form'd His great Knowledge in Records and that he is known not to be partial for the Bishops make him of great Authority pages 10 11 12 13 14 17 329 384 325 281 392 567 607 710 712 713 714. And farther in the Time of Queen Elizabeth in an Act of Parliament in the first Year of her Reign made for the Recognition of Her Queen of England which was an Act of State and of the whole Community and therefore most requisite it was that that Parliament should give themselves their right Stile It is said We your said the Lords Spiritual Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled was said before to which this doth relate most loving Subjects representing the three States of your Realm of England The Nature of the Government came directly at their Times under Consideration of the Parliament which is an Assembly that cannot be mistaken in the Constitution of the Kingdom in any Question of such a Nature when they will deliberate and consider This mighty Affair required them to consider who they were and what was their Constitution Now if at any time they are to use that Stile that denotes their Power and declares the Government The Stile of the three Estates of the Realm it seems is so sacred and great and not for ordinary use but that it is used upon such occasions as the Recognition of the Sovereign Princes and in declaring Kings This Stile is most certain declarative of the true Constitution and the great Stile and Title of the Lords Spiritual Lords Temporal and Commons of England A Misnomer now would be as great a Solecism as to see the Nobles and Prelates without their Robes and proper Cognizances at the Solemnities of a Coronation By the due comparing the Statutes aforementiond wherein the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons are called the States and also the Representatives of all the Estates of the Kingdom We may be enlightened into a great Mistery of State for that the Lords Spiritual and the Lords Temporal and Commons are called the three States and also the Representatives of the States give us to understand that every one of them is entrusted for the other and with the Conservancy of the whole Community and are all in their proper Ministries designed to the Common Good and each of them have Dependencies and Expectancies from the other in the due Discharge of their proper and distinct Offices And that the Lords Spiritual and the Lords Temporal are Representatives and Trustees for the Peoples Good and the Common-weal as well as their own In like manner as every Parliament man for a particular Borough is a Representative of all the Commons of England To which we will adjoyn another great Authority and that is of Sir Edward Coke 4 Inst fol. 2. who tells us that the King and three Estates viz. Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal and Commons are the great Corporation and Body Politick of this Nation This was the Opinion of his Old Age when he was most improved in Knowledge and when he did not flatter the Prerogative Besides to clear this point we may observe that the Stile of Acts of Parliament that hath mostly obtained is this viz Be it enacted c. and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal and Commons This distinct mention of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal is Cognizance of their being distinct States For observe there is no particular mention of Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Acts of Parliament because they are all of the Commonalty which is but one State They are all involved under the general Name of Commons And so would certainly the Lords both Spiritual and Temporal have been in the general Name of Lords if they had not been distinct States and so accounted The Stile of Acts of Parliament would have been by the Advice and Assent of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament And the ancient Stile of Parliament before the House of Commons was divided and constituted apart from the Lords House was Clerus Populus Clerus Magnates as may be seen by Eadmerus and Matth. Paris and the Writers of those Times So that the Clerus or Bishops were always a distinct State in Parliament For the letting in Light upon all that hath been said in this matter and for farther clearing it and to reconcile the Differences in the Stiles of the Parliament and that they may unite in their Evidence and not seem to thwart one another It must be remembred that that which is most express and particular is most scientifical and more exactly instructive most distinct and true and intends to inform us exactly in the very Nature of the thing and therefore cannot be derogated from nor prejudiced by what is more general or less distinct It is hence therefore evident that the Lords Spiritual and Temporal are taken for distinct States as they are For they have their distinct Interests and for several ends and purposes became parts in the Government They have their several Ministries and Advantages to the Government apart and come into that House by several ways of Designation and Appointment The Prelates care besides that which is common between them and the Temporal Lords is that of Religion and the Affairs of the Church and the whole Order Ecclesiastical by which the People are to be ministred to in their highest Concernments which are Reasons very sufficient to reckon and account them a distinct State And now we have asserted to the Prelates a Jus Paritatis in the House of Lords for that they are complete Barons as we have likewise proved them a distinct State The Baronage of England is the House of Lords Additions of Title give Precedency but no Superiority or addition of Power The Baronage is one Order and Rank and the highest in the Census of the Government the manner of the Promotion the Ends and Interests of the Government in the advancement of the Bishops though several from those that advanced the Temporal Lords to their State and Honour yet to the same degree they are promoted they are both Members of the same great Council of the same great Judicature and are therefore by their long continuance most duely styled Pares Regni And moreover the Bishops are considered as to their Order and Office Ecclesiastical and another care incumbent upon them besides that of the Baronage and the Orders that belong to the consideration of Heralds do signifie that their Office of a Bishop doth not lessen the Dignity of their Peerage What is it then that makes this present Question The Bishops have the reason and nature of the Government of their side they have used such a power when they have pleased it was never denied to them and their right hath had the most solemn Recognition that can be made The Canon could not abridge and restrain their right and their true Character qualifies them not onely to the degree of an
recommend to all ingenious Gentlemen that would be rightly instructed and informed neither deceive others nor would be deceived themselves as they love truth and virtue wisdom and sober thoughts to dispise this sort of wit in others and repress it in themselves And never allow it to be used but in the hours of mirth in the Relaxations of their minds from serious Contemplations and matters grave and weighty where this prophane thing wit ought always to be shut out with care Enough hath been said for rectifying the mistakes of any true Protestant especially any Clergy-man of the Church of England which you have objected against them about Government or Parliament dissenters from the Church of England and Popery Especially when it is made apparent that these mistakes are made serviceable to the Popish Plot and the means which that party prosecute to compass and bring about the ruine of our Church But that nothing may be wanting that lyes in my poor power for pulling their Foot out of the Snare I shall more distinctly consider them First I shall desire them to consider what our Government is and where the true knowledge of it is to be found And where can it be found but in our Statute Books the Commentaries of our Law the Histories of our Government and of the Kingdom Search them if you be at leisure if you are not consult those that have read them and whose business and employment it is to understand them and you cannot fail to be informed That the King hath no power to make Laws that both Houses of Parliament must joyn with the King in making a Law It can with no more reason be concluded that the King hath the Legislative power because his Assent makes the Bills in Parliament Laws than it can because the third Unit added to two makes a Triad that the other two do not go to the making of that number when a matter 's moved from the King in Parliament to pass into a Law the Commons consent last The Letters Patents of Ed. Sir E. Cook 8 R. 3. for making the Eldest Son of a King in Succession Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall was confirmed as there must have been otherwise they would have been void by the House of Commons And yet we will not say that the House of Commons can make a Prince of Wales or Duke of Cornwall And yet upon no better reason than this some men will talk as if they believed themselves that the Legislative power is in the King when no King of England yet ever pretended to it but by their process of Law have punished such officious and mischievous Knaves They will tell you that the Laws are the measures of our Allegiance and the Kings Prerogative and declare the terms of Obedience and Government That a Legislative authority is necessary to every Government and therefore we ought not to want it and therefore Parliaments in which our Government hath placed the making of Laws cannot be long discontinued nor their Conventions rendred illusory and in vain which is all one as to want them That to Govern by Laws implieth that great fundamental Law that new Laws shall be made upon new emergencies and for avoiding unsufferable mischiefs to the State By the Statutes of 4 Ed. 3. c. 14.36 Ed. 3. c. 10. it is provided that Parliaments be holden once every year The Statute of this King required a Parliament every three years which being an affirmatory Law doth not derogate from those of Ed. the 3. But if the King doth not call a Parliament once in a year He neglects these Laws and if he delays calling a Parliament three years he neglects the other Law of his own time to And for that he is by the Law intrusted with the calling of Parliaments He is at liberty to call them within the times appointed And that Laws ought to be made for Redress of mischiefs that may ensue appears by the Statute of provisors 25. E. 3. cap. 23. In which we have these words Whereupon the Commons have prayed our said Soveraign Lord the King that sith the right of the Crown of England and the Law of the said Realm is such that upon the mischiefs Dammage which happeneth to this Realm he ought and is bound of the Accord of his said People in his Parliament thereof to make Remedy and Law in avoiding the mischief and dammage which whereof cometh which that King agreed to by his Royal Assent thereto given I dare be bold to say that never any Bill in Parliament was lost and wanted the Royal Assent that was promoted by the general desires of the people If Popery therefore which is the greatest mischief to us that ever threatned this Kingdom can be kept out by a Law we ought to have such a Law and nothing can hinder such a Law to be past for that purpose but want of an universal desire to have it I desire these Gentlemen to consider how they will answer it to their Saviour at the last day if they suffer his true Religion and the professors of it to be destroyed and persecuted when nothing but their desires of a thing lawful to be had and of right due was requisite to prevent it Their sufferings will be just and righteous from God if their sin occasioneth it and very uncomfortable to themselves The extent of the Legislative authority is no where to be understood but by our Acts of Parliament in which it hath been exercised and used and by such Acts that declare the extent of its power by the 13. Eliz. cap. 1. it is made Treason during that Queens Life and forfeiture of Goods and Chattels afterwards To hold maintain and affirm that the Queen by the Authority of the Parliament of England is not able to make Laws and Statutes of sufficient force and validity to limit and bind the Crown of this Realm and the descent limitation inheritance and Government thereof And this authority was exercised by Entailing the Crown in Parliaments in the times of Richard the 2d Henry the 4th Henry the 6th Edward the 4th Richard the 3d. Henry the 7th thrice in the time of Henry the 8th and upon the Marriage of Queen Mary to King Philip of Spain both the Crowns of England and Spain were Entailed whereby it was provided that of the several Children to be begotten upon the Queen one was to have the Crown of England another Spain another the Low-Countries The Articles of Marriage to this purpose were confirmed by Act of Parliament Those that are truly Loyal to our present Sovereign have reason to recognize with high satisfaction that such a power of altering and limiting the descent of the Crown is duly lodged in the King and States of the Realm For under the authority of an Act of Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland we derive our selves to the happiness of his Government and and He his title to the Crown of Scotland which drew to
yet when the business of the Parliament was extraordinary the Writs of Summons both to the Prelates and Barons had a Premonition that a Proxy should not be allowed unless they could not possibly be present dors claus 6 E. 3. m. 36. claus 1 R. 2. m. 37. 2 R. 2. m. 29. Nor was it unusual with the Prelates to make such their Procurators who were no Members of that House In that Parliament of Carlisle under E. 1. the Bishop of Exeter sends to the Parliament Henry de Pinkney Parson of Haughton as his Proxy The Bishop of Bath and Wells sends William of Charleton a Canon of his Church In the Parliament 17 R. 2. the Bishop of Norwich made Michael Cergeaux Dean of the Arches and others his Procurators In the same year the Bishop of Durham his Proxies are John of Burton Canon of Beudly and others In the Statute of Praemunire 16 R. 2. cap. 5. it is said that the advice of the Lords Spiritual being present and of the Procurators of them that were absent was demanded This making of others then Barons of Parliament Proxies is not without President likewise in the case of Temporal Lords Lit. Procurator Parl. 4 H. 5. Thomas de la War gave his Procuratory Letters to John Frank and Richard Hulme Clerks So that it appears that by the Law of Parliament the Proxies of the Bishops in the 21th of R. 2. were legal Proxies and consequently the Bishops there virtually Besides that the lawfulness thereof doth appear for that it was required of them by the Parliament that they should make their Proxies and be present by their Procurators for this reason lest otherwise the Proceedings in that Parliament should be void CHAP. X. IT is true that the Parliament 21 R. 2. was wholly repealed by 1 H. 4. but that was for a good reason indeed because that Parliament of 21 R. 2. had delegated their whole power to a few of their number who finally without any resort back to the House made and past Laws But did ever any man before the Octavo argue at this rate that because there is one error in a case for which the Judgment is reversed that therefore there was nothing in the case legal and well considered And therefore how unreasonable and false this way of arguing is and that it is disputing against fact we shall further shew and prove For a probable Opinion still continued of the necessity of the Bishops sitting which implies a clear Recognition of a Right for in the 2 H. 5 the Earl of Salisbury petitioned the House to reverse a Judgment given against the Earl his Father Anno 2 H. 4. the Error assigned was the Absence of the Spiritual Lords The Case was much debated but the Judgment affirmed as we allow it ought to be but we produce it as an irrefragable Testimony of the Bishops Right to sit for if that had not been allowed there could not have been the least colour in the case nor matter of debate CHHP. XI BUt tho' the Actual Exercise of the Bishops Right in their own Persons though whatsoever is done by a Deputy is done in the Right of him that makes the Deputation as every body knows was for some time discontinued tho' their Right in that time was most solemnly owned and recognized yet in 28 H. 6. we find them re-continuing the Exercise of that Right and Authority and in their own Persons sitting in Judgment upon William de la Pool Duke of Suffolk who was impeach'd of Treason by the Commons for that he had sold the Realm to the French King and had fortified Wallingford Castle for a place of Refuge The Impeachment of High Treason was brought from the House of Commons by several Lords Spiritual and Temporal sent thither by the King's Command the Ninth of March the Duke was brought from the Tower into the Presence of the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal The Impeachment was read unto him The Thirteenth of March he was sent for to come before the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal to answer to his Charge which he did On Tuesday the Seventeenth of March the King sent for all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal who were in Town They are named two Arch-Bishops and thirteen Bishops besides the Temporal Lords who being assembled the King sent for the Duke There was no Judgment given by the Parliament but he submitted to the King and the King gave him Penance which was that he should be absent for Five Years out of England The Lords Spiritual and Temporal by Viscount Beaumont declared to the King that this that was so decreed and done against the Person of the Duke proceeded not by their Advice and Council with this Protestation that it should not be nor turn in Prejudice nor Derogation of them their Heirs ne of their Successors in time coming but that they may have and enjoy their Liberty and Freedom as largely as ever their Ancestors or Predecessors had and enjoyed before this time Observe here that the Lords Spiritual were present at every Motion of this Cause This Cause was thrice before them no Exception taken to the Bishops being Judges They could not sit by Permission without Right if the Bishops had no Right to sit the Proceedings had been certainly erroneous For though one Judge's Absence if there be a Quorum will not vacate a Judgment yet if one sit in Judgment that is not an Authorized Judge the Proceeding is certainly erroneous and void Can any man believe that the Government should lose it self forget it s own Establishments in the highest concerns We may as soon believe that a man may forget his own name One positive Act of Session signifies more than 100 Omissions for if it had not been well understood that the Bishops had a Right to sit in Judgment in Capital Causes in Parliament they could never have been admitted they would never have presumed to endeavour it But with false Logick and absurd Reasonings and dislike to the Order it is become an Opinion in this Age because sometimes the Bishops absented that they have no Right But we have one thing further to add that declares an inherent Right in the Lords Spiritual to the Authority in question and that is an Opinion of the Judges 10 E. 4. 35. which says that the Lords Spiritual in case of a Tryal of a Temporal Peer in Parliament shall make a Procurator for then it seems an Opinion was received which was error temporis That it was indecent for Bishops to sit in their own persons in Judgment in such cases But they themselves are best Judges of what is indecent and unbecoming their Order for no man is obliged to any man but himself in the matters of Decency and the measures that make things decent or indecent is very mutable as changable and mutable as Customs Fashions and Opinions Besides that there is nothing that is very valuable and is of great concernment but can and
Fortunes to their Children but what they themselves could deserve viz. Hate and Infamy All Usurpation and Encroachment of Power is to be opposed where it can be lawfully as the greatest Mischief and the Ministers to the Designs hated and detested as the most pernicious and loathsome Vermine CHHP. XV. BUt to return agreable to this Policy of Sovereign Princes who had the Donation of Bishopricks of advancing Bishops to the highest secular Dignities and Trust William the Conqueror did create Bishops into Barons and exacted the Services and Counsells of Barons in the Great Council of the Kingdom by putting their Lands under Tenure by Barony he gave them no new Endowments but as a Conqueror he confirmed their Ancient Possessions under a new reserv'd Tenure and annex'd to their Order a Secular Honor a successive Baronage Since the Conquerour the title of Baron took the place of that of Thane which was likewise a Feudal Honour in the Saxons time By William the Conquerour Baronies were feudal and in congruity to the State of the Lay Nobles he made the Bishops feudal Barons for there was no other than feudal Nobility at that time It will not be amiss nor time mispent here to give a short account of the Government in the Conquerours time of the Baronage by him introduced and the policy thereof and of the change made in the Baronage of England in after time Because from thence we must derive the Bishops Right now in question which is included and virtually contained in their Right of Baronage Hereby it will appear that the Bishops were of the Barones majores and of the Barones majores the first in Dignity that they became feudal Barons in the Conquerour's time and when the reason of our Baronage changed and no man continued a Baron ratione tenurae it cannot with reason be said that the Bishops are Barons onely for the sake of their Lands which our Adversaries do insist upon for that they think it is an abatement to the Honour of Peerage and a prejudice to their Right in question but because it has been said before by men of Authority in the Law and grown up to be a vulgar error we will now discharge the mistake by affixing here the History and Reason of the change It was the policy of the first William for some are so critical they will not call him Conquerour to create new Tenures upon all the great Possessions of the Realm and impose upon the principal men to hold their Lands of him in capite under such Services that were necessary in peace and war for State and Justice and by putting all the considerable men of the Realm under Oaths of Fealty incident to those Tenures besides the Oaths of Allegeance he provided for the establishment of his Conquest or his possession of the Crown without title The principal men of the Realm both Ecclesiastical and Lay hereby were not onely obliged to support but to become part of the Government and were obliged to be Ministers of Justice and also Members of the great Council of the Kingdom or Parliament which was now to be made up principally of his Dependents by which he changed the constitution of the great Council in the Saxons times in the balance of that equal sort of Government the consequent mischiefs whereof this Kingdom laboured under untill we recovered it again by an equal representative of the Commons in Parliament in the time of King Henry the Third The power of the Baronage proved equally oppressive to the people and came in that time to be reduced irreverent to the Crown By this policy the Conquerour intended to establish his Conquest to secure to himself and his posterity the Imperial Crown of England imagining that otherwise he should have been but a precarious King He had now turn'd the Kingdom upon the matter into one great Mannor and kept his Courts called the Curia Regis in the nature of a Sovereign Court Baron now become more frequented and solemn than that Court was before the Conquest thrice in every Year at stated Times and Places viz. at Easter at Winchester at Whitsuntide at Westminster and at Christmas at Gloucester at these times and places all his Tenants which were all the considerable Free-holders of England attended of course and upon a General Summons at any other time or place appointed by the King as his Affairs did require they were bound likewise to attend In these Courts the Suitors swore Fealty did renew and confirm their Obligations to the Crown and the King became more assured of their Allegiance by their Personal Attendance and by his Royal Entertainments of them at such times In these Courts they recognized their own Services and the Rights of the King their Lord and assessed Aids and Estuage Prestations due to the Crown by their Tenures upon themselves to which in general they were obliged by their Tenures In these Conventions the Right of the Suitors the King's Tenants were adjudged as Private Lords had Judgment of the Right of Lands in pretence held of them in Fee in their several Manors as they have to this day But if Right was not done by the Lord the Cause was to be removed to this Curia Regis the King being Lord Paramount of whom all Estates mediately or immediately were held Which appears by the Form of the Writ of Right now in use which we will transcribe N. B. precipimus tibi quod sine dilatione plenum Rectum teneas A. de B. de uno Messuagio L. in I quae clamat tenere de te per liberum Servitium unius denarii per annum pro omni servitio quod W. de T. ei deforciat nisi feceris Vicecomes faciatne amplius inde Clamorem audiamus pro defectu Recti The Common Pleas was not then a Court and at this time the Appeal and resort to the King was in this Court if Justice was not done by the Lord or Sheriff So that the greatest part of the Justice of the Nation was administred in those Assemblies But it must not be understood that this vast Convention was a Court of Judicature for every Cause neither that it was formally a Parliament without some farther Act of the King for erecting that Convention into the great Council of the Nation But in this Curia Regis they were obliged to answer the King's Writs of Summons Writs of Commission and obey his Appointments in the Ordinary Administration of Justice in which the Capitalis Justiciarius or Justitia was to preside That this was not a Judicature the vast numbers of those that made it the inequality of the Persons considered under the Common Reason of being Tenants in Capite and Barons whereby they became indifferently members of the Curia Regis besides the neglect that must necessarily be presumed in the greatest part of such a Body to the business of Jurisdiction and judging of Rights without particular Designation thereto do sufficiently argue and evince But
but thence he offers a Reason which must needs be a Mistake too why Bishops shall not be tryed by Peers in Capital Crimes because these are personal and his being a Baron is Ratione tenurae and not of personal Nobility But this he wrote when he was young in his first Edition of Titles of Honour which was in the time of King James But can there be a harsher and more incongruous thing said than that there is any other Nobility than what is personal Can Land be noble This that I have said is to prove That the Spiritual Lords are of the Baronage of England such as it is now constituted and they do not cannot remain in any Reason or Understanding Feudal Barons after the Ratio Baronagii is changed and if they could remain Barons Ratione tenurae at this day yet they ought to have all Preheminencies and Priviledges of Barons But true it is that they are another sort of Nobility different from that of the secular Lords though equal in all the powers of Baronage and besides have precedency in Honour and therefore make a distinct State from them and one of the three Estates or Ordines Regni Besides that by the way we have destroyed the Force of the Arguments used by the Folio against the Jus Paritatis of Bishops and their Competency to try a Lay Peer which we shall speak to more by and by CHAP. XVII IN the King and in these three Estates is placed the Peoples Security and the Care of the whole Community from every of them they have distinct just and reasonable Expectations though the third State of the House of Commons hath carried away and almost ingrossed the name of the Peoples Representatives though they are only the Peoples Representatives to act for them in matters wherein the People are left at perfect Liberty and concerning which there is no Order taken in the Constitution of the Government This is truly Our Government a King and Three Estates the Lords Spiritual the Lords Temporal and the Commons by their Delegates and Representatives for the purpose only to treat about matters in which the People have Power to deliberate and are and ought to be redress'd This is the Forme of all the Modern and Gothick Governments planted in Christian Europe Guntherus expresseth three Estates thus Praelati Proceres missisque Potentibus Vrbes The great men of Estates Proceres were sufficient to take care of their Interests and Dependents which made the Body of the County But then there were Cities or great Towns in which were great Bodies of Freemen men of Wealth and Trade that were little concerned in Lands or Tenures which we call Liberi Burgi which our Neighbors call Hans Towns And our Kings seem to have by Prerogative a continuing Power to declare Towns when they arrive to be great peopled and rich Free Boroughs and thereupon they acquire a Right to send Delegates to Parliament And this appears for that many Boroughs that send Burgesses of to Parliament have no other Foundation Right but the King's Charter in which he grants Sit A. de Caetero liber Burgus I have seen some of these Charters as ancient as King John These Charters could have had no such Operation but by vertue of some Ancient Establishment in the Government We have no History of its Commencement King William I. that he might have the assistance of all the States in Parliament put the Boroughs under Tenure by Baronage How many of the Burgage Tenures were of that sort we know not but it is probable all that at that time sent Burgesses to the Parliamentary Conventions by what name soever they were then called the Burgesses of the Cinque-ports are still called Barons And we know that the Borough of St. Albans was put under that Tenure and in that Right challenged them to Burgesses to Parliament as Dr. Brady acknowledgeth But the reason why we have no remembrance of the Tenures of Boroughs to send Burgesses to Parliament is that which we have here proved viz. the ancient reason of Baronage viz. by Tenure did cease about the time of H. 3. And conformably the King might require Boroughs to send Members to Parliament without mentioning in his Writs the duty of their Tenure and by declaring them free Boroughs give them that Priviledge though not oblig'd thereto by any Tenure created upon them So that it is evident that before H. 3. our great Councils or Parliaments consisted of three Estates though they all pass'd under the general Stile of Baronagium Angliae which I thought fit to demonstrate that our Parliaments or great Council of the Realm always consisted of three States Corol. From this that the King's Prerogative being so viz. to have power to declare Free Boroughs which he useth by his Letters Patents The Rights of chosing their Burgesses to Parliament belongs to all of the Community and cannot be restrain'd to fewer Electors by their Charters For Jura ordinaria non recipiunt modum The Remainder at least of this Form of Government continued in all the Countries wherein the German Colonies made their Conquests and planted themselves as will appear to any body that will consult the Republicks and those plentiful Quotations that hath been made by a Learned Author in his Book published since this was written I cannot but wonder since this our Constitution hath been oftenmost authentickly declared and every one knows that the Government is materially so as we have said and it is agreed by all that the Government consists of three States that yet we know not where to find ' em There is much Art used to give Countenance to or rather to form an Opinion that the King is one of the three States It is now almost come to be an Opinion and insomuch as it is an Opinion it is an Error This Error such as it is is endeavored to be improved to the Destruction of the Government It is nurs'd up carefully and is to gain Reputation and Credit with the People by the Authority of great Names and when it is grown popular it is designed to take the least next Advantage against the Spiritual Lords to dismiss them from their Bench as no necessary or essential part of the Government There was it 's true an ill-pen'd and inconsiderate Address made by the House of Commons only to the the King in 2 Hen. 4. to desire him to make Peace between the Lords and therein they say that the three States of Parliament are the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons But this is the first time that an Address of a House of Commons was so nicely considered And that the Form and Letter of it should be the measure of Law and of the Government There was also a phantastick Letter written by Stephen Gardiner printed it seems in the Book of Martyrs wherein that Bishop talks of three States in which he must needs reckon the King for one For he could not leave
summoned Yet the Bishops by reason of their Spiritual Dignity had necessarily a right and voice The Archiepiscopi Comites Barones alii Magnates in ancient Parliamentary Writs of Summons do ordinarily express and comprehend the whole Baronage without naming the Abbots and Priors which must be signified by the alii Magnates Which I the rather note because the Folio Author a Gentleman very easie and ready in Inferences doth conclude that because such Writs mention Magnates besides Bishops Comites Barones which he too suddenly concluded were comprehensive of the whole Baronage doth thence argue that a Writ of Summons of any man to Parliament doth not make him a Baron and from thence would have it inferred that the Bishops are not so though they are expresly mentioned and first in order and cannot in reason be reduced to that meanness of rate and quality with those that fall under an Et caetera and from hence would have it concluded that they may when the King pleaseth be dismist that House because there were anciently some Grandees that had Session in Parliament now discharged Besides we do observe that another sort of great men may be meant by the alii Magnates that is to say famous men of the Clergy not Bishops and other men of great name for wisdom of which there were some summoned in most of the ancient Parliaments not intended thereby by the King to be made noble or advanced to the state of Baronage for there were distinct clauses in the Writs of Summons to signifie the Kings purpose therein The Writs directed to such as were not intended thereby to be made Barons as the Judges Attorney General Kings Serjeant c. was Quod intersitis nobiscum cum caeteris de Concilio nostro and sometimes nobiscum onely super praemissis tractaturi vestrúmque consilium impensuri whereas that to the Barons was Quòd intersitis cum Praelatis Magnanatibus Proceribus c. But as Mr. Selden observes that custom of sending Summons to great men not Bishops to Parliament did cease after the clause of Praemunientes by which Convocations were summoned by Bishops to meet with Parliaments grew in use in the Bishops Writs of Summons to Parliament Of which excellent Provision we shall have occasion to speak to hereafter All the Baronage both Spiritual and Temporal de jure ought to have Summons now to Parliament without respect to Estate or Tenures There is no man now noble by his Acres a sort of Nobility that this refined Age will not allow of The King according to the Constitution of H. 3. afore-mentioned may now by Letters Pattents or Writ erect a new successive Barony as well as hereditary as was done by H. 8. The fifth year of his Reign for that the Baronage of England was now affixed to Family and Succession and not to Tenures he by his Letters Patents did then grant unto Richard Bamham Abbot of Tavestock in the County of Devon the Abbey being of his Foundation and Patronage and to the Successors of the said Abbot Vt eorum quilibet qui pro tempore ibidem fuerit Abbas sit erit unus de Spiritualibus Religiosis Dominis Parliamenti nostri haeredum Successorum nostrorum gaudend honore privilegio libertatibus ejusdem This the King might well do because the Abbot was of his Patronage and the Successors were therefore to be elected and collated by the King for that was the Inducement and Reason of Kings and Sovereign Princes advancing Bishops and great Abbots to the degree of Baronage making them members of the great Councils of their Kingdoms and Principalities as is before observed because such Abbots as the Bishops were made always and appointed by the Sovereign Prince And here we may take notice by the way of the Reason why the Episcopus Soderensis or the Bishop of the Isle of Man is not summon'd to Parliament which I shall give you in the Words of Sir H. Spelm. in his Glossary Baronum appellatione non omnes hodie apud nos censentur Episcopi ut pote Soderensis in insula Manniâ quod de Rege non tenet immediate at de Comite Darbiae Nay it is most observable That this Honour of Baronage or being a Member of the House of Peers was so inseparable to the Office of a Bishop after the afore-mentioned new Constitution of the Baronage That the Guardians of the Spiritualties of Bishopricks in the times of Vacancy and the Vicars General of Bishops being beyond Sea were summoned to Parliaments by the same kind of Writs as the Bishops were summoned Of this Mr. Selden doth assure us Titles of Honour 2 Edit fol. 721. But this Honour lasted no longer than this legal Substitution and Vicarious Power If they had Right to sit in that House in respect of their Temporalties the Guardian of the Spirituals or the Vicars General would not have had Writs of Summons to Parliament But if the Kingdom had not had a great Opinion of that Order it would not have been provided and put in use that in Vacancy of the See or Absence of the Bishop rather than that great Council would want one Bishop utterly or the Interest Authority and Consent of any that had Episcopal Authority they admitted the Substitute by whom that Office was executed and administred for that Interval only When Baronies were feudal the person tho' in respect of his Land was noble his great Estate and Interest and the other general Presumptions that attend opulent Fortunes made the Possessor noble in his Person Anciently the Estate of late the Discent in the Temporal Baronies and the Succession in the Spiritual Baronies place the persons respectively in the Census and Rank of Baronage but there is no Nobility but what is personal nor can be in Nature All the persons in the same Order of the publick Census are of the same Quality Neither are Bishops to be accounted less Barons or less noble because they enjoy their Baronies for Life only no more than a Tenant for Life of an hereditary feudal Barony could be so accounted Feudal Baronies being considered as Estates were alienable as Estates and as Estates would suffer Limitations and admit of particular Estates for Life No man can say we had no personal Nobility in the time when there was no other Baronage than Feudal How then can it be said that the Bishops Persons are not noble though they should be accounted only Barons Ratione Tenurae as certainly they are not in proper speaking at this day neither can it be objected against their personal Nobility that a Bishop may be degraded for so may a Peer for more Reasons than a Decay of his Fortune and Estate Which matter I the rather insist upon for that the great Mr. Selden committed an Error by not considering that the ways and means by which persons derive and come to be of the Order of the Nobility and Baronage can make no Difference in the Baronage
which have since made the Convocations or the Ecclesiastical Council of the Kingdom and are to meet at every Session of Parliament but to debate nothing but what is propounded and to publish nothing for Canons without the Royal Assent So that they are to act nothing but under the observation of Parliament This Convocation or Ecclesiastical Council other allowable Synods we have none ought not to convene but when a Parliament is sitting and continue no longer than the Parliament We ought to observe herein and applaud the excellent wisdom of our Government that in the very constituion of it hath provided for the peace of our Church by silencing Controversies which can never be determined with any effect such a wise expedient and course as the best instructed Christian Emperours did take by their Edicts prohibiting publick Disputations about subtil and nice Questions as Constantine Martianus Leo Anthemius Andronicus Heraclius to mention no more None but mad men and extravagantly presumptuous or utterly ignorant of Church History will ever hereafter go about by Acts of Councils to end Controversies but rather to shame the Dogmatizers out of their contentious zeal by shewing how little the ends and designs of Christianity are concerned one way or other in such Questions in which those that are most learned know least and a little learned ignorance would discharge most of them from any longer troubling the world And farther we must observe to the Honor of our Nation that it is so religiously wise as to commit the Care of conducting Devotions ordering the Decency of Publick Worship and censuring the Manners of Clerks to the Bishops and the Principal Clergy whereto their Religion Wisdom Devotion and Moderation bespeak them the fittest Persons No less remarkable is the Wisdom of our Government that it doth not make that which is properly the matter of Canons the Subject of their Legislation and thereby subject us to Temporal Punishments where the Admonitions of the Church and her Censures are more proportioned Remedies to the disobedient and froward Laws oblige us to punishments govern us by Fear and Awe oblige with Reason or without Reason because they are Laws They admit of no Ecclesiastical Relaxation or Dispensation and bind when the reason ceaseth In whatsoever thing relative to Religon a Law is made the matter is taken out of the Hands of the Church-men and no longer under their Government whose Government is a Ministry not Empire and Dominion They can institute nothing but what they may reasonably persuade Nihil tam voluntarium quam Religio Lact. We can have no more Religion or Truth than we can persuade Religion and Truth are to be promoted by moving the Will The Church rules by persuasion and her Canons oblige only for their Reason Religion for the sake of our own Edification and the Edification of others the Peace of the Church and Reverence of our Pastors and Teachers Canons in their own Nature are Temporary for the present necessity and convenience variable and mutable as the Edification of the Church shall require and the prudence of the Guides of the Church shall determine and therefore what is properly the Matter of Canons ought not to pass under Laws which are rigid and inflexible peremptory punitive and ungovernable And this magnifies the prudence and Christian Temper of our English Prelates CHAP. XXIII LAstly I observe what a dangerous Opinion our Judges sometimes had in reference to the Baronage of England viz. that it was in the Power of the King or in any Nobleman once summoned by Writ to Parliament as a Baron at the pleasure of the King to relinquish his place and determine the Nobility of his Family Which Opinion not being corrected would have made that State ambulatory and moveable upon which the whole Frame of the Government depends The Baronage of England is the Stabiliment of our Government and may be soon made too weak to support the other greater parts of the Building that rest upon it and are supported by it It is this that moderates between the two contending Interests of Prerogative and Liberty and prevents those violent Concussions which would otherwise unavoidably happen geminum gracilis Mare separat Isthmus Nec patitur conferre fretum si terra recedat Ionium Aegaeo frangat Mare Of what Importance therefore is it that we should be a Kingdom that cannot be shaken as much as Humane Wisdom can provide and frail Materials will admit That our Baronage should not hold their places precariously at the King's Pleasure and be deposed at his Will And yet our Judges after that Honor was fixed in the Families of those whom the King should appoint by Writ to hold that Honor and Place in the Commonwealth remembring that Baronage was at first a Service imposed ratione tenurae by Will the Conqueror Our Judges I say more able to judge of Private Rights than in Questions of State and Government being under a prejudice from the Consideration of the Original of our Baronies did allow the Plea of Thomas de Furnival who had been called to several Parliaments by Writ that he was no Baron for that he held not his Land per Baroniam vel partem Baroniae and therefore adjudged him no Baron Communia de Term. Sancti Hillarii Anno 19 E. 2. Rot. penes Remem Dom. Thes in Scaccario pro Thoma de Furnival Seniore exonerando But of this Cause they were not properly Judges the Lords themselves are the only Judges of the right Constitution of that House and they have anciently challenged a Writ of Summons de jure debito Justitiae for themselves and Descendents where they have been once summoned by Writ and answered that Writ and taken their place accordingly And the whole House doth constantly refuse to act until the Lord that complains of an Omission hath a Writ of Summons sent him What Apprehensions was had of this Honor by Thomas de Furnival and others in his time I know not But it might have been then and since it is well understood that that place which they sustain in the Government is of the highest Trust and the Benefits which redound therefrom to the Commonweal the greatest For they make the Government as well gentle and good as firm and stable These Noble Lords Marchers are placed between two great Contending Powers to preserve the due Boundaries and respective Limits and oblige them to Right and Reason by their Courage and Wisdom And for their Encouragement and Reward deserve the highest Honors and that they should be as they are immortal in their Families And accordingly it was resolved lately in the Case of the Honor of Purbeck in the Lords House that no Fine or Surrender of the Honor of a Baron can extinguish it But that notwithstanding it shall continue to his Heirs and Descendents And that upon the clearest and most important Reason for that the Constitution of the Government ought not as in its own Nature it cannot
difficult to tell how that late unhappy War began or how it came to issue so Tragically in the Death of the Late King though we know how it ended viz. The Nation recovered within twelve years after the most deplored Death of that excellent King into a renowned Loyalty and in spight of a great Armed Power never before foil'd ever victorious then kept on foot for the interest of a very few men restored our present King may his Reign be long and happy to the Government of his Kingdoms without the least assistance of any of the Cavalier party and oblig'd a wary General in the head of a factious and republican army to Loyalty Nay within that time also the Nation had recovered out of their partial Lapse into Fanaticisme bread up great numbers of excellent Schollars who masterd the prejudices of those times were reverenced by the chief of the Presbyterian party and are the beauty and strength of the Church of England at this time The Presbyterians themselves were grown reconcileable to the Church of England and had learnt by woful experience the mischievousness of Schisme upon no better pretences than what then might have been satisfied and accommodated When the King and Church were restored Fanaticisme had expired if some old peevish and stiff Church-men had not studied obstacles against a universal accommodation and some crafty Statesmen had not projected that the continuance of the Schisme would be of great service some time or other to destroy the Church of England and change our antient Government which is now apparently the Popish Plot and if ever it be effected it will be with this trick of affrighting the Church of England with the apprehension of Fanaticisme and making them suspicious of Parliaments As many of them as are drawn into an opinion of the disloyalty of our late Parliaments the illusions of the Popish Plot hath passed upon them and they are under the power of its fascinations But both the Loyalty of the late Parliaments and also how much it imports the Plotters to have it believed that they design upon the present Government will at once be clearly understood if it be considered what hath been done for the forging of a Protestant Plot which was intended at the first opening to extend to the House of Commons Things so wicked as would make a virtuous man ashamed of the age he lives in But after all endeavors to find witnesses for their purpose powerful encouragements and great rewards they have drawn none into their assistance but who are publickly known for Rogues or who wanted Bread or had no Reputation to loose If the falshood of this forged Plot had not been utterly improbable they might have procured better seeming and more credible witnesses They might sure have found in this age men bad enough not already infamous to have testified a probable Lye But so necessary it is to the Popish design that a Protestant Plot be believed that they are not discouraged at the manifest detection of their conspiracies perjuries and subornations but will still go on as if they had a power to work miracles of villany for their Religion which is no better Our modern Politicians have been most observant agreeably to their virtuous make how frauds perjuries and violence have prospered and succeeded in some particular cases and have brought about some designs imagine such means throughly multiplied to be able to conquer all things which they design But these Arts which have had success by the permission of God when one Villain hath been to destroy another will not pass upon the Protestant Religion Let them seriously in time despair and give over such enterprises For there is no Enchantment against Jacob nor Divination against Israel the Lot of Gods inheritance and his peculiar Care If Mordecai be of the Seed of the Jews Haman shall fall before him It is matter of comfort to us and dispair to the Plotters that not one of their Plots yet but hath proved Abortive or they have been defeated by their very success Besides pray let it be observed how this Design of lessening our just confidence in Parliaments is otherwise carried on and promoted It is now become the principal business of the Mercenary Writers for the Plot to pick up and cull out all the enormities and irregularities of those times the Vitia temporum and stories of wild pranks of some beastly Fanatical people that exceeded the common degeneracy of those ill times into which the Nation by undicernable degrees so fouly lapsed to make thereof an ugly Vizard and this they clap unduly upon four fifths of the Nation upon all that love and adhere to our Government and Religion to render them suspected of destroying again the English Monarchy and the Protestant Religion even for those very proceedings that they make for preserving both For the service of Popery requires that whosoever opposes it must be branded with Treason and Fanaticisme that such delicate persons as are fond of the name of Loyalty though they understand not in what it consists that hate the name of Fanatick since it is become as common a name of reproach as the Son of a Whore though they understand not so well what it means will be sure so to behave themselves as to be reckoned for Loyal and not Fanatical by taking the measures of the one and the other according to the new notion of the Plot Writers may become theirs with all their idle prattle But let them make their best of this foolish sort of men if that was all they could effect by this project But they design further upon the Nation viz. to match the fears of Popery with a fear as great of the like Evils to those of Forty one as if these Plotters had power by their interest to raise a new War when we have power and authority in our Government if it were exerted to destroy them by Justice But these State Mountebanks think it convenient because the Nation was cast into a Frenzy in Forty one therefore now when in perfect health we are to be cast into a Lethargy to prevent our relapse and in the mean time they intend we should perish insensibly and quietly that way they design to destroy us It is since the Discovery of the Popish Plot that Popish Mercenaries have been hired to write virulent Libels against the Church and bitter invectives against Fanaticks Out of the same Mint came a villanous Libel called Omnia Comesta a Belo against the Church apt to render the Church-men suspicious of another detestable Sacriledge designed And that loathsome Print entitled the Committee or Popery in Masquerade Many parts whereof hath no other reason of belief but that they have been the Subject of some drunken Rhimes in former times but it is in the whole an insufferable Libel against the Nation by its application to this age These Mercenaries are the Authors as well of treasonable Libels against the King which they
by which it became capital is not understood as he tells us in the place before cited I shall not trouble the Reader with unfolding the matter But why doth he trouble himself to make Kings Fathers of their Countries some cannot be so and some have no mind to be so and yet they ought to be Kings And some that have not been Kings have been so and so styled as the great M. Tully for defeating the Catiline Conspiracy He was by decree of the Senate call'd Pater Patriae Those are with reason truly called Patres patriae which either relieve their Country from miserable pressures which is the civil death of a Nation and for this reason our King hath the honor of being called Pater Patriae and we hope that he will wear that honorable Title upon a second deliverance of us from a most deplorable condition Or else such who bring the Nation to an exalted state of happiness so much beyond their old state of things that they seem to give the Nation a new civil Life Being and Birth For his etymological argument from the notation of the Word it is too putid to be insisted upon tho not more ridiculous than his Hypothesis But for that the reduction of our duty to our King to the fifth Commandment may seem to give some advantage to the Hypothesis with Fathers who know no bounds of their power over their Children It must be observed that the Decalogue is not a compleat Rule of Morality The decalogue comprised the Principal Laws of that common Wealth which God their Law giver by a most Solemn Act of his Legislation did more awfully oblige them to observe God that time was their King Rebellion was as Idolatry and the sin of Witchcraft and the Defection of one of their Cities to Idolatry was punished as a revolt and Rebellion Deut. 13. v. 15. He had provided for his honor and worship and their Allegiance in the first Table and did design by the 5th Commandment to lay the Foundation of all positive morality by providing for a Reciprocation of kindnesses by injoyning the gratitude and fitting returns of Children to their Parents and by putting Children under obligations to be taught and instructed by their Parents But our duty to Governors is more duly referred to all the other Commandments because Government secures the observation of those Laws to us by which we enjoy our selves and ours freed from the Violations of Lust Appetite Fraud and Violence We do not honor our King by relief in his fortune which is commanded to be done by our Parents in the precept of honoring them our subsidies and Aids are not to that purpose but contributions to the charges of the Government they are the just price of our immunity protection from fraud and violence for which cause pay we tribute But whosoever he be that hath more respect for this Knights works then I have may find him more gently treated by a very worthy Gentleman in a very candid and judicious book called Patriarcha non Monarcha But what is the meaning of these flattering Books they cannot but be nauseous to His Majesty who is a very wise Prince and knows how sensless such Books are and besides they make the People afraid and the Nation unquiet from the apprehensions they give that the Government will be changed Notwithstanding the King hath given such solemn assurance to the Nation by his late Declaration that we shall have frequent Parliaments and that he will govern by Law They would have had a better market for the Divinity they bestow upon Princes with Alexander after he had lost his Virtue and with those Vile Emperors whose Names are Regum opprobria for such the flatterers of antient times Deifyed those who had ceas'd to be men they made Gods and when they had left nothing about them that was tolerable they magnified their power which was already most intolerable If the Kings hereafter would but read the History of Kings under that conclusion that a wise observer of Humane Events made after a long observation and experience and would make experiments of the truth of it in their own reading Kings would be glorious and the Nations they govern happy and full of peace They would find therein so many effectual Documents to fear God and regard men and govern them righteously Si Vitam spectes hominum si denique Mores Artem vim fraudem cuncta putes agere Si propiùs spectes fortuna est arbitra Rerum Nescis quid dicis sed tamen esse putas At penitus si introspicias ultima primis Connectas solus rector in orbe Deus Alciat People can be no happyer than Government and Laws design to make them though they do not alwayes answer the good designments of the Government To what purpose then are these new Hypotheses fram'd and published Kings are exempted by their Office and the sacredness of their persons from all fears but the fears of Nature and these can never be discharg'd Those who do ill will fear ill Eternally tho their power were made little less than omnipotent for the frame of Humane Nature hath made it necessary to be so Besides God hath made one thing against another there is a Divine Nemesis interwoven in the Nature of things and God will always govern the World Omne sub regno duriore regnum The great Mogul at his inauguration swears that his People shall be at peace at home and victorious abroad afflicted neither with plague nor famine but enjoy Health and Plenty all his days This seems extraordinary Pompous and Arrogant but it means no more than this that he will govern them so vertuously that Gods Providence shall be always propitious to his People and is no more in plain English than what our Church offers up in her publick prayers for the King viz. That he may govern us in Wealth Peace and Godliness that he may live long and so govern us ought to be every honest mans Prayers But after all these vain Hypotheses contriv'd for making Kings absolute it will be more easie for Kings to make their reigns unquiet and turn their Kingdoms into Shambles But lastly to revive the Antient Zeal of the true members of the Church of England against Popery To rectify the mistakes of some Gentlemen of the Clergy about the Dissenters And of our late Parliaments and their proceedings in reference to them Let it be considered how unreasonable their apprehensions are of any danger to the Church of England from the desires of the House of Commons of some indulgence or toleration in favor of the Dissenters at this time especially when the Protestant Religion is so shrewdly beset she hath reason now sure to take all such for her friends that are heartily Enemies to Popery tho not so skillful as they should be to ward off its assaults Since the Papists presume to call them Fanaticks tho exactly conformable to the Church of England that
him the Imperial Crown of England For Robert Steward first King of Scotland of that Family lived in concubinate with Elizabeth Mure and by her had three Sons John Robert and Alexander afterwards he Married Eufame Daughter to the Earl of Ross and after was Crowned King of Scotland He had by her Walter Earl of Athol and David Earl of Straherne When Eufame his Wife dyed he Married Elizabeth Mure. After that by one Act of Parliament he made them first Noble that is to say John Earl of Carrick Robert Earl of Menteith and Alexander Earl of Buchquhane And shortly after by another Parliament he limited the Crown in Tail Successively to John Robert and Alexander his Children by Elizabeth Mure in Concubinate and after to the Children of Elizabeth Ross his Legitimate Children who are to this day in their issue by this limitation by authority of an Act of Parliament in Scotland barr'd from the Crown and we hope ever will be by the continuance of the Line of our most Gracious King For note that though a subsequent Marriage by the civil Law which is the Law of Scotland in such cases doth Legitimate the Children born before Marriage of a Concubine yet it is with this exception that they shall not be Legitimated to the prejudice of Children born afterwards in Marriage and before the Marriage of the Concubine Besides the reason of the Civil Law in Legitimating the Children upon a subsequent Marriage is this viz. a presumption that they were begotten affectu maritali which presumption fails where the man proceeds to Marry another woman and abandons or neglects his Concubine But I desire these Gentlemen that are so unwilling to be safe in their Religion which I believe is most dear unto them That if any Law should exceed the declared measures of the Legislative authority though in such Case they may have leave to doubt of the lawfulness of such a Law yet if it be not against any express Law of God they will upon a little consideration determin it lawful if it be necessary to the Common-weal for that nothing can be the concerns of men united in any Polity but may be govern'd and ordered by the Laws of their Legislature for publick good for by the reason of all political societies For further satisfaction of the lawfulness of the bill of exclusion See a Book called The great and weighty Consideration considered there is a submission made of all Rights especially of the Common Rights of that community to the Government of its own Laws But all this and a hundred times as much will not satisfy some Gentlemen of the lawfulness of our Government the extent of the Legislative power of Parliaments since they have entertained a Notion that Monarchy is jure divino unalterable in its descent by any Law of man for that it is subject to none That all Kings are alike absolute that their Will is a Law to all their Subjects That Parliaments the states of the Realm in their Conventions can be no more than the Monarcks Ministers acting under and by his appointment which he may exauctorate and turn out of Office when he pleaseth For there can be say they under the Sun no obliging Authority but that of Kings to whom God hath given a plenitude of power and what is derived from them That this Divine Absoluteness may Govern and exercise Royal power immensely and that it is subject to nor to be abated or restrained by any humane inventions or contrivances of men however necessary and convenient Kings have thought them in former Ages by such methods and such offices and Officers of which number the States of the Realm may be or not be as Kings shall please as they shall by their absolute Will order or appoint Our Parliaments say they are Rebellious and an Usurpation upon the unbounded Power of Kings which belongs to every King as such jure ordinario and by Divine institution That a mixt Monarchy as ours is is an Anarchy and that we are at present without a Government at least such as we ought to have and which God hath appointed and ordained for us That we by adhering to the present Government are Rebels to God Almighty and the Kings unlimited Power and Authority under him which no humane constitution no not the Will and Pleasure of Kings themselves can limit or restrain For that jura ordinaria divina non recipiunt modum That the Legislative Power is solely in the King and that the business of a Parliament if they would think of being only what they ought to be is only to declare on the behalf of themselves and the people that send them for that purpose certainly the obedience that is due from them to such Laws as the K. shall make and that they may be laid aside wholly when he pleaseth And after all this what matter 's it with them what we say our Government is hath been or where the Legislative Authority of the Nation is placed or how used But I desire these Gentlemen to consider how they come to these Notions upon what reason they are grounded How a Government established by God and Nature for all Mankind should remain a secret to all the wise good just and peaceable men of all Ages That Kings should not before this have understood their Authority when no pretences are omitted for encrease of power and enlargement of Empire I desire them to consider that this secret was not discovered to the World before the last Age and was a forerunner of our late unnatural War and is now again revived by the republishing of Sir Robert Filmers Books since the Discovery of the Popish Plot. I wish they would consider that the reasons ought to be as clear and evident as Demonstration that will warrant them to discost from the sense of all Mankind in a matter of such weight and moment That to mistake with confidence and overweening in this matter will be an unpardonable affront to the Common sense of Mankind and the greatest Violation of the Laws of modesty I desire that they would consider and rate the mischiefs that will certainly ensue upon this opinion and whether a probable reason can therefore support it That they would throughly weigh ponder and examine the Reasons of these bold and new Dogmata For their enquiries ought to be in proportion diligent and strict as the matter is of moment and if they are not their error and mistake will be very culpable and the sin of the error aggravated to the measure of the mischief which it produceth and occasioneth Where is the Charter of Kings from God Almighty to be read or found for nothing but the declared Will of God can warrant us to destroy our Government or to give up the Rights and Liberties of our people If they are lawful I am sure it is villany to betray them since all political Societies are framed that all may assist the Common Rights of