when it is made apparent that these mistakes are made serviceable to the Popish Plot and the means which the Popish party prosecute to compass and bring about the ruine of our Church But that nothing may be wanting that lies in my poor power for pulling their Foot out of the Snare I shall more distinctly consider them First I shall desire them to consider what our Government is and where the true knowledge of it is to be found And where can it be found but in our Statute-Books the Commentaries of our Law the Histories of our Government and of the Kingdom Search them if you be at leisure if you are not consult those that have read them and whose business and employment it is to understand them and you cannot fail to be informed That the King hath no power to make Laws that both Houses of Parliament must joyn with the King in making a Law It can with no more reason be concluded that the King hath the Legislative Power because his Assent makes the Bills in Parliament Laws than it can because the third Unit added to two makes a Triad that the other two do not go to the making of that number When a matter 's moved from the King in Parliament to pass into a Law the Commons consent last The Letters Patents of Ed. 3. for making the Eldest Son of a King in Succession Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwal Sir E. Cook 8. R. was confirmed as they must have been otherwise they would have been void by the House of Commons And yet we will not say that the House of Commons can make a Prince of Wales or Duke of Cornwal And yet upon no better reason than this some men will talk as if they believed themselves that the Legislative power is in the King when no King of England yet ever pretended to it but by their process of Law have punished such officious and mischievous Knaves They also will tell you that the Laws are the measures of our Allegiance and the Kings Prerogative and declare the terms of Obedience and Government That a Legislative authority is necessary to every Government and therefore we ought not to want it and therefore Parliaments in which our Government hath placed the making of Laws cannot be long discontinued nor their Conventions rendred illusory and in vain which is all one as to want them That to Govern by Laws implieth that great fundamental Law that new Laws shall be made upon new emergencies and for avoiding unsufferable mischiefs to the State By the Statutes of 4 Ed. 3. c. 14. 36 Ed. 3. c. 10. it is provided that Parliaments be holden once every year The Statute of this King required a Parliament every three years which being an affirmatory Law doth not derogate from those of Ed the 3. But if the King doth not call a Parliament once in a year he neglects these Laws and if he delays calling a Parliament three years he neglects the other Law of his own time too And for that he is by the Law intrusted with the calling of Parliaments he is at liberty to call them within the times appointed And that Laws ought to be made for Redress of mischiefs that may ensue appears by the Statute of provisors 25 E. 3 cap. 23. In which we have these words Whereupon the Commons have prayed our said Soveraign Lord the King that sith the right of the Crown of England and the Law of the said Realm is such that upon the mischiefs Dammage which happeneth to this Realm be ought and is bound of the Accord of his said People in his Parliament thereof to make Remedy and Law in avoiding the mischief and damage which thereof cometh which that King agreed to by his Royal Assent thereto given I dare be bold to say that never any Bill in Parliament was lost and wanted the Royal Assent that was promoted by the general desires of the people If Popery therefore which is the greatest mischief that ever threatned this Kingdom can be kept out by a Law we ought to have such a Law and nothing can hinder such a Law to be past for that purpose but want of an universal desire to have it I desire these Gentlemen to consider how they will answer it to our Saviour at the last day if they suffer his true Religion and the professors of it to be destroyed and persecuted when nothing but their desires of a thing lawful to be had and of right due was requisite to prevent it Their sufferings will be just and righteous from God if their sin occasioneth it and very uncomfortable to themselves The extent of the Legislative Authority is nowhere to be understood but by our Acts of Parliament in which it hath been exercised and used and by such Acts that declare the extent of its power By the 13 Eliz. cap. 1. it is made Treason during that Queens Life and forfeiture of Goods and Chattels afterwards To hold maintain affirm that the Queen by the Authority of the Parliament of England is not able to make Laws and Statutes of sufficient force and validity to limit and bind the Crown of this Realm and the descent limitation inheritance and Government thereof And this authority was exercised by Entailing the Crown in Parliament in the times of Richard the 2d Henry the 4th Henry the 6th Edward the 4th Richard the 3d Henry the 7th thrice in the time of Henry 8th and upon the Marriage of Queen Mary to King Philip of Spain both the Crowns of England and Spain were Entailed whereby it was provided that of the several Children to be begotten upon the Queen one was to have the Crown of England another Spain another the Low-Countries The Articles of Marriage to this purpose were confirmed by Act of Parliament Those that are truly Loyal to our present Soveraign have reason to recognize with high satisfaction that such a power of altering and limiting the descent of the Crown is duly lodged in the King and States of the Realm For under the Authority of an Act of Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland we derive our selves to the happiness of his Government and He his Title to the Crown of Scotland which drew to him the Imperial Crown of England For Robert Stewart first King of Scotland of that Family lived in concubinate with Elizabeth Mure and by her had three Sons John Robert and Alexander afterwards he Married Eufame Daughter to the Earl of Ross and after was Crowned King of Scotland He had by her Walter Earl of Athol and David Earl of Straherne When Eufame his wife died he Married Elizabeth Mure. After that by one Act of Parliament he made his natural Children first Noble that is to say John Earl of Carrick Robert Earl of Menteith and Alexander Earl of Buchquhane And shortly after by another Parliament he limited the Crown in Tail Successively to John Robert and Alexander his Children by Elizabeth Mure
by Parliament ought not to direct the Right of the Crown of England Or that our said Severaign Lady the Queens Majesty that now is with and by the Authority of the Parliament of England is not able to make Laws and Statutes of sufficient Force and Validity to limit and bind the Crown of this Realm and the Discent Limitation Inheritance and Government thereof Or that this present Statute or any part thereof or any other Statute to be made by the Authority of the Parliament of England with the Royal Assent of our said Soveraign Lady the Queen for limiting of the Crown or any Statute for Recognizing the Right of the said Crown and Realm to be Iustly and Lawfully in the most Royal Person of our said Soveraign Lady the Queen is not are not or shall not or ought not to be for ever of good and sufficient Force and Validity to Binde Limit Restrain and Govern all Persons their Rights and Titles that in any wise may or might claim any Interest or Possibility in or to the Crown of England in Possession Remainder Inheritance Succession or otherwise howsoever And all other Persons whatsoever every such person so holding affirming or maintaining during the life of the Queens â—…elly shall be adjudged a High Traitor and sufâ—…r and forfeit as in Cases of High Treason is acâ—ustomed and every Person so holding affirming or maintaining after the Decease of our said Soveraign â—ady shall forfeit all his Goods and Chattels AN ANSWER TO A BOOK Published 1679. Intituled A LETTER FROM A GENTLEMAN of Quality In the COUNTRY to his Friend c. Relating to the Point of SUCCESSION to the CROWN c. BY several accidents the former sheets have stopt in the Press from a few days afteâ— the Great and Weighty Consideration were published and being now ready to comâ— forth we have a Gentleman of Quality as hâ— calls himself undertaking from Scripture Law History and Reason to shew how improbable 〈◊〉 not impossible it is to bar the next Heir in thâ— right Line from the Succession in a Letter to his â—onoured Friend A. B. And now after so long a time of consideration one should think the many men of great Parts â—nd Learning that are dependents on the Duke â—pirited with zeal and ambition should have offered all that they have to say against the Bill â—or excluding his Royal Highness And this â—eing as may be reasonably concluded the last endeavours of the most learned and best parted men of that Interest This Letter for that reason onely but not for any thing of moment that â—t offers deserves to be considered We will not follow him from Paragraph to Paragraph since the greatest part of it is vain and empty pedantick bombast and putid affectation I shall onely draw you up short Summaries of his several Reasons and give them all the advantages they can challenge and improve them by just and natural Inferences And that I think will be enough of confutation and a sufficient countercharm against his deceiving the People He first lays down for a Ground That the Succession to the Crown of England is inseparable annexed to Proximity and nextness of Bloud by the Laws of God and Nature And all Statute-Laws contrary to the Laws of God and Nature are ipso facto null and void That it is contrary to the Laws of God he proves by the Law of God given by Moses to the Jews in the 7th of Numbers that directs how the Succession of Lands should be amongst the Jews and whatsoever Statute-Laws are contrary to those Laws are null and void he saith The consequence of this Argument is this That the Laws given by God to the Jews are Laws to all Mankind That our common-Law and Statute-Law is against the Law of God and null and void because not agreeable to the Law of Moses That the eldest Son is not to take by Descent the whole inheritance but a double portion onely and that the Crown must be disposed of in Descents accordingly That not the first Son only and one Daughter but all the Daughters of a King if never so many must succeed together to the Crown That no Father can sell his Patrimony for that was the Jewish Law and established in that Chapter he quotes He proves it to be a Law of God further for that God saith to Cain of Abel That his desires shall be subject and thou shalt rule over him The consequence of this is that because Cain could not kill Abel notwithstaning he was to have the Primacy That Abel much more could not kill Cain his Elder Brother And further he proves that to be a Law of God because God maketh choice of the first-born to be Sanctified and Consecrated to himself And therefore it most certainly follows with this Gentlemen that he which is not the first-born must be so too I wish his Royal Highness the second born the Consecration of a Priest which the Text means notwithstanding the Text doth not allow it him so that he will not pretend to the Consecration of a King which is clearly out of the meaning of the Text. He says Consonant hereunto are the Suffrages of the Doctors of the Civil and Imperial Law The Consequence of this is first That he is not bound to be coherent to himself for he was before proving the Law of God to be That the Succession of the Crown is inseparably annxed to proximity of bloud and now he tells us of some Opinions of Fathers and Doctors that are consonant thereunto when they do not at all relate in their Opinions to what he had produced out of Moses his Law Secondly it follows that he is impertinently troublesome to his Reader by telling him of the Opinions of great names in this matter that the Eldest Son by ordinary right is to have his Fathers Estate in some Countries or that the Crown doth so ordinarily descend where the Succession is hereditary he should have spared them for another time when he shall say something that all mankind doth not agree in Thirdly That he is a man of little reading otherwise he would have been insufferably impertinent by 10000 quotations in this matter Fourthly That he is no Civilian for that in this place he calls the Soveraignity a Fee when all men agree that a Crown is of that fort of Inheritancs which they call Allodiums that are held 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This would have made a swinging Argument for his Jure Divino if he had thought of it but we will give it them gratis He tells us the Duke of York is in the same condition as the Eldest Son of the King Reigining though his Brother be King That the second Son of a King Regent when the first is dead living his Father is within the 25. of E. 3. that makes it Treason to compass the death of the King 's Eldest Son and that such Second Son is Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwal The
Consequence whereof is that he very impertinent or else the Duke of York is now Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwal and that he is within the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. This Argument of his he leaves to be further illustrated and pursued by the Church-men and Civilians But lest they should fail this Epistoler for I now am well assured that this question and cause is to be managed by the Sword by Massacres and the French Plot and not by Writing I have adventured and will proceed to illustrate his Arguments and pursue them into their Consequences leave the Epistoler of Quality to be pursued with laughter for he deserves no worse if it be true that he professeth that he is a Protestant and Lover of the Government Now he will he saith as best sorting with his profession and with a discourse of the nature drive proofs from the Authority of the Common and Statute-Law of England From whence it follows That the Common-Law and Statute-Laws of England are proper to be consulted with for declaring the Laws of God and the Laws of Nature which they never yet pretended to do And Secondly it follows from thence that this Epistoler no more understands the Common and Statute-Laws of England and what places they are to have in the Conduct of our manners and guidance of our Consciences than he doth as appears by what he hath said before what is the Law of God or Nature He lays it down as most evident That all the humane Acts and Powers in the World cannot hinder the Discent of the Crown upon the next Heir of the Blood because though they may hinder the Possession and Enjoyment of it This is a Dowry which the great King of Kings hath reserved to his own immidiate Donation and hath placed above the reach of a mortal Arm and mankind can no more hinder or intercept it than it can the Influences of the Stars or the Heavens upon the Sublunary world or beat down the Moon The Consequence of this is that the man is Lunatick and of insane memory and hath forgot and denies what in the same breath he affirms Eor he agrees humane Power may hinder the possession and enjoyment and yet it is no more possible to hinder the Descent than to stop the Influences of Heaven and to pull down the Moon Secondly It follows that that which is done is impossibe to be done Thirdly that there is no Right at all by Descent nor can be any Descent of the Crown for that it is reserved as he says to Gods immediate Donation And we never yet heard of any immediate Gift or Donation thereof from God And if the Duke will stay until that be done we most solemnly declare we will accept him for our King and he shall be a King to intents and purposes as he terms it we will be kinder and juster to him than his Freinds of the same perswasion with the Epistoler who will give him the Name and Style and would Abridge him as they pretend of the Power and Authority of a King He says further That when the Duke is King that the Legiance and Fidelity of the Subject is due to him by the immutable Law of Nature from whence it clearly follows that he must stay until that time come That when he is a Loyal and Foyal King we are to be Loyal and Foyal Liege-men and Subjects For Calvin's Case which he cites by the general Opinions of all considerable Lawyers is Apocryphal where it makes Allegiance absolute and more extensive than the Legal Power of Kings But here he subjoyns such loathsom Pedantry that I cannot but remark it He subjoyns to his mention of Calvin's Case that Aristotle Nature's Amanuensis as he calls him agrees with that Case in that he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Seneca's Natura commenta est Regem But for my promise sake I will make no further Observations upon him than by bare repeating of it to expose it That the King and his Successors are Kings by Nature he proves For that the Statute Laws do frequently stile the King our Natural Liege-Lord And for further proof tells us that in Indictments it is set forth that the Treason is commited contra debitum Fidei Ligeantiae quod naturaliter de jure impendere debet And the King in Indictments is sometimes styled Natural Lord. Whence it follows that we are born under Allegiance that no man that is born under any form of Government can deny Faith unto it though he never expresly swore Allegiance That the King of France is not our Natural Lord neither doth the Oath of Allegiance bind us to that Form of Government if introduced because the King was born to no such Kingship Nor is our King a Natural Lord to any Forreigners that come hither and the Form of the Indictment against Forreigners as the Lawyers know must be in another Form And further it followes That in all changes of Government the word natural is to be adjoyned to Allegiance in all Indictments of Treason committed against the Government in its several changes that it may suffer And this all the Lawyers with one voice pronounce He sums up all that he hath said before thus No humane Power can hinder the Descent of the Crown upon the Right Heir the Descent makes the King Allegiance is due to the King by the Law of Nature The Law of Nature cannot be abrogated by humane Power That Common-Law is more worthy than Statute-Law and the Law of Nature more worthy than both But upon better consideration of the whole matter it follows with better Consequence That Nature hath made no Laws about Property nor about Governments otherwise all Laws of Right and Property and all Governments would have been the same for what she makes are Universal as the Nature of man Besides that if he knew where she became a Legislatrix or if this Gentleman could direct us to a veiw of her Pandects we ought to acoord all our Laws to them Secondly That Common-Law is not to be preferred before Statute-Law For the Judges who declare the Common-Law are not wiser than Parliaments and the Common-Law appears so bad a Rule that it requires oftentimes amendment Thirdly It follows that no Legislation is Lawful for that which is to be preferred is best and that which is best is to be a Law for ever Fourthly That no Allegiance is due to any Prince but whom the Law appoints and as the Law appoints That he that is not King to him no Allegiance is due That humane Power is competent enough to alter as well as make any humane Constitution That which by humane Authority was made and made also descendible for all Crowns are not descendible can be altered by the same Authority in its Discent The greater part of this ensuing Discourse is the remembrance of the Tragedies that have been acted upon the English Nation by our Kings For we have not only suffered
people or who after he had got into the Throne obtained the submissions of the People The same reason admits an Alien born though he be estranged from us by his Birth Est in Juvencis est in equis patrum vertus Though what I have said in this matter is so obvious that no considering man can escape these thoughts yet I cannot think it impertinent to add it here to clear what I have laid down in the precedent Sheets as an undoubted truth and evident in it self That the Succession to the Crown is the peoples Right But there is nothing I perceive to be allowed clear and evident when we live in an Age wherein Fools and most ignorant persons will undertake by the Liberty of the Press to print and publish to the world their crude thoughts and with great assurance offer their uncouth Opinions with astonishing presumption Besides to the reasonableness of this Doctrine it is agreeable to the Illustrious Grotius De Jure Belli Pacis Lib. 2. cap. 7. And nothing follows from his collected Law-cases about the different Rules of Succession of the Crown from private Fees but that he is a very young Lawyer or an old senseless Jobber of Law-Cases But I hope that all men that read him will with resentment think themselves used with scorn when they see what frivolous Fellows attempt upon them to deceive them and will be fully convinced that the Bill is reasonable just and fit since they have nothing better to object against it The last endeavour of the Epistoler is to remove the Authority of Parliaments and the Act made in the Thirteenth of Queen Elizabeth The words of which are printed at the close of the Papers against the man of Great and Weighty Considerations Our case is not in its reasons unparallel to those that introduced that Law and occasioned the making of that Declaration but whatever was the particular Reason the Declaration of that Parliament in that Act is general and therefore it is an Authority not to be impeached to prove that there is such a power to alter the Succession of the Crown for great Ends and weighty Reasons and just Causes Besides that such a power is lodged in the Parliament is clearly proved by us from the nature of Government in the foregoing Sheets As also that such a power will not be abused by using it in this Bill of Exclusion of which I hope no body upon the reading of them will retain any longer any manner of doubt But I cannot before I have done but take notice of his little Artifice in that he doth suggest that by the Act of Parliament of the Thirteenth of Queen Elizabeth cap 1. the Title of the Family of Stuarts is excluded when it is evident by the words of the Act that the Disability there enacted is only personal And his story of Monsieur the Duke of Anjou designing then to marry the Queen is a false and malicious insinuation to hurt the memory of that excellent Princess And consequently that King James and his Race had and have notwithstanding the validity of that Act a good Title to the Crown And that the validity of that Act may be maintained without derogation and injury to his Majesties sacred Title whom God long preserve A short Historical Collection touching the SUCCESSION of the CROWN WHether the History of the Succession of the Crown will allow so good and clear an Hereditary Right Jure humano as we have yielded in the precedent discourse the Reader will best judge by the short Historical Collection touching the Succession hereto subjoyned In the Heptarchy there was no fit Hereditary Right one King tripping up the heels of another as he had power till one got all After that Alfred Bastard-son to Oswin Adelstane Bastard-son of Edward the Elder Edmund Surnamed the Martyr Bastard-son to King Edgar Harold Surnamed Harefoot Bastard-son to Canute wore the Imperial Crown of England But a Law was made under the Saxon Monarchy De Oodinatione Regum directing the Election of Kings and prohibiting Bastards to be chosen Edward the Confessor was no King Jure Haereditario but the right was most indisputable at first in Edward Son of Edmond Ironside Father to Edgar Etheling his Nephew during his life and after his decease in that Edgar who was Nephew also to the Confessor William the First called the Conquerour was a Bastard and had no right but from his Sword and the Peoples Suhmissions and their Electing him William Rufus was elected against the right of his Elder Brother Robert then living Henry the First was made King favenle Clero Populo his Brother Robert still living whose Eyes were after put out at Cardiss-Castle in Wales King Stephen was elected a Clero Populo and confirmed by the Pope and Maud Daughter of Henry the First excluded Henry the Second came in by consent yet he had no Hereditary right for his Mother Maud the Empress Daughter and Heir to Henry the First was then living King John had an elder Brother Jeoffery Earl of Brittany who had Issue Arthur and Elianor which ought to have succeeded before him but he Arthur his Eldest Brother's Son living was elected a Clero Populo and being divorced from his Wife by his new Queen had Henry the Third Henry the Third was confirmed and setled in the Kingdom by the general Election of the people Elianor Daughter to Jeoffery the elder Brother still living Roger Mortimer Earl of March Son of Edmund by Philippa Daughter and Heir of Lionel Duke Clarence a younger Son of Edward the Third was in the Parliament 9 R. 2. declared Heir Apparent of the Crown which could not be but by force of an Act of Parliament Henry the Fourth came to the Crown by way of Election and in his time viz. in the eighth year of his Reign was the first Act of Parliament made for Entailing the Crown with Remainders By vertue of which his Son Henry the Fifth became King and after him Henry the Sixth In Henry the Sixth his time Richard Duke of York claimed the Crown and an Act of Parliament was made 39 H. 6. that Henry the Sixth should enjoy the Crown for his life and the said Duke and his Heirs after him After which King Henry raises an Army by the assistance of the Queen and Prince and at Wakefield in Battle kills the Duke for which 1 Edw. 4. they were all by Act of Parliament attainted of Treason and one principal reason thereof was for that the Duke being declared Heir to the Crown after Henry by Act of Parliament they had kill'd him which Act of Attainder was 1 H. 7. repealed and the Blood of the King Queen and Prince restored in terms of disgrace and detestation of so barbarous an Attainder Rot. Palr Anno 1 H. 7. Edward the Fourth succeeds upon the death of H. 6. by vertue of an Act of Parliament made in the time of H. 6. for entailing the Crown as Son
that purpose is as much belonging to them and incumbent upon them as upon the Protoplast The duty is so personal consisting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it cannot be transferred or permitted absolutely to any other person by the Parents nor can any man challenge a right to it or discharge the Father from it or require the same affection submission and reverence that is due from a Child to his Father To expect relative duties without Relation is most unnatural it is as impossible as incongruous We may as well love and hate rejoyce and grieve without the proper object and incitements of those passions The fundamental Rule of all morality is that of Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say by the State and Condition in which we stand the relations and respects under which we are considered our duties are determined measured and adjusted upon which see Simplicius his Excellent Discourse wherein many things are said agreeable to our purpose This moral Aphorism is as certain as any proposition in Euclid as the Doctrine of proportional Triangles and received as such by all the Masters of Moral Philosophy There is no other foundation of our duty to God or Man or towards our selves This Rule whatever it is must declare it Whatever is measured and allowed by this Rule is commonly called which is comprehensive of all that is honest just and fit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The application of this Rule is called by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which when a man observes he is perfectly moral A man may as well pay his debts by giving away his Money be grateful to his benefactor by being beneficent to strangers as perform that duty he owes his Father to any but he that is so It is as impossible to separate the shadow from the Substance as to make that subsist by it self which grows by resultance from the state and condition of the person or that without that state of the person from which it doth arise it should ever accrew 3ly Admitting Adam had a Soveraign Authority over all his descendents which must grow if there was any such thing from some positive institution and not from his paternity yet the natural Authority and Duty of Parents towards their Children continues entire together with Soveraign Power and is not at all abated by it and therefore cannot be the same No Soveraign Power can extort the Children from their Fathers Authority and Care This is a duty in Nature before Governments They cannot belong to the Government before they are filii praecepti and capable of the Conscience of a Law It is a duty in Parents to educate their Children and a right they have in consequence to govern them that cannot be taken from them It is the Parents duty to form their Consciences They are appointed by God the great Ministers of his Providence and Grace to the Children That they perform this Office he hath tyed them to it by the sweetest constraints and almost violences of Nature by an irresistable love and tyes of Endearment that cannot be broken This declares their Right of Authority over their Children against any interposings of Soveraign Authority to its prejudice let or hinderance Thomas Aquinas positively determines that it is not lawful for Christian Kings to baptize the Children of the Jews against the will of their Parents for that saith he it is against the course of natural justice 4ly Thereis no footsteps in the Records of the old world to verifie this Hypothesis That such Authority was so much as pretended to used or exercised by Adam but we find instances against it in the short History before the Flood Cain received no sentence from Adam his Prince and Soveraign Judge but from God himself or rather from his Shecinah or some visible Representation of his presence Thence he obtained some degree of impunity and his life protected No mention here at all of Adam his taking the Tribunal or Cains arraignment or of any pardon or indulgence granted by King Adam Lamech that had killed a man by mischance did not alledge his case at his Father Adams Court and the matter of extenuation of the Man-killing we hear of no pardon of Course to be allowed when the circumstances of fact had been first judicially considered How could a thing of such importance be omitted in the story of the old World though so short It was of more concernment than to know that Tubal Cain was the first Smith and Jubal the first man that made a Musical instrument to know the original nature and reason of Government Besides we find all the grand-Children of Noah becoming Princes of Countries and the Sons and grand-Sons of Esau alike Dukes and Princes that is at least absolute Fathers of their own Families and ruling over such as were their slaves and dependants And the 12 Sons of Jacob are all called Patriarchs When Nimrod plaid the Tyrant we find nothing said for his justification upon any Patriarchal right But if we consult the Traditions of the Jews they will inform us of another original of Government and that is this They say that God gave several Precepts to Adam and his Sons and Noah and his Sons and one amongst the rest that they should erect Governments which his Sons could not have performed without Rebellion against their King-Father if Adam had been so as Sir Robert Filmer first dreamt Also besides that of making Governments there was a Precept given them of honouring their Parents Selden de jure Naturae secundum Hebraeos fol. 792. And therefore the Precept of honouring Parents is a distinct duty from that of obedience to Governments By this Precept they had Authority in general to establish Governments amongst themselves in the specification of which they were left to their own liberty and discretion and therefore were not obliged to any single form of Government It must be understood that the Precept which required the Sons of Adam and Noah to establish Governments required also every mans Submission to their Orders Laws and Decrees when established Lastly We will consider of the instances he gives of the Exercise of Soveraign Power by Fathers of Families which are as impertinent to his purpose as his Doctrine is groundless and precarious But they are these Abraham's War and Judahs Judgment upon Thamar As to the first of Abraham's making War We say we cannot allow that making War doth argue any Soveraign Authority It is sufficient that he who makes it is under none to make a vindicative War lawful For an injured Person may in the State of Nature vindicate wrongs by an Authority derived from God and Nature to a just satisfaction Because there is no competent Judicature to appeal to for right and redress But see how unhappy the Gentleman is This very instance of his production is clearly against him For if Soveraign Power had been Patriarchal Abraham had been guilty of Treason in making War without a Commission
understanding to appear and come forth for the undeceiving and rectifying the Judgments of the most deceivable part of Mankind and with just ignominy and scorn to beat down the assumings and presumptions of such Pretenders and Smatterers in Letters especially in such a Weighty Matter as this when the poor people if mistaken must be mistaken to their Ruine and perish by the Deceit if deceived which I hope is scarce possible for very many to be by this frivolous Pretender and Offerer of Considerations which none but he that deserves our pity could think of but for that he dares to offer them publickly to the World and under the stile of Great and Weighty Considerations he most justly deserves our Indignation a private Scorn a publick Censure For that purpose we will now produce him HE begins his Considerations with a Consideration and Recommendation of himself and would fain prove his Honestly for he was with reason conscious that this undertaking would render him more than probably suspected He proves as well as any thing he undertakes and as well as it can be proved That he is an honest man This he would have the World believe because there is such a thing as sincerity in the World and for that there have been some men that have owned an afflictive Righteous Cause against self-interest and the displeasure of a prevailing Faction but we know the Cause that he Patronizes is the most unrighteous Cause that ever any man of Front espoused but that should not trouble us But that which afflicts us and is the heart-aking of all good men is That this Scribler with too much reason we know presumes that the Brave men whom he reviles for adhering to the only means of the saving of three Kingdoms with the Gross of the Nation are designed to be subdued by a party of men whose strength the King in his profound Knowledg and Wisdom best knows how to Calculate but certainly this Addresser imagines very great whatever he pretends and that he is well backed by force Otherwise he could not adventure publickly to despise the Interest of a House of Commons If this Considerer and his Fellow-Conspirators had not some secret reserves of Strength he would not advise the King as he doth to Adhere to and Govern with the House of Lords and his Privy-Council and to lop off the House of Commons from the Government as an unprofitable Branch In the next Paragraph he tells us The Chiefest Principle and Maxim of the true reformed Religion in this Kingdom is fully Epitomized in this excellent Precept Give to every one his due If there can be more nonsense spoken in so many words It is this Patriot must do it and you shall find him often performing what I have undertaken for him And sure after such demonstrations of his Honesty and proof of his Understanding you must take him for a True Patriot and a fit Addresser of GREAT and WEIGHTY Considerations In the next Paragraph he undertakes to commend and allow chide and disapprove our leading Men I believe he means of the House of Commons but we want his Name it 's fit he should discover himself before we can admit him to sit Judge of the Actions of the most excellent Persons of the late House of Commons I perswade my self he would blush however immodest he appears in his Address if he were drawn out and exposed to publick view under such a Character we might spare him the Pillory rotten Eggs and Turnep-tops which is due to infamous Libellers against Governours for he is a man of such fashion I believe that he would suffer too much of Shame and Confusion of Face if he were but known well enough to be pointed at after we have done with him In the fourth Paragraph he allows it is a glorious thing to establish the True Protestant Religion but he would not have it established upon Quick-sands neither would we because it is impossible it should be so established we would not have it depend upon loose accidents expos'd to Chance and Contingencies and expect it should be supported by rare events and morally impossible nor to be left at Six and Sevens a chance that is not upon the Die and hope that things should out of their Course and Nature unite and combine together for its support That which is Glorious is so because it is Excellent in it self and difficult to be atchieved and whatever is difficult is to be obtained by unusual and extraordinary means to deny or condemn the use of them when lawful is to deny us the end and is so far in truth from allowing it to be Glorious that he doth not allow it at all That it is made difficult to support the Protestant Religion we owe to the Popish Conspiracy and the design of this man is to make it impossible to that purpose he requires you to lay aside Humane Policy which is the same as true Prudence which is the onely Guide God hath given us and the onely Oracle he hath left us to consult in our Affairs and is never repugnant as he would have it but always conformable to the Laws of God and Nature lest we should be furnished with a Remedy against the designed mischiefs to us and our Religion To this commendable sort of Policy the design of the Bill will be made agreeable in the following Discourse That we may admit the absurd Doctrins of the Church of Rome we are required to abandon our Reason and that we may more easily again fall unto her we must if we will be ruled by the Considerer renounce our Prudence and those that will not must endure his slanderous Reproaches with which he goes on to revile the Promoters of the Bill of Exclusion whom he calls Hypocrites Factious Spirits of the Fanatical Leven that they make a Cloak of Religion to palliate black Designs fierce Zealots acting like the Rump-Parliament Guilty of Antichristian attempts repugnant to the Ordinance of God and to the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom a few turbulent Zealots assuming to themselves a Soveraign and despotical Power of Deposing the DVKE of YORK and says That they impudently affirm That this hath been the Ancient Custom of Parliaments to Depose Princes and dispose of Kingdoms whereas the Crown hath been always Haereditary and never depended upon the Suffrages of the Subject Since this bad man presumes to say so many bad words falsely of the Excellent Members of the late House of Commons reproches their Zeal for the publick Safety most Heroically exerted in the time of the greatest Need and most threatning Dangers calls their appearance for the support of the Protestant Religion established by Law Hypocrisie And the prosecuting the Discovery of the Hellish Plot and the best means of preventing the Plot from taking effect black Designs Since I say his Immodesty hath given him so much Licence I wonder he had no more Scurrilities especially since he is so impertinent as to call
so long in animadverting upon this last passage but that I think our Considerer hath taken into his assistance in these Considerations some Divine by his abounding so much in Scriptural Allegations And that hereby you may see the Size of the rest of the men of that Order that are Chaplains to the Cause of the Succession and that they ought to be of little regard in this matter as they deserve none it being not in their way though in matters that belong properly to their Function they may deserve much who are of the meanest of that Order Our Gentleman next proceeds to his political Arguments but those can be answered I perswade my self by every man who hath heard of the Plot. Though a man of his Size may frame puzzling Arguments that may perplex mens Minds with scruples and doubts which a Fool may do and a Wise man cannot remove yet it is scarce possible for him to deprive men of their Senses and make them insensible to all the Evils that they hear see and feel and justly fear If the Protestants are not as he saith very strong abroad we have reason to be more united at home and united by the awful Authority of a Law If we are threatned with a great power of the Roman Religion from abroad which he affrights us with we have no reason to retain the biggest power to hurt us within our own Bowels But if it be in the power of such bad men as this Pretender to divide by slights and wiles the good People of England and keep them from uniting in the onely means of their safety we must perish But Wo be to them by whom we are thus destroyed His last effort upon the minds of the People is to intimidate them that by their fears they may fall under the evils they design upon us he scatters his menaces as if he were in the place of God against us and as if he had the executing of the Plot in his Power and tells us of sins that fit us for ruine It is convenient to these Plotters to imagine us mighty wicked that they may believe we deserve the Vengeance they design Our Government it self our Laws our Religion must become wicked when they arrive to a probable power to hurt us They never contrive a Gunpowder Plot a Massacre or burning a City but they dream the iniquity of the People is grown ripe They would turn us into Sodom and Gomorrha which this Considerer frights us with if they could call for Fire from Heaven and then publish us to all the world if we were much better than we are to be as wicked as the Cities of the Plain If we cannot obtain this Bill I shall then begin to think that the Decree is gone forth and our Fate is approaching and that God will let these Villains have their will over us By Gods displeasure not theirs I shall take the true measures of our Sins His displeasure will be remarkable and evident if he seems to deny us the means of our Safety and Preservation and which is the onely means of the Kings Salvation from their Traiterous design If this Bill do not pass they will take him for a wicked King too and they will say he hath no lawful Issue to succeed him for his own sins though our Considerer saith at present that our Sins are the cause of it and many other remarks of wickedness they will make upon him when they find it convenient and for their interest to destroy him at best he will be then but Tenant at Will to them of his Life as well as his Crown which this Considerer most slanderously chargeth to be designed by us but if he will follow the counsel of that excellent Bill he may live long and see good days and peace upon our Israel to which let all good people say AMEN I shall onely remark two or three things in the close of the Paper of Weighty Considerations First that he undertakes to say and affirm that the King is as much subject to the Power of the Parliament as the Duke which doth dethrone the King himself and lessens him to the degree of a Subject Secondly that in this his Address he perswades the King to rend the Government to lay aside the Commons of England and abandon them as Rebels to divide from them and govern by a House of Lords and Privy Council And thirdly that the most venerable and Loyal Parliament that ever was conven'd in this Nation though not so clearly purged from the corrupt Villains of the late long Parliament as the next we hope will be are charged by him to follow the Anarchical Encroachments of the Factions in the Rump-Parliament by which he insinuates that we must become Papists admit of a Popish Successor or be used as Rebels and Traitors by these three Remarks it is evident what Principles and Designs these men are of that oppose the Dukes Bill and from thence you may find reason to assist it and promote it with the greatest unanimity and resolution and the rather for that the Duke himself cannot want Considerations to dispose him to approve of it For what should he do with a Crown that he cannot wear Why should he accept of a trust that he cannot discharge and a Government that his Principles oblige him to transfer to a Forein Prince he is too generous a Prince to enter upon a Province onely to betray it He is a Prince of great Charity it was that surely mov'd him publickly to confess the Roman Religion that he might thereby recommend that Religion to our belief for the better reforming us from Heresie Why then should not the same Charity move him to renounce the Government lest he should offer an irresistable temptation to the People to a Rebellion a greater sin accounted by a King though a Catholick however the Priests rate it than an errour in belief But how can we imagine that he will condescend to be our King He doth not intend to accept of our Oaths of Allegiance and had rather not be King than we should be his Subjects upon those terms Why should we trouble him with the name of King reproach him call him Apostate Heretick and Infidel by swearing our selves his Subjects in the terms of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy Pray think no more of it write no more Great and Weighty Considerations for he intends to be no more your King than he doth to desert his Religion and the Roman Catholick Faith Besides his Zeal and Services and the Difficulties that he hath undergone for that Church and the hazards he hath incur'd deserve the best Place and highest Office in that Church which is that of a Priest he ought not to be put off and meanly rewarded with the Sheriffalties which their Eminencies of the Conclave despise and be prefer'd to all the Drudgeries and Cruelties that the Priesthood of that Church require of the Kings of that Communion that