of the said Interdict and thereby also promises them a re-payment with thanks so that He only borrows Mony of them on that particular occasion but does not in the least hint or direct them to send their Proxies or Representatives to any Great Council to be then call'd as we have it and the History of that time more at large in the said Answer to Mr. Petit. And now having offer'd thus far to this matter I shall go on with the reason of those times which I take to be thus William the Conqueror having subdu'd England began now to consider the way of securing it and to that purpose as it is in the Proverb cut large thongs out of other mens hides and as a reward of the Service done him granted a certain compass or circuit of Land unto such of his Chief men as had assisted him in the acquisition to them and their Heirs to dwell on and exercise such Jurisdiction therein as he thought good to grant performing also such Services and paying him such yearly Rent as the Grant required they again parcell'd this Land to such other meaner men as had follow'd them in the Expedition under such Services and Rents as they thought fit and by this means as those Great men became Tenants to the King in Chief so the Inferiors became Tenants to them who as Superiors exercised a kind of little Kingship over them The King and his Successors being Supreme Lords of the whole and imposing from time to time such Laws as by the advice and assent of those his Barons were thought expedient and unto which Consentire inferior quisque vis us est in persona Domini sui capitalis prout hodie per Procuratores Comitatus vel Burgi quos in Parliamentis Knights and Burgesses appellamus to which every inferior saith he was presum'd to consent in the person of his Chief Lord from whom he held as at this day by the Representatives of Counties and Burroughs in Parliament whom we call Knights and Burgesses and certainly there is no doubt to be made but that if there had been any such privilege of ancient time belonging to the People that the Historians of those times would not have pass'd so material a thing in silence especially considering how many of lesser account are every where found among them Polidor Virgil would have the Commons to have been brought into those great Councils in the 16th of Henry I. Sir Walter Raleigh about the 18th of that King but Sir Henry Spelman will not allow it his words are these Sine ut sodes dicam collegisse me centenas reor conciliorum edictiones tenoresque ipsos plurimorum ab ingressu Guilielmi 1. ad excessum Hen. 3. existentium nec in tanta multitudine de plebe uspiam reperisse aliquid nil in his delituerit Give me leave saith he to speak frankly I believe I have collected an hundred Acts of Councils and the forms of most from the coming in of William the First to the going off of Henry the Third nor in so great a number have I any where found any thing of the Commonalty nothing of it lies in them And yet it may be probable that Henry the Third toward the end of his long but troublesome Reign brought them in to counterpoise the Factions of his seditious Barons for tho at the making of the Statutes of Merton there is not the least mention of the Commons yet in those at Marleborough they are thus named The more discreet men of the Realm being called together as well of the higher as of the lower Estate And in the Title of the Statute of Westminster the first made in the third of Edw. 1. who as he was first of his name after the Conquest so he was the first that setled the Law and State and freed this Kingdom from the Wardship of the Peers it is thus said These be the Acts of King Edward Son to King Henry made at Westminster at his first Parliament c. by his Council and by the Assent of Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons and all the Commonalty of the Realm being thither Summoned c. And so that word Parliament which as Sir Henry Spelman says in King John's time nondum emicuit was not yet got up other than by the name of Commune Concilium Regni The Common-Council of the Kingdom came in use as it is now taken and the Commons as they are at this day an essential and constituent part of the same and a third Estate 6. That the Lords Temporal are one Estate of the Realm was never doubted Mr. Selden begins his Privilege of Baronage with it and when the Commons came in to be another I question not but I have fully prov'd and if now I shall make it appear that the Lords Spiritual are one other Estate of the Realm distinct and separate from the Lords Temporal I hope I shall have gain'd my point and that the King is not one of the Three Estates In order to which 1. The Lords Spiritual sit in Parliament by a different Right from the Lords Temporal viz. by Succession in respect of their Counties or Baronies parcel of their Bishopricks and the others by reason of their Dignities which they hold by Descent or Creation 2. They sit in Parliament in a different Robe and on a different side of the House from the Lords Temporal and are commanded thither by a different form in the Writ viz. In fide dilectione c. And the Lords Temporal In fide ligeancia c. 3. They have a Convocation by themselves consisting of an Upper House viz. Arch-Bishops and Bishops and a Lower House viz. the Procuratores Cleri called together by the Kings Writ and have the same Privilege for themselves their Servants and Familiars as other Members of Parliament and grant their Subsidies apart and distinct from the Lay Nobles as may be seen by the respective Acts by which they have been granted as also ratifi'd and confirmed 4. The general stile of all Acts of Parliament hath been such that sometimes the Ecclesiastical Lords are respectively named as Arch-bishops Bishops Abbots Priors as well as the Temporal Lords and sometimes by the inclusive name of the Prelates and so to the 10th of Richard 2. where it is said By the Assent of the Lords and Commons under which general words of the Lords they seem at first to be included as if they were but one Estate with them were it not in the 13th of the said King again said Of the Assent of the Prelates and Lords Temporal and Commons And in another of the 20th By the Assent of the Prelates Lords and Commons and in the 14.15.16 and 17. of the same King By the Assent of his Parliament and the Parliament and none of them named apart from which time till the 4th of Henry 4. the word Prelates was again continued
Prerogatives as Forein Nations have been accustomed unto Or otherwise what made Pope Boniface solicit the Emperor Honorius to take order that the Bishops of Rome might be created without ambitious seeking of the Place A needless Petition if so be the Emperor had no right in placing of Bishops there Of which there are several other instances in a piece of Mr. Hookers touching the Kings Power in the advancement of Bishops In short if before that Act of Hen. 8. a Bishop in England had been made a Cardinal the Bishoprick became void but the King should have nam'd the Succsseor because the Bishoprick is of his Patronage And as to the Arch-Bishops and Bishops in Ireland the respective Chapters of ancient time upon every avoidance sued to the King in England to go to the Election of another and upon certificate of such Election made and the Royal Assent obtain'd a Writ issued out of the Chancery here to the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland or the Lieutenant rehearsing the whole matter and commanding him to take fealty of the Bishop and restore him to his Temporalties But now the course is that such Writs are made in Ireland in the name of the King who nominates the Arch Bishops and Bishops there as he doth in England and then the Chapter choose him whom the King names to them and thereupon the Writs are made of course Nor were the Kings of England even in those times excluded but still acknowledg'd to have Power of Dispensation and other Ecclesiastical Acts. And therefore as he first gave Bishopricks and Abbeys and afterward granted the Election to Deans and Chapters and Covents so likewise might he grant Dispensation to a Bishop Elect to retain any of his Dignities or Benefices in Commendam and to take two Benefices and to a Bastard to be a Priest And where the Statute 25 H. 8. c. 21. says That all Dispensations c. shall be granted in manner and form following and not otherwise yet the King is not thereby restrain'd but his Power remains full and perfect as before and he may still grant them as King for all acts of Justice and Grace flow from him and on this account also he can pardon any Ecclesiastical Offence as Heresie for example is a cause merely Spiritual or Ecclesiastical and yet the King may pardon one convict of Heresie And as the King may dispense or pardon so also does that Supreme Power enable him to several other things relating to Church-matters which pertain not to another He may found a Church Hospital or Free Chappel Donative and whether he specially exempt the same from ordinary Jurisdiction or not his Chancellor and not the Ordinary shall visit it and he may by his Charter license a Subject to found such a Church or Chappel and to ordain that it shall be Donative and not Presentable and to be visited by the Founder and not by the Ordinary And thus began Donatives in England whereof Common Persons were Patrons So he shall visit Cathedral Churches by Commissioners Sede vacante Archiepiscopalii He may also revoke before Induction by presenting another for the Church is not full against the King till Induction And therefore if a Bishop Collates and before Induction dies by which means the Temporalties come into the Kings hands the King shall present to the avoidance for the same reason In short He is the Supreme Ordinary and on that account may take the resignation of a Spiritual Dignity Neither did the Abbots and Priors in Edward the Fourths time think him less when they stile him Supremus Dominus noster Edwardus 4. Rex which agrees with the Laws before the Conquest in which the King is called Vicarius summi Regis The Vicar of the highest King And albeit Ecclesiastical Councils consisting of Church-men did frame the Laws whereby the Church Affairs were ordered in Ancient times yet no Canon no not of any Council had the force of Law in the Church unless it were ratifi'd and confirmed by the Emperor being Christian In like manner our Convocations that assemble not of themselves but by the Kings Writ must have both Licence to make new Canons and the Royal Assent to allow them before they can be put in Execution and this by the Common Law for before the Statute 25 H. 8. c. 19. A Disme i. e. the Tenths of all Spiritual Livings in ancient times paid to the Pope granted by them did not bind the Clergy before the Royal Assent In a word the King may make orders for the Government of the Clergy without Parliament and deprive the Disobedient And the Act for suppressing Seditious Conventicles has a saving to his Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs And so I hope I have clear'd this point That the Kingdom of England c. is a Sovereign Imperial Monarchy of which the King is the only Supreme Governor as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things or Causes as Temporal It remains now that I shew That however the Emperors of the West and East have so much striven about that great Title of Emperor or Basileus that yet the Kings of England as Supreme within their Dominions have also justly used it and that from ancient Ages as no less proper to their own independent greatness And here amongst many others we have Edgar frequently in his Charters stiling himself Albionis Anglorum Basileus King of Britain and the English And in one of his to Oswald Bishop of Worcester in the year 964. and of his Reign the sixth Ego Edgarus Anglorum Basileus omniumque Regum Insularum Oceanique Britanniam circumjacentis cunctarumque Nationum quae infra eam includuntur Imperator Dominus c. I Edgar King of the English and of all the Kings of the Isles and the Ocean lying round Britain i. e. England Scotland and Wales and of all the People therein Emperor and Supreme Lord for the word in this place bears no less as I have shewn it before in the Word Lord of Ireland Wherein it is observable that as long since as it is that yet the King of England or Britain was Lord and Emperor of the British Sea which agrees with that of one of his Successors Canutus when sitting in a Chair by the South Shore he used these words to the Sea Tumeae ditionis es terra in qua sedeo mea est Thou art of my Dominion or Empire and the Land whereon I sit is mine as taking it clearly that he was the Supreme Lord and Emperor of both whence also it is affirm'd by Belknap one of the Justices of the Kings Bench 5 R. 2. That the Sea is of the King Ligeance as of the Crown of England So that Edward his Son in a Charter to the Abbey of Ramsey Ego Edwardus totius Albionis Dei moderante gubernatione Basileus I Edward by the Guidance or
and then thus altered viz. By the Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and at the special instance and request of the Commons and in the fifth of the same King By the Advice and Assent of his Lords Spiritual and Temporal and at the request of the Commons which so continued without any variation in substance until the 18th of Henry 6. at what time it became as we have it now viz. By the Advice and Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons Besides if the Lords Spiritual were not a third Estate what is the reason that at the making of the Statute of Praemunire that the Commons having declared that they would stand to the King in the defence of his Liberties and praying that all the Lords as well Spiritual as Temporal severally and all the Estates of Parliament might be examined how they thought of that matter The Lords Temporal being so demanded answered every one by himself and in like manner the Lords Spiritual severally examin'd answered by themselves which affords me a double Argument 1. That by all the States of Parliament there must be necessarily intended more than two if it were for no other reason than mere propriety of Speech 2. That the King could not make up that other or third Estate because he is desired to examin all the States severally which he could not do if he had been one of them himself so in the 40th of Edw. 3. which I should have named first when the King asks advice of his Parliament Whether King John could have subjected the Realm as what in him lay he did The Prelates by themselves the Dukes Earls and Barons by themselves and the Commons by themselves answered That he could not From which nothing seems clearer to me than that the Lords Spiritual are one Estate distinct from the Lords Temporal or otherwise what needed they have been examin'd by those several names of Spiritual and Temporal or as severally answer'd by the same appellations 5. And now if yet there remain'd any doubt we have one Act of Parliament clear in point where the question being whether the making of Bishops had been duly and orderly done according to Law the Statute says which is much tending to the slander of all the State of the Clergy being one of the greatest States of this Realm And so having found Three Estates without the King I think in good manners we ought to spare him I have hitherto offered some Reasons nor without their Authorities I come now to somewhat more direct if yet those of the 40th of Edw. 3. the 16th of Rich. 2. and the 8th of Qu. Eliz. last mentioned could be thought otherwise I 'll begin with the Statute of H. 8. where this Kingdom is called an Empire governed by one Supreme Head and King unto whom a Body Politick compact of all sorts and degrees of People divideth in Terms and by names of Spiritualty and Temporalty been bounden and who can believe that the Authority of a Parliament should utter any thing in Parables or under double meanings contrary to the common sense of the express words or that there was ever intended by the words divided in Terms and by names of Spiritualty and Temporalty so many mere words and no more However to take off all doubt Sir Edw. Coke says The High Court of Parliament consisteth of the Kings Majesty sitting there as in his Royal Politick Capacity and of the Three Estates of the Realm viz. the Lords Spiritual the Lords Temporal and the Commons And so Cowel The word Parliament in England we use it for the Assembly of the King and the Three Estates viz. the Lords Spiritual Lords Temporal and the Commons And Title Statute he saith it signifieth a Decree or Act of Parliament made by the Prince and the Three Estates unto whom as I said before they are subordinate in the Legislation and of no Power of themselves but joyned to their Figure have the full strength of their places which in short we may thus farther demonstrate under the familiar instance of a Dean and Chapter of whom the Dean is no part but Caput Capituli the Head of them And now if any one shall demand why this term of the Three Estates does not so frequently occur to us of Ancient time I answer That before the Commons were brought in there was no thought of it and since that time no dispute of it until of late where many a worse twig was even learnedly made use of to stilt and bolster a Ricketed Cause· However it is not too late that the Point is cleared now And so we have it in the Act for Unifermity of Publick Prayers made the 14th of this King where the Form of Prayer for the Fifth of November is thus entitled A Form of Prayer with Thanksgiving to be used yearly on the Fifth day of November for the happy deliverance of the King and the Three Estates of the Realm c. And with this agrees the Kingdom of Scotland of which Mr. Cambden in his History of Britain says That their Supreme Court is their Parliament which consisteth of Three Estates The Lords Spiritual the Lords Temporal and the Commons for Cities and Burghs of which the King is Directus totius Dominus And so a Parliament of that Kingdom reckons them It is ordained by the King by Consent and Deliverance of the Three Estates And the Act of asserting the Kings Supremacy over all Persons and in all Causes Ecclesiastical and the late Indictment against Argile and the Acts for the Acknowledging and Asserting the Right of Succession to the Imperial Crown of Scotland And that other for ratifying all former Laws for the security of the Protestant Religion agree in point with it Nor is it strange they should inasmuch as neither their Langue nor their Laws especially such as are criminal as may be seen by comparing their Regiam Majestatem with our Glanvil De Legibus written in Henry the Second's time much differ from ours And the Union of the two Crowns in the Person of King James is called An Union or rather a re-uniting of two Mighty Famous and Ancient Kingdoms yet anciently but one And that the Laws of Ireland a distinct Realm or Kingdom from both say nothing of this matter I take it to be for the same reason that the Romans made no Law against Parricide They never dreamt it SECTION VII Admitting what has been before offer'd wherein has our present King merited less than any of his Royal Ancestors with a short recapitulation of Affairs as they had been and were at his Majesties most happy Restauration and that he wanted not the means of a just Resentment had he design'd any I Have hitherto shewn that the Crown of England c. is Supreme Sovereign and Imperial nor will it be from the purpose now to demand Wherein has our present King less merited than
A DISCOURSE OF Monarchy More particularly of the IMPERIAL CROWNS OF England Scotland and Ireland According to the Ancient Common and Statute-Laws of the same With a Close from the whole As it relates to the Succession of his ROYAL HIGHNESS JAMES Duke of York DEUT. 4.32 Interroga de diebus antiquis qui fuerunt ante te ex die quo creavit Dominus hominem super terram c. LONDON Printed by M. C. for Jos. Hindmarsh Bookseller to his Royal Highness at the Black Bull in Cornhil 1684. To the most Honorable JAMES Duke of ORMOND c. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland May it please your Grace IT was a saying of the late Earl of Ossory Lord Deputy of Ireland your Son at what time he deliver'd up the Sword of that Kingdom to the Lord Lieutenant Berkeley Action is the life of Government Common experience tells us Usefulness is the end of Action and without which like a Glass-eye to a Body a man rather takes up a room than becomes any way serviceable The sense of this put me on those thoughts I herewith present your Grace and unto whom more fitly than to a Person in the defence of which few men sate longer at Helm or suffer'd more You that hung not up your Shield of Faith in the Temple of Despair and never seem'd more worthy of the great place you now fill than when farthest from it Nor am I in the so doing without some prospect of advantage to my self in as much as if the censuring Age shall handle me roughly on this account under your great Patronage I shall fight in the Shade And now my Lord I was just breaking off when it came into my head that I had in some of our late pieces found Sir Edward Coke often quoted especially to the defence of those Notions which had better slept in their forgotten Embers and therefore I thought it not altogether forein to the matter that I us'd the words of S. Peter 2 Pet. 3.16 touching S. Paul's Epistles In which saith he are some things hard to be understood which they that be unlearned and unstable wrest as also they do the other Scriptures to their own destruction I have purposely made use of him in many places as an high Assertor of Monarchy and Prerogative Those that find him otherwise Habeant secum serventque Or let him lie indifferent my Argument depends not singly on him which I humbly took leave to advert and am May it please your Grace Your most Obedient Obliged humble Servant John Wilson THE CONTENTS Sect. I. THat Monarchy or the Supreme Dominion of one person was primarily intended by God when he created the World That it is founded in nature As consonant to the Divine Government And of Divine Institution Acknowledg'd by Heathens as well as Christians 1 Sect. II. That Adam held it by Divine right Cain a Monarch By the Kingdoms of the most ancient Gentiles not God's but Monarchs were denoted That the origiginal of Power came not from the People by way of Pact or Contract The unreasonableness and ill consequence of the contrary Noah and his Sons Kings A Family an exemplary Monarchy in which the Pater-familias had power of life and death by the right of Primogeniture Examples of the exercise of it in Judah Abraham Jephthah Brutus Vpon the increase of Families they still continued under one head Esau. The four grand Monarchies Ancients and Moderns universally receiv'd it as precedent to all other Governments 12 Sect. III. That all Governments have a natural tendency to Monarchy Their several Forms and Rotations Of Aristocracy Democracy Tyranny to be rather wisht than either Examples of Athens and Rome the first Consulate Their Tribunes several Seditions Marius and Sylla Crassus Caesar Pompey The two latter divide Caesar complemented to Rome by the Senate The Triumvirate their Proscriptions and breach No peace till Monarchy restor'd under Augustus The sense of those times touching this matter 34 Sect. IV. That the Kingdom of the Jews was a Supreme Sovereign Monarchy in which their Kings had the absolute Power of Peace and War and were Supreme in Ecclesiasticis And an Answer to that Objection That God gave them a King in his wrath 62 Sect. V. What is here intended by a Supreme Monarchy The marks of Sovereignty as the Power of making Laws and exemption from any coactive obedience to them The Power of Peace and War c. That the Kingdoms of England c. are Supreme Imperial Monarchies Those two marks of Sovereignty and seven others prov'd to be no other than what has ever been the undoubted Right of the Kings of England The Kings Sovereignty by the Common Law The like from the Statute Law Power in Ecclesiasticks And that they have justly used those Titles of King and Emperor and that from ancient times and before the Conquest 67 Sect. VI. That the King is none of the Three Estates in which two preliminary Objections are examin'd by Reason and answered by the manner of the Three Estates applying to him What the Three Estates are To presume him one of them were to make him but a Co-ordinate Power The King cannot be said to Summon or Supplicate himself How will the Three Estates be made out before the Commons came in With a short Series during the Saxons to the latter end of Henry III. in all which time they are not so much as nam'd as any constituent part of a Parliament And the time when probably they first came in to be as they are at this day one of the three Estates That the Lords Temporal were never doubted but to be an Estate Four reasons offer'd that the Lords Spiritual are one other Estate distinct from the Lords Temporal and one Act of Parliament in point With other Authorities to prove the Assertion 181 Sect. VII Admitting what has been before offer'd wherein has our present King merited less than any of his Royal Ancestors with a short recapitulation of Affairs as they had been and were at his Majesties most happy Restauration and that he wanted not the means of a just Resentment had he design'd any 181 Sect. VIII That notwithstanding the hard Law of the Kingdom the Jews paid their Kings an entire Obedience Two Objections answered The like other Nations to their Kings A third Objection answered The Precept of Obedience is without restriction Examples upon it Nor is Idolatry any ground to resist much less things indifferent The example from our Saviour in Instituting his last Supper Least of all is injury with the practice of Holy men of old in like cases And that if any ground were to be admitted that would never be wanting 189 Sect. IX The Arts of the late times in working the People from this Obedience It was to be done piece-meal The Kings Necessities answered with Complaints Plots discovered Fears and Jealousies promoted Religion cants its part Leading men some to make it Law others Gospel The examples of Corah c.
The same Game playing over again Prognostications c. The ill consequence of such Impressions The examples of Cade Tyler and others Holy League in France Solemn League and Covenant at home c. New Trains to the old Fuel Our Saviours advice to his Disciples touching the leven of the Pharisees What that and they were made applicable unto our selves 210 Sect. X. A Close from the whole by way of Enquiry Whether an Exclusion of his Royal Highness the Duke of York may be of more advantage or disadvantage The advantage propos'd and whether an Act for security of Religion may not be as safe as a Bill of Exclusion The moral impossibility of introducing the Romish Religion tho the Prince were of that Persuasion The reason why the Kingdom follow'd the Reformation under Edw. VI. Qu. Mary Qu. Elizabeth That the case cannot be the same at this day The Crown of England an ancient Entail with the danger of Innovations Objection That such things have been done So has a King been murder'd More particularly answered in Edw. IV. Qu. Mary and Qu. Eliz. all three excluded by Parliament yet came to the Crown No man changes but in hopes of better The advantages of continuing as we are It is a bar to Pretenders The same as to Competitors Disorders avoided No new Family to be provivided for The indignity of a Repulse avoided Suppose Scotland and Ireland be of another Opinion the former of which has by Parliament asserted the Right of Succession of that Crown notwithstanding any Religion c. Lastly all occasions of Jealousie taken away Objection answer'd Disadvantages that have attended the laying by the Right Heir Examples from old Rome and Vsurpations at home The Revolt from Rehoboam our loss of France With a conclusion from the whole More particularly as it relates to his Royal Highness 236 A DISCOURSE OF MONARCHY c. SECTION I. That Monarchy or the Supreme Dominion of one person was primarily intended by God when he created the World That it is founded in nature As consonant to the Divine Government And of Divine Institution Acknowledg'd by Heathens as well as Christians GOvernment is of that absolute necessity if not to the being at least to the well-being of every thing that without it nec domus ulla nec civitas c. nor House nor City nor Nation nor Mankind nor Nature nor the world it self could consist inasmuch as the stronger would devour the weaker and the whole run back again to its first Chaos and therefore the eternal Wisdom when he had created the world and stockt it with living Creatures according to their kinds as if he had done nothing while there yet wanted something more excellent to govern it made man Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altae Deerat adhuc qui dominari in caetera possit Natus homo est A creature not only capable of it and that he might the better go thro with it furnish'd out accordingly Cognati retinebat semina coeli but primarily design'd to it and however last in act yet first in projection for says the Text Let us make man c. And God created man after his own likeness c. and blessed them and said Increase and multiply c. and have dominion c. and over every thing that moveth upon the earth by which what other can there be rationally understood but the supreme Sovereignty or Dominion of one for if God Almighty had intended otherwise how easie had it been when he created our first Parents to have form'd a multitude and given them a joynt Commission to have govern'd one another or at least bade 'em gone together and agree among themselves but he foresaw it would not be and therefore to avoid confusion the inseparable companion of a multitude created but one and erected an exemplary Monarchy in him Neither will this less appear if we consider that the very laws of nature lead us to a Monarchy Natura commenta est regem saith Seneca de Clem. As among all irrational creatures who having least of reason are wholly govern'd by sense we find some one that has a preheminence above the rest of its kind And thus Birds have their Eagle Beasts their Lion and among them also every Flock its vir gregis the Fish of the Sea their Leviathan a King over the children of Pride for so Job calls him and the shout of a King may be found among Bees Rege incolumi mens omnibus una est Amisso rupere fidem Nor is it more founded in nature than consonant to the Divine government of God and a lively image and representation of him who as sole Monarch ruleth and guideth all things Look up to Heaven and we find an Hierarchy among Angels and one Star differ from another in glory yet every of them paying this homage to the Suns sovereignty that they veil their faces at his least appearance Take back again to Earth and this little world of man has but one Body and all the members of this body but one head whereon depends the will motion and sense and the greater world but one God He ruleth over the Angels than whom he made Man only inferior they over Men Men over Beasts the Soul over the Body Man again over Woman and Reason above Affection by which means every good commanding over what is less good by a certain combination of Powers all things are kept in their order whereas were there a duplex Principium of equal power as the Ancients fabled the commands must be contrary and consequently thereby either ruine one another or at least by their continual jarring disturb the harmony of the whole and therefore it is observable that albeit God who comprehended the whole system at once and unblotted nature thro all her Meanders and to every days work but that of the second said And behold it was good yet until he had put to his last finishing hand i. e. made man and giv'n him his Commission of having dominion It is not said And God saw all that he had made and they were very good and by that Divine Commission have Kings ever since reign'd there being no power but what is appointed of God who according to the similitude of his heavenly Kingdom hath given unto them the Scepters of their earthly Principalities Nor need we go far for examples we find it every where for such was Abraham taken and acknowledged by the Inhabitants when they call'd him Principem Dei and albeit Heaven be the Throne of God yet we meet with another of his on this Earth his Foot-stool for so we find it express'd Solomon sate on the Throne of the Lord as King And in like manner the Queen of Sheba God set thee on his Throne to be King for the Lord thy God As also David is called his King and his Anointed He giveth strength to his King c. and
again Hath shewed mercy to his Anointed To which if any man shall object that this was spoken of a good King a man after his own heart I answer That not only Josiah who also was a good King is called the Anointed of the Lord but Saul a King whom God is said to have given in his anger has this sacred Title attributed to him in eight places in the first Book of Samuel and in two other in the second And the same also we find God giving to Heathen Emperors Thus saith the Lord to his Anointed Cyrus to Cyrus whose hand I have holden to subdue Nations before him And ver 4. I have surnamed thee tho thou hast not known me Howbeit tho he knew not his Founder at first it is not long e're we find him acknowledging him Thus saith Cyrus the King All the Kingdoms of the Earth hath the Lord God of Heaven given me c. And he that gave the title of Anointed to Cyrus gave the stile of his Servant to Nebuchadnezzar who yet had sack'd Jerusalem and led the People thereof into captivity when he calls him Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my Servant which also is but the same wherewith he so often favours Moses Joshua and David Neither is this truth that Kings derive their power from God less acknowledg'd by the Heathens than us Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kings are from Jupiter saith Hesiod and elsewere you find 'em stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 born of Jove and nourish'd by Jove whereby God is made their procreant cause as well as their conservant not as deriving their pedigree from Jupiter but their Kingly honor And what the Poet ascribes to Jupiter the Apostle gives to God For saith he as certain of your own Poets have said we are also his off-spring And what other does the Psalmist's calling them Gods import than that they receive their Authority from God whose place they supply and whose person they represent Many also of the most ancient Philosophers acknowledg the Regal Office to be a Divine good and the King as it were a God among men and that God had given him dominion as we have it at large in The Power communicated by God to the Prince and the Obedience required of the Subject written by the most Reverend the late Lord Primate of all Ireland In short the Psalmist is direct in this point Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands And therefore when S. Peter calls Government an Ordinance of man it is not that it was invented by men but as proper to them and ordained of God for the good and conservation of human kind and exercised by men about the government of human Society SECTION II. That Adam held it by Divine right Cain a Monarch By the Kingdoms of the most ancient Gentiles not God's but Monarchs were denoted That the original of Power came not from the People by way of Pact or Contract The unreasonableness and ill consequence of the contrary Noah and his Sons Kings A Family an exemplary Monarchy in which the Pater-familias had power of life and death by the right of Primogeniture Examples of the exercise of it in Judah Abraham Jephthah Brutus Vpon the increase of Families they still continued under one head Esau. The four grand Monarchies Ancients and Moderns universally receiv'd it as precedent to all other Governments THat God Almighty was the first King will not be deny'd and that Adam was the next appears by his Commission as I have shewn before a large Commission and of as large extent as having made him a mighty King and universal Monarch and given him an unqestionable right to his Kingdom which was all the inferior world the Earth the Sea and all that therein were insomuch that it might not improperly be said of this matter Jupiter in coelis terras regit unus Adamus Divisum imperium cum Jove Adamus habet And now as all things were created in order and that the infant world might not sit in darkness nor their posterity want a light to guide and direct them what wonder is it that for the preservation of that order God erected a Dominion himself and declar'd his Vicegerent Afterward when the world began to enlarge and men liv'd so long that they begat a numerous posterity Cain with his own Colony went into a strange Land and built a City and called the name thereof after his Sons name Enoch which double act carries the character of a Kingdom in it and that he was as well the King as Father of the Inhabitants neither do the ancientest Gentiles otherwise speak of those elder times than with a clear supposition of Monarchy Those Kingdoms of Saturn Jupiter Neptune Pluto and the like denoting as much and that under those names applied to distinct Kingdoms not Gods but the Monarchs of Land and Sea in the first times were understood And so Cicero Certum est omnes antiquas gentes regibus paruisse And with him agrees Justin Principio rerum gentiumque imperium penes Reges erat But not a word all this while do we hear of the People or that the original of Government came from them by way of pact or contract for if the power of Adam upon his Children and his Posterity and so all mankind whatever depended not on any consent of his Sons or Posterity but wholly proceeded from God and nature then certainly the Authority of Kings is both natural and immediately Divine and not of any consent or allowance of man and consequently the people had no more right to chuse their Kings than to chuse their Fathers Besides to examin it a little farther if this power of paction or contract had been in the people then it must lie in all the people as an equal common right or in some particular part if in all of them they would do well to shew how they came by it or if in any more peculiar part by what Authority were the rest excluded it being a Maxim in Law Quod nostrum est sine facto vel defectu nostro amitti vel in alium transferri non potest Whatever is mine cannot be lost or transferr'd unto another without my own act or defect Nor would it be less enquir'd who were the persons suppos'd to have made the contract or whether all without difference of Sex Age or Condition were admitted to drive the bargain and if so Wives and Children were not sui juris and consequently could not conclude others nor themselves for any longer time than during the disability Which once remov'd they were free again Or if all were admitted whether it were with an equal right to every one or with some inequality was the Servants interest if yet such a thing could be among equals equal with the Masters and if not who made the inequality or if
by him as Consul but as having the regal power of life and death within his Family for besides that the Consuls were as yet in their Biggens they never at any time afterward had any regal power nor could they either make Laws Peace or War or so much as whip a Citizen but in time of War without leave of the People whose Subjects and Servants they were and might be imprison'd by the least of the Tribunes of the People as was Philippus the Consul by Drusus the Tribune for that he interrupted him as he was speaking to the people from all which I infer that Families who as I said were before publick Societies were under the absolute obedience of one who had a regal power in him and ruled as King over them Howbeit in after times when Fathers began to abuse that Authority it was thought fit to abridg them of it and place it in the hands of the more publick Father the King a Kingdom being no other than a great Family wherein the King hath a paternal power But to proceed as the world increased so did these Families and being now extrafamiliated became a part of the Common-wealth and for want of room at home swarm'd abroad into larger Families and Septs but under the obedience still of one common head thereof so Esau is called the Father of Edom and the Dukes descended from him were heads of Families and Esau their chief Hi Duces Edom habitantes in terra imperii sui ipse Esau est pater And we read that Abraham when he pursued the four Kings in the relief of his Brothers Son and Ally Lot set out 318 expeditos vernaculos light harnessed men at Arms born in his own house Yet hitherto these may be rather called Reguli than Reges as being Princes of a narrow Territory and much of the same with the Kings we read of in the same Chapter or the 31 Kings that were vanquish'd by Joshua But when in process of time Kings began to encroach upon their Neighbors and that whatever it were they had already only shew'd them how much more was wanting then also were their Kingdoms enlarged And the first of this kind we read of was Nimrod whom Bodin calls a Lordly Monarch and the Scripture a mighty Hunter not only in that he was a great King or as he has it an oppressor but rather and the more probable that he was the first that usurp'd on his Neighbors rights to enlarge his own Dominions that path which he first discovered his Son Ninus further laid open with his Sword and left it to his Heirs who held it for above a thousand years from them the same Sword translated it to the Medes and Persians and from them to Alexander by the same way and continued by by the same right among his Successors till being crumbled by them into lesser morsels yet still Monarchs it became the fitter for the Roman Swallow and at last an Empire again under Octavius Caesar that unwieldy lump of the Roman Republick being but a concretion of heterogeneal parts which like the toes of Iron and Clay in Nebuchadnezzar's Image might stick together for a while but never incorporate but of this more at large in proper place Nor were these four transcendent Monarchies the only instances of Monarchy inasmuch as it hath gone out into all Lands and there is neither Speech nor Language where it has not been heard among ' em The Seythians Aethiopians Indians Aegyptians Armenians Bactrians c. Nations famous in their Ages were all govern'd by Monarchs and the Jews when they demanded a King over them that they also might be like all the Nations what other did they imply but that all other Nations for ought at least they had heard were govern'd by Kings The Cappadocians vanquisht by the Romans had lost their King and being persuaded by them to take a popular State refus'd it as declaring they could not live without a King In short where we meet the most ancient Kingdoms mentioned we hear not so much as a Rat behind the Hangings the least word of Aristocracy and as little of Democracy That all Greece was anciently under Kings was never doubted and till long after Homer's time Aristocracy was never dreamt of And when the Roman Democracy began is but to ask the next School-boy when the Tarquins ended and therefore he that shall say of either of them that in comparison they were more than of yesterday may have it also said of himself he knows nothing But what need I run so far back when there are so many examples before us even at our own doors And therefore to pass the Polonians Danes Moscovites Tartars Turks Abissines Moors c. yea and the salvage People discover'd by the Spaniard and our selves in the Indies where all of them as guided thereto by the dictates of nature liv'd under a Monarchy The English Scots French Spaniard Irish the first and last only excepted during the 12 years Fever of a Rebellion never knew other Government than that of Kings and therefore if we shall follow the advice of the Prophet State super vias antiquas videte quaenam sit via recta vera ambulate in ea Stand upon the old paths and consider which is the right and true way and walk in it Custom and usage claims that reverence from us as that we give Monarchy the precedency of all other Governments not only in respect of its antiquity beyond any other State but as most universally receiv'd throughout the world and consequently allow that of Aristotle otherwise no great friend to Monarchy Necesse est eam quae à prima maximeque divina cecidit esse deterrimam In short the Schools may dispute it but time hath try'd it Other States may have curious frames but they are soon out of order But Monarchy like a work of nature is well compos'd both to grow and continue SECTION III. That all Governments have a natural tendency to Monarchy Their several Forms and Rotations of Aristocracy Democracy Tyranny to be rather wisht than either Examples of Athens and Rome the first Consulate Their Tribunes several Seditions Marius and Sylla Crassus Caesar Pompey The two latter divide Caesar complemented to Rome by the Senate The Triumvirate their Proscriptions and breach No peace till Monarchy restor'd under Augustus The sense of those times touching this matter I Have in the former Sections endeavoured and I hope satisfi'd my unbyass'd Reader that Monarchy is of Divine Institution and has been the most anciently receiv'd and exercis'd Government throughout the world even from the first of time I come now to shew that all other notions of Government of what kind soever have a natural tendency to Monarchy and like massie bodies retain a trepidation and wavering till they fix and settle on the same centre whence they were first moved Nor can
setling the Common-wealth which was much out of order had chief Power and Authority for five years which expiring they refus'd to resign but held it other five enacting or reversing what laws they pleas'd and that without the consent of the Senate or People and having divided one Common-wealth into three Monarchies viz. Africk both the Sardinia's and Sicily to Octavius All Spain and Gallia Narbonensis i. e. Languedoc Daulphine and Provence to Lepidus and the rest of France of either side the Alps to Antony the defence of Rome and Italy is left to Lepidus while the other two advance against Brutus and Cassius who by a mistake having lost the day kill themselves Upon this the Conquerors return to Rome and exercising all cruelty whatever without any regard of person or condition they proscribe and banish at pleasure Lepidus gave up his Brother Lucius Paulus to gratifie Octavius Antony his Uncle L. Caesar to requite Lepidus And Octavius his friend Cicero whose advice had given him the Empire to appease inexorable Antony concerning the Philippicks And now nothing but slaughter bestrid the Streets when besides the incredible number of Roman Knights and Citizens kill'd in the broil there were no less than 130 Senators proscrib'd between them and of whom those last mentioned were three And now one would think all had been at quiet the Common-wealth as I said before being divided into three Monarchies and Antony married to the Sister of Octavius yet all would not do for Antony being gone for Egypt and Sextus Pompeius overthrown Octavius makes War on Lepidus whose softness and irresolution made him submit with the loss of his share of the Triumvirate and thence to keep a War as he had never less than reason to suspect it from home he follows Antony whose sensuality and unpursutiveness lost him the sole Empire of the World for Octavius having overcome him and Cleopatra in the Naval Battle of Actium the Morning and the Evening of the Roman State made but one day and the Sovereignty once more coming into one hand the Temple of Janus was now the third time clos'd Upon which applying himself to preserve that peace he had so happily restor'd he made severe Laws to restrain those evils a peaceable Age is but too prone to run into in due sense of which it was debated in Senate An quia condidisset imperium Romulus vocaretur sed sanctius reverentius visum est nomen Augusti And it may be observ'd that from the expulsion of the Roman Kings to the Reign of Octavius Augustus about 450 years there was seldom above 10 years without some Civil War or some Sedition whereas Augustus kept the Empire in peace for above 50 years and so it continu'd after his death till the Pretorian Bands began to chaffer for the Empire and others to comply with them gave an Empire for an Empire And now e're I close the Argument it may not be amiss to recollect what the Historians and Poets that speak of those times thought of it Neque aliud discordantis reipublicae remedium quam ut ab uno regeretur saith Tacitus Nor is Florus who wrote not long after him in any thing short of him Gratulandum tamen in tanta perturbatione est quod potissimum ad Octavium Caesarem summa rerum rediit qui sapientia sua atque solertia perculsum undique perturbatum ordinavit imperii corpus Quod ita haud dubie nunquam coire consentire potuisset nisi unius praesidis nutu quasi anima mente regeretur We have this yet in so great a confusion to be glad at that the upshot of all came back to Octavius Caesar rather than another who by his Wisdom and Policy brought the shatter'd and disorder'd body of the Empire into frame again which without dispute had never met and joyn'd together had it not been actuated by one chief Ruler as with a Soul and Intelligence And to the same purpose L. Ampelius who wrote before the division of the Empire speaking of the several turns of the state of Rome and the uncertain condition of the people Donec exortis bellis civilibus inter Caesarem Pompeium oppressa per vim libertate sub unius Caesaris potestatem redacta sunt omnia Until those Civil Wars between Caesar and Pompey began and the publick liberty over-born by violence all things were reduced under rhe obedience of one Caesar. And what the much ancienter Homer's sense of having many Lords was we have every where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec multos regnare bonum Rex unicus esto And the reason of it is clear Nulla fides regni sociis omnisque potestas Impatiens consortis erit And so another Summo nil dulcius unum est Stare loco sociisque comes discordia regnis From all which we may gather That all Governments of what kind soever have a natural tendency to Monarchy and like Noah's Dove find no rest till they return to the same station whence they first departed It being impossible otherwise but that as Lines from the Center the farther they run the farther they must separate SECTION IV. That the Kingdom of the Jews was a Supreme Sovereign Monarchy in which their Kings had the absolute Power of Peace and War and were Supreme in Ecclesiasticis And an Answer to that Objection That God gave them a King in his wrath I Have hitherto according to my method propos'd discours'd of Monarchy in general it remains now that I bring it down to some particulars I 'll begin with the Kingdom God erected among the Jews his own People and shew That the Monarchy among them was supreme and independent And here we 'l take the case as we find it in Samuel Samuel was become old and his Sons not walking in his ways had distasted the People who ask of him a King to judg them like all the Nations Samuel is displeas'd but God commands him to hearken to them howbeit to protest solemnly against them and shew them the manner of the King that was to reign over them which he accordingly does viz. He will take your sons and appoint them for himself for his chariots and to be his horsemen and some shall run before his chariots He will take your fields and your vineyards and your oliveyards even the best of them and give them to his servants c. A hard saying no doubt whether we respect their persons or their possessions and yet he calls it Jus Regis qui imperaturus est vobis thereby also implying that such was the manner of all other Nations And when he wrote it in a Book and laid it up before the Lord he calls it Legem Regni The Law of the Kingdom and yet a King they must have and had him adding to that of Samuel this other of their own desires that he might have the absolute power
which you may read at large in Bodin But I come to the second That the Kingdoms of England c. are a Supreme Imperial Monarchy which will the better appear when by examining those marks of Sovereignty we find no more in them than what the Laws of these Realms have ever acknowledg'd to be the undoubted right of our Kings and that whether we respect the Common Law Statute Law or their Power in Ecclesiasticks I 'll take my rise from the marks of Sovereignty 1. The Power of making Laws The Laws of most Kingdoms saith the Lord Bacon have been like Buildings of many pieces patcht up from time to time according to the occasion without form or model and as to our own that they are mixt as our Language of British Roman Saxon Danish Norman Customs Edgar the Saxon collected those of his time and gave them the force of a Fagot bound which formerly were dispersed The Danes impos'd upon us their Dane-Law And the third of that name before the Conquest Ex immensa Legum congerie quas Britanni Romani Angli Daci condiderunt optima quaeque selegit in unam coegit quod vocari voluit Legem communem Some of which bear his name to this day as Ordain'd by him After him William the Conqueror whom Polidor Virgil calls our Law-giver brought in somewhat of a new Law as may be seen in this That tho he made but little or no alteration in the Fundamentals but formulis juris he found here yet whether it were to honor his own Language or to shew some mark of Conquest he set forth his Publick Edicts in the Norman Tongue and caused our Laws to be written in the same And likewise his Justiciaries Lawyers and Ministerial Officers being at that time all Normans it may be none of the least reasons why all our Pleadings and Entries were in that Tongue until altered by Statute That because of the great mischiefs that had hapned to divers by means of the said Laws being written in the French Tongue which they understood not That therefore all Pleas for the future should be pleaded in the English Tongue and enrolled in the Latin and that we receiv'd our ancient Tenures from the Normans is obvious every where And King John planted the English Laws in Ireland But to come nearer home and examin how our present constitutions agree with it nor are they other than what has been the Practice of all former Parliaments wherein both Houses are so subordinate to the King in the making of Laws that neither of them singly nor both of them together can make any binding Law without the Kings concurrence they might in all times 't is true propose advise or consent or to borrow a Metaphor Spawn of themselves but in the Royal Consent only like the male touch lay the vis plastica which gave the Embrion life and quicken'd it into Laws and the reason of it is because the Legislative Power resideth solely in the King ut in subjecto proprio and the consent of the Lords and Commons is no sharing of that Power which is indivisible but a requisite condition to complete the Kings Power for otherwise all those Bills that have pass'd both Houses and for want of the Royal-Assent lie buried in oblivion might as occasion serv'd be rak'd from their forgotten Embers and set up for Laws Which also further appears in the several forms of our Kings giving their Royal Assent as Le Roy voit Le Roy est Assensus Le Roy Advisera c. and makes good this point That the Power of making Laws resides in the King and that he may as he sees cause either refuse or ratifie And this the Law of Scotland calls his Majesties best and most incommunicable Prerogative And as the Legislative Power resides in the King solely so also to him belongs it to interpret those Laws Si disputatio oriatur Justiciarii non possunt eam interpretari sed in dubiis obscuris Domini Regis erit expectanda interpretatio voluntas cum ejus sit interpretari cujus est condere saith the Lord Ellesmer from Bracton and Britton His is the interpretation of the Law whose is the Power of making the Law In his recurrendum ad Regem justitiae fontem whence he is said to carry all the Laws in scrinio pectoris sui in his Breast To give one instance for all When King Charles the First of happy memory had just given his Royal Assent to the Petition of Right he told the Houses That his meaning was to confirm all their Liberties as knowing that according to their own Protestations they neither meant nor could hurt his Prerogative c. And on the last day of the Session before his Royal Assent to the Bills saying he would tell them the cause why he came so suddenly to end that Session he adds Tho I must avow that I own an account of my actions to none but God And again charging both Houses with their Profession during the hammering that Petition that it was in no ways to trench upon his Prerogative saying they had neither intention nor power to hurt it he commands them all to take notice that what he had spoken was the true meaning of what he had granted But especially adds his Majesty you my Lords the Judges for to you only under me belongs the Interpretation of Laws for none of the Houses of Parliament joynt or separate what new Doctrin soever may be raised have any power either to make or declare a Law without my consent And as the King is the sole Lawgiver and Interpreter of that Law when given so also is he exempt and free from the Law for as much as concerneth the coactive force of the Law as being the Head of the Law and of the Common-wealth and consequently no man can give Sentence of condemnation against him if he do any thing against that Law for besides that every Sentence must be given by a Superior upon his Inferior there must be some Supreme whereunto all are subject but it self to none because otherwise the course of Justice would go infinitely in a Circle every Superior having his Superior without end which cannot be yet admitting it might the People cannot do it for they have no power themselves or if they had are his Subjects and a Parliament cannot do it for besides that they are his Subjects also and not his Peers who shall try him for he is Principium Caput finis Parliamenti and it can neither begin nor end without his Presence in Person or by Representation and hence it is that his Death Dissolves them Again if the People may call him to account the State is plainly Democratical if the Peers it is Aristocratical if either or both of them 't is no way Monarchical which is directly contrary
to the known Laws of the Land for Omnis sub Rege ipse sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo Every man is in subjection to the King and he to none but God and so the Oath of Supremacy declares him the onely Supreme Governor of this Realm of which more hereafter when I come to speak of the Statute-Law and therefore if the King refuse to do right seeing no Writ can issue against him there is a place for Petition and if that prevail not Satis ei erit ad poenam saith the same Bracton quod Dominum habeat ultorem And with this agreeth that of Horace Regum timendorum in proprios greges Reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis And in this respect a Prince is not loosed from the Law for as much as concerneth the directive Power of it but having not the Law becomes a Law to himself as well knowing Observantior aequi Fit Populus nec ferre negat cum viderit ipsum Auctorem parere sibi 2. As to the Power of Peace and War It is the right of the King saith Fitzherbert to defend his Kingdom as well against the Sea as against Enemies which implies that it is his right to defend it against Enemies and how can he do it without the right of his Sword when if he should be oblig'd to pray in Aid of others perhaps they may be of another mind or take up so much time in the Debate that the Kingdom may be lost ere they resolve what to do And this I take to be one of the effects of Con-si-de-ra-ti-on in those matters whose good or ill fortune solely depends on Expedition and Secresie for Dangers as the Lord Bacon saith are better met half way than by keeping too long a watch upon their approaches for if a man watch too long 't is odds he will fall asleep But to proceed Sir Edw. Cooke says no Subject can levy War within the Realm without Authority from the King unto whom it only belongeth and that it was High-Treason at the Common Law before the Statute De proditionibus And in Calvin's case he makes it clear That to make Leagues or denounce War only belongs to the King who without his Subjects may grant Letters of safe Conduct and Denization and that this high point of Prerogative Royal cannot be conferred upon any other it being a right of Majesty and among the badges of Supreme Power And now one would think this were enough and yet a late Statute of this Kingdom makes it yet clearer it being thereby declared That the sole Supreme Government Command and disposition of the Militia and all Forces by Sea and Land and of all Forces and places of Strength is and by the Law of England ever were the undoubted right of his Majesty and his Royal Predecessors Kings and Queens of England and that both or either of the Houses of Parliament cannot nor ought to pretend to the same nor can nor lawfully may raise or levy War Offensive or Defensive against his Majesty his Heirs and lawful Successors c. all which is not introductive of a new Law but declaratory of the old as may be further seen by the penning thereof And now what can be added more but the Purse without which what 's the Sword but as the Greek Proverb has it A Bow without a Bow-man For in as much as Mony is the Sinews of War and Peace firmamentum belli ornamentum pacis they that hang the Sword on one side and the Purse on the other seem to me to hazard both for neither can any sudden danger of which the King was ever thought the Judg be stav'd off nor War carried on nor the Publick Peace be long preserv'd without it And therefore on such occasions have Parliaments advis'd and assisted the King in supplying his Wants without directing him it seeming hard that he should have Power to Proclaim War and not be able to maintain it and be bound to defend his Subjects but deny'd the means Qui dirimit medium destruit finem 3. As to the creation and appointing Magistrates and Officers especially such as are not under the command of others this also resides solely in the King for besides what I have said in the last Paragraph touching his sole Power in the ordering and disposing the Militia and all Forces by Sea and places of Strength by Land His is the appointing all the great Officers and Ministers of the Realm whether Spiritual or Temporal the highest immediately by himself the inferior mediately by Authority derived from him and as it were De lumine lumen So the King appoints the Lord Commissioner and all other the grand Ministers and Officers of Scotland and the Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy Lords Justices and all other the grand Ministers and Officers of Ireland who also but in his Kings name appoint under him according to the extent of their respective Commissions so the Kings of England have and may at this day by Letters Patents make a Prorex Locum tenens or Guardian of the Realm before whom in their absence in remotis a Parliament may be held And such was Edward Duke of Cornwal 13 Edw. 3. Lionel Duke of Clarence 21 Edw. 3. John Duke of Bedford 5 Henry 5. And the Test of the Writ of Summons shall be in the Guardians name or by Commission under the great Seal to certain Lords of Parliament authorise them to hold a Parliament the King being then in the Realm but indisposed and such was that 3 Edw. 4. to William Lord Arch-Bishop of York and that other 28 Eliz. to John Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and others ad inchoandum c. ad Procedendum c. ad faciendum omnia singula c. nec non ad Parliamentum adjournandum Prorogandum c. And so are Parliaments held in Scotland and Ireland before the Lords Commissioners Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy c. of the respective Kingdoms 4. The Power of the last Appeal i. e. from whose Sentence no Appeal lies The only person besides the Kings of England that ever pretended to it here was the Pope tho yet the first attempt ever made that way was by Anselme Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in the Reign of King William Rufus but it took no effect And the Arch-Bishop concerning himself too much touching the Jurisdiction of the Pope in England the King told him Ad Officium Imperatoris spectat c. That it belong'd to the Emperor to make whom he pleas'd Pope and that for the same reason no Arch-Bishop or Bishop within his Realm should yield any subjection to the Court or Pope of Rome and chiefly in this respect cum ipse omnes libertates haberet in regno suo quas Imperator vindicabat in Imperio That he had the same Prerogative in his Kingdom that the Emperor claim'd in the Empire And
when Pope Innocent the Third had against the declar'd will of King John caused Stephen Langton to be Elected Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and after that confirm'd him and wrote to the King to receive him the King returns that he the Pope had subverted the Liberties of his Crown and that therefore he would prohibit all People going to Rome and from making appeals thither which confirms my former instance and that this Power was always in the King however for a time it might have happen'd to be neglected for otherwise it had been a vain thing in him to have expell'd the Monks of Canterbury as Traytors which he actually did or to have imagin'd that a Bigotted Seditious Clergy as at that time they were and to be headed by that Arch-Bishop at least no friend to the King if not his Enemy should be frighten'd with an empty Bug bear touching a matter whereof he had no cognisance had he not been satisfi'd it was in his Power to do it as well as his Father before him had done it And having thus occasionally nam'd him let me with all submission offer this to the memory of that unfortunate Prince that his designs in order to the freeing the Crown from Forein usurpation were mighty and that he came short in what Henry the Eighth afterwards effected was not that he was less able but his times worse for considering the unsettled condition of those times and at what disadvantages he came in what wonder if he were oppress'd by a Faction when deserted by his Subjects who otherwise had never suffer'd him to have made that Crown to the defence of which they had all sworn tributary which many years afterward when the Arrears of that Tribute were demanded was too late tho effectually enough declar'd in Parliament he could not do nor they consent to the doing it But to proceed When after this the Sea of Rome would be yet intermedling it was by all the States of Parliament severally examin'd and answering each State one by one personally for it self unanimously Declar'd That the Pope's awarding any Processes or Sentences of Excommunication c. against any Bishops or other Spiritual Persons for executing Judgments given in the Kings Courts was clearly in derogation of the Kings Crown and Regality used and approved of the time of all his Progenitors and which they would maintain as they were bound by their Liegance and thereupon Enacted That the purchasing any Bulls from Rome or elsewhere shall be a Premunire In which it is observable That as the Judges before that time were for the most part Church-men the Laity being not yet come up to Letters or where they were Rari nantes in gurgite vasto The Lords Temporal and the Commons of this Parliament were all Romanists and of what Persuasion the Lords Spiritual and their Assistants the then Judges were I leave to every man the question at that time being not matter of Religion but right of Superiority not the Church but Court of Rome And so Sir E. Cooke speaking of the first Article of the Statute of 25 H. 8. concerning the Prohibition of Appeals to Rome saith it is but declaratory of the ancient Law of this Realm And in another place The same Authority that the Pope ever exercised in this Kingdom by Usurpation was always in the King de jure With which also agrees the Lord Chief Justice Hobart That whatsoever the Pope did in this Kingdom even then when he was in his greatest height and strength was of no better force in right and justice than at the first when he was but simple Bishop of Rome which was coram non Judice and so Jus non habenti tuto non paretur 5. The Power of conferring Honors on which account he may also enable a man to assign his Surname Arms and Barony to another For as by the Laws of England all Lands within the same were originally derived from the Crown and holden of the King either mediately or immediately as Lord Paramount so also by the same Laws were all degrees of Nobility and Honor derived from the King as the Fountain of Honor. So H. 6. granted to H. Beuchamp Ut esset primus praecipuus Comes Angliae and that he should use the Title of Henricus Praecomes totius Angl c. ibid. 361. First Earl of all England c. And to the name Count or Earl which was the most ancient name of Dignity among the Saxons Edw. 3. Ang. Greg. 11. created the Title of Duke as distinct from that of Earl for in elder times they were oft synonimous with us and created his eldest Son the Black Prince then Earl of Chester into the Title of Duke of Cornwal which he created into a Dutchy and about the 18th of his Reign the most noble Order of the Garter And in the 9th of R. 2. Robert de Vere Earl of Oxford was created Marquess of Dublin And H. 6. the 18th of his Reign created John Lord Beaumont Viscount Beaumont of which Titles we find no mention in the Magna Charta 9. H. 3. for they were not at that time in being And to this yet further the Kings of England have and may at this day create a County-Palatine which none but the Emperor or a Supreme Monarch may do for whoever is owner thereof hath in that County Jura Regalia as fully as the King in Palatio Par curis solo diademate dispar So Hugh Lupus Nephew of King William the Conqueror was by him created Earl of Chester and the County given him Tenendum sibi haeredibus ita libere ad gladium sicut ipse Rex tenebat Angliam ad Coronam by which general words he had Jura Regalia within the said County and consequently a County-Palatine without express words and by force thereof he created eight Cheshire Barons So not long after his time was the County-Palatine of Durham raised And in the 10th of H. 1. the Royal Franchise of Ely In the 13th of Edw. 3. the County-Palatine of Pembroke And in the 50th year of his Reign the County of Lancaster was by him erected into a County-Palatine and by him given to his fourth Son John of Gaunt then Duke of Lancaster for life to which if any one shall say that it was De assensu praelatorum procerum Sir Edw. Coke answers for me That the King may make a County-Palatine by his Letters Patents without Parliament Add to this the three first Counties-Palatine created in Ireland by Henry the Second viz. Leinster which he granted to Earl Strongbow who had married the Daughter and Heir of M. Morough Prince of Leinster 2. Meath to Sir Hugh Lacy the Elder 3. Ulster to Sir Hugh Lacy the younger and had their Barons under them answerable to the Barons created by H. Lupus of which before Of which you may read excellent Learning
in the Case of the County-Palatine of Wexford reported by Sir John Davys at that time Attorney-General of Ireland As also the County-Palatine of Tipperary formerly enjoy'd by the Ancestors of his Grace James Duke of Ormond c. the present Lord Lieutenant of the same and granted restored and confirm'd to him by Letters-Patents at Westminster the 22. of April in the 14th of this King and not long afterward confirmed by Act of Parliament in Ireland and whence also he bears it as a part of his Titles Dominus Regalitatum Libertatum Comitatus Palatini Tipperarii Nor is this all The Kings of England have created Kings within their own Dominions and for such has the world received them So King Henry the Second in the 13th year after his coming into Ireland made his Son John King of Ireland And Henry the Third his Son Edward the First Lord of Ireland and well own'd the doing it albeit until the 33 Henry 8. they wrote but Lords themselves for their Dignity was merely Royal as having their Justices Custodes or Lord Lieutenants and all things belonging to the Royal Estate and Majesty of a King And Sir Edw. Cooke tells us he has seen a Charter made in 20. H. 6. to Henry Beuchamp Earl of Warwick whereby he was created King of the Isle of Wight and as saith Mr. Selden Crowned King of the same 6. The Power of Pardoning which is a Royal Act of Grace whereby the King either before Conviction Sentence or Attainder or after forgiveth any Crime Punishment Execution Right Title Debt or Duty Temporal or Ecclesiastical on which account he may restore a man that has lost Liberam Legem by being recreant As also all that is forfeited to him by Attainder c. he may restore by his Charter but if by the Attainder the Blood be corrupted that must be restored by Act of Parliament of which more at large in Sir Edw. Cooke Titles Pardons and Restitutions 7. To appoint the Value Weight and Stamp of his Coin and make Forein Coin currant by Proclamation As to the first we need go no farther than the smallest Piece and that will tell us whose Image and Superscription it is and therefore called the Kings Money and so King John brought the Irish Mony to the English Standard And as to the other the same Sir Edw. Coke tells us That the King by his absolute Prerogative may make any Forein Coin lawful Mony of England at his pleasure by his Proclamation And in another place putting both together he says That lawful Mony of England is of two sorts viz. The English Mony either of Gold or Silver Coined by the Kings Authority or Forein Coin by Proclamation made currant within this Realm 8. To receive Liege Homage of another inferior King or Homager and such was our Henry the Second to the old Kings of Ireland who are stiled Reges Reguli and may more particularly appear in a grant of his to Roderick King of Connaught that he should enjoy his Territory under a certain Tribute Et quam diu ei fideliter serviet ut sit Rex sub eo Paratus ad servitium suum sicut homo suus And that Oneale is sometime stiled Rex and sometime Regulus denotes the Subject-Kings of that Country And long before the Conquest Edgar had eight Reguli or inferior Kings Homagers to him who at one time row'd him on the River Dee himself guiding the Helm and afterwards glorying to his Nobility that then every one of his Successors might boast himself to be King of England when he receiv'd the like Honor from so many Kings his Attendants So Reignald Lord or King of Man Cui etiam fas erat Corona aurea Coronari and those of Ireland did Homage to our Henry the Third And John Baliol King of Scotland and David Prince of Wales to Edw. the First and James the First to Henry the Sixth for the Kingdom of Scotland So that Liege-Lord is he that acknowledgeth no Superior and a Liegeman is he that oweth Liegance to his Liege-Lord and so the word is frequently us'd in our Statutes viz. The Kings Liege-People And if such a one shall be in open War or Rebellion or joyn with a Forein Enemy against the King he shall not be ransom'd or proceeded with as an Enemy but as a Traytor because it is Contra Ligeantiam suam debitam and so the Indictment runs Such was the case of David Prince of Wales aforesaid who had judgment of Treason given against him for levying War against Edw. 1. for that his was within the Homage and Ligeance of the King 9. Lastly to bear those Titles only proper to Sovereign Princes apart from all others as being indivisible and incommunicable And here not to insist on the words Dei gratia which are familiarly seen in the Titles of the Kings of Europe and Princes of the Empire Spiritual Lords both abroad and at home have of elder times frequently us'd it in their Stiles and in a Summons to our Parliaments and Writs to Assemble or Prorogue the Convocation the King gives it to the Arch-Bishops as Rex c. Reverendissimo in Christo Patri Predilatoque fideli Consiliario nostro A. eadem Gratia Archiepiscopo Cant. c. But in Warrants and Commissions to them it is generally omitted and never us'd by themselves when they wrote to the Pope Emperor or a King but thus A. licet indignus c. Archiepiscopus or Episcopus B. c. whereby the present use of it among our selves is easily reconcil'd in that they receive the Attribute not give it The Kings of England are in the second and third person commonly stiled by that abstract of Majesty as your Majesty his Majesty which came into the Kingdoms of Christendom from the use of it in the Roman Empire the word in it self denoting all kind of special Dignity and if as we should say in English A Greatness And to peruse our Statutes from Magna Charta to our own time the most usual expressions are Our Lord the King The King our Sovereign Lord Most Excellent Highness Royal Majesty Noble Grace Most Excellent Majesty Most Royal Majesty Dread Sovereign Lord Most Gracious Sovereign and as we use it now Most Excellent Majesty and Sacred Majesty which are but the same Attribute in other words and in their own nature so unalienable from Sovereignty that they can by no process of time be Prescrib'd against or usurp'd upon neither can it at all be call'd an Usurpation as if it were proper only to God unless we as well deny Wisdom Power Clemency or any other quality to be attributed to men because those also as all else which is great or good are Primarily in him And so I have done with the marks of Sovereignty as they are generally receiv'd and now if there wanted any thing to
And in another of the same Kings it is called The most Royal Estate of your Imperial Crown of this Realm and the same word Imperial made use of ten other times in the same Statute to the same purpose And with this agrees the Statute of Ireland where in express words also the Kings of England are entituled Kings and Emperors of the Realm of England and of the Land of Ireland and that too five years before the Title of Lord of Ireland was altered into King And by the Act that so alter'd it it is called The Majesty and State of a King Imperial And so in the first of Qu. Eliz. English in which the Oath of Supremacy was enacted the Crown of this Realm is three times called Imperial And in the third Chapter of the same year as often And in the 5th of the same Queen that requires all Ecclesiasticks Graduates in any University or Common-Laws Officers of Court Attorneys every Member of Parliament under the degree of a Baron to take the said Oath of Supremacy before he enter the House or such Election to be deemed void calls it The Dignity of the Imperial Crown And the Act of Recognition of King James uses the same expression of Imperial four times And upon a like ground of mere Supremacy was that Act of Scotland before the Union of the Crowns wherein 't is said Our Sovereign Lord his full Jurisdiction and free Empire within this Realm Scotland And the late Oath or Test prescribed to be taken by all persons in Publick Trust in that Kingdom declares the Kings Majesty the only Supreme Governor of that Realm over all persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil And the Act of acknowledging and asserting the right of Succession in that Kingdom calls it the Imperial Crown of Scotland In all which matters I have been the more particular that I might the better evince my Reader that this Independent Sovereignty and Supremacy of the Kings of England c. has not been the opinion of any one time but the general consent of all and that our Kings hold their Crowns in chief from God and owe no precarious acknowledgments to the courtesie of the People Nor is the Kings Immediate Personal Originary Inherent Power which he executes or may execute Authoritate Regiâ Supremâ Ecclesiastica as King and Sovereign Governor of the Church of England to be less consider'd it being one of those flowers which make up his Crown and preserve it in verdure And here I question not but it will be granted that the King is the Supreme Patron of all the Arch-Bishopricks and Bishopricks of England as being all founded by the Kings of England to hold Christi Baroniam excepting that of Soder in the Isle of Man which was instituted by Pope Gregory the Fourth and may perhaps be the reason why the Bishop thereof hath neither Place nor Voice in the Parliament of England and so were at first donative Per traditionem annuli baculi Pastoralis by the delivery of a Ring and the Pastoral Staff or Crosier And the Bishop of Rome persuading Henry the First to make them Elective by their Chapters refused it But King John by his Charter recognising the Custom and Right of the Crown in former times by the common consent of his Barons granted that they should be eligible as least doubting he had so far lockt up himself as that he might not be receiv'd to disapprove or allow for before that I find That when he had given a Conge d' eslier to the Monks of Canterbury to Elect an Arch-Bishop and Pope Innocent the Third notwithstanding the Kings desires of promoting the Bishop of Norwich to it whom also they had Elected had under a Curse commanded them to choose Stephen Langton with which for fear of Excommunicacation they comply'd the King banishes the Monks as Traytors and writes to the Pope that he had subverted the Liberties of his Crown by which it appears that he lookt upon himself as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England and that no Arch-Bishop or Bishop could be put upon him without his consent and what advantage the Kingdom got by this Usurpation may be gather'd from the effects when after a more than six years Jurisdiction the King Depos'd and a free Crown put in Vassalage it only open'd a way to those future Broils between him and his Barons which lasted all his time and wanted no fuel to feed 'em till towards the latter end of his Son men began to stand at gaze and as infatuated or startled at they knew not what thought it more safety to look on than lend a hand to master it nor had they fully resolv'd what to do until the Pope having demanded Homage of Edw. 3. and the Arrears of one thousand Marks per ann for the Kingdoms of England and Ireland which had been also demanded in the 3 of Edw. 1. and in case of non-performance threatned to make out Process against the King and Kingdom then at last the scales fell from their eyes and as men got out of a dream they began to consider what they had startled at and as an argument of their recovered Senses the Lords Spiritual by themselves the Lords Temporal by themselves and the Commons by themselves unanimously resolv'd and declar'd That the King could not put Himself his Realm or his People in subjection without their Assent and albeit it might it is as saith Sir Edw. Coke Contra Legem consuetudinem Parliamenti contrary to the order and custom of Parliament because it is a disherison of the King and his Crown after which to avoid all further dispute the manner and order of Election of Arch-Bishops and Bishops and all things relating thereunto is setled by Statute viz. 1. Negatively That no one thereafter be Presented Nominated or Commended to the Sea of Rome for the Dignity or Office of any Arch-Bishop or Bishop within this Realm or any other the Kings Dominions 2 Affirmatively That at every avoidance of any Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick as before the King our Sovereign Lord his Heirs and Successors may grant to the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral Churches where the Sea of such Arch-bishoprick or Bishoprick shall happen to be void a License under the Great Seal as of old time hath been accustomed to proceed to Election of an Arch-Bishop or Bishop of the Sea so being void with a Letter missive containing the name of the person which they shall Elect or Choose by virtue of which they elect the said person c. or in case of refusal incur the Penalties of a Premunire So that upon the whole the Election in effect is but a matter of form it is the Kings meer Grant which placeth and the Bishops Consecration which maketh a Bishop Neither do the Kings of this Land use herein any other than such
Assistance of God King of Britain And Edwine in a Charter of his to the Abbey of Crowland is stiled Edwinus Anglorum Rex totius Britanniae telluris Gubernator Rector Edwine King of the English and of all the British Land Director and Governor In like manner Ethelred in a Charter of his to the Church of Canterbury stiles himself Angligenum Orcadarum necne in gyro jacentium Monarchus Monarch or sole Governor of the English the Isles of Orkeney and all that lie within that Circuit but subscribes it Ego Aethelredus Anglorum Induperator c. I Ethelred Emperor of the English And besides what I said before of King William Rufus that said he had the same Prerogatives in his Kingdom as the Emperor claim'd in the Empire in a Charter of his to the Monastery of Shaftsbury he says Ego Willielmus Rex Anglorum anno ab incarnatione 1089. secundo anno mei Imperii I William King of the English in the year of our Lord 1089. and of my Empire the second And now having brought it thus far I shall in the next place examin the unreasonableness of that new Notion that the King is one of the three Estates and doubt not but to prove the contrary to any man but him who will not be persuaded tho you shall have persuaded him SECTION VI. That the King is none of the Three Estates in which two preliminary Objections are examin'd by Reason and answered by the manner of the Three Estates applying to him What the Three Estates are To presume him one of them were to make him but a Co-ordinate Power The King cannot be said to Summon or Supplicate himself How will the Three Estates be made out before the Commons came in With a short Series during the Saxons to the latter end of Henry III. in all which time they are not so much as nam'd as any constituent part of a Parliament And the time when probably they first came in to be as they are at this day one of the three Estates That the Lords Temporal were never doubted but to be an Estate Four reasons offer'd that the Lords Spiritual are one other Estate distinct from the Lords Temporal and one Act of Parliament in point With other Authorities to prove the Assertion THose that would have the King one of the Three Estates say That our Government is a kind of mixt Monarchy inasmuch as in our Parliaments the Lower House as representing the Commons bear a semblance of a Democracy and the Lords of Aristocracy And others That the King Lords and Commons who as Assembled joyntly to the end of Legislation as one Corporation and no otherwise are the Law-giver We 'll examin it by reason which Neque decipitur nec decipit usquam and only commands belief when all things else beg it And here to come as near the wind as I can that I may the better get up with them admitting the semblance but not granting the thing what does this make for them or serve to prove that yet the Government is not a free Monarchy because the Supreme Authority as I said ere while resteth neither in the one House or the other either joyntly or severally but solely in the King at whose pleasure they are assembled and without whose Royal Assent they can make no Law to oblige the Subject And therefore not denying Bodin's distinction of a Lordly Monarch a Royal Monarch and a Tyrannical Monarch which relateth only to the Power and Practice of the Monarch yet the distinction of a Supreme and mixt Monarchy which designeth the manner of the Government is a contradiction in Terminis because that Government which extendeth it self to more than one can never be a Monarchy as is obvious to every one that understandeth the word Monarchy and was never heard of in our Land till the men of our late times instead of suppressing Idolatry c. had fram'd a new Idol of their own and having made it as gay as they could set it up to be ador'd by the Multitude always prone to admire every thing they least understand And what must the consequence of it be but that the Government must be partly Monarchical partly Aristocratical and partly Democratical which are in themselves contrary and to be governed by contrary Laws and if it be impossible to make any good out of two extremes as Monarchy and Democracy are what then shall be made of three confounded among themselves or how can it be that Sovereignty a thing indivisible can at one and the same time be divided between one Prince the Nobility and the People in common and not to be altogether a State Popular or at best a Venetian Republick wherein albeit there be but one Duke and He for life yet his person being not invested with the Supreme Power of Government he is in effect but Magni nominis umbra And as to the other That the King Lords and Commons as one Corporation and no otherwise are the Law-giver here I take the King to be in a worse condition for tho to the making of an Act the concurrence of both Houses is necessary yet of no effect if the King disapprove yet the Case of a Mayor Aldermen and Burgesses or whatever other the stile of the Corporation be is wholly different for they meeting together by the Princes grant in a kind of Democratical Common Council for the better Government of the place where they reside order every thing by most Voices wherein the Mayor himself has but one and is concluded by the greater number but the King having no Voice nor any one to represent him in the discussive part of any Act cannot be said to give his Royal Assent as one of the Corporation but by his inherent Legislative Prerogative and how improper the contrary is will further appear in that a Common-Council put what By-Laws they please upon the Mayor as long as they are not contrary to the Law of the Land because he has no negative upon them But in case of a Sovereign the first mark of it as I have shewn before is the Power of making Laws now who should those Subjects be that should yield Obedience to that Law if they also had the Power to make Laws or who should that Prince be that could give the Law being himself constrain'd to receive it of his Subjects unto whom also he gave it A thing not only incompatible but even absurd from every days Practice and Experience for do not the Three Estates of this Kingdom upon the passing of all Bills address themselves to his Majesty in the most humble Stile As that of the Petition of Right Humbly shew unto our Sovereign Lord the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament Assembled c. So to King James Most dread and most gracious Sovereign We your most Loyal and Humble Subjects the Lords c. So to Queen
Elizabeth Most dread Sovereign Lady c. We your most Humble Faithful and Obedient Subjects the Lords c. So to Queen Mary We your Highness most Loving Faithful and Obedient Subjects c. do beseech your most Excellent Majesty that it may be Enacted c. So to H. 8. In their most humble wise shewn to your most Royal Majesty the Lords c. And so to Rich. 3. and backward By the Advice and Assent of the Lords c. at the request of the Commons To Edw. 4. By the Advice and Assent of his Lords Spiritual and Temporal and at the special Request of his Commons To H. 6. By c. and at the special instance and request To H. 5. the same To H. 4. At the instance and special request To R. 2. the same In Edw. 3.'s time These things underwritten at the request of the Commons be Established and Enacted by our Lord the King his Prelates Earls and Barons so by the Assent and Prayer of the Great men and the Commons And in Edw. 1.'s time At the request of the Commonalty by their Petition made before him and his Council in Parliament as may be further seen in the Statutes at large till ye can go no further backward than the King commandeth In which also I have been the larger that by the consent of all times I might shew that this is not after the manner of Corporations or the Language of Equals and shall be my first Argument why the King is none of the Three Estates 2. This will further appear if we shall consider who these Three Estates are And those I take to be the Lords Spiritual viz. Arch-Bishops and Bishops who sit in Parliament by Succession in respect of their Baronies parcel of their Bishopricks 2. The Lords Temporal as Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons who sit there by reason of their Dignities which they hold by Descent or Creation and the third Estate the Commons of the Realm viz. Knights of Shires Citizens of Cities and Burgesses of Burroughs respectively Elected by force of the Kings Writ which three Estates Sir Edw. Coke saith the French-men call Les Estates or L' Assemble des Estates And Philip de Comines speaking how the English grant Subsidies Convocatis saith he primis ordinibus assentiente Populo The first or chief Estates being call'd together and the People assenting And Bodin who by his Conference with the English Embassador for so himself confesseth wherever he speaks of the Constitution of England calls it the King and the Three Estates of the Realm Like which The Republick of the Kingdom of Poland in the Interregnum between the Death of one King and the Election of another is stiled Serenissimae Reipublicae Regni Poloniae c. Congregati Ordines The Estates Assembled And such were the Amplissimi Ordines among the Romans viz. the Senate of whom the Emperor was no part and signifies with us The Estates of People among our selves viz. The Clergy The Nobility and the Commons which being duly Assembled we call a Parliament And so Sir Henry Spelman speaking of the word Parliament saith it is Solenne Colloquium omnium Ordinum Regni authoritate solius Regis ad consulendum statuendumque de negotiis regni indictum A Parliament saith he is a Solemn Conference of all the Estates of the Kingdom commanded together by the sole Authority of the King to Consult and Order the Affairs of the Realm From whence it must necessarily follow that the King is none of them but as the Apostle says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as having the preheminence over them for Quicquid efficit tale est magis tale Whatever is the cause of any thing is greater than the thing caused 3. To presume the King to be one of the Three Estates were to make him but a Co-ordinate Power and consequently concludible by the other two for Par in Parem non habet imperium Among Equals there is no Authority whereas the Supreme Title of King is distinguish'd from others in this that it acknowledges no other Superior And Bodin speaking of a Supreme Monarch saith He is next to God of whom he holdeth his Scepter and is bound to no man And to the same purpose Berkly Regum cognata Potentia coelo Whence it naturally follows that this Honor is not to be shar'd with another 4. Which is a negative instance And one Negative instance saith the Lord Bacon is of more force to unfix a pretending Rule than two Affirmative to establish it If the King were one of the Three Estates he should be Summon'd by Writ but because all Writs Issue in his Name it cannot be said that he can Summon himself or Supplicate himself as both Houses do him or not to have Power to depart without leave i. e. of himself seeing they have no Power to Assemble Determin or Depart part without the Kings express Commandment 5. If the King were one of the Three Estates then it follows of course as undeniable that before the Commons became a Third Estate and a Constituent part of a Parliament as they are at this day That the King must have been one Estate The Lords Spiritual a second The Lords Temporal a third or otherwise there could not have been Three Estates and now the Commons since the Writs for their Election being become another what hinders but that they make a fourth unless perhaps we deny the Lords Spiritual to have been one and then before the Commons there could be but two To examin it a little That Great Councils of Kings their Nobles Wise men and Chief Officers were frequently held of Ancient time there is hardly any thing more obvious but whether the Commonalty scarce yet civiliz'd or if so for the most part if not wholly without Literature were any essential or constituent part of those great Councils and Government might be a question at this day if there were any sufficient ground on which to raise it Convocavit David omnes Principes Israel Duces tribuum Praepositos turmarum qui ministrabant Regi Tribunos quoque Centuriones qui Praeerant substantiae Regis filiosque suos cum Eunuchis Potentes robustissimos quosque in exercitu Jerusalem David called together all the Princes of Israel the Leaders of the Tribes and the Captains of the Companies that served under him and the Captains over the thousands and the Captains over the hundreds and the Stewards over all the substance and possession of the King and his Sons with the Officers and mighty men and valiant men unto Jerusalem By which you see of what persons this great Council consisted all men of the first note and not a word of the people In like manner Solomon Congregavit majores natu Israel cunctos Principes tribuum Capita familiarum de filiis Israel in Jerusalem He
assembled the Elders of Israel and all the rulers of the Tribes and the heads of the families of the children of Israel to Jerusalem And here too not a word of the People and yet Sir Edw. Coke calls them both Parliaments and so no doubt but they were somewhat like it or otherwise so many succeeding Centuries had never took pattern from them Not to run so far from home What was our Saxon Witenage mote Micel Synods Micel Gemotes or Great Councils but so many Assemblies of the Wise men concerning whom it is not to be presumed but that they were of the first rate the lump of the People as I so lately toucht it being for many Ages before and after not bred to Letters and consequently more apt for Blows than Arguments and readier to cut the knot in two with their Swords than unty it with their Tongues and in all the Saxon Annals we find the principal or chief Wites or Wise men of the Nation the Assembly of Gods Servants the Clergy then so called Aldermen or Earls Great men Chiefest men Noblemen the constituent parts of those great Councils but no Commons to be found or any that represented them Neither does Sir Edw. Coke in any Authority of his before the latter years of Henry 3. prove any where that the Commons at that time were any such part of those Parliaments for if they had there is no question but he would have nam'd them also as he doth those others that made up those Parliaments Rex Eldredus convocavit Magnates Episcopos Proceres Optimates ad tractandum de publicis negotiis regni King Eldred saith he call'd together his Earls Bishops Barons and Chief men but not a word again of the Commonalty And with this agrees the learned Mr. Selden where we have several other instances to the same purpose but not one word in any of them touching the Commons And as the Saxon Great men were only present in their Great Councils so were only the Norman Barons and their Great men in those of the Conqueror for we often meet Arch-Bishops Bishops Earls Barons but no where find the least mention of the Commons neither is it to be believ'd that his new acquest would yet suffer him to trust a People he had so lately conquer'd or that he made to himself other measures than what he took from his Sword And as to William Rufus his time we find it the same for in the sixth year of his Reign there was a Great Council held at Winchester and in the seventh another at Rockingham and in the tenth De statu regni acturus Episcopos Abbates quosque regni Proceres in unum praecepti sui sanctione egit Being to order some Affairs of the Realm he commanded together the Bishops Abbats and all the Nobility of the Kingdom and yet all this while not a word of the Commons In like manner albeit in the first of Henry 1. Clerus Angliae Populus universus c. the Clergy and all the People were Summon'd to Westminster yet here the word Populus is used as contradistinct to the Clergy to which it is opposed and denotes not any distinct State or Order among Secular men or Laicks but an Order and Estate of men distinct from the Ecclesiasticks or Clergy these two words of Clerus and Populus being the two general States or Orders into which all mankind is divided And so he cites it as quoted by Sir Will. Dugdale touching the Coronation of King Egbert Veniunt Wintoniam Clerus Populus The Clergy and People came to Winchester To which also Mr. Selden gives a great light when of the same Council he saith Ad commune concilium Baronum meorum is mentioned in it Or what means that other of the third of the same King wherein they are call'd Primates utriusque ordinis The Chiefs of both Orders i. e. of the Clergy viz. the Lords Spiritual and of Laity viz. the Nobles who are also called Principes Regni The Chief or Head men of the Kingdom of which also we have several instances in that beloved Physician 's ingenuious learned Answer to Mr. Petit. Neither does it appear that the Great Councils in King Stephen's time consisted of any other than the Clergy and the Nobility there being not the least mention of the Milites or Liberi homines Knights or Free-men or that they acted in them But from these Usurpations we come to Hen. 2. who Robert Duke of Normandy being dead came in upon a rightful Title from his Grand-father Henry 1. and yet the Great Council at Clarendon which was the 10th of his Reign consisted only of Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbats Priors Earls and Chief men of the Kingdom and albeit Mr. Selden as himself from Hoveden says That Clerus and Populus Regni the Clergy and People of the Land were then Assembled it appears not that any other Estate was meant by the word Populus than the Lay Nobles For at the great Council of Northampton which was the following year Rex Statuens celebrare solenne Concilium omnes qui tenebant de Rege in Capite mandari fecit The King having resolv'd to hold a Great Council he Summon'd thither all those that held of him in Capite i. e. in Chief Now to hold in Chief of the King is to hold of him immediately and merely as King and of his Crown as of a Seigneury in Gross and in Chief above all other Seigneuries and not as of or by means of some Honor Castle or Mannor belonging to the Crown And in the preceding leaf Mr. Selden says Tenere de Rege in Capite habere possessiones sicut Baroniam are Synonimies and to hold in Chief and to have their Possessions as Baronies was to have the right of sitting in Councils with the rest of the Barons concerning which it does not yet appear that the Commonalty at that time had any From thence and during the Reign of King Richard the First and until the 15th of K. John we find it the same only at that time the King being at Rochel in France commits the custody of England to the Bishop of Winchester then Chief Justice and writes to his Barons Knights and to all his Feudataries or Vassals thro England That he had received the Popes Letters touching the release of the Interdict under which the Kingdom then lay and of which I toucht before which he had sent to the said Bishop and therefore requires them as of whose kindness and fidelity he had full confidence that according to what the said Bishop should then say unto them they would effectually give their advice and aid as in like manner he writes to several other Cities and Burroughs thereby earnestly requiring them that according to what the said Bishop shall give them to understand that they effectually apply themselves to give him a supply towards the relaxation
where directing us to our Duty As 1. Negatively in that we are commanded not to think ill of the King Curse not the King no not in thy thoughts much less then may we speak it Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy people Least of all may we do him hurt Touch not mine Anointed 2. Affirmatively We are commanded to keep his Commandments and that in regard of the Oath of God Neither may we give him any just cause of anger Whoso provoketh him to it sinneth against his own soul. To which if any one shall say they were Kings themselves that spake it and 't were much they could say nothing in their own behalf I answer That besides that it has been ever receiv'd for Holy Writ Job who wrote many Centuries before there was any King in Israel puts the question Is it fit saith he to say to a King thou art wicked or to Princes ye are ungodly The Interrogation is affirmative and after the manner of affirmative Interrogations concludes negatively i. e. No it is not fit for says the same Eccles. which is another of the same who may say unto him What do'st thou To which also if it be yet objected that this Law was given to a peculiar People and that no Law but the Law of Nature which is immutable obliges any to whom it was not given I answer as before besides that it is Holy Writ what inconvenience is it if we give the same credit to God Almighty we generally allow to other Law-givers and the rather in that God is not the God of the Jews only but the Gentiles also That Reverence the Jews paid their Kings by a Written Law the Ancient Heathens took up from a mere impulse of Nature and yet what the manner of their Kingdoms were in that the Jews did but desire to be like all other Nations you have had before Q. Curtius tells us that the Persians had such a love to their King that Alexander could not persuade them either for fear or reward to tell him whither their King had fled or reveal any of his intentions In like manner when Xerxes fled from Greece in a small Vessel so full of men that it was impossible for him to be sav'd without throwing some over-board the Nobility leapt into the Sea and by their example others till the Ship was lightned and the King preserv'd And so Boëmus Aubanus speaking of the Aegyptian Kings saith that they had so much love from their People Ut non solum sacerdotibus sed etiam singulis Aegyptiis major Regis quam uxorum filiorumque salutis inesset cura That not only the Priests but every one of them had a greater care of the Kings safety than of their Wives and Children And in another place speaking of the Tartars Albeit their King saith he upon his Inauguration tells them Oris mei sermo gladius meus erit My word 's my Sword and that all things are in his power and no man may dwell in any part of the Land but what is assign'd him by the King yet nemini licet imperatoris veâ—ba mutare nemini latae ab illo sententiae qualicunque modo contraire No man may alter his Decree or in the least tittle dispute his Commands Besides all which the obsequious impiety of elder times attributed the name of God to their Emperors and whence perhaps it might be that Joseph swore By the life of Pharaoh Sceptrum capitisque salutem Testatur And the Romans By the Majesty and Genius of the Emperor And the drinking his Health at Publick Feasts was decreed to Augustus as we have it in Peter Ursinus his Appendix where also he cites S. Ambrose speaking of the custom of his time Bibamus inquiunt pro salute Imperatorum qui non biberit sit reus in devotione Let us drink say they the Emperors Health and let him be damn'd that refuses it in which the Father taxes not the thing but their ill of doing it In the offering of all which let me not be mistaken as if I design'd to insinuate that such a Power as those Kings I so lately mentioned did exercise might be practicable now or any municipal Law alter'd ad libitum no that were to justifie that Arbitrary Power so often talkt of and against which our present King hath so publickly declar'd the absolute and unlimited Sovereignty which they have by the Ordinance of God having from time to time by their Bounty been limited and bounded in the ordinary exercise thereof by such Laws and Customs as themselves have given the Royal Assent unto and allowed so that in effect it may be said What have we that we have not received Upon which score it is that a Subject may maintain his Right and Property and have Judgment against the King and in such cases the Judges are bound to right the party according to Law And there are many things also of which it is said The King cannot do them i. e. because he will not do them quia refragantur ordini as being contrary to the Law and Order establish'd in his Realm And therefore neither can our Kings or ought they in common justice to be esteem'd or thought the less when they have scatter'd any Flowers of their Crown on their Subjects in asmuch as the root rests in the same place and is as productive of more when deserved But suppose may some say the King be a wicked King a Tyrant an Idolater or however else the licentiousness of an enrag'd Rabble may render him may not the subordinate Magistrate the Nobility or People restrain or remove him I answer No for besides that the Precepts of Obedience to Kings are without restriction and therefore extend to all Kings be they what they will if it be not lawful for me to judg another man's Servant how much less then my own Master whose Power over me is just tho it may so happen that he use it unjustly The Israelites had a sharp bondage under the Egyptians and wanted not numbers to have made their party good The Land was filled with them and Pharaoh confesseth them the more mighty yet they thought it better to quit the Country than rebel Nor was their condition much improv'd in Babylon and yet they are commanded to offer Sacrifices and pray for the Life of the King and of his Sons and to seek the peace of the City where they were Captives Samuel pronounced the rejection of Saul whom also David afterward spar'd yet neither incited the People to rebel against him Nebuchadnezzar Achab Manasses were Idolatrous Kings and yet Daniel Elias and the Holy men of those times continu'd their Obedience and tamper'd not with others to infringe theirs What shall I add our Saviour commands us to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and the Apostle who exhorts
should happen that the Kingdom of England should be of a contrary Opinion must it not in all moral probability open a gap to a new breach and thereby hazard the rending asunder those two Crowns in Blood the uniting of which were so wisely design'd by H. 7. and as happily took effect in King James without Blood and what must the consequence of it be but that we once more fall to the old trade again Furit omnis turba suoque Marte cadunt And when perhaps it shall be said of the Conqueror as of Alexander in his Expedition against the Parthian That he lost more by the War than he got by the Victory whereas Prudence in the Adventure looks at the return and in the hazard at the likelihood and advantage of the success Lastly We hereby take off all occasions of jealousie to which almost every thing serves for Fuel scarce any thing for Physick it being but natural That he must fear many whom many fear how groundlesly soever But may some say Peace without safety is but a breathing or bare Truce at best How can that man sleep securely over whose head a drawn Sword hangs by a single Hair And who shall be Judg of that The Prince whose safety depends on the love of his Subjects and never Acts but by his Council or the Multitude who besides that number and Truth are seldom of the same side never condsier what they do or the true reason why it happen'd to be so hung What causes that Thunder in the Clouds but the cross encounter of Fire and Water mutually tending to their centre of safety And while a people keep within their own Circle what danger is there of a Prince's breaking in upon them God had looked upon the Earth and pronounc'd it corrupt before he sent a Deluge among them to cleanse it In short there is an old saying Divide impera and I think another no ways inferior Vis unita fortior I am sure it is true in experience he that would pluck off a Horses Tail must do it hair by hair and he that would shake a Faggot in pieces must first pull out some considerable Stick or cut the Band. I come now to the disadvantages or inconveniencies that have attended the laying by the right Heir Revolts Usurpation and Exclusion differ in term and sound but are the same in effect and which they hold in common never wanted their Embroils The revolt of the Ten Tribes from Rehoboam was the fore-runner of the Captivity for having drein'd and weaken'd themselves with intestine War what wonder if like the Frog and Mouse in the Fable they became a prey to the next offerer The Senate of Rome excluded Nero but mist their aim for one part of the Army set up Galba another Otho against him a third Vitellius against Otho a fourth Vespasian against Vitellius still bickering and beating one another to pieces until Vespasian brought all into one hand again Harold usurp'd on Edgar Atheling and what was the effect of it but that it open'd William the Conqueror a passage to the Kingdom and gave both encouragement and success to the enterprise In like manner those more prosperous Usurpations of William Rufus and Henry the First upon their elder Brother Robert King Stephen on Maude the Daughter of Henry the First and her Son afterwards Henry the Second King John on his Nephew Arthur Henry the Fourth on Richard the Second and Richard the Third on Edward the Fifth were they not founded in Blood and defended with more and therefore he that shall bring them in precedent had as good save a ramble abroad and instance in O. Cromwel at home In short the Exclusion of our King Edward the Third Son and Heir of Isabella Daughter and Heiress of France under pretence of a Salique Law occasioned the loss of their best men and Kingdom also and did not we half lose it again on the same account by Henry 4. his Usurping on Richard 2 It is true Henry 5. recovered it again but his Son Henry 6. almost as soon lost it by the civil Broils between him and Richard Duke of York slain at Wakefield which yet ended not till his Son Edw. 4. had recovered the Possession And what fruit I pray did we reap of those Wars or rather were they not such as of which the Poet speaks Bella geri placuit nullos habitura triumphos How much better then is it by learning from other mens harms to keep the beaten road with safety than upon every new notion to entangle our selves in those passes wherein so many before us have lost their way And especially having the light of an Act of Parliament directing and telling us That the ambiguity of several Titles pretended to the Crown then not so perfectly declar'd but that men might expound them to every ones sinister affection and sense contrary to the right legality of the Succession and Posterity of the Lawful Kings and Emperors of this Realm had been the cause of that great effusion and destruction of mans Blood And what can any man expect but that the same cause will again produce the same effects and the like Asterism the like Revolutions To draw towards an end It is the advice of our Saviour Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets Would any one think ye submit to be brain'd by a Billet albeit in amends it were said to his Heir the like shall never be done to your self especially when the same hand that did the one cannot promise for any that shall come after it To one praying Lycurgus to settle a popular State in Lacedaemon that the basest might have the same Authority as the highest Begin quoth he to do it it in thy own house first I know not of what Spirit other men are but if there be such a one to be found let him throw the first stone And yet who knows but there may be somewhat more than we see Is there no old grudg No Manet altâ mente repôstum No Spreti injuria Is it all pure Religion and undefil'd All dry down-right conscience No biass No interest No self in the case 't is very well Judas made a charitable motion for the Poor yet it might have seem'd better had he not carried the Bag tho he headed no Party In short Commines saith He is to be esteemed a good Prince whose Virtues are not over-ballanc'd by his Vices And the Persians never condemn'd any man tho convicted till his former life had been weigh'd by the same Ballance and found wanting To apply it I skill not to flatter even the dead and yet a moral justice is due to the living or our Saviour had never said The laborer is worthy of his hire and Solomon Withhold it not Is not his Royal Highness the Son
of Peace and War and this appears within the very letter of their demands viz. That he might judg them which is the power of Peace and go out before them and fight their Battels which is the power of War And what Authority he had in matters of the Church may be seen in this That Solomon of himself thrust out Abiathar the High-Priest and appointed Zadok in his room And that even the Horns of the Altar were no Sanctuary against him in case of Treason may be also seen in Adonijah and Joab and yet we cannot so much as gather that God was offended with him for his so doing or that his person was the less acceptable to him by reason of those matters To which if it be objected That God gave them a King in his anger I answer Moses having foretold the Israelites that when they came into the Land they would be asking a King charges them to set him over them whom God should choose which shews That a popular Election was utterly forbidden them yet they weary of such Judges as had succeeded Moses and whom God had raised to rule them as Kings demand a King like all the Nations i. e. of a more absolute power than those Judges had and therefore not staying Gods time but taking upon them to be their own Carvers he is said to have given them a King in his wrath in that they had not rejected Samuel but himself who had appointed Samuel In acknowledgment of which and as sensible of their error they ever after accepted their Kings by Succession unless only when their Prophets had anointed and ordained another by Gods special designation Nor do we find any one in Holy Writ chosen King by the Children of Israel but Abimelech the Bastard of Gideon and Creature of the People who also came in by Conspiracy and Murder And as it seems probable Jeroboam who made Israel to sin for they had sent to him at that time a discontented Fugitive in Egypt and he headed them in a complaint of Grievances to Rehoboam which occasion'd the revolt of the ten Tribes both which yet reigned as wickedly as they entred unjustly and perish'd miserably SECTION V. What is here intended by a Supreme Monarchy The marks of Sovereignty as the Power of making Laws and exemption from any coactive obedience to them The Power of Peace and War c. That the Kingdoms of England c. are Supreme Imperial Monarchies Those two marks of Sovereignty and seven others prov'd to be no other than what has ever been the undoubted Right of the Kings of England The Kings Sovereignty by the Common Law The like from the Statute Law Power in Ecclesiasticks And that they have justly used those Titles of King and Emperor and that from ancient times and before the Conquest I Have now brought my Discourse whither I first design'd it and therefore to avoid confusion which ever attends the being too general I shall first shew my Reader what I mean by a Supreme Imperial Monarch at this day and in the next place prove the Kings of England c. are such And lastly that however the Emperors of the West and East have so much striven about that great Title of Emperor or Basileus that yet the Kings of England as Supreme within their Dominions have also and justly from ancient Ages used it as no less proper to their own independent greatness As to the first The Regal Estate and Dignity of a King is of two sorts The one Imperial and Supreme as England France Spain c. who owing no service to the Majesty of another is his own Master and hath an absolute Power in himself no way subject to the controul of another and of such a one speaks Martial Qui Rex est Regem Maxime non habeat The other an Homager or Feudatary to another King as his Superior Lord such as that of Navar and Portugal of old to Castile Granada and Leon to Aragon Lombardy Sicily Naples and Bohemia to the Empire six parts of the Saxon Heptarchy who acknowledged the seventh Anglorum Rex primus and such was Aella King of Sussex the Kings of Man and others of whom I shall have occasion to speak hereafter hereafter The first of these is what I intend and will be the better made out if we cast our eyes a little on the marks of Sovereignty and then consider wherein they differ from our own Laws And amongst others we find these 1. The Power of making Laws and so what our English Translation calls Judah my Law-giver is in the vulgar Latin Juda Rex meus Judah my King This power being one of the principal ends of Regal Authority and was in Kings by the Law of Nature long before Municipal Laws had any Being the people at that time being govern'd by a natural equity which by the Law of Nature all were bound to observe And so the Poet Remo cum fratre Quirinus Jura dabat populo The like of King Priam Jura vocatis More dabat populis And of Augustus Legesque tulit justissimus Auctor So Cicero speaking of Julius Caesar as a Law-giver saith thus Caesar si ab eo quaereretur quid egisset in Toga Leges se respondisset multas praeclaras tulisse Though many yet received Laws at the will of their Prince and thus Barbaris pro legibus semper imperia fuerunt which word barbarous at that time carry'd no disgrace with it but was apply'd to them that spoke a strange Language And so the Hebrews called the Egyptians of all other Nations the most civiliz'd and learned for that they us'd the Egyptian Tongue and not the Hebrew as we have it in the Psalmist When Israel came out of Egypt and the house of Jacob de gente barbaro from a people of strange language And as they gave Laws to others so were they loosed from the force of them themselves i. e. from all coactive Obedience or Obligation to any written or positive Law Thus M. Antony when press'd by his Cleopatra to call Herod in question answer'd It was not fitting a King should give an account of what he did in his Government it being in effect to be no King at all And to the same purpose Pliny Ereptum principi illud in principatu beatissimum quod non cogitur Another mark of Sovereignty is the power of Peace and War and which as Bodin says was never doubted to be in a King In like manner to create and appoint Magistrates especially such as are not under the command of others The power of the last appeal To confer Honors To pardon Offenders To appoint the Value Weight and Stamp of his own Coin and make Forein Coin currant by Proclamation To receive Liege Homage of an inferior King And bear those Titles of Sacred and Majesty only proper to Sovereign Princes apart from all others of