your sence nor for being reduced to a State of Bondage through the Wilderness of a new War We are for standing still keeping our places and doing our duties and wait for the Salvation of God Though we were by the wickedness of unreasonable and cruel men deprived of our Moses yet God hath sent us a Josua and with him are the Priests of the Lord and the Ark of his Covenant to which we doubt not the swelling streams of Jordan will give way and we shall yet pass to Canaan on dry land Now let the Reader judge who do abuse the Scripture to serve their turn as Mr. Hunt doth advise p. 46. P. 35. Mr. Hunt becomes an Advocate for a sort of Gibeonites that they may have an act of Comprehension and represents them as a very harmless and friendly people The Dissenters says he have neither power nor will to destroy our RELIGION or Government they are already of our Church and it is expected that they should be Petitioners to the Bishops for their intercession towards the obtaining some indulgence in some little matters that they may bring them into an intire communion with us And again That they are in profession as Loyal as any that boast themselves true Sons of the Church of England p. 19. But though some profess an irreconcileable hatred even in their pleas for Peace the great question is what their practice is and hath been Postscr p. 89. Can any man imagine says he that any prejudice can accrew to the Church of England if she did enlarge her Communion by making the Conditions of it more easie And p. 90. Is it fit that the Peace should be hazarded or the Nation put with reason or without in fear of it or a Kingdom turned into a Shambles for a Ceremony or a Ritual in our publick Worship c. What is it the Advocate of these men pleads for hath he full instructions from his Clients doth he know their minds and what will give them satisfaction What he contends for hath by several men of the Church been granted to them Why may not say you standing at the Sacrament be granted And the signing with the Cross in Baptism be dispensed with when desired When the Dean of St. Pauls and the Bishop of Cork have made some overtures for conceding these things Mr. Baxter answers the first that he made them sibi suis for the advantage of himself and others of his own Perswasion and without taking any notice of them in the latter answers his Discourse with scorn and contempt But our Liturgie must also be altered for their sakes p. 91. you would have more Offices and those we have not so long though some complain they are too many and too short already And for the Rubrick that must be altered not for the present onely as general scruples shall arise and that may be to the worlds end But to answer more particularly you say the Dissenters have neither power nor will to destroy our Religion and Government Answ When they were less considerable for their numbers than now being as you say four fifths of the Nation they had both power and will to effect both What hath been done may be done and Mr. Baxter justly feared that they were Nati ad bis perdendam Remp. Anglicanam That they are the trading and wealthie part of the Nation is generally boasted by themselves We know Mr. Baxter urgeth in the name of his Brethren that there are many hainous sins in our present Constitution that hinder their Conformitie the taking off of which will be an acknowledgement of our guilt and their justification As for the prejudice that may accrue by altering the conditions of our Communion you give us a fair warning p. 93. telling us of the Church of Rome that their Doctrine of Comprehension is so large that they destroy their Religion to increase the number of their Professors by granting the demands of some we shall but encourage others and make them presume to be Judges in their case and quarrels And we have found by sad experience the inconvenience of admitting such as the Country-conformist and the Author of the Life of Julian into our Communion And you say p. 35 and 36 of the Preface That the King and States of the Realm will never suffer so excellent an Ecclesiastical Constitution as we enjoy to be subverted Yet the Dissenters project in Mr. Humphrey's Half-sheet intended to be presented to the Parliament doth certainly tend to her destruction as hath been shewed elsewhere And if the King and States will not admit an alteration you know the Bishops cannot and if the States will not and the Bishops cannot ought not they that would make themselves wiser than their Rulers to submit notwithstanding their scruples against a Ceremony rather than to hazard or disturb the peace of the Kingdom And is it not an unjust complaint of yours of turning it into a Shambles for a Ceremony or a Ritual And to conlude if as you observe p. 92. a discourse managed with almost irresistible Reason Candour Temper and Address be matter of exasperation and they turn again and be more confirmed in their separating way what condescentions will reclaim them P. 36. It is added That absurd Opinion that Dominium fundatur in gratia is charged on those that are for the Exclusion of the Duke And they think that by pronouncing that absurd piece of Latine they have at once put to silence and shame all reasons of Nature Religion and State that urge and require it How we can maintain the Negative against the Papists if we should practise the same as they do on this Position I cannot perceive and therefore we must charge it impartially on all that deserve it Bishop Davenant admits it for good Latine and I think that you quarrel at the words to avoid the sence of the Thesis which that learned Bishop maintained against the Papists concluding that the Pope could not challenge the power of Deposing Kings by any Title but that of Antichrist whose Founder was Hildebrand who like Satan claimed a power to dispose of all the Kingdoms of the World And you your self think that our Saints ought not to do so We come now to the Postscript which he hath told us was written for the sake of our young Divines those good-natur'd Gentlemen who doubtless will return his Civilities His pretence is to answer some Objections that were made against them but in truth they are his own accusations of them which he prosecutes with all the might and malice he can upon this ground because the Bishops must be made out of them and being so bad already he hath foretold how much worse it will be when they sell their Liberty for that Preferment It is said then p. 1. our Author knows by whom That they affirm it to be in the power of a Prince by Divine Right to govern as he pleaseth That the power of the Laws is solely
his Charge There remains nothing to the perfecting our Establishment but the casting out those Jonahs which lie asleep in the bottom of the Ship I mean our sins which have caused the wrath of God to kindle those fires in the midst of us which may justly make us as desolate as Sodom or Gomorrha That with penitent Tears fervent and unanimous Prayers seasonable and serious reformation of our Lives we would deprecate Gods displeasure and that yet he would make us of one heart and mind in considering and doing the things that belong to our peace before they are hid from our eyes That in these things I may do some acceptable service to the Church of Christ on Earth and with it have my Reward in Heaven is the hearty Prayers and great Ambition of Your Graces most humble and most dutiful Servant Tho. Long. L. Cook 's third part of Institutes p. 36. PEruse over all Books Records and Histories and you shall find a Principle in Law a Rule in Reason and a Tryal in Experience That Treason doth ever produce fatal and final destruction to the Offender and never attains to the desired end two incidents inseparable thereunto And therefore let all men abandon it as the poysonous Bait of the Devil and follow the Precept in Holy Scripture Serve God and honour the King and have no company with the Seditious Mr. Hunt's Preface to the Argument for Bishops OUr Adversaries were treated too kindly and deserve sharper reflections than are made upon them for their false and perverse Reasonings and ought to lose that Reputation which they abuse to the hurt of the Government Nor is it for the honour of our Faculty that never fails to supply the worst Cause with Advocates ERRATA PAge 17. line 4. r. Or. In the Preface for Cyril r. Gregory in four places p. 46. l. 1. r. contradictious Zeal p. 49. r. Justitia p. 50. r. templa p. 90. r. Constantium p. 91. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 96. dele And Basil p. 107. r. Annum ibid. for Curtis r. Curtius p. 124. after patience add of p. 129. r. confirmed p. 152. r. though p. 185. r. atrocia p. 189. r. paries p. 205. r. Sumus p. 224. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 226. r. foretold p. 233. r. Reges ibid. r. Depravari p. 242. l. 25. r. Or. ibid. r. suppose p. 262. dele after the fifth line four lines which are doubled TO THE READER AS often as I consider the numerous Pamphlets which the Scribblers of this Age have brought forth it calls to my mind what I have read of a sort of Indian Rats which are said to be pregnant whilst they are in the belly of their Dams Every Libel propagates such a numberless Issue that as one observed of the increase of Faction the first Separation might say to its Off-spring Arise Separation and go to thy Separation for thy Separation's Separation hath a Separation But of all the Libels that have been lately written none are more fruitful as it is mostly with Venomous Creatures than those which have been written against the Established Government There was a Swarm of such in the Late Vnhappie Times and some of the Authors as well as that sort of Writings are yet alive or revived to create new Disturbances And as Horace observes Aetas parentum pejor avis Tulit progeniem vitiosiorem Every Pamphlet hath more of venome than that from whence it had its birth Prynne Burton and Bastwick were the Great Grandsires of this monstrous Progenie The Covenanters Nye Marshal and the Smectymnuans were their genuine Off-spring To these succeed notwithstanding the peremptory Vote for Exclusion John Goodwin Owen Harington and Baxter all right Commonwealths-men with Milton and May and many others whose Writings have by men of like Principles been reviewed reprinted and recommended to the present Age. I shall onely instance in the Treatise now under consideration which hath contracted and improved the Antimonarchical principles which lay scattered in the Authors last mentioned and in the Character of the Popish Successor Plato Redivivus and other seditious Pamphlets but especially from Mr. Hunt's Postscript for certainly our Author's teeth were set on edge by Mr. Hunt's sowre Grapes and he makes it his business to blow up the Coals which he had kinled The great Notion on which all his Discourse is builded is from Mr. Hunt p. 46 47. And facile est inventis addere Let no man says Mr. Hunt betray his Countrie and Religion by pretending the example of the patience and sufferings of the Primitive Christians for our Rule The Reformed Religion hath acquired a Civil right and the protection of Laws If we ought not to lose our Lives Liberties and Estates but where forfeited by Law we ought much rather not to lose them for the profession of the best Religion which by Law is made the Publick National Religion c. This gave occasion to the greatest part of his Book which is a loud and notorious Calumny against the Primitive Christians viz. their patient submission to their unjust and cruel Persecutors From Mr. Hunt he took his instance of Mary Queen of Scots of whom he speaks p. 48. and says Scarce a Child but hath heard what was done said and maintained by the Clergie of England in the case of Mary Queen of Scots a Popish Successor in the earliest time of our Reformation Vpon this our Author paraphraseth at large from p. 12. to the 18th of his Preface His deriding of the Succession in the right Line is taken from Mr. Hunt p. 47. If any be so vain as to say that a lawful course of Succession is established among us by Divine Right he is a man fitted to believe Transubstantiation and the Infallibility of the Pope And our Authors Comments on this fill many pages Concerning Arbitrary Power compare Mr. Hunt p. 42. and 52. with the 78. of our Author 's and p. 241. Mr. Hunt minded him of the Doctrine of Sibthorpe and Manwaring of which in p. 77. P. 47. Mr. Hunt's Comparison between Popery and Paganism gave him a Text for another part of his book and from a hint in p. 49. That we must not suspend all the legal security we have for our preservation upon the life of our present King there are a hundred hints for that one to prepare people for actual Resistance and Rebellion Thus the Leprosie of Naaman cleaves to this covetous Gehazi and spreads it self through the whole book so as it becomes a continued Scab And I pray God it may creep no farther But for this one thing our Author is very culpable that having got these and many other Materials for his Babel he never mentions his Founder Onely p. 88. he says A worthy person hath lately observed That one single Arm unresisted may go a great way in murdering a Nation But works of darkness hate the light and therefore he thought fit to conceal both their names The Author of the Life
care of those who are put on an inevitable necessity of defending themselves c. How far a man that is assaulted and put on an inevitable necessity of defending himself against the injuries of private men is one thing and what he may do against his Prince of whom you seem to discourse is another In this case we may apply that in Rev. 13.10 He that killeth with the sword shall be killed with the sword This is the patience and faith of the Saints P. 11. This Doctrine of Passive Obedience you say quite alters the Oath of Allegiance which requires you to be obedient to all the Kings Majesties Laws Precepts and Process proceeding from the same I do not find those words in that Oath as set forth by King James but I find what you overlook viz. I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majestie his Heirs and Successors and him and them will defend to the utmost of my power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever And thus I find more particularly in a Declaration which I believe our Author hath subscribed thus amplified I do declare that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King And that I do abhor that traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are commissionated by him P. 11. After a large Preface little to your purpose telling us That the Church of England reserves her Faith entire for the Canonical books of Scripture which I hope you also do and that she divides her Reverence between the Fathers and the first Reformers of this Church who partly were Martyrs that died for the Protestant Religion and partly Confessors that afterward setled it And now to the business How much the Fathers would have been for a Bill of Exclusion you say we have seen already No not one word of it from the beginning nor I believe any mention of it from one Argument tending to it to the end of the Book from any of the Fathers as will shortly appear But what say our Martyrs Confessors and Reformers First he tells us what some men would have perswaded King Edward to do if they could have had their wills confirmed by Act of Parliament They shewed what they would have done if they could saith our Author They never spake such bad English as our Author doth in his Taunton-Dean Proverb Chud eat more Cheese an chad it which being interpreted is We would rebel if we had power The Duke of Northumberland indeed did cause the Lady Jane Gray's Title to be proclaimed but here the Bishops must be the men that were chiefly engaged in that designe of Exclusion whereas I read not that any of them were ever consulted with nor ever declared any thing to that purpose but in their joynt and most solemn Writings enjoyn the clean contrary as shall now appear P. 12. The Bishops in Queen Elizabeth 's time to whom under God and that Queen we owe the settlement of our Church concurred to the making of that Statute which makes it High-Treason in her Reign and forfeiture of Goods and Chattels ever after in any wise to hold or affirm That an Act of Parliament is not of sufficient force and validity to limit and bind the Crown of this Realm and the descent limitation inheritance and government thereof 13 Eliz. chap. 1. But our Author never considered the grounds and reasons of that Act Ex malis moribus bonae Leges it was the iniquity of those times and the traiterous practices of the Queen of Scots which gave occasion to that Statute for there were many Pamphlets written by Saunders and the Author of Doleman which deni'd the Title of Queen Elizabeth and proclaim'd her an Usurper and the Queen of Scots made actual claim to the Crown of England she assumed the Arms of England and other Regalia and by her Confederates endeavoured to raise a Rebellion and conspired against the life of the Queen for which causes she was condemned as may appear by her Sentence which was passed upon her viz. That divers things were compassed and imagined within this Kingdom of England with the privity of the said Queen who pretended a Title to the Crown of this Kingdom and which tended to the hurt death and destruction of the Royal Person of our Soveraign Queen Cambdens Eliz. p. 464. Leiden 1625. Such practices gave occasion to that Statute to prevent the Mischiefs that might befal Queen Elizabeth and the Nation And that Statute consists of many heads As first Whoever should compass imagine devise or intend the death or destruction or any bodily harm tending to death destruction or wounding of the Royal person of the Queen or deprive or depose her of or from the Stile Honour or Kingly name of the Imperial Crown of this Realm c. or leavy War against her Majesty within this Kingdom or without or move any Strangers to invade this Kingdom or Ireland c. or shall maliciously publish and declare by any printing writing word or sayings that our Soveraign Lady during her life is not or ought not to be Queen of this Realm c. or that any other person or persons ought of right to be King or Queen of the same or that our said Queen is a Heretick or Schismatick Tyrant Infidel or an Vsurper of the said Crown c. these shall he guilty of High-Treason Also if any after thirty days from the Session of this Parliament and in the life of our said Queen shall claim pretend declare or publish themselves or any other besides our said Queen to have Right or Title to have and enjoy the Crown of England or shall usurp the same or the Royal Stile Title or Dignity of the Crown or shall affirm that our said Queen hath not right to hold and enjoy the same such shall be utterly disabled during their natural lives onely to have or enjoy the Crown or Realm of England in Succession Inheritance or otherwise Then follows the Case of Succession That if any person shall hold or affirm that the Common Laws of this Realm not altered by Parliament ought not to direct the Right of this Crown or that our said Queen by the Authority of Parliament is not able to make Laws and Statutes of sufficient force c. as above Yet was not the Queen of Scots condemned upon the Statute of the 13 of Eliz. but on that made in the 27 of her Reign wherein it was provided That twenty four persons at least part being of the Privy Council and the rest Peers of the Realm should by the Queens Commission examine such as should make any open Rebellion or Invasion of this Realm or attempt to hurt the Queens person by or for any pretended Title to the Crown In which Commission I find no Bishop save the Archbishop who at first refused to act nor when the whole Parliament petitioned for the Execution do we find that the
Bishops who were denied to vote in case of Bloud did joyn or were consulted with And Cambden observes that the same day when the Sentence was pronounc'd against the Queen of Scots it was declared by the Delegates and Judges of the Kingdom That that Sentence should derogate nothing from the Right or Honour of James King of Scots but that he should be in the same Estate Order and Right as if that Sentence had never been given p. 465. So that the whole matter being considered here was no Exclusion of a Popish Successour but rather a tacit confirmation of one that was a Protestant and consequently it must be a great slander on those worthy Bishops by him named that they were zealous for such Acts of Exclusion for the business of the Queen of Scots did concern matters of Treason such as you say might exclude her out of the world as also the Reasons of Sir Simon d'Ewes tended to the taking away of her life and therefore come not home to the Case of Succession nor does Sir Simon tell us whose Reasons they were and I suspect them to be the Opinions of some private person who having spoken all-along in the plural number he discovereth himself at the end in these words God I trust in time shall open her Majesties eyes to see their cruel purposes c. P. 18. You say what another hath said before you That a Bill of Exclusion is a perfect Courtship to these Reasons True if the Heir apparent or presumptive were under the same circumstance with that Queen but 't is perfect Cruelty to endeavour the like Exclusion of a Popish Successour as such onely not onely from his Right but out of his Life And now no man else needs turn his fury or reproaches upon those Bishops you have done that sufficiently As for your Protestation p. 19. that if but one Reason can be given to prove a Bill of Exclusion to be unlawful which will be owned to be a Reason a week after and the owners not be ashamed you do solemnly promise to joyn in renouncing those Old Reformers and readily follow their New Guides and Lights The Apostle gives you a Reason which is of eternal verity viz. We may not do evil that good may come of it And he assures you that the condemnation of such as affirm the contrary is just Rom. 3.8 And to any but an Ignoramus that of Dan. 4.25 may serve as another Reason The most High ruleth in the Kingdom of men and giveth it to whom he will To which adde If it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest ye be found to fight against God Acts 4.39 And for your renouncing the Old Reformers you have done that with the utmost spite and reproach that all the Wit of a Julian or the Malice of a Colledge of Jesuits could invent as if they had been the Judges and Executioners of the Queen of Scots under the Notion of a Popish Successor Wherefore I would advise our Author to consider what occasion he hath given to the Enemies of that Church whereof I suppose him a Member if not a Priest to reproach her for from this Story of his no doubt it was that the scurrilous and Bedlam-Author of the Pamphlet called Crape-Gownorum hath thus commented It is plain that the Church of England men did hold King-killing or Queen-killing Doctrine which is the same thing so that if Knox Buchanan or Calvin first taught the Speculative part the other meaning those Bishops named by our Author first put it in practice and set the fatal president that others followed that is in the murder of King Charles the first for at that he aims when he threatneth us to let 641 sleep in Oblivion lest we awake 587. intimating that what was done in the process of that War viz. that barbarous Murther perpetrated on the Royal Person of Charles the First may be justified on the Principles of our Reformers Whatever may be told in Gath and published in the streets of Askalon to make those Philistims rejoyce I cannot permit this diabolical Slander to pass without a brand on the Author of it here at home and to vindicate those Worthies and silence our Adversaries the Jesuits and to prevent the ill consequents of this Forgery which may stir up the Phanaticks of this Nation to act over our former Tragedies I shall first relate the matter of fact and the grounds of that Severity which was used against that Queen and shew you the most deliberate Judgment of those Reverend Bishops in the Case of Resisting lawful Authority First As to the matter of fact it is beyond denial that the Queen of Scots married the Lord Darly a Subject to the Crown of England who being slain whether by her consent or not I will not determine but she was questioned by her Subjects for incontinent living the death of her Husband and for Tyranny and was forced to resigne her Crown to her Son then about thirteen months old so that she was no longer a Crowned head After which she raiseth an Army and is defeated by Murray and being imprisoned makes an escape into England where a Council was called to consult how to dispose of her It was resolved that to let her pass into France might prove dangerous and worse to send her back to Scotland And to prevent farther mischief she should not be dismissed from England till she had made satisfaction for the death of her Husband a Subject and Peer of England and for usurping the Arms of England and pretending a Title to the Crown During her restraint here she contrives many Plots against the Peace of the Nation both with France by the Duke of Guise and D'Alva Governour of the Netherlands and at home by the Dukes of Northumberland to whom she promised marriage and Westmoreland who raised a Rebellion in the North for her Rescue both which suffered the first was beheaded the last died in Exile By her instigation a Bull was sent from Rome discharging the Subjects of England from their Obedience to the Queen Then follows the Conspiracy of Tho. and Edw. Stanly Sons to the Earl of Darby Several Invasions were also made in Ireland to disturb that Kingdom by the joynt Counsels of the King of Spain and Pope Gregory the 13th and a swarm of Jesuits are sent into England and contrive with Throgmorton Paget and others for another Insurrection which was prevented The Nobles and Gentry seeing no hopes of Peace through such daily practices entered into an Association to prosecute all those even to death that should attempt any thing against the Queen and prevailed for a closer restraint of her which notwithstanding one Babington conveyed Letters between Her and France and engaged divers to murther the Queen which was discovered to Secretary Walsingham as also the manner how the Queen of Scots conveyed Letters to the Spanish Embassador and other Confederates whereupon fourteen of them were executed and in the Parliament
from abroad which may happen upon such an Exclusion for Regum afflictae fortunae facile multorum Opem alliciant ad misericordiam maximeque eorum qui aut Reges sunt aut vivunt in Regno quod Regale iis nomen magnum sanctum esse videatur The oppressed estate of Kings easily moves many to pitie especially them who are either Kings themselves or do live in a Kingdom to whom the name of a King is August and Sacred Saith the great Orator Pro lege Manil. Let us therefore leave the King and his Great Council to their free Determinations and acquiesce in the sage advice of Gamaliel St. Paul's Master Acts 5.39 Let us refrain from these things for if this counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest haply ye be found even to fight against God And I shall conclude the business of Exclusion with the Determination of Bishop Sanderson whose single Judgment will outweigh in an equal balance all the Opinions of the Opposers You have it p. 350. of his book de Obligatione Conscientiae I think saith he that an Hereditarie Kingdom may not lawfully be changed for an Elective as in and by the Exclusion it is like to be nor for any other form of Government either by the People alone nor by the People and Nobles joyntly nor by the whole bodie of the People in their greatest latitude that is the People Nobles and the King consenting together unless perhaps the Royal Progenie should so totally fail that there is not one surviving who may claim it as his due by Right of Inheritance And let it be considered that he wrote this before the Bill of Exclusion was ever dreamt of And now I cannot but reflect upon the Prognosticators and Wizards of our Time that amuse the people with the fancies and fears which their own guilt hath created as if we should be all swallowed up in a moment and there were a fatal necessitie of endless miseries attending us such as Mr. Baxter in his Prognostication and our Author who p. 89. tells us of such a dismal prospect as makes every honest mans heart to shake I remember some years since upon the great Eclipse of the Sun Lilly and some others made such a dismal representation of it as struck a terror into a great part of the Countrie and made them take home their Cattel to their houses and seek Sanctuary themselves in the Churches as if Dooms-day were come when the cause was natural and nothing fell out but according to that course which God had appointed for the Motion of the Heavenly bodies Though wise men are not moved at such bugbears yet they have an ill Aspect on the people to dispose them for such Commotions as may promote the interest of discontented and designing men For my part I shall continue to pray for his Royal Highness as our Liturgy directs and if it be the will of God to send us a Popish Successor to punish us for our resistance of a Protestant King whose bloud still cries for Vengeance I had rather die for not resisting him than to be as instrumental in procuring a Bill of Exclusion as this man would be and as successful as he can hope to be at my death to have it written on my Tomb Here lieth the first Author of this Sentence RATHER THAN THE DVKE OF Y. SHOVLD NOT BE EXCLVDED WE WILL EXCLVDE THE GLORIOVS FAMILY OF THE STVARTS And I will yet pray against the wickedness of these men Lord cloath all such his enemies with shame but upon his head and the heads of his seed let the Crown flourish I perceive Mr. Hunt to be a great devoto to some kind of Parliaments and that which was convened in the first of King James was one that consisted of Wise Loyal and Pious persons I intreat him therefore to consider what was Enacted by them in their Recognition 1o. Jacobi where after the Preamble it is thus declared We therefore your most humble and Loyal Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled do from the bottom of our hearts yield to the Divine Majesty all humble thanks and praises not onely for the said unspeakeable and inestimable benefits and blessings above-mentioned but also that he hath further enriched your Highness with a most Royal Progeny of most rare and excellent gifts and forwardness and in his goodness is like to encrease the happy number of them And in most humble and lowly manner do beseech your most excellent Majesty that as a memorial to all Posterities amongst the records of your High Court of Parliament for ever to endure of our Loyalty Obedience and hearty and humble Affection it may be published and declared in this High Court of Parliament and enacted by the authority of the same That we being bounden thereunto N. B. by the Laws of God and man do recognize and acknowledge and thereby express our unspeakable Ioyes that immediately upon the dissolution and decease of Elizabeth sate Queen of England the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and of all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same and by inherent Birth-right N. B. and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come to your most Excellent Majesty as being lineally justly and lawfully next and sole Heir of the Blood-Royal of this Realm as is aforesaid And that by the goodness of God Almighty and lawful right of Descent under one Imperial Crown your Majesty is of the Realms and Kingdoms of England Scotland France and Ireland the most potent and mighty King and by Gods goodness more able to protect and govern us your loving Subjects in all peace and plenty than any of your noble Progenitors and thereunto we most humbly and faithfully submit and oblige our selves our heirs and posterities for ever until the last drop of our bloods be spent And we beseech your Majesty to accept the same as the first-fruits in this High Court of Parliament of our Loyalty and Faith to your Majesty and your Royal Progeny and Posterity for ever Now as Grotius says a People may be presumed to be the same that they formerly were till some publick act shew that their judgments are altered How dares Mr. Hunt then to say p. 47. If any man is so vain as to say that an unalterable course of Succession is established among us by Divine Right I say he is a man fitted to believe Transubstantiation and the Infallibility of the Pope c. And if any man shall add that this is the Doctrine of the Reformation and adventure to tell the people so they are the most impudent falsaries that ever any Age produced when there is scarce a Child but hath heard what was done and maintained by the Clergy in the Case of Mary Queen of Scots How can this man who doubtless is an Ignorâ—mus if he never knew