through the malice of Octavius or the fraud of his Wise a wet Blanket laid over his face and a few corrupted Soldiers could invest Caligula with the same A vile Rascal pulling Claudius out by the heels from behind the Hangings where he had hid himself could give it to him A dish of Mushrooms well seasoned by the infamous Strumpet his Wife and a Potion prepared for Britannicus by Locusta could transfer it to her Son who was a stranger to his Blood Galba became Heir to it by driving Nero to despair and death Two common Soldiers by exciting his Guards to kill him could give a just Title to the Empire of the World to Otho who was thought to be the worst man in it If a Company of Villains in the German Army thinking it as fit for them as others to create a Father of Mankind could confer the Dignity upon Vitellius and if Vespasian causing him to be killed and thrown into a Jakes less impure than his Life did inherit all the glorious and sacred Privileges belonging to that Title 't is in vain to inquire after any man's right to any thing If there be such a thing as Right or Wrong to be examined by men and any Rules set whereby the one may be distinguished from the other these Extravagancies can have no effect of Right Such as commit them are not to be looked upon as Fathers but as the most mortal Enemies of their respective Countries No Right is to be acknowledged in any but such as is conferred upon them by those who have the right of conferring and are concerned in the exercise of the Power upon such conditions as best please themselves No obedience can be due to him or them who have not a right of commanding This cannot reasonably be conferred upon any that are not esteemed willing and able rightly to execute it This ability to perform the highest Works that come within the reach of Men and integrity of Will not to be diverted from it by any temptation or consideration of private Advantages comprehending all that is most commendable in man we may easily see that whensoever men act according to the Law of their own Nature which is Reason they can have no other rule to direct them in advancing one above another than the opinion of a man's Vertue and Ability best to perform the Duty incumbent upon him that is by all means to procure the good of the People committed to his charge He is only fit to conduct a Ship who understands the Art of a Pilot When we are sick we seek the assistance of such as are best skill'd in Physick The Command of an Army is prudently conferred upon him that hath most Industry Skill Experience and Valour In like manner He only can according to the rules of Nature be advanced to the Dignities of the World who excels in the Vertues required for the performance of the Duties annexed to them for he only can answer the end of his Institution The Law of every instituted Power is to accomplish the end of its Institution as Creatures are to do the Will of their Creator and in deflecting from it overthrow their own being Magistrates are distinguished from other men by the Power with which the Law invests them for the publick Good He that cannot or will not procure that Good destroys his own being and becomes like to other men In matters of the greatest importance Detur digniori is the Voice of Nature all her most sacred Laws are perverted if this be not observed in the disposition of the Governments of mankind But all is neglected and violated if they are not put into the hands of such as excel in all manner of Vertues for they only are worthy of them and they only can have a right who are worthy because they only can perform the end for which they are instituted This may seem strange to those who have their heads infected with Filmer's whimseys but to others so certainly grounded upon Truth that Bartholomew de las Casas Bishop of Chiapa in a Treatise written by him and dedicated to the Emperor Charles the 5th concerning the Indies makes it the foundation of all his Discourse That notwithstanding his grant of all those Countries from the Pope and his pretentions to Conquest he could have no right over any of those Nations unless he did in the first place as the principal end regard their Good The reason says he is that regard is to be had to the principal End and Cause for which a supreme or universal Lord is set over them which is their good and profit and not that it should turn to their destruction and ruin for if that should be there is no doubt but from thence forward that Power would be tyrannical and unjust as tending more to the interest and profit of that Lord than to the publick good and profit of the Subjects which according to natural Reason and the Laws of God and Man is abhorred and deserves to be abhorred And in another place speaking of the Governors who abusing their Power brought many troubles and vexations upon the Indians he says They had rendred his Majesty's Government intolerable and his Yoak insupportable tyrannical and most justly abhorred I do not alledg this through an opinion that a Spanish Bishop is of more Authority than another man but to shew that these are common Notions agreed by all mankind and that the greatest Monarchs do neither refuse to hear them or to regulate themselves according to them till they renounce common sense and degenerate into Beasts But if that Government be unreasonable and abhorred by the Laws of God and Man which is not instituted for the good of those that live under it and an Empire grounded upon the Donation of the Pope which amongst those of the Roman Religion is of great importance and an entire conquest of the People with whom there had been no former Compact do degenerate into a most unjust and detestable Tyranny so soon as the supreme Lord begins to prefer his own interest or profit before the good of his Subjects what shall we say of those who pretend to a right of Dominion over free Nations as inseparably united to their Persons without distinction of Age or Sex or the least consideration of their Infirmities and Vices as if they were not placed in the Throne for the good of their People but to enjoy the Honours and Pleasures that attend the highest Fortune What name can be fit for those who have no other Title to the places they possess than the most unjust and violent Usurpation or being descended from those who for their Vertues were by the Peoples consent duly advanced to the exercise of a legitimate Power and having sworn to administer it according to the Conditions upon which it was given for the good of those who gave it turn all to their own Pleasure and Profit without any care of the Publick These
invent and practise such things as seem convenient to himself and others in matters of the least importance it were absurd to imagine that the political Science which of all others is the most abstruse and variable according to Accidents and Circumstances should have bin perfectly known to them who had no use of it and that their Descendents are obliged to add nothing to what they practised But the reason given by our Author to prove this extravagant fancy is yet more ridiculous than the thing it self God saith he shewed his opinion viz. that all should be governed by one when he endowed not only men but beasts with a natural propensity to Monarchy Neither can it be doubted but a natural propensity is referred to God who is the Author of Nature Which I suppose may appear if it be considered Nevertheless I cannot but commend him in the first place for introducing God speaking so modestly not declaring his Will but his Opinion He puts haughty and majestick Language into the mouth of Kings They command and decide as if they were subject to no Error and their Wills ought to be taken for perpetual Laws but to God he ascribes an humble delivery of his Opinion only as if he feared to be mistaken In the second place I deny that there is any such general propensity in Man or Beast or that Monarchy would thereby be justified tho it were found in them It cannot be in Beasts for they know not what Government is and being uncapable of it cannot distinguish the several sorts nor consequently incline to one more than another Salmasius his story of Bees is only fit for old Women to prate of in Chimney corners and they who represent Lions and Eagles as Kings of Birds and Beasts do it only to show that their Power is nothing but brutish Violence exercised in the destruction of all that are not able to oppose it and that hath nothing of goodness or justice in it which Similitude tho it should prove to be in all respects adequate to the matter in question could only shew that those who have no sense of Right Reason or Religion have a natural propensity to make use of their strength to the destruction of such as are weaker than they and not that any are willing to submit or not to resist it if they can which I think will be of no great advantage to Monarchy But whatever propensity may be in Beasts it cannot be attributed generally to Men for if it were they never could have deviated srom it unless they were violently put out of their natural course which in this case cannot be for there is no Power to force them But that they have most frequently deviated appears by the various Forms of Government established by them There is therefore no natural propensity to any one but they chuse that which in their judgment seems best for them Or if he would have that inconsiderate impulse by which brutish and ignorant men may be swayed when they know no better to pass for a Propensity others are no more obliged to follow it than to live upon Acrons or inhabit hollow Trees because their Fathers did it when they had no better Dwellings and found no better nourishment in the uncultivated World And he that exhibits such Examples as far as in him lies endeavours to take from us the use of Reason and extinguishing the light of it to make us live like the worst of Beasts that we may be fit Subjects to absolute Monarchy This may perhaps be our Author's intention having learnt from Aristotle that such a Government is only sutable to the nature of the most bestial men who being uncapable of governing themselves fall under the Power of such as will take the conduct of them but he ought withal to have remembred that according to Aristotle's opinion this Conductor must be in nature different from those he takes the charge of and if he be not there can be no Government nor Order by which it subsists Beasts follow Beasts and the blind lead the blind to destruction But tho I should grant this Propensity to be general it could not be imputed to God since man by Sin is fallen from the Law of his Creation The wickedness of man even in the first Ages was great in the World All the imaginations of his heart are evil and that continually All men are liars There is none that doth good no not one Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts Murders Adulteries Fornications Thefts false Testimonies c. These are the Fruits of our corrupted nature which the Apostle observing dos not only make a difference between the natural and the spiritual Man whose proceeding only can be referred to God and that only so far as he is guided by his Spirit but shews that the natural man is in a perpetual enmity against God without any possibility of being reconciled to him unless by the destruction of the old Man and the regenerating or renewing him through the Spirit of Grace There being no sootsteps of this in our Author's Book he and his Master Heylin may have differed from the Apostle referring that Propensity of Nature to God which he declares to be utter enmity against him and we may conclude that this Propensity however general it may be cannot be attributed to God as the Author of Nature since it cannot be more general than the Corruptions into which we are fallen SECT IX The Government instituted by God over the Israelites was Aristocratical NOtwithstanding all this our Author is resolved that Monarchy must be from God What form of Government says he God ordained by his Authority may be gathered by that Commonwealth which he instituted amongst the Hebrews which was not Aristocratical as Calvin saith but plainly Monarchical I may in as few words deny the Government set up by God to have bin Monarchical as he asserts it but finding such Language ordinarily to proceed from a mixture of folly impudence and pride I chuse rather to shew upon what I ground my Opinions than nakedly to deliver them most especially when by insisting upon the Government instituted by God over his People he refers us to the Scripture And I do this the more boldly since I follow Calvin's Exposition and believe that he having bin highly esteemed for his Wit Judgment and Learning by such as were endowed with the like and reverenced as a glorious Servant of God might if he were now alive comfort himself tho he had the misfortune to fall under the censures of Filmer and his followers 'T is probable he gave some Reasons for his Opinions but our Author having maliciously concealed them and I not having leasure at present to examin all his Writings to find them must content my self with such as my small understanding may suggest and such as I have found in approved Authors In the first place I may safely say he was not alone of that opinion Josephus Philo and
Kingdom of Israel they thought his first work would be to throw off the Roman Yoak and not believing him to be the man they would have brought him to avow the thing that they might destroy him But as that was not his business and that his time was not yet come it was not necessary to give them any other answer than such as might disappoint their purpose This shews that without detracting from the honor due to Austin Ambrose or Tertullian I may justly say that the decision of such questions as arise concerning our Government must be decided by our Laws and not by their Writings They were excellent Men but living in another time under a very different Government and applying themselves to other matters they had no knowledg at all of those that concern us They knew what Government they were under and thereupon judged what a broken and dispersed People ow'd to that which had given Law to the best part of the World before they were in being under which they had bin educated and which after a most cruel persecution was become propitious to them They knew that the Word of the Emperor was a Law to the Senate and People who were under the power of that man that could get the best Army but perhaps had never heard of such mixed Governments as ours tho about that time they began to appear in the world And it might be as reasonably concluded that there ought to be no rule in the Succession or Election of Princes because the Roman Emperors were set up by the violence of the Soldiers and for the most part by the slaughter of him who was in possession of the Power as that all other Princes must be absolute when they have it and do what they please till another more strong and more happy may by the like means wrest the same Power from them I am much mistaken if this be not true but without prejudice to our Cause we may take that which they say according to their true meaning in the utmost extent And to begin with Tertullian 'T is good to consider the subject of his Discourse and to whom he wrote The Treatise cited by our Author is the Apologetick and tends to perswade the Pagans that civil Magistrates might not intermeddle with Religion and that the Laws made by them touching those matters were of no value as relating to things of which they had no cognisance 'T is not says he length of time nor the dignity of the Legislators but equity only that can commend Laws and when any are found to be unjust they are deservedly condemned By which words he denied that the Magistratical Power which the Romans acknowledged in Cesar had any thing to do in spiritual things And little advantage can be taken by Christian Princes from what he says concerning the Roman Emperors for he expresly declares That the Cesars would have believed in Christ if they had either not bin necessary to the secular Government or that Christians might have bin Cesars This seems to have proceeded from an opinion received by Christians in the first Ages that the use of the Civil as well as the Military Sword was equally accursed That Christians were to be Sons of peace Enemies to no man and that Christ by commanding Peter to put up his Sword did for ever disarm all Christians He proceeds to say We cannot fight to defend our Goods having in our Baptism denounc'd the World and all that is in it nor to gain Honors accounting nothing more foreign to us than publick Affairs and acknowledging no other Commonwealth than that of the whole World Nor to save our lives because we account it a happiness to be killed He disswades the Pagans from executing Christians rather from charity to them in keeping them from the crime of slaughtering the Innocent than that they were unwilling to suffer and gives no other reasons of their Prayers for the Emperors than that they were commanded to love their Enemies and to pray for those who persecuted them except such as he drew from a mistake that the World was shortly to finish with the dissolution of the Empire All his Works as well those that were written before he fell into Montanism as those published afterwards are full of the like Opinions and if Filmer acknowledges them to be true he must confess That Princes are not Fathers but Enemies and not only they but all those who render themselves Ministers of the Powers they execute in taking upon them the Sword that Christ had cursed do renounce him and we may consider how to proceed with such as do so If our Author will not acknowledg this then no man was ever guilty of a more vile prevarication than he who alledges those words in favour of his Cause which have their only strength in Opinions that he thinks false and in the Authority of a man whom in that very thing he condemns and must do so or overthrow all that he endeavours to support But Tertullian's Opinions concerning these matters have no relation to our present Question The design of his Apology and the Treatise to Scapula almost upon the same subject was to show that the Civil Magistracy which he comprehends under the name of Cesar had nothing to do with matters of Religion and that as no man could be a Christian who would undertake the work of a Magistrate they who were jealous the publick Offices might be taken out of their hands had nothing to fear from Christians who resolved not to meddle with them Whereas our question is only Whether that Magistratical Power which by Law or Usurpation was then in Cesar must necessarily in all times and in all places be in one man or may be divided and balanced according to the Laws of every Country concerning which he says nothing Or whether we who do not renounce the use of the Civil or Military Sword who have a part in the Government and think it our duty to apply our selves to publick Cares should lay them aside because the antient Christians every hour expecting death did not trouble themselves with them If Ambrose after he was a Bishop employ'd the serocity of a Soldier which he still retained rather in advancing the power of the Clergy than the good of Mankind by restraining the rage of Tyrants it can be no prejudice to our Cause of which he had no cognisance He spoke of the violent and despotical Government to which he had bin a Minister before his Baptism and seems to have had no knowledg of the Gothick Polity that within a few years grew famous by the overthrow of the Roman Tyranny and delivering the world from the Yoak which it could no longer bear And if Austin might say That the Emperor is subject to no Laws because he has a Power of making Laws I may as justly say that our Kings are subject to Laws because they can make no Law and have
must submit Contests will in the like manner arise concerning successions to Crowns how exactly soever they be disposed by Law For tho every one will say that the next ought to succeed yet no man knows who is the next which is too much verified by the bloody decisions of such disputes in many parts of the world and he that says the next in blood is actually King makes all questions thereupon arising impossible to be otherwise determined than by the Sword the pretender to the right being placed above the judgment of man and the Subjects for any thing I know obliged to believe serve and obey him if he says he has it For otherwise if either every man in particular or all together have a right of judging his title it can be of no value till it be adjudged I confess that the Law of France by the utter exclusion of Females and their descendents dos obviate many dangerous and inextricable difficulties but others remain which are sufficient to subvert all the Polity of that Kingdom if there be not a power of judging them and there can be none if it be true that Le mort saisit le vif Not to trouble my self with seigned cases that of Legitimation alone will suffice 'T is not enough to say that the Children born under marriage are to be reputed legitimate for not only several Children born of Joan Daughter to the King of Portugal Wife to Henry the Fourth of Castille during the time of their Marriage were utterly rejected as begotten in Adultery but also her Daughter Joan whom the King during his life and at the hour of his death acknowledged to have bin begotten by him and the only Title that Isabel who was married to Ferdinand of Arragon had to the Crown of Spain was derived from their rejection It would be tedious and might give offence to many great Persons if I should relate all the dubious cases that have bin or still remain in the World touching matters of this nature but the Lawyers of all Nations will testify that hardly any one point comes before them which affords a greater number of difficult Cases than that of Marriages and the Legitimation of Children upon them and Nations must be involved in the most inextricable difficulties if there be not a power somewhere to decide them which cannot be if there be no intermission and that the next in blood that is he who says he is the next be immediately invested with the right and power But surely no people has bin so careless of their most important Concernments to leave them in such uncertainty and simply to depend upon the humour of a man or the faith of women who besides their other Frailties have bin often accused of supposititious Births and mens passions are known to be so violent in relation to Women they love or hate that none can safely be trusted with those Judgments The virtue of the best would be exposed to a temptation that flesh and blood can hardly resist and such as are less perfect would follow no other rule than the blind impulse of the passion that for the present reigns in them There must therefore be a judg of such disputes as may in these cases arise in every Kingdom and tho 't is not my business to determine who is that judg in all places yet I may justly say that in England it is the Parliament If no inferiour Authority could debar Ignotus Son to the Lady Rosse born under the Protection from the inheritance of a private Family none can certainly assume a power of disposing of the Crown upon any occasion No Authority but that of the Parliament could legitimate the Children of Catherine Swinford with a proviso not to extend to the inheritance of the Crown Others might say if they were lawfully begotten they ought to inherit every thing and nothing if they were not But the Parliament knew how to limit a particular favour and prevent it from extending to a publick mischief Henry the Eighth took an expeditious way of obviating part of the Controversies that might arise from the multitude of his Wives by cutting off the heads of some as soon as he was weary of them or had a mind to take another but having bin hinder'd from dealing in the same manner with Catherine by the greatness of her birth and kindred he left such as the Parliament only could resolve And no less power would ever have thought of making Mary and Elizabeth capable of the succession when according to ordinary rules one of them must have bin a Bastard and it had bin absurd to say that both of them were immediately upon the death of their Predecessors possess'd of the Crown if an Act of Parliament had not conferred the right upon them which they could not have by birth But the Kings and Princes of England have not bin of a temper different from those of other Nations and many Examples may be brought of the like occasions of dispute happening every where and the like will probably be for ever which must necessarily introduce the most mischievous confusions and expose the Titles which as is pretended are to be esteemed most sacred to be overthrown by violence and fraud if there be not in all places a Power of deciding the controversies that arise from the uncertainty of Titles according to the respective Laws of every Nation upon which they are grounded No man can be thought to have a just Title till it be so adjudged by that power This judgment is the first step to the Throne The Oath taken by the King obliges him to observe the Laws of his Country and that concerning the succession being one of the principal he is obliged to keep that part as well as any other SECT XIX The greatest Enemy of a just Magistrate is he who endeavours to invalidate the Contract between him and the People or to corrupt their Manners 'T Is not only from Religion but from the Law of Nature that we learn the necessity of standing to the agreements we make and he who departs from the principle written in the hearts of men Pactis standum seems to degenerate into a beast Such as had virtue tho without true religion could tell us as a brave and excellent Grecian did that it was not necessary for him to live but it was necessary to preserve his Heart from deceit and his Tongue from falshood The Roman Satyrist carries the same Notion to a great height and affirms that tho the worst of Tyrants should command a man to be false and persar'd and back his injunction with the utmost of Torments he ought to prefer his integrity before his life And tho Filmer may be excused if he often mistake in matters of Theology yet his Inclinations to Rome which he prefers before Geneva might have led him to the Principles in which the honest Romans lived if he had not observed that such Principles as make men
to their Country I say that all Nations amongst whom Virtue has bin esteemed have had a great regard to them and their Posterity And tho Kings when they were made have bin intrusted by the Saxons and other Nations with a Power of ennobling those who by services render'd to their Country might deserve that Honor yet the body of the Nobility was more antient than such for it had bin equally impossible to take Kings according to Tacitus out of the Nobility if there had bin no Nobility as to take Captains for their Virtue if there had bin no Virtue and Princes could not without breach of that trust confer Honors upon those that did not deserve them which is so true that this practice was objected as the greatest crime against Vortigern the last and the worst of the British Kings and tho he might pretend according to such cavils as are usual in our time that the judgment of those matters was reserred to him yet the world judged of his Crimes and when he had render'd himself odious to God and men by them he perished in them and brought destruction upon his Country that had suffer'd them too long As among the Turks and most of the Eastern Tyrannies there is no Nobility and no man has any considerable advantage above the common People unless by the immediate favour of the Prince so in all the legal Kingdoms of the North the strength of the Government has always bin placed in the Nobility and no better defence has bin found against the encroachments of ill Kings than by setting up an Order of men who by holding large Territories and having great numbers of Tenants and Dependents might be able to restrain the exorbitances that either the Kings or the Commons might run into For this end Spain Germany France Poland Denmark Sweeden Scotland and England were almost wholly divided into Lordships under several names by which every particular Possessor owed Allegiance that is such an Obedience as the Law requires to the King and he reciprocally swore to perform that which the same Law exacted from him When these Nations were converted to the Christian Religion they had a great veneration for the Clergy and not doubting that the men whom they esteemed holy would be just thought their Liberties could not be better secured than by joining those who had the direction of their Consciences to the Noblemen who had the command of their Forces This succeeded so well in relation to the defence of the publick Rights that in all the forementioned States the Bishops Abbots c. were no less zealous or bold in defending the publick Liberty than the best and greatest of the Lords And if it were true that things being thus established the Commons did neither personally nor by their Representatives enter into the General Assemblies it could be of no advantage to Kings for such a Power as is above-mentioned is equally inconsistent with the absolute Sovereignty of Kings if placed in the Nobility and Clergy as if the Commons had a part If the King has all no other man nor number of men can have any If the Nobility and Clergy have the power the Commons may have their share also But I affirm that those whom we now call Commons have always had a part in the Government and their place in the Councils that managed it for if there was a distinction it must have bin by Patent Birth or Tenure As for Patents we know they began long after the coming of the Normans and those that now have them cannot pretend to any advantage on account of Birth or Tenure beyond many of those who have them not Nay besides the several Branches of the Families that now enjoy the most antient Honors which consequently are as noble as they and some of them of the elder Houses we know many that are now called Commoners who in antiquity and eminency are no way inferior to the chief of the titular Nobility and nothing can be more absurd than to give a prerogative of Birth to Cr-v-n T-ft-n H-ae B-nn-t Osb-rn and others before the Cliftons Hampdens Courtneys Pelhams St. Johns Baintons Wilbrahams Hungerfords and many others And if the Tenures of their Estates be consider'd they have the same and as antient as any of those who go under the names of Duke or Marquess I forbear to mention the sordid ways of attaining to Titles in our days but whoever will take the pains to examine them shall find that they rather defile than ennoble the possessors And whereas men are truly ennobled only by Virtue and respect is due to such as are descended from those who have bravely serv'd their Country because it is presumed till they shew the contrary that they will resemble their Ancestors these modern Courtiers by their Names and Titles frequently oblige us to call to mind such things as are not to be mentioned without blushing Whatever the antient Noblemen of England were we are sure they were not such as these And tho it should be confess'd that no others than Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons had their places in the Councils mentioned by Cesar and Tacitus or in the great Assemblies of the Saxons it could be of no advantage to such as now are called by those names They were the titles of Offices conserred upon those who did and could best conduct the people in time of War give Counsel to the King administer Justice and perform other publick duties but were never made hereditary except by abuse much less were they sold for money or given as recompences of the vilest services If the antient order be totally inverted and the ends of its institution perverted they who from thence pretend to be distinguished from other men must build their claim upon something very different from Antiquity This being sufficient if I mistake not to make it appear that the antient Councils of our Nation did not consist of such as we now call Noblemen it may be worth our pains to examine of what sort of men they did consist And tho I cannot much rely upon the credit of Camden which he has forfeited by a great number of untruths I will begin with him because he is cited by our Author If we will believe him That which the Saxons called Wittenagemot we may justly name Parliament which has the supreme and most sacred Authority of making abrogating and interpreting Laws and generally of all things relating to the safety of the Commonwealth This Wittenagemot was according to William of Malmsbury The general meeting of the Senat and People and Sir Harry Spelman calls it The General Council of the Clergy and People In the Assembly at Calcuth it was decreed by the Archbishops Bishops Abbots Dukes Senators and the People of the Land Populo terrae that the Kings should be elected by the Priests and Elders of the People By these Offa Ina and others were made Kings and Alfred
latter Kings hath bin so gracious as to allow always of the intire Bill as it passed both Houses He judiciously observes when our Kings began to be gracious and we to be free That King excepting the persecution for Religion in his time which is rather to be imputed to the ignorance of that age than to any evil in his own nature governed well and as all Princes who have bin virtuous and brave have always desired to preserve their Subjects Liberty which they knew to be the mother and nurse of their Valour fitting them for great and generous Enterprizes his care was to please them and to raise their Spirits But about the same time those detestable Arts by which the mixed Monarchies in this part of the world have bin every where terribly shaken and in many places totally overthrown began to be practised Charles the seventh of France under pretence of carrying on a War against him and his Son took upon him to raise Mony by his own Authority and we know how well that method has bin pursued The mischievous sagacity of his Son Lewis the 11th which is now called King-Craft was wholly exerted in the subversion of the Laws of France and the Nobility that supported them His Successors except only Lewis the 12th followed his example and in other Nations Ferdinand of Arragon James the third of Scotland and Henry the seventh of England were thought to imitate him the most Tho we have little reason to commend all the Princes that preceded Henry the fifth yet I am inclined to date the general impairing of our Government from the death of that King and his valiant Brothers His weak Son became a prey to a furious French woman who brought the Maxims of her own Country into ours and advanced the worst of villains to govern according to them These measures were pursued by Edward the fourth whose wants contracted by prodigality and debauchery were to be supplied by fraud and rapine The ambition cruelty and persidiousness of Richard the third the covetousness and malicious subtilty of Henry the seventh the violent lust rage and pride of Henry the 8th and the bigotted fury of Queen Mary instigated by the craft and malice of Spain perswaded me to believe that the English Liberty did not receive birth or growth from the favour and goodness of their gracious Princes But it seems all this is mistaken Henry the sixth was wise valiant and no way guided by his Wife Edward the sourth continent sober and contented with what the Nation gave him Richard the third mild gentle and faithful Henry the 7th sincere and satisfied with his own Henry the 8th humble temperate and just and Queen Mary a friend to our Country and Religion No less praises sure can be due to those who were so gracious to recede from their own right of picking what they pleased out of our Laws and to leave them intirely to us as they passed both Houses We are beholden to our Author for the discovery of these mysteries but tho he seems to have taken an Oath like that of the Gypsies when they enter into that virtuous Society never to speak one word of truth he is not so subtle in concealing his Lies All Kings were trusted with the publication of the Laws but all Kings did not falsify them Such as were not wicked and vicious or so weak as to be made subservient to the malice of their Ministers and Flatterers could never be drawn into the guilt of so infamous a cheat directly contrary to the Oath of their Coronation They swear to pass such Laws as the People chuse but if we will believe our Author they might have pick'd out whatever they pleased and falsly imposed upon the Nation as a Law made by the Lords and Commons that which they had modelled according to their own will and made to be different from or contrary to the intention of the Parliament The King's part in this fraud of which he boasts was little more than might have bin done by the Speaker or his Clerks They might have falfified an Act as well as the King tho they could not so well preserve themselves from punishment 'T is no wonder if for a while no stop was put to such an abominable Custom 'T was hard to think a King would be guilty of a fraud that were infamous in a Slave But that proved to be a small security when the worst of Slaves came to govern them Nevertheless 't is probable they proceeded cautioufly the first alterations were perhaps innocent or it may be for the best But when they had once found out the way they stuck at nothing that seemed for their purpose This was like the plague of Leprosy that could not be cured the house infected was to be demolished the poisonous plant must be torn up by the root the trust that had bin broken was to be abolished they who had perverted or frustrated the Law were no longer to be suffered to make the least alteration and that brave Prince readily joined with his People to extinguish the mischievous abuse that had bin introduced by some of his worthless Predecessors The worst and basest of them had continual disputes with their Parliaments and thought that whatever they could detract from the Liberty of the Nation would serve to advance their Prerogative They delighted in frauds and would have no other Ministers but such as would be the instruments of them Since their Word could not be made to pass for a Law they endeavoured to impose their own or their Servants inventions as Acts of Parliaments upon the deluded people and to make the best of them subservient to their corrupt Ends and pernicious Counsels This if it had continued might have overthrown all our Rights and deprived us of all that men can call good in the world But the Providence of God furnished our Ancestors with an opportunity of providing against so great so universal a mischief They had a wise and valiant Prince who scorned to encroach upon the Liberties of his Subjects and abhorred the detestable Arts by which they had bin impair'd He esteemed their courage strength and love to be his greatest advantage riches and glory He aimed at the conquest of France which was only to be effected by the bravery of a free and well-satisfied People Slaves will always be cowards and enemies to their Master By bringing his Subjects into that condition he must infallibly have ruined his own designs and made them unfit to fight either for him or themselves He desired not only that his People should be free during his time but that his Successors should not be able by oblique and fraudulent ways to enslave them If it be a reproach to us that Women have reigned over us 't is much more to the Princes that succeeded our Henry that none of them did so much imitate him in his Government as Queen Elizabeth She did not go about to mangle Acts