselves could deserve viz. Hate and Infamy All Usurpation and Encroachment of Power is to be opposed where it can be lawfully as the greatest Mischief and the Ministers to the Designs hated and detested as the most pernicious and loathsome Vermine CHHP. XV. BUt to return agreable to this Policy of Sovereign Princes who had the Donation of Bishopricks of advancing Bishops to the highest secular Dignities and Trust William the Conqueror did create Bishops into Barons and exacted the Services and Counsells of Barons in the Great Council of the Kingdom by putting their Lands under Tenure by Barony he gave them no new Endowments but as a Conqueror he confirmed their Ancient Possessions under a new reserv'd Tenure and annex'd to their Order a Secular Honor a successive Baronage Since the Conquerour the title of Baron took the place of that of Thane which was likewise a Feudal Honour in the Saxons time By William the Conquerour Baronies were feudal and in congruity to the State of the Lay Nobles he made the Bishops feudal Barons for there was no other than feudal Nobility at that time It will not be amiss nor time mispent here to give a short account of the Government in the Conquerours time of the Baronage by him introduced and the policy thereof and of the change made in the Baronage of England in after time Because from thence we must derive the Bishops Right now in question which is included and virtually contained in their Right of Baronage Hereby it will appear that the Bishops were of the Barones majores and of the Barones majores the first in Dignity that they became feudal Barons in the Conquerour's time and when the reason of our Baronage changed and no man continued a Baron ratione tenurae it cannot with reason be said that the Bishops are Barons onely for the sake of their Lands which our Adversaries do insist upon for that they think it is an abatement to the Honour of Peerage and a prejudice to their Right in question but because it has been said before by men of Authority in the Law and grown up to be a vulgar error we will now discharge the mistake by affixing here the History and Reason of the change It was the policy of the first William for some are so critical they will not call him Conquerour to create new Tenures upon all the great Possessions of the Realm and impose upon the principal men to hold their Lands of him in capite under such Services that were necessary in peace and war for State and Justice and by putting all the considerable men of the Realm under Oaths of Fealty incident to those Tenures besides the Oaths of Allegeance he provided for the establishment of his Conquest or his possession of the Crown without title The principal men of the Realm both Ecclesiastical and Lay hereby were not onely obliged to support but to become part of the Government and were obliged to be Ministers of Justice and also Members of the great Council of the Kingdom or Parliament which was now to be made up principally of his Dependents by which he changed the constitution of the great Council in the Saxons times in the balance of that equal sort of Government the consequent mischiefs whereof this Kingdom laboured under untill we recovered it again by an equal representative of the Commons in Parliament in the time of King Henry the Third The power of the Baronage proved equally oppressive to the people and came in that time to be reduced irreverent to the Crown By this policy the Conquerour intended to establish his Conquest to secure to himself and his posterity the Imperial Crown of England imagining that otherwise he should have been but a precarious King He had now turn'd the Kingdom upon the matter into one great Mannor and kept his Courts called the Curia Regis in the nature of a Sovereign Court Baron now become more frequented and solemn than that Court was before the Conquest thrice in every Year at stated Times and Places viz. at Easter at Winchester at Whitsuntide at Westminster and at Christmas at Gloucester at these times and places all his Tenants which were all the considerable Free-holders of England attended of course and upon a General Summons at any other time or place appointed by the King as his Affairs did require they were bound likewise to attend In these Courts the Suitors swore Fealty did renew and confirm their Obligations to the Crown and the King became more assured of their Allegiance by their Personal Attendance and by his Royal Entertainments of them at such times In these Courts they recognized their own Services and the Rights of the King their Lord and assessed Aids and Estuage Prestations due to the Crown by their Tenures upon themselves to which in general they were obliged by their Tenures In these Conventions the Right of the Suitors the King's Tenants were adjudged as Private Lords had Judgment of the Right of Lands in pretence held of them in Fee in their several Manors as they have to this day But if Right was not done by the Lord the Cause was to be removed to this Curia Regis the King being Lord Paramount of whom all Estates mediately or immediately were held Which appears by the Form of the Writ of Right now in use which we will transcribe N. B. precipimus tibi quod sine dilatione plenum Rectum teneas A. de B. de uno Messuagio L. in I quae clamat tenere de te per liberum Servitium unius denarii per annum pro omni servitio quod W. de T. ei deforciat nisi feceris Vicecomes faciatne amplius inde Clamorem audiamus pro defectu Recti The Common Pleas was not then a Court and at this time the Appeal and resort to the King was in this Court if Justice was not done by the Lord or Sheriff So that the greatest part of the Justice of the Nation was administred in those Assemblies But it must not be understood that this vast Convention was a Court of Judicature for every Cause neither that it was formally a Parliament without some farther Act of the King for erecting that Convention into the great Council of the Nation But in this Curia Regis they were obliged to answer the King's Writs of Summons Writs of Commission and obey his Appointments in the Ordinary Administration of Justice in which the Capitalis Justiciarius or Justitia was to preside That this was not a Judicature the vast numbers of those that made it the inequality of the Persons considered under the Common Reason of being Tenants in Capite and Barons whereby they became indifferently members of the Curia Regis besides the neglect that must necessarily be presumed in the greatest part of such a Body to the business of Jurisdiction and judging of Rights without particular Designation thereto do sufficiently argue and evince But
form'd His great Knowledge in Records and that he is known not to be partial for the Bishops make him of great Authority pages 10 11 12 13 14 17 329 384 325 281 392 567 607 710 712 713 714. And farther in the Time of Queen Elizabeth in an Act of Parliament in the first Year of her Reign made for the Recognition of Her Queen of England which was an Act of State and of the whole Community and therefore most requisite it was that that Parliament should give themselves their right Stile It is said We your said the Lords Spiritual Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled was said before to which this doth relate most loving Subjects representing the three States of your Realm of England The Nature of the Government came directly at their Times under Consideration of the Parliament which is an Assembly that cannot be mistaken in the Constitution of the Kingdom in any Question of such a Nature when they will deliberate and consider This mighty Affair required them to consider who they were and what was their Constitution Now if at any time they are to use that Stile that denotes their Power and declares the Government The Stile of the three Estates of the Realm it seems is so sacred and great and not for ordinary use but that it is used upon such occasions as the Recognition of the Sovereign Princes and in declaring Kings This Stile is most certain declarative of the true Constitution and the great Stile and Title of the Lords Spiritual Lords Temporal and Commons of England A Misnomer now would be as great a Solecism as to see the Nobles and Prelates without their Robes and proper Cognizances at the Solemnities of a Coronation By the due comparing the Statutes aforementiond wherein the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons are called the States and also the Representatives of all the Estates of the Kingdom We may be enlightened into a great Mistery of State for that the Lords Spiritual and the Lords Temporal and Commons are called the three States and also the Representatives of the States give us to understand that every one of them is entrusted for the other and with the Conservancy of the whole Community and are all in their proper Ministries designed to the Common Good and each of them have Dependencies and Expectancies from the other in the due Discharge of their proper and distinct Offices And that the Lords Spiritual and the Lords Temporal are Representatives and Trustees for the Peoples Good and the Common-weal as well as their own In like manner as every Parliament man for a particular Borough is a Representative of all the Commons of England To which we will adjoyn another great Authority and that is of Sir Edward Coke 4 Inst fol. 2. who tells us that the King and three Estates viz. Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal and Commons are the great Corporation and Body Politick of this Nation This was the Opinion of his Old Age when he was most improved in Knowledge and when he did not flatter the Prerogative Besides to clear this point we may observe that the Stile of Acts of Parliament that hath mostly obtained is this viz Be it enacted c. and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal and Commons This distinct mention of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal is Cognizance of their being distinct States For observe there is no particular mention of Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Acts of Parliament because they are all of the Commonalty which is but one State They are all involved under the general Name of Commons And so would certainly the Lords both Spiritual and Temporal have been in the general Name of Lords if they had not been distinct States and so accounted The Stile of Acts of Parliament would have been by the Advice and Assent of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament And the ancient Stile of Parliament before the House of Commons was divided and constituted apart from the Lords House was Clerus Populus Clerus Magnates as may be seen by Eadmerus and Matth. Paris and the Writers of those Times So that the Clerus or Bishops were always a distinct State in Parliament For the letting in Light upon all that hath been said in this matter and for farther clearing it and to reconcile the Differences in the Stiles of the Parliament and that they may unite in their Evidence and not seem to thwart one another It must be remembred that that which is most express and particular is most scientifical and more exactly instructive most distinct and true and intends to inform us exactly in the very Nature of the thing and therefore cannot be derogated from nor prejudiced by what is more general or less distinct It is hence therefore evident that the Lords Spiritual and Temporal are taken for distinct States as they are For they have their distinct Interests and for several ends and purposes became parts in the Government They have their several Ministries and Advantages to the Government apart and come into that House by several ways of Designation and Appointment The Prelates care besides that which is common between them and the Temporal Lords is that of Religion and the Affairs of the Church and the whole Order Ecclesiastical by which the People are to be ministred to in their highest Concernments which are Reasons very sufficient to reckon and account them a distinct State And now we have asserted to the Prelates a Jus Paritatis in the House of Lords for that they are complete Barons as we have likewise proved them a distinct State The Baronage of England is the House of Lords Additions of Title give Precedency but no Superiority or addition of Power The Baronage is one Order and Rank and the highest in the Census of the Government the manner of the Promotion the Ends and Interests of the Government in the advancement of the Bishops though several from those that advanced the Temporal Lords to their State and Honour yet to the same degree they are promoted they are both Members of the same great Council of the same great Judicature and are therefore by their long continuance most duely styled Pares Regni And moreover the Bishops are considered as to their Order and Office Ecclesiastical and another care incumbent upon them besides that of the Baronage and the Orders that belong to the consideration of Heralds do signifie that their Office of a Bishop doth not lessen the Dignity of their Peerage What is it then that makes this present Question The Bishops have the reason and nature of the Government of their side they have used such a power when they have pleased it was never denied to them and their right hath had the most solemn Recognition that can be made The Canon could not abridge and restrain their right and their true Character qualifies them not onely to the degree of an
difficult to tell how that late unhappy War began or how it came to issue so Tragically in the Death of the Late King though we know how it ended viz. The Nation recovered within twelve years after the most deplored Death of that excellent King into a renowned Loyalty and in spight of a great Armed Power never before foil'd ever victorious then kept on foot for the interest of a very few men restored our present King may his Reign be long and happy to the Government of his Kingdoms without the least assistance of any of the Cavalier party and oblig'd a wary General in the head of a factious and republican army to Loyalty Nay within that time also the Nation had recovered out of their partial Lapse into Fanaticisme bread up great numbers of excellent Schollars who masterd the prejudices of those times were reverenced by the chief of the Presbyterian party and are the beauty and strength of the Church of England at this time The Presbyterians themselves were grown reconcileable to the Church of England and had learnt by woful experience the mischievousness of Schisme upon no better pretences than what then might have been satisfied and accommodated When the King and Church were restored Fanaticisme had expired if some old peevish and stiff Church-men had not studied obstacles against a universal accommodation and some crafty Statesmen had not projected that the continuance of the Schisme would be of great service some time or other to destroy the Church of England and change our antient Government which is now apparently the Popish Plot and if ever it be effected it will be with this trick of affrighting the Church of England with the apprehension of Fanaticisme and making them suspicious of Parliaments As many of them as are drawn into an opinion of the disloyalty of our late Parliaments the illusions of the Popish Plot hath passed upon them and they are under the power of its fascinations But both the Loyalty of the late Parliaments and also how much it imports the Plotters to have it believed that they design upon the present Government will at once be clearly understood if it be considered what hath been done for the forging of a Protestant Plot which was intended at the first opening to extend to the House of Commons Things so wicked as would make a virtuous man ashamed of the age he lives in But after all endeavors to find witnesses for their purpose powerful encouragements and great rewards they have drawn none into their assistance but who are publickly known for Rogues or who wanted Bread or had no Reputation to loose If the falshood of this forged Plot had not been utterly improbable they might have procured better seeming and more credible witnesses They might sure have found in this age men bad enough not already infamous to have testified a probable Lye But so necessary it is to the Popish design that a Protestant Plot be believed that they are not discouraged at the manifest detection of their conspiracies perjuries and subornations but will still go on as if they had a power to work miracles of villany for their Religion which is no better Our modern Politicians have been most observant agreeably to their virtuous make how frauds perjuries and violence have prospered and succeeded in some particular cases and have brought about some designs imagine such means throughly multiplied to be able to conquer all things which they design But these Arts which have had success by the permission of God when one Villain hath been to destroy another will not pass upon the Protestant Religion Let them seriously in time despair and give over such enterprises For there is no Enchantment against Jacob nor Divination against Israel the Lot of Gods inheritance and his peculiar Care If Mordecai be of the Seed of the Jews Haman shall fall before him It is matter of comfort to us and dispair to the Plotters that not one of their Plots yet but hath proved Abortive or they have been defeated by their very success Besides pray let it be observed how this Design of lessening our just confidence in Parliaments is otherwise carried on and promoted It is now become the principal business of the Mercenary Writers for the Plot to pick up and cull out all the enormities and irregularities of those times the Vitia temporum and stories of wild pranks of some beastly Fanatical people that exceeded the common degeneracy of those ill times into which the Nation by undicernable degrees so fouly lapsed to make thereof an ugly Vizard and this they clap unduly upon four fifths of the Nation upon all that love and adhere to our Government and Religion to render them suspected of destroying again the English Monarchy and the Protestant Religion even for those very proceedings that they make for preserving both For the service of Popery requires that whosoever opposes it must be branded with Treason and Fanaticisme that such delicate persons as are fond of the name of Loyalty though they understand not in what it consists that hate the name of Fanatick since it is become as common a name of reproach as the Son of a Whore though they understand not so well what it means will be sure so to behave themselves as to be reckoned for Loyal and not Fanatical by taking the measures of the one and the other according to the new notion of the Plot Writers may become theirs with all their idle prattle But let them make their best of this foolish sort of men if that was all they could effect by this project But they design further upon the Nation viz. to match the fears of Popery with a fear as great of the like Evils to those of Forty one as if these Plotters had power by their interest to raise a new War when we have power and authority in our Government if it were exerted to destroy them by Justice But these State Mountebanks think it convenient because the Nation was cast into a Frenzy in Forty one therefore now when in perfect health we are to be cast into a Lethargy to prevent our relapse and in the mean time they intend we should perish insensibly and quietly that way they design to destroy us It is since the Discovery of the Popish Plot that Popish Mercenaries have been hired to write virulent Libels against the Church and bitter invectives against Fanaticks Out of the same Mint came a villanous Libel called Omnia Comesta a Belo against the Church apt to render the Church-men suspicious of another detestable Sacriledge designed And that loathsome Print entitled the Committee or Popery in Masquerade Many parts whereof hath no other reason of belief but that they have been the Subject of some drunken Rhimes in former times but it is in the whole an insufferable Libel against the Nation by its application to this age These Mercenaries are the Authors as well of treasonable Libels against the King which they
continue them great The contempt of the Bishops and Clergy the great cause of our evil State at present out of which we cannot recover but by an excellent Clergy and a high esteem of them with the people The Postscript ERRATA PAge 13. Line 18. read they p. 15. l. 15. r. Taxeotam Buleutam p. 19. l. 9. r. Blaesensis p. 23. l. 4. r. can p. 44. l. ult dele as p. 51. l. 22. to but add not l. ult to usage add other p. 57. l. 29. r. hucusque p. 130. dele in p. 165. l. 8. r. here p. 167. r. interpolatis p. 180. l. 3. dele them to r. send l. 29. to fit add to mention p. 206. l. 29. r. injurious p 240. l. ult dele near POSTSCRIPT P. 32. l. 1. r. he made his natural Sons first noble l. 7. r. Eufame p. 34. l. 1. r. is not subject p. 42. l. 25. r. decedents p. 45. l. 30. r. he p. 46. l. 8. r. more cruel p. 58. l. 18. r. futility p. 59. l 26. r. being What else is escaped the Reader is desired to correct by reason of the Authors absence from the Press The Argument CHAP. I. IN this question the Constitution of the Government is concerned and the Right of a most principal constituent part and that in a matter of the highest Trust which if truly a Right can be no more relinquished as the Nature of this Right is than a trust can be betrayed a duty and a Right denyed to be paid and performed or the Constitution of the Government changed For of such a Nature doth appear to be the Right in pretence and Controversy of the Lords the Bishops to have judgment in the House of Lords in Capital Causes For by their being made Barons they owed their judgments in such Causes as a service to the King at first by their Tenures in Baronage for though since they are become Barones Rescriptitii or Barons by Writ their duty is not abated And besides the Cognisance of such Causes become their own Right being a part of and belonging to the dignity and office of a Baron And it likewise became an appointment in the Government in which the whole Community have their Interest for that is principally provided for and procured in all Governments whose greatest concern it is to have Justice done against all Criminals and to have great and wise just and good men in the Administrations of Justice and other great offices of the Government The people of England did anciently understand the benefit of this Constitution when nothing but the Baronage of England the Lords Spiritual and Temporal could resist the Torrent of Arbitrary Government And it may be easily understood too that nothing but the Baronage of England is able to support the Throne For that Monarchy unless so supported is the weakest and most precarious and dependent Government in the World except it be supported with an Army and turned into a Tyranny That the Throne should be established by Natural and gentle provisions and the Government fixed is every mans greatest interest If the Lords Temporal have more under command and a larger Potestas jubendi yet the Lords Spiritual out-did them Authoritate suadendi and had more voluntary obedience The Lords Spiritual have several Advantages as they are Novi homines men chosen out of Thousands for an excellent Character and Spirit and need not want any accomplishments if duely chosen and preferred for the discharge of the greatest Provinces that are to be managed by wisdome and integrity and therefore they cannot be well wanted in any Ministries in the Government to which they are bespoken and have a legal designation Since this Authority by the very opening of the Cause doth appear probably belonging to the Bishops and if so that it cannot without breach of their duty that they owe to all the parts of the Government and the whole Community depart from it it may surely be insisted upon disputed and maintained by them without blame or imputation But so unhappily it falls out that the very disputing and contending of this Matter by reason of the unseasonableness of the dispute and the delays that were thereby given to the most important business of the Nation to the great hazard as some think of the summ of Affairs was very mischievous to the publick And now both parties are charging one another with all the mischiefs and the delays that this Controversy hath given to publick proceeding or can with any probability be thought to have occasioned And there are not men wanting on either side within doors and without that are forward enough to charge all those mischiefs as deserved by their oppoposite party which may eventually happen hereupon Who sees not how fatal this Controversy is like to prove to one or other of the Litigants and to the Government in consequence if this Cause cannot be duely heard and considered and be determined upon its own Merits without undue Censures and Reflections on either side Since at last the contenders themselves must be the Judges and give judgment in the Cause or it can never be quieted and have an end I am sure passion is no equal Judge and Arbiter and men angred and provoked have not the same sentiments of the same things as when calm and serene And because there is no common Judicature it ought to be considered by both parties with all equality of judgment and an exact pondering and weighing of the reasons offered on either side for that otherwise it can never be fairly decided but must for ever remain a Controversy to the immediate overthrow and destruction of the Government or over-ruled by the force and Power of a most dangerous consequence in the course of time to the Government and will be a laying of the Axe to the very root of the Tree and will put the Government it self into a State of War between the several constituent parts of it and given an occasion for one part to usurp upon another until the tone and frame of Goverment become changed and at last fall into ruine I am very well aware of the gravity of the Question and its importance the high honour and regard that is due to the House of Commons in Parliament what commendations are due to them in their persons for their zeal and endeavour by all means if it be possible to save the Nation Religion and Government And what a great Capacity that House in its very constitution in the first designation of the Government and by their mighty growth in power and interest in the Course of time have in procuring the publick good and that they cannot have any interest divided from the common Weal I must do them right and with the greatest clearness and satisfaction I determine with my self that their zeal for public Justice against unpardonable offences in their judgment and a prejudicate opinion they had conceived of the Spiritual Lords unindifferency how duely will appear by
either not against us or for us And all along observe the candor and integrity of the Author We shall further shew how absurd his Reasonings are to make those Precedents to conclude any thing for his purpose We will also with the clearest demonstration prove That the Assize of Clarendon establisheth the Bishops Authority and right to judge in capital Causes in Parliament And likewise that the protestation made by the Bishops 11. R. 2. is a most solemn Recognition of their Right that the Bishops have sate in Judgment in the greatest capital Causes in Parliament that ever happened that this their Authority hath been exercised in their own Persons and by their Proxies and recognized by Parliaments and other great Courts of Judicature but never before this time brought into Question That no Canon could lessen the Right at most it is but a Councel for their guidance in the exercise of their Authority which they might observe as they please That the Popes Canon Law was never received into England that prohibits Bishops to judge in capital Causes That the Bishops have declined to assist in pronounceing the Sentence of death sometimes as undecent for their Order but notwithstanding and without being contrary to the example and practice of their Predecessors the Bishops may judge upon the Plea of the Earl of Danby's Pardon For that if they do judge the Pardon not good the Earl is not therefore to be condemned And for the better clearing the Bishops Right and for the establishing the Government we shall prove that the Spiritual Lords are Peers of the Realm and one of the three States and an essential part of the Government which no legal power can charge or alter Lastly we shall repel the calumnies of the Adversaries in this cause by which they indeavour to render the Prelates unworthy of their Right and to put them amongst the prodigi furiosi that are scarce allowed to be Proprietors of their own And conclude our Discourse with a just Apology for the Lords the Bishops CHAP. II. ANd First I begin with the Octavo which in the Introduction to his Precedents saith That he will not meddle with the General Question How far forth Clergy-men in Orders are forbidden having any thing to do with secular matters nor what in that particular the Imperial Law requires as that Rescript of the Emperor Honorous and Theodosius which Enacts that Clergy-men shall have no communion with publick Functions or things appertaining to the Court or the Decree of Justinian That Bishops should not take upon them so much as the Oversight of an Orphan nor the proving of Wills saying It was a filthy thing crept in amongst them which appertained to the Master of his Revenue Nor what our common Law of England seems to allow or disallow having provided a special Writ in the Register upon occasion of a Master of an Hospital being it seems a Clergy-man and chosen an Officer in a Mannor to which that Hospital did belong saying it was Contra Legem consuetudinem Regni non consonum It was contrary to the Law and Custom of the Kingdom and not agreeable to reason That he who had cure of Souls and should spend his time in Prayer and Church duties should be made to attend upon Secular imployments I meddle not neither saith he with what seems to be the Divine Law as having been the practice of the Apostles and by them declared to be grounded upon reason and to be what in reason ought to be which was this That they should not leave the word of God and serve Tables though that was a Church Office and yet they say it is not reason we should do that for their work was the Ministry of the Word and Prayer much less then were they to be employed in secular affairs This with great skill he prefixes to his precedents which make the Law of Parliament which is the Law of the Land he saith and after he had said all that he could to make the very pretence it self unlawful and to perswade the shutting of the Bishops out of the House for altogether he subjoyns his Precedents he thought certainly that when he had placed the Precedents in such a light they must look all of that colour and have that appearance which he indeavours too by other arts to give them But we shall spoil his design in a very few words which the observant Reader will apprehend how pertinent it is and satisfactory to what is objected in the recited Preface though we do not for brevity sake apply our answer to every particular of his Discourse We say therefore we can't think the Clergy fit for Proctors Publick Notaries and Scriveners or Ushers of Court or other subservient offices nor fit to make Constables Tythingmen and Scavengers nor to keep watch and ward and to be a Hayward or Bayliff of his Worships Mannors and Townships Or that they should be Merchants or Farmers or interpose in a-any Secular affairs for gain That it was declined by the Pastors and Teachers of the Church as an indignity for them to administer to Tables i. e. to the Provisions of Charity in their Church-feast and they ought to keep far off from a suspition of filthy Lucre nay not to preach principally for gain or make a gain of Godliness By the Imperial Law accordingly they were discharged from the trouble of being Tutors and Curators of Orphans nay where the Law had designed them that care by their relation to the Orphans out of respect to their dignity they were discharged by the Law that they might not incur unkindness to the neglect of their relations nor yet be incumbred with such private attendances to divert them from their great Cure Though the Presbytery might be admitted ad Tutelam Legitimam by their own consent and this was made Law by Justinian Cod. L. 1. By which Law it appears not a Judgment of Incompetency in Clergy-men to intermedle in Secular affairs but an honourable exemption of the Bishops from such private concernments was the reason of that Law It was further provided by a Law of Justinian Cod. L. 1. That Priests should not be made of Court-Officers but those that were so made might continue the reason of the Law is contained in it because that such a man was Enutritus in Executionibus vehementibus seu asperis his quae ex ea re accidunt peccatis Non utique aequum fuerit modo quidem illico esse Taxeatam Buleatam facere omnium acerbissima mox autem Sacerdotem ordinari humanitate innocentia exponentem dogmata In all this the honour of the Church was consulted But business of weight and trust was committed to them Valent. Valens appointed Bishops to set the price of goods sold with this reason Negotiatores ne modum mercandi videantur excedere Episcopi Christiani quibus verus cultus est adjuvare pauperes provideant Justin 79. Novel submits Monks to
pleaded in Bar upon which the Defendant will be certainly relieved in Chancery may notwithstanding it hath not heretofore be hereafter allowed in our Law-Courts we should be in a great measure restored to our easie expedite cheap and certain Justice which the Methods of our Common Law-Courts hath most excellently provided until a Parliament sometime or other may consider whether it be not fit to take it quite down by inabling Courts of Law to do true Right in all Causes that shall come before them For nothing renders the Chancery tolerable but the mo exemplary Virtue and Great Endowments of our present Lord Chancellor in which he is not like to have a Successor But to return to the Curia Regis it was not only the great Judicature of the Nation formally but it was also materially our Parliament too That this Curia Regis was not without any more the Parliament of these times is evident first that the Curia Regis was summoned by a general Writ of Summons directed to the Sheriffs in this Form viz. Rex Vicecomiti Northamptoniae c. praecipimus tibi quod summoneri facias Archiepiscopos Episcopos Comites Barones Abbates Priores Milites Liberos homines qui de nobis tenent in Capite c. Rot. Claus 26 H. 3 M. 7. Dorso This must necessarily be this Curia Regis in Distinction to a Parliament For that in the Grand Charter of King John made in the last year of his Reign it was granted that Ad habendum Commune Concilium Regni de auxilio assidendo aliter quà m in tribus praedictis casibus i. e. Those cases of Aid to make the eldest Son a Knight to marry the eldest Daughter and of Ransom and de Scutagiis assidendis faciemus summoneri Archiepiscopos Episcopos Abbates Comites majores Barones Regni sigillatim per Literas nostras Et praeterea faciemus summoneri in generali per Vicecomites Ballivos nostros omnes alios qui in capite tenent de nobis At present we make no other use of this Grand Charter than to prove it a distinctive mark of a Parliament where the Summons are personal to the Bishops Earls and the greater Barons This Charter of King Johns declares the ancient usage of summoning the greater Barons by special Summons to them severally directed for that the Kings before him as Sir Henry Spelman in his Glossary p. 80. Propter crebra bella simultates quas aliquando habuêre cum his ipsis majoribus suis Baronibus alios etiam eorum interdum omitterent aegrè hoc ferentes Proceres Johannem adegêre sub magno sigillo Angliae pacisci ut Archiepiscopos Episcopos Comites majores Barones Regni sigillatim per Literas summoneri faceret By which it was provided that all the Barons should have pro more Summons to the Parliament that non of those great Barons should want his several Summons and they had anciently several Summons for in a general Summons no body was excluded By which it doth appear that the Council at Northampton wherein Thomas of Becket was brought in judgment was a Parliament and not the Curia Regis for that the Bishops had their several Writs of Summons which appears in that Fitz Stephens tells us as matter of observation that Thomas of Canterbury had not his Writ of Summons but was cited as a Criminal to answer which we before observed And this was but necessary that when the Tenents in capite or Barons which principally at least made the Parliament were to be consulted about some arduous Affairs that they should have notice and a solemn intimation thereof and their presence required and enjoyned by Writs to them particularly and personally directed Besides that it was agreeable to all the forms of Government then in use to have their ordinary and extraordinary Council For Omnes Germanicae Originis Reges atque Imperatores duplici Concilio antiquitùs utebantur altero statario qui Senatus dicitur ad res quotidianas altero evocato concilium aut conventus ordinum ad res momenti majoris as Grotius assures us Neither can it be denied by any man of modesty who hath heard any thing of the state of our Government before the Conquest and that knows that many ancient Burroughs send Burgesses to Parliament by Prescription and will consider the Records produced by Mr. Petit in his very learned and elaborate Book called The Ancient Right of the Commons of England to prove the Right of ancient Burroughs to send Members to Parliament who represent them but that such though not Suiters to the Curia Regis were Members de jure of the great Council of Parliament But the truth is they are not mentioned in any Record or History of any Parliament from the beginning of the Conquerours Reign to the end of Henry 3. as a distinct part of the Parliament of England their Numbers and Qualities were little and mean of no consideration in comparison to that great Body of the Baronage that constituted our Parliaments in that time but our Parliaments seem by the style used in Histories and Records to be onely the Baronage of England William the First in the fourth year of his Reign Consilio Baronum suorum saith Hoveden pag. 343. fecit summoneri per universos Consulatus Angliae Anglos nobiles sapientes sua lege eruditos ut eorum jura consuetudines ab ipsis audiret Those who were returned shewed what the Customs of the Kingdom were which with the assent of the same Barons were for the most part confirmed in that Assembly which was a Parliament of that time saith Mr. Selden Titles of Honour pag. 701. Amongst the Laws of Hen. 1. published by Mr. Abraham Whelock cap. 2. I find thus Forestas communi consensu Baronum in manu mea retinui sicut pater meus eas habuit And after Lagam Regis Edwardi vobis reddo cum illis emendationibus quibus pater meus emendavit consilio Baronum suorum The Parliament is styled Commune Concilium gentis Anglorum and at the same time Commune Concilium Baronum and also Clerus Populus Matth. Paris fol. 52 53 54. And this is sometimes called Communitas for that it represents the whole people and involves their consent Which appears by 48 H. 3. Pars unica M. 8. D. Haec est forma pacis à Domino Rege Domino Edwardo filio suo Praelatis Proceribus omnibus Communitate Regni Angliae communiter concorditer approbata And that Communitas Regni hath no other sense than commune concilium Regni and used as a comprehensive term of them that made it is evident for that it is said in the second Record Si videntur communitati Praelatorum Baronum And again Per consilium communitatis Praelatorum Baronum Further Magnates Vniversitas Regni sometimes used for the Parliament Matth Paris 659,666 And after King John's Charter wherein it was
Earls did then as now make the Parliament Besides the Barones majores and minores there was at this time a distinction between the Barones Regis and Barones Regni which I will here explain to prevent any mistake that may grow thereupon The Barones Regni were Barons by Tenure and made part of the Government by the Constitution of the first William and so in process of time called Barones Regni because they had by continuance of that Constitution acquired a fixed right to that Honour But because of the frequent Wars between the Barons and the Kings at that time they did omit to summon some who were Barons by Tenure and now duly called Barones Regni to Parliament and called others to Parliament that had no right to be called ratione tenurae and these they called Barones Regis This was ill taken by the Lords and was one of the occasions of their War with King John upon which they did obtain his Charter for remedy as followeth Barones majores Regni sigillatim summoniri faceret The truth of this as to the fact will appear by the Histories of those times and that this is the reason of that distinction of Barones Regis and Barones Regni doth appear by the recited Charter of King John where the majores Barones are called Barones Regni for the Barons were more concerned for the losing of their Honours than they were at the communication of the like Honours to others and with reason though all Honours are lessened by the numbers of those participate of them The inconveniences and mischiefs of this Constitution were very great and very sensible by making the Government consist of one Order there was no third to moderate and hold the balance The Honour of the great Nobility was lessened by an Equality of Suffrage in the great Council of the Kingdom yielded to the Tenents in capite and were not so concerned to support the Dignity of the Crown for the maintaining their own which in that Constitution could not be great It had the faults of either House and the virtues of neither they pressed hard upon the King and were uneasie and oppressive to the People they were not reverent of the Crown nor tender of common right The great Charter provides against the Oppressions of great men as it doth for bounding the Prerogative Our mixt Monarchy was out of tune by the Aristocratical Power of the Baronage now become too excessive by the policy of the Conquerour by advancing too great numbers to that Dignity too great to depend upon the Crown or to be govern'd by it unassisted That which the first William intended and designed for the establishment of his Conquest and of the Peace of the Kingdom made it very easie to afflict bad Princes But by several steps we recovered being taught and instructed to it by our Experience and the sufferance of great Calamities such a Representative that might most certainly effect what in all Ages was intended and designed that nothing should be Law or civilly just but what the People assent to by which their Persons and Rights are secured and defended which is the sole end of Government But evident it is that this more equal clear representative which we now enjoy in our House of Commons grew upon the reducement of the excessive number of Barons so great that it made them a Tumult rather than an Assembly and for the reducement of the power of the greater Barons for in the Parliament of 49 H. 3. when but 25 Lay Barons were summoned tho' in the 41 year of his Reign he numbered 250 great Baronies in England we find Writs for electing to a Parliament at London two Knights Citizens and Burgesses and Barons for the Cinque-Ports before that time none were found nor any Foot-steps of Right for the Counties sending Knights to Parliament though there is a clear Right appears for the Burroughs to send Burgesses which we shall speak to afterwards It will not be impertinent here to add that the Government of Scotland which runs parallel almost to our English Government found it inconvenient that all the Tenants in Capite should resort to their Parliaments and therefore they were reduc'd in this manner viz. their Barones Minores or Tenants in Capite in every County choose two of ther own number to Parliaments which at this day they call the Barons for Counties whereas all our Free-holders choose their Knights of the Shire and our Elections are not restrained to Tenants in Capite And this made it more reasonable for our Representatives of Shires together with the Burgesses to become in process of time a distinct Lower House whereas their Barons of Shires set together with the Lords and vote in Common with them The Knights of the Shire which made the principal part of the Representative of the Commons having no Relation to the House of Peers or the Baronage of England because chosen by all the Feee-holders indifferently though not Tenants in Capite But to return to our History that deduceth the Change of our Government That some great matters for publick Good and Establishment of the peace of the King and Kingdom was treated of in this Parliament they did to be sure establish this new Form of a Parliament will appear by a Form of a Writ of Summons to the Bishop of Durham to that Parliament which I will here transcribe Henricus Dei gratia Rex Angliae Dominus Hiberniae Dux Aquitaniae venerabili in Christo patri R. Episcopo Dunelmensi salutem Cum post gravia turbationum discriminia dudum habita in Regno Nostro Charissimus filius Edwardus primogenitus noster pro pace in regno nostro assecuranda firmanda obses traditus extitisset jam sedata benedictus Deus turbatione praedicta super deliberatione ejusdem salubriter providenda plena securitate tranquillitate pacis ad honorem Dei utilitate totius Regni nostri firmanda totaliter complenda ac super quibusdam aliis Regni nostri negotiis quae sine Consilio vestro aliorum Praelatorum magnatum nostrorum nolumus expediri cum eisdem tractatum habere nos oportet vobis mandamus Rogantes in fide dilectione quibus nobis tenemini quod omni occasione postposita negotiis aliis praetermissis sitis ad nos Londiniis in octabis Sancti Hilarii proximo futuris nobiscum cum praedictis Prelatis magnatibus nostris quos ibidem vocari secimus super praemissis tractaturis consilium impensuris hoc sicut nos honorem nostrum vestrum necnon communem Regni nostri tranquillitatem diligitis nullatenus omittatis Dors Claus 49 H. 3. M. 11. in Scedulae I strongly incline to believe That this King did call in the Commons by their representatives the Barones Minores being discharged to moderate between him and his Barons which became after to be sure however it was before the standing Representative of the people Something
of Colors and Pretences to change and alter our Government or hurt it in a Vital part and begin with the Bishops to take down our Government CHAP. XX. I Have farther this just Caution to add for the warding of some other undue prejudices in the Consideration of this question that our Government did not continue the same after and before the Conquest and that the Government upon the Conquest hath received since many beneficial Alterations That the Bishops Right must be considered in Analogy to those several Alterations and in consequence they ought not to be considered as Barons by Tenure when Tenure ceased to be the reason of Baronage The contrary whereof I find insisted upon and made the reason why Bishops must not be tried by Peers And the same reason will serve to eject them out of the House at the Kings pleasure because forsooth several Barons by Tenure have been omitted in Summons to Parliament and no Lay Baron now they say is summoned upon that score but for that he is a Baron by Writ or by Patent which makes a permanent Nobility in their Families But that which is now our Government in what it differs from what it was anciently as it is not less rightfully our Government because it was not ever such so it deserves our greatest zele to defend it because it is much better Governments are I am sure ours is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 form'd and fashioned and refined by long experience they are not perfected as soon as made they have their Infant state as well as Men. The elder and first times are the Childhood of Government and of the World Antiquitas seculi juventas mundi It is egregious folly in any man to attempt to reduce us back again to the rudeness of the first Ages and to all the inconveniences that have been discharged and filed off insensibly by Experience and Wisdom the daughters of Time in a long series of Ages We neither eat drink nor cloath our selves nor build after the manner of our Ancestours but according to our improved Inventions Vnde datae populis fruges glande relictâ Cesserat inventis Dodonia quercus Aristis Claud. de raptu Proserpinae It is time ill spent by some of the Antiquaries to go about to refix the present established Government by endeavouring to find out the Records wherein it appears to have been other of which we have some published and are threatned with more But they will have no other effect I hope than to provoke us to give God thanks for the wisdom of our Forefathers and that they have left us a Government much better than what they found more just and peaceable and better established for a lasting continuance Though they perversly design it as an Artifice to overturn the State and to evacuate our most refined and wisest Constitutions For that they can find something before then they would note them to want Authority and Justice We ought say they to have recourse to the primitive Laws of the State which have been abolished by unjust Customs and Usurpations This is a Game at which we are sure to lose all nothing will be found just in this Balance And by these means some base Factors for Slavery are contriving the ruine of our Liberty but this they will effect when they shall have persuaded us to suffer again all the incommodities and coursnesses of Life which our Ancestors suffered because they were no better instructed Frugibus inventis ad glandes velle reverti The great change that was made in the Baronage of England which we have observed was remedial and healthful It s Goodness doth appear by the thorough Cure it made of our Disorders for we have not since relaps'd into these Evils from which we recover'd by that Change It was Legal and with full Consent of the whole Community For it was introduced without Noise without Opposition or Dispute nay without Observation So that we hear not how it was done but only perceive the Change These are sure Signs that we arrived by this Change where our Government did at first design us and that we were agreable to this Alteration to its first Intentions That all Parties herein received their Satisfactions and found their Interest that no body was aggrieved at it neither did it raise Wonder in any man it was every man's Desire and easie Expectation which I believe are the true Reasons why this Change is not more remark'd in our Histories But pity it is that through the Injury of Time and what is reasonably suspected the Iniquity of Corrupt Ministers that we want our Records of that time which could not have fail'd telling us the whole Secret by what means the Inducements thereto the Methods whereby and the exact time when we made our Alterations in our Government materially and in its essential parts always the same Of this our Records if they had been preserved to us intire would have inform'd us but alas we have but a few Remains of them Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto And of those that have arrived us many are but References and Recitals in other Records not the Original Records themselves by which the Original Records escaped an utter Oblivion against the Will of our Civil Expurgatories But of such that remain the most laudable Use of them is to give Authority to the present State of our Government and we ought with good reason to interpret them in an agreableness to the present Establishment because the Change we suffer'd was easie and natural ex Hercule pedem to invert the Proverb For it is easier to know what Foot will fit Hercules than to fit an Hercules to a Foot given CHAP. XXI THough our Government hath always consisted of the same constituent parts yet they have been ill sized and proportioned and unduely placed not well joyned or united or so blended that neither could perform their Offices or proper Functions The Baronage of England was an over-grown part and did by its Excess and extravagant Bulk disorder the whole Oeconomy of our Government and became it self less useful The Honor of the Baronage was lessened to nothing by the Numbers thereof they did not find themselves so much obliged to support the Majesty of the King for the Preservation of their own Grandeur as our great Barons are in our present Constitution The People were in some sort represented by them as they were a great Body of the Chiefest Free-holders but they had a power to oppress them and they were not obliged by so strong a Tye and plain Duty to a care of the People because not chosen by them and by that Choice put under a more clear and strict Trust of taking care of their Rights In this Constitution neither King Lords nor Commons had their Ends and therefore would not have the old Constitution revived if it were possible When the Representatives of the People which make the House of Commons were joyned with
monstrously extravagant opinion can prevail by a general Credence It is criminal and no less dangerous to the being of any policy to restrain the legislative Authority and to entertain Principles that disables it to provide remedy against the greatest mischiefs that can happen to any Community No Government can support it self without an unlimited Power in providing for the happiness of the people No Civil establishment but is controlable and alterable to the publick Weale What ever is not of Divine Institution ought to yield and submit to this Power and Authority The Succession to the Crown is of a civil nature not established by any Divine Right Several Kingdoms have several Laws of Succession some are Elective others Haereditary under several Limitations All humane Constitutions are made tum sensu humanae imbecillitatis under reasonable exceptions of unforeseen accidents and Emergencies that may happen in humane Affairs and so they must be intended and so interpreted The several limitations of the descent of the Crown must be made by the people in conferring the Royal Dignitie and power which is more or less in several Kingdoms The descent of the Crown is governed according to the presumed will of the People and the presumption of the peoples will is made by measuring and considering what is most expedient to the publick good whereas private Estates are directed in their descent according to the descendents And this is the reason that the descent of the Crown is governed by other rules than private Estates Only one daughter and not all as in private Estates shall succeed to the Crown because the strength of the Kingdom is preserved when continueds united and the peace and concord of the people better Established A son of the second venter shall inherit which is not allowed in private Estates because a son of the second venter is equally of the blood of the great Ancestor upon whom the Crown was first conferred by the people or after he had got into the Throne obtain'd their Submissions may equally participate of his Virtues If the Royal Family be extinct it belongs to the people to make a new King under what limitations they please or to make none for the Polity is not destroyed if there be no King created and consequently in case of this cesser or discontinuance of the Regnum there may be Treason committed against the people By all which it is evident that the succession to the Crown is the peoples right And though the succession to the Crown is Hereditary because the people so appointed it would have it so or consented to have it so Yet in a particular case for the saving the Nation the whole line and Monarchy it self it may be altered by the unlimited Power of the Legislative Authority We have been more just to the Royal Succession than the wonderful Sir Robert Filmer for his Hypotheses will not allow at all of Hereditary rightful Succession For the establishing the right of the Universal Empire of the World in Adams right heir since this illuminato hath enlightned the world in this secret no Successor can derive any hereditary right from his Predecessor His Title can be only his own possession for no man can claim by descent the Usurpation of his Father but he that is not conscious to the wrong and is bonae fidei possessor under the presumed right and title of his Father I would be understood to speak as the matter can be considered in a free Reason not under the prejudice of any positive municipal law for to such laws the right of Crowns as the Renowned Knight will have it are not submitted So that here in this matter their Knight fails them and can give them no help Their other Friend the great Leviathan Maker is so far from establishing an Hereditary Succession that he leaves Kings to be rightfully assaulted deposed and destroyed by any person that can who stands in danger of being destroyed by the King though justly condemned to death Leviathan Part. 2. Cap. 21. Those saith he that have committed a Capital Crime for which they expect death have the liberty to defend themselves by Arms as well as the Innocent But I mention him only to render him detestable for I take his Books to be the dehonestamenta humani generis But I desire them to regard the sense of all Mankind in the words of Isiodorus Pelusiota 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Governed the Judicious and Learned Dr. Falkner for when he had carried Christian Loyalty as high as he could to the honor of our Religion and the benefit of the World for which we are all extreamly beholden to him he concludes thus in his excellent Book called Christian Loyalty That if any Prince undertakes to alienate his Kingdom or to give it up into the hands of another Sovereign Power or that really acts the Destruction or the Universal calamity of his People he tells us Grotius thinks that in his utmost extremity the use of a defence as a last refuge ultimo necessitatis presidio is not to be condemned provided the care of the Common good be preserved And if this be true saith he it must be upon this ground that such attempts of ruining de ipso facto include a disclaiming the governing of these persons as Subjects and consequently of being their Prince or King what unreasonableness is there then in shutting the door upon him and making it fast against him by an act of State who hath excluded himself by his principles and designs For the truth of the fact I shall only refer you to Secretary Coleman his Letters wherein he saith that his Masters interest and the King of France his interest is one and the same and their design their glorious design the same viz the extirpating the Northern Heresie how far the King of France hath complied with the design the cruel Persecution and exils of his Protestant Subjects who at the time of that letter were under the security and protection of the Laws of that Kingdom the Faith of that Crown do declare to the world And by what secret influences I know no the is made so great his conquests so easie and expedite that he is like to do the work himself here in England and go away with all the Glory But if the work must lye upon our hands let no man think with himself that Popery is not to be introduced here because the numbers of Papists are few for that will not render the design impracticable but the execution of it were cruel and barbarous a whole Nation upon the matter must be corrupted from the Faith of the true Religion or destroy'd One single arm of an ordinary strength not resisted may assassinate a whole Nation Let no man betray his Country and Religion by pretending the example of the patience and sufferance of the Primitive Christians for our rule The Reformed Religion hath acquired a civil right and the protection of Laws if we
ought not to loose our Lives Liberties and Estates but where forfeited by Law we ought much rather not to loose them for the profession of the best Religion which by Law is made the publick national Religion And it is strange that some men of the same Religion in profession can think that notwithstanding it makes no matter what is done to a man if he be Religious but if he be not so the least publick injuries and injustice may be resisted vindicated remedyed and by right defended by old Laws or new ones to be made for that purpose The Christian Religion was publisht when the whole world was Pagan and therefore it was submitted to such usage as the Governments would give it But when the Christian Faith had by miracles of patience declared it self to be of Heaven and of a Divine Original According to the Prophecies on that behalf it took possession of the Empire and Crowns and Scepters became submitted to the Cross and the Christians acquir'd a civil right of Protection and Immunity which they ought not they cannot relinquish and abandon no more than they can destroy themselves or suffer violence and cruelty to destroy the Innocent Such as thus perish shall never wear a Martyrs Crown but perish in the next world for perishing in this This will be interpretatively Crucifying Christ afresh after he is received up into Glory i. e. After his Religion is exalted into dignity and honor and civil Authority If the senate of Rome had been Christians they would never have given up the Government to a Pagan Augustus with a power to him and his Successors to make laws for extirpating the Christian Faith what is said of the Christian Religion and Paganism holds between the Reformed Religion and Popery If any man is so vain as to say that an unalterable course of Succession is established amongst us by Divine Right I say he is a man fitted to believe transubstantiation and the infallibility of the Pope he is deeply lapsed into fanaticism he dreams when he is awake and his dreams are dreams of phrensie There are somethings so false that they cannot be disproved as somethings are so evidently true that they cannot be proved This proposition hath no color to ground it self upon no medium to prove it no argument for it which is to be answered nor nothing more absurd than it self to reduce it to But if any shall add that this Doctrin is the Doctrin of the Reformation and adventure to tell the people so they are the most impudent falsaries that ever any age produced when there is scarce a Child but hath heard what was done said and maintained by the Clergy of England in the case of Mary Queen of Scots a Popish Successor in the earliest time of our Reformation here in England Our Age is blessed with a Clergy renownedly Learned and Prudent by the Providence of God and the piety of our Ancestors they possess good though not to be envyed Revenues and Honors It is scarce possible they should have many among them that can countenance a proposition so wickedly impious and sacrilegious that we cannot have new Laws but must loose the old at the pleasure of a Popish Successor against not their own interest and the Rights of the Church but against the Rights and Liberty of Religion it self For she is capable of Franchises and Immunitys which ought above all things to be most zealously asserted and defended by her Ministers can they themselves with their own hands ever pull down her Hedg and destroy her Defensatives and expose her helpless to the rage of her implacable Enemies and suspend all the Legal security she hath for her preservation upon the Life of our present King whom God long preserve If Kings be admitted to have a power to make Laws One Proclamation may establish the Popish Religion amongst us which the Papal Bulls so long as that See continues will never be able to effect Next to Religion her self the Revenues of the Church challenge their faithful care for they are at best but Usu-fructuary Trustees of her Endowments for the Succession which they will wretchedly betray to an Arbitrary Successor if they do not repress such Opinions that pretend to change the Government into an absolute jure Divinity Monarchy which will leave nothing jure divino but it self and the Popedom Kings for their so doing have the authority of Sir Robert Filmer who affirms in his Treatise called the Power of Kings Fol. 1. That the Laws Ordinances Letters Patents Priviledges and Grants of Princes have no force but during their Life if they be not ratified by the express consent or at least by the sufferance of the Prince following who had a knowledge thereof This is but the necessary consequence and result from the Doctrine of the absolute power of a Prince for in such Government the Concessions of a Predecessor can no more oblige the Successor than he can Govern when he is dead and the Successor must be absolute in his time as the Predecessors were in theirs But in vain is the Net spread in the sight of any Bird this deceit is of so gross a thread that it cannot pass with the common people much less upon our Clergy but I will not dissemble what may be the true reason of the seduction of some young good natured Gentlemen of the Clergy They perswade themselves that if these principles and opinions of the Unlimited Power of Kings had been received the late Wars had been prevented Not rightly considering that if such opinions had never been broached or Universally rejected that War could never have ensued and we should together with peace have enjoyed our ancient Government which our Ancestors transmitted to us without that miserable inter-regnum I would not be perversely understood by any man as if I went about to justify our late War This is all I say that every Government once established will continue for ever if all the parts of it would unalterably consent to preserve it to which their narural Allegiance doth oblige them And never any Prince endeavored to change the Government but where part of the people were first willing or content to have it so Those false flatterers that go about to remove the boundaries of power and change the Government are the greatest enemies to the quiet and happy Reigns of the Kings and the peace and prosperity of Kingdoms And if they do adventure to call the ir fellow Subjects by any opprobrious names of disloyalty because they will not joyn with them in such change they are as absurdly impious and insolent as any Prince or State would be who should challenge another as free and absolute as himself for his Tributary and Vassal and traduce him for a troubler of the World because he would not Compose the Quarrel thus injuriously sought with the surrender of his Crown and dignity I desire these Gentlemen to consider that the happiness of a Nation is best
the Church of Rome the source whence all our divisions spring To which we owe the first separations that were made in our Chutch which appears by undenyable Records published by Dr. Stillingfleet in his Book called the Unreasonableness of Separation How they have propagated multiplyed exasperated and promoted our divisions to tell you would make a Volume besides no Protestant is now to know it I have only this further to observe that the Church of Rome at first only design'd by the Arts of dividing us and breaking us into several Communions to disgrace the Reformation to make our Spiritual Governors Pastors and Teachers lose their Authority with the People To deprave our Religion with licentious opiniastre and absurd dogmatizing to load our departure from that Church with the mischief of innumerable Schismes and to make us reconcileable to the Tyranny and impostures of that Church from the vain opinions and licentiousness of the Sectaries who have been seduced managed inflamed and made wild by their imposturous Arts and Deceits This I believe was only at first designed by the Priests but now they apparently design by the Dissenters to destroy the Church or by the Church to destroy the Dissenters that they more easily come to rights with her They imagine the Dissenters are very numerous and that the Nation is fallen into two great parts that the Dissenters numbers are vast But God be thanked they neither make our grand Jury men nor the common Halls of the City of London for choosing the Lord Majors or Sheriffs And I challeng any man to give me a List of all the Names of Dissenters that were of the House of Commons in our two last Parliaments I am sure they will not make an Number but they reckon the Numbers of Dissenters by the care they have taken to encrease it They used great art to continue the Separation when His Majesty was restored Since Laws have been made to raise the Animosities of Dissenters but scarce ever executed for repressing them If for any reason of state the Laws here and there and for a spurt have been exacted secret comforts and supports have been given to their Preachers of greatest Authority with them And when they have seem'd to preach with the courage and zeal of confessors to their Auditors they have been assured not only of indemnity but have received rewards How prosperously did the work of separation go on by these Councils of our Achtlophels by these means they concluded it would be heightned that it would admit of no terms of an accommodation How insolent were their Harangues more taking with their deluded Auditors while they apprehended them acted with an invincible zeal of Religion What Animations did their People receive to defy the Church and her Authority when their Preachers despised Fines and Imprisonment to their seeming out of pure zeal against her Order It is well known several of them were in Pension and no men have been better received by the D. than J. J. J. O. E. B. and W. P. c. Ringleaders of the Separation Besides that Popish Priests have been taken and executed for preaching in Field meetings in Scotland They have raised there a sort of Euthusiasts more wild and mischievous than any we had amongst us in the times of licentiousness They have had notwithstanding great Lords that have patronis'd them who were always well received in their applications in their favor at St. James's and several of their Preachers who were not Priests have received exhibitions and pensions for their Encouragement It was necessary that the Fanaticism planted in Scotland should be very loathsome to make that Nation abate any of their zeal for the Protestant Religion or to neglect their fears and apprehensions of Popery or to make the least step towards it Awake you drowsie Sleepers open your Eyes the Sun is risen there is light enough to fill your sight if you would look up and were wiling to see Could any thing be conceiv'd more apt to bring the Church of England into contempt and scorn with those of the separation then to have Laws made in her favor penal Laws which are thought to be of her procurement and not executed Vain and Ineffective anger is always returned with contumely scorn and hatred Cupide conculcatur nimis ante metitum And so it hath succeeded in this case nothing hath been more passable than the basest Scurrility upon the Church the Bishops and the Clergy The Atheist the impious and profane have listed themselves Fanaticks that they might have the greater Liberty of reviling Religion it self with impunity Consider how the Church of England is used which is truly the Bulwark of the Protestant Religion About ten years since they designed to slight her works and demolish her by a general indulgence and toleration And now they intend to destroy her Garrison those that can and will defend her against Popery By one of their Pamphleteers the separation is called an usurpation upon the Government and all the Dissenters as such only Rebels and Traitors to the King The same Gentleman would perswade the World that the ready way to extirpate Popery is by rooting out of Fanaticism whither saith he the Fanaticks bring on the Jesuits plot or the Jesuits the Fanaticks is not a farthing matter But in the mean time that the Papists have a plot on foot needs no proof That any sort of Protestants are engaged in a plot cannot be proved But all honest Protestants of the Church of England think it more righteous to punish the Deceivers and pitty the Deceived and wish them only cut off that make divisions It is one way of curing or rather of extinguishing the disease to Kill the Patient But no Prince did ever yet provide Cut-Throats for his People in epidemical diseases instead of Physitians But if the Papists could arm other Protestants against Dissenters there would be the less work for Papists to do And they will be sure to requite them for this favor with Polyphemus his curtesie For to give the Devil his due they are not themselves so fond of Massacres and destruction of Hereticks as to envy that employment to any other that will undertake it They had rather any other party of Men should do the Drudgery for them Besides what one sort of Protestants shall execute upon another will give them better pretence and more hardiness if they wanted either Pretence or Resolution to destroy such as they call Hereticks to execute the like destruction upon the Church Protestants who certainly differ more from the Papists then the Separatists do from our Church Sure there is good Reason they should be more sharply treated by the Papists than they treated the Dissenters And if they are in such sort us'd they must lay their hands upon their mouths and be silent before their Persecutors and acknowledg the righteous judgment of God in bringing such tribulation upon them from their Enemies wherewith they troubled their own Brethren