The triumph of our monarchy, over the plots and principles of our rebels and republicans being remarks on their most eminent libels / by John Northleigh ...

THE TRIUMPH OF OUR MONARCHY , &c.

'T IS not so long since the poor Nation , was tortur'd with an intestine War , that she should forget her torment ; when such too as reduced her to her last Convulsions , and her latest gasp . When also the Symptoms of a Relapse has grip'd her ever since , and Sedition grumbled in her Bowels : Her Body Politick so far sympathizing with the Natural , that it will find another such a fit Mortal ; 't is but Charity to a languishing State , to give the truest Judgment of her Distemper , to prevent its return : It has the Proverbial Authority of an undoubted Aphorism , That the knowledg of a Disease beyond Hypocrates . is the nearest step , if not equivalent to the Cure ; and I know the Professors of that Art , and its best Judges to rely most upon a true Crisis ; and are only successful in the Events of their happy Diagnosticks : I have parallelled one of those Remedies , our State-Mountebanks would have used for the restoring of this Politick Body with a Medecin with which our former Empericks had perfectly poysoned her , and proved their gentle Dose of an Association as dangerous altogether as their Covenant and death it self .

The design of this ensuing Treatise is to examine all those sophisticated drugs of false Opinions ; and how they have been continually rectifyed and amended with right Reason and Truth ; the Treasonable positions of Buchanan , Napthali , Dolman and Milton , those Epidemick and most damnable Quacks of the Kingdom ; have been by many , and that by most elaborate pieces confuted beyond answer and reply , unless from such as are as much beyond Conviction : The Latter of which , in spight of all his smooth Tropology , the gaudy grinding of his words , had his damnable Doctrines for Domestick Rebellion , as Ingenuously refuted by a forreign Pen ; and what ever Kindness his Countrey can have for the Dust of her Native Milton , I am sure , 't is more obliged to Vid. also History of English and Scotch Presbytery by a French Divine . the Ashes of an Alien ; and tho some are so much for building him his Monument , I shall still much more reverence the Memory of Salmasius .

'T is a little Prodigious that Persons not so much as allyed to the Clime , should have such Kindness for a Government , to which they are no way subjected : while those that are born to obey it , and have pawned their souls for Alciatus a forreign Civilian too , write against the Deposition of Edward the 2d . and Richard the 2d . their Obedience , should break the Laws of Nature , and Nations for its ruin and subversion ; certainly it can proceed from nothing but the agreeableness of the one , to the solid Foundations of Eternal Reason ; The other only from the Malice and Venom of those Vipers , that for the production of every novel , and unnatural Opinion , must force their way with Blood , and Wounds , and that too through the very Bowels of their Damn .

But these forementioned Miscreants have been lately too as learnedly refuted by the Judicious Pen of his Majesties advocate in Scotland ; those that will chiefly fall under the Animadversion of mine , shall be such as within this five years , too long a Lustrum for allow'd Treason , have retrived those Doctrines for Truth in so little time , and with Impunity , that will remain false to all Eternity , and have been Condemned by all ages . I shall take them in their Order as they have Printed , Publisht and Practised Treason : They shall take their turn with me as they ought , at Tyburn , when by Justice overtaken , where they ought to have the aim of their Ambition in their end ; where every ones more forward Rebellion , should have given him his more timely preferment , and by his vilany be entitled to precedency .

Tho' the Title insinuates , their Plots should be first treated on , and the Rebels come first upon the Stage , that serves rather for the runnings of the words than the Reason of the Work , and though the Stile of the first Page may seem to promise the rest shall be proposterous , I shall take Care the method shall be more Natural , and first we shall begin with the Principles of our late Republicans as the productions of the Plots of Rebells , the result of which has been verifyed beyond the Reason of Philosophy , and the Effects of necessary Agents do not more naturally follow the Cause ; and will all along Demonstrate , as clear as Euclid , how the one has been always baffled by Reason , the other continually blasted by Providence .

The number of all our most Licentious , and Libellous Authors , who can pretend to merit Animadversion , ( for the rest are innumerable ) whose Pestilent Pens do most provoke it , whose Papers deserve the fate of the Noble Peers , and their Persons at least the Pillory , I shall reduce to five , the Quinque-primi , as the Romans reckoned them amongst their Senators , whose more virulent Essays shall give these the preeminence too , amongst our Republicaus , who have been absolute Monarchs of their Pens for the last Quinqennium , and exercised that Tyranny over mens minds , beyond what they could fear even from the worst of Government over their Bodies . These five chosen Gamesters at the Pen exercised themselves like those in the Olympicks ; each had his Portion in the Quinquatria , and his prevaling part allotted him in their first Feast of Faction .

The first was their bold Author of the brief History of Succession ; and the first , I dare swear , that under a Government beyond dispute for 600 years Hereditary , dared to controvert the Succession of its Heir ; and truly 't was a prudent sort of Expedient in their Politicks , to raze the Foundations of Monarchy , before they would offer to build up a Republick : The prime Introducers of the Bill of Exclusion , were bound in prudence to get Pens to justify their Proceedings in Parliament ; which otherwise might not have been so well relisht by the People , by being barely Parliamentary , as well as it is since evident , they set a work some of their Chaplains to eradicate the very Notions of Passive Obedience , till Rebellion took so deep a root in some of the Patrons , that it anticipated worse sufferings then what they feared , and from the vain dread of dying Smithfield Martyrs , made them truly suffer for Plot , for Treason , in Lincolns-Inn-Fields .

The second prize they play'd was for a Common-wealth ; which was naturally the next blow , when they had so fairly struck at the Monarchy : and then rises up the Ghost of old Plato , an Image or Appearance as much unlike the Divines , as the Spectrum of old Hector was like himself when soiled with Dust and Dirt ; the living original was the sublimed Essence of exalted Love it self , and this copy of this degenerate Ghost , the dull extract of deadly malice , the true Devil of a Republick : the English of it was , they knew they had formerly usurpt upon our Crown , and brought it to the Common-wealth of England . They had made it an Ilium of Fire and Confusion , tho' to their dire thoughts a pleasant sort of an Interregnum , they still take that Epoche of their Slavery for the date of their Deliverance ; and then it was no way preposterous for the retrieving of a sad Platonick year , to raise up a Plato redivivus .

Their third Combatant of their Cause , and who in his own rank will fall under my reflexion ; is a Creature of another Complexion , and that Hunt in his Postscript , upon whom I shall observe all , what is pertinent to this purpose , whose cunning Insinuations have all the palliated Knavery of the Ballad , of the Cloak , and with the pretty defence of its Praelates , Libels the whole Church it self , and this very peice as naturally succeeded the preceding ; for when the state was to be turned into a Protestant Republick , 't was time to make the Clergy , Papists ; when the Common Prayer was to be abolisht , 't was time to vilify those that were ordained to read it ; when the sign of the Cross , was become as offensive as a Crucifix , 't was time to traduce those that waited on the Altar ; and to plead slily for a Directory , tho' penned in blood , when all our Litany was run down into red-Letters , and a Mass-book .

After all this , lest the Devil of delusion should have been unsuccessful against the Doctrine of the Gospel , lest some might still honour their King for the fear of God , and Christians be obliged by the blood of a Crucifyed Saviour , and the badg of their Profession the Cross ; a devout Incendiary a Divine Rebel Apostatizes from his Faith , only to give the better Character of an Apostate and fairly suffers himself to renounce his Christianity ; only to confute the Doctrine of sufferance . This damnable position of Resistance , did most naturally follow those Principles of Rebellion they had publisht before , when they had proved that their Interest did most infallibly oblige them to Rebel , and that they had certainly the Devil on their side ; they knew they should soon be secure of Peoples Purses , when they had mastered their Consciences , and made a party of God and Religion . This made them back the Lawyers Arguments , with that of the Divine ; out comes this Johnson upon Hunt , or Hunt upon Julian , sworn Associates for the perverting of Divinity and Law , both designed , without doubt , for the best and highest Preferment in their new Government of Church and State ; the one must have been our Metropolitan , the other after so many disappointments , Chief Justice ; and truly two such Instruments of Hell would have been only fit to preside in such a State that would have look't like the damn'd , full of Confusion , full of Contention , full only of Johnson's primitive Rebellion ; the Devils , They only past for two pieces , tho in truth , but one new Dialogue , between the Doctor and Student ; both agreed in their Divinity and Law , superviz'd each others Sedition , and corrected Treason for the Press ; lest their Quotations for Authentick , Religious , and Statutable Rebellion , should fail them from the Bible , or the Year-books ; The Gospel that once abrogated the Law by these Jews is made to Confirm it , and the new-Testament to warrant that Rebellion , which the Old had damned for worse then Witchcraft , both these Incendiaries the very Counterparts of two late Regicides , that lived , lov'd , were Sentenced , and hanged together . The Judg has condescended to second Cook the Sollicitor , and in his squinting Reflections almost demanded Judgment on his King . The spiritual Advocate makes up an Hugh Peters the second , and tells us Vid. Tryal Regicid . p. 30. nearly in the old Villains own Words , not in the passive : ( We have not yet resisted unto Blood . ) But if this Gentleman would be tryed by the Word of God , as his Predecessor , in his Tryal desired to be , he would find the Bible the best Confutation of his Book .

The fifth and last of these prime Senators in our designed Republick was the mighty Sidney , whose seditious Pen was the last too that would have acted its Tragick part on this Bloody Stage , which lay ready behind the Curtains , waiting only for the success of the Plot ; but they happened to be drawn , and he forc't to enter before his time , by its being blasted and unsuccessful ; his final Determinations had prepared to Crown all with the described happiness of a Republick ; and the experienced Holiness of a Commonwealth for fear lest after the Butchering of the best of Kings , they should improvidently set up , but for a resemblance of sole Sovereignty , tho in the spurious issue of a precarious Monarchy , and the arbitrary Management of an Illigitimate Prince . He would have had no shadow of a Monarch to succeed our Matchless Charles , not as the Athenians suffered that Government to dye with their Codrus , because his goodness was unimitable : He had prepared the draught of Hell , and true Roman hatred for its Extirpation , and made a Tarquin , a Tyrant , and a meer Monster , of a pure Miracle of Mercy : The whole Scheam of his Rebellious Principles , which he still denyed with his last Breath , and still owned with the same , with all the Impudence of Jesuits , and their Equivocations too ; he would not own it absolutely , lest he should acknowledg the Justice of the Nation ; he would not deny it positively , because the Nation should know he could answer Filmer : The whole we can't animadvert on , because thought perhaps too dangerous to be publisht ; but what was taken at the Bar , and delivered on the Scaffold , was too much the Truth of a Republican , too much Treason to be divulged , and what can never be too much discountenanced , and refuted . And here you have the chain of a parcel of rebellious Libellers linkt in an orderly Combination , for the shackling of us into Slavery , and the binding our Kings and Nobles again , with Fetters and Iron : I shall begin with the first factious Fellow in the Front , and that 's the Historian .

CHAP. I. Historical Remarks , on the brief History of Succession .

I Don't Design here a particular answer to each Paragraph of his Historical Discourse ; which probably has been as much falsify'd , as any thing the contrary of which could be verify'd on Record , and perhaps cramb'd with as many lyes as ever could be Corrected with truth ; it would be a presumption and impertinence to pretend The Worthy Dr. Bradys . to answer that which has been already done by some unanswerable Pens , the Knowledg of whose Persons , and Worth would deter me from such an And the Learned Author of the Great Point of Succession . undertaking , as well as the satisfaction of their Papers supersedes it ; mine shall be but a few sober remarks , subsequent to their solid Confutation .

And truly in the first place all Historians agree that our English History was uncertain before the coming of the Romans , and without doubt we had reason to want the Tradition of it ; when needs we must , when we had nothing of Learning or Knowledg to deliver it down ; unless we would imagin the silly simple Souls could have left us their own Skins for a Chronicle ; and transmitted the painted Constitution of their Government in the Colours and Hieroglyphicks of their Bodys . But since that Author owns , and that from the good Authority he quotes , that the Nature of it was uncertain ; but that they Strabo , Tacitus , Caes . Com. were subject to many Princes and States , which last Expression I fancy was his own , to make it favour more of a Republick : which I am confident they were then as Ignorant of as we , truly now , of Tyranny and Oppression , which I gather partly from the Constitutions of all Nations at this time truly Barbarous : Since both the East and West of the uncivilized World confirms the warrantable Hypothesis , the most probable Conjecture , which is all at this present governed by its petty Monarchs , and puny Princes , tho' some greater Empires too than any of ours in Europe , no small Argument for the Divine Right of Monarchy , by its being so generally embraced only by the light of Nature , whose Creation was , whose Subsistence is the sole Care of Divinity it self . And besides Dr. Heylin tells us , that at the entrance of the Romans the Isle was divided into several Nations , governed by its several Kings , and particular Princes .

The Druids , as may be gathered out of Caesars Commentaries , had in those Ignorant days all the Learning , and the Law ; But too little alass to let us know whether their Princes were absolute So also Caesar , Bell. Gall. Lib. 6. Monarchs or limited , Hereditary or Elective ; though 't is to be suspected they were both unconfined in their power as well as succeeded by their blood , those poor Embryo's of Knowledg , the very primitive Priests of Barbarous Heathens ; that in their highest felicity were no happier than the first asserters of the Gospel , under Misery and Persecution ; their reverend Hermitages , but the Woods , the Dens , and Caves of the Earth , were far sure from disputing the right of Sovereignty , when only capacitated to obey ; far from transmitting to us the frame of their Monarchy , unless they had known the Egyptian learning of writing on the Barks of Trees , and made their Libraries of the Groves in which they dwelt : The Princes and Monarchs of their Times were wont to frequent those pious places for Worship and Adoration ; and had a Veneration too without doubt , for those reverend Bards that sacrificed ; but were far I believe from subjecting their Regal Authority to that Divinely Pagan , tho' then the sacred Jurisdiction ; tho' 't is reported that upon Caesar's invading them , the very power of Life , and Death , and the Punishment for all manner of offences ; was in their sacred Breast , and such as would not stand to their award , were forbidden their Sacrifices : which Interdiction then was the same , I believe , in effect , with the modern power of our Church to Excommunicate ; but besides another reason , and the best too , why we have nothing delivered from those sacred Oracles of Religion and Law ; why the History of those times is still uncertain , and was never transmitted , is because they were expressly forbidden to transfer any thing to Posterity , or to commit it to Books and Letters , tho somewhat of that sort of Communicating , must be supposed by that Inhibition to have been Imparted to them from the Egyptians , Greeks , Romans , those Eastern Climes through which Learning and Letters had their first Progress .

But whether their Ignorance , or such a prohibition were the Causes why nothing descends to us of the Government of our old Britains , 't is granted by all , and by this Author himself , that it was Monarchical , that Kings Reigned here ab origine , if not Jure-divino ; Though I look on their Antiquity no small Argument of their Divine Right , and for the probability of their Haereditary Succession , which I insinuated above , can , I confess , since we are so much in the dark , be only guessed by the light of Reason , and that I shall make to warrant the Conclusion , from the present Practise and Constitution of all barbarous Nations , where the next of blood still mounts the Throne , unless interrupted by Rebellion , and that 's but the best Argument of our Author for the Power of his Parliaments ; and if only for this certain Reason , we have more Authority to conclude it was then Haereditary , then he only from the uncertainty of the Story , has to conclude it otherwise .

In the next place , I see no reason why his Sentiments should determine other Peoples thoughts , and why we should not think that the following Heptarchy of the Saxons , ( tho they had their seven Kings ) yet still might agree in one rule of Succession , nay tho their Laws were so different too as he would insinuate , which is not absolutely necessary to suspect neither ; for they being all one Nation , and then but just called from their home by our British King Vortiger for his assistance : may probably be supposed to have retained for the Main the general Rules and Laws of their own Countrey ; tho when divided into those seven Kingdoms they might also make a sort of private by-Laws according to the different Emergences of particular affairs that occurred in their several Governments . Can he prove that the Succession of the Saxons in their own Countrey was not Hereditary , when they inhabited in their small Dukedom of Holstein ; and that consequently they retained the same sort of Election , in their new acquired Government here , that they left in their own at home ? this he does not undertake to suggest , because not able to prove , there having been a probable Monarchy all along Hereditary , if Paternal Right was wont to descend so : for that is proved by most learned Pens , and these Saxons are believed to have been the relict of the race of Cimbrians , that inhabited that Chersonese , so called from its Inhabitants , of whom Gomer the Son of Japhet was the Original Father or Prince .

But what ever was their Government before , he allows them to have set up seven Monarchies here : only can't think they agreed in one Rule of Succession , because governed by different Laws , which tho granted , is so ridiculous an Infinuation , that greater Differences , at present , between greater Kingdoms and Nations , far more remote in Place , far more different in Religion , contradicts the Suggestion ; who for the most part , now over the whole World , agree in an Hereditary Succession to the Crown ; and the Argument would have been as strong , and as apparently foolish ( if he design'd it for a Specimen of his folly , ) that since France , and Spain , Sweeden and Denmark , are govern'd by different Laws , we can't imagin them to have one sort of Succession : Which very Rebound of his own Pen wounds his Cause , more than any direct stroak of his Adversaries , for since we see those more different , more distant Nations agree in one Rule , 't is sure a Logical Inference a Majori , that those that were less different might .

And for the Changes and Confusions of those Times , which he urges as an Argument of their uncertain Succession : that is in effect , his very Alpha and Omega ; and his praefatory Suggestion only proved through his whole History , that in times of Confusions and Rebellions , Succession is uncertain ; and so is all Property , and Common Right , all meum , and tuum ; all that the Law of God or Man can make his own .

But as obscure as he makes our Succession before the Romans came , 't is not so dark and unintelligible , but that we may gather light enough from it to have been Hereditary . We won't rely on the How in his Historical reface to Stow 's Annals , contends mightily for such a story citing all our antient Authors , for its Authority , and Cambden amongst the Modern . Fable of Brute , and the Catalogue of near 68 Kings , that are said to have Reigned Successively here before the coming of the Romans , yet allowing it an entire Fable , we may draw from it this Moral , at least , that a Fabulous Tradition sometimes has somewhat of reality for its ground , as the patching up a Centaure , a Chymera with a thought , results from several Objects that are simply real abstracting from the compounded Fiction : And tho we might not have 68 Kings successive before the Roman Conquest , yet that there were several appears , and he owns ; and I conclude Hereditary , from the common rule in all Barbarous Nations , when ever discovered , in which the further back we run in the History of the Old World , the more we are confirmed ; as also the more forward we go in discovering the New .

But tho from the Roman Invasion he leaps presently into the Saxon Heptarchy , yet we may read too , there were many petty Kings that they suffered here after their Conquest , it being the Roman Pride of having Kings their Subjects ; and why those might not still retain an Hereditary Succession , I cannot understand , especially since Dr. Heylin reckons up 16 Kings that succeeded after the Roman Forces had left them naked ; as indeed they were without a Metaphor to the incursion of the Pict ; the first five or six of them lineally succeeding one another from Father Vid. Heylin's , Geograph . Britain . to Son , and the rest not known to have succeeded so ; only because there 's nothing left us of them but their Names .

After the consolidating of that Heptarchy , into a single Monarchy , the learned Man whom I before have cited , has shown this disingenuous Author unfortunately to have stumbled in the very Threshold , and proved by Authentick Citation , that his elected Egbert was the next of kin to the Royal Stock , that all the following Succession of the Saxon and Danish Monarchs ran in the blood , or was disposed of by the Will and Testament of the deceased Prince .

The renowned City of London , as he calls her , is obliged to him for his Civilities , and I shall thank him too for his Complement , in letting her know that her Approbation had heretofore no small Influence on the Succession : And for the securing the Crown on the right head , 't is recorded to their Glory ; and may that glorious act of their Ancestors be still perpetuated in our lasting Annals , and imitated too by the Posterity of her present Inhabitants ; who then adhered to King Edmond their Lineal and Lawful Prince , and that because they knew he was so ; A Prince Worthy of a better time , and who had he found more faithful , and but better Subjects , might have been in Condition to have made it so : His Citizens then clave to him , when his very Clergy forsook him ; but their Religion in those days was too little to expect their Loyalty much ; whereas ours now , as the best Argument of their being truly Religious , still show themselves as eminently Loyal .

The Citizens then , ( for I shall insist upon it for their Encouragement now ) would not concur with Canute's Election by the Priests and Nobility : And why ? Vid. Daniel . because a perfect Exclusion of the right Heir , and the next Lawful Son and Successor to their late King : And the Fiction that the Factious Author tells us , of a Child chosen in the Womb , proves but the Story , the Fable of a Monk ; for which he might as well have cited their Legends M , Westminster , Paris , nor any other Authentick Historians ancient enough , so much as mention it , and our modern Baker says expresly upon Ethelred's Death , his third Son , Edmund , call'd Iron-Side ; but the Eldest living at his Fathers Death succeeded , and was Crowned at Kingston upon Thames ; That a great part of the Nobility favoured the Dane , because they feared him ; but the Londoners stood firm to Edmund , and were the Authors of his Election , and upon his very using of the word here , I can't but observe , what the worthy Dr. has sufficiently proved too ; how common among Historians that word Election is used only for a Confirmation or acknowledgment of the Right , and how against Reason he still misapplies it to Choice : why did he not undertake to prove from Baker too , that this Prince was elected by the Londoners ; only because he says , they were the cause of his Election , which perhaps he would have done , but that he found he must have made that Author contradict himself ; ( as I believe he has done the rest , ) who tells us just before , he was Crown'd at Kingston , as the eldest living at his Fathers Death .

And the Interest of that Metropolis for the right Line was such , and so considerable , together with that Princes own Courage and Conduct , that he remained Conqueror in three several Battels , and had been so in the fourth too , the last I believe the Dane would have dared to offer , had not that false Edric , the Traytor to his Father , acted o're the same Treason to the Son , and revolted in the fight , when the Forces of the Foe , where on the point of flying .

The taking but half his Kingdom at that Duel and Accommodation in the Isle of Aln●y , was more fatal than fortunate , when still his trusty Citizens would have fought for the whole , and spent their last blood for the right Line , they had first espoused ; the parting with some of his right , was quickly succeeded with the losing of all , and his Life to the Bargain , and our Kingdom of England might well be too weak to stand , when divided against its self , and by that Donation of Edmund made half the Danes . So dangerous is it to Princes to forgo the least of their right , which only introduces the loss of a greater share , or to part with a piece of Praerogative , for the patching up some popular divisions , whose twisted Interest like Cords that are a twining , if it catch but the Skirts of the Purple , will soon wind away the whole robe ; the Observation is here verified upon our old Records , and has been newly transcribed in Blood in our latter days ; and the Son of our Royal Martyr reads the best Politicks for the Prevention ; in that unfortunate Testimony of his Father ; and if Sovereignty be somewhat that is Divine , a Subjects robbing of the Crown must be next to that of a Church , and a sin that favours as much of sacriledge .

But to let you know in short the design of this Historian's Complement , upon which we have dwelt too long , the pretty Parenthesis was applyed to another purpose ; 't was publisht at a time when the City was Influencing an House of Commons that were for altering Succession ; and they as great an Influence with the City at a Banquet of Politicks after their Parliament Feast ; and His time to let them know , the † † Brief Hist . p. 2. Approbation of that renowned City , had then no little Influence on the Succession . And besides in the very Stow mentions not one word of this Athelstan 's Illegitimacy ; and his own Author whom he cites for the falsehood relates it but as a Fable , by which Daniel too was deceived . same Page he had prepared for them the pretty President of the Saxons preferring a brave and deserving Bastard , before Him that was the Legitimate Prince : He means that Athelstan , whom he resolves rather erroniously to suppose Illegitimate , than Ingeniously to allow him , as he truly was , the Lawful Heir : But Baker and others tell us the Truth ; tho' he will not , and say this Athelstan was the Eldest , and no way spurious : But the telling of the Truth , would have prevented this malicious Authors Factious insinuation of a lye ; which he forg'd only for an application of it to the times ; and that it might be made more remarkable , he must mark it out in Emphatical Italicks , only to save the crying Monmouth and York . But the Card is turned there now , and the Loyal Heart Trump , instead of his Clubs ; and to be hoped they 'l ever make good the best part of the Observation , which he never designed they should , stand and fall with their Loyal Progenitors , in the defence of the right Line and the Royal Blood .

In short , upon the whole united , and happy union of the Monarchy of the Saxons , give me leave to observe this great Truth , that from their first King Egbert , Even in the Heptarchy it self , if you consult How you 'll find the next of Blood still succeeded . to this Ironside the last , no less then 14 in number ; ( besides that Edward the first , Edmunds Brother , ) all successively Reign'd in Lineal discents of the immediate and next Heir of the Royal Blood ; and most of them too , the Successions of the next immediate Brother to the preceding Prince , no less than four several Brothers ; Sons to Ethelwolf the second sole Sovereign of the Saxons , succeeding one another ; and then with what Face , unless with one more lasting , then I hope his corrupted History , by being all Brass , with what a Front , but such an one , could such a Libel , and Imposture , The True Protestant Legend , to whom ( for ought I see ) a fabulous Monk might seem an Historian , offer at such a part of our History , for the dispossessing the very Brother of his King . But as much as this raging Zealot in Sedition Clamours against Rome ; he runs for assistance to such Authors of that Religion , as even some moderate Romanists condemn , and those are the fam'd † † Parsons , Inglefield , Allen. Triumvirate that clubb'd for the contriving to subvert the Succession , the pernicious piece ; the Book of Sedition , they publisht by the borrow'd name of Doleman .

All the shadow that he has of any thing of Election , was that of the first Saxon King Egbert , whom he would have no way related to Brissicus the last King of the West-Saxons ; but whom some more worthy * * Vid. The g●eat point of Succession , and Dr. B. cites the same out of Sim. Dunelm . and Malmsb. Authors prove from Westminster's own words , that he was the sole surviving branch of the Royal Stemm ; and that he was banisht into France ; and that only for fear of his Right .

But granting then what he is resolved to suppose ; still right Reason will confute his Impertinence even in complying in unreasonable Concession ; the Question here is of the Succession of our Establisht Monarchy , and he brings us an Instance before the Monarchy was Establisht , owns that the History of that Heptarchy was uncertain ; and yet very certainly determins the point of his Election ; and that we must take too upon an ipse dixit of this Dogmatical Historians , for his being no way related , he cites just no body , and while , for his near alliance , you have the Authority of so many .

That other only broken Reed that in all these Reigns he has to rely on , and that like Aegypts too is ready to run into his side , so false , so dangerous to trust too ; which is Edreds being crown'd in the Minority of his Nephews ; when all the Historians say , it was only for their being Minors : And the diligent Baker says he was not then made Protector : only because that Authority was not then come into use ; but crowned as King with purpose to resign , when the right Heir should come of age .

But lest his Modern Authority may be not sufficient with those that malign Flor. worst . Westm. Houden . Malemsb . and Stow , says expresly , he was look't on But as a Protector . any thing , that makes for the Monarchy ; let them consult even the most of the Antients , and they all agree they were only set aside for their Nonage . But this Royal Protectorate soon expired , as if Providence laboured to prevent an Vsurpation ; and provided for the right Heir , who succeeded in his paternal Inheritance , before arrived even to the Romans civil age of Puberty 14. And the malicious Perverter might as well say as great a stress , as you 'll find afterwards he truly does upon Richard the thirds Butchery and Usurpation ; the breaking of the Laws of God and Man for a Crown : All the difference is , Here were only two Nephews for a while debarred , there Butchered ; and shall such bloody Miscreants pass upon the World for credible Authors , who for robbing of a Divine-right , can cite you Murder ; and for the breaking of our Humane Laws , the blackest Crime in the Declogue .

And since this Antimonarchical Zealot , has shown himself thus elaborately studious , to rake every musty Record of those Reigns for a Rebellious remark ; give me leave only from the same times to make this last and Loyal Observation ; where Providence seemed to shew it self remarkably concerned for its crowned Head ; and that in the subsequent Judgment upon the Proto-Martyrdom of the Saxon Edward ; as well as what we suffered since for our Martyr'd Charles ; tho there 't was only for anticipating a right by blood ; but ours a bloody Usurpation of those that had no right at all .

Ethelred's passage to his Reign was but before his time , and the Almighty's ; yet the Government suffered for it as many Pangs , till it quite miscarried ; within fifty years the new Monarchy fell quite asunder , rent and torn by two several Conquests : He himself meets with the Defection of all his Nobility , forc't to raise his Danegelt , and his Subjects into Rebellion by it ; prepared his Navies , only to be shattered with a tempest , or consumed with Fire ; both Elements and Heaven it self , seemed to conspire But because he came to the Kingdom , by ill means arose Civil Wars p. 86. to make him Miserable : Famine and Mortality were the dismal attendants of his Wars , the Depredations of Invaders would not allow peace ; the Reign that begun in a Murder , ended in a Massacre : The incensed Danes soon invade him , the perjured Edric falsely forsakes him ; he languishes a long time , as well he might , under Guilt and Misfortune ; and to put the only period to his days , Miseries and Kingdom together Vid. Daniel . p. 13. Dies .

You see how little success this Author met with among the Saxons Sovereigns for altering Succession ; how much of Imposture his Reader may there meet with in him , and you shall as soon see , he deals as disingeniously with the Danes .

And here thorough his double diligence , this Parliament Historiographer has not omitted an Argument for his purpose , much of the same strength as those that he has used , viz. That Knute was no kin to Edmund , or Ethelred : And the Dane no way related to the Line of the Saxon , that is , the poor conquered England , was not Cosin German to Denmark the Conqueror , and yet the Title of the latter was preferred , and their King , acknowledged ours .

I can't conceive what necessity of Relation an Invader needs to the poor Prince he Invades ; and whether that be not a pretty sort of an Argument for altering Succession , to say the Kingdom was Conquered ; Swayn had before cut out a fine Title for his Son with the Sword : The North , West , and some of the South part of England had submitted ; frightned with his revengeful Cruelties , which their own had provoked : Canute himself after his Fathers Death , lands as soon at Sandwich with a Navy of two hundred , gave our English a great overthrow , possest himself of what Swayn had before harassed ; the West ; and because the Nobility favoured only whom they feared , and set him up in Competition for the Crown , whom they could not keep down from being a Competitor ; ergo , therefore the Succession must not run in the right Line , and why ? because here it did not ; if more absur'd Inferences , can be drawn from matter of Fact , or greater Solecisms from Historical Observation , I 'le forfeit all the little Right I have to Reason ; and with an Implicit Faith , believe the Legend , for a Bible , and his History for the Revelations .

But yet this Prince , though by Conquest and Composition , he got half the Kingdom , and upon Edmunds Death the whole , foresaw what Power the pleas of Right , and Succession might have for animating an Interest in the defence of the poor injured Heirs ; and therefore took all the ways to ingratiate himself with his wavering People ; his young and unexperienced Subjects , and all manner of means for preventing the Lawful Heirs , for attempting for their Right ; sticking at neither Murder , Malice , and Treachery ; and in order to the first , he made a shew of governing , with more Justice , then he conquered , and took mildness for the best means of his Establishment ; and to let the Nation know he designed only to subdue them , sends away his Mercenaries , ships away his Navy ; and for a popular Specimen of an Heroick Kindness , to the memory of the Saxons he succeeded , as a Satisfaction to their injured Dust , prefers Edricks perjured Head , to the highest place on the City Gate ; and with that Expedient , reconciled himself at once to his own promise , deserved Justice , and the Peoples favour ; and yet for securing himself from any danger , from the Lawful Heirs , so politickly Cruel , that all the Royal Blood felt of his Injustice ; sent the two Sons of his late Co-partner in the Kingdom , to be murdered abroad , and got his Brother to be butchered at home ; such an experienced truth is it , that Powers usurpt , Successions altered , like the blackest Villanies can only be Justifyed and defended by committing more .

At his Death 't is true he disposed of his Crowns , by Testamentary Bequest , and well he might , when there was so little known for Kingdoms of Feudatory Law , and private Estates then far from being entailed ; yet in that very Legacy you can observe , what Power the Consideration had with him of Right and Blood ; for he leaves his own Paternal Dominions , Norway , to his Eldest son Swayn , and to his Youngest Hardicanute his conquered England ; considering his Mothers Blood , which was Emma , Wife to the late King Ethelred , might ( as indeed it did ) give him some precedency to his middle Brother Harold ; the one having somewhat of Saxon in him , the other all Dane ; especially , if he was , as some say Illegitimate , tho' Baker calls him an Elder Brother by a former Wife ; so that upon the whole , the Contest that rose about the Succession , was but whether he had Right , and when at last Harald was preferred , 't was upon the Resolution of his being Legitimate ; so that here his own Inference contradicts the end for which 't was brought ; and instead of altering the discent , shows they industriously contended to keep it in the right Channel ; and allowing they were mistaken in their Opinions of his Birth , the Lords to make amends for their error , streight on his Death fetch home Hardicanute ; who dying without Issue , the Right of Blood prevailed again , and the Saxon entred in Edward the Confessor , Edmunds Son only being past by because his very being was unknown ; and so they can only be blamed , for not seeking for the right Heir among the supposed Dead : Yet when this Edward had found him out , he designed both him Vid. Baker Vid. Stow says they did him wrong , and always it occasion'd civil War . and his Son Atheling for successive Monarchs , whose very name imported Hereditary , and next of kin , as much as our Prince of Wales , while the second Harold , but usurpt upon him , against the sense of the Clergy , who even then lookt upon it as a Violation of the Right of the Heir , and also of their Holy Rites : and tho Harald suggested that Edward had appointed him to be Crown'd , Historians say , that it was only to make him during the Minority of this Edgar ; a Regent , and not an absolute King , and Mat. Paris , speaking of Edgar Atheling in the very first Leafe of his History , in these very words , says ; that to him belonged the Right to the Kingdom of England ; and if Birth could then give a Right , I don't see how then , or now , any Power can defraud a Prince justly of his Birth-right .

And now we 'l begin our Remarks on the Norman Line , upon which the very first words of Baker are these , There were six Dukes of Normandy , in France , in a direct Line , succeeding from Father to Son , and yet this Inquisitive Monarch-maker , lays his mighty stress , his weighty Consideration on the single Suggestion of Duke William's being a reputative Bastard ; be it so , have we not here the Majority of six to one , that succeeded , Lineally , Legitimately , and is not these then , like all the rest of their Objections against the Government , rather industrious Cavil , then real Argument ? or allowing it still , is it not most impertinently applyed to his present purpose , to tell us that William the Conqueror was himself Illegitimate , and yet succeeded his Father in the Dutchy of Normandy ? And therefore must we have another Natural , and Illegitimate Duke to wear the Crown of England ? or was the Suggestion only made because they had such a Duke in Readiness , that had already run the Popular Gantlet of Ambition ; and been sooth'd into the Prospect of a Scepter , with the false Tongues of Flatterers and Sycophants ? or else was the Nomination of the Normans to supersede the Fundamental Laws of our Nation ; And our England a Dependent , a Tributary to that Crown before the Conquest ? these Paradoxes must be reconciled by Miracle before such a ridiculous Instance can pass for Reason , or Common Sense , or vindicate the false suggester from Folly and Impertinence .

But even here too his very Assertion fails him , and this Pretender to Truth both abuses his Reader with false Application , and telling a Lye : For this Duke William , tho' a Bastard Born , was not illegitimated , so as to be barred the Crown , and incapacitated for Inheritance ; for it appears , as Baker says by many Examples , that Bastardy was then no Bar to Succession , and by the Canon and the Law of the Church that then obtain'd , the Children born before Wedlock , were de facto truly legitimated , if he afterward espoused his Concubine ; and this his Factious Assistant , Hunt himself allows ; when the Vid. Postscript . p. 53. 55. Wretch endeavoured to Bastardize the Progenitors of his Sovereign , and this many Writers say was the very Case of our Duke William , whose Father took his Mother Arlotte to Wife afterward .

The Donation to William Rufus was again clearly Testimentary ; which might be allowed sure to a Conqueror , whose will only gave what his Sword had gotten ; but however as I observed above in the Westminster and Malembsbury . Stow. p. 124. Legatory Disposition of Canutus the Dane , where he gave his conquered Kingdom to his Youngest , and Norway his Paternal Right to Swayn his Eldest , to whom 't was most due ; so here this Third Conqueror Daniel , says , he obtained it according to his Fathers will . pag. 44. of Old Britain , observ'd the same sort of Bequest , and left Normandy his Fathers Inheritance , and his own to Robert , to whom it appertain'd in Reason and Right ; both these Instances , no small Demonstration , shewing how the Precedency of Blood even in those days obtained ; and with those too whom our Factious Innovator , would have not to value it ; for their giving to any Son besides their Eldest what was theirs by Arms , is no more than what we our selves do now by Laws ; and tho the Fewds now obtain , and Entailments , yet still what 's our own by purchase is unconfined , and not ty'd to descend by Primogeniture ; but at an arbitrary Disposition of the Lord and Purchaser , and which is commonly disposed of too by the Father to some of the Younger Sons ; and a Conqueror that purchases all by Blood , and Wounds , must needs be allowed as much Liberty , as the Miser that obtains it by his Wealth , or a Land Pedler that buyes his purchase for a Penny .

But tho this might be a warrantable Donation , yet you may observe ( as if the donor had not been in it altogether Just ) so it never at all prospered with the Donee ; the very Gift it self , like Pandora's Box , was most fatal to those that received it ; a Vice like Virtue is oft a Punishment to it self as that other a reward ; the not suffering the Crown to descend by entail ; entailed what was worse a War , and both Brothers assault the Testamentary Usurper at once ; as looking upon it notwithstanding the specious pretext of a Will , but a plain wrong ; and where this prejudiced Historian , makes this Rufus to rely on the consent of the Nobles , for the Confirmation of his Fathers Will , 't is evident he only called them together , that by Largesses and Corruptions , fair Words , and Promises , he might win them from assisting his Brother Robert , whose Right he feared , notwithstanding the advantage he had by his Fathers Will might make the Game that he had to play more than even , or give Robert the better by their deserting this Rufus .

And that notwithstanding all his Artifices they did ; and Odo Bishop of Bayeux leads the dance , and notwithstanding says Paris , that he was their Mat. Paris An. 1088. last Edition London . crown'd King , their sworn King , and they must be perjur'd for it , they raised a War against their King William , and set up Robert the First-Born for their King , all declaring the Right belonged to him , and this the Opinion of several of the Nobility , Lords , Spiritual and Temporal ; Persons alway I fancy qualified to recognise a Right , if Religious or Lay-Judges could decide it ; and so well assured were they of the goodness of the Cause that they Veruntamen postea Nobiles fere omnes , &c. conspired for it ; rebelled , and were banisht for it success ; not always attending a good Title , no more than it can Justify a bad . And at the last the most unfortunate end of this Testamentary Prince , may serve somewhat at least to discourage the Religious from invading of a Right , tho it may not 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 not as much an Invader , as his Grandfather the Conqueror , only that came from Normandy , this out of Boleign , that was forct to fight , first with Harold an hardy Foe ; this his Invasion facilitated by the Weakness of a Woman ; but as weak as she was , He knew her Title to be strong , and as strong as this Author would have him with the People , yet he found himself too weak , only with the pretence of his Election to defend his Vsurpation , found an Army of Flemmings would give him a better Title to the Crown , than all this Power of Parliament to the Peopledom , and that a good Garrison would hold out longer in his defence than our Authors House of Commons ; and in truth his being so good a Souldier would not suffer him to be long a precarious King , an hundred thousand Pound of the good old Kings Treasure , did him more good than all their suffrages ; it brought Men and Arms out of Britany and Flanders , and built so many Castles for those sort of Monarch-makers , till the whole Kingdom seemed all over but one CITADEL , and all its Government but an entire Garrison .

Yet as secure as he thought himself Exarserat namque rabies tanta contra eum , ut pene ab omnibus quateretur . ibid. Paris . both in Subjects and his Strength , the prevalency of Right and Justice soon encompast him with as many Dangers : His Nobility begin to be incensed ●●●inst him , and that out of a sence of his having injured an Heir ; The provok't Empress Lands with a strong party , and her presence soon proclaimed the Justice of her Cause , and made that Oath they had swallowed for her , without any Operation or Effect , to work , now as strongly ; a pitcht Battle and a fierce one too is fought ; his Souldiers forsook him at last , as well as his People , and he forc't to fight so desperately , for a cause that was ever as desperate , till himself is taken a Prisoner , by her from whom he took the Crown ; and tho she brought a War for her Right , was received peaceably , entered Her Capital City in Triumph , and by her Loyal Londoners welcom'd with Acclamation and Joy .

And pray what was the Consequence now of this debarred Right , but what always attends it , BLOOD ; the Scots had with a Savage sort of a Revenge shed some for her before , she spilt a great deal before she came to this , and before the ground which had drunk so much Gore could be said to be dry , at Winchester 't is moistened with a fresh supply , and that too with a War of Women ; MATIL'D the Queen invades Maud the Empress , the worst cause , as it is wont , ( prevails best ) and here the Right Heir is again driven from the enjoyment of her Right , by that which commonly does it , the SWORD ; and then at last after all the various events Mat. Paris Justitia de Caelo prospiciente . of WAR , which whatever the Fortune be , must still end in the loss of Lives ; that Just Astraea which then too seemed to have left the Earth , and upon it nothing but wrong look't down from Heaven ; Henrici jus Haereditarium recognovit , Paris his own Words 1153. this fierce King in fuller Assembly than in what he was chose , acknowledges that Hereditary Right against which he had fought , and Henry in the Right of his Mother Maud to be the Lawful Successor .

And one would think now this succeeding Monarch's Right should have been allowed Hereditary beyond dispute , beyond Contradiction , when so much Blood had been spilt in the Defence of it ; when acknowledged so by this Popular Advocates , own People , and before them owned too by him that had interrupted the Succession , and excluded the Right and Lawful Heir .

But what cannot Malice suggest , or Faction invent ? till this transport against Government ; this rage of Rebellion suspends the calm Operations of the Soul , and the dictates of common Sense , till it hurry these blind Pretenders to verity into the greatest falsehoods , transports them into perfect Lyes and Absurdities , and to labour even against the Contradictions of Truth and Reason : Here he still impudently tells us against plain matter of Fact , the Confessions of his own Creatures the People , and the Acknowledgment of his own Favourite the Vsurper ; That in all these Transactions there was no Consideration of any Right , but what universal consent conferr'd .

And his Exception to our Henry the Second's Right must also now result from his Mother Mawds Title before ; I am glad we can get him to tolerate any such thing , as Title at all ; but I would ask this Gentleman ( if he has any thing to dispose of , ) whether he might not cedere de bonis , as the Civilians in another Case Phrase it , only for the letting his Successor and Heir Inherit it , or whether upon such a Cession , or making it over , his Son should not succeed into this Patrimony , till he had knockt his bountiful Father in the head , or he was pleased to step aside into the next World , to let his Successor have more Room in this . I fancy he would be glad such a Resignation might pass , without an Attournment of his LIFE too .

Maud the Empress was sufficiently pleased only with the Succession of her Son , and as Writers say , quitted her Title too , which was apparently acknowledged in letting him succeed . Is the Mothers Right ever the less , when the Son does succeed in her Right , and is there no Difference between altering a Succession , and a refusing to succeed ? Matt. Paris makes her live thirty years after Stephen's Death ; time enough to have resented her wrong , if she thought she had sustein'd an Interruption of her Right , and she must be supposed to be willing to consent to those Conditions of peace , being all concluded with her privity , and she having suffered sufficiently with a troublesom War in England , went over to Normandy for Peace .

This Henry knowing his Right to the Crown was resolved to secure the same Right of Succession to his Son ; and this Vid. Baker p. 48. Stow p. 146 very endeavour for a Lawful and a Lineal discent , does this perverse Author turn into an Argument for Election , and because he only called his Barons Bishops and Abbots to let them know he would have him to be secured his Successor , by making him a Copartner in the Government , and to prevent his being wronged after his Death , was resolved to see him enjoy part of his Right in his Life ; therefore from these fine Premises he draws this Illogical Conclusion , that he was elected by their Consent , and when from Gervas himself whom he Cites it appears , they were by the Kings express Command call'd to his Coronation , and Paris says 't was at his Summons they came to Crown his Son , and by his Fathers own bidding ; and if this Ad Mandatum Regis & Patre jubente . Paris . 1170. solemnity shall make our Crown Elective ; since the Conquest we have had none Hereditary , and our Kings must never suffer any Nobles or Commons at their Coronation , for fear of such Perverters making it a Parliamentary choice .

But if any thing could be condemned Stow says the King expresly caused him to be Crowned by the Bishop of York , without mentioning any other . p. 132. And Baker says the same . p. 55. in this unhappy Solicitation for his Sons security to succeed , 't was only in making him a King before he came to be a Successor , by defrauding himself upon a sollicitous distrust , of part of that Divine Right , when he was by God entrusted with the whole , and making his Son to Anticipate that by his forwardness , for which he should have waited the Almighty's leisure : The Nature of Monarchy being inconsistent with a Duum-Virate , units may be as well divided ; And the very Etymon of the Word contends for the sole Soveraignty it expresses .

And the very sad effects of this contradictory Nec Regna socium ferre possunt nectedae sciunt . Coronation , were the best Evidence of its inconsistency , and verifies the Latin Aphorism of the Tragedian ; that the Crown cannot admit of a shareer or competitor no more than the Bed , the making himself but half King , was like to have lost him the whole Kingdom , Incongruum Regem quem-libet esse , & Dominationem debitam in Regno non habere Mat. pvit . H. 2. and almost made him none at all , they soon animated the young Monarch against his Old Father , and let him know that 't was absurd for any one to be called a King , and to have nothing of Government that is essential to it in the Kingdom .

Daniel calls it the making the Common-wealth a Monster with two Heads ( and what then must it be with many ; ) but withal tells us 't was only the effect of jealousie that this King feared from his Mothers Example , and that some of his false Subjects might also break all Oaths of Fealty to his Son , ( as well as this perjur'd Author has that of his Allegiance to his Sovereign , ) and I believe this alone made this King so carefully Praecipitous , as to prevent the Expiration of his Reign , with an Anticipation of the Grave , and a Resignation of his Rule , with a POLITICAL DEATH ; for this Crown'd Son was soon by LEWIS of France embolden'd to that insolency from having the half , that in plain Terms he demanded the whole , and what the too bountiful Father had no Reason to grant by fair means , the ungrateful Son resolves to obtain by foul , sides with the King of France , and many of the divided Kingdom with Him , and are all in Arms ready for Ruin and Destruction ; neither did they lie down their Swords , till it ended as all Alterations in a Monarchy , in BLOOD , and the Coparcenary King shortly after , his Life ; but a little before reconciled to his too provident Father .

I am sure this shows even the Participation of the Royal Power dangerous , tho by those that had Right to Succession ; and if such an Alteration in the Government can prove so fatal , much more then an altering the Succession it self , and if a Crown can't like a common Conveyance with safety be made over in trust ; I dare say 't will be less secure to cut off entail .

The next Reign that we have Reason to reply upon , is that of Richard the First , and with that his irrational Inferences have dealt as unreasonably ; for he there by his own Confession has no other Authority for his Election ( as his own words R. de Daeto he quotes tho it should be de Diceto , who oficiated at his Coronation , Haereditario jure promovendus , are his words before . have it ) but the words of his Historian , and yet this very Historian , whom he there most impudently traduces and abuses , acknowledges his Hereditary Right to the Crown ; by which he was to be promoted ; before ever he tells you of the solemn Election of the People ; which beyond contradiction confirms what the Worthy Dr. B. has as significantly suggested , that the common acceptation of Election amongst ancient Authors , imply'd nothing less than what our factious insinuators apply it to , and that they meant nothing else but Confirmation or Acknowledgment ; for first , would such a Learned Authority as he cites , only labour under a learned Contradiction , and tell you such an one was promoted for his Hereditary Right , and then in the very subsequent words declare it was by solemn Election . Certainly such Immortal Authors could never wage with Sense and Reason a Mortal War ; and he himself is so favourable to their pious Memory , as to omit all the seeming Contradiction , because not reconcileable to his prejudic'd Interpretation : and when Historians tell you of any thing of Election , ( which he would have popular , ) be sure he omits what ever they say of Hereditary Succession before ; so has he done here : so in most of the Citations elsewhere .

And next also he tells us , that his Father had gotten the Succession confirm'd to him in his Life . Of which many of our modern Historians are totally silent , and afterwards that he was again Elected by the People , of which in his sense , none truly speak : nether is it reconcileable how they shou'd twice solemnly choose him for their King , when even in Poland it self once will serve : but besides , before his Solemn . Coronation , ( or as he wou'd have it ) his popular Election , immediately after his Fathers Funeral ; without doubt upon the consideration Watson and Clarks Case 1 Jacobi . of his Hereditary Right , he exercised as he might well do , and as has been since resolv'd any King of ours may , an absolute Power of a King before this Vid. Daniel . exigit castella & Thesauros patrissuiquos habebat , Solemn Ceremony of Coronation ; for presently he seizes upon his Fathers Treasure in France , Imprisons , Fetters , Manacles the late Kings Treasurer to extort the uttermost penny . I think Says Paris , and has not one word of his Election , but only Coronation . such a severe sort of absoluteness , as they wou'd not now allow our Crowned King . He is there girt by the Arch-Bishop with a Sword ; takes fealty both of Clergy and Lay ; makes a Truce with the King of France , and all this before ever he came into England to be Crown'd or Elected .

And shou'd we yield to this perverse Imposture , the signification of his word for which he has so long labour'd , yet all this while we find his very People more willing to Elect him that had an Hereditary Right , than a spurious Invader that had none at at all , and did actually Confirm him in his Succession : unless the more powerful Usurper terrifi'd them from their Loyal Intentions , and truly the mistaken Gentleman might have as well prov'd that he was the third time Elected too ; when after his Imprisonment that he suffer'd from Henry the Sixth , the German Emperor , after he came home , and had held a Parliament at Nottingham , he was again recognis'd for their King , and Crown'd at Winchester .

But what can be better Evidence of the precedency that was allow'd to the nearest of blood in a Lineal Descent , then Constituit ●rthurum Haeredem ●am legi●imum si ●ine haerede moreretur . Paris in vit. R. this Princes Care he took in appointing his Nephew Arthur to Succeed him , tho he had a Brother of his own , to whom he had shown a liberal largess of his Love when he began to Reign , in bestowing on him no less than half a dozen Earldoms , a good part of his Kingdom : Certainly this Earl John was nearer to him in Blood and Affection , and then what cou'd move him to this Testamentary Disposition , but the more nearness of the other to the Kingdom and the Crown ?

But in spight of all Adoption and Right , JOHN as great an Usurper as any , laid hold of the Scepter and held it too , only as some of our Tenures in Law , by primer occupancy ; he had his Brothers Army in the field , and that was then enough to have made a King of a Cromwel an Hewson , a Brewer or a Cobler , Vid. Dan. p. 108. Baker & Stow , say Arthur , actually did homage to France as King of England . powerful Arms that silence any Law . But still the Nobility were for maintaining the Right of Succession in Arthur , and as they call'd it the usual Custom of Inheritance ; most of his Provinces in France stood firm to him , and so did the King of it ; and had Fortune favor'd him , upon whom for the most part it frowns the Justest pretender , he had not been made a Prisoner to his Uncle , to whom he was a King ; and been murder'd by him after the Siege of Mirabel . But the Barons rebellious Insurrection soon aveng'd the Barbarous Butchery , and but bloody consequences here too attended the Debar'd Right . He is forsaken of all his People ; and the French Kings Son a perfect Forreigner invited in for a King ; and his end at the last as unnatural , as the death he gave to his Nephew .

And here upon the Coronation of this intruding King John , the factious Historian rehearses the Clause of Hubert the Bishop of Canterbury's Speech , that declar'd the right to the Crown to consist only in the Election of the People ; but disingenuously omits the very reason of the self same Prelate ; who when he was pincht with the Interrogatory why he would preach up such pernicious Principles , own'd it more a Design of Policy , than the Sense of his Soul . But to give him a perfect Vid. Paris Edit. Lon. vita John Rowland for his Oliver , he will find in . the Life of Richard the Second , a better Bishop , making of a more Divine Speech ; and asserting the Right of Succession more strenuously than ever this designing Metropolitan was able to confute . But that worthy Prelates Doctrine did no way countenance our . Authors seditious Observations ; and so directly different from his Huberts Vid. Baker & Trussel . vita Rich. II. Bishop Carlisle's Speech . Harangue , that he might well pass it by without reading , and which must certainly have baffl'd him into Blushes to have read .

Henry the Third , a Prince too young to know his Right , much less to be able himself to take Possession of it ; was presently upon his Fathers Death Crown'd King . Certainly upon the Consideration of his Hereditary Right , or the Testamentary Donation of his Father , whom Paris says he appointed M. Paris vit. Joha . ad finem : primogenitum suum regni constituens Haeredem . his Heir as his First-born ; made the Kingdom swear Fidelity to him , sent his Mandatory Letter under the Authority of his Great-Seal , to the Sheriff's of the Counties , to the Keepers of his Castles , that they shou'd all be intent upon the Business ; and upon his death they show'd themselves as ready to perform it ; and what can the most factious Regnumque Angliae illi jurare fecit , Literas cum sigillo suo munitas advice-comites & castellanos direxit ut singuli essent intendentes , & idem M. P. princip. vit. Hen. 3. sic . Defuncto Johanne convenerunt ut Henricum exaltarent . Pen make more of this than an Acknowledgment of Hereditary Right ; especially when the same Author in the beginning of the young Kings Reign says ; they only came together , to Exalt him to the Throne of his Father ; and not one word of their Suffrages or Election : therefore what could not be proved from matter of Fact , must be suggested with an Innuendo ; and because the good Earl Marshal in a perswasive Speech exhorted them to adhere to their lawful Sovereign , it imply'd the Consent of the People requir'd : if such an Assent shall make the Kingdom Elective , 't will be hard to proveany Hereditary ; for all people that do not actually Rebel and Oppose , must in that sense be said to Consent and Elect ; and when ever our Kings are Crown'd , 't is so far with the Consent of the people , that they do not interrupt the Coronation . But can he prove in any of his pretended Elections , much less here , that ever in England they balloted for the Crown , or drew Lots for the Kingdom ; that they had ever any certain number of Electors as in Germany , or carried it by Majority of suffrages as in Poland ; ' tho I believe some of them would make no more of his Majesty than a Bourrough Representative , or a County Knight , and Scarce allow him the Freedom of a Pole .

But with what face can he urge it Stow says only he was Crown'd by Common consent , p. 175. here , when the whole drift of Pembrokes Oration was only to satisfy them the Succession belong'd to the Son , and that the French Usurper Lewis would be the ruin of the Realm ? which Speech was so effectual too ; that several of the Principal of the Barons notwithstanding that open hatred to his Father , in spight of Obligation of an Oath to Lewis , they still thought their Loyalty , and Allegiance more obliging , and revolt from the French-man : till all at last , deserted of all , he abjures his claim and the Kingdom together . After he had been first routed by Land at Lincoln by Pembroke the Protector , and his fresh supplys at Sea near Dover , by Hubert the Governour . And the bold Speech of that stout Vid Matt. Paris , who told him that if his Master was dead he had left Sons and Daughters alive . Souldiers , to this powerful Prince , when he demanded Dover on the Death of King John , was a better Evidence what sense the people had of a Lawful Succession , than he from the Marshals can evince that he succeeded by Election and against the Laws of Descent ; and all that he can pertinently draw from the Protectors Oration , is , that an Infant King did not speak for himself .

But if ought be a blot in his Succession , 't is what this praejudiced Historian I am sure does not care to Hit , and that is the weakness of his Fathers Title that forc't him to strenghten his Sons with a Donation : And Elenor the Sister of his Cousen Arthur who had a Stronger right , did not dye in five and twenty years after he Paris 1241. In clausurâ Diuturna Carceris sub arcta Custodiae 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. E●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 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. 5●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 that was his least Relyance ; for as little 1. H. 4. 12. 52. Vid. Dr. B. p. 25. as he makes of his claim from Henry the Third , it is apparent from some Rolls of Parliament , that he challenged the Realm upon that account , and the Lords were interrogated what they thought of that claim ? upon which without delay they consented he should Reign , and as another Evidence of his Right to Rule , shewed them the Seal of King Richard as a Signification of his Will that he should succeed him ; but that which for ought I see he lay his greatest weight upon , was but what all Vsurpers must most relie on , the Sword , and he himself assures them just after the Sermon was ended , at the time they consented to be his Subjects , that he would take no advantage against any Man's Estate , as coming in by Conquest , and Conquest is one of the first claims he puts in at his Coronation , and as Haward Haward p. 98. Baker p. 15 is . relates it in his Life , not the least mention of his being elected is there mingled with his Claim .

But neither did the success of a prosperous Wickedness Countenance this Usurpation ; for he was soon made sensible that a Crown seldom sits easie on that Head , where it has so little Right to sit , and indeed before it could be well setled , his Lords conspired against him at Westminster , set up Maudlin the Counterfeit , send to the King of France for assistance ; Glendour stirrs up the Welsh to rebel ; the Nobility fell from him , drew up the following Articles against himself , viz. for having Articl'd himself against his Sovereign ; for having falsified his Oath in medling with the Kingdom and the Crown , for taking Arms against his King , Imprisoning , Murdering Him ; that he unjustly kept the Crown from the Earl of March , to whom of Right it belonged , and vowed the Restoration of Him , and His Destruction ; and our Author now shall know these too are Articles Vid. Baker 1●1 . as well deserving to be read , and one thing more that deserves as much Observation ; that this his good Peoples Election , was the prime Principal Cause of losing of Millions of Lives , and an Notwithstanding all these claims Speed says he at his Death owned he had no Right to the Crown , Speed Lib. 9. Chap. 14. Philip De. Comines which wrote then , says to his Remembrance 80. of Blood Royal dy'd . If they long for the draught of Slaughter and Blood that followed this their Election of the Line of Lancaster , then look upon the lamentable List at the end of Trussel . Ocean of Blood ; here entred that Line of Lancaster that had almost left the Nation Childless ; the Nobility and Gentry that escap'd the Sword , were still by the prevailing Party chopt off or gibbited , and in the space of about thirty year and somewhat upwards , they dreined more Blood in England , then e're was spent in the Conquest of France , or would have been spilt had it been again attempted , and that too never have been lost by their Henry the Sixth , had it not been for an altered Succession , and an injured Heir , and the Bloody Consequences of a debarr'd Right .

And now at last , he is forc't to allow an instance of a Prince , that succeeded without the least shadow of Election ; and that in Henry the Fifth , to whom himself owns they swore Allegiance without staying for his being declared ; we are obliged to him for this fair Concession ; but this Kindness is only because he finds it as clear as a Postulatum in the Mathematicks , beyond his own Impudence to contradict ; but however , he must malitiously observe that it was a thing strange , and without President , and why so ? because his Polidore tells him , such an extraordinary Kindness was never shown to any King before ; 't is strange that his Italian should understand more of our own Government , than all our own English Authors ; 't is no wonder sure , if he that was a Stranger to our Affairs , should Write as strangely of it , and make our Mighty Monarchs of Britain , no more then some petty Prince of his own Italy , and as Elective as their Duke of Venice : But this perverse Gentleman shall know it was not without President , and that by several Instances .

And first Richard the First presently on his Fathers Death without staying for their suffrages , seised on his Father's Treasure , was girt with the Sword of the Dutchy of Normandy , took fealty both of Clergy and Lay , and exercised all the Authority that Sovereign power cou'd allow before he came to be recogniz'd by their Suffrages , or to his Coronation . Vide Daniel .

2. Hoveden's Account that he gives of King John's coming to the Crown , which as some Writers say , is the best extant , says they swore Fealty to him when he was out of England , without mentioning any thing of preceding Election ; and he had his better Title , his Brothers Army then in the field ; by which he cou'd have made himself soon their King , had they not been so ready to receive him .

3. Upon the Death of Henry the 3d. the States Assembled at the New-Temple , and proclaimed his Son Edward King : when they knew not whether he was living or dead ; swear Daniel . Fealty to him , and cause a New-Seal to be made . Here sure are some presidents of Allegiance before their Election , unless he 'll make Declaring or Proclaiming to be so ; and then in Gods Name in that sense , let them as he contends for be Elected ; for I think all will allow they are proclaim'd . But suppose on the death of a Predecessor there was no convention of any of the Nobility Vid 4 part In Stit. 46. and Jenkins Lex Terrae . p. 7. or Commonalty ; for Parliaments they then can have no Existence when the Breath is gone that gave them Being ; as all other Communitys , are de facto dissolv'd . If , I say , there were none met to Declare or Proclaim his Successor ; must the common Maxim be contradicted and the King dye too , for want of their Popular Breath to give him Life ? or do our Laws admit that this interval between his Predecessors expiration and the proclaiming or crowning his Successor shall be call'd an Interregnum ? they know the Constitutions of our Government admit no more of this than an Exclusion . They know that immediately by Descent King James was declar'd to be completely and absolutely King , and that by all the Judges 1 Jacobi Watson & Clark . Vid , also Calvins Case , Cokes Rept . part 7. of the Kingdom . I know the Kings Successor is always immediately proclaim'd upon his death ; and that perhaps is more for the proceedings of judicial Processes ; and that Writs may presently run in his name : But were such a Proclamation obstructed , I am satisfi'd he commenc'd an absolute King upon the very Minute of his Predecessors Expiration ; and if the Law Maxim won't allow an Haeres viventis ; there can be no Heir at all , if he begin not to be so presently upon his Predecessors Death ; and for an Evidence of Fact , as 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 idolatrous Admirer of his own created Gods , see in these particulars , and even in his own presidents that he cites the mutability of Mens minds , and the contradictory Conclusions of this his infallible Council , while Right it self must still remain the same , and the decrees of Heaven can't be cancell'd , since the very Laws of the Persians could not : and still when our own in this point of Succession were repeal'd , we find it turn'd all into Confusion and a Hell ; and for a more sudden alteration in this vein and humor of Parliament , observe but this single Instance , and that in the very season of which we are discoursing . In the 38 of this Henry the sixth , a Parliament was held at Coventry ; by that vid. Stow 38. H. 6. p. 406. the Duke of York too is attainted of Treason , and all his Adherents . Their Heirs disinherited to the ninth degree , their Tenants spoiled of their goods , maim'd , slain ; but in the very next year , of his Reign , the very same Coventry Parliament declar'd by another , to be a devillish Councel , celebrated for the destruction of the Nobility ; never elected , unduly returned ; desiring the destruction rather than the Advancement of the Commonwealth .

And now can the most popular advocate of the Party , from the perusal of Stow 39. H. 6. p. 406. these their inconsistent irregular proceedings , make them absolute Arbitrators of Right ? They must resolve themselves into this Absurdity for a reply ; that the supream Power of the Nation for its own security , can justly do wrong .

We have seen several Subjects against all Reason ruin'd with an Act of Parliament ; and therefore shall we think it alway to do Right ? What Reason can we give that our Courts of Equity are still the same , but that they can't be controll'd by the mutability of their Statute-Law ; and granting this their Bill of Exclusion had past into Statute , that it had been Enacted a Royal Heir must be debarr ▪ d of his Birthright , I am sure the general Council of the world , would quickly have given their Opinions against this great one of our Nation . And tho their Codes and Digests don't obtain with us , yet I cannot see why a Prince shou'd be deny'd the priviledge of a private Person ; And the Brother of our King , the claiming his Right in Equity , what is allow'd the meanest Subject when forecluded by the Law .

The next immediate Succession of the Crown descends as immediately to the Buck whom he cites in R. 3d reign no good Authority , who contradicts his Murdering of his Nephews and makes him no way deform'd , against the sense of all Historians . But that prejudic'd Author might well flatter the Tyrant when one of his own name and family was the Monsiers minion and favorite by his own Confession . next of Blood , and as for the most part it has done since the time of the Saxons , from Father to Son ; the Fifth Edward , as hopeful as unfortunate , and the more in affording our Factious fellow , another president for an Assembly of Rebels , that prefer'd the very Murderer of their Soveraign , and a pretended Parliament that plac't the Butcher of his Brothers Children on the Throne : And truly this Monster might be said to be Elected by the People , whom no God or Nature design'd for the Crown ; and who was forc't to break the Laws of both to come at it ; and a sort of Election it was like those we had of late in the City , with Rout , and Ryot , and that in the same place too at their Guild-hall , where the Duke of Buckingham very solemnly convenes the Mayor and Aldermen , and there propounds to them and the rabble , their new King Richard , and it was like Vid Stow Baker . to be a fine sort of National Choice , that was to be decided by the Freemen of L. Bacon calls him a King in fact only , but Tyrant in Title 1. p. London . But whatever Influence , as this Gentleman observ'd , they had on the Succession , nothing of their consents could be gather'd but from their silence , for suffrages they had none , they being all surpriz'd with so strange a Proposition . Their Buckingham Elector with his Aldermen and some of their Retinue cry up a Richard , and so carry'd all with a House of Commons Nemine contradicente : And now for his Bill in Parliament , made rather by a pack't Convention of Buckinghams for the Bastardizing of his Soveraign's Issue , that very Roll of Rebellion acknowledges his right by Lawful Inheritance , grounded upon the Laws of Vid. 1. R. 3. the whole Record in the Exact Abridgment fol. 712. Nature and Custom , and God himself ; also this which was rather a Convocation of Rebels than a Convention of States , acknowledgd what this inconsiderate Author cites them to Contradict , the Lineal and Legal discent of the Crown by Proximity of Blood , but in this acknowledging of an Usurper the good Bishop of Ely then oppos'd and for it was Committed to Buckingham's Custody , and Stow calls it all a Stow p. 460. meer mock-Election .

And here enters all in blood , & that of the Blood Royal and Innocents , the meer Monster of a man , that beyond her intention , seem'd to crawl into the World while nature lay asleep , with a distorted Body the proper receptacle for as perverse a Soul ; and in him the third great Example that our Impious Author vouches for the Practicable Presidents , of a Parliaments abetting the plain Usurpation of a Rebel to the Rebellious deposition of a King that Reign'd ; and consequently , the subsequent Murders of those that had the right , and those damnable Proceedings against Edw. 2d . and Richard 2d . and these poor Infants has he more Elaborately handled than all the rest of his abominable Treatise ; and the Contradictory Wretch calls the Murder of the Nephews Barbarous , yet pleads for the power of a Parliament that Introduc'd the Tyrant for their Murder , for they were as much dispatch't by their suffrages in the senate , as by Tyrrel in the Tower ; they were the Ministers of Injustice that sentenc'd them out of their Right , and that other only an Executioner to dispatch them of their Life ; for the History of all Nations , and too sadly that of our own , verifies it for an experienc'd truth , that the Destruction of those that have right , certainly follows in all Monarchies , the bloody Vsurpation or the popular Election of him that has none , an Association will needs follow an Exclusion , for whom they have expell'd , they must destroy , for such Murders as are grounded upon MAXIMS of State , must as necessarily follow the Foundations upon which they are lay'd ; for whatever Usurpers undermine an old frame of Government , their Interest obliges them to remove as rubbish all that shall obstruct the raising of the new ; and the dangers and fears from excluded deposed Princes , or the poor injur'd Heirs , soon makes it absolute necessity to cement the Walls with their Blood .

The best remarks that can be gathered from the following Reign of Harry the Seventh , are to be found in the Lord Bacon's 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 ●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 the sole Subject of the Bill , in an Attainder it is by Consequence and Common Law prevented , and so the disability being but the same in both , the defects by the same means may and must be purged .

The president the Judges cite to justify 1. H. 7. f. 4. B. Town dit que le Roy , H. 6. en son readeptiondel reign tant son Parlia . & il fuit atteint & ne fuit Reverse . Al auter Justice dise que il ne fuit atteint , mes disable de son Crown &c. & dise que eo facto que ill prist sur luy le Royal dignity que tout il fuit Void . this their Opinion , is not only applicable to their Case for which 't was cited , but much more so to the very project of Exclusion ; which I 'll prove too from this Sophisters own reasoning : It is the Case of Henry the Sixth , who by Act of Parliament was Disabl'd to hold the Crown ; which was as particular an Act for the depriving him of his presum'd right , as this their Excluding Bill would have been of an unquestionable one ; Town , one of the Justices that debated and argued this point , vouch't this H. 6. Case as an Attainder ; but was Corrected by the rest , and told that he was not attainted , but Disabled to hold the Crown , but even that that was void assoon as he came again to wear it ; and seem to conclude that then à fortiori that an Attaindere would be purg'd away by the Descent ; and sure if this was then Law , and that even for the Line of Lancaster , who had Defects of Title to be purg'd besides of tainted blood : 'T is strange to me why a York now , and such an one too ; in whom both those so long disputed Titles Terminate and Concenter , should be Disabl'd for ever by that Expedient , which was resolv'd unable to prevent the Succession so long agon .

For Argument that an Attainder hinders the Crowns Discent , has this presumptious Interpreter of the Law brought the most impertinent piece of Application , that the defect of sense could suggest , and so has as little reason , as Truth , to tell us that this Judges Resolution Brief Hist ▪ page 7. on Attainder , is not to the present purpose pertinent , for that a discent is insufficient to purge attainted Blood , he cites the Sense of the King of France , and the Learned advice that was given him to send his Son Lewis Because King John's Blood was corrupted ; but he might as well have told us because John is said to make over his Kingdom to the Moor , we are all now Subjects to the King of Morocco ; the true reason of the French mans sending of his Son , is what will at any time incapacitate the Crowns Discent , and that is the Rebellion of the Subjects , and yet those very Barons that Rebell'd never insisted on his corruption of Blood , never made it so much as a Plea for their Rebellious Insurrection ; nay themselves thought him so far from being disabl'd by it , that they prefer'd him even to the very right Blood , which was incorrupted in his Nephew Arthur ; but allowing it then Law , this resolution that such Corruption is purg'd , was made long since , and must now be as Legal , tho the Contrary before had been never so much Law , so that here he has only taken the pains to be impertinent and that too for the telling of a Lye .

But as his Villanous heart , had falsely forg'd before that the Learned in King John's time invited Lewis over only because they thought his Attainder had incapacitated him to take the Crown : when all the while they made nothing but their Magna Charta and their priviledges the pretence for their Rebellion , and would have been certainly glad of such a suggestion , when they were so well Resolv'd to Rebel , ( tho I look upon this Inviting in of the French-man rather as a Retribution of a Remarkable Providence , that retaliated on his head the same sufferance from his Rebel Subjects , which his Soveraign and own Father had suffered from himself as Rebellious a Son , who sided against Henry the Second with Philip of France the Successor of a Lewis , as these did with a Lewis a Philips Successor . ) With the same falsehood and forgery would he have the world believe that the Line of Lancaster was so long approv'd , only because that of Yorks was Attainted ; which when purg'd in Parliament , he says , they then presently forsook the Lancastrian : But if he pleases to Consult my Lord Bacon he 'l find that Learned Historian History H. 7 ▪ tell him another tale ; and that the Lancaster Line was always the less esteem'd by the people , and how the Parliament could purge the Duke of York only by declaring him Heir Apparent I cannot apprehend ; for whatever can be warrantably past by a Parliament to warrant Obedience , must be what is past into an Act too ; unless one of their Order'd and Resolv'd shall resolve it self into a Law , for such a Statute must , ( tho it were for the declaring an Heir Apparent to the Crown , ) have the Royal Sanction of some Lawful King , which could never be Consistent here , with this their most inconsistent Declaration ; for the granting the Duke of York to be their Heir Apparent , in the same Breath pronounc'd Henry the Sixth an Usurper ; and the very words that declar'd York an Apparent Heir . made him de facto their Lawful King ; for they must either allow that he was the Crowns Heir , and then that had devolv'd to him long before by Blood and Inheritance from Lionel Duke of Clarence , Elder Brother to John of Gaunt , from whom the Lancasters claimed , or else they declared their Lineal , Lawful King , an Intruaers , Vsurpers Heir it is an unavoidable Dilemma ; if the first , then an acknowledgment , of an irreparable wrong , done to their Lineal Soveraign that had an unquestionable right , if the Latter then most absur'd and contradictory in making him an Heir to the Crown from that Henry , that himself never had the least Title to the wearing it .

From whence I conclude , that any such supposed Act ( and it must be allowed that if not an Act that then it signified nothing too , ) that purged Richard Duke of York from his Attainder , could never have the Royal Assent , unless most absurdly from one that was no King ; for either it must be past by Henry the sixth , and then the thing he past un-King'd him ; or else by the Duke the declar'd Heir , and then but a suppos'd Subject in the very Declaration , or rather a Lawful and allow'd King in admitting him to pass a Bill , and so superseded such a superfluous and Declaratory Act.

Lastly , even in this very point the Seditious Author supersedes the pains of any Loyal pen for the Confutation of the false Position he would prove , and in the very same Paragraph baffles himself to prevent an Answer , and tells us that Richard Duke of York 's Corruption was purg'd when declar'd Heir Apparent by Brief History p. 17. the Parliament , and that therefore the People 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 , ●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 ●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 powerfu● Parliament dealt a little hard with th● latter , whose Mother was never divorc't but from her Life , and she pa● off for a spurious Off-Spring , only upo● the pretended suggestions of Anne Boleyn unknown impediments , confess 't sine to Canterbury . But whatever they were the Canons of the Church , tho born b●fore Marriage , and since after the ver● Laws of the Land did make her Legit●mate .

But however , this greater piece of● justice to this good Protestant Quee● ( 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 , ) w● palliated all along with the pretence of providing a Legitim●●● Lawful Successor , and so the cle●● Reverse and Contradiction of th● proceedings of our late Patrio● 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 acclamat●● 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 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 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 jure must be Kings ; they know the first of James declares his Royal Office an Heritage Inherent in the very Blood of him , 1. Jacob. and also that all our Books of Law besides the Fundamental Constitution of the Land , do make the Regal Power Hereditary and not Elective , and such an Elected Usurpers Laws can no further oblige the Subjects of England then they they 'l submit ; no more then the Czars of Muscovy , a pecuniary mulct must be but a bare oppression ; and a Capital Punishment MURDER : But Will . Prynn , I Pryn's . That the Parliament and Kingdom are the Sovereign power , a piece Printed by Order of the house of Commons . Confess in another of his Treatises that he Printed , will have all such Acts made by Consent of Vsurping Kings , bind the right Heirs of the Crown that Reign by a just Title : That all such Acts oblige them is utterly false , for one of them is commonly for their Exclusion ; but that some are admitted to bind is as really True , but that is rather upon a Political account of their being serviceable to the Publick and the Country's Good . And is it not now an unaccountable boldness ; that the very same Cases of Usurpers upon the Crown , that this Indefatigable piece of Faction publish't against the Father they fought , and Murder'd ; should be retrieved against the Son whom the kind Heavens ev'n by Miracle so lately restor'd ?

But at last allowing those palpable falsehoods they so much Labour for ; falsehoods so gross that they can be felt , to be matter of Fact , contradict the true sense of all Chronicle ; with a Seditious Supposition ; to be secur'd of Truth , give all the Laws of the Land the Lye ; raze Rolls and Records , the better to rise a Rebellion ; and grant the Kings of England have been all Elected , all almost from that Union of the Heptarchy in the Saxon ; to that of our three Kingdoms in the Scot , ( and sure no Soul living can conclude with them in afairer Concession than in granting the very Postulate they require ) yet since they then in the End of K. James , tho but so lately had settled the Succession and made it Hereditary ; can with men of Common sense the Presidents of its having been formerly Elective , prevail for an utter Subversion of such a Settlement ? Popery was once in England by Law Establish't , and must it therefore again be Establish't by Law ? Certainly all succeeding Reformation , must null and abolish that from which they Reform ; and a Repealing Act will hardly be made Declaratory of the very Statute it Repeals ; if these be but their best Arguments , the same you see will reason us back into the very Religion of Rome ; we have seen several Rebellions , and some even of late to have lain the Land in Blood ; and can such sad Sufferance be made to Prescribe for our Misery , warrant some such as Bloody to succeed ; but since all this suppos'd suggestion , must vanish like to soft Air , since the Succession has been settled for so many several ages ; to rake every musty Record only for a sad Review of some Time of Confusion , is certainly but an Impious Industry to Confound the work of the very God of Order : We may as well be discontented at the Frame of his World he so well digested , and plead for Prescription the Primitive Chaos .

CHAP. II. Remarks upon Plato Redivivus .

THE best Animadversion that I can make on his whole first days Discourse , is that it wants none ; that it's Impertinence has superseded reproof , and the fulsome flattering Dialogue as unsit for a serious Answer , as a Farce for a Refutation out of a Sermon .

The great acquaintance these pretending Platonicks would be thought to have with that Sect of Philosophers , did not oblige them to be so morosely reserv'd as to know none other ; and they may remember an Ephesian Sophy I believe as Learned too in his Politicks , that was never so much tickl'd , as when he saw the dull Animal mumbling of the cross-grain'd unpalatable Thistle ; the disputing against the Laws of the Land , and the Light of Reason , they 'l find as uneasie , as absurd ; and the latter as Impious and Profane , and which deserves to be assimulated to a more serious sort of Obstinacy , that of so many Sauls kicking against the Pricks ; but the Pleasant and Ridiculous Disputants put in for another pretty Quality of that insensible Brute , the length of their sordid and stupid Flattery outdoes their Original Beast , and the sad Sophister would force one Smile more , to see three of the same sort of Creatures for a whole day clawing one another .

Certainly whatever they fancy the Dialogues of Plato , whatever the Favourers of his Principles can suggest , surely they were never fill'd with such Fustian : But that good old Philosopher did as plainly cloath his Disputes as well as himself in an honest homely Drugget of Athens : Tho I confess they tell us of his rich Bed , and his affectation of State , which a Soul so sublime could not but Contemn ; while these Sectaries are such refin'd Academicks , so much polish't with Travel and the breeding of the Times , That all the Fops of France , the Dons of Spain , his Adulano of Italy , seem melted down into one Mass of Impertinence ; they can't pass by the thin Apartments of a Page without a Congee Bon-Grace , and a formal Salutation upon one anothers Excellencies , the Doctor claws the Patient with his Lenitives , Frications , Emollients of Praise and Adulation , and the Patient ( who in the literal sence must be said to suffer with such a Doctor , ( if not in Body Natural , I am sure in the Politick ) as in Cordial Affection and Common Civility he is obliged ; returns him the reputation of his Book De Corde ; for the tickling the very Auricula's of his Heart : ( for Praise must certainly be Pleasant for an Aesculapius that sets up for a Matchiavel ; ) confutes Solomon and the Bible , as he says , for saying , the Heart is unsearchable , tho but Vid. Argument to the Book . an Ordinary Divine without the Criticks , Tremellius , or a Munster would say , that in the Text there is nothing meant but the mind : But Cor hominis must not be Inscrutabile now , only because the Doctor has handl'd its fibres ; and thus this Triumvirate of Fulsomness and Faction , treat one another with their Fustian and Foppery through the whole piece ; I seldom care to lard our English with the least scrap of Latin ; but because 't is the property of such pedantick Scriblers , who still most affect what is most ridiculous , Foppery and Folly , I 'll only give them an Argument out of the Mathematicks fora Demonstration of their agreeable Faction and Foolishness ; and for his Cor hominis as it relates to this Doctors Pharmacentria , let him take one of Euclid's Postulates that has a greater reference to their mighty Three : In English thus , and if they will have Lattin Quae conveniunt uno Tertio conveniunt inter s● . 't is in the Margin : Those that agree in one Third , must needs agree among themselves . The Venetian 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 sullying 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 He allows Moses to have had no help of any Preceeding administration , but only the aid of God himself . Pag. 29. English-men under a true Monarch , or like the Venetian Republick , under an insignificant Duke : For this certainly must be the Consequence of his Inconsiderate Assertion , that Original Governments is unknown , at the same time that he excepts Moses from the Number of those that Establisht a Particular one ; which by the Consequence of his own Concession must be the first General and Original , unless he allow another before it , dis-believe the very Bible , and give his God the Lye : But he is not the first Author that has fancyed Prae-Adamites , and writ about them too : Besides his Brother Heathen the Stagyrite , as great a Philosopher as his Plato , tho not so Dogmatical , makes it more than an Hypothesis , one of his Principles that our World was Eternal ; and then indeed we shall be puzzled for this Original of Government in General , for lack of a Creation ; when the Bible shall be baffled , and Books of Moses at a loss .

But I wonder since he allows that Primitive Penman , to be one inspired by God ; and excepts him too from the Number of those that have transmitted an account of the Original of particular Governments , which must imply that he did of that which was General , and so contradict his first Position , ( That we wanted such a Tradition ; ) that yet all the while he won't take notice what is the account he gives , and what 's the first , this Moses mention'd , without doubt he knew the very Consideration of it would confute him , and that he would be confounded by the very First Chapter of Genesis : And therefore he presently takes it for granted that Politicians conclude , ( tho none but such as himself ) that nothing but Necessity Page 29. made the first Government : But then , what does he think of the Dominion that the Almighty gave in express Words to his created Man ? was it only to extend to the Beast of the Field , and Fowls of the Air , and every Living thing Genesis 1. that then moved upon the Face of the Earth ? or ought it not in Reason be applyed to those Beings too that should be hereafter the product of those Beasts , and that of his own Loyns ; but even God himself confirm'd the Donation of this power afterward , to make it more sure , made him Ruler In an exprest Subjection over his Wife Eve , and afterward subjected Abel in a subordinate one to his Brother Cain .

'T is strange and prodigious to me , that Men professing Christianity , Protestants even to a fault , in being fill'd with Fury instead of a sober Zeal , yet should so warmly contend for the Doctrines of profest Atheists , and pursue with heat the Principles of some zealous Papists . Does not Mr. Hobbs teach us our Ibid. only Mr. Hobbs says , Fear , this Fellow calls it Necessity that made the first Government , Hobbs decive ch. 1. Original State was that of War ? and this Political Atheist tells us as much , that Man was first born like a Beast , only to prey upon one another ; does not Bellarmine declare by Nature all Men were equal ? and this Pseudo-Protestant informs us , Every Man has a Right to every thing . What can this Harmony mean with the profest Foes to all Religion , and those that they fear for such Enemies of our own ? but that these Sycophants dissemble with their very God , when they declare for his Worship , and would close with the Devil for its Extirpation : 'T is plain , they do with the Positions of some politick Jesuites , and the Fiends in Hell can't be made more black than themselves do with rage and against all reasonable charity for the Faults of some few set out their whole Society , whom I am afraid , as the Indians do their Gods , they only make the more ugly for Adoration :

In the next place , all Paternal Right Plato , p. 31. must be laid aside ; that 's a thing so ridiculous as not to be mention'd : But I hope 't is only so because inconsistent with his Principles , when we have so many Texts of Scripture for its Confirmation ; and Aristotle that learn'd Heathen , tho' a Native born even in a Republick , places that Original of all Despotical power in the heads of Families , and I can't see where a man that has a Power to Lord it over some few , has not a share of Sovereignty too , as well as he that has an Empire over many more : The Government of those Families , and the setting their Father a Ruler over them in their several Tribes , was really from God , as appears plain enough from the Old-Testament ; and that without doubt made Paul to make this of a larger extent and Interpretation in the new , when he tells us expresly that all * * Rom. 13. ver. 1. Powers are ordain'd by God , and there are none but what are from him : But they 'll say this may be apply'd to any Democracie which is a Power too : But then it may be as boldly reply'd , That they are not of his Ordination ; for we have the Authority for the sole Sovereignty of every Father of a Family , from the very first Original of the World , and that of their Popular Supremacie , never commenced but by some Division in a Tribe or Family , and even then they made some Head in that Division , which was no more than what we now call Rebellion and Vsurpation .

The first Original of Monarchy , he resolves Page 33. into the Corruption of the Times , which the preposterous Statesmen ought rather to have made the product of their Purity , at least of their desire to be bettered and purg'd , for allowing what he says , some better Government ( tho the greatest Opposers of the Divine Right , grant that of a King to be the best ) might degenerate , upon the disorder of Times and Debauchery of Manners , into Monarchy , ( which the resolute Republican is resolv'd shall be the worst ; ) yet still his own very Argument shall contradict his reasoning ; and in spight of his Villanous Principles prove it the best : For if manners be deprav'd under another Form of Government , and that the People grow so careless as to neglect the Constitution and Frame of it , as not worth the keeping , and so uneasie under it as to admit any Usurpation and Intrusion of a sole single Soveraignty ; certainly they must have a very bad Esteem of their preceding Government to suffer it to be utterly abolish't , and somewhat at least of a good opinion of that new Soveraignty in a single Person , so easily to admit it ; for the depravity of Mens manners can never arise to such an Acme of transcendent Wickedness , as only for mischief sake to undermine a Government they think the best , and for an Instance , their own Malitious Accusations as common as they are False , fly in the very Face of this Conjecture ; for they make now the most Debauch't Atheists at present , the greatest Sticklers , for our Government . Now if the Depravity of their manners would make them neglect the Monarchy they love , I am sure we have such a Number of true Profligate Villains on their side that as Mortally hate it , that we should soon have it undermin'd : 'T is a strange Paradox that a Republick which was always the result of a Rebellion , and which is restless till it return to that Government from which it revolted ; should be lookt upon by these prejudic'd , preposterous Politicians , for a piece of Reformation , which can proceed from nothing else , but from the Turbulent Humour , and discontents of some restless Spirits , that dislike the Constitution of that under which they were Born ; and would that of any to which they are Subjected , yet still can Fancy that Monarchy which they will have Establish't by the common Consent of the People , to proceed from a Corruption of their Manners ; when this their Peoples Consent , and Unanimous Agreement for it , should determine him at least to think it eligible for the best : And if that part of the People ( which always in a defection from a Monarchy must be suppos'd the least Number , ) shall be allow'd to reform for the better by running into a Republick ; as I know he thinks of the Rebellious Dutch ( which Polity wiser heads , and honester hearts may , and do for ought I see fancy , the worse ) yet why should not even there the Vniversal Consent of almost all the King of Spains Subjects in retaining of their Monarchy make it preferable ; much Over-ballance the Scales , against the revolt of an handful of Rebels ? unless he fancys the Authors of such pieces and Positions ; to be the Best , the Wisest and the most Honest part of the World , and that they are always among such Renegadoes .

And can in Reason three or four petty Common-wealths , most of them in Europe too , and such as by the Machinations of Our own Isle ( that so lately experienc'd the confus'd Anarchy of the Common-wealth of England ) is the most competent Judg which Polity is the best ; to whose restor'd Monarchy the words of Paterculus may be well apply'd . Revocat● in urbem fides ; summota seditio e foro , &c. Vell. pater● . Hist. Lib. 2. some of these sort of Male-Contents , and by the Poison of their Principles , were Debauch't in their Loyalty , and animated to Rebel ; be so prevalent an Argument as to perswade Men in their Wits , that the Monarchies in which almost all our Christian World Conspires , and all the Heathen agrees as far as it is known ; and which Government we have still found even in those unknown parts as far , and as fast as they have been Discover'd ; that this all the while must be the worse Frame , only from it's being by so few rejected , and so generally receiv'd ?

But to Convince any reasonable Soul unprejudic'd , that these Domocratical Devil's won't stick to give their God the Lye , and set themselves a Contradiction to all History and Truth , this Daemon of Plato ( as an Ingenious Author and Answerer of his Diabolical Principles has naturally nam'd him ; ) let him but consider this single Falsehood of his Factious Heart , ( tho' that I believe fails him too , ) in asserting this Impudent Paradox : That Moses , Theseus , Romulus , were the Founders of Democracies , Page 52. when for the First his own God , ( if he believe any , and against whom he Rebels too if he do , had appointed him the Supream Ruler , and also a Judge , to lead On the morrow , Moses sate to Judg. the people Ex. 18. 13. them in their Decampments , and give them their Laws in the Camp , against whose absolute Monarchy he can object nothing but that they did not call him King , and yet even that is done too by those Primitive Rebels in the Rebellion of Corah ; when they Expostulate with him for making himself altogether a Prince over them ; that is , what our Modern ones call Arbitrary , Absolute ; but even that is literally said , and Moses was King in Jesurun . And will our Numb. 16. Murmurers at the Lords Anointed never be Convinc'd till they are Confounded with the same Fate , till Fire come again from Heaven , or they go quick down into Hell ?

The Survivors of those discontented Mutineers upbraiding Moses for destroying of that Rebellious Brood , whom God only in his Judgments had destroy'd , the Almighty would have Consum'd them too in a moment ; neither was his Anger stay'd till Fourteen Thousand fell in a Plague , our Land has Labour'd under all these Judgments ; but because the Almighty's resentments of our Rebellious Practices ; are not declar'd to us as of old , out of a Cloud , and he does not reveal himself now to his Vice-gerent , as then to his Servant Moses ; and the Glory of the Lord discends not in a visable Brightness upon our Tabernacle , Must we therefore be so vainly blind as to think they were not sent us for those Sins that have most deserv'd them , our Conspiring against our Rulers ; especially when the manner of our Punishments has been so Remarkably the same with their sufferings , as well as our transcrib'd Villanies the very Copy of their Crimes ?

For that of Theseus we have the good Authority of an Authentick Historian that writ his Life , who tells us when he first went to reduce them to one City , and the Government of ONE ; the Common Ordinary people were well enough pleas'd with his Proposal : And to those that were Powerful and Great , Plutarch . In Thesco . Remp. absque Regia dominatione fore si Regem seconstituerent . he told them his Government should not be altogether Regal , ( which in their Greek , was Tyrannical , ) if they would allow him for their King ; this prevail'd he says upon them too , either out of Fear of his Force , or the Power of his Perswasions ; now can such a False and Factious Imposture , can such a Wretch Insinuate well his being no King , that calls himself so ; and only because he Consulted their Opinions in Weighty Affairs make it a Democracy ? then we need not contend here for a Republick , our King still Consulting his great Council in Arduis Regni .

And for Romulus his founding his Lucius Flor. Hist. prima aetas sub regibus fuit prope 250 per Annos . Rome a Democracy , so far from truth that I defie him to show the least shadow from any Colour of History for such a piece of Imposture ; Florus in the very First line of his Prologue calls him King Romulus , and in the same tells us Rome in it's first Age and Infancy , for about two hundred and fifty years , was Govern'd by Kings : Tacitus too in his very Tacit. An. Lib. 1. Urbem Romam à principio Reges habuere . first , Remarkable too for an unintended verse , tells us , that in the beginning 't was Kings had the Government of the City of Rome ; and afterward tells us this very Romulus Govern'd them Arbitrarily and at his will , Sext. Aur. vict . says Sext. Aur. de vir . Illustr. he was the first King of the Romans , that he lead them forth against the Sabines ; that he fought , and that he made a League , which none I think but Kings by Romulus ordein'd an 100 Senators , which grew to 300 , in Fortescues time there were just so many in our House of Commons , Fortescue . C. 18. fol. 40. Coke . 4 Inst. C. 1. And had we therefore then no King , their number is greater now , and must therefore our Monarch be less . themselves can do ; so that should it be allow'd , what is contrary to some of the very Express Words of our formention'd Historians , that Romulus was not an absolute Prince ; yet still here is still matter , and Evidence enough to make him a Monarch , and the Government of Rome Monarchical : which surely Contradicts his extravagant Assertion , That it was a Democracy ; unless he can reconcile the Contradiction of , Sole Soveraignty with the Government of a numerous Senate .

Another of his pretty Paradoxes is , that all Empire is founded in Dominion and Property ; and that must be understood too of a Propriety in Lands ; so that where a Prince has not a foot of Land , he can't have twelve Inches of Power , a Position that would confine some Princes Authorities in the Dimension of a Span ; notwithstanding Kings are said to have such long Arms ; but pray let this positive Politician tell me , How it comes to pass that the Property of an owners Land is so inconsistent with the Prerogative of a Prince over those very Lands that he owns , or why those that have the greatest Interest in this his property must presently have the greatest Portion too of Power and Property , in the Government ; that is ( only to contract his Absurdity ) why the Peasant that has two Acres of Land , and the Prince that has but one , should not presently be prefer'd to be the Prince , and the Prince Condescend to be the Peasant ? The Question might be soon answer'd with another Quere , Why this King cannot be as well Born an Heir to the Crown , as his Countryman to the Cottage , tho the latter commonly has Land about it when perhaps a Crown may have none ; For certainly according to his Position , a King must have but an Insignificant Power , that has not a Foot of Crown-lands , and then to have it to any purpose , to extend his Empire over all his Subjects , the Hereditary Lands of the Crown ; must by his own Rule necessarily make up more Acres then all the Kingdom besides ; and as he observes , that within this 200 years the Estates of our greatest Nobility by the Luxury Page 37. of their Prodigal Ancestors being got into the hands of Mechanicks or meaner Gentry , by his own Platonick Dogma these Plebeians must have the Power and Aurity of our Nobles ; that is a Rich Commoner must presently run up into the House of Lords , and a Lord perhaps less wealthy descen'd into their lower-House , for they must allow their Lyes more power in our House of Peers , they being a Court of Judicature , which the other can't pretend too .

The Disorders , Confusions , and Revolutions of Government , th●t would ensue from the placing this Empire , and Power , only in Dominion and Property ; which according to his own extravagant Position , I think may be better render'd Demesn , would be altogether as Great , as those absur'd Consequences of this Foolish Maxim are truly ridiculous ; for we must necessarily have new Governours as often as a new Demesn All Lands are mediately , or immediately held of the King as Soveraign Lord . Eliz. 498. Ass. 1 18. could be acquir'd ; for meaner Persons must have greater share too in Publick Administration's , assoon as they grow mightier in possessions : But besides this simple suggestion as full of Folly as it is , carries in it's self as much Faction too , it is but another Invention of setting our Parliament again , above our King , and the making him according to their old Latin Aphorism , Greater than a single Representative ; and less than all the Body Major singulis , minor Universis . Collective ; for he thinks it may be possible the King may have a greater portion of Land than any single Subject , but I am sure it can never be that he should have more than all ; but this Sir Politick Ramble , has wander'd so much in the wide World , that his Wits are a straggling too ; so full of Forreign Governments that he has forgot the Constitutions of his own . Is it not a receiv'd Maxim in our Law , that there is no Lands in England , but what is held mediately , Vid. Eliz. 498. Ass. 1. 18. or immediately from the King , that are in the hands of Subjects ? does not himself know we have nothing of an Allodium here , as some Contend they have in Normandy and France ? tho they too are by some of our best Civilians Duck. de Authoritate , Lib. 1. c. 6 contradicted ; and as great many Eminent Lawyers of their own tell us that the Feudatory Laws do obtain , and are in force through all the Provinces of France too ; so that their Lands are there held also still of some superiour Lords ; and he knows that our greatest Estate here in Fee , is not properly free , but held mediately or immediately of the King or Donor to whom it may revert ; and 't is our King alone as our Laws still acknowlege that has his Demesn his Dominion free and holds of none but God ; and our Lord Cook tells us , whom this Gentleman may Credit , as having in Vid. Cook . 1. Inst. C. 1. Predium Domini Regis est dominium directum cujus nullus Author est nisi Deus . some things been no great Friend to the Monarchy as well as himself ; yet that Eminent Oracle tells us that no Subject here has a direct Dominion , properly , but only a profitable one , ( not much better perhaps than the Civilians usufructuaries , ) and what becomes now of this Gentlemans & the peoples Power , & Empire , founded in Dominion and Demesne ? must the King have the less Power over his Tenants , only because they hold the more , and can't he have a right of Soveraignty over the Persons and Estates of his Subjects without Injuring them or their property ? or must his Subjects , according to this unheard of Paradox , as this their Property grows greater , encroach the further upon his Power and Praerogative ? none but our Elect Saints must shortly set up for our Governours , and I know this Factious States-man can't but favour his Friends Anabaptists and Quakers , his absurrd Politicks here Extraordinarily suit with some of their mad extravagant Principles , he lets them know , Empire is founded in Dominion ; and they thank him , kind Souls , and tell him Dominion is founded in Grace .

Two or Three whole Leaves the Copious Page 98 , 99 , 100. Author has alotted for the service of the Church and Clergy ; and there we find the Devil of a Re-publick has so possest the Politician , that he openly declares against God and Religion , and his Atheistical Paracelsus that confirms his Brother Brown's Aphorism , to be none of his Vulgar Error ; that 't is thought their Profession to be so ; I mean the Doctor in his Dialogue , interrogates his Matchiavel what he thinks of our Clergy , why truly 't is answer'd : He could wish that there never had been any , page 98. the Christian Religion would have done much better without . He presumes much it seems upon his own Divinity , but if that be no founder then his Politicks either of them is enough to send him to the Devil ; and on he goes , in a tedious railing against the Frauds and Rogueries of our Church when 't was Romish , all impertinently apply'd to the present , that is now so much reform'd . But would not the most refractory He call's ours a mungrel Church , from it's Innovation he means of Ceremonies . Jew , take this Snarling Cur , for a Mungrel Christian , that libels that only Church that maintains the Gospel in it's greatest purity ; and as a wise Prince well observ'd the most reform'd in the whole Christian World .

And 't is no wonder now , that such irreligious Impostors , who have so little veneration for the Church , should broach such pernicious Doctrines against our State ; to which , after so long and preliminary Impertinence that half the piece is made a Preface , the Courteous Traveller is at last arriv'd . And first he begins with their old Factious assertion that the Soveraign power of England is in King , Lords , and Commons , making his Majesty but one of their three States : we all know when this pernicious principle was first set a foot , what it terminated in , BLOOD , and that in the Destruction of the best of Governments , with the best of Kings ; we quickly saw , when once they had made their Prince Co-ordinate , they soon set up their own Supremacy , and then assoon made him none at all . Did this prophetick Daemon foresee from his Astrological Judgments , that his House of Commons were drawing another Scheam of Rebellion , and that they had prepar'd a draught of a second Covenant not only for making our King Co-ordinate but Leveling the Monarchy with the Ground ; yet 't was convincing enough to me before that the broaching of the very same principles , did as really design the same subversion of the State ; this Plot might as well have been seen in 80. when this Author and as great Incendiaries appear'd in publick , and so popular ; and well might a late House of Commons animadvert on our Judges for suppressing such Seditious Libels , which were so Zealously kind , and impudently bold , as to set up their Supremacy , it had been ingratitude not to stand by those Villains that for their sakes had forfeited their Necks .

This very same Principle of the Subjects Soveraignty was Printed , and publish't in 43. preparatory for the Covenant , which the Commons had then call'd for out of Scotland ; and up rises this Ghost again in 81. as if even then it had heard , ( for Spirits are very Intelligent ) of an Association talk't off in Parliament ; but I 'll tell him in short why the Soveraign Power of England , is not in King , Lords , and Commons ; because King , Lords , and Commons are not all Soveraigns , may not our Monarchy be call'd Mixt in Opposition to its being Absolute , and Tyrannical ; without making it a meer Hotch-potch , that if our King will have any thing of his right of a Soveraign power , he must put it in Medley with that of his Subject , as our Sisters are oblig'd in Co-parcenary : But tho he take his Treasonable Maxim , for Reason , and Truth , without shewing the least Law or Reason , I shall shew him from all of them , that it is both Irrational , Illegal , and a Lye .

First , 'T is against Reason to Imagin there can be three such Powers Co-ordinate to make up one Soveraignty ; and that our King can at the same time pass for a Monarch , for Soveraignty is inseparable from a King , and that 's the Reason without doubt we promiscuously call him our King , or Soveraign ; The King calls them , Adjourns , Dissolves them at his pleasure , and this long Practices prov'd from the Chronicles of our Land and its Fundamental Law . Speed , 645. 4. Inst. 27. 2. and if our Lords and Commons will assume it , they may ee'n take the Crown too ; we saw how the participation of a Soveraign power , tho it was but in a shadow , and that by him that had a better pretence for the Soveraignty then all the Common Subjects can have , by being the Crowns Heir , was like to have unhinged the very Monarchy it self in the Reign of Henry the Second ; and rais'd such Commotions in the State till it was almost overturn'd : And I am sure we have found , and felt , that this Co-ordinacy of their three States , terminated at last like the participation of that Co-parcenary Prince , into an insolent demanding of the whole , and what they had made but half the Kings , they soon made all the People's ; until the Government was quite run of the hooks , and the Nation engaged in an unhappy War , and a down-right Rebellion .

Does not the very Etymon of Monarchy it self express the sole Soveraignty of that Government they would make so preposterously Mixt , and even Archon alone , which was the next Titular Appellation , the Loyal Athenians gave to the Son and Successor of their Matchless Codrus ; only because they thought Medon . that no Succeeding Prince could deserve the Title of Tyrannus ; which they made to terminate with him , only because they presum'd his goodness surpast imitation . Tyrant then was not apply'd , as some of our Inveterate Traytors have Sidney , whose very Motto , Manus haec inimica Tyrannis . done it since , in it's Corrupted sense , ( tho to the most merciful King , ) for a Tarquin or Caligula ; yet even this word Archon without addition of Sole that 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 that has since succeeded to make it Monarch , was then an Absolute Government of one amongst the Athenians , and continued so in the same Family for a long Season ; till at last by popular encroachments it was made Annual , and this Contender for this Co-ordinate power of the People , has expos'd his Damnable designs so plainly to his Disputants , that his own Conscience and Soul up-brai'd him for the Villany , and makes his Venetian interrupt him for making an English Monarch , but a Duke of Venice ; tho the Doctor , the Pontaeus of the Page 114. people , that sucks up all the Poyson of Rebellion , like that of Toads , only for the Tryal of his Skill , and then thinks to cheat the Devil with an Antidote : He politickly opines however , that he has made him too Absolute , if ever there were a medley of more Malitious Villains met to Libel a Government I 'll forfeit my Page 105. Neck too it , as well as they ; Heaven and Hell must be reconcil'd ( which without a Recantation , will be so for their Confusion ) before these their Contradictory defamations can be made consistent : But in this the Politick Rebels agree , to secure an Odium upon our Monarchy in both extreams ; and making the most opposite Objections serve for one and the same purpose , it 's absoluteness and Tyranny must make it all Bug-bear formidable , frightful , at the same time that their holding the Reins shall render it all Hobby-Horse , Ridiculous and Contemptible .

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 Eigh●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 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 & Cari●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 ●y'd as inferior Judges or limited to the Letter of the Law . Vid. St●●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 , l●b . 12. C. 1. Fleta L●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 ●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 .

AParallelbetweenthePropositionssentthelateKingbytheRebelParliament,andtheRebelliousProposalsofour 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 Cap●●ne of a King . Carisbrook , and the Isle of Wight could not have born with of much Indignity , as was offered to him he●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 . ●1● . 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. ●●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 Gentlemans 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 , M●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 ●● ; 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 Com●●ns Antiquity Asserted ? why must the●●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 word● of a Pri●●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 ●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 ●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. 52● 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 & Consu●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 * * Salmasiu● has the same sort of simile . page 3●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 against whose more dangerous Sedition there was lately made special Provision by a particular ‖ ‖ Act for Regulating Corporations , where they particularly swear , they abhor the Trayterous Proposition of raising Arms by His Majesties Authority against His Person . Oath .

Lastly , to conclude the Confutation of this sad silly sort of Sophistry , this Seditious Nonsense , 't is shrowdly to be suspected that from the same sort of Sophisters fallacious Inferences was first insinuated that prejudicial Opinion ( I call it so , because it looks like a Doctrine of some concerned party ) That Societies were not punishable in the next World for the Villanies they had committed in this : That is , the Members were not to suffer there , for what they had acted in Relation to such a BODY here : this Religious Absurdity has been Publisht by some Seditious Pens from the Press , I wish I could say not imposed upon Loyal ones too , both from that and the Pulpit ; for Errors , especially when coloured with the bait of Interest , tho first hatcht by the Brooders of all bad Principles , till well examined may delude the very best : I know it may be returned with some seeming Reason , that Crimes committed here , as a Member of a body politick , can't well in Justice be laid to the Charge of any particular Person hereafter ; for upon the dissolution of the natural one , the Relation to such a Community ceasing , the Guilt and Crime contracted should dye too : But the Judge of Heaven has declared he won't be mockt , tho they thought those of the Land might . How contentedly would some of the Regicides have given up the Ghost , could they have pleaded to the Almighty their Innocence of the Royal Blood , from the shedding it in Parliament ? But tho National Sins , may require reasonably the sufferings of a Nation , and no more than what for this very Sin , our own has since suffered ; therefore to suggest the single Individual , the singular Sinner shall escape with Impunity hereafter , because not punisht here , or that because several of them suffered here for that Martyrs Blood ; and the Treasons of an Vniversal Body seem'd to be punisht in as general Conflagration ; that therefore the Criminals have superseded their sufferings in Hell , and may now dare Heaven ; for my part , seems an Opinion as ridiculous as the Popish Purgatory , and their being saved by a fantastick Fire : 'T is almost an Irreligious excuse for all manner of Crimes and Immoralities ; the Constitutions , Circumstances of Men being so various , that I dare avow scarce any Villany , but may be committed by Communities , or the Politick Relation of the private Person to some publick Society . In short such Law , and such Divinity , would make the worst of Rebels , ( that is incorporated ones ) fear Hell no more than they would the Hangman , and baffle the Devil , as well as the Gibbet .

And I may well here so warmly condemn these sort of damnable Doctrines , when they were so hotly maintained by the rankest of our Rebels and Republicans ; and this very Daemon , this Devil of Sedition , can only countenance his Rebellious Positions with the making use of His Majesties Authority for the Ratification of his Proposals , that is , the Destruction of his own Person : For 't is a great Truth , I wish I could not say an experimented one , that the granting them these Regalia , would not only be an Act to bereave him of his Crown and Dignity , but would pass his very Person into the Donative ; a yielding up of his last Breath , the making himself his own Executioner , as well as a Betrayer of his Trust : This Project is only the pernicious Principle improved ; the late Rebels falsely assumed His Authority , for the Fighting against His Person ; but the prevailing upon him for these Destructive Grants , would make Him truly Fight against Himself .

In all the Reigns of the three following Henries , their Soveraign's Supremacy was still asserted , and that over Parliaments too , tho one of them was but an Usurper on the Crown , and then I am sure as great an one upon their Privileges ; and tho themselves had placed the First in the Throne , themselves also acknowledged * * 1 H. 4. the Regality of the Crown of England to be Subject to none but God : To the ‖ ‖ 2 H. 5. Cap. 6. Second , they acknowledged that to Him only belonged the Management of Foreign Affairs , with Foreign Princes : To the † † 32. H. 6. 13. Plowden . 334. Third , that he could constitute County Palatines , and grant any Regal Rights per Letters Patents . And these were Matters and Affairs , themselves then declared they could not pretend to , tho this Gentleman would now have them or their Counsel manage all .

In Edward the Fourth , and the Fifth's time , 't was always received Law , then made , and should I hope , hold still , that State Affairs were to be manag'd by the Prince ; for it was then allowed for * * 22. Ed. 4. Law , That if all the Common People of England should break a League , by agreement with any Foreign Nation , it shall still be reputed firm and unviolated if without his consent : And in his very ‖ ‖ 1 Edw. 5. fol. 2. Sons that Succeeded , resolved by all the Judges and Serjeants , that he was the only Person in the Kingdom , that could do no wrong ; which sufficiently declares him above all them that could ; and then who so fit for all absolute Power in all publick Administrations , than whom the very Law presumes always to do Right ? and whom Reason tells us must be most impartially concerned for the publick good ; having no dependance upon any Superiors , from whom an Apprehension of Fear , or hopes of Favour might prevail upon to degenerate into that servile and sordid Complyance , to prefer his own private Interest before the publick good , Whatever Presumption the Law had of it then , I am sure they have a Prince that justifies the Supposition now ; and then the most ungrateful Paradox , and against Sense it self , for our Seditious Souls to suggest , and insinuate his Real Intentions for their Good , to be nothing but Design and Plot upon them for Ill. An ORDER of Council , with such Sycophants is turned into a trick of Court ; And their Kings Proclamations are obeyed , only because they cannot conveniently resist , as if the whole Board was packt only to please a designing Prince .

But , base Villains , your selves know that his aims have ever been for the publick Peace and Prosperity , even at the same time your dangerous disorders have made it almost inconsistant with his own safety , and security : You see your Soveraign Sit and Act in a Sphere , ( and that only He ) where Favour cannot charm , or Fear frown into Compliance : And who can be supposed , then , besides him , less prejudic'd , or more concerned for your good ? Would you have your Gentlemen of the Shop and Yard take their Measures of the State too ? We have experimented already that those made the very Government a Trade also ; and by those your very Properties and Lives too , would be bought and sold , we too lately saw some Symptoms of that state 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 o●nes metu● 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 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 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 th●● own Re●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 ‖ ‖ P●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 afterward swallowed up too , and called their Assembly of Divines by special Ordinance ; then it was as soon ordained , according to the Resolution of the Lords and Commons , that all that Hierarchy , should be utterly Abolisht , as an Impediment to Reformation and Religion .

Thus you see their Mar Prelates , their Pryns , their Leightons , with their Libels , then first led the Dance , for the destroying that Order ; and I wish we had never seen so great an Assembly as the Senate of England seduced to follow them ; but shall we not suggest the danger of a second Destruction , when the same Designs were afoot ? Did not a Temporal * * L. Shaftsb . Letter . Peer some ten years agon fall very foul upon these Spiritual ones , in a Libellous Letter , that laid all the Obloquies that Malice or Lyes could invent upon their Lordships ? Was not there ‖ ‖ Discourse of Peerage 16. 89. p●r . Lddlollis . Papers Publisht , when the late Popish Peer was to be put upon his Tryal , to prove that they then had not so much as Right to sit as Peers ; tho they never set themselves aside , but with a salvo jure ? Did not they debate it even now in Parliament , where such a thing was never questioned , but when the Order it self was brought into Question ? Did not these † † Plat. pag. 237. the 5. Proposition . very Republicans about the same time , publish that the Clergys having a share in the Soveraignty , would ever be a Solecism in the Government ? Was not the Paper of Vnion about the same time to be presented to the Parliament , just such another piece as Pennington's Petition ? Designing Knaves ! your selves supersede all such serious Expostulation : Your selves are satisfyed , you had several Designs on Church and State , which you may well disown now , since the sad success seems now to make you Fools too ; that presumed upon your Parliaments patronizing , whatever the most profligate Person could * * 35. of El. petition'd to be repezled too in the late Rebellion , and actually was 〈◊〉 Act for relief of peaceable People , against the Rigor of former Stat. 27. ●ept . 16 57. propose ; and defyed your King for getting better Patriots ; consider only the sacredness of that Order , the Antiquity of the Constitution , and the fundamental Law upon which it is founded . And then tell me whether without Irreligion , Innovation , or Rebellion , by which it once was , it can be once again abolisht ? Malitious Miscreants ! those that in the worst of Times could in publick Parliament ‖ ‖ Lord F. Speech to the Com. 1641. upon Commitment of the London Petition . compare them to the Pharisees , to the Dog in the Fable , to the Destroyers of Vnity , upon pretence of Vniformity : yet those were forc'd to confess , that the very first Planters of Christianity , the Defenders of the Faith , against Heresies within , and Paganism without , both with their Ink , and with their Blood , were all BISHOPS . And here I am sure Establisht even with Christianity it self , a Convention of them being called by Austin , the first Founder of it here : The † † L. Digby's Speech to the Com. upon the same . Noble Peer , that was for Clipping the Wings of the Prelates , was compelled from the Suggestion of his own Conscience , to allow , forc't in spight of Faction , to grant that their Function was deduced from all Ages of Vid. Lord Newark's Speech . yet Assembly of Divines declared it against the Acts of all reformed Churches . the Church ; a Function confirmed by the Apostles ; a Function dignifyed with the Piety of the Fathers , a Function glorified in the Blood of the most Primitive Martyrs , admired by all the Reformed Churches abroad , and till that time flourished in our own at home .

The Sacredness of the Institution , you see is sufficiently declared ; the Saviour of our Souls , sending such to work out our Salvation : His Embassadors , his own Apostles , sent their Successors , the primitive Martyrs , and least Laborious Cavil and Industrious Detraction , should make these primitive Prelates be bare Elders , prime Ministers , or Assembly Men , the very Text , the Testament it self , tells us , even in all its Translations , they were BISHOPS : tells us that was their Title ; his Disciples , his own Emissaries officiated under that Denomination , and all our ‖ ‖ Vid. Euseb . Lib. 4. c. 5. 6. who tells us Constant tine In his Expedition , against the Persian , had his Bishops about him to consult in a Council of War . and is their judging now in Capitals a Crime ? I am sure that other was a more Bloody Business . Ecclesiastick Writers deliver it down to posterity , that by that very order all the Christian Churches throughout all Asia , where they were first Establisht , to their Progress Westward , as far as they were propagated , were all under their Government and Jurisdiction . I need not insist on it , on their being the most Divine , or the most Antient Order in the whole World , Envy , and their Enemies , Faction and their very Foes confess it , all that 's left is to shew how the Laws of the Land confirm it :

And that those of the very Britains , Saxons themselves , and Danes demonstrate : the Brittish ‖ ‖ An. Dom. 686. Cook 4. Inst. C. 74. pag. 322. Bishops were Assembled in a Synod for a thousand years agon ; and Athelstan one of the First Soveraigns of the Saxons , ( with whom I am sure they never then disputed the Legislative ; ) even in his own * * Leg. Athelst . C. 11. Episcopo jure pertiner . omnem rectitudinem promovere Dei & seculi , omne Legis scitum & Burgi mensuram Spelm. p. 402. Laws allows them the Management both of Matters Civil as well as Ecclesiastical , from a just Presumption of their Knowledg in the Statutes of the Land ; they presumed as much upon their Equity , and Justice , and made them Managers of all the Measures and Weights , and such was their publick Administrations then , and so since , that they were still made the Chief Ministers of State , which made them not only Famous in their Ages , but beneficial to posterity ; and tho I never enjoy'd the Benefits of their Bounty , shall for ever Reverence their pious Memory . It was from their Liberal Largesses , most of those solid seminaries of sound Learning and Loyalty , were first founded and establisht : They can boast of more Bishops , for their Founders , than ever Kings for their nursing Fathers , tho their Princes goodness was the more to be admired in preferring those that did so much good ; and were these , thou venom'd Head , the ‖ ‖ Plat. p. 101. Vipers of their Age ? the Cheats , the Hypocrites of those Barbarous Times , whose blessed , and most Monumental Labours , can make the most Civil ones now to Blush ?

In the time of the Danes , the first Harold himself , call'd Harefoot , at a Convention of the Princes and Prelates at Oxford was Proclaim'd , and Crown'd Kings Writ of Summons runs cum Prelatis , colloquium habere . King by Elnotheus , Archbishop of Canterbury ; and sure then the Law allowed him to meddle with Matters of State ; In all our old Councils . * * Vid. 1. Inst. p. 110 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 . 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 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 ; 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. Dryd●● . 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 pretend to so much Candor , and Sincerity , that had so little Shadow for such a Pretention : His Falshoods look'd as if he designed , and thought , he could have imposed upon the Government and his God ; and , in spight of Providence , to have secured himself from the Justice of that which was established ; and at the same time made sure of the favor of those that were for undermining it . The one was to be blinded with his being Author of the Bishop's Right : The other imposed upon with his Penning the Postscript . But however he deceives himself , the Almighty will still make good his own Word , That he won't be mock'd . He has denounced express Judgment against a double Heart , and the Nation now deserv'd Justice , To such a Sycophant . With what Face can such a Rumper tell us in the tayl of his Postscript , that no Passion or prejudice perverts him against the State of the Kingdom ; when all know that it 's being thus established , not only lost him a place in the Law ; but disappointed him of being an Irish Judge ; and thus the virulency of his Pen , betrays the truth of His Passion , which he would Apologize against with a lye , and that it can rise as high as any Furies , for as deep a resentment of an esteemed Injury ; when the Government all the while was far from doing him any wrong : But if it should meet with him now , I dare swear would do him Right : And this is altogether Reasonable the World should know , that the best of our Rebellious Male-contents , tho' they strive to palliate their Passions and Prejudices against their Governors , with a show of being impartial and indifferent ; that 't is but a meer shadow to could the Fire that Glows within , while truly still implacable , impatient , and impossible to be govern'd , and that those that pretend but with Moderation to discommend many things in our Monarchy , have nothing in them , but the meer Malice and Spirit of Republicans .

And this will appear from his very first Paragraph that provokes my Pen , He lets us know that the Church of England is like to fall into that of Rome , * by the unpresidented folly of some of her Sons ; Fall , by a Divine Fate , ( as pag. 8. 9. he makes his Holyness to say ) for her folly . That is , ( as he must mean by Consequence ) for maintaining a Divine Right : For to this purpose ( says he , ( Sir Robert Filmer's Books were reprinted , and others for the same . And truly , I am so far of this Gentleman's Opinion , that the good man the Pope may very likely call it a very foolish thing , and laugh at the Doctrine of any Kings Divinity , that endeavors to set himself above all Kings , so that unkind even to himself , and his Friends , the Dissenters ; he unawares ties them up together with the Tenents of the most turbulent Jesuits of the Romish Religion , and endeavors with the self same Arguments and Objections , to set up the popular Supremacy , that those Politicians do the Papal . But first only let me beg a postulate or two from him that pretends to be a Christian , which an Infidel or Heathen won't deny , much less then one that has the Bible , for an asserting its belief , viz. 1. That power in general without appropriating it to any particular Government , is somewhat that is Divine , not barely , ( as it is exercised by some Humane Beings below : ) but as it is communicated to such from their God above that is all so , and hath it as one of his Attributes , any of which is Infinite , and adaequate to the Divinity it self . 2. That this power is actually communicated to some Being here below for their better Government and Subsistence , no Humane Beings but such as desire to live like Beasts can well deny . 3. That this part of God's Attribute so communicated to Man , from his * * Gen. 1. Verse 18. own Mouth Dominion imparted , cannot cease to be Divine , notwithstanding such a Communication , though to a Creature Humane , all that understand the least part of Divinity will assert ; and without any supernatural Illumination , even from this natural simile of the Sun's Light can easily comprehend , which tho' it dart its rays through almost an Infinite Darkness ; yet wheresoever they are extended still remain Light , neither is his own by the Kindness of such a Communication the less . So that taking it for granted which must be , that a power of Government is communicated to us here below by the God that Governs this and all above , and this so communicated , remains still Divine where-ever it is lodged , the Question is reduced only to this , Whether it appertains to a Multitude as many , or a Sovereign Sole , whether with their St. † † 1 Pet. 2. 13. Peter , 't is seated in the Ordinance of Man , or the Powers with * * Rom. C. 13. 2. St. Paul are ordained of God ?

That this Divine Power and Right is ‖ ‖ 'T is probable the consent of the people at our Coronations began first to be used when our Kings came to the Crown by bad Titles , as K. Steph. H. 4. R. 3d. and so superfluous when a Successor has one so good , & the People can be only concern'd in their own Usurpers they put up , & a good Author tells us , Heylin's History Edw. 6. that he was declared their King by the Bishop , without the form of asking consent , Vide also Mills of Cant. his Catalogue of Honour , from thence Heylin has it . in Kings , he has superseded my Labour to prove , by letting us know 't is the Opinion of most of our Orthodox Divines , and their Sentiments are sufficient to determine the point , especially in Matters to be prov'd from the Bible , whose best Explanation one would think must be found amongst those whose Profession it is to expound , unless you would imagine the Bishops the better Readers upon the Statute , Hunt and his Casuists the most Conversant among the Critiques . That this power Divine is plac'd in the People , I 'll shew is the Opinion both of some violent Jesuits , and the most virulent Phanaticks , and their Seditious conspiring in the same sense , the most powerful persuasive with me that their Sentiments are Erroneous , their Positions a Lye .

Bellarmine * * Bellarmine de Laicis l. 3. C. 6. tells us , God has made all Men by Nature equal , and therefore the Power is given to the People . † † Buch. de Jure Regni p. 11. Buchanan tells us , That they have the Power , and from them their Kings derive their Right . ‖ ‖ Doleman l. 1. C. 3. Parsons proves , Kings have been Lawfully chastised by their Subjects . * * Knox Hist. 372. 343. Knox says , Princes for just Causes may lawfully be deposed , or bridled by the Nobility * * Suarez defen. Fid. Cath. l. 3. C. 3. Suarez shows , the Power of Deposing a King to be in the Pope , or the Common-wealth . ‖ ‖ Calvin's preface to Instit. 2d . Edit. And Calvin seems for the suppressing the rage of unruly Kings , as well as the Ephori did those of Lacaedaemon . † † 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 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 being Rational , debase his very Nature so much as to call it Justice ? Would they ascribe an Omnipotency to this their power of Parliaments , beyond that of the Almighty , and blasphemously allow to this their Created God , what the Schools would not the Divinity it self , to reconcile Contradiction ? but still these Statute Mongers , that can make any Miscellanies of Parliament for their turn , this they will defend to be Legal , only because it was past into a Law : Let it be so , but still there must be much difference between this their Legality , ( which now in their Sense can be nothing , but the power of making Laws , ) and common Justice , which must be the Reason , for which they are made , and what is contrary to that , and all Reason , by the Laws of God , and all Nations must be null and void , otherways the most Barbarous Immoralities that an Heathen would blush at ; by such an indefinite Legislative would be truly Legal , only because they are past into a Law ; Murder it self made Statutable as soon as ever those that have the power have Sign'd it for an Act. These Suggestions of Consequences are far from being extravagant , because at , present , the Principles that lead to them , are what but very lately have been Printed and Publish'd ; and the very Practices themselves , not long since put in Execution .

This * * Postscr . p. 55. Author I am handling has made his Legislative not to be confin'd ; and that Plato we have pretty well examined , allows his People can pass any thing for the good of the Common-wealth ; and then it may Polygamy too , because it was practis'd in his Republick , and is now tolerated amongst the Turks ; and what some Waggs tell us , an indiscreet Member was once moving for here : But that we can have hard measure for our Lives upon the pretence of a Parliamentary Power ; the Case of Strafford will attest ; and that with the pretext of a Parliament a Monarch may be murder'd , The Martyrdome of our King : these are too terrible Testimonies , that our Legislative has been strein'd to make the greatest Injury Law , and ‖ ‖ By Parl. 12. Car. 2d . C. 12. That Session declar'd Traiterous . Treason it self the Statute of the Land , for they past an Act for the Tryal of their Soveraign , and then declar'd it Legal because it was past .

Their God Almighty of the Law , † † Cook 4. Inst. C. 1. p. 36 huic nec metas rerum , nec tempora pono . Cook himself , ( whose Words with them , is all Gospel too ) tho' he in his Pedantick Phraseology , puts no period to this Power of Parliament , yet in the very * * Pag. 36. next Page condemns the self same sort of Proceeding ; and that was in the Case , that hard Fate too , of another Earl as Innocent perhaps also , and as unfortunate : ‖ ‖ Earl of Essex 35. H. 8. Cromwell was attainted in Henry the Eighth's time , much after the same manner my Lord Strafford was in Charles the First ; but only if so great Injustice can be extenuated , the latter was more Inhumane : For tho' the First was Sentenc'd and suffer'd by Parliament without being admitted to Answer , ( A Proceeding against our * * Magna Charta C. 29. 5 Edw. 3. C. 9. 28 Edw. 3. C. 5. own Laws , those of all ‖ ‖ The Manner of the Romans , was to see Accusers Face to Face , and Answer ( if you believe the Bible ) Acts 25. v. 16. Matt. Paris vita Reg. Johan. 275. incivile videtur & contra Canones in absentem ferre Sententiam . Nations , and of † † Deuteronomy , Chap. xix . Verse iv . The Almighty provides for the Prisoner's Defence . Heaven it self , against all that was Humane or Divine ; yet Wentworth's Measure was more hard , whom they made to suffer with an Attainder after he had argued for his Life , confounded his Accusers , and convicted some of his own * * My Lord Digby , with several others . Judges : The same sort of Severity Sir John Mortimer met with from this Parliamentary Power , upon whom they past a Judgment without so much as permitting him to be arraigned ; but these Barbarities of Mr. Vid. Rot. Parl. 2d . H. 6. num. 18. Hunt's unlimited Legislative , were condemn'd even by this their learn'd Lawyer : ( tho' he would not , did not , or dared not question their Authority ; ) yet damned them ( in his own Words ) * * But of these says he , Auferat Oblivio ( si potest ) si non , ut c●nque silentium tegat 4 Inst. p. 37. Postscript p. 74. if it were possible to dark Oblivion , if not to be buried in Silence ; but this more Dogmatical Judge with his Postscript , has rather Encouraged such Injustice and Severity , and represented to his Parliament a power they have of Proceeding more unwarrantably , when he tells them , tho the Succession of our Crown be Hereditary , they can alter the whole Line , and Monarchy it self , by their unlimited power of their Legislative Authority .

But I shall also shew him that his Legislative power , as it cannot justly extend to such great and impious Extravagancies ( yet , but what we see it has been actually stretch'd to , ) so neither can it to some other things that are less so . In King Edward the Third's Time , there were several Acts past , that took away the power of Pardons from the Prince ; yet all these made void by the Common ‖ ‖ Stanford 2. 101. Law , because against the Prerogative of their King : And it was resolved by the Judges in King James † † 2. Jacob. Term. Hill . Cook . Lib. 7. his Reign , that Himself could not grant away the power of Dispensation with the Forfeitures upon the Penal Laws , because annext to his Royal Person , and the Right of his Soveraignty : And if what is only Derogatory from the Crown 's Right , and King's Prerogative , shall be actually voided by the Common Law , as we see it did to the nulling three several Statutes ; I cannot see how this Bill of Exclusion , had it past into an Act , would not have been as much null and void ; unless it can be proved that our Hereditary Descent of the Crown , is not so much the King's Prerogative that wears it , as the Pardoning of a Felon , or the remitting a Fine : And that I believe will be difficult to be cleared by those that have spent so much Pains and Paper for its Justification , and our Author himself so much Labors for ; so that even the Common Law it self will anticipate the Work of the Statute : and perhaps his Highness need not have stayed till that of Henry the ‖ ‖ 1. Henry the Seventh Fol. 4. Que Le Roy est Person dis charge D'ascun Attainder . quil prist sur luy le Reign & estre Roy. Seventh , had taken away his Exclusion , as well as Attainder , and purged away all his Defects , and framed in capacities by his coming to the Crown .

I have but two Cases more with which I 'll conclude Mr. Hunts great point of Legislative . In † † 5. Ed. 3. Edward the Third's Time , an Act was purposely declared void that was past , and the King had 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 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 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. Co●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 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. p●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 , 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 ●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 the●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 them to declare for the Kings Heirs and Successors , and the Protestant Religion might still be maintained under any perswasion of their Prince , unless the Nation was obliged to believe their Politick presumptions in a piece * * Their Association . of Treason , for Gospel , and as infallible as a Creed ; and that because their Associated Excluders in a Scheam of Rebellion , tell us , Queen Mary proved the Wisest Laws insignificant to keep out Popery ; therefore it must be concluded it connot now be kept out . This Gentleman knows , ( that I believe chopt up so much Logick with his Commons at the University , if Educated there , where commonly better principles use to be Instill'd , ) that it is a most false Inference from a Particular to conclude absolutely and Vniversal , and when besides Henry the 8th's Reforming , Edwards the 6th's short Reign , had hardly settled the Reformation , there being more Romanists then in the Kingdom , than such as had truly Reformed , it was never truly begun or througly perfected till Queen Elizabeth's Reign ; which might be easily observed from the Parliaments so soon declaring for that Religion in Queen Mary's first entrance upon the Throne : yet however he might observe , tho the Suffolk Men set her up as undoubted Heir to the Crown , which as the Bishop of * * Godwin in Vita Mariae . Hereford in the History of her Reign says , was then so prevalent with our Englishmen , that no pretence of Religion was a sufficient Suggestion for opposing such a Right , Yet the breach of her promise to them ( tho no failure of hers could dispense with their Fidelity ) when they saw her bent for introducing a new one , caus'd such a defection as might have endanger'd her establishment , had not the Heyl. Reform . p. 32 generality of the Nation been then of her persuasion . But what Maxims of State should now move another Prince of that Religion to endeavor it's Establishment ? when all the Kingdom 's so bent against it , when the Protestant has been rooted here 'T is remarkable that tho Men of the two different persu●sions plotted & took Arms for the sake of these so much contested Religions , both were still detected & defeated , viz. the Papist of Norfolk & Devonshire under Ket . & Arrundel , in the 3d. of Ed. 6. Car●'s The Protestants in the West & Wiat in Kent , in the 1 of Q. M. The Papist in K. J. the 1st . the Prot. agen in this of K. J. the 2d . demonstrations of Providence it self ; that no colour of Religion , when both the Christian too , shall ever bless a rebellion against the Royal Blood , but that God who will be fear'd will have the KING honor'd . for above this hundred years , when now ( above all ) there is a Kings word , that was always firm , for the defence of that Church that has asserted his Monarchy : So that being secur'd both upon Reason and such Assurance , the most Seditious Soul must sit down satisfy'd .

So that this great point will come to this little , whether having had more contingencies than now of having such a Religion introduc'd , as first the great Gasualty there was of his not coming to the Crown ; which might have been prevented by a Natural death , without their Expedients at the Rye , their unhuman , and unnatural Barbarities : and then imagining ( what has since happened ) such an Actual Succession , that Improbability of making such a sudden Alteration in Religion , only for his own disquiet , and without any probability of Establishment in his Reign ; which according to the course of Nature must be too short , ( tho I shall still pray for any of the Lines longest Life , ) & the little continuance it can expect should it be introduced when all that are probably to succeed him are profest Protestants . These being such casulaties as upon good Conjecture and Probability may interpose , the question is ; Whether in prudence or Policy we ought to have Involv'd our State in certain danger , only to prevent a contingent one . I could never get any one yet to prove that to be matter of Expediency for the good of the Publick : That such an Exclusion would have been certainly dangerous our Annals too sadly Testifie , and any one need but to turn back to my Remarks upon our History and he 'll find it Chronicled in Blood . And that any danger of our Religion is but merely Contingent must be allow'd by all that think it not Predestinated to be changed : And what now have these good Subjects done to be thus reviled by the bad ? Why ! they have declared in their Addresses to Assert that Right , which in their Oaths they have Sworn to defend . And a Pious Divine that has dispensed with them , Libels them for not being Perjur'd for company .

His * * p. 7. distinction of the Religion being Establisht by Law is far from creating any difference , for the question is here , what is the Doctine of the Gospel , and it can't be imagin'd any sort of Christians upon the Privilege of any Political Establishment , are enabled to dispense with the precepts of their Religion ; and confute their Bibles with the Statute Book . Saint Paul's sufferings are so far from discountenancing such a Doctrine , that they are alone the best , the clearest Confirmation of it : he was beaten , suffer'd Imprisonment , and all for the sake of his Saviour : he told them after his durance to whom they had done it , and the greatest Sticklers for Passive Obedience , will allow Mr. I. to plead his Magna Charta ; if he won't with the Barons beat it into the Head of his Soveraign with Club Law , or knock out the Brains of an Imprisoned * * So they murder'd at Pomfret Rich 2d . King for it with a ‖ ‖ Vid. Baker p. 155. Stow says , it was with a kind of death never heard of here p. 225. tho Walsingham would have it with Pining . Battle-axe , his Breath can plead his defence without Resisting unto Blood , Paul could have pleaded his privilege of being a Roman and uncondemned , sure as available before his Sufferings , had he not thought it is duty to suffer , and he may read in the same Book of those that went away Rejoycing that they were counted Worthy of it for his Name . A man may be born to a great deal of Right when 't is none of his Birth-right to Rebel ; and that against the very Monarchy it self .

His case of the * * p. 9. Pursivant , is as much to the Purpose as if he had pitch't upon the First in the Report , there was an Arrest of a Body by such an Officer , to bring him to appear before them , that constituted them , an ‖ ‖ Erected 1. Eliz. p. Letters , Pattents . High Commission Court . And as often it happens , in Execution of the Law many times there is Opposition made , sometimes Maiming is the Result , many times Murder ; here it hap'ned that the † † One Johnson Simpson's Case at the Assizes of Northampton . Officer's Assistant was kill'd , and the Law that makes it but Manslaughter in a Common Fray , in an Execution of an Office makes it Murder , and that must depend upon the Authority of that Court from whence such Officer receives his Writ , Warrant or Commission ; 't is * * Coke R. 12. pt. p. 49. Vid. also the same Case , 4. Inst. Cap. 74. p. 333. But as quick as Mr. Johnson jumbles up the the business , the Jud●es defer'd their Judgment till the next Assize , and then perhaps the emulation there is , and always was between the two Courts ; made their Lordships at ●ast a little Partial . Brownlows 2d pt. p. 15. Humptons Case 42. Eliz. adjudg'd in the Case that they might have cited to Appearance , and upon Contumacy to have proceeded to Excommunication , and then have arrested upon their Writ of Capias ; but that they could not Arrest him outright upon a Surmise .

That a Man may resist an Authority , that is not Lawful any man will allow , for it is the same as if he resisted none at all , however if Murder be the Consequence of such a Resistance ; all his Expositors upon the sixth Commandment will hardly help him to distinguish it into Man-slaughter . And tho my Lord * * Vid. Pleas of the Crown Hales . Hales , whose Memory will still be pious for his equal destributions of Justice was a great Latitudinarian in allowing too much scope for premeditated Malice ; yet the Decalogue will make that Murder , for which the Law will allow him the Benefit of his Clergy , and did in Harry the Eight's time without distinction to all sort of shedding of Blood , and then the Book that he talks of was dedicated to Cromwel , would have been Authoriz'd by the Law , which in some sort it self then , made all Killing no Murder : neither in an equitable sense was this Homicide excused from being a Murderer , because he resisted unto blood before the jurisdiction of the * * Besides 't is observable the Judges at that time had a particular pique to the power of that Court which they thought invaded theirs , and might be very ready to give Judgment against them in Criminal Matters ; as well as Plague y'm with their Prohibitions in Civil and as they were then great Foes ; so my Lord Coke in his discourse upon the Court is but little their Friend . Court was Resolved , and to him in a Moral sense 't was as much Guilt as if that Authority had been Absolutely Legal , and tho he tells us he does not descend to false Arrests , yet I thank him for his Condescension , 't is to such a matter as is no way distinguishable from it , for an Arrest without Authority is equivalent to a false , and is as much Tortius and Force as what is done upon a Forged Warrant . The Cases reported by those two Lawyers he cites , one of them but a Protonothary , that other our great Oracle , in my Conscience were never designed for proofs against Passive Obedience . By their Resistance here of the Law was never understood that which was forbidden in the Gospel , besides it was but the Resolution of the Judges against the * * So much were the people possest against the Power of that Court , in King Charles the First 's time , that 2000. Brownists broke into St. Pauls where It was sitting , beat down all the Benches , and Bawling No Bishops , No Commission . Vid. Dugd. view . Power of that Court , which to be sure they did not care to favour , and those two Authorities he has cited , none of the best , in Matters of Allegiance and Loyalty , that part of Coke is looked upon not very favourable to the Government , and Brownlow first Printed when there was none .

But his Triumphant Distinction between his Religion Established by Law , and that which has no Law for it's Establishment , is not only far from creating a Difference here as I have shown before , because the precepts of the Gospel ( which must be more immutable sure than a Persian decree ) are still the same , and are now the Question ; but the Offering here of such a distinction is in Truth as impertinently applyed , as it is really none at all , for whenever he can imagin here , which God will avert , any Sufferance for the sake of his Religion ; it must be according to the Law of the Land , or else he 'll never be brought to suffer , I 'll secure his Carkass for a Farthing and be bound to supply it with my own for the stake ; if ever his be tyed to it , without reviving of the Writ de Comburendo . All the Martyrdoms in * * In Q. M●r● Reign first the Parliament supplicated the Pope for pardon and promise a Return to Popery . Vid , both Baker and Barnet . Queen Mary's Reign , were but so many Executions of the Law , and that Writ de Haeretico he 'll find in Fitz Herbert as well as a Common Capias : so that himself must first without Charity ( which won't sure , then begin at home ) Give his Body to be burnt with his Imply'd suffrage in an House of Commons , ( for I believe He is not likely to be a Bishop ) before fire and faggot can come upon him to singe his Hair or touch his Garment for the sake of his Religion , and how likely we are ever to meet with such a Parliament , to Sacrifice themselves again to the Flames ; himself best knows who I believe does not fear it : so that here his Foundation of Law Establishment , has nothing to support it , and then all his Privileges of Saint Paul , his own Magna Charta , his Case of Commissions all fall to the Ground ; and his very supposition of his Religion being Establisht by Law , and at the same time against all Law to suffer for it , is more contradictory than his Horns or Addresses , for it can't be supposed , but that the Power that punishes him for an Heretick will have Repealed all those old Laws that would have protected him for being such , and enacted new ones to make him suffer for his Perseverance : and 't is always remarkable and a great Truth , that the laying down one single false Position , can never be defended but with as many Lyes . And this forces him to maintain , the Christians suffer'd contrary to Law , in the time of Julian : Certainly , he knows but little of Justinian , and the Codes ; however his Hunt help't him to so much of our Cases out of Cook . The Constitutions of the Jmperial Law were but the Decrees of their Emperors , as well as the Corpus the Collection of one of them , all the civil Law that governed then is called * * Pacius In Instit. Prolegom. p 1. Caesaria , Imperatoria , because their Caesars , their Emperors where the Authors of it ; and how can he plead for them their Charters , that had nothing else to trust to but the Will and Edict of their Prince ?

The Testamentary Donation of Edward the Sixth he brings for an Argument for Excluding the Right Heir ; which makes but very little for his own , and as much for the cause he contends against , not so Insignificant neither as he suggests , only because they could not well avoid an Act of Succession in Harry the Eight's time , for whether that Act had been 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 think● 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 ●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 m● 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 th●● 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 we when we swear 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 Le●t 4th Edi● 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 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 depended upon their permission . And how it could otherwise well , be no man can well imagin , when their standing Armies were continually in the Field , and a new Monarch commonly created with a Shout and Salutation of a Legion ; so uncertain was their Succession ; that they seldom had so much as Certainty for their Lives : Look upon the List which I have leisurably examined ; and you 'll find from Caesar that was stab'd in the Senate , to their Apostate Julian , whom they would have a Christian assassinate in Persia , I am sure half , if not more were Murdered or destroy'd by some prevalent Faction , or a mutinous Army , and most of the Purples they wore were dy'd in their own Blood , Julian's * * Vid. Juli●● the Apost●●● . Caesars are just as well apply'd here to the Succession of our Prince of Wales ; as the Postscript has the Confirmation Post . p. 47. of the Prince of Wales , to prove the Legislative of the House of Commons .

On the other side our own Monarchy for fifteen hundred years , Hereditary , and that to be proved from all Chronicle and History , have the same sort of Pens ( and whom this Author vindicates too with his * * Brief History of Succession . own ) endeavoured to make merely Elective . I can't resolve this Spirit of Contradiction into any thing less than an absolute Conspiracy among themselves for the Vindicating rather Pagans and Infidels , the Government of Rome or Constantinople , before the Constitution of our Church , or the Establisht Monarchy .

Upon the Publishing this pernicious piece and its falling into my hands , I remember ( tho not much read in the History of the Church , or the works of a Socrates , or a Sozomen ) that I had casually lighted in one of them heretofore upon the passage of Jovian's ( this Apostat 's immediate Successor ) being saluted Emperor ; where the pious Prince told them , he would never Reign over Pagans ; upon which they Reply'd they were all Christians , and as such , had submitted and not opposed the Government of a Julian , because their Lawful Emperor ; a President so directly contradictory to those he brings , that it was a sufficient Prepossession to me against the profest Sincerity of the piece . Paganism is as much obliged to this Apostate Church-man , as the Christian Religion has receiv'd from him the greatest disservice ; he represents to us in several places his Pagan Emperor even with the Meekness Page 37. of a Moses ; and with such a command of Spirit and Temperament of mind , as if he would have him rather Worshipt as a Saint , than Curst for a Persecutor ; he makes him to take Reviling patiently , as if he 'd let us know , he also could imitate his Christ , who reviled not again ; with such mollifying expressions in several places , to the very reproaches of the meanest ; as if he would recommend the admiring of him for an Hero ; which makes me remember his dying Words , I met with once in Ammianus Marcellinus , so full of Magnanimity and all the highest Expressions of a Moral Vertue , that of an Expiring Pagan , he seem'd to me the most like a dying Christian : But on the other side , those Pious Souls , those Glorious Martyrs , fam'd for their Primitive Meekness and Moderation , that in the midst of Tortures have accounted it worthy to suffer for the sake of their Saviour , blest their Persecutors , in Groans , in imperfect sounds , and unarticulated accents of Agony and Anguish , that tir'd the Invention of their Tormentors , as well as baffl'd their Tortures , and with exalted Affection of Spirit , Triumph'd in the midst of Flames : These has he fairly represented for the most Malicious , Seditious and Rebellious Brood of Christians , that ever breath'd under any Government altogether Pagan . What good the Protestant Religion can receive from such a Representation of the Primitive Christians , must be in pleading prescription to a warrantable Rebellion ; and what Obligation Christianity it self has to such a Protestant , is the making her much worse than the Wildest Paganism .

Had he consider'd how unreasonable it was only from the selected Instances of some Turbulent Spirits ; how Irreligious and Vncharitable it is from a few furious provok'd Persons to have cast such an industrious blemish and blot upon the Practices of all the Primitive Christians of those Times ; certainly he would have found it much unbecoming his Profession , more his Religion ? Why does he not conclude from thence too that in those days we never had any Martyrs ; or that all Fox's mighty Martyrology is nothing but a mere Romance , for he 'll find Her Majesty the persecuting Mary ; in many places as severely handled ? Why does he not tell us in her time Wyat , Crofts , and Rudston REBELL'D : And then conclude we had no Cranmer , † † 22. Aug. 1554. Latimer , and Ridly that suffer'd : Why does he not tell us of the Protestant Tumults of her time , that there were those then could throw Stones and Daggers at a Bonner , or a Bourn and not a word of the more Meeker men ; a Bradford ‖ ‖ Vid Burnets Abridgment 2d . pt. 3. l. or a Rogers that bid them be Patient and appeased them , for his Maiden Virgin that Reviled Julian , he could tell us too that of one Crofts , a Maid , that Mutter'd out as much Sedition against Queen * * Baker , p , 329. Mary from the Wall ; and let him but deal as disingenuously in Conclusions here too , the Reform'd Protestant will be as little Obliged to him as the Primitive Christian .

In short , if Julian abounded with such a Spirit of Meekness ; ( as he in many places makes him to demonstrate ) where then was this Terrible Persecution , with which he makes such a dismaldin ? If they were really Persecuted and Opprest , how came they to be so powerful , as to make such a signal resistance ? If his Old man in * * Jul. p. 39. Berea , was only rebuk'd by him , for raging so hotly against his King and his Religion ; and only bid by his Prince , in so much mildness as , Friend forbear railing ; if at the Reproaches of the Antiochians , he only declared against seeing them any more , if as in his ridiculous Instance of old Father Gregory's kicking of his King , he pag. 35. was so terrify'd and awd ; what is become of the Tyran● ▪ and all the Bloody Persecution that attended him to the Throne ? And if as in another place he has prov'd , there was much the greater part that remain'd Christian ; where was this General Apostacy to the Pagan ? In my poor Apprehension , the several Examples he has cited , did in some sense , tho beyond his design , as much oblige his Adversaries cause , and the late Case of Succession , as some of the Loyal hearts that labour'd so much in its defence , for they most of them prove that notwithstanding the perswasion of their Pagan Prince , the Christian Religion flourisht as much as ever ; and he never Punisht any Person ; but for reviling him for his Apostacy to his Face ; and that they might have enjoy'd their own opinions quietly had they not so much molested , and opposed his : And must the Christian Religion then be made so Rebellious , only because there were those that could revile their Prince and his perswasion ? that could call their Julian , Goats beard , Bull-burner , Impious ; pag. 33. 38. Apostate , and Atheist ? Why then this Gentleman himself may infer , that the Protestant we profess is as Rebelliously inclin'd ; and that because some Seduced Souls were not long since so much possest with Sedition , as to Rebel Exclusion . against the Succession , because a poor Perjur'd wretch could call his Soveraign , † † Vid Oats Inquiry B. R. Dog , Devil , and Traytor ; because M. I. himself suffers now a deserv'd Imprisonment , for representing now his own most Christian King for * * Jul. ten times as great a Persecutor as the worst of the Pagan Emperors ; or because Protestant Subjects actual Rebels and in Arms against their Soveraign ; with an Arch-Traytor Attainted long since legally , have publisht in his Manifesto'es of a Declar'd Rebellion , that their Liege Lord by the Laws of God and Man ; that is Seated in the Throne of his Ancestors , by the Protection and Providence of God ; tho so much endeavour'd to be Destroy'd and Excluded by the Plots and Practices of these Devils , and that because such Rebel Subjects have declared this their undoubted and Merciful Soveraign , an Vsurper , and a Tyrant : Our Vid. Argile's Declaration , his Majesties first Speech . Protestant Religion , I say , by the same reason may suffer for the sake of those Seditious Souls themselves ; from several of their own examples of a Rebellious resistance , as well as in their Arguments , that traduce the Principles and Practices of the Primitive Christian .

The very Rebel Books that are so much Consulted by our Asserters of a Common-wealth ; and the Favourers of a Republick , because they make a Monarch so Mean , and Contemptible , even those have largely treated of the same Subject ; that Mr. Johnson thinks he himself has only so Notably handl'd . The Author of the Rights of Magistrates De jure magist . p. 94. Quaest. 10. makes it most of the matter of his pernicious piece in the last Question which he proposes which is in these words , Whether those that are to suffer for their Religion , can resist that Prince , that opposes the true Religion ? I confess he with abundance of Foreign Impertinence tells us of Princes being bound to maintain the true Religion ; a thing that no one ever doubted : but then I doubt , whether every Prince would not believe his Religion to be most true ; but when he comes to the Question , whether the Subject can resist , if the Soveraign design for them a false ; then he comes to our Mr. Johns : Resolution of the Case , of a Religion Jul. p. 7. Establisht by Law ; the point in which he deluded unhappily his Patron the late Lord Russel ; then he tells us the Edictis Legitimis & Rogatis . p. 101. Publicum Religionis Christanae exercitum quispiam eorum nunquam concesserat . p. 101. same Triumphant notion and discovery , in which this Divine was so much exalted ; that the Roman Emperors had never allow'd the Christian Religion any publick exercise : But yet this very work which some would have a Catholiques ( but which I can hardly believe from his Brutish rage that he shows in his railing against that Church , whom in several places he is pleas'd to call * * Romanâ meretrico Sanguinariâ . p. 98 , 99. beast , whore and Bloody Harlot , that it sounds too much like the Language of the Disciplinarians of those times ; which were nothing else but what we now call the Fanaticks of our own , ) yet this very piece sufficiently pernitious ; by both parties disown'd and discommended ; wont allow them to resist the Soveraign when he alters the Religion , only by the same Authority by which it was Establisht , Ut illi non fas sit cam pro arbitrio suo , & sine causae Cognitione abrogare , sed eadem Authoritate tantum inter cedecente ; quâ abinitio sancita fuit pag. 100. page 18. That Author laughs too , as well as Julian at the Martyrdom of the Thebaean Legion . but then alone calls him a Tyrant when he would abrogate it by his own Arbitrary Power , whereas our Julian is a Bar beyond the best of their Advocates ; and would have had us resisted , before we had known whether our Religion was to be alter'd by Law , or without it ; whether it was to receive any Alteration at all ; or whether the Prince they so much Libel'd , would have come to be capable as a King , to Subvert , or defend it ; for the Bill which this Libeller ( whom the very Law has made since so ; and a Court of Justice ) would have so necessary to be past , by the same Reason that we use Remedies against the Plague , that was only a Resistance of the present Authority ; in an Altering the Discent of the Crown , which their own Laws Declare unalterable ; and that only by providing against Contingencies , that might never have happen'd , which is a sign that they aim'd only at the Succession it self , more than any danger that they fear'd from it , because the Successor might be supposed , at the worst possible , and perhaps willing to preserve to them their Religion , which they so vainly fear to lose ; as well as he has since ratified it with his Royal word , and at the present is the Defender of our Faith too as a King , as well as he had often promis'd , before he was so ; and Mr. Julian might have spared his Plaguy Metaphor of his Pitch and Tarbox ; till he felt more fumes of an infected Air ; and some better symptons of the Plague : for while their is nothing but Cypher to that Disease in the Weekly-Bill , the people would take this Doctor for a Mad-man , should he run about the Streets with his Antipestilentials , his * * Jul. p. 5. Fires and his Fumes : But yet in this his own Case , had our Author oblig'd himself but upon a great penalty ; not to use his preparation of Pitch and Tar to prevent the distemper , I fancy he would run the risk of an Infection rather then have than forfeited the Condition : And I should think an Oath taken to be true to the Crowns Heir should oblige as much , prevail upon his Soul as well , not to use such means and methods as would make him forsworn , tho it were for the prevention of an ascertain'd danger . And I cannot see how such a Bill that dissolv'd the very band of our Allegiance ; could be call'd any thing less , then an Act of Parliament for a Statutable Perjury ; for none but a Johnson or a Jesuit will allow that the same Lawful Authority that impos'd an Oath to be taken , can command its violation after it is took , and that sticks so much at present with some of our moderate Covenanters ; that they cannot think themselves by special Act of their Lawful King , absolved from an Oath of Rebellion administer'd by none but Rebels and Usurpers . And tho this Gentlemans Oracle of the Law , was pleas'd to call them but Protestant Oaths , I might as well tell them they are Christian ones too , if they believe the Testament to which they swear . And as this Gentleman agrees with , and perhaps has borrow'd from this old Disciplinarian , several of his Doctrines ; so has also Brutus's An Liceat resistere Prinicipegem Dei violanti & Ecclesiam vastanti . ● Juni . Brut. quaest 2d . Vindiciae handled the same Question , which he has propos'd in this form , whether it be Lawful to resist a Prince that Violates the Laws of God , and lays waste his Holy Church .

But from that Excellent Author our Julian might not only have prov'd the Doctrine of Resistance to be the practice of the Primitive Christians ; but that it was much Older , and Commanded by God himself to the Jews ; and as the former ‖ ‖ De jure Magis trattuum . Author his Predecessor , can only from the Text tell us of the Kings of Israel being oblig'd to propagate the true Religion , such as David , Solomon , Asa , Johosaph , Hezekiah , Josiah , &c. All Foreign to the Question , so does this Brutus tell us an idle tale : and the Fancy of his own Brain ; that therefore the People of Israel fell with * * 1. Sam. 31. Saul because they would not oppose him when he violated the Laws of God ; that the People suffer'd Famine for their not opposing his perfidiousness to the † † 2. Sam. c. 2. Gibeonites , that they were punish'd with the Plague because they did not resist ‖ ‖ Sam. c. ult David's numbring of the People ; and that the People suffer'd for † † 2. Chro. c. 21. 2. Chron. c. 33. Manasses poluting of the Temple because they did not oppose it ; But where still do any of these prove , that the People did resist their Kings , or were commanded so to do ? 't is but an Irreligious Presumption to think the Almighty should punish his chosen , only because they did not Rebel against his Anointed ; when that Rebellion even by the same sacred Text is declared worse than Witchcraft ; and that primitive one of Corah and his Accomplices was so remarkably punish'd : But I know these Authors will tell us , That Eliah destroyed the Priests of Baal , notwithstanding that Ahab their King countenanced their Idolatry ; That Jehoida the Priest set Joas on the Throne , and not only rebelled against his Mother Athalia , but destroyed her to restore the Worship she had abolish'd : But in both these Instances they may do well to consider : 1. That what was done here was by the express Direction of the true Spirit of God in his Prophets ; to which when our inspired Enthusiasts , our Oracles only of Rebellion , can prove their right , as well as they but pretend it ; they shall be better qualified to Judge their King when he offends against the Laws of his God . And does not the Text tell us upon these very Occasions always , That the Word of God came to his Servants : 2. Athalia here , whom the People resisted , deposed , and slew , had no Title to the Crown , but what she waded through in the Blood of all the seed Royal : Religion was not there the rise of the Rebellion , but the right of the Crown 's Heir , which was in the young King Joas , whom they set on the Throne of his Father Ahaziah , and for which Heavens had preserved him ; notwithstanding the Plot , and Design there was to destroy him : 3. If Religion were the Occasion of such Insurrection , as it really was not ; yet the Worship then introduced was altogether Pagan , which by the express Command of God , they were bound to extirpate . And whatever our Apostate fansies in his Comparison of Paganism and Popery , my Charity will oblige me , as a Christian , not to look upon the Professors of the same God and Saviour like to so many Turks and Mahometans , unless they can prove to me from the Text , that by the Worshipping of Baal is only meant the Catholick Faith , and to believe in Christ is to be an Infidel .

In the fourth place they do not consider , that even their own Arguments make all such Applications to all our present Kings altogether impertinent : For these * * Junius . Brutus quest. 2. p. 37. Republicans that maintain these Doctrins ; tell us too that the Kings of Israel were always to be regulated by the seventy Elders , as those of Lacedaemon by their Ephori ; that to these seventy the high Priest did always preside as Judg of the most difficult Affairs ; so that Arguments and Presidents brought from such Topicks , where they make the Kings to be govern'd by their Subjects , can't be applyed to Monarchs that are Modern and more absolute , tho this their very Assertion that makes against their own Application is no less than a great Lye : For we find both the Kings of Israel and Judah from the Chronicles , the very Records of those times to be Princes altogether absolute , and to have executed too that unlimited Jurisdiction . I have related these few passages , out of the fore mentioned Authors to let this unanswerable Julian see , as I promised in the preceding Section , that this his Case , had been Controverted long before he could Read or Write , and defended only by such Pens , as have Publish'd themselves and their Principles both infamous to posterity ; such as have endeavoured to prove and promote Rebellion , not only from the practice of the Primitive Christians ; but the Privileges of the * * Haec scriptura nobis definiet , & quod populo Judaico R●uit ; imo quod in junctum suit nemo negabit quin idem populo Christiano , &c. Junius Brutas quaest 2. Jews , the words of the Book of Life , and the very precepts of the Living God .

His Comparison of Popery and PAGANISM , might be as well returned with a Parallel of Johnson and the Jesuit , for in many principles of Sedition they agree : and he takes ( in some Sense ) a little pains to prove his Kindness to the Pagan ; that has thus traduced the Religion of the Christian . And we see that some sort of Modern Protestants could not only side with the Turk in his Arms , but almost in his Infidelity : The Religion of the Romanists I shall for ever dislike ; yet still I would retain more Charity , for the professors of the same God and Saviour , than for an Heathen that is ignorant of both . It was falsely inferr'd from a Person at Fishers Conference ; That the Church of Rome was the more Secum and Eligible for allowing no Salvation out of theirs ; whereas ours did out of our own , a choice both Irrational and Vnbecoming a Christian , who from the Charitableness only of our own might have thought it more eligible and safe : But our avenging Priest here has pay'd them off with their own Spirit of POPERY ; and for their Damning of HERETICKS , has sent them all to the DEVIL .

CHAP. V. Remarks upon Mr. Sidney 's Papers .

COULD the Principles and Positions of such implacable Republicans be Buried with their Authors , or cut off with the venemous heads , in which the Vipers are both hatcht and harbour'd , our subsequent Observations would be superseded with an Execution of the Law ; Treason and Sedition it self best silenc'd with the Tongues of the Traytors , and the Stroke of Justice : But Since we have seen a Most mighty Flourishing Monarchy , with these Undermining Maxims , of our dangerous Democraticks , Usurpt upon by the very , dregs of the People ; tho these Principles of Anarchy , and Confusion , were Damn'd even by some of those Misguided Miscreants , that were of late deceived into an Actual Rebellion ; a Calamitons War , led into a Labyrinth of almost an endless Misery : Tho the God of Heaven restor'd us that Government with a Miracle , which these Instruments of Hell had undermin'd with Treacherie and Plot ; tho the promoters of these Principles that procur'd that dismal and utter dissolution of the State , for the most part long since expir'd either with a dry Death which the Authors of so much Blood and Misery did hardly deserve , or fell Victims to the Justice of the restor'd Monarchy , which they might be better said to merit ; yet still we see their Positions to survive their persons , and their Monumental mischiefs more than any Marble must adorn their Tombs . The Doctrines of these Devils of Sedition , are transmitted to their posterity , with as much Veneration and Deference as of old the deliver'd Oracles of the Deities of Rome ; or the murmering Israelites their Prototypes of Primitive Rebellion and Plot , or even themselves do the Decalogue it self . And this Asseveration is so far from the Product of Passion , that I can prove it in it's several particulars ; * * Junius Brutus , Vindiciae contra Tyrannos , 1577. Brutus his Vindiciae was only the great Copy , and as exactly transcrib'd , from his immediate Predecessor in Sedition ; that Daemocratical Dogmatist de jure † † Ficleny de Mag. 1576. Magistratuum , Pryn ; and ‖ ‖ Harringtons Oceana . Harrington here in our own soil , had his † † Needham's , Merc. Pol. Needham to succeed him ; or rather as nearly Cotemporaie's to support him in his Political Treason : In our next age we are pester'd with a Nevil , a ‖ ‖ Plato Redivivus . Plato ( i. e. ) A Plague to any Government that requires a Subjection ; and the very Subject of our present animadversion a † † Sidney's Systeme . Sidney his Associate , all agreeing in every Syllable , in the same unanimous Absurdity , the same Seditious Nonsense , the same Confus'd Notions of an Anarchy .

I shall show the Congruity of these Conspirators , ( for I cannot call them less , and there cannot be greater Villains ( than what set up for Common-Wealth's-men , under an Establisht Monarchy . ) I will shew their agreableness from their own several Citations in a perfect Parallel of each Politician's particular positions ; and this work will be most apposite and proper for this place , and such a Section ; where Mr. Sidney must make the Subject a Person that valued himself for his Antimonarchical principles ; at a time when he was to be * * Vid. his Tryal p. 23. Try'd for Treason ; at ‖ ‖ Vid. Paper at his Execution . a time when he was to suffer for it too , or in his own Phraseology ; singl'd out as a Witness of the Truth ; tho some better Subjects might believe it , persisting in a great Lye : A Person that seem'd to suggest his Salvation , his Soul's safety to consist in asserting the Seditious positions of a rank Re-publican ; ( as if Heaven it self had been Concern'd for his answering Filmer ) In short a Person the most Eminent Anti-Monarchist of our present Age , and as he says from his Youth ; fam'd and engag'd for it in the past , of a designing Head , and a discontented Heart , that would have been dangerous even to that Democracy he did adore .

But as I don't design to write the Life of a person , that was the Daedalus of his own Destruction , that drew down upon himself an Ignominious as well an unfortunate death , and Sacrific'd himself to the Bigotted Sentiments of his own Brain , which might have been less dangerous to●… to its Natural Head , had it not been busied so much about the Nations Politic●… Body , and might have left behind it a more lasting Monument of its Wit and Parts , had it been so happy to be as Loyal as it desir'd to be thought Learn'd , and the disgrace will ever supersede the Glory of the greatest parts ; when it can be said they were exercised only in being so Seditiously Witty : I design no personal Reflection on his Name , or Family ; wherein the Exemplary Loyalty of some of his best , his Noblest Blood ; can almost restore and attone for his own 's being tainted ; and their stedfastness to support the Throne ; can make amends for his Faction to subvert it ; and as I should be very loath to give the least offence to the Living , so I delight as little to disturb the Ashes of the Dead : I am satisfied 't is the most uncharitable as well as it will prove but a rude draught to design upon the dust , to disquiet their Peaceful Urnes , who are said to rest from their Labours ; but the same Text tells us too their Works will follow them ; and 't is those , his Principles , his Positions I profess to censure and refute , tho I am sure this Gentleman and his Hunt , have hardly been so Charitably Fair to the Fame and Memory of our Filmer .

And the first that fall in our way , are his first lines that were produc'd upon his Tryal , wherein he labours to Vindicate the * * Vid. Tryal , pag. 23. Paradox of the Peoples right of being their own Judges , and deciding the controversy between themselves and their King ; but tho they are told ten thousand times , that this would make the very ‖ ‖ Generali Lege decernitur neminem sibi esse Judicem D. 3. 5 1. Party to be the Judge , and produce the most preposterous and unequitable distribution of Justice , such as a Barbarous Nation would blush at ; tho both our Common Law , and Common Equity ; tho both the Cannon and Civil , provide even against all * * Nemo Idoneus testis in resuâ Intelligitur D. 22. 5. 10 ▪ Prejudic'd Evidence , and must then a Fortiori , against a Judge that is so , and tho this Equitable process is provided even in Favour of this People , yet cannot these perverse implacable Republicans , think the same Common Justice necessary in the Case of their very King . And then I hope they will allow their Soveraigns Cause to be determin'd by Witnesses as well as their own ; and then who shall give in Evidence the matter of Fact in which he has forfeited his Trust ? why they must tell us again , the People ; so that the People ( forsooth ) is Party , Judge , Evidence , and all ; and no wonder then if among the People too , we find a pack of Perjur'd Oates's , that can impeach their Prince .

But it is not really the Reason of the thing they so much rely on ; for that I shall refute anon beyond Answer and Reply ; unless it be from such as are resolv'd to Rebel against Sense , as well as their Soveraign ; but that which truly determines these dangerous Democraticks , is the tradition of their positions ; which ( as I observ'd ) are deliver'd down to their posterity , and rever'd for Revelation : The Principles of a Republick like the root of Rebellion it self run in a Blood , or are receiv'd like the Plague , from the Company they keep by way of Contagion : They are loth to dissent from their Friends and Relations , or Condemn the resolution of their pious Predecessors . But sometimes the Seditious Souls are Seduc'd and Prejudic'd with the Approbation of an Author ; whom they shall as much perhaps pervert , as they little Comprehend , sometimes impos'd upon with a pretended Antiquity of their opinion and policy , with which too they would delude others , so for the first we saw not long since a Plato Redivivus dealt with the Devil he would have raised in the Ghost of his Philosopher , and endeavored to obtrude upon the World the lewdest Sedition , for the Dogma Platonis ; so did also the Leviathan of the Usurper , that took his pastime in his unfathomable Oceana ; ( i. e. ) a political piece of Paradox , deep and un-intelligible ; besides the quaintness of its pretty Style , that renders it a Composition of Pedantry , and Romance , That Illuminato was perswaded , ( among the wonders in his deep , ) that he had discovered what had been so long buryed in the Floods ; the old Model of the very Primitive Common-wealth , ( as if his Idaea of Government , had determin'd the Deity , or at least had been concurrent with the Design of the Creator , when he fram'd a World to be govern'd ) for the bold Gentlemen being very Opiniative ( and I think one might say a little impious too , ) * * Ocaeana p. 15. Appeals to God , whither the Sentiments of this Oliver's Architeck , do not suit exactly , with the very Protoplasts , the Almighty's Mind ; and whither his Model ( which all must acknowledge the result of a most unnatural Rebellion ) was not the very Common-wealth of Nature ? And this his Prototype of the Primitive Republick , the Pragmatical Dogmatist is pleas'd to call , the † † Ibid p. 20. Doctrine of the Antients , or Antient Prudence , but if such ( as he says ) were the Government before the Flood , I shall only conclude it so ; because its Lewdness and Sedition , might occasion the deluge ; and might have been preserv'd for them in the Ark too , since there was Beast in it of every kind ; and their admir'd Aristotle will allow his 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 , to be Communicable to an Ant , an Ape , or an Ass as well as a Man .

This opinion of the Peoples deciding between themselves and their King , you shall see is not only Mr. Sidney's , but the Doctrine of all the Democraticks , all the rank Republicans that ever writ ; * * Junius Brutus vind. cont . Tyran . Intelligimus Magistratus , quasi Regum Ephoros , &c. Septuaginta in Regno Ifraelitico , denique Praefectos , Centuriones & Caeteros . Vid. 6. 37. Quaest. 2. Rex Qui pactum perfide violat , hujus faederis seu pacti Regni officicurii Vindices & Custodes sunt . Quaest. 4. pag. 169. Brutus in his Vindiciae makes the Magistrates whom the People shall Authorize ( by whom he understands their Representatives , their Dyets , or Parliament ; or else such as was the Ephori of the Lacedaemonians , the Seventy Elders among the Israelites , the Praefecti , with the Centurians among the Romans , these makes not only the Judges , but the Avengers of the Perfidiousness , ( as they call it ) of their Princes ; upon their presumption that they have Violated the Laws .

About a year before the Publishing of that Pernicious piece , some say a Romish Priest , a Catholick , others a Reform'd one , A Calvinist ; maintain'd the same Doctrine , in a Treatise concerning the Soveraigns right over the Subject , and the Subjects Duty towards his Soveraign ; for there he tells us ( tho it be a Common Objection that the King has no other Judge but God himself , and the Example of David as commonly objected , whose Murder and Adultery no less Laws could punish than the Almighty's , ) he ‖ ‖ Populi ordines jus sibi retinuisse fraenandorum Principum , &c. Quod ni fecerint perfidi in Deum & patriam habeantur . De Jure Magistratuum . Quaest. 6. pag. 73. Edit. Francfurt . Answers to it very positively , that the States of the Kingdom always retain'd a power of Judging and Bridling their King ; which if they do not do they are Traytors to God , and their Country ; he would resolve the Case of King David , ( whom the People could not Judge for his more than Ordinary Crimes ) to result from his sins and offences but being Personal ones ; and ( as he must mean I suppose ) not perpetrated against the Welfare of the Neque supremum Magistratum pro privatis delictis Coercere , quae proprie Personalia sunt . ibid. Common-wealth it self ; tho I cannot see why the breach of any Law establisht in a Community , may not be Constru'd to be a Transgression , also against the Publick ; tho the Injury sustein'd more immediately relates to some private Person : 'T is for that Reason all our Indictments run in the Kings Name , and the Criminal Process , in all other Nations ; at the suit of the Power that is Supream ; so that properly there is no Personal Crimes , especially of this Nature , but what can be consider'd too ; ( as they Commonly are ) against the National Interest ; and the very well being of the Civil Society : So that if they 'l Punish , or sit as Judges upon the Soveraign , for designs against the Publick State it self , they can as soon for any injury done to an private Member of the same : But that we see the Israelites did not pretend to do even in their David's Case ; and so his solution of the Nature of the Crime signify's just nothing .

Mr. Harrington whom his advocate , and his Plagiary too , in his * * Publisher to the Reader . Plato Redivivus is pleas'd to recommend for his Learning , least the Notion of the Balance that he borrow'd from him should be taken for a Fool's , as well himself filtch for it there , and play'd the Knave ; why truly that Learned Gentleman Chimes on in the same Din of the Peoples Judicial power , ( and these drudges of Sedition like the Common Pack-horses pursue all the same Track , and the leading Bell ; for he tells us too , ‖ ‖ Harrington in his Epitome of the whole Common-wealth . Oceana pag. 278. the People , or Praerogative ( all one with them , ) are also the Supream Judicatory of this Nation , having Power to determine all appeals from the Magistrate ; and to question him for his Administration .

In the next place , that * * Marchion . Needham , the supposed Author of Merc. Pol. Independant Brute , that Assertor of his Free State , as he calls it , ( i. e. ) to be unconfin'd , and live like Savages : In Mr. Hobbs his Language , The State of Nature ; or if you please , in Mr. Harringtons , The Balance of Beasts . This inveterate Villain , that vilifi'd our Monarchy , ( tho that Heaven instituted it self , after its own Theocracy , ) that debused this Divine Institution , even below their Human Invention , and † † The Brutish Principles of Monarchy . Merc. Pol. Numb . 92. March 11. 1652. calls its Principles Brutish ; That Panegyrist of the Usurpation , some of whose most Villanous Expressions , I may hereafter revive , for the Reproach of the last Age , that suffer'd such a Miscreant to Murder Monarchy it self from the Press , when they had Butcher'd it before on the Block ; and for the Information of this , that think themselves so hardly dealt with , when only their own Treason , and Sedition , is less severely handled : That Opprobrium of Man , as well as Subject , That pursued the Sons of the Martyr'd Soveraign , in such scandalous Satyr , and bitter Invective ; such Satyr , as themselves would think but rudeness , if offer'd , only to the very mark of Infamy ; their Perjur'd Evidence , or their Pillor'd Oates ; such Invective , as themselves would think Inhuman , were it past upon Beasts , or their own more Barbarous Regicides : This most unnatural lump of Anarchy , whom but to name , is to digress into necessitated Horror , and Detestation ; he publish'd too , this very same position , only in plainer Words , and more expressive Treason , viz. That the People were not only Judge , of his Majesty , but That it be made an unpardonable Crime , to incur the guilt of TREASON , against the MAJESTY of the PEOPLE , * * Ibid. and notwithstanding those gaudy things call'd MONARCHS , the PEOPLE always made a shift to bring them to an Accountable Condition , For this the Plato Redivivus , or the Politick Plagiary ‖ ‖ Plat. Red. page 39. founds all his Empire , and Dominion , in Property , according to the Doctrine of the Ancients , or Oliver's old Oceana , only a new Babel built upon Rebellion : For by this their own Maxim of Balance , or Property , the People must be the supream Judges of their King , and so the only deciders of their own Case ; for tho the King may be said to have , and surely has more of this Property , than any single Subject ; yet they are satisfi'd , he can never come to have more than all , unless we could imagin he had in actual Demesne , the Major part of every foot of the Land in his whole Dominions ; tho I think I have shown in some foregoing Section , in what Sense even the Law will allow the Soveraign to have some sort of propriety over all : So that this their Ancient Prudence , or Empire in property will allow the Collective Body of Subjects , to be the best Judges of their own Case ; nay necessitate them to be so , tho not some certain Subjects . But then tell me , Seditious Dolts , the disparity between these Maxims you so much admire for their Antiquity , Brutus's Vindiciae quest. 4. p. 169. ut singuli Principe inferiores sunt , sic universi superiores , or Rex major singulis minor universis , Pryn Parliam . Rights . as if founded upon Eternal Truths , and the Doctrine of a Brutus , or a Pryn , the very Words of our Modern Common-wealths-Men , which almost all the World will allow to be great Lyes ? and what does Hunt's Harangue tend to , but to maintain all the very same Position of this Peoples judicial Power ? Does he not for this tell us , That no * * Postscr . page 71. Civil Establishment , but is controlable to the publick Weal : ‖ ‖ Page 73. That the Crown is the Peoples Right ? and in a word , in the very words of that Monster ; in his Mercury I mention'd above : A Miscreant that did not dare to see the Light , till the Monarchy it self was involv'd in its darkest Cloud ; and in his lewd Language , does this illuminated Lawyer open too , even in this very Case , ( viz. ) That Treason , ( may very well be committed against the Majesty of the People ; and the same says , The Counterpart of this excellent Lawyer ‖ ‖ Ibid pag. 73. Will . Prin against the King's negative voice . Wil. Pryn in one of his Treasonable Treatises , Pamphlets or wast Papers .

Here you see the Harmony , and agreeableness between the several sorts of these Seditious Demagogues , that is , the Seducers of the People , according to the very Literal Etymology of that very word they so much delight in ; and Mr. Sidney , when he says , there being no Judge Tryal page 23. between King and People , that therefore the Case admitting no other , they must needs be Judges of things happening between them and him , is just no more than what you see , all those I have cited before , have all , all to a syllable said . Could I distort my Soul , and my little Sense so much , as to wrest it for a while , to play the Republican , ( i. e. ) to be Senseless , and Seditious ; sure common Prudence would prevail with me not to labor so much in such a Subject , where the most sublimated Wits , with their most exalted Sense , can never say any thing that is really new , any thing besides what has been as much baffl'd of old , especially where the pains must be as unprofitable , as the argument dangerous , and well it may , that sets up for a Common-Wealth , under a Monarchy so well establish'd .

But since we have here seen all what such a series of time , and such a number of Sedulous and indefatigable Authors have said upon this point , they surely cannot but forgive us , only for asserting this point of the Government , which they with less Reason are so ready to oppose ; when our attempt , if it merit nothing , cannot be condemned from any Law , only for defending its own Establishments ; and theirs for disturbing the publick Peace , must be liable to be punish'd by the Laws of any Civil , or Human Society : But to take no advantage from our having the better end of the Argument ; consider the Case only in the absolute Abstract of pure and unprejudic'd Reason and Equity ; Mr. Sidney says , ‖ ‖ Ibid p. 23. 'T is a most absurd folly , to say a Man might not in some The words of a late learn'd & Loyal Lawyer of our own , are expresly , the same ; Persons must not be Judg'd and Party . Jenkins Lex . Terrae Ed. London 48. Page 16. places kill an Adulterous Wife , or a disobedient Son or Servant , because he would there be both party and Judge , ( tho the Romans for that Reason would have kill'd him , that ston'd his Son to Death ) I don't know what Civil Society allows of such a sort of Severity , or what Barbarous one he had been bred in , but I am satisfi'd , that for that very Reason , they being the Parties most offended , have therefore sure the less Reason to animadvert on the Offence , unless we could imagine them God Almighties too , as well as Governors , that had I●justice for their all , their Attribute ; and nothing of Human Passion , or Frailty , from their suffering injury to transport , or deceive them in their executive power , beyond the Measures of its Administration : The Sons of Brutus had sav'd once their ungrateful Rome from a Foreign Foe , as well as the Father had delivered it from the Domestick Slavery , ( as the Democraticks of those times termed too , their Rebelling against their perpetual Tyrant , their Caesar or their Prince ; ) yet so transported were the People , with the unsuccessful Attempts of those unhappy Youths , only for the thought of restoring that much better piece of Polity , the Monarchy , they had help'd but so lately to subvert , that without the least Consideration of their past Services they soon sentenc'd them to suffer : But were it granted them , That in some places , the Parties are permitted to be the Judges ; Does that argue for the Reason , and the equity of the thing that they must be so in all others ? 't is sure a very sorry sort of an Argument , that will conclude from a particular wrong , to an universal Right .

'T is such an one , as themselves would not allow of in the like Case , when it makes for the Monarchy : For when 't is objected to them , that God in the Sin of his Servant David , did somewhat signifie he reserv'd the judging of KINGS to himself the King of Kings , and Judge Vindiciae Quest. 2. of all the Earth ; and that therefore the Elders of the Israelites , or their Seventy , which Brutus says , were then to ' constitute their supream judicatory , we see did not , or could not call him to Account ; Falsa est conclusio non debuisse poenas de delicto , aliquo sumi , quia semel sumpte non sunt , de jure . Magist . Franckfort page 72. Quest. 6. why truly to this it is answered by his Predecessor in his Principles , that Plato to this Aristotle , That Author de jure Magistratuum , That it is a false Conclusion to say , Kings ought not to be punished by the People , because David , or any particular King was not .

I shall grant this renown'd Republican , more than he 'll be willing to accept of , especially in one of his Instances of the Father , tho party to have heretofore been judge even in Capital of his Sons Offence , tho against himself ; but that was when the Government of almost all the World was purely Patriarchal , and then he had the same Despotical power over his Wife and Servant , his whole Tribe and Family ; and even as their Aristotle , a Common-wealth-man insinuates to us in his Politicks , those ruling Fathers , afford us the Foundation for 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 . Ethic. Lib. 8. c. 12. all Monarchy ; but says Sidney , There being no mean Judg between King and People , therefore they are his Judges , and their own ; and why may it not be as well said , therefore he is both his own Judge , and theirs ? there is no one to mediate even in his own Instances , between the Father and Son , Husband and Wife , Master and Servant ; and does therefore the Son Judge the Father , the Wife the Husband , and the Servant the Master ? or are either of them therefore the Judges in their own Case ? Certainly with Men of Common Sense , the Supream power must conclude the Judicial too , and that even themselves seem to suggest , tho it be bottom'd upon a false Principle , when they place it in the People : For they tell us themselves in their old Antiquated Aphorism , when they consider them Collectively , they are satisfied they have the supremacy , and then they would be not only Judges in their own Case ; but would for ever Exclude their King from being Judge ; but the very Foundation of this piece of folly under any Monarchy , must needs be false , and so the very Babel they would build upon it must needs fall into Confusion .

But to give a farther Confutation to this first Maxim of this Antimonarchist , tho it be really no more than what was Printed in the Rebellion , in another pernicious piece , besides what we have mention'd above ; It went under the Name of a Treatise of Monarchy , and its Author Anonymous , who very fairly puts it in the very power of every Man to Judge the Illegal Acts of his Monarch ; * * Treatise of Monarchy , p. 28. But yet will not admit it to argue a superiority of the Persons Judging , over him that is Judged ; and indeed 't is such an Inference , as seems to be just as full of Folly as Faction , only they that would make the People supream for it , are the more lying Knaves ; and this that would make them decide the matter without , the more Factious Fool : for when you ask these Sophisters in policy , if a Soveraign transcends his Bounds , who shall be Judge of that excess of Soveraignty ? why themselves tell us there is no Judge , and yet will have the People and the Party to be so ; but what if I should for once force them upon some shadow of Argument , and tell them the Fundamental Laws of the Land , to be the best Judge ? Yet still they be at a loss for this THEIR Judicatory ; for the King who is the Fountain of all the Laws , is the best Judge too of their being violated .

But besides the very Supposition of such a Violation of the Laws , by our own Soveraign , is as false in Fact , as 't is expresly against those very Laws to suppose it ; for by * * Vid 4. Eliz. 2. 46. Ne poet estre diseisor ne faire ascun tort . also 4. Ed. 4. 25. B. those he is declar'd to be never able to do any wrong , and so his Subjects cannot be injur'd by him , or the Statutes violated , when by those very municipal Sanctions , he is still presumed to do right ; but besides , Regal Authority cannot in Reason be subject to the Penalty of any positive Laws ; tho it may perhaps be oblig'd to the Observances : And this made as ‖ ‖ Sir Walt. Raleigh . History of the World . So the Civilians ( as Paulus says ) the Prince does do well to observe those Laws to which he is not oblig'd . Learn'd a Person , as any our Land bred , to distinguish this Royal Obligation into the directive and coercive part ; to the first , he thinks them somewhat subject , tho never to be compell'd with the latter : Consult but your Bibles , and the most curious Decet tamen Principē servare Leges , quibus ipse solutus est , ut inquit Paulus d. 32. 1. 23. of our Common-wealth's-Men , will hardly discover , what these illuminated Virtuoso's of the State , have of late brought to light , that any of the Kings among the Israelites , or the Men of Judah were tied to the Laws of their Land : That very Description that Samuel gives them of their Soveraign Saul , which our Democraticks delight to represent so very grievous and intolerable , and which the late Mercury-maker calls the giving them a King in his Wrath ; Merc. pol. Num. 65. yet that serves sufficiently to satisfie these mighty Murmerers , that the Nature , the Constitution of Monarchy was look'd upon then to be much more Arbitrary , than themselves , the most Seditious Subjects , would well allow , or our present Soveraign aim at or offer : For he tells them , The manner of a King must be to 1. Samuel C. 8. verse 11 , 12 , &c. take their Sons for his Service , set his Souldiers to devour the product of their Ground , seize their Daughters for Cooks , and Confectioners ; their Vineyards , and their Seeds , their Cattle , and their Servants , all must be his , such an absoluteness , and even an Opprestion , that they shall , as Samuel says , cry out because of their Verse 18. King ; yet even this , after he was by the same Prophet anointed , and endowed with all that formidable Power , he so fearfully represented , we don't find even him reproach'd for a Tyrant , or upbraided for violating the Laws , or any breach of Trust ; whereas their Brutus , in his Description of a Tyrant , calls it Tyranny only for a Prince to bring in Foreigners Tyrannus est qui exteros in praesidiis collo cat Vindiciae quest. 3. Page 139 , 140. for his Gaurd ; and then our Haringtons , Hunts , Nevels , and Needhams , might have made it Treason too against the Majesty of the People ; for our Kings that have suffered several French Souldiers in their Troops : I say seriously they might have made use of such a Ridiculous Argument of this Authors , for accusing our Princes of their Arbitrary Power , as well as they have borrowed from the same Senseless Soul , as silly and Seditious stuff . But least our Republicans , as they really do , should rely too much upon Samuel's frightful Description of an Arbitrary Prince , ( which they now-a-days too much make the Bugbear of the People , as if their Dogs can worry the best Government , when drest in a Bear-Skin ; ) 't is the Sense of some Learned Men , that the Prophet gave them only this draught of a Monarch , to let them know the extent of his power , and as Sir Walter says , to teach the Subject to suffer with patience any thing from the Hands of his Soveraign ; and I think Raleigh Hist. Chap. 16. §. 1. that unfortunate Gentleman when he Pen'd most of that Excellent piece as a Prisoner , had no Reason to be suspected for a Dissembling Flatterer of Kings , as Postscript pag. 68 , 69. Brutus representsany one that defends his Soveraign's Right , for a Traytor Betrayer of the People , as Hunt has it , or as Merc. Pol. Num. 92. Needham ; Debauch'd with the Brutish , Principles of MONARCHY ; but I am sure may be allowed to have had more than them all .

In the next place , the Laws of Nature , of all Nations , and particularly our own ; all absolutely exclude the People from being Judges in the Case of their King : For the first , It is the most Preposterous and Unnatural Inversion in the World , that inferior Subjects should be invested with such a Power , as common Sense will not admit to be Pedes elevabuntur supra Caput . part of the Oxford Oracle . Vid. Baker . lodg'd tny where but in the Supream ; they may as well invert the common Course , the constant Order of unalterable Nature it self , expect the Sun and Lamp of Heaven should no longer move in an Orb so high ; but Stars of the meanest Magnitude set up for the sole Dispensers of the day ; and the simile for ought I see is not so Foreign neither ; for we find there is more than a mere ordinary Analogy between that Harmonious Symmetry of the World , and such a System of Government , as if that Eternal Protoplast , had found it most agreeable for the frame of the Universe , which he the very God of Unity had form'd ; as if the Institution of the one , were nothing less Divine , than the Creation of the other . And for this , I dare appeal even to the Almighty , and that with better Authority , than Mr. Harrington with his Antient Prudence : The God of Heaven , who by all , unless they be Barbarous ‖ ‖ And even Homer a Heathen was of that Opinion . 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 . Hom I● . 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 . Hes. Theog . v. 96. Heathens , is allowed to be but one , and he himself is pleased to call Kings his very Vice-gerents here on Earth ; and the very Polytheists of Old Rome , that had their Gods for almost every day , as numerous as they say , the Modern Romanist , in his Calendar of Saints ; yet they among the many Deities they ador'd , still lodg'd the Supremacy in one , and ascrib'd all the Government , all the sole Supream Power , to their Mighty Jove : For this he framed one Sun to Rule by Day , and a Moon Gen. 1. verse 16. by Night : For this he Justified that paternal Right , in one Man , which even their Aristotle , a Heathen Born , bred under a Republick , reckons for a sort of Monarchy ; But I confess such a sort of Argument , can not be concluding with Men that will oppose Heaven it self , and all the Harmony of its Creation , rather than be convinced , That their own Models end commonly in Confusion , and are best represented in the Primitive Chaos .

For the Second ; Consult but the Imperial Laws , and the Codes of Justinian ; Laws that were Collected from other Nations , as well as made by their own , Laws that their Solon and Lycurgus , with all their Attick Legislators ; all the great Republicks of Greece , which these Seditious Souls so much extol , could never have reform'd ; and you 'll find what provisions those make for the Supream Magistrates being the sole Judge : The resolutions of some of those Heathens of the Royal Authority , their Humble Submission to the Supream Jurisdiction ; in all Causes , and over all Persons , ( as our Protestant Oaths have it ; ) one would think should make the boldest of our Christians blush , that can run up resistance , at the same time they are Sworn to submit and obey ; these their Laws , which for their equity have obtain'd even thro the universe , these tell us , That the * * Imperator solus & Conditor , & interpres Legis . Zouch . Element . part 4. §. 4. p. 103. and c. 1. 14. 12. King is both the Maker , and sole Interpreter of the Laws ; that what ever ‖ ‖ Quod princi . placuit Legis vigorem habet , D. 1. 4. 1. pleases the Prince has the Power , and efficacy of a Law ; and that 't is a Crime equivalent to * * Sacrilegii instar est principis rescripto obviare C. 1. 23. 5. Sacrilege it self , to resist a Proclamation , or Edict of their Soveraign , that he himself is bound by no Law ; and then I am sure can't be Judg'd by any ; and that he is † † In omnibus Imperatoris excipitur fortuna , cui ipsas Leges Deus Subjecit , Nov. 105. 2. exempted from them , here on Earth ; because Subject to none but the Judge of Heaven .

And for fear least Arguments drawn † † Si summo dare urgetur , ad Regem provocato . Lambert in his Laws Edgar . 1. 23. 5. from the Laws of Nature , and all Nations should be insufficient , to convince men of such Seditious Sentiments ; we 'll for Confirmation of the Third , Subjoin the Resolution of the very Lawyers of our Land ; and they tell us too , what the God of Heaven ; and almost the Universal Concurrence of all the Nations upon Earth have agreed in before ; our Britton as I 've shown before , has in effect with the very digest of the Imperial Law ; made our Statutes to consist in the Will The words of Bracton Chief Justice in Henry the 3d's time . Rex & non alius debet Judicare , and in another place . Illius est Interpretari cujus est Condere . and * * Quod principi placuit Dig. 1. 4. 1. Pleasure of the Prince ; only qualifies it with this Insignificant Restriction , That it must not be understood of an Absolute Will and Ungovernable , but such as is guided and regulated by good advice ; and the Rules of Equity , and Reason ; and if this be a Warrantable Resolution , ( and I warrant you the rankest Republican will take his Authority to be good ; should it in any place favour their Anarchy ; then it must be unavoidably concluded , that where the Law is the Princes ‖ ‖ Britton that Bishop of Hereford ; by order of Ed. 1. pen'd a Book of Laws , tells us 't is the Kings will that his jurisdiction and Judgment be above all in the Realm . Will ; none of his People neither as aggregate , or Jndividuals , can be Judges of its Violation ; neither can it according to common Sense , without the greatest Solecism , and Absurdity ; be said , by him to be violated at all ; for where the Custom of the Kingdom ( as it must be in all absolute Monarchies ) has plac'd the sole Legislative Power in that which is Supream : There the same Will , or Moral Action of the Sovereign , that breaks an old Edict ; is nothing else but an Enacting of a new ; and the Common Objection , that our Republicans Flourish withal against this , is , That then Murder and Sacrilege might be the Laws of the Land , because perhaps it has been heretofore the pleasure of our own * * Hen. 8. Prince . But as such Observations are full of Venom , and Spight , so they are as much impertinent , and nothing to the purpose ; for whether our own old English Lawyers had restrain'd the meaning Britton , & Bract. of the Word WILL , to a WILL guided by right Reason and Judgment , no Person of sober Sense , but must Imagine , that the very Principi placuit of the Romans , was as much restrain'd to the Rules of Reason and Equity ; and therefore their Tiberius , Caligula , Nero , and Domitian , were as much Tyrants , and by their own Authors so are term'd , as Vid. Sucron . In. vitas . if they had been bound by the strictest municipal Laws of a mixt Monarchy , and as the People themselves to the very Penal Statutes of the Land ; and therefore for that Reason the very same Civil Sanctions of their Imperial Law , that allow such a Latitude to their boundless Prince , abound too with this Restriction , that still it becomes him to observe those very Laws to which he is not oblig'd : Decet tamen Principem inquit Paulus Leges servare quibus ipse solutus . D. 32. 1. 23. And for the spilling of Blood , or Robbing of Churches , and the like unnatural enormities , which they say by the Soveraigns being thus absolv'd might become Lawful : did not the very Directive part of some of their Municipal Laws forbid them in it , the precepts of God and Nature , the Unresistable Impulse of Eternal Equity , and Reason ; to which the Mightiest Monarch must ever submit , and themselves did ever own a Subjection ; those will always tye the hands of the most Absolute , from Committing such Crimes ; as well as the Common Lictors do the meanests people for being by them perpetrated and Committed ; and 't is a great Moral Truth , grounded upon as much Reason and Experience , That those dissolute Princes that did Indulge themselves in the Violating the Divine Laws of God and Nature , could never have been constrain'd to the Observance of our Human Inventions , the Municipal Acts of any Kingdom , or Country .

And therefore I cannot but smile to see the Ridiculous Insinuations of some of our Republicans , endeavouring to maintain that by such silly suggestions , which they can't defend with Sense and Reason ; for rather than want an Objection they 'll put us too , suppose some Kings endeavouring to destroy their Subjects , and alienating of their Kingdoms ; and then put their Question , Whether the People shall not Judge , and Punish them for it ? but in this they deal in their Argumentation against their King , as some Seditious Senates of late indeavoured to Impose upon him to pass Bills , by tacking two together : A popular encroachment , with an Asserting the Prerogative : Just such another business was bandied about , by that baffler of himself ; that pretious piece of Contradiction , Will . Prin. Who tells us out of Bracton ; That GOD , the Law , and the Kings Courts , are above the King ; where if you take all the Connexion Copulatively ; 't is not to be contradicted , because no King but will allow his God to be above him , under whom he Rules ; yet even there it may be observ'd , that the Lower House , he so much Labour'd for , is not so much as mention'd . So do these Soph●sters in the Politick's here , proceed just like those Jugglers in the House ; they couple a suppositious piece of Premis'd Nonsense ; and then draw with it , a pretty plausible Conclusion ; for what man can Imagin , if he be but in his Wits , that his Monarch , unless he be quite out of them , and Mad , would destroy those over whom he is to Reign , none but the Bosan in the Tempest , with his Bottle of Brandy , was so besotted as to think of Ruling alone ; and setting up for a Soveraign without so much as a single Subject ; so that should these peevish Ideots , have their silly Supposition granted , still they would be prevented from obtaining their end at which they aim , for first if we must suppose all the Subjects to be destroy'd ; where would there be any left to judge this Author of their Destruction ? if they 'll suffer us only to suppose the Major part , or some few certain Persons to be sacrific'd to his Fury , then still that Soveraign , that would destroy the most part , or some certain number of his Subjects without Sense , or Reason , must at the same time be suppos'd to be out of his Senses , and then no Law of any Land will allow the People to punish a Lunatick : But if a King must be call'd a Destroyer of his People only for letting the Laws pass upon such Seditious Subjects , that would destroy him ; which is all the Ground they can have here , for branding with it their present Princes ; and for which these exasperated rebels really suggest it ; then in Gods name , let the Latin * * Fiat Justitia ruat Coelum . Aphorism take place too : Then let such Justice for ever be done upon Earth ; and trust the Judgments of Heaven for their falling : Then let them deprecate , as a late ‖ ‖ Vid. Paper of the Proceedings upon Armstrong his Outlawry . Lady did , the Vengance of the Almighty , upon the Head of the Chief Minister of the Kings ; but let there be more such Hearts to administer as much Justice , and the hands will hardly receive much harm for holding of the Scales .

And for that others silly supposition of these Seditious Simpletons , of a Kings Alienating of his Kingdom ; * * 'T is a receiv'd rule among civil Lawyers , and may be well among our own : That a King can't in Law alienate his Crown ; and that if it were 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 ●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 Fi●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 sub●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 be their Kings Judges , that they can not absolutely Judge of the mere Right of a meum and tuum among themselves .

Several other Instances , both the Books & Rolls abound with , that Evidence our Kings the only Judges of the Law in all Causes and over all Persons , for in the 13th . year of the same † † 13. R. 2. Richard the Second , the Commons Petition'd again the King , that his Council might not make any Ordinance against the Common Law ; and the King Graciously granted them , but with a salvo to the Regalities of the Crown and the right of his Ancestors . The Court of Star Chamber , which the worst of times Abolish'd , and my Lord Coke makes almost the † † It is the most Honorable Court , the Parliam . excepted that is in the Christian World , of Honorable Proceeding , just Jurisdiction ; A Court that kept all England in quiet , Coke 4 Inst. p. 65. and so it did till abolish'd by the Tumults of a Parliam . best of Courts , had heretofore Cognizance of property , and detèrmin'd a Controversie , touching Lands contain'd in the Covenants of a Joynture , as appears in the Case of the Audleys , Rot. Claus . 41. Edward the 3d. There the King heard too a Cause against one Sir Hugh Hastings , for with-holding part of the Living of the poor of St. Leonard in York , as is Evident from the Roll. 8. Edward 4. p. 3. And tho the Proceedings of this Court , were so much decryed by those that clamor'd so long for its Suppression , till they left no Court of Justice in the Land , unless it were that of Blood and Rebellion , their High one ; tho the King in his giving year was so gracious , that he made the very Standard , An. 1641. page and rule of his Concessions , to be the very request of his People , and gratified them in an Abolition of this Court , establish'd by the Common-Law ‖ ‖ Coke 4. Inst. C. 5. and confirm'd afterward , per † † 3. H. 7. c. 1. Act of Parliament ; yet ‖ ‖ Cambden Britt. 130. Cambden , our Historian , as well as our Coke , our Lawyer , could commend it for the most Honorable , as well as the most Ancient of all our Judicatories ; and if they 'll have the Reason , Why it treated of Matters so high , as the Resolution even of Common-Law , and the Statute , it may be told them in the weighty Words of their own Oracle ; Because the King in Judgement of Law , as in the rest , also was Coke 4. Inst. p. 65. 63. ne dignitas hujus Curiae vilesceret . always in that Court , and that therefore it did not meddle with Matters of ordinary Moment , least the dignity of it should be debased , and made contemptible ; and tho by the gracious consent , or rather an extorted Act of Grace , the late King was forc'd to forego it ; yet the Proceedings of some Cases there , may serve to show what a power our Kings had , and ought to have in all manner of distributive Justice .

Several other Citations I could here set down , to prove the Subjection of the very Common-Law , to the Soveraign Power ; as Henry the Sixth superseding a Criminal Process , and staying an Arraignment Verney's Case . 34. H. 6. Rot. 37. for Felony : Henry the Seventh's that debar'd the Beckets by decree , from pursuing their suit for Lands , because the merits of the Cause had been heard by the King his Predecessor , and also by himself before ; but these will abundantly suffice to satisfy any sober Person that does not set himself against all assertors of his Soveraigns Supremacy . And then if Custom , and Common Usage , which Plowden in his Commentaries , is pleased to call the Common-Law ; lies in many Cases Subject to the Resolution of the Supream Soveraign ; no doubt but the Statute , the result of his own ‖ ‖ 'T is that which gives them Life as I have shown before , and makes them any thing besides waste Paper . And the Judicious Hooker in his politicks , seems to be of the same opinion , when he says , Laws take their force not from those that devise them ; but from the power that gives them the strength of Laws . Sanction , must of necessity submit , and acknowledge a subjection to the same Power , and that I think we have sufficiently prov'd already upon several occasions , both from the Letter of the Laws themselves , and our little light of Reason ; both from Arguments , and † † The seven Kingdoms of the Saxons , had all their Laws made by their 7. several Soveraigns , of which confuss'd number the Confessor cull'd out the best , and call'd them after his own name , St. Edward ; so did also the other Saxon and Danes Kings their own ; after theirs , as you see in Lambert's Book of Laws . Laws that have evidenc'd their own Resolutions to be reserv'd to the King ; and that we had Kings long before the Commons Commenc'd , Conven'd , or Concur'd in their assent to such Laws .

'T is prodigiously strange to me , that these mighty Maintainers of the Peoples Legislative , and their Judicial Power , eeven over their own Soveraigns , cannot be guided by those very Laws they would have to govern their Kings , thus you shall see a Needham , a Nevil , or a Sidney amongst our selves , in all their Laborious Libels , that the drudges of Sedition ( who seem to verify the Sacred Text , in drawing Sin it self with a Cart-Rope , ) in all that they tugg , toil and labour in ; you seldom see that they cite you so much as a single Statute on their side ; or if they do , only such an one as is either Impertinently apply'd , or as Industriously perverted : And in the same sort does the Seditious Scot , Buchanan , and the rest of the Books of their discontented Demagogues ) ; that ‖ ‖ Omne malum ab aquilone . Northern Mischief , that threaten'd us always with a Proverbial Omen , till averted of late by the Loyalty of their latter Parliaments , that have aton'd even for the last age and the perfidiousness , and Faction of the former ) those all in their Libels , hardly Name you so much as one single Law of their Nation , to countenance the Popular Paradox , the pleasing Principle of the Peoples Supremacy ; which the poor Souls , when prescrib'd by those Mountebanks of the State , must take too like a Common Pill ; only because 't is gilded with the pleasant Insinuations of Natural Freedom , Free-State , Subjection of the Soveraign , Power of the People , and all the dangerous Delusions that lead them directly to the designs of these devilish Republicans ( i. e. ) a damnable Rebelion ; whereas would they but submit their Senses to the Sanctions of the Laws of their several Lands , their Libels they would find to be best baffl'd by the Statute Books , as well as their Authors to be punisht by them , for their Publication . 'T is strange , that should not obtain in this Controversy , which prevails in all polemical disputes , that is , some certain Maxims and Aphorisms , Postulates and Theorems not to be disputed ; these determin our Reason even in Philosophy and the Mathematicks ; and why should not the Laws then in Politicks too , and where 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 ●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 ●uch of Prerogative , or had more allow'd ●●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 agains● 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 , a● if our Ancestors , had feared least some of their profligate posterity , seduce● with the Corruptions of a Rebellion● Age , should impose upon the Prerogative of the Crown , with any such Sub●● 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 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 ●●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. ●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 ●● 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 , ●hen the Commons began to be muti●ous , and encroach upon the Crown ; ●hen they having with the help of their ●●merous Lawyers , which were once by ●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 ●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. Circumspect● 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. J●●● . by the Kings Maj●sty , Lords and 6. Car. p. 1. C. 1● . 12. Car. 2. C. ●5 . Sta● . 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 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 prop●e● po●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 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 ●ee Mr. S. that valu'd himself upon his parts ●o rely upon that which that pest of the ●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 , ●re not comprehended in the words of ●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 Deum 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 th●● Gentleman's large Treatise to be any thin● else but a Voluminous Collection , of a●● 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 wh●● ●● to a Syllable the same with the Papers ●● Pryn , and the Merc. Politicus : out of ●e Author of the Treatise of Monarchy , ●s he made a shift to borrow , or else ● chance very harmoniously to agree ● the pernicious Position , That our ●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 ●ower confer'd by the publick Society , in ●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 ●●iginal Constitution ( i. e. ) ( if my little ●●nse will let me Comprehend the saying ● a Politician that has none at all ) some●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 Co●y ; or a second first , ) yet from this sense●●ss Sophistry it must be concluded ; that ●e Soveraign being limited by this Original Constitution ; or as they call it ; A●ter Condiscent , and Secondary Orig●nal ; what then ? therefore every Ma● Conscience must acquit or Condem● 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 Illeg●● deeds of his Monarch . And so Mr. S. ●● almost the same Language ; As a man h● is Subject to the People that made hi● a King ; That he receiv'd the Crown upon condition , and That performance is ●● be exacted , and the Parliament Judge● of the Particular Cases arising thereu●on . I cannot but observe to this Ge●tleman upon this , ( who was always such ● great admirer of the ‖ ‖ So the Roman Senate when Augustus was not so much as present freed him from all obligations . Romans Commo●-wealth ) what I hinted before was th● Sense of the very Romans , when according to their own Notion of Original Monarchy ; the People of that Commo●-wealth , first conferr'd their Power ●● Government upon a single Soveraign ▪ why , their very Laws tell us , That no●withstanding those Contracts and Limitations , ( of which there were very like● some exprest even in that their very C●lebrated , and Glorious * * The Lex Regia princeps legibus solutus est l. princ . de legibus . Law , that fi●● made that Government Imperial , ) y●● when once it was so Conferr'd , by th● very Act , all Magistracy ; ( i. e. ) all pow●● of Judging that the Subject had before was past over too : And were our own ●onarch by the Compact , and condiscent ●● his first Ancestors , such a precarious ●ince as they would make him ; have not ●ur own Statutes I have cited , long since ●●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 Aphor●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. ●hey won't be such Senseless Sots sure , as to ●●y , That those whom themselves ac●nowledge to be altogether inferior , ●●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 ●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 blas● all his Judges in a moment , and dissipate them all with the Breath of his Mouth ; and therefore Mr. Sidney was so wittil● 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 with●● 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 mentione● among those that we call our Monarchs .

In the third place , if by this Original Tryal pag. 2● . 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 Bor●oe in their Toungue signified , ( if we can ●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 , when 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 ●hese his Judges of the particular Cases ●rising upon such a Subjection ; ) then ●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 , ●nd exercise it themselves , for that is es●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 , merū 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 hi● Voluminous Tracts are the greatest eas● and Ornament of the Law , his resolution here is not so agreeable to Commo● 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 Bo●ough Beer , only for the Representing of ●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 ● man must be Subject to the Judgment o● his People that make him a King , sure he cannot be so Impudently Immodes● but he must allow his Members of Parliament , that are much more made b● them , by Continual Election , and the very breath of their Mouth , to be as muc● accountable to their Makers ; for if ●● should recur in this Case , as he has no other refuge , to the Peoples having excluded themselves from this Origina● Power once in themselves , by conferring it on their Representatives ; the● farewel to the very Foundation of tha● Babel they would Build and Establish ▪ then they fall even in the fate ●● their aspiring Fore-fathers , fall by the confusion of their own Tongues , an● like the rearers of that proud Pile ; tha● would have reacht at Heaven and the Almighty ; as these at his Anointed , an● the Crown .

For certainly by the same Reason that they cannot Judge and Punish thos● whom they have Commission'd to represent them , because they have delegate● and transferr'd to them their Origin●● power ; by the same Argument , and that a fortiori , have they excluded ●hemselves from their natural Power of ●eing Judges of their King , because they ●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 ●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 Member● 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 Represent●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 ; his beloved Low-Countries , laboring under a Magistracy , that Lords it with as much Power as that from which they were delivered ; For this his Original Power of the People must be as much delegated to those that govern there , as well as it is inherent in any sole Soveraign , that is the Governor ; neither are any besides the best of their Burghers admitted to Administration , so that even that State that comes nearest to a Common-wealth , is at last but a sort of Aristocracy , which their Harrington condems Oc●an● . for worse than Monarchy it self : And I believe their Commons find the Impositions of their Burgo-Masters as great and as grievous , as ever were the Gabels of Spain .

So from what has been premis'd , this must be concluded , that since we see they can't punish , or Judge even their own Representatives , only their Suffragans in an house of Commons ; when they have delegated to them their Original power , ( which for once we 'l suppose them able to delegate ) much less shall they their Soveraign , tho they did , as they will have it , confer upon him the power that he has , for the Members of the lower House represent only the Commons of the Kingdom ; whereas the Soveraign is in some Sense the whole Kingdoms Representative . Since we have seen this Original Power of the People wheresoever it has been delegated to have created nothing but Usurpation and wrong ; where can this Power be better plac'd , but in the King that can alone pretend to a Right , and tho we are so unhappy , as to have presidents wherein they can prove to us that their Representatives were once call'd to an Account by the People that sent them ; that is so far from proving that they have a natural , or Original right so to do ; that it shows the danger of such a position that they may do it , and that when in the late Rebellion , they presum'd upon this their Right in Equity , they made it appear to be nothing else but the power of the Sword ; for in respect of a Right ; they are really so far from being able to censure their Representatives whom they send , that themselves are punishable for medling in those Parliamentary concerns with which they have en●rusted others ; What force this has in the Case of their Commons ; holds a Fortiori in that of their King ?

In the last place , give me leave to close this their Rebellious Argument of their Monarch being accountable to the Majesty of the people , with some few more Reasons against this Damnable Doctrine ; that has within the Memory of man , desolated and destroy'd three Kingdoms : A Doctrine that confounded us in the last , confus'd us in this ; and will be Condemn'd by all Ages : A Doctrine that places the Divine right in the People , and then indeed such an one as Mr. Hunt makes it , Impious , Sacrilegious * * H. posts . p. 68. Treasonable , Destructive of Peace , Pregnant with Wars ; and what absolutely produc'd the Civil one of England , and Sacrific'd its Soveraign Head , to the Fury of an ‖ ‖ Sidney's Tryal p. 24. Headless Multitude . This Principle is the very Basis upon which all their Babel of Confusion , of a Common-wealth , of Anarchy ; is all Built and Establisht : And I shall never look upon it as loss , to have Labour'd in it so long if we can at last but undermine its very Foundation : And that is laid even by the Libel of Mr. Sid. upon the Contract and Condition , upon which they 'll suppose he receiv'd the Crown , which he must be made to renounce , if he does not Perform when Accepted . And in answer to this we 'll suppose for once what the most Seditious Souls themselves can suggest , and that this part of the Rebellious position , abounds both with Sense , Truth , and Reason ; that our Kings have but a Conditional bargain of it , which indeed would be but a bad one too ; and such I dare Swear as the Greatness of our present Soveraigns Soul would hardly submit to , and if we 'll but believe his own word , as firm as fate , that never fail'd his Friends , and surely will not then be first violated for a debasing of himself , and a gratifying of his Foes , that has told us , or decreed , that he will not suffer his Government , and his Crown to be His Majesties Speech 22. May , 85. p. 5. Precarious : And I am apt to think that the that stemn'd the Tide , the fierce influx of Blood and Rebellion , as well as without a Metaphor withstood the noise of many Waters ; and baffl'd the Billows of ●he main , will hardly , when Seated at ●ast in a Peaceful Throne ; be regardless of it's ‖ ‖ Ibid p. 4. Right and Prerogative , which even his meritorious sufferings have deserv'd , should we bate his Virtue , and Birth were not in the Ballance . And 't is much unlikely that he that kept his Grandeur when a Duke of York , should dwindle into that of Venice ; and th●● too , when a King of Great Britain : 'T●● their Doeg I confess that accepts upo● Condition , 't is their Duke with who● they do Contract , our Crown as I hav● shown has been resolv'd an Imperial one from the Letter of its own Laws , an● the very Statutes of the Land ; Thei● from the very Constitution it self Subject to the Senate , Ours from its Foundation RESOLV'D not to be Precarious , as well as now too , from the Resol●tion of its Prince .

But in answer to this position of ou● Republicans ; I shall depone this as ● principle , that notwithstanding such ● Contract upon Conferring the Supremacy , the same cannot be Dissolv'd eve● by the Consent of all those that Constituted it : I wont repeat to them , th● Reason I have already urg'd from the * * Rex Legia . Royal Law of the Romans ; which one of their very Republicans says , was no●-without ‖ ‖ Certis tamen Limitibus , nec sine Exceptione probata , jure Magist . Quest. 6. Condition , or Limitation which if so , then we see that both Aug●●tus , for whose Establishment in the fi●● true Imperial Throne of their Rebellio● Rome that very Law was first founded , as also the Emperor Vespasian for whom it was again Confirm'd ; both these from all the Famous Historians of their Times , unless we 'll believe them , like the late Writers of the new Rome to be all Legends too ) both appear'd absolute in their power , unlimited in their Jurisdiction ; notwithstanding those Conditions they will have Exprest in that Law , neither did the People pretend to their deposition upon their Non performance : Julius himself that was not absolutely prefer'd to be the Royal Emperor , for he liv'd before that Law was made , yet was allowed such a perpetual Dictatorship ; as may be well resolv'd into what our Republicans reproach with their present Soveraign , an Arbitrary Power , And he too whom the Miscreant we before mention'd , says was ‖ ‖ Jure Occisus , qd. nimis Multas dignitates cumulasset ibid. p. 38. justly Murdered ; and why ? only because he dignify'd himself too much ( as if it were a Crime for a King to be Great ) ●ven he was not depos'd and dispatcht by the suffrages of the people ; but by a Perjur'd band of Conspirators and Assassinates in the Senate ; and whom the very people * * Plebs statim ● funere ad domum Bruti , & Cassii tetendit , Cinnam per errorem nominis occidet , caputque prefixum hastae circumtulit , columnā parenti patriae statuit , in scripsit ; sacrificare per Caesarē jurare perseveravit in deonumerum relatum , percussorū nullussicca morte obiit . Sueton. p. 51 , 52. too pursu'd for the Fact , and even ador'd their deceas'd Emperor tho Heathens , and their Empire was not Hereditary , to the shame of some of our good Christian Subjects that live under a Monarchy that is so , acquies'd more quietly under their oppressions of their Lawless Emperors , then some of ours under the good Government of their Gracious Kings , who as they have often promis'd , so have still Govern'd according to Law : The depositions and Barbarous Butcherys of some of the Roman Emperors , was never an Act of State , of the Citizens , or the people ; but the Force , and Fury of a Faction in the Army ; ( and 't is with that excuse I am sure our Presbyter with his good Excluded Members , would wipe his mouth of the Blood of his Soveraign ) for those were several times ‖ ‖ As Nero , Claudius , Galba , Vitellius , Otho . Vid. Sueton. set up by the Souldiers ; and assoon pull'd to pieces by those that had plac'd them on the Throne , which effusion of Royal Blood was the clear effect of their not claiming it by an Absolute Inheritance of that Blood Royal , for those Adoptions they many times made , ware of little force against the salutations of a Legion , and the powers of the Field , and therefore * * Unde Apparet ipsos etiam Caesares Juridice damnari , & coerceri potuisse ; de jure Magistrat . p. 38. that Author when he says even those Caesars were Legally , and justly Condemn'd ) as if the Romans too , ●ad once their High Court of Justice ) abuses ●he world both with a Factious insinuation , and in the very matter of Fact .

In the next place , they must consider , that if there was such a Contract and Agreement among the People to accept of such an one for their King upon his performance of such Conditions ; ( tho I am sure his Deposition or Censure in our Kingdom were never formally annext to the Penalty of the Bond for his Non-performance ; neither can they show us in all their Charter of Liberties , such a Conditional License to Rebel ) yet yet still it must be supposed the consent of every individual Subject , ( which was somewhat difficult to be compast ) was required to such an Agreement , for upon the first Constitution of our Government , 't is certain we had no such Parliaments , wherein they could dele●ate their Suffrages to some few Representatives : and then by the same Reason we must have the Concurrence of all the particular Persons in the Land when we would Judg of the breach of that Covenant , upon which all their Ancestors were supposed to have accepted their King : And then I think from the Result of their own Seditious Reasoning our Soveraign may sit pretty safely , and he rule as Arbitrary as he pleases , when it must be carried against him with a true nemine Contradicente , and not a single Subject left in the Land to be friend him with his Vote .

For upon such a conferring off the Supream Power , it must be supposed that the several Subjects have bound themselves to one another , to suffer such an one to be their Soveraign , and made ▪ contract too with one another in some such implied Sense , that A. confers hi● Right to Power and Government , upon B. as Supream Governor , upon Condition that C. does so too upon the same Person ( now to put it in the terms of our own Law ) the Subjects A. and C. here are both mutual Obligors , and Obligees to one another , and both Obligors to B. the Soveraign Obligee : Now 't is certain that A. cannot recal this power he has confer'd , on B. without the consent of C. his joint Obligor , but i● must be with a breach of Covenant to his Fellow Subject , as well as of Faith , and contract to B. his Soveraign , and this mutual Obligation between two to a third , will extend as well to two Millions : And I hope we may make at length ●he terms of our Law plead Loyally , tho I 've heard an eminent Council at the Bar , ( but commonly for none of the best Clyents , ) Assert Loyalty to be nothing else but an adhering to the Letter of the Law , with this good Innuendo , as if that would contradict the common Acceptation of the word among the Royalists , who make it to signifie an Asserting the King's Prerogative , whereas in their Law French , they would confine the word Loyalty to express nothing else but bare Legality : And be it so , I believe they 'll be but little the better for the quaintness of the Criticism ; for I dare avow that he that will be truly legal in their Sense , must be as heartily Loyal in ours , for nothing we see runs higher the Royal Prerogative , then that The King's Prerogative part of the com . Law . very Law by which they would run it down .

But to come to the Nature of this political Contract , this Stipulation of Monarchy as they would make it , which will be better exprest in the Language of a Civilian , when the Subject it self is about Civil Government , and an Imperial Crown : In this Case rhere is also a Convention ( as they call it ) of two Parties ; the Subject , and he that is to be the Soveraign ; one upon such a contract , stipulates to Govern , the other to obey : Now in such Stipulations it is a receiv'd Rule , that no man stipulates but for himself ; and that there is no Obligation arises D. 45. 1. 38. from any one 's promising another Mans Deed , so that every single Subject Alteri stipulari nemo potest , nemo promitendo alienum factum obligatur . Zouch . Element . pars 3. §. 8. Vid. Inst. lib. 3. c. 19. must in Person here ( as I've said ) have made such a Subjection to that Authority to which he submitted ; if this their Convention and Contract with their King can be supposed ; and then by the same Rule every man must in his proper Person come and retract his Obedience before this Right to Govern can be absolutely Dissolv'd , tho 't is the Opinion too of these sort of Lawyers , that what is promised by Subjects to the publick ( which in a Monarchy is always represented in the King , ) can't be revok'd D. 50. 12. 3. by them , no not tho they have reason to repent of their promise ; and if this shall hold him , tho without any Consideration , or Cause , and tho it be but of a Gift to the publick use , much more then D. 50. 12. 1. will it oblige him in his promised Faith , and Allegiance . But here in this Case , there is not only a Stipulation between the Soveraign and every Subject , but also between the several Subjects to one another ; for 't is a consent upon Condition among themselves , that this Man transfers his Power to some single Soveraign , because the rest have , does or design to do it , so that the Person upon whom the Supremacy is confer'd , is secured upon a double Obligation , both of that which is made among them all to themselves , and that which to him is made by them all ; and therefore that Opinion of Mr. Sidney , of the Power of the People , being delegated to some particular Persons , the Major part of which , can act for the whole Kingdom , is even unreasonable according to the Notion of their own Hypothesis ; For while he supposes it a Natural Liberty , and Original Power that the People have ; at the same time he lays down a Position that destroys it : For 't is Unnatural and against Nature , ( if they consider it , ) that the major part , should determine it against the Minor , and be taken for the consent and Approbation of the whole , when it is to be turned by a single suffrage and one casting voice .

And this carrying it by a Majority is against the Nature of their Original Liberty ; for we see that even in all Seditious Assemblies , and tumultuary Meetings ; every Man would have every thing carried his own way , but the being concluded by the Major part ; has always been the result of some civil Institution in the Government , that thought it reasonable things should be so carried for an avoiding of Confusion and Disorder , so our Representatives in Parliament are chosen by the Majority of their Electors ; and they pass their Bills when elected by pluralities of Voices ; but this proceeds from President ; Regulation , Institution , Custom , and Law , and yet we see th●t m●ny times , notwithstanding these r●c●iv'd Rules , and tacit Agreements , to which all have submitted , they are loth in their Elections to stand to their own accord in such Cases , and that those that have lost the day , or the Caus● by some few voices , are restless , tumultuary ; and their natural Liberty that is i●herent in every individual , so prevalen● that what they have lost by Law , they endeavour to compass by force or fraud , and from that has proceeded those Rio●ous forcible Decisions of some of our Elections , those clan destine and fraudulent ones of others , from that proceeded in our late Confusions even in Parliamentary Vide perfect Diurnal . Affairs ; The Remonstrances of the Army , Excluded Members ; the Impeachment and Imprisonment of the Eleven Members , Prides Purge ; The Peoples Agreement . Abolishing of Lords House , and at last Olivers Dissolution ; Hist. of Independency . for the Independant Faction prevailing in force , would by no means be concluded by Law , the Presbyterian suffrages were all along the most numerous in the Senate , and by all their Presidents in Parliament , must have carried every Vote by the Majority : This the Independant that fill'd not above the third part of the House found to their grievance , saw themselves still out-voted ●● Law , and so betook themselves to their ●●med Suffrages , and their Legislative ●●ords .

Now tho the plurality of Voices ( tho against their Natural Power of the People for they don't like it even in Parliaments now , since things are not carried all to their liking , ) may be allowed to determine the Debates in a great Senate , conven'd by the Soveraign Power ; yet it cannot be imagined that the Majority here too shall carry it for an abolishing that very power that called them ; unless we can imagin the Supream Power had summoned them on purpose to be deposed ; and that this politick BODY was Assembled , ( as once they were too sadly in the natural Sence ) to cut off its own HEAD ; the Writ that summons Delibera●●ri de arduis Regni , ● Inst. C. 1. Parl. them in our Parliament , is in order to deliberate about the difficult Affairs of the Kingdom , and it would be a difficult Bussness indeed , should it be by a casting voice , extended to a debate whither they had a King .

And from these Reasonings and Suggestions ( which I submit to Men of more Sense and Reason ; ) I dare to draw this Conclusion , that even from their own Principles ; Their Contract with their King , or as Sidney says , The Condition upon which he receives the Crown , he can not possibly be punish'd or depos'd , because 't is almost impossible that every one of his Subjects should concur in such an Act ; and the Major part must by no means determine it , by their own Maxims of Natural Liberty , even in affairs of lesser Moment . 2. Because 't is no Consequence , that because they have confer'd the Supremacy upon some single Person , that therefore they may reassume it too , tho it were forfeitable even on Condition , which I 've shown the Romans themselves , never pretended to , tho their own † † De jure Magistrat . Quest. 6. Democraticks tell us , their very Lex Regia was Conditional ; and ‖ ‖ Dig. 50. 12. 2. D. 50. 12. 1. their Laws which by all Nations are allowed the most equal resolve it ; that tho with them bare promises if made to private Persons were were not Obligatory ; yet when offer'd to the publick they oblige , and that in a Monarchy is always the King ; and what then must it be when there 's Oath made , Faith pawn'd , and fealty sworn : And those Laws resolve it too , as reason must , that when the Supream Power was confer'd on the Prince , all Magistracy was Zouch . El. p. 101. past over too , and in that lies all Judicial Power , and who then shall Judge of those Conditions that forfeit a Crown but him that wares it ? and then they 'll be but little the better for the Controversie , when a King cannot be deposed , unless like a Richard the Second by his own consent .

I have taken this Course , as the best way for the Confutation of such Principles ; not that I can really grant them the Concessions I have made , for I could assoon believe Mr. S. dy'd a Loyal Subject , as be satisfy'd with the positions he has lain down ; but I therefore grant them their own Hypothesis , that they may confute themselves , that they may see their own Babel of Anarchy will not be built upon the very Basis and Foundation of those Foolish positions they maintain ; that the work never was , or will be carried on far , without terminating as that of their Fore-fathers , in Confusion ; ( and by that they mean perhaps a Common-wealth , ) and have I hope in some Measure manifested , that even by their own wicked assertion of the Peoples Divine , Natural and Original power they cannot really pretend to any Right of Judging ; Punishing , or deposing their King , what force can do ; we have both felt , and fearfully , to our Terror seen , but in all Arguments of this Nature , the Question is of the Reason , and Right , and not of any Fact that may be justify'd by wrong ; and the refuting them from their own Maxims , must be more effectually convincing , then the maintaining of ours ; for one opinion in Politicks , is not absolutely destroyed , because some Persons can maintain another ; no more than the Systeme of Plolomy was presently False , only because Copernicus had invented his for True ; for the bare contradiction , and Clashing of positions , convinces no more than the giving the Lye , but when it is prov'd upon them in one , that even from their own Principles and Premisses , they cannot draw the very Conclusion they design ; as it was since in the other , that from their own Hypothesis they could not solve all the Phrases , and Phaenomenons themselves would make to appear , then certainly they must allow that themselves are in the wrong tho they will not Confess their Foes in the Right .

And now having at lenght examin'd their Original Power of People ; let us a little consider how long , and from whence our Kings have had their Original . If we must make words only instead of an Argument ; and cavil about an Idiom in Speech , ( as s●me of their critical Contenders about this Origen of Kings have very vainly , and as Foolishly quarrel'd at ; then we must consult our Dictionaries , and the Dutch Tongue ; for without doubt till the Saxons settled here they had some other appellation ; and were only from them call'd Konyng● and since Kings , but if we consider the Nature of the Government , it is that which from the Greeks we call Monarchy , which from its own Etymology best signifies and expresses the Sense that it bears which is the Governing part , and the Supream power plac'd in the sole hands of some single Person , and then the Queston will be only this , how long that has obtain'd in the World ; by whom first instituted , and in whom it first commenc'd ? For the first ; 't is undeniable that its Original was with that of the World , and God himself gave it by the Name of * * 1. Cen. v. 28. Dominion to his Adam he had Created , which in express Terms was given him first over all the Living Creatures , and then over th● product of his own Loins , his Wife ; an● 4. Gen. v. 7. after that , ( as if Providence did desig● to prevent the dispute about the Precedency of Primogeniture ; ) it gave in express words , a Superiority to Cain ; that the younger should be in some sense his Subject , that to him should be his de●●re , and that he should Rule over him ; from whence it was assoon Communicated to the Several Heads of the Families that were the product of their Loins , and so succeeded in a sort of subordinate Government according to the Antiquity of the Tribe , or Family . That this was then such Authority , as we now call Kingly , is both nonsense to assert ; and as great a Folly for any to require that we should maintain , for they may as well quarrel with us , when we say there were Kings of Israel , and Judah , and yet cannot prove that there Courts and Revenues , were as Stately and Great , as now they are in England and France ; 't is enough if the Government of those Primitive times , was but Analogous to what we call Kingly now : And now that we have brought it both to a right of Primogeniture and a Paternal Right from whence will result the Divine ; we 'll consider what it is , Mr. Sidney and his Advocates can say against it ; and see if there be any such absurdities in it , as they more Seditiously ; then with any Sense and Reason suggest ; first for the right of Primogeniture , that themselves will allow ; but 't is only because not able to contradict , and besides as they imagin , it makes for them , and their Cause ; for by that course of descent , they think our Asserters of a Divine right , are oblig'd to deduce their Pedigree of their Kings form the Creation of the World in a right Line ; and therefore Mr. ‖ ‖ Vid. Paper at Execut . Sidney says that such a supposition makes no King to have a Title to his Crown ; but what can deduce his Pedigree from the Eldest Son of Noah . But for that absurdity which is truly their own , by supposing it ours , when it can't be truly deduced from the Doctrine and defence of a Divine Right ; we shall answer anon when we come to treat of the Paternal .

That Primogeniture had the Preheminence in the very Worlds Infancy ; ( if we do but believe the word of God , which tells us , that himself told Cain , he should Rule over his younger Brother ; we cannot doubt of the truth of it , besides Abraham's being a Prince , and having a Precedence to his Brother Lot , is also there recorded ; and Esau ‖ ‖ 25. Gen. v. 34. selling of his Birth-right , Condemn'd as a Contempt of that preheminence , to which God , and Nature had prefer'd him ; and which himself only disposed of when he presum'd he was upon the point to dye ; and for his disregard of this Priviledge , was he punisht too in the prevention of the * * C. 27. Blessing , and which is perhaps the only Instance in Sacred writ where a Lineal Discent , and the Succession was interrupted ; and this too only occasion'd by his own Act. ‖ ‖ And we are expressly told the first born must not be disinherited , no not for Private Affection . Deu. 21. v. 15. If a man have two Wives , the one hated the other lov'd ; and the first born be of her that was hated , he may not make the Son of the belov'd , first born , before the Son of the hated that is indeed the first born ; but must give him a double Portion , because the beginning of his strenght , and the Right of the first-born is his , vers. 15 , 16 , 17. And that God himself did appropiate this precedency to the first-born , may be gathered out of all the History of the Old Testament , the only account that is extant , and from which Authors gather all the Authentick Relation of the two first Epooches and most Memorable Periods , or Intervals of time , viz. That from the † † First Period contain'd An. 1656. 2d . 1518. Secundū Intervallum a Varrone Mythicum appellatur . Creation to the Flood ; and from the Flood to the first Olympiad ( i. e. ) to Ann. Mund. 3174. for the profane History of those times is accounted Fabulous ; and by Historians call'd so , and from those Sacred Oracles it will appear that all their Kings of * * So Jehoram succeeded his Father Jehoshaphat , tho he had several younger brothers , Chro. 21. v. 2. And after him Ahaziah his young Son , because says the text all the Elder were slain . Ibid. Chap. 22. v. 1. Which implies that they had succeeded if alive by Birth and Primogeniture . Israel and Judah succeeded according to this Right of Primogeniture , or where that fail'd by ‖ ‖ Numb. 27. v. 9. Proximity of Blood ; And as the Almighty Countenanc'd such a Succession ; So does Nature it self , which among Heathens was distinguisht from the Deity ; and may be so amongst Christians too , if they consider it as the Work and Order of the Divine will , for if she shall decide it , she presumes the Eldest in years , to be always the wisest too ; and 't is not Nature , but a chance preternatural when it happens to be otherwise , for if we should conceive no disparity between Brothers and Sons , then all Right and Superiority must be decided by Lot ; but Nature giving a precedency by Birth , makes Naturalist to call Primogeniture the Sors naturalis : In the next place the Laws confirm it , and the Practise of most Nations as well our own ; so that when Mr. H , tells us the Succession to Posts . p. 71. the Crown , is of a Civil Nature , not establisht by any Divine right , he will find ; and must needs know that such a Succession by Primogeniture , or Proxiof 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 Arist. de Rep. l. 1. c. 2. For every house says he was Govern'd , ( & as the Greek imply's ) after the manner of a King by the Eldest in it . Blood ; even by almost all Civil Institutions is allowed the precedency , and that even in the Discent of Common Inheritance , and Private Estates ; and as I have said before I look upon the Crown to have a stronger Entail and more oblig'd to discend in a direct Line , if it were not from any Divine Institution of God ; but from a bare Human Policy , to prevent the Blood and Confusion that attends always a Competition of disputable Titles , which will needs be the result of any alter'd Succession ; and what now do these Laws affirm , to which Mr. H. must affix his discent of the Crown by his own words , when he says 't is of a Civil Nature ; why the Civil and Imperial 't is true differ from our own in this , that with them he is lookt upon an Heir , † † Heredis institutio nihil aliud est quam ultima voluntas testatoris , Pacius Anal . Inst. p. 26. de hered . Inst. Tit. 14. that is left so by the Testator in his Will , and by them a Testamentary Succession was more esteem'd then a Legitimate and Lawful one ; yet even that imply'd there was one that was Legitimate or born so , and the Reason why they rely'd so much upon Testamentary Inheritances was I * * Tit. Digest de . verb. signif. l. 130. Quandiu possitvalere testamentum tamdiu legitimus non admittitur , Tit. Dig. de divers . Regis jur . l. 89. believe because those were confirm'd by the very Laws of their 12. Tab. which was their Yet even those their 12 tables and the Pretors Laws allow'd a Lineal and Legitimate Succession . first and Fundimental ; and therefore as long as the Testamentary was valid they would by no means admit the Legitimate one : But still even in those Testamentary donations , I believe they for the most part left most of their Patrimony to the Eldest ; as well as we see among our selves , our Tenants in see simple , that have as absolute a disposition of it by Will ; or those that have recover'd against the tail , by fine or the like ; still leave their Eldest their Heir , tho Impower'd to give it to whom they please : And then for our own Law , the very Custom of the Realm ; by which we must be more immediately Govern'd ; that makes the ‖ ‖ Doct. & Stud. l. 1. c. 7. he Eldest as badg of his birth-right shall bear his Fathers arms without differrence , because more worthy of blood , Cok. Litt. p. 140. Non hominem , sed Deum heredes facere asserunt . Cowels Instit de Hered . Tit. 14. p. 120. Brct. l. 2. c. 33. Britt . 118. 119. Eldest Son the only Heir to his Ancestor , or else the next of Kin to the Predecessor deceas'd ; and that is the Reason an old Aphorism obtain'd even with our own Antient Lawyers , that expressly insinuates such an Hereditary Succession , to be by Divine Institution , when they tell us that 't is not mankind but the Almighty makes them Heirs : I know that the saying more properly refers to the Order or appointment of the Divine Will , that such an one shall be the First-Born , because it makes him to come into the World first ; but if it can be prov'd from the Text , as in many places it may , and in some we have shown , that God himself in express Terms made the younger Subject , we may be so bold to say that he instituted too such a Subjection , to be paid to the Eldest .

And now let us consider the paternal Right , which our Republicans so much deride , which Mr. Sidney in ridicule would force us to derive from the Eldest Paper at Execut. page 32. Son of Noah ; which Plato Redivivus would expose in the Empire of Reuben , the Brief History calls a new Notion of the present Age , and Mr. Hunt laughs at in Brief p. 15. the merry conceit of calling it the Court Postsc . pag. 118. of King Adam , and King Father , 't is true the most Sacred and Divinest truth , may be made Ridiculous , only by laughing at it , and the World has not wanted even such a Blasphemous Buffoon , to burlesque the whole Bible ; but I shall shew them here as in the most proper place , in what Sense those Fathers might be said to be Kings , and that the Absurdities they suggest , are far from any Consequences of such a Supposition : And why for Gods sake must we be put to prove , ( only for Asserting that the first Man had a Monarchichal Dominion , tho it were at first over Beasts ? ) why must we therefore make out too , that he kept up his Majesty after the manner of our Kings ? And that Adam in his Garden of Eden , in the first Year of the World , had built him an House like a Solomon , that was hardly finish'd in Fifteen : That he that had but Fig-Leaves to cover him , had laid the Foundations 1 Kings C. 7. of his Court in costly Stone , and erected a Pile whose Porches and Pillars were of pure Caedar , and all the Building built up out of Caedar Beams , they may as well expect we should make out this too , aad bring all the Forrest of Lebanon to be laid out in a Palace of Paradice : Is it not enough for us to maintain that the first Government in the World was Monarchial , ( when we can prove all the Dominion and Power was imparted to a single Person , and when God himself seem'd to make but that one Man , to prevent even a possibility of a Competitor , and a Division of the Soveraignty , ) without being obliged to make the very Origen of Monarchy adaequate to the Improvement of it , and that a Soveraign for almost seven thousand year agon had the same Pompous and Imperial sway , that a series of time , and a Revolution of Ages has settled in the King of Great-Britain .

Many things are clear from Analogy of Reason , tho they cannot be demonstrated to Sense ; the naturalist and Chymical Operators may well conclude that the mineral Vermilion is made by some Natural Subterraneous heat , that elaborates the fumes of Mercury and Sulphur ; in which Mines 't is found , from their being able to make the Cinnabar its Resemblance , by an Artificial fire out of the Butter of Antimony , in which is both Sulpher and Mercury , tho themselves were never working under ground , and in the Mines .

If we must be put upon such a piece of Impertinence as the Postscript would have it to find out this King Adam 's Court too ; I 'll just take the Liberty to put them to just such another task , They will have their instituted Common-wealth to Commence from the World 's in sancy , even before that of Israel , before that Moses as they say had divided their Plat. p. ●● . Land unto them by Lot , and turned the several Tribes into so many Republicks : And then let them tell me what sort of a Republick it was , that the Patriarchs liv'd under , and were ruled by , where it was that Abraham , and his Fellow Citizens consulted to make Laws for the Benefit of the Common-wealth of his Family , so great that his train'd Servants , 318 fought 4 Kings , where it was that Lot and his Herds-men , when they pitch'd their Tents in the Plain , set up Stadtho , their use and commenced Burgomasters ; if in those days there was any Government purely Democratical , that is , lewdly Licentious , it must have been seen in the Cities and Towns , of those times , some Sodom or Gomorrah , yet even Gen. . c. 14. verse 2. there the Text tells us , Bera was King of the one , and Birsha of the other ; let them tell us where Isaac when he settled in the Valley of Gerar , set up his Servants for Senators , tho he was grown so great ( since they will have it so , in the Common-wealth of his Houseshold , ) that a mighty King of those times , Gen. C. 26. whom the Text expresly calls so Abimilech told him , that he was much mightier than he , and the Philistines envyed and feared him too for it : Let them tell us how Jacob liv'd in the Republick of his Sons and Servants in Succoth , tho such a numerous train , that they could venture to invade the City of the Shechemites , inhabited by the Subjects of Hamor the Hivite , whom the Scripture calls the Prince of the Country , and sure these Patriarchs were somewhat more than the ordinary Page 32. Fathers of Families , as Plato would make them , when their Forces were so great , and their strength so formidable , that they fought Kings , and were feared by Princes : And now let them prove that this paternal Power of these ‖ ‖ One of their Republicans much countenances the Notion of Kings being but Fathers , or Fathers Kings . Prisci Reges vocabantur Abimilech , quod Hibraice sonat Pater meus Rex . Jun. Brut-Vindiciae Quest. 3. Patriarchal Kings was no more than that of a Burgher in the Town of Antsterdam , or that the Cities that were several of them then erected , and where the sacred writ expresly says , Kings and Princes Reign'd , that those were nothing else , but as perfect Republicks , as Venice , Genove , or the united Provinces in the Netherlands .

And cannot our Seditious Souls be convinc'd that this their Patriarchal Power was Monarchical , unless we can prove every patriarch a Crown'd King ; should we oblige them to make out their same Common-wealths of those days after the same manner their Modern ones are now Establish'd , they would be put to find out in those primitive times some general revolt of a Rebellious people from their Lawful prince : For that was the first Foundation of their fam'd Republick pag. 25 , 26. in the Low-Countries , as Mr. Sidney himself will allow , tho against common Sense and Reason he cannot let it be called a Rebellion : And also is it not one thing to say a paternal Right was once Monarchical ; but must it make all Monarchs to Rule by a paternal Right ? conquest of the Sword grounded upon a good pretence of Right is what a great many Kings claim by , a long series of Successive Monarchs , makes the Title of a great many more as much unquestionable ; and yet I cannot see why Monarchy may not still be said to have been first founded in a paternal Right , tho the claims to Soveraign power since , in such several Kingdoms , and Nations where it is now Establish'd , are of as several sorts too , as there are Subjects that have submitted to be govern'd by it .

It is a pleasant sort of Diversion to see Mr. Hunt Harangue out half of his Tretise in an impertinent pains to prove the Father of every Family at present , not to be the King of it , we would have granted it him quietly , and the postulate should have been his own in peace , without raising upon his War of Words , and the thundering charge that he gives Postscr . p. 100. this Opinion , of puzzl'd , senseless , vain , unlearned paradox : For once every parent shall not be a Crown'd Head , and every City but a Common-wealth of Kings : for that is all they must contend against , and then what 's the Contention , but just about nothing : but that parents have nothing in them that is Analogous to a Monarchical power , that they have no Right to govern those very Children He that but curseth his Father shall dye . Levit. C. 20. V. 9. they have begot , ( as this Gentleman with his mighty performances thinks he has perfectly prov'd ; ) that I think will be found at last to be the greater paradox , if not a perfect Lye : For first the very Deut. 2. verse 18. decalogue declares the contrary ; And the command we have to Honour our Father and Mother , implies an Authority that they have that requires Obedience , by the Levitical , the Laws of the Jews , the Rebellious Son was to be ston'd to Death , and if the very Bible can call it Rebellion ; Certainly it must suppose some power , against which he could Rebel : And what does Mr. Hunt , who himself admits of this , say to the refuting the very Objection that he raises , why he says this was an unnatural severity permitted the offended parent , that is an unnatural severity commanded by the very God of Nature : For all those their Laws were so many Divine precepts for the regulating his own Theocracy , and the very Text tells us this exemplary punishment of Dissobedience to parents , was shown that Israel might fear , ( i. e. ) fear those parents in whom the Almighty's Law had lodged such a power : and then if we consider it in the Abstract from any positive Law of God , or Divine precept , if we look upon it in a pure natural State , as the result of Generation ; for all whatever the postscript impertinently suggests with his 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 , and all the distracted noise that he makes with the procreation work being such an Act of Affection , and mere impetus of Love , I cannot see , why by that darling work that delights Mr. Hunt so much , the power of governing those very Children he has begot should be superseded : The Gentleman among his many Malancholy moods , had it seems some pleasant Fancies : For in effect he tells us no more than this , that Coition being an Act of Love to the Mother , the Government over the Child that she bares him , must by no means be call'd a power ; and if this be not indeed a puzzl'd , senseless Opinion , I submit to persons that abound with more sense , and if it have the least shadow of a consequence , I will forfeit all my Right to Reason , might it not be as well infer'd too , that every Father that chastises his froward Child , is an absolute Tyrant , because that sort of severity savors of Anger , and fury , but the Generation work obliged him never to exercise it , because that was an Act of extream Love .

But besides , that precept in the Decalogue , Honouring our Parents , is an Eternal Law of Nature engraven in our Hearts , as well as it was in the two Tables of Stone , and whereever there is a Natural Veneration ; there is at the same time an imply'd subjection , for those we always reverence most , to whom we are most Subjected ; I know there are inferior Objects upon which many times we place our affection , and may in some sense be said to have for them an Esteem ; but that cannot be properly call'd Honour , but is better exprest by the Name of Love ; and this is that 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 that Friends have for one another tho they are Equals , or Parents to their Children tho Subject to their power ; but if we consider the word Honouring it self , ( which in all the Versions of the Decalouge is still render'd so , as if it would remember us of the subjection we owe to those we are commanded to Honour , ) that very word it self implys Power in the Person that is to be Honoured , for if we abstract our selves from any prepossessions and Engagements of Love , we still find we still Honor those most ; that are also most in power , thus our Nobility are respected by us as Honourable because they are in great places of Power and Trust : And our King more Honoured by us agen , because the very Fountain of Power it self ; and lastly what strikes us more into a Venerable Horror of the Majesty of Heaven ; but that awful attribute of his being Almighty , so that uncorrupted Nature it self from the Rules of Common gratitude obliges us to Honour our Parents , as well as the express precept of the Divine will ; and then by Consequence Subjects us to those whom we are requir'd to respect so much and esteem ; for Nature as it never ( according to the Maxim of the Naturalists in Philosophy ) is said to do any Plato himself , not the Redivivus : allows those that beget to Rule over what they have begotton . thing Foolishly , or in vain ; so neither will it require any thing that is so , from others to be done , and therefore there is no Natural Law that obliges us to Honour our Servants , and those that are subjected to our Power ; but the very Act it self would seem preposterous , awkward , and unnatural .

And this agrees even with the very Vis & lex nature semper in ditionae parentum esse liberos Jussit . Plin. Paneg . notion of as Learned a Republican perhaps as ever publisht any thing Politicks , for Aristotle that liv'd under a Common-wealth ( tho he had less I believe of its principles then our Seditious Souls that are Born Subjects to a King , and sworn to be true to an Establisht Monarchy ) he to Confirm his opinion of the paternal Right which in several parts of his Politicks that Antient Heathen , that vast Body of the Primitive Philosophy is pleas'd to maintain when he tells us that Families and Houses were at 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 , &c. first Govern'd after the manner of Kingdoms by the Eldest head in it , that Cities were herte●fore ; as most Nations now are , under the Goverment of Kings , and then in another place in his Ethicks ‖ ‖ 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 , de Rep. l. 1. c. 2. more Expresly to this purpose , plainly says , directly contrary to the Sense of Mr. H. and some of our Democraticks that have ador'd some part of his Political Observations , † † 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 , Ethic. lib. 8. c. 12. That an Empire or Monarchy , ( or according to the Literal Greek ) a Kingdom will be a Paternal Government ; and one would think the Authority of such Antiquity , should at least have prevail'd upon Mr. Hunt and his Historian , not to have Libell'd the Hypothesis for Novel or new ; but agreeable to this his position , does that wise Heathen define Honour , in the same Sense as I have Suggested aboue , ( i. e. ) that it does imply wherever it is paid a Power , and Subjection in him that pays it ; for he makes all his Honour , peculiarly , properly , in his ‖ ‖ Arlstot . Polit. lib. 3. cap. 7. and then agen lib. 5. cap. 6. 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 are the ●a●c that ●e express●s in other places by 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 . Politicks to signify nothing else but Empire and Magistracy , and in other places by those that are in HONOR ; he understands the same persons , whom at other times he dignifies with the Title and appellation of those that are in POWER , which has made me many times think , that as the Romans receiv'd the first rudiments of their Learning from the Greeks , so they might retain some roots of their Language and mixt them among their own , as we see among our selves those Modern Nations do at present that Correspond ; and then we may imagin ( since their Sense and Etymology is not so wide and irreconcilable , ) that the Latinisms Timor and Timeo , were but borrow'd from the Greeks 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 , for whom we fear we must Honour , and whom we Honour we fear ; I know that it is but a sorry sort of reverence that is the result of our being afraid ; but yet we oblige our selves to pay it , tho it be but with reluctancy ; so that I can confirm the position I lay'd down , and return to the very words of what was first asserted , and that with none of the worst Syllogism in Logick , a sort of Sorites , or Gradual Climax . i. e. Where ever there is any Natural Honor , there always will be an awful fear , and wherever there is any thing of awful fear , it is of somewhat that has an absolute Power .

And then in my poor Apprehension , it is almost as natural an inference in the Rules of Logick , from the proposition of A , being the Father of B , that therefore he is his Lord and Master too , as it is in the Common Conclusion that is made among Logicians , of B's being an Animal from the Proposition that he is a man ; for tho Dominion be not absolutely exprest in the definition of a Father , yet it is so apparently Imply'd , that it makes an essential part of him from the Closeness of the Connexion , neither can Mr. H. overthrow the notion with his Fruitless Labours about the sublim'd Love that exerts it self in the work of Generation , for it is not the bare procreation that Entitles the Father to this Dominion ; for then the Mother too would at least have as great a Power over the Production , being as much contributory to its being produc'd and for some reason more Right and Jurisdiction over her Infant as being the Fruit of her own Womb ; as being she , that ‖ ‖ Pater is est quem nuptiae demonstrant , D. 2. 4 , 5. determines it to such a Father , as she that has commonly the sole care and concern of its Education ; till it is grown more Adult and fit for to be form'd into manmers by the Management of the Father , and therefore not only according to the Maxim and Sanction of the Imperial Law ; not only in a Civil and Political Sense , the Birth is said to follow the Belly ; but it holds good even in the State of Nature , Partus sequitur ventram . and even in the literal Sense visible among Beasts : But that which gives the Father a double Title to the Dominion over the Child , is not only his being as a Natural Agent the first Spring that gives it Life and Motion , but also because the Civil Sanctions of all Kingdoms and Countries , still establisht the Fathers Heads of their Families ; and from the Conjugal Compact that is made in Matrimony , subjected the Wife to the Jurisdiction of the Husband , so that whatever power and Right belongs to her over her Infant ; is like the acquest that acrues to a Servant , or a Son ; which the Civil Law and our own ‖ ‖ Quicquid acquirit filius , acquirit patri suo , & servus domino . Inst. 2. 9. 1. Coke Little . § 172. Dr. & Stud. l. 1. c. 8. Common too resolve , into the Power and possession of the Master and Parent : And then with what an Impertinent fury ; with what an insignificant Folly does the renowned Lawyer Labour and lay out his Lungs against Sir Rohert Filmer ; ‖ ‖ Posts . p. 113. In making him a Monster , and persuading Mankind to Sacrifice their Sons unto Moloch , in depraving Human Nature worse than the Leviathan ; I confess the Furious fellow might as well fasten this upon that Loyal Persons position of a Paternal Right , as they have several other propositions full of absurdity upon the Doctrine of the Divine ; which still have been nothing else but the durt and dust of their own raising ; but is it a Crime at last with some of our Rebellious Christians to become Loyal , because the Leviathan whom themselves will make but an Infidel has lent them so many Lessons to learn them Obedience ; or is not a reproacht rather anough to make the boldest republican to blush , that believes but a Deity , to see a Monarchy so well maintain'd even by a Reputed Atheist , if the Asserters of a paternal Right concur with him in such positions as render them good Subjects ; I am sure these opposers of it , agree with him in every point from whence they can draw but the least countenance for Rebels . These Venemous heads the Spiders of the publick , that spin their Notions into Cobwebs , into such fine nonsense that they cannot hang together ; have here also that other good Quality of that virulent Creature , to suck up all the Venom and Poyson of Mr. Hobs , and prey upon the very principles of his Corrupted Air , and the Infectious depravations even of Human Nature : his Origination of Society out of Fear , his definition of Right to Consist in Power , his Community in Nature , his Equality in persons ; all the very Contradictions of himself ; reproaches of his Reason , the Opprobriums of his Sense , the Pest and Plague of the People , are priz'd with our Republicans as the Philosophers and the Schools do their propofitions of Eternal truths ; they imbibe the Poyson , and exalt , improve it too , they sublimate the very Mercury of Mr. Hobs ; and whereas he equals us only in a state of Nature , our Levellers will lay us all Common , under the Inclosures of a Society , and the several restrictions of so many Civil Laws .

But to what tends this their turning all the Power of a Parent into Tyranny ; as if a Father could not have an Authority over his Child , unless he be bound to make it his Slave , as if the Chastisement of a Father could not Evidence his Supremacy over his Son , unless like the Saturn of the Easterlings , he Sacrifice him to the Fire , and torment it in the Flame . But this paternal Right of the Father , must suffer by these Factious Fools , from the same sort of Inferrences they bring against the Divine Right of their King , which may only serve with some Loyal Hearts to confirm the great sympathy there is between them , for as by the Law of Nature , a Father can't be said to injure his Son , so neither by those of the Land , can our Soveraign wrong his Subjects : For say these Seditious ones , your Divinest Monarchs by that Doctrine , can Hang , Burn , Drown all their Subjects , ( they should put in Damn too for once , since they may as well infer from it , his sending them to the Devil : But cannot common Sense obtain amidst these transports of Passion , can they not apprehend a Father to have any paternal Authority over his Family , unless he be able to Murder every Man of it , the Civil Laws the municipal ones of , his Land , ( if a Member of a Society supersede such a severity , and if a Patriarchal Prince must be supposed , ( as were several of old after the deluge , then the Affection of Potestas patris debet in pietate non atrocitate consistere D. 48. 9. 5. a Father : And the Laws of Nature were sufficient to secure the Son , or preserve the Servant from any severity , but what some proportionable guilt might deserve ; so also , did this Divine Right make the Soveraign as entirely absolute as the great Turk ; yet the Directive part of Decet princi pem leges servare quibus ipse solutus ; D. 32. 1. 24. those Civil Sanctions , to which the Divinest of them all would be Subject , or at least the precepts of the Divinity , their God under whom they Govern , that will oblig'd them both to Justice , and Mercy , the two great Attributes of him whom they represent .

But since they would make this Empire of a paternal Power so Ridiculous in Reason , let us see how it has all along sounded in the Letter of the Law ; and if it has there neither been look'd upon as a Notion so Senseless and insignificant , The most illuminated Reason of our eminent Lawyer , must submit to be much in the dark : The ‖ ‖ Jus autem potest tis quod in liberos habemus ; proprium est civilum Romano●um nulli ali● homines talem potestatem habent . Inst. 1. & 9. Romans from the result of their Imperial Sanctions , look'd upon themselves to have such an absolute Power and Authority over their Sons and Daughters , that they tell us expressly , it was a peculiar Prerogative , and privileg'd of the Citizens of Rome , and that there was no other Nation that could Exercise such a Jurisdiction , they could alienate for ever , by this Power Inst. lib. 21. 9. Vid. Pacii Anal. ibid. of the Parent , any thing that was acquired by the Son , and give it to any whom they pleas'd , whereas it might have been an Argument enough of a paternal Power , had they been but only usufructuaries , and the Dominion remained in the Child ; and such a Sense of Soveraignty do the Civilians express to reside in the Father of a Family , that they gave him the same Appellation with that of a King , and tell us by the name Appellatione Familiae etiam princeps familiae Continetur Zouch . pars . 3. §. 4. Dig. 50. 19. 196. of a Family , the Prince of it is also understood ; and tho Mr. Hunt tells us a Story , out of the Cabala of the Jews Laws , and the Tract of Maimonides , that they lookt upon their Children Emancipated of Course , when they came to Thirteen ; and that then they could claim it as their right to be free . I must tell him from the Constitutions of the Imperial , ( that must be of more force among us , unless we resolve still that even Christians shall Judaize , ) that no Sons were ever emancipated or emitted out of the power of the Parent , unless they could prevail upon him for his own consent , that by no means he could be compell'd Neque natural● liberi neque adoptivae ullo modo possunt cogere parentes de potestate suâ eos dimittere Iust. 1. 12. 12. Vid. Jul. Pac. ibid. to it , and they had no freedom de Jure till their Fathers were de facto dead : And tho Pacius in his Comment on that part of the Institution , says , They became sui Juris at 25 from their Manner and Custome ; yet concludes the Law of Nature oblig'd them still to their Parent , which no civil one could disanull : The Duty that their ‖ ‖ D. 22. 3. Digests say , was due to this Paternal power , which they Insinuate almost as Sacred , was exprest by the word piety , and a * * Ridley's part . 4. C. 2. learn'd Civilian of our own laments , that there is no more provisions made in our English Laws , for the Duty of the Child , and the protection of the Parent , and with them so great was the crime of parricide , that they could not a long time invent an adequate punishment , for such an unproportionable Guilt , tho they had one for Treason against the Prince .

And tho our own Laws do not make the Paternal power savour so much of Soveraignty , yet we shall see they sufficiently evince that the Parent has a power very Analogous too it ; whereas Mr. Hunt will not allow it to have the least Relation , which remisness of our Civil Institutions might well proceed from a presumption of our knowledge of the express command in the Decalogue , of which the Romans were ignorant ; tho we have no formal ‖ ‖ Yet Servants were heretofore with us formally Emancipated , Qui servum Liberat inmercato vel hil lumdredo Lanceam & gladium quae liberorum sunt armâ in manibus ponat , Lex H. 1. 78. Lamb. p. 206. Vid. Bract. l. 1. c. 10. Flet. l. 1. c. 7. Lex Aethelst . 70. Lamb. p. 54. Emancipation now in use , which does imply a power of Government , yet our old Lawyer tells us still , that Children are in the power of their Parents , till they have extrafamiliated them by giving them some portion or Inheritance ; and the Custody of them , while minors which afterward went to the King , upon the presumption I suppose of his only ability to be a second Father , that was settled in the Parent , both by Common-Law and Statute : for there lay a good action against any one for seducing a Mans Son as well as Servant out of his power , which does imply that there is a power out of which he may be seduced , and thus I have endeavor'd to shew the first Foundation of power to have been in the Fathers of Families : And it signifies nothing , whither every Father of it Reigns in it as a King now ; and therefore Mr. Hunt his impertinence is inconclusive , and part of his Assertion a plainly , Post . p. 98. when he would infer , from the continuance of the Parents Authority over their Children , together with the Soveraign power distinct , that therefore there was never any Foundation of a Patriarchal power ; for he might as well tell us , That because we have no Parents now , Si aliquis filiolum occideret ▪ erga●um & parentes mortui , conjuncti re us est . Lex Hen. 1. 79. Lamb. p. 207. And with this agrees the reviv'd practise among our moderns to bring Appeals . but what are Subject to the Municipal Laws of the Land , therefore there was never any Patriarch in the Bible , never an Abraham , an Isaac , or a Jacob , that had an absolute Dominion over their own Families ; or none now amongst some Barbarous Nations , that have no other jurisdiction but what is Paternal , the question is not what jurisdiction those Parents have , that are Subjected to the Laws of a Civil Society , but what they have by those of nature ; and 't is as absolute a lye ; when he says , 't is not abated by the Soveraign power ; for were it not ; the Parent had a power over the life of his off-spring , as the Patriarchs had of old , and some Barbarous Nations that are at present unciviliz'd .

And for the Statute of the 25 , which 25. Ed. 3. Mr. Hunt brings as an Argument against it , because Parricide is not made by that petit Treason , is as pertinent perhaps , as if he had told us , that every Father of a Family , was not included in that of Edward the first , that settles the Militia Ed. 1. in the King : for sure 't is not possible to suspect how they can be considered as so many Soveraigns in the very Civil Sanctions that establish a much more Supream Soveraignity , whose Supremacy in their several Families is founded on the Law of Nature ; tho we have seen that they are confirm'd too by the general Laws of Nations , and the Hypothesis favour'd from our own : But as it is impertinently applyd to this purpose , so is it as falsely infer'd from that Statute ; for tho Parricide be omitted , and the Judges by that act restrained to interpret its extent from the paty of reason , or à Fortiori , Coke 3. Ins . p. 20. yet no Man in his senses can imagin that it was therefore omitted , because there was no Relation of Subjection or Soveraignty between the Father and the Son , when a Master , and a Servant are exprest in the very Letter of the Law , when a Prelate and a Priest , a Husband and a Wife : And is it not against Sense to imagin a Man has not as much Soveraignty over his Son , as over his Wife , that sits always with him as his Equal , and to whom our Courtesie of England gives the Precedence , and the Laws of the Land make but one , as well as those of God ; and if the 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 the Impetus of Love and Affection will supersede the Servitude and Subjection : I think that by Mr. Hunt's leave is more abundantly exprest to the Wife , especially in that point upon which he himself puts it , the work of Generation :

And can it be imagin'd that even a regular , or secular Priest , whose Subjection to his Primate , or Rector ; is only the result of the Statutes of the Society , or the resolution of the Common Law , can denote more Soveraignty , then the Filial Obedience ; required by the Laws of God , Nature , and Nations ; the citing this Statute of Edward , for having omitted the making Parricide Petty-Treason ; because it argues they had no opinion of the Soveraignty of the Father , is the greatest Argument that they had ; for since they have suppos'd a Soveraign Power , ( which from the suggestiing of such an Argument here themselves do seem to allow , and tacitly to Confess ) in those Authorities , the Destroying of which is made Treason by this Act ; they must conclude a greater Soveraignty to reside in him that has really a GREATER POWER , then those that in that Act are exprest ; for were it askt any impartial Person living ? Whether a Man has not a greater Power over his Son , then his Wife , or Servant , it would soon be resolv'd that he has ; he being impower'd only from some civil Constitutions to govern the latter , but the former from the Laws of Nature , and Nations both ; so that in Common Reason , and Common Equity , Parricide must be concluded in the Chapter of Treason , according to the receiv'd Rule of Natural as well as Artificial Logick ; that every greater Crime must be Punishable by that Law , that punishes a less of the like Nature ; and the true Reason why in this very Case the Judges do not make the like Conclusion from the Similitude or Aggravation of the sin , is as my Lord Coke * * Chap. Treas. p. 20. Et pur ceo plus semblable Treason , &c. 25. E. ● . c. 2. Confirm'd p 1. Mar. Cap. 1. Insinuates because the words of the Act it self declare , that nothing but what is their specify'd and exprest shall be adjudg'd Treason ; but even that very Act , foreseeing they might have omitted several things that by the same parity of Reason might be included , does provide with a sort of reserve , that at any time the Parliament might make it more Inclusive ; and I dare Swear had it it been propos'd to any Session that has sat since the Statute was first Enacted ; whether by Parity , Parricide was not fit to be made Petty-Treason , not a man of Sense in the Senate , but would have consented : And this Construction of a Parliament is what Mr. Sidney himself forsooth so much rely'd upon ; who if they will but put upon this branch of the Statute according to his ‖ ‖ Paper at his Exec. own words , a construction agreeable to Reason , or Common Sense must conclude that he certainly is as much a Traytor that Murders his own Father ; as the Servant that kills his Soveraign Master , or a Priest that makes away with his Lord the Prelate .

But besides if this Letter of our Law does not include the killing of the Parent in Petty-Treason ; yet the Comment of my Lord † † 3 Inst. p. 20. Coke upon this Case will go near to conclude it , for he says 't is out of the Statute unless , the Son serve the Father for Wages , Meat , or Drink , or Apparel , and I cannot see how any Son , till he is Emancipated by years , or Marriage , or the like , can be said to be any other then his Fathers Servant and that for all four ; for as the Father requires of him filial Obedience , so he can , and they Commonly do Command their Sons in the Offices of Servants , and that Arbitrarily in whatsoever he pleases , and find him accordingly the fore-mention'd necessarys to the performance of his duty ; and above all this , it is the opinion of a good Historian , recorded by my Lord Coke ; that before this Statute Parricide 22. Ed. 1. Matt. Paris 874. was Petty-Treason by the Common Law , and then what will become of Mr. H. Triumphant Appeal to the Laws , as well as his impertinent applycation to Reason ; and before this Statute too , such a signal sign of Soveraignty was supposed to reside in the Father of a Family : That it was Petty-Treason too ‖ ‖ Si quis falsaverit sigillum domini sui de cujus familia fuit . Flet. l. 1. c. 22. Britton , fol. 16. to Counterfeit , or falsify the Seal or Signet of the Lord of the Family wherein he liv'd ; a Signature of Royalty indeed , and almost a mark of Majesty it self , and the Reason my * * Coke 3. Ins . fol. 20. Lord Coke resolves it into ; their own omission of this Reasonable part of the Statute , is so far from the Postscript impertinency , of the Parliaments opinion against the paternal Power ; that he says those Law makers could never imagin that any Child could be guilty of such a sort of Barbarity , and seems to insinuate the pretermission to have been the result of such a probable piece of presumption ; and that I remember was the very reason among the Romans , that there was no punishment for such a sin as superseded a Sentence . They had a ‖ ‖ Lex Juli. Majest. Law supposed to be made in Caj . Caesar the Dictators time against those that attempted Majesty , and a severe one too besides its being Capital , * * Dig. ad . leg . Jul. ma● . l. ult. Vid. Gott●fred . & Groenvin . l. 6. ff. d. pub . to have his Goods confiscated , his Children disinherited , and his very Memory damn'd ; and one would think it might have serv'd for Parricide too , but they lookt upon that Treason so gross , such a Traytor so great , that for a long time he superseded even the Invention of a Torment from his Insuperable quiet .

Mr. Hunt would do well , and like himself ; that , is to infer very Foolishly , even from this too , that the Romans had once no Regard , no respect , for this paternal Right , because the Punishment of Parracide was once left out of their Laws ; and yet at last that it might be no longer unpunishable only upon the same presumption that there could not be found such Criminals ; one Cnej. Pompeius is said to have been the Author and Inventor of a Natural Punishment , if possible , for a Crime , so unnatural ; that is , as he had Rebell'd against the Laws of Nature in this his Crime ; so he should be depriv'd while living of the benefit Vid. Lex Pompeia . de Parri●idiis Inst. Lib. 4. Tit. 18. Par. 6. of all her Elements , and neither her Heaven or Earth receive him after Death , but to be Buried alive with wild Beast in a Bag , and set a floating in the midst of the Sea ; whereas if they kill'd any other Kindred or Relation , like Common Felons they were only punisht by the Cornelian Law : And now Lex Cornelia . de sicar . made by Cornelius Sylla . the Dictator . ibid §. 5●● . by this time I hope I may with modesty maintain , whatever our mighty D●mogogues do say to disprove it ; that I 've shown the Paternal Power , in the beginning of the World to have been patriarchal , and Absolute : And in all succeeding Ages to have been sub-ordinately Soveraign , in the respective Families , and several Households in which the Parent does preside , and that asserted from the very Civil constitutions that establish a Supream Soveraignty Paramount ; and some Measure demonstrated this from the very Word of God ; the course of Nature , Light of Reason , Laws of Nations , and the Statutes of the Land .

And as I 've done with this paternal Right in Fathers , so I shall consider now in the next place the Divine of my King ; a Right that none but Republicans dispute , none but Rebels will really oppose , and they deal with this Divine Doctrine not so kindly as some Indians are said to do with the Devil , who paint him most ugly and deform'd only that he may be the more ador'd ; whereas these dress up somewhat of Divinity it self in the most frightful form , to make it vilisy'd and Contemn'd , they tell us 't is Monstrous , Trayterous , Papal , Divelish ; Postscript . and this is the dismal Varnish these Villains daub over it , when all the while the Colours are only of their own laying : This is their Trojan Horse that must introduce Popery and Arbitrary Power , and carries Fire and Sword in its Belly ; but in these their aspersions as they bespatter the Bible and Burlesque the very Book of Life ; that in several places recommends to us the very Divinity Vid. Rom. c. 13. of Kings , so they Libel the works of that Learned Person they so much oppose ; in a misrepresentation of his very principles and positions about it ; and then 't is no difficult matter to render an Hypothesis puzzel'd , senseless , and absur'd , when with their own Pens they put upon it the Nonsense and absurdity ; for thus they deal injuriously even with the dead , and disingenuously detract from the Learned dust of that Loyal Subject Sir Robert Filmer . Thus Sidney says , and endeavours to deduce from his Doctrine Paper at Execut. what was never lain down ; that all mankind was born by the Laws of God , and the necessity of Nature to submit to an absolute Kingly Government , not restrainable by Law , or Oath : Thus the Postscript will draw from it that it asserts such a Government Posts . p. 959. to be Establisht by God and Nature for all mankind ; that it proves a Charter to Kings Granted by God Almighty ; But such Calumniators were barr'd from being so much as Evidence by the ‖ ‖ Dig. 22. 4. 2. D. 48. 2. 7. Civil Law ; they were forc't to subscribe their accusations and be punisht if their Falsehoods were detected , with a retaliation , and our own † † 37. Ed. 3. 18. 38. Ed. 3. 9. Statutes of King Edward provided once against such false suggesters with an incurring the like Punishment , they would have brought others to suffer ; and 't is pity but those expir'd ones , or the like should be revived for the prevention of Perjury ; it would be no discouragement to good Evidence , tho deterring to the bad ; and these detractors and false Accusers of a person in his principles , deserve in a Moral Sense as much Animadversion , as those Perjur'd ones in the Civil ? why did not Mr. Sidney , or the Postscript make their subscription too ? Why were they not so fair as to cite the places out of Filmer ; wherein these puzzel'd Senseless positions were asserted ?

The Substance , the whole design of that Loyal and elaborate piece , is only to expose the Natural Liberty of the People , or as they would make it the Subjects Divine Right , to shew us the Royal Authority of the Patriarchs before the Flood , that Fathers were first Kings of Families , that the People were not concern'd as far as can be learnt from the Scriptures in the chusing of Kings : That Monarchy has been always found more excellent then Democracy , and popular Government more Bloody than Tyranny : That People cannot ‖ ‖ Nemo Dominum suum judicet , vel judicium proferet super eum cujus ligius sit , Lex Hen. 1. Lamb. 187. Judge , depose or punish their Kings ; That neither those of Israel or Judah were bound by their Law , but were always the Law-givers , and that our own have always been so too : This is the Substance that by all the acquaintance I have had with his works , I could ever collect out of them , and as I remember from some particular passages , he tells us , That he does not quarrel at the Privileges and Immunities of the People , but only question whither they have them from a Natural Liberty , or the Bounty of the Prince ; Patriarch : p. 6 , ibid. p. 93. He tells us tho Kings be not bound by the Laws , yet will they rule by them ; and that they degenerate into Tyrants when they do otherwise ; where then is this Bugbear Arbitrary , Slavery , Misery , the result of a Doctrine full of an easie Government , Freedom , and Felicity ? the most that can be gathered from him is , That Monarchys as well as other Estates , do and ought to descend from some supream Father , and common Ancestor , and that there is some paternal Right , by which the several Kingdoms of the Earth are Govern'd , although by the Secret Will of God , the long series of time , the several Successions are altered and Usurp'd .

And then what must be meant by this Divine Right ? but what is consistent with the safety of the Subject , and the Will , and Intimation of the Almighty : That God has made it part of the Decalogue , That Moses had it delivered to him in hi Tables on the Mount , that it is a positive Divine Precept , that all the wide World should be govern'd by nothing else but a Succession of absolute Kings , ( and as they would make every Monarch , ) by a Divine Entailment of perpetual Tyrants : these are only the Conclusions of rage , and transports of those that are preposest and prejudic'd against such a Notion or opinion , the rants of our implacable Republicans , that are pleas'd with nothing that recommends a Monarchy , no tho it be the very Bible , and the Book of the Almighty : Cannot those silly Souls that are transported out of Sense conceive that there is a difference in Assertion to say , That Monarchy is by Divine Right ; and that every Monarch Rules by the same Right Divine ; then indeed we should run into Sidney's Absurdities of making every Rebel that could but reach at a Crown , a Cromwell , or a Monmouth , as much a Divinity Monarch , as our best and Lawful Soveraign ; tho it must be granted that those Successions even of Lines , that have ; for a long time descended lineally , do intimate to us somewhat of the Divine Will that it shall so succeed , and even the paternal Successions in this sort of Royal Government , was given us for our Instruction that God approv'd of it from the time he gave the Children of Israel and Judah their first King , who throughout all the History of the Bible , succeeded from Father to Son : but that which garbles , and really grieves our Republicans , is that even the Divine Right of Monarchy it self can be Asserted , that we have so much as the Intimation of the Will of God , any Reason to conclude from his Word , that he has given the Approbation to the Kingly Government , any preference to Monarchy it self , they quarrel at the very Bible for mentioning so much as a King or Prince ; and they would make the version Libel the Original , when it makes a Melchisideck the King of Salem , or Hamor the Hivite Prince of the Country , they would have their INDEX too , and expunge a whole Chapter of Genesis Gen. 14. for talking of ten Kings besides Abraham , and make all the Old Testament an entire Apocripha that does but mention a Monarch : And for this , ‖ ‖ Plato Redivivus page 23. Plato tells us plainly , that Moses made them all Commonwealths , and that afterward over those they call'd Kings the Sanhedrim , and Congregation of the People did preside , tho the Text tells us , Moses was King in Jesurun ; Numb. 16. and so the King it seems made it a Common-wealth .

These Rebels to the Majesty of their King , are as refractory to what the Divine Majesty has approved , they damn the very History of the Creation , and the Original composure , and Constitution of Nature , because it once made a Monarch in a single Man , and has puzl'd them to find out any more of Adams Common wealth but among his Beasts , they Curse the Dispensations of Providence , for preserving a Monarchical Government throughout the Universe , and has left them nothing but two or three Rebellious States , they condemn the deluge for not destroying Noah too ; but left so much of Regal Authority to remain in the Ark , this makes them when they are perplext with the pesterings of some Loyal Positions , to put us upon deducing our Kings Pedigree from Adam , Hunt post . or as Mr. Sidney says from the Eldest Son of Noah , the Foolishness and unreasonableness Paper at Exec. of their Postulates , the ridiculousness of those demands , I cannot better answer to my Satisfaction , or theirs , then by sending them to St. John's Coll. in Oxford : I 'll promise them there , if they 'll be but pleased , there they shall see even the most everlasting Line drawn down from the Garden of Eden to White-Hall , from the first Adam to their present Soveraign K. James , and if they don't like the Heraldry , let them dispute it with the Painter ; I cannot tell how to gratify the Impertinence of their demands , but with as pleasant a message .

But if a Man can be serious among such Buffoons ; I must tell them 't is one thing to say that Noah and Adam Rul'd by a Right Paternal , and another that every Monarch must have the same Paternal Right from Adam and Noah : 'T is one thing to say that God approv'd of Princes to Govern , and another that he appointed to every Prince the same Right of Government , the form of Regal Government I hope from the Royal Authority of the Patriarchs may be Justified to be of Divine Institution ; tho the Succession of the whole series of Succeeding Soveraigns , be not resolv'd all into the same Title ; I can tell them of not only an absurdity , but a plainlye would be the Consequence of such a position ; for then there must have been no Battels Fought after the Flood , no Beros●s Priest of Belus talks of ten Kings of Caldea before the Flood . Ten Kings in one Chapter of the Testament , none of that long Catalogue of Egyptian Princes , and in truth at present but one Vniversal Monarch in the World ; tho that some Learned , and Laborious Heads do too industriously sometimes attempt to deduce from Scripture by the Almighty to have been once design'd , and Babel for the seat of such an Empire ; For it would be a great piece of Paradox indeed , and a greater of Impertinence to persuade such Seditious Authors , there was ever any thing of an Vniversal Empire design'd , that won't allow there was ever a particular one Establish'd ; That tell us no general revolts of a Nation can be call'd Rebellion , and then I am sure they must maintain , that there is no particular Tryal page 26. Supremacy , from which the generality of the Subjects can be said to Rebel ; but Mr. Sidney borrow'd this pretty Position too from that pernicious piece that was publish'd about the Rights of Magistrates ; for that tells us too , * * De Jure Magistratuum : sic Dani Christiernum , &c. sic Succi Sigismundum ; But this Author extends it too to absolute , Hereditary Kingdoms , as well as Mr. Sidney . Sic Scoti Reginam abdicarunt , & perpetuo carcere damnarunt , rectius , audeo dicere , eo● facturos fuisse , si meritas paenas in eam exercuissent . D. Jure Mag. p. 47. That the Danes imprisoning their King Christien , to his dying day ; the Swedes rejecting their Sigismund , for his persisting in the Romish Religion , were no Rebels ; I confess their Monarchys admitting so much mixture of Democracy , may make the people there to have a greater power in publick Administrations ; but certainly cannot well extend to impower them to subvert the very publick Weal it self , which must be said to consist in the supream head of it , the King ; and tho they will seperate his Person , from that publick political Consideration , and say they may maintain the Monarchy , tho they depose such a particular King , this will not mend the matter , for those that have a power to reject ONE Prince , are as much empowr'd to refuse to Elect another ; and then the result of it must be this , that our Republicans will admit no more of a particular Empire then a Vniversal .

In short , those that had but the least Inclinations to be Loyal , and did but Love , and like , an Establisht Monarchy ; that were not resolutely resolv'd to Rebel against the Light of Nature as well as the Resolution of the Laws , would soon see , and be satisfy'd of the Solid Reasonableness , the Innocent Truth of these three several Propositions I have so lately Labour'd in . First , that Primogeniture obtain'd by the Institution of the Almighty and his continued Approbation in the Bible ; both in Paternal discent and Regal ones ; and that the Laws and Practise of Nations have confirm'd it in both since ; and that home to our Doors . Secondly , that Paternal Right and Power , by the same Authority of the Almighty has been prefer'd , by the Laws of Nature Maintain'd , and by the Civil Sanctions of all Nations Confirm'd . Thirdly , that Monarchy or Kingly Government is so far of a Divine Institution , as it has receiv'd from God By me Kings Rule . himself an ∥ Express approbation ; as it has been Intimated to us from the Worlds Creation ; and its first Regulated Establishment , as it is Constantly Visible from all the Phaenomenons of Vnalterable Nature ; and as it has been Continually transmitted to posterity by the special Appearances of providence for its preservation .

And Last of all , let me but only subjoyn the Excellency of this truly ancient , venerable , and divine Form of Government , a Monarchy ; and then the many Mischiefs that attend the popular one , a Democracy ; and then let the most prejudic'd and partial person judge , not only which of the two has been always reputed most Eligible ; but which of them he himself would most affect to Chuse : Sir Walter Raleigh , as Learned an Head-piece perhaps of the last Age , as any that he hath left behind him in this , a Person rather prejudic'd against Monarchy , than bigotted for it , no such Court-Favourite as the * * Mercpolit . Mercury makes of Salmasius , A Dirty Dissolute Parasite of Kings , and Pander of Tyranny ; this Learned ‖ ‖ History of the world , cap. 9. §. 2. Historian lets us know , That the first , the most ancient , the most general and most approved Government is that of one Ruling by just Laws call'd Monarchy ; and whatever wits our more modern Commonwealths-men pretend to be ; this Gentleman , that was more sage than the wisest of them , does not make paternal Right such a ridiculous thing as they would represent it ; but tells us , that in the beginning the Fathers of Nations were then the Kings , and the Eldest of Families the Princes , and of such an Excellency is its Form , that it is the clear result of unprejudic'd Reason , and most agreeable to the sense and security of Mankind : For as the natural Intellect it self ( by which I mean bare humane understanding ) when , in the infancy of the World , people were guided more by their own Fancies , and the Paternal Power , which then was all the Regal , from the tenderness it might be suppos'd to have towards those that were their natural issues as well as their civil subjects , had indulg'd vice , and been less rigorous in Executing impartial Justice on Offenders ; whereby people were left more at Liberty , I say Nature then , and Necessity it self , made them find the Inconvenience even of too much Toleration ; and made even the most foolish fellows apprehend as well as the wise , that the Condition of reasonable men would be more miserable than that of brute beasts ; that an Inundation of Anarchy and Confusion , would overwhelm them more than the first Flood , Did they not , by a general Consent , submit to Government , and obey those that were set over them to Govern ? For they found that when they were most mighty to oppress , others might in time grow more so , and do them as much mischief : And those that were equal in their strength , found themselves equally dangerous and mischievous one to another ; and that the most unbounded Licenciousness prov'd always , to some or other , the most miserable Bondage and Slavery . And this natural Reason inclin'd them too to acquiesce under those Monarchical Forms , that were then the Government of the Times , and which the Israelites themselves desired in a more special manner , tho' they were forwarn'd of its Absoluteness , and told by Samuel , that it would be Tyranny it self : for the same necessity , convenience , reason , and natural instinct that persuaded them , to submit to Government in General , did also suggest to them the Excellency of Monarchy in Particular : For as by want of all Government , their reason told them they could not long possess any right , and that Liberty being only a License to do what they list , and so left nothing to be wrong : So the same reason suggested , that these their Rights were best defended , and soonest decided by some single Person , that was Supreme , than when a Multitude had the Supremacy ; for in that there being so many suffrages as there are men , accordingly there might be so many several interests and factions ; which must both hinder any sudden determination , as well as make the sentence liable to more partiality and injustice , when it is determin'd . This made the Senate of Rome so tedious always in its determinations , and the people as uneasie and unsatisfied in their Decrees : Their Praetores , Quaesitores , Judices Quaestionum & selecti , some of them having under them no * less than an hundred Sigon . de Jud. l. 2. c. 4. & de Jure Rom. lib. 2. c. 18. Commissioners , might be said to confound Causes instead of determining them . Their Agrarian Laws that were made for the Division of their Fields , most of them having been given by Romulus , and the rest of their Kings , resolv'd their rights to them with Justice and satisfaction to the people , while their Kings Reign'd that gave them , and were the sole Judges of their own Laws .

But when they were confounded into a Commonwealth , and the Senate set themselves to decide the divisions of their Commons , and their Fields ; what Seditions , Confusions , and Unsettlement did they create ? So that the Reasonable presumption there is , of a more Equitable and speedy distribution of Justice from a single Sovereign , because suppos'd to be less prejudic'd , and less unable to be prevail'd upon by favour or affection , may very well be thought to have recommended at first , a Monarchical Form , & afford us now asmuch reason for the retaining it .

In the next place , A King being a perpetual Heir to the Crown , insomuch that the Politick Laws suppose him never to dye , and when in a natural sense he does , the Crown still descends to his immediate Successor : This will make him endeavour to preserve the Rights of it inviolate , and perpetuate the same Prerogative to his Posterity : Whereas the people , in all their popular Sway , administer only for years , or at most for Life ; and what should hinder them then from defrauding that Publick , whose Administration they must either soon quit , or at last leave to those to whom they no way relate . I allow in most such Communities , there is commonly special provisions made by their Laws , that an abusing that power , with which they are intrusted , or a robbing the Common-wealth of part of its Revenue , shall be punish'd with some grievous Fine , or perhaps made Capital ; for which the Romans had their several rules and regulations for their Magistrates and men in Office : But there being so many ways to be injurious to the Publick , that can so easily , by those that administer its affairs , be kept private and conceal'd ; it must certainly be concluded , that those that have an Hereditary Power of Publick Administration , as all Kings , and they alone have , that their Interest obliges them to preserve its rights inviolate , from an unwillingness , that nature it self will implant in them , to injure their own Sons , Successors and Posterity . Whereas the same Interest , which certainly is the most powerful Promoter either of good or evil , will incite Senators in a Commonwealth more industriously , more seriously to endeavour to serve themselves . It is the most prodigious piece of Paradox , to see some of our Seditious Republicans to rail at Ministers of State , and Mr. Sidney of all Men had the least reason to have reflected for his Sufferings upon those that sate on the Bench , with the rest of the Rabble of his Democraticks , who of late in these tumultuous times have talkt of nothing less than the punishing of those that held the Sword of Justice , threatned them with the Fates of Tresilians , Vid. Baker . pag. 146. Rich. II. Fulthorps , Belknaps , with the Gallows , Fines and Imprisonments ; whereas these two were only punisht in the Reign of a King , wherein they actually rebell'd and deposed their Prince ; but were they the worst of Men that officiated in Publick Administration under their King , such Republicans have the least reason to find fault , when always in their Usurpations the greatest Fools aswel as Knaves have been commonly preferr'd : What more Illiterate Blockheads did ever blemish a Bench than some of those that sate upon it in our Rebellion ? and for that consult the Tryal of Lilburn they Arraigned , where you 'l find a clamorous Souldier silence , and baffle them with his Books , and invert the Latin Aphorism in a litteral sense , by making the Gown yield to the Sword . And for their Villany , let Bradshaw alone : And for that only be the best of Presidents . The very Beggars and Bankrupts of the Times , that bawl'd most for Property , when they had hardly any to a penny or a pin , were set up to dispose of the peoples Fortunes and Estates . Princes , as they are above all Men , so generally make those their Ministers that excel others in Desert or Vertue , because their persons are to be represented by them : And they may aswel imagine a King would croud his Courts with Clowns , to shew his Magnificence , as fill his Judicatories with Fools or Knaves to distribute his Justice . 'T is * * Qui aliquod munus gerere debent , virtutis habita ratione eliguntur . Maecenas . Orat. pro Monarch . enough for an Oceana , an Oliver , or a Common-wealth to set up such ridiculous Officers ; Brutes beneath the Ass in the Apologue , that will not so much as be reverenced for the Image they bear : but even the best of Common Men , whenthey are rais'd to some supreme Government , prove like Beggars on Horse-back , unable to hold the Reins , or riding off their necks ; the wisest , in their own ordinary administrations , prove but foolish Phaetons when they are got into the Chariot , set all in combustion and confusion : The not being born to Govern , or educated under the Administrations of a state , makes them either meanly submissive in the midst of their Grandeur , or insolently proud of their Office , which renders them as ridiculously Great ; whereas Princes from an Hereditary VERTUE , ( that consists alway in a MEAN ) or their nobler Education that instructs them in the Mode , preserves them too from running into the sordid absurdities of such Extremes .

Many of such like preferable Conveniences might be reckoned up , that make a Commonwealth less Eligible ; but for Confirmation of it , it is better to have recourse to matter of Fact : When did their Rome ever flourish more than under the Government of their Kings ? by that it was * * Vid. Tacit . l. 1. p. 1. Lucius Florus , p. 1. Founded , by that it was most Victorious , and with that it alway fell . Romulus himself first gave them their Religion and their † † Lact. de fals. rel. l. 1. c. 22. God , as well as the Government ; and , with the assistance of his Numa , brought them to observe some Ceremonies which the Trojans had taught them ; under whom did their City Triumph more , both in fame , riches , tranquility and ease , than under the Empire of Augustus ? And one would think that when the Controversie upon his coming to the Crown was then in Debate , it should have been decided by the two famous Wits of their time , in their Dialogue , Maecenas and Agrippa : It was submitted to their determinations , and we see what was the result , A MONARCHY . Vid. Orat. Maecenat . pro Monarch . And that pr●ferency of this most excellent Institution themselves most evidenced , when upon all Exigencies and Difficulties they were forc'd to have recourse to a Dictator , whom all Writers agree to have differ'd only from a King in the found of his Name , and the duration of his Office , the very Definition ‖ ‖ Dictator quoniam dictis ejus totus parebat populus , Rom. Antiq. p. 170. of his Name implying , that all were bound to obey his Edicts : he had his Magister Equitum , an Officer , in effect the same with the Praefectus Vrbis , which under their King was his Mayor . And after that rash Rebellion of theirs against Royal Government , after so many Revolutions of Tribunes , Triumvirs , Quaestors , Aedils , Praefects , Praetors and Consuls , were never at rest or quiet , 'till they were setled again in their Caesars . Themselves know best , what the Sedition of Sylla and Marius cost them , how many lives of Consuls and Senators , besides the blood of the Commons : Let them consult Plutarch , and see the bloody Scene of Butchery and Murder . Pray tell me , mighty Murmurers ! in which was your Rome most bless'd , or suffer'd least , with the bloody War between Caesar and Pompey , or the settlement of it in Julius himself ? Did it not bleed and languish as much with the Civil Wars of Augustus , Antony and Lepidus , as it flourish'd when reduc'd to the only Government of Octavius ? And would it not have been much better , had those succeeding Emperors been all Hereditary , when we find , that for the most , the Multitude and Soldiers were the makers and setters up of the bad , and the destroyers and murderers of the best ? 'T is too Otho , Vitellius , Heliogab . they set up . Alexand. Aurelianus , Probus they murder d. much to tell you the story of our own Chronicles , as well as their Annals , how happy our Land was for a long time in a Lineal Descent of Hereditary Kings , how miserably curst in the Commonwealth of England , what blood it cost to establish it , what Misery and Confusion it brought us , when unhappily establish'd ?

And as an Argument that the Romans flourish'd most under those Emperors , see with what Veneration their Imperial Sanctions speak of their power ; they make it * * Sacrilegii instar est , &c. C. 1. 23. 5. Sacriledg to disobey it ; they made the very memory of those that committed Treason against them to be rooted out , the very ‖ ‖ Quisque vel cogitavit . C. 9. 8. 5. Thought of it they punish'd with as much severity as the Commission ; all his Children , Servants , and whole Family were punish'd , though unknowing of the Crime . They punish'd those with the same severity that Conspired against any Minister of State , because relating to the Imperial Body , and that if they did but think of destroying them ; and even those that were found but the movers of † † Ibid. Sedition were Gibbeted or Condemned to their Beasts . And as Dig. 48. 19 , 38. those Laws made all the Sanctions of all Princes Sacred and Divine , so do our * * 33. Ed. 3 10. H. 7. 16. own declare the King capable of all Spiritual Jurisdiction , in being Anointed with Sacred Oyl ; by which they give him all power in Ecclesiasticals too , to render his Person the more Venerable , and call the † † Coke Litt. Sect. 1. fol. 1. B. The Possessions of the King are call'd Sacra Par trimonia . Lands of the 1 Inst. King like the Patrimony of the Church , Sacred : Prince and Priest were of old terms Synonimous , and signified the same thing . The Jews and Egyptians had no Kings but what exercised the Offices for a long time , of the Priesthood too , with which they then alone made the Monarchy mixt ; and of this even * * Justin . l. 16. 36. Justin can tell us in one of his Books : And for making their Monarchy more Divine , did Romulus and Numa , the Founder of their Religion as well as of Rome , Officiate in it sometimes too . So much did the Fathers of old prefer Monarchy to a Popular Government , that Sir Walter Rawleigh Praestat regem Tyrannum habere quam nullum , p. 182. tells us of the saying of St. Chrysostom , that recommended even a Tyrant before no King at all ; and that is seconded with a Sentence of Tacitus , who tells us , If the Prince be never so Tacit. Lib. 1. Praestat sub malo principe esse quam nullo . wicked , yet still better than none : And for that of a Commonwealth , it was as bravely said by Agesilaus to a Citizen of Sparta , discoursing about Government , That such a one , as a common Cobler would disdain in his House and Family , was very unfit to Govern a Kingdom . In short , all the Presidents that Mr. Sidney has given us , of the Romans driving out their Tarquins , of the French rejecting the Race of Pharamond , of the Revolt of the Low-Countries from Spain , of the Scots killing James the Third , and Deposing Queen Mary , are all absolute Rebellions , were ever Recorded so in History , and will be Condemned for such by all Ages . He should have mention'd for once too , the murder of our Martyr'd Sovereign , for to be sure he had the same sense of that upon which he was to have sate . But if any thing can recommend their Commonwealth , it must be only this , That it cannot be so soon dispatch'd , it being a Monster with many Heads ; to which Nero's Wish would not be so cruel , That it had but one neck , to be cut off at a blow . The clamour this Republican made against Monarchs in general , was , whatever he suggests , appli'd to our own in particular , when he tells in the very same Page , of the Page 23. Power of the People of England ; and though he exclaims , and all others do , against this Arbitrary Power of Kings , 't is certain themselves would make the People as Arbitrary : The Question is not , whether there shall be an Arbitrary Power , but the Dispute is who shall have it , there never was , nor ever can be a People govern'd without a Power of making Laws , and that Power ( so long as consonant to reason ) must be Arbitrary , for to make Laws , by Laws , is Nonsense . These Republicans , by confession , would fix it in many , and the Multitude ; in Aristocracy 't is fix'd in a few , and therefore in a Monarchy must be setl'd in ONE .

CHAP. VI. Remarks upon their Plots and Conspiracies .

AND now that they may not think I have foully Libell'd them in a Misrepresentation of the dangerous Principles of their Republicans , I 'll be so fair as to prove upon them too , the natural product of their own Notions ; and that is , the Plots of the same Villains assoon as they have been pleas'd to set up for Rebels .

And these will appear from Chronicle and History , the Records of Time , and the best Tryers of Truth ; these will not be falsified with Reflection , but be founded upon matter of Fact : And of these , this will fall in our way as the first .

About the Year 1559 , there was promoted in France , a Plot and Conspiracy against their King , and that founded upon the same pretext ; so many of ours have been of late in England , that is , Religion , but truly fomented by what has been always the spring , the very fountain of Blood and Rebellion , discontent and disgust toward the Government : For upon the death of Henry the Second , and the Succession of Francis his eldest Son to the Throne , the Princes of the House of Bourbon , thinking themselves neglected and despised , thrust out of Office and Employment at Court , and finding the Family of the Guises still prefer'd , whom they always as mortally hated , resolved to revenge themselves upon the Crown , ( that is ) to turn Rebels . Of these Vendosme and Conde were the principal Engagers , and drew in the two Castillions , the * * Gasper de Collign , & Mr. D' Andelot . Admiral and his Brother , who for the removal of the Duke De Montmorency , their relation from that Court , to which he had prefer'd them , were as full also of resentment against the Crown , as those that came to engage them with an invitation to invade it ; and after all their several seditious Assemblies , after all the many Meetings they had made , after all the Treasonable Consultations they had held , no design was look'd upon by them more likely to prove effectual , than the making themselves Head of the Hugenots . And so hot were they upon this Project , the pursuit of another kind of Holy War , ( that among our modern Crusadoes has been nothing else but a Religious Rebellion ) that notwithstanding the coldness of the King of Navarr , they drew in most of the Protesting part of France to be truly Rebels , for the sake of their Seducers , while they made them believe they had only engag'd themselves to fight for the Religion of those they had so wickedly seduc'd : And so conducing then were the principles of a Republick to a Rebellious Plot , that one † † Alias Godfry de la Bar. Renaudie that was forc'd to turn Renegado to his Country , for Misdemeanors committed in it , and fled to Geneva , as a Sanctuary for Sedition , after he had lurk'd there like a concealed Criminal abroad ; upon his Return sets up for an open Rebellion at Home , after he had layn so long in the lake , the sink of Democracy , you may be sure was well instructed how to resist a Monarch . He soon blows the coals that could easily keep up the Blood of the warm Princes that was already set so well a boyling : Him they pitch upon as the fittest tool to work out their design ; and in my conscience , coming from that Common-wealth , the Statsemen judged not amiss , when they took him for an able Artist . With his help , and their own , it went so far , that Moneys , Men and Amunition was provided ; and a Petition drawn for a Toleration of Religion , though indeed but a Treacherous veil to cover their Intended Treason , which was to seize upon the Young King , upon his denyal of what they knew he would not grant ; surprize the Queen that still opposed them ; and put the Guises to the Sword , whom she favoured . But the Court being advised of the Conspiracy , had retired to the Castle of Amboise ; and so far did they prosecute their Plot , that their Petitioners were admitted into it , though their Arm'd Accomplices that were without , were compelled to fight for their Lives ; which Renaudie , with the rest of the Ring-leaders of them lost ; and the Rabble to save theirs , was forc'd to fly . * * To renew another about the end of this unhappy War , were publisht those Treasonable Tracts , De jure Magist . & Brutus his Vindiciae : With another as pernicious a piece , a Dialogue-composed ( as pretended ) by one Eusebius Philadelphus : Libels that expos'd Majesty to the Publick , like a piece of Pageantry , only to be look'd upon , and shouted at . Vid. Heylin 's Hist. Presb. pag. 68. This was the praeliminary Plot , and an unhappy prelude to a long and bloody Civil War , fomented first by the fury of a Faction that set up for Rebels ; only because not favoured ( as they thought ) sufficiently by the Court , and then seconded even to an Assaulting of the Crown in the Siege of Paris , and almost the Subversion of the Monarchy , as some Learned Historians surmise , from the secret Emissaries of the Republick of Geneva . I need not touch on the particulars in which the fatal War at last was forc'd to terminate ; 't is too much to tell you 't was in a torrent of Blood : And what was worse , that of most of the Protestants , whom a transported Faction First engag'd to fight for Religion , when their own real Quarrel was only a revengeful resentment against the Court , and the Crown ; and whom a Holy Common-wealth , the Republick of Geneva , still animated against the Kingdom of France .

It was upon the Preaching up of these principles by their * * Ursinus . Pareus . Professors at Hydelberg , and their Inculcating that old Aphorism of Trajan , when he bid his Centurion draw his Sword in his Defence , * * Si bene pro me si male contra , me stringi●o . if he Governed well ; but if ill , then Against him : A saying that is Registred in every Piece that I have yet seen publisht by a Republican ; as if in it were founded their very Bottom and Basis of all Rebellion . Building upon these Positions , and the dangerous Doctrines of Democraticks , the Divines of Germany Invited the Palatine Princes , and others of the Empire , to promote the Rebellion in France ; and Casimir , second Son of the Elector , was sent to accompany Conde into that Country .

Instigated by these principles , in Suevia and Franconia , † † Sleid. Com. fol. 57. forty thousand Peasants took Arms , under Muncer their Leader ; Rebell'd against the Princes of the Empire , who were An. 1575. forc'd to raise all the Force they could to suppress them , they were so bigotted , as to refuse Pardon when offered ; but in the Battel were Beaten ; five thousand six hundred Slain ; their Captain fled , but being found out , was Beheaded . In the Year 1535 , John of Leyden , a pitiful Taylor , possest with such Seditious positions , had got together such a party of People , that at last they possest them of part of the strong City of Munster , set up Senators of his Sect , taught the People to put down the Magistrates , and establish New Common-wealths ; they burnt Churches , spoil'd the Suburbs , till the Bishop they Banisht , Besieged them , forc'd an entrance by Assault , took the Leaders , and hung them in Iron Cages on the City Towers .

From these Doctrines were the flames of Civil War kindled in Flanders , and Tumults and Disorders their daily practice ; for at Valenciennes they would commonly rescue the Prisoners of the State , when condemned to dye by Legal process ; force the Officers to fly for their preservation ; and with a number of two thousand break open the Doors of their Common Goal , knock off the Shackles of those that were in it , and so send them to their several Dwellings . The like happen'd at Antwerp , upon the Execution of one Fabricius a Priest . From these principles it was , that about the Year 1565 , that these Hollanders , 9 of their protesting Lords , not at all Officers of State , conven'd at Breda , drew up a form of an Association , which they call'd too , their Covenant ( and what has been since so well copy'd by our English Rebells ) which they all Subscrib'd , and sent about by their Emissaries , through all the several Provinces for Subscription .

And as from these Principles , these Tumults and Disorders ; Leagues and Covenants were created in the Low Countries : So followed also from them , an entire Defection from the Crown of Spain , and a Rebellious Revolt of the United Netherlands . For though Mr. † † Tryal p. 25. Sidney would impute it only to the Tyranny of the Duke of Alva ; yet by his leave they were in Rebellion before ever he was sent , and perhaps was therefore design'd for the reducing them to Obedience , because of his austerity and cruel disposition ; for Rebells that resolve commonly to shew no Mercy , are not reducible to their Allegiance , but with as much severity , I will grant them , that by this Rebellion they laid the foundation for the flourishing of the Protestant Religion in their new erected Common-wealth : Nay , and will pray that it may long there flourish , as well as under our own Monarchy at Home . But yet I cannot find from all the Divinity of the Bible , or the Schools , that Blood and Treason , Murder and Sacrilege ( all which were the result of that Defection ) could be sanctified into the doing God good Service , or for the sake of his Gospel ; nay , though it were for an Apostatizing from Paganism it self , which my Charity will not permit me ( though some Peoples fury may transport them ) to bring it in competition with Popery , and the Professors of the same God and Saviour . That the Protestant Religion is a promoter of such Seditious practises , none but besotted Pagans , or bigotted Papists will assert . But why in France , and these Parts of the Netherlands , by such Sedition it was promoted , my little reason will resolve into nothing less , but that in those Parts it was chiefly propagated by the Emissaries of Geneva , a pure and perfect Republick ; who , at the same time they infused the principles of a sound Religion , insinuated too the positions of their Seditious Politicks , and mingl'd Poyson , not with common Meat , but their very spiritual Food : For Luther sure will be be allowed the Name of a Reformer , as well as , and before Mr. Calvin ; and yet we see the Protestant Religion flourisht under his way of propagating it , without any Rebelling for it , unless from that See of Rome , from which it Reformed . It was that very thing endear'd it to the Princes of the Empire ; and I believe reconcil'd them to receive it the sooner , when they found nothing in it of the positions of a * * His Book burnt even by the very Sorbonists , at Paris , A. D. 1610. Mariana , and the principles of some Antimonarchical Jesuites ( whom the most eminent even among the Romanists have condemn'd ) that could subject the Civil Government so much to the Ecclesiastical , as to make an Excommunicated King , like a Branded Cain , to be kill'd by every one he met ; or the Dostrine of our too severe Calvinists , that can make every Town a Lacedaemon ; set up their Ephori , even in every Monarchy , and make all KINGS accountable to their People .

And this will appear somewhat probable from the next Historical Account we have of the effects of the principles of these Democraticks , which is in that of Knox of Scotland , a Fellow as Factious and Seditious , as Humane thought can Imagine , or his own heart could have wisht ; a Fellow that had the Misfortune ( which he call'd Happiness ) to carry War and Confusion wherever he went . We had several Protestants of our own Nation fled from a real Persecution of ou● Zealous Queen , to * * Vid. Troubles at Frankfort , Edit. Ann. Dom. 1642. Frankfort , a Town in Germany , and there lived quietly with submission toward the Supream Magistrate , till this Geneva Gentleman no sooner arrived , but he sets all i● Combustiom ; is accused of High Treason toward the Emperor , for comparing him in Print ‖ ‖ Sanderson's History of King James , p. 15. ( in some of Mr. Sidney's Similitudes ) to a Tarquin , Nero , Caligula ; for which he was forc'd to fly the Town , and Post away ; to what could only bear with as well as breed such Vermin , the Lake or their Commonwealth of Italy .

About the Year 1558 , the Queen Regent of Scotland , when the Reformation was but in the beginning , as a special Act of Favour , for so it must be call'd , because then , not only contrary to her own Religion , but the Law of the Land , allow'd the Congregators ( which were Conventiclers then too , as well as now , because the general Worship establisht , was not theirs ) the Bible in their own Language . But they no way contented with an Act of Grace from the Crown , and Instigated by this Incendiary ; this Scandal of the Reformation , Knox , that had taught them , they might Demand with their Swords , what was deny'd them by Law ; fell a reviling her , even for such a signal favour ; and when she sent for some of the more furious of the Faction , they came all , attended with a multitude of Favourites and Force , that for her Preservation she was compell'd to Command them to depart : And the best of Governors might well fear the worst from such an audacious Assembly : but this was so much the more offensive to them , only because they were Commanded to offend her less , that they throng'd into her Privy Chamber , threatned her with their Arms , till she was constrained to pleasure them against Law .

And as they then menac'd a Force , so they afterward made it good with as much violence ; for away they went , pulling down Monasteries , and * * St. Andrew's Scone . Sterling . Edenburg , &c. Spotswood . pag. 123 , 124. Churches ; and seconding their Sedition with what could only succeed it , Sacrilege , that is , from Traytors to their Soveraign , to be Rebels to their God . And this by that Sanctified Beast , that invited them to debase themselves to Brutes , to be divested of Humanity , was call'd , a Purging of the Temple ; as if our Saviour Christ had countenanced an Extirpation of the Religion of some Christians : But though the Queen at last granted them the free and publick exercise of their Religion ; though at last she only begg'd the private use of her own , that was by such Seditious Subjects , thought a boon too great to be begg'd , by their Soveraign ; they Protest against it , Preach against it , Print against it , and Assault her House of Worship ; break the Wax Candles , with the Windows of her Chappel ; force their Queen Regent to fly to Dunbar , and then as fairly Depos'd her for being fled ; though at the same time they profest against her Deposition . And if we 'll believe a Loyal , and Learned * * Sanderson , p. 31. Author , they proceeded so far in their petulant piece of Reformation , that they Religiously Reform'd the very Petticoats of the Queen , and the Ladies of the Court , which they look'd upon as too fine for the plainness or simplicity of the Kirk : How near our present Pretenders , that have taken Arms for the Protestant Religion , will tread in the steps of their Reforming Predecessors , must be Collected from the Precedents they give us of their being but Implacable Republicans ; especially when we have nothing now to be Reform'd unless what they deny'd to the Grandmother of our present Soveraign , that their King himself shall not be indulg'd to exercise by himself the Religion he professes , at the same time he Protests to defend all his Subjects in the establish'd Profession of theirs . The Actions of the late Rebel Scot , of the last Age , they say , squinted like their Argyle that headed them , working one way , when they profest to design another ; and they might have had as much reason to distrust the Promises of his late Declaration , the Sincerity of his Son , that succeeded him , even in a Rebellion .

In the Year 1565 , when the Queen of Scots was married to Henry Stewart Lord Darnly , The Rebel-Lords instigated from the Preachings and Principles of this Knox , the Ferguson of his Age , who rail'd at the Government , and reflected upon the King ; be took themselves to Arms , and brake into open Rebellion : Lord Darnly , upon this Match being proclaim'd King , marcht against the Rebels , who fled into England ; and though through Intercession this Rebellious Business was Reconcil'd , yet within two Years after , the King was barbarously Butcher'd and Dispatcht ; but by whom , because their Historians do not agree in it , can be only best determined by Conjecture ; and must probably lye at their Doors that could Rebel against their Sovereign in an open War , and then ( sure ) as likely to set upon Him in a secret Assassination ; especially when their Principles instructed them in both ; and their Preachers had made the Murder of their King , an Oblation to their God : And besides , when they rebell'd also against Bothwell , the Queens second Husband too , as well as the first ; whom they forc'd to fly into Denmark ; seiz'd on the forsaken Queen ; secur'd her in an * * Isle of Lochlevin . Island ; compell'd her to resign her Crown ; and if we 'll credit an Authentick * * Sanders . History of K. James pag. 52. Historian , were not so well satisfied with her Resignation of her Sovereignty , but that they consulted too to deprive her of her Life ; and very likely to have prevented her loving Cousin Elizabeth in England .

Upon the same Principles the same Seditious Daemocraticks proceeded against her Son and Successor , that was afterward our own Sovereign , K. James , then a young Prince about 12 Years old , whom they † † Vid. Spotwoods Hist. p. 323 , 324. seiz'd at Ruthen , carried in Triumph and Constraint to Edenburgh ; from which he was forc'd to contrive an Escape , which he made by the Means of Collonel Stewart a Captain of his Guards ; but shortly afterward * * An. 1503. ( incited by the Seditious Insinuations of their Geneva Principles brought them home fresh , hot , and reeking with Blood and Rebellion ; by one Melvill that had come from thence but a few years before , to supply not only Knox's stock of treasonable Positions , but to succeed him in his Place of an implacable Incendiary , his Predecessor expiring a Year or two before he came over ) by this Factious Fellow 's and his Associates Seducements ; did I say , shortly after the Earl of Gowry , conspire against the King and break out into an open Rebellion , which he deservedly suffered for , with the loss of his Head . Then is this succeeded by Bothwells Rebellion ; who had contriv'd 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 , 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 Pl●t . R●● . p. ●17 . That the King's Office was forfitable ; when † † Vid. The Royal , and the Royalist's P●●a , printed , A. D. 1617. Sir H●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. M●● . 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 ●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 a 4 Institutes , c. 5. Common Law , and confirmed by special b b Reg. Hen. 7. Act of Parliament : The Commons they send up a c c The 9th . of June , 1641. Vote and Bill for suppressing it : The High Commission was establisht by the d d 1 El. c. 1. Statute of the Queen , the Commons come and would put it down with a e e The ninth of June , 1641. Vote : The Court of Wards and Livery , the tenures of which were even f f 4 Inst. p. 192. before the Conquest , and drew Ward and Marriage after it ; was establisht by particular g 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 h 4 Inst. c. 61 Custom , and i i Ed. 1. Hen. 8. R. 2. H. 5. several Statutes , abolisht by the Parliament in the Year 1641. The k k Chart. Forest . King had the Courts of his Forests , his Judge in it constituted of old by Writ , then by l 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 m Magn. ●har . ● 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 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 La●d o o 10. Jan. 1644. with an Ordinance . Resolved by all the Judges in Queen Elizabeths time , that to levy War ●o remove evil Counsellors ●s High Treason against the King ; they past a Vote ; p 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 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 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 s Coke Lit. p. 164. Law makes those Delinquents that adhere to the King's Enemies : they t t 20. May. Vote those that serve him in such Wars Traitors by a Fundamental Law : The u 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 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 y 5. H. 4. Act of Parliament : The Parliament order the raising an Army against the K. declared Treason by special z z 25. E. 3. Act : The King then Summons his Subjects to his assistance at a 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 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 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 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 Design of the most barbarous Butchery of the best of Kings , our late Sovereign , Charles the Second , with the Assassination of his Royal Brother , our present Sovereign : For this they had engag'd in the Consults , Men of all sorts of Conditions , Lords , Knights , Gentlemen , Lawyers , Malsters , Oylmen , Clergy and Lay ; the first Contrivance was , for Assassinating the Royal Brothers as they past by the Rye , the House of one Rumbald , coming from New-Market : but Heaven turn'd a Judgment even into an act of Mercy for their Deliverance ; and the Fire hapning there , made them prevent the Rebels in their return . Then the Play-House was propos'd to be the Shambles for this Butchery , and several other places , but the Conspirators disagreeing in their Approbation , hinder'd its execution so soon ; upon the Discovery of one Keeling , an Accomplice , touch'd with remorse , or apprehension of danger : All the Conspirators fly , from whom Shaftsbury , that Arch-Rebel , was before Vid. Lord Russel's Tryal , Sidneys , &c. fled ; some were afterward found out , came in for Evidence , upon which several were afterward Convicted and Executed .

At the Tryal of my Lord Russel , the very Morning he was Arraigned , the Earl of Essex , Committed for the same Conspiracy , whether out of sense of Ingratitude to his Royal Sovereign , by whom he had been preferr'd to the highest station of a Subject , even that of being his Vice-Roy , or whether out of fear of his fate , and fearful of an Ax , dispatcht himself with a Razor : For Defaming of the Government the next Plot is to make this a Murther of State , and one Braddon , out of Seditious industry , deals with one Edwards a School-Boy to Testify , he saw a Hand throw a Razor out of the Window ; with this matter well manag'd , King , and Council , Sir Henry Capel , and then the whole Kingdom must be canvast for ; and he having an Indefatigable Desire to fasten a Scandal on the Government , as well as an Impudence not to be baffl'd or defeated , to solicite the business farther , one gets Speke , a known Favourer of any thing that is Factious , a warm spark that would be soon hot in any such pursuit , to lend him a Letter of Recommendation to a Country Knight , but with both their bold fronts , they could put no such bad face upon the business : for it was Discover'd to be the basest Design the most malicious Miscreants could undertake , and they both Try'd upon an Feb. 7 , 1683. Information of High Misdemenor , and Subornation , ( that is ) the Pimps to Perjury , for which one was Fin'd one thousand pounds , and the other two .

To second this Unsuccesful Plot , about Christmas last they disperse the Decemb. 1684. most Divilish and Malitious Libel that Falshood and Folly could Invent , leave it at the doors of the Loyalists ; and its Design the same with those Suborners , to fasten a Murder upon the late King , our present one , and some Ministers of State , with such silly Insinuations , as of themselves do defend them from that Villany they would affix ; first , from their being then walking in the Tower ; and can the most Factious Fool Imagine ? Can but bare Humane Sense be so silly , as to think the Contrivers of such a suppos'd Barbarity would be present at its Execution , and look upon it as the likeliest way to keep it private , was to appear in it publickly ? Preposterous Sots ! Do not contradict the best Evidence , that of Common sense , tho' you would the Coroners : Another is , from the Discovery of one Haly , that was found Murther'd , to be the Warder , in whose House the late Lord of Essex lay , upon which the Libeller in a long , tedious , impertinent Discourse , Insinuates the probability of that Fellow 's being dispatch'd , for fear of telling Tales ; but how does Heaven infatuate those Fools that it would destroy ? The falsify'd per-perjur'd Wretch is forc'd to beg the World Pardon , in his own Postscript , and to tell us the truth , in spight of his design to lye ; that this Unfortunate Fellow that was found Dead , was none of this Warder that he meant , and that only the similitude of the Name made the mistake , then from the disagreeableness of Bomeny's Testimony with the other Informant , because not verbatim he says the same , therefore they must be both false : Seditious Sot ! Why so senseless too ? Will not Common reason for that very thing , confirm them both to be the more truth , for when there is a Conspiracy , to make Affidavit of a lye ; there they can soon confer , and commonly do too agree in words as well as substance , and sense might well suggest , they had learn'd their Lessons pretty perfect , upon such a verbal Agreement : But this Masterpiece of most Malicious Plot , was with more sublimated Malice , contracted into a Compendium , only that it might be propagated the sooner , spread the farther when in short , of which Condensed or Abstracted Treason , the Spirit and Essence of Sedition , one Danvers was Discovered to be the Author ; a Villain , whom the Devil in Design , could not render more vile , an Anabaptist for Profession , an Officer of Olivers , for Rebellion , and now a Fugitive , for fear of Apprehension ; for whom a Warrant was issued out , Posted , publisht in the Gazette , and an Hundred pounds proffer'd for any to take him .

As these late Plots and Conspiracies were contriving all along in England , so did the Scots carry on the same Treason : Argyle , an Hereditary Rebel , that seem'd to have his Soul and Treason from Extraduce , being attainted by the Law of their Land , for a Factious Explanation of the Test , and tho' Justly Sentenc'd to Suffer , yet the Government that had given him his Estate , had no design upon his Life ; makes his Escape out of Prison , in which in effect he enjoy'd his Liberty before , gets over into Holland , confers with our English Fugitives , then sends Letters from thence to the Scots , to incite them to Rebel , some of which were Intercepted upon Major Holms , and known to be his own Hand , Spence and Castares , his own Emissaries Confessing the Correspondence they had with their Rebel Friends in England ; and the Cochrans , Melvil , Baily , are found to have been here in England , and Agitating the Conspiracy , for which , upon full Evidence , the said Robert Baily was * * Decemb. 24 , 1684. Vid. Discoveries in Scotland , Printed by his late Majesties Command ; as also , the Account come out in this King's Reign , by Order of the late , Printed by Authority . Convicted , had his Arms Expung'd , himself Hang'd , and his Body Quarterd .

But notwithstanding all this Evidence , as clear as the Sun , and all their deeds of Hellish darkness brought into as much light , as the Lamp of Heaven it self affords : Their infatuated Fools were still so much blinded and besotted , as to represent it all for a Plot of the State , only for involving some of them in a Conspiracy ; and the King must be presum'd to design upon himself , only to trepan them into Treasonable Designs : For this , several Letters are dispers'd into the Country , some of which being Intercepted , were found to be one Sir Samuel Bernadiston's , a 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 a Jun. 29. Hang'd and Quarter'd ; and the next day the late Lord Argyle , their Arch-Traytor , b 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 Town in Wiltshire , there happen'd some small Skirmishes , between the King's Forces and the Rebels , but without any considerable loss on either side . From Wells they went to Bridg-water , there Fortifying themselves a little ; but finding the Lord Feversham come up to them , and more Forces of the King 's following , they resolv'd to surprise him in his Camp ; march'd accordingly in the Night , and by two or three in the a a July 6. Morning set upon him , whom yet they found ready to receive them , the late Lord Grey , Commanding their ill manag'd Horse , was soon disorder'd , and ran away ; the Foot fought it for a little while , but at last disorder'd , & defeated by the King's Cannon and Horse , were slain some hundreds upon the place , and several more in the pursuit . The late Lord Grey was b b July 7. taken in Disguise near Ring-wood about the Borders of Dorsetshire , and secured by my Lord Lumley ; and the late Duke of Monmouth , the next Morning met with in some Covert thereabouts , and put into the same Hands : Monmouth on the a a July 13. Monday , after , with his Associate Grey , was brought to the Tower , and the former the following b b July 15. Wednesday , on the Hill Beheaded .

By this you have seen the very Basis , the Foundation upon which they build their Principles , somewhat shaken , and I wish I could with modesty say , utterly undermin'd : I have set my Shoulders to the work , and had I the strength of some Sampson , would pull down their Pillars , confound the Babel these Rebels have built , tho' I were sure to fall and be buried in its Ruines . By this you have seen the Multiplicity of their Plots , so Hellish , and so many , that like the Devil ( that Seduces our Democraticks into such Damnable Designs ) their Name is Legion ; but of those Devices the Almighty , who always was , will ever be the Detector and Confounder : And here I profess by that Heaven ( which I only beg to Bless my poor Endeavour against the Designs of Hell ) that nothing but a sincere hatred of their pernicious Principles , and a certain Assurance of the truth of all these Conspiracies they have promoted , has put me upon this undertaking , to refute the Folly and Falshood of the one , as well as represent that Bloody work & Wickedness of the other . If they 'll condemn the warmness of my style , which a a Postcript to the History of the Association , Printed for Janeway , London . one has already Libell'd as hot , let them but give me leave to be as zealous for the promoting of good Principles , as the vilest of their Villains , the most venomous of their Vipers have been , for infecting us with the poyson of bad : Let me be allow'd to write as affectionately for my Sovereign , while he is Seated in his Throne , as their Faction did most furiously against him , when by Rebellion they had pull'd him out ; and for this , be pleas'd but to remark a little matter of Fact : For the first , Has not Hunt ( whom even they would make a moderate Man ) Libell'd his Antagonists with the Name of b b Post . p. 94 , 69 , 70 , 83 , 93. Base Caitiffs , Traytors , Knaves , Betrayers of the Peoples Right , Wicked , Impious , Sacrilegious , Monsters , and Mad ? Does not an Inconsiderate Coxcomb , that sets himself up for a Considerer , call his Opposers , a a Considerations Consider'd , p. 1 , 5 , 14. Arrogant Fools , silly Knaves , Ruffians , Triflers ; besides his Non-sense and Pedantick terms of Insensatus Galata , and Effrontery , with all the Controversie manag'd in the style of a Carman , or the blessed Language of the Bawds at Billingsgate : And yet these ( I 'll assure you ) with the Party , all applauded pieces . For the second , consult but the Papers of that profligate Villain , the Penner of the Political Mercury , and see how the meanest Traytor treats his Exil'd Sovereign , and Majesty it self ; Young Scot , curs'd Interest of Young Stewart , Merc. Politicus , Num. 62. Num. 64. Num. 67. Num. 79. Num. 115. accursed Family , Little Queen , their curst foul and bloody House , its Name odious in Chronicle , Young Tarquin , Perkin Wa●beck , pretended King , King of Beggars , Royal Puppet , the Grand Tyrant , the Great Pyrate ; And so barbarous were these Beasts in their Reflections , that he represented his Banish'd Prince ( whom themselves had put to those unhappy necessities ) for a Clipper and a Coiner in the French King's Court : Is not this Virulency now ? this Venome ? and that of such a Villanous Viper , to whom the Old Serpent , the Devil himself would be an Antidote ? and all this even against God's Vicegerent ? Is not the dust of such a Damnable Democratick , enough to pollute the Land wherein it lies ? and of which the Grave will be asham'd when she comes to give up her Dead : These are the Barbarities , Hunt would not have so much a a Fost. p. 89. remember'd , that is , not abhor'd , and which I cannot forbear to mention and remin'd , to let the present Age see , to what an Acme of Villany the preceding was arriv'd , to let the Faction be forc'd to remember , what they so labour to forget ; for what they can so hardly be brought to detest , is also as difficult by repetition , to be render'd too detestable : These Printed Treasons , that have been so long out of the Press , may well want a New Imprimatur , when they are brought to believe they were never in it : To this pass of the Politicus's would our Protestants , Domesticks , Packets , Advices , Courantiers , Janeway's , Care's , Vile's and Curtise's , all have come , and a Nevil now , that abhors the thoughts of a COMMON-WEALTH , as a a Plato Redivivus , p. 209. Circumstances are now , would be their Needham ( I warrant you ) when a Civil War had Banisht again the best of Kings , and one that writ his Brief History of Succession , not long since , only to make our Monarchs Elective , would then have told us , that b b Vid. History of the Succession , writ by Merc. Politicus , Number 64 , 65. All from the Conquest were perfect Tyrants , that Richard the Second's Blood ought rather to have been spilt on a Publick Scaffold , than by a Private Assassination in Pomsret Castle , and that Charles the First was Executed as a Traytor ; and so given us in just such another Catalogue .

How can our Seditious Souls think themselves hardly dealt with , in those late Loyal Animadversions that have been made upon their lewd Libels ? or , What severity now has the Observator ( that Learned piece of Loyalty ) exprest in his Pages , which their own Papers have not deserv'd , & heretofore , in a barbarous manner , even to the best of Kings and Subjects shown : and as they cannot condemn him , or any other honest Heart , for exposing ( in the most severest manner ) the Principles and Practises of these dangerous Democraticks , since they dealt so severely themselves with their Sovereign , and all Assertors of his Monarchy ; so neither can such discommend him , or any other , for such seasonable Remarks on their Pretensions to CONSCIENCE , and as rigorous Reflections on their Men of MODERATION : the two tender points ( they say ) must-not be medl'd with , or , at most , but gently touch'd on .

The very Suggestion flies in their Faces , and upbraids the Faction with the same procee●ings against one another ; for this famous Political Mercurial Scribler lets us understand , that a a Merc. Politicus , Num. 59. July 24. 1651. The Presbyterians pretended Principle of Conscience , is no competent Plea in his behalf , for then this Plea and Pretence might serve to Justifie the late Tyrant , and all his Cavalry ; it might Justifie Ravillac , for Murthering Henry the Fourth , Faux , Catesby , and the rest , for the Powder-Plot ; not a Pritst or Jesuite but hath the same Pretension , nor shall there be any Traytors in all Ages hereafter : Away with this Clergy Pretence , not to be named once among Christians , but exploded as the very Pest of Civil Society . And I pray mark only the Godly Preacher to the Parliament a a Sermon Preach'd to the Parliament , November 5. 1651. I have desir'd in my Prayers to GOD , for the opening of Mens Eyes to see , that the same Spirit of CONSCIENCE , which lay in the polluted Bed of PAPACY , meets them in the prophaned Bed of PRESBYTERY ; that The highest Godlinesses , and the highest Wickednesses , are those that are most Spiritual ; that The Fornications and Sorceries of this Whore are then greatest , when most Mysterious ; that She is able to bewitch those that have attained to a great degree of Spirituality : To this purpose , I have represented the same Spirit which dwells in PAPACY , when it enters into the purer Forms of PRESBYTERY , as fuller of Mystery , so fuller of Despight and Danger ; so far the good Man , for Conscience Plea : And now , if you please , to tell you their sense of the TRIMMER and MODERATE Men of their Times . a a Merc. Politicus , Num. 63. August 21. 1651. No sort of Men can be more dangerous , than those Phlegmatick Souls , of the MODERATE MIDDLE Temper , who , whilst they pretend to be of a Party , are not able to concoct those reasons of State , that are absolutely necessary for its Preservation : Men of this Humour may do well in a Civil War , where the differing Interest may be reduc'd to agree in one third ; but when they are stat●d in as vast a contrariety as God and Belial , Light and Darkness , Liberty and Slavery , then those Men are like Sand without Lime , neither good in the Foundation , nor sit for the building of a Republick ; such Interests are best preserv'd , when like Mathematical Points , in the Extremity of Latitude , they are placed at the remotest distance , admitting no intermedial mixture of Affections with any things , Persons or Pretences , that may have but the least Collateral Relation to the opposite Party : And then for their MERCY to the Dissenters of those Times , and the matter of VNION . b b Merc. Politi●us , Num , 59. But perhaps , the sparing of the Traytor , may he a means , to reconcile those of his own Opinion , and bring them to an UNION with the Common-wealth ; Why ? Let them , in the first place , take shame to themselves , by an Acknowledgment of their Offences : Let their Repentance be as loudly , and openly profes'd in the Pulpit , as their former Follies ; and then afterwards , 't is possible , there may be an UNION , but an UNION , carried on upon any other terms , speaks only some Clerical Design , under a specious outside . And a a Case's Sermon before the Court-Martial , London , 1644. Case , Discoursing about MERCY , to those that had Fought for their King , whom he makes all Unpardonable Murtherers , nay , tho' they had not kill'd a Man ; for says he , Though God forgive Sin against himself , yet he commands his Deputies , not to pardon Trespass against the Publick State , as in the case of Murther , for even PREPAR'D and PROJECTED Murther , God makes uncapable of Civil Mercy ; for here the Delinquent has kill'd as much as in his power to kill ; it was his purpose , he hath killed , though the Patient be not kill'd , and the Design and Intention should Hang him . God deliver us from the Mercy of such Casuists , the Government and Rule of such unreasonable Men , that whilst they exclaim against Idols , commit Sacriledg ; while they condemn others for want of Moderation in their Censures and Animadversions , Satyrize and Libel even one another most Immoderately , These are the hardships in which they think they are most griev'd , and yet those the very points in which they have shewn themselves the most rigorous , and opprest better Subjects than themselves , with a greater grievance .

This is my sense of their Writings , and for the opinion of others , about my own , and as little solicitous ; I am satisfy'd of my own Integrity , and wish I could be as well assur'd of theirs ; the Defending of the Right of the Crown , I am sure was † † Statuimus quod omnes homines Reg ni nostri , sint Fratres conjurati ad Monarchiam nostram pro viribus suis defendendam , Lex Guiliel . Conq. Lamb. 59. p. 171. Law of old , and now no more new thing than to what I am * * Vid. Oath of Allegiance . Sworn , and their laborious Drudgery , to detract from the Prerogative is perhaps , but a Learned Expedient for being more Elaborately PERJUR'D . As I ever Lov'd that Royal Line , which I always look'd upon to be unalterable , and which none now but Rebels or Repablicans will endeavour to Interrupt , so I shall ever as much Revere this NAME and FAMILY of STEWART , in which the truly Lineal Descent of our Crown was as intirely united and preserv'd : a Name that will be Sacred to Posterity , and which I wish might be perpetuated for ever to it too ; until it leave us in England , as long a Series of Successors , as those that are to be number'd in the Catalogue of Scotland ; and 't is with regret if we are restrain'd to reckon of it but two Royal Pairs , of JAMES , and CHARLES : A Name , that none but a Monster of Mankind would have made a a Merc. Politicus , Number 62 , 79. odious and accurs'd , which maugre their own Rebellions has made our Islands Blest : And lastly , a Name which even Rebels might Revere , for so long and lasting a Succession in Scotland , and lament that in both Kingdoms , now there is but one left . And for that Impostor , which some poor Souls , as silly , as seditious , would feign have put upon us , and set up : Consider but the sad success two such Presidents and just as pretty Projects , met with in the Reign of Henry the Seventh : Consider how unsuccesful this present Attempt prov'd , which terminated in the ruin of all its Undertakers : Consider but the Folly , as well as the Wickedness of such an undertaking , which could it have met with success , must have been but by the Blood of the present Age , and an entailment of it to Posterity ; too dear a purchase , only to make us the Scorn and Derision of the Word , Traytors to our King , and Rebels to our God .

What I 've done , has been in satisfaction to my self , without design of Applause ; my Duty to my Sovereign , without insisting on desert , my Resentment against Rebels , without fearing of their force , for then I desire to fall , when so good a Government cannot stand ; my Misfortune from them would have been the best of Fate , and my very Foes the most Friendly and Obliging . I have scarce Breath'd under a Vsurpt Government yet , and should hardly have been brought to begin now , to be subject to an Vsurpation : If in these Essays , I have done the least Service to my Sovereign Lord , or his Liege Subjects , I shall look upon it as having answer'd the Ends of my little Studies , both towards God , as well as Man ; for there is seldom a good Subject that makes a bad Christian , and I have always observ'd the greatest Atheists among the Rebellious . If ( whatever sincerity I pretend ) they 'll upbraid me still for that itch of Writing , I 'll as sincerely protest to them , they have cur'd me of the scab , and thank them too for being my Physicians without a Fee : They themselves have superseded all future Animadversions of my Pen , by being able to make no farther progress in their VILLANY , I truly profess , never more to refute their bad PRINCIPLES , till they can find out worse , and as heartily promise , never again to be their Plague , till they can Invent a more Hellish PLOT .

FINIS .