Government in such State of picqueering Misunderstanding King James left his Crown to King Charles and in a War for Recovery of the Palatinate without any Money and in a fair way of Quarrel at Home as well as Abroad Besides the People had it in their Memories and Consideration his Complaisant Behaviour in Spain his Letter to and Tampering with the Pope in Order to that Match which rais'd new Jealousies on Account of Religion and his Compleating himself the Match with France with as Frank Articles for Popery as had before been offer'd to Spain in Conjunction with his Father confirm'd them in them These Reasons and Considerations took possession justly enough in the Minds of Men which made them ever after stand upon their guard And setting aside all those Scurrilous Authors on the One hand who have pretended to give us a Narrative of his Actions and also those Fulsome Ones on the Other all those who would Depress or Advance his Character with Art certainly a great many Actions of his Administration are not to be justified in a Court of Honour or Wisdom Such as Dissolving the First Parliament meerly in Complaisance to the Duke of Buckingham A King must necessarily Disoblige and Affront the Community when he Espouseth the Interest of a Single Person against the Publick and it shews a Weakness to put one Man no better than the rest in the Scales in competition with Mankind as it were But especially a King ought to be sure the Subject-matter of such Protection and Preference is good and justifiable otherwise he commits a double Error It will be thought Ill-natur'd to Argue against Favourites but I must Argue against the Argument for them It is a very odd Inference That because our Saviour had his Favourite-Disciple therefore Kings must have their Favourites I suppose No body will pretend there is any parity of Reason To return therefore to the Duke of Buckingham who without Dispute had betrayed the Vantguard c. to the French after the King and he knew both that they were to be employed against the Rochellers this was in it self a great Abuse to the Honour of the English Nation and a manifest Injustice and Injury to the Protestant Religion And 't was from this King's Reign that the French began to Date their Strength at Sea This only Action bred such ill Blood and created so great a Misunderstanding at first between the King and his Subjects as stuck to the Duke of Buckingham till his Death whom Felton kill'd and I doubt till the King 's too His next Proceeding was Extraordinary when he had thus Dissolv'd the First Parliament To Levy Money by Privy Seals which had so ill a savour in his Father's Time and then to call a Parliament presently on the neck of that Miscarriage and to side with the D. of B. against the E. of B. and the denying the latter his Writ to Parliament this lookt inconsiderate and a little mean and the interposing so much on behalf of the former even with passion as well as partiality had but an ill grace I pass by the Business of the Earl of Arundel which also could not but breed ill Blood in the House of Peers By the King's Obstinacy in these Affairs though I do not pretend to justify the House of Commons in theirs instead of preserving one Friend in the mean time he sacrifices all the rest to his Humour For the King of Denmark who at his Instance chiefly had taken up Arms in his Quarrel was beaten and reduced to great Distress for want of Succors from England which the King had thus disabled himself to supply according to his Promise That Necessity put him again upon Indirect Courses for Raising of Money by Commissions of Loan and seising all Duties of Customs Privy-Seals Benevolences c. as if he would shew he design'd if he had prevail'd to live on himself without a Parliament But the Imprisoning the Gentlemen for refusing the Loan and the Suspending and Disgracing Archbishop Abbot for refusing to License Sibthorp's Book were Strains of Arbitrary Power which exposed Religion as well as Law into a Jest and seem to profane the Sacred Title of a King as well as that of an Archbishop as appears especially in that Archbishop's Narrative and Dialogue with the Passages therein express'd if it be true which exposes that whole Transaction as a plain Rhodomontade and Defiance to all Rules of Justice and Reason I will take notice only of the Observation of the Archbishop upon the Fourth Objection to Sibthorp's Sermon by which you may guess at the rest To the Fourth Let the Largeness of those words be well consider'd says the Archbishop yea all Antiquity to be absolutely for Absolute Obedience to Princes in all Civil or Temporal things for such Cases as Naboth's Vineyard may fall within this and if I had allow'd this for Doctrine I had been justly beaten with my own Rod If the King the next day had commanded me to send him all the Money and Goods I had I must by my own Rule have obey'd him And if he had commanded the like to all the Clergy of England by Sibthorp's Proposition and the Archbishop of Canterbury's allowing of the same they must have sent in all and left their Wives and Children in a Miserable Case yea the Words extend so far and are so absolutely deliver'd that by this Divinity If the King should send to the City of London and the Inhabitants thereof commanding them to give unto him all the Wealth they have they were bound to do it There is a Meum Tuum in Christian Commonwealths and according to Laws and Customs Princes may dispose of it That Saying being true Ad Reges Potestas omnium pertinet ad singulos proprietas This was the Sense of the Archbishop on this Matter and yet the King espoused the Fancies of a Sibthorp against him who was not so much as a Batchellour of Arts only for the merit of his Flattering Divinity And in truth the whole Proceeding is apt to turn one's Stomach besides that the King in Exposing the Dignity of a Person of such a Figure in the Church did also make bold with his own Character at second hand who stood but one Remove Higher And what was it but to intimate to the Lay-Gentlemen that neither of them were so sacred or inviolable as was pretended And by the by 't is not safe to make too Light of a Spiritual Person they can't be held too sacred on this side of Infallibility But how like a Prophet did the Archbishop talk How did he Reason like a Statesman concerning the King and Duke of Buckingham How did the Event but too well justify the Predictions What could the King expect from his Next Parliament which he was in a manner forc'd to Call after the Imprisonment of so many Gentlemen and the Poor-spirited Way of Releasing them which lookt almost as bad as the Imprisoning them What could he say
can only attribute this to the Character Stow gives of him viz. That he advanced Persons to Dignities for Merit only and who did excel others in Innocency of Life RICHARD II. SOME Princes have Erred upon a mistaken Consideration some through a wilful and rash Inconsideration some have taken Measures by Advice of Friends as they thought and have been deceived by Misrepresentations these may be pittied Others have Miscarried by hearkening only to Minions and Favourites are head-strong and resolvedly deaf and obstinate against Advice But the Actions and Conduct of this King are so Unaccountable that it would puzzle a Matchiavel to assign him a Character or to fix him in any Rule or Principle of Government Good or Bad. The Rebellion of John or Wat Tyler ought not to be laid at his Door it is called an Accident though it had some dismal Effects in it but the occasion which appears was the Abuse of a Collector who gathered the Poll-Money yet it may teach Kings that it is a ticklish and dangerous Experiment to let out a Revenue or Tax to Farm so that it may be scrued up into what may be called in the Country Oppression This King's first Misunderstanding in earnest or Misdemeanor if I may so speak after his coming to Age was imposed upon him by way of Surprise and Artificial Insinuation of Favourites it might be the result of a hot Indiscretion not of a premeditated Violence or Invasion of Ill-natur'd Policy And if the Duke of Ireland Michael de la Pool the Chancellor or the Archbishop of York were in fault on the one side neither was the Duke of Gloucester the Bishop of Ely c. to be altogether excused on the other and the Parliament imposing on the King Thirteen Lords to have oversight under the King as they called it was an unsufferable Encroachment on the Spirit of a Young Prince And he had reason to have recourse to the Judges for their Opinions and Directions touching what had passed in that Parliament as to their Participation of the Government with him whose Opinion though they had the misfortune to suffer for it was not so Illegal but Justifiable by the Laws saving only in Two or Three of the Questions to which they gave their Answers But Law is not always measured by its own Rule it stands or falls according to the Circumstance of Times A Man may at some time sooner and better Steal a Horse as they say than look on at others This first Affront so put upon the King gave him a prejudice to Parliaments ever after and consequently put him upon indirect Means and Practices to Debauch the Constitution and we may be sure Kings will never want Tools fit for their purpose Hence were conceived those prejudices also against the Duke of Glocester and the other Lords the King had Reason to be out of Tuition when he came to be of full Age 'T is true the Attempting of the Duke of Glocester's Life in that Treacherous manner was not to be excused neither was his Behaviour to be pardoned towards the King he reproached him too severely on all Occasions for though he was the King's Uncle he was not always to be his Governor they were both in Fault no doubt and both equally Unfortunate in their End 'T was an unhappy Reign divided between too haughty Subjects and Ill-designing Favourites too powerful for a Young Inconsiderate King to Manage with Prudence and equal Power Whether Chief Justice Tresilian did according to Law or not 't is certain his Death was not according to Law and as the Duke of Glocester had taken his Life so his own was soon after taken away without Trial also in an Arbitrary manner And the Earl of Arundel had the same Measure he meeted to Calvery one of the Queens Esquires The Banishing the Duke of Norfolk and Hereford and the Archbishop of Canterbury was rather a fault in the Politicks of those times for it seems it was the Custom then to Punish the Faults of Great Men only with Banishment but an ill-advised Custom than want of Consideration in the King Sir John Bushy the Speaker of Parliament was the most in fault in attributing Vain and almost Blasphemous Titles to the King Titles fitter as is observed for the Majesty of God and putting him upon a piece of Omnipotence in Recalling his Pardons which the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Adjudged in the Affirmative That the King might Revoke but the Lawyers and Judges having been burnt before designed to give Judgment t'other way and had no mind to Determine of Transactions in Parliament any more nor of the Kings Prerogative in such Ticklish Times Though at the next Parliament at Chester the Judges were drawn in to give another Extraordinary Judgment viz. That when Articles are propounded by the King to be handled in Parliament that if other Articles are handled before those are determined it is Treason in them that do it What was there Extravagant that was not done in this Parliament He brought it about as the History says That he obtained the whole Power of the Parliament to be Conferred upon certain few Persons who proceeded to Conclude upon many things which concerned generally the things of the whole Parliament to the great Prejudice of the State and dangerous Example in time to come What could we expect from a King who was Taught That the Laws of the Realm were in his Head and his Breast By reason of which fantastical Opinion he Destroyed Noblemen and Impoverished the Commons which was one of the Articles against him and which was much such a worthy fancy as Wat Tyler had who putting his Hand to his Lips said Before Four Days come to an End all the Laws of England should proceed from his Mouth But I am weary of the Medley of this King's Story In short if we survey him in his Taxations in his Laws and Ordinances after all and in the Station of a Christian and Man as well as King we shall with a little Charity or good Nature conclude him Blameable rather by Accident than natural Temper And as to his Conditions That they were more the Fault of his Education than Inclination and at the bottom those Failings that were in him retained the tincture of the light Inconstancy of his Mother He is another unfortunate Instance of the Instability and Misery of a King when he leaves the Track of Law and Justice for the Ways of Humour and Passion Sir Robert Cotton Observes That Bushy's Contrivance of Compounding with Delinquents wrought such Distaste in the Affections of the People that it grew the Death of the One and Deposition of the Other HENRY IV. IN the next Six Reigns during the Divisions of the Houses of York and Lancaster the Kingdom was scarce ever cool enough for Observations of Civil Polity and Administration The Thirteen Years of this King were divided between Conspiracies and Wars And as he came to the Crown without a Title with
put Men and Kings too often upon poor spirited Actions But letting this pass Another touch of his over-Wisdom viz. his Disposition to squeeze Money out of his Subjects Purses by Forfeitures on Penal Laws was an Excess of Policy scarce to be excused and as is said without all doubt proved the Blot of his Time and as Sir Robert Cotton observes There is no string will sooner jarr in the Commonwealth than this if it be generally touched This was that which passed for the Disgrace of his Reign though what may pass under the Name of Severe Justice And though he escaped the Violent Consequences of it himself yet the fatal Return overtook Empson and Dudley in the beginning of the next Reign who were both executed for Treason for extending this Summum Jus to Violence and Injury and turning Law and Justice into Rapin Though it will puzzle a Lawer to determine what Species of Treason this is unless it be against the Laws by traiterously betraying the Trust reposed in them But no Government King or Person is without some Failing and Wisdom it self may be overacted HENRY VIII I Am not to determine how it came about yet it may be observable That though this King came to the Crown by an Undoubted Right of Succession as Heir of the House of Lancaster by his Father and of the House of York by his Mother yet upon his Coronation the People were ask'd Whether they would receive him for their King But I know this will be thought a trivial Matter of Form not worth taking notice of It is said his first Years were a Reign by Book having come from the Instruction and Contemplation of Good to Action his Notions stuck by him some Years And not to pretend to single Sufficience at those Years at least That he might know how to perform his Coronation Oath he chose a Wise Councel to direct him in the Observation of the Laws and as they generally do in all New Reigns He redress'd the Grievances of the former by making Examples of the Oppressors in the last He did not enter into the War with France upon his own Head neither upon the Advice of his Privy Council but had it debated in Parliament where it was resolved That Himself with a Royal Army should invade France and then for that purpose an Extraordinary Subsidy was willingly granted towards the Charges thereof These were the beginnings of his Reign and he might have finish'd it with the same Honour and Wisdom if Woolsey had not piously told him He might lay aside the use of his Understanding and his own Consideration no doubt to rely on his That he should not need to trouble himself with frequenting the Council-Table but might take his Pleasure c. Admirable Councel for a Priest And he himself would give him Information c. Thus he ingrossed the King disobliged the King's Friends caus'd the Archbishop of Canterbury Bishop of Winchester Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk to withdraw from Court and Topp'd his Prerogative upon the King 's and led him away by the Misdirections of his own False Oracle persuades and puts the King upon Lending the Emperor Money who was poor and Insolvent because forsooth the French King had withheld the Revenue of the Bishop of Tourney that is his Own After he had tired the People with his Civil Justice before he sets up for an Arbitrary Spiritual Power in himself Obtains an Office from the Pope to dispence with Offences against Spiritual Laws and erects a Trade for Sin to make Virtue and Religion Venial and betrays the King into the Restoring or Surrendring Tourney for great Gifts and greater Promises after that he found it did not turn to Account and he could make nothing of it by way of Yearly Income And thus dishonour'd the King and Nation and like a very Godly Prelate dissolv'd the King and Court into all sort of Luxury and the Priesthood it self into Licentiousness and Disorder And so far the Artificial Malice and Villany of this Sawcy and Bloody Butcher's Son went who had neither Honour or Religion That he persuaded the King to sacrifice his Nobility to him and the Duke of Buckingham must be made an Example and Martyr to his Revenge for only pouring a little Water into his Shooes when he had the Impudence to dip his Hands in the Bason whilst the Duke held it to the King to wash He alone could create Misunderstandings between the King Lords and Commons by vertue of his Lies and Misrepresentations of Matters from one to the other altho' he had been caught in them more than once He dissolv'd Convocations by vertue of his Power Legantine which were convok'd by the Archbishop and calls Him and all the Clergy to another Place according to his own Imperious Fancy diverts the Laws of the Land and seeks to raise Money by Commission which the People opposed and the King was afterwards forced to Disclaim On the other hand abuses the King's Grace and takes it upon himself alters the State of the King's House Retrenches the Allowance of his Servants and in short arrogates the Power over Servants and Master also and assumes the Power and Honour of the King and Stiles and Directs Ego Rex meus in his Writings and Letters to Rome and Foreign Parts This could an humble Successor of the Apostles do And by the bye It may be worth observing how far Pride can inspire these Prelatical Sparks with Presumption who pretend to be but the Representatives of the Apostles to exalt themselves above and Lord it over Kings whom yet they themselves acknowledge to represent God I regard not their Distinctions neither before nor since their Compliment of the Supremacy which they would resume if they could without a Pope But it happen'd the Cardinal carried on the Scene and State of Pageantry too far even to his own Ruin and the King's Eyes were open'd at length after that the Cardinal had cut him out a way for the Ruin or Reformation rather of the Church as well as himself and by his Exorbitant Behaviour had open'd the Door to the Parliament to Redress the Grievances and provide for a Remedy against them by restraining and wholsome Laws I am the more particular upon this Prelate because he was the Hinge upon which every thing turn'd and would set a Mark upon him for Kings to know whom to avoid and for what Reasons And would upon all Occasions also remind them how wretched and inconsiderable a Creature a King is when he abdicates his own Reason to submit it to another's and waves the Publick for any private Whispers of Admonition I desire to be excused from medling with the long Story of the King's Quarrel with the Pope and the Occasion and shall pass over the Alterations in Religion in this King's time or what was more considerable the Change and Dissolution of Religious Houses I have nothing to do with his Shifting and Dissolving of Wives neither
Kings such our Ministers and such were the People to be But all these Kings of the Scotch Line seem to have differ'd in their Ideas and Methods of Government King James the First Philosophised upon it Charles the First Reason'd on it with too much Opiniatretie and King Charles the Second Banter'd it and I 'm sure King James the Second did not Moralize upon it JAMES II. IF what Sir William Temple says of King Charles the II d be true and he gives good Authority for it viz. That the Prince of Orange upon Discourse c. said to him That the King Charles II d was as he had reason to be confident in his Heart a Roman Catholick though he durst not profess it It will go a great way towards the justification of those Gentlemen and their Conduct in the Oxford Parliament c. in relation to the past King and much more the Behaviour of the Nation towards King James of whom there was no doubt of being one and who dar'd own it at last though he very meanly prosecuted One upon a Scandalum Magnatum for having said so once For no doubt they both came over as much Papists as they ever were and if the first dyed such I can't but believe he had lived one for Thirty Years at least and they will both stand in need of a very great Dispensation somewhere else for their Hypocrisy so many Years If King Charles believ'd nothing of the Popish Plot as is said I know not whether it will diminish the Credit of it But 't is certain his Successor King James abundantly confirm'd its Credibility even so much as to give a Reputation to the intended Bill of Exclusion though the Loyalty of the People then ran so high that they were not willing to part with him without Experience nor then neither it seems by some vainly imagining that the Honour of a Popish King could supersede and take place of his Religion The Books and Pamphlets of that Season have sufficiently exposed or demonstrated the Character of this King and the Principles of that Religion And 't was as Evident to any body that would see what he had been doing in his Brother's Reign as what he did in his own Whether we conclude his Practice from his Principles or his Principles from his Practice there 's enough to convince for the past and to caution for the time to come If Declarations repeated with so much Solemnity and broke through with so much Ease and a Coronation-Oath Discharged and Violated so plainly though with an impertinent Distinction of the Judges to keep up a feeble Countenance of Law For what will not Judges in Commission during pleasure say or do For our Judges are not Sworn as those Judges whom the Kings of Egypt made solemnly to take an Oath that they would not do any thing contrary to their Conscience though commanded to it by themselves If the Business of the Irish at Portsmouth If the sending the Lord Castlemain to Rome and receiving a Nuntio here which was never suffer'd in a Protestant Country nor at Treaties where Protestant Ministers have been If the Letters from Liege to the Jesuits at Friburg If sending the Lord Preston to France which sufficiently implies a French League to mention no other Evidence of it nor the Story of sending out the Fleet Half-Mann'd If these or any of these did not unvail the Designs of that King we shall ever be in the Dark and nothing on this side of Dragooning could have open'd their Eyes they must also be persuaded That the Pope King Lewis and King James were all well-wishers to the Protestant Religion and to the Heretick Prosperity of England as by Law Establish'd That inviduous little Management of Magdalen-College Affair with Huffing a parcel of poor naked Fellows of a College for not swallowing Perjury without a Dispensation shews his good Nature equally with his Policy and sets forth in Epitome his Devout Observation of an Allowance to Church-of-England Consciences The prosecuting the Bishops so Barbarously First One for refusing to do what was not in his power by Law and then the rest for humbly begging to be allowed to have Souls The turning all the Nobility and Gentry out of all Commissions Offices and Places for pretending to Honour and refusing to concur in Dissolving the Reformation was a Master-stroke that we might be subdued and over-run with Jesuits Councels and Irish Courage and Conduct Some of his Friends are so Hardy to fancy and pretend to say He could not have introduced Popery if he had endeavoured it they should have put in Arbitrary Power too For what cannot a King do over a passive People Disarm'd in Power and Defective in Notion and Thought Cependant les Anglois se doivent souvenir le Massacre D'Ireland c. says a late French Author but I forbear to give you any Account from the French Refugees 'T is true he could not subdue our Understandings but he might exercise a fatal Tyranny over our Wills Besides King James never tried fair means which would have went a great way he went the false way to work upon Englishmen I doubt we are not so much Temptation-proof And it might for ought I know have been a dangerous Experiment to have trusted the Church with it self so long in an Enemy's Quarter We see King James hath lived a great many Years enow to have gone a great way with us with the Assistance of French and Irish and such Subjects as were inclinable to be of the King's Religion at Home and he must have gone as far as he could No doubt the Nation had been as easily supplied as Magdalen-College But it happen'd very luckily for England that King James discover'd his Temper of Spirit a little too soon We all knew of what force Edicts-had been in Hungary and France the Copies whereof our Kings had been so apt to follow and what the Duke of Savoy had been doing in the Valleys of Piedmont but we would not believe King James was Cruel was a Persecutor scarce that he was a Papist because he had the Art to Conceal and Disguise himself a little before it was in his power to use the Rod. But presently Father Petre shew'd that he would do as much in England as la Chaise had done in France and the first was observ'd to be the hottest of the two And not to aggravate or mince Matters They must all have done what lay in their power in Obedience to what their Councils Decree towards the Extirpation of Hereticks But God be thanked King James did not shew himself that Prince of Resolution at least he fail'd them in one Character as they would have had him deceiv'd us by another He was pleased for some Considerations whether of Fear or Guilt to leave us abruptly and we have taken that Advantage of parting with him fairly And I wish him all the Happiness that is consistent with the Welfare of England Only let us as
giving the Pope a Lifting-hand and rais'd his drooping Head here so early after the Reformation and when at the same time the Protestants in Germany France and the Low-Countries were groaning under a Persecution Which made Du Plessis complain Que Sa Majestie D'Angleterre trop arreste à quelques petits dissensions entre les Siens n'evoit pas assez de soin de la guerison de plus profondes playes qui sont en l'Eglise and which made the House of Commons Petition and Remonstrate in the Force of Fourteen Reasons and Ten Remedies in the XIXth Year of his Reign which had only this Effect to make him fly to his old Refuge of Prerogative with a Huff And that the Mariage of his Children Peace and War c. were Matters of State and Government above their Considerations And Speeching it backwards and forwards which he took great Delight in till his Son-in-Law was despoiled of his Ancient Patrimony which he at last ingenuously confess'd was through his Default Here 's the Effect of Prerogative These Proceedings I suppose put Sir Robert Cotton upon Enquiry what the Kings of England had done in the like Cases And after great pains in the search of Records he informs us That the Kings of this Nation ever since the Conquest so soon as they were cool enough for Councels have usually consulted with their Peers in the great Council and Commons in Parliament of Mariage Peace and War He might have said before the Conquest also for Harold who had promised William Duke of Normandy to take one of his Daughters to Wife Answers That he should be very injurious to his own Nobility if he should without their Consent and Advice take a Stranger to Wife If we look into our Neighbour Kingdoms Mezeray will tell us That the French during the two first Races and part of the third had a Right to intermeddle and controul the Mariages of their Kings and neither could the King make War without the Lords In earnest I know not whether Kings in Reason ought to be permitted to Converse with Ambassadors on t'other side of Forms upon their own Heads without a Quorum of their Councils For Nations generally send the sharpest Men on such Errands and sometimes Kings are not a Match in Politicks for them as it plainly appeared by this Story this King was not for Gondomar who outwitted him who pretended to be the wisest But King James came over to us Tinctur'd with his Scotch Notions of Monarchical and Sovereign Absolute Power without vouchsafing ever after to consider the English Constitution and he lets us see what Opinion he had of Parliaments in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein he Advises his Son to hold no Parliaments but for Necessity of new Laws which would be but seldom Not it seems for the State Matters of War Mariage c. No not for raising Money neither so long as he could get it by Privy-Seals and Benevolences Besides after all he did not come hither without some Prejudices to the English People though he had none to the Crown of England Thus there may seem to be some inconveniences in a Learn'd Crown'd Head This King thought himself too Wise and too Knowing He was above Advice or Instruction because as he thought he was capable of giving it He was too wise in himself to be taught by others and yet not wise enough always to follow those Rules of Wisdom which he had given As is evident by the Observation of his Theory and Practice and by his inconsistent Directions to his Sons Henry and Charles He was a little too much addicted to the Pedantry of a Scholar and affected with Polemical Controversies in Words which he dreaded in Action Was more for determining Quarrels by the Pen than the Sword And perhaps might have made a better Bishop than a King a better Father of a Family than Country as being better seen in the Oeconomicks than Political Government of a Nation CHARLES I. MOntaign whom I confess I delight to bring in as often as I can though I know the Philosophers are angry with him for I do not pretend to be a better Politician or any thing else than he was The Grave have Gravity in them but I know not what besides says That about a Month since he read over two Scotch Authors of which he who stands for the People makes Kings to be in a worse condition than a Carter and he who writes for Monarchy places him some Degrees above God Almighty in Power and Sovereignty I 'm sorry there is no Medium and I know no Necessity for Either Who those two Scotch Authors were ev'ry one knows King James complain'd of one of them and advanc'd t'other as it always happens to them who stretch for Kings Such have been the Notions of Government in both Extremes and both were unhappily experimented in this Reign This King flush'd I doubt with such Authors as the last and perhaps withal observing what was done in France under Lewis the XIth who boasted that he had mis le Royaum hors du Page as he calls it and who as Mezeray observes had even Government without Council and most commonly without Justice and Reason Who thought it the finest Policy to go out of that great and beaten Road of his Predecessors to change ev'ry thing were it from better to worse that he might be fear'd His Judgment which was very clear but too subtle and refin'd as was that of King James was the greatest Enemy to his own and his Kingdom 's quiet having as it seems taken pleasure in putting things into disorder and throwing the most Obedient into Rebellion Who rather lov'd to follow the bent of his own irregular fancies than the wise Laws of the Land and made his Grandeur consist in the Oppression of his People c. And also in the Reign of Henry the IVth who gave the last stroke to Parliamentary Formalities and Huff'd the People into a new Law that from thenceforth the King's Edicts should be ratified on sight without those formal triflings of Dispute by Virtue of Living and Ruling always with his Sword in his Hand might conceive some such great Hopes These Reflections might perhaps inspire King Charles with the French Ayre of Grandeur but a People is sometimes quick-sighted too And hence on a sudden grew an impertinent as it then seem'd Jealousy between King and People One pretending to too much after one Author and t'other yielding too little by the other Whilst the former might be Nibbling at Arbitrary Power in an Extended Prerogative and the latter enlarging their Liberties somewhat beyond a modest bound and there were Courtiers in those Days also such as Philip de Comines observ'd in Court Language to Complement a King call'd it Rebellion to mention a Parliament and Lewis also was a superstitious Friend to the Church whilst he was assaulting and oppress'd the State In these and such like Circumstances of Notional