which you may read at large in Bodin But I come to the second That the Kingdoms of England c. are a Supreme Imperial Monarchy which will the better appear when by examining those marks of Sovereignty we find no more in them than what the Laws of these Realms have ever acknowledg'd to be the undoubted right of our Kings and that whether we respect the Common Law Statute Law or their Power in Ecclesiasticks I 'll take my rise from the marks of Sovereignty 1. The Power of making Laws The Laws of most Kingdoms saith the Lord Bacon have been like Buildings of many pieces patcht up from time to time according to the occasion without form or model and as to our own that they are mixt as our Language of British Roman Saxon Danish Norman Customs Edgar the Saxon collected those of his time and gave them the force of a Fagot bound which formerly were dispersed The Danes impos'd upon us their Dane-Law And the third of that name before the Conquest Ex immensa Legum congerie quas Britanni Romani Angli Daci condiderunt optima quaeque selegit in unam coegit quod vocari voluit Legem communem Some of which bear his name to this day as Ordain'd by him After him William the Conqueror whom Polidor Virgil calls our Law-giver brought in somewhat of a new Law as may be seen in this That tho he made but little or no alteration in the Fundamentals but formulis juris he found here yet whether it were to honor his own Language or to shew some mark of Conquest he set forth his Publick Edicts in the Norman Tongue and caused our Laws to be written in the same And likewise his Justiciaries Lawyers and Ministerial Officers being at that time all Normans it may be none of the least reasons why all our Pleadings and Entries were in that Tongue until altered by Statute That because of the great mischiefs that had hapned to divers by means of the said Laws being written in the French Tongue which they understood not That therefore all Pleas for the future should be pleaded in the English Tongue and enrolled in the Latin and that we receiv'd our ancient Tenures from the Normans is obvious every where And King John planted the English Laws in Ireland But to come nearer home and examin how our present constitutions agree with it nor are they other than what has been the Practice of all former Parliaments wherein both Houses are so subordinate to the King in the making of Laws that neither of them singly nor both of them together can make any binding Law without the Kings concurrence they might in all times 't is true propose advise or consent or to borrow a Metaphor Spawn of themselves but in the Royal Consent only like the male touch lay the vis plastica which gave the Embrion life and quicken'd it into Laws and the reason of it is because the Legislative Power resideth solely in the King ut in subjecto proprio and the consent of the Lords and Commons is no sharing of that Power which is indivisible but a requisite condition to complete the Kings Power for otherwise all those Bills that have pass'd both Houses and for want of the Royal-Assent lie buried in oblivion might as occasion serv'd be rak'd from their forgotten Embers and set up for Laws Which also further appears in the several forms of our Kings giving their Royal Assent as Le Roy voit Le Roy est Assensus Le Roy Advisera c. and makes good this point That the Power of making Laws resides in the King and that he may as he sees cause either refuse or ratifie And this the Law of Scotland calls his Majesties best and most incommunicable Prerogative And as the Legislative Power resides in the King solely so also to him belongs it to interpret those Laws Si disputatio oriatur Justiciarii non possunt eam interpretari sed in dubiis obscuris Domini Regis erit expectanda interpretatio voluntas cum ejus sit interpretari cujus est condere saith the Lord Ellesmer from Bracton and Britton His is the interpretation of the Law whose is the Power of making the Law In his recurrendum ad Regem justitiae fontem whence he is said to carry all the Laws in scrinio pectoris sui in his Breast To give one instance for all When King Charles the First of happy memory had just given his Royal Assent to the Petition of Right he told the Houses That his meaning was to confirm all their Liberties as knowing that according to their own Protestations they neither meant nor could hurt his Prerogative c. And on the last day of the Session before his Royal Assent to the Bills saying he would tell them the cause why he came so suddenly to end that Session he adds Tho I must avow that I own an account of my actions to none but God And again charging both Houses with their Profession during the hammering that Petition that it was in no ways to trench upon his Prerogative saying they had neither intention nor power to hurt it he commands them all to take notice that what he had spoken was the true meaning of what he had granted But especially adds his Majesty you my Lords the Judges for to you only under me belongs the Interpretation of Laws for none of the Houses of Parliament joynt or separate what new Doctrin soever may be raised have any power either to make or declare a Law without my consent And as the King is the sole Lawgiver and Interpreter of that Law when given so also is he exempt and free from the Law for as much as concerneth the coactive force of the Law as being the Head of the Law and of the Common-wealth and consequently no man can give Sentence of condemnation against him if he do any thing against that Law for besides that every Sentence must be given by a Superior upon his Inferior there must be some Supreme whereunto all are subject but it self to none because otherwise the course of Justice would go infinitely in a Circle every Superior having his Superior without end which cannot be yet admitting it might the People cannot do it for they have no power themselves or if they had are his Subjects and a Parliament cannot do it for besides that they are his Subjects also and not his Peers who shall try him for he is Principium Caput finis Parliamenti and it can neither begin nor end without his Presence in Person or by Representation and hence it is that his Death Dissolves them Again if the People may call him to account the State is plainly Democratical if the Peers it is Aristocratical if either or both of them 't is no way Monarchical which is directly contrary
again Hath shewed mercy to his Anointed To which if any man shall object that this was spoken of a good King a man after his own heart I answer That not only Josiah who also was a good King is called the Anointed of the Lord but Saul a King whom God is said to have given in his anger has this sacred Title attributed to him in eight places in the first Book of Samuel and in two other in the second And the same also we find God giving to Heathen Emperors Thus saith the Lord to his Anointed Cyrus to Cyrus whose hand I have holden to subdue Nations before him And ver 4. I have surnamed thee tho thou hast not known me Howbeit tho he knew not his Founder at first it is not long e're we find him acknowledging him Thus saith Cyrus the King All the Kingdoms of the Earth hath the Lord God of Heaven given me c. And he that gave the title of Anointed to Cyrus gave the stile of his Servant to Nebuchadnezzar who yet had sack'd Jerusalem and led the People thereof into captivity when he calls him Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my Servant which also is but the same wherewith he so often favours Moses Joshua and David Neither is this truth that Kings derive their power from God less acknowledg'd by the Heathens than us Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kings are from Jupiter saith Hesiod and elsewere you find 'em stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 born of Jove and nourish'd by Jove whereby God is made their procreant cause as well as their conservant not as deriving their pedigree from Jupiter but their Kingly honor And what the Poet ascribes to Jupiter the Apostle gives to God For saith he as certain of your own Poets have said we are also his off-spring And what other does the Psalmist's calling them Gods import than that they receive their Authority from God whose place they supply and whose person they represent Many also of the most ancient Philosophers acknowledg the Regal Office to be a Divine good and the King as it were a God among men and that God had given him dominion as we have it at large in The Power communicated by God to the Prince and the Obedience required of the Subject written by the most Reverend the late Lord Primate of all Ireland In short the Psalmist is direct in this point Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands And therefore when S. Peter calls Government an Ordinance of man it is not that it was invented by men but as proper to them and ordained of God for the good and conservation of human kind and exercised by men about the government of human Society SECTION II. That Adam held it by Divine right Cain a Monarch By the Kingdoms of the most ancient Gentiles not God's but Monarchs were denoted That the original of Power came not from the People by way of Pact or Contract The unreasonableness and ill consequence of the contrary Noah and his Sons Kings A Family an exemplary Monarchy in which the Pater-familias had power of life and death by the right of Primogeniture Examples of the exercise of it in Judah Abraham Jephthah Brutus Vpon the increase of Families they still continued under one head Esau. The four grand Monarchies Ancients and Moderns universally receiv'd it as precedent to all other Governments THat God Almighty was the first King will not be deny'd and that Adam was the next appears by his Commission as I have shewn before a large Commission and of as large extent as having made him a mighty King and universal Monarch and given him an unqestionable right to his Kingdom which was all the inferior world the Earth the Sea and all that therein were insomuch that it might not improperly be said of this matter Jupiter in coelis terras regit unus Adamus Divisum imperium cum Jove Adamus habet And now as all things were created in order and that the infant world might not sit in darkness nor their posterity want a light to guide and direct them what wonder is it that for the preservation of that order God erected a Dominion himself and declar'd his Vicegerent Afterward when the world began to enlarge and men liv'd so long that they begat a numerous posterity Cain with his own Colony went into a strange Land and built a City and called the name thereof after his Sons name Enoch which double act carries the character of a Kingdom in it and that he was as well the King as Father of the Inhabitants neither do the ancientest Gentiles otherwise speak of those elder times than with a clear supposition of Monarchy Those Kingdoms of Saturn Jupiter Neptune Pluto and the like denoting as much and that under those names applied to distinct Kingdoms not Gods but the Monarchs of Land and Sea in the first times were understood And so Cicero Certum est omnes antiquas gentes regibus paruisse And with him agrees Justin Principio rerum gentiumque imperium penes Reges erat But not a word all this while do we hear of the People or that the original of Government came from them by way of pact or contract for if the power of Adam upon his Children and his Posterity and so all mankind whatever depended not on any consent of his Sons or Posterity but wholly proceeded from God and nature then certainly the Authority of Kings is both natural and immediately Divine and not of any consent or allowance of man and consequently the people had no more right to chuse their Kings than to chuse their Fathers Besides to examin it a little farther if this power of paction or contract had been in the people then it must lie in all the people as an equal common right or in some particular part if in all of them they would do well to shew how they came by it or if in any more peculiar part by what Authority were the rest excluded it being a Maxim in Law Quod nostrum est sine facto vel defectu nostro amitti vel in alium transferri non potest Whatever is mine cannot be lost or transferr'd unto another without my own act or defect Nor would it be less enquir'd who were the persons suppos'd to have made the contract or whether all without difference of Sex Age or Condition were admitted to drive the bargain and if so Wives and Children were not sui juris and consequently could not conclude others nor themselves for any longer time than during the disability Which once remov'd they were free again Or if all were admitted whether it were with an equal right to every one or with some inequality was the Servants interest if yet such a thing could be among equals equal with the Masters and if not who made the inequality or if
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
Elizabeth Most dread Sovereign Lady c. We your most Humble Faithful and Obedient Subjects the Lords c. So to Queen Mary We your Highness most Loving Faithful and Obedient Subjects c. do beseech your most Excellent Majesty that it may be Enacted c. So to H. 8. In their most humble wise shewn to your most Royal Majesty the Lords c. And so to Rich. 3. and backward By the Advice and Assent of the Lords c. at the request of the Commons To Edw. 4. By the Advice and Assent of his Lords Spiritual and Temporal and at the special Request of his Commons To H. 6. By c. and at the special instance and request To H. 5. the same To H. 4. At the instance and special request To R. 2. the same In Edw. 3.'s time These things underwritten at the request of the Commons be Established and Enacted by our Lord the King his Prelates Earls and Barons so by the Assent and Prayer of the Great men and the Commons And in Edw. 1.'s time At the request of the Commonalty by their Petition made before him and his Council in Parliament as may be further seen in the Statutes at large till ye can go no further backward than the King commandeth In which also I have been the larger that by the consent of all times I might shew that this is not after the manner of Corporations or the Language of Equals and shall be my first Argument why the King is none of the Three Estates 2. This will further appear if we shall consider who these Three Estates are And those I take to be the Lords Spiritual viz. Arch-Bishops and Bishops who sit in Parliament by Succession in respect of their Baronies parcel of their Bishopricks 2. The Lords Temporal as Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons who sit there by reason of their Dignities which they hold by Descent or Creation and the third Estate the Commons of the Realm viz. Knights of Shires Citizens of Cities and Burgesses of Burroughs respectively Elected by force of the Kings Writ which three Estates Sir Edw. Coke saith the French-men call Les Estates or L' Assemble des Estates And Philip de Comines speaking how the English grant Subsidies Convocatis saith he primis ordinibus assentiente Populo The first or chief Estates being call'd together and the People assenting And Bodin who by his Conference with the English Embassador for so himself confesseth wherever he speaks of the Constitution of England calls it the King and the Three Estates of the Realm Like which The Republick of the Kingdom of Poland in the Interregnum between the Death of one King and the Election of another is stiled Serenissimae Reipublicae Regni Poloniae c. Congregati Ordines The Estates Assembled And such were the Amplissimi Ordines among the Romans viz. the Senate of whom the Emperor was no part and signifies with us The Estates of People among our selves viz. The Clergy The Nobility and the Commons which being duly Assembled we call a Parliament And so Sir Henry Spelman speaking of the word Parliament saith it is Solenne Colloquium omnium Ordinum Regni authoritate solius Regis ad consulendum statuendumque de negotiis regni indictum A Parliament saith he is a Solemn Conference of all the Estates of the Kingdom commanded together by the sole Authority of the King to Consult and Order the Affairs of the Realm From whence it must necessarily follow that the King is none of them but as the Apostle says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as having the preheminence over them for Quicquid efficit tale est magis tale Whatever is the cause of any thing is greater than the thing caused 3. To presume the King to be one of the Three Estates were to make him but a Co-ordinate Power and consequently concludible by the other two for Par in Parem non habet imperium Among Equals there is no Authority whereas the Supreme Title of King is distinguish'd from others in this that it acknowledges no other Superior And Bodin speaking of a Supreme Monarch saith He is next to God of whom he holdeth his Scepter and is bound to no man And to the same purpose Berkly Regum cognata Potentia coelo Whence it naturally follows that this Honor is not to be shar'd with another 4. Which is a negative instance And one Negative instance saith the Lord Bacon is of more force to unfix a pretending Rule than two Affirmative to establish it If the King were one of the Three Estates he should be Summon'd by Writ but because all Writs Issue in his Name it cannot be said that he can Summon himself or Supplicate himself as both Houses do him or not to have Power to depart without leave i. e. of himself seeing they have no Power to Assemble Determin or Depart part without the Kings express Commandment 5. If the King were one of the Three Estates then it follows of course as undeniable that before the Commons became a Third Estate and a Constituent part of a Parliament as they are at this day That the King must have been one Estate The Lords Spiritual a second The Lords Temporal a third or otherwise there could not have been Three Estates and now the Commons since the Writs for their Election being become another what hinders but that they make a fourth unless perhaps we deny the Lords Spiritual to have been one and then before the Commons there could be but two To examin it a little That Great Councils of Kings their Nobles Wise men and Chief Officers were frequently held of Ancient time there is hardly any thing more obvious but whether the Commonalty scarce yet civiliz'd or if so for the most part if not wholly without Literature were any essential or constituent part of those great Councils and Government might be a question at this day if there were any sufficient ground on which to raise it Convocavit David omnes Principes Israel Duces tribuum Praepositos turmarum qui ministrabant Regi Tribunos quoque Centuriones qui Praeerant substantiae Regis filiosque suos cum Eunuchis Potentes robustissimos quosque in exercitu Jerusalem David called together all the Princes of Israel the Leaders of the Tribes and the Captains of the Companies that served under him and the Captains over the thousands and the Captains over the hundreds and the Stewards over all the substance and possession of the King and his Sons with the Officers and mighty men and valiant men unto Jerusalem By which you see of what persons this great Council consisted all men of the first note and not a word of the people In like manner Solomon Congregavit majores natu Israel cunctos Principes tribuum Capita familiarum de filiis Israel in Jerusalem He
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
should happen that the Kingdom of England should be of a contrary Opinion must it not in all moral probability open a gap to a new breach and thereby hazard the rending asunder those two Crowns in Blood the uniting of which were so wisely design'd by H. 7. and as happily took effect in King James without Blood and what must the consequence of it be but that we once more fall to the old trade again Furit omnis turba suoque Marte cadunt And when perhaps it shall be said of the Conqueror as of Alexander in his Expedition against the Parthian That he lost more by the War than he got by the Victory whereas Prudence in the Adventure looks at the return and in the hazard at the likelihood and advantage of the success Lastly We hereby take off all occasions of jealousie to which almost every thing serves for Fuel scarce any thing for Physick it being but natural That he must fear many whom many fear how groundlesly soever But may some say Peace without safety is but a breathing or bare Truce at best How can that man sleep securely over whose head a drawn Sword hangs by a single Hair And who shall be Judg of that The Prince whose safety depends on the love of his Subjects and never Acts but by his Council or the Multitude who besides that number and Truth are seldom of the same side never condsier what they do or the true reason why it happen'd to be so hung What causes that Thunder in the Clouds but the cross encounter of Fire and Water mutually tending to their centre of safety And while a people keep within their own Circle what danger is there of a Prince's breaking in upon them God had looked upon the Earth and pronounc'd it corrupt before he sent a Deluge among them to cleanse it In short there is an old saying Divide impera and I think another no ways inferior Vis unita fortior I am sure it is true in experience he that would pluck off a Horses Tail must do it hair by hair and he that would shake a Faggot in pieces must first pull out some considerable Stick or cut the Band. I come now to the disadvantages or inconveniencies that have attended the laying by the right Heir Revolts Usurpation and Exclusion differ in term and sound but are the same in effect and which they hold in common never wanted their Embroils The revolt of the Ten Tribes from Rehoboam was the fore-runner of the Captivity for having drein'd and weaken'd themselves with intestine War what wonder if like the Frog and Mouse in the Fable they became a prey to the next offerer The Senate of Rome excluded Nero but mist their aim for one part of the Army set up Galba another Otho against him a third Vitellius against Otho a fourth Vespasian against Vitellius still bickering and beating one another to pieces until Vespasian brought all into one hand again Harold usurp'd on Edgar Atheling and what was the effect of it but that it open'd William the Conqueror a passage to the Kingdom and gave both encouragement and success to the enterprise In like manner those more prosperous Usurpations of William Rufus and Henry the First upon their elder Brother Robert King Stephen on Maude the Daughter of Henry the First and her Son afterwards Henry the Second King John on his Nephew Arthur Henry the Fourth on Richard the Second and Richard the Third on Edward the Fifth were they not founded in Blood and defended with more and therefore he that shall bring them in precedent had as good save a ramble abroad and instance in O. Cromwel at home In short the Exclusion of our King Edward the Third Son and Heir of Isabella Daughter and Heiress of France under pretence of a Salique Law occasioned the loss of their best men and Kingdom also and did not we half lose it again on the same account by Henry 4. his Usurping on Richard 2 It is true Henry 5. recovered it again but his Son Henry 6. almost as soon lost it by the civil Broils between him and Richard Duke of York slain at Wakefield which yet ended not till his Son Edw. 4. had recovered the Possession And what fruit I pray did we reap of those Wars or rather were they not such as of which the Poet speaks Bella geri placuit nullos habitura triumphos How much better then is it by learning from other mens harms to keep the beaten road with safety than upon every new notion to entangle our selves in those passes wherein so many before us have lost their way And especially having the light of an Act of Parliament directing and telling us That the ambiguity of several Titles pretended to the Crown then not so perfectly declar'd but that men might expound them to every ones sinister affection and sense contrary to the right legality of the Succession and Posterity of the Lawful Kings and Emperors of this Realm had been the cause of that great effusion and destruction of mans Blood And what can any man expect but that the same cause will again produce the same effects and the like Asterism the like Revolutions To draw towards an end It is the advice of our Saviour Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets Would any one think ye submit to be brain'd by a Billet albeit in amends it were said to his Heir the like shall never be done to your self especially when the same hand that did the one cannot promise for any that shall come after it To one praying Lycurgus to settle a popular State in Lacedaemon that the basest might have the same Authority as the highest Begin quoth he to do it it in thy own house first I know not of what Spirit other men are but if there be such a one to be found let him throw the first stone And yet who knows but there may be somewhat more than we see Is there no old grudg No Manet altâ mente repôstum No Spreti injuria Is it all pure Religion and undefil'd All dry down-right conscience No biass No interest No self in the case 't is very well Judas made a charitable motion for the Poor yet it might have seem'd better had he not carried the Bag tho he headed no Party In short Commines saith He is to be esteemed a good Prince whose Virtues are not over-ballanc'd by his Vices And the Persians never condemn'd any man tho convicted till his former life had been weigh'd by the same Ballance and found wanting To apply it I skill not to flatter even the dead and yet a moral justice is due to the living or our Saviour had never said The laborer is worthy of his hire and Solomon Withhold it not Is not his Royal Highness the Son