can only attribute this to the Character Stow gives of him viz. That he advanced Persons to Dignities for Merit only and who did excel others in Innocency of Life RICHARD II. SOME Princes have Erred upon a mistaken Consideration some through a wilful and rash Inconsideration some have taken Measures by Advice of Friends as they thought and have been deceived by Misrepresentations these may be pittied Others have Miscarried by hearkening only to Minions and Favourites are head-strong and resolvedly deaf and obstinate against Advice But the Actions and Conduct of this King are so Unaccountable that it would puzzle a Matchiavel to assign him a Character or to fix him in any Rule or Principle of Government Good or Bad. The Rebellion of John or Wat Tyler ought not to be laid at his Door it is called an Accident though it had some dismal Effects in it but the occasion which appears was the Abuse of a Collector who gathered the Poll-Money yet it may teach Kings that it is a ticklish and dangerous Experiment to let out a Revenue or Tax to Farm so that it may be scrued up into what may be called in the Country Oppression This King's first Misunderstanding in earnest or Misdemeanor if I may so speak after his coming to Age was imposed upon him by way of Surprise and Artificial Insinuation of Favourites it might be the result of a hot Indiscretion not of a premeditated Violence or Invasion of Ill-natur'd Policy And if the Duke of Ireland Michael de la Pool the Chancellor or the Archbishop of York were in fault on the one side neither was the Duke of Gloucester the Bishop of Ely c. to be altogether excused on the other and the Parliament imposing on the King Thirteen Lords to have oversight under the King as they called it was an unsufferable Encroachment on the Spirit of a Young Prince And he had reason to have recourse to the Judges for their Opinions and Directions touching what had passed in that Parliament as to their Participation of the Government with him whose Opinion though they had the misfortune to suffer for it was not so Illegal but Justifiable by the Laws saving only in Two or Three of the Questions to which they gave their Answers But Law is not always measured by its own Rule it stands or falls according to the Circumstance of Times A Man may at some time sooner and better Steal a Horse as they say than look on at others This first Affront so put upon the King gave him a prejudice to Parliaments ever after and consequently put him upon indirect Means and Practices to Debauch the Constitution and we may be sure Kings will never want Tools fit for their purpose Hence were conceived those prejudices also against the Duke of Glocester and the other Lords the King had Reason to be out of Tuition when he came to be of full Age 'T is true the Attempting of the Duke of Glocester's Life in that Treacherous manner was not to be excused neither was his Behaviour to be pardoned towards the King he reproached him too severely on all Occasions for though he was the King's Uncle he was not always to be his Governor they were both in Fault no doubt and both equally Unfortunate in their End 'T was an unhappy Reign divided between too haughty Subjects and Ill-designing Favourites too powerful for a Young Inconsiderate King to Manage with Prudence and equal Power Whether Chief Justice Tresilian did according to Law or not 't is certain his Death was not according to Law and as the Duke of Glocester had taken his Life so his own was soon after taken away without Trial also in an Arbitrary manner And the Earl of Arundel had the same Measure he meeted to Calvery one of the Queens Esquires The Banishing the Duke of Norfolk and Hereford and the Archbishop of Canterbury was rather a fault in the Politicks of those times for it seems it was the Custom then to Punish the Faults of Great Men only with Banishment but an ill-advised Custom than want of Consideration in the King Sir John Bushy the Speaker of Parliament was the most in fault in attributing Vain and almost Blasphemous Titles to the King Titles fitter as is observed for the Majesty of God and putting him upon a piece of Omnipotence in Recalling his Pardons which the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Adjudged in the Affirmative That the King might Revoke but the Lawyers and Judges having been burnt before designed to give Judgment t'other way and had no mind to Determine of Transactions in Parliament any more nor of the Kings Prerogative in such Ticklish Times Though at the next Parliament at Chester the Judges were drawn in to give another Extraordinary Judgment viz. That when Articles are propounded by the King to be handled in Parliament that if other Articles are handled before those are determined it is Treason in them that do it What was there Extravagant that was not done in this Parliament He brought it about as the History says That he obtained the whole Power of the Parliament to be Conferred upon certain few Persons who proceeded to Conclude upon many things which concerned generally the things of the whole Parliament to the great Prejudice of the State and dangerous Example in time to come What could we expect from a King who was Taught That the Laws of the Realm were in his Head and his Breast By reason of which fantastical Opinion he Destroyed Noblemen and Impoverished the Commons which was one of the Articles against him and which was much such a worthy fancy as Wat Tyler had who putting his Hand to his Lips said Before Four Days come to an End all the Laws of England should proceed from his Mouth But I am weary of the Medley of this King's Story In short if we survey him in his Taxations in his Laws and Ordinances after all and in the Station of a Christian and Man as well as King we shall with a little Charity or good Nature conclude him Blameable rather by Accident than natural Temper And as to his Conditions That they were more the Fault of his Education than Inclination and at the bottom those Failings that were in him retained the tincture of the light Inconstancy of his Mother He is another unfortunate Instance of the Instability and Misery of a King when he leaves the Track of Law and Justice for the Ways of Humour and Passion Sir Robert Cotton Observes That Bushy's Contrivance of Compounding with Delinquents wrought such Distaste in the Affections of the People that it grew the Death of the One and Deposition of the Other HENRY IV. IN the next Six Reigns during the Divisions of the Houses of York and Lancaster the Kingdom was scarce ever cool enough for Observations of Civil Polity and Administration The Thirteen Years of this King were divided between Conspiracies and Wars And as he came to the Crown without a Title with
Rawleigh and others Protestants and Papists amongst whom were two Priests and for which there was no other apparent Occasion only that he provok'd all Parties whilst he sought to win One by Fawning to shew something like good Inclinations to the See of Rome as the Pope expected though they well knew he did not mean that neither whilst he received others coldly for Reasons neither he nor they knew So that they agreed only in this to lay him aside who as they concluded by his Behaviour would answer the Expectations of neither There was no necessity of adding Papists as Spies upon his Councels he might in prudence been contented to have taken it at present as left him with the Addition only of his Scotchmen to the Number And 't is plain it gave no satisfaction to the Papists by the Powder-Plot which followed His Next Step of Unaccountable Wisdom was dissolving the Parliament for Reasons known to no body besides himself 't is said because they did not comply with his Designs but what those Designs were do not appear Above-board The Third Action of Moment out of common Forms was the sacrificing Sir Walter Rawleigh to the Importunities of Gondomar for neither his Justice nor Mercy was to be relied on that is giving up the Interest of England to the Spanish Satisfaction And his Conduct with relation to Spain is admirable throughout Queen Elizabeth had pretty well humbled that Potent Monarch and as Sir Robert Cotton observes forced him in his after-Reign that is after his Unsuccessful Tricks with her to that Extremity that he was driven to break all Faith with those Princes that trusted him and paid for One Year's Interest above Twenty five thousand Millions of Crowns Hear Sir Robert Cotton who speaks to the Person of King James and therefore we may assure our selves modestly and gently So low and desperate in Fortunes your Highness found him when you took this Crown Thus from the abundant Goodness of your Peaceable Nature this is the way of Banter if Kings would see it you were pleas'd to begin your Happy Reign with General Quiet and with Spain first which should have wrought in Noble Natures a more Grateful Recompence than after followed For long it was not before Tyrone was hearten'd to Rebel against your Highness and flying had a Pension at Rome paid him from the Spanish Agent His Son Odonel Tyrconnel and others your Chiefest Rebels retain'd ever since in Grace and Pay with the Arch-Duchess at Spain's Devotion So soon as your Eldest Son of holy Memory now with God was fit for Mariage they began these Old Designs by which before they had thriven so well c. Thus Sir R. C. in that Stile And thus they led him on their Dance whilst he Deserted or what was worse so meanly Vindicated the Interest of his Son-in-Law the Prince Palatine He must take his Measures from Gondomar and instead of assisting him with a Powerful Army he is treating with this Spanish Agent and must take his Advice and Matters are to be made up with him by a Match for his Son the Prince of Wales with the Infanta of Spain and then suffers himself to be imposed upon by Idle Representations which this Ambassador carried on only in Disguise to serve his Master's Ends whilst in the mean time the Poor Palatine is swallowed up by a Confederacy between the Emperor and King of Spain and all this without calling a Parliament that being forsooth an Affront to his Wisdom then sends his Son to Spain when he was told by Sir John Digby c. who advised him not to suffer his Resolutions to be interrupted by that Overture of the False Appearances and Insincerities of the Spaniards which the Letters from the King of Spain to Olivares and his Answer would have convinced any one of besides himself and after that his making so many and ample Concessions in favour of Popery during the Treaty And in truth Treating of any Popish Match are no great Arguments of Wisdom Fatherly Care or indeed of Religion The English Navy must be neglected on pretence intimated by Gondomar that the furnishing of it would breed suspicion in the King his Master and the Cautionary Towns must be rendred up being the Keys of the Low-Countries to oblige his Friend Gondomar too His People of England must be Check'd Disgrac'd and Silenced for opposing this Popish Match with their Speeches Counsels Wishes and even Prayers 't is said Gondomar could Dissolve Parliaments also The Protestant Interest on his Son's Account in Bohemia slighted though Archbishop Abbot represented the Circumstances and Call of Religion to Engage him besides Honour Though his Ambassador Cottington inform'd how Matters went and though every body besides himself saw through the Designs of Spain as well in the Complimenting him in the Match as Mediatorship to keep him Neuter and hold him in Suspence And though he himself saw it turn to a War of Religion and would be the Overthrow of the Protestants or Evangelicks and though the Emperor had proscribed the Prince Palatine yet King James's Eyes would not be open'd nor would be persuaded to take the Alarm These are no great Master-strokes of Policy no more than of Conscience or Honour And to War at last when all was lost against his own avow'd Principles was an Incomprehensible Mystery of Judgment and Wisdom Besides these of which he discharged himself thus learnedly there was no Matter of Moment did or could Occur during his Reign to exercise any Extraordinary Talent As for the Governing his People 't is plain he had King-Craft as his Friend Sir Richard Baker calls it as is pretty Evident by his Parliamentary Speeches and his Ways of getting Money He could also Dissemble and sometimes Huff but 't was only his own Subjects and that with no good Grace neither He had Priest-Craft too as Heylin observes who tells us 'T was his usual Practice in the whole Course of his Government to Balance one extreme by the other Countenancing the Papists against the Puritans and the Puritans sometimes against the Papists Thus he was Devout for the Church of England at Home and for Popery Abroad making Canons for their Conformity here and submitting our Orders to Truckle to the Popish Match against all the Remonstrances of Parliament Church and People What could he expect from this Popish Match from any Popish Match but the Consequences all the World expected That it would let in Popery once more into Hopes of Success at least to gain Breath by a suspension of the Laws against them What could be expected but that this must create Jealousies and Misunderstandings between him and his Subjects And 't was not sending a Synod of Divines to Dort or having a Convocation at Home of which Dr. Overal his Dean of Paul's has given a special Account for the Edification of his Successor the present Dean could likely settle the Affairs of the Church in Europe when he at the same time was
Englishmen remember That we now have an Act of Parliament of our side which Asserts the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and hath Establish'd the Settlement of the Crown and which incapacitates any Papist or Person Marrying a Papist from having and enjoying it which Act is only Defective in this That it is not Order'd to be Read in the Churches twice at least every Year and upon Penalty of Deprivation If such a Law had been made in Edward the VIth's Time it might have sav'd some Blood and Trouble since the Reformation WILLIAM III. THE Lord Chancellor Notttingham in the Case of the Duke of Norfolk and Charles Howard Esquire c. hath in my Mind a notable Expression viz. Pray let us so Resolve Cases here that they may stand with the Reason of Mankind when they are Debated abroad Shall that be Reason here that is not Reason in any part of the World besides In truth we are apt to be peculiarly Artificial in our Thoughts and way of Argument and our Reasonings are too Municipal Thus every little Pedant can Settle and Establish the Affairs of Religion and Government and can Resolve all the great Mysteries of Church and State as he thinks in his narrow Study But if a Man looks Abroad and takes a general survey of the World and reflects upon the Universal Notions and Customs of Mankind his Soul will become more enlarged and will not determine so Magisterially upon the Principles of any particular Sect or Society The Case of King WILLIAM in it self is perhaps the most Glorious and Generous Cause that hath appeared upon the Stage of Human Actions yet hath been sullied by dire Representations by poor-spirited and precarious Arguments which have been brought in for its support His Title to the Crown of Great Britain stands Firm and is justifiable upon Natural and Sound foundations of Reason without Props But hath been so oddly maintained by the manner of its Defence that it hath been the Justification only that hath Disgrac'd the Revolution Doctrina facit Difficultatem We have been running out of the way to fetch in Aids from Art and Learning whilst Nature presents us with obvious and undefiled Principles of Reason Thus the King's Accession to the Throne hath been introduced by shuffling between Providential Settlement Conquest Desertion Abdication and topping Protections of Power whilst Men of Honour and People of Honest Plain Understandings stand Amazed instead of being Convinced and hang back when Allegiance comes to be explained and a Recognition demanded an Association proposed frights us as a thing strange and impious which shews our Allegiance was not rightly founded but looks like a thing of Fancy built upon a forc'd and fictitious bottom All these ungrateful Terms have been ingeniously exposed by Mr Johnson except only Abdication which with submission is also too Artificial a Word not to be found in the Alphabet of Spelman a Civil Law Term used almost in Fifty several Senses and therefore an uncouth Expression of the Common Laws of this Realm to speak in The Word Forfaulture seems to have a plainer Signification to our common Understanding This as Forisfacere Forisfactum Forisfactura and Forfacere Forfactum Forfactura c. we find in Spelman and it signifies Rem suam ex delicto amittere sibi quasi extraneum facere Rem culpâ abdicere alterique Puta Regi Magistratui Domino abjudicare Forisfacere pro Delinquere peccare transgredi Injuriam inferre LL. Edw. Confess cap. 32. ut Codex noster MS. legit Aliqui stulti improbi gratis nimis consuetè erga vicinos suos foris facebant This agrees with the Sense of King James the I st his Speech to his Parliament viz. A settled King is bound to observe the Paction made to his People by his Laws in framing his Government agreeable thereunto And a King Governing in a settled Kingdom leaves to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant as soon as he leaves off Governing according to the Laws In which Case the King's Conscience may speak to him as the Poor Widow said to Philip of Macedon Either Govern according to your Law aut ne sis Rex And if a Subject's Conscience may not speak the same thing King James's Words signify nothing The other Words carry an Odious or suspected Construction in them the First in the Convocationstyle implies Guilt and at best creates but a Transylvanian Allegiance the Second is a Jest and false in Fact besides 't is what the King himself disowns the Third is an idle Sham as stated and the Fourth is also a little strain'd as I concieve and we might for ought I see as well have call'd it a Cession especially if King James was a Spiritual Person of the Society of Jesuits as hath been said But what need we any Term of Art Let the matter express it self by Periphrasis in its own genuine Phrase It is fairly stated in the Prince's Declaration And our Case is no more nor less than this A King contrary to his Coronation-Oath dispenses with and breaks through all the Established Laws of the Land Invades and Subverts the Rights Liberties and Properties of the People which he Swore to maintain inviolably and Dissolves the Constitution of Church and State in an Arbitrary Tyrannical manner the People therefore in Defence of their Laws Rights and Religion and the necessary Preservation of them Oppose the violent proceedings of such a Prince I put the Case at the worst and also apply themselves to a Neighbouring Prince who hath an Expectation of a Right to the Crown and pray in Aid of him to assist them in the Maintaining and Defending their Legal Rights together with his own Title to the Succession who in his own Words makes Preparation to Assist the People against the Subverters of their Religion and Laws and also Invites and Requires all Persons whatsoever All the Peers of the Realm Spiritual and Temporal and all Gentlemen Citizens and other Commons of all Ranks to come and assist him in order to the Execution of this Design against all such as shall endeavour to Oppose them to prevent all those Miseries which must needs fall upon the Nations being kept under Arbitrary Government and Slavery and that all the Violences and Disorders which have overturn'd the whole Constitution of the English Government may be fully Redressed in a Free and Legal Parliament to secure the Nation from relapsing into the Miseries of Arbitrary Government any more Upon which appearance of mutual Defence for Self-preservation the Conscious King Retires first leaves his Army which no Man I will be bold to say would do without Guilt or Cowardice and I 'm sure a Prince that had been Brave or acted upon Principles of Honour would have Fought it out with but Ten Regiments or with One at his Heels which was Richard the IIId's Case in the first sence though not in the later and after leaves the Realm for Reasons best known to
Edify As to what relates to the Justification of this Government it may be thought this comes out but poorly at this Time of Day and is a sort of barbarous Triumph over the Silenc'd and Oppress'd But those who know how early I was engaged in this Revolution another Way as early almost as any Gentleman on this Side of the Water cannot entertain such Thoughts of me I can only say I have not advanc'd one Expression upon that Consideration and the Occasion given me now was only Reading over some Books which had been on both Sides Published but not with Satisfactory Arguments to me and not in so clear a Method on the Side of the Revolution as I wish'd and besides I do not find that Men are less apt to Talk against the Government now than they were Seven or Eight Years ago and therefore I suppose this Publication may not be unseasonable even under so Long and Prosperous a Success of this Establishment which can never be made too Secure in the Hearts and Affections of the People Your Humble Servant W. P. A Summary Review OF THE KINGS and GOVERNMENT OF ENGLAND c. ' T IS somewhat wonderful and I know not by what Fate it comes to pass That those Nations which by Nature seem design'd to enjoy the most retired Repose and Tranquility as not being by Situation involv'd in the common Hurly-burly of the World should yet notwithstanding deny themselves that Happiness as it seems and run into equal Confusion and Trouble with the large Continents of Men. Whether it be that we ascribe too much or too little to the Powers above and assume to our selves too far in the Conduct of Human Affairs Or whether in truth we are not permitted to establish that settled Peace and Pleasure here below which Mortals in their Wisdom would fancy and pretend to prescribe to themselves Be it how it will Is it not certain that all States Civil and Ecclesiastical too when they have arriv'd to the Top of Grandeur by a sort of Necessity as it were dissolve into Luxury and by an unaccountable Weakness and Vanity dwindle into Disreputation lose their Edge and are disarm'd till another Encroachment steps up and takes the place Not that all New Establishments and Reformations have been always for the better but only to shew that all sublunary things are subject to change However That Government and some Form of Polity is necessary cannot be disputed though it may what sort is But admitting Monarchy to be the best constitution and with all the Compliments of Comparison and Advantages that the Church will have for that doth not pretend that it is the Only Form approved by God with exclusion to others yet we see the best Scheme of this whether Absolute Limited or Mixt Hereditary or Elective hath never yet been capable to establish and secure it in Peace and Prosperity long as it were to intimate That even the wisest Scheme if any such be of Policy will have its Defects and all Foundations of Government are planted in a changeable Soil and are transform'd even in Notion either through the Perverseness or Inconsideration of the Prince or People or both Nay when we have pray'd in Aid of Religion and taken that into our support what wretched work has Religion it self made in States and unhinged them as Learning has Religion Those very Means that should compose and settle have subverted and do still disorder the World What Mischiefs have not those two words Prerogative and Liberty introduced both in Law and Gospel Construction and those two Epithets of Obedience Active and Passive are sacrific'd to Forms more than Force and have been abus'd almost as much by Government as Anarchy In our best Form of Government as we call it when the Constitution comes to clash the sole Question is Which is to be preferred the Person and Will of a Prince or the Law of the Land Which is most sacred the Power or the Ordonnance Which is to be obey'd and maintain'd the King who invades the Law and Religion Establish'd for 't is certain such a Case hath happen'd or Religion and Law which establish'd them Whether Religion or the Humour of a King be to be obey'd even for the sake of Religion This it seems hath been made a Doubt and hath been a Theme more than sufficiently handled of late Years especially and managed with Artifice enough to say no worse on both sides Indeed if we were now under a Theocracy the extravagance of the Dispute would be on t'other hand and if God at this day could be suppos'd to govern our Governors as in the Jewish Oeconomy when Rulers Captains Priests Judges and Kings were immediately inspired and led by the Almighty to keep them from stumbling or swerving before that Kings were given for a Curse and when not made such Implicit Faith and Obedience must be then due But when God himself leaves us to the Rules of Human Laws as he plainly intimates and is confest by the most Learned Divines who are impartial 't is otherwise And I must confess in my poor Opinion God forgive me if I err and I err in good Company under the Gospel God seems not so much concern'd in Human Powers otherwise than Human Laws And our Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount hath not one word about Kingdoms only of another World After which the Texts of the Apostles are not to be taken in a general extended Sense for our Saviour himself who is and must be suppos'd to comprehend all necessary Instructions for a Christian when he insists on superlative Directions would no doubt have vouchsafed some Guide in obedience to the Powers on Earth if he had not concluded them by the Measures of their respective Constitutions and his Expression of rendring unto Cesar the things that are Cesar's c. sufficiently implies the force of that Argument and the Exempt reservation of Property c. No doubt the meaning of the Apostles has been strain'd too far by some Divines and besides it infers but little to us forasmuch as they do not nor ever did agree in their Interpretations 't will be to little purpose that the Apostles were inspired if we are not inspired also with an adequate degree of Apprehension But this only by the by This is not my Province and I shall have occasion to resume this Argument hereafter All that I shall say at present is That Arbitrary Power and Legal Right are Contradictions and cannot consist in Human Understandings Therefore I shall make bold to take Power in that sense which may consist with Reason and Rejecting the first tack the word Legal to it and shall wave or post-pone the Premisses from the absurdity of the Conclusion For if it be allow'd or may be suppos'd That a King can with his own breath blow away the Laws of the State or at second-hand remove the Land-mark or is to be told by any Metaphysical Pedant That no Law can