That alone will not authorise Endeavors to this End unless it can be done without Injustice to any For otherwise we should make God the Author of those Sins of Men which have often been foretold But in order to satisfie those who question what is their Duty at this time either for Acting or Acquiescing I shall shew that we have been Grateful without being Unjust and may chearfully act under the present Government in sure and certain hope that those great Things which are already come to pass according to plain Predictions are the happy Omens and Earnests of greater yet to come being equally promis'd For which end I shall consider 1. Whether we may not by comparing the following Predictions reasonably conclude That as the Crown of England has been destin'd for the late Prince of Orange the better to qualifie him for the executing God's Purposes for the Benefit of Mankind so it has been long since foretold 2. Whether the People of England have not a rightful Power to contribute towards their Accomplishment 4. Whether that Power has not been duly exercis'd in the present Assembly of Lords and Commons Many I know despise Prophesies and laugh at the Observers of those Hand-writings from above and others tho' they own that some Beams of Divine Light had visited the dark Ages of the World before the Sun of Righteousness appeared and that they were more frequent during its abode upon Earth and for the two or three first Centuries after Yet they will have it that ever since God has kept his Foreknowledge to himself without communicating any Notices of it to Mankind Be their Opinions as it will 't is not unlikely that many who have been doubtful what Course to steer in their Endeavours for the Publick will attend to these Divine Admonitions But that Nostredamus either thro' Judicial Astrology or Divine Inspiration or both as himself professes did foretel many things which have come to pass must not be denied by any body who reads him as where he says That the Senate of London that is the Parliament of England or those of it who usurp'd its Name should put to Death their King That London should be burnt in Thrice twenty and six that is Sixty six and that the Plague should not cease till the Fire Where according to what himself observes of some of his Predictions he limits the Place Times and prefixed Terms that Men coming after may see and know that those Accidents have come to pass as he marked What he says of the Bastard of England's being half receiv'd is not more obscure or less verified Nor does there seem a greater Veil upon what he says of the West's freeing England where he in very lively Characters represents the Event of the first and second Attempt there And as we find those things to have fallen out accordingly we have great ground to believe that what he speaks of his native Country France was from a certain Foresight Who can with-hold his Belief from all those Particulars in relation to it which he speaks not in the least mysteriously Or can any one doubt but that this present Juncture bodes it those Ills which he threatens The Fleet in the West and the great Appearance there with His Majesty's stupendious Progress not without cause made the French King think Danger approaching by Blay Nor can it be a question who is meant by the Chief of the British Isle or the Great Aemathien who is to lead the English to Glorious Enterprises Can it be other than the Celtique that is Belgick Prince of Trojan that is English Blood of a German Heart married to one of Trojan Blood and in safe Alliance with the Spaniard I will not be positive that a King's danger of drinking the Juyce of Orange unless he yield to an Accommodation must necessarily be intended of the late King and this tho' I am very confident no time can be shewn when this could be so properly applied I cannot but think that Nostredamus has foretold the Fate of James the Second the Question for the Kingdom between this Prince and the reputed Brother-in-Law the carrying the Babe into France the Father 's not being able to make good the Title of his Blood and this Sham's being the occasion of the late Prince's accepting the Crown And who can doubt but this King is that Native of Friezland as one Part of a Country may be taken for the Whole or other Part of the Whole to be cbosen here upon another's having Death given him drop by drop by the Guards Nor can it be denied that J. 2. has received his Deaths-wounds or occasion of a lingring Death in a great measure from his own Guards Nor is the Crown more plainly foretold to His Majesty from an Election than it is to His Royal Consort by way of Succession which are both exactly fulfill'd in that happy Partnership in Dignity while the Regal Power is kept entire to accompany the Marital In two Particulars I have taken a Liberty with Nostredamus which I cannot but think allowable 1. Where his Words admit of different Senses if I have not left them in aequilibrio equally applicable to either I have determin'd them to that which best agrees with Events For if he has truly foretold any thing without ambiguity we are to believe that in others he or the Spirit which dictated to him intended what has fallen out if the Words will bear it 2. Whereas the Stanzas of his Predictions are scatter'd up and down like so many Sybilline Leaves I have gather'd and sorted them together according to past Occurrences or that relation to the future which they seem to bear and certain it is that God's Holy Spirit foresaw all things in their true Order I must own that the like Persons and Actions may come upon the Stage more than once wherefore of many every body is left to his own Conjecture but in others the Parallel is so exact between Nostredamus his Descriptions and what has come to pass in the whole or in part that where a Connection of Events seems to be pointed at 't will be as difficult not to entertain warm Expectations of the Accomplishment of the Whole as to deny that Part is fufilled And many Personal Characters tho' given in distant Stanzas have that mutual Resemblance that they look like several Parts or Lineaments at least of the same Face and may without blame be drawn together Grebner seems rather to give an Account of what he had liv'd to see than to foretel what lay in the Womb of Time Who can deny but that he pointed at the Misfortunes of Charles the First with the Occasion of them the Generalship of the Earl of Essex then of Sir Thomas Fairfax And it is not improbable that the Nullus coming next might be Nol. Nor can it be a question but the late Prince of Orange
desire all Men of this Opinion impartially to weigh these following Particulars 1. There was very anciently an Act made in a General Convention of all England in Conventu Pananglico That their Kings should be elected by the Clergy senioribus populi and the Elders of the People that is such as were Members in their Great Councils or Witena Gemots Assemblies of sage or wise Men. This tho it was long before the reputed Conquest yet was never repeal'd or cut off by the Sword nay seems receiv'd with the Confessor's Laws as included in them Which leads to another Head. 2. The Confessor's Law receiv'd by William 1. and continued downward as the noblest Transcript of the Common Law shews that the Kings of England are elected and the End for which they are chosen by the People After the same manner do the ancient Historians and Lawyers commonly express Accessions to the Throne and seem industriously to mind Kings of it that according to the Caution given the Jewish King their hearts be not lifted up above their Brethren 3. According to the Usage from before the reputed Conquest downwards the People are ask'd whether they are content to have such a Man King 4. The most Absolute of the English Monarchs never believ'd that their Children had a Right to the Crown except the People consented that they should succeed as appears by King Alfred's Will and the Death-bed Declaration of William 1. And therefore some of our Kings against whom there has been no pretence of better Title in any particular Person or Family when they stood upon good Terms with their People have often prevail'd with them in their Lives-time to secure the Succession to their Eldest Sons and H. 2. to prevent hazarding the Succession endanger'd himself by getting his eldest Son Crown'd himself living But as the going no farther than the eldest argues that they look'd on that as a Favour the pressing for a Settlement on their Issue in any manner argues that it was not look'd upon as a clear Point of Right without it Of later Times Settlements have been made in Tail which tho they were occasion'd by Pretences to Titles are Records against an Hereditary Monarchy 5. The Oaths of Allegiance required of all the Subjects were never extended to Heirs but were barely Personal till Settlements of the Crown were obtain'd upon the Quarrels between the Families of York and Lancaster and tho' H. 4. obtain'd in Parliament an Oath to himself the Prince and his Issue and to every one of his Sons successively and in the time of H. 6. the Bishops and Temporal Lords swore to be true to the Heirs of R. Duke of York yet perhaps no Oath of Allegiance to the King and His Heirs can be shewn to have been requir'd of the Subjects in general till that 26 H. 8. according to the Limitations of the Statute 25. 6. Even where the People had settled the Crown they seem'd to intend no more than to give a Preference before other Pretenders not but that upon weighty Reasons they might alter it as appears by Pollydore Virgil who was never thought to lie on the Peoples side whatever Evidences for them he may have conceal'd or destroy'd whose Words of H. 5 to whom the Crown had been limited by Parliament may be thus rendred Prince Henry having buried his Father causes a Council of Nobles to be conven'd at Westminster which while they according to the Custom of their Ancestors consulted about making a King behold on a sudden some of the Nobility of their own accord swear Allegiance to him which officious Good-will was never known to have been shewn to any before he was declared King. 7. As the Practice of the Kingdom is an Evidence of its Right numerous Instances may be produc'd of Choices not only so called by the Historians but appearing so in their own Natures wherein no regard has been had to Proximity but barely to Blood. And I believe no Man can shew me any more than Two since the reputed Conquest of whom it can be affirm'd with any semblance of Truth that they came in otherwise than upon Election express'd by the Historians of the Time or imply'd as they had no other Title or else a late Settlement of the Crown either upon themselves immediately or in Remainder The Two upon which I will yield some Colour are R. 1. and E. 1. which singular Instances will be so far from turning the Stream of Precedents that unless the Form or Manner of Recognising their Rights as Hereditary be produc'd the Presumption is strong that the Declarations of the Conventions of those Days or the People's acquiescing upon the Question Whether they would consent to the King in nomination or both made even their Cases to be plain Elections And of these two Instances perhaps one may be struck off For tho' Walsingham says of E. 1. They recogniz'd him for their Leige-lord that does not necessarily imply a Recognition from a Title prior to their Declaration for which way soever a King comes in duely he becomes a Liege-lord and is so to be recogniz'd or acknowledg'd and that the Title was not by this Author suppos'd prior to the Recognition appears in that he says Paterni honor is successorem ordinaverunt They ordain'd or appointed him Successor of his Father's Honour And yet his Father to secure the Succession to him had soon after his Birth issued out Writs to all the Sheriffs of England requiring all Persons above Twelve Years old to swear to be faithful to the Son with a Salvo for the Homage and Fealty due to himself Indeed of R. 1. the Historian says He was to be promoted to the Kingdom by Right of Inheritance yet the very Word promoted shews something that he was to be rais'd to higher than that Right alone would carry him which he fully expresses in the Succession of E. 2. which he says was not so much by Right of Inheritance as by the unanimous Assent of the Peers and Great Men. Which shews that ordinarily they respectively who stood next in Blood might look for the Crown before another till the People had by their Choice determin'd against them But this is farther observable of R. 1. That he was not called King here but only Duke of Normandy till he was Crown'd which next to the People's Choice was in great measure owing to his Mother's Diligence For he being absent at the Death of his Father his Mother who had been releas'd out of Prison by his means to secure the Succession to him went about with her Court from City to City and from Castle to Castle and sent Clergy-men and others of Reputation with the People into the several Counties by whose Industry she obtain'd Oaths of Allegiance to her Son and her self from the People in the County-Courts as it should seeem notwithstanding which the Archbishop charg'd him at his Coronation
than they are lawful and honest 4. Saving the Power of a Superior Whence if a Son in his Father's Family swear to do a Thing lawful in it self but the Father not knowing it commands another thing which hinders the doing that which is sworn he is not bound by his Oath because by the Divine Natural Law he is bound to obey his Father And he who has sworn not to go out of his House being cited to appear before a Lawful Judge is bound to go out notwithstanding his Oath the Reason is because the Act of one ought not to prejudice the Right of another These two last Instances added to the Consideration of a Legal King will qualifie the Oath declaring it not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King and abhorring the Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissioned by him This I think I may say with warrant from Bishop Sanderson That no Man is bound by this Oath to act against Law under colour of the King's Commission nor to permit such Actions if it be in his power to hinder them the Common Fundamental Law being in this Case the Superior which he is to obey and which is to explain and limit the Sense of Acts of Parliament seeming to the contrary To Bishop Sanderson I may add Grotius who runs the Prerogative of Kings as far as any Man in reason can Yet he allows of reserved Cases in which Allegiance may be withdrawn tho' there is no express Letter of Law for it As 1. Where the People being yet free command their future King by way of continuing Precept Whether there be any such with us can be no doubt to them who read the Coronation Oaths from time to time required and taken upon Elections of some Kings and the receiving others by reason of prior Elections and Stipulations with their Predecessors 2. If a King has abdicated or abandon'd his Authority or manifestly holds it as derelict indeed he says he is not to be thought to have done this who only manages his Affairs negligently But surely no Man can think but the Power of J. 2. is derelict And he cites three Cases wherein even Barelay the most zealous Asserter of Kingly Power allows Reservations to the People 1. If the King treats his People with outragious Cruelty 2. If with an hostile Mind he seek the Destruction of his People 3. If he alien his Kingdom This Grotius denies to have any effect and therefore will not admit among the reserved Cases But if no Act which is ineffectual in Law will justifie the withdrawing Allegiance then none of the other Instances will hold for to that purpose they are equally ineffectual Yet who doubts but the King doing what in him lies to alien his Kingdom gives Pretence for Foreign Usurpations as King John did to the Pope's And whoever goes to restore the Authority of the See of Rome here be it only in Spirituals endeavors to put the Kingdom under another Head than what our Laws establish and to that purpose aliens the Dominion Nor can it be any great Question but the aliening any Kingdom or Country part of the Dominion of England will fall under the same Consideration which will bring the Case of Ireland up to this where the Protestants are disarm'd and the Power which was arm'd for the Protection of the English there is put into the Hands of the Native Papists so that it is not likely to be restor'd to its Settlement at home or dependence upon England without great Expence of Blood and Treasure Even the Author of Jovian owns that the King's Law is his most authoritative Command and he denies that the Roman Emperour had any Right to enslave the whole People by altering the Constitution of the Roman Government from a Civil into a Tyrannical Dominion or from a Government wherein the People had Liberty and Property into such a Government as the Persian was and the Turkish now is c. Tho' by the Roman Lex Regia which himself takes notice of the People had transferred all their Power to the Emperor yet we see the highest Asserter of Imperial Power allows of Reservations If says Bishop Bilson a Prince should go about to subject his Kingdom to a Foreign Realm or change the Form of the Common-wealth from Imperie to Tyranny or neglect the Laws establish'd by Common Consent of Prince and People to execute his own Pleasure in these and other Cases which might be named if the Nobles and Commons join together to defend their ancient and accustomed Liberty Regiment and Laws they may not well be accounted Rebels And soon after he speaks of a Power for preserving the Foundation Freedom and Form of their Commonwealths which they forepriz'd when they first consented to have a King. Where his meaning cannot be restrain'd to express Provisions excluding such as may be equitably intended And not to heap Authorities with this agrees the Divine Plato who after he has affirm'd that the highest Degrees of Punishment belong to those who will misguide a Ship or prescribe a dangerous new way of Physick having brought in Socrates asking whether Magistrates ought not to be subject to the like Laws himself asks What shall be determined if we require all things to be done according to a certain Form and set over the Laws themselves one either chose by the Suffrages of the People or by Lot who slighting the Laws shall for the sake of Lucre or to gratifie his Lust not knowing what is fit attempt to do things contrary to the Institution This Man both he and Socrates condemn as a greater Criminal than those which he had mention'd whose Crime he aggravates as 't is an acting against those Laws which thro' a long Experience had been ordain'd by their Counsel and Industry who had opportunely and duly weighed every thing and had prevail'd upon the People to submit to them 2d To proceed to Positive Law I shall shew how the Contract between Prince and People stood and hath been taken both before the reputed Conquest and since Where 't will appear 1. That Allegiance might and may in some Cases be withdrawn in the Life-time of one who continued King until the occasion of such withdrawing or Judgment upon it 2. That there was and is an establish'd Judicature for this without need of recurring to that Equity which the People are suppos'd to have reserv'd 3. That there has been no absolute Hereditary Right to the Crown of England from the beginning of the Monarchy but that the People have had a Latitude for setting up whom of the Blood they pleas'd upon the determination of the Interest of any particular Person except where there has been a Settlement of the Crown in force 4. That they were lately restored to such Latitude 1. If the King not observing his Coronation-Oath
in the main lose the Name of King then no Man can say that Allegiance continues But that so it was before the reputed Conquest appears by the Confessor's Laws where they declare the Duty of the King. But the King because he is Vicar to the Supreme King is constituted to this end that he should rule his earthly Kingdom and the People of God and above all should reverence God's Holy Church and defend it from injurious Persons and pluck from it Wrong-doers and destroy and wholly ruine them which unless he does not so much as the Name of King will remain in him c. Hoveden shews how this was receiv'd by William 1. The King and his Deputy or Locum tenens in his absence is constituted to this end c. in substance as above Which unless he does the true Name of King will not remain in him And as the Confessor's Laws have it in which there is some mistake in the Transcriber of Hoveden otherwise agreeing with them Pope John witnesses That he loses the Name of King who does not what belongs to a King which is no Evidence that this Doctrine is deriv'd from the Pope of Rome The Pope only confirms the Constitution or gives his Approbation of it perhaps that the Clergy of those Times might raise no Cavils from a supposed Divine Right And to shew that this is not only for violating the Rights of the Church the Confessor's Laws inform us that Pipin and Charles his Son not yet Kings but Princes under the French King foolishly wrote to the Pope asking him if the Kings of France ought to remain content with the bare Name of King By whom it was answer'd They are to be called Kings who watch over defend and rule God's Church and his People c. Hoveden's Transcriber gives the same in substance but thro' a miserable mistake in Chronology will have it that the Letter was wrote by Pipin and his Son to W. 1. Lambart's Version of St. Edward's Laws goes on to Particulars among others That the King is to keep without diminution all the Lands Honours Dignities Rights and Liberties of the Crown That he is to do all things in his Kingdom according to Law and by the Judgment of the Proceres or Barons of the Realm and these things he is to swear before he is Crown'd By the Coronation-Oaths before the reputed Conquest and since all agreeing in Substance every King was to promise the People three things 1. That God's Church and all the People in the Kingdom shall enjoy true Peace 2. That he will forbid Rapine and all Injustice in all Orders of Men. 3. That he will promise and command Justice and Mercy in all Judgments And 't is observable That Bracton who wrote in the time of H. 3. transcribes that very Formulary or rather Abridgment of the Oath which was taken by the Saxon Kings In Bracton's time 't is certain the Oath was more explicit tho' reducible to those Heads and 't is observable that Bracton says The King is Created and Elected to this end that he should do Justice to all Where he manifestly shews the King's Oath to be his part of a binding Contract it being an Agreement with the People while they had power to chuse With Bracton agrees Fleta and both inform us that in their days there was no scruple in calling him a Tyrant and no King who oppresses his People violatâ dominatione as one has it or violentâ as the other either the Rule of Government being violated or with a violent Government both of which are of the like import The Mirrour at least puts this Contract out of dispute shewing the very Institution of the Monarchy before a Right was vested in any single Family or Person When forty Princes who had the Supreme Power here chose from among them a King to Reign over them and govern the People of God and to maintain the holy Christian Faith and to defend their Persons and Goods in quiet by the Rules of Right And at the beginning they caused the King to swear That he will maintain the holy Christian Faith with all his Power and will rule his People justly without regard to any Person and shall be obedient to suffer Right or Justice as well as others his Subjects And what that Right and Justice was in the last result the Confessor's Laws explain when they shew that he may lose the Name of King. These Laws were not only receiv'd by William 1. and in the Codex of the Laws of H. 1. but were the Laws which in the early Contests which the Barons had with their encroaching Kings they always urg'd to have maintain'd and that their Sanction might not be question'd the Observance of them was made part of the Coronation-Oath till some Archbishops careful only of their Clerical Rights provided for no more of those Laws than concerned them By that Oath which is upon Record and in ancient Prints the King is to swear to grant keep and confirm among others especially the Laws Customs and Freedoms granted the Clergy and People by the most glorious and holy King Edward And even after the King 's taking this Oath they were to be ask'd if they would consent to have him their King and Leige-lord Which is the Peoples part of the Contract and thus the Contract becomes mutual To which purpose the Learned Sir Henry Spelman cites Cujacius the great Civilian to shew that Faith between a Lord and Vassal is reciprocal and gives an Instance in the Oath of one of our Saxon Kings Knute for the proof of its being so here between King and Subject And with Cujacius agrees the no less judicious Civilian Pufendorf When says he the Power is conferr'd upon a King there is a mutual Translation of Right and a reciprocal Promise If it be objected That tho' this was at the beginning a Contract with a Free People it ceas'd to be so from the time of the Conquest I answer 1. Till there be a Consent and Agreement to some Terms of Governing and Subjection 't will be difficult if possible to prove any Right in the Conqueror but what may be cast off as soon as there is an Opportunity 2. William 1. was not receiv'd as a Conqueror but upon a mutual Contract upon which old Historians say Foedus pepigit He made a League with the People which comes to the same thing with what the Holy Writ records of King David That the People made a League with him His Coronation-Oath was the same with that which was taken by his Saxon Predecessors except that the Circumstances of that time requir'd an additional Clause for keeping an equal Hand between English and French. 'T is not to be doubted but that the Norman Casuists inform'd him that this related only to Legal Justice but that in Matters of Grace and Favour he
was left at large How much soever he might have strain'd in this or other Matters I am sure he was far from acting so arbitrarily as some have industriously represented him I will not say on purpose to encourage such Actions in other Princes And it is yet more certain that whatever Right either he or any body under him enjoy'd came from the Compact not from the Breach of Faith. 3. If William 1. did gain the Right of a Conqueror it was Personal and he never exacted this for his Heirs as appears not only by his Declaration when he came to die but by the Fealty or Oath of Allegiance which he required in his Laws The King's Oath is the real Contract on his side and his accepting the Government as a legal King the virtual one and so it is vice versâ in relation to the Allegiance due from the Subject Thus far the Author of Jovian is in the right As in the Oath of Allegiance the People swear nothing to the King but what they are bound to perform unsworn so the King in his Coronation-Oath promises nothing to the People but what in Justice and Equity he is bound â—o perform unsworn Upon which account I will yield to Saravias That in Hereditary Kingdoms the Coronation-Oath confers no new Right and therefore there may be a King before his Coronation Yet we must attend to Grotius his Rule who rightly observes That Succession is only a Continuance of that Power which the Predecessor had So that if the first Possessor comes into Power qualified by express Contract this binds the Successor and he is to be thought to come in upon those Terms The Description which Samuel made of the exorbitant Power of Kings was rather to terrifie them from pursuing their foolish Demand than to constitute such a Prerogative as the King should use whom God would appoint to go in and out before them Which methinks is very manifest in that the worst of Kings that ever reigned among them never challeng'd or assum'd those Prerogatives nor did the People conceive themselves liable to those Impositions as appears by the Application they made to Rehoboam on the Death of Solomon That he would abate some of that Rigour his Father had exercis'd toward them the rash rejection of which contrary to the Advice of his wisest Counsellors cost him the greater part of his Dominions and when Rehoboam would by Arms have reduc'd them to Obedience God would not suffer him because he had been in the fault himself One of the Terms as appears by the Mirrour was That the King should suffer Right or Justice as well as his Subjects And St. Edward's Sword called the Curtein carried before our Kings at their Coronations was in the time of H. 3. a known Emblem and Remembrancer of this But surely whoever us'd that or a Judicial Power in such Cases as above how much soever they continued their Allegiance to the King's Authority could not be said to retain it to his Person 2. There was and is an establish'd Judicature for the great Case in question as is imply'd by St. Edward's Laws which suppose some Judge or Judges in the Case and investing the Proceres with the Supreme Judicature with-holds not this from them However 't is certain the Parliament 9 R. 2. referr'd to a known Statute when they mind him of an ancient one not long before put in practice whereby if the King thro' a foolish Obstinacy contempt of his People or perverse froward Will or any other irregular way shall alienate himself from his People and will not be govern'd and regulated by the Rights of the Kingdom and the Statutes and laudable Ordinances made by the Council of the Lords and the Peers of the Realm but shall headily in his mad Counsels exercise his own arbitrary Will from thenceforth it is lawful for them with the common Assent and Consent of the People of the Realm to depose him from the Throne c. This Law is not now extant but was not then deny'd and the Reason why it is not to be found is very evident from the Articles against this King some Years after In the 24th Article they accuse him of causing the Rolls and Records concerning the State and Government of his Kingdom to be destroyed and rased to the great prejudice of the People and disherison of the Crown of the said Kingdom and this as is credibly believ'd in favour and support of his evil Governance The Mirror tells us That of right the King must have Companions to hear and determine in Parliament all Writs and Plaints of Wrong done by the King c. And the Learned Hornius cites the Speculum Saxonicum of the like Name and Nature with our Mirror the Author of which last was of his own Name The Saxon Mirror as he says was wrote before the Normans came hither The Justices or private Persons says he out of the Speculum neither ought nor can dispute of the Acts of Kings yet the King has Superiors in ruling the People who ought to put a Bridle to him And Hornius says the old Saxon Lawyers limit that Maxim The King has no Peer to wit in exhibiting Justice but in receiving Justice they say he is the least in his Kingdom Tho' Bracton seems to restrain this Rule to Cases wherein the King is Actor in judicio suscipiendo si petat Fleta who takes it from him seems to correct the Copy and has it si parcat If he spare doing Justice to which end both affirm that he was created and chosen King And Bracton himself shews elsewhere that he means more by the Reason which he assigns why the King ought to be the least in receiving Justice Lest his Power should remain without Bridle This for certain he sufficiently explains when he says That no Justices or private Persons may dispute of the King's Charters and Acts but Judgment must be given before the King himself which must be meant of the King in Parliament as appears by a Petition in Parliament 18 E. 1. where Bracton's Rule is received But Bracton says he has God for his Superior also the Law by which he is made King also his Court that is to say the Earls and Barons for they are called Comites being as it were Companions to the King and he who has a Companion has a Master Therefore if the King act without Bridle they are bound to bridle him and Bracton in one place says In receiving Justice the King is compar'd to the least of his Kingdom without confining it to Cases where he is Actor This puts a necessary Limitation to that Maxim That the King can do no Wrong that is not to be adjudg'd so by Judges Commissaries or Commission'd Judges which the Mirror uses in contradistinction to Judges Ordinary sitting by an Original Power yet this does not in the least
interfere with the Judicial Power of the High Court of Parliament and it may be a question whether that Maxim as receiv'd in the Courts of Justice is ever taken to reach farther than either in relation to the Remedies which private Persons may there have against personal Injuries from the King as where 't is said The King cannot imprison any Man because no Action of False Imprisonment will lie against him or rather because of the ineffectualness in Law of his tortious Acts. But what the Nation or its Great Councils have thought of such Acts will appear by a long Series of Judgments from time to time past and executed upon some of their Kings Long before the reputed Conquest Sigibert King of the West-Saxons becoming intolerable by his insolent Actions was expell'd the Kingdom and Bromton shews that this was done in a Judicial manner by the unanimous Consent and Deliberation of the Peers and People that is in the Language of latter Ages by Lords and Commons in full Parliament And eighteen Years after Alcred King of the Northanimbrians that is Northumberland and other adjacent Counties was banish'd and divested of his Soveraignty by the Counsel and Consent of all his Subjects Five Years after this their King Ethelred was driven from the Throne and Kingdom for treacherously procuring the Death of three of his Great Men Alwlf Cynwlf and Ecga Within fifteen Years after this the People having without Example called back Ethelred from Exile slew him without any allowable Precedent and set up in his stead Osbald a Nobleman none of the Royal Stock and he not answering their Expectation they depos'd him in twenty eight days Twelve Years after they deposed their King Eardulf and remain'd long without chusing any Sixty Years after they depos'd their King Osbrich and chose Ella who still swerv'd from the Ends of Government Six Years after they expell'd their King Egbert For sixty nine Years the Kings and their People agreed without coming to any Extremities but then they renounc'd the Allegiance sworn to King Edmund and chose Aulaf King of Norway for their King. Aulaf had not reigned six Years when they drove him away and tho' they receiv'd him again they soon cast him off again and swore Allegiance to the English King Edred Then they rejected him and chose Egric a Dane with whom their independent Monarchy expir'd and turn'd into the Government of Earls I would not be thought to mention those numerous Examples with the least approbation 't is certain they argue great Levity in rejecting or Folly in chusing But if we are believ'd to receive many Laws and Customs from the Germans from whom we are more remotely deriv'd much more may the English Monarchy be thought to partake of the Customs of the contiguous Kingdoms which compose it and by this frequent Practice the Members of it were sufficiently prepar'd to understand that part of the Compact whereby the Prince was oblig'd to suffer Right as well as his Subjects and that if he did not answer the Ends for which he had been chosen he was to lose the Name of King. Either these Examples or rather the continual Engagements in War with Foreigners had such effect that from this time to the Entrance of W. 1. excepting the Case of King Edwin Nephew to the English Monarch Edred who was driven out of the Kingdom Anno 957. I find nothing of the like nature A King was but a more splendid General nor could he hope to maintain his Dignity but by hardy Actions and tender usage of his People their extraordinary Power had slept but for few Years after the Death of the reputed Conqueror till the time of King Stephen the third Successor from W. 1. who after Allegiance sworn to him had it a while withdrawn for Maud the Empress but the People soon return'd to it again rejecting her who was nighest in Blood because she denied them the Benefit of St. Edward's Laws This Power of the People to be sure was rous'd by the extravagant Proceedings of King John upon which the Earls and Barons of England without the Formality of Summons from the King give one another notice of meeting and after a long private Debate they agreed to wage War against him and renounce his Allegiance if he would not confirm their Liberties and agreed upon another Meeting for a peremptory Demand declaring That if he then refus'd them they would compel him to Satisfaction by taking his Castles Nor were they worse than their words and their Resolutions had for a while their desir'd Effect in obtaining a Confirmation of their Liberties but the Pope soon absolv'd the King and encourag'd him to the violation of them till they stoutly casting off the Authority both of King and Pope proceeded to the Election of another King Lewis the Dauphin of France But the Dauphin assuming a Power not brook'd in the English Government upon the Death of King John they set up his Son H. 3. and without any solemn Deposing of Lewis compell'd him to renounce his Pretensions Henry treading in his Father's steps had many unhappy Contests with his Barons and having call'd in numbers of Foreigners they sent him a solemn Message That unless he would remove those troublesom Guests they would all by a Common Council of the whole Realm drive him and his wicked Counsellors out of the Kingdom and would consider of making a new King. Upon this both Sides had recourse to Arms and neither valued the others Judicial Sentence but for certain the Sentence threatned H. 3. was executed upon his Grandson E. 2. who was formally depos'd in Parliament for his Misgovernment whose Case with his next Successor's but one R. 2. by what I have observ'd before appear to have been no Novelties in England Nor was it long before the like was again put in practice more than once H. 6. being a weak misled Prince gave occasion to Richard Duke of York whose Line was put by to cover his Designs for restoring the elder Family with the Pretence of Redressing Publick Grievances The Crown he was so far from pretending to at first that himself swore Allegiance to H. 6. in a very particular manner But having afterwards an Advantage given by the Divisions of them who had driven him out of the Land he in a fortunate Hour with lucky Omens as was believ'd challeng'd the Crown as his Right upon which there was an Agreement ratified in Parliament That H. 6. should enjoy it during his Life and R. and his Heirs after him And tho' Richard Duke of York and his Son Edward afterwards E. 4. had sworn That H. 6. should enjoy the Royal Dignity during Life without trouble from them or either of them yet Richard having been treacherously slain by the Queen's Army immediately after the solemn Pacification Edward at the Petition of some of the Bishops and Temporal
Lords took upon him the Charge of the Kingdom as forfeited to him by breach of the Covenant establish'd in Parliament Yet this gave him no sure Settlement for the Popularity of the Earl of Warwick drove him out of the Kingdom without striking a Stroke for it Upon which H. 6. was again restor'd to his Kingly Power and Edward was in Parliament declared a Traytor to the Country and an Vsurper of the Realm the Settlement upon R. and his Heirs revok'd and the Crown entail'd upon H. 6. and his Heirs Males with Remainders over to secure against Edward's coming to the Crown Yet the Death of the Earl of Warwick having in effect put an end to King Henry's Power he was soon taken Prisoner and put to death as his Son had been before and then Edward procures a Confirmation in Parliament of the Settlement under which he enjoy'd the Crown Thus as the Power of the People or Great ones of Interest with them turn'd the Scales from time to time so 't was their Consent which fixt them at last during the the Life of E. 4. It may be said That whatever the Law or Practice has been anciently neither can now be of any moment by reason of the Oath requir'd by several Statutes declaring it not lawful upon any Pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King and abhorring the Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person And 2. The Clause in the Statute 12 Car. 2. whereby it is declar'd That by the undoubted and fundamental Laws of this Kingdom neither the Peers of this Realm nor the Commons nor both together in Parliament or out of Parliament nor the People Collectively or Representatively nor any other Persons whatsoever had have hath or ought to have any Coercive Power over the Persons of the Kings of this Realm I shall not here insist in answer to the first on the necessity of a Commission and a King continuing Legal in the Exercise as well as Possession of Power nor the difference between the Traiterous Acts of single Persons and the Revolt of a Nation nor yet upon the Authority of the Common Law whereby a Constable or other Officer chose by the People may act without any Authority from the King. And for the latter as Coertion is restrain'd to the Person of the King the declaring against that is not contrary to the Authorities for discharging Allegiance by a Judicial Sentence or otherwise by vertue of equitable and supposed Reservations provided a tender Regard to the Person be still observ'd But if Proceedings to free our selves from his Authority fall under this Coertion then I shall offer something which may remove both this and the other from being Objections to what I have above shewn To keep to what may equally reach to both Authorities I shall not urge here That these Statutes being barely Declaratory and enacting no Law for the future introduce none so that if the Fundamental Laws shall appear to be otherwise the Declarations do not supplant them Nor yet to insist upon a Rule in the Civil Law That the Commonwealth is always a Minor and at liberty to renounce the Obligations which it has entred into against its Benefit which is the Supreme Law. But I shall stop their Mouths who object these Statutes and maintain That according to what themselves receive for Law the Parliaments which enacted these Declarations had no power so to do and then the Law must stand as it did For this let us first hear Mr. Sheringham whose Authority few of these Men dispute They that lay the first Foundation of a Commonwealth have Authority to make Laws that cannot be alter'd by Posterity in Matters that concern the Rights both of King and People For Foundations cannot be remov'd without the Ruine and Subversion of the whole Building Wherefore admit the Acts had been duly made according to him they would be void if the Fundamental Law were as I have shewn However I am sure I can irrefragably prove to them who will not have a Nation sav'd without strict Form of Law That the Parliament which made those Acts had no Power at the time of making them being by the express Words of a former Statute repeal'd The Triennial Act 16 Car. 1. provides in a way not easily to be defeated not only for holding a Parliament once within Three Years at least but that all Parliaments which shall be Prorogu'd or Adjourn'd or so continued by Prorogation or Adjournment until the Tenth of September which shall be in the third Year next after the last Day of the last Meeting and Sitting of the foregoing Parliament shall be thenceforth clearly and absolutely dissolv'd Now say I that Parliament which enacted these Laws had sat beyond that Time Ergo c. These were made in the Parliament next after the Convention which brought in the King which they I am sure will not call a Parliament Wherefore we must go back to the first Long Parliament which upon their own Rule Rex est caput finis Parliamenti was dissolv'd by the Death of C. 1. Anno 1648. notwithstanding the Act for making it Perpetual which indeed by the Words of it seems only to provide against any Act of the King to the contrary without their Consent But by the Death of the King that Parliament lost the Being which before it had as it was under him when it was Parliamentum nostrum the Parliament of Charles the First and so expired An. 1648. by Act in Law. And perhaps it s own breaking up in Confusion before was in Law an Adjournment sine die working a Dissolution by either of which that Parliament was dissolv'd more than three Years before the Parliament which made the Statute in question which Parliament assembled An. 1661. and was ipso facto dissolv'd when it attempted to make those Statutes it having been continued by Prorogation or Adjournment beyond the Tenth of September in the Third Year after the Dissolution of the last Parliament of Charles the First which was the next foregoing Legal Parliament according to strict Form for the Parliament which brought in C. 2. Anno 1660. was not summon'd by the King's Writs consequently the Parliament 1661. having no Power after it had continued as above whatever was the Ancient Law in this Matter remains as it did before those Laws If it be Objected That the Necessity of the Times had dispens'd with the Letter of the Triennial Act as to this Particular 1. They who would plead these Statutes cannot urge it since they will not allow of greater Necessity to authorize the Maintaining and Restoring the Constitution But surely however Necessity might support other Laws it shall not such as alter the Constitution but every Legal Advantage shall be taken for restoring it 2. The Necessity was not absolute for the First Parliament of Charles the Second might continue together as long
as they could sit without Prorogation or Adjournment and be good for a day at least time enough to have repealed the former Statute as to that part and to qualifie themselves for a longer Continuance In short They with whom our Dispute is are either for the Unalterableness of Fundamentals according to which what I have shewn remains notwithstanding all Efforts to the contrary or else all of a sudden they have a mighty Zeal for the strict Letter of the Law by which that Parliament which endeavour'd to alter the Fundamental Contract was ipso facto dissolv'd before such Attempt However since the Question is not about a Coercive Power over Kings but barely concerning Allegiance to them whenever he who was King ceases to be so either by the Act of God or the Law the Obligation of Allegiance necessarily determines as the subject Matter of it fails But lest the Liberty allow'd in extraordinary Cases be us'd as a cloak for maliciousness I shall restrain it with the Authority of the Learned Pufendorf In Contracts by which one is made subject to another this has the Right of Judging what the Subject is to perform and has also a Power conferr'd of compelling him to the Performance if he refuses which Coercive Power is by no means reciprocal Wherefore he who rules cannot be called in question for breaking his Contract unless he either wholly abdicate the Care of the Government or become of an hostile mind towards his People or manifestly with evil Intention depart from those Rules of Governing upon the Observance of which as upon a Condition the Subjects have suspended their Allegiance Which is very easie for any one who Governs always to shun if he will but consider that the Highest of Mortals are not free from the Laws of Humane Chance But that the Judicial Power of the People so qualified as above is not peculiar to England might appear by the Customs of most neighbouring Nations For Denmark Swedeland and Norway which had anciently three distinct Negatives in the Choice of a King I shall refer to Krantius particularly in the remarkable Story of their King Erick who was adopted Son of the Three Kingdoms Anno 1411. he having provok'd his People by the Outrages of his Officers and Soldiers he was oppos'd with Force by one Engelbert a Danish Nobleman transmitted down to Posterity with the fair Character of engaging in the Publick Cause neither out of love of Rule nor greediness of Gain but meer compassion to an opprest People This so generous an Undertaking was so justly Popular that Eric not able to stem the Tide withdrew from Denmark the Place of his usual Residence to Swedeland But Engelbert's Noble Cause found so few Opposers there also that the King as a Pattern to J. 2. privately ran away and recommended his Nephew in his stead but they told him plainly he was made King by Adoption and had no Right to surrogate another Him there not being the inconsistency of a different Religion between the Head and Members of the same Body they would have receiv'd again upon Terms but he refusing the Three Kingdoms unanimously chose one of another Family For the Authority of the People even in France no longer since than the time of Lewis 11. Hottoman's Francogallia gives a large Proof Nor is the Emperor of Germany more exempt for the Golden Bull of C. 4. provides who shall sit as Judge or High-Steward when he comes to be Impeach'd And by that the Palatine of the Rhine has the like Power with that which Matthew Paris says the Earl of Chester had here as Count Palatine Nor is this in the Empire founded meerly upon that Bull for the Bull it self says Sicut ex consuetudine introductum dicitur As 't is said to have been introduc'd by Custom And Freherus gives an Instance of this before that Bull in the Case of King Albert whom they threatned to depose for killing his Leige-lord Adolphus With Freherus agrees Gunterus in his Octoviratus who says That the Palatine of the Rhine Major Domo to the Emperor is by Custom Judge of the Emperor himself or rather in the highest Matters declares the Sentence of the Electoral College And he cites several Authors to prove the like Office or Power to have been in divers Kingdoms and Principalities and names France England Arragon Spain Denmark Poland Bohemia c. And for France Loyseau in effect shews this Power to have belong'd to their Maior du Palais for he owns the Power to have been greater than the Roman Praefect of the Palace had and yet he cites the Words of the Emperor Trajan giving his Praefect a naked Sword which he enjoyn'd him to use against him if he misgoverned And Loyseau says That this dangerous Office was put down by the Kings of the Third Line that they might perpetuate the Crown in their Family This Office he supposes to have been split into the Conestable's Chancellor's Treasurer's and the Grand Maistre's du France or Count du Palais which he seems to resemble to an High Steward with us And I meet with an old English Author who affirms almost such a Power as is above-mention'd to have belonged to the High-Conestable of England His Words are these As God hath ordained Magistrates to hear and determine private Matters and to punish their Vices so also will he that the Magistrates Doings be call'd to account and reck'ning and their Vices corrected and punished by the Body of the whole Congregation or Common-wealth As it is manifest by the Memory of the ancient Office of High-Constable of England unto whose Authority it pertained not only to summon the King personally before the Parliament or other Courts of Justice to answer and receive according to Justice but also upon just occasion to commit him to Ward 3. There has been no Hereditary Right to the Crown of England by Proximity of Blood from the Fundamental Contract but the People have had a Latitude for the setting up whom of the Blood they pleas'd upon the determination of the Interest of any particular Person except where there has been a Settlement of the Crown in force The Kingdom I own is founded in Monarchy and so is Poland which yet is absolutely Elective Nor is there any Consequence that the Dissolution of the Contract between the immediate Prince and People destroys the Form of Government for that depends upon a prior Contract which the People entred into among themselves And that by vertue of this to avoid endless Emulations Kings have generally from the first Erection of the English Monarchy been chosen out of the same Family appears beyond contradiction I know some talk of a Birthright and Inheritance in the Crown which is not founded in the Statutes but on the Original Custom and Constitution of the English Government which is an Hereditary Monarchy according to proximity of Blood. But I would
Judgment of two Parliaments the Realm was destitute of a Lawful Governour Indeed according to the Act of Recognition 1 J. 1. the Crown came to him being lineally rightfully and lawfully descended of the Body of the most Excellent Lady Margaret the eldest Daughter of the most Renowned King Henry the Seventh and the High and Noble Princess Queen Elizabeth his Wife eldest Daughter of King Edward the Fourth The said Lady Margaret being eldest Sister of King Henry the Eighth Father of the High and Mighty Princess of Famous Memory Elizabeth late Queen of England Tho' this pompous Pedigree to avoid all Objections goes as high as E. 4. the Derivation of Title as appears above can be no higher than from the Settlement 1 H. 7. Nor does this Act 1 J. make any additional Provision but indeed seems to flatter the King into a Belief that there was no need of any telling him That they made that Recognition as the First-fruits of their Loyalty and Faith to him and his Royal Progeny and Posterity for ever But neither then or ever after till that in this present Parliament did the People make any Settlement of the Crown but it continued upon the same Foot as it did 1 H. 7. when it was entirely an Act of the People under no Obligation but from their own Wills. And if we should use Sir Robert Filmer's Authority Impossible it is in Nature for Men to give a Law unto themselves no more than it is to command a Mans self in a Matter depending of his own Will. There can be no Obligation which taketh State from the meer Will of him that promises the same Wherefore to apply this Rule Since the People that is now in common presumption is the same with that which first settled the Succession and so are bound only by an Act of their own Will they have yet as arbitrary a Power in this Matter as Sir Robert and his Followers contend that the Prince has whatever Promises or Agreements he has entred into But not to lean upon such a broken Reed nor yet to make those many Inferences which this plain State of the Settlements of the Crown might afford Three things I shall observe 1. If the Settlement made 1 H. 7. who was an Usurper according to the Notion of Dr. Brady and his Set of Men was of no force then there being no Remainders since limited by any Act but what are spent of necessity the People must have had Power of Chusing or there could have been no lawful Government since Queen Elizabeth's time when was the last Settlement except what is now made 2. The Declarations of two Parliaments 28 and 35 H. 8. fully ballance the Declaration 1 Jac. 1. if they do not turn the Scales considering that the Judges in the later Times seem to have had less Law or Integrity than they had in H. the Eighth's I will not take upon me to determine which was the Point of Two that they might go upon 1. That a Government shall not pass by Implication or by reason of a dormant Remainder But there having been so many Alterations since the Settlement 1 H. 7. and the whole Fee once disposed of nor ever any express Restitution of the Settlement 1 H. 7. the People were not to think themselves obliged to a Retrospect 'T is evident at least that they did not Or 2. Perhaps they might question whether they were oblig'd to receive for Kings the Issue of Foreign Princes since there was no means of being sufficiently inform'd of the Circumstances of the Birth neither the Common or any Statute-Law affording any Means of proving it as appears by the Statute 25 E. 3. which for the Children of Subjects only born out of the King's Allegiance in Cases wherein the Bishop has Conusance allows of a Certificate from the Bishop of the Place where the Land in question lies if the Mother pass'd the Seas by the King's License But if our Kings or Queens should upon any occasion be in Foreign Parts 't is to be presum'd that they would have with them a Retinue subject to our Laws who might attest the Birth of their Children and be punish'd if they swear flalsly Wherefore 25 E. 3. 't is declar'd to be the Law of the Crown That the Children of the Kings of England ENFANTZ DES ROYS as the Record has it in whatever Parts they be born be able and ought to bear the Inheritance after the Death of their Ancestors Yet this is most likely to be meant of those private Inheritances which any of the Kings had being no part of the Demeasns of the Crown since the Inheritance of the Crown was not mentioned nor as has been shewn was it such as the King's Children were absolutely entitled to in their Order The most common acceptation of Children is of a Man's immediate Issue As where Land is given to a Man and his Children who can think any remote Descendants entitled to it Nor could it extend farther in the Settlement of a Crown 37 E. 3. c. 10. a Sumptuary Law was made providing for the Habits of Men according to their Ranks and of their Wives and Children ENFANTZ as in the former Statute of the same Reign Now altho' this should extend to Childrens Children born in the same House it could never take-in the Children of Daughters forisfamiliated by Marriage nay nor those of such Sons as were educated in a distinct Calling from their Parents Farther the very Statute of which the Question is cuts off the Descendants from Females out of the number of a King's Children when among other Children not of the Royal Family it makes a particular Provision for Henry Son of John Beaumond who had been born beyond Sea and yet Henry was by the Mothers Side in the Fourth Degree from H. 3. for she was Daughter to Henry Earl of Lancaster Son of Edmund Son to H. 3. Had this Henry been counted among the Children of a King 't is certain there had not been a special Clause for him among other Children of Subjects Nor does the Civil Law differ from ours in this Matter for tho' under the name of Children are comprehended not only those who are in our Power but all who are in their own either of the Female Sex or descending from Females yet the Daughter's Children were always look'd on as out of the Grandfather's Family according to the Rule in Civil Law transcribed by our Bracton They who are born of your Daughter are not in your power And Privileges derogating from Publick Vtility were never thought to reach them as a Learned Civilian has it A Daughter is the End of the Family in which she was born because the Name of her Father's Family is not propagated by her And Cujacius makes this difference between Liberi and Liberi sui sui he says is a Legal Name the other Natural The former are only they who are in a Man's
of a King than they would have of coming to Parliament without his Writ Yet since the Right of the People in Person or Representation is indubitable in such a Case what hinders the Validity of the late Choice considering how many Elections of Kings we have had and that never by the People diffusively since the first Institution of the Government And the Representations agreed on tho' I take them to be earlier settled for Cities and Burrough than for the Freeholders in the Counties yet have ever since their respective Settlements been in the same manner as now at least none have since the first Institution ever come in their own Persons or been Electors but what are present personally or representatively and their own Consent takes away all pretence of Error If it be said That they ought to have been summon'd Forty days before the Assembly held That is only a Privilege from the King which they may wave and have more than once consented to be represented upon less than Forty days Summons Mr. Prynne gives several Instances as 49 H. 3. 4 E. 3. 1 H. 4. 28 Eliz. and says he omits other Precedents of Parliaments summon'd within Forty days after the Writs of Summons bear date upon extraordinary Occasions of Publick Safety and Concernment which could not conveniently admit so long delay And Sir Robert Cotton being a strict Adherer to Form upon an Emergency advis'd That the Writs should be antedated which Trick could make no real difference To say however there ought to have been a Summons from or in the Name of a King in being is absurd it being for the Exercise of a Lawful Power which unless my Authorities fail the People had without a King or even against the Consent of one in being Besides it appears That such Summons have not been essential to the Great Councils of the Nation Tacitus shews That the Germans from whom we descend had theirs at certain Days unless when some extraordinary Matter hapned And by the Confessor's Laws receiv'd by W. 1. and continu'd downwards by the Coronation-Oaths requir'd to this very day the general Folcmot ought to be held annually without any formal Summons upon May-day And the Statute 16 Car. 1. which our rigid Formallists must own to be in force has wholly taken away the necessity of Writs of Summons from a King. The Assembly of Lords and Commons held Anno 1660. was summon'd by the Keepers of the Liberties of England not by the King's Writs yet when they came to act in conjunction with the King they declare enact and adjudge where the Statute is manifestly declaratory of what was Law before That the Lords and Commons then sitting are and shall be the Two Houses of Parliament notwithstanding any want of the King 's Writ or Writs of Summons or any defect or alteration of or in any Writ of Summons c. Tho' this seems parallel to the present Case yet in truth ours is the strongest For the King then having been only King de jure no Authority could be receiv'd from him nor could any Act of his be regarded in Law thro' defect either of Jurisdiction or Proof if not both Accordingly as not only the Reason of the thing but the Lord Coke shews a Pardon from one barely King de jure is of no force Besides the Keepers were an upstart Power imposing themselves upon the People without any formal Consent at least not so fully receiv'd to the publick Administration as our present King was who at the Request of a very large Representative of the People pursu'd the late Method of calling a more Solemn Assembly If that Anno 1660. had Power acting with the King to declare it self a Parliament why had not this in defect of a King to declare or chuse one Sure I am prudent Antiquity regarded not so much the Person calling or the End for which a General Council was call'd as who were present that Notice which they comply'd with being always sufficiently formal Wherefore a General Ecclesiastical Council being summon'd in the Reign of H. 1. by William Archb. of Canterb. thither according to the known Law of those Times the Laity came I cannot say they sate there for the Numbers were so great as they commonly were at such Assemblies before the Free-holders agreed to Representations that happy was the Man whatever his Quality who could have a convenient Standing After the Ecclesiastical Matters were over in the Council I now speak of they fell upon Secular Some they determin'd some they adjourn'd some the Judges of the Poll or Voices could make nothing of by reason of the great Crowd and Din. And when the King heard their Determinations and confirm'd them they had full Legal Force But had there been no Warrant from former Times for the late manner of Proceeding the People of Legal Interests in the Government having been restor'd to their Original Right who can doubt but they had an absolute Power over Forms That they were not call'd to a Parliament I hope will not be an Objection since the Word is much less ancient than such Assemblies And since the Cives the Common Subject of the National Power have made their Determination this according to that Positive Law which I have shewn above ought to quiet the Debate and command a Submission And yet were there not positive Law on their side the equitable Reservations before observ'd might be sufficient Warrant Nor is the Civil Law wanting to enforce this Matter One Barbarius a run-away Servant not known to be so got in favour with Anthony at the time of the Triumvirate and by his means came to be Praetor upon this a great Question arose Whether what he did or was done before him during his Praetorship were valid Vlpian decides in the affirmative and Hottoman upon that Question says The Suffrages of the People have the force of a Law. The Reasons given for the Resolution as they are in Gotofred who best reconciles the various Readings will greatly strengthen our Case He tells us That tho' the Question there is only concerning a Servant the Reason of it reaches to Emperors and all Secular and Ecclesiastical Dignities The Reasons why Vlpian holds the Acts of such good are 1. In regard of Common Utility and the Inconvenience it would be to those who had business before him if it were otherwise 2. From the Power of the People to give a Servant this Honour Gotofred thinks If this may be done with certain knowledge that he was a Servant much more if thro' mistake for if the People who have the Supreme Power may with certain knowledge for the sake of the Publick Good not only design a Servant for Praetor but in this Case by a just Election take a Servant away from his Master how much more may it be done as in the Case propounded not to make a Servant wholly a true Praetor not to take
Sea The Kingdom in the Isle again prevails And London trembles at discover'd Sails The West shall the Britannick Islands free The Recogniz'd from Low takes High Degree Scotch discontented Pyrats shall Rebell In a hot Night when Rains the Waters swell See a strange Stratagem The Rebel's Death By Contraries gives to their Cause new Breath By barb'rous Voyage back agen it spreads The Protestants at th' Entry raise their Heads Hot Wind cold Counsels Weeping Panick-Fear Assault by Night in Bed no Army near Oppression great Calamity do's raise Fears and Alarms transform the Bridal-days The Chief of London by Americ Reign Shall of a nipping Scottish Frost complain King Reb. so false an Antichrist shall have As shall occasion Victims for the Grave Within the Isles shall mighty Tumults come All Musick yielding to the Martial Drum. Th' Assailants shall such a brisk On-set make That all to the Great League themselves betake The City made a Slave of one so Free Shall the Assylum of the Banish't be The King would gladly change his froward Mind When he 100 shall 1000 find Norway and Dacia with the British Shore Shall the United Brothers vex full sore The Roman Chief proceeding from French Blood Shall have his Forces driven to the Wood. The Royal Church-man bowing's Head too low A Bloody Torrent from his Mouth shall flow The English Realm by ' nother Realm respires From Death in Slavery that Life inspires Thirty on London-bridge seek the King's Death The Guards shall make him pine away his Breath This Scene of Things remov'd a brown-hair'd King Shall there be chose who did from Frtezland spring The Brown-hair'd coming with Hawk-nose to Fight Shall put his baffl'd Enemy to flight The Exiles to the Land he shall restore Placing the Stoutest of them next the Shore He who the Principality shall hold By Cruelty indecent to be told At last shall see a mighty Army rang'd And his Condition into dang'rous chang'd 'T were better fairly to agree the Thing Lest him to 's Fate the Juyce of Orange bring One dubious not from far shall come to Reign The greater Party shall his Side sustain This by the Great One tho' it be withstood He can't maintain the Title of his Blood. A Kingdom betwixt Brothers in Contest With whom the British Arms and Name should rest The English Title shall be late advis'd Into French Air see one by Night surpriz'd The Successor aveng'd of 's Brother'n Law Whom that Pretence to take the Crown did draw The Obstacle being slain his Blood shall slight Britain shall long with treach'rous France unite Th' Unhappy driv'n away for Grief shall die A Woman celebrates the Victory The Ancient Law and Edict Freedom have The Wall and the Sev'nth Prince shall find a Grave The City the great Mastiff forc'd to leave Shall at the wonderful Alliance grieve Tho' he has made the tim'rous Hart to fly The Wolf and Bear shall yet his Pow'r defie Great Britain as compris'd in England known Shall with an Inundation be o're-flown The New Ausonian League shall offer War To all that to unite against it dare While thro' the Camp the mighty Losses ring The News shall Terror to the Soldiers bring Into Revolt whole Troops and Squadrons run The Great One leaves them seeing he 's undone The King shall find the Want approaching near Of all the Forces which he did cashiere The Faith shall fail which long had promis't been Forsaken and distrest he shall be seen Just upon Fighting shall Defection be The Adverse Chief obtains the Victory The Rere-Guard stand Death follows them that run In the White Territory this is done The City shall the Naval Force obey That shall return after a little stay The Citizens a Prize at Land shall gain The Fleet for a new Lading comes again A Land enslav'd shall in a Martial Hour See its self rais'd to high Degree of Pow'r Their Prince they 'll change and a Provincial mounts Passing the Seas with Forces rais'd near Monts Exiles by Hatred and intestine Ire Against their King successfully conspire The Foes in secret carry on the Mine And his old Friends help forward the Design The Elder Lion to the Young shall yield By single Duel in the Martial Field He in a Golden Cage shall lose his Eyes Two Navies one shall cruel Death surprize Near to the Bridge upon a spacious Plain The Lion shall Caesarian Force maintain Their Pride without the City he 'll abate Himself brought in with Crouds within the Gate To the great Neptune of the spacious Sea In whom French Blood and Punique Faith agree To try at last in Blood the Isles to drown More hurt than from the secret Ill is known Of the Condemn'd shall be a dismal Sight When in the same Design Monarchs unite One shall be so incumbred in 's Affairs They shan't be able to be join'd in Wars One day the two Grear Masters shall combine And find themselves advanc't in their Design The New Land to its Altitude shall rise The Number shall the Bloody-one surprise The Roman Pow'r shall kiss the lowly Ground And its Great Neighbour the like Chance confound Secret Debates and Civil Discords soon Shall stop the Follies of the poor Buffoon After a German Prince does come from far Carried aloft upon a Golden Car With Servitude and Waters in his Way The Dame shall serve and none her Pow'r obey Millain Ferrare Turin and Aquilee Capne and Brundis sorely vex't shall be By th' Eagle Lion and the Celtiques join'd And a Britannick Head Rome then shall find The Celtique Hero with a great amass Of banish't Worthies into Rome shall pass And the Great Pastor shall to Death consign All nigh the Alps who with the Cock shall join From Trojan Blood shall come a German Heart Who to so high Degree of Pow'r shall start That the Arabian Strangers he shall chase And to the Church restore its pristine Grace The Year that Saturn's out of Servitude The Free Land shall be cover'd with a Flood With Trojan Blood in Marr'age he 's ally'd And shall be safe with Spaniards on his Side The second Chief of the rough Danish Soil With those of Frieze and the bold British Isle Shall cause 100 000 Marks to be Spent in a Voyage into Italy The Royal Blood shall Forces raise to gain Th' expected Empire of the Vatican Flemings and English with the Spaniard joyn'd ' Gainst Italy and France shall be combin'd Long uninhabited shall be the Place Which Sein and Marne with watry Arms embrace Assaulted by the Tbames and
Warriors bold Their Force not by the Guard to be controll'd Burdeaux Roan Rochel joyning all their Force Upon the spacious Ocean take their Course The English-Britans and the Flemings joyn'd Shall chase them up to Roan as Clouds with Wind. From farthest Westward of the English Soil Where is the Chief of the brave British Isle A Fleet into the Garonne comes by Blay France to hide Fire in Barrels shall essay Th' English shall pass by Rochel into Blay The Great Aemathien leading them the Way Not far from Agen he the French shall meet The Help from Narboun fails them by deceipt Th' Aemathien o're the Pyrenaeans goes Narboun in War dares not his Way oppose By Sea and Land he with such Pow'r shall ride The Cap shall want a Place where to abide Near Nancy a most bloody Conflict see Th' Aemathien says All shall submit to Me. The British Isle by Salt and Wine in doubt But Mets shan't long be able to hold out A quick Translation of the Empire see In a small Place the lofty Seat shall be A Place inferior of but mean Account Into the middle shall its Scepter mount England of Pow'r shall be the glorious Seat More than Three hundred Years continuing Great Large Forces thence shall pass through Land and Seas To the disquiet of the Portugees Thames Garone Rochel all engag'd in War Oh Trojan-Blood your Arrows fatal are The Scaling-Ladders shall the Fortress reach Fire on the Bridge and Slaughter in the Breach Roman High-Priest Take heed how you come nigh The City which two Rivers do supply The Blood of you and yours shall freely flow There in the Season when the Roses blow Great Changes France betide in luckless Hour In a strange Place shall be the Seat of Pow'r Quite diff'rent Laws and Manners it must take Part of its Mis'ry Roan and Chartres make When the Great Monarch bears away the Prize From those of Ausburgh and their firm Allies Cologne the Chief of Frankfort shall retake Their Way thro' Flanders into France they 'll make Tall Horse-men from the Celtique Gall shall ride With Men of divers Nations on their side Th' Agent for †Aquitain they will confine To make him pliable to their Design The River which does the young Celtique prove Shall in the Empire mighty Discord move For the young Prince the Clergy shall declare He takes the Scepter and the Crown shall wear The Celtique River shall new Channel take Cologne its Out-bound shall no longer make Except the Ancient Language all is new Saturn Mars Leo Cancer Spoils pursue Great Disappointments shall the Frenchmen find Their vain light Hearts puff't up with empty Wind Salt Wine and Bread Water and Beer shall fail The Great one cold and famish't in a Gaol The Blood of Churchmen shall be largely shed And like a mighty River it shall spread Long shall it be before the Slaughter ends Wo to the Clerk Ruine and Grief attends They 'd have the King by Force his Game retreive His Nephew since the Citizens receive The Pris'ner now to talk and act is free The King without keeps far from th' Enemy The King o' th' Isles shall be driv'n out by force For not consenting unto a Divorce From what 's soon own'd unfitting to have been One without Mark of King in 's Place is seen Such Expectation never shall be known In Europe rais'd Asia the Sight shall own One of the League of the Great Hermes's Line In Glory shall the Eastern Kings out-shine The King of Europe with the Northern Flow'r Shall like a Gryphon come in mighty Pow'r In Red and White a num'rous Force shall lead All join'd against the Babylonish Head. Grebner PEr idem tempus Rex quidam Borealis nomine CAROLUS MARIAM ex Papistica Religione sibi assumptam in Matrimonium conjunxerit ex quo evadet Regum infelicissimus Unde populus ejus ipso abdicato Comitem quendam perantiquae Familiae regno praeponet qui tres annos aut eo circiter durabit hoc quoque remoto Equitem quendam bellicosum in ejus locum assumet qui paulo ampliùs regnabit Posthunc eliget nullum Interea unus è stirpe Caroli in littore regni patris sui cum Gallicis Suevicis Danicis Hollandicis Burgundicis Germanicis auxiliis stabit omnes inimicos suos cruentissimo bello superabit postea Regnum suum felicissimè administrabit eritque Carolo magno major Sum Anglicus truculentus Leo modo rugens fremens immane saeviens animosus faelix Victoriosus contra omnes hostes Patriae meae fideliter auxilio venio praesidio ac clementi meae Reginae asporto pretiosum cimelion Margaritam dictam Belgicas Hispanicas dictiones unde Regina mea tempore vitae suae certo magnificè gloriosè Trumphat Terra Jubila Jubila canta exulta quod vidisti exoptatum diem Ruinae excidii Antichristi quod ductu auspicio faelici Anglorum Gallorum Danorum Germanicorum Scotorum Suecorum praesidio dextrae numinis altipotentis fiet Europae labes imbecilitas singulorum ejusdem Regnorum sedem mirabiliter struet Quintae Monarchiae quae sub tempus exitii Romani Imperii ad terrorem totius Mundi ex ruinis Germaniae refulgebit Haec triennii spatio caetera Europae regna aut vi praedomitabit aut belli metu ad Societatem propellet quo universalem Ligam unionem omnium Protestantium efficiet Hoc vexillum de fratribus quoque Uraniae Principis eorum posteris Illustrissimis intelligendum Leones nostri audaces in primâ acie fremunt unde nobis potentia crescit Gloria Fama augescit Grebner TO CHARLES a Northern King much Woe 't will breed To marry MARY of the Romish Creed The People casting off his luckless Sway Shall of an Ancient House an Earl obey Three Years or thereabout he them shall Head Then shall a Warlike Knight come in his stead He something longer shall maintain his Post After him Nol is chose to rule the Rost Of Charles his Lineage there shall One arise Who with French Germans Swedes Danes Dutch Supplies Upon the Shore of 's Father's Realm shall Land And Conquer all who dare his Arms withstand With great Prosperity he long shall Reign In Glory ev'n surpassing Charlemain An English Roaring Lion am I found My Rage and Courage with Successes Crown'd For Aid and Safeguard to my Country come I to my Queen bring a rich Treasure home Holland and Spain well call'd a Precious Stone Whence shall my Queen enjoy a happy Throne Rejoice O Earth Proclaim a Jubilee For you the Fall of Antichrist shall see With happy Conduct in auspicious Hour The English French Scotch Swedish Danish Flow'r Shall cast her down by the Almighty's Pow'r The Europaean Kingdoms