the further proof of this Sovereign Imperial Monarchy There are yet other Regalities and Prerogatives which the Common Laws of England have ever allowed and never doubted but to be inherent in their Kings And hence it is that the King cannot be said to be a Tenant because he hath no Superior but God Almighty And if the King and a common Person joyn in a Foundation the King shall be the Founder for the thing being entire the Kings Prerogative shall be preferr'd That he shall have the Escheat of all Lands whereof a person attaint of High Treason was seiz'd of whomsoever they were holden That there is no Occupant against the King nor shall any one gain his Land by priority of Entry for Nullum tempus occurrit Regi That half Blood is no impediment to the descent of the Lands of the Crown as was seen in the Case of Queen Mary who was but of half Blood to King Edward 6. and Queen Elizabeth to both for the quality of the Person alters the Descent That the accession of the Crown purges all Attainders as may be seen in the respective Cases of Henry 6. and Henry 7. whose Attainders were no other than a present disability which upon their assuming the Royal Dignity were ipso facto void That the word King imports his Politick Capacity which is never in minority and never dies but extends to all his Successors as well Kings as Queens That he is King before Coronation for besides that the Law suffers no interregnums he holds it by inherent Birth-Right the Coronation being but a Royal Ornament and outward Solemnization of the Descent and not unlike the publick Celebration of Matrimony between a Man and a Woman which adds nothing to the substance of the Contract but declares it to the world That the Ligeance of his Subjects is absolute and indefinite and due to the natural Person of the King by the Law of Nature which is immutable and part of the Law of the Land before any Municipal or Judicial Law and that an Act of Parliament cannot bar the King of the Service of his Subject which the indelible Law of Nature gave him it being a part of the Law of the Land by which subjection is due to him And therefore the Statute That no man notwithstanding any non obstante shall serve as Sheriff above one year bars not the King from dispensing with it And William Lord la Ware altho disabled by Act of Parliament was nevertheless called to Parliament was nevertheless called to Parliament by Queen Elizabeth by Writ of Summons for she could not be barr'd of the Service and Counsel of any of her Subjects Add to this That all Restrictions upon his Sovereign Liberty are void and therefore Publick Notaries made by the Emperor claiming to exercise their Offices in England were prohibited as being against the Dignity of a Supreme King And with this agrees the Statute-Law of Scotland made in the Parliament of the 5th of King James the Third cap. 3. In short when King John had subjected his Crowns of England and Ireland to Pope Innocent the Third and had become his Feodary under the annual Acknowledgment of one thousand Marks to the Pope and his Successors and when afterwards the Arrearages thereof were demanded the Parliament of that year answered That no King can put himself or his Realm in Subjection without their Assent And how far that Assent reach'd we have it in the 42 of Edward the Third where in full Parliament it was further declar'd That they could not Assent to any thing in Parliament that tended to the Disinherison of the King or his Crown whereunto they were Sworn which is no more than what the Statute that prescribes the Oath of the Kings Justices has in it viz. Ye shall not Counsel nor Assent to any thing that may turn him the King in Damage or Disinherison by any manner way or colour And to the same effect are the several Oaths of the Lord Chancellor and Lord Treasurer You shall not know nor suffer the Hurt or Disinheriting of the King or that the Rights of the Crown be decreased by any means as far as you may lett it In a word to omit many others All such things whereof no Subject can claim Property as Treasure-trove Wreck Estrays c. belong to the King by his Prerogative which extends to all Powers and Preheminences which the Law hath given the Crown and is a principal part of the Law of the Land and is called by Bracton Libertas Privilegium Regis both words signifying the same thing i. e. The Kings Prerogative And by Britton Droit le Roy The Kings Right And in the Register Jus Regium which is the same and Jus Regium Coronae The Royal Right of the Crown And since it has not been wound up so high as to endanger the strings what reason is there to wish it let down so low as to render it profanable by the People When the Philistines return'd the Ark of God which they had taken the men of Beth-Shemesh must be prying into it and he that has a mind to know the effect of their curiosity may read it in Samuel God slew one hundred and fifty thousand of them But enough of the Common-Law we 'l in the next place consider what the Statute-Law in further affirmance of the Common-Law saith to this matter And here it cannot be thought saith Sir Edw. Coke that a Statute made by the Authority of the whole Realm will recite a thing against the Truth I 'll begin with that of Richard 2. commonly call'd the Statute of Premunire in which it is declared That the Crown of England hath been ever so free that it is in no earthly subjection but immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regality of the same Crown and to none other In like manner the Statute of H. 8. against Appeals to Rome saith That by divers sundry old Authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the world governed by one Supreme Head and King having the Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the same unto whom a Body Politick compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in terms by names of Spiritualty and Temporalty have bounden and owen to bear next to God a natural and humble Obedience And near the middle of the said Statute it is further called the Authority and Prerogative of the said Imperial Crown And in the 25 of the same it is called The Imperial Crown and Royal Authority recognising no Superior under God but only your Grace And in the following Chapter besides the frequent use of the word Imperial the Kings thereof are stiled Kings and Emperors of this Realm
And in another of the same Kings it is called The most Royal Estate of your Imperial Crown of this Realm and the same word Imperial made use of ten other times in the same Statute to the same purpose And with this agrees the Statute of Ireland where in express words also the Kings of England are entituled Kings and Emperors of the Realm of England and of the Land of Ireland and that too five years before the Title of Lord of Ireland was altered into King And by the Act that so alter'd it it is called The Majesty and State of a King Imperial And so in the first of Qu. Eliz. English in which the Oath of Supremacy was enacted the Crown of this Realm is three times called Imperial And in the third Chapter of the same year as often And in the 5th of the same Queen that requires all Ecclesiasticks Graduates in any University or common-Common-Laws Officers of Court Attorneys every Member of Parliament under the degree of a Baron to take the said Oath of Supremacy before he enter the House or such Election to be deemed void calls it The Dignity of the Imperial Crown And the Act of Recognition of King James uses the same expression of Imperial four times And upon a like ground of mere Supremacy was that Act of Scotland before the Union of the Crowns wherein 't is said Our Sovereign Lord his full Jurisdiction and free Empire within this Realm Scotland And the late Oath or Test prescribed to be taken by all persons in Publick Trust in that Kingdom declares the Kings Majesty the only Supreme Governor of that Realm over all persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil And the Act of acknowledging and asserting the right of Succession in that Kingdom calls it the Imperial Crown of Scotland In all which matters I have been the more particular that I might the better evince my Reader that this Independent Sovereignty and Supremacy of the Kings of England c. has not been the opinion of any one time but the general consent of all and that our Kings hold their Crowns in chief from God and owe no precarious acknowledgments to the courtesie of the People Nor is the Kings Immediate Personal Originary Inherent Power which he executes or may execute Authoritate Regiâ Supremâ Ecclesiastica as King and Sovereign Governor of the Church of England to be less consider'd it being one of those flowers which make up his Crown and preserve it in verdure And here I question not but it will be granted that the King is the Supreme Patron of all the Arch-Bishopricks and Bishopricks of England as being all founded by the Kings of England to hold Christi Baroniam excepting that of Soder in the Isle of Man which was instituted by Pope Gregory the Fourth and may perhaps be the reason why the Bishop thereof hath neither Place nor Voice in the Parliament of England and so were at first donative Per traditionem annuli baculi Pastoralis by the delivery of a Ring and the Pastoral Staff or Crosier And the Bishop of Rome persuading Henry the First to make them Elective by their Chapters refused it But King John by his Charter recognising the Custom and Right of the Crown in former times by the common consent of his Barons granted that they should be eligible as least doubting he had so far lockt up himself as that he might not be receiv'd to disapprove or allow for before that I find That when he had given a Conge d' eslier to the Monks of Canterbury to Elect an Arch-Bishop and Pope Innocent the Third notwithstanding the Kings desires of promoting the Bishop of Norwich to it whom also they had Elected had under a Curse commanded them to choose Stephen Langton with which for fear of Excommunicacation they comply'd the King banishes the Monks as Traytors and writes to the Pope that he had subverted the Liberties of his Crown by which it appears that he lookt upon himself as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England and that no Arch-Bishop or Bishop could be put upon him without his consent and what advantage the Kingdom got by this Usurpation may be gather'd from the effects when after a more than six years Jurisdiction the King Depos'd and a free Crown put in Vassalage it only open'd a way to those future Broils between him and his Barons which lasted all his time and wanted no fuel to feed 'em till towards the latter end of his Son men began to stand at gaze and as infatuated or startled at they knew not what thought it more safety to look on than lend a hand to master it nor had they fully resolv'd what to do until the Pope having demanded Homage of Edw. 3. and the Arrears of one thousand Marks per ann for the Kingdoms of England and Ireland which had been also demanded in the 3 of Edw. 1. and in case of non-performance threatned to make out Process against the King and Kingdom then at last the scales fell from their eyes and as men got out of a dream they began to consider what they had startled at and as an argument of their recovered Senses the Lords Spiritual by themselves the Lords Temporal by themselves and the Commons by themselves unanimously resolv'd and declar'd That the King could not put Himself his Realm or his People in subjection without their Assent and albeit it might it is as saith Sir Edw. Coke Contra Legem consuetudinem Parliamenti contrary to the order and custom of Parliament because it is a disherison of the King and his Crown after which to avoid all further dispute the manner and order of Election of Arch-Bishops and Bishops and all things relating thereunto is setled by Statute viz. 1. Negatively That no one thereafter be Presented Nominated or Commended to the Sea of Rome for the Dignity or Office of any Arch-Bishop or Bishop within this Realm or any other the Kings Dominions 2 Affirmatively That at every avoidance of any Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick as before the King our Sovereign Lord his Heirs and Successors may grant to the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral Churches where the Sea of such Arch-bishoprick or Bishoprick shall happen to be void a License under the Great Seal as of old time hath been accustomed to proceed to Election of an Arch-Bishop or Bishop of the Sea so being void with a Letter missive containing the name of the person which they shall Elect or Choose by virtue of which they elect the said person c. or in case of refusal incur the Penalties of a Premunire So that upon the whole the Election in effect is but a matter of form it is the Kings meer Grant which placeth and the Bishops Consecration which maketh a Bishop Neither do the Kings of this Land use herein any other than such
again Hath shewed mercy to his Anointed To which if any man shall object that this was spoken of a good King a man after his own heart I answer That not only Josiah who also was a good King is called the Anointed of the Lord but Saul a King whom God is said to have given in his anger has this sacred Title attributed to him in eight places in the first Book of Samuel and in two other in the second And the same also we find God giving to Heathen Emperors Thus saith the Lord to his Anointed Cyrus to Cyrus whose hand I have holden to subdue Nations before him And ver 4. I have surnamed thee tho thou hast not known me Howbeit tho he knew not his Founder at first it is not long e're we find him acknowledging him Thus saith Cyrus the King All the Kingdoms of the Earth hath the Lord God of Heaven given me c. And he that gave the title of Anointed to Cyrus gave the stile of his Servant to Nebuchadnezzar who yet had sack'd Jerusalem and led the People thereof into captivity when he calls him Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my Servant which also is but the same wherewith he so often favours Moses Joshua and David Neither is this truth that Kings derive their power from God less acknowledg'd by the Heathens than us Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kings are from Jupiter saith Hesiod and elsewere you find 'em stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 born of Jove and nourish'd by Jove whereby God is made their procreant cause as well as their conservant not as deriving their pedigree from Jupiter but their Kingly honor And what the Poet ascribes to Jupiter the Apostle gives to God For saith he as certain of your own Poets have said we are also his off-spring And what other does the Psalmist's calling them Gods import than that they receive their Authority from God whose place they supply and whose person they represent Many also of the most ancient Philosophers acknowledg the Regal Office to be a Divine good and the King as it were a God among men and that God had given him dominion as we have it at large in The Power communicated by God to the Prince and the Obedience required of the Subject written by the most Reverend the late Lord Primate of all Ireland In short the Psalmist is direct in this point Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands And therefore when S. Peter calls Government an Ordinance of man it is not that it was invented by men but as proper to them and ordained of God for the good and conservation of human kind and exercised by men about the government of human Society SECTION II. That Adam held it by Divine right Cain a Monarch By the Kingdoms of the most ancient Gentiles not God's but Monarchs were denoted That the original of Power came not from the People by way of Pact or Contract The unreasonableness and ill consequence of the contrary Noah and his Sons Kings A Family an exemplary Monarchy in which the Pater-familias had power of life and death by the right of Primogeniture Examples of the exercise of it in Judah Abraham Jephthah Brutus Vpon the increase of Families they still continued under one head Esau. The four grand Monarchies Ancients and Moderns universally receiv'd it as precedent to all other Governments THat God Almighty was the first King will not be deny'd and that Adam was the next appears by his Commission as I have shewn before a large Commission and of as large extent as having made him a mighty King and universal Monarch and given him an unqestionable right to his Kingdom which was all the inferior world the Earth the Sea and all that therein were insomuch that it might not improperly be said of this matter Jupiter in coelis terras regit unus Adamus Divisum imperium cum Jove Adamus habet And now as all things were created in order and that the infant world might not sit in darkness nor their posterity want a light to guide and direct them what wonder is it that for the preservation of that order God erected a Dominion himself and declar'd his Vicegerent Afterward when the world began to enlarge and men liv'd so long that they begat a numerous posterity Cain with his own Colony went into a strange Land and built a City and called the name thereof after his Sons name Enoch which double act carries the character of a Kingdom in it and that he was as well the King as Father of the Inhabitants neither do the ancientest Gentiles otherwise speak of those elder times than with a clear supposition of Monarchy Those Kingdoms of Saturn Jupiter Neptune Pluto and the like denoting as much and that under those names applied to distinct Kingdoms not Gods but the Monarchs of Land and Sea in the first times were understood And so Cicero Certum est omnes antiquas gentes regibus paruisse And with him agrees Justin Principio rerum gentiumque imperium penes Reges erat But not a word all this while do we hear of the People or that the original of Government came from them by way of pact or contract for if the power of Adam upon his Children and his Posterity and so all mankind whatever depended not on any consent of his Sons or Posterity but wholly proceeded from God and nature then certainly the Authority of Kings is both natural and immediately Divine and not of any consent or allowance of man and consequently the people had no more right to chuse their Kings than to chuse their Fathers Besides to examin it a little farther if this power of paction or contract had been in the people then it must lie in all the people as an equal common right or in some particular part if in all of them they would do well to shew how they came by it or if in any more peculiar part by what Authority were the rest excluded it being a Maxim in Law Quod nostrum est sine facto vel defectu nostro amitti vel in alium transferri non potest Whatever is mine cannot be lost or transferr'd unto another without my own act or defect Nor would it be less enquir'd who were the persons suppos'd to have made the contract or whether all without difference of Sex Age or Condition were admitted to drive the bargain and if so Wives and Children were not sui juris and consequently could not conclude others nor themselves for any longer time than during the disability Which once remov'd they were free again Or if all were admitted whether it were with an equal right to every one or with some inequality was the Servants interest if yet such a thing could be among equals equal with the Masters and if not who made the inequality or if
Assistance of God King of Britain And Edwine in a Charter of his to the Abbey of Crowland is stiled Edwinus Anglorum Rex totius Britanniae telluris Gubernator Rector Edwine King of the English and of all the British Land Director and Governor In like manner Ethelred in a Charter of his to the Church of Canterbury stiles himself Angligenum Orcadarum necne in gyro jacentium Monarchus Monarch or sole Governor of the English the Isles of Orkeney and all that lie within that Circuit but subscribes it Ego Aethelredus Anglorum Induperator c. I Ethelred Emperor of the English And besides what I said before of King William Rufus that said he had the same Prerogatives in his Kingdom as the Emperor claim'd in the Empire in a Charter of his to the Monastery of Shaftsbury he says Ego Willielmus Rex Anglorum anno ab incarnatione 1089. secundo anno mei Imperii I William King of the English in the year of our Lord 1089. and of my Empire the second And now having brought it thus far I shall in the next place examin the unreasonableness of that new Notion that the King is one of the three Estates and doubt not but to prove the contrary to any man but him who will not be persuaded tho you shall have persuaded him SECTION VI. That the King is none of the Three Estates in which two preliminary Objections are examin'd by Reason and answered by the manner of the Three Estates applying to him What the Three Estates are To presume him one of them were to make him but a Co-ordinate Power The King cannot be said to Summon or Supplicate himself How will the Three Estates be made out before the Commons came in With a short Series during the Saxons to the latter end of Henry III. in all which time they are not so much as nam'd as any constituent part of a Parliament And the time when probably they first came in to be as they are at this day one of the three Estates That the Lords Temporal were never doubted but to be an Estate Four reasons offer'd that the Lords Spiritual are one other Estate distinct from the Lords Temporal and one Act of Parliament in point With other Authorities to prove the Assertion THose that would have the King one of the Three Estates say That our Government is a kind of mixt Monarchy inasmuch as in our Parliaments the Lower House as representing the Commons bear a semblance of a Democracy and the Lords of Aristocracy And others That the King Lords and Commons who as Assembled joyntly to the end of Legislation as one Corporation and no otherwise are the Law-giver We 'll examin it by reason which Neque decipitur nec decipit usquam and only commands belief when all things else beg it And here to come as near the wind as I can that I may the better get up with them admitting the semblance but not granting the thing what does this make for them or serve to prove that yet the Government is not a free Monarchy because the Supreme Authority as I said ere while resteth neither in the one House or the other either joyntly or severally but solely in the King at whose pleasure they are assembled and without whose Royal Assent they can make no Law to oblige the Subject And therefore not denying Bodin's distinction of a Lordly Monarch a Royal Monarch and a Tyrannical Monarch which relateth only to the Power and Practice of the Monarch yet the distinction of a Supreme and mixt Monarchy which designeth the manner of the Government is a contradiction in Terminis because that Government which extendeth it self to more than one can never be a Monarchy as is obvious to every one that understandeth the word Monarchy and was never heard of in our Land till the men of our late times instead of suppressing Idolatry c. had fram'd a new Idol of their own and having made it as gay as they could set it up to be ador'd by the Multitude always prone to admire every thing they least understand And what must the consequence of it be but that the Government must be partly Monarchical partly Aristocratical and partly Democratical which are in themselves contrary and to be governed by contrary Laws and if it be impossible to make any good out of two extremes as Monarchy and Democracy are what then shall be made of three confounded among themselves or how can it be that Sovereignty a thing indivisible can at one and the same time be divided between one Prince the Nobility and the People in common and not to be altogether a State Popular or at best a Venetian Republick wherein albeit there be but one Duke and He for life yet his person being not invested with the Supreme Power of Government he is in effect but Magni nominis umbra And as to the other That the King Lords and Commons as one Corporation and no otherwise are the Law-giver here I take the King to be in a worse condition for tho to the making of an Act the concurrence of both Houses is necessary yet of no effect if the King disapprove yet the Case of a Mayor Aldermen and Burgesses or whatever other the stile of the Corporation be is wholly different for they meeting together by the Princes grant in a kind of Democratical Common Council for the better Government of the place where they reside order every thing by most Voices wherein the Mayor himself has but one and is concluded by the greater number but the King having no Voice nor any one to represent him in the discussive part of any Act cannot be said to give his Royal Assent as one of the Corporation but by his inherent Legislative Prerogative and how improper the contrary is will further appear in that a Common-Council put what By-Laws they please upon the Mayor as long as they are not contrary to the Law of the Land because he has no negative upon them But in case of a Sovereign the first mark of it as I have shewn before is the Power of making Laws now who should those Subjects be that should yield Obedience to that Law if they also had the Power to make Laws or who should that Prince be that could give the Law being himself constrain'd to receive it of his Subjects unto whom also he gave it A thing not only incompatible but even absurd from every days Practice and Experience for do not the Three Estates of this Kingdom upon the passing of all Bills address themselves to his Majesty in the most humble Stile As that of the Petition of Right Humbly shew unto our Sovereign Lord the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament Assembled c. So to King James Most dread and most gracious Sovereign We your most Loyal and Humble Subjects the Lords c. So to Queen
of the said Interdict and thereby also promises them a re-payment with thanks so that He only borrows Mony of them on that particular occasion but does not in the least hint or direct them to send their Proxies or Representatives to any Great Council to be then call'd as we have it and the History of that time more at large in the said Answer to Mr. Petit. And now having offer'd thus far to this matter I shall go on with the reason of those times which I take to be thus William the Conqueror having subdu'd England began now to consider the way of securing it and to that purpose as it is in the Proverb cut large thongs out of other mens hides and as a reward of the Service done him granted a certain compass or circuit of Land unto such of his Chief men as had assisted him in the acquisition to them and their Heirs to dwell on and exercise such Jurisdiction therein as he thought good to grant performing also such Services and paying him such yearly Rent as the Grant required they again parcell'd this Land to such other meaner men as had follow'd them in the Expedition under such Services and Rents as they thought fit and by this means as those Great men became Tenants to the King in Chief so the Inferiors became Tenants to them who as Superiors exercised a kind of little Kingship over them The King and his Successors being Supreme Lords of the whole and imposing from time to time such Laws as by the advice and assent of those his Barons were thought expedient and unto which Consentire inferior quisque vis us est in persona Domini sui capitalis prout hodie per Procuratores Comitatus vel Burgi quos in Parliamentis Knights and Burgesses appellamus to which every inferior saith he was presum'd to consent in the person of his Chief Lord from whom he held as at this day by the Representatives of Counties and Burroughs in Parliament whom we call Knights and Burgesses and certainly there is no doubt to be made but that if there had been any such privilege of ancient time belonging to the People that the Historians of those times would not have pass'd so material a thing in silence especially considering how many of lesser account are every where found among them Polidor Virgil would have the Commons to have been brought into those great Councils in the 16th of Henry I. Sir Walter Raleigh about the 18th of that King but Sir Henry Spelman will not allow it his words are these Sine ut sodes dicam collegisse me centenas reor conciliorum edictiones tenoresque ipsos plurimorum ab ingressu Guilielmi 1. ad excessum Hen. 3. existentium nec in tanta multitudine de plebe uspiam reperisse aliquid nil in his delituerit Give me leave saith he to speak frankly I believe I have collected an hundred Acts of Councils and the forms of most from the coming in of William the First to the going off of Henry the Third nor in so great a number have I any where found any thing of the Commonalty nothing of it lies in them And yet it may be probable that Henry the Third toward the end of his long but troublesome Reign brought them in to counterpoise the Factions of his seditious Barons for tho at the making of the Statutes of Merton there is not the least mention of the Commons yet in those at Marleborough they are thus named The more discreet men of the Realm being called together as well of the higher as of the lower Estate And in the Title of the Statute of Westminster the first made in the third of Edw. 1. who as he was first of his name after the Conquest so he was the first that setled the Law and State and freed this Kingdom from the Wardship of the Peers it is thus said These be the Acts of King Edward Son to King Henry made at Westminster at his first Parliament c. by his Council and by the Assent of Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons and all the Commonalty of the Realm being thither Summoned c. And so that word Parliament which as Sir Henry Spelman says in King John's time nondum emicuit was not yet got up other than by the name of Commune Concilium Regni The Common-Council of the Kingdom came in use as it is now taken and the Commons as they are at this day an essential and constituent part of the same and a third Estate 6. That the Lords Temporal are one Estate of the Realm was never doubted Mr. Selden begins his Privilege of Baronage with it and when the Commons came in to be another I question not but I have fully prov'd and if now I shall make it appear that the Lords Spiritual are one other Estate of the Realm distinct and separate from the Lords Temporal I hope I shall have gain'd my point and that the King is not one of the Three Estates In order to which 1. The Lords Spiritual sit in Parliament by a different Right from the Lords Temporal viz. by Succession in respect of their Counties or Baronies parcel of their Bishopricks and the others by reason of their Dignities which they hold by Descent or Creation 2. They sit in Parliament in a different Robe and on a different side of the House from the Lords Temporal and are commanded thither by a different form in the Writ viz. In fide dilectione c. And the Lords Temporal In fide ligeancia c. 3. They have a Convocation by themselves consisting of an Upper House viz. Arch-Bishops and Bishops and a Lower House viz. the Procuratores Cleri called together by the Kings Writ and have the same Privilege for themselves their Servants and Familiars as other Members of Parliament and grant their Subsidies apart and distinct from the Lay Nobles as may be seen by the respective Acts by which they have been granted as also ratifi'd and confirmed 4. The general stile of all Acts of Parliament hath been such that sometimes the Ecclesiastical Lords are respectively named as Arch-bishops Bishops Abbots Priors as well as the Temporal Lords and sometimes by the inclusive name of the Prelates and so to the 10th of Richard 2. where it is said By the Assent of the Lords and Commons under which general words of the Lords they seem at first to be included as if they were but one Estate with them were it not in the 13th of the said King again said Of the Assent of the Prelates and Lords Temporal and Commons And in another of the 20th By the Assent of the Prelates Lords and Commons and in the 14.15.16 and 17. of the same King By the Assent of his Parliament and the Parliament and none of them named apart from which time till the 4th of Henry 4. the word Prelates was again continued
take away either our place or Nation and much more to raise any superstructure of their own Besides the Crown of England is an ancient old Entail the Reversion in Him by whom Kings Reign and is it not reasonable that he were first consulted before it be dockt or admitting it were to be done how are we sure that he that is to come after shall always continue of the same opinion or how are we secure he shall not be worse The Spaniards have an excellent Proverb Better is the evil we know than the good we do not know Sana Corpora difficile medicationes ferunt saith Hippocrates 't is better to make alterations in sick Bodies than sound Twigs and Saplings may be easily bow'd or remov'd but old grown Trees are not so safely ventur'd on 'T is the same in State Innovations and alterations even in little things are dangerous for it seems to acquaint the people with the sweetness of a change and that there may be somewhat yet still better which like our Philosophers of the Stone they had undoubtedly hit but that something in it unluckily miscarried But may some say have not such things been done before Was not Richard Duke of York in Henry 6. 's time declar'd by Parliament incapable of Succession Nay after he had been declared Heir apparent and was not Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth the same I grant it but 't is ill arguing à facto ad jus That because such things have been done that therefore they may be done again Examples must be judged by Laws and not Laws by Examples We have in our own times seen A King murder'd by his own Subjects and that too under the specious pretences of Religion and Law Monarchy abolish'd Allegiance made Rebellion and Iniquity establish'd by a Law And is this an Argument think ye that the same things may be yet practis'd To give it a more particular answer They were declar'd incapable of Succession 't is true but not upon any account of Religion but interest as the affairs of those times then stood but yet 't is as true that Edw. 4. Son of Richard Duke of York recover'd the Crown notwithstanding the said Declaration the only cause of the War between the Houses of York and Lancaster proceeding from the Right of one and the Possession of the other In like manner Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were both declar'd by Parliament not inheritable and excluded from all Claim or Demand to the Crown and yet they both successively Reigned notwithstanding the said Temporary Disability which it seems the accession of the Crown purg'd as well as it has been said of an Attainder and yet their different Persuasions diametrically opposite to each other No man yet ever chang'd his condition but in hopes of bettering it Hath a Nation chang'd their gods which yet are no Gods saith Jeremiah upbraiding the ingratitude of the Jews And therefore a wise man begins from the end and first considers whether that be adequate to the hazard he runs Touching the security of Religion I have already spoken and next to the glory of God on High the chiefest end of Man is peace on earth The end of War is Triumph and the end of Triumph Peace The clashing of the Steel and Flint wears out one another and brings forth nothing but Fire whereas Peace is the Balm that heals the Wounds and the Cement that fills up the Breaches of War How careful then ought we be to avoid even the beginnings of strife which Solomon aptly calls the letting out of waters and will of themselves quickly wear the breach wider Upon which it properly follows that we weigh the advantages we have by continuing as we are and the disadvantages or inconveniencies that have follow'd such Exclusions As to the former 1. The continuance of a Succession in one descent and according to proximity of Blood is a bar to Pretenders and the ordinary occasions of Mutiny Competition and Invasion are thereby taken off And to this purpose Tacitus Minoris discriminis est Principem nasci quam sumi It is less hazard to have a Prince born to hand than to be forc'd to seek one because Subjects more naturally submit to an undoubted unquestionable Title and Enemies will not be so ready to be fishing in clear water A third never attempts the bone till two are quarreling 2. We secure our selves against those disorders which such a breach opens an infallible entrance into and gives Ambition and Insolence the reins at large which seldom stop but multiply themselves and the whole State into confusion when after all the best seldom carries the day but the violent takes it by force Of which we need no further for instance than the ancient Brahon Tanistry before Hen. 2. his Conquest of Ireland 3. It takes away the danger of having a new Family to provide for Time was the Empire could have spread her wings but now she has past so many hands and been so deplum'd upon every change that she has almost lost all her best Feathers and kept little to her self but the despair of getting them back again 4. It avoids the indignity of a repulse Was ever Prince yet content to see another sit on his Throne Or did ever men reckon the Sun the less that it had suffer'd an Eclipse No mankind naturally pities any thing in distress and passionately croud to the recovering beams In short we picture Time drawing Truth out of a Pit and seldom find Majesty so sunk under water but some or other have been ever buoying it up again 5. There is a present Union and Amity between these Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland and who knows whether they may be of the same Opinion As to Ireland it has been determin'd where it shall be bound by an Act of Parliament made in England howbeit there is a Gulph between us But as to Scotland the Question was never yet put not that I speak as if the Kingdom of Scotland which never did should now begin to give England Law No nor will I believe it ever thought however were we at odds Fas est ab hoste doceri Which was the better Son he that said he would not go but went or he that said he would go but went not They have Recogniz'd and Declar'd That the Kings of that Realm deriving their Royal Power from God alone do succeed thereto according to the proximity of Blood And that no difference in Religion nor any Law nor Act of Parliament made or to be made can alter or divert the right of Succession and Lineal Descent of that Crown to the nearest and lawful Heir according to the degrees aforesaid And that by Writing Speaking or any other way to endeavour the Alteration Diversion Suspension or debarring the same by any Subjects of that Kingdom shall be High Treason So now if it
before the Commons came in to be a third Estate 1 Chron. 28.1 2 Chron. 5.2 Inst. 4.3 Answer to Mr. Petit. 19 20. Sir H. Spelm. Gloss. 450. Inst. 4 3. For so Mr. Selden takes the words Tit. Hon. 580. Ibid. 524. Answer to Petit. 44.46 Ibid. Answ. 52. Seld. Tit. Hen. 581. Ibid. Answer 56 57 58. Monast. Ang. Tit. Hon. 581. Pet. 61 62 63. Tit. Hon. 583. Sir H. Spelm. Tit. Baro. Pet. 80. ad 99. Sir H. Spelm. Gloss. 451. Ibidem The time when it is most probable they first came in 20 H. 3. Vide Stat. 52 H. 3. Gloss. 452. The Lords Temporal one great Estate The Lords Spiritual one other distinct Estate from the Lords Temporal Inst. 4.1 Seld. Tit. Hon. 594. Inst. 4.322 8 H. 6. c. 1. Stat. 1 E. 1. Stat. 13 E. 1 40 Edw. 3. An Act of Parliament in point 8 Eliz. c. 1. Express Authorities to prove the King none of the Three Estates Inst. 4.1 Cowel Interp. Tit. Parliam Tit. Scotland fol. 7 8. Stat. of Scotl. 3 Jac. 1. c. 48. Printed at Edenb 16. October 1669. All Printed at â—denbr 1681. English Stat. 1 Jac. c. 1. Inst. 4.351 A short Recapitulation of Affairs before his Majesties return Part of the Epitaph of Mary Queen of Scots Scobel's Collection of Acts 1648. That he wanted not opportunities of resenting them had he design'd it Virgil. Strada 1 Sam. 10.26 1 Chron. 10.5 2 Sam. 18.3 Eccles. 8.3 2 Sam. 3.36 Eccles. 10.20 Exod. 22.18 Psal. 105.25 Eccles. 8.2 〈◊〉 20.2 〈◊〉 1. Sci. 1. Job 36.18 Object 2. Sol. 2. Rom. 3.29 The like of other Nations to their Kings Herodot l. 8. De moribâ—s gentium l. 1. cap. 5. Ibid. l. 2. c. 10. Append. ad Pet. Ciacc de Triclinio 327. Object 3. Sol. 3. The precept of Obedience is without restriction Exod. 1.9 10. Ezra 6.10 Jer. 29.7 1 Sam. 15.26 35. Idolatry no ground to resist Matth. 22.21 1 Tim. 2.1 2. Bellarm de Poâ—t l. 3. c. 9. Buch. de jâ—re Reg. p. 61. In Apolog. Much less things indifferent Dyer 23.148 Vide Preface to the Liturgy and touching Ceremonies The example of our Saviour in his Instituting his last Supper Deut. 12.11 Rosin Rom. Antiq. l. 5. c. 27. Lipsii Saturn lib. 1. c. 6. Mat. 26.23 John 13.26 Mat. 10 4. Least of all injury John 18.11 Acts 25.5 Exod. 12.37 1 Sam. 22.2 1 Kings 19.18 1 Sam. 19.4 Jer. 38.9 Esther 7.3 If any ground were to be admitted that would never be wanting Semido in Hisâ— of China 2 Kings 8.13 It was to be done piece-meal The Kings necessities to be supply'd with complaints Rushworth's Coll. fol. 40.183.402.656 Plots discover'd Fears and Jealousies promoted Sir Will. Dugd. Short View c. from fol. 67. to fol. 124. Octob. 6.1642 Religion cants its part 2 Sam. 15.11 Leading men to make it Law and Gospel The examples of Corah c. Numb 16.3 1 Kings 1.19 The same Game playing over again 2 Kings 18 2â— Prognostications c. Hudibras The ill consequence of such impressions Matth. 13.25 Acts 17.21 Ovid. Met. Barkeley Argen l. 3. Psal. 65.7 The examples of Jack Cade and others 4 Rich. 2. Vide The History written by a noble Neapolitan Holy League in France Comb. Britt 509. Lord Bacon â— Essaya 78. Solemn League and Covenant at home New Trains to the old Fuel Psal. 90.6 22 Car. â— Our Saviours advice to his Disciples Mark 8.15 Acts 26.5 Luke 18.11 12. Mat. 23.27 What the Pharisees were Luke 12.1 Josephus Antiq l. 17. c. 3. Godw. Jewish Antiq. 40 41. Mat 25.5.23 24 25 26. Made applicable to our selves The end to be consider'd in all things The advantage propos'd in Excluding his Royal Highness Wherein is at Act for security of Religion less than a Bill of Exclusion Object â—ol The moral Impossibility of introducing the Romish Religion tho the Prince were a Romanist himself The reason why the Kingdom follow'd Edw. 6's Reformation Queen Maries going back Sâ—at 1.2 Ph. and Mary c. 8. Queen Eliz. return to it That the case cannot be the same at this day John 11.48 The Crown of England an old Entail Aphorism The danger of Innovations Object But such things have been done Sol. â—o has a King been murdered More particularly answered in E. 4. Qu. Mary and Qu. Eliz. all excluded by Parliament yet came to the Crown 28 H. 8. c. 7. No man changes but in hopes of better Jer. 2.11 Prov. 17.14 The advantages of continuing as we are Pretenders barr'd Annal. 1. Disorders avoided Vide Case of Tanistry in Sir J. Davis's Irish Reports f. 29. No new Family to be provided for The indignity of a repulse avoided Suppose Scotland and Ireland should be of another opinion Virgil. Act of Scotland for asserting the Succession of that Crown 1681. Ovid Met. All occasions of jealousie taken off Object Sol. Gen. 6.12 Disadvantages that have attended the laying by the right Heir Revolt of the 10 Tribes At home Our loss of France Lucan 25 H. 8.22 Matth. 7.12 Plutarch in vita Lycur John 12.6 Luke 10.7 Prov. 3.27 Lord Chancellors Speech to the Parliament at Oxon 10. Octob. 65. Oliver Jones Esq second Justice of his Majesties chief place in Ireland Gen. 16.9 Luke 10.37 1 Sam. 26. ◠〈◊〉 l. 3.