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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28558	A defence of Sir Robert Filmer, against the mistakes and misrepresentations of Algernon Sidney, esq. in a paper delivered by him to the sheriffs upon the scaffold on Tower-Hill, on Fryday December the 7th 1683 before his execution there.	Bohun, Edmund, 1645-1699.	1684 (1684)	Wing B3450; ESTC R2726	20,559	19

all the care imaginable taken that no Counterfeit Papers might be foisted in afterwards by Sealing them up in a Trunk Tryal p. 21. and Mr. Sidney himself desired to set his Seal too on them for his further assurance Such groundless and almost impossible Surmises as these betray a bad Cause supported with much wilfulness But that which follows is much worse For tho' we should grant it no very difficult thing to Counterfeit a Name or a few Lines who can think so large a Discourse as that Printed in his Tryal and yet it was not the fiftieth part of the whole that was produced and not the tenth of that offered to be read as he tells us in this Paper Pag. 2. Can any man in his right Wits think any man could or would counterfeit at this prodigious rate He tells us in his Tryal If these Papers are right it mentions 200 and odd Sheets Pag. 34. A bold and unheard of Undertaking to pretend to Counterfeit so much And strange must be the Legerdemain that could get them into the Study so opportunely Quae sic mihi narras incredulus odi But the crafty Rogue did not only Counterfeit his Hand so exactly that they that were best acquainted with it swore they believed it was all written by Mr. Sidney but hit his Judgment too so that he said at his Tryal I do not know whether they are my own or no which if they had been Counterfeit he could not have said but these very Papers such as they are do abhor as much as any one can such a Design Pag. 32. Which he could never have said neither if that had been the first time he had ever seen them As he seems to insinuate at his Tryal p. 26. when he replyed My Lord let him give an account of it the Libel that did it Nor hath he retracted one Title in this his last Paper of that which was read at his Tryal but rather confirmed it and in all probability the Truths he so feared would be taken for Treasons may all be found in those Papers I had not insisted so long on this but to shew the temper of the man and to shew the Reader how just it is he should not too easily believe the Account he gives of Sir Robert Filmer He goes on thus But if I had been seen to Write them the matter would not be much altered They plainly appear to relate unto a large Treatise written long since in Answer to Filmer 's Book which by all Intelligent men is thought to be grounded upon Wicked Principles equally pernicious unto Magistrates and People Why if there was so little in it why was all this pains taken to insinuate an Opinion into the minds of men that they might possibly for he no where affirms it positively be Counterfeit And it was much less excusable to do it in this Paper than at his Tryal Here he ought to have laid by all his Arts and Disguises and with the freedom of a dying man have told the world whether that Libel were his or no for whatever he might think at the Bar he was sure on the Scaffold it could not hurt him any further But as nice as he is in this he tells us pretty roundly what his Opinion is of Filmer's Book and no man must pass for an Intelligent man who shall presume to be of another judgment In very good time Are all the Intelligent men in the world become Republicans For I am confident no other man can approve of this Censure and it will pose a wiser man than he ever was to prove any one of Sir R. Filmer's Principles without wresting wicked or pernicious to any other Magistrates or People but such as have itching Fingers to be plucking down their Princes and calling them to account and revenging their own supposed Wrongs on them And for such Magistrates such People none but Traytors would concern themselves in a Monarchy any otherwise than to detest and abhor them and their pernicious Principles Having thus passed a general Censure upon Sir R. Filmer's Book he comes in the next place to a more particular which runs thus pag. 2. If he might publish unto the world his Opinion That all men are born under a Necessity derived from the Laws of God and Nature to submit unto an absolute Kingly Government which could be restrained by no Laws or Oath and that he that hath the Power whether he came unto it by Creation Election Inheritance Usurpation or any other way had the Right and none must oppose his Will but the Persons and Estates of his Subjects must be indispensably subject unto it I know not why I might not have published my Opinion to the contrary without the breach of any Law I have yet known These are his words and it is my duty to enquire how far he hath truly represented Sir Robert Filmer's judgment And as to his first Proposition That all men are born c. I believe he will not be able to shew it me in terminis any where in Sir R. Filmer's Works but I think I can shew him the contrary Patriarcha p. 6. I am not to question or quarrel at the Rights or Liberties of This or any Other Nation my task is chiefly to enquire from whom These first came not to dispute what or how many these are but whether they were derived from the Laws of Natural Liberty or from the Grace and Bounty of Princes My desire and hope is that the People of England may and do enjoy as ample Priviledges as any Nation under Heaven the greatest Liberty in the World if it be duly considered is for a People to live under a Monarch it is the Magna Charta of this Kingdom all other shews or pretexts of Liberty are but several degrees of Slavery and a Liberty only to destroy Liberty And after this pag. 53. he hath these words Indeed the world for a long time knew no other sort of Government but only Monarchy The best Order the greatest Strength the most Stability and Easiest Government are to be found all in Monarchy and in no other Form of Government And he doth every where prefer Monarchy before all other Forms but that he hath any where condemned Aristocracies or Democracies as contrary to the Laws of God and Nature is not to be shewn in him tho' at the same time he owns Monarchy as Aristotle did to be the First the Natural and the Divinest Form of Government p. 53. But to infer from hence That all men are born under a Necessity derived from the Laws of God and Nature to submit unto an absolute Kingly Government is such a Consequence as nothing but passion could draw from those Principles * Grotius de jure Belli pacis l 2. Cap. 5. Sect. 9. n. 3. For tho' Monarchy should be yielded to be the best it will not follow that all other Forms are unlawful tho' it will that

or without Oath he is no further bound than the Equity and Justice of the Contract ties him for a man may have relief against an unreasonable and unjust promise if either Deceit or Errour or Force or Fear induced him thereunto or if it be hurtful or grievous in the performance Since the Laws in many Cases give the King a Prerogative above common persons I see no reason why he should be denied the Priviledge which the Meanest of his Subjects doth enjoy These are Sir R. Filmer's own words and now let the Reader judge whether Mr. Sidney have truly represented him in this particular I come now to his next particular which is about acquiring the Right of Dominion wherein Mr. Sidney represents Sir R. Filmer's Opinion in these words And that he that hath the Power whether he came unto it by Creation Election Inheritance Vjurpation or any other way had the Right That is had an equal right for so it must be understood Now of these the first Creation is not mentioned in Sir R. Filmer and is non-sense when it is applyed to a Soveraign Prince the other two Election and Inheritance are not quarrel'd but upon the last Mr. Sidney spends all his forces Before I consider what he hath said I will represent Sir R. Filmer in his own words Patriarcha pag. 22. If it please God for the Correction of the Prince or Punishment of the People to suffer Princes to be removed and others to be placed in their rooms either by the Factions of the Nobility or Rebellion of the People in all such Cases the Judgment of God who hath power to give and to take away Kingdoms is most just yet the Ministry of Men who execute Gods Judgments without Commission is sinful and damnable God doth but use and turn Mens Vnrighteous Acts to the performance of his Righteous Decrees In all Kingdoms or Common wealths in the World whether the Prince be the Supreme Father of the People or but the true Heir of such a Father or whether he come to the Crown by Vsurpation or by Election of the Nobles or of the People or by any other way whatsoever or whether some few or a Multitude govern the Common-Wealth Yet still the Authority that is in any one or in many or in all these is the only right and natural Authority of a Supreme Father There is and always shall be continued to the end of the World a Natural Right of a Supreme Father over every Multitude although by the secret Will of God many at first do most unjustly obtain the Exercise of it In a private estate the title is held good if it came by Just descent or else by Gift or Purchase from those who had that right thereunto and if it hath quietly and happily passed the third and fourth Generation he that hath read the 2d Commandment will be ready to yield him the proprietor Gods apprebation for it But if it be made evident that no good title can be produced against it that it hath so continued time out of mind without apparent usurpation the owner hath indeed Gods title to it The reason is the same and much stronger for Princes The Doctrine of the Scripture concerning the Original of Dominion pag. 76. Grotius de jure Belli Pacis lib. 2. c. 4. I do not observe that he hath any where determined in this piece when and how far Subjects are bound to submit to an Usurper But I will give the best judgment I can in it First then I say taking an Usurper in the right Notion for one that hath no lawful or just Title the Subjects are bound to resist him and stand for the Lawful Heir and his Posterity as long as they are or can be known as far as is possible without apparent destruction But if the Right Heir or Family fail or is extinguished then that Obligation fails and the Event is to be taken as the declaration of the Will of God and the Heirs of the Usurper will have a good Title against any other Person or Family in the World who can have no right to Usurp upon them because their Ancestors did so upon another preceding Family And this is for the Peace and Welfare of the World And that Injury which Usurpers do is reserved to the Justice of a Righteous and Almighty God who will punish them severely in the next world if they escape in this But on the other side if there should be left an Eternal Liberty to Subjects and other men to revenge from one Generation to another one Usurpation with another the World would be turned into an Aceldama a Field of Blood to the ruine of many thousands of poor innocent souls His last Complaint in this Paragraph is That according to Sir R. F. None must oppose His the Princes Will but the Persons and Estates of His Subjects must be indispensably subject unto it Now if by Opposing be understood Resisting I yield him the point and I think it is the only point in which he hath truly represented Sir R. Filmer's Judgment Now in Answer to this I say 1st That in every Society or Community under Heaven that is * Licet singulae per se spectatae Communitates perfecta sunt tamen illa quae est pars alterius sub hac ratiene imperfecta est non absolutè sed comparatè seu respectivè Suarez de leg L. 1. c. 7. Sect. 19. perfect within it self and doth not depend upon another there must be an absolute and uncontrollable Power fixed some where which may indispensably and irresistably dispose of the Estates and Persons od the Subjects within that Society or Community For if every man be left at liberty to dispose of his own Estate and Person as he pleaseth himself then can he have no Protection but what his own Natural Force will afford him and that will certainly be overpowred at one time or other by others Without this there can be no justice Administred within the Society for if every particular man may be Judge in his own case the right will certainly be asserted on both sides tho' it really can be but on one no Malefactor will ever condemn himself nor submit to Justice if he can and may resist and if a War happen every man will be for saving his own Goods from the expence his own Person from the danger of it And the Consequence must be that that Society or Multitude rather must perish either by Internal disorders or External force 2ly This Power is and must be One in every Society it is indivisible for supposing that it should be divided in the same Society into two or more parts as betwixt two men or two Senates or Councils without any dependance upon one another or any third thing Rom. 13. 4. Both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Minister is in the singular Number to shew God is not the Author of contending Powers and the Instrument is so