they are positive sure 't is Impudence as well as Capital perhaps to oppose And yet we see these Gentlemen of so little Law to Labour so much in a dispute that is only to be decided by it what Authority is the singular assertion of a Republican or a * pag. 21. Plato Redivivus that the House of Commons is the only part of the old Constitution of Parliament that is left us or the single sense of ‖ Tryal p. 23. §. 2. Mr. Sidney that the Senate of England is above its Soveraign against the form of the very first Act of State that remains upon Record the very †Magn. Chart. 9. H. 3. know ye that we of our mere will have given c. Chart. Forest 9. H. 3. begins also with a we will Stat. Hiber 14. H. 3. only a mere Order of the King to the Son of Maurice his Judge there the words we command you Witness my self Note that was even concerning Free-hold and a Case of Co-parcenary The Stat. Bisex 21. H. 3. tho concerning pleading and Common Law but an Order of the King to his Judges for the words are we ordain and Command you Stat. Assiza 51. H. 3. The King to whom all these shall come greeting de scacc the King Commandeth Charter these Democraticks adore against the form of the following one of the Forest and Consult but the Style of the Statute Book and all the Antient Acts down to Richard the Second and you 'll find not so much as one but what expressly points out in its Enacting part the sole power of the Soveraign by which it was Enacted all in these repeated Expressions of Absolute Majesty We the Kings of England of our free will have given and granted it is our Royal Will and Pleasure the King Commands the Kings Wills our Lord the King has establisht the Lord the King hath ordain'd And most of them made in the manner of Edicts or Proclamations as in the Margin will appear and tho 't is thought now such a piece of Illegality to be concluded by an Order of Council and even his Majesties late command for the Continuance of the Tunnage and the Resolution of the Judges about that part of the Excise which expir'd has by some of our murmurers been repin'd at tho by all Loyal ones it was as chearfully assented to and as punctually paid yet they shall see that the People heretofore paid such a deference even to an Edict of the Prince that they nearly rely'd as much upon it as the Romans did upon their Imperial Institutions who as I before shew'd lookt upon it as a crime like to Sacrilege but to disobey And this will appear from an †31. Hen. 8. c. 8. Stat. Mert. 6. The King our Lord providing hath made these Acts 2d Inst p. 101. Westm 1. 3. Ed. 1. 1. The King willeth and commandeth Stat. Gavelet even of altering the writ which they say can't be done but in Parliament Enacted by the King and his Justices 10. E. 2. Stat. E. 3. several say we will we ordain so also several R. 2. Act of Parliament in Henry the Eighth's time which provided H. 8 that the Princes Proclamations should not be contemned by such obstinate Persons and oppos'd by the willfullness of froward Subjects that don't consider what a King by his Royal Power may do and all that disobey'd were to be punisht according to the Penalty exprest in the Proclamation and if any should depart the Realm to decline answering for his Contumacy and Contempt he was to be adjudg'd a Traytor and tho the Statute limited it to such as did not extend to the Prejudice of Inheritance Liberties or Life yet the King was left the Judge Whether they were Prejudicial or not and these Kings Edicts by this very Act were by particular Clause made as binding as if they had been all Acts of Parliaments and that it may not be said to be an Inconsiderate and Vnadvised deed of the Parliament to give the King such a Power tho 't is hard to say so of a Senate whom the * Coke 4. Inst c. 1. Parl. writ that convokes them says they are call'd to deliberate To avoid that imputation I must tell them it was very Solemnly a Second time Confirm'd again within three †34. H. 8. c. 25. years after and by that Power given to nine of the Kings Council to give Judgment against all Offenders of the former and tho this was repeal'd in the following Reign of King ‖ 1. Ed. 4. c. 12. Edward a Minor and almost a Child A time wherein notwithstanding there is such a woe denounc'd against a People that have such a King the Subjects seldom fail of Invading something of the Prerogative yet still we see â—ho the Law be not now in force plain matter of Fact that there was once such a Law that our Kings Proclamations were once by express words of the Statute made as valid as the very Act of State it self that made them so that the Judicial Power of the Prince was heretofore less limited and that their Libels Plato Rediv lye as well as their lewd Tongues when they tell us and would have us believe That none but our late King as tell as the present ever pretended to so â—uch of Prerogative or had more allow'd â—â—em by the Laws And let any one but leisurably examine as I have particularly the several Acts of each King's Reign and he 'll find that from this Richard the Second to whose time the Stile of the Statutes as you see was in a manner absolutely Majestick down to King Charles the Martyr That the form 1. H. 4. H. 5. H. 6. Ed. 4. Rich. 3. even all those are pen'd in such Words as will exclude the Commons from being Co-ordinate and so much concerned in the Legislative as these popular Advocates have pretended to persuade us their People are for even they all run either in this form The * King with the Advice and Assent of his Lords Spiritual Then begins the other 1. H. 7. H. 8. Ed. 6. Q. Mar. Q. El. Jac. 1. and Temporal at the special Instance and Request of the Commons or The King by and with the Assent of his Lords Spiritual Temporal and Commons and as if the past Parliaments themselves would have provided againsâ— the Seditious Sophistry of a future Age which they could hardly be thought to foresee since it savors so much of almost unimaginable Nonsense and Sedition aâ— if our Ancestors had feared least some of their profligate posterity seduceâ— with the Corruptions of a Rebellionâ— Age should impose upon the Prerogative of the Crown with any such Subâ—â— Insinuation of their King 's making be Wil. Pryn's Power of Parliam one of the three States and by Consequence conclude as they actually did that the two being greater than him alone could be his Judges and their own Soveraign's Superiors why to
Latin Idiom sometimes applies the word Princeps to subordinate supremacy as well as to those that are sole Supream But even the Authority that he cites for this silly Suggestion and others P. Virgil himself is sufficiently secluded from being Authentick by Sir Henry In 's Epistle to Queen Eliz. Savill The next Factious Insinuation that follows is that John De Gaunt this Edward the Thirds fourth Son but the Eldest surviving disputed the Succession But this as a Learned and Loyal Author observes so far from Truth that he was at the latter end of his Fathers Life made Lieutenant of the Realm and Protector of it during Richard his Minority certainly had his Competition come in Question they would have been but dangerous Trusts and against the Laws of all Nations and our own for the Civil takes sufficient Care for the removing of all suspected Tutors and our Common ordained upon Instit Lib. 1. Tit. 26. de suspectis Tutoribus Cokes 1 Insti sect 108. Daniel p. 217. the Lord 's loosing his ward for disparagement that the wardship of the Heir should never go to the nearest of kin but to the next to whom the Inheritance cannot descend Daniel says King Edward purposely to prevent the disorder and mischiefs that attend the disordering Succession setled the same in Parliament on Richard lest John of Lancaster should supplant him as Earl John had done his Nephew Arthur and this disingenuous Creature perverts the fear of Supplantation into a dispute of the Succession and Stow tells us of nothing but his being made Prince of Wales on his Brothers Death But this Uncle proved a better Keeper of the King in his Protectorate than this John or Richard the Third had but the Poor Princes Subjects kept their Faith too and not given our perjured Author another Instance for the renouncing his Allegiance and a second president for the deposing of his King And here since this Historian has already cited two or three Popish Archbishops for the Countenancing of his Puritanism and the Doctrine of Bellarmin for the Counterpart of Buchanan conspiring in a perfect Harmony for the Deposition of their Kings and their Murder I 'le tell him of another Canterbury too that blew the Trumpet to the dethroning of the next King and the sacrificing of his Sovereign upon that Altar of his Lips For the first thing that the first Usurper attempted that aspiring Prince when he landed was the causing of Arundel then the Metropolitan to preach down King Richard the Prelate had ready a Bull procured from Rome promising Remission of Sins to all those that should aid the said Henry and after their death to be placed in Paradice which preaching as our Author says moved many to cleave to the Duke Stow p. 320. but this Popish Puritan knows our Bishops and Divines since the Reformation have taught him better Doctrine and he licks up the very Poyson of his deadly Foes only to spit the venom in the Face of the Government But with what face can he tell us of a Parliament here drawing up a Form of Resignation which was just as much a Parliament as their late Major part of Members that were to be obey'd in their Association An Invader Usurper and a banisht Subject takes upon him in the name of his Sovereing to Summon it and so did our late Rebels fight and fire at his Majesty but still with his own good Leave and Authority this Convok't that Parliament as Cromwel secluded his with an Army at his heels only those had secured their King in the Tower these in the Isie of Wight and shall these their Journals of Rebellion make up a Book of Presidents Is such a fellow fit to breath under a mild Government that calls for Blood where there is so much Mercy that Recommends to your reading an Impeachment of his King and refers you to the Charge and Articles that were drawn up for his Deposition as a worthy Subject and well deserving to be read Brief History page 7. Why did he not tells us too as well deserving to be imitated Jan. 20 48. The Sollicitor Cook presented the Charge against CHARLES STEWART Engrost ordered that it be returned to him to be exhibited Preposterous Lump of Law and It is a Maxim in Law Rexest Principium Caput Finis Parliamenti Logick revers'd that prints himself the Contradiction to common Equity and Reason can such a Body Politick justly convene it self only to Rebel against its head and to take away that Breath from whence it needs must have its being and can those Laws be made to Vid. Bracton Lib. 1. C. 2. Leges Anglicanae Regum Authoritate jubent conspire his Death from whom themselves acknowledge they receive their Life But as to the matter of Fact it self you shall see what Sence some of the Times had of it The King of France 22. E. 3. 6. Resolved the King makes Laws by the Assent of Lords and Commons was so sensible of this Injurious Proceeding that it ran him into a fit of Frenzy Richard being related to him by the Marriage of his Daughter he acquaints his Lords with his Resolution of Revenge and they shew'd themselves as ready to take it too but were prevented here in England by their taking away his Life which made them desist not able to serve him after his Death This is but an Evidence how the Villany was resented abroad and you may find they were as much upbraided with it at home and that to their very face when a Parliament was sitting and their Usurper on the Throne by the Loyal Prelate of Carlisle whose Memory may it live as long as Loyalty can flourish or our Annals last so solid and unanswerable were the Suggestions so significant the Sense of this pious Soul that it silenc'd all the Senate that Vide Baker and Trussel agree in the same of the Bishops Speech was sitting and nothing but the prospect of some private or publick Favor and Preferment hindred their Conviction their King was cool enough in prosecuting of his bold Truths being scarce warm in his own Government yet at last upon Debate and Consultation they confin'd the bold Bishop for a while for the Liberty that he took and could only condemn his bold Indiscretion for shewing them so much the badness of their Cause Hollinshed tells us this poor Prince was most unthankfully us'd of his Subjects In no Kings days were the Commons in greater Wealth or the Nobility more 3d. Vol. Chron. f. 5â—8 cherisht how near some of our pamper'd Jesuruns that are fatten'd to rebel confirm the danger of too much Luxury and ease the present fears from their experienced Attempts can best attest But the fatality that befel that unhappy Prince affords us the best politicks for the prevention of the like Fate And now for his Henry the Fourth he is forc't to falsifie for his depending on the Parliaments choice when in
History the best account of that King and he tells us he had no less then three Titles to the Crown whatever that Italian States-man Commines could conceive to the contrary first his Title in right of the Lady Elizabeth whom he was resolv'd to marry secondly that of the Line of Lancasters long disputed both by Plea and Arms thirdly the Conquest by his own But the Learned Historian observes the first was look't on the fairest and Yorks line been always lik't as the best Plea in the Crowns descent and for Confirmation of it the Learned Lord tells us that this Henry knew the Title of Lancaster Condemn'd by Act of Parliament Bacon Hist H. 7. p. 3. Ibid. page 12. and prejudic'd in the Common opinion of the Realm and that the root of all the Mischiefs that befel him was the discountenancing of the house of York whom the General body of the Kingdom still affected and whatever stress and reliance this Prince might place in the PARLIAMENT's power this able states-man observes there is still a great deal of difference 'twixt a King that holds by civil Act of State and him that holds Originally by the Law of NATVRE and DISCENT of BLOOD so that we have here a Person vers'd in our own Laws an excellent and allowed Scholar by the whole World and not only Lauds and Bishops as our bigotted Author would have it allowing a Divine right by the Laws of Nature and who I am sure was so good a Naturalist as best understood her Laws and that Natural discent by blood to be much more preferable than any other Human title given by such Inferiour powers of a Parliament whom the most zealou's adorerssure won't acknowledg more Omnipotent then the God of Nature himself I shall observe another Historical Instance that a true lineal discent was then taken for the best title and even in those times had the greatest Influence which was the Lord Stanley's Case who tho the very Person that plac'd the Crown on this Princes head yet suffer'd the loss of Vid Bacon Hist his own only for saying somewhat that savoured of his kindness to the Succession and that if he was sure the Children of Edward were alive he would not â—ear Arms against them so mightily did the sense of the right blood prevail with him that he sacrified all his own for it and rather than recant what he so well resolv'd seem'd no way sollicitous for his Life But that which this Historian might have observ'd too in this Reign as a discouragement to the designs of some of their popular Patriots then afoot when he pen'd this his presumptuous piece was the ill success that two several impostures met with in their pretensions to a Crown to which they were not born no great Inducement certainly for any one to be persuaded to personate the Royal Heir to set up for a Lambert or a Perkin only for their misfortune and fate Lastly I shall conclude my remarks upon this Kings Reign with an Animadversion upon a Paragraph or two that conclude his piece very pertinent to this place since it relates to the times of which we treat and that is the resolution of the Judges upon the Case of this their King that the Descent of the Crown purged all his defects and attainder This their opinion he refutes Brief Hist p. 17. as Frivolous Extrajudicial and here Impertinent but I hope to show this Point a most material one the Resolution to be a good Judgment and their reply much to the present purpose First sure it was a matter and that of a high Nature to know how he was qualify'd to sit in the House that was to preside in it as the head And tho he might in some sense be said to have won the Crown with Arms yet he knew it would wear much Better sit much Easier if setled and establish't according to Law and tho a Conquerer that has the Sword in his hand can soon capacitate himself to sway the Scepter yet he 'l soon find the most regular Proceedings tend most to the Establishment of his Reign this made Henry the Seventh who had a Triple Plea for the Crown and that one by discent from the Lancasters consult his Oracles of the Law how far an Attainder past in the Reign of the Yorks would still taint his Blood and make it less Inheritable Secondly their Resolution that all preceding defects were purg'd in the discent was a Judgment both equitable and reasonable for 't was sure but equal that an Heir to whom an Inheritance and that of a Crown was allowed to discend should be qualify'd to take too for if he was a King no Bill of Attainder could touch him that was past too when he was none And if he was no King Vid Dyer H. 7. f. 59. The King is the head of the Parliament Lords and Commons but Members So no more Parliament without a King than a body without a head It is no Stat. if a King assent not to it 12. H. 7. 20. all the concurrence of the Lords and Commons cou'd never have made him an Act for his being so there being no Royal Authority to pass it into Law and nothing by the very constitution of our Government can be made a Law without so that such a resolution certainly was highly reasonable and unavoidable that that should purge its own defects which no power had perfection anough to purge wou'd he have a King pass an Act with his two Houses for the reversal of his own Attainder or the two Houses reverse the Attainder of their King If the first the allowing him to pass such an Act supersedes the end for which it should be past and makes him de Facto capable whom they would capacitate if he allows the Latter then he must an Interregnum too extinguish that Monarchy for a while of which the very Maxim says the Monarch can't dye and place that Supream power in the People which all our Fundamental Laws have put in the King Thirdly this Resolution is very pertinent to the present purpose to which 't is commonly now apply'd and that is the Bill of Exclusion But his passion and prejudice would not permit him to Examin the little difference there is between them For certainly that ability that can discharge any attainder is as efficacious for the voiding and nulling any Bill that shall hinder the descent for a Bill of Exclusion would have been but a Bill or an Act of the House for disabling the next Heir And an Attainder can do the same and is as much the Houses Act and to distinguish that in an Exclusion the Discent it self is prevented by a Law makes just no difference for whoever is Attainted has his Discent prevented by a Law too and that antecedently also before the Descent can come to purge him so that they only differ in this formal sort of Insignificancy In an Exclusion the Discents prevention would be
should contend for the disordering the Succession of the Crown who still labour for the Lineal Discent of their own Common Inheritance and I will appeal to the breast of the most violent contender for this Power whether an Act made for the disabling one of their own Sons or design'd Successors would not by themselves be look't on as unjust if not utterly defeasible and then 't is sure prodigiously strange where so many Learned Heads tell us of a sort of entail from a power Divine where the common Custom of the Kingdom has been a constant course of Lineal Discent unless as has been shown a perfect Rebellion interven'd And where themselves acknowledg this sort of Succession has been sometimes by Statute entail'd yet still they should think that but Justice to their Kings Successor which they would resent as an Injury to their own But they may vouch for it the common sort of Recoveries from a right Heir with a too Cunning sort of vouching and perhaps too much practis'd but I am sure it no way agrees with the Laws of Forraign Nations and has been a little condemn'd by some learned Heads in our own and some that have brought it into dispute seem to have rais'd a Devil not so soon to be put down in their Dialogues Vid. Dr and Student p. 49 to 58. but however this Objection is nothing analagous nothing of a Parallel Case for here is a Complication of both Parties Concern'd and concluded upon by both their Consents and where shall we find the perfect Proprietor of Crowns and Scepters and when God has told us to that by him they Reign that bear them and they 'l hardly vouch the Almighty for a piece of Injustice But allowing it for once a meer Human Constitution and in their bandied Authority of Saint Peter an Ordinance of Man and the Kings Consent with his Parliaments to determine the Point yet still the great disparity would call for a little longer consideration than a Common Recovery and not presently to cut off the right of an Heir to three Kingdoms only because commonly done at Westminster of one to so many Cottages and besides when that has been practis'd so long and born the test of Time and this their attempt would have been the first President And at last what has silenc'd their Advocates for ever the non-concurrence of the King and his Lords whose consent was by themselves suppos'd to be necessary because requir'd and will like those recognitions of some of our former Parliaments for an Hereditary Succession perpetuate that right in spight of the Laws of others that were made for altering it and should the Commons ever get such a Bill to pass 't is enough to say 't was once rejected by the Peers unless they can prove that the Question was put again Whether the lower House should take advice of the Lords in the Legislative power and that 't was Resolved that the House of 6. Feb. 48. carried in the Neg. p. 15. voices Peers was useless dangerous and ought to be abolish't and Order'd that an Act be brought in for that purpose Queen Mary succeeds her Brother In the very first of her Reign there was an Act made declaring her Succession and Inheritance to be by right of Blood Edward with all the Right of Blood with all the Law of God and Man too on her side for whatever the Parliament pretended they could never Illegitimise that which was begotten in Matrimony celebrated according to the Laws of the Church and the Realm for whatsoever defect there was found subsequent to the Consummation of the Marriage in common reason and equity ought not to have extended to the making that Issue spurious which had all the requisites to the making it truly Legitimate tho perhaps the subsequent discoveries might be sufficient to cause a Divorce and in the too Common Case of Adultery 't would be severe far from Equity to make Bastards of all that were born before the Conviction of the Fact but it may be reply'd to this That these were such Impediments as related to the Contract ab Jnitio and where that 's Invalid there the Children begotten after can't be suppos'd Lawful Heirs when the Contract it self is against Law but tho still I shall look upon that as a rigorous resolution when I think Innocents and Infants ought to be more favour'd especially when there is a Maxim in the Law even in the like Cases that the fact Quod fieri non debet factum valet may be valid tho the doing of it can't be justifi'd and besides there being a Rule that obtains amongst Civilians That Leg. qui in provincia Sect. divs H. de Rit Nup. 1. 4. Marriage contracted without any preconceiv'd Impediment tho it after come to be dissolv'd as unlawful yet Children begotten in such a state are reputed truly Legitimate and tho Appeals to Rome were then Punishable with a Premunire yet the Civil Law then obtain'd much more than it does now that Stat. being very young as well as the Reformation and by the Laws of the Church long before it they were such Latitudinarians in this point that the subsequent Marriage would Legitimate those that were born before the Contract but that I confess was rejected here in 20 Harry the 3d's time 20. H. 3d. because contrary to the common Laws of the Realm which the Parliament resolutely declar'd they would not change But what ever power they had of Nullifying this and making Mary spurious 't is certain another and latter Act 35. H. 8. made her as much Legitimate by making her Hereditary insomuch that what ever Edward her Brother was prevail'd upon a young Prince and a dying one whose forward Understanding might be well disorder'd with an approaching Death and an untimely end and which might be easily prevail'd upon in such Circumstances by the Cruel sollicitations of the designing Northumberland Stow. 609. Vid. Bishop of Hereford's last year of E. 6. whose Son had but just Married Suffolk's Daughter the designed Queen yet even then Cranmer the truly Loyal Bishop and as true a Protestant of which his adbering to the right of the Crown was the best testimony tho now 't is made but a preposterous Emphatical expression of that Religion to invade it that worthy Prelate tho he suffer'd in the Succeeding flames of a real Persecution when demanded by these State Projectors his sense of the setting up of this Testamentary Queen declar'd it was no way agreeable to Equity to disinherit the two Sisters and that the Succession could not be Lawfully alter'd upon any pretence tho Religion then too was the very thing pretended the Bishop of Hereford that was as good a Protestant observes upon the Suffolk men siding with Queen Mary tho they knew she was for setting up of Popery says that our English are in their respects to their Prince so Loyally Constant that no regard no pretext of
Secondly I 'll shew that this their confounded principle of perfect Confusion is not only against the Fundamental Law of the Land but against the sense of every Law that ever was made in it Every preamble of an Act and that of every Proviso there runs with A Be it Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty It is no Stat. if the King assent not 12. H. 7. 20. H. 8. by and with the CONSENT of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in the present Parliament Assembled And then let any sober person Judge where lies the Soveraignty would it be suffer'd to be thus exprest were they not satisfy'd they were not all Soveraigns or if they were ought it not according to this Rebel and Republican run We the King Lords and Commons Enact but I 'll let him know how and what the Libertine would again have that Enacting part of an Act of Parliament to be tho the Politick Knave fear'd it was too soon yet to declare plainly for an Usurpation viz. Be it Enacted and ordained An Act. March 1657. Vid. Act of Oblivion 51 by his Highness the Lord Protector Or the Parliament of England having had good Experience of the Affection of the people to this present Government by their ready Assistance in the defence there of against Charles Stewart Son of the Late Tyrant and his Forces invading this Nation do Enact c. That our Kings in the time of the Saxons Danes and some part of the Normans had more absolute Power over their Subjects than some of their Successors since himself can't deny the Charter of Liberties being made but in the Reign of Henry the Third and when the People had less of Priviledges the Kings must be supposed to have had more of Praerogative therefore we shall examine only what and where the Supremacy is at present and where the Laws of the Land not the Will of the Prince do place it In the Parliament that was held at York in Edward the Seconds time The Rebellious Barons that 15. Ed. 2. had violently extorted what Concessions they pleas'd from the Crown in His like those in the three foregoing Reigns when they seal'd almost each Confirmation of their Charter in Blood were all censured and condemn'd and the encroaching Ordinances they made in those Times all repeal'd Because says the Statute The Kings Royal Power Great Stat. Roll. 26. H. 3. to Ed. 3. 1. Ric. 3. Exact Abridg fol. 112. was restrain'd against the Greatness of his Seigniory Royal contrary to the State of the Crown and that by Subjects Provisions over the Power Royal of the Ancestors of our Lord the King Troubles and Wars came upon the Realm I look upon this as an absolute Acknowledgment of a Royal Power which is sure the same with his Soveraign sufficiently distinguisht here from the Parliaments or the Peoples co-ordinate Supremacy for those condemn'd Ordinances were lookt upon as Usurpations upon the Kings Supremacy which they call the Power Royal of his Ancestors and not as our Author would have too of the Sovereign power of Lords and Commons At the Convention of the three Estates first of Richard the Third where 1. R. 3. the Parliament call themselves so themselves expound also what is meant by it And say it is the Lords Spiritual Temporal and Commons of this Land assembled in present Parliament so that we have here the whole three States besides the King owning themselves such without assuming to themselves a Soveraign power recognizing the Right of Richard and acknowledging him the Sovereign And tho I shall for ever condemn as well as all Ages will their allowing his Usurpation a Right which was an absolute wrong yet this is an undeniable Argument that then they did not make their King Co-ordinate with themselves made themselves declared themselves three States without him and acknowledged their King the Sovereign and Supream That Act that punisht appeals to Rome with a premunire in Henry the Eighâ—h's time gives this Reason why 24. H. 8. none should be made to the Pope nor out of the Kingdom because the King alone was only the supream head in it It tells us expressly That England is an Empire that the King the Supream Head has the Dignity and Royal Estate of the Emperial Crown unto whom a body Politick divided into Terms and Names of Spirituality and Temporality been bounden owe next to God humble Obedience c. Who has furnisht him with Plenary Entire Power Preheminence Authority Prerogative and Jurisdiction Here his Body Politick is devided into Spiritual and Temporal here he is called the supreme Head and here I think is a full Recognition of his sole Sovereignty And 't is strange that what a Parliament did in Opposition to Popery should be so zealously contradicted by such Sycophants that pretend so much to oppose it In the next place he tells us of an error he lay under that he thought our Commonalty had not formally assembled in Parliament before Henry the Thirds time but of that now is fully Page 103. convinc'd by the Labours of some learned Lawyers whom he names and lets them know too how much they are obliged to him for the Honor But I suppose he reads but one sort of Books and that such as suit with his Humor and Sedition and of that Nature he can meet with Variety for I dare avow that within the space of six years all that ever was or can be said against the best of Governnent our own all that was or ever will be rak't up for justifying a Rebellion and restoring a Republick from falsifyed Roll and Record from perverted History and Matter of Fact by Pens virulent and Factious with all the Art and Industry and whatever thought could invent for its Ruine and Destruction has been Printed and Publisht such an Universal Conspiration of Men of several Faculties each assisting with what was his Excellency his Talent in Treason which seemed to be the Task-Master of the Town and Monopolizer of Trades But our Politician might return to his old Opinion again did he but consult other Authors I believe as learned Antiquarians I am sure more Loyal Subjects who can shew him that the Saxons Councils call'd the Witena Gemotes had in them no Commons That the Conqueror call'd none of them to his great Councils none in those of his two Sons that succeeded nor none in any of the Parliaments down to Henry the Third my Lord Coke tells us of the Coke first Institutes Lib. 2d C. 10. T. Burgage Names this Parliament had before the Conquest as Sinoth Michel or Witena Gemote which he says implyed the Great Court or Meeting of the King and all his Wise Men And also sometimes of the King with his Council of his Bishops Nobles and the Wisest of the People and unless from the wisest of the People and all his Wise Men they can make up an House of Commons I am sure
confirmed Henry the 7th had his Negative Voice the thing those Seditious discontented Grumblers so much repine at maintained asserted for his undoubted Prerogative It is at present by the Law of ‖ 12. H. 7. 20. 7. H. 7. 14. his Time no Statute if the King assent not A Prince beloved and favoured only because he was their King who tho he had as many subsidies granted more than any before him His Subjects you see never thought it a Grievance then to contribute to their Soveraign's being Great but acknowledged his Supremacy even under their greatest pressure His Extortion upon penal Statutes * Vid. 4. Inst Baker page 248. Historians call and the Law the most unjustest way for raising of Money that was ever used yet still had he the Hearts of his People as well as their Purses They thought Rebellion then could not be Justifyed with clamor of Oppression as since by Ship-money and Lone tho levyed by a King whom themselves had Opprest The simplicity of those times made them suffer like good Subjects and better Christians when the refined Politicks of such Authors and a profligate age can tell them now to be Wise is to Rebel I need not tell him who managed Affairs in Henry the †H. 8. Eighth's Time when Parliaments seemed to be frightned into Compliance with a Frown and Bills preferr'd more for the pleasure of the Prince than the profit of the People Their Memberships then so far from medling with the measures of the State that they seemed to take them for their sole Measures so far was then an Order of the House from controuling that of the Board And I can't see that the Peoples * 1 Car 3. Petition of Right has since beg'd away too the King's Prerogative yet it was affirmed for ‖ 25. H. 8. C. 21. Law in this King's Time that he had full power in all Causes to do Justice to all Men. If the Parliament or their Council shall †Plato manage Affairs let them tell me what will become of this Power and Law His Son Edward succeeded him and tho a Minor a Prince whose Youth might have given the People an opportunity for an Encroachment upon his Power and the Subject commonly will take advantage of the Supremacy and that sometimes too much when the Soveraign knows but little what it is to be a King I am sure they were so Seditiously Wise in that Infancy of Henry the Third and yet he had Protectors too as well as this But notwithstanding such an Opportunity for the robbing the Rights of the Crown you shall see then they took the first occasion for the asserting them In the very First year of his Reign it was resolved that all Authoritie and Jurisdiction Spiritual and Temporal is derived from the King but this Republican has found out another Resolution of resolving it into the power of the Parliament And in this very ‖ 5 Ed. 6. c. 11. Reign too it was provided as the common Policy and Duty of all Loving Subjects to restrain the Publishing all manner of Shameful Slanders against their King c. upon whom dependeth the whole Unity and Universal weal of the Realm what Sentence then would the Parliaments of those times have past upon Appeals to the City vox patriae's and a Plato Redivivus upon a Libel that would prove the †Plat. pag. 117. Kings Executive power of War forfeitable and that the * pag. 237. Prerogative which is in the Crown hinders the Execution of the Laws tho I am sure those very Laws are the best Asserters of the Prerogative there next resolve would have been to have ordered such an Author to the Flames by the Hands of the Hangman instead of that Honorable Vote the thanks of the House In Queen Mary's Time too the Law left all to her Majesty tells her all * 1 Mar. c. 2. Jurisdiction does and of Right ought to belong to her In Queen Elizabeth's ‖ 1 El. c. 1. Time what was Law before they were obliged even to Swear to be so Every Member of the House before qualified to sit in it forc'd to acknowledg his Soveraign SVPREAM in all Causes over all Persons And were their Memberships to be modelled according to the Common-wealth of this Plato their Oath must be repealed or they perjur'd Their very Constitution would be Inconfistant with his Supremacy they must manage and Command at the same time they Swear to submit and obey Was there ever a more full acknowledgment of Power and Prerogative than was made to King †Jac. c. 1. James upon his first coming to the Crown And tho I confess they took upon them to manage Affairs in his Son and Successors time yet this was not until they had openly bid him defyance to his Face and actually declared War against His Person then they might well set up their Votes for Law when they had violated the Fundamental ones of the Land yet themselves even in that Licentious and tumultuous time could own ‖ K. Charles his Collect. Ordinanc 1. part fol. 728. that such Bills as His Majesty was bound even in Conscience and Justice to pass were no Laws without his Assent What then did they think of those Ordinances of Blood and Rebellion with which themselves past such Bills afterward so unconscionable so unjust Here it was I confess these Commons of this pernicious Projector took upon them the management of the State their Councils their Committees set up for regulating the Kings Then their †Vid. wil. Prynns Parliam right to elect privy Councellors Pillor'd Advocate that lost his ears as this with his Treasonable Positions should his Head Publisht the very same Proposal in his pestering Prints the very Vomit of the Press to which the dangerous Dog did in the Literal Sense return to lick it up still discharing again the same choler he had brought up before in a Nauseous Crambe A Wretch that seemed to Write for the Haberdashers and Trunk-makers instead of the Company of Stationers that Elaborate Lining the Copious Library for Hat-cases and Close-stools that Will with a whisp whose fuming Brains were at last illuminated for the leading Men into Boggs and Ditches Rebellion and Sedition The Confusion of others only for the confounding of himself ‖ Vid. his Memento to Juncto for the for a King for the †2d his Parliaments Soveraigns Power For the Parliament for the * 3d. his Lords Bishops none of the Lords Bishops or the Buckle of the Canonical Girdle turned behind 〈…〉 every 〈…〉 for nothing but that ONE thing Scribble Compare the power of his Parliaments and his Vnparliamentary Juncto the meer Lumps of distorted Law or Legal Contradiction with the 25th of Edward He first deposes his King and even there then finds his Deposition Treason Their Divine Baxter never baffled himself more with the Bible and the Gospel than this Elaborate Legislator with
Interest in the Militia Military power without the Peoples consent but why may it not be with less Presumption supposed That a Parliament by special ‖ 12. Car. 2d c. 12. Act declared Traytors pitcht upon Him for their Pen-Man against the Prerogative and then it may be more easily concluded that Pryn was the most prejudic'd partial Person that ever put Pen to Paper for in spight of his Factious Heart he must be forc'd to confess that not only this very Charter of Liberties settled this Militia but that it was confirmed to the King almost in every Reign by Act of Parliament since the Time the very FIRST was made To the very Son and Successor of Henry that Great Confirmer of the great Grant they declare * 7. Ed. 1. c. 1. that to the King belongs to defend Force of Armour c. All that held by Knights Service the King could distrain them for the taking up Arms. By the Laws of the very next ‖ 1. Ed. 2. Reign And in his Son and Successors that Usurpt upon his †1. Ed. 3. Father's Right before it could be call'd his own they declare the manner of his Mustering and Arraying the Subject and this they did too to Henry * 4. H. 4. the Fourth A Prince that had truly no other Title to the Swords of his Subjects than what he had gotten by the Conquest of his own yet so necessary was this inseparable power of the Prince thought then to be solely in him by the People that they Acknowledg'd it to be absolutely even in him that could hardly pretend to the Crown so inseparable from the Right of Soveraignty did the Laws allow this unalterable part of the Prerogative that they have declared it Inherent even in such a sort of Soveraigns as seemed not very well qualified for an Execution of that Royal Power which the Judgment of their very Parliaments decreed to be entirely theirs They resolved it to be the Right of the Prince in the Reign of a ‖ 2. Ed. 6. c. 11. Child They resolved it so when Subjected to the Government of a * 4. 5. Mar. c. 3. Woman The Commission of Array was revived again to King †1. Jacob. James in whose Time they resolved it such a Necessary Right of the Crown that they repealed for it the very repealing Statute of the Queen This their * Lord Cook 4. Inst Oracle tells us and that in those parts of his Works which the Parliament that opposed this very power in their King themselves ordered to be Printed yet themselves could as impudently Assert against the Sense of the very Law they Published against the very Law that was reviv'd but in his very Father's ‖ Die Mer. 12. maji 41. Vid. Journal and last p. Cook 2. Inst Time that his Son and Successors tho necessitated for suppressing such Insurrections as themselves had raised †20. Jun. exact Col. p. 372. could not Issue out such Commissions of Array tho the very preamble of the Act declares the very purpose of it was to prevent and preserve the Prince from such Rebellious Subjects And in truth the Rebels were Conscious of their Guilt and that it was which made them resolve not to know the Law But presently represented in a Declaration that this 1 July exact Col. p. 386. Vid. also Dugd. p. 97. Commission was contrary to the Laws of the Land and the Libertie of the Subject tho the very express privilege the Statutable Right of all their Kings Royal Ancestors but would not those wicked Miscreants have made even the Crown an Usurpation in their King that just before ‖ This Declaration expressly against the very Words of 11. H. 7. Cap. 1. declared that it was against the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom that the Kings Subjects should be commanded to attend him at his Pleasure And ordered * 17. May exact Col. 193. that if they should be drawn in a Posture of Defence for their Soveraign the Sheriffs of the County should raise Forces to suppress them and then how can the most prejudiced partial Person presume to tell us that this their Kings Commission was contrary to the Liberty of the Subjects when they set themselves in Contradiction to all the Laws of the Land in the very Declaration that denyed him his Array Their Eighth Proposition is for the Forts and Castles and that the Fortifying them be in the Parliaments power but even that too base Caitiffs your selves know to be by the very Letter of the Law in the Kings the very Charter of their own Liberties in this point confirms also the Soveraign's Right where it is provided ‖ Si nos ab duxerimus vel Miserimus eum in exercitum sit quietus de Custodia Castri char c. 20. Statute Keeble 2. Inst 34. that the King can dispence with the Services that are due for the keeping of his Castles when he sends those that ought to do them to serve in his Host By the very * Castle-gaurd an old Service alway due to the King 1st Inst 70. 111. 121. till such Services were taken away 12. Car 2d common Law and Custom of the Realm before there was alway such Services due to the King for the keeping of Castles And certainly they were lookt upon then to be in the Disposal of the Prince when the Subject was but a Tenant to serve him in his Fortifications And this Chapter of their very Charter I hope proves sufficiently not only that the King can command his Castles to be defended but send his Subjects any where for his Defence which the Declaration of the Commons did as Rebelliously deny But besides the taking of the Kings Castles Forts Ports or Shipping is resolved and ever was reputed ‖ Brook Treason 24. Treason and were not the two Houses Traytors then by a Law before that of this King made them so by Statute when they ordered * Parl. 1641. Vid. Exact Coll. p. 123. 21. Mart. 22. Martii upon the London Petition and that of the Cinque-Ports that all his Majesty's Forts and Castles should be presently fortified that no Forces should be admitted into Hull without the Consent of Lords and Commons seized their Kings Shipping and made Warwick Vice-Admiral of the Fleet This was a sort of accumulated Treason whose every Individual Act was truly so as if they designed that the Statutes should not declare more things Treasonable than they could dare to commit My †Cooke 1. Inst pag 5. A. Lord Cooke tells us whom they cannot but believe that no Subject can build a Castle or so much as a House of strength imbattailed or any Fortress Defensible without the Soveraigns consent much less sure shall they seise those that are the Kings and Fortifie them for the People and tells us again the * 2d Inst Comment Chart. Chap. 15 same in his Comment upon the very Charter of
they seemed to be ashamed of that very Bastard Honor of which they were brought to Bed and could not tell how to Christen the base Bantling they had begot till at last some simpering Gossips stept up and Named it an other House i. e. an House without a Name Distracted Dolts the Compounds of Madness and Folly did you for this destroy your Kings Nobility created by Law to dignifie the meanest Men the Vilest Villains against the †17. Ed. 4. an Act for degrading Nevil Marquess Montague Because not sufficient for the maintaining the Dignity adding that Men of mean Birth preferred to Honor promote all manner of Injustice Statutes of the Land did not you confess that of the Kings Lords to be a Lawful Government and the best by recalling it tho compounded of Wretches the very worst poor Prodigals whose Repentance only rendered you more Miserable and reverst the Fate of him that fed on Husks who returned to Herd with Swine Have we not had heretofore Peers by particular †Act degraded for being a disgrace to their Peerage Lords whom the Kings Law made Honorable only their Lands could not maintain their Lordships Honors and that tho Blood and Descent had entitled them to it whereas many of these their Parliament Peers had neither Law Land Blood or Money to make them so Did not the Parliament that very Parliament that Abolisht afterward our English Peers Petition the ‖ 2. Car. 1. King against Scots and Irish Titles and told him to this purpose that it was Novelty without president that persons should possess Honor where they possess nothing else and have a Vote for the making Laws where they have not a Foot of Land had their own Objection been afterward applyed to some of their own Country and that pitiful Peerage of their own chusing they must have Blusht upon the Reflection of their own Thoughts when they remember'd with what they upbraided their King The possessions of their Noble Peers being Just none at all or what was worse than nothing the purchase of their Villanies It is recorded I remember in the Conqueror's Time that Hugh Lupus Earl of Chester upon special Favor of his Prince being the Son of his own Mother by a Second Husband Arlott having Marryed Harlowin a Noble-Man of Normandy that his Earldom was granted him by William the First with as ample Jurisdiction as himself held the Crown A power I think beyond any of our present Palatinates upon which he presumed to make three or four Barons but Historians observe it was such an Honorable Concession as never any Subject before or since enjoyed and how they can presume to pretend to it now I cannot Apprehend It was alway a particular piece of Providence amongst all Nations not to render that pitiful and Contemptible to the People which they resolved should be Reverenced and Esteemed and unless we can imagine our Idolaters of the Peoples Peers would like some Infidels adore their Wooden Deities only for beeing Ugly and Deform'd or like the Israelites Worship Calves of their own Rearing I am sure that empty Title with which their Honors of that other House were only full could draw no other Reverence and Respect than that Ass in the Apologue from an Image that it carried This I remember was the result of the Petition of the Portugals to Philip the Second of Spain and he I think obtained that Kingdom too as our Republicans did once and would again ours with the Subversion of its Laws and the Force of Arms it was their request that he would not make their Nobility of which they are not a little proud pitiful and contemptible by preferring such to that Degree whose Quality could not deserve it what Peers we had when pickt by the Council of State What Lords when cullyed out by the Commons let those remember who are so ready to forget it Seditious Sots have not the Laws of all Nations as well as our own provided that this power be the peculiar prerogative of the Prince and must these Politicks would Be 's be wiser now than the wide World Do not the Digests declare those Civil Sanctions whose Authority obtain with all Civiliz'd Subjects i. e. with almost all besides our own and whose Reason can't be refuted by the best of the Rebellious Republicans that so little regard those that their so much admired Legislators their Solon or Licurgus never saw the like Laws that must be allowed the most Rational by being so generally received those †Postquam ad Curam Principis Magistratuum creatio pertinere cepit c. D. 48. 141. Ordinis vero cujusque arbitrium primo Penes Imperatorem Zouch de jure milit nobilitat pars 2. Sect. 2. tell us and the World that the conferring of Dignities depends upon the Sole care of the Soveraign that the Subjects ought not to dispute it and such a Religious Observance of this settled Soveraignty do those sacred Sanctions recommend that they Censure it for a Crime as great as †Sacrilegii instar sit dubitare An is Dignus sit quem Princeps elegit C. 19. 20. 3. Sacrilege it self to suspect his insufficiency whom the Prince should prefer some of those Laws were the Constitutions of Heathens as well as other of those that afterward learnt Christ and had not the Doctrine of his Disciples declared Kings even an Ordinance of God the pious Pagans always esteemed their Princes Sacred and such a source of Honor was in their Soveraign Emperors that even against their very Laws they could allow them to continue those Noble whom the Marriage with a Plebeian had degraded from their Nobility as Antonius Augustus did for his Neece Julia. 'T is Nonsense I confess to talk of the Laws of all Nations to those that cannot obey their own or the Decrees of Emperors for the Preservation of their Majesty to those that will break Statutes to Libel their King yet still it serves to shew that even in this very point the Laws so long before ours †Vid. Coke Calv. Case fol. 15. Coke 7. fol. 33. None but Peers of the Realm to sit In House of Peers no Peer to be made but by the King allowed this power to be the peculiar prerogative of the Prince and tho we are bound only to submit to the Singular Laws and Customs of our little Land yet still if in our Senses we must be Subject to such Laws as are founded upon an Universal Reason and for these Republicks that have revolted from that Regal Government from whence they must derive their Honors we find the best of their Nobility to be but Burghers And the very Nobleman of Venice this Courteous Author so much Caresses and Admires one that must make himself so and at best but equivalent if such great things according to the Latin Aphorism may be compared with small to a Gentleman of England who wears only a shorter Coat while the other a longer Gown 'T
is a solecism in Sense to imagin that Plebeians can concur in conferring that on others which themselves have not the least Tincture of A Title of Honor Or that any thing besides somewhat that is Soveraign can really communicate it to a Subject And we have seen when it was Usurpt what a sort of singular good Lordships and precious Peers were put upon us The Thebans would not so much as admit a Merchant into their Government till they deserted their calling for ten Years while the meanest Mechanicks were made Members of our House and a Tinker of the Army's just taken from his Tool The Bishop of Ely was accused only in Richard the First 's Time for putting in pitiful Officers into publick places of Trust and 't is but a little since a Parliament intrusted our Lives and Fortunes in the vilest Hands And lastly this very Libel Lashes one of our * Rich. 2d Plat. pag. 116. Kings for the preferring Worthless Persons and makes it even a forfeiture of the power of the Sword at the same time that he contends for the People in this point who were never yet known to prefer any other An Italian State as Tumultuous as our own took upon them once to create a new Nobility but assoon as the popular Faction or if you please the Convention of the People had set themselves for the Preservation of their Liberties to make Lords why truly the Election was like to be of such senseless Scoundrels you may suppose a Barksted or an Hewson some mender of Shooes or a maker of Bodkins But so sensible were those Seditious Souls that they were like to set up their Servants that they wisely resolved to retain their old Masters And I think were not some of us so wicked we should all be so wise too since we saw our own distracted Nation was never at rest Till our Rulers were restored to us as at the FIRST and our Councellors as at the BEGINNING And last of all only let me take the Liberty in this last and dismal scene of Sedition to represent but a bloody prospect of that Harmonious concurrence there is between all sorts of Rebellious Principles tho projected by Persons of different Persuasions Persons that differ in Manners and Customes of their Countries Rebels remote from one another in Time Rebels as remotely allyed in the Lands wherein they live As if the Sea it self could not separate such Seditious Subjects In their Principles and Practices that had defiled their Land with such a mutual Conspiration in the Murdering of their Soveraigns and let in an Inundation of Blood upon the Subjects and this Bloody Correspondency between the practice of primitive Rebels as well as modern between the Proceedings of Foreign Rebellions as well as our Domestick must result from the Reasons any sort of Subjects have to resist their Soveraign which we shall see were at all times with all sorts still the same that is just none at all and that appears in that People of such several sorts were all forc'd to pitch upon the same Pretences for the Justifying their Treasons And to make use of the same Cavil and Calumny against their Princes when they saw they could never ground any real Accusation And lastly to promote the same Projects and Propositions almost in a Literal Transcript for the levelling the raising the Foundations of their several Monarchies and making themselves the Masters of the Crown or rather this Seditious Harmony of all Rebels proceeds from their having ever been animated and instructed by the self same Agent of Hell the primitive Prince of Faction the Devil and this parity of pernicious Principles Practices and Propositions will appear in the perfect parallel that there is between the Proceedings of our old Rebellious Barons in England And the later Rebellion of the late Leaguers in France and the clear conformity of the Proposals of our Parliament and the polticks of this Plato to both I 'll place them in their turn as they succeeded in their time and let them that would prescribe to Treason be proud of the Precedency For the First the Barons being greedy of Rule the Commons of Liberty as a learned Author and * Antiquary le ts us Barons Cotton's view of Henry 3d. know some of the popular Lords began with the plausible pretext of the Peoples Liberty when to suppress these Troubles and supply the Kings Extremities a Parliament is call'd but such an one as prov'd much to the liking of the Lords and as little meant to relieve their King much less to redress the People The Clamor was of Encroachment upon their Liberty To silence that the Charter is several times confirmed But they finding what a power the Kings Necessities put in their Hands were resolved to supply him with so little that it might well keep their King from being Great they * M. Paris pag. 807. force him to the very sale of his Lands and Jewels for Bread and to turn out of his Palace because not able to sustain himself in it they seised upon Dover his Castle and the Kingdoms Key which was Treason for that account to deliver to a Foreigner and than a Fortiori for a Subject to take made Head against their Soveraign called in French to subdue him Which when they had done in which Actions none more Zealous than the Loyal Londers for his Destruction what was the Event Why our Historians tell us and what are still the unfortunate Effects of a prosperous Rebellion Murder and Sacrilege and Sword And the Victorious Barons Lorded it like so many †Baker p. 86. Tyrants too till Providence in a more signal Victory restored their Lawful King and the Subject's Liberty As the Baron's Wars began in King John's Time but broke out in a more Leaguers perfect Rebellion in his Son Henry's so were the seeds of this Civil Dissention sown in the Reign of Charles the Ninth and were fully ripened in the Reign of his Son and that a 3d. Henry too The Nobles here were disgusted and soon made the Commons so too A Parliament there too was thought to remedy those Discontents and that as our Henry's encreas'd the Distemper they told the French too of their Taxes and Impositions and accus'd their King of Misgovernment for imposing them as our Lords combin'd so these Leagued for the redressing of Grievances and were first Aggressors in seising Verdun and Tull two Towns in France as those did Dover and Hull in England * See their History written in Italian by D'avila in Lat. by Thuanus in French by D' Aubigni in English a Translation by Mr. Drydâ—â— their Henry was forc'd to flie from Paris his Principal City His Metropolitan also of Sedition and that by Tumult too And what did it terminate in but in the Murder of their King too The calling in of the Spaniard that was like to inslave the People to a Foreign Yoke and at last weary of the Usurpt Dominion
of the Duke of Mayne that had imposed on them a Council of State too the Tyrannous Assembly conven'd by Conspiraors was confusedly Dissolv'd in as much Distraction and Disorder And the recovered Nation return'd to their Lawful Lord. And did not our own late lamentable Distraction Commence in the Reign of King James and put all in Combustion in Charles the First did not Rebellion in Car. 1. they first practise upon his Necessities to which themselves had reduced him and then remonstrated against such Acts as were the very effect of his Necessity encumber'd with a War or rather betrayed into a breach they would not suffer the * Vid. even Rushw Coll. p. 40. Father to make Peace and then denyed the Son the supplies of War A Parliament is summoned too here and that serves him just as the two preceding Ones did their Soveraign with Remonstrances of Oppressions For this the petition of Right was granted them as Gracious an Act as that of the great Charter but nothing could serve unless like that too 't was sealed in Blood and for that they began by Degrees to be so Tumultuous till this Prince was forc'd to fly his Capital City and that also as in the others prov'd the Head to the Rebellion that succeeded upon their ‖ Exact Coll. p. 123. 21. Mart. Petition the War was first began And Hotham sent to surprize Hull as in the two former were Verdun and Dover and now was all in Arms and Blood which ended at last too in that of their King The Scots called in here as in the former the French and Spaniard the People enslaved by those that set up for their Protectors The Council of State set up here as well as in France and the ruin'd Realms never at rest till they had returned to that Soveraignty from which they revolted It is sad even to see the least thing * Plot in Carol 2d now that looks like a prelude to such a sort of Tragedy The clamors of Sedition still the same Parliaments that are Assembled to redress them ‖ Vid. com Remonstrances 79. 80. Remonstrating against Grievances they never yet felt Subjects †Proceeding Old-Bayly Associating against their Prince for his Preservation the draught the Scheam and abstract of the Baron's Combination The French League the Scotch Covenant so far from an Abhorrence of either as to pitch upon a Compound of all three Designs discovered and detected for the seising of strong Holds the * Rouse's Tryal Tower instead of an Hull and the ‖ Sydney's Tryal Scot invited once more to pass the Tweed for a better booty The Treason of such Practices is never the less because the Providence was so great as to prevent its Execution Had that not interposed the Parallel Lines I am sure would have led us on further but all their draught beyond it must have been Blood A Comparison between the Demands of our English Barons and the Desires of the French Leaguers from whence they have copyed as Counterparts The Propositions of our Parliament and the Proposals of Plato English Barons French Leaguers 1. That the King hath wronged the publick State by taking into his private Election the Justice Chancellor and Treasurer and require that they be chosen by the common Council of the Realm Parl. Tent. 22. H. 3. 1. That the Disposals of Places of Office and Trust in the Kingdom be in the Leaguers vid. Henry the 3d. of France's Answer to their Manifesto who told them 't was against the Prerogative of all his Predecessors 2. That it be ordained that 24 of the most grave and discreet Peers be chosen by the Parliament as Conservators of the Kingdom Baker pag. 8. Ann. D. 1238. Regn. H. 3. 22. 2. That the number of their Kings Council should be limited to 24. D'avila pag. 341. our Propositions were not to exceed 25. or under 15. 3. That those Conservators be sworn of his Majesties Council and all Strangers removed from it 3. The City of Paris set up a Council of 16. of themselves whil'st their Kings was to admit Persons whom they should chuse 4. That two Justices of the Kings-Bench two Barons of the Exchequer and one Justice for the Jews be likewise chosen by the Parliament ibid. 4. These sixteen so managed the Judges of their King upon a Presumption of their favoring their Soveraign that they got three of them strangl'd without process 5. They brought with them Consciences full of Error and Schism against the Laws and the Canons false Prophets fomenting Heresies against the Vicars of Christ Mat. West pag. 332. 5. That there should be a Reformation in the Church and no Hugonots favored 6. They would not have this Henry the 3d's Daughter marryed to Alexander King of the Scots and for a long time would give him no aid which at last with much ado they did 6. That his Allyance and Truce with the King of Navar was against the Interest of his Subjects 7. At Lewes they took upon them so much of the Militia that they made their Prince a Prisoner 7. That the strength of Provence be put in the hands of the Duke D'Aumarle or such others as they should nominate 8. The 24. to dispose of the King's Castles and no Peace till all the Forts and Castles be delivered to the keeping of the Barons 8. Leaguers seiz'd upon the King's City Castles and strong Holds D'avila pag. 328. 9. His Councellors elected by the Parliament allowed him such a pitance for his Houshold that they starv'd him out of his Palace M. Par. 807. 9. That the Kingdom could not be safe so long as the King was environed with Non confiding Persons 10. They chose their own Peers called the Peeres Douze 10. That they might have the Disposal of all Honor vid. their King's Answer to their Manifesto This Parliament of those Rebellious Barons my Lord Cook that had as much Veneration as any Man for that Honorable Assembly called the * Parl. Insanum Cook 's Insti part 3. p. 2. mad Parliament the reverse of that of Edward the 3d. which he calls the ‖ 50. Ed. 3. 4. Inst p. 2. good one And I am sure the Propositions of that in 41 would have made the Learned Lawyer had he lived to see them proposed pronounced that Senate as distracted too as that Oxford one of Henry the 3d 's but it may suffice that special †12. Car. 2. Cap. 12. Act since supposed them in their Witts in declaring them what was worse TRAITORS CHAP. III. Remarks upon Mr. Hunt 's Postscript THIS Disingenuous Author with his Hypocritical Apology for the Church of England has just done her as much Mischief as that of Bishop Jewels sincere one did her Good That pious Prelate with his unanswerable Arguments had defended her against all the powers of the Pope and this with his Argument which he Answers himself has made her all Popish Never did an Hypocrite
ensued a discovered Assassination of their Soveraign and was there no danger of a Parliament no sign of a Protestant Plot Only because the King did not leave Whitehall and go down to Hampton Court because there was no Essex in the Field as well as the Plot no King secured at Oxford as well as in the Isle of Wight that there was no High-Court erected at Westminster but only a better expedient found out at the Rye If these are Arguments to render an House of Commons unsuspected and a Plot of the Protestants unimaginable if because here are perfect Parallels of Proceedings as even as if drawn with a Compass Mathematical and which according to their proper Definition I could draw to infinity yet still there must be presumed a great Disparity between the Subversion of the Government that was actually compast and the Destruction of it now that was so lately intended If there be the least Difference between what led to the last setting up an Usurper an Arch-Rebel in the Throne and these late Machinations of Hell to retrieve the same Usurpation bating but the Providence that interposed against its Accomplishment Then will I own what this Villanous Author will have taken for granted That those that have the least Suspicion of any sort of Parliaments are the greatest Villains that a Plot of Protestants proved by Confession is still a Paradox and that my self deserve what he has merited a PILLORY The Pages that he spends in declaiming against trifling Wit supersedes all answer and Animadversion which himself has prevented in being Impertinently Witty upon the very thing he condemns The stress of his Ingenuity is even strained in the very declaiming against it And Settle has not so much answer'd Himself as Hunt here his own Harangue That Gentleman sate down a while for his second Thoughts but this preposterous Prigg sets himself in his own glass at the same time a Contradiction to his own Writings His * pag. 39. Observations upon the perjuries as he calls them of the Popish Priests that dy'd is so severe that the absolute Argument of their Guilt is drawn from their very denial and their equivocations he suspects from those very dispensations they renounc'd to dying words certainly such an inhumanity is hard which unless he had reveal'd Assurance by Christians must be blamed I confess there is not a Criminal of our latter Conspiracy I will declare Guilty beyond his own Confession and then there is not one that dyed but whom I can well think Guilty His next †pag. 59. Observation that is worth Ours Is that upon the Legislative Power and there he makes each of the two Houses to have as much of it as the King and that I deny with better Reason than he can assert that the two Houses are concurrent in their Assents that Bills be preferr'd to be made Laws I 'll willingly grant 't is my Interest 't is my Birth-Right But that which I look upon to be truly Legislative is the Sanction of the Law and that still lies in the breast of our Sovereign If Mr. Hunt that in many places is truly Pedantick will rub up his Priscian the Grammatical Etymology will make it but Legem ferre and then I believe his House of Commons will be most Legislative 't is their Duty their Privilege rather to bring and offer up all Bills fit for Laws and the King still I hope will have his Negative in passing them the Commons pray petition to have them past and that implies a consent Superiour to be required that can absolutely refuse ‖ Vid. quel Impositions le Roy poit grant sans Parlm Roll. Abr. 171. Le Roy poit Charge le sujet lo◠per benefit del Sujet sans Parl. 1. H. 4. 14. Roll. 2d Abr. 171. Les Commons Priont was wont to be a Form Croke 2d part 37. the King can with out Parliament charge the Subject where 't is thought for their Benefit and allowed to dispence with a Statute that concerns his own resolv'd by all the Justices the King by himself might make Orders and Laws for the regulating Church Government in the Clergy and deprive them if they did not obey 22. Ed. 3. says the King makes the Laws by the Assent of the Lords and Commons and so in truth does every Act that is made and every clause in it * Bract. Lib. 1. C. 2. Bracton says the Laws of England by the Kings Authority enjoyn a thing to be done or forbid the doing These are Arguments that our King sure has somewhat more than a bare Concurrence in the Legislative If not he must be co-ordinate and then we have three Kings which is what they would have and then as well may three hundred I love my Liberty better than our Author who has forfeited his yet I remember when too much freedom made us all Slaves The Extent of the Legislative Power is great but then I hope 't is no greater than the King shall be graciously pleased to grant it shall extend And then I hope it must be allowed that Equity and Justice must always determine the Royal Sanction too which cannot of it self make all things Equal and Just should it stamp a Le Roy vult at the same time upon Acts inconsistent and contradictory upon such as were against the Law of Nature and all Reason such would be de facto void 'T is hard to be imagined such Error and Ignorance in so wise an Assembly but what has but bare possibility in Argument must still be supposed but that it has actually been done will I prove possitively and not with some of their illogical Inferrences suggest that a thing must be so only from a bare possibility of Being Be it therefore enacted by the Kings most excellent Majesty and by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled 't was then first those that were by special Act since declared Traytors made their King * Lords Spiritual Lords Temporal and Com. the three Estates Cook 4. Inst of Par. the very first Leaf and Line and won't they believe their own Oracle co-ordinate assumed to themselves so much of the Legislative that they left out the Fundamental form by and with the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons that the said Earl of ‖ Strafford's Bill of Attainder Strafford be adjudged and attainted of high Treason provided that no Judge or Judges shall adjudge or interpret any Act or thing to be Treason then as he or they should or ought to have done before the making of this Act as if this Act had never been made This piece of Paradox the Contradiction to Common Law Common Sense and Reason had all the Consents all the Concurrences that could if possible have made it truly Law and even his unhappy Majesties forc'd extorted Complyance But will any Creature that is barely distinguish'd from a Brute that can only offer at the mere privilege of his
the Word Country that was I believe as well as he antecedent to the King but must it be inferred because the Land was once without Kings therefore now no Kings must govern the Land For the Conclusion is as absurd to say That therefore the People have the Legislative and their Prince no Negative they do not consider the result of such rash Inferences which return upon themselves more stronger in the rebound and that even upon their tenderest places which they can hardly suffer to be touched Kings and Lords did a long time meet in Parliament before Commons in that Convention were so much as thought of and therefore must none now be convened The Papists proudly tell us their Religion was long before Luther and must we not now profess our Protestant Religion Another of the same Nature and as much Nonsense is * Ibid. this They infer from the possibility of the King 's dying without Heir and the Government returning to the People who then would be the Sole Legislators That therefore they must have much now of the present Legislative and be at least Co-ordinate that have a possibility of being Supream The Supposition sounds somewhat like the Song of the Children When all the Land is Paper c. Tho it spoils another good Proverb That no Man dyes without an Heir but the silly Souls do not consider that by the same Solecism and Supposititious Reason not a Subject has a Right to a Foot of His Land For the Law says All that is in England belongs to the King as ‖ 12. H. 7. 20. Coke 1. Inst p. 1. Lord which if the owners dye without Heirs must escheat to the Crown and sure 't is as possible for any Subject to dye without Heirs as his Soveraign when the †25. Ed. 3. Treason to destroy the Heir of the Crown Law has taken special Care for them and then 't is but turning their possibility of a Right into an actual one and they will be the most obliging Subjects to the Crown that bring such Arguments against it Another of * Pryn his Treatise ibid. Pryn's pretty Paradoxes is the very same with ‖ Postscript pag. 51. Hunt's impudent Assertion I may with Modesty call it so since himself says he dares to be so bold to assert it It is that our Kings anciently always consented to Bills offered for the publick good and the Postscript that never any Bill was lost or wanted the Royal Assent promoted by the GENERAL DESIRES of the People That Bills have been rejected they 'll find upon Record and in the Journals of almost every Session and whatever is presented in Parliament must be supposed the Desires of the People who Sit themselves there in Representative but the mistaken Gentleman meant it of the Bill of Exclusion to be the Peoples General Desire but that at last he finds a Lye too and that the Generality have for the most part protested against it in Addresses declaring more the Sense of a People than a prevailing Party in an House of Commons when the best part of the Nation too the Lords did not concur But did not in * Vid. Camb. vit Eliz. 106. Edocta fuit quantum emineat a successore designato periculum Queen Elizabeth's Time and that even so lately the Parliament and even every Individual in the Nation desire her to declare her Successor I am sure with greater Sollicitation and a more general Unanimity than they could be said to desire that Exclusion of the present King's did not the two Houses offer her four subsidy Bills upon that very Consideration and she as resolutely reject both And could the refusing to shew even a Kindness to her next Successor upon the importunity of all her People with Money in their Hands be less resented And shall the King for declaring only against a Bill that was never tendered him for declining to concur in this deepest Injury to his own BROTHER and Heir and to pleasure those only that denyed to part with a Penny be reproached and condemned so much more Did not the Parliament tender to King James three several subsidies to break of the Match with Spain and the Treaty of the Palatinate and he refuse tho tempted with what is seldom the Subjects Bait Money How many Bills of Rebellion did the Mutinous Members and that in the Name of all the People prefer in their Propositions to our Martyred Soveraign to which the poor Prince prefer'd the most Ignominious Death rather than condescend with his Veult or Avisera * Hunt's Phraseology pag. 94. Base Caitiff forgive but your own Billings-Gate should these neither have wanted the Royal Assent because offered in the name of all the People of England and as the general Desire of the Subject if that Suggestion must have extorted his Assent then mighty Miscreant he must have past an Act for his own Tryal Sign'd a Warrant for his Murder for in that name he was Arraign'd †Vide Bradsh K. Tryal in that name he was Sentenc'd and in that he dyed Poor prejudic'd Soul whose discontent and Transport makes his own Maxims undermine the very Cause he would defend Is then this general desire of the People such an absolute infallible Determination of Matters of Religion and Descent of the Crown the very only points he labours for that if their Desires be but promoted put up in a Parliamentary way by Bill or Petition it must presently oblige the Royal Assent Be it so base Creatures your own Arguments as basely betray your own Religion your own Arguments well help truly to subvert that which you seek to Establish with such a furious but false Zeal for ought I know the Protestant Religion had been so setled in its Infancy in its first efforts of Reformation in the Reign of him that was the first Defender of our Faith that it could never have been so often interrupted with a succeeding Persecution had but Henry the Eighth refused the Bill of the * 31 H. 8. Six Articles prest upon him by both Houses this was Judged a just and necessary Bill from Hunt's General desire of the People but had it not been better had it not saved the Blood perhaps of all the mighty Book of Martyrs had the sturdy Prince rejected this as he did many other general Desires It was this Royal Assent alone which would to God it had been wanting and this Sycophant would have wish'd so too did he really love the Reliligion he so falsely labors for It was the Le Roy vult the result of the Peoples importunity that then establish'd that Religion by a Law which had it been but then neglected that which our Zealots make such fearful clamor at standing upon its last Legs had quite languish'd dropt into the Grave and been buryed in the Ruins and Rubbish of its own Religious Houses they demolish'd For in the latter end of his Reign so enraged did he seem
King by this Clause is obliged to pass all Bills that shall be brought why truly then he Swears with an implicite Faith to Repeal all the Laws if the People please for the bare possibility in such a sort of Argumentation may be supposed and we as well imagine for my Lord Coke tells us we have had ‖ Vid. 3. Inst his Parliamentum insanum Mad Parliaments such a Senate may prefer Bills for the Repealing all the Old Laws as well as for the passing any single New and I am sure 't is no more than what has actually been done in * Car. 1. An. Parl. 41. one since that Learned Lawyer lived even to the Subversion of ‖ Vid. their 19. propositions all the Statutes of the Land so that this positive Oath in their sense may Labour under an implicite contradiction for while he swears in the latter Clause to confirm all the Bills they shall bring It may be extended to cancel all Custom and Common-Law he is in the former sworn to defend Mr. Hunt's General Desire of the People may be for the Repealing the 35th of Edward as well as that of Elizabeth and leave no Law in the Land to punish Treason as well as Recusants only that they may commit it with impunity for one of those Bills has †Regn. Car. 1. Car. 2. twice been brought into the House and both may be to save their Bacon And should the King with their Elegerit be obliged especially so mild an one with an anticipated Mercy to Pardon Villains for the cutting of his Throat and leave no Law to punish perhaps a Rumbold or the Russians at the Rye certainly were his Right not in the least Divine this would contradict all Sense and Reason Suppose Richard the Second took this Oath as well as the rest of his Successors since and afterwards the general desire of his Parliament we all know was that he would depose himself Senseless Sots was that King sworn too even in his Coronation to confirm his own Deposition In short must not this senseless Suggestion put upon the Royal Authority the greatest absurdity against all Sense and Reason must it not make him swear to confirm those Laws that have not so much as BEING and that before he knows whether they will be good or bad Is it not Resolved and that upon Record in the King's Exchequer where the Words run with some Signification That the King keep the Laws and Customes which the Lords and Commons HAVE chosen c But grant them their own Sense that is Silliness That Oath these Malignants of our Monarchy object was made first for an * 1. H. 4. absolute Usurper that came to the Crown by the Suffrages of such a Seditious Senate not much Inferior in Villainy to the late long Parliament that labored so much in this business of the Legislative or rather less Villains only in deposing a King whom the latter Murdered and why a Lawful King should be bound by that Oath did the Laws oblige him to take it which was first offered to an Vsurper I cannot apprehend That aspiring Prince swore too in his Coronation that he held his Crown by the Sole Consent of the People shall our present Soveraign do the same whom the * 1. Jacob. Statutes acknowledge to hold from none but God But do not in that very Oath the Words they so much labor in confute them also in my poor Reason beyond reply is not Leges the Word Laws expresly used that it is Laws that the King swears to Confirm Corroborate Maintain and Protect And were the Commons ever allowed or presumed without a Rebellion to Elect LAWS There is not the least of a Bill mentioned in that Oath and sure they 'll offer to elect no more and in Gods Name let them chuse to send up as many of those as they please And sure then these Leges here must relate to those that are really so and have had the Royal Sanction already so that they must be reduced to this Dilemna If they 'll apply their Vulgus elegerit to the Lower House 't is certain they can make no Laws if to that of the Lords 't is as certain they can't be called Vulgus Lastly Laborious Drudges of Sedition let but these Laws ye long to subvert while you 'd seem to defend decide betwixt you and your King Is it not established by * 2. H. 5. 1. Jacob. 1. 1. Car. 1. c. 7. Statute it self that the King hath absolute power to Dissent to any Bill though agreed upon by both Houses But yet in spight of all this Reason and Law they tell us that the King cannot deny to pass any Bills for the publick good and which perhaps never can a good King for his Refusal of his Royal Sanction determines their Goodness and they cease to be necessary when the King thinks there is no need of them for if upon this their presumptive Goodness and the Prince as it is his undoubted Prerogative to do denying his Assent the People should presume they could with their Legislative because their King is refractory as they would call it pass some Bills into Law from their Assurance of their being good that power wou'd enable them to make bad ones too and allow their two Houses to Judge when to make but one Law they are as good Judges to make one thousand or as many as they please and no end of such a distracted Usurpation and that we saw when they began with that Ordinance for the Militia which was the first thing they presumed to make Law from their Kings as their Seditious absurd Phraseology would word it Refractory refusing i. e. that courageously maintaining his just Right when they had thus once broke the Damm no wonder if the deluge of an absolute Rebellion overwhelmed for upon the same ground the Lords might have Excluded both King and Commons for not concurring with them in what Bills and Acts they thought good and the Commons as * Vid. Hist Independeny pag. 115. 17. March 48. Scob. Coll. pâ—g 7 8. indeed they did both King and Lords for being obstinate to such BILLS as themselves had offered But yet notwithstanding the Kings Refractoriness as our Republican Phrases it is now trumpt up again for the warranting the Peoples assuming as they would have it a sort of necessitated Power and that of calling themselves to Parliament for this the * Postscr page 8. Lawyer in his Postscript Labors with his Innuendo's For this ‖ Plat. page 109. Plato tells us the Barons did well to put on their Armour that it is an Omission that ruins the very Foundations of Government and Hunt will not have them so much as discontinued for it renders such Conventions illusory Seditious Sycophants Your selves know this power of their Discontinuance and Dissolution is the best security the Crown has for its support Was it not miserably rent and torn from the Head
part of that general Plot and Conspiracy that has been since discovered and that all sorts of Pens were imployed as well as all Heads Hearts and Hands at work for the carrying on Mr. Sidney's OLD CAVSE as indeed all this Gentlemans Works tended to for which the Almighty was supposed so often to have declared and signaliz'd himself and illustrates only this That there was not any Person qualified for undermining of our Monarchy either from his Wit or Parts Boldness or Courage from his Virulency in Satyr or his Knowledge in History from his skill in any Science or Profession but what some or other of the most eminent was made Serviceable to this Faction and contributed his Talent to the carrying on the Design according to the gift and graces that they had in their several Abilities to promote it neither can this Gentleman think himself libell'd in this Accusation unless he would give his own works the Lye for who but him that had such a Design for the subverting our Monarchy would at a season when the Succession of our Crown was struck at in the Commons Vote a Succession that several Laws of our Land have declared to be Hereditary even by that of God who but one so Seditious would not only have encouraged such unwarrantable Proceedings which was the late Kings Car. 2d Speech to the late Oxford Parliam own Words for 't in such an Assertion of the Commons Right but in that too brought upon the Stage several Arguments from our History several Presidents of our Soveraign's being here Elected by their Subjects when they might as well too tell us That our present Soveraign was so chosen because the Question was put to the People upon his Coronation but yet this elective Kingdom of ours did this Laborious Petyt's Right of the Commons asserted from his Cleri populi consensu drudg of Sedition drive at too Does he not tell us William Rufus and several others were Elected that is Henry the First King Stephen King John tho I am satisfied that consent of the Clergy and People they so much rely upon was nothing more than the Convention of those Persons that appeared upon the solemn Coronation or at least the Proclaiming of the King Themselves are satisfied all our old Statutes clearly confirm'd the sole Legislative Power of the Prince and therefore they won't when they are objected to them allow them to be Statutes at all because made I suppose only by their King but so my Lord Coke says they said of the Statute of Edward the First which notwithstanding he 4. Inst calls an Act of Parliament but yet however we see that the Style of all other Acts of Parliament put all the enacting part in the power of the King so that Mr. Sidney's making his People and Parliament the Supream Judges of their Kings violating the Laws is only a Position that opposes every Act in the Statute Book from the Great CHARTER to the last grant of our late King CHARLES But our Author Triumph'd as he thought over his Adversaries in forcing back their own Argument upon his Foes for says Mr. Sidney if no man must be Judge because he is party then neither the Tryal pag. 24. King and then no man can be try'd for an Offence against him or the Law I confess with such a sort of disputants as are resolv'd to beg the Question and take their Premisses for principles of eternal truth you cannot avoid the Conclusion tho it be the greatest Paradox and an absolute Lye for he presumes the Parity of Reason and then concludes they are both alike Reasonable he takes it for granted the People may judge the King tho party as well as the King the People who must be suppos'd as much partial and that is truly just as if he had said A Sophism Logician call the Petitio principi when we believe as they do and what then Why then we shall be of their mind i. e. that it would follow the King or his Judges could not hang a Fellow for Fellony or this Author himself for a Traytor to the State Nay more as the Gentleman has manag'd the matter it is made an Argument a Fortiori for he supposes the Absurdity to be such that if the King in his own Case must Judge the People and not the People the King in theirs that this Contradictory Consequence would be as much conclusive That the Servant entertain'd by the Master must Judge him but the Master by Page 42. no means must the Servant or in the Metaphor of his own more Blasphemous Sedition The Creature is no way bound to its Creator but the Creator it self to the thing it has Created and now all is out and all the large Volume all his mighty Treatise not to be finisht in many years is founded upon that first Principle of all Republicans The Peoples Supremacy or as Mr. * Vid. Paper at his Execution He has too that Old Seditious Aphorism us'd by Junius Brutus all the rest of the Republicans Singulis Major Tryal p. 23. tho in the next paragraph he is no more than any of his Subjects Sidney says the Soveraign being but a Servant to his Subjects a Creature to these God Almightys of the People the Creators of their King truly this they are resolv'd we shall grant or as resolutely suppose we cannot Contradict and so put upon us their presumptive absurdities for our own and make them the Consequence of those Concessions that were never yeilded who taught this Gentleman who granted him that the Magistrate was the Peoples Creature but a Brutus in his Vindiciae or that as abominable a Book De ‖ This Gentleman seems only to have translated that Authors own words non populus propter Magistratus sed Magistratus propâ—eâ— poâ—ulum fuisse creatos jure Magistratuum and for this must it follow that Filmer is so absurd only because he does not suppose the very pernicious principles of those very Rebels and Republicans he endeavours to refute It is an easy sort of a Conquest and you may soon prove your Foes to be De Jure Magist Quaest 5. p. 10. Edit Francs Fools too if you 'll oblige them to maintain their own positions from the Contradictory Maxims of their Enemies they oppose and this Collonel that once was a Souldier and in Arms for his Common-wealth as well as a Polemical pen man against the Monarchy would soon have remain'd sole Master of the Field had the Measures of his Foe been forc't to be taken from the Rules and Maxims of the Enemy which he fought and many would think the Man a little mad that could imagine two Armies that faced in their Fronts to meet so as to stand upon the same ground It can't be well effected without a penetration of body neither can Mr. Sidney conclude us in that absurdity unless he would make us mingle Principles a thing perhaps
Covetousness Cowardize Perjury and Treason for upon his refusal to Sign their Proposals they tell him the defence of his Person in the Covenant must be understood only as it relates to the safety of the Kingdom and upon the English profering them the Moneys they wou'd prettily perswade him that the promise their Army made him for his preservation could not be kept because the Souldiers and the Army were different things and the Army might promise what the Souldiers might refuse and were unwilling to perform But this purchase of their double Perjury was punisht with as much perfidiousness their Army got into their hands for nothing the poor Prince the Parliament thought they paid for too dear And as that Seditious Senate fought their Soveraign in the Name of King and Parliament so now the Souldiers of Fairfax set themselves to fight the Senate for the sake forsooth of the Parliament and Army Good God! Just Heavens that could visit such Vipers such Villains in the same villany they committed and make such Seditious Hypocrites suffer by as much Treason and Hypocrisie Their Agitators menace the King with Death and Deposition they make him their Prisoner move in the House their non-addresses make it Treason to confer with their King set up an Ordinance for his Tryal and there Sentence that against which Treason could only be committed as a Traytor to the State And here then With what face can the Faction justify such a Barbarous Rebellion or accuse their King for the beginning of the War Yet such a sort of Seditious Democraticks does our Land afford * Vid. Tryal p. 26. Sidney says Such a general revolt of the Subjects cannot be call'd a Rebellion And †Plato Redivivus p. 167. Plato Our Parliament never did as they pretended make War upon the King Till such persuasions are rooted up out of their Rebellious hearts as well as they are in them no Prince under the Heavens can protect himself from such resolute Rebels as will destroy all Subjection in the World and make the blackest Treason our own Civil War but a prudential act of State and even of Loyalty it self the * Ibid. rescuing the King only out of those Mens hands that led him from his Parliament But do not they tell us even by his own concession in one of their Votes That it was the King that was seduc'd and must it not be the King too that they would reduce and by what means why therefore they say they take up Arms and did they design to command their Bullets and Ball not to meddle with the King that was only seduc'd but only to take off the evill Counsellors that were his Seducers I confess could they have promis'd his Majesty so much he might have took them for good Gunners but must still have believ'd them bad Subjects that would have put it to the venture But with this Gentleman it seems it was a sort of proclaimed War of the King 's to take that * Ibid. unfortunate resolution of seizing the five Members Most Factious Fool did the King rebell against his Subjects only when he came to seize actual Rebels whom himself desired only to be Try'd for Treason and that of the deepest dye for inviting in a Forreign Foe the Scots must not the Parliament without the King be the Supream power if the King can be said to Rebel against the Parliament but this Republican that expresly makes them * Ibid. 168. Co-ordinate may as well call them Supream for these Gentlemen paid off the King for his unfortunate resolution and declare that his coming to their House was High Treason And well might the King shift for himself when they had made his Majesty reside in the House of Commons Prethee for thy senses sake who levy'd War first those that seiz'd upon the King's Forts Magazines Towns Ships and Revenues levy'd Soldiers or the King that had nothing of Military left him but the power and not a single Company of Horse or Foot that he had rais'd It was the twentieth of October 1641. they brought the Trainbands into the Palace Yard to protect themselves thousand that is to terrify their King It was the eighth of January 1641. that forty thousand of the Inhabitants of London put themselves in Arms to fight fifteen hundred of the King's Horse that were to come and surprize the City the one were actually Arm'd the other never came or design'd to come They rigg out the Navy on March the 2d the King's Militia is seiz'd and new Lieutenants set by their Ordinance the fifth of March 1641. and on the twenty third of April they deny'd him entrance into his own Garrison at Hull the tenth of May the Citizens are Mustering twelve thousand Men in Finsbury Fields the King does not summon his Yorkshire Gentlemen till the twelfth of May did not grant out his Commission of Array till the twentieth of June when they had sent out their Orders and Proposals for Men and Horse Money and Arms the tenth did not set up his Standard at Nottingham till after the twelfth of August when their Parliament had rais'd their Army the seventh of July And this Vote of their King 's being seduc'd by wicked Counsel from which this Sediious Daemagogue would infer the King clared to them War before was made on the twentieth of May which was after they had seiz'd his Forts and Militia his Shipping and Navy and Muster'd their Citizens in the Field And a Month before the King sent out his Commissions of Array and above two Months before his Standard was set up That this is exactly truth Consult even the Exact Collection And whether this Seditious assertion be not a Devilish lye but your own Breast And as they begun this War of Weapons in their House so they did that of Words too and invading the Prerogative before the least breach of Priviledge One * Vid. Baker p. 435. A. D. 1625. Turner a Physician under a pretence of reflecting on Buckingham abuses the best of Kings Cook amongst other Invectives says openly It was better to dye by a Forreign Foe than be destroyed at home These were but preludes to the Liberty the licentious Villains took afterward when Martin declared to the House * So Plâ—t Râ—â— p. â—17 That the King's Office was forfitable when †Vid. The Royal and the Royalist's Pâ—â—a printed A. D. 1617. Sir Hâ—nry Ludlow said to the same effect That his Majesty was not worthy to be King of England And Prideaux was at last come to make his Speech there for Abandoning Monarchy it was so early too that they were so forward to Usurp upon the Crown that even in this Year 1625. they offer'd to search the King's Signet Office and examin'd the Letters of his Secretary of State all this was offer'd at in the very first Parliament that he summon'd all of which the King complain'd to them of by * Vid. Lord Keeper's Speech to
the Parliament A. D. 1625. Finch then the Lord Keeper as things unwarrantable and unusual they prosecuted too Buckingham with the more violence only because the King had told them That he acted nothing of publick Employ without his special Warrant That he had discharged his trust with fidelity That he had merited it by desert and that it was his express Command for them to desist from such an unparliamentary disquisition And for my part I cannot apprehend how according to common sense and reason both in this case and Strafford's that succeeded they could make those Traytors to their King of whom their King declar'd they had never betray'd their trust It was such a sort of Treason against their King which their King knowing and approving did not think High Treason and the person against whom it could only be committed apprehending no Commission of it at all But those Statesmen were so unhappy as to live in an age that made Treason as unlimited as ever it was before Edward the Third and which for all his * 1. Mâ—â— twenty 25. Ed. 3d. fifth and the first of Mary restrained Treason to conspiring against the King and the Laws of all the World makes it a Crime only of †Lex Julia Inst 4. 18. 3d. Laesae Majestatis they could bring it now to a levying War against the Majesty of the * Merc. Polit. People A hard fate for many Ministers of State that are sacrific'd sometimes only for serving too well But these proceedings against the King were long I hope before the King proceeded only to take Traytors out of an House of Commons this was seditiously done in twenty five the other not lawfully attempted till forty one And judg now malitious Miscreants where when and by whom were the first provocations given to discontent and who were the first Agressors in a barbarous and a bloody Civil War Why don't they tell us too our present Soveraign invaded first the Rebels in Scotland and those that â—anded at Lime The next age may as well be brought to believe this as the present that All that their best Advocates unless absolute Rebellious can urge in their defence is the Parliament seiz'd only upon the King's Forts for fear he should fortify them against the Parliament very good that is they first made War upon him for fear he should make War upon them that 's the English trick of it And I can tell it them in a Spanish one too so Gondamor got Raleigh's Head he told them not for the mischief he had done them but for that which he might do But had not the Laws provided so particularly for the King this would be madness and cruel injustice even among common Subjects reduce us both into Hobs's his state of nature and his fear to kill every one we meet for fear of being kill'd or set our Neighbours House a fire for fear it should catch of it self and consume our own And now be witness even the worst and the most warm Assertor of a Common-wealth in this case be for once what you so much affect Judge between you and your King The King had his Court of Starchamber constituted by a 4 Institutes c. 5. Common Law and confirmed by special b Reg. Hen. 7. Act of Parliament The Commons they send up a c The 9th of June 1641. Vote and Bill for suppressing it The High Commission was establisht by the d 1 El. c. 1. Statute of the Queen the Commons come and would put it down with a e The ninth of June 1641. Vote The Court of Wards and Livery the tenures of which were even f 4 Inst p. 192. before the Conquest and drew Ward and Marriage after it was establisht by particular g 32. H. 8. c. 46. Act the Commons clamour to have it supprest which to please them is done The King had several priviledges that belong to the Clerk of his Market confirm'd by ancient h 4 Inst c. 61 Custom and i Ed. 1. Hen. 8. R. 2. H. 5. several Statutes abolisht by the Parliament in the Year 1641. The k Chart. Forest King had the Courts of his Forests his Judge in it constituted of old by Writ then by l 27. H. 8. c. 24. Letters Pattents This was a grievance which was never before and therefore must and was supprest with the rest The m Magn. â—har â— 29. and their Petition of Right Law required no person was to be Imprisoned or put out of his Lands but by due course and custom None to be adjudged to Death but by the Law establisht they n Dug view p. 68. 19. April confined several of the Kings Subjects send the Bishops by order of the House to the Tower and by special Bill attaint Strafford and Behead Laâ—d o 10. Jan. 1644. with an Ordinance Resolved by all the Judges in Queen Elizabeths time that to levy War â—o remove evil Counsellors â—s High Treason against the King they past a Vote p May. 20. Exact Coll. p. 259. that the King was seduc'd by evil Counsellors against whom they levied War to remove There is a q 12. H. 7. c. 1. special Statute that says expresly that the Subjects that aid the King shall not be molested or questioned They publisht their Declaration r 17. May. Ex. Coll. p. 193. That it was against the Laws and Liberty of the Kingdom to assist the King that the Sherriff of the County ought to suppress them The s Coke Lit. p. 164. Law makes those Delinquents that adhere to the King's Enemies they t 20. May. Vote those that serve him in such Wars Traitors by a Fundamental Law The u Ed. 2. Statute provides that the Parliaments should assemble peaceably they by particular order bring Horse and Foot into the Palace Yard In short The Parliament first seizes the Militia against an express x 7. Ed. 1. Act that setl'd it solely on the King The King sent out after his Comission of Array for which he was impower'd by y 5. H. 4. Act of Parliament The Parliament order the raising an Army against the K. declared Treason by special z 25. E. 3. Act The King then Summons his Subjects to his assistance at a 5 July 42. Exact Coll. York and comes and sets up his Standard at Nottingham for that was warranted by the Laws of the Land and b 1. Ed. 2. de mi. litibus 7. Ed. 1. several Statutes of the Realm I have taken this pains both to prove that bloody War that general Revolt to be a plain Rebellion and that the War it self was begun by those that were the only Rebels the Parliament because you see that both those positions have been laid down among our * Sidney 's Tryal p. 26. Plato Redivivus p. 167. Republicans either of which should it gain credit is enough to run us again
all into Blood And both together as false as Hell and can be the Doctrine of none but what 's the Author of all Sedition the Devil These were the Plots which they practis'd upon that poor Prince whose Sincerity was always such that he could not suspect in Nature such a sort of designing Villains nor humane Wit well imagine such ingrateful Monsters that for their King 's continual Concessions to better the Conditions of his Subjects should still Plot upon him to render his own the worse Here we saw what all these Positions Principles Practises all their Preaching Praying Printing did tend to and terminate in the People enslav'd the Monarch murder'd the Government undermin'd But as these Maxims of our Democratick's were destructive to our Monarchy and produc'd as you have seen those Plots and Conspiracies that subverted it so shall we see by subsequent Events and be inform'd from as much Matter of Fact what I have heretofore insinuated only from the force of Reason that the same Principles after they had set up their Commonwealth made them Plot too upon one another When the Parliament had imprison'd their King whom they bought for a Slave confin'd him with a merciless Cruelty at Holdenby-house then a Castle and Garrison and by that Act made him no more a Monarch but a Prisoner of War themselves no more his Subjects but his Masters and Sovereigns the Parliament having had so far the End of their Plot upon the King now the Army take their Turn to Plot upon the Parliament who when they had made their Monarch accountable to their Memberships might as well sure expect by their Servants to be call'd to account The Parliament when they had wrested the Sword out of the King's Hand knew themselves the Supream Power and were as certain they could as soon send him packing with his Supream Right The Soldiers now are sensible that the Members of the Army have that Sword in their Hand which the Parliament took out of the King 's and see no reason why they may not make themselves the Supream Parliament for this their Original Right of the People over the Magistrate will always I warrant you be appropriated to that part of it that has an Actual Power and that they found for Cromwel conspires with his Adjutators who like provok'd Beasts begin to be warm'd into a perception of their own Strength which even when a Horse comes to know to be sure he 'll throw his Rider For this he fools his Fellow-Senators with a Suggestion of his readiness to suppress any Soldiers Insurrection at the same time that he set them on to rise The Parliament had plotted by Subscription and Petitioning to advance their Power upon the King their humble Servants the Soldiers now subscribe petition that the Parliament would be pleas'd to submit to their Power send to the Good Houses at Westminster the * Histor Independ p. 27. Representation of their Army that they forsooth were the Delinquents now and that they be speedily purg'd of such Members as for Delinquency were not to sit there They make eleven of them Traytors †Ibid. impeach them of High-Treason to the Army when both Impeachers and Impeach'd had forfeited their Heads to the King They had Counterplotted this with an * Ibid. Ordinance of the House for the Disbanding the Army but the Army found they had a more fearful Ordnance for them in the Field they had under their Command the Militia of the Camp and so resolve to command that too of the City The Contrivance for this is first Fairfax his Remonstrance to which the Commons †Ibid. p. 40. submit but for that the Apprentices that had served them before against their King come now in as * Ibid. tumultuous a manner and frightn'd them into a Flight to the Army that so their City might retain its Militia The Westminster-men that stay'd plot against the Men at Windsor that were fled call in the Members that their Army had impeach'd for this the †Ibid. p. 44 45 46 47 48. Soldiers sign an Engagement send a Remonstrance and themselves as soon conspire to follow march toward the City draw up at Hownslow-heath send their General with a Party to make a new Parliament or patch up the old To prevent the Personal Treaty with the King they drew up their Agreement of the PEOPLE resolv'd on their Votes of Non-addressing which recall'd they again re-extorted rejected the Lords for refusing to Judge their King whom having dispatcht there remain'd the Rump that is the remnant of the Commons the Creatures or rather Created Council of an Army and all the late flourishing Democracy of the long Parliament and the two Houses turn'd into a perfect Oligarchy of Officers And all what those Devils had possest themselves of by Treason before torn from their hands by a Legion of worse with as much Treachery and Plot. And one would think that all Plotting that all conspiring should have been over now but you shall see that the same principles that prevail'd upon the Rebels to ruin the Monarchy and run it into a Republick that promoted the Army to destroy the then Democracy and so set up their own Oligarchy did also incite a single Usurper among those few to set up for himself and turn it into true Tyranny Their own positions first plac'd the Supremacy in the Parliament because the two States were greater than the King that made but one The Army places the supremacy in their Sword because it was greater in the Field than the two States in the House and then comes Cromwel and setl'd the supremacy on himself because the sole Commander of all the Army his success at Dunbar and the routing of the Scot did so much his business that there could remain but little opposition of a Rump and a Man that is made by a weaker power but once a General can soon make himself by his own strength the Generalissimo he had formerly been so prevalent as to procure Petitions Addresses Remonstrances for the establishment of that patch'd piece of Parliament and all our Metaphysicks will allow that what can create can as soon annihilate he found his Omnipotency in this point he knew he had set them up against all Right and therefore had the more to run them down without Wrong and that as he did design so he effected too It was indeed a Parliament of Soldiers and he serv'd them like a General only by signifying to them to Disband and they not daring to deny determin their sitting to be on the fifth of November following But he not willing to tarry so long a Servant to those he could command to obey those that would not so soon Disband he comes and Cashiers by April 1653. and with his Lambert and Harrison sends packing that everlasting Parliament And now here is the result of their principles in a second Plot upon themselves and a new model of Government for
the former they had abolisht was but the Government of a few an absolute Oligarchy tho' they were pleas'd to call it the Common-wealth of England as if it had been but Democratical when not the tenth part of the People were represented by those Administrators but so they had the confidence to call them a Parliament too but their words had commonly as much sense in them as their actions had Loyalty But Oliver having Plotted them out of all had now no great need of any Politick Plot for himself It would puzzle now our Politicians to tell me where at this time was their * Sidney's Tryal p 23. Supream original power of the People their natural Liberty and that Delegatory right they are to communicate to Representatives There was no King no Parliament no Rump and as yet no Protector The Disciples of Mr. Sidney's Doctrine must say forsooth The Supream Power was then in the People but as the Devil would have it Cromwel had got the supream strength Strength and power I confess are mighty different and just distinguisht by the same Metaphysicks the Scots put upon the King at Newark when they would persuade him The Army was one thing and the Soldiers of it another but if this People had then the supream power why did they not assemble themselves into a Parliament since there was no Writ from above to call them to the Assembly But our History tells us Oliver call'd it and what for why say our Republicans That the People might confer upon him their supream original Power which he could not assume without their consent very good So Cromwel was willing this supream power should be settl'd upon him by Parliament therefore he calls the Parliament i. e. gives it the supream power they in common Civility could not avoid to give it him again But where would but a grain of sense settle this Supremacy in him that call'd them to assemble or in those that were assembl'd at his call I confess if the cunning Canary Birds could but contrive as once they did design such a rare Parliament that like the Bird of Asia should rise from the ashes of it's Ancestors we might have one then not only long but everlasting But even this tho' then attempted to have been enacted would have been but Nonsense and absurd and fit only to have past in that Parliament which he call'd who made many * Oliver's first Parliament made the filly Acts about Marriages Laws just as ridiculous for thosethat have a power to dissolve themselves by the same reason would have a power to summon another and then must issue out their Writs either before their dissolution or after if after then it is without authority and by no part of the Government and if before then a new one must be summoning before the old is dissolv'd and if the Writs should be but of force from the time of dissolution the Country Electors must be said to be conven'd by the supream Authority that is dissolv'd Cromwel and his Conspirators foresaw they would be confounded with such absurdities and they found themselves plung'd into as much confusion and then pray what did they do with this Sidney's supream original power that they did not know what to make of or how to use tho' it lay upon their hands why they surrender it to a single person from whom they thought they had it and so the Usurper had his design The next Plot was how they could play the Knaves to get that Power again which they thought they had parted with like Fools Cromwel was cunning enough to hold what he had gotten and never parted with it but with his Breath tho' the Levellers the Anabaptists and Fifth-Monarchy Men conspir'd for Insurrections and Lambert himself left little undone to supplant him But when his Son succeeded whose silliness only made him not sit so long a Usurper they soon found opportunity to set him aside As they had pleas'd Oliver with making him a * Protector Mock King so he to pleasure them had mock't them with an †The other House House of Lords And Richard's first Parliament being made up of most Common-wealthsmen fall foul upon that new Constitution which was indeed as filthy they take themselves without the Protector and that other House to be the Supream Power Lambert and Fleetwood that first upon the Principles of these Rebels and Republicans had promoted the Affairs of the Father fall now to Plotting upon the same grounds of LIBERTY which with Daemocraticks is to do what they list to depose his Son and 't is no wonder that those should fail in their Faith to a Rebel that had revolted from their Prince For this therefore they have freequent Meetings at Wallingford House and the Parliament seeming as uneasie under him as they and they as uneasie under the Parliament they send Desborough to get its dissolution to be signed by the Protector at the same time they make their Messenger to dissolve it by themselves Richard signs it and presently after is forc'd to his own Resignation and that to just no Body and all is brought to what all such Principles and Practises always tend to perfect Anarchy and Confusion The Protector here quarrels with the Parliament and the Army the Parliament with the Army and Protector the Army with the Protector and Parliament till at last they leave us neither Parliament Protector or Army When they had brought the Government to be just no where Richard having been Plotted upon to resign to just no Body some of the rebel Rump with Lenthal their Speaker Lambert their Officer take it up as Scavengers do a piece of Silver they find in the kennel or dropt in the street these by the Army are declared a Parliament because they resolv'd themselves to be so first and the People at present could not tell where to find out another the secluded Members offer'd to run in too but were Fools for their pains and repuls'd with as much violence for they might well have foreseen and imagin'd that those that threw them out before had their Swords in their hands still and to be sure were much rather for their room than their company and that they found when they set their Souldiers with their Swords drawn to keep them out and their most Legislative Arms soon suspended them from the medling in the making of Laws Thus re-instated and establisht into that Oligarchical Tyranny that first turn'd off all Monarchy and took off the King's Head and this re-establishment of the most desperate Rebels confirmed with the approbation of the Army one would have thought their very Master the Devil could never have undermin'd or made them again to miscarry But yet so it happen'd for these Principles of our Republicans having made all obedience meerly precarious and utterly defac'd the Doctrine of the Gospel to be subject for Conscience sake as well as repeal'd the Oaths of Allegiance that required
Pardon'd and the rest Executed In December was detected another Plot and Conspiracy carrying on One William Hill one of the Accomplices or a pretender to be so discovers it A Plot they had of confounding the Rogues as they call'd it at Whitehall imparted to him by one Baker one of Oliver's Yeomen of the Guard upon presumption that he would side with them who brings him acquainted with the rest of the Conspirators their Design was with four or five hundred Men to surprize the Castle of Windsor Riggs one of the Conspirators told him of the Arms lodg'd in Crutchet Friers that five hundred had been dispers'd that they design'd a desperate assault on Whitehall Vid. Wil. Hill Narrative prefixt to their Tryal to deliver them from the Tyranny of that Outlandish Dog for so they call'd the King That Ludlow was to be their General that all other Officers were agreed on that the Tower was to be betrayed to them Letters dispersed to amuse the People with a Massacre from the Papists one of which on the Tryal of the Conspirators was produced in the Court they told him they determin'd to rid themselves of King Queen Dukes Bishops all should go one way as they call'd it and the Insurrection was to be on the Lord Mayor's Night Upon this Discovery one Tongue and five more were Arraigned of which one Phillips and Hind confest the Fact on their knees at the Bar were pardoned the other four Convicted Condemned and Executed In March 1663. a Plot was Discovered in the North of England the principal Contrivers of it being imparted to the King were secured from proceeding further And in 1666. when the King returned from Windsor to Oxford the Pestilence being abated tho' the Plague product of their Pestilential principles remained as raging Another Conspiracy of discontented Officers is detected for Conspiring the Death of the King Plotting the surprisal of the Tower Firing the City They had two Councils sitting one in London to issue out all Orders upon the place and another in Holland that assisted them with Instructions the third of September was sworn to be the day of Design for which eight several Persons were Sentenc'd and suffer'd Death In the same Year the Rebellion broke out in Scotland at Pentland Hills where the Covenanters fought the King's Forces and were defeated In 1675. the late Lord Shaftsbury a Person eminent even in the late Combustions and the Civil War a person that was but just before preferr'd by his Prince notwithstanding the many Services he did to the Rebels and an actual being in Arms for the Parliament But he thinking himself too little obliged by the Crown that had never deserv'd the least obligation Plots for the Dissolution of that Parliament that as it had settl'd so preserv'd the very frame of the Government from being dissolv'd and because he could not compass it from the King contrives that it should pass currant that it was Dissolv'd of course because Prorogu'd for fifteen Monhs contrary to the Acts of King Ed. the Third that required one to assemble once at least in twelve The Duke of Bucks is made to move it in the House seconded by Shaftsbury Salesbury and Wharton and for that all four sent to the Tower but however had dispers'd the Design so far that the Stalls were all cover'd with Papers and Pamphlets to prove them Dissolv'd which had it been then effected had only reduc'd us to those Confusions that the unhappy Dissolution in four years after did unfortunately bring about In March 1679. the same Incendiary the Beautefeu of both Kingdoms contrives a most silly canting ridiculous Speech and said to be spoken by Shaftsbury in the House of Lords the * Vid. The whole in an Impartial Account of the Proceedings in the Parliament at London 1679. substance of it being a declaiming against the Sufferings of Scotland many Copies of which were as Seditiously sent thither so animated and incensed the zealous Scots that they soon after set upon the Bishop of St. Andrews batbarously Murder'd him and our Seditious Senate the Lower House seconding that Lord's Speech with a Remonstrance against Lauderdale they soon resolv'd for open Rebellion and that they begin at Ragland in Scotland where they come and Proclaim the Covenant burn Acts of Parliament attack'd Glascow but the result of that was that by Bothwel Bridg the Rebels were deseated all running away upon the playing of the King's Cannon in a perfect Rout and Confusion At the Sitting of the late Parliament March 1681. at Oxford there was some intimation given the King of a Plot and Design to have seiz'd his late Majesty and kept him confin'd till by that he had been made complyant to pass the Bill of Exclusion his Majesty was so far satisfied of it that he Dissolv'd them as suddenly and so frustrated the Design This was proved afterward upon Oath at a special Commission of Oyer and Terminer at the Tryal of * Vid. Coll. Tryal p 1. 9. Stephen Colledg the Joyner at Oxford who was sworn to have imparted it to the Evidence and that he rid down for that purpose thither Arm'd for which and several other Treasonable contrivances he was Arraign'd upon full Evidence Convicted Condemned and accordingly there suffer'd That Plot being prevented at Oxford by the Providence of God and the Kings the Faction still pursu'd the Conspiracy for which many Consults were held at the late Lord Shaftsbury's House which upon suspicion was searcht and himself upon Information and Evidence to the King and Council was seiz'd the result of which was they found a Paper in his own Closet Intituled An †Vid. Proceedings at the Old-Baily 24. Novem 1681. Association the Plot and Design of which was that since they could not Exclude the next Heir of the Crown by Bill and an Act of Parliament they would get Subscriptions to do it among themselves that is set their Hands and Seals to a Rebellion for the concluding Clause was absolute Treason and oblig'd them to Swear Obedience to their Fellow-Subjects and that they would Obey the Major part of Members after the dissolution of the Parliament for this he was Indicted as also for designing to compel the King to pass the Bill at Oxford for conferring with Booth Hains Smith and other of the Evidences in Treasonable Consults for saying The King ought to be Deposed and that he would never desist till he had brought England to a Common-wealth All agreeable to the very Principles he profest to the Practises and Designs he had before Engag'd in and the Discoveries of his Treasons that have follow'd since but the Grand Inquest being pact by Papilion a Partial Sheriff and compos'd of Jurors as much prejudic'd the Bill of Indictment was brought in Ignoramus an apparent Rebel acquitted and carried off in Triumph with the Shouts and Shoulders of the Rabble In July 1683. was Discover'd the bottom of all these Preliminary Plots and Conspiracies in
the Politician and for the Injury he did all along to the Right-Blood Providence seemed to bring upon his head his own and sent that sort of an Usurper too to the Grave with the fate of Tyrants not with a common dry Death but in his own Gore and he that had held the Scepter but with a pretended Right by this disastrous Death gave an opportnnity to a perfect Intruder that had none at all Henry the first who being in new Forrest when his Brother was killed did not stay long to consider the disaster or to get the Carcass Coacht home instead of Carted but rides to Winchester seizes the Treasure and that soon helpt him to put on the Crown The Purple Robes soon followed those Golden Regalia and the Power absolutely Usurpt will irresistibly force a Coronation Florence of Worst but tho Crown'd as he was a good Author say who liv'd and wrote then as great men then sent for Robert promised him his Right and as resolutely stood by him too and well they might when he had been debarred his Birth-right once before and besides the Right of Blood had refused his Assignation his early Pension and had compounded for his own Kingdom which he had so much Title to without the Composition But Mat. Paris tells us in the first Lines of this Kings Life that the Nobility Magnates Angliae ignorabant quid actum esset de Roberto duce Normannorum An. 1100. were utterly Ignorant what was become of this Robert Duke of Normandy but that when he sent privately to them in England Letters alledging his being first Born and that for that very Reason he declared the Right of the Kingdom belong'd to him assoon as they heard those Allegations of his unanswerable Right promised him their best advice and to lend him their Assistance which they did too and Robert came over forc't his Brother to a Composition for 3000 Marks yearly and at least made the Vsurper but a Tributary King and all the Argument out of this Reign that our Elector here fetches for his making Ibid. p. 46. Fidele Consilium pariter Auxilium promiserunt our English Monarch a King of Poland is this Usurpers courting the great Council to confirm it to his Son but so would a Cromwell the Parliament for the Succession of his Son Richard and sure such Creatures have need to anticipate all sorts of security for their Sons Succession that have gotten all their Right by Anticipation of anothers or absolute wrong but the parallel holds still between that antient Usurper and the more Modern I mentioned they both felt their Consciences prickt in their unjust obtaining of a Mat. Paris 1106. sentiens Conscientiam Cauteriatam Judicium Dei formidare c. Kingdom they both feared the Judgments of the Almighty both as unhappy in their designed Heirs one born to be Drowned the other to be a Fool and as their Fame stunk above Ground so did both their Bodies before they went under and Paris tells us the first committed Murder after he was Dead and poysoned his Doctor before they could get him down into the Dust tho he smartly observes this was the last Ultimus fuit ex illis quos Rex Henricus occidit An. 1136. among the many this good King Henry had destroyed The last remark I shall make on this Mans Reign is but what this malicious Historian has made very Remarkable and that is from an Author that he cites for saying that this Robert had discovered too much of the Cruelty of Disposition of his averseness to the English Nation and his proneness to revenge and this Character must be most Emphatically markt out that they might not miss of his meaning another Duke a Prince to whose Valour and Conduct the Wretch ows his Freedom from a Forreign Yoke and the Nation her safety and security and so far does his malice transport the Sot that he falsifies for it the very Latin he translates Perversus contrarius et Innaturalis He makes cruelty of Disposition and for Proneness to Vid. H. de Knyght C. 8. 2374. revenge not one Syllable in the whole Citation and then besides the words of the Author he cites are the same verbatim which this Henry the first used against his Brother when he makes a Speech to his Nobles to make him odious from whom this Author I believe borrowed it and 't is as meer revgene Vid Paris 1107. ful malice to the Duke of York as that against Robert the Duke It is here evident that this Gentlemans Principles and Perswasions are clearly Democratical and writ with a perfect design to please the People as plain as if the rabble beast the Monster Mobile were seen fawning upon this KEEPER of their LIBERTIES and you saw the Sycophant spitting in its mouth his Papers are the very Picture of this piece and the Representation of Rebellion with a Pen. The next that Mounts the Throne is STEPHEN and the little Right tho some Relation he had to the Crown to be sure won't be past by when this Author for the sake of his sinking Cause has caught at every Plank to hold up her Head in that desperate Condition and where he could not meet the least solid substantial Argument graspt at every empty Shadow And truly here he tells us that STEPHEN acknowledg'd his Election in the very Words of a Charter from the People and Pag. 4. so would any man that had no better Title and tho I shall condemn his Usurpation can allow of his Politicks in letting them know how much he was beholden to them and yet that People were strong enough to pull off his Crown too which his own hands rather Stow says he was repulsed by them of Dover shut out by them of Canterbury and unjustly took upon him the Crown of England had put on for as Bradshaw told the King The People of England had constituted them a Court when that unanswerable Martyr observed not half their Consents did concur or were askt so also in this Case many of the Nobility most of the Commonalty lookt upon it as a manifest Usurpation and those whose Concurrence he had were but an handful of his Friends and at his Coronation had but three Bishops few of the Nobility and not one Abbot and also as Historians observe those very Malembs Baker perjur'd Prelates and Lords came many of them to an ill-end or else to worse Calamities before their life was ended And the revengeful Cruelties of the Scot lookt somewhat like a Judgment for their Perjury when they spar'd neither the Gray-Hair for whom Reverence might plead nor the Tender-Infant for whom its Innocence but Butchered the one in their Beds the other on their Mothers Breasts the Barbarity of Mat. Paris in ultionem Imperatricis cui idem Rex Fidelitatem juraverat An. 1138. those avengers is as horribly describ'd in Mat. Paris But agen I cannot see why he was
reservata came to the Crown and was kept continually to her dying day in a close Confinement so strong a tide was the proximity of Blood thought then even by those that were the perverters of its Channel that it would bear all the force of its foes before it unless Bay'd back by as much force and violence and we have found in some of our own Reigns even that too little a well guarded Prison too weak to hold a Legitimate Prince and that from thence too they have Mounted the Throne To the Succession of his Son Edward the first one would have thought all his diligent malice or the Devils could never have afforded an Objection for it seems he can't find so much as his own old dear word Elected here amongst his abus'd Authors but another False suggestion must supply the defect And where his Trope of Inversion can't pervert the Truth another part of Rhetorick must serve the Turn Invention and a Lye for so is that which he would have us believe that his Second Brother Edmund was the First And truly I believe he could Invert the Course of Nature too as well as Blood would it serve his turn and this we must take for unquestion'd Authority from the pretensions of the House of Lancaster that descended from him and say he was only rejected for his Deformity truly were there nothing to refute it but only their pretentions the prejudice and partiality of the Pretenders were sufficient to render it suspected which aspiring Line Labour'd as much in its Genealogy as ever any Welsh Gentleman in his Pedigree But the best of it is matter of Fact contradicts it Historians deny it and none but himself would assert M. Paris Edward natus An. 1239. Edmund An. 1246. it It Appears from Paris that this primitive Lancastrian was no less than Six years younger And he an Author that Liv'd in the same Reign and resided in Stow says Edw. born 24 year of his Reign Edm. in 29. So Daniel says Baker Fecit Iurare Fidelitatem Ligeantiam Edwardo primogenito suo Paris An. 1240. Vid. Bisp Carlisle speech Rich. 2d in Baker or Trussel who says he was neither Elder or deform'd the very same Court and says that the Londoners swore Allegiance to the First-born Edward but a year old and then before the Second was so much as born And for his deformity that he only gathers from the shallower Argument of his Name being Crouch-back which as Baker observes was rather from his wearing a Cross upon his Back and this I look upon as better Authority then Buck's in the accomplishment and polishing of Richard the third and the cleering of him from his crookedness and yet I believe our good Natur'd Historian will readily credit that because spoken in commendation of a Usurper a Tyrant and a Murderer and one that came to the Crown as he will have it by the consent of the People tho this of ours must by no means be believed because it no way makes for his purpose The last was but little and now the next Reign is as much for the Gentleman's purpose and that 's a Rebellion of a Parliament an actual Deposition of the present King and the Murdering of his Sovereign and of that he makes as good use too as if he designed not only to transmit it with his Papers to posterity but with his Pen for the present Age to transcribe it into Practice and what the Devil himself would have condemned in an History has this Impious Wretch made a damnable President It must be his Design from the Season of its Publication from the Proceedings of his Parliament and from the subsequent Discoveries the whole piece was nothing else in every Paragraph but a Vindication of the Parliaments Power over Kings and here in this he has made the Deposition of his King like their ordinary Proceedings warrantable by President why did he not tell them too Painted Chamber Monday the 29. ordered a warrant Vid. Their own Journal Book Fol. 116. be drawn for Executing the King in the open Street before White-Hall Sir Arthur Haslerig Reports from the Committee ibid. March 1648 that Charles and James Stewart Sons of the late King should dye without Mercy wheresoever they should be found And he had certainly brought down his History to this too had the Times been but black enough to bear it for the subsequent sacrificing of Richard the Second is as much his popular Theam his Power of Parliaments and his Election of the People He tells them their Ancestors were weary of this Kings Irregular and Arbitrary Government and the malicious Wretch found some of their present Posterity as uneasie under a mild and merciful Reign he tells them their Parliament publickly read a Paper containing Instances of the Kings Misgovernment Vid. pag. 6. of the brief History of Succession and concluded that he was unworthy to Reign any longer and ought to be deposed and sent to him to renounce his Crown and Dignity otherwise they would proceed that is to do it for him but I think his piece was overseen that it did not Vid. Proceedings at the Old-B tell them too of another Paper as Bernardiston told them at the Bar that was talkt of in Parliament about too The Encroachments and Vsurpation of Arbitrary Power of following such Orders as shall from Time to Time be received from this present Parliament or the Major part of the Members when it shall be Prorogu'd or Dissolved and obey such Officers as they shall set over us Certainly his making this unfortunate Edward's Deposition a Parliamentary President has unmaskt our Treasons Historiographer superseded even with men but of common Sense his designed Impositions registred himself an inveterate Traytor with his own hand and Chronicl'd his lasting Treason to Posterity which will blush at the reading of those Villanous Insinuations which his most Licentious Pen could Publish without 't was then in that Kings Reign too as appears in their Ordinances they made the Tumultuous and Rebellious Barons for the Commons were then Vid. Dr. B. History Fol. 20. not so considerable as to raise a Rebellion upon the Pretence of Gods Honour and the Church the Honour of the King and his Realm made Confederacies to remove evil Councellors reform the Court and to force the King to let them name all the Judges of the Bench and the chief Officers of the Crown how near they then agreed with some of our late Transactions and how well those have been copy'd since I need not observe And that the Narrative the Author of this piece presents to the Parliament was offered only for the Designs I have suggested appears also from this Instance being no way pertinent to what ought to be the right purport of his History whose Subject should have been but of Succession But that he found was not to be disputed here in this Reign it being Hereditary beyond Contradiction and
't is now an unanswerable Confirmation that those who are so much for altering the discent of the Crown are as much for the deposing of him that wears it 't is now an attested Truth under their own hands and they must give themselves the Lye to confute it But whatever were the pardonable faults of this unhappy Prince tho our 4 El. 246. Bracton Lib. 1. Chap. 8. Law say A King can have none much less be punisht for it when he can do no wrong The greatest that Daniel condemns was his mighty favouring of his Daniel p. 184. Minions Gaveston and Spencer's in Opposition to his Barons and must it be criminal to a King to have a Friend But however in his History calls it the first Example of a deposed Prince no less dishonourable to the State than to him Stow calls the Bishop of Hereford that Stow p. 225. then was busied in the Resignation but a Mischievous Embassador and pray what was the Fate of those that were the first Leaders of the Rebellion and the most mutinous The mighty Duke of Lancaster was by his own Peers condemned to be Hang'd and Quartered and was only Beheaded and several Barons besides and afterward Mortimer the Queens own Minion and Favourite was impeached in Parliament of Edward the Third for making Dissention between the late King and Queen for murdering of his Sovereign and accordingly was drawn Hanged and Quartered for it with several of his Adherents But as Unanimous and as Clamorous as they seemed for his Deposition the Vid. Rot. Parliament 50. cited p. Dr. B. greatest Contenders for it as some of our Historians affirm lamented it with regret when it was done and Stow tells us that when the Queen understood Vid. Stow 224. her Son was Elected she seemed to be full of sorrow as it were almost out of her Wits and the Son lamented too and swore that against his Fathers Will he would never take the Crown And after all what succeeded this most unjust Deprivation and Imprisonment of a King but what still is its immediate subsequent the Barbarous Murder this was verified in the following fate of King Richard this was the unfortunate Consequence of our late confined Martyr Mattrevers Iron soon followed the firsts Imprisonment in Corfe and Berkley Gastle Exton's Poll-ax as quickly dispatcht the Second at Pomfret and the Block at White-Hall too soon attended the Confinements of the last Martyr in Carisbrook and Holmby confirming even with his last breath and verifying in his latest Blood this too fatal Aphorism that a Death soon follows the Deprivation of a King and that Vid. Eâ—kon Basil there is in his own words but a little distance between the Prisons and the Graves of Princes And now the next that enters this Theater Royal is Edward the Third a Son too forward to accept of a Crown before 't was his due But notwithstanding this Rebellious Instance he hath given not so formally chosen as to make the Kingdom Elective for their very chusing of his Son and that the Eldest insinuates that in spight of their obstinate dissobedience their resolute Rebellion they were still toucht with a sense of right and priviledge of Primogeniture and the small remainders of Majesty the bare Right they had left him awd them so far as to think it necessary to palliate their too open villanies with the formality of a Resignation neither would the Son accept it neither was he proclaimed or Crown'd till his Father had resigned and let the bold audacious force they used for it lie at their Door that vindicate it his resigning entitled his Son and he had a sort of Right in Civil Law besides Hereditary pro derelicto Here 't is pretty remarkable the fine sort of Observation he makes on the Bishop of Canterbury's Text vox Populi that it was the voice of the Almighty Brief History p. 6. too and impiously upbraids the sacred Dust of their own Martyred Lawd for placing a Divine Right in Kings when some of his Predecessors had so well lodged it in the People but did not the Impudence of his Brow almost exceed the villany of his Heart his Conscience as hard as his Fore-Head or both he could never thus inhumanely reflect on him whom they butchered too as barbarously and that with such a Reflection that flies in his own Face when the very Opposers of this pious Praelates Opinion verifyed afterwards his Prophetick fear and by the placing this Divine Right in the People sent assoon his sacred Majesty to follow the Praelate But can ever Wretches show more industrious Malice towards the Government when they shall close with the Doctrines of their worst of Enemies and which they would be thought so damnably to detest to do it an Injury cite you the Authority of the most Zealous Catholicks when it will make against the Monarchy yet baffle and burlesque the very Bible when it makes for it the malitious Miscreant knows the Clergy then were all bound by their Oaths besides their Opinions to be the Bigots of Rome He knows the Popes supremacy then would not admit of the Kings He knows the pleasing of the People was then the best Expedient for the promoting the Pope that from them came all the Penny 's that paid them for their Pater-nosters and that this beast of Babylon against which our Zealots pretend too as much Brutal rage then only trampled upon the Necks of Kings not only had Her stirrops held by them but rid upon the very backs of Princes and that only because the poor People were so Priest-ridden would he have had that Popish Prelate preach to them the Kings Supremacy told them he was not to be toucht because jure divino when themselves make it the Doctrin of their Church to dethrone them certainly such Sycophants dissemble when they cry up the Reformation that rely so much upon the Religion of those times before they were Reform'd The Bishop as he thinks having now Principes Regni habito Concilio apud Westm Pol. Virg. Lib. 5. pretty well asserted the Peoples supremacy by making them Divine he brings in as prettily Polidore Virgil proving them to be all Princes so that we have now but one Subject left and that 's the King but by his leave the Governments bark must be wrackt in a Rebellion and a storm before they can come to Reign like so many Trincaloes in the Tempest The Gentleman sure read Shakespear instead of Virgil and thinks our Isle enchanted too but to be serious in matters of Blood and Right and that when both Royal could any Person of sober sense be so simply sollicitous as from an Author forreign unknowing our Constitutions calling some of our Subjects Principes to suggest their Supremacy their Superiority we know as well as he what he means by it or what he must mean that they were some of the chief of the Realm and will that make them Rulers too the
well as Reason this very King of whom we now treat catcht at the Crown while his Father was catching at his last breath seised it as his own as being his Vid. Baker 166. and Trussel In fine vit Hen. 4. Right assoon as the gasping Monarch did but seem dead who only reviv'd to let him know how little that Right was by which he claim'd and so sealed the wrong he had done with his last breath the Successor declaring his own Sword should maintain what his Fathers had got Immediately upon this Henry the Fifths Death his Son Henry the Sixth succeeded This Author himself can talk of nothing of Election here neither but that he succeeded as his Fathers Heir but to make the power of Parliament prevail in this Kings Reign he is forc't to fly to a President that prevents any other Consutation of his whole History for whereas he has contended all alone for a Parliamentary priviledge for altering the Succession here he has brought upon the Stage one that condemns it self for doing so here we find a Duke of York too by the power as this Gentleman would have it of a Hen. 6th Parliament but rather a perfect Vsurpation upon the Crown for a long time excluded from his Birthright and to make way for one of their Usurpers that was a Monmouth too That Exclusion was begun but with a Rebellion and it ended in as much Blood is our having been wretchedly miserable an Argument for our tempting the Almighty to make us once more so shall we Plot against Heaven for our Destruction and defie Fate to make us happy 't is matter of Astonishment to find the very Presidents of our Nations ruin to be preferr'd as expedients for its Preservation unless they think a Prince whose Just resentments themselves fear and call revengeful should now more tamely forego his Right when for above two hundred Years agon it was with so much Blood asserted or do they think now an excluded Prince will find fewer Friends no these Political Suggestions do but give themselves the Lye his Courage they know and for that they associated his Adherents they fear'd and for that they were to be destroyed and here we have now by this Author 's own Confession after a thirty years bloody War what in our next Parliament perhaps Vid. Rot. Par. 39. H. 6. no. 10. Stow P. 49. we may have without as well as in the late Loyal one in Scotland a full Recognition of the Right of the Lawful Heir and that no foregoing Act is of any force to foreclude the Right Inheritor of the Crown and the Parliament approving of a Duke of York for their Sovereign as a Right Heir by Lineal discent from King Richard the Second And now the Succession of this next King Edward the Fourth was the greatest Confirmation of the discent of the Crown to be by Proximity of Blood that the most devout Heart the most zealous Contender for this undoubted right cou'd wish or desire Here we have the very Parliaments those omnipotent Powers of the People the God Almighties of these Idolatrous Adorers themselves acknowledging that such a Succession is agreeable to the Laws of God Nature and Nations Human and Divine and is this now as this factious Impostor would insinuate only the Doctrine of Lambeth The position of our Lawds and the Principle of our Prelate The first thing that was done in the first of this Edward the Fourth was the repealing of all the proceedings against Richard the Second and all the three following Lines of Lancaster declar'd absolute Vsurpers That Henry the Fourth Vid. the Par. Roll. recited at length by Dr. B. in 's History p. 30. had rashly against Right and Justice by Force and Arms against his Faith and Allegiance rais'd War against King Richard usurpt and intruded on the Royal Power that the Tyrant Imprison'd murder'd his Anointed Crowned Consecrated King against Gods Law and Mans Allegiance and that the removing of the last Vsurper was according to the Laws and Custom of the Realm Most of the proceedings of Parliaments in there former Reigns were all null'd and vacated and the Intrusion of the first Lancaster into the Throne declar'd an Occasion of the ruine of the Realm and the ground of all the Civil and Intestine Wars that followed But refractory Rebels may reply This was after he had obtain'd his Right again with the Sword and all the Kingdom then his own Creatures But still these prejudic'd Souls can't reflect that most if not all of those Elections Vsurpations that they cite on their side were only then the Sense of their Parliaments when they did not dare to think otherwise and when they were fright'ned into Faction with the Terror of the Sword and forc't to comply for the fear of Arms and are not their Votes and Suffrages their Resolves and Orders as warrantble for the declaring of an undoubted Right as for an asserting of an absolute Wrong But even such a suggestion is as really simple as 't is truly false and so fails them too for their own Author tells us that the Duke of York did not Brief History fol. 8. think it worth the contending for till his Title was declar'd in Parliament and that was done when the last of the Usurpers was in a flourishing Condition at the head of his House of Peers and in the hearts of his People And the rejecting 39. H. 6. Stow p. 409. To which they after diligent deliberation had and approved Rot. Parl. 39. H. 6. of their Intruder so far from being done by force that they took all the Care Counsel and Deliberation imaginable as soon as the Duke put in his Claim they reply'd 't was an high matter and not to be consider'd without their Kings consent to whom all their Lords present it himself orders it to be examin'd his own Title as far as could be found out to be defended accordingly they send for all the Judges who declin'd without doubt out of distrust the discussing it then all the Serjeants are sent for and they do the same till forc't by their Superiors into these three or four extorted Objections 1. The Oath they had taken to this King 2. The Entails made to the Heirs of Henry the Fourth 3. That he claim'd as Inheritor to Henry the Third The Replies of the Duke That no Oath was obligatory for the suppressing of a Right That the Entails were made only to supply the defect of a better Title And that Records would contradict his discent from Henry the Third So sufficiently satisfied that honourable Assembly that they presently recognise his Right and that for eschewing the many Inconveniences that might ensue upon an Exclusion And for saving a little of their Kings Honor as they call'd it let the poor Usurper turn a Tenant for his Life and that prov'd but afterwards at the Courtesie of the Heir Does not this blind implicit Adorer of his deify'd Creatures this
forsook the Lancastrians and set the House of York in the Throne shall the being declar'd but an Heir Apparent purge an Attainder And shall not an actual discent of the Crown take away the same defects shall here be thought the bare opinion of a Parliament sufficient to clear a Corrupted Blood And shall It was resolv'd so by all the Judges in the Chequer Chamber 1. H. 7. and so not extrajudicial but that which troubles them is that these the Kings Judges shou'd have the re-resolution of what is law which when we come to Mr. Sidney's paper that complains of it too we shall prove to be pretty reasonable Vid. Stows Ann. page 409. 406. not for the same the resolution of all the Judges suffice But as this contradicts all right and reason so the very next Line all History and Truth for it appears from all the Chronicles that can be consulted that the house of York was rather own'd by the Parliament for fear of the People then that the People were prevail'd upon by the Parliaments opinion for this Parliament of his had not above half a year before at Coventry declar'd the Duke and all his Adherents Traytors Disinherited and Excluded him and his Heirs Ludlow a Town that belong'd to him sack't to the bare Walls and as a Member in the late Houses moved for the banishment of Popish Women too so did the Parliamentary rigor of those Times extend also to that Sex and the Dutchess suffer'd then the same severe Exile with the Duke and as our Author says was spoiled of all her Goods yet as rigorous as they show'd themselves in their violent Votes against him and all that was his his Hereditary right was so rooted in the Peoples Hearts that it form'd for him an Army fought for him at Northampton and brought both the Usurper and his Parliament to a Composition for the Crown Thus much for the refuting of his little Reason and his less Law upon the Case And his Historical Inference that Brief History fol. 18. follows for its Justification fails him as much too for he tells us the Tale of Richard the Thirds letting the Children of his Brother Clarence live because their Father was attainted in Edward the 17. Edw. 4. Fourths time and that it was the Resolution of his Parliament that his Issue was thereby disabl'd to Challenge the 1. Rich. 3. Crown And truly the Case will admit of no better defence the badness of his cause can never be made good but with such a Justification as is much worse He verifies that Aphorism of the Tragedian that to secure your self in your Villanies you must commit more and 't is the Politicks too of a Matchiavel as well as a Seneca and Seneca in Traged this the practise now of our present Republican who first lays you down a Position perhaps truly Treasonable and then is forc't to fly to the Resolution of Traytors for the defence of the Treason and proves that the Crowns Discent does not purge Attainder because this Parliament of an absolute Usurper rather a pack of Rebels then a convention of States resolv'd it so Could it be imagin'd that those that had Bastardiz'd the Blood of their late Soveraign for him already would Boggle to Declare that of a Clarence and but their Kings Brother corrupt would those that promoted the spilling of the Blood of the two Nephews stick to Resolve that of the rest attainted the Malicious Impostor knows that they were then treating with a Tyrant that they themselves had advanc'd to the Throne and would he have had those demurred upon a point in Law to have argued of his Crown again which themselves knew against all the Laws of the Land they had plac't upon his head But this President if allow'd would still to the present purpose be as Impertinent as 't is Treasonable for the Question is what was Law since H. 7. time and he Labours to Confute it with what was said some three years before and to Baffle the Resolution of all the Judges of the Kingdom with the Suffrages of the Parliament that even of their own Laws have no right to Judge much less by any Preceding determinations of their house to Bind all the Succeeding Judges of the Realm let him first prove a even Vsurper's Parliaments opinion Law and then proceed to refute the resolutions of the Judges of a Lawful King In short nothing can be Law there but what is Enacted if Clarence his Attainder did not take away the Discent the resolution of the Judges since is certainly the more just if it did then yet still their opinion never the less Justifiable now for the opinion of that Parliament neither was or could be made Law for if they would have made it an Act it must have been done before Richard was in the Throne and then void for want of Royal Assent if after they had Crown'd their Usurper then sure too late to be enacted unless they would have made the Tyrant his own Judge And himself to have Attainted the second Pair of Nephrews as well as he Butcher'd the First But as fearless as he says the Monster was from the pretensions of the D. of Clarence his Children whose Minority might well make the poor Infants not very formidable yet he did not think the Duke himself so Barr'd with his Attainder but that he might still have been a Bar against his Horrid Usurpation that truly sent the poor Prince to the Tower and got the Brother of the Vid Baker p. 215. An. 1477. Monstrous Assassin to be suffocated in the Malmsey Butt The discent to Henry the 8 was both by Blood and Entail and so beyond contradiction and with their own concession Hereditary but where that objection to the Birth-right fails them there to be sure some subsequent Act of that Kings Reign shall be sifted and made to Countenance their suggested falsehoods tho the Succession of the Prince himself contradicts it who had all the Consolidated Titles in him that had been so long disputed all that his Mothers Blood and his Fathers Arms and the Law could Invest him with but because his Exorbitant proceedings his Arbitrary power and predominancy which themselves condemn'd him for over Parliaments awd them into an altering the Succession as often as he was pleas'd to Change his bed or chop off a Wife therefore must we conclude Parliaments to have a Power to do that by Right which against all right perhaps they were compell'd to do why does he not prove it a president for Polygamy and Murder because that furious Prince still sacrificed Women to his Lust and Men to his Anger But yet allowing them such a Power of medling with the Succession which certainly does not follow from their having some time Vsurp't it or been put upon that Usurpation by their very Prince for 't is against reason to make that a right only because they can plead Prescription for doing a
wrong but here those several alterations were all caus'd to be made for the securing of a Lineal â—egitimate and lawful Successor to the Throne for as a Reverend Author says the King Lamented that he should leave Bishp Godwins Histo H. 8. p. 37. the Kingdom to a Woman whose Birth was â—estionable and he willing to settle the Kingdom on his LAWFUL Issue and for this reason he got the 25th to pass against his Daughter Mary And the very Preamble of the Act tells us that it was for the Surety of Title and Succession and Lawful Inheritance Three years are scarce past till the 28 of his Reign repeals almost all that the 25 had Enacted their Protestant Queen Elizabeth made as well as the Popish Mary plain Bastard and tho our prejudic'd Author may make the same Vid. Pulton Stat. matter right and wrong as he stands affected he must think this his powerfuâ— Parliament dealt a little hard with thâ— latter whose Mother was never divorc't but from her Life and she paâ— off for a spurious Off-Spring only upoâ— the pretended suggestions of Anne Boleyn unknown impediments confess 't sine to Canterbury But whatever they were the Canons of the Church tho born bâ—fore Marriage and since after the verâ— Laws of the Land did make her Legitâ—mate But however this greater piece ofâ— justice to this good Protestant Queeâ— which they 'l say now proceeds from the Kings putting the Parlament In 's 31 as incontinency was made impediment in the first Anns Case they declared the suant of concupiscence an Impediment in the 2ds and only upon his sending some of his Lords to the lower house the Lady Cleves was unlawful too Vid Stow p. 581. Baker 288. Stat. 35. H. 8. upon too much Power wâ— palliated all along with the pretence of providing a Legitimâ—â—â— Lawful Successor and so the cleâ—â— Reverse and Contradiction of thâ— proceedings of our late Patrioâ— to whose Privileges those sort presidents were apply'd for those Parliamentary In the 33 the Parliament petition'd to him whom they knew it would please for the Attainder of Kat. Howard his 5th Queen Powers seculded but Bastards to make room for Heirs Lawful and Legitimate with us an Issue truly Legitimate should have been EXCLUDED for the setting up of a SPURIOUS ONE But then at last comes the 35th of his Reign and that like a Gunpowder Plot in the Cellars blows up all the former foundations of the whole House both the two former Stat. for Disabling Illegitimating are null voy'd repeal'd the LADY MARY Sister Elizabeth in those seven years suffered my Lord Bacons transmutation of Bodys and were turned all into new matter and what was Spurious Illegitimate and in Capable with the single Charm of be it enacted was become truly Lawful Lineal Heir of the Crown and Capacitated to succeed in an HEREDITARY DISCENT and so far from Invading the Prerogative so full of giving were the bountiful Parliaments of those times that they Impower their too Powerful Prince to dispose of his Crown by Letters Pattents or an Arbitrary Testamentary disposition an Oblation I think his present Majesty might esteem too great to be accepted who knows his Successor to be the Crown 's Heir scarce his own much less the PARLIAMENTS Edward the Sixth upon his Fathers death succeeded an Heir Lineal Legal and Testamentary yet the first thing this Author observes upon him is the greatest falsehood viz. That he took upon him a power what surely no King ever had to dispose of his Crown by Will When in the very Preceeding president his own Father by his Will manifested he had the Power and left it him by his last But his he 'll say was a Power given him by Parliament But that is not so plain neither both from the Preamble and the purport of both the dissonant Acts of 28 and 35. for the designs of both were only for the settling the Succession and then upon supposition of the failure of Issue from those upon whom it was setled they fairly leave it to his last Will or his Letters Pattents but supposing this Liberty had not been allow'd can he imagin that a King that had got them to alter the succession at his pleasure in his Life time would not upon the failure of the Limited Heirs have dispos'd of it by Will at his death but that none but this Edward of our Kings took this power upon him is utterly false from these several instances First the very first King of his name in the Saxon succession left it so to his Son to succeed And Athelstan Malmsbury Lib. 2. c. 6. fol. 27. Jussu patris in Testamento Athelstonus in Regen acclamatâ—â— est whom above this Gentleman recommended to the City of London for a Mon. and Illegitimate against the sense and silence of all Historians was declar'd King by the Command and last Will of his Father Edward the elder in the Reign of the Danes Canutus did the same bequeath'd Norway to Swain his eldest and England to his youngest Son and for the Norman Succession the very first King and who had the most right to do so from the Sword left to Rufus the right but of an Heir Testamentary tho followed by his Son Henry the first And Richard that had less reason so to do for his Daughter Maud by the Law of the Land would have been his Heir without the Legacy and so would to the latter his Nephew Arthur and tho both were by Rebellion rejected yet still sure their right remain'd But for this Edward the 6th disposing it by Will it was not only against the Customary Discent of the Realm in a right blood but of an Express Entail in several Acts of Parliaments I am so far of this Authors opinion that I believe it was no way warrantable but never the sooner for his Parliaments settlement had it not been at last upon the right Heirs for tho those Princes of ours heretofore took upon them to leave Successors by Will they still nominated those that by Blood were to succeed without such a Nomination so that the bequest was more matter of Form then Adoption only to let the Subjects know whom they look't upon to have the right of Succession rather than to superadd any thing of more right and that 's the reason or ought to be that we properly call the next in Blood the Kings Successor but the Crowns Heir 'T is a little prodigious Paradox to me that it must be such a receiv'd Maxim that a Parliament can do no wrong and that in plain Terms they tell us it can do any thing mollifying it only with an Exception that they can't make a Man a Woman yet that they bid pretty fair for too in these Presidents of Harry the 8th when they made Bastard Females of those that were Legitimate and then Legitimis'd again the same Bastards and 't is as mighty a Miracle to men unprejudic'd that our Parliament Patriots
Religion Ibid. page 157. can extenuate their Affections to their Prince and Lawful Soveraign And he writ it in a Time when the most malitious can't object it was to flatter a suspected Successor and when most of the Prelates themselves were so far from Rome that there was scarce an Arminian Upon the death of her Sister Doctor Heath Arch-Bishop of Canterbury presently declar'd Queen Elizabeth's right to Stow 635. the Parliament then sitting who did not put it to the Vote as our Republican would insinuate they use to do but however did as much as was usual acknowledg'd that she was right Lawful Inheritor and presently she was proclaimed in Westminster-hall and in the next vote they do declare moreover in full Assembly Lords and Commons That this their Queen Elizabeth is their Lawful 1. Eliz. c. 3. Soveraign by the Laws of God and so not only in relation to 35 H. 8. by the Statutes of the Realm and the Blood-Royal and in this open and generous Recognition they must Implicitly disclaim all power of Election or give themselves the Lye and so must our Impostor put upon them a falsehood if here his Parliamentary Choice must pass for a Truth but where matter fails them before and he can't prove his Election antecedent to the Monarchs right then as in some other places and here at present he can make the Prince tho own'd Hereditary by some subsequent Act of his own to make himself Elective and for this he cites you the 13 of this Queen the purport 13. Eliz. of which is to disable any one even after her Death to inherit the Crown that shall pretend to it during her Life But does not every one know that this was Enacted as all the fore-mention'd irregular Acts of her Father with her own seeking and desire and the bringing this for a president for a Parliamentary Power is just as pertinent as that of palliating the Treason of their late Covenant with the Title and Pretence of an Association made in her Time too with her own Consent and for the same purpose that this Act was past both being contriv'd in opposition to the pretences of the Queen of Scots and must the only thing that has Blacken'd her clear Integrity with Injustice and Blemish't her Virgin Innocency with Blood be brought upon the Stage for an Imitation to our State and because the Grand-mother suffer'd with a Bill of EXCLVSION and an AXE and the Father with the same Fate must the Son too that has experienc'd exile dangers and all but death from this power of Parliament Succeed only in their Misfortune and his Blood be made Hereditary only in being Spilt All that he says of King James is but 1. Jacob. what makes against him and what he might have said of all the rest that they made a Recognition of his right upon his coming to the Crown and truly such an one as must silenc'd all such Historians for they acknowledg him Lineal Lawful Liege Lord by the Laws of God and Man this may suffice for my sense of his History and all honest hearts will concur with my Sentiments his subsequent observations are but the same with the Principles of his ASSOCIATES that follow where I shall reflect upon them together as they are combin'd And here only give him an omitted Instance as pertinent as the Presidents he has propos'd to bring down his Narrative to the Times Charles the first notwithstanding his proximity of Blood his possession of the Crown and his pretended right from God yet the Parliament imprison'd him MVRDERED him and put the Power in the People And now what can any Rational Soul See all the 3 Votes in their Journal Book living infer even from this Authors own Observations but that those Parliaments which he brings us here for Presidents both for disallowing the Discent of the Crown to purge the Defects of the Prince upon whom it descends as also those that concern'd themselves in altering the Lineal Discent it self are so far from warranting the same Practises and proceedings that they stand upon Record are Chronicl'd in History register'd in their own Journals declar'd by Special Coke Ch-Treason 2d Inst resolved by all the Judges of the Land the deposers were all Traytors Acts REBELS and TRAYTORS and then no wonder if the poor People are encourag'd to Rebel when the very Presidents of TREASON shall be publish't as a Parliamentary Practise the deluded filly Souls don't so soon consider that if every Seditious Senate's determination shall decide too the Descent of the Crown that this consequence which even themselves may blush to own must as inevitably follow that from the Vnion of the Seven under Egbert to our present Soveraign the first Born Heir to our Three Vnited Kingdoms there never was or could ever be a REBELLION or ever one USURPER in the whole Catalogue of Kings Henry of Bullingbrook by this unreasonable sort of supposition had as much right to the Crown as that Unfortunate Richard from whom it was rent and torn Edward the Third but a Son Intitl'd to the wearing it before his Father had done with it himself and that Butcher of his Brothers Babes and the Monster of Men as Lawful a King as his Nephew that he Murder'd That Arch-Rebel that of late mounted the Throne Cromwel himself as much right to sit there as a Charles the best of Monarchs they Martyr'd all these were by Parliament acknowledg'd for their Lawful 1. Ed. 3d. 1. Hen. 4. 1. Rich. 3. Soveraigns against the very Fundamental Laws of all the Land Laws that even with the Allowance of one their late most Laborious most popular and pillor'd Advocate for this Power of Parliament Pryn himself have still plac't Prynn's power of Parliament fol. 107. the Discent of the Crown in the right Heirs at Common Law and who himself Confesses that Acts of Parliament have translated it from them to others who had no good Title and then certainly such a translation at best can be but bad and Evidences that there is somewhat else requir'd besides their Power to the making of a King so powerful and prevalent are the Dictates of Truth and reason that they force their Confessions sometimes from the very Mouths of those that Labour to give them the Lye drop from them unawares and steal from their unadvised Lips Lastly 'T is most prodigiously Strange that such Seditious Sycophants as fawn upon this Parliamentary Power for altering the Succession and asserting of an absolute wrong yet are such unreasonable Souls as not to Consider the several Acts of the self-same Powers that have declar'd it unalterable and maintain'd the Monarchs Vnquestionable right Edward the 4th's first Parliament they themselves 1. Edw. 4. know declar'd those that came to the Crown by the Common Consent of the People to be but Vsurpers Kings only de Facto which implys ' its contrary to be just and that some de
Claws the Doctor the Dr. our English man and he the Doctor and Venetian one of them must be somewhat of the Ass among them and then 't is Demonstrable they have a great share in it all and because the great Galen of the Times is so bold with his Catharticks as to set up for his Purging of the Court of Chancery tho I Page 129. am no Practiser in it yet I shall take the pains to defend it against the Doctor in its due place and since the Mountebank for the Body Natural is here all along made an Empirick for the Diseases of the POLITICK and from his Colledg brought to the Coffee-House to talk only of the Marasmus of State I 'll give him my sence tho no States-man of this whole Work in his own Phraseology The Piece seems to me like a sort of Preparation among the Doctors a meer Amalgama the Chymical Operator understands it better than many a Politician the Marasmus 't is a Composition of meer Quick-silver and Lead tho this Political Spagyrist perhaps will call it Saturn and Mercury here this Author with the help of the Fire of his hot Brain has incorporated his volatile thoughts and his dull ones together gay Compliments and Air Faction and Hell in a lump And tho this homely Physician won't allow himself to have been abroad tho the courteous Venetian contended for his breeding in Padua Page 81. yet the frequency of Murders here too would make a Body mistrust it and however their Human Bodys escape such Principles I am sure have Poyson'd some of their Souls and thus I have plac'd my Pleasant Observation upon their Ridiculous Stuff together that I might only reflect hereafter on what they would have thought serious and I shall worth a Reflection without the Mixture of Mirth Their mingl'd Foppery must otherwise provoke a little Laughter as well as their Principles of Sedition incense and I cannot Trim my Passions so well as to keep them in a pure Medley of Mirth and Anger If any affected to the Cause or disaffected thinks his Introduction deserv's a more serious Reply let him take the pains to give it a more solid Elaborate Confutation In the Second day they wisely agreed not to play the Fool and 't is well they slept upon 't for the sake of their Senses and the first Observation of the Venetian is as long as his Noble gown down to the very heels of two Pages but for brevity you shall have it in as many words Why that our English Nation signifies so Plat. Red. Page 16. little abroad yet makes such a great sight at home our Author having been so much Conversant with Dons and French can't forbear falling to his Formality agen and after a soft sort of Compliment to the Courteous Stranger and the Government thus Thunders out his Negative Reason Evil Counsellors Pensioner Parliament Thorough pac'd Judges Flattering Ibid p. 20 Divines designing Papists French Councils So I have seen at another sort of Cabal where such Disputants use to assemble for Edification and Doctrine not Dialogue and Dispute the Jack-Pudding of their Pulpit has seem'd to whisper his God Almighty in the Ear as a common Zany does his Mountebank for Instruction and then raves out to the list'ning and Attentive Rabble his Choledochons Phlegmagogons Balms of Gilead Conscience Salve Curse ye Meroz Sword of Gideon and for this Enthusiasm too those Harleqins of their Assemblies the Burlesques of the Bible shall Blaspheme with the very Book and vouch the Almighties coming to them in a still voice and sometimes in a rushing wind and the Devil of Sedition shall be countenanced with the word of God I should hardly pardon my self the Liberty of fullying the sacred Text with so much as the repetition of such a Simile did not I know the Zealots themselves had vouch't it for a Iustification of their sudden Raptures and Inspiration and for this Preacher of the Politicks tho I never saw him in his Geer and Gestures I am sure he makes just such another Figure in his Speech on a sudden 't is all Aposeiopesis soft and fair and assoon all in Exclamation and Ecphone and these heats and lucid Interval's of raving run through his whole Work But first for his Forreigner with his Observation is it a Mathematical Postulate that our Nation is so despicable with our Neighbour's that it must be granted assoon as ask't or has he rather beg'd the Question or can the Noble Student from his Geometry measure the fame and reputation of the Kingdoms of the Earth but whatever his skill be in the Doctrine of Triangles I am sure he is much out here in his Measures and whatever reputation England has at Venice or a compleat Monarchy with a mixt Republick I am sure with better Governments it has as much esteem and when ever it loses any it must proceed from the Scandals and Infectious breath of such Authors and Seditious Vipers that wound the Reputation as well as the Bowels of their Dam. But that matter of Fact may contradict what Malice does but suggest near the very same Time this most Impudent About 80. or 81. Observation was made did they propose to our present Prince the League of Guaranty and desire HIS entrance before that of the Empire But I can tell him what once brought a Scandal indeed upon the Nation made it a reproach to it's Neighbours in a thing of the like Nature not to mention the Murder of their King for that supersedes all hopes of regaining it's former Esteem for did not the Proceedings of that Rebel Parliament make us a by-word to the Heathen and a Scandal even to the revolted Holland did not the very Turks bless themselves at the Villany and the Dutch since in Derision cut off the Tails of their Currs to let us know we made less of a Kings head than a Dogs Neck But this we mean to apply related to it's reputation upon a League too this was a Scandal also brought upon it by a Parliament this was the effect of unjustly altering the Succession And this was in the Time of Henry the 8 when the Princes of the Empire would have made him Head of the Protestant League but upon hearing of his Extravagant Parliamentary Proceedings of their repudiating what Wives he pleas'd and allowing a more cruel Divorce of a Pious Protestant Queen from her Life as well as his Bed and severing her Head from her Shoulders as well as the Crown when they saw the Senate of England so Inconsistent with themselves as to Legitimate Bastards and then make Bastards of those they thought Legitimate Then began our Nations Reputation to be low with our Neighbours Then began our Parliament's to be look't upon as insignificant and the Supream Power of our great Assembly to Forreign Councils seem inconsistent and their mighty Credit so mean that they could not be trusted and thereupon all the Leaguer's unanimously rejected Henry
whom they had preposed for their Head And well might they distrust the Councils of such a State that while they pretended the Reformation of Religion could chop off the Head of the most zealous Reformer and as Baker calls her Page 284. one of the first Countenancers of the Gospel make her Issue spurious that was like to and afterwards did prove the most Protestant Princess and all this but to please a Lididinous King that could make her suffer for his constant Crime Inconstancy when that too was so little prov'd and her Innocency so much whatever prospect these pretenders of Reformation Papists were then Martyr'd for opposing their Kings Supremacy Protestants the Mass a sort of Parliament persecution destroying both Witness the 6 Articles set forth in 31 of his Reign Burnets Abridgment pag. 157. Viz. The Protestant Queen gave to the Princes of the Empire that they should think of making the head of this dissembling Parliament that of their League too I am sure they must all of them as Oates did when he took the Mass the Sacrament for his Religion only pretend it and tho they made the World and Forreign Princes think well of their affections to Reform tho they had excluded the Pope still they and their King could remain Papist's and a Reverend Author that has had the thanks of the House says that a Parliament was Summon'd that was resolv'd to destroy her so that we see a Parliament could then contrive to make our Nation signifie so little abroad and that our present King without one signifies so much that he stands the sole Arbitrator of War and Peace and Europe only debar'd of the benefits of it by the very Faction that upbraids the Government with its being disesteem'd and this Noble Traveller not only taken the Liberty to Lye with Fame but given Fame it self the Lye After he has Thunder'd out his Anathema's Page 20. against the State in the Jargon I recited above of Evil Councellors Pensioner Parliament thorough pac'd Judges which still the most malitious Soul can't allow to be the true Reasons of our Maladies and Distempers But however the State Negromancer with his Rosacrucian the Doctor knew these terrible Names with the Populace are swallow'd like his Pills without chawing and which they understand no more than his Catharticks with which they are compos'd with that unhappy effect too that they can no more discern the bitter cheat when these Prepossessions are got into the Guts of the Brain then that of the drug when in those of the Belly but like Persons absolutely possess'd rave and rail only with the same words that are dictated by their Devil yet after all this and having Libel'd Courtiers that contrary to the true meaning of the Law as well in this Kings time as in that of the Late they have got Parliaments Dissolv'd Vid. p. 20 21. Plato Red. Proroug'd for the keeping of the Governments Life and Soul together after all these Seditious suggestions still he defines but Negatively that none of these are the Causes but the effects of some Primary Cause that disturbs it but I am afraid this Primary Cause to him is yet an occult one unless the Discovery of our late Plots has so far illuminated his Understanding as to disclose it or he consulted his Doctor for his Diagnosticks and got him to make a better Crisis and Judgment of the distemper of the State But for those Acts by which he thinks his Majesty is oblig'd to call a Parliament for the Triennial one I think runs with a Clause and a Proviso that it may be oftner call'd and within the Term if occasion be and pray who shall be Judg of that occasion the King who calls them or the People who would be call'd and what if it be Judg'd an occasion not to call them at all the Preservation of the Prerogative may as well exclude the force of this as some new Emergencies which themselves plead for upon a necessity and for the Common-wealth and Peoples Benefit and Advantage can Invalidate others but for that obligation and Law for the Parliaments sitting in the late Kings time that which he would truly have reinforc'd is their Page 21. being perpetual again and not to be dissolv'd but for that I think he need not perswade the Courtiers to Address or be so bold to Petition himself unless he would tell his Majesty they must again have the Militia they must fight once more against his Person for the sake of his Authority and sit taking of Covenants and Associations till they have taken off their King But after our English-man has been so tedious in his Impertinence so Fulsom in his Complement that the Venetian is forc't to condemn his troublesome Civility that is our Author begins to be asham'd of himself Why then we come to know that before this great Secret that occasions our Disquiet can be disclosed before we can come to know the Distemper that disturbs our own We must Discourse of Government in general and for the Original of it the Gentleman is resolv'd to doubt And why Because this Government must be Antecedent to such Authors as could give us an account of it and the matter of History as I suppose he must mean did occur long before they could get Historians to transmit it to Posterity as for particular Governments he is forc't to allow the Knowledg of their Originals to be possibly transmitted and truly that he might well in Civility consent to what in Modesty he could not contradict and Rome and Athens will be found what they were in their Primitive State so long as we can find Authors Plutarch Florus Paterculus c. that can tell us of a Romulus a Theseus for their Founder But when the Gentleman is so cruel to himself as to keep close to the Text that there is no Origen of Original Primitive Government known for in truth these last mention'd might be Modern and I believe that Rome and Athens were never heard of when Sodom and Gomorrah were burnt with Brimstone then he is forc't to give himself the Lye and the word of Truth it self God and the Bible and that he does in excepting Moses from the number of those that had the Help and Information of any Constitution Antecedent as the Founders of the foremention'd Monarchies that were Establisht so long after might well be supposed to have had for their Instruction and yet does that sacred Penman inspired by God himself almost Coaeval with the World give us a clear account of all Original Government from the time that there was a Man to Rule or a Beast to be governed and that too of an absolute Monarchical Empire So that all what the sublime Speculations of this refin'd Politician can cavil at is only that we can't give him an account what was done before Adam what truly was the Constitutions of their Government and whether the Prae-Adamites liv'd like our
from this Authority they can have no proof and from Wise Men can be gathered nothing but such as were Noble or chief of the Realm for the meaner sort and that which we now call the Commonality were then far enough from having any great share of Learning or common Understanding and then besides these Wisest of the People were only such whom the King should think Wise and admit to his Council far from being sent by their Borroughs as elected Senators King Alfred had his Parliament and a great one was held by King Athelstan at Grately ' which only tells us there were Assembled some Bishops Noble-Men and the Wise-Men whom the King called which implies no more then those he had a mind should come But the Antiquity of a Parliament or that of an House of Commons is not so much the thing these Factious Roll and Record Mongers contend for 't is its Superiority Supremacy and there endeavours to make them antient is but in order to the making their Power Exorbitant and not to be controul'd by that of their King whom in the next place this Re-publican can scarce allow the power of calling them at his Pleasure and dissolving them when he pleases But so great is the Power of Truth and the Goodness of the Cause he Opposes that he is forc't to contradict himself to defend his Paradoxes For he tells us the King is obliged with an hear-say Law which his learned in the Faculty and Faction can't find out yet Page 111. to call Parliaments as often as need should be that is they think fit And also not to dissolve them till all their Petitions were answered that is till they are willing to be gone But then will I defie the Gentleman to shew me the difference between this their desired Parliament and a Perpetual sitting do not these industrious Endeavours for such a perpetuity of them plainly tell us 't is that 's the only thing they want and that they are taught experimentally that that alone run the three Kingdoms into absolute Rebellion and ruined the best of Kings and can as certainly compass the Destruction of the present But I 'll tell the lump of Contradiction first the words of our greatest Lawyer and then his own Cooke says none 4. Insti 27. 2. 1. Inst Sect. 164. can begin continue or dissolve a Parliament but by the Kings Authority Himself says that which is undoubtedly the Plato Red. page 105. Kings Right is to call and dissolve Parliaments 'T is impertinent to labour to contradict that which he here so plainly confutes himself the Statesman being so big with his Treasonable Notions so full of his Faction that his Memory fails him makes him forget his own Maxims and makes his subsequent Pages wrangle with the Concessions of those that went before His next Observation is a perfect Comment upon his Text that had in it implicit Treason before he tells us in Justification of the Barons Wars which all our Historians represent as a perfect Page 107. Rebellion That the Peers were fain to use their Power and can he tell me by what Law Subjects are impowred to Rebel He calls it arming of their Vassals for the defence of the Government That Bill by which they would have associated of late that I confess had it past into Act would have made Rebellion Statutable And they themselves must indeed have had the Sovereign power when they had gotten their Sovereign to suffer himself to be sworn out of his Supremacy they might well have armed their Vassals then when they had got his Majesties leave to commence Rebels and Traytors for the Protection of his Person and the Preservation of his Crown and Dignity But these humble Boons were no more than that Bill must have begged and these kind Concessions no more than was expected from the Grant of a King so Gracious a Petition that might well have been answered like that of Bathsheba's by bidding them ask the Kingdom also The Barons standing in open defiance Ibid. page 108. to the Laws tho they stood up too so much for them He calls the Peers keeping their Greatness and this is the Sovereign Power the Rebel would have them again set up for to be great in their Arms as well as Quality and demand with the Sword again the Prerogative of their Kings and the grant of the Regalia which in their preposterous Appellations was abused with the pretence of priviledge and right and which the force of the Field can soon make of the greatest Usurpation and wrong But in the very next Page 't is 109. expounded clearly what has may and must be done in such Conjunctions that is to your Arms. He tells us after they had obtained the framing of their Charters and I think they were as much as the most condescending Monarchs could grant or the most mutinous malecontents require Then arose another grievance unseen and unprovided for This was the Intermission of Parliaments which could not be called but by the Prince and he not doing it they ceast for some years to be Assembled if this had not been speedily remedied The provoking Rebel for certainly he is as much so that Animates a Rebellion as he that is actually engaged in it and is by Law so declared tells us the Barons must have put on their Armour again and 25. Ed. 3. Plat. pag. 109. the brisk Assertors of their Rights not have acquiesc'd in this Omission that ruined the Foundations of the Government After all the kind Concessions of the Prince the putting him upon that which was the taking away of the very remains of Royalty puts me in mind of one of our late Expressions of a popular Representative that could declare in open Assembly as attested by some of the very Members of it that tho this their Bill of Exclusion were past which was more we see than the most mildest Monarch could grant or even our House of Peers sure the better part of our Nation could in Modesty require yet still there was more work to be done and a Reformation to be made in the Church as well as the State The Patriot was prepared to lanch out in such kind of Extravagancies and told the truth of the Plot before his time had not calmer Heads interposed and cool'd his hot one into common Sense Several of the Speeches spoken in Parliament for which its Publisher deserves to be Pillor'd if not Authentick and True and brought before them on his Knees at least for his Presumption if they are it being here as Criminal to Print Truths at all times without an Imprimatur as 't is to tell it without leave even in several of those Speeches Publisht in that Paper I reflected on in the beginning where the Pedantick Author has exposed me in the Tail of his History that lookt like the Narrative of a Rump History of the Association Printed by Janeway there are as bold Expressions of
as dangerous Designs for at the end of one of their Harangues the beginning of which is only marked with R. M. and its Author may be loth to let any more Letters of his Name to be known you have these following Lines If at the same time we endeavour to secure our selves against Pag. 3. Popery we do not also do something to prevent Arbitrary Power it will be to little purpose I think nothing can prevent that better than frequent Parliaments and therefore I humbly move that a Bill for securing frequent Parliaments be taken into Consideration can any thing be more expressive than that the Bill so much clamour'd for was only the burden of the Song and that the Ballad it self must have been all to the Tune of 41. when Arbitrary Power never ceased its Cry till the Parliament was made Frequent its Frequency never sufficient till standing and pertual which proved too as dangerous as a standing Army ever restless till it had really raised one too and the Kings Head from his Shoulders and can these worst of Criminals make it a * Hunt in post pag. 92 93. Crime to make the Nation fearful of such Parliaments when there are such Speech-Makers in it I shall to such Accusers Faces defend them to be formidable not out of any Apprehension of fear for my self for whenever such a Seditious Senate their Commons become dangerous again to good Subjects the Safety of the Government must be but in as bad Condition But it might well terrify then even a Crown'd Head and frighten him from their Frequency when some of the most popular Members of that late Assembly have been since found in an actual Conspiracy for pulling the Crown from it when the mighty Three Russel Sidney Armstrong has made up a Triumvirate in Treason as well as part of that Parliament And been tryed Legally sentenc'd Justly and suffered publickly for Traytors Sir G. H. I do agree a Bill for Banishing Papists may do well But I hope if you Banish Ibid. page 3. the Men you 'll Banish some Women too consider how to prevent the Royal Family marrying Popish Women No man can doubt but the Protestant Interest has been much praejudiced by his Majesties marrying a Princess of that Religion Popish Instruments having sheltered themselves under her Protection The Country Gentleman wanted the Civilities of the Court being a declared Enemy to all Ladies but this shows plain their aims were beyond that of the Duke and that it was the Sense of some of the House the Queen was in the Plot as well as the Opinion and Asseveration of Oats his Oath against his exprest Testimony given before Sir E. H. Have we not ordered several good Bills to be brought in for the securing us against Arbitrary Power and shall we now lay aside all those and be content with the Exclusion Bill only which I think will be worth nothing unless you can get more and what some of those more are is explained Page 9. in the next Oration to it W. G. I do admire no body does take notice of the standing Army which if not reduced to such a Number as may be but convènient for Guards and limited as they may not be encreased All your Laws signify nothing the words of that Hellish Association only differ thus when they swear more modestly only to endeavour entirely to disband all such Mercenary Forces as are kept up in and about the City of LONDON These are some of the very Words as our Author relates them as they were spoken in his House of Commons I do them only that Justice that this Historian has done to their Honours or they to themselves so if these accounts are Authentick tho I remember when dangerous to Question even the Authority of an unlicensed piece of Sedition then we see that many of our late malecontents of the Commons as well as our Plato's Rebellious Barons were not like to be contented any more with our Kings granting them all the security themselves could ask for their Religion then these Imperious Lords were after all their Liberties were fortyfied with an extorted Charter and made as firm as Fate or their foresight could provide But that nothing would satisfy unless both lopt off the best Limb of their Prerogative and allowed them to have Parliaments without Intermission or at least frequent enough for an Usurpation of all the Power that is Regal for as the Doctor of Sedition observes upon the Kings being allowed to Call and Dissolve them That our Liberties and Rights signify just nothing So might Page 105. also this politick Pis-pot have remarked That when once it comes to the Power of the People to summon themselves or sit so long a Season till their own Order shall determine the Session that truly their Venetian Doeg would be a Prince to the Monarch of Great Britain and we should soon have less left of a King in England than such implacable Republicans have of Loyalty for I am sure we must in reason have better Ground to dread those dangers and utter Subversion of the State from their too much sitting that has been experienced than they for that panick fear of Tyranny from their being so often Dissolved which they never yet felt But to see the boldness of such Villains for encouraging an Insurrection The briskness of their Barons that rebeled for a Charter and frequent Parliaments was most providentially brought upon the Stage when they knew they had forfeited most of their own by their Faction and made their House of Commons from their obstinate proceedings not likely to be soon summoned when once Dissolved so that here was a plain downright Encouragement of a resolute Rebellion as Occasion should serve and Ietting the People know they must put on their Armour as well as the Barons and be as brisk upon Intermission of Parliaments How far this good Exhortation encouraged an Assassination of our Sovereign and the succeeding Plot may be gathered from their attempts to put it in Execution and for which both Author and Publisher Merit full as well the Fate of those that dyed for the practising those Principles that they the more primitive Traytors had instill'd In short to insist no longer on this black Topick of plain Treason With what Faith and Integrity with what Face and Countenance can he call that perfect Conspiracy of a parcel of Faithless Peers a Defence of the Government that for almost forty Years laid the Land all Page 107. in Blood and with their Witchcraft their sorceries of Rebellion that briskness as he calls it of putting on their Armour made it imitate an Aegypts Plague and Anticipate the very Judgments of the Almighty by purpling her Rivers with the Slain can the Defence of a Kingdom consist with its Destruction or those be said to stand up for their Country that invited an Invader and swore Allegiance to Lewis a Frenchman against him that was their
Liege Lord I am sure this was making over their Faith to a Foreigner and many may think it as much to bee condemned as that of their King his Crown to a Saracen especially when that by some Historians is doubted but their falsehood's confirmed by all Then was our England like to have been truly France which they now but so vainly Fear In the next place he is pleased to grant the Militia to be in his Majesty's Power But 't is only until such a sort of Rebels have strength enough to take it out for he tells us the Militia being Page 116. given but for an Execution of the Law if it be mis-imployed by him to subvert it 't is a Violation of the Trust and making that power unlawful in the Execution And that which shall violate this Trust has he reduced to three of the most Villanous Instances that the most Excrable Rebel could invent or the most bloody Miscreant conceive the Murder of three Kings by their Barbarous and Rebellious Subjects And in all three their strength and Militia were first taken away and then their Lives first he tels us Edward the second forfeited his Executive Power of the Militia In misapplying his revenue to Courtiers and Ibid. Sycopkants Richard the Second for preferring Worthless People to the greatest places And Charles the First in the Case of Ship Money can now the most virulent Democraticks hug such a piece without Horrour at its Inhumanity or the vilest of the Faction preserve it from the Flames can those popular Parliamentarians and the most mutinous of all our murmering Members of whom my self have known some that could Countenance this very Book can they here defend insinuated Treason when Stanley Stanley's Case H. 7. dyed for a more Innocent Innuendo but if Faction has forc't from their Souls the poor remains of Reason will Humane Nature permit such precedents to prevail that terminated in the miserable Murder of as many Monarchs 'T is remarkable and 't is what I remember these very Papers were Publish'd near about one of their late Sessions wherein they were nibbling again at the Milittia and could so merciless a Miscreant be put in the pocket of a Member of Parliament much less then into his Heart and drop from his unadvised Lips can those that come to give their consent for the making Laws be thus Ignorant of those that are already made has not the Military power for above this 500 years been absolutely in the Crown and almost by their Parliament it self declared so in every Reign was it ever taken out but when they took away the Life of their King too was ever his Head protected from Violence when this the Guard of his Crown was gone or can any Hand long sway the Scepter when it wants the Protection of the Sword 1st Edward 3d. Chap 3. The King 1 Edward 3. 1 C. 3. willeth that no man be charged to Arm himself otherwise than he was wont in the time of his Progenitors Kings of England In H. 7. declared by Stat. All 2 Hen. 7. Subjects of the Realm bound to assist the King in his Wars Queen Mary 4. 5. Mary and all her Progenitors acknowledged to have the Power to appoint Commissioners This Commission was in force Rot par 5. H. 4. n. 24. repealed by this 4. and 5. of P. M. but this repealing Stat. is again repealed Jacob. 1. and so of force in this King now as well as when they deny'd it to his Father 2. Ed. 6. 2. C. 2d Cook 2. Inst 30. Car. 2. C. 6. to Muster her Subjects and array as many as they shall think fit The Subjects holding by Serjeantry heretofore all along to serve their Sovereigns in War in the Realm and a particular Act obliging them to go within or without with their King He and only He has the ordering of all the Forts and Holds Ports and Havens of the Kingdom confirmed to this very King and Cook tells us no Subject can build any Fortress Desensible Cook Litt. p. 5. And since some of our late Members of the lower House were so tickled with this Authors soothing them with the Kings Executive Power of War forfeitable I 'll tell them of an Act expressly made in some Sense against their Assuming it and for another Reason too because some mutinous Heads would argue to my Knowledge for their Members comming armed to the Parliament at Oxford and which was actually done too by Colledge and his Crew It was made in Edward the First 's time 7. Ed. 1. and expressly declares that in all Parliaments Treatises and other Assemblies every Man should come without Force and Armour and of this the King acquainted the Justices of the Bench and moreover that the Parliament at Westminster had declared that to us belonged straightly to defend Force of Armour and all other Force against our Peace at all times when it shall please us and the Judges were ordered to get it read in the Court and enroll'd And now can it with common Reason or Sense be suggested that the letting Favourites have some of the Treasures of the Kingdom or Courtiers as he calls it the Revenue or the preferring of such Persons as they shall think Worthless and Wicked which with such Villains as himself are commonly the most deserving that this shall be a sufficient violating as he terms it of a Kings Trust to the forfeiture of his Power of putting the Laws in Execution with which the common consent of almost all the Laws and all Ages have invested their King as an absolute Inherent singular Right of the Crown Certainly such an Opinion is as extravagant as Treasonable and could enter into the Head of nothing but a Madman the Heart of none but a Traytor Next we meet with another Assertion as false as Hell and then its clear contrary nothing but the God of Heaven is more True He tells us after having hardly allowed His Majesty a Negative Voice at least as such an Insignificant one as not to be made use of That Plat. Pag. 124. 't is certain nothing but denials of Parliamentary requests produced the Baron's Wars and our last dismal Combustions when I 'll demonstrate to him as plain as a Proposition in Euclid that nothing but their too gracious and unhappy Concessions to their perfidious and ungrateful Subjects made those mighty Monarchs miscarry read but any of our Histories tho pen'd by the most prejudiced and those that ware at best but moderately Popular of our first Civil Wars The Barons Daniel that speaks most commonly as much as the Peoples Daniel 53. H. 3d. Case will bear tells us his thoughts of those unhappy Dissentions that neither side got but Misery and Vexation We see that notwithstanding as often as their Charter and Liberties were confirm'd notwithstanding all the Concessions of those two yielding Monarchs still more was demanded The Charter in Henry K. John Henry 3. the
Third's was no sooner several times confirmed in one year but in the next presently they fell upon his Justiciary Hugo de Burg and he must be removed Vid. Stow page 183. or they threaten to do it with the Sword Then the poor Prince complies and sends him to the Tower Next the Bishop of Winchester is as great a grievance as the Chief Justice was before for bringing in the Pictavians and unless all those are put from him they tell him plainly they 'll depose him from his Kingdom and create a new The Bishop is sent away and those Pictavians expelled but still were there more grievances and assoon as one was removed be sure another would be found out and the true perfect Occasion of those Intestine Broils was rather the Concession of King Henry in his Youth they having been used with so much Complyance in his Minority that being emboldened afterward with Age he grew too much a Soveraign to be overaw'd or overreach't by his Subjects and they having been accustom'd not to be oppos'd in their encroachments on the Crown which they had been long Habituated to he being Crown'd an Infant and they having the fresh Precedent before them with what arrogance they us'd his Father John upon any the least denyal betook themselves to the Sword for this you 'l find if Occurrences of those Times be but Impartially examin'd and for his Second Instance of our late Kings time his abominable Falsehood so far from Truth that not only Narrative and Record but the very Memory of man can give him the Lye did he not grant them these very Villains insolent demand Parliaments at last without Intermission was there not a Triennial one first Insolently demanded and as Graciously consented to was not that as ungratefully thought insufficient and nothing could satisfy till unhappily settl'd during the pleasure of the two Houses an Act of Concession which the poor Unfortunate Prince could himself call as indeed it was unparallel'd by any of his Predecessors nothing but their Ingratitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could equal so much goodness and only for bettering of theirs the Wretches resolv'd his own affairs should be the worse what punishment would the Law have found for such Monsters of Ingratitude that punisht once all Common Offenders in it with Death were not his Gracious Answers at last to the Propositions so full of Concession that some of the Cannibals that thirsted for his Blood could Vote it a Ground for the House to proceed upon for Peace Lastly had he Vid. Jout 5. Decemb. 1648. not granted to his Inveterate Foes whose Necks were forfeited to the Gibbet the Heads of some of his best Friends till he had none left to dispose of but his own and that at the last must be brought to the Block And can such an impudent Daemon the very spawn of the Father of Lyes thus confidently now declare that obstinacy Denyal in the late King was his Ruin but his misery and misfortune has unhappily left tho for us happy could a Nation be said so under such a loss such Politicks written in his Blood that all those of such Rebels and Republicans can never undermine In the next place the State Empirick comes upon the Stage and that only to vilify our Court of Chancery which with all Persons that can but distinguish Equity from the Rigour of the Law must be had in Estimation the greatest Objection his utmost Malice can asperse it with is only That it may be Corrupted and so may the best of things whose Corruption is the worst There may be Roguery in Clerks he thinks in entering Rules and so their may be Plat. pag. 130. more Dangerous Knaves among Doctors that can prescribe a dose of Sublimate for Mercurius dulcis and such Which has been done too as one of thir own Authors tells us Bartholin in 's Centurie Hist Chancery the Grand Court of Equity Conscience moderating the common Law Vid. Crompton Jurisdiction a Villany in his Art is sure more fatal then the worst that can occur in their faculty that at the worst can but bereave you and that long first of your Estate This Ruffian in a Moment robs you of your Life and I should chuse to live a little in the World tho a Beggar than be sent out like a Rat. The Ridiculousness of his Objections can't be answer'd but with such Merry ones as I make But to let him know I can defend the Constitution of the Court in Good Earnest so far is it from Obstructing his right by the Common-Law as he Ignorantly Objects that it 's a Rule Commonly never to relieve him here when he can have his Remedy there but always in Justice and Equity renders him that right which the Rigour of the rest many times forecludes him off where the Common can't Compel a man to an agreement this will enforce it Recoveries of Legacies Performance of Wills otherwise Irrevocable and not to be Compel'd shall be obtain'd here It enforces the Husband to give the Wife Alimony and perhaps the Doctor dislikes it for that and certainly this must be a greater Solaecism For more of this Courts power practise see Totthl Cariâ—s Reports than he can suggest in contradiction to the Court that a Court of meer Equity to moderate the Rigour of the Common Law should Injure their Petition of Right or Invade the Liberty of Magna Charta But that which is more Ridiculous The Chancellor hath two Powers one absolute the other ordinary by the first he is not â—y'd as inferior Judges or limited to the Letter of the Law Vid. Stâ—â—for Praerog Cap. 20. fol. 65. and False is his Foolish fear of Injustice from such a single Judge sitting in the Judicatory and his Impudent assertion that never any Country in the World had such away of Judging For the first should we not consider the prudence and Integrity of that Honourable Person that presides in it at present whose Equitable determinations were sufficient to supersede and silence such a silly suggestion it is morally impossible there to meet with Injustice where nothing is decreed but upon a Fair and Full Examination of Witnesses and the Judges hearing what can be alleaged by Counsel on both sides All the Panick fear that Alarms him is that the Prince for such is the Malice of a Republican that nothing can be thought Wicked enough for a King may put in a Person that may Act against Right and Reason carried away by Passion and Prejudice and at best but a Tool for the State If the possibility of such vain suggestions shall prevail for an Extirpation of an Officer of Justice Co-aeval if Polidore Virg. makes the Chancellor only Coaeual with the Conqueror but mistakes in that too as well as others Mr. Dugdale shews us they were long before in 's Orig. And so my Lord Coke also in his 4 Iust not before the Conquest and still Recorded
for his just Administration I will allow what can't well be granted this Emperick to pass for a Politician and the same Monumental Folly will serve for as Ridiculous Objections against all other Courts of Judicature where the King has the power of placeing in it whom he pleases and they all Subject to the Passions and Infirmity that any single person and in their Breast too lying all the Decisions of any Controverted Law But that such a single Judge sitting in Judicature such a Tribunal is scarce in any Country of the World is most absolutely FALSE the Civil the Law of Nations and that of almost all the Civiliz'd part of the World has no other Method in deciding Civil causes Their Libels are but Bills of Plaint as in this the Subpaena requires the Defendant's appearance at a certain day in Court by them a Day in Court is assign'd him to Answer their Replications Exceptions here are Answer and Demurrer They pronounce Contumax and Ex-communicate Here goes out Attachment and Commission of Rebellion through the whole process the same Practise observ'd the same Rules as in all Forreign Courts of Civil Judicature where the Decretum finale or Sententia Definitiva is in the sole Breast of a single Person as our Common Decres in Chancery But what is the Law of all Nations Certain it is that both British and Saxon Kings had their Courts of Chancery Coke 4. Inst C. 8. Vid Mirror C. 1. §. 3. Glanvill lâ—b 12. C. 1. Fleta Lâ—b 2. C. 12. will be soon Rebelliously Condemn'd by those that can't bear with our own and are so truly Licentious that they would live without any But for that Justice of the Venetians which he extols so much in opposition to our own his Republican Soul would be loth to venture there it 's Human Body notwithstanding it's Equal Distributive Justice which he would make Arithmetical too by makeing it so exactly proportionable to the Crime should he be found there as great a Criminal against that State as his Publisht Treasons have here render'd him to our own he would hardly come to know his Fault there till he came to feel the punishment and would find a Banditi with them to make the best Executioner 't is there Sedition and the Defamation of the Government is punisht assoon as Information is receiv'd and that with nothing less than Death and commonly drowning no Tryal per Testes and Examinants but Ferry'd away in one of their Gondola's which must prove your Infernal Boat too and the first sight of your Sin is with that of a Confessor and a Hangman and these sure must be most Malicious Inveterate Villains that can commend such Judicatures that are rather shambles for Butchery and Murder before those of their own Nation where a Penny property can't be taken away without a Tryal per pares and the Law much less their Life But if our Republican when he commends so much the Justice of that State means only what is distributed in their Decemviral Council which is the Supream let him for a Confirmation of his Error and Folly Consult only the Case of Antonio Foscarini one of their Vid. Reliq Wotton p. 307. own Senate whom upon the bare Testimony of too profligate Ruffians that he held correspondence with the Spanish Embassador which with any forreign one for a Senator is their Death by the Law without any Collateral or Circumstantial Proof without seeing his Accusers was seiz'd muffl'd up clapt in a dark Dungeon and in a few days sentenc'd to be strangl'd and which was done accordingly the Conspiracy of the Witness was soon afterward detected his Innocency declar'd and the poor Gentleman for want of a due process at Law plainly Murder'd and all the Conviction I wish to such unjust reproachers of the Constitution of any of our Courts of Judicature that they may never have the benefit of those Laws they Condemn and only have the Fate to Fall by that Justice of the Republick they so much extol The Villains that sign'd the Warrant for our late Kings Execution did not more Sacrifice his Person than this Impious Wretch has Murder'd him again in Effigie with a redoubl'd Cruelty to blast that unblemishable reputation which if Dearer than Life must be the greater Treason He tells us the Parliament Pages 167 168 169 c. Vid. Journal never made War upon him because by Law says the Sycophant He can do no wrong but this shall not be allow'd for a Maxim with such Malecontents when it makes for the Monarch But what if a Parliament of Rebels put out in their Declaration that He has wrong'd the Law and vote that he Levies War to destroy the Fundamental Liberty of the People to set up Arbitrary Government send down a Traytor to keep him out of his own Garrisons when their Guards could not secure his Life from the rage of the London Rable instigated too by that Villanous Assembly that made his Repairing to Hull for the Preservation of himself an Insurrection of their King for the Destruction of the People And can such a senseless piece of Sedition imagin that undistinguishing Bullet they brought into the Field could be commanded to take off none but Evil Councellors and Seducers or that ARMS which soon silence all LAWS especially when lifted against their Soveraign would favourable consider his Right and a Maxim of our own that he could do no wrong He tells us the King was displeas'd for parting with his Power to dissolve Parliaments and took unheard of ways to demand Members with Arms Most Inhumane Wretch even to the Pious Memory of so good a Prince to give him the Lye in his Grave does not himself tell us as if his Prophetick Soul had foreseen the suggestion of such a Rebel in his making it his deepest plaint The Injury of all Injuries is that some will Falsely divulge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I repining at the Establishment of the Parliament endeavour'd by force and open Hostility to undo what by Royal assent I had done While at the same time the Contradictory Wretches would asperse him for a resolv'd and a wilful occasioner of his ruin but for the demand of the Members so far from Irregularity That this Malicious Accuser is a double Traytor to his Memory by being an Abetter of those that were truly so and representing it False the King was advis'd in Scotland of those Conspirators having Invited that Nation to come into ours Arm'd And shall not bringing in a Foreign Power an Actual Levying War be allow'd Treason He had his Witnesses ready for the proving every Article his Attorny had drawn up all their Impeachments and could not their King have the benefit of those Laws he gives Life too Could not their King Impeach a Commoner when they themselves can any Lord. He order'd Him to inform the House of Peers with the Matter of the Charge and a Serjeant at Arms to accuse them
to the Commons did they or could they call this an unheard of way or Irregular Proceeding and will the protection of their House extend to an Inditement for High Treason as well as an Execution upon Debt certainly this No priviledg of Parliament holds for Treason Felony or even Breach of the Peace 4. part Inst 25. President won't be found among all the Miscellanies of Parliament tho that Industrious Author might have cited too his Majestys Murder out of their Journal But let them blush at their late Arbitrary Proceedings against their Fellow Subjects and Remember what they deny'd their King Here was an obstruction of Justice that was already a Rebellion against the Executive Power of the Law such an one as only their next Ordinance for seizing the Militia could make it more so the Serjeant that was sent to Arrest their Persons is countermanded and if again attempted 't is Order'd and Resolved they 'll stand upon their Defence and make Resistance how should the Mildest Father of the most Merciful Son Mollifie so many Tygers Tugging for the Praerogative with the pretence of Privileges Why he tells us himself went attended with some Gentlemen his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 followers much short of his Ordinary Guard to desire he might proceed against Traytors only in a free and Legal Tryal that he had furnisht himself with proof and wanted nothing for that Evidence which he could have produced But what I am sure they were resolv'd to deny their Soveraign even what they made the Rabble clamor for against himself JUSTICE the Chronicle tells us none of his Followers mov'd farther than the Stairs but only he himself with the Palsgrave enter'd the House demanded whom before he had Accus'd and the Villains themselves so Conscious of his Equitable demand and their own Guilt that they fear'd their very delivery from their Friends and that Death I doubt they had so justly deserv'd the Criminals were fled he renews his Charge and so satisfy'd returns but so were not those whom nothing could Content at last but his Life they load it with all the Obloquies and Exasperations imaginable such Protectors of Liberties could only think Treason against him worthier of Protection then their injur'd King an Execution of Law is Voted a Breach of Priviledge the demanding the Benefit of it by him that gives it it's being they made MURDER the City Guards are set up in several places the Train-Bands are Commanded down to Westminster a greater Army sure then only the Kings Retinue to protect Impeacht Traytors and with the late Hosanna's of our Old-Baily they lead in Triumph that Primitive Council of Six accus'd for High-Treason and what Security had this present King that the like Cabal should not have been as well Secur'd from his Justice had they been but detected in some of their late Sessions they were all Members too the Difference between our King and Commons in as high a ferment the Charge that then was given to the Lords the Articles that were offer'd to the Commons appear upon Record but the Counterpart of this Kings Declaration only there they had not come so far as to contrive his Murder their Accusation was for aspersing of his Majesties Government Vid. Baker p. 516. An. 1641. Vid. Kings Declar. 1683. and altering the affections of his People Countenancing Tumults against him inviting a Foreign Nation the Scots as too this Actually did and Conspiring to Levy War as these did to Raise an Insurrection And might not any Jealous Soul fear such Parliaments that protected such Traytors and might not such Traytors been again protected by such Parliaments when the City too was their own again the Guards set the Watches plac'd the Streets Chain'd and that when they could accuse no King for Breach of Priviledge or Coming to their House with Arms and the having a Guard for their house was offer'd at now when nothing but their King was again in danger and can the retrieving the Memory of those immediate Forrunners of our first Misfortunes be made a Crime And the most Flagitious Villains concern'd in it no way Criminal can Hunt Plato p. 169. such a Senate sit till it has Murder'd a King and shall not an experienc'd King secure himself from such a Seditious Senate that the design of the whole House of late was to raise a Rebellion is utterly false but that some of the late Members have actually design'd it since is Certainly true 't is attested in their Sufferings and Seal'd in their Blood The Honour of that Assembly may be no way Tainted tho both Blood and Issue of some that did sit in it is since at present so by Law a man of Common Sense can apprehend the Constitution of a Body Politick to be one thing and the Constituent Members another and this without the help of Metaphysicks or Abstraction I am Sworn besides that Natural affection I still shall have for my Soveraign to be Faithful to my Liege Lord and should I fail in my Faith I should be for-sworn I know the privilege of having a Parliament is the Interest of every Subject and should I contend against that I should be a Fool but because there is a necessity of obeying your King does the same Obligation tye you to an Vsurper A Parliament is a great Privilege to a Nation but not so when it Vsurps all sorts of Privileges that you saw took away it's head lay'd the Land of it all in BLOOD I 'll maintain with my last Breath that a Parliament is the Subjects Birth-right but God forbid we should be Born to all sort of Parliaments that would make us Traytors by a Law and we have many besides what in this Kings were declar'd by Statute Treasonable Coventry Parl. 38. H. 6. declar'd Develish by 39. H. 6. 1. Edw. 4. that of Rich. 2 Treasonable Par. Car. 1. 1641. But to return to what is the Blackest piece of Treason our PLATO was the Glorious Martyr the First aggressor too or did they first seize his Militia when they could not have it by Consent was the withdrawing of the King Treason to his Parliament or were the Parliament the Traytors that made him to withdraw did the King Rebel against his own Garrison at Hull or was Hotham the Rebel that kept out his King let even prejudice here determine what the worst of Malice can suggest Does Matchiavel he cites countenance the Licentiousness of the People or rather allow too much Liberty to his Prince and make an Hero of a Tyrant an Agathocles and Grotius whom he Libels as much when he Matchiav in Princip C. 8. qui itaque hujus viri rerum gestarum rationes animo reputaretnihil â—ut parum in eis animadverteret aur fortunae asscribendum makes him to favour a Rebellion and who has expresly Condemn'd our own After this Re-publican like a Roman Velite has held our Monarchy his Foe in play all in the front of the
Book he begins to rout it entirely when he comes up with the Body to the Battle and the Rear there he tells us plainly the Sweetness the profitableness of a Common-wealth that only 't is not to be set up during these Circumstances that is Plato page 221. p. 234. p. 236. Making Leagues absolutely in the King 19. Ed. 4. 239. 249. 252. 't is too soon to Rebel yet and he has found out better expedients the King has too much Power the Presidents of John and Henry the Third are trumpt up again for being Compell'd to give it away the Murder of Edward and Richard the Second at least the Deposition of which that is an absolute Consequence is two or three times again Recommended for Instruction and now he tells the Parliament plainly what Branches of the Praerogative they must insist upon Power of making War and Peace Treaties and Allyances which the Kings wicked Ministers have made Destructive to the Interest of our English Nation You have here the best of Kings in effect tho apply'd to the Courtiers of which I think he must be the Chief resembl'd to the very Rebel that Vsurpt upon his Crown as if it were design'd by him as well as a Cromwel that had no right to maintain himself in the Throne but the Power of the Sword to Crave aid from FRANCE Plat. 239. to keep Vnder his People of ENGLAND The Militia must be granted them because out of Parliament or Session it being in his hand they cannot raise the County Bands nor those of the City to Guard themselves that some trusty Members whom if the King pleases may take care of his Houshold that a Parliament meet of Course at a certain Day at Plat. p. 249. the usual place without Writ or Summons and that because Peers depend so much upon the will of their Prince for Creation they should never be made but by Act of Parliament I appeal to the most Plat. 252. moderate mild Soul Living whether any single Line of all this absolute Treason has not of late almost since the Publication of this Damnable piece been endeavour'd to be put in Execution was not the Haereditary Discent struck at in the Duke was not the Militia offer'd at in some of their Votes Frequency of Parliaments which would have been as good as without intermission Clamour'd for in some of their Speeches the Nomination of some of the Officers of Power by the People And lastly was it not agreed to meet without Writ and Summons when the Major part of Members were to be conven'd after Dissolution and can any still say that an alteration of the Government was never design'd by those that were then so busily concern'd and when some of the most popular and Active have been since Actually Convicted for the Compassing all this by the Blood of their King which they dispair'd of obtaining from his Le Roy vult But 't is to be hop'd that the God of Heaven who has brought to Light the Darkness even of Hell has so much illuminated Peoples understanding as well as Eyes that the next Assembly that shall constitute this Politick Body truly Honourable adsolutely Necessary in it's Constitution will be such as will transcend what has been one of their best Presidents An healing one and that of those wounds such Daemons and Doctors have scarifi'd instead of clos'd and with a merited Vote Condemn such Devils to their own Element the Fire that have so Seditiously set three Kingdoms in a Flame But tho this refin'd Statesman this polisht piece of the most accomplisht Treason may perhaps value himself upon the Product and Invention of his own Villany proud of the being reputed a witty Republican whose greatest Glory here is to be at the best but an Ingenious Rebel yet his very Reputation tho it be but in his Roguery must sink too When you consider what I shall soon satisfy any sober Person in any Soul that has but so much Sense as to distinguish an Author from a Plagiary a Man of Honesty from a Thief that even the very Notions and Principles he Prints for the establishing this Government were formerly Publisht and proposed by the very Villains that actually subverted it not one Expedient in all his Politicks but what was by sad Experience the very Propositions of declar'd Traytors The Blessed Wit would rob the Records of an old Rebellion and that only to put in for an Inventor of a new the worst of Felons and in Forreign parts punisht as the greatest that Steals his Fellow from the Gibbet His Book has not only borrowed all from Harrington I 'll allow it him with all my Heart and that Oceanae by what follows you may find A Parallel between the Propositions sent the late King by the Rebel Parliament and the Rebellious Proposals of our Plato Redivivus PARLIAMENT'S PLATO'S 1. That all the Kings Privy Council great Officers and Ministers of State may be put out excepting such as the Parliament shall approve and to assign them an Oath 1. His Majesties Power to nominate and appoint as he pleases all the Officers of the Kingdom one of the Powers in the Crown that hinder the Execution of the Laws Plat. p. 239. why may we not begin by removing all his Majesties present Council by Parliament Page 232. 2. That all Affairs of State be managed by the Parliament except such Matters as are by them transferred to their Privy Council 2. That his Majesty exercise the Four great Magnalia of Government with the consent of Four several Councils appointed for that end the Councils to be named in Parliament Page 240 241. 3. That all great Officers of the Kingdom be chosen by Parliaments and their Approbation 3. That the Election of the great Officers be by those Councils and those Councils to be chosen by the Parliament p. 258 259. 4. If any place fall void in the Interval of Parliament the Major part of this Council to chuse one to be confirmed at the next Session of Parliament 4. Preserving to themselves the Approbation of the great Officers as Chancellor Judges Generals of the Army p. ibid. 5. To reform Church Government as the Parliament shall advise to concur with the People in depriving the Bishops of their Votes 5. That the Clergy quatenus such had and will have a share in the Sovereignty and Inferiour Courts in their own Power called Ecclesiastical this is and will ever be a Solaecism in Government p. 178. 6. Marriages and Allyances to be concluded in Parliament 6. The Kings absolute Power of making War and Peace Treatises and Allyances one of the Powers in the Crown that hinder our Happiness and Settlemene p. 327. 7. To settle the Militia as the Parliament have ordered it 7. The Kings disposing and ordering the Militia one of the Powers in the Crown that hinders our Happiness p. 239. 8. All Forts and Castles to be in the disposal of the Parliament 8. The King
enjoying the Power of garrisoning and fortifying Places one of the Powers that hinder our Happiness ibid. 9. To imploy only such People about him as the Parliament might confide in 9. That those of the Four Councils appointed by Parliament if his Majesty pleases to have the ordering his oeconomy and Houshold c. pag. 242. 10. No Peer hereafter to be made to sit in Parliament without their consent 10. That for the future no Peer shall be made but by Act of Parliament pag 252. These made the Substance of those Seditious Propositions that they prest upon the poor Prince with which they would have forc't our Charles the First to the Misfortune and Fate of a Richard the Second the most aggravated Misery that can befal a Monarch the deposing of himself These were they that filled their Parliament Papers and Proposals to their King at York the most Insolent that could be proposed surely to a Prince that was then in a Condition more likely to demand with Arms what he was denied against Law whom they might expect to see as they did soon after at the Head of good Souldiers as well as in the Hearts of Loyal Subjects such Insolencies as would have been Insufferable had they tryed and gained what was afterward so unhappily gotten that unlucky Fortune of the Day had they then what their Prosperous Villany did at last effect made their Mighty Monarch their Peoples Slave and a meer Capâ—â—ne of a King Carisbrook and the Isle of Wight could not have born with of much Indignity as was offered to him heâ—e when even at Nottingham and York their Non Addresses when his Person was in the Castle were less hard than such an Address when his Standard was in the Field These were those that provok't even the Mildest Prince to Protest in some rage That if he were their Prisoner Vid. Baker â—1â— he would never stoop so low These were those by which he must have made Himself what our Republican would have him now made of a King of England but a Duke of Venice and with These did they never cease to perplex his unshaken Heart his unmoved Soul continually upon all their Messages Treatises and Remonstrances and Petitions These still the Subjects of their demands when their Commissioners were sent to Oxford after their Newbury Battle these when the perfidious Scot had gotten him in their Power and Hands at Newark and New-Castle but bandied then only for the better buying of their King whom his own Country as basely sold then offered rather to make matter of delaying War then truly design'd for Peace that there might be somewhat in Agitation till the Summ was agreed upon and his Majesty diverted with the small Hopes of being at last a Titular King while they were selling him to Foreigners for an absolute Slave Lastly with these did they Plague and Pester the Poor Prince when they had made him a perfect Prisoner at Hampton Court and how well these Proposals of the late Rebels agree with the Politicks of this present Republican I 'll submit even to the most partial Person of the Party upon the perusal of this Parallel And what could be the design then at such a Season of Publishing such a piece of our Mutinous Members hugging in their Hearts and applauding with their Tongues Printed and Publisht Treason But that what was offered in their Plato was once presented in Parliament that the Politick Rebel could be pickt even out of the Journals of their House That they had Presidents there too for a Common Wealth as well as in Starkey's Shop and hoped to see her Revive again by Vote as well as by Book But these blessed Expedients tho but proposed out of the Press are the more Pernicious at the same time its Publisher makes them pertinent to what I have here applyed them the Propositions of a Parliament for he tells us he would not have them wrested from his Majesty but that he be petitioned to part with them very seasonably suggested I confess when we were so full of petitioning He would not have it effected by the Power of the Sword the Politician it seems is mightily for Peace and the Preservation of his Majesties Person but would only have them raise at first a civil War upon his Soul use the Son a little more kindly than they did the Father and not seize his Militia with an Ordinance because they cannot Fight him with his consent nor Rebel first against their King with an open War and then send him Propositions for Peace and the making him a Slave And since some of our Seditious Souls have not only a great Veneration left for these Parliamentary Projects and as great esteem for this Statesman for the reviving them in his Politicks since some that would be thought Persons sober and moderate can think the Kings Complyance in some of these Grants and Concessions somewhat necessary and a Trifle of the Crowns prerogative to be pared from the State as requisite as a Surplice or Ceremony to be partted with in the Church since the Propositions of that Rebel Parliament and the Politicks of this rank Republican make up so perfect a Parallel It will supersede some separate labour and pains to be able to animadvert upon them together and at once His Answerer will be somewhat obliged to his Authors being but a Thief and will shew that whatever some think that such pieces of Power might be par'd from the Crown like some sappy Excrescencies from the Trunks of Trees for the better Nourishment of the Stock that all and every one of them strike directly at the very Root That the Government cannot well subsist without them all and that all of them are inseperably settled in the Crown by all the Fundamental Laws of all the Land The first that feels the reforming Cook 4. Inst Cap. 2. p. 53. Vid. Ten several Rolls of Par. cited by him for it's Iustification Rot. Par. 50. Ed. 3. n. 10. 1. R. 2. n. 4. c. stroke of their Fury we find to be the Kings Privy Council and what is that why their own Oracle of the Law will assure them the most Noble most Honorable and reverend Assembly consulting for the publick good and that the number of them is altogether at the King's Will And shall those be numbered now and regulated at the Will of a Parliament whom their own Acts Statutes Rolls declare acknowledge and confess to depend upon the Nomination Power and Pleasure of the Prince would they repeal those Laws of their Ancestors enacted even according to the greatest Reason only for an Introducing their own Innovations against all Reason and Law Can it be consonant to common Sense that those whom their King is to Consult and Sit with at his Pleasure and that according to the very express Words of Authentick Rolls and Records that those should depend for their being and Existence Rot. Claus 12. Ed. 3. Par. â—â—m 19. 39. Ed.
3. fol. 14. upon the suffrages of such a senate whom all our Laws declare has it self no other being but what it owes to the Breath of that Sovereign over whom they would so Preposterously Superintend as to set a Council can they think that even the Spartan Ephori would have ever been Constituted had their Kings by as strong Presidents of the Laws of their Land been allow'd the Liberty of Ad moderandum Regum Libidinem Calvin's 2. edit Strasburg 1539. Chusing their own advisers or would Calvin himself have recommonded them and the Roman Tribunes the Demarchi the Decemviral at Athens had he been assured that their Decrees and Edicts had all along placed it in the power of their Prince to be advised by whom he pleased and this Rebellious Project we now are examining I am sure would prove a greater Scourge and curb to our own Kings than ever the Romans or Athenians had for the management of theirs we must turn about even the very Text and invert our Prayers to the Almighty when a Parliament shall come to Counsel his Counsellors and teach his Senators Wisdom when it shall be in the Subjects power to set himself at his Soveraigns Table you may swear he 'll be first served too and that with his own Carving and therefore were they not forc't to rase Rolls and Records for the making such a Reformation in the State Reason it self is sufficiently the Faction's Foe and as much on the side of those that are the Kings Friends For let any sober Person but consider whether the greatest Confusion Disorder and Disturbance in the State would not be the Consequence of this very distracted Opinion do we not already too much experiment the disquiet of a divided Kingdom to be most dangerous when but a tumultuous part of a Parliament too much Predominates this Gentleman 's Quarantia Plat. page 241. or if you please the Kingdoms four General Councils are to be named in Parliament and then what would be the result of it but that his Majesty must be managed by a standing House of Commons or at best some Committee of Lords they need not then Labour for the Triennial Act of the late King confirmed 16. Car. 1. 16. Car. 2. by the too gracious Concession of this His Councils once their own Creatures would have too much Veneration for their kind Creators to diswade their King from a speedy Summons of a Senate tho assured secured of its being sufficiently Seditious they would soon supersede as superfluous one of the very Articles of such a Counsellors * 4. Inst p. 54. Oath where he swears to keep Secret the Kings Counsel for by such a Constitution they would be obliged to make a Report from the Council-Board to some Chair-man of a Committee a better Expedient I confess than an order for ‖ Parl. 25. Car. 1. just so took upon them to search the Signet Office and that of the Secretary whereof the King as justly complain'd Vid. Keeper Coventry Speech to the Commons Sr. Stephen's bringing in the Books And indeed none of the Kings Services should be then called Secret they would be soon Printed with their Votes and hardly be favoured with some of their own Affairs of Importance to be referred for the more private Hearing to a Committee of Secrecy the good advise his Majesty might expect from such Councils might be much like those of late from his Petitioners And he again told to be the mightiest Monarch by condescending to be the most puny Prince My Lord Cook tells us Ibid. p. 57. those Councils are there best proposed for the Kingdom when so that it can't be guess'd which way the King is enclined for fear I suppose of a servile Complyance but here the knowledge of his Inclination would be the most dangerous to the King which to be sure would be opposed and only because known the good the King would receive from such Counsellors might be put in his Eyes and the Protection the Nation could receive from such a King must be but in good Wishes and are we come to deny our Soveraign at last what every Subject can Consult his own Friends But tho this bold Gentleman as arrogantly tells us that this Privy Council is no part of the Government his imagined one he must mean a Common-wealth I 'll tell him more modestly and Plat. page 232. with better Authority than a Dixit only of a Platonick Dogmatist that he might as well have told us too what indeed are such a Republicans real thoughts that the King Himself is no part of it and shew him both from Law and Reason that they have a great share in it to◠And that the Laws great Oracle tells us too who is so far from letting them have no part in the Government that he tells us they have a very great part even Cook 4. c. 2 Inst Stanford 72. F Senators sunt partes corporis Regis in the very King That they are incorporated to the King himself His true Treasurers and the most profitable Instruments of the State And without doubt this great part they had always in Publick administrations made them of old so much esteem'd that in all Rolls and Acts of State they were mention'd with so much reverence and respect certainly had they been no constitution allow'd of by the Fundamental Laws of our Land they would never have been transmitted to posterity with such veneration to their Memories and that too through every Reign and all the Records of Time let them have but the benefit and priviledge of a Common Burrough and let their President an Office as old as King John's Time and that Holl. fol. 169. Matt. Paris 205. by Letters pattents but have as fair play as one of their Port-Reevs prescription would incorporate them into the Government as well as entitle those to their Franchises 'T is an absolute Contradiction to Imagin that Rolls then the Rot. Par. 3. H. 6. n. 3. very Parliaments Acts or Opinions in Transcript should have recorded them so Honourably for their Publick Administration were they not allow'd by the people so much as to be Ministers for the Publick good and such Honour was given them too by our Ancestors such Semblance of Soveraignty to their Persons that their Houses had in some sense the self-same privilege of the very Coke 4. Inst p. 53. Inas c. 46. Kings Palace and Verge wherein if a blow was given it was punisht with a Fine the loss of a good Summ of Money as in the other of a Hand And is it not at present Treason to destroy them and can Absurdity it self imagin that the Laws which are made always by those that Govern would make such provisions for those that were no part of the Government And lastly to prove this proposition of our Republican but a Rebels Plot and a fair progress towards a Rebellion I 'll shew this presumptious projector
how vainly he presumes upon his parts and Invention that he is a double Plagiary not only borrow'd this pernicious project against the present Privy Council from these proposals of our Seditious Senate in England but his very Quarantia of Venice was set up long before he could for an Author by those Zealots that were so resolutely resolv'd to Rebel in Scotland and he shall see those Daemagogues too those Devils of Sedition look't upon it even then as a praeparatory project and the best Expedient for their Invading of the Kingdom and the Crown Their Edenburgh their Metroprolis as well as ours here was then the Seat of Sedition Anno 1638. so truly great that it's Faction and Villany was Commensurate even with it's very Walls And those too when Casually fallen were not suffer'd to be built as if they would have let the World known by praediction their Ominous Treason was to extend further 't was here that the Sycophants at the same time they pretended so much for their Kings preservation that they protested against the pious Prince's Proclamation only for the dispersing of that dangerous Rabble that seem'd to denounce with an Omen what too fatally follow'd his Death and Destruction his Majesties sincerity to them and their Religion was repeated in it often with assurances but what was as Sincerely promis'd from a King by these Monsters of the People was as Rebelliously Ridicul'd with scorn and derision and that the Government might be satisfy'd with a sure report of their Sedition they made those Heralds that Vid. Sir Will. Dugdale's short view 45. p. 48 49 50. proclaim'd their Princes pleasure to witness how much it displeas'd his Rebel Subjects and in defiance to their very Faces read their own Protestation Big thus with Rebellion and Labouring with their teeming Treason at last they are fairly deliver'd of the same Rebel Brat this Republican would adop't for his own a QVARANTIA they Covenant and agree and 't was time to Vnite for a Justification of those Villanies which nought but a Combination could defend for erecting four principal Tables and 't was time too to set up their own Councils when they had so Seditiously resisted their Kings To pursue the Contempt of this Proclamation which by his Majesties Council and Command was publish't for a further Violation of the Regal Authority they set up this truly Popular the first of their four Councels to consist of their Nobility the second of the Gentry the third of their Burgesses and the fourth of their Ministry and the Decrees of these their principal and general Tables as they call'd them as if as Universally to be receiv'd as Moses his Two of Stone what they did and was approv'd of by the Baker 406. General one the Choice Flow'r of all the Four was to be forc't as the Peoples Law but far I am sure from the Fundamental one of the Land from this their Rebellious assuming of the Soveraignty in their pretended Councils as they call'd them too but in truth a Convention of Conspirators proceeded presently the Renewing of their Negative Confession their Band their Covenant impos'd on all sorts of People with artifice force and Blood it self And can a Test now establish't by Authority and Law be look't upon an Imposition even by those that impos'd Oaths Vnlawful and Rebel'd against both it being by them expressly declar'd in two several Acts that all Leagues of Subjects amongst 10. Jac. 6. Act 12. Parl. 9. Regn. Mariae Act 75. themselves without their Princes Privity to be Sedition and their Authors and Abetters to be punish't as movers of such And what did this Venetian Government terminate in in Scotland but a plain Confederacy to confound all and tho the Civil and Courteous contriver of our Ruin and Subversion minces the matter with making his Majesty to Exercise his four Magnalia with the consent of these four Councils 't would puzzle his Politicks to tell me the distinction between them and those principal Tables of the Scot what should confine them from Confederating against their King instead of Consulting for him Plato p. 240. what would signifie his Majesties having a president among those of his own placeing when every one of them would be their own Masters and out of his power to displace what should hinder those from protesting with their old Rebellious Assembly in Scotland against all their Kings desires intentions and Inclinations for the publick good while they presume their own Maxims the wisest and their measures the best and to tell us that these are to give Account and to be answerable to such a Parliament who chuses them is to say a Sidney is the best Judge of the Misdemeanor of a Nevil most qualifi'd to answer his Quaere whether this project be not a better Expedient than the Justitia of Arrogan or the Spartan Ephori or to Plato 242. tell us one that has suffer'd for Treason to a Monarchy is the fittest to Try him that would betray it to a Common-wealth The second Proposition in the Parallel is that Affairs of State be managed by the Parliament or by such Councils as they shall appoint The true Spirit the Life the Soul of Sedition that informes and animates the whole Body of the Faction speakes here the Dictates of this Daemon this Devil of a Republick that has possest the Nation for this five years with greater Phrensy then e're he did before the Restoration when by the very Finger of God he was first cast out and would now return too with more worse than himself only because he finds it swept and garnisht For I desie the most diligent Perusers of the most pernicious Libels that were Printed in 1642. the most Pestilent time when Treason was Epidemick and spread as the Plague it self more than once did and that in their Mighty Babylon their Metropolis too I challenge even those to shew me so much Penn'd even then to persuade the setting up a Republick as has so lately been Published in this very piece His Majesty upon the presenting these Vid. Kings Answer to the 19. propositions their Proposals I have parralleld told them they designed him for a Duke of Venice and that they only dared to do when they had bid him defyance to his Face and made him fly for refuge to his Friends when they had a fund for Rebellion in the City A General and an Army in the Field but here we have a single Republican declaring expressly for the good Government of the Venetian Arraigning of our Monarchy condemning of our Courts reforming of our Councils only to set up their Republick for the framing their Decemviral the constituting their Quarantia the making every Member of Parliament but a Noble Man of Venice Rex est principium caput Finis Parl. Vid. Modus tenend Parl. 4. Inst fol. 3. and his Mighty Prince that presides in it by Law as a Principal Head but
a plain puny Doeg and all this at a time the Government stood firm upon its Foundations and the best of Basis its Fundamental Law to what an height of exalted Insolence was the very Soul of Sedition then aspired to to suffer such a Serpent to see the Light that hist at the sight of a Soveraign and spit its Venom in the very Face of Majesty And whatever Recommendation this virulent Republican gives us of the Venetian Justice he would find sufficient severity sublim'd Cruelty instead of Law distributed to such daring Offenders as should offer at a Monarchy there tho but a mixt and of which they seem to have some necessitated resemblance in their constant creating of a Duke as if there were yet some remains of Royalty left which they could not extirpate and like Nature it self whom all the Art of Man can never expel the Libeller would not be long then without an Halter the Jealous State would soon send Vid. Resiquiae Wotton Foscarino 's case him the sight of his Sin and Sentence together and that by the Hands of his Hangman and some little Gondula to Ferry him to the deep No Magna Charta no Petition of Right no privilege of a Tryal of Peers or even a Plea allowed to the Prisoner and whom with a Praevious Sentence too they many times dispatch assoon as seiz'd And shall a Monarchy here founded upon Kingly Government has been the usage of the Land beyon'd History it self the Common Law is but Common usage Plowd Comment p. 195 Le Commen Ley n'est que Commen use its Fundamental Law and that for fifteen hundred years be invaded with impunity by the Pen of every virulent Villain each Factious Fellow that can but handle the Feather of a Goose I confess when they were arriv'd here to their Acme of Transcendent Villany when Vice had fixt her Pillars here and that in an Ocean too but of Blood when they had washt their Hands even in Insuperable Wickedness and shed that of their Prince when by a Barbarous Rebellion they had subverted the best of Civil Governments our Monarchy and establisht their own Anarchy a Common Wealth 2. part of the Inst fol. 496. Kings Praerogative is part of the Law of England then they might well be so bold as to write their Panegyricks upon their own Usurpation when they were to be paid for it by the Powers instead of Punshment Then they might tell us as indeed they did that the greatest of Crimes was the committing of High Treason against the Majesty of the People That the Romans gave us good Presidents for Rebellion Mâ—rc Pol. Num. 107. in the turning out of their Tarquins and the Government together that Caesar Usurpt upon the power of the People Marius and Sylla on the Jurisdiction of the Senate Pisistratus turned Tyrant at Athens and Agathocles in Sicily that Cosmus was the first Founder of a Merc. Pol. Jun. 17. 52. Dukedom and a fatal Foe to Florence that Castruccio made himself the Lord of all Luca and oppressed the Liberty of all the Freeborn Subjects of the Land that all our Kings from him they called the Conqueror to the Scottish Tyrant were but the same sort of Usurpers upon the power of the People All this with much more Execrable Treason was Printed Publish'd and Posted through the Kingdom with Approbation of Parliament and which we shall in its proper place represent in its own blackness black as Hell it self the seat of such Seditious Souls full of Anarchy and Confusion But why we should now have so lately left us such daring desparadoes to retrieve to us the same Doctrine to tell Plato us that Affairs of State must be managed by a Parliamentary that is in their own Phraseology a meer popular Power could proceed certainly from nothing but the deepest the most dangerous Corruption of the Times from the desperate Condition of a Goverment ready to be undermined by Treachery Plot and Machination brought so low that it did not dare to defend it self and its boldest Assertors so far frightened into a dishonest and imprudent sort of Diffidence as to distrust the strength of their own Cause and that was evident too from the sad servile Complyance of some fearful Souls otherwise well affected that seemed to give up their Government like a Game lost that had rather sink then swim against the Tyde But for a more direct Answer to this Proposition we shall shew that Affairs of State must be managed by our Monarch that matter of Fact has prov'd it by Prescription that it is our Kings Prerogative by the Lands Law and his unquestionable Right by the force of Reason For the first 't is evident from History that for above 600. years near a thousand before the Conquest we had Kings that had an Absolute and Soveraign sway over their Subjects as appears from the Gildas B. who was born Anno 493. most Antient Writer of our British History it is apparent that all our Monarchs Britains Saxons and Danes exercis'd unlimited Jurisdiction without having their Affairs Govern'd by any estabisht Council much less a Parliament and that to be prov'd beyond Contradiction from the several Authors that Lived Wrote and were Eye These were Nennius a Monk of Bangor who liv'd An. 620. Bede a Saxon who wrot in their Heptarchy dy'd in the 733. Asserius Menev. who writ the Acts of King Alfred Colemannus Ang. who liv'd in the time of the Danes and Harold the first Vortiger the British King on his own Head call'd in the Saxon without his Subjects consent Egbert an absolute Monarch of the Saxons over all the Isle Canutus as absolute among the Danes call'd only his Convention of Nobles at Oxford about 1017. Witnesses of the manner and Constitution of their Government and then sure must be suppos'd to understand that to which they were Subjected from those good Authorities can be easily gather'd that the power of Peace and War was always in the Prince that they were Govern'd by him Arbitrarily and at his Will that he call'd what Councils of whom when and where he pleased so far from being Limited that the most popular Parliamentarians would be loth his present Majesty should prescribe to such an Absoluteness and which nothing but the kind Concessions of some of his Predecessors to their Clamourous Subjects has given from the Crown and dispens'd with that power and right enjoy'd by their Royal Ancestors 'T is strange and unaccountable that those which stretch their Wit and Invention for this power of Parliament and run through all the Mazes of Musty Records for the proving it so Ancient yet will not allow that of their King so long a standing and which after all their fruitless Labour lost proves at last nothing but the Council of their King those Noble and Wise-men he would please to Assemble their Gemotes the name of that most Ancient Assembly implying nothing more as appears
even from their own Cook himself and 1. Inst §. 164. p. 110. Magn. Chart. Chart. Forrest Stat. of Ireland made H. 3. the 1. Laws we had from their very words seem all made by the sole power of the King No Commons mentioned in Stat. Merton 20. H. 3. only discreet men mention'd in Stat. of Marlbrigd 52. H. 3. But all the Commonalty is said summon'd in the praeamb to Stat. West 1. 3. E. 1. In Stat. Bigamy 4. Ed. 1. Stat. Mortemain 7. E. 1. Art sup Chart. 28. E. 1. Stat Escheat 29. E. 3. not summon'd 34. E. no Law to be made without Kt. and Burg. their Commons whom this Author would have now so great as to Govern his King far from having the least concern in publick Administrations there being in all Historical Accounts of those Antient times no mention of them in those very Conventions whereas Nobles Bishops and Abbots are expresly nam'd The greatest Colour they have for ' its Conjecture is only from the word Wites or wise-men which Constituted their Witena and the Prefaces or preambles to all their Laws imply that they were with the assistance of the Wise-men made by their King but can any person of sence and Impartial conceive this Term the more applicable to the Common sort of People and meer Laymen than to the Nobles the Bishops the Lords and then as we may well believe the most Learned of the Land their Literature sure was then but little and then I am sure that of the meaner Layity must be less certainly the word Wites will import no more than an Expressive Character of those Qualifications such Nobles were suppos'd to have that are still expressly said to be summon'd and to say that by Wise-men were Vid. also Dr. B. Answer to P. pag. 10. But still left to the King how many of those he wou'd call And per Stat. 7. H. 4. the writ was first fram'd directing a to be chosen for each County Burrough still understood the Commons such an Emphatical denomination could not be so well resented by their Lordships since it would seem in some sence to Exclude them from being so but as a Learned and Labourious Answer of this popular point has observ'd and what will nearly make it Vnanswerable that in thir Laws when the Senate was generally signified and the whole Constitution 〈◊〉 self then Wise-men or Wites expressed â—â— but where any sort of the Constituent Members are Particulariz'd there you 'll find nothing but Nobles nam'd so that such an Assembly and that all of the Nobility depending upon the choice and Election of the Prince was not much more than our present Privy Council But then they were able to make Laws and these now but Orders and Proclamations and Parliaments then were so far from Usurping upon their King that they were in a Literal sence but his own Counsellors But were it granted what the Faction so furiously contend for that Commoners Of Antient time both Houses sate together first sever'd 2. H. 4. 4. Inst p. 2. were understood by the word Wisemen they were still far from Constituting such a Senate as that wherein they now sit only some few sitting joyntly with the Nobility call'd there by their Soveraigns sole Summons and Choice and this is granted by one of their most Virulent Advocates when he tells us Hunts postscr p. 95. the Dr. has only found out what no Historian is unacquainted with that our Parliaments were not always such as now Constituted if so why then all this Labor for the proving them such why so much of the Comâ—â—ns Antiquity Asserted why must theâ—â—ess be pester'd with three or four Volums for the purpose Laborious Drudges of Sedition 't is not Jani Anglorum c. Argument Anti Norman there Antiquity you so much contend for and so little able to defend the pains to prove them Antient is only in order to make them more Exorbitant M. P. must Print their Rights and that at a time when they were even ready to Rebel and with a superfluous piece of Sedition tell them of their Power when all good People thought they Miscel Parl. Usurpt too much Hunt must Harangue upon their Integrity to their Prince and State when some have since suffered been proved Principal Actors for the Destruction of both These like the Roman Velites were fain to Skirmish in the Front and entertain the good Government their Foe with a little light Charge of the Commons power and priviledge faithfulness and sincerity 't is a Plato they permit to bring up the Body to the Battle and assail it with the Subjects supremacy and making the Commons a standing Council for the management of Affairs of State and the better Government of their King poor prejudic'd Souls that to please a party contradict themselves give all History the Lye and then constrain themselves to believe they tell a Truth you say Postscript ut sup Parliaments were not always so powerful as now and won't you be satisfyed then they had once less power All our Chronicles tell us our Kings of old never allowed such Priviledges to the People and cannot this People be contented even with an Usurpation upon their Kings And as it will from those Authors cited before plainly appear that the old Britains the Saxons and Danish Princes were far more absolute than of late our succeeding Sovereigns so was the Conqueror the Norman too for several Successions Consult Alfredus that lived A Priest of Beverley in his time and writ down to it or Gulielm Pictaviens that writ a Treatise of his Life who tho an absolute Prince by Conquest and Arms yet themselves will allow that he governed by Laws and that our English ones too yet those very Laws were then of such a Latitude that they allowed him what his Parliament of Lords would never have allowed had he been obliged to consult them he singly ordeined what of late has been so loudly clamoured for that Vid. Baker no Prelates should have any Jurisdiction in Temporals and disarmed all the common People in general throughout the whole Kingdom the first themselves tho such Sollicitors and Petitioners for the compassing it would not now allow his Majesty alone to exclude from their Votes tho for their own Satisfaction without an Act of Parliament and for the latter they 'll hardly allow tho granted by the Law and tho it be only disarming and securing some Seditious Souls that disturb the Peace William the Second layd his own Taxes on the People a sufferance no Subject Vid. Eadmerus a Monk who writ the Life of William 2d lived in his Time can sustein now but with his own consent and Permission he could forbid his People by Proclamation not to go out of the Kingdom not to be done now but with a ne Exeat a Writ and Process at Law confirmed as all others are by Act of Parliament Henry the First had as
great a power and prerogative and exercised it too punishments Vid. Baker p. 34. vir William 2d before his time which were Mutilation of Members he made pecuniary provisions for his House which were paid in kind he made to be turned into Money an Alteration of Custom and Law not now to be compast but by particular Act Baker makes him first to have So also Florence of Worst instituted the form of an High Court of Parliament and tells us that before only the Nobles and Prelates were called to consult about Affairs of State But he called the Commons too as Burgesses elected by themselves but this can't be gathered from Eadmerus the much better Autority who in the Titles and the Stile of near Nine or Ten Councils of his time not so much as mentions them King Stephen what he wanted and was forc't to spare in Taxations which were not then granted by the suffrages of the Common People tho they commonly bear the greatest burden of it tho he did not according to the Power he was then invested with raise great Sums upon his Subjects and the greatest Reason because he could not the Continual Wars having impoverisht them as well as their Prince and it has the proverbial Authority of necessitated Truth That even where it is not to be got the King himself must foregoe his Right yet this mighty Monarch's power was such that Confiscations supplyed what he could not Tax and as our Historian tells us Baker p. 49. upon light Suggestions not so much as just Suspicions he would seize upon their Goods and as I remember the Bishop of Salisbury's Case in his time confirms But tho the Menace of the threatning King the Text be turned now into the clear Reverse and our Kings Loyns no heavier then the very Finger of some of his Predecessors still we can The wordâ— of a Priâ—â—t lately tryed and convicted of High Treason find those that can preach him down for a Rehoboam or some Son of Nebat that makes Israel to Sin Henry the Second resum'd by his own Act all the Crown Lands that had been sold or given from it by his Predecessors and this without being questioned for it much less deposed or murdered whereas when our Charles the First attempted only to resume the Lands of Religious Houses that by special act of the Parliament in Scotland had been settled on the Crown but by Usurpation were shared among the Lords when 't was only to prevent their Scandalous defrauding of the poor Priest and the very box of the poor to keep them from an Imperious and even a cruel Lording it over the poor Peasant in a miserable Vassallage beyond that of our antiquated Villains and when he endeavoured all this only by the very Law of all the Land by an Act of Renovation Legal Process and a Commission for the just surrendring Superiorities and Tyths so unjustly detain'd from the Crown but our modern Occupants of the Kirks Revenue had far less Reverence for the State chose much rather to Rebel against their Prince for being as they would Phrase it Arbitrary than part with the least power over their poor Peasants which themselves exercised even with Tyranny This was the very beginning of the first Tumults in that Factious Kingdom and 't is too much to tell you in what they ended Richard the First had a trick I am sure would not be born with now he pretends very cunningly to have lost his Signet and puts out a Proclamation that whoever would enjoy what he had under the former must come and have it confirmed by the new and so furnisht himself with a fine fund he could fairly sell and pawn his Lands for the Jerusalem Journey and as fouly upon his return resume them without pay And all this the good peaceable Subject could then brook without breaking into Rebellion and a bloody War and as they had just then none of their Great Charter that made afterward their Kings the less so neither had they such Rebellious Barons that could not be contented even with being too Great as they were then far from having granted so gracious a Petition as that of Right so neither 3 Car. 1. you see so ready to Rebel and that only because they could not put upon their Prince the deepest Indignities the greatest wrong And these warrantable proceedings of our Princes whose power in all probability was unconfin'd before the Subjects Charter of Priviledges was confirm'd must needs be boundless when there were yet no Laws to Limit them yet these two Presidents were as impertinently applyed by the Common Hackney Goose quils whose Pens were put upon by the Parliament to scribble Panegyricks upon a Common-wealth to prove 1648. 49. 51. Mercur Polit. n. 64. 65. all our Kings a Catalogue of Tyrants tho the Presidents they brought from those times were clear Nonsense in the Application and no News to tell us or reproach to them that those Princes were Arbitrary when they had yet given no grant to restrain their Will Here I hope is sufficient Testimony and that too much to Demonstrate that our Kings of old by long Prescription were so far from being guided and governed by a Parliament as our Factious Innovator would have them now that in truth they never had any such Constitution and the People then insisted so little on their own Priviledges that they could not tell what they were and the Princes Prerogative so great that even their property could hardly be called their own But these being but Presidents before their Charters were granted or the Commons came in play tho these preceding Kings might deviate from the common Custom of the Realm in many that some may call irregular Administrations yet the Customs of the Vid. Lex Terrae Kingdom relating to the Royal Government in all those Reigns were never questioned much less altered they never told their Kinge then as this piece of Sedition does now that their Nobles were to manage their Affairs of State as well as he would have even a Council of Commons We come to consider now whether An. Reg. 17 John from the granting them Charters which was done in the next Reign that of King John when the long tugged for Liberties were first allowed or from the Constitution of admitting the Commons to consult which by the greatest Advocates can't be made out handsomely before this Kings time or his Son and Successors who might well be necessitated to Consult the meaner sorts when all the great were in Arms and wisely flatter their Commons into peace when the Lords had rebelled in an open War tho' still good Authorities will Vid Dr. B. Introduct p. 72. 105. c. not allow them to be called in either of their Reigns not so much as to be mentioned in any of their Councils and p. 149. The King calls Parl. per advisam entum Concilii Vid. Bract. Parl. 4. Inst p. 4. and
shall they suppress those by whose advice they are call'd that even to the 18 of Edward the First wee 'll see I say now whether from these as they count them the most happy times That blessed Epoche wherein their Kings were first confined down to those which Posterity will blush at the Period of Villany when this Proposition was among the rest proposed whither ever the Parliament pretended unless when they actually rebelled as they did here to manage their King and his Affairs of State The greatest Lawyer and the most Equitable Bracton l. 4. Cap. 24. one that lived in this Henry the Thirds time tells us the King has a power and Jurisdiction over all that are in his Kingdom that all are under him § 5. ibid. that he has not an Equal in the Realm and sure the Project of putting the Parliament upon choosing of his Council for the managing of his Affairs or assuming themselves to manage it certainly would Plat. prop. make the Subject have some power over him make him more then Equal or Co-ordinate as the more modern Contenders for the Peoples Supremacy very Magisterially are pleased to Phrase it In the Reign of Edward the First the 7. Edw. 1. Parliament declares they are bound to assist their Sovereigns at all Seasons and in that very Sessions declared the Supream power to be his proper and peculiar Prerogative and so far from taking upon them to manage Him or His Affairs or the setting a Council over Him as a superintendent In Edward the Second's time they several times confirm'd to him the 1 Ed. 2. power of the Sword as his Sole undoubted 7 Ed. 2. unquestionable Prerogative and that he could distrain for the taking up of Arms all that held by Knights Service and had twenty Pounds per An. and I think that allowed him to be his own Adviser when it put him into an absolute Condition to Command But I confess his Seditious and Rebellious Subjects afterward served Him just as these our Proposers did their Soveraign took upon themselves to reform his Council managed His Affairs till they did all the Kingdom too deposed him with that power of the Sword they themselves had several times in his very Reign put in his Hand as ours also denyed His Majesty the Commission of Array Vid. dugd Baker 5. H. 4. 1. Jac. which they well knew the Laws allowed But as this Usage was shown to both so was it done to bind them both that both might be more easily Butchered In the following Reign of this unfortunate Prince's Son too forward to Edw. 3d. mount the Throne before his Father had thoroughly left it which he could not be said to relinquish but with his Life there I 'll grant this Republican his own Rebel Tenent was as stoutly maintained but by whom why by the very same Exilium Hugon Edw. 2. 1 Edward 3d. C. 2. Wretches whom too several Parliaments had condemned for the same sort of damnable Opinions and solemnly sent them into Exile too the daring and presumptuous Spencers who being the first Authors of that Seditious Sophistry that damnable Distinction of parting His Majesties Person from his * Vide Jenkins's Lex Terrae first Edit p. 5. political Capacity that is making Allegiance no longer Law than their King could maintain his Authority with Arms for that must be the meaning of such Treasonable Metaphysicks for if they 'll owe but Obedience upon that political account of his being a King assoon as they can but find out some blessed Expedient for the proving of him none that is Misgovernment †Vid. Parl. Declarations 41. p. 4. Arbitrary Power ‖ And Proceeding of L. Shaftsbury in the Old-Bayly Popish Inclinations and the like pretty Pretences to make him fairly forfeit it why then truly all the Majesty vanishes like a Shadow before this New Light and if he can't hold his Scepter in his Hand with the power of his Sword why they have Metamorphosed Him into a common Man and may pluck it out with theirs And truly the Peoples Politick In three several Places in Plowden they are made inseparable p. 234. 242. 213. Corps politick include le Corps natural Son Corps politick natural sont indivisible Ceux Deux Corps Sont en encorporate une Person Capacity is such they will soon make their Kings uncapable when once they are grown so strong in the Field as not to fear it Here was the Rise of that Rebellious reasoning that run all indispensable Obligation of our Obedience to the Prince into the Capricious and Arbitrary Conjecture of the People whose Title and Deposition must depend upon his own Demeanor and that to be decided according to the diversity of thought which in a discontented Vulgar deserves the better Epithet of Distraction The good King would have a Right to his Crown as long as his kind Subjects would be pleased to think so and we have more than once found their Politicks have too soon made them uncapable to Govern and then deposed and murdered their very Persons for the want of this their politick Capacity I am sorry to say and posterity will blush to hear that such Seditious and sophisticated reasoning obtained even to the making * Ed. 2. in whose time 't was first started Vid Lex Terrae Rich. 2. because by misdemeanours he had made himself uncapable Vide Trussel Three mighty Monarchs in a most miserable manner to miscarry and it appears still too plain in their Prints and those too Charactered in Royal Blood that they never left severing our late * Charles the 1st the Parliament declares because the King had not granted the Propositions i. e. deposed himself he could not Exercise the Duties of his place Answer of the Com. to the Scots Com. p. 20. and the Scots expound their preserving the Kings Person in the Covenant but as it related to the Kingdom i. e. in English if they please they may destroy him Soveraign's Person from his Crown till at last his Head too from his Shoulders I could not but with some passionate Digression reflect upon this pernicious Principle and so the best of it is I can be but pardonably impertinent but which I would apply pertinently to this Republicans and Parliamentary Proposition for their managing all State Affairs is one of the Consequences that may be drawn and which those Sycophants the Spencers did actually draw from this their damnable Doctrine for so they did conclude from it too as well they might That in default of him their Liege Lord his Lieges should be bound to govern the Affairs of State and what Newes now does this Devilish Democratick tellus us Why the very Doctrine of two damnable Parasites whom themselves have condemned for above two or three hundred years agon who to cover their own Treason as they then too call'd it committed against the People and that but in * Vid.
Cook 4. Inst C. 2. Evil Counselling of their King invented very cunningly this popular Opinion to preserve themselves and please the Rabble they had so much enraged And could after so many Centuries after so long a series of time the Principles even of their execrated Enemies by themselves too be put into practice and what is worse still shall the sad effects that succeeded the practising it so lately encourage our Seditious Libellers for its Reimpression if this most Rebellious Nonsense must re-obtain all their declaratory Statute the determin'd Treasons of their good King †25. Ed. 3. Edward may pass for a pretty piece of Impertinence they may do as once they truly did they may Fight Shoot at Imprison Butcher the Natural Body the Person of their Soveraign and tell us the Laws designed them only for Traytors when they could destroy him in his politick The same Laws make it Treason to compass his Queens Death or Eldest Sons and must it be meant of their Monarchs being Married in his politick Capacity as well as murdered or of his Heirs that shall be born by pure political Conception they might e'n set up their Common-wealth then if these were to be the Successors to the Crown But yet with the same sort of silly Sophistry that they would separate the Kings natural Capacity from his political did the same Seditious Rebels as I remember make their own personal Relation to a politick Body Inseparable Rebellious Lumps of Contradiction shall not your Soveraigns sacred Person be preserved by that Power and Authority derived even from the Almighty and whose very Text tells us touch not mine Anointed and yet could your selves plead it as a Bar to Treason because perpetrated under a political Denomination and a Relation only to that Lower House of Commons that was then only an incorporated Body of Rebels and Regicides and this was told us by that Miscreant * Vid. Tryal of the Regicides page 50. Harrison the most profligate the vilest the most virulent of all the Faction concerned in that bloody Villany the MVRDER OF A KING the silly Sot had it infused by his Councel as Senseless as Seditious That it was an Act of the Parliament of England and so no particular Members questionable for what was done by the Body I confess the good excluded Members and the bubbl'd Presbyterian Senate would not allow it for a Parliamentaty Process and why because themselves did not sit in it and truly upon that unexpected and most blessed Revolution might â—hugg themselves and shrink up in a silent Joy that they were kept out And I cannot but smile to see * Vid. Ibid pag. 52. two or three sit upon the Bench and upbraiding the Prisoner for pulling them out of the Parliament and making themselves none †This was pleaded too by Carew p. 76. Treasonable words sworn against Scot. spoken in Parliament he pleads Priviledges of the House for speaking Treason tho 't is expressly declared not pleadable no not so much as for the breach of the Peace 17. Ed. 4. Rot. Parliament N. 39. Persons whom Policy had only placed there when the poor Prince was forc't to compound with a party for a Crown forc'd to prefer those that had â—dethroned his Father before only the better to settle himself in it and to compass more easily the punishment of those that murdered him after Persons and a great one too that I could name that have serv'd him as ungratefully since and been as deservedly rejected Persons that had his late Majesty's Arms been but as Victorious as his Cause was good had been as much liable to the Laws and their Crimes as Capital for fighting him in the Field with an Ordinance of the House as those that brought him to the Scaffold and Butchered him on the Block from the time that their Tumults forc'd him to fly from their Houses they were no more a Parliament than those were afterward that pulled them out and it lookt a little loathsome to see some sit a simpering and saying all Acts must be past by the King who themselves once had helpt Tryal of the Regicides pag. 52â— to pass many without and they could no more justify themselves had it been but their turn to be brought to Justice by their Memberships political Referrences to the two Houses then the Criminal at the Bar by his Relation to the Rump I have their own Authority for it their very * Answer of the Commons to the Scots Com. that the King had forfeited the executing the Duties of his Place and therefore could not be left to go where he pleased Anno. 1646. Imprint Lond. p. 20. Houses Act that they declared designed and actually made their King a Prisoner For they told the perfidious Scot that his denying their Propositions and what were those but Expedients to destroy Him had debar'd him of his Liberty and that they verifyed too when they had got their poor purchase at Holdenby in a usage of their Prince with a restraint that would have been Cruelty to a Peasant and which even his very Murderers enlarged when their Joyce took him from his Jaylers And I am sure 't is provided that to Imprison him till He assent to Proposals shall be * Parliam Roll. Num. 7. Lex Consuâ—tudo Parl. 25. Ed. 3. El. 1 Jac. High-Treason by particular Act as well as to Murder him is made so by the 25. And whatever the Mildness of ‖ H. postsc p. 89. Mr. Hunt the Moderator of Rebellion would have this Mystery of Iniquity would not have it so much as remembered it was these his own darling Daemagogues whom he defends and adores and that even for †Ibid p. 11. Restorers who script him in his politick Capacity anticipated his Murder and then left his naked Person to be persued by the * Salmasiuâ— has the same sort of simile page 3â—3 defensio Regia Wolves that worried it they had turned their House into a Shambles and that of Slaughter and were the Butchers the less Bloody that only bound Him and left to their Boys the cutting of his Throat yet this Barbarity must be defended this extenuated by them and the help of their Hunts and such Advocates the guilt not to devolve to each Individual Member because an Act of an Aggregated House But base Caitiffs to use even the very * Hunt page 94. Lawyers own Language your selves know that a politick Body may be guilty of a most political Treason and tho the †21. Ed. 4. 13 14. and noted Calvin's Case Laws tell us it has no Life or Soul and so can't suffer yet it s constituent Members may lose both be Hang'd and Damn'd in their proper Persons and that for committing it too against such another political Constitution It would otherwise be a fine Plea for Corporators that have been many times Defendants in the Case when their King has been Plaintiff And
Distemper when some of the Seditious Souls had but gotten the Government of a single City and that but under a Soveraign their Supream and sure 't is an Argument unanswerable that those Salesmen of his Prerogative would assoon Barter your Properties See the sad experienced result of all the Democracies since their first Institution what was left the poor Lacedaemonians upon putting in Execution that popular Project their * So also in Syracuse Petalism or Impoverisht Athens her self upon such another Order of her Ostracism why both were beggar'd of their Nobility the Scum the Scoundrels of the Town turn'd the Mighty Massinello's of the State The Tod-Pole Train the product of those beggarly Elements Mud and Water Lorded it even over all the Land And those Rulers naturally retaining in this Medley this Mixture of Sway the Native Principles of that Abject Matter from whence they came still as mean as the one and restless as the other could never reduce them to composed States till they had recalled the good Governours they had Banisht before ‖ Vid Mercur polit June 17. 1652. you know all this is too true and your selves too vile Caitiffs have owned it in Prints Lastly Let your Lords too be allowed for once your only as well as it is your beloved Government Let Aristocracy for once obtain for the best and Banish your Monarch set up that Idol and fall down to the Gods of your own Hands that good Government must still be of many still of as much divided Interest there would still be many then to mind the making their own Hay in the fair Sun-shine whereas should your Prince perjure himself for the minding only his private concern and neglecting the publick good which he must do if ever he is Crown'd where an Oath is administred for his very disavowing it yet still here would be pursued but the Interest of a single Person there of so many When the rash and unadvised Romans had upon that bandied Argument the Dissoluteness of their Tarquin the popular president of the Party for the Banishing of all Kings as if the Practice of a Rebellious Rome against a single dissolute Prince and that so long since could with the same Reason prevail at present for an extirpating the Government even under the best of Princes yet this very precipitous Act of Rage and Rashness was afterward even by the relenting Romans as much repented of and their Error best understood in their following Misfortunes and of which they were soon sensible too soon saw it in their subsequent sufferings for the first Frame of Government they constituted after this Expulsion was the * Rosin Ant. Rom. L. 7. C. 9. Consular and one would think that being but of two of the cheefest among them that it might have lasted as indeed the best sort of Aristocracy coming within an Ace of a Monarch a Duumvirate yet even from those they suffered more than from the first Constitution they had abolisht their more immoderate power broke the Laws more †Consulum immoderata poteitas oâ—nes metuâ— Legum excussit Liv. Lib. a. immoderately than the Lustful Licentious and Lewd Monarch they made to fly with his Fugitive Government We shall in some other place consider the restless Revolutions they ran through from their turning out this Monarchy till they tumbled into it again This serves only to let us see that publick Administrations even in the hands but of two of the best of the People are not always the best managed What pray better can be expected when the Optimacy is made up of so many more And where then into what form to whom shall we run for the best maintaining of this popular Darling this dangerous Violation that has been clamoured for rebelled and fought for the Peoples RIGHT but to that Soveraignty which our very Laws say can do no wrong to a Monarchy where Mechanicks can never meddle with Affairs of State to make them truckle to their own or the Nobility so powerful as to be all Soveraigns and under what Prince can we better acquiesce for this enjoyment than the present that has so often declared for its Protection And shall the Speech of some Noble Peer be better assurance promise more than the word of a King All Subjects under him have either Riches or Honor for their private Aim to make them act more partially for the publick and which the Laws presume therefore they may injure and have therefore made the greatest punishable But him exempted from all * He can't so much as be a disscisor 4. El. 2. 4. 6. The King has no Peer in the Land and so cannot be Judged 3. Ed. 3. 19. Statutes that are Penal And these sort of Arguments I can assure them their King himself has used to prove the publick Interest his own and that he alone of all the Kingdom can be presumed most impartially concerned for the good of the publick A Reason worthy of so good a King and which the worst the most Seditious Subjects cannot Answer Did not the Parliament in Richard the Third's Time give even that Vsurper an Arbitrary Power greater than any they can dread now from their most Lawful Soveraign Did not * Vid. Exact Abridgment fol. 713. they declare him their Lawful King by Inheritance tho they knew they made him Inherit against all Law Did not they declare it to be grounded upon the Laws of God and Nature and the Customs of the Realm whereas we now can oppose this Divine Right from the panick fear of making our true Legal King too powerful and the Succession of a Right Heir must be questioned by our Parliaments now when their Predecessors declared it unalterable even in a wrong Did †Vid. ibid 717. they not to him but an Usurper a Tyrant own themselves Three Estates without including himself and say that by them is meant the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons and shall the Press be pestered under our undoubted Soveraign and the mildest Prince to make him Co-ordinate with the People Did they not make particular Provision in * 1. R. C. 15. Parliament for the Preservation of His Person that was the very Merderer and Destroyer of His Subjects And shall our ungrateful ones Associate for the Destruction of the mildest Monarch whose greatest Care is their Protection Was this Monster ever questioned or censured for the Murder of several of His Subjects as well as the more Barbarous Butchery the spilling almost of his own Blood in his Nephews and must our most gracious one stand the mark of Malice and Reproach and that only for desending that of his Brothers who Reigned more Arbitrary and managed all Affairs more Monstrously than this very Monster of Mankind And must a Parliament be now the Manager of the mildest Monarch and think him dangerous if not governed by themselves The two Succeeding * H. 7. H. 8. Henries had their Power as much
the Statute and the Law William Writ against Pryn too in one Page proves his King Supream in the other his Parliaments Supremacy the most Mutinous Member would needs be Loyal when it was to late and the most Malitious Miscreant at the Pen Publisht his Memento when his Money with his Membership was sequestred from his own Home as well as his self from the Parliaments House and then palliated it with a piece against his Majesties Murder I the more Liberally enlarge upon this because his party the Presbyter would appropriate to themselves from some of his Papers the Vindication of their King but what I am sure in sincerity was thâ—â— own Reâ—enge They the Scot and the Todpole Spawn of both that Independant made use of unanimously the Defence of their Prince for the Destruction of his Person and then the differing Daemagogues with the very same * Vid. Answer of our English Presbyter to the Scots Commissioners The Scots reply from their Camp at Newark The Members to the Army The Armies Answer to the Members The Scots Remonst to the Army The Armies reply Pretences strove to put upon each other that is both alike full of the same falshood both alike fancyed their own Integrity they seemed to Labor for the two sublimated Vices Hypocrisie and self-conceit whereof the one made them twice Villains the other double Fools And this Confounder of Paper as well as the People Publisht then ∥ the very same An. From 41. to 48. Pamphlets or waste Papers 125. Principles this strach't Republican has proposed now for new Politicks of State Pryn and Plato differ only in this one Labour'd to make Law speak Treason the other Sense Lastly were not the Parliament very tender of this last this present Princes Power and Prerogative when they enacted a new * Act for Regulating Corporations Oath to be taken by all in Office for the Renouncing the Trayterous Position of resisting his Majesty with his own Authority And this Rebellious Proposal of our Republican is to make even the Parliament it self to make use of his †Vid. Plat. Parl. of Commons begun with H. 3. within 400 y. Kings in Caesars time 1000 y. since Authority even for an Usurpation upon his Prerogative and when once they come to Manage that they may be sure they 'll be his Masters too and I hope 't is now in some Measure prov'd even in the several particulars I undertook should be so that our Monarchs had heretofore an absolute Management of Affairs without an Interfering of Parliaments which then had not so much as Being and which were since they had it never called as their very Writs express it but to ‖ Deliberaturi de arduis 4 Inst 2. p. consult that they never offer'd to set a Council over their King much less themselves as this * Plato popular Pedant calls it to Manage his Militia and demonstrated this as was designed from Prescription even beyond Chronicle from the Laws of every Reign and my little Light of Reason All the following Propositions are as much against Reason and Law for the third is that the Judges be nominated by Parliament which as it would divest the King of part of his Supremacy so it would make themselves in effect both Judges and party for those then their own Creatures would have the Exposition of those Laws which themselves had made The ‖ Cook 5. fol. 62. 9. Ed. 4. Cook 8. f. 145. Law allows all the Four Courts at Westminster to be all Courts by Prescription and then let them tell me to whom belongs the power of Electing those that are to preside in it to the Kings of England that can prescribe to their Government even from the very Britains before Caesar ever set Foot in it neer 1700 Years agon and with whom their Courts of Judicature were ever Coeval or the Constitution of a Parliament that first within this four hundred years could be said to have a Being and so that which themselves would now controul had a Priority even in time to their Existence for near 1300 Years It is called the Court of Kings Bench Let them name the Judges it must be no longer His but the Parliaments 'T is Rebellion in them to assume it for they must at the same time too take the Soveraignty the Supremacy and 't is that such Seditious Proposals must aim at and truly do for 't is expresly declared for ‖ 3 El. Dyer 187. Cook 4 Inst c. 7. p. 73. Law that the Justices of the Kings Bench have Supream Authority the King himself sits there in them as the Law intends if the Parliament can chuse their Kings Representatives they can their King too and make the most Hereditary Kingdom Elective before the Reign even of Edward the * Ibid. p. 74. First the Chief Justice of this Court was created by Letters Patent 't is out ever was and will be out of the Parliaments power to create per Patents even a petty Constable 't is the King alone that by these his †32. H. 6. 13. Letters can constitute Courts and grant all Regal Rights He can erect a ‖ Plowden 334. Court of Common pleas in what part of the Kingdom he pleases and shall he that has a power over the very being of the Court not be able to place his Ministers of Justice in it The Chancery is a Court of such Antiquity that long before the Conquest we have several accounts of it tho some that were * Pollid Virg. Foreign to our Laws as well as Land would make it commence with the Conqueror Our very †4 Inst 6. 8. ibid. British Kings are said to have had such a Court and Ethelred the Saxon granted the * Mirror c. 1. §. 12. Fleta l. 12. c. 1. Glanvil l. 12. c. 1. and all the most ancient Lawyers speak of it Chancellorship even in Succession I need not it would be Nonsense to design to prove Parliaments had nothing to do with such Affairs so long before they themselves exsisted and in this Monument of Antiquity fam'd for the Distribution of the most Equal Justice since they cannot pretend without shame to the power of Electing such an Antient Officer of the Crown why what they can't presume to mend must Plato be quite Marr'd and utterly Abolisht Pryn himself could never pretend that this Great Officer was the Peoples tho that popular piece of Absurdity might have prov'd it too as well he did the rest from the paradox of all our Princes being Elected which tho allow'd them from their perverted Histories yet still those whom they say were Chosen had the Liberty of Chusing their own Ministers sure they can't have the least shadow for such a silly Conjecture therefore this ‖ Pâ—yn's Parl. right to elect great Officers and Judges Sophister having just so much sense as to conceive from the begging one false Principle the most Damnable
Falsehoods can be deducted concludes but yet very Cautiously with a beleive so that since Kings were first Elected by the People Officers of the Crown were so too that is first he Lyes like a Knave and then infers like a Fool. But the Printing and Publishing now the Reasons for the rejecting this Judicatory is only to try how near the natural Sons can tread in the Prints and the very footsteps of the former Rebellion of their Fathers for in the Reign of Henry the Third when this Mighty Parliamentary Power was first hatcht far from being brought to the Maturity to which Time and their popular Encroachments have since ripen'd it then the meer Embryo of State just modell'd and conceiv'd The Rebellious Barons being then the Parents as also a Rebellion since the Nurse of such Seditious proposals demanded the very same piece of Praerogative to have the * An. Reg. H. 3. 22. Dom. 1230. Vid. Baker p. 84 85 86. Vid. Stow. Chief Justice the Chancellor and Treasurers to be chosen by themselves and then exercis'd the power when they had got it like so many Tyrants too that Ostracism upon the Kings Officers of State succeeded no better then that at Athens only to make room for so much worse the Leaguers in ‖ Vid. Davila pag. 482. France Petition their King to remove his Counsellors and Officers that they might put in others of their own and shall the Presidents of Papists and that of Rebel ones obtain even with our Puritans to Rebel will they boldly own themselves Protestants and not Blush in the practices of those very Catholicks they condemn Did not our late Rebels and Regicides show themselves more Modest and Regular in their Attempts for Reformation than this more insolent Republican they never entered upon Abolishing this Court till they had extirpated the Monarchy it was the ‖ 5 Aug. 1653. Vid. Scob. Coll. Council of State that then voted it down the Rump it self the very Nusance of the Nation had but just thought it convenient among the midst of all their Innovation to root out a Constitution so Old they had but just Voted for the taking it away when Pride's Purge came and scour'd both these Legislators and the Law and tho then the Chancery was criminated with the same Aspersions we find lain upon it in * Plat. Red. this Libel for †Vid. Exact Relation of the Parl. Dissolved Decemb 53. Chargeableness Dilatories yet even by those most virulent Villains it was allowed if well managed to compare with any Court in the whole World whereas the ∥ Doctor of Sedition here Plat. p. 130. thinks that at the best there is not to be found a worse Tribunal in the Universe neither was it easily compast even in those Times of Confusion there being no less than three or four Bills brought in for the purpose before they could with the Corrupt Committees of that Council agree on one for the Commissioners for this Regulation understanding as little Law as they had broken much had hardly the Sense to propose their own Sentiments in such a way as might make the Members Sensible there was any Reason for the prosecuting the very Work they had Undertaken they seemed to resolve only to Ruin a Court constituted with the Monarchy it self before they could agree for the reestablishing another in its Room there seemed a sort of Sympathy between that and the Government both founded both fell together and both before the Subverters had or were like to find out a better Livy tells us like it of another such a sort of rash Rebellious Reformers in Italy a distempered State that fell out with their Aristocracy and designed a Deposition of their Old Governors and that only to chose new But before they could agree upon choice they found it I 'll assure you as difficult to get better as it was easie to destroy whom they thought worse and so with a wise Acquiescence were satisfyed and sate down with an unintended Submission It had been well for ours had they been so wise as to have thought so and done so too But so furious were they here in this very point of Reformation that tho * Vid. Exact Relation of the Proceedings of the Parl. dissolved Vid. Decemb. 12. 53. they could not agree upon what they would Reform before the Term approacht the Members that had Voted for the Abolishing as they call'd it this Corrupt Court would not care to pass through the Hall while it was sitting but moved to have its Jurisdiction suspended till they were agreed for the manner of its utter Extirpation and on they went with their Legislative Swords their Armed suffrages till they past that Second Vote for the new modelling of all the Law and so not only supprest the Chancery but that Malignant party Justice and Equity was Banisht by those very Villains that had broke all the Statutes of the Land In short they never did destroy these Judicatures but when they did Dethrone their King they never chose their Judges but when they had Vsurpt the Supremacy they never can do either without subverting the Monarchy for 't is their own Soveraign that sits and presides in them and the Judges Officiate but for him because not ‖ Et pur ceo que nous ne suffisons in nostr◠propre Person Oyer Terminer c. Vide Brit. f. 1. Vid. 8. H. 6. sufficient for it himself and therefore has committed all his power of Judicature to these several Courts of Justice The King is said to Judge by his Judges if the Parliament elect them they are none of his they chuse their Soveraigns Representatives while they would think it hard his Majestie should make the Peoples or nominate but to a single Burrough Thus much for their Management of the State the next part of the Proposition is their modelling of the Church and in that our modern Republican agrees with our Old Rebels for the depriving the Bishops of their Votes That was one of the Projects was set afoot as the very forerunner of our former Troubles that was publisht * Vid. Bishops Right and Discousre of Peerage 81. over again in several Papers and Pamphlets now besides in this very piece and could they condemn our Fears of a Subversion of the Government when their Libels in about 80 lookt only like the new Editions of those in ‖ Vid. Scots Libel on the Bish and Leightons in England 41 as if printed Rebellion was to suffer but a Reimpression You shall see how they began with the Bishops just before the last War in their Libels and then how of late they began to War upon Episcopacy again in their Papers and Pamphlets you shall see how the Parliament Espoused the Peoples Quarrel to that Hierarchy then and how near our late House of Commons was for falling upon the Prelacy now Leighton a virulent Scotch-man led the Dance with a Zeal like that the
Nation it self shewed afterward against that Apostolical Order he told the People plainly they must Murder all the Bishops And in his canting Phraseology * Vid. Leighton's Sions Plea Printed 1636. Smite them under the fifth Rib. 'T is true the Government of Church and State stood yet so strong upon its Basis tho shaken with an undermining Plot that it dared to punish such an Execrable Villain with the Pillory and sentenced he was in the Star-Chamber to be stigmatised cropt and slit and tho the Parliament had not openly declared themselves against this good Government of the Church yet they had shown such Symptoms of their Disaffection to it that this Impudent Libeller could presume to make them his Patrons and present them with his Plea And I ha'n't found in all their Journal any Order for so much as the censuring him for such a piece of Presumption To exclude the Bishops from Voting in their Assembly the Confederates of Scotland drew up a Libel against them one in the Literal Sense full of Scandal and Reproaches But the denying them there their Rights in Parliament was soon seconded with the Robbing them of all too they had in the Church whom they had excluded they soon Excommunicated and then abolisht utterly the sacred Order so did also within two years after the good Parliament of England begin with the Prelacy too Pennington with his packt Petition of Prentices presented to them their Abhorrence of that Hierarchy the cunning and counterfeit Commons that House of Hypocrisie seemed a little dissatisfyed with an Alteration of the Church Government it self that is they did not care to pluck it up presently Root and Branch but fell upon another Argument somewhat more plausible tho to the Zealots less pleasing but what in truth was but Introductory to the same thing they more deliberately designed that they might proceed somewhat like Senators soberly to Sedition and that was about the Synod and Convocation Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical which they soon resolved to be against the Fundamental Laws of the Land But these Lay-Members were only mighty loth the Clergy should here have their Representatives as well as the Laick they must otherwise have seen that such a Resolution would upbraid them to their Faces with a Lye for this their Court of Convocation was as much founded upon Law and more too perhaps than even that of the Commons themselves who with their inconsistent Votes with Contradiction it self condemned it Exclude the Clergy and the very Foundations of your House must fall Did not former times allow you Representatives that every one might have an Hand in the Composition of that which he had an Obligation to obey Banish the Bishops your Assembly and tell me by what Proxies the Church shall be represented and what shall tye her to the Observation of those Laws to whose Constitution she gives no consent For a Thousand Years before they had a being there were such * Beda tells us Augustine the Monk called one of the Britain Bishops An. Dom. 686. King Ina's a Convocation of Cletgy An. Dom. 727. of the Saxons Synods Assembled never called but by the King 's Writ and they have no other Authority for their own Sitting and might as well have Voted that their own Assembly as indeed it was afterward was ‖ The very Words of their Vote against the Cannons Vid. Journal against the Fundamental Laws of the Realm Prerogative of the King Property of the Subject Right of Parliament and did tend to Faction and Sedition And tho those Canons and Constitutions were streightned and limited in Henry the †Register F. N. B. 4. Inst p. 322. c. 71. Eight's Time and it was provided that none for the future that had not the Royal Assent should be put in Execution yet such Reverence and Respect had the Parliament of those Times which I think was made up of a better sort of Reformers than what past their suffrages for the setting aside this Synod that not withstanding that Limitation they put in an express Proviso * Vid. 25. H. 8. for their Antiquity See Bracton l. 3. f. 123. Hol 303. 6 H. 3. Rot. p. 18. Ed. 3. that such Canons as were made before that Act so long as they did not contradict Law should be still in force after and this was at a time too when they were so far from being the Bigots of Rome that they were reforming from Her and acknowledged their Kings Supremacy even in ‖ 26 H. 8. c. 8. several of those Convocations tho whatever Religion they were of Common Reason cannot make it a Crime the countenancing of the Churches Right but these Violators of her Priviledges soon discovered their Design upon her Patrimony too for in the same Session and that soon after they that thus set aside the Churches Synod sent up an Impeachment of Treason against its Metropolitan and that by the Hands of a mighty famous Member whom his Majesty could have made appear and within a year after did demand as a greater Criminal too one who if I mistake not liv'd so long and so lately to prosecute the Bishops once more in their †His Discourse of Peerage London 1679. which Hunt himself could oppose Peerage as well as Persons But having gone so far what they had scribbl'd down before with their Libels they soon damn'd with a Vote And in the same Year past that Bill that their Spiritual Lordships should have no suffrages in the Senate of Lords And when they were come to this once to deprive them of their prescrib'd Privileges and their Legal Rights to send twelve of them to the Tower only because they would not tamely forego the very Church's Birth-right but entered a * they sent Glyn upon the resentment the Lords had taken against it too to accuse them of no less than High-treason for which they were committed for four months Vid. Bak p. 515. An. 1641. Protestation only against the betraying of their Trust you might think their Order it self tho never so Primitive never so much Apostolical was not like to be long liv'd for in the very next Year tho it was the good Kings giving one when Star-Chamber was abolisht the High-Commission put down Ship-Money relinquisht with six or seven several Acts besides for disclaiming Priviledges still his Seditious Subjects 1642. According ly done in the next year Ordinance 12 of June Vid. Scob. Col. p. 42. had so little Sense of his Goodness that even in that very season of Grace a †Bill was brought in for Abolishing this sacred Order Root and Branch 't is true 't was then husht up in the House the provident Patriots understood how to time it better they had not yet come to covenanting and concluded with the Kirk but as soon as they had framed their Holy League ‖ Mildmay's Oath taken 15. of June 43. Scob. Col. page 42. in Imitation of the Scots solemn one which they
Liberties and will not that neither with our Licentious Libertines be allowed for Law Is not all the Military power both by Sea and Land declared the undoubted Right of His present Majesty and that by particular ‖ 13. Car. 2 d. Chap 6. Vid. the same repeated 14. Car 2. c. 3. Act in his own Reign does not the very preamble of it seem to provide against this very Proposition of such a Parliament or a Plato when it tells us expresly that all Forts and places of Strength is and ever was by the Laws of England the Kings undoubted Right and of all his Royal Predecessors and that neither both or either Houses can or ought to pretend to the same and declares that all the late Principles and Practices that assumed the same were all Rebellious And could some of our Mutinous Members embrace such Propositions from the Press that presumed to tell them they had of late made two such Impertinent Acts in the House †Plato p. 239. 240. 277. Acts invading the Subjects Property Acts betraying the Liberties of that very People they represent In short and that in his own Words Acts that empower the Prince to invade the Government with Force Acts to destroy and ruin the State hindering the Execution of the Laws and the preventing our Happiness and Settlement had they had but the least Reverence for their own Constitution and that Honorable Assembly wherein they sate sure there would have been some Ordered and Resolved for the sifting out such a Pen-man and sentencing such Papers to the Hangman and the Flames what can be the result of this to sober Sense or Common Reason that such Villanous Authors should appear in publick at such a Session of Parliament to Censure and Arraign the very Acts of their former Representatives but that they thought themselves secure from any Violent Prosecution from those that then were sitting and that it was not the Constitution it self of that most Honorable Assembly the Seditious Sycophants were so Zealous for but only the present Persons its Constituent Members they so much admired The last the Tenth of those pretty Proposals that deserves particular Animadversion for several of them Symbolize with one another and so are by a general asserting of the Kings Supremacy sufficiently refuted is the Parliaments Right to the making Peers the prettiest Paradox that the Abundance of Sedition with the want of Sense could suggest I have heard the Laws declare the King to be the Fountain of Honor as well as Justice but the Commons I think as they are no Court of Judicature so were never yet known to be concerned in the making Lords The King whom only our ‖ 3. Ed. 3. 19. Law declares to have no Peer is sure the only Person that can make Peers has not this Power been unquestionably in the Prince ever since these Realms had one to Rule was not the Title of Baron in Edward the First 's Time confined expresly to such only as by the Kings Writ were sommoned to sit in Parliament And even when there was an Innovation in this Point In †11. Rich. 2 d. Richard the Second's Tumultuous Time this Power was then not taken from the King till they took away his Crown did not he take upon him to confer the Peerage and as the first President per his Letters Patents And Beauchamp Baron of Kederminster the First of that Creation did the Parliament ever pretend to make Peers but when the Body had rebelled against the Head and rejected their Prince But the Creation of Honors might well then be inverted when the State it self was turned Topsie It was then I confess they denyed their King too not only the conferring of Honors for the future but passed an * 4 Feb. 1651. Scob. Col. pag. 178. Act for Voiding all Titles Dignities and Precedencies already given by him But this was done to extinguish the very Remains of Royalty that there might not be left behind him the meer marks the Gracious Dispensations of the very Favor of a King the inveterate Villains labouring with their Monarch to Murder his very Memory And sure none of the Nobility have great Reason to relie upon Parliaments for the maintaining of their Old Honor or creating New for the Privilege of their Peerage or the making Peers when the very First thing that they did when they had got the Power was an †Vid. vote Journal 6. Feb. 1648. Vid. Hist independ pag. 15. perfect Diurnal p. 1250. Ordered and Resolved that the House of Peers was useless dangerous and ought to be Abolisht And all the Kindness their Lordships could be allowed was to be capable of being elected into the Lower House and what an Honourable House of Lords was afterward Establisht even by those that had purged away the Peerage may be seen in the Persons of those that Usurper put up afterward for Peers But under the Name the Notion of that other House when they granted that power of their Nomination to that Arch Rebel which they but so lately denyed their Lawful King why we had there then †See the List of their Lordships in Dugd. view pag. 454. Lords of no quality no worth little Land and less Learning Mr. Hewsons Lordship that Honest Cobler Sir Thomas Pride's Lordship Knight and Dray-man My Lord James Berry Black-Smith My Lord Barksted the Bodkin-Seller and the Cant of their Counterfeit Cromwell their Creator might well tell them from the Text not many Nobl's not many wise were called but a Creation according to the very Notion of the Schools An House like that of the World too out of nothing framed by Him that had Himself * Vid. Engagement and Protectors Oath Sworn to be true to the Government without founded in the Perjury of him that made them Peers and of Persons that would have disgrac'd a Pillory Persons prefer'd for their little Honesty little Quality little Sense Persons whose Lands and Possessions could only qualifie them to be Noble by being purchased with the Blood of our best Nobility Lastly Persons that were only samed for their Villanies Mighty but in Mischief making it an House indeed not of Peers but Correction which the very Law tells us must be made up of Beggars and Malefactors This Gentlemen was the Peerage produced †Their 19th Proposition to the King at York by a Parliament's Rebellion to make Peers of which it was too the most natural Result for that very Act upon a Just Judgment would have Tainted all their Blood but they provided here for the purpose Persons that defied superseded the Work of an Attaindure Persons whose Blood even Treason could not more Corrupt This Gentlemen was the product of that most preposterous Inversion when the * The First Feb. 6. 1648. Commons could make Lords and their Kings House of Peers with their very Titles and Honors ‖ The Second 4. Feb. 51. Abolisht by an House of Commons
Mariana de Reg. Reg. Inst l. 1. C. 6 59. Mariana a Jesuit of Spain says The Commonwealth from whence the Kings have their power can call their King to an account * Bez. 60. 216. Confessions Beza Calvin's Successor at Geneva tells us The States-men of the Kingdom must restrain the fury of their Tyrants or they are Traitors to their Country These few Instances may serve of four or five really Romish Priests that have been transcrib'd almost to a word in the Writings of some of the false Reformers of our late Times and those that truly reformed our Religion so long agon who so far agreed with the Romanist from whom they dissented But whose Errors in such pernicious Principles in themselves might be imputed to the multiplicity of Matters then to be reformed which might make them want time for all Amendments and that Rome from which they did then for the greater purity of Worship withdraw was as an old Aphorism tells us never built in one day But to see now those that have had all the Advantages of time Instruction of the former Ages experience of this and of what Positions still were the promoters of Rebellion in both those whose fury against the Romish Faith sometimes has exceeded the Moderation of the Christian and whose Zealous Rage has made them preposterously judge the best reformed Church in the World our own Antichrist 't is matter of Astonishment to see such espousing her Doctrines wedded to her Principles whom in their canting Tropologies they still represent as a Whore Yet still love for her Lewdness The Restauration of the King was brought about he tells * Postscr p. 10 11. us without the Assistance of any of the Cavalier party and the recovered Nation obliged a wary General The Suggestion is somewhat Impudent so boldly to deny truth when the memory of man can give him the Lye prethee did the recovered Nation oblige the Wary General or the Wary General compel the Nation not yet recovered 't was well he had an Army at his Heels and that at his Devotion too or else his long Parliament would hardly have Dissolved so soon and then it would have been long before we should have had a free one The Parliament upon the returning of the secluded Members was made up of meerly Presbyterian and how likely they would have brought in the King had their Session continued to Sit may be guest from their expiring Votes and sure you may believe the Words of dying Men. ORDERED that the General give no Commission to any Officer who will not declare that the War undertaken by the Parliament against the Forces of the King was just and Lawful ORDERED that they further declare that they believe the Magistracy and Ministry to be the Ordinances of God ORDERED that they and their Sons who have assisted the King against this Parliament be made incapable to serve in the next And had not some of the Honest Cavaliers in spight of this Exclusion-Bill crept into the next Senate Had not that Honourable Person that eminent Instrument of the Restauration the present Earl of Bath whose bold and Loyal Undertakings may they last beyond our Annals and be as they merit eternal been ready to sollicite His Majesties Cause whose Goodness could not but incline so good a General 't is shrewdly to be suspected these his Presbyterians that cursed then His Majesty with their expiring breath in that blessed Vote that sanctified all their Rebellion against his Father that those that cryed Crucifie him to the last would hardly have brought him into the City with their Hosannah's But when the Net was spread for them 't is no wonder they did their Garments and when the Birds that had lived so long wild within their Wood were once Caged they might well be for cutting down their Branches in the way and their greatest glory is they cryed out then their O King Live for ever when 't was too late to Vote * Vid. Journal Mar. 1648. again the Sons of Charles Steward should dye without Mercy A †From p. 13. to 28. Leaf or two this Gentleman spends upon the Reflections that have been made upon the Censures that have been past upon the Procedings of some of our late Parliaments and upon the Forgeries that have been contrived for the creating a belief of a Protestant Plot but I hope as much possest as he was the Devil of Sedition has left him now as he does Witches and Wizzards when he has got them in the hold and brought them to the Stake sure his Eyes are illuminated now by the discovering so many Deeds of Darkness and he was only blinded then with too much Light that of Phrensy or he that was co-eval almost with the Transactions of the last Rebellious Parliaments would have observed somewhat to make him suspect the Loyalty of some of the late Did not that begin with an Impeachment against the Duke of Bucks and these with the Banishment of a nearer Duke Was not the late King by that accused of Arbitrary Power and Popery and were not both these Accusations level'd at our present in several * Vide Printed Votes of the House of Comm. Votes Was there not an actual Plot of Papists discovered only from finding some Letters of a poor Priest in Clerkenwell and have we not had a notable one now as deep as Hell that none but Heaven can found the bottom Was not the good old Queen brought into the Conspiracy and was not Her present Majesty sworn into this Did they not declare the King seduced by Evil Councellors and impeached several of the Seducers Were not several of the Council now impeached and declared Seducers of the King Were not the Judges then impeacht and Jenkins clapt in the Tower Were not Articles drawn against Scroggs and some of the rest declared Arbitrary Were not the Spiritual Lords excluded from their Right in Temporals and did they not now again dispute the Bishop's Right Were not the Ecclesiastical Courts then to be Corrected and that now taken into Examination Was not Manwaring and Montague censured in the House Thompson and several of our Clergy now brought on their Knees Was there not a Councill of Six whom the good old King impeached for bringing in the Scots and have we not had Six of the Senators that have suffered or fled Justice for the same Conspiracy Was not the Militia aimed at now and taken away then Was not the House of Peers Voted useless and now Betrayers of the Liberty of the Subject Lastly did not the whole House take the Covenant at St. Margarets and the Major part to have subscribed an Association now and last of all Did not the Junto at Westminster pass an Act for the King's Tryal and sign a Warrant for his Execution and now a remnant of a disbanded House propose horrid Things that made even some of the Conspirators * Vid. Russel's Speech fly out upon which
declared to give his consent to it But it seems upon some oversight or error it was not actually done And in the First of * 1. Jacob. King James when they recogniz'd his Right they petition him to put his own Acknowledgement too without which it would not be compleat and perfect from which I shall infer upon the First here was an Act past upon the King 's declaring he would give his consent had there been nothing else but his bare Assent required that declaring that he would might have been taken for granted and his not opposing it afterward sufficient not to have rendered it all null and void and the great Imprimaturs the other two Houses had given it with their Legislative have might in some Sense made it somewhat Obligatory But here 't is absolutely declared void as wanting the very Sanction that makes it a Law or any thing besides waste Paper Mr. ‖ Postscr pag. 4◠Hunt tells us we would not say an House of Commons can make a Prince of Wales because the Prince of Wales was once confirmed by an House of Commons And I 'll tell Mr. Hunt just such another Tale The King cannot make his Coin without Metal and Allay but does therefore the Metal and Allay make the Kings Coin 't is his Royal Stamp 't is his own Impression that makes the Money Currant as well as the Laws From that of King James we may justly conclude That if here as they 1. Jacob. say there were nothing required but barely the Kings consent to the making it Law that might well in such an extraordinary Case as this be thought unnecessary to be demanded since the King that came so far for asserting his Right could not but in Reason be supposed very willingly to consent to any Recognition of it But they knew it might be an Acknowledgement of his Subjects without his Assent But never an Act of Parliament without such a Soveraign Sanction In short 't is the Privilege of all our three States Lords Spiritual Temporal and Commons 't is their Birth-right and that of every Subject to have a Concurrence in the making all Laws and why should I be thought to Love my Native Right less than Mr. Hunt yet still this Peoples concurrence need not to be Co-ordinate with their Kings or their Kings but a bare Concurrence with the People 'T is a Solecism to sober Sence to say Subjects can be Co-ordinate with him to whom they are Subjected and as absurd when they would salve it with saying As such a Senate they are not Subordinate when even for that their politick Existence they depend upon the breath of their Soveraign 'T is Remarkable to see and observe how Providence has defeated not only all their Attempts upon the Government but even their most Malicious Suggestions What pains did he take to Postscript pag. 55. turn over his Annals of Scotland and pick perhaps out of his Hector Boethius an Author that lived at his University when he writ far from the place where the Records were kept as a Learned and Ingenuous Author of that Nation observes which were the only things that could inform an Historian well in the Descent of the Crown or from the prejudic'd Writings of Buchanan whom none but one so partial as himself such an Enemy to our own Government as that was to the Scots would have consulted in any thing that related to the Crown and that only to make his Soveraign descended from a Bastard He might from that * Buch. jure Reg. p. 52. 62. Author have told us too The Scotish Kings have all their Power from the People and therefore the People's above the King that the Multitude have the same power over Kings that they have over the Multitude who can depose him and if he won't submit to their Charge they can raise War against him or any private Person kill him But how has Time and Truth convinced the World that his Assertion is plain lye and I am sure without it his Inferrence had been false the King 's Learn'd Advocate there has shewn from Records That Robert the First King of the Stewarts there was married to this Elizabeth Mure that she was his first Wife that from a copy of an Act of Parliament held at Scoon the Succession was recognised to the Sons he had in his first Marriage which were the same Hunt has made first Spurious and then would not allow them Legitimized by the second Marriage because the first intervened contrary to the Canon of the Church that then obtained and the Opinion of †Hottom de Concub. L. cum quis C. 16. de natur Lib. all Civilians at present and as he might have found it in the very Codes of Justinian With what Face can he now behold his own Impostures or turn over a Leaf of his Seditious falshood without trembling The most adequate punishment I believe would be to confine him to read his own Works Blushes and Shame If he be not proof against both must torment him more in the review than he rack'd his tortured thought in the Penning it the sham of the Black-Box may as well be credited by the next Age as this has done that of the Black-Plaister when such Hunts shall Write their History of King Charles his Court after the same rate that Welden has that of King James when they shall not only contend at the same time to make Bastards of those that are Legitimate but Legitimate those that are truly Bastards and the one all against Record Charter Statutes Ancient the other against the many Modern and Express Declarations of their present King This piece of this Seditious and Discontented Lawyer these now unquestionable Falshoods will be rever'd by the next age as a Revelation if not sufficiently exploded in this and I know that Welden is hugg'd at present by the Faction as an Oracle of Truth only for giving of his God the Lye and reputed as an Author sacred only for Libelling of his Soveraign that was truly so and representing that Providence as a * Vid Welden's Court ad finem Plague to his Royal Progeny that has signaliz'd it self in nothing more than in Miracles for its Preservation Most of the rest of his sublimated Sedition is spent in exposing the Divine Right of Kings the Right of their Succession and in truth of the Bible and its Author the Almighty he begins to confute ‖ Postscr l. p. 63. St. Paul with that bandied Argumentation out of St. Peter that Kings are the Ordinance of Man and with that very Text on the Front does that Devilish piece de jure Magistratuum in one of its Editions begin So Mr. Hunt enters upon the Stage of his Argumentation with a perverted Text as well as one a reputed Papist that was Ficleney a supposed Romish Priest tho he railed against Pope and Mass which might be pretended and affected Puritanism supposed to be set a
Work by the Pope for raising a Rebellion against our most Protestant Queen Elizabeth of whom I have two or three Editions by me such Encouragement does Treason and Sedition still meet with amongst our Puritans and the Popish part of the World for Re-impression and Improvement and from this damnable Libel upon Christianity it self and the Badge of its Profession the Gospel a piece so lewdly Seditious that both the Catholicks and Phanaticks that hugg its Doctrine yet had not the Confidence to entitle them selves to the work from this and Brutus his vindicioe has Mr. Hunt and his Apostate absolutely borrowed all their Principles at least unfortunately transcribed them by Inspiration which I may demonstrate with as plain a Parallel as any Corollary can be drawn from a Mathematical Proposition when I come in the next Chapter to handle that Reproach to Christianity that Opprobrium of our Church In the mean while give me leave to close this with these few Animadversions upon some of this Lawyers Sentences before we come to the Lewd Maxims of the Divine * P. 68. 88. He tells us with Passion and transport that this Opinion of a Divine Authority in Kings renders us all Traytors and this Doctrine of their Divinity is dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom and pregnant with Wars Nothing but a Zeal that had overcome his Senses could precipitate him upon such Paradoxes the only thing that prevails most with me and I believe with all that are not open Enemies to the State or fled from its Justice for an entertaining of this Religious Principle of our Loyalty is that nothing can possible with Christians be a better Argument for their living peaceable under so good a Government or were it not so good than to believe that those that are their Rulers have Authority from their God and sure his Anointed is preserved the sooner from being toucht from the regard an Heathen would have to any thing that has a power Sacred and Divine what can be a stronger Conviction to a Reasonable Soul of the good the peaceable Consequences of such a pious Doctrine than that those that contend so much against it are still found to be Disturbers of our Peace Can he prove that the Consecration of a Church and the very presence of God in the Tabernacle shall be an Encouragement for Sacrilege and an Invitation for a Villain to rob it of its Candlestick Chalices Offerings and Oblations Only that he may break the Tables before the Face of his God that gave the Law But whenever our Peace is interrupted by this Doctrine It is only by such Sacrilegious Desperado's as dare attempt Majesty and that upon the same account for Plunder and Prey At the last * Pag. 148 149. he is mighty tender of his Fanaticks and their Throats from the Papists but sure he may be now less concerned when we can match them with an intended Massacre of their own as clearly proved as the noon-day but may well be disbelieved by such who can not only side with the Turks in their Arms but almost in their Infidelity But I can tell them a more Ingenuous a better way of denying their Plot by confessing it by owning what indeed it was a bare-fac'd Conspiracy a Resolute Rebellion Hitherto Mr. Hunt has been animadverted on as his Lewd Expressions and the more abominable Principles in a Person pretending to so much sincerity lay scattered promiscuously so that our Remarks must have made a Miscellany as well as his Book but its whole substance of Sedition I shall reduce now to three several Heads First * That Assertion of the Legisative which he would not allow in p. 46. 61. the King Secondly That Divine Right which he would rather place in the People Thirdly That Succession of the Crown to depend upon a Parliament or the power of both The first Reason that he gives for the first is from his Rule and Inferrence in Arithmetick where a Unite added to two makes a Third And the Conclusion is because none can say therefore those two do not go to the making that number and what then Therefore the King hath not the Legislative and this is the Logick of this Body of Law when it sets up for the Mathematicks and would demonstrate the King's Co-ordinacy as plain as a Probleme and he might have told us too without turning pedant in his Latinisms of Vnites and Triads that one and two makes three which no body can deny as the burden of the Ballad has it and here upon the strength of his Performance he has found out this wonderful discovery I know not what kind of Figure he would make of the King here but I am sure such kind of Seditious Souls could with all their Hearts make him pass for a Cypher I could find in my Heart to cap the pretty simile with another as silly A three legg'd Stool take away one and all tumbles to the Ground they being all Equal and Co-ordinate powers for the supporting of this Supremacy in Cathedra which sounds as well as their Curia or Camera their old musty Metaphysicks that distinguisht once the King from his Crown And this obliging Metaphor will serve Mr. Hunt's turn much better For here every foot of this Magisterial Stool is commonly made of the same Matter and Mold joint Supporters of the tripple Dignity whereas his Unite even amongst Mathematicians is allowed somewhat of Precedency and to be the First the Foundation of all number But to be serious if possible in an Inference so silly must he not suppose in such a simile of two Figures which by the Accession of an Unite is made a Triad and the two concurring as much to the making that number as well as that one must he not suppose I say this to result from the equality of every single Unite so that one can not confer more to the Composition of this Triad than another If they be not equally concerned or impowered then one would concur more to the making up that number than the rest so that this Law Philosopher this Cook upon Hereboord will be reduced to this Dilemma either they do not equally go to the making up that number or they do If they do not he denies his own Supposition and gives himself the Lye if he grant they do then his simile is Nonsense in the Application and a very begging of the Question For we say that our Monarch who if he please shall be the Vnite for once is more than either of the other Two and if the peevish Malecontent won't be angry I 'll tell him more than Both his Assent is such an One as is attended with a power to deny and neither of them will pretend to the Negative and that is the true Reason we find all our Republicans so furiously contending for the taking away the Kings It was for this * Pryn's power of Parliam Pryn Printed and Pestered the Press For this he
trump'd up his Treatise That his Majesty 's had not an absolute Negative Voice to deny Bills of Common Right For this ‖ Plato Red. Plato tells us That His Majesty having it evacuated the very ends of Government For this Hunt Harangues and says He is so bold to say That never any Bill in Parliament Hunt p. 50. wanted the Royal Assent that was presented by the Desires of the People And I think 't is bold enough said with a Witness For is not this King left at last by the Laws of all the Land Sole Soveraign Judge what is really fit for his Peoples good to be past whereas he presumes that their bare presenting signifies the Desires of the People and that must absolutely determine the Jurisdiction of the Prince * pag. 47. He tells us when a matter is moved in Parliament by the King the Commons consent last and are therefore the Commons Co-ordinate with their King Or does that only signifie the Candid Custom of the Proceedings in Parliament The King is presumed upon his own Proposal of any matter the Party and they being consulted is only for their ‖ Consilium impensuri the Words of the Barons Writ 4. Inst p. 4. Advice as the very Words of the Writ expresly have it by which they are called and the very Etymology of their very Name the great Council expresses Controversies in such Cases will be Eternal until the Disputants agree in the same Notion of the Thing they so much dispute For otherways it is but making of Words instead of Arguments if they mean by the Legislative of the two Houses a power of Concurrence with their King in the making Laws and that their Consent is to be required they labor to prove just nothing or what they may have without so much pains and to so little purpose If they will insist upon the Natural Etymology of the very Word they will find the Derivative Legislative to be deduced as above from the Latinism Legem ferre and then in God's Name let the two Houses enjoy even of that an Arbitrary power and bring in what Bills they please so long as they will not again force upon us an Ordinance or Vote for Law and the Statute of the Land but if their Sense of this Legislative power must signifie That their Commons have as much of it as their King and That 't is that which makes their King Co-ordinate with his Commons as is sufficiently clear from their Writings that it is then I affirm 't is against Law against Reason and a Lye For the King by the very Law it self hath power to dispence with Statutes his Proclamation is a Law and an Edict and as much as any of the Decrees of the Roman Emperor's with the Advice of his Judges he will dispence with the rigor of the Laws if too severe and resolve their meaning if Ambiguous Have their two Houses whom they would have these mighty Law makers the power of repealing or so much as altering those very Laws they make without their Kings consent And tho this Laborious Lawyer observes That neither their King can pass any thing he proposes without theirs yet this his power and that when they have not so much as a Being Evinces the Prince at least supream in the Legislative The Learned in other Laws besides our own tell us a Legislative power may partly be delegated to other Persons tho Subjects and yet remain in the Prince even entirely notwithstanding such a Communication I confess the Opinion of Canonists and Civilians may not be so Authentick with some that abhor their very Names yet Grotius himself is of that Opinion and he a Person that our ‖ Plato Redivivus Republicans can cite even on their own Side but our own * Vid. Brit. Fol. 1. 4. Inst 70. Laws allow it or else I think our Judges too might make themselves Co-ordinate because their King's Commission communicates to them all the power of destributive Justice that is in the King We are told the King has committed all his power Judicial some in one Court some in another and therefore the Judgements run Consideratum est per Curiam c. and ‖ 8. H. 4. 19. 'T is resolved That if one should render himself to the King 's own Judgement it would be of none effect yet for all this it would be false to affirm That he does not do justice because he has delegated it to others to be done The King does not put in Members of Parliament as he does Judges yet Peers he makes and calls them to Sit and Commons cannot come without his Writs for Election but certain it is that our Kings once had a more absolute Legislative for they all know their Lower House commenced but so late and heretofore their Nobles and Bishops but such as the King should be pleased to call And I cannot imagine that when our Princes admitted the Commonalty to be concerned in the making Laws they then designed he should lay aside his own Legislative or put it in Common as they do their Land in Coparcenary or in their great * Coke 1st Inst Corp. Coke's the learned Lawyers Language make an Hotchpotch a Pudding of his Prerogative If every Politick Body that has but a share in this Legislative must also be presum'd to participate as much of it as the King I can prove to them every petty Corporation Co-ordinate with their great Convention of States and even a poor Parish as great Legislators as an House of Parliament for by the Laws of the Land even those can make their By-Laws without Custom or Prescription if they be but for the good of the * Pour Reparation del ' Eglise d'an haut voy c. 44. Edw. 3. 19. Publick and if they can but prescribe to it may pass any private Acts for their own The Civilians make their Law to be the Will and pleasure of their Prince But tho our ‖ Bracton l. 1. c. 9. Antient Lawyers would not expound that absolutely for our †Fleta l. 1 c. 17. own yet they seem to make it but little less only say it must not be meant with us of his unadvised Will but such an one as is determined upon the Deliberation and Advice of His Council Pryn that preposterous Assertor of this their Legislative has furnished them sufficiently with as contradictory Arguments as absurd as irrational Inferrences for its defence He tells us in his Treatise * Pryn's Treatise for the Peoples Legislative that Kingdoms were before Kings and then the People must needs make Laws that I confess setting aside the very Contradiction that there is in Terms For certainly the Word Kingdom was never heard of till there were Kings to Govern He might as well have told us of a Derivative that was a long time before the Primitive but bating this Solecism in Sense and Speech well meaning Will designed it perhaps for
against some Persons of that Perswasion that he acted as if he would have executed their very Religion * Vid. Burnet's Abr. hanging up some Carthusians even in their Habits and immured nine Monks in their own Monastery where they dyed This was it that so settled what they call Superstitious Worship that it survived the short liv'd Reign of the pious Edward and in Spight of all his providential care for it's exterpation run only like the Guaronne that Miracle of a River in one of their Climates of Popery if their Histories of their Country be not Legends too only through a little Province in silent darkness underground but rose again and that with greater rage in the next Region This good Kings Laws about Religion would never have been so soon repealed the Commons House never have been so forward as the * Barnet's Abridgm Cl 3. 229. Divine Doctor whom themselves have thankt for it does make them for the sending up a Bill for the punishing all such as would not return to the Sacraments after the old Service Had the Six Articles been but past by instead of being past into an Act they would have had no such Service to return to they would have been Strangers to Rome and it's Religion and tho they were repealed in Edward the Sixth's time his Fathers ratifying them made them take such root that his short Reign could never Eradicate that left so many Catholicks in the Kingdom that Commendone the Popes Legate might well come over to reconcile her Highness's Crown to his Holyness's See And here had not the Queen if such a thing could have been expected from a Sister of that Church so Zealous done much better had she refused the Bills of both Houses brought her for introducing the Pope's power and Supremacy your selves Seditious Souls reproach this Royal Assent with Reflections so scurrilous upon her Memory that the worst of Monarchs could never Merit and then only give but Loyal Ones leave to think that your Excluding Bill tho never so much the General Desires might have been as much cursed by posterity when it had entailed upon it Misery and Blood the common Consequences of a debar'd Right To come now after this Ecclesiastical point of the Church to that Civil one of the State that other thing this Lawyer Labors for the Descent of the Crown Shall the Peoples general Desires in this too terminate the Will of the Prince why then that Monster of Mankind as well as Monarchs did mighty well too to pass that Murdering * 1 Rich. 3. Bill presented by both Houses of Parliament to make good his own Title to the Crown by the Butchering of those Babes in the Tower for no less could be expected when it was once taken up by the Tyrant than their Destruction for the Maintaining it so that this Peoples Desires dispatch'd them in the Senate before ever they were strangled by Tyrril in the Tower Had it not been a much greater Honor to the Prince to have refused such a Barbarous Bill than turned Usurper and a Butcher for it's acceptance Had it not left a less Blot in our English Chronicle as well as upon the Nation less Blood ‖ 28. H. c. 7. Rast 4. Did not both Houses exhibite a Bill even for the making Elizabeth the best of their Queens a Bastard And does Mr. Hunt say this desire of the People too did mighty well to prevail as it always ought upon the King Did not that Royal Assent so blacken his Person and brought the Nations repute so low that the very Protestant Princes left him out of their League whom they had designed for its Head and look'd upon our England as a lump of Inconsistancy whom such Vnanimous Leaguers could not Trust And was it not in his Reign That a Zealous * This was the Opinion of Sir Thomas Moor too and the Brief History might have cited this too as he does another Opinion of this prevaricating Papist for his purpose Papist said It was the Parliaments Power to make a King or deprive him a fortiori then a Popish Principle to destroy or exclude his Successor But as bold as this Gentleman thinks himself when he dares to say Never any †Vid. Brief History p. 18. Burnets Abrig p. 313. King denyed to pass those Bills which the People pitcht upon to present 'T is none of his own Politick asseveration tho it be but a piece of Sedition It is no more than what a Seditious Senate ‖ Page 50. Vid. Declaration of Lords and Commons about the Kings Coronation Oath Parl. 41. told their King long agon A Senate that sate brooding on the pure Elements of Treason and of which Pryn himself was a principal Member A Senate that sowed so much Sedition in one age that all the Succeeding will hardly eradicate A Senate that sate drawing out the Scheams and Platforms of a Common-wealth A Senate that assumed to themselves indeed the Legislative the Nomothetical Disposition of the Law but they proved such a Confounded sort of Architects in the State that they drew a perfect plan a confus'd Ichonography for Rebels to build upon their Babel Those told us in plain Terms what * Hunt and Pryn. these more cautious Coxcombs insinuate with a silly Circumlocution That the King is bound by His Coronation Oath to grant them all those Bills their Parliament shall prefer And that they gather from their contradictory conclusion that bandy'd Banter they have Box'd about in both Reigns for almost these two Ages the ‖ Concedas justas legis esse tenendas c. Quas Vulgus elegerit Rot. Parl. H. 4. VVLGVS ELEGERIT I am sorry to find these Seditious Souls not only to want Sense but Grammar Lilly would have told them more of the Law and his Constrctuion and Concord made a better Resolution than their Coke upon the Case But as the People when they have got the Power will soon decide on their side the Supremacy so these Times did here assoon turn the Tenses and transfer the past Laws into the Future and 't is no wonder that those that did the Statutes of their Prince could dare to break the Head of a Priscian Is not the perfect Tense much more agreeable to Sense and Reason here than the Future The question is Whether it shall be meant of those Laws the People shall Chuse or have Chosen I won't object here Our Kings being absolute and compleat Monarchs without so much as taking such an Oath without so much as being * Coke 7. 106. 11. Calvin 's Case Watson Clarks 1. Jac. Coâ—e 7. fol. 30. Crowned which is the Time it is to be taken tho of that the Law has in several Cases satisfied the most Seditious and so resolved their silly Suggestion The resolution I shall give is the Strength of Reason and that must at least be as Strong as the Law Let it be but once allow'd That their
but of our own Soveraign's Father and that only because he could not Dissolve them but had in effect signed his Destiny with their Bill of Sitting during the Pleasure of the two Houses Base Hypocrites 't is not a Parliaments Sitting you contend for but the Sitting of such a Parliament that good honest Parliament the late long and healing one which their virulent Villains Libelled for Popish Pensionary perhaps because it would not take the Peoples pay long enough might that have been discontinued or Prorogued wen ever heard then of the Statutes of Edwards and the Triennial Acts but their Pens were employed then to prove even that Dissolution that discontents them now so much 'T is not above Eight years since their * Vide Considerations upon the Question London 1677. The dissolver The Letter of my Lord Shaftsbury Pamphlets would demonstrate a Parliament dissolved for being but for Fiveteen Months Prorogued and were we but assured of having such another the Press had never been pestered for the calling one with their impertinnent prints nor any Petitions prefer'd for their Frequency Would you perswade the World your purses are so full so free too that you long for a Subsidy to fill up the Kings Dissembling Souls the Parliament they clamour for can proceed from nothing else but a presumption of one to be their Patrons to patronize all their Irregularities and Refractoryness to the State to countenance all those gross abuses they put upon the Government they told us this to our faces and Menaced men to make them fear them Is this the way to have them Convened to make them formidable For Gods sake can you credit that honorable Assembly with making them the pretended Abettors of all your Scandalous Actions The only felicity we have in such a Senate 's sitting is That the King must summon them to sit they are Rebels by a ‖ 35. Ed. 3. Law if they convene without they must meet and Associate and the Kings happiness consists in his being able to Dissolve and Discontinue And this furious and indefatigable Scribler might have omitted the mentioning of those †4. Ed. 3. c. 14. Statutes they have beaten so bare been baffled in so much and may now blush to bring upon the Stage but he shall have his answer here to this too That nothing of Mr. Hunt's like his managed Mungrel * Vid. Courantier 4. Volum Numb 30. Julian may be call'd Vnanswerable For the First it is the 4th of this ‖ 4. Ed. 3. c. 3. 14. Edward And I confess in as few words That a Parliament be holden once every year and more often if NEED BE. It is all the Letter of the Law and every Line of it But they might as well tell us too that before the Conquest and for some time after Parliaments were held three times in one year They had then their Easter Parliaments their Whit-sunday Parliaments their Christmas Parliaments but they know then that they were but so many Conventions of that Nobility and Clergy their King should please to call And which they did Arbitrary at their Will more frequently or less as they thought convenient and the †Mirror C. 1. Lib. 3. Books tell us they many times were held but twice a year now if these Gentlemen will tell us so much of old Statute Laws why should not Custom which is Resolved by the very Books to be the * Le common Ley est common Usage Plowdens Com. 195. Common decide the case too for the King as well as the other which is their own must for the People and then we find Our Kings had the sole power of Convening Parliaments by a long prescription of whom where and as often as they pleased Are not all our Judicial Records Acts of Parliament Resolved to be but so many Declarations of the Common Law and that by all our Lawyers even concerning the Royal Government which they make the very Fundamental Law of the Land and tell us ‖ Dr. and Stud. 2. c. 2. lib. That by Common Law is understood such things as were Law before any Statute by general and particular Customs and Maxims of the Realm Now if Statute must be but Declaratory of these Customs of the Kingdom how can it be concluded but that such Acts as directly contradict any of them must be absolutely void for by the same Reason that they can with a Be it enacted void any part of it they may the whole With the same Reason that they can invade any part of the Prerogative of their Prince which the * 2d part Inst 496. tells us so in terminis By the Common Law it is the Kings Prerogative quod nullum Tempus occurret L. Coke Lit. p. 344. Book tells us is the principal part of the Common Law they may abolish the whole make Killing no Murder and except Persons from the Punishment of Treason Does not this Common Law it self void any Statutes that are made against the Prerogative of their King Was it not in this very ‖ Stanfor l. 2. 101. Edward the 3ds time that it was so Resolved even to the nulling three several Acts that put Pardons out of the Princes power The boldest of these Anti-monarchical Zealots cannot deny but that by the Common Customs of the Realm it always was Our Kings undoubted Prerogative to call and dissolve their Parliament when they pleased Chronicle confirms it * Speed 645. Inst 27. 2. Law Resolves it may practice for ever maintain it Now I cannot see why these Statutes that contradict the Customs of the Realm in determining their King to call Parliaments which the Common Law hath left at his Liberty should not be as much void as †2. Ed. 3. c. 2. of King's not pardoning Felons so Also 4. Ed. 3. c. 13. The Conffrmation of that other others that upon the like Reasons have been Resolved so And if the Common Law can avoid any particular Act of Parliament against the Prerogative of the Prince as we see it did more than one If Stanfords Authoty be Law then the Conclusion is unavoidable That for the same Reason it can any or all And in my poor apprehension that Act it self of the late Kings which reasonably repeals that of his * 16. Cap. 2. c. 1. that repeals 16. Car. 1. c. 1. Martyred Fathers that Act with which these reproachful fellows upbraided in their prints their deceased King is so far from countenanceing their clamorous Cause that it corroborates and confirms our own Case for it tells us the very Reason of repealing those Statutes To prevent intermission of Parliaments And what is that but what we say the Common Law would of it self void ‖ Vid. Preamble to 16. Car. 2. c. 1. an Act as they say in derogation of his Majestys just Rights and Prerogative inherent in the Imperial Crown of this Realm for the Calling and Assembling of Parliaments Nay they tell us
besides of Mischiefs and Inconveniences the two main matters the Law labours to avoid might be the Result of such an Act and endanger the safety even of King and Subject And what pray now was this Statute of Charles the First but what some even of these ‖ Vid. Seasonable Question and an useful Answer Printed about 77. by a Bencher of the Temple Factious Fellows themselves confess only a Reinforcement of the two Edwards If it were no more by the same Reason they are gone too as being against the King's Prerogative and in Derogation of his Right But Factious Fools that baffle themselves before they can be confuted by others the Statute they repealed did reinforce indeed those of Edward but it was with a Witness even as they * 16. Car. 2. resolved it with an invading the Rights of the King and endangering the Ruin of the People but still 't is true in that latter clause of their repealing Act they prevail upon their King to grant them a Triennial one how far obliging I leave their Oracles of the Law to Judge For if our Kings have had it by their prerogative indefinitely to call Parliaments by Custom or Common Law 't is as much against both for him to be obliged to convene them in three year as two one or without Intermission And I cannot see how the last enacting Clause is consonant to the Repealing Preamble which is so mighty for the Preservation of the Prerogative and we well know under what Circumstances of State Affairs then stood the People could not have more than so good so gracious a King was even in Policy ready to grant it was within a year or two of his being placed upon the Throne of his Father And a Turbulent Faction as furious again to pull him out A Seditious * Venner and his Fifth Monarchy Men. Sect had but just then alarm'd him that were setting up their Christ's Kingdom before his own was hardly settled Sots that thought their Saviour the great pattern of a Passive Obedience could be pleased with the Sacrifice of Fools and Rebels and an active Resistance unto Blood that has commanded us even to suffer unto it and even in the same Season and Session as damnable a * Vid. Brief Narrative of the Tryal of Tongue Stubs c. Lon. 1661. Conspiracy detected as this Hellish one so lately discovered Arms seiz'd the Tower to be taken and an Insurrection contrived the parting at such a juncture with his Prerogative might be the product of his desire to please the People 't is too much to take the forfeiture in his own wrong when in this very particular the same Law provides so much for the Prince's Right But they 'll tell us the King by his passing such a Bill has parted with his Power and Prerogative But then do not the Laws tell us it cannot be past away Was it not resolved by all the Judges but * 1. Jacob. Term. Hill Coke l. 7. in his Grandfathers time That himself could not grant away the Power of Dispensing with the Forfeitures upon Penal Statutes and why because annext to his Royal Person and the Right of his Soveraignty And shall it not be so much our Soveraign's Right which common Custom the Fundamental Law of all the Land has invested him with the convening of Parliaments at his pleasure But for my part for my Life I cannot apprehend did there lie such a great Obligation upon * 16. Car. 2. his Majesty from this his own very voidable if not void Act how 't is possible to bring him at the same time within the Letter of the Laws of Edward and by them lay a necessity upon him to make all their latter Act an entire Impertinence For if by those Laws â—e be obliged to Call a Parliament at least every Year What signifies the latter that allows him three Years for their Calling And if he has three years for their Calling where can lye the necessity for his Calling them in one for a * Cook himself says it is a Maxim in the Law of Parliament that later Laws Abrogate the former that are contrary to them 4. Inst C. 1. pag. 43. Subsequent Stat. that gives such a larger extent of Time tho it do not actually repeal those Preceding that allow less yet it must at least render them Illusory and Vain And to tell us that the latter is but declaratory of the former Act when it contradicts the very Letter of that Law is as absurd as maintaining an Affirmative may be confirmed with an absolute Negative By all the Rules of Reason I have met with yet and Logick is allowed sure to hold good even in Law unless the Legislators set up for Brutes and Irrationals A Proposition of a larger extent must include that of a less which if it does is in this Case Exclusive For should this Authority suppose to bring the Argument home to their Doors and then they can't say it is far fetcht of the House of Commons command me to dance Attendance at their Bar de Die in Diem for abhorring or so and then with a subsequent Order only demand it every third For my part I cannot apprehend the Obligation there lyes upon me for the performing both but that the former stands still a Cypher in their Journal and by the latter is suspended I could assoon resolve in the Crazyness of the Natural Body when 't is batter'd with an Ague that a Quotidian and a Tertian can at the same time assault it together But Mr. Hunt's Illustrations lying in another Science Number and the Mathematicks he may demonstrate this too * Hunt postscript pag. 46. 48 49. with his Vnite and Triad and tell us One and Two make Three But to be serious and that in a matter that so much concerns the Soveraign tho there be no better way of baffling Buffoons and Arguments of Fools must be answered but with Folly tho some may think there may be somewhat of sound Reason in such pleasant Similes for Sense and Nonsense are become Terms now but merely Relative and every Author an Ass or an Animal of Reason as his Reader stands affected we being become parties in that too as well as in Principles if we would truly know the Sense of a Law it must be collected from an Historical Account of that time wherein it was enacted and I think my Lord Cook ‖ Cardinal of Winchesters Case who came from Flanders to purge himself before Parliament of Treason as only the Roll of Henry the Sixth says but Consult the History it appears he had some of the King 's Jewe's gaged to him which the King stopt from going after him c. 4. Inst 7. p. 42. tell 's us as much too And then turn but to the story of the Times and see there the Reasons of such Provisions and when those fail then must sure the force of such Proviso's too for certainly
the fourth of this Edward was made more for this King's Satisfaction than the desires of the People and that from the sequel you 'll see they were not then clamoring for frequency of Parliaments when they were to pay for it too and have their Treasure exhausted with their Blood in frequent Wars He had drawn the Scots upon his back who in the War like their Old Parents the Picts were always ready to invade us at home when ever we attempted any thing abroad He had before him France in the Front to whom he was ready to give Battle And he perhaps presuming his Subjects might be loth to be convened for subsidies so often as such Exigencies must require might prudently get them to oblige him for such an Annual Convention which they must the better bear with when the result of their own Act and none of the stretch of his Prerogative 'T is true the 36. of his Reign is more expressive of the Reasons for which they should be called i. e. for the redressing of Mischiefs and Grievances but 't is evident that piece of popularity was more for the tickling their Hearts and then they might be soon brought to turn out their Purses and those he wanted then too tho in peace having begun to beautifie and enlarge his Castle of Windsor his best Delight as well as the place of his Birth And his soothed Subjects seconded it with such singular kindness that about that time such a three years subsidy was granted as they resolved should be no president for the * 36. Ed. 3. cap. 11. time to come and these Suggestions I submit to the light of any others Reason for the Politicks of that Old State can't be expected to be clear in History since even in Matters of Fact in many things 't is dark And such sort of Suggestions seem to sound and salve the Case much better than that forced Solution upon the very Letter of the Law their if need be or if there be Occasion For I am satisfied the Design of those Statutes was to determine their King tho' I doubt of their Force and that those Conditional Expressions must be Relative to their Antecedent Words more or oftner and so must be meant only of their being called inclusively more frequently within the Term. To leave now this learned Lunatick this distemper'd Body of Law and consider him under another Denomination that of a Divine and zealously discussing with a Rage unbecoming the calmness he professes as well as the Character of such a Profession the Damnable Doctrine as he would plainly prove it of the King 's Divine Right for he makes it the most * page 60 69 70 86 87 88 89. Mischievous Opinion the most Schismatical the Destroyer of every Man 's Right the Betrayer of the Government Monstrous Extravagant Papal Opinion Treacherous Impious Sacrilegious Destructive of Peace Pregnant with Wars produced our own Civil one and what is worse Plague and Famine and a Crucifying of Christ afresh A Black charge indeed for a poor Criminal that at first sight seems so White and Innocent He should have made it a Trojan Horse too for once for he has made the Belly of it big enough to hold an Army of Men or a Legion of Devils If this be the Judges manner of Trying his King 's Right he would have made a worse Chief Justice for deciding the Subjects I have heard of some Sycophants that have prov'd Wolves in Sheeps cloathing but here the Cautionary Text is turned inside out too and somewhat of the Lamb drest all in the grisly Garment of the Wolf And 't is like they had their Dogs ready to worry it too before they would discover the cheat I am sure if they won't allow this Doctrine to be Religious 't is so far from being Romish that it is utterly inconsistent with their Religion for the Doctrine of their Church attributes all the Divinity that it can to the Pope that presides in it makes him not only Infallible but supream over Kings and Princes and sure they may allow that those Romanists are as much concerned for the Popes Supremacy as Mr. Hunt for the Peoples for His Holiness has the help of Saint Peter to prove his Divine Right from his Succession to his Person and See tho he can't from His * His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pet. 2. 13. Text. When whatever they would gather from that Apostle the Lawyers Popelings have nothing left to shew for theirs unless the very Charter and Grant of their King yet tho this Doctrine be as far from Rome as they think the Romanist from Heaven tho their Writers with Hunts own Brutish Rage have run it down tho it be so directly destructive of the Papal power still has this preposterous piece of paradox made it Popish and treated it almost in the same Language the †Fox Vol. 3. p. 515. zealous Prelate did their Romish Church and ‖ Vid. Dissenters sayings all the dangerous Dissenters do our own Wolves Thieves Enemies of Christ Brood of Antichrist Babylonish Beast Devilish Drab sink of Sodom Seat of Satan It is a pretty way of Confutation indeed in the very beginning of an Argument to beg the Question He takes it for granted from the Text of Saint Peter that Kings are but an Ordinance of man and then stoutly concludes that it is impossible that any that is of Man's appointment can ever be of God's Ordination to be presumptively baffled recommend me to such a Disputant And with that supposititious Triumph does as some think a Jesuit's Book de Jure Magistratuum enter the List full of Victory even before the Battle and this perverted Text in one of his Editions is turned into the Laurel and Lemma to Crown the forehead of that Impudent piece This is made the Goliah of those Philistins who not with their bulk alone but with the very Letter of the Bible and the Book of Life can defie the Living God for such a Construction upon Saint Peter by common sense can never be put for place this power of Ordaining Kings once in the Power of SVBJECTS and all the World can never hinder THEM from being too the SVPREAM POWER Was not this very Text actually turn'd up for the Supream Authority of the Parliament of England and was that too meant by St. Peter when in the very next Line he calls the King Supream Seditious Dolts do not make the Bible contradict it self tho your Books do does not this very Text take almost an expressive care to prevent even with providence such a silly construction and give a signal Signification where this Supremacy resides viz. in the King But to give these well read Rebels rope enough and let them stretch their Treasonable Positions as they ought their Necks I 'll plead for them and in that which can be their only Reply viz. That this Supremacy must be understood only to be in these Kings after they are
so chosen by the People But no their own Text won't allow that neither for in the very next Verse it tells us also of such persons as are Commission'd sent under him as ours has it Governors and some other Versions Captains Judges and sure had theirs been the Apostles sense too He would have more expresly let us known That Kings were first Commissionated and sent by the People before that they could send out the Peoples Governors and if we can Credit some of these Gentlemens own Writings Their KINGS and this Apostles are not all of a piece and so their Principles and the Text wont hang well together for their Kings which they 'll have to be of Man's Ordination cannot send Governors under Pryn's Parliament Right to elect Officers Plato p. 239. them but as * Pryn positively tells us that People that Elect their King must chuse also the Judges and Officers if the Kings have had such a choice 't is but by the Peoples permission that such Officers are the Peoples And that his Brother Bodin you must know a great politician says That the sending them is not the Right of the Sovereign but in the Subject So that those Kings whose Divine Right they deny must needs be of another kind than those mentioned in Saint Peter for he makes his Kings so Supream that they send Governors themselves and that for the punishment of such Evil doers But to come homer to Mr. Hunt that I know values himself upon his much Law and his mighty Learning his Remarks upon his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will tell us he understood as much Greek as that came to when he was at School Yet betrays his little understanding of the Greek Fathers his very Schrevelius would have shown that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might be taken for Creature as well as Creation but his Scapula that more especially it is to be taken so in the * Galat. 6. vers 15. Epistles And this has been the Resolution of one of the first Reformers of our Religion And I hope sure they 'll favour him That the general signification of this word in Scriptural Expression is taken for all Pro humano genere Beza upon that very place Mankind and I have another the principal Reformer by me the Bible in Columns with one Greek two Latin Versions and one Dutch which I take to be the Labours of the Learned Luther where one of the Latin Translations of this very Text of Peter is expresly Omni Creaturae And that other Humanae Ordinationi is mark't with a reference to the Marginal Annotation which is Omnibus filiis Hominis And yet all this while we shan't make Nonsense of the Text as well as they put upon it contradiction and the greater absurdity for such Scriptural Figuratives are frequent where Vniversal expressions are only applicable to some particular things they would express so that when he tells us Be Subject to all mankind or to all the Sons of Men is easily understood all those of them to whom we owe Subjection and as if the good Apostle whom theâ—e miscreants would so much abuse did design to prevent such an imputation and even dissipate the Difficulty and doubt together even he explicates that General Expression of that one Text by telling us particularly to whom our Submission is to be paid both in that and the * Verse 14. other viz. Kings as Supream and their Governors as sent And Lastly can any Soul that has but Common Sense fancy from the complicated consideration of that part of the Apostle's that thus pressingly inculcates Obedience to Governors that it did design the least room for such a Latitude that not only would leave them Indifferent to obey but such an one as they have made of it since even an encouragement to Rebel sure that submissive Preacher of the Cross so much his Saviours Disciple that he suffer'd on one too and that without resistance to a persecuting power that great Assertor of his Soveraign's Supremacy that in the very next Lines next to fearing his God commands Honoring his King as if he would express V. 17. somewhat of that Divinity they deny with the closeness of the Connexion sure that most Primitive Pattern of Obedience did not pen his Epistles to teach a Julian the Doctrine of Resistance or an Hunt his Associate to debase the Divine Right the Throne of his King to the very dung-hill of the People And were this Doctrine not to be countenanced by the Word of GOD we have only Mr. Hunt's Word for it that it is so dangerous the only danger such Seditious Souls can see in it is That it would oblige them to be truly Loyal and dread Rebellion like the Sin of Witchcraft And is it dangerous now to be kept from being damn'd or running to the Devil Where is this mighty * Posts p. 60. Mischief that will ensue upon this Opinion But a Veneration for our Governors next to God by whom they Rule will not his having his Right from above the sooner preserve him from sustaining any wrong below are things the sooner to be violated only because they are the more sacred and will the Light of this illuminated Lawyer resolve us Sacrilege to be a lesser Sin than single Felony Had those Sects of Seditious Rebels that ruined the best of Kings and that only by debasing this his Right and setting up their own for Divine Had they or could they have been so sacrilegiously wicked under a Presumption That his Person was sacred or even a belief of their Bibles that their Lord 's Anointed was not to be Touch'd yes they could and if we believe this Impudent * Hunt p. 85. Imposture it was that only which made them so And if such Opinions had never been broacht the War had never ensued Mighty Madman whom discontent distracts I can Fathom his Foolish Innuendo's to be as false Divines did and as I think was then their Duty preach up this Doctrine but did not the two Houses threaten Destruction long before a Manwaring or a Sibthorp was so much as censured Had not Leighton Libell'd both King and Bishops long before And did the telling the People they were Jure Divino exasperate them the more against the Prelates and the pious Prince that governed whom these Devils must needs deal withal the worse only from their being told their Governors were sent them from their God Mr. Hunt certainly himself can't imagine it he has too great a Veneration for the Religious Dust the pious Memory of those Rebels and Regicid's to think they were arrived to that Acme of Transcendent Atheism to * Actually done too in Westminster-Hall by the instigation of Hugh Peters Vid. Dugdales view p. 370. spit in the very Face of the Almighty's Image only because it represented a thing so Sacred No it was of that they could never be satisfied they were Religiously taught the Jus Divinum of the
People that is to Rebel most Religiously Tell me Mighty Murmerer why must this Bugbear of Arbitrary this Monster of Absoluteness and * Posts p. 88. Bloody War be the Consequences of this Doctrine of Peace Is your King bound to turn Cruel only because he Rules by a Right from the very God of Mercy and a King too de facto not long since almost merciful to a Crime If you talk only in Theory of what another may be then perhaps your Fears are as Panick as the Objection is nothing to the purpose For Usurpers commonly of the People's Choice as appears even in our ‖ H. 4. R. 3. own History have always been the greatest Tyrants too who were so far from having the Jus Divinum that they had no Right at all And tho * Vid. Paper at his Execution Sidney suggests this Doctrine would attribute to any sort of Usurper the same Right I shall consider him in his proper place and this may suffice for Mr. Hunt whose larger Comment upon this Text I shall enlarge upon too when I come to that Gentleman's Papers with whom they so much agree and 't is pity but his Fate should do so too It may suffice I have here attempted his Bulwark and upon which they would build their Babel tho in the Burlesque of the best of Books as if neither the Bible had its Jus Divinum and will close with him since he is so pleased with St. Peter with a * Verse 15. Neighbouring Text not so much turned and misapplyed Mr. Hunt has done his worst and I hope we with well doing may put to silence the Ignorance of such Foolish Men. The third Doctrinal Case of this Divine Lawyer or what is drawn from the other two is the Parliament's Power upon the Succession and that he has proved he presumes beyond Answer and Reply when the two Preliminary points The Parliaments Legislative and The Peoples Divinity by his mighty Performances are made unquestionable But when he has begged the other two he may expect to have this third for asking and the first Presumption that must so proposterously warrant even that most Vnwarrantable Proceedings is the Gorgon of the Party that for this forty year has frightned the Nation The fear of Popery And like that Monstrous Head of Medusa been represented gastly full of Venom and Viper only not to charm us into Stones and Stupidity but the setting all in Combustion and a Flame Therefore he tells us if this can be but kept out which the Lord knows has been I don't know how long coming in We ought Page 50. to admit of any Law for the purpose And have we not Laws sufficient in force and that for the keeping out all the powers of the Pope tho His Pilgrims landed here with a Legion Have we not Oaths Tests two several Acts of Parliaments against Priest proselytes and Recusants Have we not the best Bulwark the Bishops and the greatest assurance the word of a King But in short the danger was then a Successor and nothing could serve less than a new Law And what was that why for Excluding an Heir to a Crown for Fifteen Hundred years Hereditary That Parliaments have presumed to alter the discent of the Crown is as true as that the same Convention of States have Rebel'd against the Crown it self And scarce one Instant of the Presidents he has giv'n us but serve to prove my purpose as well as his own that they either actually Rebel'd when they medled with the Succession or else that it was for settling it on the Right Heirs after such a Rebellion It was * Postscript p. 52. all the following Casesmost absurdly apply'd and all make against his own Cause Richard the Second 's that was a Parliament indeed that did more than meddle with the Succession when they actually deposed their Sovereign That of ‖ 7. H. 4. c. 2. Hen. 4th entails declar'd void viz. upon the Claim of Richard Duke of York Henry the Fourth so far from a Parliament that they had no King And that was told them to their faces by the Loyal Prelate of †Vid. B. Carlisles Speech H. 4. in Baker and Trussel H. 4ths Deposers Traytors within 25 Coke Treason Carlisle Henry the Sixth the Successor of one that had no Right and to whose Heir then they could never do any wrong Edward the * Vid. 1. Ed. 4. Rot. par 9. 10 11 12. Fourth was for securing the Descent in the Right Line and declaring all that of the Lancasters Rebels and that in spight of all those Entails this Lawyer lies his mighty stress upon and which even in his Fathers claim tho he never lived to enjoy the benefit of his Right The ‖ Vid. Rot. par 39. H. 6. n. 11. Parliament of the Usurper himself did with blushes and shame acknowledge That his Title could not be defeated that those Entails were only made for want of a better Title and very fairly made their Vsurper a enant for Life and that to an Excluded Duke of York and further did they force their Loyalty when his Son their Lawful Soveraign came to the Crown they tell him in the first of his Reign as appears in the * 1. Ed. 4. Rot. ut supra Roll That this Henry the Fourth upon whom Mr. Hunt triumphs that an Entail was made was an Vsurper Traytor and Murderer of his Soveraign And for his next Instance of Richard Rich. the 3d and deposers of Ed. 5. Traitors by Law within Stat. 25. Ed 3d Inst c. 1. Treason the Third would any one besides a Butcher and as Barbarous a Beast as the Precedent he brings tell us of an Entail they made upon his Heirs which was only a Settlement of Blood so much and Treason upon them and their posterity Bless me that men of Sense should be so inconsiderately besotted so Foolishly wicked sure Mr. Hunt knows that that Bloody Senate could never have boggled to settle a Crown upon the posterity of a Tyrant that they themselves had advanced to the Throne in the Blood of his Nephews They might well settle the Crown on Henry the Seventh that came to it by three several pleas Blood Arms and the Law and is the Settling it upon a Lawful Soveraign a President for Excluding another against All Law and those Entailments were but so many Recognitions Officious affirmatory Kindnesses to the Crown whereas their Exclusion must have been an Invading it His Acts of Henry the Eighth were such as all the World blusht at and any English-man may be ashamed to own Inconsistent contradictory Fruitless and illusory that made Protestants desert us that designed us for their Leaders in a League the shame of Europe and the Opprobrium of our Nation Did not his 25th on default of Male Entail the Crown on the Lady Elizabeth and made Mary Spurious Did not his 28th make the same Lady the Protestant Princess Illegitimate
on whom it was Entailed before and with his 35th reinstated them both again and that both in Birth and Tail And lastly that of Queen Mary's Entail was by a biggoted House of Commons that brought in that very Popery they now so much and so vainly fear and were like to have Entailed their Religion and Laws to the Vassalage of Rome as well as the Crown to the Heirs of Spain And is this thy Loyalty Seditious Sycophant this thy Religion to bring us presidents for Rebellion from Acts of Parliament and the Statutes of Apostates for the Establishing Popery The ‖ 13. Eliz. 13. of Elizabeth is such an one too as none but a †Hunt's Postscript page 51. Defier of Sense could have design'd for Application It is apparent that it was a Design to Secure the Crown to Her the Right Heir and that tho by an Indirect means An Act which she doubted her self whether with all her Parliament she could pass but was assured all her Subjects would like it when it was done upon a double Design to Secure her Title against the Pope and the Pretensions of the Queen of Scots * Cambd. vit Eliz. Cambden the best Account of her Life makes it a Trick of Leicester's ‖ Besides had he Consulted other Books before he writ his own by what appears by Keeble Stat. that very Act is expir'd of no Force and so he has made himself a Knave in Fact as well as Fool in Application but let them Lye for it for once and raze the Sacred Truth of History and Record which the Law makes Felony even in their own sense it was enacted for securing a Lineal Descent to those that they thought the Right Heir But theirs would have been a Disinheriting of one they knew to be so It is Prodigiously strange to me that those that contend so much for this Parliamentary Power over the Succession of the Crown that this Judge Advocate for the Parliament * Postscript p. 71 72. Hunt himself that tells us plainly 't is not establisht by any Divine Right but is governed according to the presumed Will of the People that these Sycophants do not consider they do the greatest Disservice to that Honorable Assembly put the greatest abuse upon that Ancient and truly venerable Constitution they give the Lye to several Acts of Parliament made in the best of times and make those Legislators the worst of Villains or the greatest Fools or in his own phraseology Wicked Impious Sacrilegious for have not they in several Reigns by Special Act recognized even a Divine Right as well as an Hereditary In the first of ‖ 1. Ed. 4. Rot. p. n. 9 10 c. Edward did they not declare that their Soveraigns Title to the Crown was by Gods Law and the Law of Nature Did they not even to a Tyrant a Murderer one fit only to be the Peoples Creature whom no Nature or God did design for the Throne Did they not resolve his Right to be both by God and Nature ‖ Exact Abridg. fol. 713. Rot. R. 3. Tell me was it thought so Divine so natural so Sacred THEN even in the worst of Men and must it be impious Sacriligious in the best of Princes Did not their best of * 1. Elz. c. 3. Queens receive her Crown with a Recognition of it's Descent to be by the Laws of God And lastly look upon that of King †1. Jac. c. 1. James where with unspeakable Joy they acknowledge he Reign'd by the Laws of God And as * Posts p. 87. new as he calls the Doctrine for five hundred year agon both by Divines and Lawyers it was allowed of and maintained ‖ Gervasius Doroberbensis Coll. 133. 30. Gervase the Monk tells us it is manifest the Kings of England are obliged to none but GOD and †Bracton l. 4. c. 24. Sect. 5. Bracton that lived and wrote in the same Reign of Henry tells us their King was then only under God and will neither Law nor Gospel History Ancient and Modern Rolls Acts and Acknowledgements of Parliaments themselves satisfy them that they have nothing to do with the * Dr. Burnet tells us H. 8. declared upon a dispute about Ecclesiastical Immunity very warmly that by the Ordinance of God he was King Hist Reform l. 1. pt 1. fol. 17. Either the Dr. lyes or Harry the 8th or this Doctrine is not so new but 200. year old SUCCESSION Never could any Person that had not Proclaimed open War with Reason and broke all Truce with Sense suggest as he does that the difference between the Descent of the Crown and that of a Private Estate are Reasons for altering the Succession which is one of the best Arguments for it's being Vnalterable Does not the Law provide that but one Daughter shall succeed to the Crown and that for the Preservation of the Monarchy which must be but of one and no Co-partners of a Kingdom And so also the Son of a Second Venter to prevent the want of Succession shall be admitted to the Throne when he shall be Excluded an Estate His fancy of the Royal Families being Extinct and that then the Majesty of the People commences was long since the pretty conceit of Will. Pryn too In which they tell us as Pryn's Parl. right c. I 've told them before just as much as an old Aphorism When the Sky falls and spoil another good Proverb that No man dyes without an Heir But suppose what can be may be Would not all this mighty Constitution of Parliament be gone too when there was no Successor of a King to Summon it His * Postscr pag. 73. Majesty of the People might set up another Policy of Government they think if it pleased But would not their Majesty of the People find it more agreeable to Divine Institution to agree upon the same Government in another person in an Extremity for would it not be more agreable even to their own Interest to prefer that under which they had enjoyed so long such an Experienced Happiness since the Almighty does not Reveal himself as he did of old to Moses and the Prophets and bid them arise and Anoint him a King over his Israel But as Mr. Hunt's private Estates tho I know not with what equity a mere Fiction in Law robs a man of so much Realty are frequently recovered with fine at Common Law against the Right Heirs he won't pretend therefore sure a Parliament shall a Kingdom and a Crown against a Royal Successor His own Reason for it is the best Refutation for I say too the Crown is ‖ Postscr l. p. 72. Governed by other Rules than a private Estate and the Romans who were Governed by those Civil Sanctions that have since the whole World tho by those they had a Dominion over their Issues Heirs and Estates yet those will not grant even to Kings the power of Disenheriting their own
Successors Nay such Favorers were they then of the Right Heirs that they would not permit their Common Citizens to be disinherited at the Arbitrary Will of the Parent but obliged them to observe such certain express Rules in their Exhaeredation Cowel Instit l. 2. Tit. 3. De Exhaeredatione And heretofore some of the Writers of our own Law could affirm that the Inheritance that descended from their Ancestors was scarce ever suffer'd to be disposed by Will but to the next Heir for my part I look upon the word Heir not to have the same Relation in case of the Royal one that it has in that of a Subject who always claims his Estate from his Ancestor Common whereas the other Heir is call'd more properly the Kings SUCCESSOR but the Crown 's HEIR And it will be hard then to make him pass for the Parliaments I won't tell Mr. Hunt here of the Blood and Miseries the common Calamities the dismal Attendants of a Royal Heir being bar'd of his Right How many Millions of Lives how much Blood it has cost us already And if any thing of Omen would have frightned us for Excluding a Duke of York too but it seems Blood did not terrifie Mr. Hunts Members of Parliament to whom their * Coke 4. Inst p. 19. 3. Oracle gives all the properties of an Elephant and then they must be only provok'd at Red 't is the Justice of it and every Moral Action that must direct Communities as well as Common Persons and a Mighty Parliament as well as a single Peasant If Expediency shall come to warrant Injustice in Aggregate Bodies every Individual may as well commence Villain for Convenience ‖ Consult these Daemagogues Darling Coke himself on the Case 4. Inst c. 1. page 3. are his own words The more high and absolute the Jurisdiction of this Court is the more just and Honourable it ought to be in it's proceeding and give Example of Justice to the Inferior Court Away with that Paradox of Folly and Faction that a Parliament can do no wrong since we have seen such a numerous Senate transported like one Man with rage and Folly even to the Ruin of Three Kingdoms And with what Justice an Exclusion which wou'd here have been the greatest Punishment next to Capital that a Crowns Heir could suffer could well be past and that for punishing an Offence Antecedent to the Law I leave such Legislators to Judge It looks so much like their Bills of * Mortimers 2 Harry the 6. Cromwells 32. Hen. 8. Attainder that I am loth to tell them such an one even in this ‖ Strafford 5. Car. 1. reverst 14. Car. 2. c. 29. Kings time was reversed with Ignominy and Reproach and for a Repealing of the Infamy the very Records of it raz'd from the File and should the Crowns Heir too have suffer'd by a subsequent Law he cou'd never Transgress Would they have given their God the Lye and made Transgression where there was no Law Did the Seminary Priest suffer here for Officiating before that Statute was in being Should Kerby and Algore's Case was of this nature but very hard upon the 25. of Ed. in R. 2. time the Profession of the Catholick Faith and that but suppos'd have had the force of a Salique Law even against him that cannot well be said to sin against it Set the Mark upon the door where there is Death and the Plague and then let those that will enter dye CHAP. IV. Remarks upon Julian THat this Author was a better States-man than a Christian that he consulted more the Security of his Person than the Purity of his Religion that he had much rather burn his Bible that suffer but a * Vid. Foxe's Martyrology pag. 1534. Tomkin's Finger into the Flame are such undenyable Truths that you must suspend your own reason and give your own Writings the Lye but to suspect them but how far this Doctrine of self preservation is always consistent with the Gospel and whether a man may never deny himself to Confess his Christ requires I believe not an absolute determination of School Divines but may be Collected from the Practical Inferences that may be drawn from many a Text in the New Testament How far our Saviour 's Suffering on the Cross should influence those that profess themselves his Disciples to Suffer How much the precepts of their great Master was Imitated by those Christians that were truly Primitive is a Disquisition proper for a Divine And has been as industriously enquired unto by several hands engaged in that Holy Function the tide is turned at last with the Time and Jovian remains as Vnanswerable as his Julian was thought to be beyond Answer that Learned and Loyal Author has fixt the Pillars to the Controversie and if this adventurer with the Second part of his * An Esq in Divinity or the Divine Squire one Ramsey that writ himself so and B. D. beside I remember Printed the first a pretty piece of popular Nonsense Julians-ship will force beyond it he may discover to us a new faith a new Bible but can never confute him from either of the old most of my Remarks shall be upon his Political Observations for what he would Reform in the Doctrine of the Church is only as it relates to Matters and Affairs in the State The Loyal Addressers feel the first Effort of his fury and the Horns of Mahomet's Hobgoblins are placed even within their Brows for expressing he thinks their contradictory Protestations but such Bugbears will hardly frighten them from following the Precepts of their Saviour that still inculcate on sufferance and Subjection but only may deter such as prefer the Crescent of that Imposture to the Cross in Baptism that can baffie their Bibles where it restrains their Liberty or admit an Alcoran of the Turks to tolerate Licentiousness it might well be a Grievance to such disaffected Creatures to see the good Effects of his Majesty's Declaration and that all his good Subjects had gotten an opportunity of shewing that Affection and hearty Loyalty which was over-awed by the Tumultuousness of a Faction from discovering it self they knew their own Party's power had been prevalent a long time in putting up Petitions and in those Numbers augmented too with Artifice as well as Sedition had placed a Confidence which they saw failed them and themselves foiled with a Weapon not much unlike their own in its make tho the Mettal and Matter of another and better temper Here in truth lay the contrariety the Contradiction that confounded them more than in the Nature and tendency of such Addresses which if this prejudic'd Divine had examined he would have found no more Zeal in them than what was consistent with their Loyalty and Religion Their Allegiance which they had sworn and of which some of our Protestants make as little account as if a Jesuits Equivocation would absolve them from a positive Oath that obliged
made or not Queen Mary must have Succeeded by Proximity of Blood as next Heir after her Brother And 't was that inherent and unalterable Right that made the Nation the more Zealous in her Cause tho there were enough too as Warm for her Religion he very well knows how that Will was extorted from a weak and dying Prince by the Powerful Importunities of Northumberland for the sake of Jane the Eldest of the House of Suffolk whom one of his younger Sons had Marry'd he knows nothing but self Interest and Ambition promoted it he may Read that both the Learned in the * Sir James Hales Judge Court Com. Pleas Sir John Baker Chancel Excheq Vid. Baker pag. 311. Law and as emiment of the ‖ Goodwin in Vitâ Mariae Divines were against it Bishop Goodwin tells us of Cranmer himself present that he opposed it and that for the same Reasons all good Subjects do now because he thought no pretence of Religion could warrant an excluding the Right Heir This was the Sense of a Protestant so Zealous that he afterward suffer'd for it but the power of the great Northumberland prevailed with him at last for his Consent of which himself afterwards heartily repented to the Queen tells her he never liked it that nothing griev'd him more and that he wish't he could have hinder'd it And the ill success that Attempt had is alone sufficient one would think to discourage such another 'T is strange that the very thing that has once brought a Calamitons War upon the Kingdom that in this very Instance terminated in the Confusion of all the Attempters brought Northumberland to be Executed and to Penitence too for having offended and poor Lady Jane as her self said to suffer justly only for accepting of a Crown so unjustly offer'd 'T is Prodigious that such contradictory Mediums should be urged for countenanceing a thing to which they are so much repugnant Did not a Parliament here of Protestants declare for a Popish Successor and as Bishop Goodwin says the Suffolk men set her up tho they knew her a Papist Did not a Popish Parliament after her death declare for Queen Elizabeth tho they knew her a Protestant and were not in all these sudden Revolutions the Right Heirs still preferr'd notwithstanding their Religion was not the same that was profess'd how then can men that offer at such a piece of Injustice touch upon those times for the Justifying so much wrong where they see that under the same Circumstances they still asserted their Princes Right The next pretty Notion of this Ecclesiastical novice in the Law that we shall now pass our Notes upon is a quaint conceit relating to our Oath of Allegiance what it's form was of old and what he would have implyed in the word HEIR therein mentioned to whom we Julian p. 19 20. 11. swear and here at the same time that he would deliver the poor people as he pretends from the sad delusions of Error and Sophistry does he put upon them the greatest Falsehood and fallacy and the quaintest Sophism a Quirk in Law viz. That the King 's Heir in possibility cannot be meant in our Oath of Allegiance because 't is a Maxim forsooth in our Law * Non est Haeres Viventis that no Man can have an Heir while he is living And with this silly Solaecism a sort of Sense merely Sophisticated this Elaborate Gospeller in the Law lays himself out in the pains of two or three Pages to prove the prettiest Postulate which we would have granted but for an asking that in this our Oath we did not swear Actually Allegiance to the D. of Y. And truly I am much of his opinion too in that point and that he was not then our Soveraign tho he had a possibility to Succeed But can ever a more Senseless Inference be made by a pretender to Sense or a more Jesuitical Evasion by the most dexterous Manager of an Oath First I would ask him what he thinkâ— was the Design of its first Imposition what was the Reason of Inserting including the Kings Heirs and Successors it those Oaths of SVPREMACY and ALLEGIANCE Was it to perpetuate or acknowledge an Hereditary Succession or to warrant an Exclusion of the Right Heirs Did the Parliament design in the framing them the Lineal Discent of the Crown when they Swear to defend the Authority of the Kings Lawful Successor as well as his own or did they then reserve to themselves a power of declaring who should be his Successors by Law But if the Divine Gentleman would have reason'd pertinently and to the purpose tho it would have been but an absurd sort of Reasoning this he must have inferr'd that because we there swear only to be faithful to the Kings Heirs when they come to Succeed therefore this Oath non Obstante we are left at Liberty to prevent any Heir from his Succession and then I would have this Political Casuist tell me What would be the Difference between this Evasion and a direct Perjury for we swear to be faithful to the King's Heir that shall Succeed him and truly in the mean while we make them our own suffer only whom we please or â—ust none at all to Succeed for by the same Law Equity and Reason that we interrupt the Succession of one we may that of one thousand too and still be true to our Oath * And even that is allow'd by Hunt in his Postscript pag. 74. if we abolisht the whole Line of Succession for then those Juglers with a turn of hand and a Presto will tell us very readily why truly we swore to obey his Majesties Heirs and Successors but must needs be absolved now since there are none that do succeed And such were the Casuistical Expositions of some of our Late Divine Assemblies even in this very point when they had Murdered their Prince and denounced Death Vid. Vote of the house in the Journal 1648. to His Heirs and were urged with their Allegiance But is not this first Perjuring themselves to Commit a Crime and then justifieing its Commission by their being Perjur'd May we not as well Murder one that would be the Successor and then plead our Innocence we did not suffer him to Succeed or truly did they not design such an Impious and Execrable countenancing of the Villany when they Associated for his Destruction and swore to destroy him would not they then too have Absolved themselves thus in Johnson's Sense and the Jesuits from any obligation to this his Majesties Heir because the Law Maxim did not yet allow him to be so and they had helpt him now from being so for ever Will a Nice point of this his Law resolve does he think as tender a Case of Conscience This his Law makes it but Manslaughter where a person is kill'd without Malice Propense but will this be no shedding of Blood to be required at his hands by the Judge of
Heaven because he had his Clergy allowed here upon Earth can he Prescribe with the Laws of the Land to impunity from the Decalogue and tell the Almighty some Killing is mâ— Murder Here his God his Saviour is invoked in a Solemn and Sacred Oath upon the Gospel and one that should be a Divine Expositor of both consults upon it the Readings of Mr. Hunt and a Resolution of the Common Law here he Swears to the Vid. Form of Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy plain meaning of the Words without any Mental Reservation whatsoever and yet thâ—â— Mungrel in Divinity means now to taken in his mind according to a ereiv'd Maxim in the Law And this Libeller of the Primitive Christians looks like an Apostate that was as Primitive who kept pointing to the papers he put upon his Breast while he was Swearing to others that he held in his hand But yet I dare Appeal even to his own Breast who without doubt had often taken these Oaths being graduated in an University and Ordain'd a Divine tho unworthy of both whether the Words Heirs and Successors were not understood by himself of such as were to Succeed by an Hereditary Right by Birth and Blood to the Crown and whether that he did then Reserve to himself only such as did Actually succeed by Consent of Parliament and whether he did not think that by them he was not only obliged to obey those Heirs when they came to the Crown but also to do all that in him lay to promote in the due time their coming to wear it certainly to confine their Sense only to those that shall de facto succeed is but Swearing an Implyed Allegiance to any Rebel or Vsurper and the word Lawful that still accompanys Successors will not mend the Matter with such men for all is presently Legal and just with them that has but the shadow of a Parliamentary power for it's pretence And I am well assured That those that would have thought such an Exclusion just and equal with their King 's passing it would have thought it as Legal could they have sate till they had made it pass without The good old King at first disputed his Militia as hard with them and who could have believed any sort of men could have thought it the Parliament's without his Consent But assoon as the Rebel House had made their Ordinance for the Seizing it which of those Miscreants did not think it as much Law And the more than probable project at Oxford shrewdly Insinuates they would have warranted an EXCLVSION without their Kings leave Legal had they been allo'w but a further progress in their ‖ Vid. King's Speech to the Parliament there Vnwarrantable Proceedings But as much as Mr. Johnson Triumph 's with this his Maxim of the Law * Julian pag. 19 20. as if he were the first Divine that had discover'd this deceitful Evasion this Jesuitical interpretation of his Protestant Oath Tho he and his Hunt and all his Lawyers in the Hall should tell us Ten Thousand times of this Seditious sort of Construction this Senseless Sophistry upon the plain word Heir as well as he Page 19. says they do an Hundred still all their Noise and Nonsense about Presumptive Apparent Actual possible will be nothing more than what the late Rebels that had Actually Murder'd the best of Monarchs made their defence to Justifie Treason and Sacrilege it self so that all this Divine's Sophistry savours not only of Nonsense and Sedition but of an old odious rank Rebellion and for to satisfie him that the Suggestion is serious and founded upon Matter of Fact if he can find among all his Seditious Papers he has habituated himself to peruse and what if he pleases I can lond him for his perusal such an old obsolete piece as was publisht after they had Butcher'd the best of Kings * A Treatise perswading Obedience in Lawful things to Authority tho unlawful Printed London about 1649 Ibid. wherein they endeavour'd to persuade the people to be subject to their Tyrannous Usurpation there will he find the very two Pages that he spends to promote the Quaint Conceptions of his Noddle about nothing or what is worse Faction and Folly for tho he tells us these tales Fifteen Hundred times over they told us so much for Forty years agon and that to satisfie Tender and Malignant Consciences that there lay no Obligation from their Oath of Allegiance upon them to adhere to the right Heirs of Charles Stewart because that those Branches Page 10. of the Oath which the Providence of Ibid. God had made Impossible to be observed must be lay'd aside and then they go on to shew that Heirs and Successors must Page 12. be taken Copulatively and so the word Heirs must be meant only of those that do Actually succeed But the Providence of God * Vid. Also a Religious Demurrer about submission to the present Power Printed London 1649. as they call'd it having kept the Heir of Charles Stewart from succeeding his Father had made say they that part of the Oath Impossible to be Observ'd and so the power must now be Obey'd Actively in what hands soever it be Seditious Soul 'T is too much to be Senseless too Consider but upon this Occasion a Case your self have * Julian pag. 12. Cited 't is that of the Lady Jane Did not the Laws adjudge it Treason in that poor imposed Princess for endeavouring to hinder the True Heir from being the Actual Successor and to say Queen Anno Mariae 1. Mary was then already Succeeded will not salve the Matter for it was resolv'd Treason too in her Father Northumberland his Contrivance of the Will for the Queens Exclusion which confirm'd as it was by the Privy-Council was as much an Act of State as the Bill by which our present Heir was to be Excluded and then what they did was but in pursuance of that Will after Edward's Death and as the Duke told Arundel that Arrested him that he had Acted only by the Council and Commission of King Edward Yet all was adjudg'd a defence Insufficient and I cannot see why the same Law would not have made those Traytors had the Bill past that rebell'd upon pretence of such an Act of Parliament as well as it did others that resisted upon the pretext of a Will Confirm'd in Council and which * themselves would Julian p. 12. have a sort of Exclusion and is almost as much an Act of state 'T is strange that men that would be thought so mighty Rational should not only argue against the known Rules in all Logick but against the very Inferences of Common Reason a man of Ordinary Sense without the help of his Hereboord will allow that any Vniversal and General Assertion in includes all Particulars And shall vve vvhen vve svvear Faith and Obedience to the Kings Heirs and Successors Generally Reserve an Exception of such whom the
Parliament shall Exclude It would prove but a senseless Solaecism in Common Speech and must sure be of more dangerous consequence in a Sacred Oath But I remember these same sort of Disputants in another * Vid. Association Case managed the Reverse of the Rule after the same manner They tell us Popery cannot be kept out under a Successor Popish because not long since Queen Mary prov'd it so Their first Irrational Argumentation from a proposition and that even in a Solemn Vow clearly Vniversal would except our Obligation to some Particulars and the latter absur'd Inference from a Particular Instance draws a conclusion Vniversal sure men of unprejudiced Reason would not infer against all the Rules of it it must be nothing but Passion and prejudice that can prevail upon their Sense and Soul when they dispute against the very dictates of both And as Irrational are his Inferences upon our Old Oath of Allegiance when by the Statute we have had since establisht a new he cites us for a refutation of Passive Obedience but a part of the poor ‖ Julian p. 11. younglings Oath to be taken in a Court Leet and because 't is there said by the Minor and Sworn only I 'll be Obedient to the King's Laws Precepts and proceedings from the same And what then Therefore that Doctrine alters our faith of Allegiance and gives it new Measures of Obedience So that the Consequence must be this That if we do but perform that Obedience to the Kings precepts and to processes out of a Court Leet we are all very good Subjects and that 's sufficient and truly a Little of Loyalty and less Sense with such Gentlemen may suffice for certainly for any Consequence that can be drawn from this clause of the Minors Oath against his Doctrine of the Bowstring and the Doctors Obedience he might as well have told us too that the * Wilkinson of Court Leâ—t 4th Ediâ— p. 298. Tithing-man is there sworn to be Attendant on the Constable and the Ale-Taster make Oath He will sarve the King's Majesty and the Lord of the Leet in the Tasting of Good Ale and Beer But he might have been so fair here too as to have let us known what follows even in this Oath too of the Youngling and I Swear that I 'll be a true Liegeman and true Faith and Truth bear to Our Soveraign that now is and his Highness Heirs and Lawful Successors Kings or Queens of this Realm c. Assoon as any Treason shall come to my knowledge I shall make the same to be known to the King's Highness his Heirs and Successors And even the first part of this very Clause he is pleased at last to recite in another * Jul. p. 20 21. page where he thinks it makes for his Sophisticated Sense because as I suppose after the Word Successors follows Kings and Queens of this Realm But because God only knows as he says who shall come to be so is it therefore no breach of our Oath to his Majesties Heirs to barr any one for ever from being King God knows too who will live to Succeed him and may we therefore without Perjury Associate to secure his Destruction Swear to expel and destroy him because he is but a possible Successor All these things may be done and justified but so has too the Deepest Treason and a Damn'd Rebellion let but any Impartial Soul consider the Sense of that Supremacy that Allegiance he Swears to his present Soveraign and he 'll find all along he makes at the same time an Actual Promise an Imply'd Faith to those too that are Possible Heirs and even PROBABLE ones according to the Ordinary descent of the Crown by Birth and Blood without any of the least Relation or Reference to any Extraordinary Settlement of Parliament Interruption or Exclusion and tho in strict propriety of Speech a man cannot be said to be an Heir to him that is Living and in possession of that to which he is to be an Heir after his Death yet I humbly conceive a man may be an Actual Heir to a Right tho he be but a possible one to the Possession and 't is that unalterable Right to the Crown we Swear to defend Inherent in the Blood of those that as yet have but a Possibility to the wearing it The Common Recoveries now too Commonly suffer'd to be really just sure supposes some Actual Heir and one to have some Right tho he is living to whom he is to make himself so for if there be no such Heir then also this feigned Recovery must be just against no Body if they will allow such an Heir to be then there must be also of one that 's living And I look upon the Crowns Customary descent stronger than any Tail His case of Excise is just such another Jul. p. 20. Tale of a Tub and only tells us that tho 't is granted to the King and his Heirs the possible Successor can't put in at present for a Penny a pretty piece of Impertinence and well apply'd and were this all they would have Excluded his Highness from I believe they might have got his Vote to the Bill and so we say too that he could not have put in then for the Crown but if he would have consulted the Sense and meaning of those Legislators that past that very Act it would soon appear to him that what they designed for the Revenue of the Royal Heirs in General must as well be design'd for 's R. H. in Particular if ever he came to be an Actual Heir and so he might as well have told us that had his Parliament excluded the D. from being Heir to the Crown they had shut him out too from the Hopes of the Revenues that belong'd to it and in my Conscience those that had pay'd him off with such a Bill would never have pay'd him a Penny Excise The last Remark I shall make upon this their * Non est Haeres Viventis Maxim in the Law and this that our Florishing Divine celebrates so much for making those Heirs mentioned in our Oath to be meant only of such as Actually succeed at our Soveraigns death because they will have it according to their Exposition that he can have none while he Lives is only by way of Civil interrogatory what they think is meant by the word Heir in that * 25. Ed. 3. cap. 2. Act that Declares it High-Treason to compass the Death of the Kings Eldest Son and HEIR for if their formidable thundering Aphorism must be play'd so furiously upon us we 'l for once force their own Engine upon our Foes If the King has no Heir while he is Living why is it made here Treason to destroy him if Heir must be here meant of him only that will be so Hereafter then that whole word Heir is impertinent for it would be Treason without it for he would be then de Facto King if Heir
Actually done it were de Facto void besides if the Subject was freed in that Case it would be the result of the Soveraigns Act. they must suppose him at the same time as simple as themselves that suggest it and could they give us but a single Instance or force upon us any President all they would get by it is this That as their supposition was without sense so their Application would be nothing to the purpose for such a matter of Fact of their Kings would make him de Facto none at all I know they can tell us of one of our ‖ That alienation of King John was suppos'd to have been an Act of State and it has been adjudg'd particularly by particular Parliaments That even a Statute for that purpose made would be of no force It was resolv'd so â—n Scotland too own that lies under that Imputation of making over his to the Moor And of others that in the time of the Popes Supremacy resign'd themselves with submission to the Holy See for the first the most Authentick Historians not so much as mention it and were it truly matter of Fact that King had really no thing to resign for the Republicans of those times were the good Barons that Rebel'd and had seated themselves in a sort of Aristocracy before in short if it were solemnly done it would look like the Act of a Lunatick if not at all as is much more likely their Historians Labour in a lye and for the other we never had a Soveraign that Submitted the Power of his Temporal Government of the state to the Pope's See but only as it related to the Spiritual Administration of the Affairs of the Church and the Religion of the Times These sort of Suppositions have so much Nonsense in them especially when apply'd to Human Creatures and more then when to Monarchs that have commonly from Birth and Education more Sense than common Mortals that there is not so much as a Natural Brute but will use what he can manage as his own with all imaginable Care and Discretion How tender and fond are the most stupid Animals how do they most affectionately express that paternal Love for the Preservation of their little Young how abundantly do they Evidence that Natural * Posts C. p. 113. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with which Mr. Hunt gives us such a deal of impertinent disturbance and why cannot the King of a Country whom the Civil and Imperial Sanctions represent as the ‖ Princeps Pater patriae est D. 1. 4. 1. Atrocius est Patriae parentem quam suum occi dere Cicero in Philip 2d Father of it too be supposed to retain as much a paternal Care for its Conservation we do not find even in that their Free-State of Nature or that Common-wealth of Wars the Republick of unruly Beasts where there is the least Relation or resemblance tho perhaps they have power and opportunity that they delight to devour and destroy and much less do they covet the ruin of that from which they can reap somewhat of Advantage by its Preservation why then should we fancy Human beings and the best of Mankind Monarchs themselves whom th' Almighty has made * I 've said yee are Gods Psalms Gods too to be guilty of so much Madness and Inhumanity Where do we find the worst of Fools designedly to destroy their Patrimony though many times through Ignorance they may waste them and that tho there were no Laws to terrifie them from turning Bankrupts or punishing them for Beggers when they have embezell'd their Substance Away then Malicious Miscreants with such sordid Insinuation such silly Suggestions against your own Soveraigns which your selves no more believe them likely to be guilty of than that they would set Fiâ—e to all their Palaces and Sacrifice themselves and Successors in the Flames But to Return to our Argument they 'll tell us perhaps What signify the Sanctions of the Imperial Laws and the Constitutions of an Absolute Empire to a Common-wealth or a Council of three States that are Co-ordinate or at most but a Monarchy Limded and mixt and where whatever power the Supream Magistrate has must have been first Confer'd upon him by the People where the Parliaments have a great part of the Legislative and their Soveraign in some sense but a Precarious Prerogative what signifies the Authority of a Britton or a Bracton whose very works by this time are superannuated who wrote perhaps when we had no Parliaments at all at least ∥ none such as now * Hunt allows that himself posts p. 95. Constituted I won't insist upon in answer to all this to show the Excellency of the Civil Institutions that obtain o're all Nations that are but Civiliz'd I wont prove to them because already done That we don't Consist of three States Co-ordinate in the Legislative or that our Monarchy is Absolute and not mixt as I shortly may But yet I 'll observe to them here †Postquam populus Romanus Lege Regiâ in principem omne suum Imperium potestatem solum Contulit ex illâ non sub diti sed etiam Magistratus ipsi subâ—iciuntur Zouch Elem. p. 101. That the Romans themselves tho by what they call'd their Royal Law they look't upon the power of the Prince to be conferr'd upon them by the people yet after it was once so transferr'd they apprehended all their right of Judging and Punishing was past too And for their vilifying these Antient Authors and Sages of Law who did they Favour these Demagoges would be with them of great Authority and as mightyly searcht into and sifted Should I grant them they were utterly obsolete and fit only for Hat-cases and Close-stools that they both writ before the Commons came in play for their further satisfaction I 'll cite the same from latter Laws not two hundred years old and that our selves will say was since their Burgesses began And therefore to please if possible these Implacable Republicans I 'll demonstrate what I 've undertaken to defend from the several Modern Declarations of our Law For in * Edward the 3d. Edward the Third's it was resolv'd that the King could not be Judged And why because he has no Peer in his Land and 't is provided by the very first Sanctions of our Establisht Laws by the great ‖ Magn. Chart. cap. 29. No Freeman will we Imprison or Condemn but by Lawful Judgment of his Peers Per parium juorum Legale Judicium And my Lord Coke tells us they are to be understood of Peers of the Realm only when a Peer is to be try'd Comment upon the very words 2. Inst which he more fully explains in 's Comment on the 14. Chap. of Char. where he says pares is by his Peers or Equals for as the Nobles are understood by that word to be all equal so are all the Commons too ib. p. 29. Where note the form of this very Charter
runs all in the sole Wil of the King Charter it self their Act of Liberty they so much Labour in that not the meanest Subject can be Try'd or Judg'd unless it be by his Peers Equals much less so mighty a Monarch that has none and a Fortiori then with lesser Reason by those that are his own Subjects so far from being his Peers or Equals that they are together his Inferiors which has made me think many times these preposterous Asserters of so much Nonsense these Seditious Defenders of those Liberties they never understood did apprehend by the word Pares in the Law not the common Acceptation of it in the Latin but only the abused Application of it of our own English only to our House of Lords And conclude the King might be Judg'd by those we commonly call PEERS because they sit in that Honorable House and at the same to be Judg'd according to Magna Charta that all Judgements be per pares But does not each Dunce and every Dolt understand that the very Letter of the Law looks after this only that every Person be tryed at the least by those that are of his own Condition and that in the Legal Acceptation of the Word every Commoner of the Lower House nay every one of their Electors is as much a Peer as the greatest Person of the House of Lords In short they must put some such silly Seditious Exposition upon the plainest Letter when they pretend to Judge their King or else from the very Law of their own Liberty they labor in allow that their King has no Judges In that Act against Appeals that was enacted in the time of Henry the 8th 24. H. 8. c. 12. the very Parliament upon whom the People and even these Republicans so much depend tells us even in the very Letter of that Law That it is Manifest from Authentick History and Chronicle That the Realm of England is an Empire That its Crown is an Imperial one That therefore their King is furnish'd by the goodness of Almighty God with an intire Power and Prerogative to render and yield Justice to all manner of Folk in all Causes and Contentions This by solemn Act is declared of their King this Excludes the People from Judging of themselves much more their Soveraigns This the Resolution of a popular Parliament they would make even the Supream and this by them resolved even in Opposition to that Popery these Panick Fools so much and so vainly fear Do not the Books the best Declarations of the Law let us understand that which they against the Resolutions of all the Law it self would so foolishly maintain that it was resolved in Edward the 4th's time That the King cannot be said to do any wrong and then surely can't be Judg'd by his very People for doing it when impossible to be done and was not this the Sense of †Vid. 1. Ed. 5. fol. 2. all the Judges and Serjeants of the time to whose Opinion it was submitted was it not upon the same Reason a Resolution of Si Le Roy moy disseisit pur ceo que Le Roy en le ley ne poit moy disseisir il né serrá appell disseisor mes jeo sue mis a petition à Roy. 4. Ed. 4. 25. 13. the Law in Edward the 4th's time that because the Soveraign could not be said to injure any Subject therefore the Law never looks upon him as a disseisor a disposesser of any Man 's Right and all the remedy it will allow you is only Plaint and Petition Does not my Lord Coke himself that in several places is none of the greatest Assertor of the Right of the Soveraign fairly tell us * Coke Comon West 1. 2. Inst p. 158. least it should be vainly fear'd they should reflect upon the King 's own Misgovernment all the fault should rest upon the Officers and Ministers of his Justice Does it not appear from the ‖ Stat. to pursue suggestious 37. E. 3. c. 18. 38. Ed. 3. c. 9. Statutes of Edward the third that notwithstanding the strict Provision of the Charter for the Tryal by Peers that the King was still look'd upon as a Judge with his Council and Officers to receive Plaints and decide Suggestions and tho that and the subsequent of the next year provide against false ones yet it confirms still the power of the King to hear and determine them whether false or true Have they not heretofore answered touching Freehold even before their King and Council and a Parliament Parl. Glocester 2. Ric. 2. only Petition'd their Soveraign with all Submission that the Subject might not be summon'd for the future by a Chancery Writ or Privy Seal to such an Appearance but this they 'll say was the result of the Soveraigns Usurpations upon the Laws of the Land of a King Richard the 2d That did deserve to be deposed Brief History of Succession p. 7. as well as the Articles of his Depositions to be read †Plato Rediviv p. 116. 234. a King that forfeited the executive Power of his Militia for prefering worthless People and was himself of little worth or as the most Licentious and Lewdest Libel of a longer date has it †a King that found Fuel for his Lust in all Lewd and uncivil Courses Now tho March Needham Merc. Polit n. 65. Sept 4. 1651. we have the Authority of the best of our Historians for the good Qualities of this Excellent tho but an unhappy Prince and who could never have fell so unfortunately had his Subjects served him more faithfully tho Mr. Hollinshed Hollinshed 3d. Vol. Chron. F. 508. N. 50. tells us never any Prince was more unthankfully used never Commons in greater wealth never Nobles more cherish'd or the Church less wrong'd and as Mr. How has it in Beauty Bounty How 's Annals p. 277. and Liberality he surpassed all his Predecessors and Baker the best among our Moderns says there were aparent in him a great many good Inclinations that he was only abused in his Youth but if he had been Guilty afterward in his riper Age of some proceedings these Republicans had reason to reproach I am sure he was Innocent of those foolish Innuendo's those false and frivolous Accusations for which they rejected him viz. for unworthiness and insufficiency Vid. Trussel in vit R. 2. when he never appear'd in all his Reign more worthy of the Government than at the very time they deposed him for being unworthy to Govern But whatever were the vices of that Prince with which our virulent Antimonarchists would blast and blemish his Memory yet we see from the President that is cited the Sense of his Subjects Parl. Glocest did not then savor so much of Sedition as insolently to demand it for their Privilege and Birth-right which without doubt they might have pretended to call so as much as any of those the Commons have since several times so
clamored for with Tumult and Insurrection and was indeed more to be condemn'd than any of those Miscarriages the Seditious and Trayterous Assembly that deposed the same Prince did ever His deposers within the 25 of Ed. Coke Treason Object for if their Free-hold can't be call'd their Birth-Right then there 's hardly any thing of Right to which they can be born And yet we see that the King and his Council had heretofore Cognizance even of that as it appears from the Commons Petitioning him against it and his Answer which was That tho he would remand them to the Tryal of their Right by the Law and not require them there to answer peremptorily yet he did reserve the power at the suit of the Party to Judge it where by Reason of Maintenance or the like the Common Law could not have its Course then we may conclude that the judicial power was absolutely in the King and this was also at a time when this Richard the 2d was but a Minor no more than thirteen years old and so this his Answer without doubt by the Advice of the wisest of his Council and the most learned of the Land And for this reason notwithstanding it is provided by that Chapter of the Great * Mag. Chart. 9. H. 3. c. 29. Cap. 14. Charter none shall be Diseised of his Freehold but by Lawful Judgment of his Peers tho the Right was tryed before that sort of Statute by common Law as my Lord ‖ 2 Inst pag. 49. Coke observ's upon it by the verdict of 12 Peers or equal men yet still I look upon the King to remain sole Judge in every Case whether Civil or Criminal for these Peers are never allow'd to try any more than bare matter of Fact and the Soveraign always presides in his Justices to decide matter of Equity and Law And those †The writ of Conviction was the same with an Attaint and that was by Common Law too Coke 2. Inst p. 130. Vid. 3. Inst p. 222. 1. Inst pag. 294. 13. and tho this Judgment is given by no stat yet there are several Stat. that inflict penalty and that even in trespass where damages but 40. sh 5. E. 3. Chap. 7. Vid. also 28. E. 3. c. 8. 3 ◠E. 3. c. 4. 13. R. 2. and several other Stat. in H. 4 5 6 7 8th times about it very Laws to which he gives Life too and whose Ambiguities he resolves themselves also sufficiently terrifie the Jurors from pretending to give their own Resolutions by making them liable to the severe Judgment of an Attaint if their Verdict be found false i. e. to have their Goods Chattels Lands and Tenements forfeited their Wives and Children turn'd from their home and their Houses Levell'd and their Trees pluckt up by the Roots and their Pastures turn'd up with the Plough and their Bodies Imprison'd A sort of severity sufficient one would think to frighten the Subject from assuming to himself to decide the judicial part of the Laws and for this Reason in all dubious Cases for fear of their bringing in a verdict False they only find the Fact specially and leave the determination of it to the King in the Judges that represent him And as this was resolved for Legal even from the Common Usage and Custom of the Land confirm'd as you see by several Acts of Parliament so was it maintain'd also by those very Villains that had subverted the Government it self and violated all the Fundamental Laws of all the Land for when Lilburn a Levelling and discontented Officer a Lieutenant of Oliver's Army was put upon his * Vid. Lilburn's Tryal 24. Oct. 1649. Printed the 28. of November 1649. Page 3. Tryal for Treason only for Scribling against the Usurpation for which he had fought and as he boasted to the Bench to the very butt end of his Musket against his Majesty at the Battel of Brainford and the mutinous wretch only Troubled and Disgusted because he had not a greater share in that Usurp'd Power for which he had hazarded his Life and Fortune when he came to be pinch'd too with that Commission of High Court of Justice himself had help'd up for the Murdering of his Soveraign and his best of Subjects no Plea would serve him but this popular one which the Lieutenant laboured in most mightily that his Jury were by the Law the Judges of that Law as well as Fact and those that sate on the Bench only Pronouncers Ib. p. 121. of the Sentence and truly considering they were as much Traytors by Law as the Prisoner at the Bar he was so far in the Right that his Jury were as much Judges as those Commissioners that sate at the Bench yet even that Court only of Commission'd Traytors and Authoriz'd Rebels thought good to over-rule him in that point and Iermin one of the Justices just as Senseless in his Expression of it as Unjust and Seditious in the Usurpation of such a Seat in Judicature when no King to Commission him In an uncouth and clumsie Phrase calls his Opinion of the Juries being Judges of Law A Damnable Ibid. pag. 122 113. Blasphemous Heresie never heard in the Nation before and says 'T is enough to destroy all the Law of the Land and that the Judges have interpreted it ever since there was Laws in England and That contradicts directly out of their own Mouth the Doctrine of William Pryn of his Parliaments Right to it Keeble another of the Common-wealth-Commissioners told him 'T was as gross an error as possible any Man could be guilty off and so all the Judges even of a power absolutely Usurp'd and wherein they profest so much the Peoples Privilege over-rul'd the Prisoner in his popular Plea 'T is true Littleton as Lilburn observ'd to them in one of his Sections says Littleton Sect. 308. That an inquest as they may give their Verdict at large and special so if they 'll take upon them the knowledge of the Law they may also give it general But the Comment of Coke their own Oracle upon the place confirms the Suggestion I have made of Resolving it into the King's Judges For he says 't is dangerous to pretend to it because if they mistake it they run in danger of this Coke Com. ibid. Attaint and tho the fam'd Attorney General of those times with his little Law was so senseless as to allow it to Lilburn in the beginning of his Tryal tho at another at Reading in that time of Rebellion Prideaux Liburn's Tryal page 17. Ibid. page 123 they made the Jury to be covered in the Court upon that account yet you see those even then the Justices of the Land tho but mere Ministers of a most unjust Usurpation would not let it pass for Law And the Refutation of this false Position is so far pertinent to our present purpose as it relates to prove the Peoples being so far from being qualified to
prevent these very Rebels and Republicans in such Factious Inferences did they for two hundred years agon in the first of Richard the Third Resolve what was â—â—gnified by the three Estates of the Realm for say they That is to say the Lords Exact Abridgem Fol. 117. p. 1. H. 3. â—piritual Temporal and Commons and even long since that much more lately out in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth in that Act of Recognition of her Right where they endeavor to advance her Royalty as much as possible they can and â—â— make the Crown of this Realm as much Imperial there they tell her 'T is WEE your Majesties most faithful and Keeble Stat. 1. El. C. 3. and does not their own Oracle tell them so L. Coke 4 Inst C. 1. Parliam Obedient Subjects that represent the THREE ESTATES of your Realm of England and therefore in King James and Charles the First 's time â—hen the Commons began to be mutiâ—ous and encroach upon the Crown â—hen they having with the help of their â—â—merous Lawyers which were once by â—articular Act excluded the House and H. 6. if less had State in it perhaps it might have been once less Rebellious too those Gentlemen knowing too well the weight â—f Words and what Construction and Sense Sedition and Sophistry can deduct 4. Inst Stat. de Bigamis concordatum per Justiciarios 2. Inst ibid. Stat. West 2. 13. Ed. 1. Dominus Rex in Parlia mento suo Statuta edidit 2. Inst 331. Stat. Circumspectâ— agatis 13. Ed. 1. begius Rex talibus Judicibus Salutem and tho some would not have it an Act of Parliament my Lord Coke says 't is prov'd so by the Books and other Acts 2. Iust page 487. from a single Syllable I am confident it was they contriv'd the Matter and Method so as to foist in the Factious form of this Be it enacted by the King Lords and Commons for that is the General Stile of the Enactive part of most of the Statutes of those Times and this was most agreeable with their mighty Notion of his Majesties making but up one of the THREE that so they might the better conclude from the very Letter of their own Laws That the TWO States which the Law it self implyed now to be Co-ordinate must be mightier and have a Power over their King whom the same Laws confest to be but ONE and the Reason why the forms of their Bill and the draught of the Lawyers and the Lower-House might be past into Act without any Alteration or Amendments of this Clause was I believe from a want of Apprehension that there ever could be such designing Knaves as to put it in to that Intention or such Factious Fools as to have inferred from it the Commons Co-ordinacy For the Nobility and Loyal Gentry that have commonly the more Honesty for having the less Law cannot be presumed so soon to comprehend what Construction can be drawn from the Letter of it by the laborious cavil of a Litigious Lawyer or a cunning Knave and therefore we find that those Acts are the least controverted that have the fewest Words and that among all the multiplicity of Expressions that at present is provided by themselves that have commonly the drawing of our Statutes themselves also still discover as many Objections against it to furnish them with an Argument for the Merits of any Cause and the Defence of the Right of their Clyent at the same time they are satisfied he is in the wrong And for those Enacting forms of our Statutes whatsoever Sense some may think these Suggestions of mine may want That some Seditious Persons got most of them to run in so low so popular a Stile in the latter end of King James and Charles the first 's time such as Enacted only by the Authority of the Parliament 21. Jâ—â—â— by the Kings Majâ—sty Lords and 6. Car. p. 1. C. 1â— 12. Car. 2. C. â—5 Staâ— 2. 13. Car. 2d Commons yet upon the Restauration of Charles the Second the Words With the consent of the Lords and Commons were again reviv'd and afterward 13 14. Car. 2. C. 10. 19. Car. 2. 8. 25. Car. 2. C. 1. 25. Car. C. 9. they bring it into this old agen With the Advice and Assent of Lords Spiritual Temporal and Commons according to the form of Richard the 3d. and Queen Elizabeth that resolv'd them to be the THREE STATES and this runs on through all the Acts of his Reign and even in several of them the Commons humbly beseech the King that it may be so enacted I thought it necessary to bring home Buchanan and his Disciples in Scotland maintain'd the same Doctrine of the King 's Co-ordinacy and therefore their Acts in the Rebellion too ran in the Name of the three States But when the King was returned to his Crowu and they to their Obedience the old form was retrieved The King with advice and consent of to our present tho most profligate time as much Acknowledgement as possible I could of my Kings Prerogative from the Laws of our Land and the very Statutes themselves because that some great Advocates for the power of the People some times pretend to plead for them too from Acts of Parliaments tho I think in this last lewd and Libellous Contest against the Crown that lasted for about five year in that Lustrum of Treason there was but one that was so laboriously Seditious so eminently popular as to endeavour to prove the Peoples Supremacy from Rolls and Records and Acts of State and for that recommend me to the good Author of the Right of the Commons Asserted tho I should rather approve of such an undertaking when endeavored to be done from the tracing the dark and obscure tracts of Antiquity and the Authority of a Selden than the single Assertion of a Sidney and the mere Maxims of some Modern Democraticks that have no other Foundation for their Establishments than the new Notions of their Rebellious Authors and that ipse dixit of such Seditious Dogmatists But I am satisfied too that this Gentleman who has laboured so much in vindicating the Commons Antiquity and their constituting an essential part of our Saxon Parliaments did design in it much more an Opposition of our Antient Monarchy and the Prerogative of the Crown than a mere clearing the dark foot-steps of our Old Chronicle and a real defence of Matter of Fact and the Truth And this is too clearly to be prov'd from the pestilent Pen-man's P-tyts own Papers that were publish'd at such a time when there was no great need of such an Asserting the Commons Right when themselves were more likely to have Usurp'd upon the Crown and as Mr. Sidney and his Associates would have it made themselves and the People Judges of their own wrong For to see such a task undertaken at a time when we are since satisfied such dangerous designs were a-foot looks only like a particular
as repugnant to our Nature as that praeternatural Coition of Matter for have we not all the Laws of our Land on our side and that besides Sense and Reason to whose determin'd sanctions even those themselves must submit for I look upon our Argumentative reasoning in such matters to be somewhat like Belief which all our Learned in the Metaphysicks will allow to determine it self upon demonstration and Commences knowledg'd and a science and so must our Positions at last in the Politicks no longer pass for indifferent Notions or disputable Opinions when they come once to be ratified by some supream Establishment or unquestionable Authority for as the result of demonstration is some Theorem or Postulate that requires our assent so are the Sanctions of the Supream power some Statutes or Laws that Command our Obedience as the one is prov'd so the other Enacted and let any one Judge from the several we have cited or any single Act themselves can cite whether all and every one do not expressly assert or absolutely imply the Soveraign so far from being the Servant of the Subject or the Peoples Creature that they many times maintain him to be ‖ 16. R. 2. c. 5. under none but God and in all places acknowledge him above all the People and is not the absurdity on their side and a Contradiction even in Terms when they contend for the contrary And as that Author of the Right of the Magistrate and the like writings of the most Eminent Republicans led on and seduc'd Mr. S. in some Points so has also his predecessor or Co-eval for I think they liv'd in an Age W. Pryn imposed upon him in others and I am sorry to â—ee Mr. S. that valu'd himself upon his parts â—o rely upon that which that pest of the â—ress plac'd so much confidence in and that are the words of * Deum Legem Parliamentum Bracton where he says as Mr. S. would have it God the Law and the Parliament are the Kings three Superiors But even Pryn himself the perverter of all that was not for his purpose does not deal so disingeniously as this Gentleman in the Case for he recites it more Exactly as it is in Bracton which is the Kings Court instead of the Parliament which in the time that Antient Author writ very probably consisted only of his prelates and Lords so that if granted them Pryn's Commons and Mr. S. his People of England â—re not comprehended in the words of â—hat old writer and then besides it is the opinion of some that those words the Laws and the Kings Courts were not originally in the writings of that Loyal Lawyer who in several other places of his works carries up the Divine Right of his King and that absolute Power of his Prince as high as any of the most Modern whom ‖ Postscript Mr. Hunt has represented and libell'd as first introducers of this new Notion this dangerous and damnable Doctrine for that grave Judge for above 4 or 5 hundred years agon told us our †Hen. the 3d's time Bracton lib. 4. cap. 24. § 5. Rex sub nullo nisi tantum Deo and l. 5. tract 3. non habet superiorem nisi Deum satis habet ad paenam quod DeuÌ„ expectat ultorem King was under none but God that he had none above him but God and that he had God alone for his Avenger and it seems some what Improbable a person of his Loyalty and Judgment should not only detract from the Supremacy of his Soveraign which he seems so much to maintain but also in direct opposition to what himself had asserted and besides were they the sense as well as the words of that Author they are only true as I have before shown when they are taken collectively in a complicated Sentence and so seems a sort of Sophistry which the Logical heads call a fallacy in Composition But yet from that does Mr. S. conclude That the power is Originally in the People and so by Consequence in the Parliament only as they are their Representatives For my part I cannot Imagine thâ—â— Gentleman's large Treatise to be any thinâ— else but a Voluminous Collection of aâ—â— the Rebellious Arguments that were publisht in our late War for as in this little fiftieth part of it as he professes it to be Paper at his Execution there is not one new Notion but whâ—â— â—â— to a Syllable the same with the Papers â—â— Pryn and the Merc. Politicus out of â—e Author of the Treatise of Monarchy â—s he made a shift to borrow or else â— chance very harmoniously to agree â— the pernicious Position That our â—onarchy is not only Limited and Mixt for that wont content them alone but that this Limitation has oblig'd the Sovereign to be Subject to the Judgment and Determination of Parliament for says that more Antient Antimonarchist this Limitation Treatise of Monarchy p. 12. being from some body else and the â—ower confer'd by the publick Society in â—he Original Constitution of the Government and then he bethinks himself that Kings too may Limit themselves afterward by their own Grants and Concessions which he is pleased to call a Secondary â—â—iginal Constitution i. e. if my little â—â—nse will let me Comprehend the saying â— a Politician that has none at all someâ—hat like a Figure in Speech the Country-man calls his Bull us'd when the Speaker can't express himself Intelligibly A Secondary Original sounds not much unlike the Nonsense of an Original Coâ—y or a second first yet from this senseâ—â—ss Sophistry it must be concluded that â—e Soveraign being limited by this Original Constitution or as they call it Aâ—ter Condiscent and Secondary Origâ—nal what then therefore every Maâ— Conscience must acquit or Condemâ— p. 17 18. Imperium etsilatissime ex lege Regia propter August latum pateret certis tamen limitibus desinitum de jure magist p. 29. the Acts of his Governour and even man has a Power of Judging the Illegâ—â— deeds of his Monarch And so Mr. S. â—â— almost the same Language As a man hâ— is Subject to the People that made hiâ— a King That he receiv'd the Crown upon condition and That performance is â—â— be exacted and the Parliament Judgeâ— of the Particular Cases arising thereuâ—on I cannot but observe to this Geâ—tleman upon this who was always such â— great admirer of the ‖ So the Roman Senate when Augustus was not so much as present freed him from all obligations Romans Commoâ—-wealth what I hinted before was thâ— Sense of the very Romans when according to their own Notion of Original Monarchy the People of that Commoâ—-wealth first conferr'd their Power â—â— Government upon a single Soveraign why their very Laws tell us That noâ—withstanding those Contracts and Limitations of which there were very likeâ— some exprest even in that their very Câ—lebrated and Glorious * The Lex Regia princeps legibus solutus
est l. princ de legibus Law that fiâ—â— made that Government Imperial yâ—â— when once it was so Conferr'd by thâ— very Act all Magistracy i. e. all powâ—â— of Judging that the Subject had before was past over too And were our own â—onarch by the Compact and condiscent â—â— his first Ancestors such a precarious â—ince as they would make him have not â—ur own Statutes I have cited long since â—â—solv'd his Crown to be Independant and himself accountable to none but God And then abstracting from that Advantage we have of the Resolution of the Law Reason it self against which our Republicans rebell too that also will refute the absurdity of such a Position For first where for God's sake would they fix this their preposterous power of Judicial Process if in some single Persons then the Concession of their own renowned Aphorâ—sm will fly in their Face for that allows the Soveraign to be much superior to any Selected number of his Subjects and Major singulis Junius Brutus Vindic. de Jur. Mag. Will. Pryn Parliam Right Buchanan Sidney Tryal p. 23. â—hey won't be such Senseless Sots sure as to â—â—y That those whom themselves acâ—nowledge to be altogether inferior â—â—ould be invested with that Judicial Power which is the highest token and sign of Supremacy if they 'll place it as Mr. Sidney forsooth does in the Original power of the People delegated unto Parliament then should that be granted â—hem when ever this Parliament is dissolv'd if their King be never so great a Delinquent for I think they may assoon make their King so as they did foolishly those that followed him in the late Wars when the word implies a Deserting and the Law only calls them so that adhere to the King's Enemies then Coke Littleton 291. I say if their Soveraign be never so much a Criminal to the State upon such a Dissolution they devest themselves by their own Maxims of this power of Judicature and so put it in the power of the Monarch or the Prince at any time to blasâ— all his Judges in a moment and dissipate them all with the Breath of his Mouth and therefore Mr. Sidney was so wittilâ— Seditious as to foresee such a Consequence and for that Reason very resolutely does deny what some of our more moderate Republicans will allow That the King has a power of Assembling and Tryal page 26. Dissolving a Parliament But this piece of pernicious Paradox a Position so false that some of them themselves are asham'd to own has been already refuted and prov'd from the very Laws of the Land to be an absolute Lye but our Author having plac'd himself and his People above the Law tho it was his hard fate to fall under it and made the Subject Superior to those Sanctions to which themselves acknowledge none to be so but the Soveraign from whom they proceed all the Satisfaction such a Person can receive from the Statutes must be from something of Reason that is the result of them and 't is such an one as relates to their own Positions For they say therefore the Soveraign is obliged to submit to the Laws of the Land because he accepted the Crown upon such an Obligation and shall it not Seditious Souls be as good a Conclusion To say the People have passed away the power of Assembling themselves when they have passed their own Act for being by their King Assembled Then in the next place if this Original power of this People be delegated to this Parliament it would have been much to the purpose for some of them to have shown us from whence this People had this Original Power Certainly if any it must be deriv'd from God Nature or somewhat that 's Soveraign But for the Almighty In all the sacred Texts there 's not a syllable of such a Legacy left them but abundance of the bequest of it that is made to Kings For Nature there is nothing from it more evident than a whole series of Subordination and that to single Soveraignty setting aside even the paternal among Human Creatures almost to be made out among Insects and Animals Bees and Beasts And if some King indulged this their People to appropriate to themselves all the Supream Power which we never heard of any of ours that did or to participate part of their Prerogative which we know many Indulgent ones of ours to their Parliaments have done then still this their power can't be Original because 't is derivative and I dare swear no Prince ever granted them a power of being Superiors as they must be if they would Judge him or ever accepted a Crown upon that Condition supposing it were as they would have it conferr'd For the very Act of being such a Conditional King would absolutely make him none at all and therefore those whom the Lacedaemonians compounded withâ—â— to be regulated by their Ephori were in effect not so much as the Dictators of Rome and so not to be reckon'd to Reign as Crown'd Heads or mentioneâ— among those that we call our Monarchs In the third place if by this Original Tryal pag. 2â— power of the People delegated to the Parliament the two Houses are constituted the Judges of their King I cannot see how Mr. Sidney could avoid or any of his Associates can this Grand Absurdity and as great a Lye that the Parliament have a Natural Liberty not only to Judge but to lop off the Sacred Head of their Liege-Lord and Soveraign For 't is certain they can have no more Authority than the People they represent and 't is as certain they must have as much Now this Original Power must be a Natural one because not deriv'd from any grant and then this Parliament of theirs must have an Original Power by Nature tho it be but to commit the most unnatural Barbarities I confess we had such an one that upon the same Principles proceeded to the perpetrating that most Execrable Treason and the very Villany that any time may be the Consequence of such Positions A Parliament which this good Author presided in or very well understood the Scandal of our own Nation and the shame and reproach of our Neighbors now I say If this his Original power of the People be delegated to this Parliament as Mr. Sidney says it is then this Parliament hath a Natural and Original Power of being their King's Judges because their People has it whom they represent I confess this is a Bar beyond the Seditious Doctrine of their Author in his Right of Magistrates For he is mighty sollicitous least he should be misapprehended as if he design'd the common People should judge their Soveraign De jure Magistrat therefore tells us very carefully none but the subordinate Magistrates themselves can Judge the Supream and their Brutus that succeeded that Assertor of Rebellion says such only as the Spartan Ephori and the seventy of the Israelites Brutus the Centurions or Equestres
among the Romans and if the People had any Right to this Judicial power those Miscreants more modestly place it among the most eminent whereas our brisker Assertor of this Anarchy makes it out That therefore our more eminent Memberships have this Original Power only because Communicated them from the meanest People so that now we have a Parliament that has an Original Natural Liberty of the People tho their very Constitution it self commenc'd from the very Grant Grace and Favor of the King I could never meet with any Record yet that rehearsed these Privileges of Parliament But we have many extant and Presidents even of the House of Commons themselves that their Privileges and much of their Power proceeds from the Liberalities of their Prince more than this Natural Liberty of the People not to mention that their very being was first the result of such an Act of his Grace for from whom pray had they that freedom of Speech they upon every Session desire by their Speaker but from that King before whom they are to Speak who is it that fills their Chair those that present him or the King that accepts or disapproves whom they have presented who is it that gives them access to his Person the Commons that desire it or he from whom 't is desir'd 2. Lastly who impowers them to consent to a Bill those that supplicate his Majesty would be pleased to enact or his Majesty that says Be it enacted could this Natural Original power of the People be communicated to their Representatives the dispute about the Commons Right would be carried for ever on their side and we need not date their Original from Henry the Third or the Barons Wars or from the Saxon Heptarchy it self to be sure they then had their Representatives assoon as they had this Power and this Power it seems was assoon as they were a People And by this Original Power which they delegate for ought I see they may by the same rule as well retain it suffer no Representatives at all but assemble themselves and exercise the Soveraignty If the People delegate an Original power and a Natural Liberty to this Parliament it cannot certainly be comprehended how these Parliaments as now constituted could commence by the Grants and Concessions of the Prince and yet all will allow tho they disagree in the time that they did begin at first to be so Assembled by the Bounteous Permission of the King and that all the Privileges they claim were the result of an entire Favour of the Soveraign and not the Original freedom of the Subject if they 'll call that an Original Power to send Representatives it must be somewhat like that Author 's Secondary Original we so lately consider'd and that tho they prescribe to it for this seven hundred year as well as they cannot for above four or five 100 still it will recurr to this That this first power was the Grant of the Crown And these prescriptions as themselves allow being whenever they begun the result of the Soveraigns Bounteous Permission I cannot see why those Immunities may not be resign'd to the same Crown from which they were once receiv'd or those Franchises for prescription it self in this case is properly no more may not be Absolutely forfeited by those that at best can but be said to hold them on Condition I know the Common Law Favours a Prescription so far as in Inheritances to let it have the force of a Right when their cannot be made out any other Title but this I look upon to be of another Nature when the Original of what they prescribe too by their own Concessions was the Grant of their King and even this Common Law commonly in all its Customary Rules excepts the Prerogative of the King nay this very Prerogative of his by that very Law is allowed to be the Principal * Case of Usurpation Coke Litt. 344. B. The Prerogative of the King is given by the Common Law and is part of the Laws of the Realm 3. Instit p. 84. Stamf. pl. Cr. 62. a Prerog 5. part of it I urge this because it is both apposite here and a Case upon our late Elections much controverted and to say as some do That such a Prescription cannot be forfeited proceeds from a confounding of the word in this Case with that Prescription by which some of them have a Title to their Estate for their Common Objection about this their Elective power is That the King may as well deprive them of their Birth-right when this their Birth-right might commence by an Original Right but the Power of this Electing must Necessarily and Originally first come from the Crown But yet they know too that this their very Birth-right is in many Cases forfeitable by their own Act to the Crown and for their Burgage it self should we abstract Burgh an Antient Town holden of the King Coke Litt. 164. from that Elective power that attends it nothing else but an Antient tenure of their very King And if in the Saxons time as the popular advocates would persuade us the Commons were call'd to sit in Parliament 't is certain they could not come as Burgesses too for all that Borâ—oe in their Toungue signified if we can â—elieve my Lord ‖ Ibid. Our Neighbours Kingdom of Scotland had Parliaments not above 700. years agon and even their Republicans will allow they had Kings long before that call'd only the Preceres as a worthy Author of theirs observes Sir G. M. Jus. Reg. That their old Laws run just like ours here the Kings only Acts and that their Burgesses did not begin till about 300. year agon Which makes it more likely that our own was not summon'd much long before for tho they were different Kingdoms yet Neighbouring Nations and might nearly follow our Innovations vvhen in a thing that must be lik'd by all Subjects Coke and from which the word Burgh was since deriv'd its signification was only this Those ten Companies or Families that were one anothers pledge and so should they prove it to us as clear as the Sun as well as they have left it much in the dark still those their Commons could never be of those that had any Right to come but only such as the Grace of the King should call and even in Edward the first 's time those very Barons some say that were only most wise were summon'd by the King and their Sons if they were not thought so prudent as their Fathers were not call'd to Parliament after their Fathers death Therefore since Prescription since Parliament it self depended all heretofore upon the pleasure of the Prince I cannot see how the Subject shall ever be able to make it his Original Right and tho some are so bold as to say such a prescription cannot be forfeited or resign'd by the Subject resum'd or restor'd to the Crown for they must maintain those propositions or else they have no reason for their
Murmering since there has been none alter'd or destroy'd but what has been by Inquiry of the Kings Quo Warranto or their own Act of Resignation yet sure if the Common Law did not favour the King in this Case Common Equity would since those Priveleges were but the very Grant of his own Ancestors But if we must consider nothing but Mr. Sidney's Original Power and Right and all that lodg'd in his good People of England it may be their Birth-right too to Rebel they may and must Murder their Monarch and that by their own Maxims when they think him not fit to Govern or Live I have heard it often said that the Members in Parliament represent the people and for that Reason are call'd their Representatives but if this Original Power which is delegated to them upon such a Representation must Subject their Soveraign as Mr. S. will have it to â—hese his Judges of the particular Cases â—rising upon such a Subjection then â—hey must e'en represent their King too and every Session of Parliament that he Summons is but an unhappy Solemnity whom himself Assemblies for his own deposition if such positions should obtain 't is those that indeed would make the Monarch fearful of Parliaments and not those idle Suggestions of Mr. ‖ posts p. 92. Hunt that the Weekly Pamphlets were endeavouring to make him forego them and it was this very opinion that promoted the last War which he would not have so much as mention'd Lastly if this Original Power of the People be delegated to their Representatives this People that did so Communicate it can at their pleasure * Quia qui mandatam Jurisdictionem suscepit proprium nil habet sed ejus qui mandavit Jurisdictione utitur Zouch Elem. pars 5. § 4. recall it â—nd exercise it themselves for that is esâ—ential to the Nature of a Communicated Power for upon supposition of the peoples having such a Power it would be of the same Nature that their Kings is for Power of Supremacy wherever it be lodg'd is still the same and you see that the Power which the King has is often Commission'd to the Judges in his several Courts of Justice and yet I cannot see how his Majesty by Virtue of such a ‖ Quamvis more majorum Jurisdictio transfertur meruÌ„ Imperium quod Lege datur non transit D. 1. 21. 1. Commissionating of his Servants does Exclude himself from the Administration of those Laws that he has only allow'd others to Administer or from a recalling of that power to himself which he has only delegated to another for 't is a certain Maxim in reason that whatsoever Supream does empower others with his Authority does still retain more than he does impart tho I know 't is a Resolution in our * Coke 4. Inst c. 7. p. 71. Law Books that if any one would render himself to the Judgment of the King it would be of none effect because say they all his power Judicial is Committed to others and yet even they themselves will allow in many Cases their lies an Appeal to the King But what ever was the Sense of my Lord Coke in this point who has none of the fewest Faults and failings tho hiâ— Voluminous Tracts are the greatest easâ— and Ornament of the Law his resolution here is not so agreeable to Commoâ— Equity and Reason therefore I say it reason it must follow That Mr. Sid. people having but delegated their Power to the Parliament still retain a power of concurring with preventing or revoking of that power they have given but in charge to their Representatives and if so then they can call them to an Account for the ill exercise of that power they have intrusted them with set up some High Court of Justice again for upon this very principle the last was erected not only for the Tryal of their King but for hanging up every Representative that has abus'd them as they are always ready to think in the excercise of that Original power with which he was by his Electors intrusted these sad Consequences which necessarily flow from this lewd Maxim would make their house of Commons very thin and they would find but few Candidates so ready to spend their Fortunes in Boâ—ough Beer only for the Representing of â—hose that might hang them when they came home upon the least misrepresentation of their proceedings and these sad suggestions of the sorrowful Case of such precarious representatives are infallible Consequences from the very words of our Republican even in those very Arguments that he uses for the subjection Tryal p. 23. of his King for if his King as â— man must be Subject to the Judgment oâ— his People that make him a King sure he cannot be so Impudently Immodesâ— but he must allow his Members of Parliament that are much more made bâ— them by Continual Election and the very breath of their Mouth to be as mucâ— accountable to their Makers for if â—â— should recur in this Case as he has no other refuge to the Peoples having excluded themselves from this Originaâ— Power once in themselves by conferring it on their Representatives theâ— farewel to the very Foundation of thaâ— Babel they would Build and Establish then they fall even in the fate â—â— their aspiring Fore-fathers fall by the confusion of their own Tongues anâ— like the rearers of that proud Pile thaâ— would have reacht at Heaven and the Almighty as these at his Anointed anâ— the Crown For certainly by the same Reason that they cannot Judge and Punish thosâ— whom they have Commission'd to represent them because they have delegateâ— and transferr'd to them their Originâ—â— power by the same Argument and that a fortiori have they excluded â—hemselves from their natural Power of â—eing Judges of their King because they â—ave conferr'd upon him the SVPREAM Neither can they help themselves here with their Imaginary and imply'd Conditions upon which Mr. Sidney says our Soveraign must be supposed to have first accepted his Crown For there never was any Representatives yet elected but as many Conditions and Obligations â—re implyed and supposed and by the same Reason must be required and exacted such as the serving their Electors faithfully the representing of their just grievances the promoting the Interest and profit of the place they serve for and if Mr. Sidneys good People must be Judges of the Violation of any of these Trusts as they must by the Maxims of their own making then the Representatives and the poor Parliament fare as bad and fall in the common fate of their King into the fearful Sentence of Mr. Sidney's own Words That Performance will be exacted and revenge taken by those they have betrayed And for to show them that my Conclusions are grounded upon matter of Fact as well as Sense and Reason and not like their lewd Arguments upon nothing but some Factious Notions and Seditious Opinions I desire them to consider whether they
did not themselves find it so in several Instances In the year fourty seven Mr. Sidney's Original Power of the People in his own Sense It began Novem. 3d. 40. was in the Senate and Representatives of that which we since call the long Parliament but they having as Rebelliously as well as impudently put the Sword into the Peoples Hand that had put their Original Power into the Parliaments they found all that but a Complement they soon saw what an insignificant sort of Representers they had made of themselves and that their stout Electors for all their buying of their Burgesships with so much Beef and Beer would allow them to be no longer such than they relish'd their Proceedings For 21. June 1647. Perf. Diurn page 16. 12. to these their Representatives they send a more significant sort of a Representation that of an Army to tell them their good House must be purged of such Memberâ— as for Delinquency Corruption and abuse of the State ought not to sit in it and to let them see that for all Mr. Sidneys DELEGATED Power they retain'd anough not only to revoke their Commissionated Authority but to chastise those whom they had Authoriz'd They prefer an Impeachment of High-Treason against no less than eleven of their most eminent Legislators one of which for such is the remarkable Visitation of Providence upon the Heads of Traytors happen'd to be a Person whom their very King had impeach'd before and which nothing but their harder usage of their Hothams tho but the just Judgement Hothams Loves and Carys Case upon such Perjur'd Heads could so happily Parallel For these Villains when once dipt in a Treason against their King never left it seems till they committed another of as deep a dye against the People they thought perhaps the forswearing their Allegiance might be expiated with a breach of Covenant i. e. A single perfidiousness atton'd by being doubly Perjur'd as if the breach of two Negative Oaths like a brace of Negatives among the Latins had affirm'd their Fidelity But this which is so remarkable I could not but observe because it will attone for the Digression in shewing that the just God of Heaven as a more satisfactory Justice to their injur'd Sovereign and a severer Judgment on such Seditious Subjects had destin'd those Heads that were forfeited to their King to be sever'd from their Bodies by that People they had serv'd But to return to those Rebels that made such pretty returns upon one another they were not only satisfied with threatning their Representatives with a re-assuming their Original Power but they actually did it in * Vid. The Representâ—tion of the Army June 21. 1647. Vid. Remonstrance for delivery of the Militia of the City Hist Independ p. 39 40. Remonstance for the Armies advancing to London p. 44. Remonstrances of Rebellion against their Representers as well as not long before in others against their King For so closely did they pursue their Suffragans in the Senate not only upbraiding them with ordinary Misdemeanors but fairly laying to their charge ‖ Remonstrance against the Members Vid. Hist Indep page 49 50 53. Treason Treachery and breach of Trust neither would the bare charging them suffice but they set up a Committee for Examinations which sent fairly one of the †Sir John Maynard learn'd in our Law yet Living to the Tower whose Confinement was the less to be pitty'd since the result of his serving them so much and several other Lords upon the same Charge of High-Treason were committed to the Black-Rod who had they adhered more Loyally to their King perhaps had never labored under this Tyranny of their Fellow Subjects But Mr. Sidney's Original Power of the People carried them further yet They draw up an Agreement Agreem of the People as they call'd it of the People or rather an Union of Devils wherein it was resolved they being weary of such Representers That the Sitting Parliament should be Dissolv'd That there should be another manner of Distribution of Burrough 's Perf. Journal 1699. Dugdale 260. for better Elections and that the People from thenceforth were to be declared the Supream Power whereunto that and all the future Representatives should be subordinate and accountable And here I hope I have proved it home with a Witness from matter of Fact as well as the force of Reason that Mr. Sidney's placing his Original Power in the People made it impossible to be delegated to the Parliament any longer than just as the People pleas'd that this Position made every Member of it dayly run the danger of his Head and that upon his Foundation 't is impracticable for any State of Government to be establish'd for to be sure the People will seldom be any longer pleased with those Delegates themselves have empowred then while they want a Power to re-assume the same that they delegated it would puzzle almost Arithmetick and a good Accountant to tell us how many Revolutions of Government this confused Principle of perfect Anarchy confounded us withall This Original power was delegated as Mr. Sidney says to the Parliament and so it was indeed to the Long one in 49 But there you see they pull it out of their Hands and plac'd it in the Rump but that prov'd at last so unsavory they could relish it no longer and so the Original Power forsooth is resolv'd into a Council of State from that it runs into the confiding Men of Cromwells and Barebones Parliam then at last Centers in the Usurper himself so that in less than three quarters of a year this Original Power of the People was delegated to three several sort of Representatives I need not tell them how the People reassum'd it from his Son and left it just no where how the People retriev'd it again and lost it they could not tell how how they recovered it from the Committee to whom it was lost and then forc'd to leave it at last to him from whom 't was first taken their King But this I hope is sufficient to satisfie any Soul that this Supream Power when plac'd in the People will be always resolv'd into that part of it that has the Supream Strength That this Maxim of Republicans Rebels against the very Parliaments they so much admire That it always ruins the very Collective Body of People in which these Democraticks themselves would place it and resolves it self into some single Persons that by force or fraud can maintain it and this made Mr. Sidney tell us Tryal page 33. he call'd Oliver a Tyrant and acted against him too well might he look upon him as a Usurper that Usurpt upon their design'd Common-Wealth as well as the Crown I am much of his Mind but it was far from the result of any Kindness to his King He saw his Common-wealth could never be founded upon so false a bottom no not tho she had been his Darling and Dutch built
to seize the King at Halyrood-House but unsuccessful forc'd to fly and returning better assisted the second time effected what only he design'd at first But the King escaping to Sterling Bothwell is pronounced a Rebel by the States but yet is so well be friended by these Disturbers of all Kingly Government that they gave him the very Moneys they had collected for their beloved Brethren in the Republick of Geneva by which with other Assistances they enabled him to fight his King in the Field Then is that succeeded with a second of the Gowry's the Son of him that rebell'd before where they contriv'd to get the King to dine in their House at Perth seduc'd him up into some higher Chamber and there left him to the mercy of an Executioner from which his Cry and the timely Assistance of his Servants only rescued Him These were the Confusions Distractions and even Subversions of some States that were occasion'd by the restlesness of Implacable Republicans Emissaries of Geneva throughout France Flanders Scotland and Germany You shall see now in the next place what disturbances they have created us here in our own Isle what Plots and Conspiracies their Principles have promoted in England as if in that expostulatory †Que regio in terris c. Virg. Aeneid Verse of Virgil there was no Region upon Earth but what must be fill'd with their diffusive and elaborate Sedition Queen Elizabeth was no sooner setl'd in her Throne but they as seditiously endeavour'd to subvert it They libell'd her Person set their Zealots tumultuously to meet in the Night invading Churches defacing Monuments and so full at last of the Rebellious Insolencies of that Italian Republick to which they commonly repair'd to receive Instruction that her Majesty thought fit to hang up Hacket with a half dozen more of them as dangerous Subjects to her Sovereign Crown and Dignity †In a Speech to her Parliament dissolv'd An. 1585 and of her Reign 27 She declared them dangerous to Kingly Rule vid. Holingshed Stow. When King James who succeeded her came to our Crown did these Malecontents that had molested him so much in Scotland disturb his Government here too as much Melvil that Northern Incendiary was as busie with his Accomplices here too to set Fire to Church and State and for that purpose publish'd several Libels against both for which being then at London he was sent to the Tower And so far had those darling Daemagogues insinuated themselves that the Hydra of a Popular Faction began to shew its fearful Faces in the very first Parliament of his Reign though * 1 Jacob. 1. in that they had so fully formerly recogniz'd his Right For in some of those several Sessions of which that consisted one of the Seditious Senators had the Confidence to affirm in the open Assembly †Fowlis Hist pag. 65. That the giving the King Moneys might empower him to the cutting the Members Throats an Insolency that some of our Modern Mutineers upon the same Occasions have * Vid. Printed Votes H. Com. That the giving the King Money c. as seditiously express'd King James Dissolv'd that Parliament call'd another and that as Refractory as the former which instead of answering the Kings Request draw up their own in a Remonstrance †Vid. even Rushworth Coll. p. 40. c. 16. E. second it with a Protestation for Priviledges representation of Religion and Popery intermedling with his Match of Spain and several Affairs of State so that he was forc'd to dissolve that Politick Body too and soon after suffer'd a Dissolution of his own Natural one dying under the Infirmities of Old Age and leaving behind him an old Monarchy rather weakned with Innovations of Republicans with the worst of Legacies to his Son and Successor A discontented People an Empty Purse with a Costly War into which he was not so much engag'd as betray'd And now we are arriv'd to what all the Stirs and Tumults of our Seditious Souls our discontented Daemocraticks in the Reign of King James did aim at and design the Destruction of the Monarchy which they could not accomplish till this of King Charles in that they never left till they laid such a Plot that at last laid all the Land in Blood and made an whole Kingdom an Akeldama For that they first quarrell'd at the Formality of his Coronation because in the Sacred Part of it the Prayer for giving him Peter 's Key was first added This some silly Sots suggested to savour of Popery tho' it struck purposely at the very Popes Supremacy it self For that they begun to Tax their King for taking his Tonnage without an Act and yet refus'd to pass one that he might take it by Law unless he would accept of it in Derogation of his Royal Prerogative for Years or precariously during the Pleasure of the Two Houses when most of his Ancestors enjoy'd it for life Turner and Coke led up the dance to Sedition and reflect upon their King in their Speeches The Commons command his Secretary Office and Signet to be searcht and might as well have rifled his Cabinets too They clamour against his favouring of Seminary Priests tho' he had sent home the very Domesticks of the Queen and that even to a disgust to France and a rupture with that Crown They upbraid him for dissolving Parliaments tho' grown so insolent as to keep out the Black-Rod when he came to call them to be Dissolv'd tho' their King notwithstanding the provocations assembled another assoon and that tho' he had the fresh President of the then King of France That had laid aside his for a less presumption Thus they call'd all his Miseries and Misfortunes Misgovernments and Faults when themselves had made him both faulty and unfortunate They accuse him for favouring the Irish Rebellion tho' the first disorders in Dublin were by his diligence so vigorously supprest their Goods confiscated their Lands seiz'd their Persons imprisoned and such severities shew'd them by his Commissioners there that two Priests hang'd themselves to prevent what they call'd a Persecution The Scot Mutinies upon the King 's restoring the Lands to the Church of which but in the minority of his Father it had been robb'd assail the Ministers in the Church in the very administration of the Sacrament because according to the Service-Book Protest against their King's Proclamations set up their four Tables at Edenburgh that is their own Councils in opposition to their King 's Hamilton had promised them as Commissioner to convene an Assembly they come and call a Parliament by themselves which tho' dissolv'd they protest shall sit still then desperate in a Sedition break out into open War Invite Commanders from abroad seize Castles at home agree to Articles of Pacification and then break all with as much Perjury Lowden their Commissioner sent to propose Peace At the same time treats with the French Ambassadour for War bring their Army into
Northumberland and Durham and prey upon those Counties they had promised to protect while the Parliament at London will not give their King leave or the Citizens lend a penny for opposing those that came to pull him out of his Throne At the Treaty of Rippon they quarrel with their King for calling them Rebels that had invaded his Realm the Commissioners of the Scots conspire with the English who then fall upon Impeaching his Privy Counsellers and the unfortunate Strafford suffers first because so ready to Impeach some of them and they make that Treason in a Subject against the King which was heard known and commanded by the Soveraign Then follows Lawd a Loyal Learned Prelate and that only for defending his Church from Faction and Folly As they posted the Straffordians and repair'd in Tumults to their King for the Head of that Minister of State so Pennington with his pack of Aprentices petition'd against the Bishops and the Pillars of the Church Then Starchamber must down High Commission be abolisht Forest bounds limited yet all too little to please when the Irish Rebellion followed to which the Scots had led the Dance no Moneys to be levied in England for suppressing it till the King had disclaim'd his power of Pressing Soulders and so disarm'd himself that is he was not to fight for his defence till they had disabl'd him for Victory They quarrel with him because he would not divide among them the Lands of the Irish before they were quell'd and subdued at the same time they had quite incapacitated him to Conquer and Subdue them Then Acts must be past for Annual Triennial and at last perpetual Parliaments And whereas the Law says The King never Dies they made themselves all Dictators more Immortal They were summon'd in November and by the time that they had sate to May they had made of a Mighty Monarch a meer precarious Prince And in August following supposing he had sufficiently oblig'd the most Seditious Subjects which I think he might Imagine when he had made himself no King he sets out for Scotland to satisfie them as much there while the Senate of Sedition that he left to sit behind him resolv'd it self into a sort of Committee of Conspiracy and that of almost the whole House made a Cabal among themselves to to cast off the Monarchy which the Knaves foresaw could not be done but by the Sword and therefore cunningly agreed to second one another for the putting the Kingdom into a posture of Defence against those dangers abroad which they themseves should think fit to feign and fancy at home To carry on their Plot against the Bishops they put in all probability that lewd Leighton upon writing of his Plea which was Bring out those Enemies and slay them before him to smite those Hazaels under the fifth Rib For which in the Starchamber he was Fin'd and Imprison'd but for his Sufferings and the Dedication of his Book to the Commons they Vote him Ten thousand pound Upon the Kings return from his Northern Expedition which was to procure Peace only with a shew of War they having had a competent time for Combination and Plot were arriv'd to that exalted Impudence that notwithstanding he was received with Acclamations from all the common People of the Kingdom the People whom they were bound to represent the welcome from his Parliament was to present him with Remonstrances and Petitions which against his very express order they Printed and Publisht of such sort of Grievances that sufficiently declared they were griev'd at nothing more than his being their King They put upon his Account the thirty thousand pounds they had pay'd the Scots for Invading England that is they gave them the Moneys for Fighting of their King and then would have had the King paid his own Subjects for having against him so bravely Fought They should for once too have made him responsible and his Majesty their Debtor for the two hundred thousand pounds they paid the same Fellows at Newark to be gone whom with their thirty thousand pounds they had invited in before They should have made the King pay for his own purchase and answerable for the Price the Parliament had set upon his Head This seem'd such an unconscionable sort of Impudence that their hearts must needs have been Brass and seer'd as well as their Foreheads in offering it An Impudence that none but such an Assembly were capable of Impudence the Diana of these Beasts of Ephesus the Goddess of all such designing Democraticks * Aude aliquid brevibus Gyaris carcere dignum si vis esse aliquid Juvenal Satyr that to be somewhat in the true sense of the Satyrist must defie a Dungeon These their Petitions they seconded with Tumult and Insurection sent the Justices of Peace to the Tower only for endeavouring to suppress these Forerunners of a Civil War when they had taken the Liberty to Impeach some of the King 's best Subjects for Traytors yet deny'd their Soveraign to demand their Members that had committed High Treason About the twenty eighth of January 1641 they humbly desire the Soveraignty and their Petition that BEGUN Most Gracious Soveraign ENDED only in this Make us your Lords for they 1st demand the Tower of London 2ly All other Forts 3ly The Militia and they should have put in the Crown too The stupid Sots had not the sense to consider or else the resolv'd blindness that they would not see that those that have the power of the Army must be no longer Subjects but the Supream power The King you may be sure was not very willing to make himself none and might well deny the deposing of himself tho' he after consented even to this for a time but what he would not grant with an Act they seiz'd with an Ordinance and though they took the Militia which was none of theirs by Force and Arms yet Voted against their King's Commission of Array that was settled upon him by Law they force him to fly to the Field and then Vote it a Deserting the Parliament they necessitate him to set up his Standard at Nottingham and then call it a Levying War they Impeach nine Lords for following their King and yet had so much nonsense as to call them Delinquents which the * Vid. Com. Lit. 1 Inst p. 26. B. For adherency to the Kings Enemy without the Realm the Delinquent to be attainted of High Treason Law says none are but what adhere to his Enemies they send out their General fight their King and after various events of War force him to fly to the perjur'd Scot to whom they had paid an hundred thousand pounds to come in and were glad to give two to get out and for that they got the King into the bargain An Act of the Scot that was compounded of all the sublimated Vices that the Register of Sins or Catalogue of Villanies can afford feigned Religion forc'd Hypocrisie Falshood Folly
them to be so by Law Why now they were left at liberty and truly did as licentiously practise the subverting any frame themselves had establisht and that too before they had consider'd what to set up I won't insist for it here upon the Insurrection of the Cheshire men and the business of Booth which by my little light of reason and the not unlikely Remarks to be made from the least History I have read was really a design to supplant this restored Rump Headed by one of the most eminent of the secluded Members that probably in meer revenge resolved upon a Free Parliament that is because they had not the Freedom to sit with them that secluded them But that Plot which gave them the lift again now was that of Lambert himself that had lifted them into the Saddle where himself design'd they were not to sit long For Oliver having taught him the way to a Protectorate as well as 't is thought promised him in it a Succession was resolv'd to leave nothing unessay'd to settle himself in that power to which he once thought he should otherwise succeed and being Commission'd by these Masters he had made and sent to suppress this Presbyterian Insurrection which he did with success he found it too the most seasonable time to carry on his design and so carresses his Soldiers into a Seditious Tumultuous Petition for a General to be set over the Army out of the Soldiers themselves for these Swords-Men could not relish that the Gown the Speaker a Lenthal that then lookt like the Generalissimo should Lord it over Arms that is in English be above their Lambert The Men of Westminster made a shift to keep up so much Courage as to make this Remonstrance dangerous to the Commonwealth and Vote the Commissions of the Wallingford Men to be void But Lambert that had shuffl'd so well and pact his Cards with Oliver knew how to play them now as well for himself and therefore as * Hist Indep Pt. 4. p. 66 67. Cromwel had turn'd them out of the House before he comes and keeps them from getting in insomuch that when Lenthal came to the Ann. Dom. 1653. Palace Yard he could see nothing but Lambert and his Soldiers set to keep them out and so the Rumpers retreat again are put out of possession of all Lambert left an absolute Generalissimo sets up his †An. Dom. 1659. Oct. 26. Hist Indep Pt. 4. p 68. Committee of safety in which to be sure himself must sit as President In the next place they fell a Ploting to get themselves in that had been so often at in and out and for this they put up Petitions for a free Parliament from all Parts Haslerig runs down to Portsmouth which Revolts and those that were sent to reduce it turn Renegadoes Lawson and his Fellows in the Navy declare against the Committee Fairfax favours the Rump and raises Forces and they fell secretly to the Listing of Soldiers in Cornwal and the Western Counties and 't was time then for this Council of Safety to look to save themselves but nothing frighted them more into the re-admission of the Rump but the unresistible march of the mighty Monk that Fabius of our Isle that like the Roman Cunctator restor'd us our King by his prudential delays for these Rumpers once return'd again into the House were far enough from declaring for a free Parliament which they still clamour'd for so much when they were shut out Nay they would not so much as suffer the secluded to sit among them now neither till the good General came and settl'd them himself and now tho' all the Villains were in again that had begun the War unless such as dy'd in the Rebellion tho they saw all the sad effects and confusions they had brought upon the Kingdom yet so far were the Rebels from remorse that they justify by * Baker's Chron. p. 694. Vote the War with his Majesty and past two more out of a perfect Plot and Design to keep the Royalist from being returned in the Parliament that was to ensue their Dissolution but Dissolv'd they were and that in effect by the good General and their Plotting Votes against the Royalist and the Restauration prov'd as illusory and vain Thus the Principles and Positions of these discontented Democraticks and implacable Republicans made them still uneasie under those very Establishments they set up confounded them so that they did not know how to please themselves but still kept Plotting one anothers Ruin and Destruction The King was by miracle restored whom Heavens by its repeated Providence had preserv'd and one would have thought such a signal signification of the concern God himself had for so good a Government should have made even the Devil himself despair to undermine it when founded even by a divine fate and to destroy the Monarchy look'd like a Design to circumvent the Almighty But no sooner was our Sovereign Seated in his Throne but they Plot again to pull him out And the first was that of Venner and his Fift-Monarchy Men their Leader a silly Cooper that had liv'd sometime in New-England but come home set up a Conventicle in Coleman street and made their consult of Conspiracy in the very place they came to pay their Devotions endeavouring to reconcile as near as they could their very Religion to be Rebellion On Sunday the sixth of January the day before they design'd their excursion 1660. as if the Sabbath were to sanctifie Sacriledge and atone for Blood they linger'd it out a little too late in their Assembly so that their Land-lord a little Jealous listning at the door perceives through the chink that this Godly Convention were doing the very work of the Devil and instead of their Sighs Groans and Tears and such harmless spiritual warfare their Sword of the spirit was turn'd all into steel and all Arming themselves with Back Breast and Head-piece of which he gives notice to some Officers but they in a little while after issuing out march through several parts of the City kill'd some of the Watch repell'd a Party of the Train-bands and so march't through Aldersgate to a place nere the City call'd Cane Wood. But on the Wednesday morning after they return to renew their Rebellious design they divided themselves into Parties and about Leaden-Hall fought it out obstinately and too stoutly with the Trainbands But some of the Guards Commanded then by the Duke of York and now our present Sovereign whom Heaven protect to defeat all Rebellions with the General and his more disciplin'd Soldiers soon made them give ground and retreat and at last run away in as much confusion Colonel Corbet routs another Party of them about Wood-street and such inveterate Villains had the Preaching these Principles render'd them that when they were broken and dispers'd they would refuse Quarter sixteen or seventeen being taken were at the Old Baily Try'd Convicted Sentenc'd five or six
wealthy Citizen whose Estate with a great deal of Money and as little Wit serv'd only to make him more wickedly and less wisely Seditious for nothing but the pride of a Purse or the not valuing of a Fine could have made a Man guilty of so much Folly at a Season when they were in an hot pursuit of an Hellish Conspiracy and the Blood Vid. His Tryal for High Misdemeanor at Guild-Hall London Feb. 14. 1683 4. of those that had suffer'd for it hardly cold For he lets them know that the Protestant Plot is confounded quite lost that the Evidence of it the Lord Howard was to be sent to the Tower and that all the Prisoners that lay there for the same were discharged that Sidney that Suffer'd for it was Pardon'd that Braddon that was Fin'd for it was no farther Prosecuted all rank Lyes as well as lewdly Seditious And though his kind Council was pleas'd to mitigate the Information as if the Malice was not so apparent that will not mince the matter for tho' the circumstances and the plain matter of Fact make it the most malitious piece of Faction Imaginable yet moreover the very mass of his Blood was tainted with as much malice and his very Relations actual Rebels and in Arms against their Sovereign our Sir Thomas Bernadiston being a Colonel of a Foot Regiment of Rebels at the Siege of Colchester which I can make appear from an old Map of the Siege where he may see his Father or his Brother Firing upon his Majesties Subjects But these Factious Papers being prov'd upon him from his own Hand and the Testimony of his Servant that Superscrib'd them they found him Guilty without going from the Bar for which in the King's Bench he was April 14 1684. afterward Fin'd Ten thousand Pounds to the King bound to be of the Good Behaviour during Life and to be Committed till 't was paid But after all as if they did endeavour to silence their own Advocates in their Defence and that Impudence it self might not endeavour to smother their secret Conspiracies they break out into that open Rebellion for which they had Conspired and Invade the Kingdom as if they design'd only to prove the Plot For in April 1685. Argyle lands with Men and Amunition brought from Holland in one of the South-West Isles of Scotland call'd Yyle or Ila and their seizes all the Arms Horses Men and other Necessaries to make up an Army some of his Heretors come in for Assistance with some few of his Dependants and Relations of which of the most note were his Sons and one Achinbreck of which Name there is a Castle or Town near those Isles For a Month or two they kept Sailing about Boot Cantire and the rest of the Islands there abouts sometime landing then setting out again But about the nineteenth of June the Lord Dunbarton having notice that the Rebels had past the River Levin above Dumbarton Town and taking their way towards Sterling overtook them in the Parish of Killerne but being late in the Evening did not Attack them but by the Morning the Rebels were march'd off toward the River Clyde which on the seventeenth they past but pursu'd by the King's Forces and Cochran carrying them by mistake into a Bogg they soon disorder'd and dispers'd The late Argyle was set upon in his flight towards the Clyde by two of Greynock's Servants receiving a Wound on his Head dismounted his Horse and ran into the Water where a Countryman fell'd him so the Soldiers carried him to their Commander from thence to Glascow and then to Edenburgh Among these Rebels were several of the blackest Conspirators of England that were fled for the same Rumbold himself the Malster at the Rye by whose House his late Majesty was to be Murder'd as also one Captain Ayloff mention'd in the King's Declaration were both there taken Rumbold fought desperately and Ayloff so despair'd that he ript up his Belly Rumbold was afterward Arraigned for Invading the Kingdom with the rest of the Rebels had Sentence as in Cases of High-Treason and was accordingly a Jun. 29. Hang'd and Quarter'd and the next day the late Lord Argyle their Arch-Traytor b Jun. 30. Beheaded And now that their Plot might be prov'd as plain in England too About the beginning of June Monmouth landed at Lime in Dorsetshire of which he possest himself having with him three Ships brought into Town about two hundred Men some of the Seditious Souls and as silly of the Country ran in to his Assistance upon falling of the Tide as 't is thought they made an Excursion upon the Sands to the Town of Bridport which they enter'd by the Back-side and surprised in it Mr. Wadham Strangways one Mr. Coker and Mr. Harvey Officers for the King the two former they kill'd wounded the latter seiz'd some Horses and went back to their Quarters at Lime where while they lay there a Party of the King 's met some of the Rebels had a Ran-counter kill'd about twenty three and made the rest retire From thence they march'd toward Taunton seizing all the Horses they could meet with no Gentleman of Note came in to their Assistance But yet by their bare coming to that Rebellious place the Rebels were become mighty numerous some few of the Militia-Men were said to have deserted and run into the Rebels but those very inconsiderable for their number as soon as the Rebels were arriv'd to some considerable body their Leader the late Duke was pleas'd to be Proclaim'd and to set up for a mock King sending a Letter in a Stile of Majesty to the D. of Albemarle About the Twentieth of June Captain Trevanion Commander of some of his Majesties Ships found a Dogger and a Pink of the Rebel's Ships lying at the Cob of Lime some Barrels of Powder Back Breast and Head-Pieces for several Men in the Town which were all secured and his Grace the Duke of Albemarle sent into it three Companies The Rebels rambl'd about Glassenbury in Somerset and some part of Wiltshire Plundering and taking all the Horse they could and gleaning up as many Foot And both these Invanders to publish themselves Rebels in Print as well as Arms put out their Declarations of their King 's being an Vsurper and a Tyrant that had Succeeded to the Crown by all the Laws of God as well as Man One William Disney Esq was taken with his Wench in his Bed and Monmouth's Declarations Printing in his House Try'd for the Treason in Southwark upon full Evidence found Guilty Sentenc'd and accordingly * June 29. 1685. Executed And the †June 25. 1685. Parliament it self by special Act Attaint James Scot for a Rebel and a Traitor set five Thousand Pounds upon his Head which was published in the King's Proclamation afterward paid to those that took him The Rebels for some time continued forraging and rambling about the Western Counties Wilts and Somerset At Philips Norton a
for five hundred years before the Conquest and for above two hundred after Bishops and Abbots made up the best part of those petty Parliaments and that so long before these Contenders for their excludeing them their suffrages ever sate in that Assembly as part of the Senate And that antient piece that tells us of the ‖ Modus tenend Parl. manner of holding Parliaments tells us too that such Ecclesiasticks were always summoned Seditious Souls let those that are to take Care of them too have the same Subjects Liberty you so much Labour for Let Bishops be allowed their Birth-Right as well as your Lay-Lord-ships too your †Vid. Magna Charta the 1st thing in the first Chap. Articuli cleri Vid. Cook Com. on both 2. Inst Magna Charta was made for the Loyal Bishops as well as the Rebellious Barons and that expressly declares the Church shall enjoy all her Rights inviolate and tells us as plainly one of them was to sit in Parliament your selves know a discontented * Stratford Arch-bishop Ed. 3. Canterbury and I hope you 'll side with him because he was so claim'd for four hundred years agon his Privilege of Peerage in Opposition to His Prince petitioned for his Right and protested against the wrong for fifteen hundred years for so long our Monarchs can be Chronicl'd can in every Reign the Clergies being concerned in Parliament be proved upon Record and may they with the Monarchy last that with its Christianity commenc'd They seemed always to sympathize in their very sufferings never to cease but by consent and Bishops were never excluded from their Votes but when their King himself had never a voice The Sixth pernicious Principle they propose is for Marriages Alliances Treatises for War and Peace to be put in the power of the two Houses And shall the meanest Subjects be Mightier than their Soveraign Not allow'd the Marrying his Issue when where and to whom he pleases That the Parliament has presumed to intermeddle with this undoubted Prerogative of the Soveraign since the Birth-Right of the poorest Subject can no more be denyed then that the two Houses have also actually Rebell'd too but they never pretended to make Matches for their Monarch but when they were as ready to make War too There was somewhat of that Mutinous Ferment got among the Members in the latter end of King * James's his Reign who tho they mightily 19. Jacob. 1621. soothed their Soveraign with some Inconsiderable subsidies for the recovery of the Palatinate so small that notwithstanding the Preparation for War the poor Prince was forc'd to pursue Peace and to tell the Men at Westminster so much too that he intended to compass the Palatinate with an Allyance with Spain which he was not like to obtain from the smallness of their Subsidy and Aid But tho the Commons did not care much for the maintaining the War they were as much startled with this seeming tendance to Peace they knew their Prince poor and therefore thought that the time to show the Subject bold and so began the Puritan Party to represent in a Remonstrance Popery Power Prerogative and their Averseness forsooth to the Spanish-Match The pious Prince tho none of the boldest to resist an invading People yet took the Courage to tell them they took too much upon themselves very warmly forbad them farther to meddle with his Government ‖ Dudgdale's short View 21. and deep Affairs of State and particularly with the Match of his Son with the Daughter of Spain And this account they 'll surely Credit since it comes from an * Rusworth Col. p. 40. Author a partial and popular Advocate for this power of Parliament And did not the Commons intermeddling with an other Spanish Match of Queen Mary's send their Memberships into the Country to mind their own Business and were presently Dissolv'd for meddling so much with their Soveraign's And this I hope will be as †Burnet's Abridgm 236. Authentick since it comes from an Author that has had the Thanks of the House But this Disposal of the Kings of his own Children and the Marrying them to what Princes he pleases has such an absolute Relation to the making Leagues and Allyances that the Laws which have declared the latter to be solely in the Soveraign are as Declaratory that the other is so too and this power of the Prince of making War and Peace Leagues and Allyances is so settled in him by the Laws of the Land that till they are subverted it can never be taken out In Henry the Fifth's Time a Prince under whose Courage and Conduct the Nation I think was as Flourishing at Home as it was formidable Abroad A Prince that kept a good Sway over his Subjects and wanted nothing to the making him a good Monarch but a better Title though his Expensive War in France cost his People a great deal of Money as well as Blood yet they were far from being animated into an Invading this part of Prerogative but declared as appears by the Law of his Time that to their King belonged only to make Leagues with Foreign Princes and so fully does this Fundamental Law of the Land place this power in the Prince that it absolutely excludes all the Pretences of the People for it tells us ‖ 2. H. 5. c. 6. expressly that if all the Subjects of England should break ‖ 22. Edw. 4. Fitz. Jurisd a League made with a Foreign Prince if without the King's Consent it shall still hold and not be broken And must the Laws of our own as well as those of all Nations be subverted for the setting up a Supremacy of the People which both declare is absolutely in the King The Seventh Proposal about the Militia is the most Impudent because it has been the most confuted of any by Reason and baffled above all parts of the Prerogative Establisht by Law History tells us ever since Chronicle can Compute and that is for almost Fifteen Hundred Years that the Power of the Sword was ever in him that sway'd the Scepter and Statute tells us even the very First * Magna Charta that was ever reckoned among Acts of Parliament That if the King lead or send his Subject to do him Service in his Wars that he shall be freed from such other Services as Castle-guard and the like so that you see that extorted Instrument the result of a REBELLION reserved this piece of Prerogative of the Soveraigns Sole Right That the Members of the two Houses should have the Management of the Militia was undertaken to be proved too by that Plague of the Press Pryn himself who proceeds upon his own false Principle and Premises which he beggs and then may well draw from them a Conclusion of an absolute Lye for he takes it for granted that by the Kingdoms Suffrages they made their King and then he could not as he says have this * Pryn's Parliam
Relates to Eldest Son then even the Statute too understands it so as an Heir Possible for an Eldest Son is no more at the most and then we see that even in an Act of Parliament the word Heir shall refer to one that only may probably or Possibly be so in Futuro as well as to those that are de Facto such and so agrees with the very common acceptation Afortiori then we may even with the Consent of our Reverend Reader the Divine Lawyer Jul. pag. 20. admit of the Vulgar acceptation of the word when administred to us in an Oath so Solemn and Sacred if it does not relate to the Eldest but only to an Heir in general that may Actually Succeed then they must bring which to be sure they won't allow a Collateral as well as a Lineal Heir within the very Letter of the Law And whether they will allow him so or no for any thing they can say to the contrary a Collateral Heir may be within the Statute tho not exprest in the very Letter of the Law I don't doubt but that the same Intention they had of preserving the King's Eldest Son and Heir the same had those Legislators for the preservation of the next Heir of the Crown whether Lineal or Collateral and where their Intention may be presumed the same there the Remedy without doubt was design'd the same too and that Intention of all Law-makers must be only gathered from the parity of Reason for the making such a Law Now if there be the same Reason for the securing the Person of any Collateral Heir as well as the Kings Eldest Son and Heir as doubtless there is for the perpetuating the Succession of the Monarchy then we have Reason to believe too that such an Heir was also intended especially if we consider that but just before this Statute of the 25th * Vid. Britton Coke cap. Treason it was held That Killing any of the Kings Children was Treason all of them having a possibility of being Heirs Apparent and supplying the Crown with a Succession 'T is true ther 's nothing expressive of a Collateral Heir in the Letter of the Law so neither is there anything exprest of a Second Son or a Third when they should be come Eldest yet all these are allowed to be intended too and if Eldest shall extend to any that shall afterward become so I don't see why the word Heir which I am sure is there more extensive might not without much stretching refer to any that may become the first Heir Admitting it otherways they must admit that this Law in this point is mighty Superfluous the very thing which it always endeavours to avoi'd for if the Prince must be only understood why then that word would have exprest it better or else Eldest Son alone as well and since Heir is superadded and a Rule in Law that each Letter of it must have it's full Emphasis in Explication I cannot apprehend but the word Heir there must signifie somewhat more than Eldest Son There is no Provision made for the Queen Regent in that Statute Consort being only named yet the resolution has been That she is within that Statute as well as the King and that for the Parity of Reason And for my Life I could never apprehend the little Lords Sophistry of a Brother or Collateral Heir being but a Presumptive Shaftsbury one it look't like a piece of State Metaphysicks to distinguish his Highness out of his Title with a Diminution and that in order for Excluding him from the Crown Time always best resolves the Sense of such States-men whose Politicks are best understood from the Measures they take and who seem many times Fools in the dark till they disclose themselves to be the greatest Villains When I saw him settled for Excluding the Crown 's Heir we soon saw the meaning of Presumptive which before seem'd in so great a Man a little nonsense But I can tell them of one-sense more it might have had That is the Duke was but his Presumptive Heir because he presumed he should Destroy him Some men of the Law would laugh at such Sophisters of the Faction And truly they even at themselves should they maintain the Youngest Son in Burrough English was no Heir Apparent who can be dispossest by latter Birth as well as a Brother or Collateral but it was the want of his Lordships Law that made him abound with so much Sophistry and so little Sense For my Lord ‖ 3. Ins l. 1. p. 9. Coke lets us know that a Collateral Heir is as much an Apparent one as the Eldest Son but only this says he is not within the Statute Tho as * My Lord Hales Pleas of the Crown 1st Edit great a Judge and as good was not so Dogmatical in this point who as he had Reason so he left room too for doubt tho the Quaere in his first Edition has been very industriously omitted in the second I have been the longer upon this to let the Divine see that he may be much out in his Law and that tho he would have Excluded the late Collateral Heir from his Oath of Allegiance his preservation might have been brought in within the †25. Ed. 3. Statute of Treason and the Doctor if he pleas'd might be Hanged for him as well as Perjur'd 'T is pretty pleasant to me to Observe how men of these sort of principles can prevaricate for the Promoting of their own Cause and the Divinest of them all run to the Devil with a Lye in their Mouth at the same time they in their Conscience believe the contrary to be true No Soul Living but will believe this Libeller when so near Ally'd to the Gentleman of the Law we so lately left would entertain assoon the Damnable Doctrin of a Muggletonian as dispense with the belief of a Divine Right since his Associate in their Hotch-potch of Scrible Hunt has rendered it altogether as Devilish yet what that Lawyer won't allow this * Vid Jul. pag. 19. Body of Divinity is forced at last to prove viz. That even the Roman Emperors Reigned with a Right Divine and that all their Empire was Hereditary and this he is seriously bound to maintain too as the only Basis and foundation for his Rebellious Book so that these prevaricating Jugglers with a turn of an hand can make the two several Extreams serve for the same purpose when it will make for their Cause they shall make those Crowns Hereditary whom all Authors and all the World acknowledge Elective let it but cross the Interest of the Faction the same pens shall prove you a most Elective Monarchy from one absolutely Hereditary The Roman Empire was certainly from Caesar their first to this Julian himself and even the very last of their Emperors uncertain in it's Succession sometimes a Right Heir would interpose or an adopted one but still either set up by the Souldiers or