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
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
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
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
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