Gentleman as was reported put this Dilemma in the House of Commons which I never yet heard satisfactiorily Answered Either the Statutes of King H. 8. about Succession were Obligatory or Valid or they were not If not then Acts of Parliament which impeach the Succession are without any more ado Null and Void in Law but if they were by what authority was the House of Suffolk Excluded and King James admitted to the Crown contrary to many Statutes against him notwithstanding all which the (t) Jacob. I. High Court of Parliament declared That the Imperial Crown of this Realm did by Inherent Birthright and lawful and undoubted Succession descend unto his Majesty as being lineally justly and lawfully next and sole Heir of the Royal Blood Here His Succession is owned for Lawful and Vndoubted against the foresaid Acts Lawful not by any Statute but contrary to Statutes by the Common-Law of this Hereditary Kingdom which seems to Reject all Limitations and Exclusions as tending to the Disinberison and Prejudice of the Crown For as the Most Learned and Loyal (u) Third part of The Address to the Freemen c. p. 98. Sir L. J. represented to the House of Commons a Bill of Exclusion if it should pass would change the Essence of the Monarchy and make the Crown Elective or as another (x) Author of the Power of Parliaments p. 39. Ingenious Pen saith It would tend to make a Foot-ball of the Crown and turn an Hereditary Monarchy into Elective For by the same Reason that one Parliament may disinherit one Prince for his Religion other Parliaments may disinherit another upon other Pretences and so consequently by such Exclusions Elect whom they please The next Reason which seems to make an Act of Exclusion unlawful is the Oath of Supremacy which most of the Kings Subjects are called to take upon one Occasion or other and which the Representatives of the Commons of England are bound by Law to take before they can sit in the House By this Oath every one who takes it swears to Assist and Defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs and lawful Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm And I appeal to every Honest and Loyal English-man whether it be not one of the most undoubted transcendent and Essential Rights Priviledges and Preheminences belonging to the Kings Heirs and united to the Imperial Crown of England that they succeed unto the Crown as it comes to their turn according to Proximity of Blood Secondly I desire to know Whether by Lawful Successors is not to be understood such Heirs as succeed according to the common Rules of Hereditary Succession settled by the Common-Law of England and if so how any Man who is within the Obligation of this Oath can Honestly consent to a Bill of Exclusion which deprives the next Heir and in him virtually the whole Royal Family of the Chief Priviledge and Preheminence which belongs unto him by the Common-Law of this Realm Or how any Man who hath taken this Oath which is so apparently designed for the Preservation of the Rights and Priviledges of the Royal Family can deny Faith and true Allegiance to the next Heir from the Moment of his Predecessors death according to the Common Right of Hereditary Succession which by Common-Law belongs unto Him and is annexed to the Crown What Oath soever is made for te Behoof and Interest of the Kings Heirs and Lawful Successors in general must needs be made for the Behoof and Interest of every one of them but the Oath of Supremacy so made for the Behoof and Interest of the Kings Heirs is apparently in general to secure the Succession unto them and therefore it is undoubtedly made to secure the Succession to every one of them according to the Common Order of Hereditary Succession when it shall come to their turn to succeed I have used this Plain and Honest Way of arguing with many of the Excluders themselves and I could never yet receive a satisfactory Answer unto it Some indeed have said with our Author that the Oath of Supremacy is a Protestant Oath and so could not be understood in a Sense destructive to the Protestant Religion which is a meer Shift and proves nothing because it proves too much For according to this Answer we might dispense with our sworn Faith and Allegiance to a Popish King if any should hereafter turn such because the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy are Protestant Oaths and are not to be understood according to them in a sense destructive to the Protestant Religion Secondly Though they are Protestant Oaths yet they respect not the King and his Heirs as Protestants but as lawful and rightful King and Heirs according to the Imperial Law of this Hereditary Kingdom and therefore Moderate Papists will take the Oath of Supremacy as well as of Allegiance as indeed it was for substance taken in the Time of (y) 35 H. 8. ch 1. § 11. H. 8. which they could not do were they made to the King and his Heirs as Protestants But Thirdly As they are Protestant Oaths they bind us the more Emphatically to assist and defend the King against the Vsurpation of the Pope who pretends to a Power of Deposing Kings and of Excluding Hereditary Princes from the Succession Witness Henry the 4th and therefore as all good Protestants are bound by these promissory Oaths to maintain the King in the Throne so are they bound to maintain and defend their Heirs and Successors when their Rights shall fall I have joyned the Oath of Allegiance with the other of Supremacy because in it we also swear to bear Faith and true Allegiance to the Kings Heirs and Successors and Him and them to defend to the utmost of our Power And I here protest to all the World That when I took these Oaths I understood the Words Heirs and Successors for such as hereafter were to be Kings by the Ordinary Course of Hereditary Succession And I appeal to the Conscience of every Honest Protestant if he did not understand them so Other Excluders I have heard maintain that the King and Three Estates in Parliament had a Power by an Act of Exclusion to discharge the People of this part of their Oaths Of bearing Faith and true Allegiance to the Kings Heirs and Lawful Successors but this seems contrary to the following Clause of the Oath of Allegiance which is also to be understood in the other of Supremacy I do believe and in my Conscience am resolved that neither the Pope nor any other person whatsoever hath Power to absolve me of this Oath or any part theoreof And I appeal even to Mr. J. Whether a Man can be absolved from a Promissory Oath by any Power upon Earth but by the Person or Persons to whom and for whose behoof it was made To assert that the King by the Consent of the Parliament
Pagan Princes as in Tiberius the Emperor who was so tormented with the sense of his own Sins that he could not but discover his own Confusion unto the Senate in a Remarkable Letter which began thus (‖) Quid scribam vobis P. C. aut quomodo scribam aut quid omnino non scribam hoc tempore dii me déaeque pejus perdant quam perire quotidie sentio si scio Adeo facinora atque flagitia sua ipsi quoque in supplicium verterant neque frustra praestantissimus sapientiae affirmari solitus est si recludantur tyrannorum mentes posse aspici laniatus et ictus quando ut corpora verberibus ita savitiâ libidine malis consultis animus dilaceretur Quippe Teberium non fortuna non solitudines protegebant quin tormenta pector is suasque ipse paenas fateretur Tacit. An. l. 6. c. 6. My Lords and Gentlemen If I know what or how to write or not to write to you at this time let all the Gods and Goddesses confound me with a worse Death than by which I feel my self perishing every day In such a manner saith the Historian did the Gods turn his Wickednesses into his own Punishment so that what Socrates said is very true That if the Breasts of Tyrants could be laid open we should see what slashes and gashes they suffer from their own Consciences and that the Body cannot suffer more from the Whip than their minds do from the sense of their Tyranny and Lusts And if Conscience be a Restraining Principle in Heathen Princes if they cannot without such Soul-Torments pervert Justice and violate their Oaths and the Laws it must needs much more be a powerful Principle of Restraint to Christian Kings who are taught to know that they are Gods Ministers and that he will call them to a severe Account for oppressing his People over whom he set them nay that he most commonly sends remarkable Judgements upon them or their Families for subverting the Laws and persecuting the True Religion Shall the Fear of Gods Anger and Judgements more than any other thing keep so many thousand Subjects from injuring their Soveraign and shall not the Fear of the same God and his Judgments keep the Soveraign from injuring of them Or shall the People take warning by the Judgments of God which in all Ages have remarkably fallen upon Rebels and shall not the Soveraign make as much use of the Remarkable Judgments which have fallen upon Tyrants This Principle gives equal Security both ways and therefore it may well pass for one Answer to the former Question That our Security consists in the Conscience of the Prince But in the third place As we have the Princes Conscience so we have his Honour for our Security For Princes like other Men are tender of their Honour and Good Name and are powerfully restrained by shame from doing Evil to their Subjects They are as loath as other Men to be exposed to the censure of Mankind or be recorded for Tyrants in the Annals of Time Though they may be desirous for their Honour to have the Times computed from their Conquests yet the same Principle of Honour will ordinarily make them ashamed to have them computed from their Massacres and Persecutions which will but get them the Surname of the Bloody or the Tyrant unto the End of the World Honour as Moralists observe is a Secondary or Civil Conscience and if so many Subjects will abstain from Rebellion merely to avoid the Odious Character of a Traitor why should we not presume That a Prince will abstain from Illegal Violence especially against a great Number of his People to avoid the Odious Name of Tyrant How Black do Pharaoh Achab and Jeroboam look in the Scriptures and Nero Domitian Decius Valerian Maximian Galerius Maximin and Julian in the Ecclesiastical Historians And a Prince that knows any thing of History must naturally abhor to be reckoned among such as these whose very Names are detested by all Mankind This is all the Security that most other People have or ever had for their Rights and Properties against their Princes but we the Inhabitants of this Fortunate Island have God be praised for it a further Security from our Laws to which every Man be he never so great is obnoxious besides the Prince himself For whosoever acts contrary to Law in this Realm to the prejudice of any other person must be subject to make Reparation by Law against which the King himself can protect no Man as long as the Courts of Justice are kept open so that there can be no Tyranny in England but the utmost Tyranny nor any Persecution but a most Exorbitant and Illegal Persecution which must presuppose that Justice is obstructed the Laws and Lawyers silenced the Courts of Judicature shut up and that the King governs altogether by Arbitrary Power and the Sword But to suppose this is plainly to suppose the utmost possibility which is next to an impossibility a possibility indeed in Theory but scarce to be reduced into Practice for in such a Violent Undertaking all Good Men would withdraw from the Service and Assistance of the King and the Bad durst not serve him because if he died or repented of his Undertaking they must be answerable for all the Wrongs and Illegalities they were guilty of in his Service Indeed were our Kings Immortal or would they not like other Men grow weary and repent of their Unjust Practises then Men who had no Religion but their Interest would willingly by Instruments of their Tyranny but seeing they may repent and must die like other Men no Man that would be safe will venture to serve them against the Law no Rational Man will venture into such a Sea of Troubles where there is no Haven This Consideration would help very much to quiet the Minds of Men would their Fears but let their Reason have its perfect work It would help them in a great measure to see that a Popish Successor notwithstanding all the dismal Characters of him would not be able especially on the sudden to outrage his Protestant Subjects for as long as the Laws were open he could not hurt them and to shut them up and obstruct or pervert Justice would for the former Reasons prove an exceeding difficult and almost impracticable Undertaking because all his Good Subjects and all the Bad too that tendred their own safety would desert him nay Foreiners upon this Account would make a difficulty to serve him because he could not protect them against his own Laws Wherefore a Popish Prince though he were never so Blood-thirsty and had never so little regard to Humanity and his Coronation-Oath would be infinitely puzled to persecute his Protestant Subjects He must be supposed to obstruct Justice and govern Arbitrarily by the Sword which as I have shew'd would be almost an Impossibility because it would be so exceeding difficult for him to get sufficient Numbers of Men to assist him in such a
Brittish Legions durst not but send him the Imperial Purple which yet he stained (†) Illud excogitavit ut Severum qui erat aetate maturior Augustum nuncuparet Constantinum vero non Imperatorem sicut erat factus sed Caesarem cum Maximino appellari juberet ut eum de secundo loco rejiceret in quartum Lact. ib. by making Severus Emperor and only giving him the Title of Caesar Not long after Maxentius Son of Maximian was made Emperor at Rome by the Souldiers Galerius sends Severus with an Army against him but as soon as he arrived at the City his Souldiers revolt from him to Maxentius upon which he slyes and in his Flight was killed at Ravenna Upon these new Motions old Maximian surnamed Herculeus putting on his Purple goes to Dioclesian and would have perswaded him that they might joyn and resume the Empire but he refusing he lays by his Purple and goes to Constantine and perswades him for his own ends to go against the Franconians who were then in Rebellion and in his Absence sets up for Emperor again Constantine hearing of this returns sooner than he could expect him besieges him in Marseilles and takes him and severely rebuking him for his Treachery pulls off the Purple from him Euseb Hist l. 8.13 Lactant. de Mort. Persec and makes him a Private Man again Being enraged at this he attempts to kill Constantine by Treachery which being discovered by his Daughter Fausta who put an Eunuch in his stead Maximian hanged himself in despair In the mean time Galerius fearing Maxentius at Rome and being Jealous of Constantine in Gaul dedeclares Licinius Augustus and makes him his Partner in the Empire Lact. de Mort. Persec 32. Ed. Oxon. Upon this Maximin grew discontented which forced him at last to declare him Emperor and Constantine too After this he was stricken with a loathsome Disease of which he died and about two years after him Maximinus dyed at (†) Aurel. Victor Lactant. saith he poyson'd himself de Mort. Pers 49. Tarsus whether he fled from Licinius who pursued him after he had routed his Forces in Illyrium In the mean while Constantine being (‖) Pomp. L. Euseb de Vit. Const l. c. 26 27. invited by the Senate and People of Rome provoked and encouraged by the (†) Euseb ibid. c. 28. Zonar l. 3. in Const Cedren Heavenly Vision goes against Maxentius whom he overthrew near Rome in a pitched Battel Maxentius seeing his Forces routed strived to escape but as he passed over the River Tyber on a Timber-bridge which (‖) Zosim l. 2. Lactant saith that the Bridge was Pons Milvius and that it was cut in two by Treachery de Mort. Pers 44. broke under him he fell in and was drown'd There was now of all these Augustus'es for Dioclesian died in his Retirement in Dalmatia only Constantine and Licinius to whom Constantine gave his Sister Constantia in Marriage But they continued not long in Friendship before they fell into Civil War in which after a Drawn Battel in Thrace Peace was made and confirmed with Oaths on both sides but soon after broken by the Provocations of Licinius who being brought to the last extremity surrendred himself and his Purple to Constantine only upon condition of Life confirmed by the (†) Zosim l. 2. Eutrop l. 10. Oath of Constantine to his Sister Constantia But being sent to Thessalonica and not being able to abstain from (‖) Opinio fuit immorantem Thessalonicae Licinium imisse consilium de resumendis armis ideo missos interfectores Pomp. Laet. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Credenus Euseb de Vit. Const l. 2. c. 43. Theod. l. 1. c. 7. new Attempts Constantine ordered him to be put to death Now Constantine was sole Emperor and made his Three Sons Caesars Constantine in the Tenth Euseb de Vit. Const l 4. c. 40. Constantius in the 20th Constans in the 30th year of his Reign among whom not at his death as (†) Ch. 1. p. 5. our Author fraudulently saith but (‖) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb de vit Const c. 60. Edit Vales sometime before he divided the Empire like or as it were a Paternal Inheritance After his Death and Funeral The Tribunes of the Army dispatched away men that had been remarkable for their Love and Fidelity to Constantine unto the Caesars to give them notice of what had happened and the Armies every where as soon as they heard of the Emperors Death did as it were by Divine Inspiration as unanimously consent to acknowledge and admit none for Emperors but his Three Sons as if he had been living among them and accordingly not long after they saluted them all by the Name of Augusti which is the Ceremony of creating Emperors and of this they gave notice to one another by Letters and their Harmonious Consent in the Choice of the New Emperors was known every where at the same time This is as near as I can render it the sense of the 60. Ch. of (†) Edit Vales Eusebius in his 4. B of the Life of Constantine but a Leaf or two from the former Citation which our (‖) P. 1. Author took so much notice of but this Chapter and the next unto it which mentions the Senate and Peoples (‖) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Vit. Const l. 4. c. 69. unanimous Confirmation of the Military Choice he passed over knowing very well that two such Harmonious and Solemn Elections of the (†) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vit. Const l. 1. Proaem Three Caesars into the Augustusship was utterly inconsistent with an Hereditary descent And so indeed was the Division of the Empire whether it were by Constantines Designation as Euseb saith or by Agreement among the Three Coesars after his death as (‖) L. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quidam tradunt Constantinum orbem haeredibus testamento divisisse quidam filios sorte fecisse Pomp. Laet. Zosimus relates it For could His Majesty for Example if he had Three Sons or Brothers leave England to one Scotland to another and Ireland to a third or could they if they would after his decease legally parcel this Hereditary Empire into Three Parts like an Estate left in Common to three I suppose if our Author put these Questions to his Superviser whom I take to be the better Lawyer of the two he will tell him No. But to go on with a few more Questions I desire these two Gentlemen to tell me whether Constantine might not have named Four which (†) Eutrop. l. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pomp. Laet. Dalmatium Anavalliani fratris filium Caesarem fecit unà cum filiis haeredem statuit some write he did as well as Three Caesars and Successors or two or one or if he had pleased none but left it as some of his Predecessors did to Fate or the Senate to choose his Successor or whether he might not have