runs all in the sole Wil of the King Charter it self their Act of Liberty they so much Labour in that not the meanest Subject can be Try'd or Judg'd unless it be by his Peers Equals much less so mighty a Monarch that has none and a Fortiori then with lesser Reason by those that are his own Subjects so far from being his Peers or Equals that they are together his Inferiors which has made me think many times these preposterous Asserters of so much Nonsense these Seditious Defenders of those Liberties they never understood did apprehend by the word Pares in the Law not the common Acceptation of it in the Latin but only the abused Application of it of our own English only to our House of Lords And conclude the King might be Judg'd by those we commonly call PEERS because they sit in that Honorable House and at the same to be Judg'd according to Magna Charta that all Judgements be per pares But does not each Dunce and every Dolt understand that the very Letter of the Law looks after this only that every Person be tryed at the least by those that are of his own Condition and that in the Legal Acceptation of the Word every Commoner of the Lower House nay every one of their Electors is as much a Peer as the greatest Person of the House of Lords In short they must put some such silly Seditious Exposition upon the plainest Letter when they pretend to Judge their King or else from the very Law of their own Liberty they labor in allow that their King has no Judges In that Act against Appeals that was enacted in the time of Henry the 8th 24. H. 8. c. 12. the very Parliament upon whom the People and even these Republicans so much depend tells us even in the very Letter of that Law That it is Manifest from Authentick History and Chronicle That the Realm of England is an Empire That its Crown is an Imperial one That therefore their King is furnish'd by the goodness of Almighty God with an intire Power and Prerogative to render and yield Justice to all manner of Folk in all Causes and Contentions This by solemn Act is declared of their King this Excludes the People from Judging of themselves much more their Soveraigns This the Resolution of a popular Parliament they would make even the Supream and this by them resolved even in Opposition to that Popery these Panick Fools so much and so vainly fear Do not the Books the best Declarations of the Law let us understand that which they against the Resolutions of all the Law it self would so foolishly maintain that it was resolved in Edward the 4th's time That the King cannot be said to do any wrong and then surely can't be Judg'd by his very People for doing it when impossible to be done and was not this the Sense of †Vid. 1. Ed. 5. fol. 2. all the Judges and Serjeants of the time to whose Opinion it was submitted was it not upon the same Reason a Resolution of Si Le Roy moy disseisit pur ceo que Le Roy en le ley ne poit moy disseisir il né serrá appell disseisor mes jeo sue mis a petition à Roy. 4. Ed. 4. 25. 13. the Law in Edward the 4th's time that because the Soveraign could not be said to injure any Subject therefore the Law never looks upon him as a disseisor a disposesser of any Man 's Right and all the remedy it will allow you is only Plaint and Petition Does not my Lord Coke himself that in several places is none of the greatest Assertor of the Right of the Soveraign fairly tell us * Coke Comon West 1. 2. Inst p. 158. least it should be vainly fear'd they should reflect upon the King 's own Misgovernment all the fault should rest upon the Officers and Ministers of his Justice Does it not appear from the ‖ Stat. to pursue suggestious 37. E. 3. c. 18. 38. Ed. 3. c. 9. Statutes of Edward the third that notwithstanding the strict Provision of the Charter for the Tryal by Peers that the King was still look'd upon as a Judge with his Council and Officers to receive Plaints and decide Suggestions and tho that and the subsequent of the next year provide against false ones yet it confirms still the power of the King to hear and determine them whether false or true Have they not heretofore answered touching Freehold even before their King and Council and a Parliament Parl. Glocester 2. Ric. 2. only Petition'd their Soveraign with all Submission that the Subject might not be summon'd for the future by a Chancery Writ or Privy Seal to such an Appearance but this they 'll say was the result of the Soveraigns Usurpations upon the Laws of the Land of a King Richard the 2d That did deserve to be deposed Brief History of Succession p. 7. as well as the Articles of his Depositions to be read †Plato Rediviv p. 116. 234. a King that forfeited the executive Power of his Militia for prefering worthless People and was himself of little worth or as the most Licentious and Lewdest Libel of a longer date has it †a King that found Fuel for his Lust in all Lewd and uncivil Courses Now tho March Needham Merc. Polit n. 65. Sept 4. 1651. we have the Authority of the best of our Historians for the good Qualities of this Excellent tho but an unhappy Prince and who could never have fell so unfortunately had his Subjects served him more faithfully tho Mr. Hollinshed Hollinshed 3d. Vol. Chron. F. 508. N. 50. tells us never any Prince was more unthankfully used never Commons in greater wealth never Nobles more cherish'd or the Church less wrong'd and as Mr. How has it in Beauty Bounty How 's Annals p. 277. and Liberality he surpassed all his Predecessors and Baker the best among our Moderns says there were aparent in him a great many good Inclinations that he was only abused in his Youth but if he had been Guilty afterward in his riper Age of some proceedings these Republicans had reason to reproach I am sure he was Innocent of those foolish Innuendo's those false and frivolous Accusations for which they rejected him viz. for unworthiness and insufficiency Vid. Trussel in vit R. 2. when he never appear'd in all his Reign more worthy of the Government than at the very time they deposed him for being unworthy to Govern But whatever were the vices of that Prince with which our virulent Antimonarchists would blast and blemish his Memory yet we see from the President that is cited the Sense of his Subjects Parl. Glocest did not then savor so much of Sedition as insolently to demand it for their Privilege and Birth-right which without doubt they might have pretended to call so as much as any of those the Commons have since several times so
clamored for with Tumult and Insurrection and was indeed more to be condemn'd than any of those Miscarriages the Seditious and Trayterous Assembly that deposed the same Prince did ever His deposers within the 25 of Ed. Coke Treason Object for if their Free-hold can't be call'd their Birth-Right then there 's hardly any thing of Right to which they can be born And yet we see that the King and his Council had heretofore Cognizance even of that as it appears from the Commons Petitioning him against it and his Answer which was That tho he would remand them to the Tryal of their Right by the Law and not require them there to answer peremptorily yet he did reserve the power at the suit of the Party to Judge it where by Reason of Maintenance or the like the Common Law could not have its Course then we may conclude that the judicial power was absolutely in the King and this was also at a time when this Richard the 2d was but a Minor no more than thirteen years old and so this his Answer without doubt by the Advice of the wisest of his Council and the most learned of the Land And for this reason notwithstanding it is provided by that Chapter of the Great * Mag. Chart. 9. H. 3. c. 29. Cap. 14. Charter none shall be Diseised of his Freehold but by Lawful Judgment of his Peers tho the Right was tryed before that sort of Statute by common Law as my Lord ‖ 2 Inst pag. 49. Coke observ's upon it by the verdict of 12 Peers or equal men yet still I look upon the King to remain sole Judge in every Case whether Civil or Criminal for these Peers are never allow'd to try any more than bare matter of Fact and the Soveraign always presides in his Justices to decide matter of Equity and Law And those †The writ of Conviction was the same with an Attaint and that was by Common Law too Coke 2. Inst p. 130. Vid. 3. Inst p. 222. 1. Inst pag. 294. 13. and tho this Judgment is given by no stat yet there are several Stat. that inflict penalty and that even in trespass where damages but 40. sh 5. E. 3. Chap. 7. Vid. also 28. E. 3. c. 8. 3 ◠E. 3. c. 4. 13. R. 2. and several other Stat. in H. 4 5 6 7 8th times about it very Laws to which he gives Life too and whose Ambiguities he resolves themselves also sufficiently terrifie the Jurors from pretending to give their own Resolutions by making them liable to the severe Judgment of an Attaint if their Verdict be found false i. e. to have their Goods Chattels Lands and Tenements forfeited their Wives and Children turn'd from their home and their Houses Levell'd and their Trees pluckt up by the Roots and their Pastures turn'd up with the Plough and their Bodies Imprison'd A sort of severity sufficient one would think to frighten the Subject from assuming to himself to decide the judicial part of the Laws and for this Reason in all dubious Cases for fear of their bringing in a verdict False they only find the Fact specially and leave the determination of it to the King in the Judges that represent him And as this was resolved for Legal even from the Common Usage and Custom of the Land confirm'd as you see by several Acts of Parliament so was it maintain'd also by those very Villains that had subverted the Government it self and violated all the Fundamental Laws of all the Land for when Lilburn a Levelling and discontented Officer a Lieutenant of Oliver's Army was put upon his * Vid. Lilburn's Tryal 24. Oct. 1649. Printed the 28. of November 1649. Page 3. Tryal for Treason only for Scribling against the Usurpation for which he had fought and as he boasted to the Bench to the very butt end of his Musket against his Majesty at the Battel of Brainford and the mutinous wretch only Troubled and Disgusted because he had not a greater share in that Usurp'd Power for which he had hazarded his Life and Fortune when he came to be pinch'd too with that Commission of High Court of Justice himself had help'd up for the Murdering of his Soveraign and his best of Subjects no Plea would serve him but this popular one which the Lieutenant laboured in most mightily that his Jury were by the Law the Judges of that Law as well as Fact and those that sate on the Bench only Pronouncers Ib. p. 121. of the Sentence and truly considering they were as much Traytors by Law as the Prisoner at the Bar he was so far in the Right that his Jury were as much Judges as those Commissioners that sate at the Bench yet even that Court only of Commission'd Traytors and Authoriz'd Rebels thought good to over-rule him in that point and Iermin one of the Justices just as Senseless in his Expression of it as Unjust and Seditious in the Usurpation of such a Seat in Judicature when no King to Commission him In an uncouth and clumsie Phrase calls his Opinion of the Juries being Judges of Law A Damnable Ibid. pag. 122 113. Blasphemous Heresie never heard in the Nation before and says 'T is enough to destroy all the Law of the Land and that the Judges have interpreted it ever since there was Laws in England and That contradicts directly out of their own Mouth the Doctrine of William Pryn of his Parliaments Right to it Keeble another of the Common-wealth-Commissioners told him 'T was as gross an error as possible any Man could be guilty off and so all the Judges even of a power absolutely Usurp'd and wherein they profest so much the Peoples Privilege over-rul'd the Prisoner in his popular Plea 'T is true Littleton as Lilburn observ'd to them in one of his Sections says Littleton Sect. 308. That an inquest as they may give their Verdict at large and special so if they 'll take upon them the knowledge of the Law they may also give it general But the Comment of Coke their own Oracle upon the place confirms the Suggestion I have made of Resolving it into the King's Judges For he says 't is dangerous to pretend to it because if they mistake it they run in danger of this Coke Com. ibid. Attaint and tho the fam'd Attorney General of those times with his little Law was so senseless as to allow it to Lilburn in the beginning of his Tryal tho at another at Reading in that time of Rebellion Prideaux Liburn's Tryal page 17. Ibid. page 123 they made the Jury to be covered in the Court upon that account yet you see those even then the Justices of the Land tho but mere Ministers of a most unjust Usurpation would not let it pass for Law And the Refutation of this false Position is so far pertinent to our present purpose as it relates to prove the Peoples being so far from being qualified to
love I am sure we have such a Number of true Profligate Villains on their side that as Mortally hate it that we should soon have it undermin'd 'T is a strange Paradox that a Republick which was always the result of a Rebellion and which is restless till it return to that Government from which it revolted should be lookt upon by these prejudic'd preposterous Politicians for a piece of Reformation which can proceed from nothing else but from the Turbulent Humour and discontents of some restless Spirits that dislike the Constitution of that under which they were Born and would that of any to which they are Subjected yet still can Fancy that Monarchy which they will have Establish't by the common Consent of the People to proceed from a Corruption of their Manners when this their Peoples Consent and Unanimous Agreement for it should determine him at least to think it eligible for the best And if that part of the People which always in a defection from a Monarchy must be suppos'd the least Number shall be allow'd to reform for the better by running into a Republick as I know he thinks of the Rebellious Dutch which Polity wiser heads and honester hearts may and do for ought I see fancy the worse yet why should not even there the Vniversal Consent of almost all the King of Spains Subjects in retaining of their Monarchy make it preferable much Over-ballance the Scales against the revolt of an handful of Rebels unless he fancys the Authors of such pieces and Positions to be the Best the Wisest and the most Honest part of the World and that they are always among such Renegadoes And can in Reason three or four petty Common-wealths most of them in Europe too and such as by the Machinations of Our own Isle that so lately experienc'd the confus'd Anarchy of the Common-wealth of England is the most competent Judg which Polity is the best to whose restor'd Monarchy the words of Paterculus may be well apply'd Revocat◠in urbem fides summota seditio e foro c. Vell. pater◠Hist Lib. 2. some of these sort of Male-Contents and by the Poison of their Principles were Debauch't in their Loyalty and animated to Rebel be so prevalent an Argument as to perswade Men in their Wits that the Monarchies in which almost all our Christian World Conspires and all the Heathen agrees as far as it is known and which Government we have still found even in those unknown parts as far and as fast as they have been Discover'd that this all the while must be the worse Frame only from it's being by so few rejected and so generally receiv'd But to Convince any reasonable Soul unprejudic'd that these Domocratical Devil's won't stick to give their God the Lye and set themselves a Contradiction to all History and Truth this Daemon of Plato as an Ingenious Author and Answerer of his Diabolical Principles has naturally nam'd him let him but consider this single Falsehood of his Factious Heart tho' that I believe fails him too in asserting this Impudent Paradox That Moses Theseus Romulus were the Founders of Democracies Page 52. when for the First his own God if he believe any and against whom he Rebels too if he do had appointed him the Supream Ruler and also a Judge to lead On the morrow Moses sate to Judg. the people Ex. 18. 13. them in their Decampments and give them their Laws in the Camp against whose absolute Monarchy he can object nothing but that they did not call him King and yet even that is done too by those Primitive Rebels in the Rebellion of Corah when they Expostulate with him for making himself altogether a Prince over them that is what our Modern ones call Arbitrary Absolute but even that is literally said and Moses was King in Jesurun And will our Numb 16. Murmurers at the Lords Anointed never be Convinc'd till they are Confounded with the same Fate till Fire come again from Heaven or they go quick down into Hell The Survivors of those discontented Mutineers upbraiding Moses for destroying of that Rebellious Brood whom God only in his Judgments had destroy'd the Almighty would have Consum'd them too in a moment neither was his Anger stay'd till Fourteen Thousand fell in a Plague our Land has Labour'd under all these Judgments but because the Almighty's resentments of our Rebellious Practices are not declar'd to us as of old out of a Cloud and he does not reveal himself now to his Vice-gerent as then to his Servant Moses and the Glory of the Lord discends not in a visable Brightness upon our Tabernacle Must we therefore be so vainly blind as to think they were not sent us for those Sins that have most deserv'd them our Conspiring against our Rulers especially when the manner of our Punishments has been so Remarkably the same with their sufferings as well as our transcrib'd Villanies the very Copy of their Crimes For that of Theseus we have the good Authority of an Authentick Historian that writ his Life who tells us when he first went to reduce them to one City and the Government of ONE the Common Ordinary people were well enough pleas'd with his Proposal And to those that were Powerful and Great Plutarch In Thesco Remp. absque Regia dominatione fore si Regem seconstituerent he told them his Government should not be altogether Regal which in their Greek was Tyrannical if they would allow him for their King this prevail'd he says upon them too either out of Fear of his Force or the Power of his Perswasions now can such a False and Factious Imposture can such a Wretch Insinuate well his being no King that calls himself so and only because he Consulted their Opinions in Weighty Affairs make it a Democracy then we need not contend here for a Republick our King still Consulting his great Council in Arduis Regni And for Romulus his founding his Lucius Flor. Hist prima aetas sub regibus fuit prope 250 per Annos Rome a Democracy so far from truth that I defie him to show the least shadow from any Colour of History for such a piece of Imposture Florus in the very First line of his Prologue calls him King Romulus and in the same tells us Rome in it's first Age and Infancy for about two hundred and fifty years was Govern'd by Kings Tacitus too in his very Tacit. An. Lib. 1. Urbem Romam à principio Reges habuere first Remarkable too for an unintended verse tells us that in the beginning 't was Kings had the Government of the City of Rome and afterward tells us this very Romulus Govern'd them Arbitrarily and at his will Sext. Aur. vict says Sext. Aur. de vir Illustr he was the first King of the Romans that he lead them forth against the Sabines that he fought and that he made a League which none I think but Kings by
that must depend upon the Authority of that Court from whence such Officer receives his Writ Warrant or Commission 't is * Coke R. 12. pt p. 49. Vid. also the same Case 4. Inst Cap. 74. p. 333. But as quick as Mr. Johnson jumbles up the the business the Judâ—es defer'd their Judgment till the next Assize and then perhaps the emulation there is and always was between the two Courts made their Lordships at â—ast a little Partial Brownlows 2d pt p. 15. Humptons Case 42. Eliz. adjudg'd in the Case that they might have cited to Appearance and upon Contumacy to have proceeded to Excommunication and then have arrested upon their Writ of Capias but that they could not Arrest him outright upon a Surmise That a Man may resist an Authority that is not Lawful any man will allow for it is the same as if he resisted none at all however if Murder be the Consequence of such a Resistance all his Expositors upon the sixth Commandment will hardly help him to distinguish it into Man-slaughter And tho my Lord * Vid. Pleas of the Crown Hales Hales whose Memory will still be pious for his equal destributions of Justice was a great Latitudinarian in allowing too much scope for premeditated Malice yet the Decalogue will make that Murder for which the Law will allow him the Benefit of his Clergy and did in Harry the Eight's time without distinction to all sort of shedding of Blood and then the Book that he talks of was dedicated to Cromwel would have been Authoriz'd by the Law which in some sort it self then made all Killing no Murder neither in an equitable sense was this Homicide excused from being a Murderer because he resisted unto blood before the jurisdiction of the * Besides 't is observable the Judges at that time had a particular pique to the power of that Court which they thought invaded theirs and might be very ready to give Judgment against them in Criminal Matters as well as Plague y'm with their Prohibitions in Civil and as they were then great Foes so my Lord Coke in his discourse upon the Court is but little their Friend Court was Resolved and to him in a Moral sense 't was as much Guilt as if that Authority had been Absolutely Legal and tho he tells us he does not descend to false Arrests yet I thank him for his Condescension 't is to such a matter as is no way distinguishable from it for an Arrest without Authority is equivalent to a false and is as much Tortius and Force as what is done upon a Forged Warrant The Cases reported by those two Lawyers he cites one of them but a Protonothary that other our great Oracle in my Conscience were never designed for proofs against Passive Obedience By their Resistance here of the Law was never understood that which was forbidden in the Gospel besides it was but the Resolution of the Judges against the * So much were the people possest against the Power of that Court in King Charles the First 's time that 2000. Brownists broke into St. Pauls where It was sitting beat down all the Benches and Bawling No Bishops No Commission Vid. Dugd. view Power of that Court which to be sure they did not care to favour and those two Authorities he has cited none of the best in Matters of Allegiance and Loyalty that part of Coke is looked upon not very favourable to the Government and Brownlow first Printed when there was none But his Triumphant Distinction between his Religion Established by Law and that which has no Law for it's Establishment is not only far from creating a Difference here as I have shown before because the precepts of the Gospel which must be more immutable sure than a Persian decree are still the same and are now the Question but the Offering here of such a distinction is in Truth as impertinently applyed as it is really none at all for whenever he can imagin here which God will avert any Sufferance for the sake of his Religion it must be according to the Law of the Land or else he 'll never be brought to suffer I 'll secure his Carkass for a Farthing and be bound to supply it with my own for the stake if ever his be tyed to it without reviving of the Writ de Comburendo All the Martyrdoms in * In Q. Mâ—râ— Reign first the Parliament supplicated the Pope for pardon and promise a Return to Popery Vid both Baker and Barnet Queen Mary's Reign were but so many Executions of the Law and that Writ de Haeretico he 'll find in Fitz Herbert as well as a Common Capias so that himself must first without Charity which won't sure then begin at home Give his Body to be burnt with his Imply'd suffrage in an House of Commons for I believe He is not likely to be a Bishop before fire and faggot can come upon him to singe his Hair or touch his Garment for the sake of his Religion and how likely we are ever to meet with such a Parliament to Sacrifice themselves again to the Flames himself best knows who I believe does not fear it so that here his Foundation of Law Establishment has nothing to support it and then all his Privileges of Saint Paul his own Magna Charta his Case of Commissions all fall to the Ground and his very supposition of his Religion being Establisht by Law and at the same time against all Law to suffer for it is more contradictory than his Horns or Addresses for it can't be supposed but that the Power that punishes him for an Heretick will have Repealed all those old Laws that would have protected him for being such and enacted new ones to make him suffer for his Perseverance and 't is always remarkable and a great Truth that the laying down one single false Position can never be defended but with as many Lyes And this forces him to maintain the Christians suffer'd contrary to Law in the time of Julian Certainly he knows but little of Justinian and the Codes however his Hunt help't him to so much of our Cases out of Cook The Constitutions of the Jmperial Law were but the Decrees of their Emperors as well as the Corpus the Collection of one of them all the civil Law that governed then is called * Pacius In Instit Prolegom p 1. Caesaria Imperatoria because their Caesars their Emperors where the Authors of it and how can he plead for them their Charters that had nothing else to trust to but the Will and Edict of their Prince The Testamentary Donation of Edward the Sixth he brings for an Argument for Excluding the Right Heir which makes but very little for his own and as much for the cause he contends against not so Insignificant neither as he suggests only because they could not well avoid an Act of Succession in Harry the Eight's time for whether that Act had been
Actually done it were de Facto void besides if the Subject was freed in that Case it would be the result of the Soveraigns Act. they must suppose him at the same time as simple as themselves that suggest it and could they give us but a single Instance or force upon us any President all they would get by it is this That as their supposition was without sense so their Application would be nothing to the purpose for such a matter of Fact of their Kings would make him de Facto none at all I know they can tell us of one of our ‖ That alienation of King John was suppos'd to have been an Act of State and it has been adjudg'd particularly by particular Parliaments That even a Statute for that purpose made would be of no force It was resolv'd so â—n Scotland too own that lies under that Imputation of making over his to the Moor And of others that in the time of the Popes Supremacy resign'd themselves with submission to the Holy See for the first the most Authentick Historians not so much as mention it and were it truly matter of Fact that King had really no thing to resign for the Republicans of those times were the good Barons that Rebel'd and had seated themselves in a sort of Aristocracy before in short if it were solemnly done it would look like the Act of a Lunatick if not at all as is much more likely their Historians Labour in a lye and for the other we never had a Soveraign that Submitted the Power of his Temporal Government of the state to the Pope's See but only as it related to the Spiritual Administration of the Affairs of the Church and the Religion of the Times These sort of Suppositions have so much Nonsense in them especially when apply'd to Human Creatures and more then when to Monarchs that have commonly from Birth and Education more Sense than common Mortals that there is not so much as a Natural Brute but will use what he can manage as his own with all imaginable Care and Discretion How tender and fond are the most stupid Animals how do they most affectionately express that paternal Love for the Preservation of their little Young how abundantly do they Evidence that Natural * Posts C. p. 113. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with which Mr. Hunt gives us such a deal of impertinent disturbance and why cannot the King of a Country whom the Civil and Imperial Sanctions represent as the ‖ Princeps Pater patriae est D. 1. 4. 1. Atrocius est Patriae parentem quam suum occi dere Cicero in Philip 2d Father of it too be supposed to retain as much a paternal Care for its Conservation we do not find even in that their Free-State of Nature or that Common-wealth of Wars the Republick of unruly Beasts where there is the least Relation or resemblance tho perhaps they have power and opportunity that they delight to devour and destroy and much less do they covet the ruin of that from which they can reap somewhat of Advantage by its Preservation why then should we fancy Human beings and the best of Mankind Monarchs themselves whom th' Almighty has made * I 've said yee are Gods Psalms Gods too to be guilty of so much Madness and Inhumanity Where do we find the worst of Fools designedly to destroy their Patrimony though many times through Ignorance they may waste them and that tho there were no Laws to terrifie them from turning Bankrupts or punishing them for Beggers when they have embezell'd their Substance Away then Malicious Miscreants with such sordid Insinuation such silly Suggestions against your own Soveraigns which your selves no more believe them likely to be guilty of than that they would set Fiâ—e to all their Palaces and Sacrifice themselves and Successors in the Flames But to Return to our Argument they 'll tell us perhaps What signify the Sanctions of the Imperial Laws and the Constitutions of an Absolute Empire to a Common-wealth or a Council of three States that are Co-ordinate or at most but a Monarchy Limded and mixt and where whatever power the Supream Magistrate has must have been first Confer'd upon him by the People where the Parliaments have a great part of the Legislative and their Soveraign in some sense but a Precarious Prerogative what signifies the Authority of a Britton or a Bracton whose very works by this time are superannuated who wrote perhaps when we had no Parliaments at all at least ∥ none such as now * Hunt allows that himself posts p. 95. Constituted I won't insist upon in answer to all this to show the Excellency of the Civil Institutions that obtain o're all Nations that are but Civiliz'd I wont prove to them because already done That we don't Consist of three States Co-ordinate in the Legislative or that our Monarchy is Absolute and not mixt as I shortly may But yet I 'll observe to them here †Postquam populus Romanus Lege Regiâ in principem omne suum Imperium potestatem solum Contulit ex illâ non sub diti sed etiam Magistratus ipsi subâ—iciuntur Zouch Elem. p. 101. That the Romans themselves tho by what they call'd their Royal Law they look't upon the power of the Prince to be conferr'd upon them by the people yet after it was once so transferr'd they apprehended all their right of Judging and Punishing was past too And for their vilifying these Antient Authors and Sages of Law who did they Favour these Demagoges would be with them of great Authority and as mightyly searcht into and sifted Should I grant them they were utterly obsolete and fit only for Hat-cases and Close-stools that they both writ before the Commons came in play for their further satisfaction I 'll cite the same from latter Laws not two hundred years old and that our selves will say was since their Burgesses began And therefore to please if possible these Implacable Republicans I 'll demonstrate what I 've undertaken to defend from the several Modern Declarations of our Law For in * Edward the 3d. Edward the Third's it was resolv'd that the King could not be Judged And why because he has no Peer in his Land and 't is provided by the very first Sanctions of our Establisht Laws by the great ‖ Magn. Chart. cap. 29. No Freeman will we Imprison or Condemn but by Lawful Judgment of his Peers Per parium juorum Legale Judicium And my Lord Coke tells us they are to be understood of Peers of the Realm only when a Peer is to be try'd Comment upon the very words 2. Inst which he more fully explains in 's Comment on the 14. Chap. of Char. where he says pares is by his Peers or Equals for as the Nobles are understood by that word to be all equal so are all the Commons too ib. p. 29. Where note the form of this very Charter
Murmering since there has been none alter'd or destroy'd but what has been by Inquiry of the Kings Quo Warranto or their own Act of Resignation yet sure if the Common Law did not favour the King in this Case Common Equity would since those Priveleges were but the very Grant of his own Ancestors But if we must consider nothing but Mr. Sidney's Original Power and Right and all that lodg'd in his good People of England it may be their Birth-right too to Rebel they may and must Murder their Monarch and that by their own Maxims when they think him not fit to Govern or Live I have heard it often said that the Members in Parliament represent the people and for that Reason are call'd their Representatives but if this Original Power which is delegated to them upon such a Representation must Subject their Soveraign as Mr. S. will have it to â—hese his Judges of the particular Cases â—rising upon such a Subjection then â—hey must e'en represent their King too and every Session of Parliament that he Summons is but an unhappy Solemnity whom himself Assemblies for his own deposition if such positions should obtain 't is those that indeed would make the Monarch fearful of Parliaments and not those idle Suggestions of Mr. ‖ posts p. 92. Hunt that the Weekly Pamphlets were endeavouring to make him forego them and it was this very opinion that promoted the last War which he would not have so much as mention'd Lastly if this Original Power of the People be delegated to their Representatives this People that did so Communicate it can at their pleasure * Quia qui mandatam Jurisdictionem suscepit proprium nil habet sed ejus qui mandavit Jurisdictione utitur Zouch Elem. pars 5. § 4. recall it â—nd exercise it themselves for that is esâ—ential to the Nature of a Communicated Power for upon supposition of the peoples having such a Power it would be of the same Nature that their Kings is for Power of Supremacy wherever it be lodg'd is still the same and you see that the Power which the King has is often Commission'd to the Judges in his several Courts of Justice and yet I cannot see how his Majesty by Virtue of such a ‖ Quamvis more majorum Jurisdictio transfertur meruÌ„ Imperium quod Lege datur non transit D. 1. 21. 1. Commissionating of his Servants does Exclude himself from the Administration of those Laws that he has only allow'd others to Administer or from a recalling of that power to himself which he has only delegated to another for 't is a certain Maxim in reason that whatsoever Supream does empower others with his Authority does still retain more than he does impart tho I know 't is a Resolution in our * Coke 4. Inst c. 7. p. 71. Law Books that if any one would render himself to the Judgment of the King it would be of none effect because say they all his power Judicial is Committed to others and yet even they themselves will allow in many Cases their lies an Appeal to the King But what ever was the Sense of my Lord Coke in this point who has none of the fewest Faults and failings tho hiâ— Voluminous Tracts are the greatest easâ— and Ornament of the Law his resolution here is not so agreeable to Commoâ— Equity and Reason therefore I say it reason it must follow That Mr. Sid. people having but delegated their Power to the Parliament still retain a power of concurring with preventing or revoking of that power they have given but in charge to their Representatives and if so then they can call them to an Account for the ill exercise of that power they have intrusted them with set up some High Court of Justice again for upon this very principle the last was erected not only for the Tryal of their King but for hanging up every Representative that has abus'd them as they are always ready to think in the excercise of that Original power with which he was by his Electors intrusted these sad Consequences which necessarily flow from this lewd Maxim would make their house of Commons very thin and they would find but few Candidates so ready to spend their Fortunes in Boâ—ough Beer only for the Representing of â—hose that might hang them when they came home upon the least misrepresentation of their proceedings and these sad suggestions of the sorrowful Case of such precarious representatives are infallible Consequences from the very words of our Republican even in those very Arguments that he uses for the subjection Tryal p. 23. of his King for if his King as â— man must be Subject to the Judgment oâ— his People that make him a King sure he cannot be so Impudently Immodesâ— but he must allow his Members of Parliament that are much more made bâ— them by Continual Election and the very breath of their Mouth to be as mucâ— accountable to their Makers for if â—â— should recur in this Case as he has no other refuge to the Peoples having excluded themselves from this Originaâ— Power once in themselves by conferring it on their Representatives theâ— farewel to the very Foundation of thaâ— Babel they would Build and Establish then they fall even in the fate â—â— their aspiring Fore-fathers fall by the confusion of their own Tongues anâ— like the rearers of that proud Pile thaâ— would have reacht at Heaven and the Almighty as these at his Anointed anâ— the Crown For certainly by the same Reason that they cannot Judge and Punish thosâ— whom they have Commission'd to represent them because they have delegateâ— and transferr'd to them their Originâ—â— power by the same Argument and that a fortiori have they excluded â—hemselves from their natural Power of â—eing Judges of their King because they â—ave conferr'd upon him the SVPREAM Neither can they help themselves here with their Imaginary and imply'd Conditions upon which Mr. Sidney says our Soveraign must be supposed to have first accepted his Crown For there never was any Representatives yet elected but as many Conditions and Obligations â—re implyed and supposed and by the same Reason must be required and exacted such as the serving their Electors faithfully the representing of their just grievances the promoting the Interest and profit of the place they serve for and if Mr. Sidneys good People must be Judges of the Violation of any of these Trusts as they must by the Maxims of their own making then the Representatives and the poor Parliament fare as bad and fall in the common fate of their King into the fearful Sentence of Mr. Sidney's own Words That Performance will be exacted and revenge taken by those they have betrayed And for to show them that my Conclusions are grounded upon matter of Fact as well as Sense and Reason and not like their lewd Arguments upon nothing but some Factious Notions and Seditious Opinions I desire them to consider whether they
as dangerous Designs for at the end of one of their Harangues the beginning of which is only marked with R. M. and its Author may be loth to let any more Letters of his Name to be known you have these following Lines If at the same time we endeavour to secure our selves against Pag. 3. Popery we do not also do something to prevent Arbitrary Power it will be to little purpose I think nothing can prevent that better than frequent Parliaments and therefore I humbly move that a Bill for securing frequent Parliaments be taken into Consideration can any thing be more expressive than that the Bill so much clamour'd for was only the burden of the Song and that the Ballad it self must have been all to the Tune of 41. when Arbitrary Power never ceased its Cry till the Parliament was made Frequent its Frequency never sufficient till standing and pertual which proved too as dangerous as a standing Army ever restless till it had really raised one too and the Kings Head from his Shoulders and can these worst of Criminals make it a * Hunt in post pag. 92 93. Crime to make the Nation fearful of such Parliaments when there are such Speech-Makers in it I shall to such Accusers Faces defend them to be formidable not out of any Apprehension of fear for my self for whenever such a Seditious Senate their Commons become dangerous again to good Subjects the Safety of the Government must be but in as bad Condition But it might well terrify then even a Crown'd Head and frighten him from their Frequency when some of the most popular Members of that late Assembly have been since found in an actual Conspiracy for pulling the Crown from it when the mighty Three Russel Sidney Armstrong has made up a Triumvirate in Treason as well as part of that Parliament And been tryed Legally sentenc'd Justly and suffered publickly for Traytors Sir G. H. I do agree a Bill for Banishing Papists may do well But I hope if you Banish Ibid. page 3. the Men you 'll Banish some Women too consider how to prevent the Royal Family marrying Popish Women No man can doubt but the Protestant Interest has been much praejudiced by his Majesties marrying a Princess of that Religion Popish Instruments having sheltered themselves under her Protection The Country Gentleman wanted the Civilities of the Court being a declared Enemy to all Ladies but this shows plain their aims were beyond that of the Duke and that it was the Sense of some of the House the Queen was in the Plot as well as the Opinion and Asseveration of Oats his Oath against his exprest Testimony given before Sir E. H. Have we not ordered several good Bills to be brought in for the securing us against Arbitrary Power and shall we now lay aside all those and be content with the Exclusion Bill only which I think will be worth nothing unless you can get more and what some of those more are is explained Page 9. in the next Oration to it W. G. I do admire no body does take notice of the standing Army which if not reduced to such a Number as may be but convènient for Guards and limited as they may not be encreased All your Laws signify nothing the words of that Hellish Association only differ thus when they swear more modestly only to endeavour entirely to disband all such Mercenary Forces as are kept up in and about the City of LONDON These are some of the very Words as our Author relates them as they were spoken in his House of Commons I do them only that Justice that this Historian has done to their Honours or they to themselves so if these accounts are Authentick tho I remember when dangerous to Question even the Authority of an unlicensed piece of Sedition then we see that many of our late malecontents of the Commons as well as our Plato's Rebellious Barons were not like to be contented any more with our Kings granting them all the security themselves could ask for their Religion then these Imperious Lords were after all their Liberties were fortyfied with an extorted Charter and made as firm as Fate or their foresight could provide But that nothing would satisfy unless both lopt off the best Limb of their Prerogative and allowed them to have Parliaments without Intermission or at least frequent enough for an Usurpation of all the Power that is Regal for as the Doctor of Sedition observes upon the Kings being allowed to Call and Dissolve them That our Liberties and Rights signify just nothing So might Page 105. also this politick Pis-pot have remarked That when once it comes to the Power of the People to summon themselves or sit so long a Season till their own Order shall determine the Session that truly their Venetian Doeg would be a Prince to the Monarch of Great Britain and we should soon have less left of a King in England than such implacable Republicans have of Loyalty for I am sure we must in reason have better Ground to dread those dangers and utter Subversion of the State from their too much sitting that has been experienced than they for that panick fear of Tyranny from their being so often Dissolved which they never yet felt But to see the boldness of such Villains for encouraging an Insurrection The briskness of their Barons that rebeled for a Charter and frequent Parliaments was most providentially brought upon the Stage when they knew they had forfeited most of their own by their Faction and made their House of Commons from their obstinate proceedings not likely to be soon summoned when once Dissolved so that here was a plain downright Encouragement of a resolute Rebellion as Occasion should serve and Ietting the People know they must put on their Armour as well as the Barons and be as brisk upon Intermission of Parliaments How far this good Exhortation encouraged an Assassination of our Sovereign and the succeeding Plot may be gathered from their attempts to put it in Execution and for which both Author and Publisher Merit full as well the Fate of those that dyed for the practising those Principles that they the more primitive Traytors had instill'd In short to insist no longer on this black Topick of plain Treason With what Faith and Integrity with what Face and Countenance can he call that perfect Conspiracy of a parcel of Faithless Peers a Defence of the Government that for almost forty Years laid the Land all Page 107. in Blood and with their Witchcraft their sorceries of Rebellion that briskness as he calls it of putting on their Armour made it imitate an Aegypts Plague and Anticipate the very Judgments of the Almighty by purpling her Rivers with the Slain can the Defence of a Kingdom consist with its Destruction or those be said to stand up for their Country that invited an Invader and swore Allegiance to Lewis a Frenchman against him that was their
Liege Lord I am sure this was making over their Faith to a Foreigner and many may think it as much to bee condemned as that of their King his Crown to a Saracen especially when that by some Historians is doubted but their falsehood's confirmed by all Then was our England like to have been truly France which they now but so vainly Fear In the next place he is pleased to grant the Militia to be in his Majesty's Power But 't is only until such a sort of Rebels have strength enough to take it out for he tells us the Militia being Page 116. given but for an Execution of the Law if it be mis-imployed by him to subvert it 't is a Violation of the Trust and making that power unlawful in the Execution And that which shall violate this Trust has he reduced to three of the most Villanous Instances that the most Excrable Rebel could invent or the most bloody Miscreant conceive the Murder of three Kings by their Barbarous and Rebellious Subjects And in all three their strength and Militia were first taken away and then their Lives first he tels us Edward the second forfeited his Executive Power of the Militia In misapplying his revenue to Courtiers and Ibid. Sycopkants Richard the Second for preferring Worthless People to the greatest places And Charles the First in the Case of Ship Money can now the most virulent Democraticks hug such a piece without Horrour at its Inhumanity or the vilest of the Faction preserve it from the Flames can those popular Parliamentarians and the most mutinous of all our murmering Members of whom my self have known some that could Countenance this very Book can they here defend insinuated Treason when Stanley Stanley's Case H. 7. dyed for a more Innocent Innuendo but if Faction has forc't from their Souls the poor remains of Reason will Humane Nature permit such precedents to prevail that terminated in the miserable Murder of as many Monarchs 'T is remarkable and 't is what I remember these very Papers were Publish'd near about one of their late Sessions wherein they were nibbling again at the Milittia and could so merciless a Miscreant be put in the pocket of a Member of Parliament much less then into his Heart and drop from his unadvised Lips can those that come to give their consent for the making Laws be thus Ignorant of those that are already made has not the Military power for above this 500 years been absolutely in the Crown and almost by their Parliament it self declared so in every Reign was it ever taken out but when they took away the Life of their King too was ever his Head protected from Violence when this the Guard of his Crown was gone or can any Hand long sway the Scepter when it wants the Protection of the Sword 1st Edward 3d. Chap 3. The King 1 Edward 3. 1 C. 3. willeth that no man be charged to Arm himself otherwise than he was wont in the time of his Progenitors Kings of England In H. 7. declared by Stat. All 2 Hen. 7. Subjects of the Realm bound to assist the King in his Wars Queen Mary 4. 5. Mary and all her Progenitors acknowledged to have the Power to appoint Commissioners This Commission was in force Rot par 5. H. 4. n. 24. repealed by this 4. and 5. of P. M. but this repealing Stat. is again repealed Jacob. 1. and so of force in this King now as well as when they deny'd it to his Father 2. Ed. 6. 2. C. 2d Cook 2. Inst 30. Car. 2. C. 6. to Muster her Subjects and array as many as they shall think fit The Subjects holding by Serjeantry heretofore all along to serve their Sovereigns in War in the Realm and a particular Act obliging them to go within or without with their King He and only He has the ordering of all the Forts and Holds Ports and Havens of the Kingdom confirmed to this very King and Cook tells us no Subject can build any Fortress Desensible Cook Litt. p. 5. And since some of our late Members of the lower House were so tickled with this Authors soothing them with the Kings Executive Power of War forfeitable I 'll tell them of an Act expressly made in some Sense against their Assuming it and for another Reason too because some mutinous Heads would argue to my Knowledge for their Members comming armed to the Parliament at Oxford and which was actually done too by Colledge and his Crew It was made in Edward the First 's time 7. Ed. 1. and expressly declares that in all Parliaments Treatises and other Assemblies every Man should come without Force and Armour and of this the King acquainted the Justices of the Bench and moreover that the Parliament at Westminster had declared that to us belonged straightly to defend Force of Armour and all other Force against our Peace at all times when it shall please us and the Judges were ordered to get it read in the Court and enroll'd And now can it with common Reason or Sense be suggested that the letting Favourites have some of the Treasures of the Kingdom or Courtiers as he calls it the Revenue or the preferring of such Persons as they shall think Worthless and Wicked which with such Villains as himself are commonly the most deserving that this shall be a sufficient violating as he terms it of a Kings Trust to the forfeiture of his Power of putting the Laws in Execution with which the common consent of almost all the Laws and all Ages have invested their King as an absolute Inherent singular Right of the Crown Certainly such an Opinion is as extravagant as Treasonable and could enter into the Head of nothing but a Madman the Heart of none but a Traytor Next we meet with another Assertion as false as Hell and then its clear contrary nothing but the God of Heaven is more True He tells us after having hardly allowed His Majesty a Negative Voice at least as such an Insignificant one as not to be made use of That Plat. Pag. 124. 't is certain nothing but denials of Parliamentary requests produced the Baron's Wars and our last dismal Combustions when I 'll demonstrate to him as plain as a Proposition in Euclid that nothing but their too gracious and unhappy Concessions to their perfidious and ungrateful Subjects made those mighty Monarchs miscarry read but any of our Histories tho pen'd by the most prejudiced and those that ware at best but moderately Popular of our first Civil Wars The Barons Daniel that speaks most commonly as much as the Peoples Daniel 53. H. 3d. Case will bear tells us his thoughts of those unhappy Dissentions that neither side got but Misery and Vexation We see that notwithstanding as often as their Charter and Liberties were confirm'd notwithstanding all the Concessions of those two yielding Monarchs still more was demanded The Charter in Henry K. John Henry 3. the