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
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 â€
was opposed even when moved unanimously that Treason too might be Publisht with a Nemine contradicente 't was presumed I suppose the better Pen-men were their own and I grant them the more pestilent that could spread their Contagion as fast as the Plague and to the Monarchy as mortal for almost five years the Distemper was Epidemick and the State Empericks had poysoned the body Politick almost beyond the Antidote of true Medicine and Art it Sympathis'd with Pestilence in the Natural almost incurable reigned most populously in Towns and Cities and turned every Corporation into a politick Pest-House Appeals vox Patriae Liberties of England Fundamental Rights were exposed in Capital Letters upon every Stall and that dedicated to Representatives and some Penn'd by them too for the Information of the People or in a less prepostorous Phrase for their Confusion Sedition seemed to be countenanced with suffrages and seconded as they thought with the supream power of the Nation They expected Treason should have been enacted for Law and Laws repealed that had declared High Treason 'T is almost preposterous and incredible tho' unhappily too true that more Sedition was fomented from the discovery of this Popish Plot than all the Jesuits in Hell could have raised while yet undiscovered we forged out one anothers ruin from the very deliverance and to fall with harder fate the less to be lamented by our selvs and just escapt the storm we strove to perish more miserably â—n the Port. Such was the state of affairs when some of our Loyal Hearts first ventured to stem the Tide the fierce influx of an Impetuous Rebellion that like a true torrent came rolling on with noise and clamor and threatned ruin from afar The first that opposed the Great Goliahs of their Cause that defyed too even the Armies of the living God and the strength of his Anointed was he who from his Youth had serv'd the Crown with his Pen as well as his Sword and before him too did their Dagon fall one whom they had designed formerly for a Victim when they sacrificed their Prince whom Providence reserved for their Scourge and for which since some of them have publickly curst its dispensation Libelled him in their Emblematical Representations in which I confess they neither spared their King breaking his Halter like a Dog and running for his Life and Neck and that by the very same hands of Villains that had forfeited their own to the Government and were afterward faster noosed How Zealous were our Popular Patriots against the least animadversion that was made on the most audacious Libel and even Judges themselvs arraigned for daring to execute those Laws the meanest villain could daily dare to violate How curious to enquire for the least accusation against the worthy Person above described and only because he dared to do his duty when 't was dangerous to do so It was a pretty sort of expedient tho the most absurd Politicks for the countenancing of the Popish-Plot to bring every one concerned in it that would not swallow the whole Mass of it raw crude and undigested and that before they had cook'd it up with Nartative too while their Protestant rashness at the same time precipitated them but into a Romish Doctrin of Resignation to their Senate instead of a Church and believing their house of Commons with a Faith implicite yet this was all done too and this Gentleman whose Writings only declared him a little scrupulous in matters of belief when even by the most credulous in all Ages it has been allowed to doubt and by the Great Des Cartes the wisest Philosopher as a step to the knowledg of the Truth Him 't was expedient to Metamorphose with the power of an Oath which was then Omnipotent from an avowd Protestant into a profest Papist I use that poetical Expression because they might as well have sworn him through all the transformations of Ovid into Bull Bear or Dragon born a profest Son of the Church conformed through all his Life to all its Ceremonies a Champion for her with his Pen and with it a publisht Enemy to Rome even in his own Works having about him Eyes Nose Ears And from Head to Foot all the true shapes of a Protestant Humane Creature but the Spell of Affidavit beyond that of Circe turned Him all into the Beast of Babylon all his Hair vanisht into a shaven Crown The Whore came riding on his very back and the fleecy Cowl of Priests came tumbling o're his Shoulders and the Common-Prayer he held in his Hand ran all into red Letters and the Mass-book His being a Papist and a Priest was as much credited as the Plot it self and might have had the Resolution of the House of Commons to the point of his Religion as well as the truth of the Conspiracy not a Member but was well satisfyed of his Apostacy and could Menace him in Publick with a Topham or a Tyburn And he the first Instance that under a Government yet establisht a Religion then Laboured for with Zeal who for Writing in the defence of both was forc't to fly for his security and Preservation tho as publickly cleared from the perjur'd Accusation before his King before his Council as good Judges at least as the Credulous Commons these careful Patriots being often abused by their Country-men for whom they were so Zealous Oaths Affidavits and that Cloud of Witnesses had almost obscured the light of Reason and Vnderstanding Another Worthy Person tho' unknown that at the same time blest our Land with the Benefit of his Pen while with the bounteous river he hid his head whose Ingenious Dialogues only Corrected their sawcy Libels with a smile and with a pleasant reproof of their Falshoods made them feel the smartness of his Truth Him they Libelled too for Popish Mercenary Pensioner to the Party So Zealous were they for the subverting of the Government that they could damn all that did but dare to assert it Break the very Laws of society in their Censures and what they could not prove with their Affidavits condemn upon Presumption With what sawcy Petulant Animadversions did they treat the Dean of Paul's Sermon of Separation A piece penn'd with that Judgment and Moderation that it was only envyed for being so commended and applauded by the Pen even of one of their most virulent Scriblers that had engaged Himself for the vilifying of the Church in which he was Christned and fighting against the Banner of his Christ for which he had vowed himself a Souldier * And with the subtile Insinuation of righting Vid. Hunts Postscript of her Prelates wrong'd and abused her whole Hierachy yet such an one could allow that peaceable and pious piece to be without exception but what Reason could not resist must be baffled by a Buffoon and a Pen employed to Burlesque the very Bible rather than want an answer to the Text and the sacred service of the Church prophaned Vid. Mischief
of Imposition with the tropes of Trinkets and the Metaphor of an Hobby-horse tho upon other Occasions she can be transformed into the more terrible beast of the Revelations The Author was Anonymous and so escap't the thanks of the House but what ever were the scurrilous Animadversions on the foresaid and the like Ingenious Loyal and elaborate pieces 't is observable they had so much Influence on some of our blindest Zealots as to open their eyes brought some of their Villanies to light that had been so long transacted in the dark and drove the Faction to stand a little at bay that had ran the Nation almost out of her Wits coold their brutal Zeal down into Humane Sense acquainted them with what was truly Religious and heartily Loyal instead of a devout Phrensy and a mistaken Loyalty All that I can arrogate to my self is but what I shall always be proud of of having done my Duty and that to my Soveraing as well as his Subjects in a seasonable Animadversion on as damnable a piece of Treason as ever was brooded by the most perjur'd heads that ever hatcht a Rebellion That specious pretext of an Association That Covenant to Rebel against the Life and Honor of their Prince with Scripture warranty and in the fear of God tho' the very Text tells them touch not mine Anointed And next to fearing their God follows honouring their King I cannot say I was Instrumental in the following Abhorrences but hope the God of Heaven blest my poor endeavours so far as to encourage but an Abomination of the draught of Hell which I hope too I there represented as black as the Devil that contriv'd it or to give it its true Colour almost in its own blackness my foreboding thought shewed me in it like a Glass all the Villanies and Treasons that have since succeeded tho' not prospered The very Scheam and Embryo of this teeming Plot The very Metaphor of the Trojan horse that carryed Fire and Sword in its Belly brought within the Walls of our House of Commons as they themselvs assure us I am sure as unhappily as that within those of Troy by almost Vid. Proceedings at the Old-Bayly pulling them down and exposing the whole Kingdom to the flame and that too by the treachery of as false a Sinon of our Age as great a Renegado to Prince and People and whom they too had saved from being Justly sacrificed only for their ruin and destruction And that I have done in spight of those Censures I have laboured under of having been Mercenary and set a Work of having been more Zealous than Wise Vid. Postscript to the History of the Association As an Anonimous Scribbler has been pleased to represent to the World but I thank my Stars that have envolved me with the fate of the Government and when ever that can't stand I desire to fall but the puny pedantick Soul shall know I can give him a prefatory Animadversion for his Postscript Reflexion As to my being Mercenary whoever condemn me for that are as Ignorant in their Censures as unreasonable for I did for the Prevention even of that very Callumny decline the taking of a single Penny the least sort of gratuity for any Copy or single Letter that in the plain Litteral Sense I might be said to serve the Government for nought I thank my God that has allowed me that Competency that I can write with pure Affection and not for Bread with the sense of my Soul not of my Belly Tho' it has appeared on Evidence that the great Patron of their Cause kept open entertainment for the pampering Sedition and feeding the flames of Rebellion with the very sops of his Table discommending there the most virulent Satyrs Vid. Settles Recantation only because not bold enough in expressive Treason but too little favouring Rebellion And as for the Presumption of my being set a work of which they have accused me too in their Prints that 's more false than it is truly malicious the villains thought none bold enough of himself to defend the Government when they could with so much Impudence invade it I was so far from being instigated by Persuasion that even my own acquaintance my most familiar Friends were unconsulted and my Person at this very time unknown to any single Person of that Court Party they would have me to serve I urgd this to let them know the falseness of their sordid Suggestions and the real truths of their most malicious falsehoods and moreover and above all the goodness and equity of that Cause I shall ever defend and that more willingly with all my dearest blood than one drop of Ink that Persons refusing profit or emolument without application for interest or preferment discourag'd disgusted and hardly dealt with even by some of those seats of Literature where they say the Doctrine is nothing but absolute Dominion and the best of teaching Tyrany tho indeed nothing but the solid Seminaries of true learning and Loyalty But to satisfy such themselvs and their Treasons set me a work both black anough to have exasperated the dullest Soul And even a Dumb Son would break into Speech to see the Father of his Countrey ready to be slain But besides one whose age will scarce permit him to be prejudiced with much reading or Authority having had but little time to Consult much so that whatever my sentiments are they must proceed from the agreeableness of so good a Government to pure natural and unprejudiced Reason to the Principles and Instinct of uncorrupted Nature it self and the very well Being of an Humane and Civil Society But for this Gentleman or rather that spattering Scavenger who for Expressions of an unfeighned and hearty Loyalty only for a specimen of his profession would return to his throwing of Dirt and stampt my Character as they did then themselvs and their Treasons in Print I shall scarce retort his calumnies for fear of wearing the badg of his Office in a filthy stile and foul Fingers 't is enough to repeat them and his own stroaks will return best in the rebound I were more Zealous than Wise to turmoyl in a thing never owned by any Person and calls it a hard shift to beg a Question As for my Zeal I will even acknowledg to Him for my Wisdom shall submit to better Judges but if the Sot had not been so silly as to be beyond the sence of Impudence his Countenance of hardened Brass could never have called that begg'd which was sworn upon the Bible and openly produc'd and that not by Beggars rak't out of their own Dunghils their dirty Bogs of Irish Affidavit fitter to be carried out with our night Weddings than woed as they were to come over for the drudgery for sending a poor Priest and a Plunket to our Tyburn But when at last they were like to stick in their own Mudd then their own Mercenaries with an Ingenious Malice were fob'd off
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 â—â—â—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
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 â—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 â—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. 52â— 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 Consuâ—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 * Salmasiuâ— has the same sort of simile page 3â—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
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
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. Juliâ—â— the Apostâ—â—â— 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 Tyranâ— 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
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