two late Kings we had a mighty cry for the Church and Loyalty but were indeed only disguises for the bringing in of Popery and Slavery by reason that nothing can be more effectual for the bringing in of Popery than the dividing of Protestants and nothing can make us more arrantly Slaves than the subjugation of us to the Kings will For the rule then laid down was this that every man that did not come up to every Ceremony of the Church of England tho he professed the Doctrine of it was not to be deemed a good Protestant but to be persecuted and treated as an Enemy to the Publick And in the next place that he only was a Loyal man that did sincerely believe that we must in all cases submit to the King's will and was not in any case to be opposed or resisted and tho he never so openly violated the known Laws yet we were only to defend our selves with Prayers and Tears This notion prevailed with a great many for some time yet it was not the force of reason that gave it so much reputation but Rewards and Preferments on the one hand and Frowns and Displeasure of those in power on the other together with all the other incouragements and advantages that the Government could give it and so might any thing tho never so nonsensical obtain for a while when so supported But let it be fairly reasoned and it will appear that nothing is more distructive to the end of Government than such an unlimited power Considering with all due respect to Kings that they have their frailties and passions as well as other men I cannot believe that he who is the most indulgent of Arbitrary Power can be of opinion that God Almighty made mankind to be miserable and if so how can that and the absolute power of Kings be reconciled for what can render this life more miserable than to be subject to the passions of a man who is restrained by no rules but that of his Will nor does it seem to be consistent with the goodness and justice of God to subject a people to such a condition it 's most plain that he has not left Kings so at large in the exercise of their power and that what power he has given them was to protect and not to oppress his Subjects for otherwise wherefore do we find such repeated examples of God's displeasure against those Kings that have tyrannized it over their Subjects God is a God of Order and has ordained that Order and Peace shall be the end of every Government but is the way to obtain this by giving scope to the unruly passions of a man It 's the King's protection that gives him a right to our subjection for when he denys his protection we may withdraw our obedience and when the King's protection or the Subjects obedience ceases nothing but confusion can ensue If God had ordained that every people should be subject to the will of their Kings he would either have expresly revealed his pleasure therein or discovered it to us by the light of Nature But no such revealed Will is to be found and the light of nature tells us that nothing is more unreasonable than such a power But put the case that King 's are made by Gods immediate direction yet it is scarcely less than blasphemy to conceive that where he does so delegate his power that their actions shall not have such a temperament of Wisdom Mercy and Justice as in some measure to resemble him whom they represent for otherwise it would make him the Author of Confusion yet in our late times all the infringements of the Laws that were made by those two Kings was called a divine right And in the next place he would have provided some means by which the people should have known what would be the Kings Will for where there is no Law there can be no Transgression for otherwise the people would have been in a sad case For they could not in such a case be allowed the use of their reason neither could they know when they were in the right for whilst they do a thing with never so much Reason and Justice the King's fancy may make it Criminal and indeed to govern a people any other way than by known and certain Laws is to suppose mankind to be a compamy of Brutes and not reasonable Creatures It 's blasphemy to suppose that any of God's commands are unjust and yet has he given us express rules to be the measure of our obedience to him and can it then be supposed that he has subjected us to the will of our fellow Creature when he would not require from us such a blind obedience to be paid to himself unless we can believe that the ways and commands of a King are more equal and just than God's If there was a People before there was a King as no doubt there was then will it be a difficult undertaking to prove that Kings have a just right to Arbitrary Power and I know of nothing that savours more of nonsence than to suppose a King without a people If the power of Kings is so unlimited wherefore did Solomon say that oppression would make a wise man made For where I have a right it 's lawful for me to make use of it and therefore oppression does imply that what is done is against right The standing body of our Laws is a clear proof that the power of our Kings is limited How come we by Municipal Laws if we must submit to their will for who ever looks into our Constitution will find that it is not built upon an Arbitrary Foundation but directly calculated to make us a free people But if it shall be answer'd me that this Government was the work of some King and that he directed the form of our Constitution I do in the first place desire to know who that King was and in what Age he lived and in the next place I say that he was extremely Wise and Just and these two other consequences will follow from thence First That that King did believe that it was not so just and reasonable to govern by his Will as by those rules which the Law has prescribed that is that it was more reasonable that the Law should controul his Will rather than that his Will should over-rule the Law Secondly That every King that governs more by his Will he is so much less Wise and Just than that King who was the moulder of our Constitution The more effectual preservation of the publick Peace is the only pretence that a King of England can have for Governing by his Will but if it be out of that regard he will find that the Law has provided safer and juster in that case than his Wit can invent for it 's a rule in our Law that no body is wiser than the Laws But too many instances have made it plain that no King ever desired to rule
Earth and not for his own Glory whereby he would become the Author of all the Oppression and Violence that they shall commit Secondly If these Texts are not taken in a limited Sence they cannot be reconciled with other Places in Scripture and thereby God Almighty would contradict himself both of which are no less than Blasphemy to conceive of him And when these are compared with other Texts that do explain them they will be found to be Arguments to prove that the Power of Kings is limited by Law and the Right which they claim in the Crown is from the Constitution of the Government and not by Gods immediate appointment For as to that Expression By me Kings Reign he that looks into the Story will find that these Words are not a Declaration of the Right or Power of Kings but are enumerated amongst the many and great things that are done by Wisdom all which would be too tedious to mention at this time or if they were declaratory of the Kingly Power yet they are far from leaving Kings at large in the exercise of that Power for the Words that follow in the some Verse and Princes decree Justice do plainly Argue That Kings Reign no longer by God than they decree Justice not when they Govern by their Will without the Guidance of the Law So that by this it is clear that Kings and Gouernours are restrained within certain bounds and limits of Justice and Right according to the establisht Government The next thing to which I will give an answer is these Words Where the word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him what doest thou Every Command of the King so far as it is warranted by the Law is not to be disputed but to be obeyed for Conscience sake And it is the Interest of every man to enforce an obedience to it because it is for the Common Good But that a Man must be bound to obey any Commands whereby no advantage accrues to him or the Publick and is really to the detriment of both I no more understand than that a man ought to be his own Executioner in any Case And if the Commands of the King are to be obeyed without disputing the Legality of them then it will follow That all his Commands are equally Just or else that his Fiat makes that â—ust and lawful which was not so in it self and then by parity of reason his Command shall make that unlawful which was just and reasonable in it self and at this rate no man can tell whether he act with or against the Law till the King has declared his pleasure Now whether this does not rather confound and destroy the very End of Government than support it I leave to every man of common Sence to Judge and I think tho more might yet it need not be said to make it clear that this Text of Scripture is far from proving That Kings of Right have an unlimited and absolute power Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers c. I take the meaning of these Words to be this That Government in general is of Divine Institution and that when any People and those that they set over them have entred into a mutual Stipulation of Protection and Obedience under such Rules of Policy and Justice as are not inconsistent with the Word of God this constitution is hereby so far ordained by God that it must be submitted to not only for Worth but also for Conscience sake so long as those in Authority do Govern according to the Prescripts of the Constitution And those words must be understood in this or some such like Sence for if they are taken Literally then it will follow That God prescribed the Model of every Government but no such Direction is to be found in Holy VVrit concerning any Government except that of his peculiar People the Israelites and besides every Government under the Sun would have been of the same shape if God had directed the Model of them but they cannot be taken literally because 1 Pet. 2.13 says Submit your self to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governors ' as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of Evil doers and for the praise of them that do well And from these Words I take it to be clear that it was left to every People to form such a Constitution of Government as best suited their own Inclinations But if God had more expresly delivered him as to the form of Government yet that of Romans 13. Let every Soul is no warrant for the absolute Power of Kings for the 3d. and 4th Verses in that Chapter restrains it within bounds where it says For Rulers are not a Terrour to good works but to the evil Wilt thou then not be afraid of the Power do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same for he is the Minister of God to thee for good but if thou do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the Sword in vain for he is the Minister of God a Revenger to execute Wrath upon him that doeth evil These Words are as expresly restrictive of the Kingly power as Words can be in any case where he is to Protect or Punish is positively directed and not left to his discretion to call it Good or Evil according to his power or fancy but the Execution of his Power is to be guided by the Rules of Gods word and of the Government If God had prescribed one or more Models of Government for the World yet he would not have allowed that to be lawful in Kings which he has so often and severely reproved and punisht and under great Penalties he has restrained their Administration within the bounds of Justice and Judgment and because therein he has only delivered his pleasure in general therefore Kings are to submit to such Explanation of what is Just and right as the Constitution of the Government has declared For if this Explanation rested in the Breast of Kings the Condition of Subjects would be worse than that of Brutes unless Kings were endued with the Wisdom and Purity of an Angel of Light If Brutes be so chased and hunted that they are forced to leave their Native Soil yet wherever they can find rest for the Soal of their Foot they will meet with Food and Lodging and all other Necessaries But when by reason of Oppression and Bondage men are necessitated to quit their Habitations and Country must inevitably perish unless relieved by the Charity of others It is therefore plain that an absolute Power in any King must be gained either by force or fraud because God has not conferred any such Authority and it cannot be supposed that men in their Wits and without constraint would put into anothers hand a power that may hurt them when it depended upon their pleasure whether he should
cum grano salis for if the Fine be immoderate or else he has not the Money then ready but either offers Security to pay it or else prays for some time and in the interim to stand upon his Recognizance in either of these Cases to commit for not paying the Fine into Court is not justifiable because it is to punish for not doing an Impossibility for Lex non legit ad impossibilia Secondly It is not justifiable because if the Fine be paid the Law is as much satisfied if it be paid five years hence as if it be paid then immediately into Court for the Law does not suppose that the most wealthy man does carry so much Money about him Thirdly It is very unreasonable because it does in a great part disable the person to pay the Fine for if he be a man that manages his own Affairs his Writings that are necessary to make the Security may be so dispos'd of that it will be difficult to come at them besides there being a necessity upon him to have the Money those of whom he is to have it will be very apt to hold him to harder terms for the World is so unnatural and brutish that one man is but too prone to make his Advantages upon the Misfortunes and Necessities of another and that Proverb Homo homini lupus is in no Case more true than in the business of Money ARGUMENTS AGAINST The Dispensing Power THAT which Sir M.H. Resolved by Lord Chancellor Egerton no Non obstante could dispense with the Law about Sale of Offices Coke 234. foresaw and prophecied is now fulfilled viz. That our Slavery whenever it happen'd was rather to be feared from the Twelve Redcoats in Westminster-ball than from 12000 standing Forces for this Opinion if from henceforward it shall be Law then has our Freedom received a dreadful Wound in the Head for we shall hold all our Rights and Properties but precariously even no longer than it is the King's pleasure to have it so But be it as it will and how clear soever it may appear to the Judges yet at present it does confound the Vnderstandings of all People besides because till now it has been hidden from the Eyes of our ablest Sages of the Law wrapt up in such Clouds and thick Darkness that the most discerning of them have not been able to pry into it and therefore it passes all our Understandings that this Sett of Judges who had not Law enough to employ them at the Bar before they were raised to the Bench should find out the Secret and give an Absolute Opinion for which there is not any president to be produced and therefore shrewdly to be suspected that it is not grounded upon Law no more than those Opinions were for which several Judges have been hanged The Law of England has ever been reputed to be as plain and intelligible as that of the Jews which was written on the Palms of their Hands save only when Judges are ignorant and needy and are assured that Parliaments are at a great distance and then only are such Opinions as those given for their Ignorance makes them assured their Poverty makes them leap before they look and when Parliaments seem very remote under that shelter they grow bold But it is to be hoped that such Opinions as these will pass for Law no longer than the Nation is govern'd without a Parliament which sooner or later will come as certain as that there will be a Day of Judgment It is strange that these Judges should understand so great a Mystery as this unless there be as great Vertue in a Judge's Gown as was in the Mantle of Elijah and if so how happens it that the same Spirit has not rested on those who have sate before them on the Bench but if a double Portion of that Excellent Spirit is rested upon our present Judges that they are able to dive into so great a Mystery as this and see so much further than any who have been before them surely they are also endowed with the Tongue of Angles and so can explain this matter to the Understandings of the People which in Duty they are bound to do or else in time with the price of their Heads they may come to give the true Reasons of this their Opinion 1. That the Kings of England are Soveraign Princes 2. That the Laws of England are the King's Laws 3. That therefore it is an incident inseparable Prerogative in the Kings of England as in all other Soveraign Princes to dispense with all Penal Laws in particular Cases and upon particular necessary Reasons 4. That of these Reasons and Necessities the King himself is the sole Judge and which is consequent thereupon 5. That this is not a Trust invested in or granted to the King but the ancient Remains of the Soveraign Power and Prerogative of the Kings of England which never was yet taken from them nor can be Therefore in this Case such Dispensation being pleaded by the Defendant and such Dispensation being allow'd by the Demurrer of the Plaintiff and this Dispensation appearing upon Record to come time enough to save the Defendant from the forfeiture Judgment ought to be given for the Defendant quod querens nil capiat per billam Soveraign Power is of a vast extent that is as much as unlimited and to which no Bounds is or can be set That the Kings of England in Parliament have a Soveraign Power is true that with the Consent and Concurrence of the Lords and Commons he may do what he will is without question and it is as certain that out of Parliament his Power is limited and confined within certain Bounds and Limits which he cannot pass without doing violence to Justice and the Laws for there are two Powers in the King the one in Parliament and that is Soveraign the other out of Parliament which may be directed and controuled by the former and therefore called Potestas subordinata pag. 10. Rights of the People p. 9. Argument of Property therefore his Power is Soveraign only sub modo for out of Parliament many of his Acts are not only questionable but void in themselves Rights of the Kingdom 83. for what he shall do against Law those Acts bind no more than if they were a Child's he cannot command one man to kill another he cannot pardon a common Nusance nor an Appeal at the suit of the Party And multitudes of the like Instances might be given for if the King's power out of Parliament was as great as in Parliament then there 's an end of the Policy of this Government and the Barons Wars was only to beat the Air. It is most certain that till these late days during which we have been so very much Frenchified Roads are called the King's Highway but the Freehold is in the Lord of the Soil and of the Profits growing there as Trees c. Terms of the Law 56. that
the Laws have been more frequently stiled or called the Laws of the Land than the King's Laws and therefore if the Denomination of them declares the right the King will be found to have no very strong Title But if they had constantly been called the King's Laws yet that is a very Sandy Foundation to build a power upon of suspending and dispensing with them at his pleasure Now if they are the King's Laws then he only made them but if the Lords and Commons also had their share in the contriving and making of them then that Advice and Consent of theirs gives them such a Title to an Interest in them that they cannot be changed or altered no more than they could be enacted without their Consent for nothing can destroy a thing but the same Power that made it and therefore unless the King alone be the same power that enacted the Laws they cannot be properly called his Laws so as that at his will and pleasure he may dispense with them But if the Laws were made and enacted by him only yet it does not follow that the King may dispense with the Laws when to him it shall seem meet for there is no King so absolute but may be limited Thus we see the Eastern Kings who were as absolute as any Princes upon Earth yet were limited and restrained by their own Promises and Acts. Even that great King Abasuerus who had Ruled over 127 Provinces when he had made a Decree he could not revoke change or dispense with it for the Writing which is written in the King's Name and sealed with the King's Ring may no man reverse Esth 8.8 no nor the King himself which is clear from that famous case of the Decree to destroy the Jews to reverse or suspend which it 's plain he wanted not Inclination and if ever would then have exerted his full power for he was prick'd on by all the Spurs and Inducements that could be in any case yet all he could do was to give the Jews leave to defend themselves therefore if those Heathen Kings were so bound by their Word and Laws of the Country it 's reasonable to suppose that Christian Princes should be as much tyed up by their Words and the Laws and if the King be bound by his Word and the Laws which he shall not pass then is he under the same obligation as if he had actually given his assent to every Law that is now in force because he has given his Word and taken an Oath to preserve and maintain all the Laws And it seems something strange to hear of a power to dispense with Penal Laws there being so late a Judgment against it the late King in Parliament disclaiming it and the whole Case is very remarkable for during the interval of a Parliament he grants a Declaration of Indulgence and at the meeting of the Parliament tells them Nothing of force or constraint brought him to make that Confession but the Truth was too evident to be denied he had done it and would stand by it and should be very angry with any man that should offer to disswade him against it Yet though he had thus braved the Parliament within ten days openly in Parliament he disclaimed it and confessed that he could not dispense with a General Law and had ordered the Seal to be pulled from the Declaration Surely the Case must be very plain that the King after he had justified the thing so solemnly yet should so suddenly eat his words and confess himself in the wrong and to that Parliament too which had almost unhinged the Government to please him which no doubt would have complied with him in it had it been less than to lift the Government quite off of the Hooks And indeed to say that the King can dispense with Penal Laws is nothing less than to dissolve the Government and resolve all into the King's Will and Pleasure for our Parliaments are then but a piece of Pageantry or Puppet-show because in a word the King can annihilate all that they shall do in many Ages all the Provisions that they shall make for the Good of the Nation are but airy notions and painted shews they are and they are not just as the King pleases Now if the King can do this to what purpose have several things been done what means the Statute de Prerog Regis 17 Ed. II for certainly it 's a thing of a much higher and transcendent nature to have power to dispense with all Penal Laws than to have the Preheminence of the Subjects in some particular cases only That he has it not in all originally is plain from that of Appeals for in case of Murder the Appeal at the suit of the Party was to be tryed before the Indictment which was the King's Suit and this was so till Henry VII's time when it was alter'd by Act of Parliament and this carries in it a great probability that there is something in England that is his Superiour but Bracton and Fleta say That Rex habet superieres in regno nempe Deum Legem Parliamentum Nay the Custom of the Mannor shall bind the King Statutes to prevent Fraud shall bind the King The King cannot give the Penalty of any Statute to any Subject he cannot pardon a common Nusance how manifestly preposterous is it then to suppose that the King can dispense with Penal Laws and is restrain'd in these and multitudes of other things of the like nature It has always been taken for Law that where the Subject has an Interest the King cannot pardon and therefore he cannot pardon one found guilty upon an Appeal at the Suit of the Party But if he can dispense with all Penal Laws he may also pardon where the Subject has an Interest and so consequently dispense with all Laws whatever and then no man's Title to his Estate is good nor can any man settle his Estate securely for Fines and Recoveries being now the means used in Settlements and those being directed by particular Acts of Parliament if therefore the King for some particular necessary Reasons shall think fit to suspend those Laws all the Settlements in England will be strangely confused and of how excellent a use upon occasion it may be to dispense with those Statutes which direct Fines and Recoveries is very easie to comprehend Now this power of dispensing seems to be of a very late date for Fortescue who wrote in Henry VI's time tells us That the Kings of England cannot alter nor change the Laws of his Realm at his pleasure and the reason he gives of it is because he governs his People by Power not only royal but also politick which is by such Laws as they themselves desire and gives a very pregnant Reason why the King cannot alter nor change the Laws because the Laws of Men are holy And he shews likewise That this Restraint is no diminution to his Power but does rather aggrandize him it
being a greater power in a Prince to be restrained by Law from oppressing than to have an absolute regal power Necessity is a very extensive thing unless it be limited to the Common Good and to be also such that it is observable by the People for otherwise ill Pretences will never want a Necessity for any Irregularity that they have an inclination to commit it and so it will prove the Handle for all the Evil that the Wit and Malice of Devils and Wicked Men can invent or which shall be committed under the Sun And this alone will serve to make the Power of Princes nearer to that of God than any other thing whatever The dispensing with the Laws on pretence of necessary Reasons was sufficiently laughed out of countenance in the case of Ship money which carried a more probable shew with it than the necessity of dispensing with the Laws to let Papists into Office for in that of Ship-money the Mâ—stery of Necessity was so palpably unfolded and discovered that it 's strange the same Trick should be played again so soon whilst the Memory of it is yet fresh It may as well be pretended that what is done for the sake of some few particular persons is for the Common Good and to pretend it's necessary to dispense with the Penal Laws to let Papists into Office for the Laws to keep Papists out of Office were made upon the greatest Reason that could be for by refusing to take the Oaths which are but a reasonable Security to the Government they do render themselves more than suspicious that they look upon themselves to be under another Jurisdiction but by their frequent Plots and Conspiracies they have made themselves the declared Enemies of the Government for they have been the Authors of all our Disturbances and the Fire that has lighted every Flame that has broke out in this Nation And therefore it 's highly reasonable that they should have no place in the Magistracy and the Government is very tender towards them that it suffers its professed Enemies to have any Benefit under it And therefore to dispense with the Laws that Papists may be let into Office if this Necessity is justifiable then may also any other that can be thought on to serve a present turn or occasion Government and Law says Plato is to preserve the buge and undigested lump of a Multitude and to bring all Disorder into proportion so as to become an Harmony And Aquinas says It is a rational Ordinance for the advancing of the Publick Good Government says another the end of it is to protect both King and People from Wrong and Violence Justitiae fruendae causa reges esse creatore says Bodin All others who have written of Government or given a definition of it do concurr with the sence of these that are quoted the sum of all which is this That the end of Government is for the Common Good of the several Societies of Men and therefore what is not for the Common Good is repugnant to the Government so that if a power to dispense with Penal Laws be not for the Common Good then cannot the King of right pretend to it which it cannot be because it manifestly tends to alter the Government and to give up all to the will and pleasure of the King Obj. But say some the Power of dispensing with the Penal Laws is not a Trust But that will be denied till one of these three things can be proved First That the King of England has begotten all his Subjects and so they are all Princes of the Blood Secondly That God Almighty in Holy Writ has set down what form of Government every People in the World shall live under Thirdly That this Government is exactly according to that Model in Holy Writ That a King begot all his Subjects is a thing never yet heard of no not so much as in a Romance The greatest Divines that have been could never yet find that any sort of Government was set down in Holy Writ as a Model to the several People that are under the Sun and the several forms of Government that there are in the World is an undeniable proof that God left every People the Jews excepted to model and frame their Government as it suited and agreed best with the Humor and Disposition of the People who were to live under it and therefore it will follow that the People of England did frame and chuse the Laws and Constitutions under which they were to live and be governed by and therefore it is undeniable that what Power soever the King can claim by Law is a Trust invested in and granted to him by the People and if so it cannot be supposed that they would give him such a power as to leave it to his discretion to dispose of all they had as to him should seem meet for thereby they would render themselves as ridiculous as Solomon's foolish Woman who pulls down her House with her Hands for Fortescue says That no Nation did ever of their own voluntary mind incorporate themselves into a Kingdom for any other intent but only to the end that they might with more safety than before maintain themselves and enjoy their Goods from such Misfortunes and Losses as they stood in fear of for no such power surely could have proceeded from them Fortesc 34. But suppose that the People had given the King such a power yet it being repugnant to the Common Good it seems to be void of it self for our Lawyers says If the King be deceived in his Grant he may revoke it If then the King may do it when it concerns some trivial thing à fortiori may the People revoke their Grant if deceived in so high a point as their All But further in this Case of dispensing with Penal Laws as it violently tends to give up all to the King's will and pleasure so if all were at his dispose â—et in regard that it does not answer to the end of Government he cannot pretend to it for the way of governing must be both right and clear as well as is the end but how that will appear in dispensing with the Laws is as dark as a Beggar 's Pedigree For Lex fecit regem A King is given for the Kingdom and not the Kingdom for the King says St. Thomas And Fortesoue says In a Body-politick the intent of the People is the first living thing having within it Blood That is to say politick Provision for the Utility and Wealth of the same People which it dealeth forth and imparteth as well to the Head as to all the Members of the same Body whereby the Body is nourished and maintained And he says further That a King who rules by Power politick receives his Power from the People If it be objected That many things are left to his Discretion tho' it be great yet that Discretion must be guided by Law for Discretion and Law should be concomitant
Edgar Ethling who had a clearer Title by descent swore Allegiance to him As to the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-resistance there is nothing is so neat an Emblem of it as an Ass and nothing sounds nearer to Nonsence for if in any thing I have a Right to deprive me of it either by Force or Fraud must be confess'd to be a Wrong and Wrong implies a Right to defend and therefore the Law calls every man's House his Castle and his Goods his own Nay even bare Possession is a good Title but if I may not defend these I have no Right to them and if not in them I have as little in my Person or Life But I am perswaded that they who set this Doctrine on foot at least the greater number of them who have been instrumental in propagating of it either did not understand it or else helped it forward in hopes of being well rewarded for their Pains for it is found by Experience that they understood the Practice of it very ill for when the Bishops were clapp'd up in the Tower none cried out so much against King James and arraign'd his Proceedings so much as they that had been the greatest Asserters of this Doctrine But to make this a little plainer I would only ask them this Question that is What is the measure of our Allegiance or Obedience for it is either the King's Will or the Law and the first point of Obedience is to know the Will of the Law-giver and therefore if they say it is the King's Will I do presume to answer That cannot be the Measure of our Obedience because of the uncertainty of it and 2ly Because he may command contrary things which Rational Creatures cannot be bound to in point of their Obedience If then they say it is the Law then it will follow that the Power of the King is limited and when he exceeds the Limits he assumes a Power which neither God Nature nor the Government invested him with and therefore of right he may in such Cases be resisted The Point is very short either the King is limited in his Power or he is not for there is no middle state betwixt Slavery and Freedom If the King is not limited then are we as much under the Subjection of his Passions as his Reason but if he is limited then it is the Law that sets him his Bounds and the exercise of any Power beyond what it allows him is unlawful Neither can it be suppos'd that God would subject the World to the Will and Passions of particular Men because it is inconsistent with his Mercy and Justice The Will of a King is a wild uncertain thing and a very false Guide to follow in governing his People but to make the Law the Measure of all his Actions and the Welfare of his People the end of all his Publick Designs is that alone which will make a King of England safe easie and powerful There is one thing more that I would explain to you and that is the difference betwixt the Government and the Administration of the Government for I am perswaded that several People have been insnared with the notion that they were one and the same thing I believe I need not tell you that a Trust and the execution of it are distinct things and I may tell you that the difference is no less betwixt the Government and the Administration of it for if any thing be done that is not directed by that Trust it is the Act of those that did it and not of the Trust In like manner whatever is done that is not directed by the Law it cannot be charged as a Fault upon the Government But in the two late Reigns every thing that was done though never so unjust unreasonable or without President was called the Government Whereas the Government or Law they are the same is a known certain thing not commanding one thing to day and the contrary to morrow it requires that equal right be done without respect to Persons and regards the Publick Good above any thing and has so attemper'd Mercy and Justice as to protect the Innocent and punish the Guilty But I need not tell you how contrary to this was the Methods and Practice of the two late Reigns to convince you that all was Force and Violence and not the Government Being thus encourag'd by the Addresses of the Tories and the Doctrine of the Clergy King Charles went on at a good rate especially in the latter part of his Reign and the Irregularities of those times may well in a great measure be charg'd upon them for it 's possible that it had never come into King Charles's Thoughts But very probable he had not adventur'd to carry matters so far if he had not been so invited to it by them And his Brother the Duke of York could not but smile in his Sleeve to see him so industrious in preparing his way to the Throne for when King Charles died he had carried the matter so far that he could go no farther unless he did downright declare himself a Papist but whether he died a natural death or had foul play I will leave that to be determin'd by every man in his own Thoughts only thus much I must observe that manifest Symptomes of Poyson appeared on his Body and matters were then so laid that it was necessary to have a Popish Prince on the Throne His Eyes being clos'd the Duke presently shew'd how great an Affection he had for his Brother not only in the great haste he made to interr him but also by the rest of the Treatment he gave his Body for if you had the History of it you would say they gave him the Burial of an Ass And now his Brother being got into his place he quickly pulled off the Vizard for he had not the discretion to dissemble the matter for a short time but out of the depth of his Politicks in a few days went publickly to Mass Fools being always more positive than men of better sence and Cowards most insolent when they have the upper hand for he thought he had the Nation in a String But though this was very plain above board yet the Clergy and Tories so little regarded it that with great Zeal they address'd to congratulate his accession to the Throne as if God in mercy had taken away his Brother to make room for him He had no sooner thus publickly made profession of the Romish Faith but Mass was said openly in other places and in a short time Popish Chappels were erected in several parts of the Kingdom To this he added a great Army who lived in a manner upon Free Quarter committing all manner of other Insolencies and no Redress could be had upon any Complaint But all this did not abate the Loyalty of the Tories and Clergy till after the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth in the West upon which he not only put in Popish Officers
Francis Hargrave THE WORKS OF THE Right Honourable Henry late L. Delamer AND Earl of Warrington CONTAINING His Lordships Advice to His Children Several Speeches in Parliament c. WITH MANY OTHER Occasional Discourses On the AFFAIRS of the Two Last Reigns BEING Original Manuscripts Written with His Lordships own Hand Never before Printed LONDON Printed for John Lawrence at the Angel and John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey 1694. TO The Right Honourable THE EARL OF WARRINGTON My Lord SInce my late Lord Warrington your Father trusted me with the care of your Education your Lordship has made so great a Progress in all things which I Taught you that I am now forced to procure you another Tutor You are become in a little time a great Master of several Languages and most parts of Philosophy and I may say without flattery that your Lordship hath Genius Learning and Piety enough to make one of the Best and the most Accomplish't Gentleman in England But yet your Quality requires something more for it is not enough for one in your Lordships High Station to be Humanist Geographer Historian and I may add a good Man too he must be also a States-man and a Politician but being neither my self I must repeat the same thing over again to my Shame and to your Credit that your Lordship wants a better Master Amongst several of the most Eminent Men which I could recommend to your Lordship I found none so Learned nor indeed so fit to make deep Impressions upon your Mind as your Lordships Noble Father whose Writings belongs to you as well as his Estate I don't doubt but you will strive to get the best share of his Learning nor can you fail of an Extream Delight by drawing Sciences but of the same Spring from whence your Noble Blood did flow His Book then being yours both by Inheritance and by the particular gift of its Authour it would be unjust to present it to any other but your Lordship and needless to recommend it or beg your acceptance for 't Therefore omitting any longer Preface in Recommendation of these Golden Remains I 'll only take leave to make this Observation upon them That as there is nothing wanting in them for your Lordship's Instruction both by Humane Learning and Solid Devotion I have fitted you with the Master that I look't for and whom you wanted From whom having obtained all the Qualifications which your Noble Soul is capable of you have no more to wish for but that you may live and practice 'em and it will be to me both a great Satisfaction and Honour to see my Work finisht by the same Artist who put it first into my hands and trusted me with the beginning of it It will be enough for me that I have put my hands to such a Master-piece and shall be highly honoured if your Lordship take notice of my Endeavours and sufficiently Rewarded if you grant your Protection to him who has no other Ambition than to be Your Lordships Most Humble most Obedient and most Devoted Servant J. Dela Heuze THE CONTENTS I. HIS Lordships Advice to his Children page 1 II. An Essay upon Government p. 36 III. Reasons why King James Ran away from Salisbury p. 56 IV. Observations upon the Attainder of the late Duke of Monmouth with some Arguments for the Reversing thereof p. 70 V. Of the Interest of Whig and Tory which may with most safety be depended on by the Government on the account either of Fidelity or Numbers In a Letter to a Friend p. 82 VI. A Discourse shewing who were the true Incouragers of Popery Written on the occasion of King James 's Declaration of Indulgence p. 88 VII A Speech in Parliament for the Bill of Exclusion That the next of Blood have no Absolute Right to the Crown p. 94 VIII A Speech against Arbitrary and Illegal Imprisonments by the Privy Council Several Laws for the Restraint of this Power Instance of the Exercise of this Power on Sir Gilbert Gerrard about a Black-Box An Objection answered p. 100 IX A Speech against the Bishops Voting in case of Blood Lord Coke 's Opinion against it An Act of Parliament Good to which their Consent is not had Bishops no Peers though Lords of Parliament p. 107 X. A Speech against the Pensioners in the Reign of King Charles II. p. 115 XI A Speech for the sitting of Parliaments and against King Charles the seconds Favourites p. 121 XII A Speech in Parliament on the occasion of some Justices being put out of Commission in the said Reign p. 129. XIII A Speech for the Banishing the Papists p. 133 XIV A Speech on the Corruption of the Judges Laws to prevent it Some Instances thereof particularly Sir George Jeffreys when Judge of Chester p. 138 XV. Some Observations on the Prince of Orange's Declaration On the Exit of King Charles II. and Entrance of the late King whose Administration becoming Exorbitant brought on the Present Revolution The Arbitrary Proceeding of K. James excellently set forth by the Declaration c. In a Charge to the Grand Jury p. 353 XVI A Speech against the Asserters of Arbitrary Power and the Non-Swearers p. 385 XVII A Perswasive to Union upon King James his design to Invade England in the Year 1692. p. 401 XVIII Some Reasons against Prosecuting the Dissenters upon the Poenal Laws p. 412 XIX A Discourse proving the reasonableness of the present Revolution from the Nature of Government p. 421 XX. Whether a Conspiracy to Levy War is an Overt Act of Conspiring or Imagining the Death of the King p. 437 XXI Reasons for an Union between the Church and the Dissenters p. 457 XXII Of the Absolute Power Exercised in the late Reigns and a Defence of King Williams Accession to the Throne Election the Original of Succession Succession not very Ancient Division among Protestants a step to Arbitrary Power Enemies to the Act of Indulgence Disaffected to the Government p. 467 XXIII A Speech concerning Tyranny Liberty Religion Religious Contentions Laws of Advantage to the State cannot hurt the Church Of Conquest Of God's ways of Disposing Kingdoms and against Vice p. 483 XXIV The Legality of the Convention-Parliament though not called by Writ p. 509 XXV A Resolution of Two Important Questions 1. Whether the Crown of England be Hereditary 2. Whether the Duke of York ought to be Excluded p. 541 XXVI The Case of William Earl of Devonshire for striking Collonel Culpepper p. 563 XXVII Arguments against the Dispensing Power p. 583 XXVIII Prayers which his Lordship used in his Family p. 597 XXIX Some Memoirs of the Methods used in the Two last Reigns The Amazing Stupidity of those that would reduce us again into the same Condition p. 613 XXX Some Arguments to prove that there is no Presbyterian but a Popish Plot and against the Villany of Informing in 1681. p. 627 XXXI Monarchy the best Government and the English beyond all other With some Rules for the Choice
of Gods express Command as also that no Society of men can subsist without it And that particular form of Government is necessary which best suits the temper and inclination of the People and thereby becomes to be Gods Ordinance But no particular model of Government is such in it self save so far as it effects the true end of Government For nothing can be God's Ordinance but what he has expresly declared to be such And if he had thought any sort of Government to have been better or more necessary than another he would not have left the World so much in the dark in a matter of so high importance but he would either have expresly declared it in his Written Word or discovered it to us by the instinct of Nature But we cannot find any such thing in Holy Writ neither does Nature prompt it because there are so many several sorts of Government in the World no two of them agreeing in every point but differing in something that is very material And even the Jews Gods peculiar People who received their Statutes and Judgments immediately from him yet therein he did not prescribe or limit them to any particular form but what he did command were only rules in general for the executing of Judgment and Justice amongst themselves for we find that the form of their Government was changed no less than five times If not more often 1. Under Patriarchs 2 Under Moses 3. Under Judges 4. Under the High Priest 5. Under Kings So that nothing can be more clear than that God has not appointed the World any form of Government but left every Nation and People to chuse such a Model as best liked them And I have often thought that God Almighty did on purpose permit the Jewish constitution to be changed so often to let the World understand that every form of Government was alike indifferent to him and that if any People found theirs to be out of order the blame rested at their doors if it was not reformed The true original of Government being thus discovered it gives us plainly to understand whence Kings receive their Power and what is the natural and lawful measure of their power For if God Almighty did permit every people to model their own Government from whence can the Kings Prerogative flow save out of that constitution Unless it be supposed which is ridiculous to imagine that Kings are sent down immediately from Heaven with their Commission in their hands or else that they begat all their Subjects If then their power does flow from the Constitution the natural extent of it does seem to be limited within the rules of doing equal right to rich and poor to relieve the oppressed and to punish the guilty unless it can be supposed that cruelty and oppression is more eligible than Justice and Peace And therefore it is more than to be supposed that when any People conferred so great a trust upon their King it was with this condition either expressed or implied that as much as in him lay he should lay out that power to the good and advantage of the People For though several Kings have taken upon them to govern by their Will and this practice has prevailed for many Successions and Ages yet this cannot give them a good title to their arbitrary Rule because the body of the People have an earlier claim and a younger title must give place to the elder and a title or power gained either by force or fraud can never be good and by one of these two arbitrary Power can only be gained For the measure of Power which by the institution of the Government was assigned to the King cannot in reason be supposed to be any other than such as men of sound understandings and without constraint should judge to be most behoveful to the common good Now if Kings may of right exercise a power beyond this then is the condition of every Subject much worse than the Brutes for Brutes though chaced from their usual abode yet can they in any other place find food and lodging as well as where they used to frequent and whenever they are killed or pursued it is because they are hurtful or that the seising of them is useful to men But when Subjects by reason of the cruelty and oppression of an arbitrary King are necessitated to fly for their Lives they are under a certainty of perishing for want of food and lodging if not relieved by the charity of others and their destruction is resolved on not that they have offended against the Laws of nature or reason but because the intentions and thoughts of their King are evil A King that lays out himself for the good of his people is to be obeyed for Conscience sake for he is God's Ordinance and such a King can never be too highly esteemed nor the loss of him sufficiently lamented But when a King forsakes the guidance of the Law and rules only by his Will to call such an one God's Ordinance is very absurd unless we can suppose God to be the Authour of confusion and oppression All that have written of Government agree in this that Kings were created or set up that Justice may be had which does plainly intimate these things First That every King is such by reason of the constitution of the Government 2. That he is admitted to that trust upon condition 3. That when he does not administer Justice much more when he oppresses the People he exceeds the limits of his lawful power and both this Doctrine and Exposition is not denyed by any save some ignorant Ambitious Clergy who in hopes of preferment have turned Bawds to Arbitrary Power And the Coronation Oath or Solemn Ingagement which every King takes before he is crowned confirms the foregoing Observations and what can oblige the taking of that Oath but the constitution of the Government For since Mankind is so greedy of Power and prone to incroach upon anothers right can it be supposed that Kings would clog themselves with the Coronation Oath if they could avoid it much less that they would on their own accord so shackle themselves What has been said will serve to explain what is the true meaning of a natural Prince or Lord a notion which for want of consideration has gulled a great many good People and yet amounts to no more than this That he is one of our Brethren or born amongst us It is a meer conceit to imagine that any thing is such by the institution of Nature For if Nature had formed any Government every other Government in the World would have been of the same Form and Model to all intents and purposes For Nature is immutable and the same in all places and what it does in one place it does the same thing in another So that all that Nature does in the framing of any Government is only to concur with the people in making choice of that which best suits their
It 's said he was every Night drinking till Two a Clock or beyond that time and that he went to his Chamber drunk but this I have only by Common Fame for I was not in his Company I bless God I am not a Man of his Principles or Behaviour but in the Mornings he appear'd with the Symptoms of a Man that over Night had taken a large Cup. But that which I have to say is the Complaint of every Man especially of them who had any Law Suits Our Chief Justice has a very Arbitrary Power in appointing the Assize when he pleases and this Man has strained it to the highest point For whereas we were accustomed to have Two Assizes the first about April or May the latter about September It was this Year the middle as I remember of August before we had any Assize and then he dispatcht business so well that he left half the Causes untryed and to help the matter has resolved that we shall have no more Assizes this Year These things I hope are just cause of Complaint It cannot be supposed that People can with ease or delight be in expectation so long as from May till August to have their Causes determined for the notice he gave was very short and uncertain And I beg you is it not hard for them that had any Tryals to see Councel be at the charge of bringing Witnesses and keep them there five or six days to spend their Time and Money and neglect their Affairs at home and when all is done go back and not have their Causes heard This was the case of most People the last Assize Some Observations on the Prince of Orange's Declaration in a Charge to the Grand Jury Gentlemen THE greatest part of the misfortunes which befall mankind would be prevented did they but keep in mind and seriously consider the most remarkable things which happen to them for then they would not as is every day seen neglect so many advantageous opportunities which by Providence is put into their hands nor split so often upon the same Rock For so apt are men to forget even things of the the greatest moment that it is become a common saying That there is not any thing that is more than a nine days wonder which does sufficiently express the giddiness and want of consideration in Men Of which there never was a more pregnant instance than is to be observed in England at this time For tho the late Revolution was as remarkable as any thing could be both for the matter as well as for the manner of it yet it seems to be as much out of peoples thoughts as if no such thing had happened to us It is a great unhappiness that no more notice is taken of it and it would yet be a greater misfortune if we make no more advantage of it than yet we have done and since it does so much concern us to carry it in our thoughts I hope I shall not mispend your time whilst I give you a short account of the occasion that sent K. J. away and for what reason his present Majesty the then Prince of Orange was placed on the Throne I believe you may remember how much the greater part of the Nation was alarm'd when it was known that the Duke of York had declared himself a Papist by reason of the fatal effects it would have upon our Religion and Liberty if in case he should come to the Crown And the Parliament being no less sensible of this threatning danger made several attempts to exclude him from the Crown by Act of Parliament which was the cause wherefore so many Parliaments one on the neck of another in the latter end of Charles the ll 's time proved Abortive for when the Court could not by any other Artifice keep off the Bill of Exclusion that Parliament was dissolved and another called in hopes to find it of another temper but perceiving that every Parliament began where the other left off of that Scent King Charles took leave of Parliaments for the rest of his time And then all those who had been for the Bill of Exclusion were loaded with all manner of reproaches and amongst other things were called Anti-Monarch-men because they would break into the Succession for that the Exclusion of the Duke of York was used only as a pretence to bring in a Common-wealth To such a degree of madness did the mistaken Loyalty of some people carry them And I wish there were not some at this day who hope to make themselves welcome at Court by calling every thing Anti-Monarchical that is proposed for the good of the Nation At last things being in a posture for the purpose C. II. went off but how is not yet certain to make room for his Brother the Duke of York who began very early to discover himself and in a short time had made so very bold with matters both in Church and State as to demonstrate that the apprehensions of those who would have Excluded him was rather a Prophesie of what he would do than a groundless conjecture for his power swelled so fast that he quickly makes all people to feel the intollerable burden of an unbounded Prerogative so that many who before fell down and worshipt Prerogative were than as hasty to get out of the way of it as they would to avoid a Monster that stood ready to devour them and thereby brought them so far to their Wits as to enable them to see that it is much safer to trust the Law than the King's Will and Pleasure with their Liberties and Properties and that God had no more given Kings a right to oppress and inslave their Subjects than he had indued them with a power to Create Men. For the method which King James took shewed plainly to all the world that nothing less than being Absolute would content him That is he would govern by his Will and force an obedience to his pleasure by his Army for his Administration became more exorbitant every day than other till his present Majesty the then Prince of Orange Landed who as is usual upon such occasions set out a Declaration of the occasion that brought him hither wherein is innumerated many of the irregularities of King James his Administration The first thing mentioned is the dispensing-Dispensing-power which King James had assumed whereby he gave just occasion for a very loud complaint because it is a most dangerous Instrument in the hand of any King for it not only makes a noise but does certain execution it swallows up Law where-ever it comes and tears up Liberty and Property by the Roots it does not only put every mans right at uncertainty but makes it uncertain whether there is any such thing as Right it is of so diffusive a Nature that if it be exercised in one Kingdom the next that is governed by the same King has cause to think it self in danger This the Parliament had early under their
without the Law but that he might imploy his power to an ill end and those then that incourage arbitrary inclinations in their Prince are guilty of all the Oppression and Violence that he shall commit The Law is the best hold both of King and people for it 's their mutual and only interest which soever of them lets it go will have much ado to preserve themselves for never did any stand long that parted with it when the King forsakes the Law he ceases to be King and makes room for another that is more righteous than himself and therefore because he endeavoured to set his will above the Law was the late King James set aside and I am perswaded with all the Justice in the World Thus I have indeavoured in a few words to detect the unreasonableness of this arbitrary Doctrine and indeed the great Asserters of it at last discovered what was the true principle that guided them they had very honestly prescribed a rule for others which they could not practice themselves like the Pharisees who were reproved by our Saviour for laying heavy burdens upon others that they would not touch themselves Our Loyal men were very well pleased with arbitrary power whilst they might be imployed and lord it over their neighbours they little dreamt that the wheel might go round for no sooner did they see that this power was like to be exercised upon themselves but they changed their note all their encomiums upon King James were turned into the most bitter invectives that their wit could invent and their threatnings which they used to breath out against the Dissenters were turned into words of Vnity and Reconciliation I will not affirm that the mercenary principle of preferment made them so zealous for Prerogative but this is most certain their zeal never abated till they saw that other people were like to come into play and then they were as forward as any to explode the Doctrine of Non-resistance and to wish success to the Prince of Orange But since King William does not think fit to employ them nothing will serve their turn but King James And because they cannot for shame talk any more of their unshaken Loyalty they have wholly laid aside that word and now their mouths are filled with nothing but the Church and considering that they refuse the Oaths and indeavour to throw all the contempt they can upon this Government therefore in their sense the Church and this Government are two distinct interests and King James a profest bigotted Papist is more likely to support the Church than King William who is a Protestant and thus they demonstrate their care for the Church and if it be not because King William won't put them into imployment I can't imagine why they should be so averse to him unless it is because his Government is more Just and Mild and that he Governs more by the Laws than any of the four last Kings Gentlemen Your inclinations to the Government is not to be question'd yet in regard it has been indeavoured to be so much traduced it may not be improper to say some thing of it Every King of England receiving and holds his Crown upon condition to Govern according to the known and approved Laws of Land for by what means soever he may come to the Crown he can hold it by no other means than by making the Laws the measure of his Power and when he forsakes that good old way he ceases to be King and Male Administration is a forfeiture of his Crown This was the opinion of our forefathers as appears by the many instances of those Kings that have been Deposed for their evil Government And those who have succeeded them have still been acknowledged and obeyed as rightful and lawful tho the other were alive For when the Throne is vacant it naturally comes into the hands of the people because the original dispose and gift of the Crown was from them therefore whoever they place upon the Throne has as good a right to be there as the first King that wore the Crown No Government can want a power to help it self and therefore when the King has set his will above the Laws what other means has the people left but their Arms for nothing can oppose Force but Force Prayers and Tears are our proper applications to God Almighty but signifie but little with an Arbitrary Prince who will be rather confirmed in his purposes when he finds that he is like to meet with no other opposition But this opposing the King with Arms is not justifiable for every wrong step or miscarriage of the Prince save only in cases of extremity when it 's obvious to every man that the King has cast off his affection to the Common Good and sets up his will in the place of the Law and thereby rendered himself unmeet to sway the Scepter For this reason was King James deposed and therefore is this present Government justified to the last degree by very good reason and the constant practice of our Fore-fathers in the like case For long before King Charles dyed the Nation was very apprehensive of the mischief they should be exsposed to if in case the Duke of York should get into the Throne and he had not long been in possession of the Crown before he convinced the world that those jeers and apprehensions were not groundless for he quickly became so exorbitant in the exercise of his power that the Nation grew very uneasie under him where upon the Duke of Monmouth landed in order to deliver us from that which the Nation had so much cause to fear and it did not please God to give him success Yet I am perswaded it was not by reason of the justness of King James 's Cause that God permitted him to prevail for some years but that he might fill up the Measure of his Iniquities and all the Earth might see how justly he was Deposed To recount the particulars of his Male-Administration would take up too much of your time and therefore I will only say this in short That he had so notoriously broken the Constitution of this Government to set up Popery and Slavery that the Nation was necessitated to rise in Arms and by as good right did they take the Diadem from his Head as he ever had to claim it for he having rendered himself unmeet to sway the Scepter the Crown thereby fell into the hands of the people and where then could they so well and properly dispose of it as to set it on his Head that so generously and opportunely came in to our assistance at a time when the Nation lay gasping and just ready to expire with the weight of Popery and Arbitrary Power What horrible unthankfulness to God and ingratitude to King William is every man professing the Protestant Religion guilty of who is disatisfied with the present Government For I would ask any of them what else could have been done to bring
manner put in ure any of the Acts abovesaid That then all and singular Persons by whose speaking deed act or other the means above specified to the number of twelve so raised shall be adjudged Felons If any Persons to the number of forty or above shall Assemble together by forcible manner unlawfully and of their own authority to the intent to put in ure any of the things above specified or to do other Felonies or Rebellions act or acts and so shall continue together by the space of three Hours after Proclamation shall be made at or nigh the place where they shall be so assembled or in some Market Town thereunto next ajoyning and after Notice thereof to them given then every person so willingly assembled in forcible manner and so continuing together by the space of three Hours shall be adjudged a Felon The things provided against by this Statute are plainly and directly a levying of War yet are they declared to be but Felony But it may be objected that by Statute 3d. and 4th Edw. 6. Those Offences were made Treason it is very true yet it does not alter the Case but rather proves the Point For first it being made Treason by Statute proves that it was not so in it self Secondly Because in the two next succeeding Reigns it is declared to be but Felony for the Statute of Queen Mary is confirmed by Statute 1st Eliz. 16. and therefore the Argument is the stronger because those two Queens were of different Religions Thirdly Because when a thing is declared an Offence by Act of Parliament and is afterwards made a less Offence it proves that it was not so great an Offence in it self but that the necessary Circumstances of Time and Affairs require it should then be such But the Case is yet stronger because in some Cases it may be but a Trespass to levy War as it was in the Case of the Earl of Northumberland 5th Henry 4. He did actually raise Forces and such as was taken to be a levying of War for which he was questioned before the Lords and tryed for High Treason but tho' the Lords did believe the Fact yet they adjudged it but a Trespass because the Power raised were not against the King but some Sabjects This precedent seems to carry great weight in it first because it is a Judgment given in the highest Court of Judicature and Secondly Because it was given so soon after the making of the Statute 25th Edw. 3. and therefore they must be supposed to understand the meaning of the Statute full as well as succeeding Ages The Case of those who aided Sir John Oldcastle might be also urged if there were occasion but what has been already said is sufficient yet one Clause in that Statute 25 Edward 3d. is not to be passed over in silence because it puts the matter out of Dispute and the Clause is as follows If percase any man of this Realm ride Arm'd covertly or secretly with Men or Arms against any other to Slay him or Rob him or take him or retain him till he hath made Fine or Ransom for to have his Deliverance it is not the mind of the King nor his Council that in such case it shall be adjudged Treason but it shall be judged Felony or Trespass according to the old Laws of the Land of old times used This proves That altho' the Statute had made it Treason yet that it was not so in it self and therefore it will follow that if a War may be levy'd which is neither Treason nor Felony so it is unnatural that a Conspiracy to Levy War should be construed to be an Overt Act of Compassing the Kings Death Thus the Second thing Objected has received a full answer and likewise the first in a great measure but to put all out of doubt a few words shall be added to give a compleat answer to the first also If the Consequences on all hands be duely considered the danger will be found to lye on the other hand yet be it as great as it can be pretended let it be considered that the Law has settled the point and so it must stand till by the same Authority it be alter'd for the Rule in Law is not to be forgot Nemo Legibus Sapientior It is to be pretended that out of a tender regard that the Law and all Subjects ought to have for the Kings Life that a Conspiracy to Levy War is taken to be an Overt of Compassing the Kings Death To this it may be answered by way of question How comes it about that this Age should have a greater care and tenderness of the Kings Life than our Porefathers had Can it be Imagined that they did not understand the Nature of the Government as well as we do nor did know of what Consequence to the Publick the Preservation of the Kings Life is Can it be thought that they did not duely weigh and consider the consequence on all hands Yet however were there never so many Defects in it seeing it is settled by Law it cannot be altered but by the same Power for if it may then let the Consequence be duly considered of leaving it in the Breast of the Judges to rectify the Mistakes or Desects be they Fictions or real for then when a turn is to be served the Law shall always be defective and so in effect they shall Legem dare Treason will then be reduced to a certainty that is if the Judges please otherwise not There will be no need of Parliaments for the Judges shall both declare and make Law What will all our Laws signify tho made and penned with all the Wisdom and Consideration that a Parliament is capable of if the Judges are not to be tyed up and guided by those Laws it renders Parliaments useless and sets the Judges above a Parliament They can undo what the other has done the Parliament Chains up some unruly Evil or Mischief and the Judges let it loose again But besides where is this dangerous Consequence as is objected Indeed there had been some weight in the Objection had a Conspiracy to levy War been left wholly unpunishable but the Law has provided a punishment commensurate to the Offence and tho' it does not extend to Life yet is sufficient to deterr Men from the Commission of it yet if a Conspiracy to levy War is to be punisht in a high degree as a War when levyed this would be to punish Thoughts as highly as Deeds which if it be just yet it is Summum jus VVhere the Law has provided a Punishment for an Offence the Judge can pass no other Judgment upon the Prisoner no no more than the Executioner can execute the condemned Person in any other manner than according to the Sentence passed upon him without incurring the Guilt of Felony for the one is but the Officer to declare or promote the Law and the other the Minister to Execute it Therefore upon what has been said
particular interest as well as his duty does indispensibly oblige him to do what in him lyes to support it In order to this that which is now more especially expected from us is first To inquire into the neglects of those in whom the Law has reposed any trust and Second to discover those who have broken or violated the Laws that such criminals may be brought to condign punishment And since the execution of the Laws is our proper business and that the Laws should have their course is absolutely necessary to the being of the Government It may not be impertinent as I conceive at this time to say something of the Nature of Government and particularly of our own constitution or rather it seems necessary to take all occasions to explain it considering what variety of opinions there is amongst us of that which is or ought to be the Supreme authority or power in England Many wise and learned men have written of the Nature of Government and given excellent definitions of it but of all others Plato seems to me to have done it in the fewest and plainest words which are these Government or Law says he is to preserve the huge and indigested lump of a Multitude and to bring all disorder into proportion so as to become an harmony And Next to him is the learned Aquinas says that it is a rational ordinance for the advancing of the publick good Several others have spoken to the same purpose which I omit because I will be as little tedious as I can Two things I have observed from hence first That order and peace is or ought to be the end of every Government And second That in every Government there is some particular principle that runs through the whole Scheme of that Constitution and that as that principle is followed or neglected so accordingly it goes ill or well with the publick that is when those who are intrusted with the executive power do pursue that principle every thing moves regularly and the Government is firm and stable But when they steer by any other Measures the State does unavoidably fall into disorders and Convulsions and that whoever he be that is placed at the head of the Government if he desires to have the Hearts and Prayers of his People whilst he lives and that after-Ages shall bless his Memory It is necessary first That in general he resolve to Govern well And Secondly Throughly and rightly to apprize himself of that principle that is the Soul of the Government or at least-that he be advised by such as are most likely to know it and will give him faithful Counsel Otherwise he will be like a Traveller that in the Night misses his way upon some large Plain wandering he knows not whither and is more likely to meet with some disaster than to find his way Having said this it is natural for you to expect that I should tell you what that Principle is which is the Life and Foundation of this Government If I am not much mistaken and I am verily perswaded that I am not I take it to be this That every Subject of England has so clear a property in his Life Goods and Estate and every thing else which he possesses that they cannot be taken from him nor ought he to be disturbed in the Injoyment of them without his voluntary Consent or for some Offence against the Law And in the next Place that there be not a Failure in Justice that is That no man be left without remedy where his Right is concern'd and that every Criminal be pun sht according to the Demerits of his Offence I am apt to believe that every man will think that this is very agreeable to Natural Reason and then I don't see how it can be inconsistent with the Prerogative of the Crown altho' I know that not very long since and I fear yet there are some who carry the Prerogative much higher placing it above the Law but nothing save the Iniquity of the times and the Depravity of such mens Manners could support or give Countenance to so senseless a thought For they are very ignorant of the Nature of Prerogative if they think it is a Powet to do Hurt and not to do Good Certainly the Kings Prerogative is to help and relieve the People where the Edge of the Law is too sharp and keen and not a Power by which he may Oppress and Destroy his Subjects Men are to be Govern'd by a Power that is guided by Reason unless we can suppose they have no more understanding and are of no greater Value than the Beasts that Perish It was said by one who was a very competent Judge in the Case as I remember it was Sir John Fortescue That it is a greater Power in a Prince to be restrained by Law from oppressing than to have an absolute Regal Power And says another great Author The way if Governing must be both right and clear as well as is the End And how this can be expected when a King is guided by no other Rule than that of his Will and Pleasure I don't see no more than that a man can depend upon the Weather Does not all the Examples of it that ever were prove that absolute Power and Oppression are inseparable and the one as naturally proceeds from the other as the Effect does from the Cause It 's a Riddle to me how that Prince can be called Gods Ordinance who assumes a Power above what the Law has invested him with to the grieving and oppressing of his Subjects May not the Plague Famine or Sword as well be called Gods Ordinance since one no less than the other is sent by him for the Punishment of that People he so Visits We may reasonably suppose that Order and Peace is much rather the End of Government than Oppression and Violence because God is a God of Order and when he sent the greatest Blessing upon Earth it was Peace and tho' God was often very wrath with the Kings of Israel and Judah for their Idolatry yet the Innocent Blood that they shed and the Violence and Oppression which they committed provoked him more highly and with his severest Judgements has always testityed his Displeasure against it I could run out into a large Discourse upon this Subject but I will stop here because I am perswaded that what I have already said is sufficient to convince any one that is unprejudiced That an absolute Power is so far from being the Right of a King of England that the exercise of such a Power is unlawful in any King I know very well that in the late Reigns this Doctrine would not have been indured to have said less than this would have lost a man his head For whoever would not comply with Arbitrary power was called Factious and an opposer of the Government But is it not Nonsence or very near a Kin to it to call that Seditious that is for bringing things
so great draw him aside and then we shall see Peace in our Israel I doubt not Gentlemen but you will do your Parts and this is all that I have to trouble you with at this time THE LEGALITY Of the Convention-Parliament Though not called by Writ IT 's a new sort of Doctrine That where there is a Power to do a greater thing there cannot also be to do a less The Lords who are born Counsellors to the King and Kingdom the Members of the House of Commons were all duely chose by such as had Right to Elect Members for Parliament The two Houses meet at the same day and first declare the Throne vacant and then fill it with this King and Queen and they thus Elected these Lords acknowledge to be our Rightful and Lawful Soveraign Lord and Lady which is the greatest thing that the two Houses are capable of doing and have thereby according to the Maxims of those very Lords altered the Government in a most Essential point of it and yet say they All Subsequents tho' with the Concurrence and Consent of this lawful King and Queen are invallid unless supported by the Authority of this or some other Parliament because the last was not called by Writ in due form of Law So that the Representatives of the Nation Assembled without a Writ can only do one thing and that the highest to make a King And by like Reason If when Assembled by Writ can do every thing but the greatest But it is against all manner of Reason and Policy to suppose that the Power that can make a King cannot do every thing else that is necessary to settle the Government If those Gentlemen had understood the true meaning of Writs and been so ingenious as to confess it they would not have made that an Objection against the Validity of the last Parliament Writs are necessary in their proper time but not so necessary as to give the Essence to a Parliament for if there be any weight in this Reason a Writ is as necessary as the Consent of the Nation by their Legal Representatives to Establish any thing into a Law Writs can amount to no more than the Means by which the Parliament is concerned It will be granted that the present Writ of Summons was Established by the Government and not by the King and it cannot be deny'd that wherever the power of the Government rests it may if it see Cause direct that Parliaments shall be convened in any other manner or by any other means than by Writ For it is not the Writ that makes a man a true Representative but the Election of those who have right to choose for that place For otherwise the Sheriff or other Officer might have return'd whom he saw good and Elections would be needless But the Law has more expresly shewed that it is the Election that makes the Person a Right Member and so consequently the Election of the People is that which gives the Essence to a Parliament because the Law has under greivious pains commanded That Election shall be free And since the Constitution of the Government makes choice of Writs for the Canvening of the Representative Body of the Nation why was not the Parliament as duely concerned and the Acts they passed as good since it was impossible to be Summoned in due form and these Gentlemen might as well have insisted That a Nation may want a Power to help it self as to object against the Validity of the last Parliament because called without Writ By the Weight that they lay upon a Writ they do seem to make a Writ more necessary to a Parliament than our Allegiance is to the Government and if that be so that which is only a Circumstance in the Government is more to be regarded than what is necessary to the Peace of it But to grant that Absurdity What is it that has given the Sanction to these new Oaths that our sitting and Voting in Parliament has not put us under all the Disabilities of 30 Caroli for we are certainly within that Statute if the last Parliament had not power to alter those Oaths and if it had what else they did is as valid for all or none of those Acts are good If it be destructive of the Monarchy to declare those Laws to be good it may be also said to be alike destructive when the proper and only means to support it is made use of For the Nation had no other way left of coming to a Settlement A RESOLUTION OF Two Important Questions I. Whether the Crown of England be Hereditary II. Whether the Duke of York ought to be excluded SIR THE Questions that you have proposed to me are of such a nature that they require a very strict consideration because they are of the greatest moment in our present condition and therefore you have done me a great honour to command my Thoughts upon them in regard you might have had your Queries resolved by persons much more able than I am but since you desire my Opinion I will give it you very faithfully As I remember the first thing that you was in doubt of was Whether the Crown of England be Hereditary or no and to that I answer negatively That it is not Hereditary And in order to the clearing of this I will in the first place give you a short historical account of Matter of Fact till K. James I think it will not be denied that from the first known Times in this Island after that they had Kings till the Conquest but that the People Elected him for their King whom they best liked without regard had to the Issue of the deceased King and also that they deposed them very frequently and set up others in their stead when upon tryal they were found unfit for the purpose He that says otherwise confesses himself either not to have read our English Story or that he understood not what he read and if your self doubts the truth of what I affirm I will at any time give you a particular account of it till the entrance of the Normans William the First commonly called the Conqueror we must begin with him who it 's most certain had no Right or Title to the Crown by Inheritance or Descent and it is as true that he did not gain it by Conquest for Edgar Etheling who was alive and in England when William came in had an unquestionable right by Descent and therefore whilst he was alive William could not pretend any Title by Inheritance but must find out some other way to come to the Crown and therefore he pretended one while a Compact between him and Harold and again That it was left to him by Edward the Confessor by his Will yet he found that all these were but empty sounds for although he had a potent Army by which he might have done great things yet that Army only brought him into England but it was the Election of the People that
considering that Popery was so long professed in this Nation To that a short Answer will serve That the Pope's Authority was never establish'd here by Law altho' he was allowed many things by reason of the Superstition and Blindness that then overspread this Island yet the King and Parliament could never agree to give him any power by Law nay when he grew immodest in his Encroachments upon the Church they made Laws to restrain him but the Truth is it was the Resolution of the Parliament and especially of the Lords that protected the Nation against the Pope but if Popery should now come in we should have it to all intents and purposes for it would possess both Church and State it must have all Q. Marys days are a sufficient Warning what we must expect from a Popish Successor and how far their Promises are to be relyed on for by the assistance of the Men of Norfolk and Suffolk it was that she did her business and what Promises did she make to them not to make any alteration in Religion and said many other fine things yet as soon as she was setled on the Throne the first thing she did was to alter Religion with the greatest violence and effusion of Blood that was possible and these Men of Suffolk and Norfolk felt the first stroke of her Hand and perhaps the greatest heat of her Fury But I have too far digressed from my first Argument which is That if Protection from the King is not given to his Subjects or Obedience in the Subjects is not paid to the King then if one side fail the other is discharged and the Condition being broken the Obligation is void And this was the reason why Vortigern the Saxon King was deposed by his Lords for he was grown too friendly to Heugist the Dane and the Lords perceiving that he intended to betray the Land to him they to prevent the Common Destruction and because by this practice he had absolved them of their Allegiance therefore they deposed him and set up his Son Vortimer because he was a true lover of his Country There are several other Instances of the like nature which would be needless to be cited because I should rather amuse than satisfie you of the Truth should I recount them all In the next place I do conceive that the King until he be Crowned is not so much King to all intents and purposes as he is after he is Crowned for if the crowning of the King be but a meer Ceremony or Compliment of State and not essential in giving him a Right to the Allegiance of the Subject then certainly no King of England would be troubled with the Ceremony of being formally crowned because then there will lye no Obligation upon him to take the Coronation Oath and so he may be more at liberty to act according to his Will because his Conscience will not be clogged with the weight of so solemn an Oath and then with less Infamy and Reflection he may suspend or pervert the Laws and therefore with submission to better Judgments I am not convinced that the King whilst he is uncrowned has that Right in our Allegiance as he has after that the Crown is set upon his Head in the same way that it ought to be done for before the Crown is set upon his Head by the Archbishop or other person appointed to do it the Nobility and People are asked if they will do their Homage and Service to him which by the way implies that the People are at liberty in the thing and that if he be Crowned it is by their Leave and Election then if the People consent the King takes the Coronation Oath which is to preserve the Church our Laws Liberties and Properties and to administer Justice indifferently and thus when he has Sworn to us the Crown is immediately put upon his Head and then the Nobility and People do their Homage to him and according to this has been the Practice ever since there were Kings in England And I believe there is scarcely an Instance where the People ever swore to the King before be had taken his Oath to them If there be any such President it is to be look'd upon as irregular and not to be a Direction to us for it is not impossible but such a thing may happen but however is it reasonable that one or two Instances shall be sufficient to invalid a Practice of several hundred years to the contrary And is it not a piece of nonsence that we should adventure our Religion and Properties and all we have in the Hand of him that for ought we know has an Obligation on him to ruine or give us up to a Foreigner and not in the first place to take Security from him that he will defend and do us right before we repose so great a Trust in him for otherwise such Confusion and such Contradictions would follow that the Wit of Man cannot invent how to salve them But I acknowledge there are some Instances where the People have sworn to the Succession in the life-time of the Father and thence some do inferr that the King is entitled to our Allegiance before the Crown is set on his Head but this under correction will not hold for it does not appear but that the intended Successor swore to them also at the same time and it is very probable he did yet if he did not it cannot thence be concluded that the King has Right to our Allegiance before he is Crowned for whenever it happen'd that the Successor was sworn to in the life-time of his Father if afterwards he came to the Crown he took the Coronation Oath before the People swore Allegiance to him And therefore it is very plain that an Oath taken to the Successor in the life-time of his Father is nothing more but a declaring the good liking they have of the Successor and that if in case he will promise to defend them and their Properties when his Father or Predecessor dies they will elect him for their King as possibly it might now fall out if in case the Duke of Monmouth were legitimate Don't you think that the People would be very inclinable to swear to his Succession next after the King And I believe you will never find it done but when the King had the Hearts of the People or out of the hopes they had in the Successor for English Men if the King pleases them he may have all they have even to their Skins as a wise man said If an English King will be kind to the People he can never want their Heads Hands and Purses and therefore it is that in the most peaceable and tranquil times that ever the Land saw when King and People had a mutual Confidence of each other we find things done by the King that are more irregular in those times of agreement than was done in times of greater confusion and the reason is because
and the one to be an Accident inseperable to the other P. 31. Treat of Bail The Saxons from whom we derive our Government had all the Ensigns and Badges of Freedom and seemed in the original constitution of it to have with the utmost foresight guarded those Avenues at which it was most likely to be attacked by Absoluteness being sensible and growing wise at the loss of their Neighbors that Kings are too prone to encroach upon the Peoples Rights therefore though they yielded him a sort of Subjection for the advancement of the Common Good yet they took all the care they could to prevent being govern'd by his Will for Dion saith That the People held the Helm of Government in their own power And another very good Authority says That the Saxons were a free People govern'd by Laws made by the People and therefore called a free People because they are a Law to themselves Which Fortescue p. 26. does confirm for he says That a People govern'd by power politick are ruled by such Laws as they themselves desire Therefore after all this to say that the King can dispense with all Penal Laws and consequently with all Laws there is nonsence in one of the two yet surely it will light upon that which is without president rather than upon that which may be justified by that which has passed for Law till within these few months Nothing seems more unnatural than this power of dispensing with the Laws it thwarts the Law of Nature and the Dictates of Self-preservation and bespeaks our Forefathers to be a company of Madmen rather than men incorporated together for the mutual conservation and good of each other Now that which gives as great a blow as any thing to this Opinion is the place whence the Judges would fetch this power of dispensing not from Presidents and a constant exercise of it but from a dark obscure Original to perplex and not explain their Resolution to lead People into the dark and not to make it clear to the Understanding The Saxon Kings at first were Generals who received their power and instructions by which they were to act from the People but the continual Wars occasion'd the constant use of a General and by degrees he became a setled Officer and at last gained the Title of King so that the Prerogative has always been on the gaining not on the losing hand therefore there remains no Pretence of any higher power in the Crown than what has been exerted by this and the late King and if there be any ancient Remains of Power it's what of right adheres to the People because they are the Original Power unless the King or the Government come immediately from Heaven But if this unbounded Power had been originally in the King yet it cannot be so in him but he might part with it unless the Power of a King be advanced above that of King of kings and Lord of lords for God Almighty is tyed up and bound by his Word and having once given it he cannot revoke or gainsay it PRAYERS WHICH His Lordship Used in his Family OH most gracious and merciful Lord God thou only art God and there is none besides thee thou wert and will remain to all Eternity the same yesterday and to day and for ever for in thee is no alteration nor shadow of changing thou stand'st in need of nothing because thou art infinitely perfect and therefore happy in thy self There is not any thing that can add unto thy perfection for as thou dost not stand in need of it so all other things are unmeet to be compared unto thee what profit then are all our Devotions that we offer up unto thee and what art thou the better for all our Services no Advantage can thereby redound unto thee were they void of those Imperfections with which they are attended for even the greatest Righteousness that we can boast of is but as filthy Rags and yet O Lord so good and gracious thou art that thou art willing and ready at all times to receive them tho' they are no better yea thou callest and invitest us to come and worship before thee We humbly confess and acknowledge that we are sinful Dust and Ashes we were conceived and born in Sin and have every moment of our lives added thereto many actual Transgressions both of omission and commission we have sinned against clear Light and the Conviction of our own Consciences we have lent a willing ear to the Enticements of Satan and the Alurements of our Lusts and Corruption but have turn'd a deaf ear to all the Calls and gracious Invitations that thou hast given us to return into the path that leads to Life we have endeavour'd to stifle the Checks of our Consciences and though we have not been able to blot out the impression and belief that there is a God yet we have too much lived like practical Atheists and have walked so loosely and carnally as if there had been no God to whom we must render an account of all things we do here below whether they be good or evil we have sinned beyond forgiveness had not thy Mercy been greater than all thy works and that thou canst pardon more than we can offend O Lord possess us with a true sence of thy Divine Majesty make every one of us sensible that we have done amiss let us bewail our Transgressions from the bottom of our Hearts and make us truly sorrowful that we have grieved thy Holy Spirits and duly to consider how ungrateful a thing it is to offend so good a God a God by whom we live move and have our being and from whom cometh every good and perfect Gift make us contrite for all our Offences and for the future to take up Resolutions of better Obedience and of walking more humbly with thee and especially let us avoid all those things whereby we have brought publick Dishonour to thy holy Name or been an occasion of making others to sin let us redeem the time by a more exact obedience to thy holy Law and the remainder of our days to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling and be sollicitous to make our calling and election sure to that end let us be daily trying our ways and searching into our Hearts to discover the Sin that does most easily beset us and in all we do still to beg thy gracious assistance knowing that otherwise all we do will be in vain for without thee we are not able of our selves so much as to think a good Thought much less to do any good Action make us sensible how weak and frail we are and that the Devil is vigilant and diligent to draw us aside from the way that leads to Life that he is subtile and knows how to suit his Temptations to our several Dispositions and Constitutions make us daily to remember our latter end and the great day of Accounts and that Reckoning that sooner or later we must
ordained That all they which make Suggestions shall be sent with the same Suggestions before the Chancellor Treasurer and his Grand Councel and that they there find Surety to prove their Suggestions and incur the same Pain that the other should have had if he were attainted in case that his Suggestions be found evil And that then process of the Law be made against them without being taken and imprisoned against the form of the said great Charter and other Statutes 38 Ed. III. 9. As to the Article made at the last Parliament of those that make grievous Complaints to the King himself it is assented That if he that maketh the Complaint cannot prove his Intent against the Defendant by process limited in the same Article he shall be commanded to Prison there to abide till he hath made good to the Party of his Damages and of the Slander that he hath suffer'd by such occasion and after shall make Fine and Ransome to the King And the point contained in the same Article That the Plaintiff shall incur the same pain which the other should have if he were attainted shall be out in case that his Suggestion be found untrue 42 Ed. III. 3. At the Request of the Commons by their Petitions put forth in this Parliament to eschew the Mischiefs and Damage done to divers of his Commons by false Accusers which oftentimes have made their Accusations more for Revenge and singular Benefit than for the Profit of the King or his People which accused Persons some have been taken and sometimes caused to come before the King's Council by Writ and otherwise upon grievous Pain against the Law It is assented and accorded for the good governance of the Commons that no man be put to answer without Presentments before Justices or Matter of Record or by due Process and Writ original according to the old Law of the Land And if any thing from henceforth be done to the contrary it shall be void in the Law and holden for Error To the same purpose are the Statutes of 17 Rich. II. 6. 15 Hen. VI. 4. which you may peruse at your leisure and because I will not trouble you too long I will say no more of them but leave every man to make his own Observations upon the whole matter and so I 'll proceed to the Particulars of your Charge But Gentlemen if we invite our Friends to Dinner and the Gates and Doors are left open for all persons that please to come in and partake of what the Cellar and Kitchin will afford and no Violence or Rudeness is offer'd to any person this is not a Riot within the meaning of the Law and if any such thing shall be offer'd to your consideration I hope you will not take it to be your Duty to present it Gentlemen one thing more I will mention and then I will dismiss you There is a new Opinion which obtains very much which is this That a Grand Jury is oblig'd to find every Indictment without considering the Credibility of Persons that swear to it and the probability of what they swear I must confess I do not understand the reasonableness of this Doctrine for by this Rule a man has more play for any thing else than his Life First As to his Estate he has Relief three several ways first at Common Law secondly in Chancery and thirdly in Parliament As to his Reputation though he may be injured by a false Verdict yet by an Arrest of Judgment he may have another Hearing or else in process of time he may come to redeem his Credit some other way but when an Indictment is preferred against a Man for his Life and the Grand Jury are oblig'd to Find the Bill if it be Sworn to then that man has but one play for his Life and if the Petty Jury give a false Verdict there 's an end of him for there is no redemption from the Grave But besides if you are obliged of course to Find every Bill if it be sworn to and may not consider and deliberate upon the Evidence before you not only a great many will be put to causeless Trouble and unnecessary Charge but it will be an undervaluing of your Service and a lessening of the Trust that your Country reposes in you It is a new Doctrine and therefore it is not convenient to be too forward to put it into practise till time shall prove that it is agreeeble to the Fundamentals of the Government And now Gentlemen I will detain you no longer but do pray GOD to direct you in your Business Monarchy the Best Government AND THE ENGLISH Beyond all others WITH SOME RULES For the Choice of Members to Serve in Parliament Gentlemen of the Grand Jury IT is very probable that this is not the first time that all or many of you have been upon the Grand Jury and therefore I have great reason to believe that all or most of you are acquainted with what your Country expects from you this day and for that cause I shall contract my Discourse into as narrow a compass as the present occasion will permit but before I tell you the Particulars of your Charge I think it may not be impertinent considering the present juncture to give you a short account of the Government of England as it stands at this day Gentlemen Peace and Justice is the End of every Government under the Sun and this is then only to be hoped for when the King or Governour duly executes and administers the Laws and Justice and the People are disposed to obey and be governed by them therefore it does naturally follow that in every Government there is a Supreme Power to which all are to submit whilst that Power contains it self within the Laws for without this there can be no Order or Peace if every man will be his own Master and Judge in his own Case and not own a Superiour our condition would quickly be worser than that of the Brute Beasts for amongst them there seems to be a kind of Government Now that sort of Government appears to be most proper and agreeable to Mankind where the power and administration of the Laws and Justice is vested or setled in one single person And this is fully cleared by the course of Experience ever since the World began although some People are not so happy as to enjoy this Blessing But Gentlemen that Government which is under a single person I mean a King is more or less happy for the People according as it depends more upon the King's Will and so consequently less upon the Laws or else more upon the Laws and less upon the Pleasure of the King And this is the difference betwixt us and our neighbouring Nations our Government depends upon the Laws but theirs chiefly or for the most part upon the Will and Pleasure of their Kings and though no Government under the Sun be perfect in every point yet I think I may safely
disposition and temper not to prescribe or necessitate them to any particular form And then consequently it will follow that what lawful Right or Power every King claims is by reason of the constitution of the Government and not from Nature If there be any such thing as this Natural Right it must be inherent in all lawful Kings for if some of them have it why not all of them And if any have every King else has the same And if this be so where was the Natural Right of King Stephen and Henry II both born out of the Realm their Fathers Forraigners and at the same time there were others who by right of descent were nearer to the Crown than either of them It was not this natural right that invented the coronation oath neither is it by reason of it that every King of England is bound to take it before they can require any of their Subjects to do them homage and fealty If there be any such thing as this natural right then it will follow that all the Kings of the earth but one are Usurpers because this natural right must arise from Primogeniture and there can be but one man at the same time who is the rightful Heir and Successor to Adam and consequently all others that pretend to be Kings usurp upon his right So that this notion of a natural right pulls down the thing it pretends to set up When a Common-wealth is changed into a Monarchy is it this natural right that makes him King who is first set up Or when a Family is extinct that has been long in possession of the Crown and the Body of the People chuse a King from amongst themselves is it by this natural right that he attains to this dignity But as a multitude of other absurdities would follow upon it so the Apostle puts the thing out of dispute when he says That Kings are the Ordinance of man And here I will leave Kings to resolve which is their best title whether this natural right or the constitution of the Government Differences and disputes do but too frequently arise betwixt the King and People and therefore I will tell you what I conceive to be advisable when such ill humours are afloat Consider whose demands do best suit the common good For by a serious and impartial examination of that you will be able to discover who is in the right For if you follow this rule exactly it will not misguide you And take this Observation along with you When the State is distempered you will find for the most part if not always that the cause of offence proceeds from the Court. And the reason of it is very evident Because so long as English men injoy their rights they have no occasion to quarrel with the King for they need nothing else But Kings as they are always think they are too short in power and those that are about them are too apt to incourage those desires in Kings because the more absolute he is the more able he is to gratifie his Creatures Now in this case let not the opinion of the Clergy govern you for none are blinder Guides than they and no one thing hath done more mischief in this Nation than their politicks If you happen to be on the prevailing side use your advantage with Moderation This you are obliged to do as you are a good Christian and self-interest pleads for it for since the events of all things are uncertain there may come another turn and then in reason you may expect fair quarter from them whom you treated so well in the day of your power If your Party come by the worst remember these two things First don't think the worse of your Cause by reason of the Success Neither make any mean submission nor do any other sordid thing to get out of your trouble use only lawful and honest means for if you are in the right sooner or later it will prevail and then in the end you will come off with double honour 2. If you are examined as a criminal confess nothing only argue against the insufficiency of what is objected against you For First It is an argument of your courage and resolution Secondly By confessing any thing you help them to evidence against your self and others for you furnish them with time and place and then it is an easie matter for a Knight of the Post to give such an evidence against you as is not easily disproved Thirdly It 's very seldom that you will meet with better usage though you confess never so much unless you will turn accuser of others and give evidence against them which is so base a thing that I would advise you to undergoe any extremity rather than do that For as your own Party will for ever abhor you and your Memory so the other side will despise and slight you as soon as you have done their business and all that you can do for the future will never wipe off such a blot If you are concerned in the prosecution of any publick Criminal let your proceedings be tempered with Justice and Moderation For I have seen it fatal to several who have strained and forced the Law to the destruction of others yet in the end fell into the Pit they digged for others and perished by their own Law When the State is so sore that it makes a Man an Offender for a Word and the times are so evil that the prudent keep silence Then are all meetings to be avoided save only such as are upon real business recreation or for Neighbourly Visits and those too in as small numbers as may be for Spyes and Informers will thrust themselves into Consults and Cabals and of all others will say the hottest and most violent things in hopes that believing that all proceeds from the fervency of their Zeal you may thereby be induced to say something that will bring you within the compass of the Law Or if you have the discretion or good hap to say nothing yet your very being in the same Company where such things have been said or uttered may either make you criminal or at best hand involve you into a great deal of trouble without bringing any advantage to the Cause you do assert And besides he that herds in Cabals must implicitely adhere to the opinion of that Company for by asserting his own Judgment in opposition to theirs though he be never so much in the right he runs the hazard of being reproached for a Spye or Deserter As you ought not to refuse any danger when a proportionable advantage will thereby accrue to the Cause you would support so in such sore times you ought to avoid the doing of any thing unnecessary hot and provoking unless where you or the Cause will reap benefit thereby For young men either through the heat of their years or the instigation of more crafty people are too often prevailed upon to do many things that in
Parliaments are discontinued that mutual Complacency is lost which otherwise the constitution of the Government does naturally produce betwixt King and People Changes seldom happen for the better and therefore the People will not be much delighted with the discontinuance of Parliaments because a more mild and equal way of governing has not yet been found out than what is prescribed by Magna Charta and though in this Change of Government the advantage should fall on the Peoples side yet they may suspect that there is Death in the Pot till it has proved it self by its effects because by how much the advantage is on their part by so much must the Kings Inches be pared and a desire to advance rather than restrain their Power is an Infirmity to which Kings as well as other Men are subject And those Arbitrary Symptoms which ever do precede the laying aside of Parliaments are no less than so many demonstrations that it must end in a Despotick Power For there are several things which are only Cognizable in Parliament and then this Dilemma will follow either that there must be a failer in Justice or if any other Court or Authority do hold Jurisdiction of them the whole proceeding would be Arbitrary As for Example The giving of Money the Repeal of Old Laws or Enacting of new Statutes and the last resort of Justice in Case of Appeals or Impeachments for should those or any of them be treated of but in Parliament the Government would thereby become intirely Despotick When a King attempts to find out a new way of governing it s an undeniable Argument that he is weary of the Old one and that King of England who is uneasie with the Ancient way of governing will never be pleased with any but what gives up all into his hands When any King of England has try'd the Experiment he has found in the Issue that he had better to have let it alone For whenever he has Wrestled with the People has in the Conclusion got the fall and often been crushed by it Then next to this like a younger Brother of the same ill Family and bears the second ill Character to the laying aside of Parliaments is when the Privy Council is turned into a Cabinet the former being only kept up for a shew and to give a Reputation to the Advices and Proceedings of the latter A Cabinet Council may at first seem but a small Evil yet it conceives and brings forth many Ugly Consequences For it is ever the fore-runner of the neglect of Parliaments which thing alone is sufficient to give the People an utter dislike of it And besides the King does hereby forbid all others but those of the Cabinet either to come near him or give him any Advice For what incouragement has any other of the Privy Council to offer their Sence considering that if it does not jump with that of the Cabinet their Advice shall not only be rejected but every thing that fell from them will be improved as much as it can bear to their disadvantage and therefore in a short time they will as much undervalue the Attendance at the Council-Board as the King does their Advice unless they are more fond of the bare Name of a Privy Councillor than they are of their Reputation for what greater slight can be put upon Men of Sense and Honour than to be used only as a Foil to set off the Transactions of other Persons not so deserving and worthy as themselves A Cabinet Council keeps the King in the dark he can hear but one side and that the wrong one too for honest Men seldom come there for if any such thing be proposed unto them unless they are less Wise than Honest Their Answer will be That in the multitude of Councillors is the King's safety When a King has entered a Cabinet Council he 'll hardly come out the same Man his very Nature and Disposition will be changed by the constant Converse and Insinuations of those that he calls into that place and so of a hopeful Successor may become a very indifferent King So great is the force of frequent and private Conversation He was a Wise Man who said That in governing the way as well as the end ought to be clear From whence no Argument can be rais'd for a Cabinet Council the methods of that being obscure and uncertain and in no sort consistent with the honest and plain way of this or any other popular Government for reason of State is not found in our Law Books or Statutes and the Arcana imperii mentioned by such as write of the Politicks are adapted for Governments where will rather than any known and certain Law is the measure of it for though the King of England may be never so well appized in the use of them yet he is never so much out of his way as when he puts that knowledge into practice and therefore plain and open Councils are the least suspected best understood and approved an honest man after he has told his Story is not afraid to let any man else be heard what he says is like true Mettal that will abide the touch Whereas the Advice of Knaves like Thieves or Beasts of Prey lurks in holes and shrouds it self under the Darkness is afraid to come near the Light because it will not indure the day And there is this further difference betwixt open and private advice for the former seldom fails and the latter as seldom meets with success This close way of giving and taking advice is ever attended with the Kings retiring from the sight of his People being seldom seen and more difficult to be spoke with For it is the Policy of such as have him in their hands to keep him as much as they can within their own Circle because it 's the surest way to maintain the ground they have got and to gain what they want But when a King thus hides himself it is because he is either ashamed or afraid to be seen and when he is shy of being seen the People in a short time will as little value the sight of him as he is willing to expose himself to view To be quick of dispatch and easie of access is the Character of a right States-Man and no Prince ever lost ground by practising it himself for the contrary Method ruines Friendship amongst private Persons and a King will quickly find the ill Effects of it It may be objected that familiarity breeds contempt but that King is very ill skilled in Mediums who is ignorant of the time and manner of receiving his Subjects so as to dismiss them from his presence with content and satisfaction without loosing that due distance that ought to be kept betwixt him and them And the lowest condescentions and meanest familiarity cannot loose a Prince so much as too much retiredness or being over-reserved And this retiredness like Twins born together is usually attended with such a slowness
Courage did not out-run their Discretion for they did not adventure to name the Prince of Orange but pretended the contrary to the Duke of Newcastle and used as much Artifice to delude him as if it had been of the highest consequence to secure him though he was attended by none but those of his own Family And there was as much preparation and consulting in order to surprize York as if it had been the most considerable Garrison in England though kept only by twenty Men and they as ready to yeild and declare for the Prince as they could have wisht And when they were possest of the Town they set strict Guards at every place and suffered none to go out or come in till they were fatisfied with their business and were as wary as if a considerable Force had been ready to sit down before the place And with the like Steps they moved at Notingham and other places And though no doubt they ingaged in the business with a great deal of Zeal and Resolution yet the Declaration of the cause of their Assembling was penn'd with great caution perhaps as a considerable Man amongst them said to keep themselves within the Statute for their Declaration neither charged King James with Male Administration nor complained of the danger we were in but the Sum of it was to joyn with the Prince of Orange in declaring for a Free Parliament Whereby they put it into King James his power to oblige them to put up their Swords as soon as he pleased for when ever he issued out his Proclamation for a Free Parliament they were bound in Honour to lay down their Arms And then what very great Service can they boast of who could hold their Swords in their hand no longer than King James pleased And though they may pretend to Merit highly yet not to the degree with those who moved forward to Joyn the Princes Army For by their Motion they prevented King James from having a true Account of their Numbers and as they would daily increase so every Account he had of them would make them still more confiderable They shewed thereby that they were resolved not to look back but would either conquer or dye They did not mince the Matter but spoke plain English of King James and of our Condition and thereby animated the Country as they Marcht and made all sure behind them so that the further they Marcht the greater Service they did for 500 Men thus moving would in a short time occasion 40000 to rise in Arms whereby in a few days they would not only be reported but in effect be so considerable and formidable as to support the Cause they had espoused and either reduce King James to Measures or drive him out of the Kingdom So that this seems to be the great thing that so astonished King James and put him to his Wits end For as to the Princes Forces their Number was not valuable and if pressed very hard would not too obstinately stand it out because it was evident they had a Retreat in their thoughts and accordingly had provided for it The desertion in his Army he could not much regard because it did not amount to 2000 Men till he ran away But as to those who intended to Joyn with the Prince of Orange his Army he would with dread behold the Storm coming upon him for he might observe the Cloud no bigger at first than a Mans hand increased so fast that it would quickly over spread the whole Heavens and prove so great a weight that it would bear down all before it for their Numbers would quickly swell very high and it could not be foreseen where and at what degree they would stop He might plainly see that they had thrown away the Scabbard and contemned the thoughts of asking quarter for as they could never hope for another opportunity to recover their Liberties if they failed in this so they very well knew the inexorable temper of King James that it would be to no great purpose to sue for his Mercy whereby being made desperate and abetted moreover by the whole Nation he must expect the utmost that could be done by the united Vigour of Courage Revenge the Recovery of Liberty and Despair all which would make up too strong a Composition for King James his tender Stomach and turn his thoughts from fighting to contrive the best way to save his Life and this was the Storm that drove him away from Salisbury Observations upon the Attainder of the Late Duke of Monmouth THAT which is done by King Lords and Commons is so Sacred as not to be called in question by any power on Earth and what they do is so very good that the Wit of Man cannot devise any constitution that can proceed with more Justice or be less subject to err than they when rightly in Conjunction And therefore whoever he be that proposes to have any of their Acts reviewed must take care to set his words in great order by reason that that which in an Inferiour Court might be called error will scarcely indure the soft name of a mistake if done by King Lords and Commons But however it does appear that they have reconsider'd what they have done and thereupon have many times found that they might do better than to adhere to their first resolve especially in cases of Bills of Attainder which for the most part have rather been expedient than that the strict Rules of Justice were pursued and though in so doing their wrath did seem to burn very hot yet in effect for little more than a moment and even to end with the blow that struck off the Criminals Head for upon the Petition of his Heir his Blood has seldom been deny'd to be restored and this proceeds from the great humanity of this Government The Law of England being a Law of Mercy does in many Cases appoint a grievous punishment rather in Terrorem than that the penalty should be rigorously exacted for which reason it is that so few Attainders are now in force If then those Cases have met with so much compassion the Case of the Duke of Monmouth may well hope for the like favour since there is not any argument for the reversing of any other Attainder that cannot be urg'd with as great force in the case of the Duke and besides there is no president of the like case to be found and whilest it remains in force is of dangerous Consequence The Law is so very careful to do right in every case that it will not allow that any Man be judg'd without being heard or at least that a convenient time be allotted him for it if he think fit to appear and it does also require that the fact be fully and sufficiently proved without both of which no Man can be convicted of any offence in the ordinary course of Justice and this is and has ever been reputed the undoubted Right and Priviledge of every Subject of
I hope that on which of them soever Popery shall most depend when it is raising it self to the pitch that it designs that they will slip away its hold and thereby make that the occasion of its ruine that was designed for its establishment It must be confest that the Dissenters when they had the upper hand did not behave themselves with the utmost moderation towards others that differed from them but yet our high Church men can never answer either as Protestants or Politicians the procuring of such severe Laws as were made at the late Kings Restauration and the pushing of them too with so much violence upon the Dissenters if many times those Laws were not stretcht and extended beyond their true meaning and natural construction And with such fury did they carry on their Revenge that had they been told they knew not of what Spirit they were they would not have borne so gentle a Reproof with any sort of patience whilst in the mean time they treated the Papists rather as Friends than otherwise neither did they slack their furious prosecution till they found the House was ready to fall about their Ears and so were necessitated to adjourne their Proceedings till they could be at better leisure And as this was very pleasing to the Papists so it was no less an acceptable piece of Service to make the terms of Communion so strict and strait-laced and to set the Church upon so narrow a foundation that it was impossible for it to stand upright very long but must in a short time incline to one hand or another if not fall flat to the ground Not to mention every thing but only to give a few Instances and those not the greatest nor most material neither First then the so frequent varying and altering the posture of Worship which must unavoidably distract people and cool their fervency in devotion Next the turning to the East when the Creed is said and reading the Scripture and Prayers in several parts of the Church or place of Worship as is now practised in our Cathedrals which is to suppose that God is not equally present in all parts of the place where people are met together to worship him or that he will hear and accept this Prayer in that place or that Prayer in another Then farther the Tautologies Repetitions and saying the same thing over and over in the Common Prayer which is that our Saviour reproved in the Devotion of the Pharisees and besides the requiring us to sit when the Second Lesson is read and to stand up at the Gospel though they happen to be the self-same part of Scripture which is nothing less than to injoyn a contradiction These things and many others though they pretended they are indifferent and required only for order and decency yet did they exact the observance of them much more than other things that are requisite to make a Man a good Christian So that though these things may not be superstitious in themselves yet to require such an exact observance of them must be introductive of Superstition And they had laid such a Foundation as on which the Papists did propose to build surely and substantially especially when the high Church men were raising a Superstructure upon it by the arbitrary Doctrines which they gave out in the Pulpits and in all other Discourses in which they asserted the Divinity of Kings setting him no other bounds to his Power but what his Will should prescribe together with the Doctrine of Non-resistance and to extend it even to our thoughts and whoever would not subscribe their assent and consent to these things they would write upon their back Traditur Diabolo and assign them Hell and Damnation for their portion no less than if they had denied the Articles of the Christian Faith but besides when they declared that they would rather be Papists than Presbyterians the Papists did hope that they should have little more to do in bringing their work to perfection than to sit by and direct what they would have done especially when they saw the high Church-men contend so furiously for the Succession as if their All had depended upon it as well as it was the only hopes the Papists had left them who were further confirmed in their expectations when upon the discovery of the Popish Plot by Oats these Church-men became Advocates for it and with so much Zeal and Industry endeavourd to lessen and take off the credit of the Discovery and yet no sooner was an Accusation of that sort brought against the Protestants but they undertook to demonstrate the clearness of it though most other people lookt upon it as a sham and peice of Forgery of the Papists contrivance to take off the Odium of their own Plot that was a true one but however these Church-men as if they hoped hereby to make their fortunes had nothing in their Mouths but blood and slaughter bawling out for full and speedy Justice against all those whose Names were mentioned in that Plot scarcely allowing them that play for their lives which the Law gives to every Subject and condemning in their Judgments every one before he had received his Trial and being out of patience if any one was acquitted And many of these Men lookt upon the Habeas Corpus Act as an unrighteous Law because it helped several to their liberty who were clapt up though nothing could be charged upon them Thus did they proceed to the satisfaction of the Papists till the King being puffed up with his Success against the Duke of Monmouth he clapt spurs to them to make them mend their rate whereby he ran them out of breath and then instead of going on they fell to kicking at him for now they can preach against Popery and don 't stick to say it openly that the King has not kept his word and indeed speak of him and his Government in sawcy and unmannerly Language and let fall such words against his Proceedings as they would heretofore have called Seditious had they come out of other peoples mouths yet now they reckon themselves the only Champions against Popery and the chief Supports of the Laws and Liberties because they say and do those things in ten times a greater degree for which they used to call others disaffected and thereby greedily lick up their own Vomit They wonder now that any do absent themselves from the Church and say if Popery do come in the fault will wholly lie at their Doors who at this time separate from the Church But soft and fair they make too much haste for the blame will not wholly rest with the Dissenters for neither have they yet approved themselves such worthy Patriots If they are ruined their blood is upon their own heads and they must thank themselves for it Though the Dissenters are to blame yet to lay all the fault at their Door it may as well be said which is ridiculous to affirm that he has as great
constituted by God himself But that cannot be so for it would follow that God is unjust which he cannot be There neither is nor was any Government of that sort but only that of the Jews the rest of the World were left to themselves to frame such a Government as suited best to their Inclinations and to make such Rules and Laws as they could best obey and be governed by Ours is compounded of an absolute Monarchy and a Common-wealth and the original of it we have from the Saxons But be it what it will or whence it will it is without question that the first original of our Kings was that the people found it for their advantage to set one over them because of his Wisdom Valour and Justice and therefore they gave him several Prerogatives above the rest of the People that he might be the better able to govern and defend them for there is none of the Kings Prerogatives but are for the good of the Nation if rightly imployed But it will be a strange conclusion to suppose that the People obliged themselves to submit to the Posterity of that Man whom they first chose for their King because of his extraordinary Endowments let them be what they would and never so unfit for the Government For the next of blood may be incapable of governing in several respects suppose a Fool or Lunatick by his Principles if he aim at Arbitrary Power by his Religion if he be a Papist or a Heathen or by his practises before he comes to the Crown to destroy the Religion and Government by Law Establisht Now this I do not say to argue that the Election of the King is in the People though I think much might be said in that case neither is it now the question but that which I speak for is to prove that the next of blood has not so absolute an Inherent Right to the Crown but that he may for the good of the Nation be set aside There is yet another Inconvenience to allow the next of blood to have so absolute a Right to the Crown because the Possession of the Crown takes away all disabilities but only such as are by Act of Parliament which being so every King must thank his Successor for every moment that he lives if he kill him himself he cannot be questioned for it because as soon as the one is dead the other is King for here the King never dies If therefore the next of blood has so absolute a Right the King is very unsafe For though the D. be not inclined to shorten his Brothers days nay though he be averse to it yet in obedience to the Pope and his Priests it must be done either by himself or some other hand and then how long we expect his Majesties life If Kings were good Men an absolute Monarchy were the best Government but we see that they are subject to the same Infirmities with other Men and therefore it is necessary to bound their Power And by reason that they are flesh and blood and the Nation is so apt to be bad by their Example I believe was that wherefore God was averse to let the Jews have a King till they had Kings they never revolted so wholly from him when their Kings were good they were obedient to him but when they were idolatrous then the People went mad of Idols I hope it is no Regis ad exemplum that makes our Nation so lewd and wicked at this day A SPEECH AGAINST Arbitrary and Illegal IMPRISONMENTS BY THE Privy Councill THere is not any thing that an Englishman can claim as his Right that we value more than Freedom and Liberty I mean that of the Body because Imprisonment is a sort of Death and less tolerable to some than Death it self For by it we are deprived of all our Earthly Comforts What is a Man the better for having never so great an Estate never so great Honour or what else is desirable in this World if he is restrained of his Liberty Now there are several sorts of Restraints or Imprisonments and they are all forbidden by our Law unless the cause be very just and reasonable not for bare surmises or vain stories that a Man shall be imprisoned and hurried from his aboad but only for such cause as shall prove that it is for the good of the Government and the support of it that this or that Man is imprisoned or restrained Although the Law has taken very good care yet the Subject is often abused in his Liberty sometimes by the Courts in West-Hall sometimes by other Courts and particular Magistrates But the greatest cause of complaint proceeds from the Privy Council The Privy Council that is though they have been much to blame in this particular yet it is not a new thing that they practice but this Itch of sending for and imprisoning the Subject upon vain pretences has descended from one Privy Council to another like an Infirmity that runs in a Blood for no sooner is a Man made a Privy Councellor but this Spirit rests upon him This Mischief was early espied even in Henry III's time and several Lawes have been made to restrain the Privy Council By the 9. H. 3. Chap. 29. it 's declared that No Free-man shall be taken or imprisoned or be disseised of his Free-hold or Liberties or Free Customes or be out-lawed or any other way destroyed nor we will not pass upon him nor condemn him but by Lawful Judgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land By the 5. Edw. III. 9. It is Enacted That no Man from thenceforth shall be attacht by any Accusation nor fore-judged of Life or Limb nor his Lands Tenements Goods nor Chattels seized into the Kings Hands against the Form of the Great Charter and the Law of the Land By 25. Edw. III. Chap. 4. It is declared That from thenceforth none shall be taken by Petition or Suggestion made to our Lord the King or to his Council unless it be by Indictment or Presentment of his good and lawful people of the same Neighbourhood where such Deeds be done in due manner or by Process made by Writ original at the Common Law Nor that none be out of his Franchises nor of his Free-holds unless he be duly brought in answer and fore-judged of the same by the Course of the Law And if any thing be done against the same it shall be redressed and holden for none By 28. Edw. III. Chap. 3. It is Establisht That no Man of what Estate or Condition that he be shall be put out of Land or Tenement nor taken nor imprisoned nor disinherited nor put to death without being brought in answer by due process of Law And by 37. Edw. III. Chap. 18. It says Tho' it be contained in the Great Charter That no Man be taken nor imprisoned nor put out of his Freehold without process of the Law nevertheless divers people make false Suggestions to the King himself
send for any person but without that they cannot and therefore I do not see wherein a Justice of Peace has a greater power than the Privy Council or if he had yet it would not be so great a Mischief for he can only send for any person that is in the County but the Privy Council are not limited to this or that County but their power extends all over England But besides it is unjust to be punisht without a cause and restraint or being debarr'd of Liberty is a punishment and whoever he be that would have the Privy Council to exercise this Power when he has known what it is to be brought up by a Messenger upon an Idle Story let him then tell me how he likes it and answer me if he can A SPEECH AGAINST THE Bishops Voting In Case of BLOOD OF all the things that were started to hinder the success of the last Parliament and is like to be so great a stumbling-block in the next That of the Bishops Voting in Case of Blood was and will be the chief Now they that deny that the Bishops have right to Vote in Case of Blood do labour under two great difficulties first because this is a new thing at least it is very long since the like Case has come into debate And next because they are put to prove a negative which is a great disadvantage But Truth will appear from under all the false glosses and umbrages that men may draw over it And I doubt not to make it evident that the Bishops have no right to Vote in Case of Blood at least I hope I shall not be guilty of obstinacy if I do not alter my opinion till what I have to say be answered It is strange the Bishops are so jealous of their Cause as not to adventure it on their great Diana the Canon Law by which they are expresly forbidden to meddle in case of Blood Perhaps they would do by the Canon Law as it is said by the Idolaters in the Old Testament that part of the timber they made a god and fell down and worshipped it the rest of it they either burnt in the fire or cast it to the dunghil For they tell you that the Canon Law was abolisht by the Reformation and that none but Papists yeild obedience to it and therefore now they are not tyed up by the Canon Law but may sit and Vote in case of Blood if they please I should be very glad if they were as averse to Popery in every thing else and particularly that they would leave Ceremonies indifferent and not contend so highly for them whereby they make the breach wider and heighten the differences among Protestants in the doing of which they do the Pope's work most effectually I wish they would consent to have a new Book of Canons for those that are now extant are the old Popish Canons I like Bishops very well but I wish that Bishops were reduced to their primitive Institution for I fear whilst there is in England a Lord Bishop the Church will not stand very steddily But I will leave this though I need say no more and proceed to other things that are very clear as I conceive My Lord Cook in the Second Part of his Institutes the first Chapter treating of Magna Charta when he reckons up the Priviledges of the Church he tells us that Clergy-men shall not be elected or have to do in secular Office and therefore he tells us that they are discharged of such and such burdens that Lay persons were subject to and good reason it should be so that they might with greater ease and security attend the business of their Function that is to govern and instruct the Church But whether they had these Immunities granted them that they might study the Pleas of the Crown and Law Cases or else that they might apply themselves to the work of the Ministry let any Man judge for saith he Nemo militans Deo implicet se negotiis secularibus And if to sit and judge in case of Blood be not a secular Matter I have no more to say and I hope my Lord Cook 's Authority will be allowed And because as I conceive that my Lord Cook 's Authority may pass Muster in this point I will offer some things out of him that will make it evident that the Bishops are only Lords of Parliament and not Peers and if so it is against the Law of England for them to sit and judge upon any Peer for his Life for the Law says that every Man shall be tried by his Peers In the Second Part of his Institutes the first Chapter he tells us that every Arch-Bishop that holds of the King per Baroniam and called by Writ to Parliament is a Lord of Parliament But in the 14th Chapter when he reckons up who are Pares in the Lords House he says not a word of the Bishops but repeats all the other Degrees of Lords as Dukes c. And without doubt he would not have made so great an omission if the Bishops ought to have been taken into the number Besides this if the Bishops be Pares how comes it to pass that an Act of Parliament shall be good to which their consent is not had passed by the King Lords Temporal and Commons But it was never allowed for an Act of Parliament where the Lords Temporal had not given their Vote And for proof hereof see my Lord Cook in his Chap. De Asportatis Religiosorum where he gives you several Instances of Acts of Parliament that passed and the Bishops absent But then in the Third Part of his Institutes he there puts the matter out of all controversie and shews that Bishops are to be tried by Commoners for says he in the second Chap. treating of Petty Treason None shall be tried by his Peers but only such as sit there ratione Nobilitatis as Dukes c. and reckons the several Degrees and not such as are Lords of Parliament ratione Baroniarum quas tenent in Jure Ecclesiae as Arch-Bishops and Bishops and formerly Abbots and Priors but they saith he shall be tryed by the Country that is by the Free-holders for that they are not of the Degree of Nobility So that with submission this is as clear as any thing in the World If the point be so clear that the Bishops may Vote in case of Blood it would do well that some Presidents were produced by which it might appear that they have ever done it at least that they have made use of it in such times when the Nation was in quiet and matters were carried fairly for Instances from Times of Confusion or Rebellion help rather to pull down than support a Cause But my Lord Cook in his Chap. that I mentioned even now De Asportatis Religiosorum gives you several Presidents where the Bishops when Capital Matters were to be debated in the Lords House withdrew themselves particularly 2 of
my thoughts what is to be done In the first place I do propose that every Man of them shall on their knees confess their fault to all the Commons and that to be done at this Bar one by one Next That as far as they are able that they refund all the Money they have received for secret Service Our Law will not allow a Thief to keep what he has got by stealth but of course orders restitution and shall these proud Robbers of the Nation not restore their ill gotten goods And lastly I do propose that they be Voted incapable of serving in Parliament for the future or of injoying any Office Civil or Military and order a Bill to be brought in to that purpose For it 's not fit that they who were so false and unjust in that Trust should ever be trusted again This Sir is my Opinion but if the House shall incline to any other way I shall readily comply provided a sufficient mark of Infamy be set on them that the People may know who bought and Sold them A SPEECH For the Sitting of PARLIAMENTS And against FAVOURITES A King of England at the head of his Parliament is in his full strength and power and in his greatest Splendor and Glory It is then that he can do great things and without a Parliament he is not very formidable Therefore when Kings leave off the use of Parliaments and rely upon the Advice of particular Favourites they forsake their chiefest Interest they lay aside the Staff that supports them to lean upon a broken Reed that will run into their hands and this is proved by the Example of former Kings What Kings perform'd such Enterprizes and did such wonderful things as those who still consulted their Parliaments And who had more the Command of the Peoples Purses than those Kings who met the Natives frequently in Parliament As Witness Hen. I. Edw. I. Edw. III. Hen. V. Hen. VIII Q. Eliz. and what Kings were so mean and obscure despised by their Neighbours and abhorr'd by their Subjects as those who left off the use of Parliaments and doted upon their Favourites As witness Will. II. King John Henry III. Edward II. Richard II. Henry VI. And I think it 's undeniable that when the King leaves off Parliaments he forsakes his Interest he refuses the good and chooses the bad I wish it could not be said that for two years last past the use of Parliaments has almost been laid aside It 's too true that Parliaments have been delayed and there is but a little between delaying and denying and the first step to a denyal is to delay Every Man knows the great need we have had of a Parliament these Seventeenth Months and why has it not met till now It 's very well known how earnestly it was desired by all good Protestants and true Englishmen and what applications have been made to His Majestie that it might sit and it could not be obtain'd till now And it is not to be forgotten how often it has been Prorogued and the Notice that has been given to the Nation of the several Prorogations the first time that we heard of them was by the Gazett in which is seldom any thing of truth and then out comes a Proclamation for a Prorogation about a day or two before the day of meeting When Gentlemen have disposed their Affairs that they may attend at the Parliament and possibly were on their Journey towards London upon the Road they meet the News of the Prorogation very good usage and there is nothing to be said in Justification of such short Notice but that when His Majesty by His Proclamation had appointed a farther time for the meeting of the Parliament that in plain English no Man must believe it would meet For if Gentlemen did believe it they would prepare for it and if they are prepared it 's but reasonable that sufficient Notice should be given to prevent them Certainly they who advised the King in this matter intended that none of His Majesties Proclamations should have any credit For His Majesty he put out several Proclamations against the Papists and we see how they are regarded not the least obedience yielded to them And this giving of such short notice was certainly done on purpose that those Proclamations should neither be obeyed nor believed Thus is the K. abused thus does he loose the hearts of his People and thus is the Nation abused What will become of us when we cannot believe what His Majesty says Out of Parliament the King cannot speak to his People in a more notable way than by Proclamation and as the matter is order'd these are not regarded In a Subject nothing is more Infamous than to say of him that his word is not to be relyed on he does not regard what he says And therefore what Villains are they who by their Advice do bring the King but into the suspition of it This delaving of Parliaments seems to portend the laying of Parliaments aside and if so an Army will follow for the King must govern either by a Parliament or an Army for one of them he must have now the way to get rid of Parliaments is this First Although they meet sometimes yet something must be started to hinder their success or if that wont do Prorogue or Dissolve them before any thing be finisht and thus Parliaments will be made useless and this being done it will not be long before they become burdensome and then away with them for good and all Kings only then grow out of conceit with Parliaments when their Favourites are so overgrown and their Actions are so exorbitant that they will not indure to be scann'd by a Parliament And therefore to save themselves they perswade the King to keep off the Parliament though it be to his great hurt For the last Trump at the Day of Judgment will not be more terrible to the World than the sound of an approaching Parliament is to unjust Ministers and Favourites That State is sick of a grievous Distemper when Kings neglect their Parliaments and adhere to Favourites and certainly that woe is then fallen upon that Nation which Solomon denounces for says he woe to that Nation whose King is a Child And without question he meant a Child in Understanding and not in Years We have had in England Kings who when they were Children by the help of a wise Council have govern'd very well But after that they took matters into their own hands it went very ill with England as Richard II. Henry VI. who whilest they were Children the Government was steer'd aright but their understanding not growing as fast as their Years they assumed the Government before they were ready for it and so managed matters that it 's better not to name them than to reckon them in the Catalogue of the Kings And there is yet another reason why great Favourites should advise against Parliaments Kings that dote too much upon
meritorious to promote their Religion without regard had to the way or means of effecting it though it be by Butchering their King Murthering Father or Children prostituting their Wife or overthrowing the Government Be it never so unnatural or repugnant to Gods Commands and agreeable to these two are all the rest of their Principles So that I would fain see how it is possible to live in quiet with a People whose Religion obliges them to destroy all Converse or Humane Society to Murther their Neighbours Assassinate their King and Subvert the Government when it is in their Power for my part I cannot see how they can or are fit to live but with People of their own Faith and belief Brutes and Christians can never live and Converse together for none but Men of their Principles can live in safety with them And agreeable to their Principles has been their Practice all along What Rebellion or to use their own word Commotions have we had but their hand has been chiefly in it I know they would cast the Odium of the late Wars upon the Presbyterians they may well be afforded to lye for their Cause who will do every thing else for it though never so Inhumane or Unnatural they may well deny that Plot when they have the Impudence to deny this and to cast this also upon the Presbyterians but why should they not lye in these cases whose Religion is a Lye But it 's very well known who began the Late War there is no Man but is sensible that the Papists carryed on the business against the Scots It is too notorious that a great Woman imployed her Agents to the Papists to incourage them to contribute to that Work I 'll not name her because of the Act of Oblivion and besides She is dead I believe every one knows who I mean The Papists have renounced the Government they have forfeited the Benefit they might have by the Laws in that they will not take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy or when they do swallow them it is with such Mental Evasions that they don't think themselves to be obliged or bound by them which in effect is a denying them and what are these two Oaths but a reasonable Security that the Government requires them and all others to give and he that denyes to assure the Government that he will to the best of his power maintain it does in plain English acknowledge another power and that when he has an opportunity he will do his best to destroy this and bring in that Is that Government obliged to preserve them who will destroy it Are they to have any benefit of the Laws who will not obey them They have renounced the Government they have denyed the Kings Authority and therefore they are to be used as Enemies to both and then what severity is it to banish such People For what must we do It 's plain that whilest they are here we shall never be in quiet there is something in their Religion that obliges them to be unquiet for what reason had they at this time to plot or disturb us had not they all things at Hearts-ease they cannot expect to be in so good a condition if they had a Prince of their own choosing they were free from all chargeable and troublesome Imployments and Offices their Estates were not burdened with the Forfeitures due by Law an easie hand was layed upon them and the way to preferment was by being of their Religion they had got into almost all the profitable Imployments they were above and we below they had what they desired and yet all this would not do But if this be too much then let us do with them as the Children of Israel did with the Gibeonites they had made a League with them that they should live amongst them but least they might do them harm They made them Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water Joshua 9. notwithstanding the League And if the Papists must live amongst us let us give their Estates to the King to ease our own and reduce them to such a Condition that since they will not live at peace with us let us put it out of their power to hurt us If they must live amongst us and have their Estates I shall humbly propose that we may know them let them wear a particular Habit or carry some Mark whereby they may be distinguish't from the rest of the Nation In Rome the Whores wear a peculiar Garb In the time of a Plague we set a Mark upon the House that is Infected and shall these People have none who are the Pest of the Land it 's to them that we owe all our Disquiet and let us know how to avoid them I cannot think of any other way how to be secure against them we have no great benefit by convicting of them kissing goes so much by favour and they are so tender a place that this Man and the other is pickt out to be exempted from the Penalty of the Law there is such Picking that few are left These are my Thoughts and if any thing I have proposed may be of use I am very glad of it if not I hope I shall have your Pardon for troubling of you A SPEECH OF THE CORRUPTION OF THE JUDGES THere is not under the Sun a better if so good a Government as ours But the best constituted Government in the World is subject to one great fatality and that is whatever benefit we have by the Laws at least most of the Priviledges we enjoy by it depend upon the Will and pleasure of those who are to see to the execution of the Laws For Laws that are not put in execution are vain and empty things signifying nothing for Execution is the Life of the Law and without that they are a dead Letter Laws unexecuted are not far unlike to a Gun which if rightly used is a Weapon of great defence but otherwise of no great use and if it be charged it may do much mischief unless it be levelled at the right mark So our Laws if they are not executed what advantage arises to us more than from a wast paper And if they are made use of yet if they are not directed to their proper end they may hurt those they ought not So that it is out of doubt that they who are intrusted with the execution of the Laws it is an indispensable duty incumbent on them that they take care not only that the Laws be duly put in execution but also that they pursue their proper end and design in short that neither the Innocent be condemned nor the guilty acquitted Therefore the execution of the Law is so clear and undoubted a right of every Subject that no power whatever can dispense with it And they whose Duty it is to see it done if they either pervert or hinder the Law from having its course are highly criminal and ought to be called to a strict account
or the King being found unmeet to sway the Scepter is therefore laid aside and another chosen into his place or else the Government is changed into a Commonwealth The first of these that is when the King by a new agreement is continued to Reign is the easiest and surest come at because the irregularities in such a case are not many so that remedies are as obvious as the grievances are sensible and the King finding what it is to provoke the Nation readily complies with whatever is proposed lest he should make the people desperate and there is this farther in the case that being jealous of the King's intentions the people no longer depend upon his Word and Promises but take care to have effectual remedies As to the second thing that is a Regency this is a kind of a mysterious thing for the King is neither altogether Deposed nor does he Govern but the Administration is committed to another who in nature of a Guardian does all in his name yet under the Survey and subject to the Controul of the two Houses of Parliament But this seldom continues for either the King is restrained or the Government is changed into a Common-wealth So that this not answering the and proposed it oftentimes happens that when the King is found unmeet to govern by himself that he is laid aside for good and all and another is elected in his stead which is done when his administration is become exorbitant and that he is deaf to the Petitions and Complaints of his people for such a change is not made for the sake of him to whom the Crown is given but that the Government may be amended Now tho this is seldome done but for very good cause yet through the folly of some and knavery of others it does not often answer expectation For tho there is much to do and a great deal that is needful yet what through the unskilfulness of those who have the conduct of Affairs and the unfair proceedings of others who out of favour to the Deposed King make it their business to lay rubs and difficulties is the way and to render every thing impracticable whereby the work is very often left imperfect But besides this tho the people have then every thing in their power yet a very little matter takes off the dread and apprehension of any danger either for the present or time to come and consequently makes them remiss if not altogether to neglect to make such provisions as are necessary and this for two reasons First Because as soon as the King is deposed the minds of the people are put at ease either from a belief that all the Calamities which befell them during his reign proceeded directly from himself without the advice or improvement of any other Or else because that no other man will be wicked to such a degree as he was which certainly are two very great mistakes For it was never yet seen where the irregularities of a Reign were many but that some about the King put ill thoughts into his head or helpt to improve that which he had conceived And in the next place he that succeeds is more likely to do as the other has done than that no man will ever be guilty of the like mis-behaviour Secondly Because it is the nature of mankind to be transported with every change that is with their consent and especially in such cases as these where it makes so great an alteration so that for some time their consideration departs from them and they depend so implicitly upon words and promises as if there needed nothing more to settle the Nation and then as an unavoidable consequence of it the best construction is put upon all that is done even to look upon the irregularities of the new elected Prince if he shall commit any to proceed from his care of the Publick Nay altho he do imploy the Ministers and Creatures of the Deposed King this shall be imagined to arise from the same regard to the Nation because it will be supposed that he either finds or has made them fitter than any other to serve him and the publick till the ill effects are felt of having such persons near the King But it is not easily to be imagined that such persons are imployed for the sake of the publick unless their parts and abilities eminently exceed the rest of mankind which would be little less than a miracle or else at least that they are become new men to all intents and purposes and that ought to be as evident as the Sun at Noon-day If a Prince entertain such men and knows what they are such evil Ministers are more likely to make him a bad Prince than that he can make them just and faithful Councellors to him and the publick If none of these things I have mentioned happen upon a Revolution then there remains nothing but to change the Government into a Commonwealth But that is seldome done till the case is so desperate as that nothing else will do yet it most commonly happens either when the Father and Son successively have governed Tyrannically or else when one Prince is deposed and the next proves as bad as he indeed unless it be at the last extremity it ought not to be thought on because it is easier to repair an old Government than to make a new one and besides there needs a great deal of time to bring the latter into shape and especially a Commonwealth where so much Vertue in the people is requisite to make and continue it such of which sort of Government I will only say That no doubt but it has its particular excellency for as no Government is altogether perfect so every Government has something that is particularly good in it And here give me leave to say a word in my own vindication I find I have been accused to be a Commonwealths man but were I permitted to speak for my self I would say That I like this Constitution under King Lords and Commons better than any other and I defie any man to mention that thing which can give just occasion to think otherwise of me I am sure there is no man so hardy as to tell me so to my face yet I say withal That if through the Administration of those who are trusted with the Executive Power or by any other means my liberty shall become precarious I will then be for any other form of Government under which my Liberty and Property may be more secure and till then I don't desire to change And in this I think I am not much in the wrong but this only by the by Now to apply what I have said to our present case I think King James was justly deposed for what part of the Constitution had not he put out of order and then how can such a man be meet to sway the Scepter and in the next place as things stood at that time all circumstances considered who was so
or have said that within such a time there will be a change or any other thing that tends to disturb the Government you ought to present it If any Parson or Vicar not having taken the Oaths has officiated at his Benefice since the 2d of Feb. last you ought to present them for it is as much an offence in them to officiate when they have not qualified themselves as if they had never been presented and their contempt is very great Gentlemen Tho I have not mentioned any other parts of your business yet I know you will not neglect them that which I have spoke to does so immediately concern us that I thought it necessary to inlarge upon it And since God has so wonderfully delivered us we could never answer it if we do not our parts for if we perish through our own neglect our blood lyes at our own doors and we deserve the burial of an Ass if we dye like Fools but I trust we shall not nor do I suspect you will be remiss in your parts and therefore I will trouble you no further but dismiss you to your business and I pray God direct you in it A Persuasive to UNION UPON King JAMES's Design to Invade England in the Year 1692. PEace in a Nation is like Health to a Natural Body whose Value is not sufficiently known but by the want of it God Almighty is wonderfully gracious to this Land not only in continuing to us the Blessing of Peace but teaching us the Worth of it by letting us see the Nations round about us at War and groaning under all the miserable Effects of it whilest it is kept at a distance from us and we are only at some Expence which is unavoidable all Circumstances considered unless we will submit to that Monster the French King and indeed God has done so many and great things for us that nothing is wanting to compleat our Happiness but our selves Of all the Mercies this Nation has lately receiv'd I think our Deliverance from King James was none of the least if it be a Mercy to be deliver'd from Popery and Slavery That we were in great danger of it I think 't was very evident from what we had suffer'd and King James had apparently further design'd to do had he been let alone a little longer for his Government was become so exorbitant that Men of all Persuasions many of the Papists not excepted did think his Yoak intollerable and that it was highly just to be relieved against his Oppression For when the Prince of Orange Landed there was scarcely any Man that appear'd for King James nay a great many of his Army deserted him which coldness and neglect could not probably proceed from any thing so much as from the ill opinion they had of his Cause Now if any that were then so indifferent and passive have now conceived a better opinion of him it may well be suspected that a particular pique or some sinister byass guided their Motion at that time and if so it 's no matter what side they are on for those who are govern'd in such Cases by any thing but a publick principle are easily turn'd about by every breath of Air. Nor can I imagine what can give any Man a better opinion of King James than he had of him before he went into France the only place as he says he could retire to with safety considering how improbable it is that any instructions which that Tyrant may give him will make him less inclined to Popery and Arbitrary Power I suppose it is no news to you that King James did lately intend to Land with a French Force I am persuaded that most people believe it they that don't may as well doubt whether there was a Gun-powder Plot for it is as plain as a thing of that nature can be which has not actually taken effect and it is as certain that he and those his good friends had been here several weeks since had they not been kept back by those Easterly Winds which continued so long Yet that did not break their measures it only delay'd the matter for at last they were ready to put all things on Board but were happily prevented by the wonderful Success of our Fleet for which the Name of the great God be prais'd The defeating of their design is a Mercy never to be forgotten for no design that we know of that was ever form'd against this Nation could be more bloody and destructive than this would have been For King James in his Declaration does expressly say That his intent is to spend the remainder of his Reign as he has always design'd since his coming to the Crown These words speak a great deal of Comfort to England for they cannot mean less than what he has already done When he took the Customs against Law Carried on Sham-plots by his countenance and bribery to destroy honest and worthy Men When he bereaved the Corporations of their Liberties and Franchises When he turn'd out Judges for acting according to their Consciences and filling the Benches with the Raff of the Gown When he avowedly set up Popery and erected publick Chapels in all parts of the Kingdom When he placed notorious Papists in the Seat of Justice and brought a Jesuit into his Councels which was more than any Popish Prince but himself ever did When he set up a High Commission When he set up in Time of Peace a numerous Army to the Terror of his Subjects and allowed so little for their Quarters as it amounted to little less than Free-quarter When he assumed a Dispensing Power and declared he would be obey'd without reserve These and a great many other Irregularities were the product of his Reign and it is not very probable that he is brought to a better temper by any thing that he has seen or learnt by his Conversation with the French King and it is as little probable that King would have treated him as he has done had he discover'd in King James any disposition to govern more mildly and reasonably for the future How much he is influenced to the contrary is very evident by designing to bring in the French upon us the people of all others this Nation ought most to dread â—n some Histories they are called the Old Enemy of England and very truly may be called the irreconcilable Enemy of England For who ever looks into Story will find that France has occasiond more trouble to England than all the World besides nay there has scarcely been any ill design against the Nation but France has had a hand in it as if their very Climate did necessitate them to be at Enmity with us If any of our Kings has design'd to enslave us they have entred into a Confederacy with France as the People of all others most likely to serve their purpose and it has always gone ill with England when our Kings have made an intimate friendship with the French
to whom his obstinacy will recommend him If any do think they were in the right when they served as Bawds to the arbitrary Iusts of the two late Kings I heartily pitty them for their case is desperate yet I am perswaded that none of them would of choice had that power exercised upon themselves and if so they will then grant that what they would not have done to themselves is not lawful for them to do or bring upon another if they shall still adhere to what they did either out of fear or else out of hopes of preferment they must make it appear that this King has resolved upon the same methods that were taken by the two late Kings or else declare that they think that nothing else will make him a great and glorious Prince Perehaps some men cannot bring themselves to make a publick or direct recantation of what they have done or of a suddaen to separate from their Party but yet they may do things so by degrees and so fairly too and without any noise as will testifie to the world that they intend to pursue another course As for example if any who were active in the late Reigns do now meddle very little if at all in publick matters and modestly stand aside as it were to make room for others who professed that principle which brought about this Revolution This will let every man see that they are now of another temper But if such persons do still continue to meet and consult upon publick Affairs as heretofore when the power was in their hands and do bandy to support every man of their party at any rate without considering their abilities or any objection that may be made against them on the score of their immorality or unjust dealings but implicitly because they are of their party resolve to give them the preference before any other This carries a very ill countenance with it I cannot imagine what they propose to themselves by such diligence unless they hope for or expect to see the like administration again in England for as it discovers no sort of inclination to accommodate differences so they cannot but be sensible it will irritate and provoke those of another opinion On the other side I think they are very much to blame who take unnecessary occasions to reproach their neighbours with what they did in the late times They that are thus liberal of their tongues would do well to consider whether they were never guilty of some abitrary or unjust action and whether they have not at some time or other done something that has helpt to support some of the illegal and unreasonable proceedings of the late times for we are all frail and had need to examine our selves before we condemn other people now if any persons are guilty in either of these particulars silence becomes them much better than reproaching others however reproaching of men with their faults is not the proper way to bring them to a right sence of their errors whilest a Sore is rubbed there 's no hopes of healing it and men are to be instructed by reason and not railing Besides railing is so poor a revenge or satisfaction so that if I could not have a better I would let it alone for as I should do my self a great prejudice by it so I would not give my enemy that satisfaction who must needs be pleased to see me torment and fret my self this I am sure of that to be ever and anon twiting people with their faults can breed no good blood and I wish it has not some ill effects amongst us You see Gentlemen I only touch things lightly and apply them to no body but leave that to every man as he shall find it concerns him if any thing I have said shall do good I shall much rejoyce at it if not I hope there 's no hurt in mentioning such truths as these For I think I may possitively affirm that a Union is absolutely necessary to make us a happy people and that there is not a more certain fore-runner of a peoples destruction than to see them divided into Parties and Factions I could proceed into a long discourse upon this Subject but that I may avoid being tedious to you I will apply my self to the particulars of their inquiry The first of which is High Treason of which there are several sorts of species To compass or imagin the death of the King or Queen and that declared by some Overt-acts and all those who in other offences would be accessary before or after the Fact are Principlas in this Case To Levy War against the King in his Realm or to adhere to the King's Enemies in this Realm or to give them comfort here or elsewhere but a Conspiracy to Levy is not Treason unless the War be actually levyed tho the contrary opinion prevailed in the late times to the murdering of several worthy men To Counterfieit the King 's Great or Privy Seal or his Money To bring in false or Counterfeit Money knowing it to be such to make payment with it To kill the Chancellor Treasurer or the King's Justices being in their Places doing their Offices all Treason per Stat. 25 Ed. 3. c. 2. To Clip File or wash Money per 3 H. 5. To Counterfeit Sign Manual Privy Signet or Privy Seal 1. M. 6. To extol any foreign Power 1 Eliz. For a Priest or Jesuit to come and abide within this Palace 27 Eliz. To Absolve any from their Allegiance or to be Absolved 3 Jac. Petty Treason A Servant kills his Master a Wife her Husband or a Priest his Ordinary these are made so Capital by reason of the power or the Authority they have over them FELONY EIther against the Person or Goods of another Against the Person To kill another either with Malice expressed or imployed is Murder without benefit of Clergy To cut out the Tongue designedly to to maim or disfigure another is Felony without benefit of Clergy So is Stabbing if a Weapon be not drawn or a Blow given by the party Slain So is Buggary with Man or Beast Rape Manslaughter is when two quarrel and before it can be supposed that their blood is cool they fight and one of them is slain here is benefit of Clergy Chance medly when by accident a man slays another or in his own defence being assaulted These the Law pardons of Course Against his Goods TO Rob on the High-way To take any thing privately from his person To steal Horses Designedly to burn any Stacks of Corn or Hay To Rob a Church To break into a House and take any thing thence by day or night To Rob any Booth in a Fair or Market are all Felony without Clergy The Accessaries to all these and other Felonies do fall within your inquiry For generlly where Clergy is taken from the Principal the Accessary before the Fact is to suffer Death And good reason is it that he who was partaker of
at this time to forbear their Meetings at least to be so moderate in their Numbers that it may appear they do not glory in their Multitudes and by this Moderation I hope they may induce others to have a better opinion of them and instead of taking them to be Men who practice against the Government they may be found to be Men of Peace and of a good Conscience and to be ready to stand by the Government against the Papists and all other Enemies and then the Government in due time may be prevailed upon to pass a Law for the uniting of Protestants A DSICOURSE Proving the Reasonableness OF THE Present REVOLUTION From the Nature of Government THat our Religion and Civil Rights were upon the Brink of Destruction I believe none doubts or is Displeased at our Deliverance except those who were Instrumental in bringing on our intended ruine or do wish for an Opportunity to finish it Ever since the Reformation the united Council of the whole Popish Interest has been at work to reduce this Nation to the Romish Yoak And first they attempted to do it by force but after many Trials they found that Method was ineffectual and that nothing could ruine England but it self and therefore all their Wits were imploy'd how they might set us at odds amongst our Selves that we might become our own Executioner And at last they carried their Design very far for it is not long since that we saw a sort of Men amongst us who were guilty of as much Folly as Solomon's foolish Woman that pulls down her House with her Hands and had so much ignorance or Villany as to pretend that all they did was for the Church and Government and tho' what they did was never so much against Law or void of Morality yet they termed every man disaffected who did not cry Amen to all their Proceedings and even most of the Clergy who might have been supposed to have had either more knowledge or Integrity Preach't up and justifyed in their Pulpits all the Irregularities that were then practiced with as much assurance and Zeal as if they had delivered the Oracles of God Whereas it was obvious to all Men of common Sense that the Consequence of these things must be to bring in Popery and Slavery for it was laid down as undoubted Doctrine That the King had a Natural Right to the Crown and That the King was not to be opposed in any case the sum of all which is That the King may commit all manner of Oppressions and we are bound to submit to it for Conscience sake which if sound Doctrine would make God Almighty unjust and the Author of Confusion contrary to what he has declared of himself in Holy Writ Perhaps not rightly understanding the true Nature of Government might occasion those Mistakes and I have that Charity for a great many that I do believe they were led out of the way for want of true Information in the Point and therefore for the rectifying of their Judgments and confirming of yours I will with your leave give my Thoughts in this Matter by which you will be the better able to Judge of the unreasonableness of those things that have been imposed upon us in point of our Duty to the Government Government in general and that there ought to be some sort of Government I take to be not only necessary but of Divine Right but the particular form is a Humane Ordinance and the Apostle is my Authority who has in express terms declared it to be such For all Forms are equal in themselves and that becomes preferable to the rest which best suits the Inclinations of the People in order to support the Common Good For had God liked any Model or Shape above the rest all the Governments under the Sun would have been of the same Form for in a thing of that absolute necessity he would not have left the World in the dark but either have expresly revealed it or discovered it to us by the light of Nature But we don't find in Holy Writ any such Intimation of his Pleasure nor has Nature yet inabled us to find it out For there never was nor is not is at this day any two Governments of the same shape but differ in some thing that is very Material and essential And if God had thought any one Form of Government to be better than the rest he would not have permitted that of the Israelites his peculiar People to have been altered but we find that the Model and Form of their Constitution was altered and changed no less than five times So that it is plain that God Almighty left every People the Jews excepted to frame such a constitution as well as to the measure of Power of those with whom they intrusted the Administration as of the Obedience of the Subjects whereby the publick Peace might be best preserved and that the reasonable and just extent of the Prerogative cannot be supposed to go further than what men in their wits and without constraint would judge was necessary to relieve the Subjects against the extremity of the Law in such Cases as could not be foreseen at the time the Government was agreed on and because in the two late Kings Reigns the Prerogative was advanced to an unreasonable height the better to accomplish the Work of Popery and Slavery I think I shall not mispend your time if I offer a few Words further upon this Point There is not any thing in our Law-Books to justify the stretching of the Prerogative so far but it is pretended that Authority is found for it in Scripture and if so the Word of God will justify that Oppression and Violence that our known Laws will not Countenance and then it will follow that the Law of God is not so just and equal as the Statutes and Ordinances of Men And without question it must be very extraordinary that the Bible should tell us any thing of our Government that is not to be found in our Statutes or Law Books I am perswaded that the Holy Scripture was never more wrested to serve a turn than of late it has been to maintain the Divine Right and absolute Power of Kings for which these Texts are chiefly insisted on By me Kings Reign Where the word of a King is there is Power and who may say unto him what doest thou Let every Soul be subject unto the higher Powers for there is no Power but of God The Powers that be are Ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake These and such like Texts of Scripture are to be taken in a limited Sence or else these two absurdities will follow First That God Almighty made the world for the satisfaction of the lust and pleasures of the Kings that are in the
have it or not for a power in a King to Oppress and Burden his Subjects is inconsistent with the true Nature and design of Prerogative which was given to the Crown to relieve the Subject where the Law was too keen the better to further the publick Peace If the Prerogative be set above the Law it will quickly devour it for there is no difference betwixt making the King Absolute and destroying the Law because then all our Laws and Statutes are only Rules during his pleasure and a King that desires to sit at ease will not find his reckoning in it for if the Prerogative be once raised above the Law he thereby quits his best Title to the Crown and leaves the decision of the Right to the Sword and then he that has the sharpest will prove by that Rule to have the best Right but he that has a better Title will not claim under the Sword What has been said may in a great measure expose that vile and ridiculous Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Nonresistance which the Example of David sufficiently refutes and no man can pretend to Justify but either because he wants common Sence or in hopes of Preferment will if he can outface all manner of Truth However it was so useful to carry on the Design of Popery and Slavery that all possible ways was tryed to propagate this Doctrine and all Discouragements put upon those who did any thing to lessen the credit of it Just like the policy of the Romish Priests who forbid the Laity the use of any Books that may give them better Light and it is very strange that this Doctrine did not obtain more Credit considering how it was supported both by the Palpit and Press But God be praised that the Nation preserved its understanding and that the time is come that the Truth may be spoke in publick And I would have stopt but that I conceive it to be convenient to say something to let you see how senceless and impudent they are who profess themselves to be Protestants and yet are dissatisfyed that the late K. James is set aside and King William placed upon the Throne And first I do say that I thought it my Duty to draw my Sword in the Defence of my Religion and Government and I did and do think it as lawful to reject the late K. James as to place K. William on the Throne And I hope to satisfy all that hear me that the present Settlement is Justifyed both by the Laws of God of Nature and the ancient Government If what is done were rather expedient then lawful yet one would think that particular persons might acquiesce in what is done by the collective Wisdom of the Nation I mean the Lords and Commons and I shall ever believe that man to be mistaken who thinks himself either more wise or Just than the two Houses of Parliament Till the Prince of Orange Landed I am perswaded that most were of Opinion that we had but this Choice left us either to Turn or Burn and I am inclinable to think that all such as are for recalling K. James are prepared to turn and I wish every man that has a mind to have him here again were with him I know not whether it would be best for them but I am sure it would be so for every man that wishes well to England But to speak more home and directly I take it That there was a People before there was a King That they set the King over them for their good That the Obligation of Protection and Subjection is Mutual That a King by reason of his Male Administration may forfeit his Crown That the End of Government is Peace and Order That it is more for Gods glory for every man to sit safely under his Vine than to be oppressed That no Government can be destitute of a Power to relieve it self That the whole is better than a part That this late Settlement is no new thing the like having been done in all Kingdoms and Governments To suppose there was a King before there was a People is as ridiculous as to suppose a man to be born before he is begot or that a man can live without Food or run before he can go and it will follow that a King may be a King of nothing for what is a King if he have no people Multitudes of other Absurdities will follow so that I need not say any thing more to it And I think the next thing is as plain that it is for their good when a People sets a King over them For to what other intent can it be done all things are done for some end and a People cannot be supposed to be void of the Principle of self preservation since that is inherent in Brutes and Plants and nothing that either breaths or grows but endeavours to preserve it self and can it then be imagined that a People would choose a King for their hurt rather than for their good Indeed sometimes in Judgment to a People God has blinded their Eyes in their choice they have made but their Intention was otherwise And I take it to be as clear that the Obligation of Protection and Subjection is Mutual for the very Nature of all Agreements proves it for in any thing of that nature if one side be bound and the other at Liberty it demonstrates the folly or Rashness of the one Party and cunning or good Fortune of the other and cannot so properly be called a Bargain as a Submission Subjection is really an Effect of Protection and arises from it otherwise Parents would have it in their choice to provide for or neglect their Children and tho' their Right is from Nature and for that Reason more Arbitrary than when it proceeds from compact yet no man will deny but that Parents are bound to Educate and provide all other Necessaries for their Children as far as their Substance will enable them and that nothing can discharge them of this Obligation but the Notorious Disobedience and wickedness of their Children The Nature of our Allegiance proves that the Obligation is mutual because the King takes the Coronation Oath before the Subjects swear to him which shews that our Allegiance is Conditional and such it is in all regular Governments for what can induce one man to obey another but that he ingages to protect him for if I am bound to obey where I have not an Assurance of Protection then if a Tyger or other Monster could get into the Throne I should then be under the same Obligation of Obedience but the reason of this is so obvious to every one of common Sence that I will say no more to it I think it will not be disputed that the End of Government is Peace and Order if not for these it must be for Confusion because there is no Medium between Peace and Confusion now God could not intend the latter because he has declared himself to
distinctly besides they are different in the manner of Proof for that which is necessary to prove the one does in no sort prove the other and furthermore the one may be effected and the other never so much as intended or designed as that the King may be Murdered and no War levyed nor intended And moreover in the one Case it is Treason as well to intend as to execute it without relation to or being joyned with any thing else but it is not so in the other for it is Treason absolutely in it self as well to compass the Kings Death as to Kill him But an Intention to Levy War and the doing of all things in order to it is not Treason unless the War be levyed except by Misplication or Inference and thus much may serve to prove that they are distinct Species of Treason As to the Fourth No doubt that every Statute is to be construed most strictly to restrain the Mischief against which it was enacted For the Uninterrupted course of all Judgments and Resolutions have been accordingly and nothing can more directly thwart common Sence than to make it otherwise and therefore if the State be absolute the more forcibly that it is construed to restrain the Mischief the more truly is the intent of the Statute pursued for how shall any evil be supprest if the remedy must be applyed but by halves For the Law would then be rather a Mockery than a means to redress the Mischief if it shall not be taken most strongly against it either it is or it is not a restraint of the Evil if it is not why was it made If it is It must be understood in that Sence by which the Mischief or Evil may be effectually prevented and suppressed As to the Fifth The Answer will be best understood by Considering first the Significations of these two words apart Viz. Provably and Overt Provably Signifies To prove or make good by Evidence Argument Reason or Testimony Overt has all these Significations open clear plain apparent manifest notorious evident known undoubted certain perspicuous This then being the Significations of those Words what then can follow more Naturally than that to be provably attainted by Over Deed is that the Fact must not only be direct apparent and notorious to the point but it must also be proved clearly evidently plainly and perspicuously void of all doubt or obscurity and those two Words being taken together do the better Expound each other and seem to be choice Words culled out by the penners of that Statute as the most expressive against all Implications and Inferences which might be made in Case of Treason These things being premised which are as easily proved as alledged there will remain very little for them to maintain their Opinion who say That a Conspiracy to Levy War is an Overt Act of compassing the Death of the King The things which are commonly and chiefly urged for that Opinion are these two First It would be of dangerous consequence if a Conspiracy to Levy War may not be interpreted an Overt Act of Compassing the King's Death because there is no means left to prevent it and the Mischiefs attending it when the War is Levyed Secondly If a War be levyed the Death of the King must needs be intended and will certainly ensue if the Rebels prevail In answer to these it may be replyed That the one of them is but a bare Objection and that the other is no substantial Argument because it begs the Question and then surely that must be a feeble Opinion that has no better a Foundation But a more particular answer to them will discover the Sandy Foundation upon which this Opinion is built And it will be more proper to begin with the Second because in giving an answer to that the other will in a great measure receive an Answer also Therefore as to the Second It may be observed that the Death of the King is made so certain and necessary a Consequence of Levying of War that by reason of that certainty a Conspiracy to Levy War is an Over Act of Compassing the Kings Death Now therefore if that certainty will not hold but that many Cases may be put and Instances produced wherein the Kings Death is not intended nor did it ensue upon the prevailing of the Party then is the whole weight and strength of that Argument of None Effect The Hugonots in France have heretofore Assembled together in Arms and tho' they repeated it several times yet in which of those Occasions does appear either by the cause of their coming together in that manner or by the issue of it that it was Levelled at the Kings Life No the Cause of their rising in Arms was for the asserting of their Religion and just Rights for as soon as their Reasonable Demands were satisfyed they laid down their Arms more willingly than they took them up neither did they attempt any thing against the Kings Life when he was in their power but after they were answered in those things to which they had Right both by the Laws of Nature and the Government immediately they returned home in peace and upon all other occasions proved the most firm and Loval Subjects of all that Kings Dominions and as this present King of France must witness for them if he will do them Justice If the Protestants in France should at this time take up Arms upon so just a provocation as they now have it would be very senceless to suppose that they Levy'd the War with a principal Design to Murder the King and not for the Defence of themselves and their Rights which are so inhumanly and against all Law and Justice at the same time invaded and ravisht from them Story is full of like Cases and Instances to this but to speak more particularly to England What was the Barons Wars the answer to which must be that they took up Arms to assert their Rights and Liberties which the King contrary to his Oath withheld from them and that it lasted near 40 Years yet the Kings Death was never intended nor his Life in any danger for as soon as their just demands were answered they put up their Swords and every man returned home and pray'd for the life of the King And out of English Story what one instance can be produced where the cause of War was declared to be against the Kings life or if that party prevailed the King was put to death by their general consent and approbation For tho' it be true that there are some instances where they have been Murdered after the War yet it is also as true that it was by private Assacination and not by the consent and privity of those who levyed the War for all those that were concerned in the Murder were condemned and executed for it as Traitors as in the Case of Edw. 2d and Richard 2d And as for that of Charles the First which is so much pressed and urged
tho' the Cause of War had been expresly against his Life yet as one Swallow does not make a Summer so neither does one Precedent prove the Point but besides in that case of Charles the First to infer from thence that the Kings Death is principally intended by levying of War is altogether as weak an Argument as to say because a thing falls out by accident therefore that very thing was the principal Design and Aim of the whole Action For in that War those who first took up Arms did it to oppose the Kings Arbitrary Practices and tho' he was afterwards put to Death yet it was altogether against their intent or desire and most of the Army was against it and would have prevented it but that they were at that time so broken into Factions and Parties that they durst not trust one another for after the Tragedy was acted those who first took up Arms immediately upon it laid them down and were afterwards the chief Instruments in the Kings Restoration But if the Kings Death is the principal thing designed by levying of War To what purpose is the War levyed cannot the King more casily be taken off by poyson or a Private Assacination to the effecting of which opportunities cannot be wanting and so with more certainty they obtain their End and run less hazard in the executing of it than they would by a War except they are not content to Murder him unless they cut the Throats of all those that would defend him Indeed to do it by an open War rather than Poyson or a private Assacination is the more generous way for they give him warning and timely Notice to look to himself like a generous Enemy that scorns to kill his Adversary basely 'T is indeed to go round about for the nearest way Therefore a War when levyed must be for some other intent then to take away the Kings life since when Englishmen enjoy their Rights no Prince is so great and happy in the Heads Hearts Hands and Purses of his Subjects than an English King is But yet allowing that upon every War levyed the Death of the King would certainly ensue if the Rebels prevail yet this Question does not naturally arise Viz. Where is that Statute which does in express Terms say that a Conspiracy to levy War is Treason For if it be not so expresly and literally within some Statute then it is a Constructive Treason and consequently no such Treason as upon which the Judges may proceed if the Statute 25th Edward 3d. was made to any purpose for that Statute restrains all Constructive Treasons or none but if the Judges may in any one Case make a Constructive Treason they may do it in all and so we are left in the same uncertainty about Treason as we were before the Statute 25th Edw. 3 was made If the Judges might Judge upon Constructive Treason yet it seems to be a far fetcht Construction to make a Conspiracy to levy War an Overt Act of compassing the Kings death for this is not to be provably attainted by Overt Deed. First Because that Conspiring the Death of the King and levying of War are two distinct Species of Treason and therefore it would be very unnatural and too much forc't to joyn these two together and as it were to unite them that are so different and diverse not only in the manner and Matter of Proof but also in themselves For then Secondly a Conspiracy to commit any other Treason may also be called an Overt Act of imagining the Kings death which was never yet pretended Thirdly A Conspiring of any one Treason may be an Overt Act of any other Treason Fourthly Any other Criminal Act may as well be called an Overt Act of Conspiring the Kings Death Fifthly This is to make it a Treason of it self for there is very little difference betwixt calling a thing Treason in it self and to make it an Overt Act of some Treason within the Statute Sixthly A Conspiracy to levy War was not Treason at Common Law Seventhly The Statutes of the 23d of Elizabeth and the first and 3d Jac. 4th which make it High Treason to Reconcile any to the Church or See of Rome or to be so reconciled were enacted to no purpose if a Conspiracy to levy War is an Overt Act of compassing the Kings Death for what can tend more plainly and directly to levy War than to perswade the People to renounce their Allegiance to the King and to promise Faith and Obedience to some other Power so that these and all other Statutes concerning Treason which have been made since the Statute 25th Edw. 3d. are as so many Confirmations of it and prove that the Judges can call nothing Treason but what is literally such within that or some other Statute Eighthly My Lord Cook says That a Conspiracy to Levy War is not Treason unless the War be levyed in facto and questionless his Opinion is very good Law because in many Cases it is not Treason to levy War and a Fortiory a Conspiracy cannot for look into the Statute First of Queen Mary 12th where it says If any Persons to the Number of twelve on above being assembled together shall intend go about practice or put in ure with Force and Arms unlawfully and of their own Authority to change any Laws made for Religion by Authority of Parliament standing in force or any other Laws or Statutes of this Realm or any of them the same number of twelve or above being commanded or required by the Sheriff of the Shire or by any Justice of Peace of the same Shire or by any Mayor Sheriff Justices of the Peace or Bayliffs of any City Borough or Town Corporate where any such Assemblies shall be unlawfully had or made by Proclamation in the Queens Name to retire and repair to their Houses Habitations or places from whence they came and they or any of them notwithstanding such Proclamation shall continue together by the space of one whole Hour after such Commandment or Request made by Proclamation or after that shall willingly in forcible and Riotous manner attempt to do or put in ure any of the things above specified that then as well every such abode together as every such Act or Offence shall be adjudged Felony And if any person or persons unlawfully and without Authority by ringing of any Bell or Bells sounding of any Trumpet Drum Horn or other instrument or by Firing of any Beacon or by malicious Speaking of any Words or making any Outcry or by setting up or casting of any Bill or Writing or by any other Deed or Act shall raise or cause to be raised any persons to the number of twelve or above to the intent that the same persons shall do or put in ure any of the Acts above mentioned and that the persons so raised and assembled after Commandment given in form aforesaid shall make their Abode together in form as is aforesaid or in forcible
into Order and frâ— maintaining the Laws and supporting the Government Arbitary Doctrine never did any King good but has ruined many it shook King Charles the seconds Throne and tumbled down his next Successour and tho' such Kings are left without excuse when ruined yet I may say they only are not in fault for their Overthrow is in a great part occasioned by those who Preach up and advise the King to Arbitrary Power Did not other People cocker up and cherish Arbitrary Notions in the Peoples mind tho' such conceptions might sometimes get into his head yet they would never Fructify and come to Perfection if they were not Cultivated by Parasites who make their Court that way in hopes to make themselves great tho' with the hazard of their Masters Crown As it befell K. James whose Male-Administration rendred him unmeet to sway the Scepter and I am very well satisfyed that his Judgment was just for unless a People are decreed to be miserable which God Almighty will never do except thereto provoked by their Sins certainly he will never so tye up their hands that they shall not be allow'd to use them when they have no other way to help themselves Several Artifices were made use of in the two late Reigns for the introducing Arbitrary Power One of which was to insinuate into the minds of the People That the Succession of the Crown was the chief Pillar of the Government and that the breaking into it upon any pretence whatsoever was no less than a Dissolution of the whole Constitution and nothing but Disorder and Confusion would ensue This Doctrine prevailed with many and obtained no less than if the Crown had been settled in that Family by an Ordinance or Decree dropt from Heaven and that every one of that Line or Race had been distinguisht from the rest of mankind by more than ordinary Virtues and Indowments of Mind and Body But we know not of any such Divine Revelation and happy had it been if that Family had been so signal for its Justice and Piety we might then have prayed that there might not want one of them to sit upon the Throne to all Ages How much this Nation is obliged to that Family we very well Remember for the Wounds they gave us are not yet healed Election was certainly the Original of Succession for as the Living more safely and with the freer enjoyment of their Goods was the Original Cause that people Associated themselves into a Nation or Kingdom so for the better attaining that End did they set over themselves the best and Wisest of their Brethren to be their Rulers and Governours and this Administration was trusted in one or more hands according to the temper and Disposition of the People in which Authority they continued either for their Lives or for one Year or some other stated Period of time Where the Government was under a King he usually held it for Life and then upon his decease the People proceeded to a new Election till at last it fell into the hand of some very excellent Person who having more than Ordinarily deserved of his Country they as well in Gratitude to him as believing they could not expect a better Choice than in the Branches that would grow out of so excellent a Stock entailed that Dignity upon him and his Posterity This seems to be the most natural and Lawful rise of Succession I don't deny but some Successions have arisen from force but that was never lasting for that could not subsist or seem lawful longer than there was a force to support it Now those that come to the Crown by the first way of Succession I mean by the consent and approbations of the People does it not plainly imply that they ought to use that power for the good and advantage of their Subjects and not to their hurt and enjoy their Crown only upon that condition no man would ever suffer a Monster to inherit his Estate and Kings are no more exempted from the Accidents of Nature than their meanest Subjects and it is every days practice in private Families to exclude those that will waste their Estate and ruine the Family and if the Reason will there hold good then it is so much stronger in the descent of the Crown by how much the good of a whole Kingdom is to be preferred to that of one private Family Succession is not so very ancient in England as some People may apprehend till the time of William Primus commonly called the Conqueror it was lookt upon as a very precarious Title The next in Succession could reckon very little upon the Crown further than his good Inclinations and Sufficiency to Sway the Scepter did recommend him it being then very common not only to break into the Succession but even to set aside all that Family and Line when ever it was found that the Publick might suffer by their being at the head of the Government the Publick Good being the only Rule and Consideration that Govern'd that point William Primus upon his Death-bed declared that he did not possess the Crown by an Hereditary Right Heary Primus in his Charter acknowleged to hold his Crown by the Mercy of God and the Common Council K. Stephen Henry 2d Rich. Primus and King John all came in by Election so that till Henry 3d. there is scarcely to be found any Precedent of Succession since his time the Succession has been broke into several times and the Crown shifted from one Family to another by Act of Parliament and being so transferred by that Authority is the greatest Proof that can be that Succession is a very feeble Title without something else to support it and I think I may say Defective For says one of great Authority Never did any take pains to obtain an Act of Parliament to settle his Inheritance on his Heirs except he were an Alien or Illegitimate and therefore considering That by vertue of an Intail of the Crown by Act of Parliament in Henry the Sevenths time it is that the four last Kings have swayed this Scepter I could never understand that Divine Right that was by some stampt upon their Title to the Crown or that the Succession was preferrable to the Publick Good I have endeavoured to explain this point the more by reason that some object against the sufficiency of This Kings Title to the Crown because the Succession was broke through to let him into the Throne as if nothing could give a King a good Title to the Crown but Succession For my part I never saw any reason to be of that Opinion and if there be nothing but the Interruption of the Succession to object to this Kings Right if he continue to govern according to the Principle upon which the Crown was given him and according to the laudable Customs of the Realm I think that every man that wishes well to the Interest of his Country ought to bless God for this Revolution
mans pleasure so we hold our Religion as precariously because a Prince can impose upon Slaves what Religion he pleases France is so pregnant an Instance of this that it puts the thing out of Dispute For while the Protestants kept their Liberties all was well with them yet no sooner was that wrested out of their hands but it was quickly seen what became of their Religion I have always thought that they began at the wrong End who reckoned themselves out of all other danger whilst they enjoyed the Exercise of their Religion it will not be denyed but that Liberty is a great Security to the free Exercise of Religion but if our Civil Rights are assaulted I don't see by what means Religion can rescue them out of Violent hands Besides there are many Instances where Religion has been used as a Stalking Horse to enslave a Nation For did ever any Man pretend to have a greater concern for the Church than Charles the 2d and yet no man more designed the Ruine or the Nation than he did which Example may occasion the People to suspect some Design upon their Liberties when the Prince pretends the greatest Care for Religion unless he be a man of great Morality and Religion appear in his Life and Practice as well as in his Words and Promises For it is scarce passible to inslave a free People by direct Force and therefore they must be gulled out of their Liberty by Art and underhand Practice and there cannot be a better blind than a pretended care for Religion to keep the people from observing what is designed against them So that if any thing is worthy of their Care it is their Liberty and in doing so you do the part of Loyal Subjects and good Christians whereas by the neglect of it you expose every thing that is valuable so you also lay a snare in the way of your Prince thereby tempting him to think of that which otherwise might not have come into his Thoughts And this Care is never to be neglected not even when any thing goes to their hearts Desire lest whilst you speak Peace to your selves there comes upon you sudden destruction For a Design is more likely to take effect when people suspect no such thing than when they stand upon their Guard There are many ways of Working People up into a Security of all which Promiles are the most fatal for without Performance they become Snares and therefore it is upon Actions and not upon words that a Wise Man will ground his Belief or Opinion Consider what is done and not what is said for whoever he be that is so wicked as to have a Design of inslaving the Nation he will never make a difficulty of promising very largely If then we ought to take care of our Liberty how ridiculous is it to talk of Serving the Crown when by that is meant To make the Kings Will and Pleasure the Measure of their Obedience it must be a mere Nonsensical Boast to talk at that rate when they have stript themselves of the means of Serving like Rational Creatures for when men have given up their Liberty what does all their Service to the Crown differ from that of a Beast The Service that we do for our Prince should be like that which we render unto God not a forc't and constrained but a free and reasonable Service So that I think I may say That he who hopes to recommend himself to his Princes Favour by such a piece of Service must needs be a very profligate Wretch and believe his Prince to be altogether such a one as himself For such a design is altogether unlawful because it is destructive to the Nature and End of Government Contrary to the Kings Coronation Oath inconsistent with Reason and a Violation of that Trust and Confidence which the people repose in the King For as I take it The Power that is lodged in the Crown is only a Trust and nothing more for he must have that Power either as a Trust or a Property and if he holds it as a Property then no Bounds or Limits can be set to it and he may use it as to him shall seem most meet What will Laws then signify To what purpose is the Coronation Oath and all those other Cautions that are taken to oblige the King to Govern according to the Laws and laudable Customs of the Realm and then every Prince that has been Deposed for committing Violence and Oppression was highly injured for there would be no other Standard of Right and Wrong but that of his Will and Pleasure But it is a common Practice to depose Kings when they become a Burthen to the People that being the proper and only remedy in such Cases For let any man tell me if he can whether the Liberty that remains in the World has been or can be preserved by any other Means than by that Power that is used in the people of laying aside such Kings whose Administrations become exorbitant For the Number of ill Kings exceeds so much that of the good ones that Liberty had been before this day swallowed by Prerogative without some such check and because so very much good or hurt is in the power of the Prince the value of a good King is inestimable To be delivered out of the Hands of an Oppressing King is a great Mercy yet such a price when put into the Hands of any People is seldom improved as it ought to be For Tacitus makes this Observation upon the Fall of Nero That the first day after the Reign of a Tyrant is always the best This is a great Truth and a Rule that has no exception For this several Reasons may be given For generally the people are so transported upon being eased of their Burthen that they neglect to make such provisions as are necessary to prevent the like Irregularities for the Future either from belief that no other man will be Wicked to the like degree or else from the fond Opinion that they conceive of him who was the chief Instrument of their Deliverance trusting that the same Principle of Honour and Justice that incited him to stand up in their Defence will prompt him to do all those things that are needful to settle the Government upon a lasting Foundation Which was something our Case upon the Restoration of King Charles 2d only with this Difference that instead of Repairing the Breaches which his Father had made the mistaken Loyalty of the Age helpt to make them wider Another Reason for Tacitus his Observation may be this Because the chief Instrument of their Deliverance altho' he appeared very zealous on their behalf yet he aimed at nothing but getting the Crown as it was when the Dauphine of France came over to assist the Barons against King John his Declaration was full of nothing else but the English Liberties yet it afterwards appeared that his Design in assisting them was only to get into the
some do vainly pretend This I say because I am afraid it is something our Case at this time and so the Nation must languish to satisfy the Imaginâ—â—ions of some People who are afraid of their Shadows How the Church can be hurt by any Laws that concern the State is not easily to be comprehended if those Laws Establish no other Gospel than that which was delivered by our Saviour Nothing can hurt the Church but it self and it is never in more danger than when it is in its greatest Pomp and Grandure The deceit of this is very plain because they that bawl most of the Danger the Church is in have the least of Religion in their Lives for those who live and understand better see the folly of it as also that Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Nonresistance which many cry'd up as the Corner Stone of the Church A Burden which they were forward to lay upon other peoples Shoulders yet when it came to their own turn none was so uneasy under it as they for when their Rights came to be toucht No mens Mouths was so full of Liberty and Property as theirs But now that the Storm is blown over they are angry that that Liberty is granted to others which they promised to consent to and are returned to where they were in supporting that Arbitary Doctrine and to that end they are inventing new Titles to the Crown for this King and Queen which demonstrates what Steddy men these are since in the late times they would not allow any Title to be good but Succession yet now they can submit to any other how contrary soever to Succession provided they can thereby keep up this Arbitrary Doctrine and get their turns served and first they find out for this King and Queen a Title by Conquest I hope they are mistaken for if the case be so we are all Slaves and instead of being rid of Arbitrary Power by this Revolution we have helpt to Saddle and Bridle our selves For the people that are conquered hold all they have at the will and pleasure of him who did subdue them But how were we conquer'd did the Nation conquer it self if it did it was an odd thing and altogether new Or who was conquer'd not they who actually appear'd in Arms against King James nor those who wisht him somewhere else and that was by much the greatest part of the Nation It is so senceless a Notion that it only serves to discover the ignorance or knavery of those who go about to maintain it and I suppose we shall hear no more of it because the Lords and Commons in Parliament by an unanimous Vote have condemn'd it The Next thing talkt of is Gods ways of disposing of Kingdoms whence they would pretend that the King and Queen received the Crown from God Almightys immediate donation It is Blasphemy to exclude the power of God in any Case and to exclude the people from having had an immediate hand in bestowing the Crown is a new intelligible sort of Politick for the drift of this Notion is to make us Slaves by reason That whatever is the immediate Act of God and a declaration of his pleasure Man has nothing more to do but to yield an intire obedience and submission to it So that when a King receives his Crown immediately from God any Provisions or Limitations that can be made by Men comes too late to circumscribe his Power But is this our Case which way did God declare that this Man should Reign over us Or who foresaw upon what Head the Crown would be placed till the Lords and Commons came to a Resolution in it and therefore it will follow That the King and Queen received their Crown from the Hands of the People upon such Terms as they gave it and God has not done any thing to exempt them from the Performance of those Conditions However there are those who hoped to make their Court to their present Majesties by starting and maintaining those two Notions Viz. of Conquest and God's ways of disposing of Kingdoms with what success I leave to every mans observation and only say this That is will be an happy Age when Kings are so much disposed to the good of their People that such Flatterers will meet with no Incouragement from them I come now to speak of Swearing and Drinking and I do believe that the horrible Prophanation of God's Name was never so common as in this Age. That great and dreadful Name before which we ought to Fear and Tremble is used with more familiarity than the meanest thing you can think on It is a very unfortunate thing whenever we take the Name of God irreverently into our Mouths altho' it happen when we are under some Provocation yet it Administers cause for Humiliation and a more narrow Observation of our selves for the future but is in no sort a Justification of us Therefore to fill their mouths with horrible Oaths when they are cool and in temper and to swear in common Discourse is a dreadful hearing And really it is come to that pass that men don't think they express themselves well and modishly unless they interlard every Sentence with an Oath or two and that which is strangely ridiculous is that some cannot ask another man how he does without wishing his own Damnation How this is to be remedied is the Question for since it could not be prevented from growing to the height to which it is gotten it will be so much the more difficult to suppress it for if in any case it can be said That the number of Offenders is too big for the Law it must be allowed to be so in this That Law has provided very well for the Punishment of such as offend herein per Statute 21st Jacob. C. 20. They forfeit twelve Pence per Oath If this were duly put in Execution I am perswaded it would work a great Cure These Customary Swearers would with more wariness open their Lips when they found that their Oaths cost them so dear and I am the rather of this opinion because I have observed That when a common Swearer is in the presence of any person whose Authority or Quality has an awe over him scarcely an Oath slips from him tho' he speaks never so much And therefore it is very much to be wisht that Magistrates would more strictly inform themseves of such as offend herein and give them the punishment which their Offence deserves The next thing is the Sin of Drunkenness which calls aloud for redress it being now so common and universal that People of all Ages Sex and conditions are infected with it to that degree that it is become the Reproach of the Nation which is now as remarkable for this Sin as it was for the Excellency of our Government during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth And it may be Observed That from the time that this Government began to decay that this beastly Custom took its Rise I
gave him the Crown and he soon perceived that there was no Rest for the Sole of his Foot till he had taken the Coronation Oath and had sworn to maintain their Laws and Properties Some little Irregularities must be admitted in a time when things are unsettled but it will scarcely be found that any man was disceased of his Freehold but only such whose Demerits render'd them unworthy of them and from his time the Norman Government proceeded upon the Saxon Principles for King William by the Advice of his Nobles caused a select number of Men out of every County to be summoned who were to set down their Laws what they were in Edward the Confessor's time for it was he who had collected the Laws which at this day is called the Common Law Then after him William II. and Hen. I. succeeded each other and their Title was by Election of the People for Robert their elder Brother was alive and saw them both preferred to the Crown and he never enjoy'd it for he died a Prisoner at Cardiff Castle in the time of Hen. I. The next was K. Stephen who was second Son to Adela Daughter to William the Conqueror he was chosen by the People for he had an elder Brother whose Name was Theobald and there was Maud the Empress Daughter to Henry I. and both these were nearer by descent than he After him came Hen. II. he came in by Compact between K. Stephen himself and the Nobles and the good liking of the People for Maud his Mother was alive and by descent it belonged to her Then Richard I. was elected in his Father's Life-time and received Homage from the Peers King John was chosen by the People or else Arthur his elder Brother's Son who was then living would have succeeded Richard I. Henry III. came in by Election for Lewis the French Prince pretended to the Crown several of the Nobility having called him into their aid against King John and had sworn to him but the Fall of Pembrook who had married Henry's Aunt stuck to him and got him crowned by the consent of the Nobles and People after that he had taken the Coronation Oath and made other promises to the People Edward I. being out of the Land when his Father died was chosen by the consent of the Lords and Commons and I find that the Nation was sworn to the Succession of Edward I. before he went to the Holy Land Edward II. being mis-led by his Favourites was deposed and his Son Edward III. was declared King in his Life-time Richard II. Son to Edward the Black Prince was deposed for his Evil Government Henry IV. came in by Election of the People and though upon occasion sometimes he might pretend to several other Titles yet he found them unstable and to make sure he got the Crown entailed by Act of Parliament and so came in Henry V. and then his Son Henry VI. but he being found unmeet for Government enclining too much to the Counsels of his Wife who was a Foreigner and neglecting the Advices of his Parliament he was deposed and Edward IV. who was E. of March whose Father the D. of York by Act of Parliament was declared Heir apparent to the Crown and afterwards slain in the Battel at Wakefield He I say was Elected and afterwards Henry was restored and Edward set aside but at last Edward was setled and dies and the Crown came to his Son Edward V. who lived no longer than to be put into the Catalogue of our English Kings and then Richard III. was confirmed King by Act of Parliament for Elizabeth Daughter to Edw. IV. was living who afterwards was married to Henry VII and by right of descent the Crown belonged to her and he had no Title but what the People gave him Henry VII came in by Election for his Wives Title preceded his and there was also Edward Plantaginet Son to George D. of Clarence had an unquestionable Right before him if Descent might take place but to clear all doubts he got the Crown setled by Act of Parliament upon him and the Heirs of his Body successively for ever and upon that came in Henry VIII and in his time the Crown was limited three several times by Act of Parliament and there succeeded upon those limitations first Edward VI. then his Sister Queen Mary by Katherine Widow to Prince Arthur and then Q. Elizabeth by Ann Daughter to Sir Thomas Bullen and in the thirteenth year of her Reign a Law was made whereby it is made penal if any say that the Parliament cannot limit the Succession And now Sir I have given you a just account how the Crown has been disposed and if I should say no more I think that this of it self might convince any impartial man that the Crown till King James was in the Peoples dispose But that I may leave no place for doubt I will say something to those things which are so frequently objected and I will begin with that which says as follows Although there be many Instances where the Crown has leaped over the right Heir by descent and has lit upon the Head of another yet say they there are several Instances both before the Conquest and since where the Son has succeeded to the Father and that these are chiefly to be regarded because most agreeable to the Word of God which tells us That by me Kings reign c. and that the presidents that are otherwise are no better than Usurpation and not to be esteemed as legal but to be forgotten as Errors in the Government I acknowledge there is such a Text of Scripture but I must deny that it is to be taken in the literal sence for otherwise the King must be look'd upon to receive his Soveraign Power immediately from God without any regard had to our Laws and Constitutions and then he is King Jure divino and no Bounds or Limits of Humane Contrivance can be set to his Will but we are wholly at his Mercy and Pleasure and Magna Charta and the Petition of Right are waste Paper nay it not only destroys our Government but it puts an end to all other Constitutions in the World But the true meaning of the Words are That Kings are to be obeyed and that they are to govern under God according to the Laws of that Government and that they are to administer the Laws and Justice according to the Rules and Directions of that Constitution and not that Kings hereby shall have a Warrant to be unjust or govern arbitrarily But because there are some Instances where the Son has succeeded to the Father that therefore the Crown comes by descent I cannot grant for this Island has seldom been free from War and then the People are not at leisure to regard every Particular of their Right but are willing to have it at an end upon any terms and are not then so regardful under whom they enjoy their Liberties and Properties as that they
yet if the King think good to question it the party must yield it up without insisting upon his Right for the Reason given by the learned Judge for the same Reason every Peer if denied his Writ must not demand it nay he must surrender his Patent and renounce his Title as far as in him lies if the King require it And for the same reason when any man is called to an account for his life he must make no defence but submit himself to the King's Mercy for all we have is from the King and nothing must be disputed when it is his pleasure to question it This is indeed to make the King as absolute as any thing on Earth can be yet is withal to make him the most unjust Prince that ever sate on the English Throne This sort of Justice is learnt from Children whose Gifts continue good no longer than the Donor remains in that kind mood Surely nothing can more reflect Dishonour upon the King for it makes him as unjust and uncertain as any thing can be both which should not be in the Temper much less in the Actings of a Prince Another Reason was given I think by the Chief Justice or else by Mr. Justice Holloway because it was absolutely necessary for the securing of the Peace it was urg'd so far as if the Peace could not be secured without it Surely all this must be but gratis dictura for my Lord Devonshire by finding Sureties had done all that the Law does require for securing the Peace unless they had clapt him up a close Prisoner which they could not justifie if he tender'd Sureties and therefore either my Lord Devonshire is different from all Mankind and a different method must be made use of to secure the Peace or else this Argument of theirs savours not so much of Reason as of something else that ought to be no Ingredient when they give Judgment in any Case and it surpasses common sence to understand how the over-ruling my Lord's Plea could tend to the securing of the Peace either the Security which he had given must awe him to keep the Peace or the other could not for he had broke the Peace again and repeated it several times before he came to his Trial yet that could not effect the Merits of the Cause neither could it be given in evidence at the Trial so as to alter the state of the Fact neither could the Judges by reason of it enhaunce his Punishment if he were found guilty but they must look upon it as a distinct Offence and so might require the greater Security for the Peace and for a longer time Indeed it is an effectual way to prevent a man from breaking the Peace to lay such a Fine upon him as is impossible to be paid immediately and to commit him till payment It is too probable that the Judges being concious how liable they have made themselves to be called in question for this Sawciness and trampling upon the Law would debase and bring under the Credit and Authority of this Court because no other can take cognizance of their proceedings so as to correct their Errors and Mistakes it is only here that they can be called to an account for what they do amiss no Court can punish them but this so that if they can once top your Lordships there is nothing that they need stand in awe of nothing to restrain them but they may act ad libitum not per legem for let this Court be deprest and they may say Of whom then need we be afraid By what they have done already they have sufficiently shewn to what Extravagances they will proceed when they think themselves to be out of the reach of this Court If once the King's Bench can set it self as high as the Judges have attempted by this proceeding against my Lord Devonshire then must the whole Nation your Lordships not excepted stoop to all the Extravagances and monstrous Judgments that every corrupt and ignorant fellow shall give who shall chance to get up to the Bench and not only this present Age shall feel and undergo the Mischief but it will be entail'd upon all succeeding Generations Well then did the Judges attempt that which would bring your Lordships so low and raise their Court so high to set it above all reach or controul especially if they did promise to themselves Impunity if not Reward which they might have expected had it been in the Reign of an arbitrary Prince who would be a great gainer by the fall of this Court because then the Skreen betwixt the King and People is taken away This is the first time that an inferiour Court did take upon it to invalid the Priviledges of a superiour Superiour Courts do sometimes set aside the Orders and Proceedings of Inferiour Courts and yet in that case they proceed with that caution that it is never done but when there is manifest Error and the Law not duly pursued and observed but in no case was it known that they ever meddled with their priviledges If what the Judges have done is good I cannot tell what Power and Jurisdiction they may not pretend to for no bounds nor limits can be set to the King's Bench it may assume as great a power in Civil Affairs as the High Commission does in Ecclesiastical in their Actings not to be tyed up to any Rules or Method but to vary and alter them as well as the Law when occasion or humor serves the proceedings shall be as summary or as delatory as they think fit and your Lordships shall no more than other people be exempted from the exercise of that power Therefore if your Lordships will not prevent the Mischief from spreading it self over the whole Nation yet I hope you will take notice of the Injury you have suffer'd in the Case of my Lord Devonshire and to do your selves Right The Law has for the most part left Fines to the Discretion of the Judges yet it is to be such a Discretion as is defin'd by my Lord Coke fol. 56. Discretio est discernere per legem quid sit Justans not to proceed according to their own Will and private Affection for Talis discretio discretionem confundit as Wing at says fol. 201. So that the Question is not Whether the Judges could fine my Lord Devonshire but Whether they have kept themselves within the bounds and limits which the Law has set them It is so very evident as not to be made a Question whether in those things which are left to the Discretion of the Judges that the Law has set them bounds and limits which as God says to the Waves of the Sea Hitherto shalt thou go and no farther for either they are so restrained or else the Law does suppose them to be exempted from those Frailties and Passions which do attend the rest of Mankind But as they cannot be suppos'd to be void of Passions and Infirmities no less than other
Qualifications but whether King Charles therein follow'd his own Inclinations or was impos'd upon in what he did I will not now enquire further lest I should be thought to take too far into the Ashes of the Dead and therefore I will leave other People to judge whether he that understood all other things so well could be so very grosly impos'd upon in this or that he could be over-reach'd by his Brother whose Intellects were so much inferiour to his Thus by the alurement of Preferment and Employments they did hope to draw in many Protestants to lend their helping hand because without their assistance they could not carry on the Work and though Employments could not be had at any other rate yet the Looseness and Debauchery that had then overspread the Land to which the Example of the King had not a little contributed had prepared a sort of Men to take Preferment on those terms and the more effectually to do the Business they were to carry it on under the disguise of Loyalty and the Church for with these they varnish'd over all those unreasonable things that were impos'd upon us and indeed the Tools work'd very keenly for as their Zeal was without Knowledge so they went on at that furious senseless rate as thereby they quickly gave all thinking Men to understand that the Church and Government that was to be here establish'd the one was to be supported by Persecution and the other by Force But that I may open this matter more clearly I must observe that the force of all their Endeavours seem'd to tend more especially to set up Arbitrary Power and the reason of it was because if they attain'd that they were certain to carry the other and in this they follow'd the method that has ever been taken to introduce Popery for if a People are once made Slaves it 's easie to impose any Religion upon them So that if we can keep our selves Freemen we need not fear the loss of our Religion Now they could not think of any way of raising the Prerogative to so high a pitch unless by aluring some Body of Protestants to go on blindfold with them in their design and to that end they pitch'd upon the High Church Party believing if they were practised in their Revenge upon the Dissenters they would not much examine the consequence of what might be desired by the Court. And accordingly this Traffick betwixt the King and that Party was first transacted in Parliament where for every Severe Law against the Dissenters the Church Party gave the King either a Limb of our Liberties or a good Additional Revenue or a considerable Tax And thus they drove a subtile Trade till the Design grew a little more barefae'd or some of that Party proved more honest than was expected whereby it became impracticable to carry on the matter further in Parliament And so at Oxford the King took his last Farewel of Parliaments Having thus shak'd hands with Parliaments he then tryed what he could do by Rewards and Terrors turning out of all Commissions and Employments such as would not comply and filling up their rooms with Men of a contrary Complexion thereby gratifying the Ambition of some and the Avarice of others by reason of which there sprang up a sort of Men that were distinguished by the Name of Tories whose Principle it was to serve the King without asking a Question which is as much as to say They were oblig'd to do every thing they were commanded These were the Men that brought on Addresses Loyal Tory Clubs and Presentments and were the chief Promoters and Instruments in taking away Charters which struck at the very Heart of the Government And I cannot but with amazement remember how by their Addresses they courted the King to make them Slaves and when they had a New Charter upon the surrender of the Old one with what demonstrations of Joy did they receive it as if it had been their Glory to put on Chains and at the same time reproaching every man as disaffected to the Government who would not consent to give up the Rights of other People or sacrifice the Government The surrender of Charters was quickly followed by Sham-plots against the Protestants and to have the better effect of them new Constructions of Law were invented whereby many worthy Patriots fell Whilst these things were transacted the Penal Laws were violently put in execution against the Dissenters but the Papists went scot-free nay even those very Laws that were made against them were turn'd upon the Dissenters and whenever there was any seeming Prosecution of the Papists it was only to have a fresh Pretence to fall upon the Dissenters for the Papists were by particular Order slipt over Thus the pushing at Dissenters became the Characteristick or Make of a true Son of the Church of England for if a Man were violently bent against them he was a good Son of the Church though his Immorality and Debauchery had made him a Reproach to any Church After all this the Clergy brought up the Rear with their Doctrine of the Divinity of Kings and Non-resistance thereby to give a Sanction to all the rest which reduced the matter into a very narrow compass inferring from thence that the King has as natural a Right to our Allegiance as we have to the Obedience of our Children and that under the pain of Damnation he was not to be disobey'd It 's strange that Doctrines the one so destructive to the Right of Kings and the other so inconsistent with the Nature of Government should obtain so much had not the Higher Powers supported its Credit for that Patriarchal or real Right dethrones all the Kings on the Earth but one and leaves the World at a loss in the rightful Heir of Adam for there can be but one at the same time that can claim as Heir to Adam and consequently all the rest of the Kings are Vsurpers And here they are in a Wood themselves for they can no more tell you who is not the right Heir to Adam than they know who is Now should any one tell me that my Estate was more considerable than I apprehended it to be because I might turn out all my Tenants that held by Lives or Years but that withal it was Five hundred to one that some body else had a better Right to it than I have perhaps I might thank him for his Information but at the same time wish my Estate were less and my Title to it better Even as little are Kings beholden to them who perfwade them to quit the Title that the Government gives them to the Crown to seek for a better as claiming under Adam whereby they may be more at liberty to act by their will for if he thinks his best Title is by Descent then it 's possible that one of his Subjects may have a better Right to the Crown than himself As it fell out with William the Conqueror when
affirm that ours is perfect in comparison of any other Government in the World for if we consider those Nations that have Parliaments that Assembly is of little or no use to the People but to pass into Laws the Edicts of their King But God be praised our Parliament is of far greater use and advantage to us for there it is that our Grievances are redressed and Laws that by process of time are become useless or burthensome are repealed and new and profitable Laws and Statutes are made and in a word Barliaments to our Neighbours are their Burden but our great Happiness Secondly All manner of Taxes and Impositions are laid upon the People at the Will and Pleasure of the King But we can have no Tax imposed upon us but by our Consent in Parliament and there is this peculiar to us from the rest of the World That no English-man can be taxed for his Hand-labour whereas in other Countries and especially France every man pays for what he gets by his Labour In France every Labourer pays two parts of three to the King as if he get Six pence in a day Four pence is paid immediately to the King's Officer Thirdly In other Countries War and Peace is made by the King without consulting the People and they are chargeable to that War tho' made without their Consent or against their Interest So it is with us our King has the sole power of making War and Peace but the Sinews of War is in the People I mean Money and that they cannot part with but with our own Consent And although the Matter of War and Peace is an Arcanum Imperii and that no man as some say may pry into it save they to whom the King is pleased to communicate it Yet I conceive in this our Government where the People are so essential a part of it that they ought to be satisfied with the Ground and Reason of the War before they make themselves chargeable to it and the People are not bound to support every War that the King may engage in for methinks it 's all the reason in the World that a Man should be satisfied with the Cause before he part with his Money and I think that Man is very unworthy of the Honour to serve his Country in Parliament who shall give away the Peoples Money for any other thing but what shall be effectually for the good and advantage of the People and Nation Fourthly The Estates and Goods are taken from the People without assigning a Reason of it but only that it is the Mind of the King to have it so But here no Man can be deprived of his Estate or Goods but by due course of Law for Possession is that the Law is very tender of But although some say That the King's Commission may not be resisted in any case whatsoever I shall not argue that point because this is not a proper time for it and I hope we shall never have occasion to try it if it ever should happen I 'll lay the Blame at the door of his Ministers for our King is a merciful Prince and loves not such things Yet this I am sure cannot be denied That every Man's House is his Castle and may defend himself and his Goods against those that shall assault or molest him and I cannot believe that Man can be really a Friend either to his King or Country but rather does it out of some sinister end or to curry Favour with the Court that shall extol the King's Prerogative above the Laws because this Doctrine if true quite destroys the Fundamentals of our Government for if ever you set the King above Laws then it must necessarily follow that the King derives his Title to the Crown of England not from the Laws of England but from something else but I am sure that man does the King no great Service who puts the King to seek his Title to the Crown of England any where else than from the Laws of England To set the King above all Law but that of his own Will does so directly tax the Justice of God Almighty that I cannot believe him to be a good Christian that is of that Opinion Fifthly In other Countries the Subjects are Imprisoned and Hanged at the Command of the King without any other Reason given But none of us can be deprived of Life Limb or Liberty but for some Offence first committed against some known Law Sixthly Our Neighbours are pressed and forced to serve in foreign Countries against their Wills and are hanged for refusing Our King may press any of us for the defence of the Nation but I never heard that the King could press any English-man to serve beyond the Seas Seventhly In other Countries though the King or his Officers commit never so many or great Outrages and Cruelties upon the People yet have the People no Remedy against either the King or his Officers But with us though our Law says That the King can do no Wrong yet his Officers and Ministers may and if any Man shall do an unlawful thing though by the King's Command that man is accountable to the People for it and it is the Right of every English-man to call him to account for if neither the King nor his Officers are answerable for a breach of the Laws then our Laws signifie nothing and are but a dead Letter and we no better than Slaves These Particulars I have now mentioned I suppose may be sufficient to convince any reasonable man of the Excellency of our Government I shall not proceed further into Particulars or discourse how and with what Caution all our Laws are made and how Justice is administred in all Cases for I should not only weary you but want time to finish so great a Work therefore I shall say this in part That in no Government in the World the People live with such Liberty and Security of what we enjoy when the Laws are duly observed and followed as we do no Prince more safe and happy than ours when he holds to the Laws and it is the mutual Interest of both King and People to maintain the Laws It is the Interest of the People to support the King in his Legal Prerogative and it is the Interest of the King to preserve the People in their due Rights and Liberties for the Happiness of one is bound up in the Welfare of the other There is a certain ballance betwixt the King's Prerogative and the Peoples Properties and he that endeavours to turn the Scales to either side does in effect endeavour the destruction of both for the Interest of the King and People are so interwoven that we cannot separate or distinguish one from the other In a word our Government is both the Envy and Admiration of our Neighbours But Gentlemen notwithstanding our excellent frame of Government yet I find that many are impatient under it and thirst extreamly after that which is called a Common
consideration and prepared a Bill for taking away the dispensing-Dispensing-power which by the help of some other things that were in the same Bill obtained the Royal Assent and so it passed into a Law The Declaration then takes notice that for the better introducing of the Dispensing-power That the Judges were prevailed with to declare that such a power is a right belonging to the Crown and in order to it the Judges opinions were discovered before-hand and such as would not comply were turned out thereby to intimate to the rest that they might act at all times as they should be directed This indeed was a very high aggravation of it this was not to use the Law lawfully but to establish Oppression Violence and all manner of Iniquity by a Law For whoever shall endeavour to influence the Judges in their opinions by what means soever he seeks to intimidate them whether it be by turning them out of their places withholding their Sallaries or putting others over their Heads does plainly discover that he aims at nothing less than to Govern by his Will For the apprehension of losing a good imploy is not above the ordinary rate of men and the stopping of a Judges Sallary must have the same effect because it 's all one whether a man is turned out of his place or the profits of it are withholden from him and that Judge is exposed to a powerful temptation who sees he cannot rise in course unless he will comply The Parliament being sensible how much the Justice of the Nation lay exposed so long as the Judges held their Places or Sallaries at Pleasure had the last Sessions but one prepared a Bill to remedy this inconvenience which was offered to the Royal Assent but was refused for what reasons is not proper for me to give because I shall always advise the contrary so that that part of King James's Male-administration remains as it was to be practised by any other King who shall be so wicked as to have it in his thoughts how he may inslave the Nation The Declaration observes that King James put men into imployment and continued them therein altho they had not qualified themselves according to Law This as it unhinged one of the great securities of the Government so it was a plain indication of King James's intentions to govern without Law for when men are put into imployment in spight of the Law it shews they were preferred not so much for their fitness to execute that Office as to serve some other purpose against Law and those that so complyed justly incurred the censure of every man that wisht well to his Country for they shewed that they were through-stich-men that would stick at nothing thereby rendering themselves so infamous as to make all mankind conclude that they would never be imployed in any other Reign by reason of the scandal as well as the danger that any Prince runs who shall take them into his Service The Declaration then takes notice of the Ecclesiastical Commission which indeed carried an ill design in the face of it it having been always found that such extraordinary methods are not so much to punish faults already committed as to wish there were such and to pretend men to be guilty who have not transgressed For if nothing more had been designed but to punish those who really were offenders what need was there of that High Commission seeing the Law had before sufficiently provided so that the parlous intention of setting up that Commission was very obvious and it was yet plainer because it was expresly against Law for 16 Car. c. 11. that took away the then High-Commission Court has provided and declared that any other such like Court is illegal and all proceedings thereupon to be void and of no force And here I cannot but observe to you how far they were the occasion of setting up this Court who were like to suffer most by it For it cannot be forgot what pains the Clergy took to magnifie Prerogative and to preach up the Doctrine of Passive-Obedience and Non-resistance upon which King James supposing them to be worthy of their Functions and consequently what they preacht in their Pulpits they would practice when they were out of them thought he might make the more bold with them But with what Christian patience they bore it I believe you remember for King James received more reproachful language and revilings from them than from all other people and therefore I hope they have learnt this lesson and will be careful for the future to instruct all others under their care not to extend Prerogative beyond the bounds which the Law has set it lest they are the first that feel the weight of an unlimited power For this Ecclesiastical-Commission was a monstrous thing and therefore it is to be hoped that all those who were of it and that now are in eminent stations under this Government have made it appear that they are become new men or otherwise if it was a fault in King James to set up that Commission it will be hard to find an excuse for their being of it The Declaration proceeds in taking notice that several Churches and Chapels were built for the exercise of the Romish Religion and that several Colleges of Jesuits were set up and that a Jesuit was made one of King James's Privy Council This had it stood singly of it self must appear dreadful to all true English-men and yet it was but a necessary consequence of what went before it and gave every man a clearer prospect of the precarious condition in which his Religion and Liberty stood The next thing that followed was to examine Lord Lieutenants and Deputy Lieutenants Justices of the Peace and all others in publick imployments in order to have the Penal-Laws and Test repealed and to turn out such as would not concur This was made use of as no doubt it would have been a very effectual means towards the packing of a Parliament it being a lesson which he had learnt from his Brother C. II. who used to take Parliament-men to task in private where he used such arguments as thereby he so often drew from the Parliament those unnecessary supplies This examination of the People in private was called Closetting at first lookt upon as a very inconsiderable thing yet we saw that the said Cloud tho at first no bigger than a mans hand quickly overspread the whole Heavens and gave our affairs a very gloomy Complexion and if we will learn has taught us this useful lesson That when men shall not be left to the freedom of their judgments in relation to the publick but indeavours are used to warp and bend them another way that there is some ill design in hatching especially when such applicaons are made to members of Parliament concerning such matters as are under their Consideration For this is to kill the Government at the Root and the design is equally apparent and mischievous by what means
affected to prevail with the King to adjourn prorogue and dissolve Parliaments when they were doing thiâ—â—â— of the greatest moment for the Nation and on purpose to defeat those very matters they had in hand If he will adventure to do these things whilst he is a Subject what may we not justly expect from him if he happen to be King But notwithstanding all this some will say That the Word of God will not allow us to put by the next Heir to the Crown be he what he will because by Moses 's Law the next of Blood must inherit Truly I am for that too when we are in a good Breed but as our Case stands I cannot yield to it But under favour I conceive that this Text also obliges no otherwise than according to the constitution of every Government for if the Mosaick Law be our Direction then the Duke will be King of a third part of these Dominions before his Brother is dead for by that Law the Eldest was only to have a double Portion and no more and then I pray what Absurdities will follow upon this Doctrine But it is most plain that this Law related only to private Families and had no regard to the setting up or pulling down of Kings for when the Law was given the Children of Israel had no King nor any prospect of it and it was several Ages after that before they petitioned God for a King and Saul was the first and the Practice after Saul puts the Matter out of Controversie for when Saul was dead David was anointed though there remained several of the Seed of Saul After David Solomon was anointed tho' Adonijah was his elder Brother and his Mother the honester Woman of the two When Solomon was dead Jeroboam rent away ten Tribes from Rehoboam and so on But these Instances are sufficient to prove that the Israelites did not believe that they were obliged to chuse him for their King that was next of Blood And if they might do this who had the presence of God amongst them and his immediate Direction more than any other People certainly then we cannot be said to sin against the Light And besides in all private Families there is care taken to preserve the continuance of them by disinheriting the eldest Son when it is perceived that he will ruine the Estate if he be ever possessed of it but to this some will answer That it is seldom seen that ever any Family prospered long where the right Heir was set aside I think so too when the right Heir is deprived of his Birthright for no just cause but we find that several Families have continued many Generations after that the right Heir has been rejected and yet tho' an ill Fate should always attend that Family where this is done yet is it not better to continue it two or three Successions longer tho' with a certainty of Ruine at last rather than suffer it to come into the Hands of him who will in a few years perhaps months bring it to nothing You cannot but have heard of Maud the Empress who was Daughter to Henry I. what Trouble and Bloodshed she caused in England in the days of K. Stephen and this is often insisted on to shew what evil Consequences there will follow upon secluding the Duke It is true she made a great bustle but she had that to pretend which the Duke has not for the Nation had taken an Oath to her in the life-time of her Father and from that she might presume very much but the Conditions were not performed upon which the Oath was taken and therefore the Obligation was void and the People were at liberty to chuse whom they pleased But besides whether the Duke get the Crown or no much Blood must be spilt for we must either fight or burn and whether it be not better to exclude the Duke by a Law and adventure our Lives in defence of that and all our Laws and Religion into the bargain than to let him come to the Crown and at best hand hang up Thousands of worthy Men if he do not extirpate their Name and Families but to be sure all those who gave their Votes to the Bill nay all that have declared their Approbation of it and all their Friends and Relations are destin'd by him and the Pope for Destruction if not all them who voted to elect them Members of Parliament And how far this will extend let any man consider Sir I am now come to your last Doubt which is How far we ought to obey the Duke if he happen to be King and there be no Law I mean no Act of Parliament to exclude him This is truly a tender place and ought to be handled only in the Parliament House but because I dare trust you in this captious Age I will lay before you some things that I think cannot be denied It is a known Maxim in our Law That protectio trahit subjectionem subjectio trahit protectionem These are plain words and are of as clear a sense that is not equivocal or capable of a double construction and I take them to be the mutual Bonds between a King and his People and one introduces the other and they cannot be separated for if Protection draws after it Subjection and Obedience incites Protection then whether or no can there be Protection where there is no Subjection or can there be Obedience where there is no Protection and then if it be not done on the one part how can it be required from the other for if the King shall go about to destroy the Government or take away our Properties does he not disown us and deny us his Protection and then I pray what Obedience is due to him that regards us not Or if the Subjects shall not obey the King's Writs or other Commands which by Law he may require from them do not they disown him and forbid him to concern himself with them and then I pray what has he to do but to do to them as they have done to him And this will be the case should the Duke being a Papist come to the Crown We see already that his Inclinations are for our Destruction and besides his Religion obliges him to it and therefore what Protection can we hope to have from him whose Conscience and Desire are united for our Ruine for it is not in the power of a Popish King to preserve us for if he will protect us and the Pope command our Destruction he must either violate his own Conscience or give us up to Ruine So dangerous a thing it is to depend upon the Conscience of a Papist who cannot be tyed or obliged by any Oaths or Obligations and it is safer to have a Protestant King tho' he has no Morality rather than to live under a Popish King tho' he be the best Man living Altho' I have heard many say How came it to pass that we retain'd our Properties