Angels be condemned to Eternal punishments with all his Partners joyn'd with him in the same Conspiracy that the same punishment of final perdition may reach all that are Complices and Partakers of the same guilt Wherefore if this thrice repeated Sentence be according to the mind of all you that are here present confirm the same with your Unanimous Voices Accordingly the whole Body of the Clergy and People have said and declared Whosoever shall presume to do any thing against this your Decree Let him be Anathema Maranatha that is accurst and damn'd at the coming of our Lord and have his share and lot with Judas Iscariot both they and their Complices Amen In consideration therefore of the Premises we Priests do admonish and warn the Holy Church of Christ and all the People to take care that this tremendous and so oft repeated Sentence of Excommunication may not make any of us obnoxious to present and eternal condemnation but that keeping the Faith we have sworn to our most Glorious Lord King Sisenandus and serving him with sincere Loyalty we may not only incline the Divine Clemency and Goodness towards us but may also deserve the favour of our Gracious Prince Amen We also with the Humility that becomes us do entreat thee These qualifications of a good Prince are most of them taken out of St. Austin Lib. 5. de Civitate Dei. O King here present amongst us and all Princes thy Successors for time to come that behaving your selves with all moderation and gentleness towards your Subjects you may in Righteousness and Godliness rule the People by God committed to your charge that so you may be able to give a good account of your Stewardship to Christ who has constituted you governing your Subjects with humbleness of Heart and being found in a constant endeavour of procuring their Good and Welfare That none of you alone may undertake to judge of Capital Matters or any Mans Estate but that by publick consent of the Judges and other Magistrates and in an open Tryal the Guilt of Delinquents may be made apparent observing a merciful disposition towards those who have offended that your indulgence and mercy in sparing may appear as well as your Severity in punishing So that all things by the assistance of God being administred and preserv'd by you with a godly Rule and Government you Kings may have reason to rejoyce in your People as well as your People in you and that God may rejoyce in you both And as to what belongs to all future Kings we pronounce this our Sentence that in case any of them without being restrain'd by the Reverence due to the Laws shall by a proud Lordliness being puft up with the Royal dignity by injustice violence and oppression exercise a tyranical and cruel Power against his Subjects let all such be condemn'd and anathematiz'd by Christ and be separated from God and subjected to his Judgments for that he presumed to act wickedly and to endeavour the hurt and ruine of the Kingdom And as for Suintilanus who fearing the punishment of his Crimes has deserted the Kingdom depriving himself thereby of the Royal Power we with the Consent of the People have Decreed that neither he nor his Wife nor Children shall ever be received by us into our Society because of the wickedness they are guilty of or restored to those Honours from whence they have been so justly cast down and that they shall not only for ever stand deprived of the Prerogatives of the Royal Dignity but also forfeit all the Wealth they have got by oppressing the miserable People except only that which shall be allow'd them by the goodness of our Gracious Prince The same Sentence we likewise pronounce against Geilanus the said Suintilanus his Brother as in Blood so in Crimes and Wickedness who was perfidious to his own Brother and has broken his Faith promised to our most glorious Lord wherefore we also cast him and his Wife and banish them from our Society together with those before-mentioned and exclude them from the Common-wealth of our Nation and that they shall not be restored to the Possessions which by wickedness they had gotten except only what they may obtain from the Bounty of our most Gracious Prince who as he is ready to enrich those that are good with bountiful Rewards so neither does he altogether exclude those that are wicked from his diffusive Beneficence Now Glory and Honour be ascribed to our Almighty God in whose name we are here Assembled and may Happiness Peace and a long continued Reign be the Portion of our most Pious Lord and Lover of Christ King Sisenand whose Piety and Devotion has caâ—l to this Assembly to establish and enact this wholesome Decree May the Glory of Christ strengthen and establish his Kingdom and the Gothick Nation in the Catholick Faith and multiply his Years and Virtues preserving him to the highest old age and may he after the Glory of his Reign here on Earth pass over to the Eternal Kingdom in Heaven that he may Reign there without end who here has Reigned well and happily by the grace and help of him who is King of kings and Lord of lords with the Father and Holy Spirit for ever and ever Amen The things above written being thus decreed and determined by us with the Consent and Approbation of our most Religious Prince we also have engaged never to infringe any Point thereof but exactly to keep and observe the same and because these things do greatly concern the good of the Church and the welfare of Souls we have thought good to strengthen and confirm the same by our particular Subscription that they may stand ratified for ever And accordingly was subscribed by all of them Concilii Toletani IV. CAN. LXXV POst instituta quaedam ecclesiastici ordinis Concilio Tolet. v. cap. 7. decernitur ut hoc decretum in omnibus synodis peractis publicâ voce pronuncietur vel decreta quae ad quorundam pertinent disciplinam postrema nobis cunctis sacerdotibus sententia est pro robore nostrorum Regum stabilitate gentis Gothorum pontificale ultimum sub Deo judice ferre decretum Multarum quippe gentium ut fama est tanta extat perfidia animorum ut fidem Sacramento promissam regibus suis servare contemnant ore simulent juramenti professionem dum retineant mente perfidiae impietatem Zach. 7. ef 8. Jurant enim Regibus suis fidem quam pollicentur praevaricant nec metuunt volumen illud judicii per quod inducitur maledictio multaque poenarum comminatio super eos qui jurant in nomine Dei mendaciter Quae igitur spes talibus populis contra hostes laborantibus erit quae fides ultra cum aliis gentibus in pace credenda quod foedus non violandum quae in hostibus jurata sponsio * * stabilis perm permanebit quando nec ipsis propriis regibus juratam fidem
nor unknown and upon occasion of which the States of the Empire have had an opportunity to declare make out their Rights and Pretensions One of the first Examples we find respecting this Matter is the Deposition of Lewis the Good in the Year 833. The Acts whereof we may see in Baronius Goldast du Chesne and le Comte Whereupon we may make these Reflections 1. That the Thing was done with the Consent of the Bishops and of all the Nobility 2. That the Estates above all accuse him for having broke his Coronation-Oath 3. That though this Lewis was afterwards restored to the Throne of the Empire yet those that restored him never contested the Power the State had to reject a Prince who overturn'd the Rules of Government but supposed only that he had not been duly convinced of the Crimes laid to his charge We have another Example in the Deposition of Henry IV. The Archbishops Bishops Dukes and Earls declare that they had not sworn to him till after he had engaged himself by his Oath to them to observe the Laws and the Capitulations of the Empire so that having now violated them they were set free from the Oath they had sworn to him and that they considered him as an Enemy against whom they would wage war to their last breath Lambert Schafnaburg One of the last Instances we find in the deposing of the Emperor Wenceslaus who was deposed by the Electors of the Empire in the Year 1400 after that he had been twice taken Prisoner and had been exhorted by the State to amend and take up from his irregular Actings Aventin lib. 7. Annalium Cuspinian in Vita Venceslai We may see the most part of these Articles and many more solidly confirmed in the Book of Carpsovius de Lege Regia Imperatorum Germaniae and in the Imperial Capitulations and other Laws which he has caused to be printed at the End of his Treatise CHAP. XIII That the Power of the Kings of Poland is Limited WE find the same Limitation in other States whether they be Successive or Elective I shall content my self to alledge only one Example concerning the Kingdoms that at present are Elective and that shall be of the Kingdom of Poland Poland from the Relation of Cromer gives us an illustrious Example of the Wisdom of Northern People in bounding the Power of their Princes After that the Family of Lech the first Founder of that Kingdom was extinct that State changed the Royal Government into that of XII Waywods otherwise called Palatines These Palatines abusing their Authority they re-established the Regal Government in favor of Cracus whose second Son was expell'd by the Polanders for killing his Elder Brother They afterwards chose the Daughter of Cracus for their Queen who 't is said having drowned her self to avoid Marriage the Polanders again established 12 Palatines as they had done before but afterwards suppressed them again because they found them insufficient to defend the Countrey and chose Premiel for their King. This is Lesko the 1 who lived about the year 750. It was not till the Year 965 that Miesco turn'd Christian and took upon him the Title of King of Poland which Title was confirmed by the Emperor Otho III to Bosletas his Successor His Successors having reigned until Lesko Surnamed the Black who was forced by Flight to quit the Kingdom because he was not able to resist the Tartars and died without Issue the Poles wearied with intestine Wars excited by the Ambition of their great Lords chose Premiel to be their King who being kill'd without leaving any Children behind him they made choice of Ladislaus who was afterwards desposed for Male-Administration by the States General Wenceslaus King of Bohemia who had been chosen in his stead dying in the Year 1305 Ladislaus was recall'd to the Government to whom Casimir his Son succeeded who in the Year 1370 designed for his Successor with consent of the States Lewis the Son of Charles King of Hungary by his Sister The Poles after the Death of Lewis chose Edwiga his Daughter upon condition that she should marry the Person whom the States should recommend to her for a Husband the Person recommended by them was Jagello Duke of Lithuania who had the name of Ladislaus given him by the Archbishop of Gnesna who anointed and Crowned after he had first baptized him He outliv'd Edwiga who died without Children and had for Successors the children of his fourth Wife who reached until Sigismund Augustus after whose Death the States chose in the Year 1573 Henry Duke of Anjou who after he had reigned four Months in Poland abandon'd the Kingdom to take possession of the Crown of France and was deprived of that of Poland by the States as may be seen from the Acts recorded by Historians This Vacancy occasion'd a Division in the States one part of them having chosen the Emperor Maximilian the Second and the other part Anne the Sister of Sigismund Augustus to whom they gave Stephen Battori Prince of Transylvania for her husband who Married the said Anne and was Crowned at Cracovia in 1576. After the Death of Stephen the States chose Sigismund Son of John III King of Sweden and of Katharine Daughter of Sigismund I. of that name King of Poland It is evident from this Abridgment 1st That the Poles always pretended to be the Masters that had right to give the Form to their State which seemed to them most comporting with the Good and Welfare of it 2ly That they took it for granted that they had Power to reject those Princes or Palatines whose Behaviour was contrary to the Publick Good for which they had raised them 3ly That they ever had an Eye to Succession so far as to bestow the Crown sometimes upon Daughters yet not thinking themselves bound to it but only so far as the good of the State did permit 4ly That they had regard to the appointing of a Successor when the States had first consented to it 5ly That the Flight or Desertion of their Kings has appear'd to them a sufficient Ground to proceed to a new Election in their stead and to reject them This is evident from the History of Lesko surnamed the Black and of Henry the III of France 6ly That the anointing and Crowning of their Kings was of no avail to dispense with their Oath in which they publickly declare That if they do not observe the Laws of the State the People are dispensed from their Oaths of Fealty they have sworn to them CHAP. XIV That the Monarchy of France is not an Absolute Empire but a Limited Royalty 'T IS not of to day only that some have imagined the Monarchy of France to be an unlimited Power and an Absolute Empire Bodinus was of that opinion before them but they that follow his sentiment understand nothing of that Constitution or if they do have a greater desire to flatter the unjust Pretensions of that Court than to maintain the
trouble a Society thought good to divide the command amongst many Those who took notice that this equality produced dissensions amongst many Governors placed the power in one person only Those that were aware that a single person might overturn the Laws and set up his will as the only rule of his conduct found it necessary to preserve to the People their share in the Government In a word every Nation chose that way they thought most sure and proper to obtain the true ends of an happy Government in order to secure and preserve the Society What I have said in general concerning the original of Soveraignty or Magistracy amongst Men shews that it cannot be denied but that the institution thereof is Divine though God did not think fit to determine it to any certain form of Magistracy whether of Monarchy Aristocrasie or Democrasie but left it to the Peoples free choice to pitch upon that form they should judge most convenient for them But to procure a farther light to this matter we must consider the Judgment of Philosophers and Divines concerning this point CHAP. II. The different Opinions of Philosophers and Divines concerning this matter IT may be said That there are three Opinions concerning the original of Soveraign Magistracy Cicero in his Books of the Commonwealth was of Opinion as appears from the definition he sets down That Governments were at first formed by an effect of pure necessity St. August de civit D. which forced the weaker to seek for aid and succour from those that were stronger to secure themselves from oppression This was also the Opinion of the famous Archbishop of Burgos in the Council of Basil Fascic Fol. 7. The Body of Christian Divines maintains that the Authority of the Sword was instituted by God as may be seen Gen. 9. And it appears that whereas before the Deluge the Patriarchs were the only Masters of their Families which gave occasion to abundance of Crimes Justice not being executed with vigour enough to put a stop to the course of exorbitances as long as it was in the hands of a common Father God was pleased to enact a Law whereby the Sword should no longer be bound up to each head of a Family but committed to one who should be particularly charged therewith by the common consent of the Society The Third Opinion is that of some new Divines and other flatterers of the unbridled power of Princes who maintain that Kings derive their Authority immediately from God and not mediately from the consent of the People Thus Peter de Marca declares himself on this point de concord lib. 2. c. 2. v. 1 2 3. following therein the sentiments of Victoria and Duval the one a Spaniard and the other a Frenchman We need not wonder if Cicero was mistaken in the deciding of this matter as being destitute of that light which Moses furnisheth Divines with He determines this point only as a natural Philosopher However we must observe that Cicero himself and the most wise amongst the Heathens have sufficiently given to understand that they conceived Magistracy without which it is impossible for a Society to subsist to be of Divine Original as well as all other good and profitable institutions for the benefit of Mankind But not to insist upon this forasmuch as all Divines agree that the original of Magistracy is from God our business only is to enquire which is the truer Opinion theirs who acknowledging the Divine institution of Magistracy maintain that this Authority is communicated to the Powers and Magistrates by the People or of those who pretend that God immediately communicates the same to the Magistrates that are invested therewith In order to the resolving of which before we pass any further we are to observe 1st That the Body of Divines who defend the former of these Opinions do agree That the Authority of Magistrates is not to be accounted less Divine because it does not immediately come down from God. They own these Two things 1st That God has ordered there should be Sovereign Magistrates to regulate and govern Societies 2ly That God having divested private Persons of the right of doing themselves Justice in case of Offences given them has ordained that the Magistrates should have the Sword put into their Hands by Capital and other Punishments to stop the violence of those who disturb the Peace of the Society and violate the Rules of Justice And in this respect they acknowledge Magistracy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a divine Settlement and Institution Secondly We are to observe That when on the other hand they maintain That the Power of the Magistrates is conferred by consent of the People in which respect they pretend That St. Peter calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that doth not in the least diminish the Authority of this Divine Institution of Magistrates which they refer solely and immediately to God. Thirdly That whatsoever Notion we may frame of the Power of Magistrates whether we suppose it conferr'd upon them immediately by God as M. de Marca pretends or whether it be only mediately derived to them from God by the intervening consent of the People the thing is still the same because it is evident that this Power is not communicated to them but for the subsistence of the Society the Preservation whereof is the natural End of Government and Sovereignty Fourthly That they do not oppose this Notion of the immediate Collation of the Sovereign Power by God save only that they might express themselves more exactly and distinguish the ordinary Governments of the World from the Kingdom of Israel For the same Divines generally own That the Institution of the Royal Power in Israel was an immediate Act of God but withal maintain That the same cannot be said of other Sovereigns This laid down I say That nothing can be imagined more vain than the second of these Opinions and it is enough only to understand the terms which those Divines make use of to express their Sentiment concerning the Original of Sovereign Magistrates in every State and to consider the Proofs they alledge to evidence the falseness of it which Opinion accordingly I shall refute in the following Third Chapter CHAP. III. That Sovereigns do not receive their Power immediately from God. I Say then That it is false That Sovereigns receive their Power immediately from God. This is a Truth may be easily made out Indeed though the Power of Magistrates of what sort soever they be be of Divine Institution which of all the present Sovereign Powers whether Monarchs Commonwealths or any other Form of State was instituted immediately by God And who are the Persons invested therewith whom God has immediately called to that sort of Power All States are formed either by Conquest or by Consent of the People which intervenes in the Election at the first Founding of a State and which is renewed in every subsequent Election of Princes or which is perpetuated in successive Kingdoms
Truth We need only to lay open the nature and antient Power of the States General with the manner of their Behaviour towards those Kings who abused the Power committed to them to make it evident that the French Monarchy is limited in its Constitution Under the first and second Race of the Kings of France there was no mention of any Assembly of the States General but only of the Franks that is to say the Nobles and Prelats who were used to meet together on the first of May in the open Field where they deliberated with the King concerning matters of Peace and War and took Resolutions of what was to be done all the Year after After the breaking up of this Assembly the Court of the Royal Palace otherwise called the Court of France composed of the Prelats and Great Barons that is to say the immediate Vassals of the Crown met together five or six times a Year to take care of the Execution of what had been resolv'd upon in the General Assembly to deliberate about publick Affairs that offer'd themselves and to determine as Judges the most important matters of private Persons Under the declination of the 2d Race the Governours of Cities and Provinces having made themselves Hereditary Lords of the places of their respective Governments under the Title of Counties and Dutchies cut themselves large Portions out of the Soveraign's Lands by which means the Court of France was no more frequented by the Lords except only when they were obliged to do Hommage and take the Oath of Fidelity or when an Enemy invaded France for then they presented themselves before the King to advise about the present necessity This Disorder continued until the Reign of Philip Augustus who having conquer'd Normandy and the Counties of Tourain Anjou Maine from John without Land King of England and the Country of Vermandois from the Earl of Flanders restored in some manner the Royal Authority and forced the Barons to frequent his Court and to be present at the Assemblies he called for the Affairs and Necessities of State. Nevertheless those Assemblies consisted only of the Prelats and Barons and this till the Reign of King John some Authors say of St. Lewis who being taken at the Battle of Poictiers and carried to England they were forc'd to raise a great Sum of Money for his Ransom and to this End they appli'd themselves to the Merchants and other Inhabitants of Cities who were then the richest Men of the Kingdom who agreed to pay the King's Ransom upon condition that they might be received into the Charges and Offices as well of Peace as of War and be allowed to have a Place and deliberative Voice in the States-General which was accordingly granted to them The Power and Prerogative of the States-General was such that the Kings of France could not make any new Levies of Mony without them Which continued so till the Reign of Charles VII as is acknowledged by Philip de Commines Lib. 6 c. 7. Neither could they make any new Ordinances nor repeal or suppress the old without the consent of the said States as is owned by Davila lib. 2 de li Guerri Civili Under the First and second Race of the French Kings the Ordinances were likewise made in the Assembly of the Prelats and Barons which constituted the Soveraign Court of France 't was there the Treaties of Peace were made between the Kings of France and Foreign Princes and Nations the Portions of the Children of France were there regulated there they treated of their Marriages and generally of all that concern'd the Affairs of State of the King's Houshold and the Children of France The Ordinances that were made in the said Assemblies in the Name of the Kings of France were conceived in these Terms Nos de consilio consensu Procerum nostrorum statuimus c. We with the Advice and Consent of our Lords do ordain And from hence is derived the Custome observed at this Day of verifying the Royal Edicts in the Parliament of Paris which in some sort represents the Assembly of the Prelats and Barons who composed as we have said the Soveraign Court of France In the Treasury of the French Kings at Chartres are found several Treaties between King Philip Augustus and Richard and John without Land Kings of England at the bottom of which are the Seals of the Prelats and Barons by whose Consent and Approbation the said Treaties had been made And Pope Innocent VI having sent to entreat St. Lewis that he would be pleas'd to permit him to retire into France to secure himself from the attempts of Frederick II. the said King answered the Popes Nuncio that he would communicate the Matter to his Parliament without whose Consent the Kings of France could do nothing of Importance This is related by Matthew Paris in the Life of Henry the III. King of England ad Annum 1244. We find also the manner how the States determined all Affairs respecting the Crown and Succession as for Example the Process which was between Philip de Valois and King Edward In this Assembly of the States saith the Chancellor de l' Hospital was Tried and Debated the most Noble Cause that ever was viz. To whom the Crown of France did belong after the Death of Charles the Fair to Philip of Valois his Cousin or to Edward King of England King Philip not presiding in that Assembly because he was not yet King and besides was a Party It appears clearly from the Power of the States General That the Power of the King of France is bounded by Law indeed this is a Truth whereof we cannot make the least doubt forasmuch as we find it acknowledged by Lewis XI the most unbridled Monarch that ever was See what he writes in the Rosary of War composed by him a little before his Death for the use of Charles VIII his Son. When Kings or Princes saith he have no respect to the Law they take from the People what they ought to leave them possest of and do not give them what they ought to have and in so doing they make their People Slaves and thereby lose the name of a King. For no body can be called a King but he that rules and has Dominion over Free-men This thing was so notorious even to Strangers themselves that Machiavel maintained that the Stability of the Monarchy of France was owing to this because the Kings there were obliged to a great number of Laws which proved the Security and Safe-guard of all their Subjects Lib. 1 di Discorsi c. 16. Messire Claudius de Seissel in his Treatise of the French Monarchy part 2. chap. 12. dedicated to Francis I. maintains upon this account That the Monarchy of France does partake of Aristocrasy which makes it both more perfect and durable Yea he asserts that it was also in part Democratical and expresly maintains that an absolute Monarchy is no other than true Tyranny when it is made use of
acknowledg that to judg aright of Things the Proceedings of England with respect to James II. have been the most just and lawful that could be The Things I have made out in this Treatise are summarily contain'd in the following Articles 1. That the Constitution and Establishment of any Government is the Effect of the Original Consent of the People though the Authority of the Magistrates be a Thing established by God. 2. That this Establishment supposeth the Subsistence of the Laws which are the End of the Government in the Design of God for indeed Kingdoms without Justice are no better than great Robberies as St. Austin calls them De Civit. Dei Lib. 4. cap. 4. 3. That these Fundamental Laws for the Subsistence of the Society are a Bond which so strictly ties the Soveraigns that nothing is able to dispense with their Obligation to them 4. That when the Soveraigns do violate them they break the Ties whereby their Subjects are bound to their Lawful Authority 5. That the Subjects can never be deprived of their Right to hinder the Ruin of the Society and of the Laws for the conservation of which only they have put their Rights into the Hands of the Prince 6. That there was never any State that subsisted under other conditions than these 7. That England in particular and Scotland have always had this Right Now these Things supposed it is evident 1. That James II. has forfeited all his Rights to the Crown even before his Desertion 2. That the Lords and People justly took up Arms against him to oblige him by Force to reform the Disorders he had caused 3. That the States had Power without any regard had to Him to raise the King and Queen to the Throne 4. That the Subjects are more than enough freed from their Oath of Allegiance to King James 5. That they have Right and are under Obligation to take up Arms and oppose themselves against James II. and to maintain the Authority of the King and Queen 6. That those who oppose themselves to this are declared Enemies of the State and of our Religion and the Authors and Abettors of Tyranny and Popery 7. That those who pretend themselves scrupulous in these Points are the Cause of the Division and consequently of the Ruin of the State and Religion whereby they grievously sin against God and therefore are obliged in Conscience to repent and make amends for the Mischief their Division has caused The thing is very evident and forasmuch as it is of the highest importance for their Salvation I beg of them well to weigh and consider these following Articles and witness their Repentance in all these respects 1. Then they ought to repent for that they making profession to have so strong an Affection for James II. they have made him fall upon the Designs of changing the Government into a Despotical and Arbitrary Power and thus by their Maxims have advanced and precipitated his Ruin. They are the Men who have made him conceive the Design of establishing a Tyranny in England they have given birth to his hope of being able to compass it according to his Hearts desire and his Ruin proceeding from the opposition that was made against these his Designs 't is them he may thank for all the Miseries into which he is plunged and consequently they have great reason to repent for having precipitated his Ruin by their false and deceitful Foundation See what Gerson saith In opusc contr Adulat consid 10. Clericus ille Regem suum aut Principem amaret minimè qui perversas tales vellet dare doctrinas aut toto posse scientia illas non impediret quia non est modus certior quo Rex aut Princeps se perderet in corpore in anima totamque ejus damnationem quam habendo falsas tales opiniones eas opere exequendo Cur Quoniam Dominatio sua in Tyrannidem verteretur in infidelitatem That Clergy-man would be far from loving his King or Prince who should teach him such perverse and false Doctrines or that with all his Power and Skill should not oppose them because there is not a more sure way for a Prince to destroy himself Soul and Body and to procure his total Damnation than by entertaining such false Opinions and reducing them into practice Why so Because his Government by this means would be changed into Tyranny and Perfidiousness 2. They ought to repent for their having contributed so much towards the establishing of Tyranny not only because that would have destroyed the Publick Liberty but because his Design at the same time was to overthrow the Protestant Religion and substitute in the place of it the Idolatry Superstition and Tyranny of Popish Usurpation This was a thing they could not do without imitating the Conduct of the Popish Clergy who since the Popes have undertaken to tread under their Feet the Rules of the Gospel and of the Church have endeavoured to inspire Princes with an indifferency for their Oaths and contempt of the Laws which are a Safeguard and Security of the Civil Society 3. They must repent at least some of them for having obstinately endeavoured to hide and disguise the Conspiracies which were design'd for the Ruin of our Religion and Liberty 4. They must repent for having writ in favour of an Opinion contrary to the Judgment of the Ancient Reformers of England and for having traduc'd as Rebels the Protestant Churches beyond the Sea for their maintaining the Maxims which the first Reformers of England have Asserted and for which they have Writ in defence of their Protestant Brethren 5. They must repent for that by their Sermons and Writings they have insinuated to the People those Maxims which have put them upon betraying the Natural Rights of the Society and in the Sequel upon imprudently exposing themselves to betray the Interest of the Protestant Religion which they were obliged to deliver safe to their Posterity 6. They must repent for having by this means encouraged the Judges to tread underfoot the Authority of the Laws and to dispence with them as having taught them to look upon the Laws as the Concessions of Princes and Acts of their Will and by Consequence revocable at their good Pleasure 7. They must repent at least some of them for having mounted to Ecclesiastical Dignities by publickly appearing in the Lists for defence of these pernicious and tyrannical Maxims directly level'd at the Ruin and Overthrow of our Liberty and Religion 8. They must repent for that their Opinions at this Day are the Causes of the present Conspiracies Rebellions and Treasons against the Government by which God has been pleas'd so graciously to secure our Liberty and Religion from the inevitable Ruin wherewith they were threatned However we have cause to bless God that those who are guilty of these Sins are but inconsiderable in their Numbers And I ardently wish for them they may once seriously enter into themselves