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
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
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.
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
any of his Regal Ancestors that it should appear less on his Head than theirs especially considering he is so far from not getting up to 'em that his Royal Father only excepted he has out-gone them all in his own example albeit he wanted not the too many just occasions of having been otherwise To recapitulate some few of them nor is it less than fit to burn Incense where ill Odors have been cast or rais'd To have seen then three famous Kingdoms that had so often acknowledg'd his Princely Progenitors their undoubted Heirs like Aesop's Pots broken against one another To have examin'd the Quarrel of which whatever were the pretences nothing other was in the bottom than to kill the Heir and divide the Inheritance To have beheld his Glorious Father Disarm'd by one Party and in that condition left to the growing designs of another and the merciless Cruelty of both To have consider'd him not forsaken only but ingratefully edg'd forward to his Destruction by those Mushromes whom his Royal Influence had fermented into somewhat To have recollected his many Messages fruitless Treaties and that after all condescensions nothing would content them without the Kingdom also If there be yet room for a thought to have remember'd after the Faith of both Houses given him how he was brought to Jerusalem to be Crucifi'd by the Jews To have once more remembred Him The Fountain of all Law Justice and Honor publickly arraign'd by the Tail of the People and that too under the false detorted names of Law Justice and Honor of the Nation nor without the Fucus of their Religion also brought in to sanctifie the Ordinance To have remember'd him I say Traiterously Sentenc'd by his own Subjects and as ignominiously even while the Heads of the Faction as the Phrase of that time was Were seeking God Infesto Regibus exemplo Securi percussum and Murder'd before his own Palace Kingly Government abolish'd the Name Stile Title and Test of the King alter'd into The Keepers of the Liberty of England by Authority of Parliament That notion of a Parliament too which by the same fatal blow cut themselves off also Let me not seem tedious to have remembred himself Proscrib'd and thereby made High Treason to Proclaim him King The Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy damn'd The Royal Ensigns defac'd The Coin alter'd The Regal Statue thrown down and under that Vacancy Engraven Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus Anno Libertatis restitutae primo In short to have remembred his helpless Friends either starving at Home or by not complying necessitated into Forein Arms and not the least number of them so unfortunate as to have surviv'd the Ruines of their once Families and lastly the more unhappy himself that could only look on and pity them Quis talia fando Temperet What private Gentleman could have born it But perhaps you 'l say he wanted the opportunity I think not For if we consider him as he was at that time not only return'd from his Fathers Allies but the same Profest Son of the Church of England he first went out and in that the Darling of the People what particular person or number of men might he not have singled from the Herd as a just Sacrifice to his Fathers Ashes and his own Revenge had he design'd any He had an Army at his beck The Navy regenerated All Forts and Garrisons re-inforc'd with Royalists The Country return'd to its former Allegiance and the City crying out Yea let him take all since my Lord the King is return'd to his own House in peace What I say might he not have done especially considering that such as had been obnoxious could not but expect that the Cloud must break and be afraid where it might fall and consequently ready each man to have given up his nearest Relation to save himself Et quae sibi quisque timêre Unius in miseri exitium convertere Can a Mother forget her Son Or a Son such a Father And yet Quanquam animo redit usque Pater tamen excutit omnem Rex melior he so far forgot it as to avoid the occasions of remembring it Nay which of his Enemies lookt up to him and return'd empty Was not the Childrens Bread thrown among them while the helpless Orphans scarce lickt up the Crums And has not that fulness of Bread provok'd them into wantonness They have eat drunk and now rise up to play and 't is a shrewd sign they are idle when nothing will serve them but they must be Sacrificing in a Wilderness yet what greater Testimonies could there be of an entire Forgiveness And if so this methinks should at last mind us that as Vapors rising from the Earth stay not long in the Air but fall on the same Earth again That we also as truly sensible of the Mercy return him at least the grateful Acknowledgments of an humble Obedience SECTION 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 I Gave an account before of that hard Law of the Kingdom given to the Jews and yet we find not throughout the Story that they did in the least repine at it but rather the contrary for when upon the Constitution of Saul some Children of Belial for so the Text calls them had despis'd him saying How shall this man save us The People whose hearts God had toucht in the next Chapter ver 12. say unto Samuel Who is he that said Shall Saul reign over us Bring the men that we may put them to death And what value they put on their Kings Person may be seen in this that Saul's Armor-bearer chose rather to kill himself than perform that last if yet I may so call it charitable Office to his distressed Master then ready to fall into his Enemies hands and praying it neither would the People suffer David to go forth before them to Battel For if we flee say they they will not be much concerned at it neither if half of us die will they care for us but thou art worth ten thousand of us In short he that was King among them did whatever pleased him And whatever the King did pleased all the people And was not this a perfect love between a King and his People was there ever a more exact or entire Obedience An Obedience to be reckon'd for Righteousness And yet what new paths do we take to our selves when if we would but examin Holy Writ we might find that every
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
blanch the design and however the voice may be the voice of Jacob it seldom happens but that the hands are the hands of Esau. What mischiefs did the Army of God and the Church for so they stil'd themselves in King John's time The Holy League in the time of Henry 3. of France which albeit himself entred into for the Extirpation of the Hugonoâ—s yet it was not long ere it was turn'd upon him John of Leyden and Knipperdolin in Germany The Sword of the Lord and Gideon as it was then called under John Knox in Scotland And the Solemn League and Covenant in our own times the Brands of which are it seems not so altogether extinguish'd but that they more than once began to take fire again tho the flame were prevented And do we not find that in all these a demure down look and an uplifted eye went more than half way and a mistaken violence the undisputable Character of a zeal to the cause How much therefore have the people more need of a Pendulum than Fly somewhat to moderate not multiply the motion it being here as with Gossips Tongues much easier to raise the Devil than lay him Who ever put a Sword into a mad-mans hand to keep the Peace with or entrusted an Ape to range in a Glass-shop yet such or worse must it be where the People are the Reformer who never examin what they are doing but how to run farthest from what they were last And if so what mean these new Trains to the old Fuel Jealousies Murmurings Repinings Libels Licentious Discourses false News half Whispers Disputing Excusing or Cavilling upon Directions sometimes praising the Government yet but slightly at most and that too not without some pity of Defects and ill management Ay but and a shrug It were to be wish'd but who can help it we had and may have again however a good man 't is pity and what 's all this but the blowing one up to break him or lifting him from the ground to be the surer of throwing him or is it not what the Psalmist speaks of Sagitta volans in die c. The Arrow that flieth by day and the Pestilence that walketh in darkness for tho it be not level'd at any particular mark it cannot be but that it must hit some body as being shot among a crowd and so not improperly in S. Hieroms Translation further rendred by Daemonium meridianum And truly if the Conventicles at this day as the Preamble of the Act for the Preventing and Suppressing Seditious Conventicles and Sectaries says did not under pretence of Tender Conscience contrive Insurrections why might they not be contented with enjoying their private Opinions within their own Families and any other number of persons not exceeding four But alas alas Religion is not the matter but following and Parties Is it peace Jehu What hast thou to do with peace Get thee behind me They carry 't is true peace in their mouths but their hands are making ready to Battel I 'll close this point with the double advice of our Saviour to his Disciples Beware of the leven i. e. the Doctrin of the Pharisees for the better understanding of which it is requisite that we consider them as they were that is a sort of men of the strictest Sect of the Jewish Religion appearing outwardly more than ordinarily righteous unto men but within full of hypocrisie and iniquity for they did works but to be seen of men they shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against others but enter'd not themselves they made long Prayers but under that pretence devour'd Widows houses they tyth'd Mint Annise and Cummin but neglected the weightier matters of the Law c. and therefore our Saviour calls them eight times in the same Chapter Hypocrites and their Doctrin Hypocrisie Besides as Josephus says of them they were subtil proud scrupulous such as were able openly to practise against Kings and presumed to raise War against them and among them for whereas all the Jewish Nation had by Oaths oblig'd their fidelity to Augustus these men to the number of 6000. and upwards refus'd it And truly the very word Peruschim whence the name is derived speaks little less for it comes from the Hebrew Verb Parasch which in the Conjugation Piel signifies to divide or separate in which acceptation they are by the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Separatists And by the well observing this we shall be the better enabled to follow that other Take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my name and shall deceive many for there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets c. Behold I have foretold you wherefore if they shall say unto you behold he is in the Desert Go not forth Behold he is in the secret chambers believe it not What our Saviour here said to his Disciples he said to all men in them and therefore to make it applicable to our selves when any such Prophet or dreamer of Dreams shall offer us peace in the Wilderness of a Multitude and Religion in the lurking holes or covert of a Conventicle that voice had need continually sound in our ears Go not out and believe it not be as often redoubled for much better it is that we leave the Ark to shake as it shall please God than follow any unworthy hands that may pretend even a Call to support it SECTION X. A further enquiry Whether any Exclusision 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 be not 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 provided 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 I Am fal'n upon an Argument of which
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
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