assembled the Elders of Israel and all the rulers of the Tribes and the heads of the families of the children of Israel to Jerusalem And here too not a word of the People and yet Sir Edw. Coke calls them both Parliaments and so no doubt but they were somewhat like it or otherwise so many succeeding Centuries had never took pattern from them Not to run so far from home What was our Saxon Witenage mote Micel Synods Micel Gemotes or Great Councils but so many Assemblies of the Wise men concerning whom it is not to be presumed but that they were of the first rate the lump of the People as I so lately toucht it being for many Ages before and after not bred to Letters and consequently more apt for Blows than Arguments and readier to cut the knot in two with their Swords than unty it with their Tongues and in all the Saxon Annals we find the principal or chief Wites or Wise men of the Nation the Assembly of Gods Servants the Clergy then so called Aldermen or Earls Great men Chiefest men Noblemen the constituent parts of those great Councils but no Commons to be found or any that represented them Neither does Sir Edw. Coke in any Authority of his before the latter years of Henry 3. prove any where that the Commons at that time were any such part of those Parliaments for if they had there is no question but he would have nam'd them also as he doth those others that made up those Parliaments Rex Eldredus convocavit Magnates Episcopos Proceres Optimates ad tractandum de publicis negotiis regni King Eldred saith he call'd together his Earls Bishops Barons and Chief men but not a word again of the Commonalty And with this agrees the learned Mr. Selden where we have several other instances to the same purpose but not one word in any of them touching the Commons And as the Saxon Great men were only present in their Great Councils so were only the Norman Barons and their Great men in those of the Conqueror for we often meet Arch-Bishops Bishops Earls Barons but no where find the least mention of the Commons neither is it to be believ'd that his new acquest would yet suffer him to trust a People he had so lately conquer'd or that he made to himself other measures than what he took from his Sword And as to William Rufus his time we find it the same for in the sixth year of his Reign there was a Great Council held at Winchester and in the seventh another at Rockingham and in the tenth De statu regni acturus Episcopos Abbates quosque regni Proceres in unum praecepti sui sanctione egit Being to order some Affairs of the Realm he commanded together the Bishops Abbats and all the Nobility of the Kingdom and yet all this while not a word of the Commons In like manner albeit in the first of Henry 1. Clerus Angliae Populus universus c. the Clergy and all the People were Summon'd to Westminster yet here the word Populus is used as contradistinct to the Clergy to which it is opposed and denotes not any distinct State or Order among Secular men or Laicks but an Order and Estate of men distinct from the Ecclesiasticks or Clergy these two words of Clerus and Populus being the two general States or Orders into which all mankind is divided And so he cites it as quoted by Sir Will. Dugdale touching the Coronation of King Egbert Veniunt Wintoniam Clerus Populus The Clergy and People came to Winchester To which also Mr. Selden gives a great light when of the same Council he saith Ad commune concilium Baronum meorum is mentioned in it Or what means that other of the third of the same King wherein they are call'd Primates utriusque ordinis The Chiefs of both Orders i. e. of the Clergy viz. the Lords Spiritual and of Laity viz. the Nobles who are also called Principes Regni The Chief or Head men of the Kingdom of which also we have several instances in that beloved Physician 's ingenuious learned Answer to Mr. Petit. Neither does it appear that the Great Councils in King Stephen's time consisted of any other than the Clergy and the Nobility there being not the least mention of the Milites or Liberi homines Knights or Free-men or that they acted in them But from these Usurpations we come to Hen. 2. who Robert Duke of Normandy being dead came in upon a rightful Title from his Grand-father Henry 1. and yet the Great Council at Clarendon which was the 10th of his Reign consisted only of Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbats Priors Earls and Chief men of the Kingdom and albeit Mr. Selden as himself from Hoveden says That Clerus and Populus Regni the Clergy and People of the Land were then Assembled it appears not that any other Estate was meant by the word Populus than the Lay Nobles For at the great Council of Northampton which was the following year Rex Statuens celebrare solenne Concilium omnes qui tenebant de Rege in Capite mandari fecit The King having resolv'd to hold a Great Council he Summon'd thither all those that held of him in Capite i. e. in Chief Now to hold in Chief of the King is to hold of him immediately and merely as King and of his Crown as of a Seigneury in Gross and in Chief above all other Seigneuries and not as of or by means of some Honor Castle or Mannor belonging to the Crown And in the preceding leaf Mr. Selden says Tenere de Rege in Capite habere possessiones sicut Baroniam are Synonimies and to hold in Chief and to have their Possessions as Baronies was to have the right of sitting in Councils with the rest of the Barons concerning which it does not yet appear that the Commonalty at that time had any From thence and during the Reign of King Richard the First and until the 15th of K. John we find it the same only at that time the King being at Rochel in France commits the custody of England to the Bishop of Winchester then Chief Justice and writes to his Barons Knights and to all his Feudataries or Vassals thro England That he had received the Popes Letters touching the release of the Interdict under which the Kingdom then lay and of which I toucht before which he had sent to the said Bishop and therefore requires them as of whose kindness and fidelity he had full confidence that according to what the said Bishop should then say unto them they would effectually give their advice and aid as in like manner he writes to several other Cities and Burroughs thereby earnestly requiring them that according to what the said Bishop shall give them to understand that they effectually apply themselves to give him a supply towards the relaxation
in the Case of the County-Palatine of Wexford reported by Sir John Davys at that time Attorney-General of Ireland As also the County-Palatine of Tipperary formerly enjoy'd by the Ancestors of his Grace James Duke of Ormond c. the present Lord Lieutenant of the same and granted restored and confirm'd to him by Letters-Patents at Westminster the 22. of April in the 14th of this King and not long afterward confirmed by Act of Parliament in Ireland and whence also he bears it as a part of his Titles Dominus Regalitatum Libertatum Comitatus Palatini Tipperarii Nor is this all The Kings of England have created Kings within their own Dominions and for such has the world received them So King Henry the Second in the 13th year after his coming into Ireland made his Son John King of Ireland And Henry the Third his Son Edward the First Lord of Ireland and well own'd the doing it albeit until the 33 Henry 8. they wrote but Lords themselves for their Dignity was merely Royal as having their Justices Custodes or Lord Lieutenants and all things belonging to the Royal Estate and Majesty of a King And Sir Edw. Cooke tells us he has seen a Charter made in 20. H. 6. to Henry Beuchamp Earl of Warwick whereby he was created King of the Isle of Wight and as saith Mr. Selden Crowned King of the same 6. The Power of Pardoning which is a Royal Act of Grace whereby the King either before Conviction Sentence or Attainder or after forgiveth any Crime Punishment Execution Right Title Debt or Duty Temporal or Ecclesiastical on which account he may restore a man that has lost Liberam Legem by being recreant As also all that is forfeited to him by Attainder c. he may restore by his Charter but if by the Attainder the Blood be corrupted that must be restored by Act of Parliament of which more at large in Sir Edw. Cooke Titles Pardons and Restitutions 7. To appoint the Value Weight and Stamp of his Coin and make Forein Coin currant by Proclamation As to the first we need go no farther than the smallest Piece and that will tell us whose Image and Superscription it is and therefore called the Kings Money and so King John brought the Irish Mony to the English Standard And as to the other the same Sir Edw. Coke tells us That the King by his absolute Prerogative may make any Forein Coin lawful Mony of England at his pleasure by his Proclamation And in another place putting both together he says That lawful Mony of England is of two sorts viz. The English Mony either of Gold or Silver Coined by the Kings Authority or Forein Coin by Proclamation made currant within this Realm 8. To receive Liege Homage of another inferior King or Homager and such was our Henry the Second to the old Kings of Ireland who are stiled Reges Reguli and may more particularly appear in a grant of his to Roderick King of Connaught that he should enjoy his Territory under a certain Tribute Et quam diu ei fideliter serviet ut sit Rex sub eo Paratus ad servitium suum sicut homo suus And that Oneale is sometime stiled Rex and sometime Regulus denotes the Subject-Kings of that Country And long before the Conquest Edgar had eight Reguli or inferior Kings Homagers to him who at one time row'd him on the River Dee himself guiding the Helm and afterwards glorying to his Nobility that then every one of his Successors might boast himself to be King of England when he receiv'd the like Honor from so many Kings his Attendants So Reignald Lord or King of Man Cui etiam fas erat Corona aurea Coronari and those of Ireland did Homage to our Henry the Third And John Baliol King of Scotland and David Prince of Wales to Edw. the First and James the First to Henry the Sixth for the Kingdom of Scotland So that Liege-Lord is he that acknowledgeth no Superior and a Liegeman is he that oweth Liegance to his Liege-Lord and so the word is frequently us'd in our Statutes viz. The Kings Liege-People And if such a one shall be in open War or Rebellion or joyn with a Forein Enemy against the King he shall not be ransom'd or proceeded with as an Enemy but as a Traytor because it is Contra Ligeantiam suam debitam and so the Indictment runs Such was the case of David Prince of Wales aforesaid who had judgment of Treason given against him for levying War against Edw. 1. for that his was within the Homage and Ligeance of the King 9. Lastly to bear those Titles only proper to Sovereign Princes apart from all others as being indivisible and incommunicable And here not to insist on the words Dei gratia which are familiarly seen in the Titles of the Kings of Europe and Princes of the Empire Spiritual Lords both abroad and at home have of elder times frequently us'd it in their Stiles and in a Summons to our Parliaments and Writs to Assemble or Prorogue the Convocation the King gives it to the Arch-Bishops as Rex c. Reverendissimo in Christo Patri Predilatoque fideli Consiliario nostro A. eadem Gratia Archiepiscopo Cant. c. But in Warrants and Commissions to them it is generally omitted and never us'd by themselves when they wrote to the Pope Emperor or a King but thus A. licet indignus c. Archiepiscopus or Episcopus B. c. whereby the present use of it among our selves is easily reconcil'd in that they receive the Attribute not give it The Kings of England are in the second and third person commonly stiled by that abstract of Majesty as your Majesty his Majesty which came into the Kingdoms of Christendom from the use of it in the Roman Empire the word in it self denoting all kind of special Dignity and if as we should say in English A Greatness And to peruse our Statutes from Magna Charta to our own time the most usual expressions are Our Lord the King The King our Sovereign Lord Most Excellent Highness Royal Majesty Noble Grace Most Excellent Majesty Most Royal Majesty Dread Sovereign Lord Most Gracious Sovereign and as we use it now Most Excellent Majesty and Sacred Majesty which are but the same Attribute in other words and in their own nature so unalienable from Sovereignty that they can by no process of time be Prescrib'd against or usurp'd upon neither can it at all be call'd an Usurpation as if it were proper only to God unless we as well deny Wisdom Power Clemency or any other quality to be attributed to men because those also as all else which is great or good are Primarily in him And so I have done with the marks of Sovereignty as they are generally receiv'd and now if there wanted any thing to
the further proof of this Sovereign Imperial Monarchy There are yet other Regalities and Prerogatives which the Common Laws of England have ever allowed and never doubted but to be inherent in their Kings And hence it is that the King cannot be said to be a Tenant because he hath no Superior but God Almighty And if the King and a common Person joyn in a Foundation the King shall be the Founder for the thing being entire the Kings Prerogative shall be preferr'd That he shall have the Escheat of all Lands whereof a person attaint of High Treason was seiz'd of whomsoever they were holden That there is no Occupant against the King nor shall any one gain his Land by priority of Entry for Nullum tempus occurrit Regi That half Blood is no impediment to the descent of the Lands of the Crown as was seen in the Case of Queen Mary who was but of half Blood to King Edward 6. and Queen Elizabeth to both for the quality of the Person alters the Descent That the accession of the Crown purges all Attainders as may be seen in the respective Cases of Henry 6. and Henry 7. whose Attainders were no other than a present disability which upon their assuming the Royal Dignity were ipso facto void That the word King imports his Politick Capacity which is never in minority and never dies but extends to all his Successors as well Kings as Queens That he is King before Coronation for besides that the Law suffers no interregnums he holds it by inherent Birth-Right the Coronation being but a Royal Ornament and outward Solemnization of the Descent and not unlike the publick Celebration of Matrimony between a Man and a Woman which adds nothing to the substance of the Contract but declares it to the world That the Ligeance of his Subjects is absolute and indefinite and due to the natural Person of the King by the Law of Nature which is immutable and part of the Law of the Land before any Municipal or Judicial Law and that an Act of Parliament cannot bar the King of the Service of his Subject which the indelible Law of Nature gave him it being a part of the Law of the Land by which subjection is due to him And therefore the Statute That no man notwithstanding any non obstante shall serve as Sheriff above one year bars not the King from dispensing with it And William Lord la Ware altho disabled by Act of Parliament was nevertheless called to Parliament was nevertheless called to Parliament by Queen Elizabeth by Writ of Summons for she could not be barr'd of the Service and Counsel of any of her Subjects Add to this That all Restrictions upon his Sovereign Liberty are void and therefore Publick Notaries made by the Emperor claiming to exercise their Offices in England were prohibited as being against the Dignity of a Supreme King And with this agrees the Statute-Law of Scotland made in the Parliament of the 5th of King James the Third cap. 3. In short when King John had subjected his Crowns of England and Ireland to Pope Innocent the Third and had become his Feodary under the annual Acknowledgment of one thousand Marks to the Pope and his Successors and when afterwards the Arrearages thereof were demanded the Parliament of that year answered That no King can put himself or his Realm in Subjection without their Assent And how far that Assent reach'd we have it in the 42 of Edward the Third where in full Parliament it was further declar'd That they could not Assent to any thing in Parliament that tended to the Disinherison of the King or his Crown whereunto they were Sworn which is no more than what the Statute that prescribes the Oath of the Kings Justices has in it viz. Ye shall not Counsel nor Assent to any thing that may turn him the King in Damage or Disinherison by any manner way or colour And to the same effect are the several Oaths of the Lord Chancellor and Lord Treasurer You shall not know nor suffer the Hurt or Disinheriting of the King or that the Rights of the Crown be decreased by any means as far as you may lett it In a word to omit many others All such things whereof no Subject can claim Property as Treasure-trove Wreck Estrays c. belong to the King by his Prerogative which extends to all Powers and Preheminences which the Law hath given the Crown and is a principal part of the Law of the Land and is called by Bracton Libertas Privilegium Regis both words signifying the same thing i. e. The Kings Prerogative And by Britton Droit le Roy The Kings Right And in the Register Jus Regium which is the same and Jus Regium Coronae The Royal Right of the Crown And since it has not been wound up so high as to endanger the strings what reason is there to wish it let down so low as to render it profanable by the People When the Philistines return'd the Ark of God which they had taken the men of Beth-Shemesh must be prying into it and he that has a mind to know the effect of their curiosity may read it in Samuel God slew one hundred and fifty thousand of them But enough of the Common-Law we 'l in the next place consider what the Statute-Law in further affirmance of the Common-Law saith to this matter And here it cannot be thought saith Sir Edw. Coke that a Statute made by the Authority of the whole Realm will recite a thing against the Truth I 'll begin with that of Richard 2. commonly call'd the Statute of Premunire in which it is declared That the Crown of England hath been ever so free that it is in no earthly subjection but immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regality of the same Crown and to none other In like manner the Statute of H. 8. against Appeals to Rome saith That by divers sundry old Authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the world governed by one Supreme Head and King having the Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the same unto whom a Body Politick compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in terms by names of Spiritualty and Temporalty have bounden and owen to bear next to God a natural and humble Obedience And near the middle of the said Statute it is further called the Authority and Prerogative of the said Imperial Crown And in the 25 of the same it is called The Imperial Crown and Royal Authority recognising no Superior under God but only your Grace And in the following Chapter besides the frequent use of the word Imperial the Kings thereof are stiled Kings and Emperors of this Realm
A DISCOURSE OF Monarchy More particularly of the IMPERIAL CROWNS OF England Scotland and Ireland According to the Ancient Common and Statute-Laws of the same With a Close from the whole As it relates to the Succession of his ROYAL HIGHNESS JAMES Duke of York DEUT. 4.32 Interroga de diebus antiquis qui fuerunt ante te ex die quo creavit Dominus hominem super terram c. LONDON Printed by M. C. for Jos. Hindmarsh Bookseller to his Royal Highness at the Black Bull in Cornhil 1684. To the most Honorable JAMES Duke of ORMOND c. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland May it please your Grace IT was a saying of the late Earl of Ossory Lord Deputy of Ireland your Son at what time he deliver'd up the Sword of that Kingdom to the Lord Lieutenant Berkeley Action is the life of Government Common experience tells us Usefulness is the end of Action and without which like a Glass-eye to a Body a man rather takes up a room than becomes any way serviceable The sense of this put me on those thoughts I herewith present your Grace and unto whom more fitly than to a Person in the defence of which few men sate longer at Helm or suffer'd more You that hung not up your Shield of Faith in the Temple of Despair and never seem'd more worthy of the great place you now fill than when farthest from it Nor am I in the so doing without some prospect of advantage to my self in as much as if the censuring Age shall handle me roughly on this account under your great Patronage I shall fight in the Shade And now my Lord I was just breaking off when it came into my head that I had in some of our late pieces found Sir Edward Coke often quoted especially to the defence of those Notions which had better slept in their forgotten Embers and therefore I thought it not altogether forein to the matter that I us'd the words of S. Peter 2 Pet. 3.16 touching S. Paul's Epistles In which saith he are some things hard to be understood which they that be unlearned and unstable wrest as also they do the other Scriptures to their own destruction I have purposely made use of him in many places as an high Assertor of Monarchy and Prerogative Those that find him otherwise Habeant secum serventque Or let him lie indifferent my Argument depends not singly on him which I humbly took leave to advert and am May it please your Grace Your most Obedient Obliged humble Servant John Wilson THE CONTENTS Sect. I. THat Monarchy or the Supreme Dominion of one person was primarily intended by God when he created the World That it is founded in nature As consonant to the Divine Government And of Divine Institution Acknowledg'd by Heathens as well as Christians 1 Sect. 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 origiginal 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 12 Sect. III. That all Governments have a natural tendency to Monarchy Their several Forms and Rotations Of Aristocracy Democracy Tyranny to be rather wisht than either Examples of Athens and Rome the first Consulate Their Tribunes several Seditions Marius and Sylla Crassus Caesar Pompey The two latter divide Caesar complemented to Rome by the Senate The Triumvirate their Proscriptions and breach No peace till Monarchy restor'd under Augustus The sense of those times touching this matter 34 Sect. IV. That the Kingdom of the Jews was a Supreme Sovereign Monarchy in which their Kings had the absolute Power of Peace and War and were Supreme in Ecclesiasticis And an Answer to that Objection That God gave them a King in his wrath 62 Sect. V. What is here intended by a Supreme Monarchy The marks of Sovereignty as the Power of making Laws and exemption from any coactive obedience to them The Power of Peace and War c. That the Kingdoms of England c. are Supreme Imperial Monarchies Those two marks of Sovereignty and seven others prov'd to be no other than what has ever been the undoubted Right of the Kings of England The Kings Sovereignty by the Common Law The like from the Statute Law Power in Ecclesiasticks And that they have justly used those Titles of King and Emperor and that from ancient times and before the Conquest 67 Sect. VI. That the King is none of the Three Estates in which two preliminary Objections are examin'd by Reason and answered by the manner of the Three Estates applying to him What the Three Estates are To presume him one of them were to make him but a Co-ordinate Power The King cannot be said to Summon or Supplicate himself How will the Three Estates be made out before the Commons came in With a short Series during the Saxons to the latter end of Henry III. in all which time they are not so much as nam'd as any constituent part of a Parliament And the time when probably they first came in to be as they are at this day one of the three Estates That the Lords Temporal were never doubted but to be an Estate Four reasons offer'd that the Lords Spiritual are one other Estate distinct from the Lords Temporal and one Act of Parliament in point With other Authorities to prove the Assertion 181 Sect. 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 181 Sect. VIII That notwithstanding the hard Law of the Kingdom the Jews paid their Kings an entire Obedience Two Objections answered The like other Nations to their Kings A third Objection answered The Precept of Obedience is without restriction Examples upon it Nor is Idolatry any ground to resist much less things indifferent The example from our Saviour in Instituting his last Supper Least of all is injury with the practice of Holy men of old in like cases And that if any ground were to be admitted that would never be wanting 189 Sect. IX The Arts of the late times in working the People from this Obedience It was to be done piece-meal The Kings Necessities answered with Complaints Plots discovered Fears and Jealousies promoted Religion cants its part Leading men some to make it Law others Gospel The examples of Corah c.
The same Game playing over again Prognostications c. The ill consequence of such Impressions The examples of Cade Tyler and others Holy League in France Solemn League and Covenant at home c. New Trains to the old Fuel Our Saviours advice to his Disciples touching the leven of the Pharisees What that and they were made applicable unto our selves 210 Sect. X. A Close from the whole by way of Enquiry Whether an Exclusion of his Royal Highness the Duke of York may be of more advantage or disadvantage The advantage propos'd and whether an Act for security of Religion may not be as safe as a Bill of Exclusion The moral impossibility of introducing the Romish Religion tho the Prince were of that Persuasion The reason why the Kingdom follow'd the Reformation under Edw. VI. Qu. Mary Qu. Elizabeth That the case cannot be the same at this day The Crown of England an ancient Entail with the danger of Innovations Objection That such things have been done So has a King been murder'd More particularly answered in Edw. IV. Qu. Mary and Qu. Eliz. all three excluded by Parliament yet came to the Crown No man changes but in hopes of better The advantages of continuing as we are It is a bar to Pretenders The same as to Competitors Disorders avoided No new Family to be provivided for The indignity of a Repulse avoided Suppose Scotland and Ireland be of another Opinion the former of which has by Parliament asserted the Right of Succession of that Crown notwithstanding any Religion c. Lastly all occasions of Jealousie taken away Objection answer'd Disadvantages that have attended the laying by the Right Heir Examples from old Rome and Vsurpations at home The Revolt from Rehoboam our loss of France With a conclusion from the whole More particularly as it relates to his Royal Highness 236 A DISCOURSE OF MONARCHY c. SECTION I. That Monarchy or the Supreme Dominion of one person was primarily intended by God when he created the World That it is founded in nature As consonant to the Divine Government And of Divine Institution Acknowledg'd by Heathens as well as Christians GOvernment is of that absolute necessity if not to the being at least to the well-being of every thing that without it nec domus ulla nec civitas c. nor House nor City nor Nation nor Mankind nor Nature nor the world it self could consist inasmuch as the stronger would devour the weaker and the whole run back again to its first Chaos and therefore the eternal Wisdom when he had created the world and stockt it with living Creatures according to their kinds as if he had done nothing while there yet wanted something more excellent to govern it made man Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altae Deerat adhuc qui dominari in caetera possit Natus homo est A creature not only capable of it and that he might the better go thro with it furnish'd out accordingly Cognati retinebat semina coeli but primarily design'd to it and however last in act yet first in projection for says the Text Let us make man c. And God created man after his own likeness c. and blessed them and said Increase and multiply c. and have dominion c. and over every thing that moveth upon the earth by which what other can there be rationally understood but the supreme Sovereignty or Dominion of one for if God Almighty had intended otherwise how easie had it been when he created our first Parents to have form'd a multitude and given them a joynt Commission to have govern'd one another or at least bade 'em gone together and agree among themselves but he foresaw it would not be and therefore to avoid confusion the inseparable companion of a multitude created but one and erected an exemplary Monarchy in him Neither will this less appear if we consider that the very laws of nature lead us to a Monarchy Natura commenta est regem saith Seneca de Clem. As among all irrational creatures who having least of reason are wholly govern'd by sense we find some one that has a preheminence above the rest of its kind And thus Birds have their Eagle Beasts their Lion and among them also every Flock its vir gregis the Fish of the Sea their Leviathan a King over the children of Pride for so Job calls him and the shout of a King may be found among Bees Rege incolumi mens omnibus una est Amisso rupere fidem Nor is it more founded in nature than consonant to the Divine government of God and a lively image and representation of him who as sole Monarch ruleth and guideth all things Look up to Heaven and we find an Hierarchy among Angels and one Star differ from another in glory yet every of them paying this homage to the Suns sovereignty that they veil their faces at his least appearance Take back again to Earth and this little world of man has but one Body and all the members of this body but one head whereon depends the will motion and sense and the greater world but one God He ruleth over the Angels than whom he made Man only inferior they over Men Men over Beasts the Soul over the Body Man again over Woman and Reason above Affection by which means every good commanding over what is less good by a certain combination of Powers all things are kept in their order whereas were there a duplex Principium of equal power as the Ancients fabled the commands must be contrary and consequently thereby either ruine one another or at least by their continual jarring disturb the harmony of the whole and therefore it is observable that albeit God who comprehended the whole system at once and unblotted nature thro all her Meanders and to every days work but that of the second said And behold it was good yet until he had put to his last finishing hand i. e. made man and giv'n him his Commission of having dominion It is not said And God saw all that he had made and they were very good and by that Divine Commission have Kings ever since reign'd there being no power but what is appointed of God who according to the similitude of his heavenly Kingdom hath given unto them the Scepters of their earthly Principalities Nor need we go far for examples we find it every where for such was Abraham taken and acknowledged by the Inhabitants when they call'd him Principem Dei and albeit Heaven be the Throne of God yet we meet with another of his on this Earth his Foot-stool for so we find it express'd Solomon sate on the Throne of the Lord as King And in like manner the Queen of Sheba God set thee on his Throne to be King for the Lord thy God As also David is called his King and his Anointed He giveth strength to his King c. and
of Peace and War and this appears within the very letter of their demands viz. That he might judg them which is the power of Peace and go out before them and fight their Battels which is the power of War And what Authority he had in matters of the Church may be seen in this That Solomon of himself thrust out Abiathar the High-Priest and appointed Zadok in his room And that even the Horns of the Altar were no Sanctuary against him in case of Treason may be also seen in Adonijah and Joab and yet we cannot so much as gather that God was offended with him for his so doing or that his person was the less acceptable to him by reason of those matters To which if it be objected That God gave them a King in his anger I answer Moses having foretold the Israelites that when they came into the Land they would be asking a King charges them to set him over them whom God should choose which shews That a popular Election was utterly forbidden them yet they weary of such Judges as had succeeded Moses and whom God had raised to rule them as Kings demand a King like all the Nations i. e. of a more absolute power than those Judges had and therefore not staying Gods time but taking upon them to be their own Carvers he is said to have given them a King in his wrath in that they had not rejected Samuel but himself who had appointed Samuel In acknowledgment of which and as sensible of their error they ever after accepted their Kings by Succession unless only when their Prophets had anointed and ordained another by Gods special designation Nor do we find any one in Holy Writ chosen King by the Children of Israel but Abimelech the Bastard of Gideon and Creature of the People who also came in by Conspiracy and Murder And as it seems probable Jeroboam who made Israel to sin for they had sent to him at that time a discontented Fugitive in Egypt and he headed them in a complaint of Grievances to Rehoboam which occasion'd the revolt of the ten Tribes both which yet reigned as wickedly as they entred unjustly and perish'd miserably SECTION V. What is here intended by a Supreme Monarchy The marks of Sovereignty as the Power of making Laws and exemption from any coactive obedience to them The Power of Peace and War c. That the Kingdoms of England c. are Supreme Imperial Monarchies Those two marks of Sovereignty and seven others prov'd to be no other than what has ever been the undoubted Right of the Kings of England The Kings Sovereignty by the Common Law The like from the Statute Law Power in Ecclesiasticks And that they have justly used those Titles of King and Emperor and that from ancient times and before the Conquest I Have now brought my Discourse whither I first design'd it and therefore to avoid confusion which ever attends the being too general I shall first shew my Reader what I mean by a Supreme Imperial Monarch at this day and in the next place prove the Kings of England c. are such And lastly 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 and justly from ancient Ages used it as no less proper to their own independent greatness As to the first The Regal Estate and Dignity of a King is of two sorts The one Imperial and Supreme as England France Spain c. who owing no service to the Majesty of another is his own Master and hath an absolute Power in himself no way subject to the controul of another and of such a one speaks Martial Qui Rex est Regem Maxime non habeat The other an Homager or Feudatary to another King as his Superior Lord such as that of Navar and Portugal of old to Castile Granada and Leon to Aragon Lombardy Sicily Naples and Bohemia to the Empire six parts of the Saxon Heptarchy who acknowledged the seventh Anglorum Rex primus and such was Aella King of Sussex the Kings of Man and others of whom I shall have occasion to speak hereafter hereafter The first of these is what I intend and will be the better made out if we cast our eyes a little on the marks of Sovereignty and then consider wherein they differ from our own Laws And amongst others we find these 1. The Power of making Laws and so what our English Translation calls Judah my Law-giver is in the vulgar Latin Juda Rex meus Judah my King This power being one of the principal ends of Regal Authority and was in Kings by the Law of Nature long before Municipal Laws had any Being the people at that time being govern'd by a natural equity which by the Law of Nature all were bound to observe And so the Poet Remo cum fratre Quirinus Jura dabat populo The like of King Priam Jura vocatis More dabat populis And of Augustus Legesque tulit justissimus Auctor So Cicero speaking of Julius Caesar as a Law-giver saith thus Caesar si ab eo quaereretur quid egisset in Toga Leges se respondisset multas praeclaras tulisse Though many yet received Laws at the will of their Prince and thus Barbaris pro legibus semper imperia fuerunt which word barbarous at that time carry'd no disgrace with it but was apply'd to them that spoke a strange Language And so the Hebrews called the Egyptians of all other Nations the most civiliz'd and learned for that they us'd the Egyptian Tongue and not the Hebrew as we have it in the Psalmist When Israel came out of Egypt and the house of Jacob de gente barbaro from a people of strange language And as they gave Laws to others so were they loosed from the force of them themselves i. e. from all coactive Obedience or Obligation to any written or positive Law Thus M. Antony when press'd by his Cleopatra to call Herod in question answer'd It was not fitting a King should give an account of what he did in his Government it being in effect to be no King at all And to the same purpose Pliny Ereptum principi illud in principatu beatissimum quod non cogitur Another mark of Sovereignty is the power of Peace and War and which as Bodin says was never doubted to be in a King In like manner to create and appoint Magistrates especially such as are not under the command of others The power of the last appeal To confer Honors To pardon Offenders To appoint the Value Weight and Stamp of his own Coin and make Forein Coin currant by Proclamation To receive Liege Homage of an inferior King And bear those Titles of Sacred and Majesty only proper to Sovereign Princes apart from all others of
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
to the known Laws of the Land for Omnis sub Rege ipse sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo Every man is in subjection to the King and he to none but God and so the Oath of Supremacy declares him the onely Supreme Governor of this Realm of which more hereafter when I come to speak of the Statute-Law and therefore if the King refuse to do right seeing no Writ can issue against him there is a place for Petition and if that prevail not Satis ei erit ad poenam saith the same Bracton quod Dominum habeat ultorem And with this agreeth that of Horace Regum timendorum in proprios greges Reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis And in this respect a Prince is not loosed from the Law for as much as concerneth the directive Power of it but having not the Law becomes a Law to himself as well knowing Observantior aequi Fit Populus nec ferre negat cum viderit ipsum Auctorem parere sibi 2. As to the Power of Peace and War It is the right of the King saith Fitzherbert to defend his Kingdom as well against the Sea as against Enemies which implies that it is his right to defend it against Enemies and how can he do it without the right of his Sword when if he should be oblig'd to pray in Aid of others perhaps they may be of another mind or take up so much time in the Debate that the Kingdom may be lost ere they resolve what to do And this I take to be one of the effects of Con-si-de-ra-ti-on in those matters whose good or ill fortune solely depends on Expedition and Secresie for Dangers as the Lord Bacon saith are better met half way than by keeping too long a watch upon their approaches for if a man watch too long 't is odds he will fall asleep But to proceed Sir Edw. Cooke says no Subject can levy War within the Realm without Authority from the King unto whom it only belongeth and that it was High-Treason at the Common Law before the Statute De proditionibus And in Calvin's case he makes it clear That to make Leagues or denounce War only belongs to the King who without his Subjects may grant Letters of safe Conduct and Denization and that this high point of Prerogative Royal cannot be conferred upon any other it being a right of Majesty and among the badges of Supreme Power And now one would think this were enough and yet a late Statute of this Kingdom makes it yet clearer it being thereby declared That the sole Supreme Government Command and disposition of the Militia and all Forces by Sea and Land and of all Forces and places of Strength is and by the Law of England ever were the undoubted right of his Majesty and his Royal Predecessors Kings and Queens of England and that both or either of the Houses of Parliament cannot nor ought to pretend to the same nor can nor lawfully may raise or levy War Offensive or Defensive against his Majesty his Heirs and lawful Successors c. all which is not introductive of a new Law but declaratory of the old as may be further seen by the penning thereof And now what can be added more but the Purse without which what 's the Sword but as the Greek Proverb has it A Bow without a Bow-man For in as much as Mony is the Sinews of War and Peace firmamentum belli ornamentum pacis they that hang the Sword on one side and the Purse on the other seem to me to hazard both for neither can any sudden danger of which the King was ever thought the Judg be stav'd off nor War carried on nor the Publick Peace be long preserv'd without it And therefore on such occasions have Parliaments advis'd and assisted the King in supplying his Wants without directing him it seeming hard that he should have Power to Proclaim War and not be able to maintain it and be bound to defend his Subjects but deny'd the means Qui dirimit medium destruit finem 3. As to the creation and appointing Magistrates and Officers especially such as are not under the command of others this also resides solely in the King for besides what I have said in the last Paragraph touching his sole Power in the ordering and disposing the Militia and all Forces by Sea and places of Strength by Land His is the appointing all the great Officers and Ministers of the Realm whether Spiritual or Temporal the highest immediately by himself the inferior mediately by Authority derived from him and as it were De lumine lumen So the King appoints the Lord Commissioner and all other the grand Ministers and Officers of Scotland and the Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy Lords Justices and all other the grand Ministers and Officers of Ireland who also but in his Kings name appoint under him according to the extent of their respective Commissions so the Kings of England have and may at this day by Letters Patents make a Prorex Locum tenens or Guardian of the Realm before whom in their absence in remotis a Parliament may be held And such was Edward Duke of Cornwal 13 Edw. 3. Lionel Duke of Clarence 21 Edw. 3. John Duke of Bedford 5 Henry 5. And the Test of the Writ of Summons shall be in the Guardians name or by Commission under the great Seal to certain Lords of Parliament authorise them to hold a Parliament the King being then in the Realm but indisposed and such was that 3 Edw. 4. to William Lord Arch-Bishop of York and that other 28 Eliz. to John Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and others ad inchoandum c. ad Procedendum c. ad faciendum omnia singula c. nec non ad Parliamentum adjournandum Prorogandum c. And so are Parliaments held in Scotland and Ireland before the Lords Commissioners Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy c. of the respective Kingdoms 4. The Power of the last Appeal i. e. from whose Sentence no Appeal lies The only person besides the Kings of England that ever pretended to it here was the Pope tho yet the first attempt ever made that way was by Anselme Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in the Reign of King William Rufus but it took no effect And the Arch-Bishop concerning himself too much touching the Jurisdiction of the Pope in England the King told him Ad Officium Imperatoris spectat c. That it belong'd to the Emperor to make whom he pleas'd Pope and that for the same reason no Arch-Bishop or Bishop within his Realm should yield any subjection to the Court or Pope of Rome and chiefly in this respect cum ipse omnes libertates haberet in regno suo quas Imperator vindicabat in Imperio That he had the same Prerogative in his Kingdom that the Emperor claim'd in the Empire And
when Pope Innocent the Third had against the declar'd will of King John caused Stephen Langton to be Elected Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and after that confirm'd him and wrote to the King to receive him the King returns that he the Pope had subverted the Liberties of his Crown and that therefore he would prohibit all People going to Rome and from making appeals thither which confirms my former instance and that this Power was always in the King however for a time it might have happen'd to be neglected for otherwise it had been a vain thing in him to have expell'd the Monks of Canterbury as Traytors which he actually did or to have imagin'd that a Bigotted Seditious Clergy as at that time they were and to be headed by that Arch-Bishop at least no friend to the King if not his Enemy should be frighten'd with an empty Bug bear touching a matter whereof he had no cognisance had he not been satisfi'd it was in his Power to do it as well as his Father before him had done it And having thus occasionally nam'd him let me with all submission offer this to the memory of that unfortunate Prince that his designs in order to the freeing the Crown from Forein usurpation were mighty and that he came short in what Henry the Eighth afterwards effected was not that he was less able but his times worse for considering the unsettled condition of those times and at what disadvantages he came in what wonder if he were oppress'd by a Faction when deserted by his Subjects who otherwise had never suffer'd him to have made that Crown to the defence of which they had all sworn tributary which many years afterward when the Arrears of that Tribute were demanded was too late tho effectually enough declar'd in Parliament he could not do nor they consent to the doing it But to proceed When after this the Sea of Rome would be yet intermedling it was by all the States of Parliament severally examin'd and answering each State one by one personally for it self unanimously Declar'd That the Pope's awarding any Processes or Sentences of Excommunication c. against any Bishops or other Spiritual Persons for executing Judgments given in the Kings Courts was clearly in derogation of the Kings Crown and Regality used and approved of the time of all his Progenitors and which they would maintain as they were bound by their Liegance and thereupon Enacted That the purchasing any Bulls from Rome or elsewhere shall be a Premunire In which it is observable That as the Judges before that time were for the most part Church-men the Laity being not yet come up to Letters or where they were Rari nantes in gurgite vasto The Lords Temporal and the Commons of this Parliament were all Romanists and of what Persuasion the Lords Spiritual and their Assistants the then Judges were I leave to every man the question at that time being not matter of Religion but right of Superiority not the Church but Court of Rome And so Sir E. Cooke speaking of the first Article of the Statute of 25 H. 8. concerning the Prohibition of Appeals to Rome saith it is but declaratory of the ancient Law of this Realm And in another place The same Authority that the Pope ever exercised in this Kingdom by Usurpation was always in the King de jure With which also agrees the Lord Chief Justice Hobart That whatsoever the Pope did in this Kingdom even then when he was in his greatest height and strength was of no better force in right and justice than at the first when he was but simple Bishop of Rome which was coram non Judice and so Jus non habenti tuto non paretur 5. The Power of conferring Honors on which account he may also enable a man to assign his Surname Arms and Barony to another For as by the Laws of England all Lands within the same were originally derived from the Crown and holden of the King either mediately or immediately as Lord Paramount so also by the same Laws were all degrees of Nobility and Honor derived from the King as the Fountain of Honor. So H. 6. granted to H. Beuchamp Ut esset primus praecipuus Comes Angliae and that he should use the Title of Henricus Praecomes totius Angl c. ibid. 361. First Earl of all England c. And to the name Count or Earl which was the most ancient name of Dignity among the Saxons Edw. 3. Ang. Greg. 11. created the Title of Duke as distinct from that of Earl for in elder times they were oft synonimous with us and created his eldest Son the Black Prince then Earl of Chester into the Title of Duke of Cornwal which he created into a Dutchy and about the 18th of his Reign the most noble Order of the Garter And in the 9th of R. 2. Robert de Vere Earl of Oxford was created Marquess of Dublin And H. 6. the 18th of his Reign created John Lord Beaumont Viscount Beaumont of which Titles we find no mention in the Magna Charta 9. H. 3. for they were not at that time in being And to this yet further the Kings of England have and may at this day create a County-Palatine which none but the Emperor or a Supreme Monarch may do for whoever is owner thereof hath in that County Jura Regalia as fully as the King in Palatio Par curis solo diademate dispar So Hugh Lupus Nephew of King William the Conqueror was by him created Earl of Chester and the County given him Tenendum sibi haeredibus ita libere ad gladium sicut ipse Rex tenebat Angliam ad Coronam by which general words he had Jura Regalia within the said County and consequently a County-Palatine without express words and by force thereof he created eight Cheshire Barons So not long after his time was the County-Palatine of Durham raised And in the 10th of H. 1. the Royal Franchise of Ely In the 13th of Edw. 3. the County-Palatine of Pembroke And in the 50th year of his Reign the County of Lancaster was by him erected into a County-Palatine and by him given to his fourth Son John of Gaunt then Duke of Lancaster for life to which if any one shall say that it was De assensu praelatorum procerum Sir Edw. Coke answers for me That the King may make a County-Palatine by his Letters Patents without Parliament Add to this the three first Counties-Palatine created in Ireland by Henry the Second viz. Leinster which he granted to Earl Strongbow who had married the Daughter and Heir of M. Morough Prince of Leinster 2. Meath to Sir Hugh Lacy the Elder 3. Ulster to Sir Hugh Lacy the younger and had their Barons under them answerable to the Barons created by H. Lupus of which before Of which you may read excellent Learning
And in another of the same Kings it is called The most Royal Estate of your Imperial Crown of this Realm and the same word Imperial made use of ten other times in the same Statute to the same purpose And with this agrees the Statute of Ireland where in express words also the Kings of England are entituled Kings and Emperors of the Realm of England and of the Land of Ireland and that too five years before the Title of Lord of Ireland was altered into King And by the Act that so alter'd it it is called The Majesty and State of a King Imperial And so in the first of Qu. Eliz. English in which the Oath of Supremacy was enacted the Crown of this Realm is three times called Imperial And in the third Chapter of the same year as often And in the 5th of the same Queen that requires all Ecclesiasticks Graduates in any University or Common-Laws Officers of Court Attorneys every Member of Parliament under the degree of a Baron to take the said Oath of Supremacy before he enter the House or such Election to be deemed void calls it The Dignity of the Imperial Crown And the Act of Recognition of King James uses the same expression of Imperial four times And upon a like ground of mere Supremacy was that Act of Scotland before the Union of the Crowns wherein 't is said Our Sovereign Lord his full Jurisdiction and free Empire within this Realm Scotland And the late Oath or Test prescribed to be taken by all persons in Publick Trust in that Kingdom declares the Kings Majesty the only Supreme Governor of that Realm over all persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil And the Act of acknowledging and asserting the right of Succession in that Kingdom calls it the Imperial Crown of Scotland In all which matters I have been the more particular that I might the better evince my Reader that this Independent Sovereignty and Supremacy of the Kings of England c. has not been the opinion of any one time but the general consent of all and that our Kings hold their Crowns in chief from God and owe no precarious acknowledgments to the courtesie of the People Nor is the Kings Immediate Personal Originary Inherent Power which he executes or may execute Authoritate Regiâ Supremâ Ecclesiastica as King and Sovereign Governor of the Church of England to be less consider'd it being one of those flowers which make up his Crown and preserve it in verdure And here I question not but it will be granted that the King is the Supreme Patron of all the Arch-Bishopricks and Bishopricks of England as being all founded by the Kings of England to hold Christi Baroniam excepting that of Soder in the Isle of Man which was instituted by Pope Gregory the Fourth and may perhaps be the reason why the Bishop thereof hath neither Place nor Voice in the Parliament of England and so were at first donative Per traditionem annuli baculi Pastoralis by the delivery of a Ring and the Pastoral Staff or Crosier And the Bishop of Rome persuading Henry the First to make them Elective by their Chapters refused it But King John by his Charter recognising the Custom and Right of the Crown in former times by the common consent of his Barons granted that they should be eligible as least doubting he had so far lockt up himself as that he might not be receiv'd to disapprove or allow for before that I find That when he had given a Conge d' eslier to the Monks of Canterbury to Elect an Arch-Bishop and Pope Innocent the Third notwithstanding the Kings desires of promoting the Bishop of Norwich to it whom also they had Elected had under a Curse commanded them to choose Stephen Langton with which for fear of Excommunicacation they comply'd the King banishes the Monks as Traytors and writes to the Pope that he had subverted the Liberties of his Crown by which it appears that he lookt upon himself as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England and that no Arch-Bishop or Bishop could be put upon him without his consent and what advantage the Kingdom got by this Usurpation may be gather'd from the effects when after a more than six years Jurisdiction the King Depos'd and a free Crown put in Vassalage it only open'd a way to those future Broils between him and his Barons which lasted all his time and wanted no fuel to feed 'em till towards the latter end of his Son men began to stand at gaze and as infatuated or startled at they knew not what thought it more safety to look on than lend a hand to master it nor had they fully resolv'd what to do until the Pope having demanded Homage of Edw. 3. and the Arrears of one thousand Marks per ann for the Kingdoms of England and Ireland which had been also demanded in the 3 of Edw. 1. and in case of non-performance threatned to make out Process against the King and Kingdom then at last the scales fell from their eyes and as men got out of a dream they began to consider what they had startled at and as an argument of their recovered Senses the Lords Spiritual by themselves the Lords Temporal by themselves and the Commons by themselves unanimously resolv'd and declar'd That the King could not put Himself his Realm or his People in subjection without their Assent and albeit it might it is as saith Sir Edw. Coke Contra Legem consuetudinem Parliamenti contrary to the order and custom of Parliament because it is a disherison of the King and his Crown after which to avoid all further dispute the manner and order of Election of Arch-Bishops and Bishops and all things relating thereunto is setled by Statute viz. 1. Negatively That no one thereafter be Presented Nominated or Commended to the Sea of Rome for the Dignity or Office of any Arch-Bishop or Bishop within this Realm or any other the Kings Dominions 2 Affirmatively That at every avoidance of any Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick as before the King our Sovereign Lord his Heirs and Successors may grant to the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral Churches where the Sea of such Arch-bishoprick or Bishoprick shall happen to be void a License under the Great Seal as of old time hath been accustomed to proceed to Election of an Arch-Bishop or Bishop of the Sea so being void with a Letter missive containing the name of the person which they shall Elect or Choose by virtue of which they elect the said person c. or in case of refusal incur the Penalties of a Premunire So that upon the whole the Election in effect is but a matter of form it is the Kings meer Grant which placeth and the Bishops Consecration which maketh a Bishop Neither do the Kings of this Land use herein any other than such
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
any of his Regal Ancestors that it should appear less on his Head than theirs especially considering he is so far from not getting up to 'em that his Royal Father only excepted he has out-gone them all in his own example albeit he wanted not the too many just occasions of having been otherwise To recapitulate some few of them nor is it less than fit to burn Incense where ill Odors have been cast or rais'd To have seen then three famous Kingdoms that had so often acknowledg'd his Princely Progenitors their undoubted Heirs like Aesop's Pots broken against one another To have examin'd the Quarrel of which whatever were the pretences nothing other was in the bottom than to kill the Heir and divide the Inheritance To have beheld his Glorious Father Disarm'd by one Party and in that condition left to the growing designs of another and the merciless Cruelty of both To have consider'd him not forsaken only but ingratefully edg'd forward to his Destruction by those Mushromes whom his Royal Influence had fermented into somewhat To have recollected his many Messages fruitless Treaties and that after all condescensions nothing would content them without the Kingdom also If there be yet room for a thought to have remember'd after the Faith of both Houses given him how he was brought to Jerusalem to be Crucifi'd by the Jews To have once more remembred Him The Fountain of all Law Justice and Honor publickly arraign'd by the Tail of the People and that too under the false detorted names of Law Justice and Honor of the Nation nor without the Fucus of their Religion also brought in to sanctifie the Ordinance To have remember'd him I say Traiterously Sentenc'd by his own Subjects and as ignominiously even while the Heads of the Faction as the Phrase of that time was Were seeking God Infesto Regibus exemplo Securi percussum and Murder'd before his own Palace Kingly Government abolish'd the Name Stile Title and Test of the King alter'd into The Keepers of the Liberty of England by Authority of Parliament That notion of a Parliament too which by the same fatal blow cut themselves off also Let me not seem tedious to have remembred himself Proscrib'd and thereby made High Treason to Proclaim him King The Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy damn'd The Royal Ensigns defac'd The Coin alter'd The Regal Statue thrown down and under that Vacancy Engraven Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus Anno Libertatis restitutae primo In short to have remembred his helpless Friends either starving at Home or by not complying necessitated into Forein Arms and not the least number of them so unfortunate as to have surviv'd the Ruines of their once Families and lastly the more unhappy himself that could only look on and pity them Quis talia fando Temperet What private Gentleman could have born it But perhaps you 'l say he wanted the opportunity I think not For if we consider him as he was at that time not only return'd from his Fathers Allies but the same Profest Son of the Church of England he first went out and in that the Darling of the People what particular person or number of men might he not have singled from the Herd as a just Sacrifice to his Fathers Ashes and his own Revenge had he design'd any He had an Army at his beck The Navy regenerated All Forts and Garrisons re-inforc'd with Royalists The Country return'd to its former Allegiance and the City crying out Yea let him take all since my Lord the King is return'd to his own House in peace What I say might he not have done especially considering that such as had been obnoxious could not but expect that the Cloud must break and be afraid where it might fall and consequently ready each man to have given up his nearest Relation to save himself Et quae sibi quisque timêre Unius in miseri exitium convertere Can a Mother forget her Son Or a Son such a Father And yet Quanquam animo redit usque Pater tamen excutit omnem Rex melior he so far forgot it as to avoid the occasions of remembring it Nay which of his Enemies lookt up to him and return'd empty Was not the Childrens Bread thrown among them while the helpless Orphans scarce lickt up the Crums And has not that fulness of Bread provok'd them into wantonness They have eat drunk and now rise up to play and 't is a shrewd sign they are idle when nothing will serve them but they must be Sacrificing in a Wilderness yet what greater Testimonies could there be of an entire Forgiveness And if so this methinks should at last mind us that as Vapors rising from the Earth stay not long in the Air but fall on the same Earth again That we also as truly sensible of the Mercy return him at least the grateful Acknowledgments of an humble Obedience SECTION VIII That notwithstanding the hard Law of the Kingdom the Jews paid their Kings an entire Obedience Two Objections answered The like other Nations to their Kings A third Objection answered The Precept of Obedience is without restriction Examples upon it Nor is Idolatry any ground to resist much less things indifferent The example from our Saviour in Instituting his last Supper Least of all is injury with the practice of Holy men of old in like cases And that if any ground were to be admitted that would never be wanting I Gave an account before of that hard Law of the Kingdom given to the Jews and yet we find not throughout the Story that they did in the least repine at it but rather the contrary for when upon the Constitution of Saul some Children of Belial for so the Text calls them had despis'd him saying How shall this man save us The People whose hearts God had toucht in the next Chapter ver 12. say unto Samuel Who is he that said Shall Saul reign over us Bring the men that we may put them to death And what value they put on their Kings Person may be seen in this that Saul's Armor-bearer chose rather to kill himself than perform that last if yet I may so call it charitable Office to his distressed Master then ready to fall into his Enemies hands and praying it neither would the People suffer David to go forth before them to Battel For if we flee say they they will not be much concerned at it neither if half of us die will they care for us but thou art worth ten thousand of us In short he that was King among them did whatever pleased him And whatever the King did pleased all the people And was not this a perfect love between a King and his People was there ever a more exact or entire Obedience An Obedience to be reckon'd for Righteousness And yet what new paths do we take to our selves when if we would but examin Holy Writ we might find that every
blanch the design and however the voice may be the voice of Jacob it seldom happens but that the hands are the hands of Esau. What mischiefs did the Army of God and the Church for so they stil'd themselves in King John's time The Holy League in the time of Henry 3. of France which albeit himself entred into for the Extirpation of the Hugonoâ—s yet it was not long ere it was turn'd upon him John of Leyden and Knipperdolin in Germany The Sword of the Lord and Gideon as it was then called under John Knox in Scotland And the Solemn League and Covenant in our own times the Brands of which are it seems not so altogether extinguish'd but that they more than once began to take fire again tho the flame were prevented And do we not find that in all these a demure down look and an uplifted eye went more than half way and a mistaken violence the undisputable Character of a zeal to the cause How much therefore have the people more need of a Pendulum than Fly somewhat to moderate not multiply the motion it being here as with Gossips Tongues much easier to raise the Devil than lay him Who ever put a Sword into a mad-mans hand to keep the Peace with or entrusted an Ape to range in a Glass-shop yet such or worse must it be where the People are the Reformer who never examin what they are doing but how to run farthest from what they were last And if so what mean these new Trains to the old Fuel Jealousies Murmurings Repinings Libels Licentious Discourses false News half Whispers Disputing Excusing or Cavilling upon Directions sometimes praising the Government yet but slightly at most and that too not without some pity of Defects and ill management Ay but and a shrug It were to be wish'd but who can help it we had and may have again however a good man 't is pity and what 's all this but the blowing one up to break him or lifting him from the ground to be the surer of throwing him or is it not what the Psalmist speaks of Sagitta volans in die c. The Arrow that flieth by day and the Pestilence that walketh in darkness for tho it be not level'd at any particular mark it cannot be but that it must hit some body as being shot among a crowd and so not improperly in S. Hieroms Translation further rendred by Daemonium meridianum And truly if the Conventicles at this day as the Preamble of the Act for the Preventing and Suppressing Seditious Conventicles and Sectaries says did not under pretence of Tender Conscience contrive Insurrections why might they not be contented with enjoying their private Opinions within their own Families and any other number of persons not exceeding four But alas alas Religion is not the matter but following and Parties Is it peace Jehu What hast thou to do with peace Get thee behind me They carry 't is true peace in their mouths but their hands are making ready to Battel I 'll close this point with the double advice of our Saviour to his Disciples Beware of the leven i. e. the Doctrin of the Pharisees for the better understanding of which it is requisite that we consider them as they were that is a sort of men of the strictest Sect of the Jewish Religion appearing outwardly more than ordinarily righteous unto men but within full of hypocrisie and iniquity for they did works but to be seen of men they shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against others but enter'd not themselves they made long Prayers but under that pretence devour'd Widows houses they tyth'd Mint Annise and Cummin but neglected the weightier matters of the Law c. and therefore our Saviour calls them eight times in the same Chapter Hypocrites and their Doctrin Hypocrisie Besides as Josephus says of them they were subtil proud scrupulous such as were able openly to practise against Kings and presumed to raise War against them and among them for whereas all the Jewish Nation had by Oaths oblig'd their fidelity to Augustus these men to the number of 6000. and upwards refus'd it And truly the very word Peruschim whence the name is derived speaks little less for it comes from the Hebrew Verb Parasch which in the Conjugation Piel signifies to divide or separate in which acceptation they are by the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Separatists And by the well observing this we shall be the better enabled to follow that other Take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my name and shall deceive many for there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets c. Behold I have foretold you wherefore if they shall say unto you behold he is in the Desert Go not forth Behold he is in the secret chambers believe it not What our Saviour here said to his Disciples he said to all men in them and therefore to make it applicable to our selves when any such Prophet or dreamer of Dreams shall offer us peace in the Wilderness of a Multitude and Religion in the lurking holes or covert of a Conventicle that voice had need continually sound in our ears Go not out and believe it not be as often redoubled for much better it is that we leave the Ark to shake as it shall please God than follow any unworthy hands that may pretend even a Call to support it SECTION X. A further enquiry Whether any Exclusision of his Royal Highness the Duke of York may be of more advantage or disadvantage The advantage propos'd and whether an Act for security of Religion be not as safe as a Bill of Exclusion The moral impossibility of introducing the Romish Religion tho the Prince were of that Persuasion The reason why the Kingdom follow'd the Reformation under Edw. VI. Qu. Mary Qu. Elizabeth That the case cannot be the same at this day The Crown of England an ancient Entail with the danger of Innovations Objection That such things have been done So has a King been murder'd More particularly answered in Edw. IV. Qu. Mary and Qu. Eliz. all three excluded by Parliament yet came to the Crown No man changes but in hopes of better The advantages of continuing as we are It is a bar to Pretenders The same as to Competitors Disorders avoided No new Family to be provided for The indignity of a Repulse avoided Suppose Scotland and Ireland be of another Opinion the former of which has by Parliament asserted the Right of Succession of that Crown notwithstanding any Religion c. Lastly all occasions of Jealousie taken away Objection answer'd Disadvantages that have attended the laying by the Right Heir Examples from old Rome and Vsurpations at home The Revolt from Rehoboam our loss of France With a conclusion from the whole More particularly as it relates to his Royal Highness I Am fal'n upon an Argument of which
take away either our place or Nation and much more to raise any superstructure of their own Besides the Crown of England is an ancient old Entail the Reversion in Him by whom Kings Reign and is it not reasonable that he were first consulted before it be dockt or admitting it were to be done how are we sure that he that is to come after shall always continue of the same opinion or how are we secure he shall not be worse The Spaniards have an excellent Proverb Better is the evil we know than the good we do not know Sana Corpora difficile medicationes ferunt saith Hippocrates 't is better to make alterations in sick Bodies than sound Twigs and Saplings may be easily bow'd or remov'd but old grown Trees are not so safely ventur'd on 'T is the same in State Innovations and alterations even in little things are dangerous for it seems to acquaint the people with the sweetness of a change and that there may be somewhat yet still better which like our Philosophers of the Stone they had undoubtedly hit but that something in it unluckily miscarried But may some say have not such things been done before Was not Richard Duke of York in Henry 6. 's time declar'd by Parliament incapable of Succession Nay after he had been declared Heir apparent and was not Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth the same I grant it but 't is ill arguing à facto ad jus That because such things have been done that therefore they may be done again Examples must be judged by Laws and not Laws by Examples We have in our own times seen A King murder'd by his own Subjects and that too under the specious pretences of Religion and Law Monarchy abolish'd Allegiance made Rebellion and Iniquity establish'd by a Law And is this an Argument think ye that the same things may be yet practis'd To give it a more particular answer They were declar'd incapable of Succession 't is true but not upon any account of Religion but interest as the affairs of those times then stood but yet 't is as true that Edw. 4. Son of Richard Duke of York recover'd the Crown notwithstanding the said Declaration the only cause of the War between the Houses of York and Lancaster proceeding from the Right of one and the Possession of the other In like manner Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were both declar'd by Parliament not inheritable and excluded from all Claim or Demand to the Crown and yet they both successively Reigned notwithstanding the said Temporary Disability which it seems the accession of the Crown purg'd as well as it has been said of an Attainder and yet their different Persuasions diametrically opposite to each other No man yet ever chang'd his condition but in hopes of bettering it Hath a Nation chang'd their gods which yet are no Gods saith Jeremiah upbraiding the ingratitude of the Jews And therefore a wise man begins from the end and first considers whether that be adequate to the hazard he runs Touching the security of Religion I have already spoken and next to the glory of God on High the chiefest end of Man is peace on earth The end of War is Triumph and the end of Triumph Peace The clashing of the Steel and Flint wears out one another and brings forth nothing but Fire whereas Peace is the Balm that heals the Wounds and the Cement that fills up the Breaches of War How careful then ought we be to avoid even the beginnings of strife which Solomon aptly calls the letting out of waters and will of themselves quickly wear the breach wider Upon which it properly follows that we weigh the advantages we have by continuing as we are and the disadvantages or inconveniencies that have follow'd such Exclusions As to the former 1. The continuance of a Succession in one descent and according to proximity of Blood is a bar to Pretenders and the ordinary occasions of Mutiny Competition and Invasion are thereby taken off And to this purpose Tacitus Minoris discriminis est Principem nasci quam sumi It is less hazard to have a Prince born to hand than to be forc'd to seek one because Subjects more naturally submit to an undoubted unquestionable Title and Enemies will not be so ready to be fishing in clear water A third never attempts the bone till two are quarreling 2. We secure our selves against those disorders which such a breach opens an infallible entrance into and gives Ambition and Insolence the reins at large which seldom stop but multiply themselves and the whole State into confusion when after all the best seldom carries the day but the violent takes it by force Of which we need no further for instance than the ancient Brahon Tanistry before Hen. 2. his Conquest of Ireland 3. It takes away the danger of having a new Family to provide for Time was the Empire could have spread her wings but now she has past so many hands and been so deplum'd upon every change that she has almost lost all her best Feathers and kept little to her self but the despair of getting them back again 4. It avoids the indignity of a repulse Was ever Prince yet content to see another sit on his Throne Or did ever men reckon the Sun the less that it had suffer'd an Eclipse No mankind naturally pities any thing in distress and passionately croud to the recovering beams In short we picture Time drawing Truth out of a Pit and seldom find Majesty so sunk under water but some or other have been ever buoying it up again 5. There is a present Union and Amity between these Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland and who knows whether they may be of the same Opinion As to Ireland it has been determin'd where it shall be bound by an Act of Parliament made in England howbeit there is a Gulph between us But as to Scotland the Question was never yet put not that I speak as if the Kingdom of Scotland which never did should now begin to give England Law No nor will I believe it ever thought however were we at odds Fas est ab hoste doceri Which was the better Son he that said he would not go but went or he that said he would go but went not They have Recogniz'd and Declar'd That the Kings of that Realm deriving their Royal Power from God alone do succeed thereto according to the proximity of Blood And that no difference in Religion nor any Law nor Act of Parliament made or to be made can alter or divert the right of Succession and Lineal Descent of that Crown to the nearest and lawful Heir according to the degrees aforesaid And that by Writing Speaking or any other way to endeavour the Alteration Diversion Suspension or debarring the same by any Subjects of that Kingdom shall be High Treason So now if it
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
increase of Families Esau. Gen. 36 Gen. 14. Josh. 12. The Assyrian Monarchy The Persian The Grecian The Roman Monarchy All other ancient Nations Monarchies Bodin Selden's Tit. Hon. 10. And as universally received by the Moderns Precedent to all other Governments Arist. pol. l. 4 Lord Baeon The several Forms of Government Arist. Pol. l. 3. c. 5. And their Rotations Discourse on Livy Deca 1. Aristocracy Democracy Virgil. Ovid. Metam Tyranny to be rather wisht than either Examples in Athens c. Florus l. 1. Tacitus l. 1. Rome from the first Consulate Florus l. 1. c. 23. Their Tribunes Rosiâ— Antiq. l. 7. c. 19. Lib. 1. c. 24. Id. l 3. c. 14 15 16 17. Several Seditions Marius and Sylla In vita Syllae Fastorum l. 4. Crassus Caesar Pompey The two latter divide Flo. l. 4. c 4. Ibid. cap. 8. Lib. â— Ep. 75. Caesar complemented to Rome by the Senate God Rom. Ant. 171. Flo. l. 4. c. 7. The Triumvirate Rofin Antiq. l. 7. c. 21. Their Proscriptions Rosin Antiq. l. 7. c. 21. And Breach No peace until Monarchy restor'd Florus l. 4. c. 12. The sense of those times touching this matter Amp. in lib. memoriali c. 28. Lucan Statius 1 Sam. 8. throughout 1 Sam. 10.25 1 Sam. 8.20 1 Kings 2.27 1 Kings 25.34 Object Sol. Deut. 17.15 Judges 9.18 1 Kings 12.3 Inst. 4 343. Seld. Tit. Hon. 24. Marks of Sovereignty Power of making Laws Psal. 60.7 Virgil. Livy Psal. 114.1 And exemption from any coactive Obedience to them Joseph Ant. l. 15. c. 14. Panegyr ad Trajan Power of Peace and War De Repub. 163. Id. Bodin 182. That the Kingdom of England is a Supreme Imperial Monarchy The Kings Power in making Laws In his Resusc. fol. 153. Ibid. 154. Ibid. fol. 276 Sir E. Coke's Preface to his third Report Sir Jo. Davys Preface to his Irish Reports 36 Edw. III. cap. 15. Sir Jo. Davys Preface to his Irish Reports Sir E. Cooke Sur West 2. Inst. 4.243 Inst. 2.286 Indictment against the Earl of Areyle 1681. The Kings Power in interpreting Laws Cited by him in his Postnaci Sir H. Spelman's Gloss fol. 107. Inst. 1.99 Inst. 2.168 Vide Petition of Right and his Majesties Answer 3 Car. 1. Vide Stat. at large fol. 1433. His being exempt from their coactive force Inst. 1.99 Ibid. 73. Ibid. 110. Inst. 4.28 Ibid. 46. â—ract l. 1. c. 8. 1 Jac. Claudian The Kings absolute Power of Peace and War Nat. Brev. 113. Ess. of Delay Inst. 3.9 25 Edw. 3.2 7 Rep. 25. 13th of this King cap. 2. Sir E. Cooke Inst. 1.90 * Subscribed to by all the Judges in the case of Ship-Money and by Hatten and Crooke tho they fell off afterward Sir Will. Dugdale's Short View fol. 42. Inst. 1.161 The Kings Power in appointing chief Magistrates and great Ministers Smith de Repub. Ang. l. 2. Inst. 2.26 Inst. 3.7 The Power of the last Appeal Inst. 4.343 Ibid. 341. Matth. Paris cited by Sir J. Davys in his Irish Rep. 61. Answer to Petit. p. 88. Ass. de Clarend 10 H. 2. c. 8. Inst. 4.14 16 R. 2. c. 5. Vide The Case of Premunire in Sir John Davys Inst. 4.341 Inst. 2.602 Sir H. Hobart fol. 146. The sole fountain of Honor Inst. 4.126 Inst. 1.65 Inst. 4.363 Seld. Tit. of Honor 621. Ibid. 628. Ibid. 630. Inst. 1.69 May create a Palatinate Camb. Britt 464. Seld. Tit. Hon. 530. Inst. 4.211 Camb. Britt 600. Plowd 214. Inst. 4.204 in the Margin 9 Jac. in Scac. fol. 49. As also Seld. Tit. Hon. 693. Stat. Hibern 14 Car. 2. c. 20. Have made a King and Lord of Ireland Seld. Tit. Hon. 38.41 Inst. 4.357 Inst. 1.83 Ibid. Seld. 26. Sir E. Cooke 5 Rep. 110. in Foxley's Case Inst. 3.233 241. The King appoints the value c. of Coin Sir J. Davys q. v. Case de mixt Moneys Stat. 25 Edw. 3. cap. 2. Sir J. Davys in Pref. 5. Rep. 114. Inst. 2.576 Inst. 1.207 Liege Homage received by our Kings Seld. Tit. Hon. 26. Ibid. 29. Ibid. 24 25.38 Inst. 3.11 Their burning those incommunicable Titles of Majesty c. Tit. Hon. 594. Ibid. 92. Further instances of the Kings Sovereignty by the Common Law Inst. 1.1 Inst. 2.68 Inst. 1.13 Ibid. 42. Inst. 1.15 1 H. 7.4 Plowd 238. Inst. 4.352 Inst. 3 7. 7. Rep. in Calvin's Case Ibidem 23 H. 6. c. 8. 11. Rep. of the Lord De la Ware 13 Edw. 3. Inst. 4.342 Vide Seld. Tit. Hon. 21. Ann. Reg. 14. Ann. 40. Ed. 3. Inst. 4.13 357. 18 Edw. 3. Inst. 4.88 104. Inst. 2.167 Inst. 1.90 344. Inst. 2.496 Bract. l. 1. Britt f. 27. Regist. fol. 61. 1 Sam. 6.19 The like from the Statute-Law and that the Crown of England is Imperial Inst. 4.343 16 R. 2. c. 5. Vide Article against Woolsey 21 H. 8. Iâ—st 4.89 24 H. 8. c. 12. 25 H. 8. c. 21. Vide Cap. 22. 88 H. 8. c. 7. Vide cap. 16. Stat. Hibern 28. H. 8. c. 2. Stat. Hibern 33 H. 8. c. 1. 1 Eliz. c. 1. and Cap. 3. 5 Eliz. c. 1. 1 Jac. c. 1. Stat. Scotiae 5. Jac. 3. c. 3. Printed at Edenburgh 1681. The Kings Power in Ecclesiasticks Sir H. Hob. 143. Inst. 1.94 Glanv l. 1. c. 7. Inst. 4.285 Inst. 1.134 344. Ann. Reg. 17. Math. Paris fol. 213. Answ. to Pet. fol. 88. 40 Edw. 3. The Act is not in the Statutes at large but you may find it Inst. 4.13 Ibid. 357. 25 H. 8. c. 2. This was set out by Dr. Bernard in 16 1. in a Book entituled Clavi Trabales with the Bishop of Lincoln's Preface to it p. 82. Inst. 4.357 Ibid. 359. Regist. 294. Fitz. N. Breâ— Printed in 1666. 411. 6 Edw. 3.11 11 H. 4.68 11 H 4.60 11 H. 7.12 Sir Hen. Hob. fol. 146. Inst. 3.238 Fitz. N.B. 662. Inst. 1.344 Dyer 348. Ibid. 294. The same 3 Car. 1 c. 4. Inst. 4.342 Inter Leges Ed. c. 17. Mr. Hooker of the Kings Power in matters of Religion Cla. Trab 72. Inst. 4.323 Cro. Jac. 371. 22 Car. 2. That the Kings of England have justly used the Titles of Emperor c. and that from Ancient Ages Seld. Tit. of Honor f. 17. Sir Edw. Coke's Preface to his fourth Report Camb. Brit. 189. Ibid. Seld. Inst. 4.343 Ibidem Ibid Seld. 1 Object 1. Object 2. Sol. 1. Bodin l. 2. Ibid. Bodin Sol. 2. The manner of the Three Estates applying to the King 3 Car. 1. 1 Jac. 1. 1 Eliz. 3. 1 Mar. Sess. 2. 28 H. 8. c. 7. 1 Rich. 3. 3 Edw. 4. 4 Edw. 3. â—5 Edw. 3. 1 Edw. 1. Stat de Scat. 51 H. 3. What these Three Estates are Inst. 4.1 Inst. 1.110 Lib. 5.233 De Repub. l. 1. Coll. Fr. Tâ—â—ffe his Speech to them â—rom the Duke of Lorain 1674. Sir H. Spelm. Gloss. f. 449. 1 Pet. 2.13 To presume him such were to make him but a Co-ordinate Power Bar. Arg. l. 1. He cannot Summon himself Novum Organ Aphor. 46. Where were these three Estates
before the Commons came in to be a third Estate 1 Chron. 28.1 2 Chron. 5.2 Inst. 4.3 Answer to Mr. Petit. 19 20. Sir H. Spelm. Gloss. 450. Inst. 4 3. For so Mr. Selden takes the words Tit. Hon. 580. Ibid. 524. Answer to Petit. 44.46 Ibid. Answ. 52. Seld. Tit. Hen. 581. Ibid. Answer 56 57 58. Monast. Ang. Tit. Hon. 581. Pet. 61 62 63. Tit. Hon. 583. Sir H. Spelm. Tit. Baro. Pet. 80. ad 99. Sir H. Spelm. Gloss. 451. Ibidem The time when it is most probable they first came in 20 H. 3. Vide Stat. 52 H. 3. Gloss. 452. The Lords Temporal one great Estate The Lords Spiritual one other distinct Estate from the Lords Temporal Inst. 4.1 Seld. Tit. Hon. 594. Inst. 4.322 8 H. 6. c. 1. Stat. 1 E. 1. Stat. 13 E. 1 40 Edw. 3. An Act of Parliament in point 8 Eliz. c. 1. Express Authorities to prove the King none of the Three Estates Inst. 4.1 Cowel Interp. Tit. Parliam Tit. Scotland fol. 7 8. Stat. of Scotl. 3 Jac. 1. c. 48. Printed at Edenb 16. October 1669. All Printed at â—denbr 1681. English Stat. 1 Jac. c. 1. Inst. 4.351 A short Recapitulation of Affairs before his Majesties return Part of the Epitaph of Mary Queen of Scots Scobel's Collection of Acts 1648. That he wanted not opportunities of resenting them had he design'd it Virgil. Strada 1 Sam. 10.26 1 Chron. 10.5 2 Sam. 18.3 Eccles. 8.3 2 Sam. 3.36 Eccles. 10.20 Exod. 22.18 Psal. 105.25 Eccles. 8.2 〈◊〉 20.2 〈◊〉 1. Sci. 1. Job 36.18 Object 2. Sol. 2. Rom. 3.29 The like of other Nations to their Kings Herodot l. 8. De moribâ—s gentium l. 1. cap. 5. Ibid. l. 2. c. 10. Append. ad Pet. Ciacc de Triclinio 327. Object 3. Sol. 3. The precept of Obedience is without restriction Exod. 1.9 10. Ezra 6.10 Jer. 29.7 1 Sam. 15.26 35. Idolatry no ground to resist Matth. 22.21 1 Tim. 2.1 2. Bellarm de Poâ—t l. 3. c. 9. Buch. de jâ—re Reg. p. 61. In Apolog. Much less things indifferent Dyer 23.148 Vide Preface to the Liturgy and touching Ceremonies The example of our Saviour in his Instituting his last Supper Deut. 12.11 Rosin Rom. Antiq. l. 5. c. 27. Lipsii Saturn lib. 1. c. 6. Mat. 26.23 John 13.26 Mat. 10 4. Least of all injury John 18.11 Acts 25.5 Exod. 12.37 1 Sam. 22.2 1 Kings 19.18 1 Sam. 19.4 Jer. 38.9 Esther 7.3 If any ground were to be admitted that would never be wanting Semido in Hisâ— of China 2 Kings 8.13 It was to be done piece-meal The Kings necessities to be supply'd with complaints Rushworth's Coll. fol. 40.183.402.656 Plots discover'd Fears and Jealousies promoted Sir Will. Dugd. Short View c. from fol. 67. to fol. 124. Octob. 6.1642 Religion cants its part 2 Sam. 15.11 Leading men to make it Law and Gospel The examples of Corah c. Numb 16.3 1 Kings 1.19 The same Game playing over again 2 Kings 18 2â— Prognostications c. Hudibras The ill consequence of such impressions Matth. 13.25 Acts 17.21 Ovid. Met. Barkeley Argen l. 3. Psal. 65.7 The examples of Jack Cade and others 4 Rich. 2. Vide The History written by a noble Neapolitan Holy League in France Comb. Britt 509. Lord Bacon â— Essaya 78. Solemn League and Covenant at home New Trains to the old Fuel Psal. 90.6 22 Car. â— Our Saviours advice to his Disciples Mark 8.15 Acts 26.5 Luke 18.11 12. Mat. 23.27 What the Pharisees were Luke 12.1 Josephus Antiq l. 17. c. 3. Godw. Jewish Antiq. 40 41. Mat 25.5.23 24 25 26. Made applicable to our selves The end to be consider'd in all things The advantage propos'd in Excluding his Royal Highness Wherein is at Act for security of Religion less than a Bill of Exclusion Object â—ol The moral Impossibility of introducing the Romish Religion tho the Prince were a Romanist himself The reason why the Kingdom follow'd Edw. 6's Reformation Queen Maries going back Sâ—at 1.2 Ph. and Mary c. 8. Queen Eliz. return to it That the case cannot be the same at this day John 11.48 The Crown of England an old Entail Aphorism The danger of Innovations Object But such things have been done Sol. â—o has a King been murdered More particularly answered in E. 4. Qu. Mary and Qu. Eliz. all excluded by Parliament yet came to the Crown 28 H. 8. c. 7. No man changes but in hopes of better Jer. 2.11 Prov. 17.14 The advantages of continuing as we are Pretenders barr'd Annal. 1. Disorders avoided Vide Case of Tanistry in Sir J. Davis's Irish Reports f. 29. No new Family to be provided for The indignity of a repulse avoided Suppose Scotland and Ireland should be of another opinion Virgil. Act of Scotland for asserting the Succession of that Crown 1681. Ovid Met. All occasions of jealousie taken off Object Sol. Gen. 6.12 Disadvantages that have attended the laying by the right Heir Revolt of the 10 Tribes At home Our loss of France Lucan 25 H. 8.22 Matth. 7.12 Plutarch in vita Lycur John 12.6 Luke 10.7 Prov. 3.27 Lord Chancellors Speech to the Parliament at Oxon 10. Octob. 65. Oliver Jones Esq second Justice of his Majesties chief place in Ireland Gen. 16.9 Luke 10.37 1 Sam. 26. ◠〈◊〉 l. 3.
Assistance of God King of Britain And Edwine in a Charter of his to the Abbey of Crowland is stiled Edwinus Anglorum Rex totius Britanniae telluris Gubernator Rector Edwine King of the English and of all the British Land Director and Governor In like manner Ethelred in a Charter of his to the Church of Canterbury stiles himself Angligenum Orcadarum necne in gyro jacentium Monarchus Monarch or sole Governor of the English the Isles of Orkeney and all that lie within that Circuit but subscribes it Ego Aethelredus Anglorum Induperator c. I Ethelred Emperor of the English And besides what I said before of King William Rufus that said he had the same Prerogatives in his Kingdom as the Emperor claim'd in the Empire in a Charter of his to the Monastery of Shaftsbury he says Ego Willielmus Rex Anglorum anno ab incarnatione 1089. secundo anno mei Imperii I William King of the English in the year of our Lord 1089. and of my Empire the second And now having brought it thus far I shall in the next place examin the unreasonableness of that new Notion that the King is one of the three Estates and doubt not but to prove the contrary to any man but him who will not be persuaded tho you shall have persuaded him SECTION VI. That the King is none of the Three Estates in which two preliminary Objections are examin'd by Reason and answered by the manner of the Three Estates applying to him What the Three Estates are To presume him one of them were to make him but a Co-ordinate Power The King cannot be said to Summon or Supplicate himself How will the Three Estates be made out before the Commons came in With a short Series during the Saxons to the latter end of Henry III. in all which time they are not so much as nam'd as any constituent part of a Parliament And the time when probably they first came in to be as they are at this day one of the three Estates That the Lords Temporal were never doubted but to be an Estate Four reasons offer'd that the Lords Spiritual are one other Estate distinct from the Lords Temporal and one Act of Parliament in point With other Authorities to prove the Assertion THose that would have the King one of the Three Estates say That our Government is a kind of mixt Monarchy inasmuch as in our Parliaments the Lower House as representing the Commons bear a semblance of a Democracy and the Lords of Aristocracy And others That the King Lords and Commons who as Assembled joyntly to the end of Legislation as one Corporation and no otherwise are the Law-giver We 'll examin it by reason which Neque decipitur nec decipit usquam and only commands belief when all things else beg it And here to come as near the wind as I can that I may the better get up with them admitting the semblance but not granting the thing what does this make for them or serve to prove that yet the Government is not a free Monarchy because the Supreme Authority as I said ere while resteth neither in the one House or the other either joyntly or severally but solely in the King at whose pleasure they are assembled and without whose Royal Assent they can make no Law to oblige the Subject And therefore not denying Bodin's distinction of a Lordly Monarch a Royal Monarch and a Tyrannical Monarch which relateth only to the Power and Practice of the Monarch yet the distinction of a Supreme and mixt Monarchy which designeth the manner of the Government is a contradiction in Terminis because that Government which extendeth it self to more than one can never be a Monarchy as is obvious to every one that understandeth the word Monarchy and was never heard of in our Land till the men of our late times instead of suppressing Idolatry c. had fram'd a new Idol of their own and having made it as gay as they could set it up to be ador'd by the Multitude always prone to admire every thing they least understand And what must the consequence of it be but that the Government must be partly Monarchical partly Aristocratical and partly Democratical which are in themselves contrary and to be governed by contrary Laws and if it be impossible to make any good out of two extremes as Monarchy and Democracy are what then shall be made of three confounded among themselves or how can it be that Sovereignty a thing indivisible can at one and the same time be divided between one Prince the Nobility and the People in common and not to be altogether a State Popular or at best a Venetian Republick wherein albeit there be but one Duke and He for life yet his person being not invested with the Supreme Power of Government he is in effect but Magni nominis umbra And as to the other That the King Lords and Commons as one Corporation and no otherwise are the Law-giver here I take the King to be in a worse condition for tho to the making of an Act the concurrence of both Houses is necessary yet of no effect if the King disapprove yet the Case of a Mayor Aldermen and Burgesses or whatever other the stile of the Corporation be is wholly different for they meeting together by the Princes grant in a kind of Democratical Common Council for the better Government of the place where they reside order every thing by most Voices wherein the Mayor himself has but one and is concluded by the greater number but the King having no Voice nor any one to represent him in the discussive part of any Act cannot be said to give his Royal Assent as one of the Corporation but by his inherent Legislative Prerogative and how improper the contrary is will further appear in that a Common-Council put what By-Laws they please upon the Mayor as long as they are not contrary to the Law of the Land because he has no negative upon them But in case of a Sovereign the first mark of it as I have shewn before is the Power of making Laws now who should those Subjects be that should yield Obedience to that Law if they also had the Power to make Laws or who should that Prince be that could give the Law being himself constrain'd to receive it of his Subjects unto whom also he gave it A thing not only incompatible but even absurd from every days Practice and Experience for do not the Three Estates of this Kingdom upon the passing of all Bills address themselves to his Majesty in the most humble Stile As that of the Petition of Right Humbly shew unto our Sovereign Lord the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament Assembled c. So to King James Most dread and most gracious Sovereign We your most Loyal and Humble Subjects the Lords c. So to Queen