Cur. de Laud. leg Angl. c. â—â— their Bodies and Goods to which end a Prince receives Power of his People so that he cannot govern his People by any other Law is of that vast and high importance to the preservation of Mankind especially consider'd according to those Appellations which are given to virtuous Princes for the reasons aforesaid that nothing in the World ought more to oblige the Subject to the perfect awe and reverence of it as well for their own as the Princes sake Which awe and reverence while it continues towards the Dignity it is impossible but that the Person must be secure and safe in all respects For while Princes govern by the Fundamental Laws of Justice and Equity they are not only impal'd with the defence of a Loyal People but under the promis'd Protection of God himself Their Justice and Moderation demands both Honour and Veneration their Vigilancy Obedience and Loyalty In this respect all Virtuous Princes that seek the prosperity and felicity of the People under their charges are call'd by Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shepherds of the People And certainly it would be the highest Iniquity imaginable for the Sheep to rebel or murmur against a Shepherd that sought nothing more then the common welfare of them all and never shear'd them but when the Tribute of their Fleeces was justly due For which reason Pindarus calls the Royal Dignity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Honour given to Princes for nourishing and cherishing the People He also calls Apollo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Olymph Ode 6. and Acastus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inspectors Overseers or Guardians of Delos Nemeor Ode 5. and the Magnetes denoting the cares and continual watchings that attend upon true Kingly Government which is also the Character given of it by Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And for these reasons is Royal Soveraignty the highest Dignity among mortal men For the Title of Emperour is only a nominal no real difference Wherefore Pindarus speaking of Jamus the Ancestor of Agesias that he was as great as Man could be Some saith he are more eminent then others but he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had attain'd to the utmost extent of Honour as being in the number of Kings It was the publick Benefit which Men receiv'd by the Glorious Actions of the Ancient Hero's that made them ascribe Divine Honours to their deceased persons And the same Virtues in all just and virtuous Princes produce the same Effects of Veneration and Reverence Obedience and Loyalty in all good Subjects A King thus arm'd with his own Virtues and for their sakes with the Hearts and Affections of his People may justly warrant that Axiom of the King of the Argines in Aeschylus In Trag. Hâ—ertides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Awe and Terrour of Princes is hardly to be imagin'd And yet he was none of those that lawlesly controul'd for presently after saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will perswade the Common Good From all that has bin said it plainly appears wherein the true and diuturnal security and repose of a Soveraign Prince mainly and principally consist In which particular the Laws of England cannot be said to have bin any way defective as having extended their power all along to their own satisfaction rather have they bin so tender of it that they would not suffer the Pope to make his Ecclesiastical â—â—â—â—oachments upon it even in the most flourishing Estate of Papal Usurpotical Which was never admitted in England but only when the Desertion of his Barons expos'd King John to the Exorbitancy of Papal Triumph To deseend to the cause and primum mobile of the Subjects security none can be found more apparent then good Laws including Justice and Freedom And he that is the Soveraign of a People so govern'd may be rightly said to be as Agamemmon is frequently stil'd by Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the King of Men. Which cannot be thought to be where Arbitrary Will only controuls a multitude of Slaves Therefore says the famous Pindar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The foundation of Cities is firm Justice and Peace accomplish'd with her Virtues the Dispencers of Riches to Men the Golden Daughters of considerate Thenis Olymp. Ode 13. And praising the City of Opus the Metropolis of the Locrians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which Themis and her Sisters good Government the preserver of Common Weals took into their protection And in another place extolling the City of Aetna for its freedom which is the other main happiness of a Kingdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To whom meaning his Son Hiero gave that City which he had built and endow'd with Divine Liberty according to the Standard of the Laconic Laws Taking an occasion to commend the Constitutions the Aetnean Commonweal from the Excellency of its Government founded in Justice and Liberty after the example of Lacedaemon then accompted the most exact Form of Dominion in the World and therefore by the Poet stil'd the Standard of all other Governments Certainly the Government of England cannot be thought to stand upon a slight Foundation that has stood so long upon the single Basis of her own Laws And it is observable that then England first began to flourish when the Laws being reduc'd into one Body were under the execution and care of one Universal Monarch Nor could the Breach of Norman Conquest hinder the Chasin of long enjoy'd Liberty from uniting again and closing it self more firmly with the Cement of its former Constitutions calculated by so many Kings of this Island for the Meridian of English Freedom To come to particulars the Statutes are made not only by the Princes pleasure but also by the Assent of the whole Realm so that of necessity they must procure the Wealth of the People and in no wise tend to their hindrance and it cannot be thought but that they are replenish'd with much prudence and wisdom seeing that they are ordain'd not by the Providence and Deliberation of one Man alone but of more then five hundred chosen persons And here now in the distribution of Justice between Man and Man the Excellency of the English above the Civil Laws is manifest from hence that the Issue of the Plea is not try'd by the Deposition of two Witnesses only according to the proceedings of the Civil Law but the Truth of the matter must appear evident to the Judge by the Oaths of Twelve men Neighbours to the place For that Man may well be thought to be the Master of little Cunning or Industry that cannot find two persons who either for fear for love or profit will not be ready to contradict the Truth Nor is it so easie a thing to disprove the affirmative or to expose the wicked Lives and Conversations of persons altogether unknown The second Excellency of the English Laws derives it self from the Equitable proceeding or at least intention of the Law in the Election and Swearing of Jurors Who
warranted by the National and Fundamental Laws of the Land We are then to believe that the Princes just Prerogatives and the Peoples safety are the common Good of this Nation and that their Lives and Fortunes equally depend upon those Provisions which the Law has so equally made for the security of the whole Body of the Commonweal of which the Soveraign Prince is the Head It is one of the Excellencies then of the English Laws that they provide for the Common good which is the end of all true Law For this is the general Axiom That the Reason and Substance of Law demands that every part should be fram'd for the Common Benefit Greg. Lop. in l. 9 â—â—t 1. part 1. which was the Condition that Alphonsus King of Spain requir'd also in his Laws And thus it is understood by the Interpreters of the Civil Law who affirm that the Law is a common Precept respecting the Benefit of all Aristotle observes that the chief end of a Commonweal is to live well and happily And therefore adds Ethied 4. c. 1. That the Laws are to be accommodated to the Commonweal not the Common-weal to the Laws In my opinion saith Plato the Law is made for Benefits sake In Dialog Hippias as intended by the Legislator to be the supream happiness of a Commonweal for the Law being taken away there is no well being in a City And in another place he shews at large that the end of Law is the common safety and felicity And Plutarch tells us In Problem tit 40. That Laws are then accompted good and wholsome when they procure the public Benefit Which is evident from the most sacred Laws of the Almighty For though they be ordain'd to the honour of God for that God cannot will any thing without himself nor operate but for himself yet in those Laws the great Monarch of Monarchs seeks not his own Benefit but the good and felicity of Mankind Suarez l. 1. c. 7. Which then also the Laws of Man most nearly imitate when they drive nearest to the same Perfection Therefore as Laws are impos'd upon a Community so are they to be fram'd for the good of that Community otherwise they are irregular For it is against all rectitude and justice to direct the Common good to private Interest or to make the whole relate to the part for the parts sake And therefore when the Law is fram'd for a public Society the good of that Society ought primarily and principally to be procur'd The same thing is apparent from the Order of small Causes For the end ought to be proportionate to the act its beginning and its virtual efficacy Now the Law is the common rule of moral actions and therefore the first principle of moral actions ought to be the first beginning of the Law For in Morals the End is the beginning of Operation and so the ultimate end is the first beginning of such Operations But common good and felicity is the ultimate end of a Commonweal therefore that also ought to be the beginning of the Law and therefore the Law ought to aim at the Common good This is illustrated by St. Austin who collecting a Consequence from the Relation of the part to the whole argues that a Master of a Family ought to take his pattern from the public Laws and so to govern his House as to be conformable and agreeable to the public Peace Therefore ought the public Laws to give a good Example of public Benefit and common Safety that Domestic Government may not be ruin'd by a bad President Suarez brings another reason from the Original of Law For that the ruling power which is in Men is either immediately from God as in spiritual Power or from men as in Power purely temporal But both ways Suarez l. 1. c. 7. such Authority is given for the public advantage of all in general For therefore are the Rulers of the Church call'd Pastors because it behoves them to lay down their Lives for their Sheep and Dispencers not Lords and Ministers not Primary causes and therefore they are oblig'd to be conformable to the Divine Intention in the use of such Authority Therefore also are the supream Magistrates call'd the Ministers of the Public as not being created for their own benefit but for the advantage of them from whom they derive their Power They are also call'd the Ministers of God and therefore ought to use the Power entrusted in their hands in imitation of the King of Kings who in his Government solely respects the common good of Mankind For which reason St. Basil makes this distinction between a Tyrant and a King that the one seeks his own proper advantages the other labours chiefly for the common good and benefit of all his Subjects not excluding himself as being the supream Member and consequently the first that ought to share in the publick and general Emolument The reason why so few People attain this summum bonum of Government appears by the ways of practizing Dominion already recited the want of a due poyse between Rule and Subjection For in the Arbitrary Eastern Monarchies the People are altogether Slaves and may be only said to live not to live with any comfort or enjoyment of themselves In the Elective Kingdom of Poland the Nobility carry such an unbridl'd sway that the King is but a Cypher a King and no King which subjects the Royal Soveraignty to such an insufferable Bondage that the Title is hardly worth the acceptance of an English Knight A King in subjection to many Kings And all this while the People live miserably under the Slavery of a many-headed Tyranny The Emperor is so overmaster'd by his Golden Bull and so hamper'd with Electors and Dyets that in the most emergent affairs the slowness of deliberation many times renders him useless to his Friends and his Authority cumbersome to himself So that he never moves but like a Clock when his weights are hung on Such clogs upon Soveraignty are frequently the ruine of great Atchievments Neither do the Laws of God any where enjoyn the Kings of Judah when they should make either War or Peace The Ephori were added as a check to the Lacedemonian Kings Which tho' it grieved the Wife of Theopompus who upbraided her Husband for suffering such an Eclipse of his Authority yet was not Theopompus of her mind who return'd her answer So much the greater by how much the more lasting And this Remedy saith Plutarch was invented by the Lacedaemonians to prevent the evil accidents and ruine that befell the Kings of the Messenians and Argines who lost all for obstinately refusing to condescend a little to the Grievances of the People Plut. in vit Lyc. The Romans were terribly pester'd about keeping the ballance even between the People and the supream Magistrate For after they had ingratefully thrown out the Regal Government which had laid the Foundations of all their Grandeur they
while Men in Holy Orders deviate and maintain the forbidden Interest of Worldly Glory while they seek to support the name and shew of Religion they Adulterate Justice and many times become the main disturbers of the publick Peace Whence Matchiavel makes this observation Matchiavel disâ—câ—â—si l. 1. c. 12. That those People who inhabit nearest to the Church of Rome have the least Religion and ascribes the Bad Estate of Italy to the Roman See And for this he gives two invincible as he calls them Reasons First for that by the evil and wicked Examples of that Court the whole Nation have lost all their Piety and Devotion The next Reason proceeds from the different Interest of Christian Humility and Antichristian Vain-glory. For the Roman Court to maintain the Pomp and Splendour of a Temporal Hierarchy is forc'd to keep not only Italy but all Europe in Division and sometimes to League even with the Turk for its own preservation by which means unhappy Italy being prevented from uniting under their own supream Prince and one frame of Law is expos'd to all the Pretences of her more powerful Neighbours and her pettie Princes are but the precarious Tenants at Will to more mighty Potentates Nor does the Exaltation of the Church encourage the Priesthood to move irregularly out of their Sphere or to lead an Amphibious Life sometimes in the running Streams of the Gospel sometimes upon the Terra Firma of Temporal Government Nor is it in Scripture a warrantable method of seeking Church preferment to oblige the secular Interest by strain'd and wrested Interpretations of the Immaculate Scripture Like Shaw Preaching up the Title of Richard the Third and Latimer the right of Jane Seymour For if the Kingdom of their Lord and Master be not of this World no more does temporal preferment belong to the Ministers of his Doctrine But the true Exaltation of the Church is to protect it's Ministers in the Preaching of sound Scripture to the Conversion of Souls to the building up the new Jerusalem and advancing the future Kingdom of Christ by their endeavouring to increase the number of his Celestial Subjects The Exaltation of the Church protects her neat and pure and exactly cleans'd and swept from all the Cobwebbs of Babylonish Superstition For then will Rome despair of ever setting Foot in England more when with grief she beholds all her Follies and inveigling Allurements Root and Branch extirpated To which end the same resolution might well become the Clergy of England in reference to the Relicks of Popish Ceremonies which was applauded in King Stephen in relation to the Roman Laws who hearing that they were brought into England and lodg'd in the custody of Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury commanded them out of his House publish'd an Edict against the Laws of Italy and banish'd them out of his Realm Not enduring tho' a Forraigner himself any other then the Honesty of the English Constitutions An Act of his not recorded by any of our Historians but by the Learned Selden in his Notes upon Fortescue cited from Roger Bacon's Compendium Theologiae and John of Salisbury in his Treatise de nugis Curiaticum On the other side the Wolf in Sheeps cloathing outwardly Meek and insinuating Heresie and Schisme are equally dangerous and contagious For Heresie the Illegitimate Brat of Contumacy while it labours to shake off from the minds of Men the easie Yoke of Christ at the same time teaches Men to violate their Allegiance to their lawful Princes and they that strive to bring in the Innovations of obstinate Opinion if they get the upper hand seldom change the Religion alone Therefore the Exaltation of the Church defends and guards those Men that give themselves to compose the breaches of Ecclesiastical Differences and labour to beget a harmony and unity of Faith and Devotion which then Religion most truly useful and the most unblemish'd Aid of Civil Justice The second final Cause of this Great Charter was the Amendment of the Kingdom The miscarriages of those times are by our Historians said to be the Cancelling of the Great Charter by the advice of Hubert de Burgh Chief Justiciary of England as first confirm'd by the King during his Nonage The displacing the English Nobility and admitting Poictovins and Forraigners into the Chief employments of the Kingdom and the Impoverishment of the Nation by vast and continual Taxations By the means of which undue proceedings the ancient Laws of the Realm were render'd useless and the Liberty of the People lay at the Mercy of Evil Ministers The amendment of which Grievances as being an Act due to the Honour of God the Salvation of the Kings Soul and the Exaltation of the Church is now intended by the Confirmation of this Great Charter From whence it is inductively demonstrable that if the Establishment of good Laws be the way to procure such inestimable Happiness to a Prince the continuance of bad Customs and Oppression inclines to all the contrary consequences that is to be dishonourable to God hazardous to Salvation and injurious to the Church Which considerations of Eternal Detriment or Felicity when they come to be the inducements to Reformation must certainly be a great advantage to such Reformation that it may prove effectual to all its purposes And then such Act of Reformation is of that high Merit that it produces a benefit of the good exceeding the mischief of the Evil the reason perhaps why Machiavel ascribes a more Exalted renown to those Princes who reform the corruptions of a disorder'd State then to those who only continue the Good Government which they found E veramente saith he un Prencipe cercando la gloria del mondo doverebbe desiderare di possedere una Citta corrotta non par guastarlo come Caesare ma per riordinarla come Romulo A Prince Ambitious of the Honour of this World would desire to come to a Kingdom under the corruption of ill Customs not to ruine it like Caesar but reform it like Romulus For as it is impossible but that Ambition desire of absolute Dominion and many other oversights of Government will many times disturb the Courts of Justice and let in confusion at the Breaches of the Law so is that Prince the more highly to be honour'd who reforms those abuses and restores exiled Justice by how much such Reformation must needs be the more welcome and acceptable even as health is more valued by such as know the Inconveniencies of Sickness then by those who never understood the want of Cure and by how much the Joy is greater for the recovery of the lost Sheep then for those that never went astray Now this Amendment of the Kingdom imply'd the defect of Government and such a defect which endanger'd the Estates Lives and Liberties of the Subject which since they could be no way secur'd but by the Recovery of the Ancient Laws of the Kingdom it follows that seeing the Rights and Liberties of the English People are