and People at London and Harold excused himself for not performing his Oath to William the Norman because he said he had made it unduly and presumptuously without consulting the Nobility and People and without their Authority William was received with great joy by the Clergy and People and saluted King by all swearing to observe the antient good and approved Laws of England and tho he did but ill perform his Oath yet before his death he seemed to repent of the ways he had taken and only wishing his Son might be King of England he confessed in his last Will made at Caen in Normandy that he neither found nor left the Kingdom as an Inheritance If he possessed no right except what was conferred upon him no more was conserred than had bin enjoy'd by the antient Kings according to the approved Laws which he swore to observe Those Laws gave no power to any till he was elected and that which they did then give was so limited that the Nobility and People reserved to themselves the disposition of the greatest Affairs even to the deposition and expulsion of such as should not well perform the duty of their Oaths and Office And I leave it to our Author to prove how they can be said to have had the Sword and the Power so as to be feared otherwise than as the Apostle says by those that do evil which we acknowledg to be not only in the King but in the lowest Officer of Justice in the world If it be pretended that our later Kings are more to be seared than William the Norman or his Predecessors it must not be as has bin proved either from the general right of Kings or from the Doctrine of the Apostle but from something else that is peculiar and subsequent which I leave our Author's Disciples to prove and an answer may be found in due time But to show that our Ancestors did not mistake the words of the Apostle 't is good to consider when to whom and upon what occasion he spoke The Christian Religion was then in its infancy his discourses were addressed to the Professors of it who tho they soon grew to be considerable in number were for the most part of the meanest sort of People Servants or Inhabitants of the Cities rather than Citizens and Freemen joined in no civil Body or Society nor such as had or could have any part in the Government The occasion was to suppress the dangerous mistake of many converted Jews and others who knowing themselves to be freed from the power of Sin and the Devil presumed they were also freed from the obligation of human Laws And if this Error had not bin crop'd in the bud it would have given occasion to their Enemies who desired nothing more to destroy them all and who knowing that such Notions were stirring among them would have bin glad that they who were not easily to be discovered had by that means discovered themselves This induced a necessity of diverting a poor mean scatter'd People from such thoughts concerning the State to convince them of the Error into which they were fallen that Christians did not owe the same obedience to Civil Laws and Magistrates as other men and to keep them from drawing destruction upon themselves by such ways as not being warranted by God had no promise of his Protection St. Paul's work was to preserve the Professors of Christianity as appears by his own words I exhort that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for Kings and for all that are in Authority that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers to obey Magistrates to be ready for every good work St. Peter agrees with him fully in describing the Magistrate and his Duty shewing the reasons why obedience should be pay'd to him and teaching Christians to be humble and contented with their condition as free yet not using their Liberty for a cover to malice and not only to fear God and honor the King of which conjunction of words such as Filmer are very proud but to honor all men as is said in the same verse This was in a peculiar manner the work of that time in which those who were to preach and propagate the Gospel were not to be diverted from that Duty by entangling themselves in the care of State-affairs but it dos in some sense agree with all times for it can never be the duty of a good man to oppose such a Magistrate as is the Minister of God in the exercise of his Office nor to deny to any man that which is his due But as the Christian Law exempts no man from the Duty he ows to his Father Master or the Magistrate it dos not make him more a Slave than he was before nor deprive him of any natural or civil Right and if we are obliged to pay Tribute Honor or any other thing where it is not due it must be by some Precept very different from that which commands us to give to Cesar that which is Cesar's If he define the Magistrate to be the Minister of God doing Justice and from thence draws the Reasons he gives for rendring Obedience to him we are to inquire whose Minister he is who overthrows it and look for some other reason sor rendring obedience to him than the words of the Apostles If David who was willing to lay down his life sor the people who hated iniquity and would not suffer a liar to come into his presence was the Minister of God I desire to know whose Minister Caligula was who set up himself to be worshipped for a God and would at once have destroyed all the people that he ought to have protected Whose Minister was Nero who besides the abominable impurities of his lise and hatred to all virtue as contrary to his Person and Government set fire to the great City If it be true that contrariorum contraria est ratio these questions are easily decided and if the reasons of things are eternal the same distinction grounded upon truth will be good for ever Every Magistrate and every man by his works will for ever declare whose Minister he is in what spirit he lives and consequently what obedience is due to him according to the Precept of the Apostle If any man ask what I mean by Justice I answer That the Law of the Land as far as it is Sanctio recta jubens honesta prohibens contraria declares what it is But there have bin and are Laws that are neither just nor commendable There was a Law in Rome that no God should be worshipped vvithout the consent of the Senat Upon vvhich Tertullian says scoffingly That God shall not be God unless he please Man and by virtue of this Law the first Christians were exposed to all manner of cruelties and some
Kings of Spain France and Sweden so well to understand the meaning of it as to decide extraordinary cases The wisdom of Nations has provided more assured helps and none could have bin so brutish and negligent of the publick Concernments to suffer the Succession to fall to women children c. if they had not reserved a power in themselves to prefer others before the nearest in blood if reason require and prescribed such rules as might preserve the publick from ruin notwithstanding their infirmities and vices These helps provided by our Laws are principally by grand and petit Juries who are not only Judges of matters of fact as whether a man be kill'd but whether he be kill'd criminally These men are upon their Oaths and may be indicted of Perjury if they prevaricate The Judges are present not only to be a check upon them but to explain such points of the Law as may seem difficult And tho these Judges may be said in some sense to be chosen by the King he is not understood to do it otherwise than by the advice of his Council who cannot perform their duty unless they propose such as in their consciences they think most worthy of the Office and most capable of performing the duty rightly nor he accomplish the Oath of his Coronation unless he admit those who upon deliberation seem to be the best The Judges being thus chosen are so far from depending upon the will of the King that they swear faithfully to serve the People as well as the King and to do justice to every man according to the Law of the Land notwithstanding any Writs Letters or Commands received from him and in default thereof they are to forfeit their bodies lands and goods as in cases of Treason These Laws have bin so often and so severely executed that it concerns all Judges well to consider them and the Cases of Tresilian Empson Dudley and others shew that neither the King 's preceding command nor subsequent pardon could preserve them from the punishment they deserved All men knew that what they did was agreeable to the King's pleasure for Tresilian advanced the Prerogative of Edward the 2d and Empson brought great Treasures into the Coffers of Henry the 7th Nevertheless they were charged with Treason for subverting the Laws of the Land and executed as Traitors Tho England ought never to forget the happy Reign of Q. Elizabeth yet it must be acknowledged that she as well as others had her failings She was full of love to the People just in her nature sincere in her intentions but could not so perfectly discover the snares that were laid for her or resist the importunity of the Persons she most trusted as not sometimes to be brought to attempt things against Law She and her Counsellors pressed the Judges very hardly to obey the Patent under her Great Seal in the case of Cavendish but they answered That both she and they had taken an Oath to keep the Law and if they should obey her commands the Law would not warrant them c. And besides the offence against God their Country and the Commonwealth they alledged the example of Empson and Dudley whereby they said they were deterred from obeying her illegal Commands They who had sworn to keep the Law notwithstanding the King's Writs knew that the Law depended not upon his will and the same Oath that obliged them not to regard any command they should receive from him shewed that they were not to expect indemnity by it and not only that the King had neither the power of making altering mitigating or interpreting the Law but that he was not at all to be heard in general or particular matters otherwise than as he speaks in the common course of Justice by the Courts legally established which say the same thing whether he be young or old ignorant or wise wicked or good and nothing dos better evidence the wisdom and care of our Ancestors in framing the Laws and Government we live under than that the People did not suffer extremities by the vices or infirmities of Kings till an Age more full of malice than those in which they lived had found tricks to pervert the rule and frustrate their honest intentions It was not safe for the Kings to violate their Oaths by an undue interposition of their Authority but the Ministers who served them in those violations have seldom escaped punishment This is to be understood when the deviations from Justice are extreme and mischievous for something must always be allow'd to human frailty The best have their defects and none could stand if a too exact scrutiny were made of all their actions Edward the third about the twentieth year of his Reign acknowledged his own in Parliament and as well for the ease of his Conscience as the satisfaction of his People promoted an Act Commanding all Judges to do Justice notwithstanding any Writs Letters or Commands from himself and forbidding those that belonged to the King Queen and Prince to intermeddle in those matters But if the best and wisest of our Princes in the strength and maturity of their years had their failings and every act proceeding from them that tended to the interruption of Justice was a failing how can it be said that the King in his personal capacity directly or indirectly may enter into the discussion of these matters much less to determine them according to his will But says our Author the Law is no better than a Tyrant general Pardons at the Coronation and in Parliament are but the bounty of the Prerogative c. There may be hard cases and citing some perverted pieces from Aristotle's Ethicks and Politicsk adds That when something falls out besides the general rule then it is fit that what the Lawmaker hath omitted or where he hath erred by speaking generally it should be corrected and supplied as if the Lawmaker were present that ordained it The Governor whether he be one man or more ought to be Lord of these things whereof it was impossible that the Law should speak exactly These things are in part true but our Author makes use of them as the Devil dos of Scripture to subvert the truth There may be something of rigour in the Law that in some cases may be mitigated and the Law it self in relation to England dos so far acknowledg it as to refer much to the consciences of Juries and those who are appointed to assist them and the most difficult Cases are referred to the Parliament as the only judges that are able to determine them Thus the Statute of the 35 Edw. 3d enumerating the crimes then declared to be Treason leaves to suture Parliaments to judg what other facts equivalent to them may deserve the same punishment and 't is a general rule in the Law which the Judges are sworn to observe that difficult Cases should be reserved till the Parliament meet who are only able to decide them and
according to the variety of times and other occurrences We have such footsteps remaining of the name of Baron as plainly shew the signification of it The Barons of London and the Cinq Ports are known to be only the Freemen of those places In the petty Court-Barons every man who may be of a Jury is a Baron These are Noblemen for there are noble Nations as well as noble men in Nations The Mammalukes accounted themselves to be all noble tho born slaves and when they had ennobled themselves by the use of Arms they look'd upon the noblest of the Egyptians as their slaves Tertullian writing not to some eminent men but to the whole People of Carthage calls them Antiquitate Nobiles Nobilitate felices Such were the Saxons ennobled by a perpetual application to those exercises that belong to Noblemen and an abhorrence to any thing that is vile and sordid Lest this should seem far fetch'd to those who please themselves with cavilling they are to know that the same General Councils are expressed by other Authors in other words They are called The General Council of the Bishops Noblemen Counts all the wise men Elders and People of the whole Kingdom in the time of Ina. In that of Edward the elder The Great Council of the Bishops Abbots Noblemen and People William of Malmsbury calls them The General Senat and Assembly of the People Sometimes they are in short called Clergy and People but all express the same power neither received from nor limitable by Kings who are always said to be chosen or made and sometimes deposed by them William the Norman found and left the Nation in this condition Henry the second John and Henry third who had nothing but what was conferred upon them by the same Clergy and People did so too Magna Charta could give nothing to the People who in themselves had all and only reduced into a small Volume the Rights which the Nation was resolved to maintain brought the King to confess they were perpetually inherent and time out of mind enjoyed and to swear that he would no way violate them if he did he was ipso facto excommunicated and being thereby declared to be an execrable perjur'd Person they knew how to deal with him This Act has bin confirmed by thirty Parliaments and the proceedings with Kings who have violated their Oaths as well before as after the time of Henry the third which have bin already mentioned are sufficient to shew that England has always bin governed by it self and never acknowledged any other Lord than such as they thought fit to set up SECT XXIX The King was never Master of the Soil THOSE who without regard to truth resolve to insist upon such points as they think may serve their designs when they find it cannot be denied that the powers before mentioned have bin exercised by the English and other Nations say that they were the concessions of Kings who being masters of the Soil might bestow parcels upon some Persons with such conditions as they pleased retaining to themselves the supreme dominion of the whole and having already as they think made them the Fountains of Honour they proceed to make them also the Fountains of Property and for proof of this alledg that all Lands tho held of mean Lords do by their Tenures at last result upon the King as the Head from whom they are enjoyed This might be of force if it were true but matters of the highest importance requiring a most evident proof we are to examine First if it be possible and in the next place if it be true 1. For the first No man can give what he has not Whoever therefore will pretend that the King has bestowed this propriety must prove that he had it in himself I confess that the Kings of Spain and Portugal obtained from the Pope grants of the Territories they possessed in the West-Indies and this might be of some strength if the Pope as Vicar of Christ had an absolute dominion over the whole earth but if that fail the whole falls to the ground and he is ridiculously liberal of that which no way belongs to him My business is not to dispute that point but before it can have any influence upon our Affairs our Kings are to prove that they are Lords of England upon the same Title or some other equivalent to it When that is done we shall know upon whom they have a dependence and may at leisure consider whether we ought to acknowledg and submit to such a Power or give reasons for our refusal But there being no such thing in our present case their property must be grounded upon something else or we may justly conclude they have none In order to this 't is hardly worth the pains to search into the obscure remains of the British Histories For when the Romans deserted our Island they did not confer the right they had whether more or less upon any man but left the enjoyment of it to the poor remainders of the Nation and their own established Colonies who were grown to be one People with the Natives The Saxons came under the conduct of Hengist and Horsa who seem to have bin sturdy Pirats but did not that I can learn bear any Characters in their persons of the so much admired Sovereign Majesty that should give them an absolute dominion or propriety either in their own Country or any other they should set their feet upon They came with about a hundred men and chusing rather to serve Vortigern than to depend upon what they could get by rapine at Sea lived upon a small proportion of Land by him allotted to them Tho this seems to be but a slender encouragement yet it was enough to invite many others to follow their Example and Fortune so that their number increasing the County of Kent was given to them under the obligation of serving the Britans in their Wars Not long after Lands in Northumberland were bestowed upon another company of them with the same condition This was all the Title they had to what they enjoyed till they treacherously killed four hundred and sixty or as William of Malmsbury says three hundred principal men of the British Nobility and made Vortigern Prisoner who had bin so much their Benefactor that he seems never to have deserved well but from them and to have incens'd the Britans by the favour he shew'd them as much as by the worst of his Vices And certainly actions of this kind composed of falshood and cruelty can never create a right in the opinion of any better men than Filmer and his Disciples who think that the power only is to be regarded and not the means by which it is obtained But tho it should be granted that a right had bin thus acquired it must accrue to the Nation not to Hengist and Horsa If such an acquisition be called a Conquest the benefit must belong to
of the principal as remained due to them has bin repay'd and the Lands resumed SECT XXX Henry the First was King of England by as good a Title as any of his Predecessors or Successors HAVING made it appear as I suppose that the antient Nobility of England was composed of such men as had bin ennobled by bearing Arms in the defence or enlargement of the Common-wealth that the Dukes Earls c. were those who commanded them that they and their dependents received Lands for such services under an obligation of continuing to render the like and according to their several degrees and proportions to provide and maintain Horses Arms and Men for the same uses it cannot be denied that they were such Gentlemen and Lords of Mannors as we now call Commoners together with the Freeholders and such as in war were found most able to be their Leaders Of these the Micklegemots Wittenagemots and other publick Assemblies did consist and nothing can be more absurd than to assign the names and rights of Duke Earl and Vicount which were names of Offices to those who have not the Offices and are no way fit for them If our Author therefore had said that such as these who had always composed the great Councils of our Nation had in favour of Henry the First bestowed the Crown upon him as they had done upon his Father and Brother I should agree with him but 't is the utmost extravagance to say that he who had neither title nor possession should give the power to those who had always bin in the possession of it and exercised it in giving to him whatsoever he had But I most wonder he should so far forget himself to call this Henry a Usurper and detract from the validity of his Acts because he had no title whereas there neither is was or can be a Usurper if there be any truth in his Doctrine for he plainly tells us we are only to look to the power and not at all to the means and ways by which it is obtained and making no difference between a King and a Tyrant enjoins an equal submission to the commands of both If this were only a slip of his Pen and he did really take this Henry to be a Usurper because he had not a good title I should desire to know the marks by which a lawful King is distinguished from a Usurper and in what a just Title dos consist If he place it in an hereditary Succession we ought to be informed whether this right must be deduced from one universal Lord of Mankind or from a particular Lord of every People If from the universal Lord the same descent that gives him a right to the dominion of any one Country enslaves the whole world to him if from the particular Lord of one place proof must be given how he came to be so for if there was a defect in the first it can never be repaired and the possession is no more than a continued Usurpation But having already proved the absurdity of any pretence to either I shall forbear the repetition and only say that if the course of Succession may never be justly interrupted the family of Meroveus could not have had any right to the Crown of France Pepin was a Usurper if it must for ever have continued in the descendents of Meroveus and Hugh Capet could have no title if the race of Pepin might not be dispossess'd I leave our Author to dispute this point with the King of France and when he has so far convinced him that he is a Usurper as to perswade him to resign his Crown to the house of Austria claiming from Pharamond or to that of Lorrain as descended from Pepin I can give him half a dozen more knots which will not be with less difficulty untied and which instead of establishing the titles of such Kings as are known to us will overthrow them all unless a right be given to usurpation or the consent of a People do confer it But if there is such a thing as a Usurper and a rule by which men may judg of Usurpation 't is not only lawful but necessary for us to examine the titles of such as go under the name of Kings that we may know whether they are truly so or not lest through ignorance we chance to give the veneration and obedience that is due to a King to one who is not a King and deny it to him who by an uninterruptible line of Descent is our natural Lord and thereby prefer the worst of men and our most bitter enemy before the Person we ought to look upon as our Father and if this prove dangerous to one or more Kings 't is our Author's fault not mine If there be no Usurper nor rule of distinguishing him from a lawful Prince Filmer is the worst of all triflers and impostors who grounds his Arguments in the most serious matters upon what he esteems to be false but the truth is he seems to have set himself against humanity and common sense as much as against Law and Virtue and if he who so frequently contradicts himself can be said to mean any thing he would authorize rapine and murder and perswade us to account those to be rightful Kings who by treachery and other unjust means overthrow the right of Descent which he pretends to esteem sacred as well as the Liberties of Nations which by better judges are thought to be so and gives the odious name of usurpation to the advancement of one who is made King by the consent of a willing People But if Henry the First were a Usurper I desire to know whether the same name belongs to all our Kings or which of them deserves a better that we may understand whose acts ought to be reputed legal and to whose Descent we owe veneration or whether we are wholly exempted from all for I cannot see a possibility of fixing the guilt of Usurpation upon Henry the First without involving many if not all our Kings in the same If his title was not good because his Brother Robert was still living that of Rufus is by the same reason overthrown and William their sather being a bastard could have none This fundamental defect could never be repair'd for the Successors could inherit no more than the right of the first which was nothing Stephen could deduce no title either from Norman or Saxon whatsoever Henry the second pretended must be from his Mother Maud and any other might have bin preferred before her as well as he If her title was from the Normans it must be void since they had none and the story of Edgar Atheling is too impertinent to deserve mention But however it could be of no advantage to her for David King of Scotland Brother to her Mother from whom only her title could be derived was then alive with his Son Henry who dying not long after left three Sons and three Daughters whose posterity being
he refused In the same place they met and chose Saul to be their King He being dead the men of Judah assembled themselves and anointed David Not long after all the Tribes met at Hebron made a Contract with him and received him as their King In the same manner tho by worse Counsel they made Absalom King And the like was attempted in favour of Sheba the Son of Bichri tho they then had a King chosen by themselves When they found themselves oppressed by the Tributes that had bin laid upon them by Solomon they met at Shechem and being displeased with Rehoboam's answer to their complaints ten of the Tribes made Jeroboam King Jehu and all the other Kings of Israel whether good or bad had no other Title than was conferred upon them by the prevailing part of the People which could not have given them any unless they had met together nor meet together without the consent and against the will of those that reigned unless the Power had bin in themselves Where Governments are more exactly regulated the power of judging when 't is fit to call the Senate or People together is refer'd to one or more Magistrates as in Rome to the Consuls or Tribuns in Athens to the Archons and in Thebes to the Beotarches but none of them could have these Powers unless they had bin given by those who advanced them to the Magistracies to which they were annexed nor could they have bin so annexed if those who created them had not had the right in themselves If these Officers neglected their duty of calling such Assemblies when the publick Affairs required the people met by their own Authority and punished the Person or abrogated the Magistracy as appears in the case of the Decemviri and many others that might be alledged if the thing were not so plain as to need no further proof The reason of this is that they who institute a Magistracy best know whether the end of the Institution be rightly pursued or not And all just Magistracies being the same in essence tho differing in form the same right must perpetually belong to those who put the Sovereign Power into the hands of one a few or many men which is what our Author calls the disposal of the Sovereignty Thus the Romans did when they created Kings Consuls Military Tribuns Dictators or Decemviri and it had bin most ridiculous to say that those Officers gave authority to the people to meet and chuse them for they who are chosen are the Creatures of those who chuse and are nothing more than others till they are chosen The last King of Sweden Charles Gustavus told a Gentleman who was Ambassador there That the Swedes having made him King when he was poor and had nothing in the world he had but one work to do which was so to reign that they might never repent the good opinion they had conceived of him They might therefore meet and did meet to confer the Sovereignty upon him or he could never have had it For tho the Kingdom be hereditary to Males or Females and his Mother was Sister to the Great Gustavus yet having married a stranger without the consent of the Estates she performed not the condition upon which women are admitted to the Succession and thereby falling from her right he pretended not to any The Act of his Election declares he had none and gives the Crown to him and the Heirs of his body with this farther declaration that the benefit of his Election should no way extend to his Brother Prince Adolphus and 't is confessed by all the Swedish Nation that if the King now reigning should die without children the Estates would proceed to a new Election 'T is rightly observ'd by our Author that if the people might meet and give the Sovereign Power they might also direct and limit it for they did meet in this and other Countries they did confer the Sovereign Power they did limit and direct the exercise and the Laws of each people shew in what manner and measure it is every where done This is as certain in relation to Kings as any other Magistrates The Commission of the Roman Dictators was to take care that the Commonwealth might receive no detriment The same was sometimes given to the Consuls King Offa's confession that he was made King to preserve the publick Liberty expresses the same thing And Charles Gustavus who said he had no other work than to govern in such a manner that they who had made him King might not repent shew'd there was a Rule which he stood obliged to follow and an end which he was to procure that he might merit and preserve their good opinion This power of conferring the Sovereignty was exercised in France by those who made Meroveus King in the prejudice of the two Grandchildren of Pharamond Sons to Clodion by those who excluded his Race and gave the Crown to Pepin by those who deposed Lewis le Debonair and Charles le Gros by those who brought in five Kings that were either Bastards or Strangers between him and Charles le Simple by those who rejected his Race and advanced Hugh Capet by those who made Henry the first King to the prejudice of Robert his elder Brother and continued the Crown in the Race of Henry for ten Generations whilst the Descendents of Robert were only Dukes of Burgundy The like was done in Castille and Arragon by frequently preferring the younger before the elder Brother the Descendents of Females before those of the Male-line in the same degree the more remote in Blood before the nearest and sometimes Bastards before the legitimate Issue The same was done in England in relation to every King since the coming in of the Normans as I shewed in the last Section and other places of this Work That they who gave the Sovereignty might also circumscribe and direct it is manifest by the several ways of providing for the Succession instituted by several Nations Some are merely elective as the Empire of Germany and the Kingdom of Poland to this day the Kingdom of Denmark till the year 1660 that of Sweden till the time of Gustavus Ericson who delivered that Nation from the oppression of Christiern the second the cruel King of the Danes In others the Election was confined to one or more Families as the Kingdom of the Goths in Spain to the Balthei and Amalthei In some the eldest Man of the reigning Family was preferr'd before the nearest as in Scotland before the time of Kennethus In other places the nearest in Blood is preferr'd before the elder if more remote In some no regard is had to Females or their Descendents as in France and Turky In others they or their Descendents are admitted either simply as well as Males or under a condition of marrying in the Country or with the consent of the Estates as in Sweden And no other reason can be given for this almost infinite variety of
excelling all others in virtue can have no other just power than what the Laws give nor any title to the privileges of the Lord 's Anointed p. 250. Sect. 2. The Kings of Israel and Judah were under a Law not safely to be transgressed p. 262. Sect. 3. Samuel did not describe to the Israelites the glory of a free Monarchy but the evils the people should suffer that he might divert them from desiring a King p. 264. Sect. 4. No People can be obliged to suffer from their Kings what they have not a right to do p. 266. Sect. 5. The mischiefs suffer'd from wicked Kings are such as render it both reasonable and just for all Nations that have Virtue and Power to exert both in repelling them p. 270. Sect. 6. 'T is not good for such Nations as will have Kings to suffer them to be glorious powerful or abounding in Riches p. 273. Sect. 7. When the Israelites asked for such a King as the Nations about them had they asked for a Tyrant tho they did not call him so p. 277. Sect. 8. Vnder the name of Tribute no more is understood than what the Law of each Nation gives to the supreme Magistrate for the defraying of publick Charges to which the customs of the Romans or sufferings of the Jews have no relation p. 283. Sect. 9. Our own Laws confirm to us the enjoyment of our native Rights p. 288. Sect. 10. The words of St. Paul enjoyning obedience to higher Powers favour all sorts of Government no less than Monarchy p. 292. Sect. 11. That which is not just is not Law and that which is not Law ought not to be obeyed p. 300. Sect. 12. The right and power of a Magistrate depends upon his institution not upon his name p. 302. Sect. 13. Laws were made to direct and instruct Magistrates and if they will not be directed to restrain them p. 305. Sect. 14. Laws are not made by Kings not because they are busied in greater matters than doing Justice but because Nations will be governed by rule and not arbitrarily p. 309. Sect. 15. A general presumption that Kings will govern well is not a sufficient security to the people p. 314. Sect. 16. The observation of the Laws of Nature is absurdly expected from Tyrants who set themselves up against all Laws and he that subjects Kings to no other Law than what is common to Tyrants destroys their being p. 317. Sect. 17. Kings cannot be the interpreters of the Oaths they take p. 322. Sect. 18. The next in blood to deceased Kings cannot generally be said to be Kings till they are crowned p. 330. Sect. 19. The greatest enemy of a just Magistrate is he who endeavours to invalidate the Contract between him and the people or to corrupt their manners p. 341. Sect. 20. Vnjust commands are not to be obey'd and no man is obliged to suffer for not obeying such as are against Law p. 345. Sect. 21. It cannot be for the good of the People that the Magistrate have a Power above the Law And he is not a Magistrate who has not his Power by Law 348. Sect. 22. The rigor of the Law is to be temper'd by men of known integrity and judgment and not by the Prince who may be ignorant or vicious p. 354. Sect. 23. Aristotle proves that no man is to be intrusted with an Absolute Power by shewing that no one knows how to execute it but such a man as is not to be found p. 358. Sect. 24. The Power of Augustus Cesar was not given but usurped p. 360. Sect. 25. The Regal Power was not the first in this Nation nor necessarily to be continued tho it had bin the first p. 361. Sect. 26. That the King may be entrusted with the power of chusing Judges yet that by which they act is from the Law p. 369. Sect. 27. Magna Charta was not the Original but a declaration of the English Liberties The King's Power is not restrained but created by that and other Laws and the Nation that made them can only correct the defects of them p. 370. Sect. 28. The English Nation has always bin governed by it self or its Representatives p. 379. Sect. 29. The King was never Master of the Soil p. 391. Sect. 30. Henry the first was King of England by as good a Title as any of his Predecessors or Successors p. 395. Sect. 31. Free Nations have a right of meeting when and where they please unless they deprive themselves of it p. 399. Sect. 32. The Powers of Kings are so various according to the Constitutions of several States that no consequence can be drawn to the prejudice or advantage of any one merely from the name p. 404. Sect. 33. The Liberty of a People is the Gift of God and Nature p. 406. Sect. 34. No veneration paid or honor confer'd upon a just and lawful Magistrate can diminish the liberty of a Nation p. 409. Sect. 35. The Authority given by our Law to the Acts performed by a King de facto detract nothing from the Peoples Right of creating whom they please p. 411. Sect. 36. The general revolt of a Nation cannot be called a Rebellion p. 413. Sect. 37. The English Government was not ill constituted the defects more lately observed proceeding from the change of manners and corruption of the times p. 418. Sect. 38. The power of calling and dissolving Parliaments is not simply in the King The variety of Customs in chusing Parliamentmen and the Errors a People may commit neither prove that Kings are or ought to be absolute p. 421. Sect. 39. Those Kings only are heads of the People who are good wise and seek to advance no Interest but that of the Publick p. 426. Sect. 40. Good Laws prescribe easy and safe Remedies against the Evils proceeding from the Vices or Infirmities of the Magistrate and when they fail they must be supplied p. 432. Sect. 41. The people for whom and by whom the Magistrate is created can only judg whether he rightly performs his Office or not p. 436. Sect. 42. The Person that wears the Crown cannot determine the Affairs which the Law refers to the King p. 440. Sect. 43. Proclamations are not Laws p. 445. Sect. 44. No People that is not free can substitute Delegates p. 450. Sect. 45. The Legislative Power is always Arbitrary and not to be trusted in the hands of any who are not bound to obey the Laws they make p. 455. Sect. 46. The coercive Power of the Law proceeds from the Authority of Parliament p. 457. ERRATA PAge 77. line 41. for Numbers read Members P. 113. l. 37. read Antiochus P. 197. l. 6. read acquired P. 229. l. 39. for nor read and. P. 269. l. 12. for for read from P. 282. l. 3. read should it P. 285. l. 42. read renounced P. 335. l. 41. for to read de P. 418. l. 20. for have read hâ—â— P. 429. l. 38. for them read him Potentiora Legiun quam hominum
by him only and by him if with industry and courage they make use of the means he has given them for their own defence God helps those who help themselves and men are by several reasons suppose to prevent the increase of a suspected Power induced to succour an industrious and brave People But such as neglect the means of their own preservation are ever left to perish with shame Men cannot rely upon any League The State that is defended by one Potentat against another becomes a Slave to their Protector Mercenary Souldiers always want Fidelity or Courage and most commonly both If they are not corrupted or beaten by the Invader they make a prey of their Masters These are the followers of Camps who have neither faith nor piety but prefer Gain before Right They who expose their Blood to sale look where they can make the best bargain and never fail of pretences for following their interests Moreover private Families may by several arts increase their Wealth as they increase in number but when a People multiplies as they will always do in a good Climat under a good Government such an enlargement of Territory as is necessary for their subsistence can be acquired only by War This was known to the Northern Nations that invaded the Roman Empire but for want of such Constitutions as might best improve their Strength and Valour the numbers they sent out when they were overburden'd provided well for themselves but were of no use to the Countries they left and whilst those Goths Vandals Franks and Normans enjoyed the most opulent and delicious Provinces of the World their Fathers languished obscurely in their frozen Climats For the like reasons or through the same defect the Switzers are obliged to serve other Princes and often to imploy that valour in advancing the power of their Neighbours which might be used to increase their own Genoua Lucca Geneva and other small Commonwealths having no Wars are not able to nourish the men they breed but sending many of their Children to seek their Fortunes abroad scarce a third part of those that are born among them die in those Cities and if they did not take this course they would have no better than the Nations inhabiting near the River Niger who sell their Children as the increase of their Flocks This dos not less concern Monarchies than Commonwealths nor the absolute less than the mixed All of them have bin prosperous or miserable glorious or contemptible as they were better or worse arm'd disciplin'd or conducted The Assyrian Valour was irresistible under Nabuchodonozor but was brought to nothing under his base and luxurious Grandson Belsbazzar The Persians who under Cyrus conquer'd Asia were like Swine exposed to slaughter when their Discipline failed and they were commanded by his proud cruel and cowardly Successors The Macedonian Army overthrown by Paulus Emilius was not less in number than that with which Alexander gained the Empire of the East and perhaps had not bin inferior in Valour if it had bin as well commanded Many poor and almost unknown Nations have bin carried to such a height of Glory by the Bravery of their Princes that I might incline to think their Government as fit as any other for disciplining a People to War if their Virtues continued in their Families or could be transmitted to their Successors The impossibility of this is a breach never to be repaired and no account is to be made of the good that is always uncertain and seldom enjoy'd This disease is not only in absolute Monarchies but in those also where any regard is had to Succession of Blood tho under the strictest limitations The fruit of all the Victories gained by Edward the first and third or Henry the fifth of England perished by the baseness of their Successors the glory of our Arms was turned into shame and we by the loss of Treasure Blood and Territory suffer'd the punishment of their Vices The effects of these changes are not always equally violent but they are frequent and must fall out as often as occasion is presented It was not possible for Lewis the 13th of France to pursue the great designs of Henry the Fourth Christina of Sweden could not supply the place of her brave Father nor the present King in his infancy accomplish what the great Charles Gustavus had nobly undertaken and no remedy can be found for this mortal infirmity unless the power be put into the hands of those who are able to execute it and not left to the blindness of fortune When the Regal power is committed to an annual or otherwise chosen Magistracy the Virtues of excellent men are of use but all dos not depend upon their persons One man finishes what another had begun and when many are by practice rendred able to perform the same things the loss of one is easily supplied by the election of another When good Principles are planted they do not die with the person that introduced them and good Constitutions remain tho the Authors of them perish Rome did not fall back into slavery when Brutus was killed who had led them to recover their Liberty Others like to him pursued the same ends and notwithstanding the loss of so many great Commanders consumed in their almost continual Wars they never wanted such as were fit to execute whatever they could design A well-governed State is as fruitful to all good purposes as the seven-headed Serpent is said to have bin in evil when one head is cut off many rise up in the place of it Good Order being once established makes good men and as long as it lasts such as are fit for the greatest imployments will never be wanting By this means the Romans could not be surprised No King or Captain ever invaded them who did not find many excellent Commanders to oppose him whereas they themselves found it easy to overthrow Kingdoms tho they had bin established by the bravest Princes through the baseness of their Successors But if our Author say true 't is of no advantage to a popular State to have excellent men and therefore he imposes a necessity upon every People to chuse the worst men for being the worst and most like to themselves lest that if virtuous and good men should come into power they should be excluded for being vicious and wicked c. Wise men would seize upon the State and take it from the People For the understanding of these words 't is good to consider whether they are to be taken simply as usually applied to the Devil and some of his instruments or relatively as to the thing in question If simply it must be concluded that Valerius Brutus Cincinnatus Capitolinus Mamercus Paulus Emilius Nasica and others like to them were not only the worst men of the City but that they were so often advanced to the supreme Magistracies because they were so if in the other sense relating to Magistracy and the command of Armies
kill'd his Children and not long after his own Son Rhadamistus also Louis the eleventh of France James the third of Scotland Henry the seventh of England were great Masters of these Arts and those who are acquainted with History will easily judg how happy Nations would be if all Kings did in time certainly learn them Our Author as a farther testimony of his Judgment having said that Kings must needs excel others in Understanding and grounded his Doctrin upon their profound Wisdom imputes to them those base and panick fears which are inconsistent with it or any royal Virtue and to carry the point higher tells us There is no Tyrant so barbarously wicked but his own reason and sense will tell him that tho he be a God yet he must die like a Man and that there is not the meanest of his Sabjects but may find a means to revenge himself of the Injuries offer'd him and from thence concludes that there is no such Tyranny as that of a Multitude which is subject to no such fears But if there be such a thing in the World as a barbarous and wicked Tyrant he is something different from a King or the same and his Wisdom is consistent or inconsistent with Barbarity Wickedness and Tyranny If there be no difference the praises he gives and the rights he ascribes to the one belong also to the other and the excellency of Wisdom may consist with Barbarity Wickedness Tyranny and the panick fears that accompany them which hitherto have bin thought to comprehend the utmost excesses of Folly and Madness and I know no better testimony of the truth of that Opinion than that Wisdom always distinguishing good from evil and being seen only in the rectitude of that distinction in following and adhering to the good rejecting that which is evil preferring safety before danger happiness before misery and in knowing rightly how to use the means of attaining or preserving the one and preventing or avoiding the other there cannot be a more extravagant deviation from Reason than for a man who in a private condition might live safely and happily to invade a Principality or if he be a Prince who by governing with Justice and Clemency might obtain the inward satisfaction of his own Mind hope for the blessing of God upon his just and virtuous Actions acquire the love and praises of men and live in safety and happiness amongst his safe and happy Subjects to fall into that Barbarity Wickedness and Tyranny which brings upon him the displeasure of God and detestation of men and which is always attended with those base and panick fears that comprehend all that is shameful and miserable This being perceiv'd by Machiavel he could not think that any man in his senses would not rather be a Scipio than a Cesar or if he came to be a Prince would not rather chuse to imitate Agesilaus Timoleon or Dion than Nabis Phalaris or Dionysius and imputes the contrary choice to madness Nevertheless 't is too well known that many of our Author 's profound wise men in the depth of their Judgment made perfect by use and experience have fallen into it If there be a difference between this barbarous wicked Tyrant and a King we are to examine who is the Tyrant and who the King for the name conferred or assumed cannot make a King unless he be one He who is not a King can have no Title to the rights belonging to him who is truly a King so that a People who find themselves wickedly and barbarously oppressed by a Tyrant may destroy him and his Tyranny without giving offence to any King But 't is strange that Filmer should speak of the barbarity and wickedness of a Tyrant who looks upon the World to be the Patrimony of one man and for the foundation of his Doctrin afferts such a power in every one that makes himself master of any part as cannot be limited by any Law His Title is not to be questioned Usurpation and Violence confer an incontestable Right the exercise of his Power is no more to be disputed than the Acquisition his will is a Law to his Subjects and no Law can be imposed by them upon his Conduct For if these things be true I know not how any man could ever be called a Tyrant that name having never bin given to any unless for usurping a Power that did not belong to him or an unjust exercise of that which had bin conferred upon him and violating the Laws which ought to be a rule to him 'T is also hard to imagin how any man can be called barbarous and wicked if he be obliged by no Law but that of his own Pleasure for we have no other notion of wrong than that it is a breach of the Law which determines what is right If the lives and goods of Subjects depend upon the Will of the Prince and he in his profound Wisdom preserve them only to be beneficial to himself they can have no other right than what he gives and without injustice may retain when he thinks fit If there be no wrong there can be no just revenge and he that pretends to seek it is not a free man vindicating his Right but a perverse slave rising up against his Master But if there be such a thing as a barbarous and wicked Tyrant there must be a rule relating to the acquisition and exercise of the Power by which he may be distinguish'd from a just King and a Law superior to his Will by the violation of which he becomes barbarous and wicked Tho our Author so far forgets himself to confess this to be true he seeks to destroy the fruits of it by such flattery as comprehends all that is most detestable in Profaneness and Blasphemy and gives the name of Gods to the most execrable of men He may by such language deserve the name of Heylin's Disciple but will find few among the Heathens so basely servile or so boldly impious Tho Claudius Cesar was a drunken sot and transported with the extravagance of his Fortune he detested the impudence of his Predecessor Caligula who affected that Title and in his rescript to the Procurator of Judea gives it no better name than turpem Caii insaniam For this reason it was rejected by all his Pagan Successors who were not as furiously wicked as he yet Filmer has thought fit to renew it for the benefit of Mankind and the glory of the Christian Religion I know not whether these extreme and barbarous Errors of our Author are to be imputed to wickedness or madness or whether to save the pains of a distinction they may not rightly be said to be the same thing but nothing less than the excess of both could induce him to attribute any thing of good to the fears of a Tyrant since they are the chief causes of all the mischiefs he dos Tertullian says they are Metu quam furore saeviores and Tacitus speaking of a most
most opposite to his Maxims He lived says he in Henry the third's time since Parliaments were instituted as if there had bin a time when England had wanted them or that the establishment of our Liberty had bin made by the Normans who if we will believe our Author came in by force of Arms and oppressed us But we have already proved the Essence of Parliaments to be as antient as our Nation and that there was no time in which there were not such Councils or Assemblies of the People as had the power of the whole and made or unmade such Laws as best pleased themselves We have indeed a French word from a People that came from France but the Power was always in our selves and the Norman Kings were obliged to swear they would govern according to the Laws that had bin made by those Assemblies It imports little vvhether Bracton lived before or after they came amongst us His vvords are Omnes sub eo ipse sub nullo sed tantum sub Deo All are under him and he under none but God only If he offend since no Writ can go out against him their Remedy is by petitioning him to amend his Faults which if he will not do it is punishment enough for him to expect God as an avenger Let none presume to look into his Deeds much less to oppose him Here is a mixture of Sense and Nonsense Truth and Falshood the vvords of Bracton vvith our Author's foolish Inferences from them Bracton spoke of the politick capacity of the King vvhen no Law had forbidden him to divide it from his natural He gave the name of King to the sovereign Power of the Nation as Jacob called that of his Descendents The Scepter vvhich he said should not depart from Judah till Shiloh came tho all men know that his Race did not reign the third part of that time over his own Tribe nor full fourscore years over the whole Nation The same manner of speech is used in all parts of the world Tertullian under the name of Cesar comprehended all magistratical Power and imputed to him the Acts of which in his person he never had any knowledg The French say their King is always present sur son lit de justice in all the Sovereign Courts of the Kingdom which are not easily numbred and that Maxim could have in it neither sense nor truth if by it they meant a Man who can be but in one place at one time and is always comprehended within the Dimensions of his own Skin These things could not be unknown to Bracton the like being in use amongst us and he thought it no offence so far to follow the dictates of Reason prohibited by no Law as to make a difference between the invisible and omnipresent King who never dies and the Person that wears the Crown whom no man without the guilt of Treason may endeavour to kill since there is an Act of Parliament in the case I will not determine whether he spoke properly or no as to England but if he did not all that he said being upon a false supposition is nothing to our purpose The same Bracton says the King doth no wrong in as much as he doth nothing but by Law The Power of the King is the Power of the Law a power of right not of wrong Again If the King dos injustice he is not King In another place he has these words The King therefore ought to exercise the Power of the Law as becomes the Vicar and Minister of God upon Earth because that Power is the Power of God alone but the Power of doing wrong is the Power of the Devil and not of God And the King is his Minister whose Work he dos Whilst he dos Justice he is the Vicar of the Eternal King but if he deflect from it to act unjustly he is the Minister of the Devil He also says that the King is singulis major universis minor and that he who is in justitia exequenda omnibus major in justitia recipienda cuilibet ex plebe fit aequalis I shall not say Bracton is in the right when he speaks in this manner but 't is a strange impudence in Filmer to cite him as a Patron of the absolute Power of Kings who dos so extremely depress them But the grossest of his follies is yet more pardonable than his detestable fraud in falsifying Bracton's words and leaving out such as are not for his purpose which shew his meaning to be directly contrary to the sense put upon them That this may appear I shall set down the words as they are found in Bracton Ipse autem Rex non debet esse sub homine sed sub Deo sub Lege quia Lex facit Regem Attribuat ergo Rex Legi quod Lex attribuit ei id est dominationem potestatem Non est enim Rex ubi dominatur volunt as non Lex quod sub Lege esse debeat cum sit Dei vicarius evidenter apparet If Bracton therefore be a competent Judg the King is under the Law and he is not a King nor God's Vicegerent unless he be so and we all know how to proceed with those who being under the Law offend against it For the Law is not made in vain In this case something more is to be done than petitioning and 't is ridiculous to say that if he will not amend 't is punishment enough for him to expect God an Avenger for the same may be said of all Malefactors God can sufficiently punish Thieves and Murderers but the future Judgment of which perhaps they have no belief is not sufficient to restrain them from committing more Crimes nor to deter others from following their example God was always able to punish Murderers but yet by his Law he commands man to shed the blood of him who should shed man's blood and declares that the Land cannot be purged of the Guilt by any other means He had Judgments in store for Jeroboam Ahab and those that were like them but yet he commanded that according to that Law their Houses should be destroy'd from the earth The dogs lick'd up the blood of Ahab where they had licked that of Naboth and eat Jezebel who had contrived his murder But says our Author we must not look into his deeds much less oppose them Must not David look into Saul's deeds nor oppose them Why did he then bring together as many men as he could to oppose and make foreign Alliances against him even with the Moabites and the accursed Philistins Why did Jehu not only destroy Ahab's house but kill the King of Judah and his forty Brothers only for going to visit his Children Our Author may perhaps say because God commanded them But if God commanded them to do so he did not command them and all mankind not to do so and if he did not forbid they have nothing to restrain them from
to King Stephen and her Son Henry the 2d and of Henry the 7th in relation to the house of York both before he had married a Daughter of it and after her death they did the contrary in the cases of William the first and second Henry the I st Stephen John Richard the 3d Henry the 7th Mary Elizabeth and others So that for any thing I can yet find 't is equally difficult to discover the true sense of the Law of Nature that should be a guide to my Conscience whether I so far submit to the Laws of my Country to think that England alone has produced men that rightly understand it or examine the Laws and Practices of other Nations Whilst this remains undecided 't is impossible for me to know to whom I owe the obedience that is exacted from me If I were a French-man I could not tell whether I ow'd allegiance to the King of Spain Duke of Lorrain Duke of Savoy or many others descended from Daughters of the house of Valois one of whom ought to inherit if the Inheritance belongs to Females or to the house of Bourbon whose only title is founded upon the exclusion of them The like Controversies will be in all places and he that would put Mankind upon such enquiries goes about to subvert all the Governments of the World and arms every man to the destruction of his neighbour We ought to be informed when this right began If we had the Genealogy of every man from Noah and the Crowns of every Nation had since his time continued in one Line we were only to inquire into how many Kingdoms he appointed the world to be divided and how well the division we see at this day agrees with the allotment made by him But Mankind having for many Ages lain under such a vast confusion that no man pretends to know his own original except some Jews and the Princes of the house of Austria we cannot so easily arrive at the end of our work and the Scriptures making no other mention of this part of the world than what may induce us to think it was given to the Sons of Japhet we have nothing that can lead us to guess how it was to be subdivided nor to whom the several parcels were given So that the difficulties are absolutely inextricable and tho it were true that some one man had a right to every parcel that is known to us it could be of no use for that Right must necessarily perish which no man can prove nor indeed claim But as all natural Rights by Inheritance must be by Descent this Descent not being proved there can be no natural Right and all Rights being either natural created or acquired this Right to Crowns not being natural must be created or acquired or none at all There being no general Law common to all Nations creating a Right to Crowns as has bin proved by the several methods used by several Nations in the disposal of them according to which all those that we know are enjoy'd we must seek the Right concerning which we dispute from the particular Constitutions of every Nation or we shall be able to find none Acquir'd Rights are obtained as men say either by fair means or by soul that is by force or by consent such as are gained by force may be recovered by force and the extent of those that are enjoy'd by consent can only be known by the reasons for which or the conditions upon which that consent was obtain'd that is to say by the Laws of every People According to these Laws it cannot be said that there is a King in every Nation before he is crown'd John Sobietski now reigning in Poland had no relation in blood to the former Kings nor any title till he was chosen The last King of Sweden acknowledged he had none but was freely elected and the Crown being conferred upon him and the Heirs of his Body if the present King dies without Issue the right of electing a Successor returns undoubtedly to the Estates of the Country The Crown of Denmark was Elective till it was made Hereditary by an Act of the General Diet held at Copenhagen in the year 1660 and 't is impossible that a Right should otherwise accrue to a younger Brother of the house of Holstein which is derived from a younger Brother of the Counts of Oldenburgh The Roman Empire having passed through the hands of many Persons of different Nations no way relating to each other in blood was by Constantine transferred to Constantinople and after many Revolutions coming to Theodosius by birth a Spaniard was divided between his two Sons Arcadius and Honorius From thence passing to such as could gain most credit with the Soldiers the Western Empire being brought almost to nothing was restored by Charles the Great of France and continuing for some time in his descendents came to the Germans who having created several Emperors of the Houses of Suevia Saxony Bavaria and others as they pleased about three hundred years past chose Rodolphus of Austria and tho since that time they have not had any Emperor who was not of that Family yet such as were chosen had nothing to recommend them but the merits of their Ancestors their own personal Virtues or such political considerations as might arise from the power of their hereditary Countries which being joined with those of the Empire might enable them to make the better defence against the Turks But in this Line also they have had little regard to inheritance according to blood for the elder branch of the Family is that which reigns in Spain and the Empire continues in the descendents of Ferdinand younger Brother to Charles the fifth tho so unfix'd even to this time that the present Emperor Leopold was in great danger of being rejected If it be said that these are Elective Kingdoms and our Author speaks of such as are hereditary I answer that if what he says be true there can be no Elective Kingdom and every Nation has a natural Lord to whom obedience is due But if some are Elective all might have bin so if they had pleased unless it can be proved that God created some under a necessity of subjection and left to others the enjoyment of their liberty If this be so the Nations that are born under that necessity may be said to have a natural Lord who has all the power in himself before he is crowned or any part conferred on him by the consent of the people but it cannot extend to others And he who pretends a right over any Nation upon that account stands obliged to shew when and how that Nation came to be discriminated by God from others and deprived of that liberty which he in goodness had granted to the rest of mankind I confess I think there is no such Right and need no better proof than the various ways of disposing Inheritances in several Countries which not being naturally or universally
latter Kings hath bin so gracious as to allow always of the intire Bill as it passed both Houses He judiciously observes when our Kings began to be gracious and we to be free That King excepting the persecution for Religion in his time which is rather to be imputed to the ignorance of that age than to any evil in his own nature governed well and as all Princes who have bin virtuous and brave have always desired to preserve their Subjects Liberty which they knew to be the mother and nurse of their Valour fitting them for great and generous Enterprizes his care was to please them and to raise their Spirits But about the same time those detestable Arts by which the mixed Monarchies in this part of the world have bin every where terribly shaken and in many places totally overthrown began to be practised Charles the seventh of France under pretence of carrying on a War against him and his Son took upon him to raise Mony by his own Authority and we know how well that method has bin pursued The mischievous sagacity of his Son Lewis the 11th which is now called King-Craft was wholly exerted in the subversion of the Laws of France and the Nobility that supported them His Successors except only Lewis the 12th followed his example and in other Nations Ferdinand of Arragon James the third of Scotland and Henry the seventh of England were thought to imitate him the most Tho we have little reason to commend all the Princes that preceded Henry the fifth yet I am inclined to date the general impairing of our Government from the death of that King and his valiant Brothers His weak Son became a prey to a furious French woman who brought the Maxims of her own Country into ours and advanced the worst of villains to govern according to them These measures were pursued by Edward the fourth whose wants contracted by prodigality and debauchery were to be supplied by fraud and rapine The ambition cruelty and persidiousness of Richard the third the covetousness and malicious subtilty of Henry the seventh the violent lust rage and pride of Henry the 8th and the bigotted fury of Queen Mary instigated by the craft and malice of Spain perswaded me to believe that the English Liberty did not receive birth or growth from the favour and goodness of their gracious Princes But it seems all this is mistaken Henry the sixth was wise valiant and no way guided by his Wife Edward the sourth continent sober and contented with what the Nation gave him Richard the third mild gentle and faithful Henry the 7th sincere and satisfied with his own Henry the 8th humble temperate and just and Queen Mary a friend to our Country and Religion No less praises sure can be due to those who were so gracious to recede from their own right of picking what they pleased out of our Laws and to leave them intirely to us as they passed both Houses We are beholden to our Author for the discovery of these mysteries but tho he seems to have taken an Oath like that of the Gypsies when they enter into that virtuous Society never to speak one word of truth he is not so subtle in concealing his Lies All Kings were trusted with the publication of the Laws but all Kings did not falsify them Such as were not wicked and vicious or so weak as to be made subservient to the malice of their Ministers and Flatterers could never be drawn into the guilt of so infamous a cheat directly contrary to the Oath of their Coronation They swear to pass such Laws as the People chuse but if we will believe our Author they might have pick'd out whatever they pleased and falsly imposed upon the Nation as a Law made by the Lords and Commons that which they had modelled according to their own will and made to be different from or contrary to the intention of the Parliament The King's part in this fraud of which he boasts was little more than might have bin done by the Speaker or his Clerks They might have falfified an Act as well as the King tho they could not so well preserve themselves from punishment 'T is no wonder if for a while no stop was put to such an abominable Custom 'T was hard to think a King would be guilty of a fraud that were infamous in a Slave But that proved to be a small security when the worst of Slaves came to govern them Nevertheless 't is probable they proceeded cautioufly the first alterations were perhaps innocent or it may be for the best But when they had once found out the way they stuck at nothing that seemed for their purpose This was like the plague of Leprosy that could not be cured the house infected was to be demolished the poisonous plant must be torn up by the root the trust that had bin broken was to be abolished they who had perverted or frustrated the Law were no longer to be suffered to make the least alteration and that brave Prince readily joined with his People to extinguish the mischievous abuse that had bin introduced by some of his worthless Predecessors The worst and basest of them had continual disputes with their Parliaments and thought that whatever they could detract from the Liberty of the Nation would serve to advance their Prerogative They delighted in frauds and would have no other Ministers but such as would be the instruments of them Since their Word could not be made to pass for a Law they endeavoured to impose their own or their Servants inventions as Acts of Parliaments upon the deluded people and to make the best of them subservient to their corrupt Ends and pernicious Counsels This if it had continued might have overthrown all our Rights and deprived us of all that men can call good in the world But the Providence of God furnished our Ancestors with an opportunity of providing against so great so universal a mischief They had a wise and valiant Prince who scorned to encroach upon the Liberties of his Subjects and abhorred the detestable Arts by which they had bin impair'd He esteemed their courage strength and love to be his greatest advantage riches and glory He aimed at the conquest of France which was only to be effected by the bravery of a free and well-satisfied People Slaves will always be cowards and enemies to their Master By bringing his Subjects into that condition he must infallibly have ruined his own designs and made them unfit to fight either for him or themselves He desired not only that his People should be free during his time but that his Successors should not be able by oblique and fraudulent ways to enslave them If it be a reproach to us that Women have reigned over us 't is much more to the Princes that succeeded our Henry that none of them did so much imitate him in his Government as Queen Elizabeth She did not go about to mangle Acts