total destruction depriv'd our late Sovereign of his Life and Crown which I am confident was not by the major part first intended in 1640 and had like to have kept his present Majesty in perpetual Exile had not Providence wrought Miracles in his favour and in spite of all the Artifices of his Rebellious Subjects restored him to his Throne without Blood or Violence among which I cannot but remember that devilish Pamphler intituled A Letter from Bruxelles c. mention'd in Baker's Chronicle publish'd after his Majesties Declaration from Breda insinuating That notwithstanding his Promises if they suffer'd his Return he would with all imaginable Cruelty revenge the Death of his Father and not forget it to the third Generation of those concerned in that horrid Murder This put the People into a great Consternation yet his unparallell'd Clemency and his so often pressing his Parliament to pass the Act of Oblivion sufficiently prov'd the Malice of that Invention But I hope this Cheat is now so well known that it will gain no Credit with considering Persons I onely wish some care were taken to undeceive the weak and unthinking that Peace and Unity which seem to have parted from you with his R. H. might with him be once more restor'd and the happy Vnion of both Kingdoms be made perpetual by suffering no rent or gap in the Royal Line which all of our Nation and we hear those of Ireland will not be less forward are not onely oblig'd but have vow'd to maintain with the hazard of their Lives and Fortunes a Necessity we hope you will never put upon us as well for your own sakes as for the Peace and Quiet of this Kingdom wherein he has not the least Concern who is and always will be Your most humble and most obedient Servant c. POST SCRIPT JUst now I hear of a new Project set on foot to give the King 600000 l. of which he may dispose one at pleasure on condition he will consent to the Bill of Exclusion and that in return he shall have Power by Act of Parliament in case he have no Issue by his Queen to settle by Will the Crown upon any of his Natural Children To manage this Design a new Set of Ministers is contriv'd A great Lord whose Son most if not wholly influences the House of Commons is to be made a Duke another Earl to be Treasurer Sir W. J. is to be L. C. J. Col. T. to be a Secretary of State c. I am very sorry to perceive the Differences between the King and his Subjects are fomented by Persons of the same Humour with those in 1640. who meeting at Sir Robert Long 's undertook if his then Majesty would do so and so he should govern the Parliament to all Intents and Purposes The King consenting to every excepting one their desir'd Preferments was refus'd crying out One and all having before bound themselves accordingly One of the then leading Men has in this Parliament a Son whose Power and Ambition falls very little short if at all of his Fathers and if you have a mind to discover Hercules his Proportion by that of his Foot compare the Remonstrance and the late Address and without naming you will find the near Relation of the Authors For shame let not such Proceedings be nick-nam'd doing your Country Service I remember to have heard that in the short Parliament before that of 40. when some more zealous than wise Members spake too extravagantly a sober Gentleman and no Courtier stood up and said he was for more moderate Counsels lest their present heat and exorbitance should put that King and his Successors for ever out of conceit with Parliaments who depended upon his Pleasure I wish the whole Kingdom as well as their Prince may have no reason to grow weary of and dislike the setled Constitution of Commons in Parliament chusing rather to have as formerly the whole Power in the King and his Great Council of Lords and Barons Extremes are near one another and many by grasping at too much have lost the little they enjoy'd This is as foolish as with the Dog in the Apologue to lose the Substance for the Shadow And since Prudence tells us A long provok'd and incens'd Clemency turns into the greatest Cruelty you ought to bridle your Passions and Ambition lest you too late repent your Madness and your Folly This Consideration has carried me beyond the usual length of a Post script wherein I design'd to have said little more than that I understand the D. writes this night to the King his Brother That if he can be secure his Parliament will agree with him upon quitting his Interest that he should not longer struggle for him who would not onely hazard his uncertain hopes of a Crown but would with joy expose his Life to do his Majesty service whose long Reign and Happiness notwithstanding all the Forgeries of his Enemies he as heartily wishes as any other the most Loyal Subject in his Dominions Consider the Greatness of this Generosity and let not Malice for ever prevail to the defamation of Innocence and the disturbance if not the ruine of these Nations FINIS
we seriously did consider the mighty Advantages of an Hereditary Monarchy beyond an Elective we should find it reasonable that though the Laws had not yet the King should endeavour to make ours such much less ought he to alter that most happy Constitution by excluding his Brother For let Men say what they please the same Power that can put by One may All and so change the Best of Government for the Worst or None at all Besides His Majesty cannot but find it his own Interest to stick to the D. when he reflects that there is in all things especially in State-Affairs a Balance necessary by an equal Libration to keep things in a right Order and prevent Confusion and Ruine Where Men are there will be Ambition this creates Parties and Factions these must be kept divided and asunder by their Jars and Disagreement and by so poising them that the less like the smaller Fry of Fishes be not swallowed by the greater the safety of the Prince and State is preserv'd If the Prince be once prevail'd upon to joyn with the One to the suppression of the Other he has resigned his Power and exposed himself to the Mercy of the Conqueror This he likewise does if he gives way to several little Factions to embody into one of greater strength than the rest though assisted with that of his own Particular For here we must suppose three strong Parties one of the Prince and two of the People To keep this Balance in the best posture and to secure the Peace of the Commonwealth by the Kings reigning void of Fear or Jealousie on the score of Factions or his Successor 't is necessary in politie to find or make the next Heir the Object of the Peoples hatred and keep the Factions from combining because however they may chance to be weary of the King either through the inconstancy of their Humours studious of Change and Variety though for the worse or through the ill Conduct of Ministers or the Misfortunes of Publick Affairs when they find a Person whom they hate like to succeed they will be for continuance of the old or else being jealous of one another will not attempt his removal This then being so great an advantage prudent Kings cannot be supposed to neglect it by suffering the immediate Heir to be run down and thereby giving way to the People to dethrone the present Possessor and set up the next in course after To this Wisdom in Henry the Third gain'd by his own and Fathers Misfortunes we owe our present Constitution of Parliament This King perceiving the Lords Power in whom with himself the Supreme Legislative Right then consisted grown formidable the Commons being their Livery-men and Dependents erected these into a Lower House to counterpoise the weight of the other that he joyning with either as Occasion of State required might balance the other and so keep things in an equal and steddy Libration And if his Successors had been as sollicitous to maintain as he was to institute this good Order and Politie the Eternity of this Commonwealth would not at this day have been a Question And as this was our Home-Interest and that of holding the Scales even between France and Spain our Foreign so it plainly appears that not to exclude the Duke is not onely his Majesties particular Interest but also that of the Three Kingdoms Not to insist that the Parliament is not compleatly the Peoples Representative but granting it is they cannot be supposed to enjoy a greater Power than those they represent who because such are the greater and therefore must be concluded explicitly or implicitly to limit the Commissions of these their Trustees and that Consinement Reason will tell us must be within the Bounds of our ancient Rights and Privileges consequently these are not to be invaded without the consent of every individual Person or at least of the major part truly poll'd and computed The present Electors not making a sixth part of the Nation cannot in reason bind the rest contrary to their Interest much less can the Majority of those chosen by them oblige the others to conform to whatever they enact when they find the Statutes more prejudicial than advantageous the End of Government being the Good of the Community i. e. of the major part not of any artificial or fictitious Majority of a Quorum as in the House of Commons of 512 to reckon 40 the greater Number Now if such an Act should be obtain'd the Consequence if the D. survive the King whose Life God long continue must needs be War and Misery Folly and Repentance Our Histories are full of Tragical Events upon such Occasions One of them wrought so great a Depopulation that in sixty miles riding between York and Durham for nine years together there was neither Ground tilled nor House left standing Harold justling young Edgar Atheling out of the Throne produced a Civil War and the Norman Conquest I wish excluding the D. may not enslave us to the French Dominion which may be of greater evil than the cutting of as many of our own Peoples Throats as died in the Yorkist and Lancastrian Quarrel upwards of 200000 of the Commons besides several Kings and Princes and Nobles without number The Duke cannot be supposed to want Sticklers both at home and from abroad few will believe the Act lawful in its own nature nor the King's Consent free or themselves not bound by Oath to his Assistance Scotland and Ireland will rejoyce at another Civil War in England in hopes to free themselves from the Inconveniences of being Provinces Those who have least to lose are the usual Gainers by Rebellion There are sown between these Nations Seeds of Discontent and there will not be wanting those who will improve them I have heard from knowing Persons there are no less than Fifty thousand Irish Soldiers now living that have been trained up in the French and other Forreign Service and I believe there cannot be fewer of the Scottish People These all with many of our own Countreymen will quickly credit the Lawyers that tell us No Act no Crime no Attainder of Treason can bar the next of Blood from being King in the instant of time his Predccessor does not so much die as transmit his Life his Breath or his Soul by a State-Metempsychosis into the Nostrils the Body of his Successor Edward the Fourth Henry the Seventh Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth and King James enjoy'd the Crown though all excluded by Acts of Parliament if they ought to have the name that were the Effects of Force Strong hand and an usurping Tyrannick Power These Statutes were by all Judges of England accounted void in themselves and therefore never had the honour of Repeals nor were they brought into Plea by Sir Walter Rawleigh one of the greatest Wits of that Age though he urged a very trivial one The King 's not being Crown'd a Ceremony of Pomp and State not of Use or Necessity as
appears not onely in that it could be of no use to him but that several Kings have exercised a full Regal Authority enacted Laws c. before their Coronations And since this Inauguration is but a Formality let it be well weigh'd That unless the Monarchy be made purely Elective and that part of the Common Law and the several Statutes that have declared it Hereditary be repealed in express Words and the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy changed and the Successor mentioned by Name the Act against the Duke falls to the ground of it self in the moment in which he happens to out-live the King for thereby becoming our lawful Sovereign none can fight against or oppose his Right to the Crown without Perjury and Rebellion we having sworn to defend against all Pretenders whatsoever Forreign or Domestick the King's Majesty his Heirs and Successors and all Rights Privileges and Preheminences to them belonging and annâ—xed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm And is not the Descent of the Crown upon the next of Blood one of these Rights c. acknowledged by the Common Law and in the Statutes 1 M. Eliz. Jac. The Maxim in our Laws The King never dies confirming as much And was not the Duke then at the taking of these Oaths the next Heir And what Power on Earth can absolve from the Obligation of Promissory Oaths without the Parties own Consent to whom the Promise is made Let us not rail against the Pope for deposing Princes and absolving Subjects from their Allegiance and yet allow the Parliament the same Authority The Bill against the Duke is not onely of an extraordinary but of two natures one expresses a present Punishment Exile which as a Subject did the Crime deserve it none will deny may be inflicted the other refers to the future and is at present no Punishment nor can be hereafter for if he out-live his Brother his being King in that moment puts upon him a new Person a Politick Capacity over which not before in being no former Authority could have power nor any after because himself is become Supreme and as such by our own and the Laws of God subject to no Earthly Tribunal Bracton and all our old honest Lawyers tell us with one consent The King can do no wrong i. e. can be accountable to his Subjects for none of his Actions Nemo quidem de factis ejus praesumat disputare multo minus contra factum ejus ire Locus erit supplicationi quod factum suum corrigat emendet quod quidem si non fecerit sufficit ei ad poenam quod dominum Deum expectet ultorem Now he that says The Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy reach no further than to the King in being says not amiss if he takes the King in his Publick Capacity for in that he never dies But if he means no more than the Person of the now reigning Monarch he cancels with his Death the Obligation of those Oaths and makes Rebellion against the Successor no Crime against Conscience though it may be otherwise against Prudence This is to elude the Oath and rob it of the energy designed For 't is plain by the Words Heirs and Successors that the Takers Obligation continues during their own Lives let the Persons of never so many Princes be alter'd and as certain that in an Hereditary Monarchy the Duty is owing to the next of Blood And that a Parliament or any Power may dispence or absolve from the Obligations especially of Promissory Oaths between Party and Party without mutual consent is a Doctrine inconsistent with the nature of Promises where the Promiser gives the other a Right and makes himself his Debtor with the Rules of Christianity of Humane Society and all Governments 'T is no less dangerous to assert That Promissory Oaths or Oaths de futuro are not Obligatory Such a Principle cancels all the Duties and Bonds of Obedience between Prince and Subject of which therefore not onely the Divines and my Lords the Bishops but the State is to be very tender and careful Upon this Foundation 't is evident that if the Duke outlives his Brother and the Monarchy of England as it is be Hereditary and Coronation but Formality we become upon the death of the one the Subjects of the other And though there may be some that will not think of this Truth or notwithstanding will not mind it yet I am assur'd all that are truly Christians and all that are of the Church of England and wise will lay it to heart for Christianity teaches be the Prince of any or no Religion we must be obedient and submit our selves not onely for wrath but also for conscience sake In the late Times of Usurpation they were so sensible of this that they made the People Covenant against the King and renounce their former by after Oaths yet they durst not depend on that Artifice without the assistance of an Army Thus then we see the Duke cannot want a Party in England whose Strength must over-power any other when to it is united that of Scotland and Ireland And here let none be mistaken as if Scotland were govern'd or influenc'd by Presbyterian Domine's the Nobility there do wholly sway and hate refin'd Presbytery and a Plebeian Commonwealth Neither will the Scots be more forward to assist the Duke than the Irish in hopes they may thereby find an opportunity to extirpate the English and regain their ancient Possessions free themselves from any Dependence or at least change their present from that of England to France which on many scores seems to be the true Interest of that Kingdom politickly consider'd either as Popish or Protestant without respect to Religion 'T is a ready In-let to France who will not be wanting to assist the Duke in this Quarrel the onely way he can hope by gaining England on his side to win the Universal Dominion Now to resist the Duke an Army must be maintain'd the General of that Army may turn Papist or Tyrant or both and either way we may be enslav'd by the Duke if he gains the Victory or if he loses it by our own General Thus we may by shunning one Rock split upon another The Romans designing to free themselves from the seeming Tyranny of Julius Caesar who studied by Clemency and Obligations upon every body to secure himself as must needs be his R. H's Interest as it is his Temper and Inclination made way for the real and perpetual one in the Persons of Augustus Tiberius and their Successors And the Graecians repining against their lawful Emperors and deeming their just and wholesom Commands tyrannical and oppressive were so refractory and so obstinate that through spite to their Sovereign they would contribute nothing towards the necessary Defence of the Empire when invaded by the Turk until at last through the just Judgment of the Almighty a fitting Punishment for their Folly they became a Prey to that Tyrant and to this
be a greater Evil than that from which we intended to be freed The two first parts of this Assertion are very plain because Religion or Christianity alters not the Political Constitutions of any Society and because Popery in England hinders no man from being Heir to Real or Personal Estates the third therefore is to be made evident to wit That Prudence and Reason tell us the D. ought not to be barr'd of Succession I say then This Act is not onely unjustifiabie at present but in future and consequence as what will bring upon the whole Nation irreparable Mischiefs Where there are more hazards of an ill than a good Event the Action is in prudence to be avoided In great and momentous Instances new Experiments are not to be tryed nor indeed in any Case or Distemper where the Remedy is like to prove more fatal than the Disease Now to give or allow so boundless arbitrary and despotick a Power as that of putting by the next Heir or punishing ex post facto either in the King alone who is obliged under the Obligations of Oaths and Interest to govern by the stated Measures of Law or in him when advising with both Houses whose Power is so far from being co-ordinate or independent that it is onely communicated or derivative from the Prince as Streams from the Fountain and therefore can add or give him nothing new is to subject and enslave our selves and our Posterities For if every one be a Papist whom Faction or Malice Presumption or slight Circumstances and no positive Proofs have made so and if the right Heir on this account or for being really a Papist may be despoiled of his Right by Parliament since there can be greater Crimes or Evils than Popery which we all acknowledge consistent with Salvation what can secure all future Princes even the King at any time in being from being laid aside and dethron'd To endeavour so absolute a Subversion of our Government if it be not Treason is to design if it be pursued that which cannot but happen Anarchy and Confusion and all the Calamities of an unnatural Civil War Against this there is but one Objection That in the notion of a Parliament a King is implied and nothing can be supposed to consent to his own Ruine This I confess is true in nature in Thest but not in the fact in Hypothesi for what has been once done may be again Tumults and Factions Cunning and Address may make a Prince quit his Crown to save his Life and yet none ever lost the first but soon after did the second nay every Flower or Jewel he parts with is a step or advance to his Grave And the Considerer of the Weighty Considerations leaves in this Objection no Force by mentioning the Seconds of the Edwards and Richards deposed by Parliamentary Authority he might have added to his Catalogue the late Royal martyr'd CHARLES While this Book in many Passages treasonable is publickly sold before the Doors of Parliament who can lay aside fatal Apprehensions especially when Two Houses of Commons have successively prepared a Bill disposing of the Crown contrary to the King 's express Commands and former Presidents And because I will not run to far back and that Queen Elizabeth is renown'd for one of the best of our Princes I will instance what in some great Points hapned in her Reign concerning the Commons intermedling in the Ecclesiastical and the Crown Affairs their Right and her Prerogative In the Twenty third year of her Reign when the House of Commons first ordered to have a Time of Prayer and Humiliation appointed in the Temple on Sunday-fort'night after the Queen hindred it and sent a Message to the House by Mr. Vice-Chamberlain declaring That her Highness had great admiration of the rashness of this House in committing such an apparent Contempt of her express Command as to put in execution such an Innovation without her privity and pleasure first known And thereupon Mr. Vice-Chamberlain moved the House to make humble Submission to her Majesty acknowledging the said Offence and Contempt craving a Remission of the same with a full purpose to forbear the committing of the like hereafter And by the consent of the whole House Mr. Vice-Chamberlain carried their Submission to her Majesty Likewise in the Twenty eighth year of her Reign the Queen said She was sorry the Commons medled with Chusing and Returning Knights of the Shire for Norfolk a thing impertinent for the House to deal withal and onely belonging to the Office and Charge of the Lord Chancellor from whom the Writs issue and are returned In the Thirty ninth year of her Reign the Commons by their Speaker complaining of Monopolies the Queen made answer by the the Lord Keeper That she hoped her dutiful and loving Subjects would not take away her Prerogative which is the chiefest Flower in her Garland and the principal and head Pearl in her Crown and Diadem but that they will rather leave that to her disposition In the Thirty fifth year of her Reign Mr. Peter Wentworth and Sir Henry Bromley delivered a Petition to the Lord Keeper desiring the Lords of the Upper House to be Suppliants with them of the Lower House unto her Majesty for Entailing the Succession of the Crown whereof they had a Bill ready drawn Her Majesty was highly displeas'd herewith as contrary to her former strait Command and charged the Council to draw the Parties before them Sir Thomas Henage sent for them and commanded them to forbear the Parliament and not to go out of their several Lodgings After they were called before the Lord Treasurer the Lord Buckhurst and Sir Thomas Henage Mr. Wentworth was committed by them to the Tower Sir Henry Bromley and other Members of the House of Commons to whom he imparted the Matter were sent to the Fleet. And in the same Parliament when Mr. Morriee Attorney of the Court of Wards moved against the hard Courses of the Bishops Ordinarles and other Ecclesiastical Judges in their Courts and spake against Subscriptions and Oaths offering a Bill to be read against Imprisonment for refusal of Oaths the same afternoon Sir Edward Coke then Speaker was sent for to Court where the Queen her self gave him a Message to the House declaring It being wholly in her power to call to determine to assent or dissent to any thing done in Parliament That the calling of this was onely that the Majesty of God might be more Religiously observed by compelling by some sharp Laws such as neglect that Service and that the Safety of her Majesties Person and the Realm might be provided for It was not meant they should meddle with Matters of State or Causes Ecclesiastical and she wondred that any could be of so high commandment to attempt a thing so expresly contrary to that which she had commanded wherefore with this she was highly offended And because the Words spoken by my Lord Keeper are not now perhaps well remembred or
some be now here that were not then present her Majesties present Charge and express Command is That no Bill touching the said Matter of State or Reformation in Causes Ecclesiastical be exhibited And upon my Allegiance saith the Speaker I am charged if any such Bill be exhibited not to read it I have been credibly informed That the Queen sent a Messenger or Serjeant at Arms into the House of Commons and took out Mr. Morrice and committed him to Prison Within few days after I find Mr. Wroth moved in the House That they might be humble Suitors to her Majesty that she would be pleas'd to set at liberty those Members of the House that were restrained which was accordingly done And answer was sent them by her Privy-Council That her Majesty had committed them for Causes best known to her self and to press her Highness with this Suit would but hinder them whose good they sought That the House must not call the Queen to an account for what she doth of her Royal Authority That the Causes for which they are restrained may be high and dangerous That her Majesty liketh no such Questions neither doth it become the House to search into Matters of that nature In 39 Eliz. the Commons were told Their Privilege was Yea and No And that her Majesties pleasure was That if the Speaker perceived any idle Heads which would not stick to hazard their own Estates but meddle with reforming the Church and transforming the Commonweal by exhibiting Bills to that purpose the Speaker should not receive them till they were view'd and consider'd by those who are fitter to consider of such things and can better judge of them And at the end of this Parliament the Queen rejected Forty eight Bills which had passed both Houses All these Passages are expresly to be found in the Records and Registries of the Council-Table and are quoted by Sir Robert Filmer in his Free holders Grand Inquest p. 77 c. and by Mr. Howel sometimes Clerk of the Council in his Philanglus p. 57 c. and several others By which it appears That this grand Privilege of Parliament Liberty of Speech which at present makes so great a Noise in the World was not in this good Queens Reign half so considerable as People now would fain persuade us It was of no great antiquity in her days but a Favour first begged in King Henry the Eighth's Reign by Sir Thomas Moore then Speaker of the House of Commons who prayed the King in the behalf of the House That if in Communication and Reasoning any man should speak more largely than of duty he ought to do that all such Offences should be pardoned and this to be entred upon Record which was accordingly granted by the King And the same Favour was allowed by Queen Elizabeth in the beginning of her Reign to Thomas Gargrave then Speaker since whose time this Privilege was always humbly desired by the Speakers for themselves and the whole House of Commons and favourably granted by their Sovereign Yet this Privilege extended onely to rash unadvised ignorant or negligent Escapes and Slips in Speech which People are subject to let fall in the heat of their Debates not to wilful Reflections much less to treasonable Speeches against the King and Government as sufficiently appears not onely by the aforesaid Proceedings in Queen Elizabeth's time but also by the Transactions of her Father's Reign where we find that Richard Strood and his Complices were not thought sufficiently protected by this Privilege for their free Speech in the House unless their Pardon were expresly confirmed by the King in Parliament to which purpose there is a printed Statute enacted in King Henry the Eighth's time And in Queen Mary's days Plowden was Fin'd in the King's Bench for Words spoken by him in Parliament against the Queen's Dignity See Filmer ubi supra Mr. Fowlis Hist of the Plots Conspiracies of the Pretended Saints in it This was well known to our British Solomon King James who finding the House of Commons encroaching too far upon the Prerogative sent the ensuing Letter from Newmarket to Sir Thomas Richardson their Speaker Mr. Speaker We have heard to our grief That our distance from the Parliament caused by our indisposition of Health hath emboldned some fiery and popular Spirits of the Lower House to debate Matters above their Capacity to our Dishonour and breach of Prerogative Royal. These are therefore to command you to make known to them That none hereafter shall presume to medle with any thing concerning our Government or Matters of State with our Sons Match with the Daughter of Spain nor to touch the Honour of that King or any other our Friends or Confederates nor with any Mans Particulars which have their due Motion in our ordinary Courts of Justice And whereas they have sent a Message to Sir Edwin Sandis to know the Reasons of his late Restraint you shall resolve them It was not for any Misdemeanour of his in Parliament But to put them out of doubt of any Question hereafter of that nature We think our self very free and able to punish any Mans Misdemeanours in Parliament as well sitting there as after which we mean not to spare hereafter upon any Occasion of any Mans. And if they have touch'd any Point which We have here forbidden in any Petition of theirs which is to be sent to Vs tell them except they reform it We will not daign the Hearing or Answering Newmarket Decemb. 3. 1621. Sanderson's History of King James pag. 510. And likewise in the same Parliament when the House of Commons much insisted upon their Privileges calling them their ancient and undoubted Inheritance this wise Prince in a second Letter to the Speaker plainly and truly told them That most Privileges of Parliament grew from Precedents which shews rather a Toleration than an Inheritance therefore he could not allow of the Style calling it their ancient and undoubted Right and Inheritance but could rather have wished that they had said their Privileges were derived from the Grace and Permission of his Ancestors and him And thereupon he concludes He cannot with patience endure his Subjects to use such Antimonarchical Words concerning their Liberties except they had subjoyned That they were granted unto them by the Grace and Favour of his Predecessors Yet he promiseth to be careful of whatsoever Privileges they enjoyed by long Custom and uncontrolled and lawful Precedents Sanderson's Hist p. 519. 520. Now add to this That if the King should be drawn to consent to the Bill of Exclusion after his several Declarations to the contrary he cannot but be concluded under a Constraint which alone makes the Act void in it self it being absolutely necessary that the Commons Lords and the Kings Consent should be free from all Restraint and Terrour and we know that Acts of Parliament in 15 Edw. 3. and 10 Ric 2. were repealed meerly because the King's Consent was forced Moreover if