Excluding Bill In this Case what can the King do If he Dissolves them and calls another the People will Elect them again and Encouraged by their adhereing to them they will be more Resolute and Importunate till they gain their point and by their immoveable Obstinacy tire out the Royal Patience and so force it to yeild which they may do as often as they please and the doing of it will both entail War and Misery upon the Nation unless we will be so unreasonable as to suppose that the Excluded Princes will be so Cowardly and Poor Spirited as to sit down Patiently under so great an Injury and not Attempt to recover by Arms that Right which was so Unjustly taken from them and also make the Monarchy Elective which is upon Divers Accounts the worst sort of Monarchy First as it Tempts the Prince Reigning to use all kind of Arts and Means to Enrich himself and fill his Royal Treasury for being uncertain whether any of his Children and Descendents shall be Elected in his place when he retires into the shades of Death that Natural Affection for and Care of his Royal Issue which is Common to Kings as well as other Fathers will strongly incline and prompt him to Watch all Opportunities to cast about and contrive all ways to amass all the Wealth and Treasure he can that if he be desirous his Son should succeed him he may leave him Money enough to bribe the Electors or if he do not design that yet that he may provide for all his Children so that they may Live in that State Honour and Magnifience which become the Off-spring of a King and will cast no Contempt nor Reproach upon him when he is Dead and gone This will produce frequent Oppressions of the People and the most grievous Rapines and Exactions expose all Places and Offices Sacred Civil and Military to Sale so that they who have nothing but Money to Recommend them shall be prefer'd and Honest and Deserving Men that have either less Money or more Conscience than to give Bribes will be Rejected or put by to the great injury or damage of the State And they that pay dear for their Places will be sure to make the most they can of them both because they cost them so and they are uncertain how long they shall hold them Princes being Mortal as well as other Men and when they Dye most if not all the Preferments and great Places they enjoy under Dye with them The publick Treasure also instead of being Imploy'd for the Common good will be Converted to the Princes private use when other Nations do Injury and Violence to his Subjects and he seems to be Offended at it and it may be really is so and Aggravates the wrong to draw Money from the People under pretence of Revenging of it yet having got it into his hands he only talks high threatens them that did the Injury expostulates the Case upbraids them with their Unjust Dealing or it may be demands Reparation whereupon if they acknowledg their Errour and promise to be Just for the future he puts up the Injury though never so Grievous or Ruinous to his own Subjects and fills his Coffers with the Treasure that was given him to do them Right To such mean and unbecoming shifts are Elective Monarchs tempted which must needs inrage their People and put them upon frequent Tumults and Insurrections for being impoverish'd and exhausted by continual Rapines and Oppressions they grow Desperate Resolve to Venture their Lives nay which are infinitely more precious their Souls Rebellion being a most horrid and damnable Sin to revenge the Injuries done them by their Prince who instead of a Father is so unjust and injurious to them By which means both the Prince and People Suffer They in their Estates and Properties He in his Honour Safety and Tranquillity And that must needs be a miserable and distemper'd State where neither Prince nor People are safe and happy but he makes a Prey of them and they watch their opportunity to Depose and Ruin him But these mischiefs and miseries are not so incident to Successive Monarchies rightly Constituted as our is for when the Prince knows and is assured that the Crown shall descend to his Royal Off-spring if he have any or to the next of his Family he hath no temptation to oppress his People no necessity to use any unworthy Arts to inrich himself to fill his Coffers with the Treasures of unrighteousness He prefers the publick good before his private gain his Subjects are secured in their Rights and Properties protected from the Injuries and Violence of Forreigners and from Rapines and Oppressions at home The Prince is careful by a just and merciful Government to preserve his own and the Honour of his Family that the admirable Vertues of his Illustrious Predecessors may raise the Expectation and indear the Affection of the People to the next Heir take from them all doubt or fear but he will prove a brave Prince because Descended from the best of Kings who did not only as far as Mortals can do it resemble God in Power Greatness but in Justice Mercy Clemency Goodness nothing being so great an Incentive so mighty a provocation so prevailing an inducement to ingage a young Prince to be Just Vertuous as that his Ancestors were so before him he will blush to Inherit their greatness if he be not Studious to transcribe imitate their Royal Goodness This hath been remarkably verifi'd or fulfill'd in our present most Gracious Soveraign the three fore-going Princes who did not only transmit the Crown but their incomparable Vertues to one another As for that Renowned Princess Queen Elizabeth her Royal Vertues have imbalmed her Memory render'd it sweet and precious to the English Nation and she will be remember'd with Honour by late and still distant Ages Some few things indeed seem a little to cloud the Glory of her Reign but they are nothing in respect of the Great Numerous and Eminent Blessings the Nation injoy'd under her wise and wary Government those possibly were extorted from her by the difficulty of the Times and the necessity of her Affairs and the misguided Zeal of some of her Favourites and Counsellors but these made abundant recompence or reparation for them render'd her revered and admir'd all over the Christian World insomuch that one of her Enemies Confess'd her to be the Bravest most Glorious and Fortunate Princess in the World Descend from her to King James who Succeeded her as in her Royal Dignity so in all her Vertues a Prince of admirable Wisdom Justice and Clemency so great a Lover so watchful a Preserver of Peace that in his Reign the Nation grew vastly Rich and abounded so in Treasure as if the precious Mines had been removed from the Indies hither What shall I say of King Charles the First No Eloquence can describe all his Encellencies no Commendations reach his transcendent
Diminution and therefore he must offer no Injury to any Man nor attempt to Dispossess or Deprive him of any thing that belongs to him Every Man would have others deal fairly and sincerely keep their word and promise with him not Circumvent nor deceive him with Id. Instit Theol lib. 4 pa. 249. lies fraud or falsehood pay him what is due to him or if he owe another any thing he would not have him be rigorous or severe with him but forbear or allow him some time till he be able to pay him if he be in any Want or Misery he would be Relieved and Assisted by the Counsel Help Comfort and Prayers of others and therefore is obliged to do all these things to others And this Rule extends to all Orders and Degrees of Men Superiours Equals and Inferiours They that have any Superiority over others expect from them the Honour and Obedience due to them and therefore must pay the same Respect and Submission to those that are possess'd of an higher Station Every Man looks for Friendship and Fidelity from his Equals and consequently must be Kind and Faithful to them They that are Inferiour to and have any Dependence upon others would Injoy their Favour Clemency and good Will and Receive from them Help Relief and Counsel in their need and therefore must afford the same to those that are Below and Depend upon them He that is a Magistrate if he were a a Private Person would be protected both in his Life and Estate have no Man suffer'd to do him Wrong or Violence with Impunity and therefore must so discharge his Office and behave himself to all Men that come to him for Justice So that this one Rule gives us full and sufficient Direction how to Order all our Intercourse and Dealings with Men that they may be Just and Equal And if the greatest Zealots for and Admirers of it will please to Compare their Project of Exclusion with this Excellent Rule or Law of Christ they will soon perceive the High and Horrid Injustice of it Do they Treat or do to his Royal Highness as they themselves would be done to Would any one of them be content to be depriv'd of his Birth-right meerly upon the Account of his Religion No so far are they from being willing to be so used themselves that to prevent or take away all possibility of it they would deprive the Duke of his Inheritance They Love themselves so well that they would not Suffer at all have no Harm nor Danger happen to them their Hatred to his Royal Highness is so Cruel and Implacable that they would make Him Suffer the greatest Wrong and Dammage To make a true Judgment in the Case Mutanda est Persona the Person must be changed Let then the Fiercest and most Zealous of the Excluders suppose himself in the Dukes Place that he was Heir to such a Jewel as a Crown to so Rich and Valuable an Inheritance as three Kingdoms are and that he had done nothing which either by any Divine or Humane Law yet extant made a Forfeiture of that Right and Inheritance and that those whom he had never Injured or offer'd any Just Offence to were Confederate against him and contended with all their Zeal and Industry to have a Law made to Bar his Claim and Deprive him of the Possession of it if it should by course of Nature descend to him how would he take such usage What would he think of them that Treated him so would he not fill Heaven and Earth with his Complaints Cry out that Justice and Honesty had left the World and Appeal to Heaven for Succour saying with the Royal Prophet Help me Lord for there is not one Godly Man left for Ps 12. 1 the Faithful the Just and Honest are minished from among the Children of Men Surely thou hast seen it for thou beholdest Ungodliness and Wrong That thou mayest take the matter into thy Ps 10. 15 16 Hand the Poor committeth himself unto thee for thou art the helper of the Friendless Wilt thou have any thing to do with the stool of Wickedness Ps 94. 20. which imagineth mischief as a Law Suffer me not Oh Lord to be Oppress'd and Ruin'd by the Counsels and Combinations of Wicked Men and Unjust but stir up thy strength and come and help me And if these would be his Thoughts and Resentments of such usage when offer'd to himself how abominably Wicked and Unjust is it for him and his Brethren to offer it to the Duke This is apparently to Contemn and Violate this most equal and therefore excellent Law of Christ to do that to another which they would be most impatient of if done to themselves Our Laws indeed Punish all sorts of Recusants but then the Punishments they Inflict are Moderate intended to Reform not Ruin them they deprive none of them of their Birth-right and all their Possessions but only of some part of them and those Punishments are Just and agreeable to this Rule because they offer that Contempt and Disturbance to the Government which if they were in Authority they would not have others do to them 'T is certain that neither Popery nor Presbytery where they are Establish'd will give Toleration to any that Dissent from them and if they will grant none to others with what Face can they expect it themselves Besides t is Evident that both these Factions both formerly and of late have practis'd against the State been guilty of horrid Treasons and Seditions Murder'd the Glorious Father to go no higher Plotted the Death and Destruction of the most Excellent Son our present most Gracious Soveraign which is the highest Violation of this Sacred Law of Christ for would any of them if he was King of these Nations be content to be so used as they Treat their Prince would he be willing to have his Subjects take Arms against and Conspire his Death when he had given them all manner of Demonstrations of his Love and Care of them sought to Oblige Indear them by a Just Merciful Peaceable Government would he take it well to see them requite his high Affection with deadly Hatred his tender care with contempt his Royal Mercy Justice with Barbarous Cruelty Villany yet these things this hard measure have both the Papists Fanaticks offer'd to their Prince and therefore the Punishments which our Laws inflict upon them are Just they have no Cause of complaint against the Government because it Corrects them with Mercy and Moderation Punishes them less than their Crimes Deserve 't is Death indeed by our Law for any of the Romish Priests and Jesuits to be found in England but that Punishment is not inflicted on them for their Religion but for their Irreligion and Wickedness their frequent and execrable Treasons their restless attempts against their Lives and Government awaken'd and made it necessary for our Kings by Capital Punishments to deter such Traytors
Vertues they are fitter for our silent Admiration than our imperfect and unequal Praises never any Mortal approach'd nearer to Him who was more than Man even God manifest in the Flesh whilst he Lived he was a Saint upon Earth and dying was number'd amongst the prime Saints in Heaven His Enemies were such as are always Enemies to God and all goodness that is the Devil and his Agents and they that deposed and took away his precious Life would have done the same execrable Violence and Injury to the Son of God himself if he had fallen into their Barbarous and Bloody Hands And our present most Gracious Soveraign is equal to any of his Renowned Ancestors in the Princely Vertues of Wisdom Fortitude Justice Mercy Peacefulness and the admirable sweetness and goodness of his Temper So that I may Challenge all the World to shew me four such Princes one after another in any Elective Monarchy so Zealous Defenders of the true Religion so Tender of their Subjects Welfare such Bountiful Patrons and Benefactors to them that they did what they could to preserve them in Peace Piety and Plenty And if in any of their Reigns any of the People Suffer'd and were Miserable it was not the Princes Injustice that made them so but either their own or their fellow Subjects Stubbornness Disobedience and Turbulent or Ungovernable Temper that brought Calamity and Ruin upon them And seeing Elective Princes have more and greater Temptations to Oppress and Injure their Subjects than those that are Successive the Elective must needs be the worst sort of Monarchy And it is so Secondly because exposed to manifold Factions Discontents Quarrels and Dangers We see to what Heats Factions and Disorders far inferiour Elections are subject that they who are to chuse a Parliament Man for a County or a Burgess for a Corporation cannot all Agtee or Fix upon a Person but Run into Parties and Factions one side being fierce and eager for one Man and the other for another till they grow angry and inraged hate and revile one another proceed from words to blows and would break out into open Hostility were there not a Superiour Authority to which they are accountable for such disorders and therefore stand in awe of How much more apt to Feuds and Quarrels to Factions and Discontents may they be reasonably supposed to be that have the Disposal of such a Jewel as a Crown and whose Votes are of that moment and concern as to confer so precious and by all admired a Treasure as a Kingdom and have none to awe or pacifie them the Electors during the Interregnum being the chief and most courted Persons of the Kingdom and may unless limited by Law Protract or Spin out the Election as long as they please and accordingly as they are Byassed by Affection or Interest which may be of Dangerous Consequence to the Kingdom For if any Neighbouring Prince prompted either by his Ambition or provoked by Injuries formerly receiv'd take that Opportunity to Invade them whilst they are debating and quarrelling amongst themselves who shall be King they are in all probability surpris'd and ruin'd for either they must agree and finish the Election presently which the Prince that invades may easily prevent by bribing some of the Electors or else they must imploy some great Person to defend the Kingdom till they have done it He if he succeeds in his Expedition and beats the Invader out if he be not Elected King calls them Ungrateful thinks himself affronted his good Service slighted or contemned having the Army under his Command may easily work upon them by gifts at present and promises of doing great things for them afterwards to afford him their Assistance to make him King by which means the Kingdom is imbroyl'd stain'd with the Blood made miserable by the Slaughter and Destruction of the Inhabitants by the Ruin of Cities and Vastation or Spoyl of Provinces But if on the other side the Electors chuse him King then the other Grandees are discontented and think they have the greatest injury done them every one of them in his own Opinion esteeming himself at least as deserving or worthy of a Crown as the Prince Elected and therefore to revenge the contempt put upon them either break out into Rebellion or invite the Invader to return with offer of their assistance to possess him of the Kingdom So that between Forreign Force and Domestick Ambition and Discontent the poor People endure all the Calamities of War and linger out a tedious Life made so by frequent Oppressions Terrours and Discontents And as the People are miserable in Elective Monarchies so the Prince is unsafe for there is nothing that great Spirits are more Ambitious of than a Crown and the Cardinals cannot possibly be more weary of a long Lived Pope than most of the Grandees in an Elective Kingdom hate a long lived Prince the reason is plain because the Crown not being peculiar or appropriate to any one Family the more frequent Vacancies there are the greater hopes they have of being Elected which is a mighty Temptation to Ambitious and Designing Men to use all the Villanous and Accursed Arts they can by Poyson and other secret ways to Destroy or Take off the Prince that they may fill his Throne whom they have by the basest and most perfidious cruelty deprived of his Life and Kingdom The last King of Poland lay under great Fears and Apprehensions that he should be Poyson'd and his Suspitions of it were so strong and vehement that all the Arguments his Friends could use could not put them out of his Thoughts what reason he had for those fears I know not nor can I tell whether his Death was procured by such detestable means or no but sure I am that many think such execrable things lawful Regnandi causa to possess themselves of Empire and Soveraignty and there is the greatest temptation to practice them in Elective Monarchies because upon the decease of the Prince Reigning every great Person in the Kingdom flatters himself with hopes of Succeeding him But the Successive Monarchies are freer from all these Evils and Dangers for upon the Death of the Royal Father his Son if he have any or else the next of the Family is King which makes our Law say the King never Dies because upon the Decease of one the next Heir is immediately King the Ceremonies of Crowning and Anoynting do not confer the Royal Dignity upon him but only declare him to be what he was as soon as his Predecessor was dead that is King are no more but signs expressing to the People that he is the person ordain'd by God to Govern or Rule over them and to whom he requires them to pay all due Honour Loyalty and Obedience By this immediate Succession all those Factions are avoided which often prove mischievous and Ruinous to the People so are all the Dangers Miseries which attend an Interregnum that may happen in the
provoking God to cast us off In former Ages they that were so unreasonable as to deny the Author of their being and the great Creator of the World were yet so cautious as to conceal their impious unbelief of his Existence with their mouths they did not durst not though in their hearts they said with the fool There is no God but now such an one is laugh'd at as a timerous and sneaking Atheist as a modest ungentile Infidel that dares not set his mouth against Heaven and tell all the wise and religious part of Mankind they ly if they say there is a God This is such brazen and impudent wickedness that the very Heathens abhor'd and severely punish'd it What a shame is it then that such monsters of men should dare in a Christian State openly to deny the God it Worships of whose Existence there is so much rational Evidence so many mighty Arguments and convincing Proofs as hath been shew'd by many learned Writers of our Church that can permit no man to be an Atheist but he whose horrid contempt of Him and violation of his Laws cause to despair of finding mercy from him and to think his crimes so great that he will not forgive them 'T is certain that all wicked men wish with all their hearts there were no God to call them to account for their lewd and filthy living but their wishing of it will not make him cease to be who is as certainly as they deny him he whom they now renounce and scoff at will one day recken with them for all the affronts they have put upon him who will laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh and we might leave them to be punish'd by his vengeance and their own debaucheries but that they are so mischievous to the state For setting the provocation it gives to God aside this open Atheism ought not to be suffer'd because it is most pernicious to the Government For is not this the Foundation of all that Honour and Obedience which men pay to Soveraign Princes that they are Gods Vicegerents derive their Power and Authority from him and Govern the World in his stead are his Representatives and Commissioners but they that say there is no God deny all this make Empire or Dominion a meer humane creature and so free men from the strongest and most effectual obligations to obedience which Religion lays upon them and put those weak ones which are easily broaken in their stead Interest want of Oppertunity fear of temporal Punishment For such men will obey the Prince no longer than he heaps his Royal favours and benefits upon them than he advances and inriches them when he turns the streams of his bounty from them they are disobliged and watch for an Opportunity to depose him and when ever they think it safe to make head against him or can find a Powerful Faction to lead they will be sure to Rebel because then they fear nothing from the Prince in this and believe nothing that Religion speaks of the Punishments of the other World But he that believes there is a God and Princes to Reign by Him by his Order and Appointment that he requires all their Subjects to Reverence and obey them and that he will inflict Eternal Punishments upon all that for any cause whatsoever Rebel or take Arms against them this Man cannot dares not so long as he believes these things refuse to pay them all due honour and obedience And therefore for their own Sakes as well as for the honour of their Glorious Founder it is the great Interest and Concern of Princes to punish open and profess'd Atheists as his and their most dangerous Enemies especially those that make it their Common practice to expose and render every thing ridiculous that is believed by others to bear his Name and Inscription laugh at his Laws which he hath given us to direct our Lives and Actions as injurious and unreasonable impositions that require Men to deny themselves the Pleasures and Delights of the World to part with every thing that is dear to them to endure Poverty and Death and all the miseries of the World and all this to obtain Rewards and avoid Punishments which are to commence after this Life These and all their other Blasphemies against God and his Son Christ Jesus and his most Wise Holy and Excellent Religion would be severely and exemplarily punish'd and one such Decree as King Nebuchadnezzar made in honour of God would effectually stop the mouths of these bold Sinners and Mischievous as well as Impudent Blasphemers Therefore I make a decree that every People Dan. 3. 29. Nation and Language which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego shall be cut in peces and their houses shall be made a dunghill because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort Such a Bill of Exclusion as this to shut Atheism Blasphemy and Prophaneness out of the Nation and the strict Execution of the good Laws already in being upon all the Reigning Sins that are amongst us would conduce mightily to the security and preservation of our Religion both as it would prevail with God to continue it amongst us and discourage our Enemies from attempting the subversion and destruction of it First prevail with God to continue it amongst us for when he sees a Nation or People have that high honour and esteem for his Laws as to obey them heartily make it their chief study and endeavour to live up to them prise them above all Earthly Injoyments and admire them as the most precious Treasure his goodness will not permit him to take them from such a People because they answer all the ends he proposed to himself in the donation of them which are his Honour and their Salvation His honour that he might be glorify'd by their Piety and Holyness by all those vertuous Actions and good Works which they perform in obedience to them Their Salvation that his bounty and goodness in rewarding them with the Immortal Felicities of his Heavenly Kingdom might appear great and illustrious and be the Subject of their eternal Praises and Thanksgivings And if these be the ends of his giving of them as no doubt they are 't is reasonable to believe that by obeying the Laws of Christ by leading the pure and holy Lives his Religion requires of us we oblige and invite the Divine Goodness to preserve or continue it amongst us because we put it to the excellent use he intended it for But if we prophane and dishonour it by lewd and impure living if we call our selves Christians and live like Heathens the worst and most brutish sort of Heathens as we deserve so sad a punishment so it is most just for God to take his Gospel from us it being as our Saviour speaks Casting pearls before swine to continue a divine and holy Law to People lapsed into all Impurity and Sensual living for