and then thus altered viz. By the Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and at the special instance and request of the Commons and in the fifth of the same King By the Advice and Assent of his Lords Spiritual and Temporal and at the request of the Commons which so continued without any variation in substance until the 18th of Henry 6. at what time it became as we have it now viz. By the Advice and Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons Besides if the Lords Spiritual were not a third Estate what is the reason that at the making of the Statute of Praemunire that the Commons having declared that they would stand to the King in the defence of his Liberties and praying that all the Lords as well Spiritual as Temporal severally and all the Estates of Parliament might be examined how they thought of that matter The Lords Temporal being so demanded answered every one by himself and in like manner the Lords Spiritual severally examin'd answered by themselves which affords me a double Argument 1. That by all the States of Parliament there must be necessarily intended more than two if it were for no other reason than mere propriety of Speech 2. That the King could not make up that other or third Estate because he is desired to examin all the States severally which he could not do if he had been one of them himself so in the 40th of Edw. 3. which I should have named first when the King asks advice of his Parliament Whether King John could have subjected the Realm as what in him lay he did The Prelates by themselves the Dukes Earls and Barons by themselves and the Commons by themselves answered That he could not From which nothing seems clearer to me than that the Lords Spiritual are one Estate distinct from the Lords Temporal or otherwise what needed they have been examin'd by those several names of Spiritual and Temporal or as severally answer'd by the same appellations 5. And now if yet there remain'd any doubt we have one Act of Parliament clear in point where the question being whether the making of Bishops had been duly and orderly done according to Law the Statute says which is much tending to the slander of all the State of the Clergy being one of the greatest States of this Realm And so having found Three Estates without the King I think in good manners we ought to spare him I have hitherto offered some Reasons nor without their Authorities I come now to somewhat more direct if yet those of the 40th of Edw. 3. the 16th of Rich. 2. and the 8th of Qu. Eliz. last mentioned could be thought otherwise I 'll begin with the Statute of H. 8. where this Kingdom is called an Empire governed by one Supreme Head and King unto whom a Body Politick compact of all sorts and degrees of People divideth in Terms and by names of Spiritualty and Temporalty been bounden and who can believe that the Authority of a Parliament should utter any thing in Parables or under double meanings contrary to the common sense of the express words or that there was ever intended by the words divided in Terms and by names of Spiritualty and Temporalty so many mere words and no more However to take off all doubt Sir Edw. Coke says The High Court of Parliament consisteth of the Kings Majesty sitting there as in his Royal Politick Capacity and of the Three Estates of the Realm viz. the Lords Spiritual the Lords Temporal and the Commons And so Cowel The word Parliament in England we use it for the Assembly of the King and the Three Estates viz. the Lords Spiritual Lords Temporal and the Commons And Title Statute he saith it signifieth a Decree or Act of Parliament made by the Prince and the Three Estates unto whom as I said before they are subordinate in the Legislation and of no Power of themselves but joyned to their Figure have the full strength of their places which in short we may thus farther demonstrate under the familiar instance of a Dean and Chapter of whom the Dean is no part but Caput Capituli the Head of them And now if any one shall demand why this term of the Three Estates does not so frequently occur to us of Ancient time I answer That before the Commons were brought in there was no thought of it and since that time no dispute of it until of late where many a worse twig was even learnedly made use of to stilt and bolster a Ricketed Cause· However it is not too late that the Point is cleared now And so we have it in the Act for Unifermity of Publick Prayers made the 14th of this King where the Form of Prayer for the Fifth of November is thus entitled A Form of Prayer with Thanksgiving to be used yearly on the Fifth day of November for the happy deliverance of the King and the Three Estates of the Realm c. And with this agrees the Kingdom of Scotland of which Mr. Cambden in his History of Britain says That their Supreme Court is their Parliament which consisteth of Three Estates The Lords Spiritual the Lords Temporal and the Commons for Cities and Burghs of which the King is Directus totius Dominus And so a Parliament of that Kingdom reckons them It is ordained by the King by Consent and Deliverance of the Three Estates And the Act of asserting the Kings Supremacy over all Persons and in all Causes Ecclesiastical and the late Indictment against Argile and the Acts for the Acknowledging and Asserting the Right of Succession to the Imperial Crown of Scotland And that other for ratifying all former Laws for the security of the Protestant Religion agree in point with it Nor is it strange they should inasmuch as neither their Langue nor their Laws especially such as are criminal as may be seen by comparing their Regiam Majestatem with our Glanvil De Legibus written in Henry the Second's time much differ from ours And the Union of the two Crowns in the Person of King James is called An Union or rather a re-uniting of two Mighty Famous and Ancient Kingdoms yet anciently but one And that the Laws of Ireland a distinct Realm or Kingdom from both say nothing of this matter I take it to be for the same reason that the Romans made no Law against Parricide They never dreamt it SECTION VII Admitting what has been before offer'd wherein has our present King merited less than any of his Royal Ancestors with a short recapitulation of Affairs as they had been and were at his Majesties most happy Restauration and that he wanted not the means of a just Resentment had he design'd any I Have hitherto shewn that the Crown of England c. is Supreme Sovereign and Imperial nor will it be from the purpose now to demand Wherein has our present King less merited than
Prerogatives as Forein Nations have been accustomed unto Or otherwise what made Pope Boniface solicit the Emperor Honorius to take order that the Bishops of Rome might be created without ambitious seeking of the Place A needless Petition if so be the Emperor had no right in placing of Bishops there Of which there are several other instances in a piece of Mr. Hookers touching the Kings Power in the advancement of Bishops In short if before that Act of Hen. 8. a Bishop in England had been made a Cardinal the Bishoprick became void but the King should have nam'd the Succsseor because the Bishoprick is of his Patronage And as to the Arch-Bishops and Bishops in Ireland the respective Chapters of ancient time upon every avoidance sued to the King in England to go to the Election of another and upon certificate of such Election made and the Royal Assent obtain'd a Writ issued out of the Chancery here to the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland or the Lieutenant rehearsing the whole matter and commanding him to take fealty of the Bishop and restore him to his Temporalties But now the course is that such Writs are made in Ireland in the name of the King who nominates the Arch Bishops and Bishops there as he doth in England and then the Chapter choose him whom the King names to them and thereupon the Writs are made of course Nor were the Kings of England even in those times excluded but still acknowledg'd to have Power of Dispensation and other Ecclesiastical Acts. And therefore as he first gave Bishopricks and Abbeys and afterward granted the Election to Deans and Chapters and Covents so likewise might he grant Dispensation to a Bishop Elect to retain any of his Dignities or Benefices in Commendam and to take two Benefices and to a Bastard to be a Priest And where the Statute 25 H. 8. c. 21. says That all Dispensations c. shall be granted in manner and form following and not otherwise yet the King is not thereby restrain'd but his Power remains full and perfect as before and he may still grant them as King for all acts of Justice and Grace flow from him and on this account also he can pardon any Ecclesiastical Offence as Heresie for example is a cause merely Spiritual or Ecclesiastical and yet the King may pardon one convict of Heresie And as the King may dispense or pardon so also does that Supreme Power enable him to several other things relating to Church-matters which pertain not to another He may found a Church Hospital or Free Chappel Donative and whether he specially exempt the same from ordinary Jurisdiction or not his Chancellor and not the Ordinary shall visit it and he may by his Charter license a Subject to found such a Church or Chappel and to ordain that it shall be Donative and not Presentable and to be visited by the Founder and not by the Ordinary And thus began Donatives in England whereof Common Persons were Patrons So he shall visit Cathedral Churches by Commissioners Sede vacante Archiepiscopalii He may also revoke before Induction by presenting another for the Church is not full against the King till Induction And therefore if a Bishop Collates and before Induction dies by which means the Temporalties come into the Kings hands the King shall present to the avoidance for the same reason In short He is the Supreme Ordinary and on that account may take the resignation of a Spiritual Dignity Neither did the Abbots and Priors in Edward the Fourths time think him less when they stile him Supremus Dominus noster Edwardus 4. Rex which agrees with the Laws before the Conquest in which the King is called Vicarius summi Regis The Vicar of the highest King And albeit Ecclesiastical Councils consisting of Church-men did frame the Laws whereby the Church Affairs were ordered in Ancient times yet no Canon no not of any Council had the force of Law in the Church unless it were ratifi'd and confirmed by the Emperor being Christian In like manner our Convocations that assemble not of themselves but by the Kings Writ must have both Licence to make new Canons and the Royal Assent to allow them before they can be put in Execution and this by the Common Law for before the Statute 25 H. 8. c. 19. A Disme i. e. the Tenths of all Spiritual Livings in ancient times paid to the Pope granted by them did not bind the Clergy before the Royal Assent In a word the King may make orders for the Government of the Clergy without Parliament and deprive the Disobedient And the Act for suppressing Seditious Conventicles has a saving to his Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs And so I hope I have clear'd this point That the Kingdom of England c. is a Sovereign Imperial Monarchy of which the King is the only Supreme Governor as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things or Causes as Temporal It remains now that I shew That however the Emperors of the West and East have so much striven about that great Title of Emperor or Basileus that yet the Kings of England as Supreme within their Dominions have also justly used it and that from ancient Ages as no less proper to their own independent greatness And here amongst many others we have Edgar frequently in his Charters stiling himself Albionis Anglorum Basileus King of Britain and the English And in one of his to Oswald Bishop of Worcester in the year 964. and of his Reign the sixth Ego Edgarus Anglorum Basileus omniumque Regum Insularum Oceanique Britanniam circumjacentis cunctarumque Nationum quae infra eam includuntur Imperator Dominus c. I Edgar King of the English and of all the Kings of the Isles and the Ocean lying round Britain i. e. England Scotland and Wales and of all the People therein Emperor and Supreme Lord for the word in this place bears no less as I have shewn it before in the Word Lord of Ireland Wherein it is observable that as long since as it is that yet the King of England or Britain was Lord and Emperor of the British Sea which agrees with that of one of his Successors Canutus when sitting in a Chair by the South Shore he used these words to the Sea Tumeae ditionis es terra in qua sedeo mea est Thou art of my Dominion or Empire and the Land whereon I sit is mine as taking it clearly that he was the Supreme Lord and Emperor of both whence also it is affirm'd by Belknap one of the Justices of the Kings Bench 5 R. 2. That the Sea is of the King Ligeance as of the Crown of England So that Edward his Son in a Charter to the Abbey of Ramsey Ego Edwardus totius Albionis Dei moderante gubernatione Basileus I Edward by the Guidance or
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