destroyed because some Persons can maintain another no more than the Systeme of Plolomy was presently False only because Copernicus had invented his for True for the bare contradiction and Clashing of positions convinces no more than the giving the Lye but when it is prov'd upon them in one that even from their own Principles and Premisses they cannot draw the very Conclusion they design as it was since in the other that from their own Hypothesis they could not solve all the Phrases and Phaenomenons themselves would make to appear then certainly they must allow that themselves are in the wrong tho they will not Confess their Foes in the Right And now having at lenght examin'd their Original Power of People let us a little consider how long and from whence our Kings have had their Original If we must make words only instead of an Argument and cavil about an Idiom in Speech as sâ—me of their critical Contenders about this Origen of Kings have very vainly and as Foolishly quarrel'd at then we must consult our Dictionaries and the Dutch Tongue for without doubt till the Saxons settled here they had some other appellation and were only from them call'd Konyngâ— and since Kings but if we consider the Nature of the Government it is that which from the Greeks we call Monarchy which from its own Etymology best signifies and expresses the Sense that it bears which is the Governing part and the Supream power plac'd in the sole hands of some single Person and then the Queston will be only this how long that has obtain'd in the World by whom first instituted and in whom it first commenc'd For the first 't is undeniable that its Original was with that of the World and God himself gave it by the Name of * 1. Cen. v. 28. Dominion to his Adam he had Created which in express Terms was given him first over all the Living Creatures and then over thâ— product of his own Loins his Wife anâ— 4. Gen. v. 7. after that as if Providence did desigâ— to prevent the dispute about the Precedency of Primogeniture it gave in express words a Superiority to Cain that the younger should be in some sense his Subject that to him should be his deâ—â—re and that he should Rule over him from whence it was assoon Communicated to the Several Heads of the Families that were the product of their Loins and so succeeded in a sort of subordinate Government according to the Antiquity of the Tribe or Family That this was then such Authority as we now call Kingly is both nonsense to assert and as great a Folly for any to require that we should maintain for they may as well quarrel with us when we say there were Kings of Israel and Judah and yet cannot prove that there Courts and Revenues were as Stately and Great as now they are in England and France 't is enough if the Government of those Primitive times was but Analogous to what we call Kingly now And now that we have brought it both to a right of Primogeniture and a Paternal Right from whence will result the Divine we 'll consider what it is Mr. Sidney and his Advocates can say against it and see if there be any such absurdities in it as they more Seditiously then with any Sense and Reason suggest first for the right of Primogeniture that themselves will allow but 't is only because not able to contradict and besides as they imagin it makes for them and their Cause for by that course of descent they think our Asserters of a Divine right are oblig'd to deduce their Pedigree of their Kings form the Creation of the World in a right Line and therefore Mr. ‖ Vid. Paper at Execut Sidney says that such a supposition makes no King to have a Title to his Crown but what can deduce his Pedigree from the Eldest Son of Noah But for that absurdity which is truly their own by supposing it ours when it can't be truly deduced from the Doctrine and defence of a Divine Right we shall answer anon when we come to treat of the Paternal That Primogeniture had the Preheminence in the very Worlds Infancy if we do but believe the word of God which tells us that himself told Cain he should Rule over his younger Brother we cannot doubt of the truth of it besides Abraham's being a Prince and having a Precedence to his Brother Lot is also there recorded and Esau ‖ 25. Gen. v. 34. selling of his Birth-right Condemn'd as a Contempt of that preheminence to which God and Nature had prefer'd him and which himself only disposed of when he presum'd he was upon the point to dye and for his disregard of this Priviledge was he punisht too in the prevention of the * C. 27. Blessing and which is perhaps the only Instance in Sacred writ where a Lineal Discent and the Succession was interrupted and this too only occasion'd by his own Act. ‖ And we are expressly told the first born must not be disinherited no not for Private Affection Deu. 21. v. 15. If a man have two Wives the one hated the other lov'd and the first born be of her that was hated he may not make the Son of the belov'd first born before the Son of the hated that is indeed the first born but must give him a double Portion because the beginning of his strenght and the Right of the first-born is his vers 15 16 17. And that God himself did appropiate this precedency to the first-born may be gathered out of all the History of the Old Testament the only account that is extant and from which Authors gather all the Authentick Relation of the two first Epooches and most Memorable Periods or Intervals of time viz. That from the †First Period contain'd An. 1656. 2d 1518. SecunduÌ„ Intervallum a Varrone Mythicum appellatur Creation to the Flood and from the Flood to the first Olympiad i. e. to Ann. Mund. 3174. for the profane History of those times is accounted Fabulous and by Historians call'd so and from those Sacred Oracles it will appear that all their Kings of * So Jehoram succeeded his Father Jehoshaphat tho he had several younger brothers Chro. 21. v. 2. And after him Ahaziah his young Son because says the text all the Elder were slain Ibid. Chap. 22. v. 1. Which implies that they had succeeded if alive by Birth and Primogeniture Israel and Judah succeeded according to this Right of Primogeniture or where that fail'd by ‖ Numb 27. v. 9. Proximity of Blood And as the Almighty Countenanc'd such a Succession So does Nature it self which among Heathens was distinguisht from the Deity and may be so amongst Christians too if they consider it as the Work and Order of the Divine will for if she shall decide it she presumes the Eldest in years to be always the wisest too and 't is not Nature but a
reservata came to the Crown and was kept continually to her dying day in a close Confinement so strong a tide was the proximity of Blood thought then even by those that were the perverters of its Channel that it would bear all the force of its foes before it unless Bay'd back by as much force and violence and we have found in some of our own Reigns even that too little a well guarded Prison too weak to hold a Legitimate Prince and that from thence too they have Mounted the Throne To the Succession of his Son Edward the first one would have thought all his diligent malice or the Devils could never have afforded an Objection for it seems he can't find so much as his own old dear word Elected here amongst his abus'd Authors but another False suggestion must supply the defect And where his Trope of Inversion can't pervert the Truth another part of Rhetorick must serve the Turn Invention and a Lye for so is that which he would have us believe that his Second Brother Edmund was the First And truly I believe he could Invert the Course of Nature too as well as Blood would it serve his turn and this we must take for unquestion'd Authority from the pretensions of the House of Lancaster that descended from him and say he was only rejected for his Deformity truly were there nothing to refute it but only their pretentions the prejudice and partiality of the Pretenders were sufficient to render it suspected which aspiring Line Labour'd as much in its Genealogy as ever any Welsh Gentleman in his Pedigree But the best of it is matter of Fact contradicts it Historians deny it and none but himself would assert M. Paris Edward natus An. 1239. Edmund An. 1246. it It Appears from Paris that this primitive Lancastrian was no less than Six years younger And he an Author that Liv'd in the same Reign and resided in Stow says Edw. born 24 year of his Reign Edm. in 29. So Daniel says Baker Fecit Iurare Fidelitatem Ligeantiam Edwardo primogenito suo Paris An. 1240. Vid. Bisp Carlisle speech Rich. 2d in Baker or Trussel who says he was neither Elder or deform'd the very same Court and says that the Londoners swore Allegiance to the First-born Edward but a year old and then before the Second was so much as born And for his deformity that he only gathers from the shallower Argument of his Name being Crouch-back which as Baker observes was rather from his wearing a Cross upon his Back and this I look upon as better Authority then Buck's in the accomplishment and polishing of Richard the third and the cleering of him from his crookedness and yet I believe our good Natur'd Historian will readily credit that because spoken in commendation of a Usurper a Tyrant and a Murderer and one that came to the Crown as he will have it by the consent of the People tho this of ours must by no means be believed because it no way makes for his purpose The last was but little and now the next Reign is as much for the Gentleman's purpose and that 's a Rebellion of a Parliament an actual Deposition of the present King and the Murdering of his Sovereign and of that he makes as good use too as if he designed not only to transmit it with his Papers to posterity but with his Pen for the present Age to transcribe it into Practice and what the Devil himself would have condemned in an History has this Impious Wretch made a damnable President It must be his Design from the Season of its Publication from the Proceedings of his Parliament and from the subsequent Discoveries the whole piece was nothing else in every Paragraph but a Vindication of the Parliaments Power over Kings and here in this he has made the Deposition of his King like their ordinary Proceedings warrantable by President why did he not tell them too Painted Chamber Monday the 29. ordered a warrant Vid. Their own Journal Book Fol. 116. be drawn for Executing the King in the open Street before White-Hall Sir Arthur Haslerig Reports from the Committee ibid. March 1648 that Charles and James Stewart Sons of the late King should dye without Mercy wheresoever they should be found And he had certainly brought down his History to this too had the Times been but black enough to bear it for the subsequent sacrificing of Richard the Second is as much his popular Theam his Power of Parliaments and his Election of the People He tells them their Ancestors were weary of this Kings Irregular and Arbitrary Government and the malicious Wretch found some of their present Posterity as uneasie under a mild and merciful Reign he tells them their Parliament publickly read a Paper containing Instances of the Kings Misgovernment Vid. pag. 6. of the brief History of Succession and concluded that he was unworthy to Reign any longer and ought to be deposed and sent to him to renounce his Crown and Dignity otherwise they would proceed that is to do it for him but I think his piece was overseen that it did not Vid. Proceedings at the Old-B tell them too of another Paper as Bernardiston told them at the Bar that was talkt of in Parliament about too The Encroachments and Vsurpation of Arbitrary Power of following such Orders as shall from Time to Time be received from this present Parliament or the Major part of the Members when it shall be Prorogu'd or Dissolved and obey such Officers as they shall set over us Certainly his making this unfortunate Edward's Deposition a Parliamentary President has unmaskt our Treasons Historiographer superseded even with men but of common Sense his designed Impositions registred himself an inveterate Traytor with his own hand and Chronicl'd his lasting Treason to Posterity which will blush at the reading of those Villanous Insinuations which his most Licentious Pen could Publish without 't was then in that Kings Reign too as appears in their Ordinances they made the Tumultuous and Rebellious Barons for the Commons were then Vid. Dr. B. History Fol. 20. not so considerable as to raise a Rebellion upon the Pretence of Gods Honour and the Church the Honour of the King and his Realm made Confederacies to remove evil Councellors reform the Court and to force the King to let them name all the Judges of the Bench and the chief Officers of the Crown how near they then agreed with some of our late Transactions and how well those have been copy'd since I need not observe And that the Narrative the Author of this piece presents to the Parliament was offered only for the Designs I have suggested appears also from this Instance being no way pertinent to what ought to be the right purport of his History whose Subject should have been but of Succession But that he found was not to be disputed here in this Reign it being Hereditary beyond Contradiction and
whom they had preposed for their Head And well might they distrust the Councils of such a State that while they pretended the Reformation of Religion could chop off the Head of the most zealous Reformer and as Baker calls her Page 284. one of the first Countenancers of the Gospel make her Issue spurious that was like to and afterwards did prove the most Protestant Princess and all this but to please a Lididinous King that could make her suffer for his constant Crime Inconstancy when that too was so little prov'd and her Innocency so much whatever prospect these pretenders of Reformation Papists were then Martyr'd for opposing their Kings Supremacy Protestants the Mass a sort of Parliament persecution destroying both Witness the 6 Articles set forth in 31 of his Reign Burnets Abridgment pag. 157. Viz. The Protestant Queen gave to the Princes of the Empire that they should think of making the head of this dissembling Parliament that of their League too I am sure they must all of them as Oates did when he took the Mass the Sacrament for his Religion only pretend it and tho they made the World and Forreign Princes think well of their affections to Reform tho they had excluded the Pope still they and their King could remain Papist's and a Reverend Author that has had the thanks of the House says that a Parliament was Summon'd that was resolv'd to destroy her so that we see a Parliament could then contrive to make our Nation signifie so little abroad and that our present King without one signifies so much that he stands the sole Arbitrator of War and Peace and Europe only debar'd of the benefits of it by the very Faction that upbraids the Government with its being disesteem'd and this Noble Traveller not only taken the Liberty to Lye with Fame but given Fame it self the Lye After he has Thunder'd out his Anathema's Page 20. against the State in the Jargon I recited above of Evil Councellors Pensioner Parliament thorough pac'd Judges which still the most malitious Soul can't allow to be the true Reasons of our Maladies and Distempers But however the State Negromancer with his Rosacrucian the Doctor knew these terrible Names with the Populace are swallow'd like his Pills without chawing and which they understand no more than his Catharticks with which they are compos'd with that unhappy effect too that they can no more discern the bitter cheat when these Prepossessions are got into the Guts of the Brain then that of the drug when in those of the Belly but like Persons absolutely possess'd rave and rail only with the same words that are dictated by their Devil yet after all this and having Libel'd Courtiers that contrary to the true meaning of the Law as well in this Kings time as in that of the Late they have got Parliaments Dissolv'd Vid. p. 20 21. Plato Red. Proroug'd for the keeping of the Governments Life and Soul together after all these Seditious suggestions still he defines but Negatively that none of these are the Causes but the effects of some Primary Cause that disturbs it but I am afraid this Primary Cause to him is yet an occult one unless the Discovery of our late Plots has so far illuminated his Understanding as to disclose it or he consulted his Doctor for his Diagnosticks and got him to make a better Crisis and Judgment of the distemper of the State But for those Acts by which he thinks his Majesty is oblig'd to call a Parliament for the Triennial one I think runs with a Clause and a Proviso that it may be oftner call'd and within the Term if occasion be and pray who shall be Judg of that occasion the King who calls them or the People who would be call'd and what if it be Judg'd an occasion not to call them at all the Preservation of the Prerogative may as well exclude the force of this as some new Emergencies which themselves plead for upon a necessity and for the Common-wealth and Peoples Benefit and Advantage can Invalidate others but for that obligation and Law for the Parliaments sitting in the late Kings time that which he would truly have reinforc'd is their Page 21. being perpetual again and not to be dissolv'd but for that I think he need not perswade the Courtiers to Address or be so bold to Petition himself unless he would tell his Majesty they must again have the Militia they must fight once more against his Person for the sake of his Authority and sit taking of Covenants and Associations till they have taken off their King But after our English-man has been so tedious in his Impertinence so Fulsom in his Complement that the Venetian is forc't to condemn his troublesome Civility that is our Author begins to be asham'd of himself Why then we come to know that before this great Secret that occasions our Disquiet can be disclosed before we can come to know the Distemper that disturbs our own We must Discourse of Government in general and for the Original of it the Gentleman is resolv'd to doubt And why Because this Government must be Antecedent to such Authors as could give us an account of it and the matter of History as I suppose he must mean did occur long before they could get Historians to transmit it to Posterity as for particular Governments he is forc't to allow the Knowledg of their Originals to be possibly transmitted and truly that he might well in Civility consent to what in Modesty he could not contradict and Rome and Athens will be found what they were in their Primitive State so long as we can find Authors Plutarch Florus Paterculus c. that can tell us of a Romulus a Theseus for their Founder But when the Gentleman is so cruel to himself as to keep close to the Text that there is no Origen of Original Primitive Government known for in truth these last mention'd might be Modern and I believe that Rome and Athens were never heard of when Sodom and Gomorrah were burnt with Brimstone then he is forc't to give himself the Lye and the word of Truth it self God and the Bible and that he does in excepting Moses from the number of those that had the Help and Information of any Constitution Antecedent as the Founders of the foremention'd Monarchies that were Establisht so long after might well be supposed to have had for their Instruction and yet does that sacred Penman inspired by God himself almost Coaeval with the World give us a clear account of all Original Government from the time that there was a Man to Rule or a Beast to be governed and that too of an absolute Monarchical Empire So that all what the sublime Speculations of this refin'd Politician can cavil at is only that we can't give him an account what was done before Adam what truly was the Constitutions of their Government and whether the Prae-Adamites liv'd like our