WILLIAM I.

NOT to play the Grammarian on Words, nor to repeat Old Stories; though I can scarce pass by Mr. Spelman's De­finition of him; Conquestor dicitur qui An­gliam conquisivit, i. e. acquisivit, purchas'd, non quod subegit. But to take William the Conqueror (as they call him) in the usual Acceptation, there can be but little Obser­vable during the Transactions of his Reign, to ground Remarks of Civil Policy. As he trimmed between Conquest and Title (by Gift from Ed. the Confessor, he was also Kin by his Mother's side) so he divided his Govern­ment between Acts of Justice and Wrong; not to mention the old Story of Warren the Norman, and Sharnborn an Englishman: It is plain the Kentishmen had their Laws Con­firm'd to them by Treaty, and were never Conquered. He granted to the City of Lon­don their Charters as they had them in the Time of Saint Edward: 'Tis true, he Alter'd the Laws, and introduced the French Lan­guage; but the Alteration seems to be for [Page 34] the better, and he was generally Just to the Laws which were made: He alter'd Pastimes also, and 'twas of course, for Englishmen are ever fond of New things. The worst thing he did, was Depopulating so many Towns, and overthrowing so many Church­es, for Thirty Miles round, to make a Chase, or New Forest in Hampshire; and the Execution of severe Laws against De­stroyers of Deer, or Game, by putting out their Eyes, &c. for which, for ought I know, his Two Sons and Nephew might come to untimely Ends in the same place. But in the main, he was modest enough for a Prince who came in with his Sword in his Hand: And at last, after all his Bustle, he was forced, as it were, to come to a Parly with the English Nobility, and before they laid down their Arms, this mighty Conqueror engaged for Peace, and after, in the presence of Arch­bishop Lanfrank and others, took a Solemn Oath upon the Evangelists, and all the Re­licks of the Church of St. Albans, from thenceforth to Observe and Keep the Good and Ancient Laws of the Realm, which the Noble Kings of England, his Predecessors, had before Made and Ordained, but especi­ally those of Saint Edward; which, as is said, were suppos'd of all others to be the most Equal and Indifferent for the general Good of the People. If the Churchmen can For­give him (for he Repented of it) the taking [Page 35] them down somewhat in their Temporal Power, and calling in the Jews; they may forget his Ransacking the Monasteries, if thep please, also, because he spared the Pro­fits of Vacant Abbies and Bishopricks. His Life ended in a Circle; and as he pretended to take the Crown by Gift, so he disposed of it, and left it by Gift also.

WILLIAM II.

DURING this King's Time, the Government and Laws seem to be in a continued Ferment and State of War. As he was attack'd on all Hands, and put to great Charges, so he spared neither Church nor State for Taxations, but pillaged both in an unreasonable extravagant manner. It is said he doubted of some Points of Religion; but one would rather believe he doubted of it all, by his Life, and Expression to the Jews, and the Management of Churchmen and their Benefices, and Religious Houses: He Died so suddenly, that he had not time to tell his Opinion at his Death. If he did not keep his Word so devoutly as he ought; if he was trifling in things appertaining to Re­ligion, and profanely free with the Patrimo­ny of the Church, the Historians of that Age have assign'd him the Judgments of God in the End; and I shall leave him to the Pope's Mercy, for with-holding Peter Pence. In this King's Reign we find the first Exer­cise of a Prerogative; which seems reason­able and natural enough, in forbidding his Subjects by Proclamation to go out of the [Page 37] Land without License, if it had been ground­ed on a good Design; but being introduced only, first to make his Subjects uneasy at Home, and after to get Money out of them for a License to go Abroad; the Occasion disgraceth the Thing, which otherwise had been justifiable on a true foundation, viz. To require the Service of the Subject at Home; for the Command of the Aid of the Persons of his People, is as much an in­herent Right in the Crown, as any can be in his own Dominions, though not so to Com­mand them out of them on his Service Abroad. He also kept his Money from go­ing to Rome; and, I suppose, we ought not to be Angry with any King for keeping his Men and his Money at Home.

HENRY I.

THEY who Write this King's Life, do so vary in his Character, that it is somewhat difficult to Adjust it: But we always ought to speak the best of Kings, if the matter will any ways bear it. Whe­ther he came to the Crown with a just Title or not, he came with a just degree of Understanding and Inclinations to do Justice: He was Born of a King in Eng­land, and Queen of Royal English Blood, as Sir John Hayward says; though I know not how he makes it out well; and is said therefore to have raised the Depressed Eng­lish Nation again unto Honour and Cre­dit, and took off their Badges of Slavery, and seems truly Endowed with Kingly Principles; though Cambden will have it, That he was Just even to a Fault; Pray God That were the only Fault of Kings. Whatever hath been said to his Disadvant­age, he appears, for the most part, to have Governed by the Laws of the Land: And as he gave a Measure to others, he him­self made the Laws a Measure of his Prerogative. It will not be worth En­quiry, [Page 39] Whether he first Instituted a Par­liament in the Form it now stands: He rai­sed Money in a Parliamentary way; we find in his First Parliament at Salisbury, he ob­tained Three Shillings upon every Hide of Land, towards the Marriage of his Daugh­ter with the Emperor, although 'tis said there, these Aids were due by Common Law from the King's Tenants by Knight's Service, viz. Aid to Ransom the King's Person; Aid to make the King's Eldest Son a Knight, and Aid to Marry the King's Eldest Daughter once. And although this matter was ascertain'd after­wards by King John's Charter at Running-Mead, yet following Kings have not been so tender and reserv'd in this Point. If he may be said to be Cruel to his Brother Robert, I'm sure he was very Honourable towards Lewis of France, when in England, whither he came on his own Head, notwithstanding he was Solicited and Tempted to make him away. As to his Personal Virtues or Vices, they were to himself: If he fail'd in the Oeconomicks, he had Troubles in his own House; and whe­ther his Misfortunes of this kind were occa­sioned by Judgments, or the Follies of him­self, or Wife, it is certain he had his share of them; but he took so much care that the Nation knew but very few troubles during his Reign. And as he obtained a Kingdom by a sort of Artifice, so he used his Preroga­tive with Discretion.

STEPHEN.

THIS King's Reign was almost one entire Scene of Military Actions, without any mixture of Civil Policy; he did not live a Year to Enjoy or Manage Peace after his Agreement with Henry II. the Son of Maud: And there was never any formal Meeting of the Body of the Estates in his time: The Expences of his War were occa­sioned by a troubled Title, and he maintained them by Confiscations; and although he had continued Charges that way, yet he required few or no Tributes from the People. 'Tis said he had another way of getting Money, viz, by causing Men to be Impleaded and Fined for Hunting in his Forests, after he had given them Liberty to Hunt there. For thus far, at least, the Kings Exercised an Absolute Pre­rogative (only) over the Beasts of the Fo­rest: Which is a Prerogative, I confess, they ought to Enjoy Indisputably.

HENRY II.

THOUGH this King came to the Crown by the most Absolute Title and Clearest Right, yet in Four and thirty Years time, we do not find that he pretended to impose upon his People any Arbitrary Power; but by Success and Policy he added to the Crown of England, Scotland, Ireland, the Isles of Orcades, Britain, Poytiers, Guyen, and other Provinces of France: And for all this he had only one Tax of Escuage towards his War with France. His causing the Ca­stles to be Demolished, was a justifiable piece of Policy, for the reason given, as being Nurseries of Rebellion. In the beginning of his Reign he refined and reformed the Laws, and 'tis said, made them more To­lerable and Profitable to his People than they were before; and, what is better, Governed himself by them. We do not find the Pu­nishments of Capital Offences, or others, were certain, but variable and distinguished in the same Crime, according to the degrees of Aggravation. The Church-Chroniclers be­stow a Judgment upon him for refusing to take the Protection of the Distressed Christi­ans [Page 42] in Jerusalem, offered to him by Heraclius the Patriarch, and assign his Troubles at Home to that Cause; but they might be mistaken, and he might (as he apprehend­ed) have had greater from his own Sons, if he had gone Abroad upon that Errand. And if the Church will forgive him the Story of Thomas Becket, (for he was otherwise very Civil to it) the State had no reason to com­plain of him; for he suffered neither his Wars nor his Pleasures to be Chargeable to the Nation, nor his Concubines to be Spun­gers on the People.

RICHARD I.

THERE is but little Observable in the Reign of this King with relation to the Subject at Home, he being the greater part of it out of the Land. If his Artifi­ces of Raising Money were not Justifiable, the occasion may at least Excuse him: He obtained a Subsidy towards his necessary Charges of War; what was properly cal­led Taxation, was by Parliament, or by the Subjects own Contribution and Method of Charging themselves with, as the Money raised for his Ransom. If he may be charged with some slips in Justice, he made it up in Courtesy (which, by the by, goes a great way with Englishmen, for 'tis observed, they may be Led, tho' they will not well Drive). And upon his return Home from the Holy Land, we find the first thing he did, was to give his Lords and People Thanks for their Faithfulness to him in his Absence, and for their readiness to Supply him for his Ransom.

JOHN.

MOntaigne says in one of his Essays (and he speaks it upon Observation of Hi­story): ‘That Women, Children and Mad­men, have had the Fortune to govern Great Kingdoms equally well with the Wifest Princes: And Thucydides, That the Stupid more frequently do it, than those of better Understanding.’ Whether this be an Argument of a Providential Dis­posing and Governing of Kingdoms, I leave to those that are conversant that way. Some Men, perhaps, may be apt to think it re­flects Disgrace on Dignities, if this be true. Some Kings are involv'd in such a Cloud of Circumstances of Difficulty and Intrigues, that there is no looking into them, nor ma­king any Judgment of their Actions. Speed guesses of King John, ‘That if his Reign had not fallen out in the time of so Turbulent a Pope, such Ambitious Neighbour Princes, and such Disloyal Subjects; nor his Story into the Hands of Exasperated Writers, he had appear'd a King of as great Renown as Misfortunes:’ This is civilly and gent­ly said.

[Page 45] This is certain, This King (as all o­thers, when once they have broke through their Coronation-Oath) presently became, as it were, infatuated and deaf to all good Counsel, stoop't to every thing that was mean and base; and having once laid aside his Native Honour, run into all Dishonoura­ble Sordid Actions: The History represents him pursuing his Profit, and even his Plea­sures by all manner of Injustice: He pro­secuted his Brother, Geoffry Archbishop of York, and took from him all he had, only for doing the Duty of a Wise and Faithful Councellor. Hence his Lords grew Resty, and refused to follow him into France, un­less he would restore to them their Rights and Liberties which he had invaded: And when he shuffled with them in the Grant of their Demands, What Wars, what Miseries did not follow? Wars at Home, Foreiners call'd in, the Nation plunder'd and spoil'd, Money procured by Base poor-spirited Tricks: He on one Side forc'd to truckle to the Pope, and (as is said) to submit to some­body worse; his Subjects on the other hand calling in to their Relief (as they thought) a Foreiner, fetch't in Lewis, the Son of Philip the French King; the People in ge­neral not living like Men, nor dying like Christians, nor having Chrstian Burial; the whole Nation one dismal Scene of Hor­rid [Page 46] Misfortunes: Behold the Effect of Vio­lated Faith and Arbitrary Oppression! But it is no great Credit to Prerogative, That this King, who had no very good Title, unless it were Election, was the first Vin­dicator of it, in a violent manner: And asserted the Right to Absolute Power with the same Justice, as he did That to the Crown in the time of Arthur his Nephew, who was the Undoubted Heir. By these means he brought himself and People into Troubles, which never ended but with his Life.

HENRY III.

HERE we may perceive, as also in another Reign or two hereafter, how the Irregularities of a Father or Predeces­sor involve the Son and Successor in a Remainder of Troubles, and the Nation also in their intail'd Misfortunes: ‘For al­though those Lords (as Sir Richard Baker tells us) who had been constant to the Father, notwithstanding his Faults, were also more tender of the Son, who was In­nocent;’ and so stuck to him, That by the Interest, chiefly of William Marshal Earl of Pembroke, who married his Aunt, they pre­vail'd so, that Young Henry was Crown'd King, yet he could not come to the Crown upon the square, but was forc'd to do Homage to Pope Innocent for his Kingdom of England and Ireland when he took his Coronation-Oath, and to take an Oath to pay the Church of Rome the Thousand Marks which his Father had granted: And though after his Coronation most of the Lords maintain'd him in his Throne, preferring their Natural Allegiance to Henry, before their Artificial Obligations to Lewis, and [Page 48] Beat or Compounded the latter out of the Kingdom; yet this King Henry, so soon as he was got out of Protection, and came to Administer the Government himself, im­mediately, in gratitude, Cancels and Annuls the Charters which he had granted, on pre­tence (forsooth) of Minority, altho' he had ta­ken an Oath (as well as the Legate Guallo, and the Protector) to restore unto the Barons of the Realm, and other his Subjects, All their Rights and Privileges; for which the Dis­cord began between the Late King and his People: These Rights and Privileges were several times enquired into, and ascertain'd by the Returns of the Knights, who were charged to examine them; were what were enjoy'd in the time of the Saxon Kings, and especially under Edward the Confessor, and what the Charters of King John, and his own express'd: For 'tis ridiculous to ima­gine, That William II. Henry I. Stephen, and King John, should pretend to an Ar­bitrary Power virtually, who all came in by the Consent, if not Election, of the Peo­ple. We may see how a Favourite can Ab­solve a King in Law and Conscience too: And what a pretty Creature a King is, when Prerogative and Humour are Syno­nimous, and he Acts by Advice of a sin­gle Person or Party, counter to that of his Parliament. Hence, as the Historians say, grew Storms and Tumults; no quietness to [Page 49] the Subject, or to himself; nothing but Grievances all the long time of his Reign: He displaceth his English Officers to make room for Foreiners; and all the Chief Councellors, Bishops, Earls and Barons of the Kingdom are removed, as distrusted; that is, for giving him Good Coun­sel; and only Strangers preferred to their Places, and Honors, and Castles; the King's House and Treasury committed to their Care and Government.

These Indignities put upon the Lords, put them also upon Confederating, to reduce the King to the sense of his former Obli­gations; but to their Petitions he returns Dilatory and Frivolous Answers; and to requite their Favours, sends for whole Le­gions of Poictavins to Enslave the Nation; and, to crown the matter, marries himself, without Advice, to a Daughter of the Earl of Provence, by which he brought nothing but Poverty into this Kingdom: Afterwards, in the Long Story of this King, we hear of nothing but Grievance upon Grievance, Confederacy upon Confederacy, Parliament upon Parliament; and Christmas upon Christmas, were kept here, now there, in as many Places as he call'd his Parlia­ments; and to as much purpose; Bicker­ings upon Bickerings, and Battle upon Battle; till it grew to that height, That [Page 50] the Lords threaten'd to Expel him and his New Councels out of the Land, and to create a New King; and the Bishops threaten'd him with Excommunication; whilst, through a various Scene of Con­fusion and Hurly-Burly, sometimes one Party being too peremptory, sometimes t'other, with an Interchangeable undecent Shuffling on the King's Side, and a Rude Jealousy on the Lords, and various Turns of Arbitrary Fraud, and Obstinate Di­sputes, for above Forty Years, wherein Prerogative and Liberty grew Extravagant and Mad by turns, till the Nation was brought to the last Gasp; at length the King in the Fifty second Year of his Reign, in most solemn manner, confirms the Char­ters. That Magna Charta, which was granted in the Ninth Year, and pretended to be avoided by reason of Infancy, and the Statute of Marlebridge, which he had grant­ed upon his Second Coronation in the Twentieth Year, Wherein Magna Charta, and Charta de Foresta, were confirm'd, with this Clause, Quod contravenientes gra­viter puniantur; Upon which, as is said, Peace and Tranquillity ensued: And these Charters have never since been Impugn'd or Question'd, but Confirm'd, Establish'd, and commanded to be put in Execution by Thirty two several Acts of Parliament. And from the Authority whereof, no [Page 51] Man ought to be permitted to recede even in his Writing, to flatter any King what­ever; and Sir Robert Filmer, Dr. Brady, and Mr. Bohun, &c. perhaps deserv'd as severe a Correction as Collonel Sidney, for wri­ting Books and Papers only, (for I do not think he deserv'd Hanging) if not greater; for their's were dispers'd by an ill-tim'd-publication, whereas t'others lay still only in his Study. We date our Non Ob­stantes from this King, which Matthew Pa­ris calls an Odious and Detestable Clause, and Roger de Thursby with a sigh said it was a Stream deriv'd from the Sulphurious Fountain of the Clergy.

EDWARD I.

I Know not whether this King may come up to the Character which some of our Historians give of him in all Re­spects; yet, without doubt he stands an Instance and Example of Princely Quali­ties and Virtues fit to be imitated, and at least, as he is stiled, the Second Or­nament of Great Britain: And as a Wise, Just and Fortunate (because Wise and Just) Prince, who in regard of his Noble Accomplishments, and Heroical and Gene­rous Mind, deserves to be ranged amongst the Principal and Best Kings that ever were, as Walsingham, and Cambden, Polyd. Virgil, and Others relate. Baker divides his Acts into five Parts; 1. His Acts with his Temporal Lords. 2. His Acts with his Clergy. 3. With Wales. 4. With Scotland: And lastly, With France. And First, He gave his Lords good Contentment in the beginning of his Reign, by granting them Easier Laws, and particularly in the Sta­tute of Westminster, which consists of Fifty one Chapters, and is well worth perusing. Sir Edward Coke says, This, and all other [Page 53] Statutes made in the Reign of this King, may be stiled by the Name of Establish­ments, because they are more Constant, Standing, and Durable Laws, than have been made ever since; and Sir William Herle, then Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, says, Fuit le plus Sage Roy que Ʋn­ques fuit. And though these Laws were said to be Pour le Commun. profit de seint Eglise & del Realm, yet he thought it expedient to clip the Wings of his Clergy; observing, as is said, their Power too pre­dominant; and afterwards, by the Statute of Mortmain, kept them from ingrossing Lands, and increasing their Temporal Possessions; and when his Prelates prest him to repeal this Statute, he gave them for Answer, That it was a Statute made by the whole Body of the Realm, and therefore not in his Power, who was but one Member of that Body; not like some of his Succes­sors, who have pretended to dispense with all Acts of Parliaments: He united Wales to the Crown of England, partly by Force, and partly by Policy: As to his War in Scotland, if it were managed with the same Policy, it had not, nevertheless, the like success; at least, Scotland was so un­fortunate to him, that he died there: His War with France was but a Trifle, and soon ended in a Truce: His last Misunder­standing with his Lords was the Effect of [Page 54] Unadvised Obstinacy on both hands; for he ought not to have insisted on sending, or their going to the Wars in Gascoin, with­out his going himself in Person; and they ought not to have refused going with him in Person, though in or out of France or Scotland; but yet he made up the Breach by his subsequent Prudence, and soft De­meanour: The worst Action of his Reign (to me) seems to be Bribing the Pope to absolve him from the Covenant made with his Subjects concerning their Charters, which he had confirm'd with an Oath; but the other good Laws which he made and observed, shall (with me) excuse one Act of Frailty or Passion. And if he be censured for his Taxes, he is, in part, ju­stified by his well bestowing them, to his own Honour, and Good of his Kingdom.

EDWARD II.

WE are not to expect much good from a King who begins his Reign with the breach of his Father's Admoni­tions, and the Obligations he lay under by him in matters of Duty; Commands which his Father gave him in charge with his last Words, on pain of a Curse for his Disobedience, as Stow says. And here it may be observed, how wretched and contemptible a Creature (pardon the Ex­pression) even a King (as well as another Man) is, when he hath once broke loose from the Principles of Honour and Mora­lity; when the Natural Bonds of Modesty are unhinged and broken: How he wa­vers and shuffles, and is driven about by every Wind, that he cannot be steady to himself, or any one else. When Men have once forsaken the Path of Vertue, they walk in an endless Maze; they can't re­ly on themselves, and therefore are impos'd upon, and misled by every one. For when a Man cannot justify himself to himself, he can never do it to another; and Kings generally stand so much upon the Preroga­tive [Page 56] of being like Gods, that they scorn to be thought to be in the wrong, like Men.

Here we may see how fatal 'tis to pre­fer a private Person, before the Publick; and for a Prince to espouse the Interest of a Favourite, so far as to put him in com­petition with all his other Subjects; and to oppose his Welfare to theirs.

The whole Reign of this Poor King is but one Farce of Folly and Misfortune; con­temn'd by his Subjects, and even by his own Wife, who revenged upon him the violation of a double Tye of Obedience: This was the immediate, as well as natu­ral Consequence, of relying upon the Opi­nion and Advice of single Persons, contra­ry to the Counsels, and against the Ad­vice of the Wisdom of the Nation. After Troubles on the behalf of Gaveston; Trou­bles in Scotland, with a faint ill-managed War; Troubles on account of the Spen­cers; Troubles in his own Family, (for he was no wiser in his Oeconomicks than his Politicks) with his Wife, &c. he was at last shamefully Deposed, barbarously Used, and villanously Murther'd. A Person in his Natural Capacity certainly to be la­mented, as having some Virtues and Good Qualities: Fit to make an Accomplish't Gentleman, though not a Good King. [Page 57] Kingly Government did not seem to be his Talent, for he lived as if born for him­self, not for others; and there is certainly a difference in the Quality of governing a Man's self and others, between governing and being govern'd. To this purpose I must bring in Montaign, who seems to have a good Notion of the Thing. ‘Doubtless, says he, it can be no easy Task to Rule others, when we find it so hard a matter to govern our selves: And as to the Thing Dominion, which seems so charming, the Frailty of Human Wisdom, and the Dif­ficulty in Choice of Things that are New, and Doubtful to us, consider'd, I'm very much of Opinion, That it is far more pleasant to follow, than to lead; and that it is a great Settlement and Satisfaction of Mind, to have only one Path to walk in, and to have none to answer for but a Man's self: For without doubt (says he) there is a great and painful Duty incum­bent upon a Good King: How much doth it import Kings to have a Good Ad­vice of Counsel?’ For, I doubt we shall find but few Kings (whether of God Al­mighty's making, or our own, i. e. whe­ther by Inheritance (Solus Deus facit haeredes) or Election) of Cyrus's Qualifications, who says, That no Man is fit to Rule, but he who in his own Worth is of greater value than all those he is to govern.

EDWARD III.

THE Reign of Edward the Third was more a School of Arms than Civil Polity: For having in the begin­ning patch'd up an Indifferent Peace with Scotland, he is immediately embroil'd in a War with France, with which, and some few Matters in Scotland, he was enga­ged all his Life-time. It is true, in his Parliament at Westminster, Supply and Grievances were pretty warmly Debated: And he has his weak Side in the Business of Alice Peirce his Concubine; but I let this pass as a Failing: (And who is with­out some?) But when he was at leisure he made Good Laws, and particularly in the Affair of Purveying: He caus'd all Pleas to be in English, that the Subjects might understand the Laws; Ordain'd Sumptuary Laws, &c. and in the general was a Great and Good Prince; as Wal­singham; Fuerat nempe Rex iste, inter om­nes Reges Orbis & Principes, Gloriosus, Be­nignus, Clemens & Magnificus: Belliger fuit insignis & fortunatus, qui de Cunctis Con­gressibus [Page 59] & in Terra & Mare semper tri­umphali gloriâ Victoriam Reportavit. I can only attribute this to the Character Stow gives of him, viz. That he advanced Per­sons to Dignities for Merit only, and who did excel others in Innocency of Life.

RICHARD II.

SOME Princes have Erred upon a mi­staken Consideration, some through a wilful and rash Inconsideration; some have taken Measures by Advice of Friends (as they thought) and have been deceived by Misrepresentations; (these may be pittied); Others have Miscarried by hearkening on­ly to Minions and Favourites, are head-strong, and resolvedly deaf and obstinate against Advice: But the Actions and Con­duct of this King are so Unaccountable, that it would puzzle a Matchiavel to assign him a Character, or to fix him in any Rule or Principle of Government, Good or Bad. The Rebellion of John, or Wat Tyler, ought not to be laid at his Door; it is called an Accident, though it had some dismal Effects in it; but the occasi­on which appears, was the Abuse of a Collector who gathered the Poll-Money; yet it may teach Kings, that it is a tick­lish and dangerous Experiment to let out a Revenue or Tax to Farm; so that it may be scrued up into what may be called in the Country Oppression. This King's first [Page 61] Misunderstanding, in earnest, or Misde­meanor, if I may so speak, after his coming to Age, was imposed upon him by way of Surprise, and Artificial Insinuation of Favourites; it might be the result of a hot Indiscretion, not of a premeditated Vio­lence or Invasion of Ill-natur'd Policy: And if the Duke of Ireland, Michael de la Pool, the Chancellor, or the Archbishop of York, were in fault on the one side, nei­ther was the Duke of Gloucester, the Bi­shop of Ely, &c. to be altogether excused, on the other; and the Parliament impo­sing on the King Thirteen Lords to have oversight under the King, as they called it, was an unsufferable Encroachment on the Spirit of a Young Prince: And he had reason to have recourse to the Judges for their Opinions and Directions touching what had passed in that Parliament as to their Participation of the Government with him; whose Opinion (though they had the misfortune to suffer for it) was not so Illegal, but Justifiable by the Laws, sa­ving only in Two or Three of the Que­stions to which they gave their Answers. But Law is not always measured by its own Rule, it stands or falls accord­ing to the Circumstance of Times: A Man may at some time sooner and bet­ter Steal a Horse (as they say) than look on at others. This first Affront so put [Page 62] upon the King, gave him a prejudice to Parliaments ever after, and consequently put him upon indirect Means and Practices to Debauch the Constitution; and we may be sure Kings will never want Tools fit for their purpose. Hence were conceived those prejudices also against the Duke of Glocester and the other Lords; the King had Reason to be out of Tuition when he came to be of full Age: 'Tis true, the Attempting of the Duke of Glocester's Life in that Treacherous manner, was not to be excused; neither was his Behaviour to be pardoned towards the King; he reproached him too severely on all Occasions, for though he was the King's Uncle, he was not al­ways to be his Governor; they were both in Fault, no doubt, and both equally Unfortunate in their End. 'Twas an un­happy Reign, divided between too haugh­ty Subjects, and Ill-designing Favourites, too powerful for a Young Inconsiderate King to Manage with Prudence and equal Power. Whether Chief Justice Tresilian did according to Law or not, 'tis certain his Death was not according to Law; and as the Duke of Glocester had taken his Life, so his own was soon after taken away without Trial also, in an Arbitrary manner: And the Earl of Arundel had the same Measure he meeted to Calvery, one of the Queens Esquires. The Banishing [Page 63] the Duke of Norfolk, and Hereford, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, was rather a fault in the Politicks of those times (for it seems it was the Custom then to Punish the Faults of Great Men only with Banish­ment, but an ill-advised Custom,) than want of Consideration in the King. Sir John Bushy, the Speaker of Parliament, was the most in fault, in attributing Vain, and almost Blasphemous Titles to the King; Titles fitter (as is observed) for the Ma­jesty of God; and putting him upon a piece of Omnipotence, in Recalling his Par­dons; which the Lords, Spiritual and Temporal, Adjudged in the Affirmative, That the King might Revoke; but the Lawyers and Judges, having been burnt before, designed to give Judgment t'other way, and had no mind to Determine of Transactions in Parliament any more, nor of the Kings Prerogative in such Ticklish Times: Though at the next Parliament at Chester, the Judges were drawn in to give another Extraordinary Judgment, viz. ‘That when Articles are propounded by the King to be handled in Parliament, that if other Articles are handled be­fore those are determined, it is Trea­son in them that do it.’ What was there Extravagant that was not done in this Parliament? He brought it about, as the History says, That he obtained the [Page 64] whole Power of the Parliament to be Conferred upon certain few Persons; who proceeded to Conclude upon many things which concerned generally the things of the whole Parliament, to the great Pre­judice of the State, and dangerous Ex­ample in time to come. What could we expect from a King who was Taught, That the Laws of the Realm were in his Head and his Breast? By reason of which fantastical Opinion, he Destroyed Noblemen, and Impoverished the Com­mons; which was one of the Articles against him; and which was much such a worthy fancy as Wat Tyler had, who putting his Hand to his Lips, said, Before Four Days come to an End, all the Laws of England should proceed from his Mouth. But I am weary of the Medley of this King's Story: In short, if we survey him in his Taxations, in his Laws and Ordi­nances after all, and in the Station of a Christian, and Man, as well as King; we shall, with a little Charity, or good Na­ture, conclude him Blameable rather by Accident than natural Temper: And as to his Conditions, That they were more the Fault of his Education than Inclina­tion; and at the bottom, those Failings that were in him, retained the tincture of the light Inconstancy of his Mother. He is another unfortunate Instance of the In­stability [Page 65] and Misery of a King when he leaves the Track of Law and Justice, for the Ways of Humour and Passion. Sir Robert Cotton Observes, ‘That Bushy's Contrivance of Compounding with De­linquents, wrought such Distaste in the Affections of the People, that it grew the Death of the One, and Deposition of the Other.’

HENRY IV.

IN the next Six Reigns, during the Di­visions of the Houses of York and Lan­caster, the Kingdom was scarce ever cool enough for Observations of Civil Polity and Administration. The Thirteen Years of this King were divided between Conspira­cies and Wars. And as he came to the Crown without a Title, with respect to Richard II. or the Earl of Marsh, who had the Undoubted Right, as being of the Eldest House; without any Title, unless what he had from the People, (or, as Stow says, was Ordained King more by Force than lawful Succession, or Election), so he held it in continued Trouble and Confusion, saving only the last Year: And 'tis said, he was well pleased that there were always Troubles that there might be no Calm or Interval for Reflection. He was so jealous of his Crown, that in his Sickness he would have it laid by him upon his Bolster, for fear some body should Dispossess him of it, as he had Richard the II^d; and his Son as readily took it up, for fear of some other Interposition. Though he had not leisure for Politicks, yet [Page 67] he made a very useful Observation, fit to be thought on by Kings, viz. ‘That of Eng­lishmen, so long as they have Wealth, so long shalt thou have Obeysance; but when they are Poor, they are always ready to make Insurrection at every motion.’ Here we have also a great Example of a King's Son submitting to the Laws, and of a King protecting and countenancing a Judge in a due Execution of them; and also of a Judge with a steady Gravity and Resolution put­ing the Ancient Laws of the Realm in Exe­cution, without Favour or Partiality.

HENRY V.

THE Reign of this King was wholly taken up with the Wars in France; and here may be seen what an English Prince can do, when he himself is Brave and Generous, and stands well in the Opinion of his Sub­jects; they paid him Homage before he was Crown'd, and voluntarily granted him a Subsidy without asking; and he, on the other hand, ask'd but few: By which it ap­pears (as Sir Richard Baker observes) what great matters a moderate Prince may do, and yet not grieve his Subjects with Taxations. Under this King, who was of English true Honour, the Honour of the Nation was at the highest Character; for in a Councel holden at Constance, it was Decreed, That England should have the Title of the English Nation, and should be accounted one of the Five Principal Nations in Rank before Spain; which often before had been moved, but ne­ver till then Granted.

HENRY VI.

I Know not what to say to the Reign of this unfortunate King, only that it is an instance of the Impertinence of Fortune, and of the Unsteadiness of Hu­man Affairs; although Philip de Comines says, he was a very Silly Man, and al­most an Innocent; yet this silly Innocence seems to be what we call Simplicity in the modest acceptation of the word, and the Effect rather of Choice, or Observa­tion, than Defect. 'Tis true he had a sort of Passive Understanding; but he had Judgment enough to distinguish Good and Bad, between Virtue and Vice, Suc­cess and Misfortune; to resent these as a Man, but overlook them as a Christian, and what Sir Francis Bacon reports of him upon the account of his being to be Canonized, (That the Pope, who was jealous of his Honour and of the Digni­ty of the See of Rome, knowing that Henry the VI^th was reputed in the World abroad but for a Simple Man, was afraid it would but diminish the Estima­tion of that kind of Honour, if there were [Page 70] not a distance kept between Innocents and Saints,) seems to be brought in rather for the sake of the Jingle or Jest, than Truth. His greatest symptom of Weakness was suffering a Wife to be imposed upon him, and then being ever after imposed upon by that Wife; but I doubt this may have been the condition of some Wise Men; and the Earl of Suffolk plaid the fool in the Match, not the King, any otherwise than by taking the Advice of a single Person, without, and contra­ry to the Counsel of his Other Peers, &c. And what have Wiser Kings done, beset with a Favourite or a Wife? Whereas he had both; which shews, that 'tis not so much a King's personal and private Wisdom, as That of the General Council of a Nation, is to be relied on. The Ill-advised Tragedy of the Duke of Glocester made Room and open'd way for That of the King's, by letting in the Duke of York's pretensions to the Crown, and soon ended in the Death of the Duke of Suffolk himself. So unsafe is it for any Fa­vourite, how Great soever, to presume on his Own strength against the Interest and Policy of the Commonwealth. The Other Affairs of this Reign seem transacted upon a stage of Fortune or Fate, rather than Prudence or Policy, trod between a Headstrong People, Ambitious Nobles, and a Queen too apt to Rule, and a King too easy and apt to Suffer. [Page 71] If we may learn any thing from this Reign, 'tis only this, That Virtue and Goodness, without Policy and Justice, nor Policy with­out Virtue and Resolution, can Establish a Throne: But after all, Fate it self seems to weigh down the Scale; his Father's Pro­phecy (is said) was not to be avoided, which I leave in the Words of Howard's Defensative against the Poyson of supposed Prophesies, viz. ‘What Prophet could have picked out of Mars and Saturn the manifold Mishaps which befel the Prince of Blessed Memo­ry, King Henry the VI^th; sometimes Sleep­ing in a Port of Honour, sometimes Float­ing in the Surges of Mishap; sometimes Possessing Foreign Crowns, sometimes Spoiled and Deprived of his Own; some­times a Prince, sometimes a Prisoner; some­times in plight to give Succour to the Mise­rable, sometimes a Fugitive amongst the Desperate.’ Habington in his History of Edward the IV^th says, That this poor King in so many Turns and Vicissitudes, never met with one fully to his Advantage. And Cambden says, He was Four times taken Pri­soner; and in the End Despoiled both of his Kingdom and Life.

EDWARD IV.

THE first Twelve Years of this King's Reign (if I may so call it, who came to the Kingdom (as Biondi says) not by Power or Justice, but by the People's In­clination) were passed in a ferment of Blood, and the better part of his Two and twenty (if I may so say) were taken up in Wars and Executions; not so much occasioned by Henry the VI^th as by the Earl of Warwick; so dangerous a thing it is to put an Affront upon a powerful Subject: But especially King Edward shewed a very weak part in this Management, who came to the Crown chiefly by the Earl of Warwick's Interest, and with a confessed Election of his People, when he had Married a Subject of no great Parentage or Interest, to disoblige such a Subject, Dishonourably, who had so great a Stroke and made such a Figure in the Nation. But all Rules of Policy, they say, must sub­mit to Love; therefore to pass that Over­sight, for which there is an Excuse made: Certainly the Confidence and Trust after­wards by him repos'd in the Duke of Glocester, was a manifest Infatuation, not to be support­ed [Page 73] with any pretence of common Considerati­on, or colour of Reason. And though Phi­lip de Comines says he was the Goodliest Personage, yet I doubt he was not the Wisest, and he might well affirm that his Master Lewis of France exceeded Edward the IV^th in Sense and Wisdom. How idle and viti­ous was his Consideration upon that ima­gined Prophecy, That G. should Disposse is his Children of the Crown; to suffer it to influence him so far, as to consent to the Murther (as 'tis said) of G. Duke of Cla­rence, on supposition (foreign enough) that That G. was intended him; whereas it fell out to be Glocester; to whose Tyranny he left them by this Foolish and Ungodly Fancy, and such a prophane extravagant Applicati­on of Sorceries; to which, in truth, that Age was every where too much addicted. And 'twas not his jealous practices with the Duke of Britaign, against Henry Earl of Richmond, could secure the Crown to his Children, when he overlook'd the more im­mediate Danger.

EDWARD V.

ONE would have thought Edward IV. might have, without Sorcery or Pro­phecy, foreseen what would become of the committing the Care of Edward the V^th to his Brother the Duke of Glocester, who had before Killed Henry the VI^th with his own Hand, in all probability without Com­mandment or Knowledge of his Brother and his Son, in his own presence; and was suspected also to have a hand in the Death of his other Brother the Duke of Clarence; be­sides the symptom of an ill-contrived Soul and Body: Without taking notice of all the villanous popular Harangues, Insinuations and Artifices used by the Duke of Glocester, to get the King's Person into his Power, out of the Hands of the Queen and her Friends. In short, this poor Prince was an Unhap­py instance of a misplaced Guardianship, and an Unnatural Uncle's Care. A Youth, made a Jest of Sovereignty for Ten Weeks, and Sacrificed to Ambition at Eleven Years of Age; and an instance of the fatal Credu­lity of a Woman, too apt to be deceived as well as to deceive: He and his poor Brother [Page 75] were Murthered in the Tower, Betrayed by an Uncle, and too easily delivered up by a Mother. A Reign, a fit Subject only for Poetry.

RICHARD III.

THIS—was so great a Monster in all Respects, that he ought not (for the Honour of England) to have place a­mongst the Catalogue of Kings. There ought to be nothing Recorded of him, but only this, That he died in the Field with his Sword in his Hand. 'Tis said, he made Good Laws; but I know of none Extraordi­nary, but only One, which is rather a Popular Declaration of what was so before; and that was, That the Subjects of this Realm shall not be charged by any Benevolence, or such like Charge, but it shall be damn'd and an­null'd for ever. Let his Laws be transferr'd to another Reign; let us not acknowledge Mercy from the Hands of Blood. Sir Francis Bacon saith, ‘That his Good Laws were but the Brocage of an Usurper, thereby to win the hearts of the People, as being Con­scious to himself, that the true Obligations of Sovereignty in him failed: And if he had lived, no doubt, would have proved such a One as King James the First de­scribes a Tyrant to be.’

HENRY VII.

IT behoved Henry the Seventh, having in himself but a slim sort of distant Title, to support himself by Policy: And here will appear what Single Prudence can do: This maintain'd his Crown, whilst he trim'd between Conquest, Military Election, Parliamentary, Birth, Donation, and Marriage: Though he did not care to be beholding to the Last, and to take a precarious Right from a Wife. Sir Walter Rawleigh says, ‘He was a Politick Prince, who by the Engine of his Wisdom beat down and overturn'd as many Strong Oppositions both before and after he wore the Crown, as ever King of Eng­gland did. And Cambden, Through whose Care, Vigilancy, and Policy, and Fore­casting Wisdom for times to come, the State and Commonwealth of England hath to this day stood Establish'd and Invincible; Henricus noster Septimus cum omnes Regni rectè Administrandi Artes calleret, sic his Ornamentis Instructus venit ut cum Pacem Exulantem, Exul, exterrem­que Extorris concomitatus esset, reducem quo­que, [Page 78] Redux aportaret. Win. Com. de rebus Brit.’

But, perhaps, the Tyranny of his Prede­cessor might make his first Steps more easy: However, I take Henry the Seventh's Ma­ster-piece of Wisdom to be, That he used That of other Mens also: He call'd his Parliament, and consulted with it up­on all Occasions, especially when he had any Provocations to War from France or Scotland: Not insisting on, but ever wa­ving that impertinent piece of Prerogative, of Declaring War upon a King's own Head: This Method open'd his Subjects Purses; This procured even a Benevolence as odious as it had been heretofore, and Great Sums of Money were soon collected by it: The Commotions which happen'd in the North and West upon gathering the Subsi­dies, were but slight Exceptions, taken on the Occasion of the Extravagancies and Passions of particular Persons: And the Bu­siness of Lambert Simnell, and the greater Attempt of Perkin, Warbeck, were but the Effect of a Woman's Malice, and promoted by the Dutchess of Burgundy, who was an Avowed Enemy to the House of Lancaster. Sir Francis Bacon tells us, ‘His Time did excel for Good Commonwealth Laws; so that he may be justly celebrated for the Best Law-giver to this Nation, after King [Page 79] Edward the First. For his Laws, whoso marks them well, are deep, and not Vulgar; not made upon the Spur of a particular Occasion for the present, but out of providence for the future, to make the State of his People still more and more happy, after the manner of the Legisla­tors in Ancient and Heroical Times.’ I suppose he means the State-Laws against Retainers and Riots; these seem more pro­perly to be made on his own Account, and that no Person assisting a King de Facto should be attainted therefore by course of Law, or Act of Parliament; and that if any such Act should be made, it should be void, which seems also calculated for a par­ticular purpose (though it hath since made so much noise in the World) [as the Act to take away the Writ De Haeretico Combu­rendo, was in King Charles the Second's Time.] And this de Facto Act seems to have no foundation at that time, unless it were for fear of the Earl of Warwick, who was the last Heir-Male of the Plantagenets; for the King and People most certainly knew, that Richard, the Younger Brother of Ed­ward the Fifth, was Dead, and Safe, whom Perkin pretended to represent: And me­thinks, after all, this Act seems to have but a Weak and Dishonourabble Foundation, and leaves an ill Savour, and will cast a Reflection some-where: For Fears and Jealousies put [Page 80] Men and Kings too often upon poor spirited Actions. But letting this pass; Another touch of his over-Wisdom, viz. his Dispo­sition to squeeze Money out of his Subjects Purses by Forfeitures on Penal Laws, was an Excess of Policy scarce to be excused; and, as is said, without all doubt proved the Blot of his Time; and as Sir Robert Cotton ob­serves, There is no string will sooner jarr in the Commonwealth than this, if it be gene­rally touched. This was that which passed for the Disgrace of his Reign, though what may pass under the Name of Severe Justice: And though he escaped the Violent Conse­quences of it himself, yet the fatal Return overtook Empson and Dudley in the beginning of the next Reign, who were both executed for Treason, for extending this Summum Jus to Violence and Injury, and turning Law and Justice into Rapin; (Though it will puzzle a Lawer to determine what Species of Treason this is, unless it be against the Laws, by traiterously betraying the Trust reposed in them). But no Government, King, or Person, is without some Failing, and Wisdom it self may be overacted.

HENRY VIII.

I Am not to determine how it came about, yet it may be observable, That though this King came to the Crown by an Un­doubted Right of Succession, as Heir of the House of Lancaster by his Father, and of the House of York by his Mother; yet up­on his Coronation the People were ask'd, Whether they would receive him for their King? But I know this will be thought a trivial Matter of Form, not worth taking notice of. It is said his first Years were a Reign by Book, having come from the In­struction and Contemplation of Good, to Action; his Notions stuck by him some Years: And not to pretend to single Suffi­cience at those Years, at least, That he might know how to perform his Corona­tion Oath, he chose a Wise Councel to di­rect him in the Observation of the Laws; and as they generally do in all New Reigns, He redress'd the Grievances of the former, by making Examples of the Oppressors in the last. He did not enter into the War with France upon his own Head, neither upon the Advice of his Privy Council; [Page 82] but had it debated in Parliament, where it was resolved, That Himself with a Royal Army should invade France; and then for that purpose an Extraordinary Subsidy was willingly granted towards the Charges there­of: These were the beginnings of his Reign; and he might have finish'd it with the same Honour and Wisdom, if Woolsey had not piously told him, He might lay aside the use of his Understanding, and his own Consi­deration (no doubt to rely on his): That he should not need to trouble himself with frequenting the Council-Table, but might take his Pleasure, &c. (Admirable Coun­cel for a Priest)! And he himself would give him Information, &c. Thus he in­grossed the King, disobliged the King's Friends, caus'd the Archbishop of Canter­bury, Bishop of Winchester, Dukes of Nor­folk and Suffolk, to withdraw from Court, and Topp'd his Prerogative upon the King's, and led him away by the Misdirections of his own False Oracle; persuades and puts the King upon Lending the Emperor Mo­ney, who was poor and Insolvent; be­cause, forsooth, the French King had with­held the Revenue of the Bishop of Tour­ney, that is, his Own. After he had tired the People with his Civil Justice before, he sets up for an Arbitrary Spiritual Power in himself: Obtains an Office from the Pope to dispence with Offences against Spi­ritual [Page 83] Laws, and erects a Trade for Sin, to make Virtue and Religion Venial, and betrays the King into the Restoring or Surrendring Tourney, for great Gifts, and greater Promises, after that he found it did not turn to Account, and he could make nothing of it by way of Yearly Income: And thus dishonour'd the King and Na­tion, and like a very Godly Prelate, dis­solv'd the King and Court into all sort of Luxury, and the Priesthood it self into Li­centiousness and Disorder: And so far the Artificial Malice and Villany of this Saw­cy and Bloody Butcher's Son went, who had neither Honour or Religion, That he persuaded the King to sacrifice his Nobi­lity to him, and the Duke of Buckingham must be made an Example and Martyr to his Revenge, for only pouring a little Wa­ter into his Shooes, when he had the Im­pudence to dip his Hands in the Bason, whilst the Duke held it to the King to wash. He alone could create Misunder­standings between the King, Lords and Commons, by vertue of his Lies and Mis­representations of Matters from one to the other, altho' he had been caught in them more than once: He dissolv'd Convocations, by vertue of his Power Legantine, which were convok'd by the Archbishop; and calls Him and all the Clergy to another Place, ac­cording to his own Imperious Fancy; di­verts [Page 84] the Laws of the Land, and seeks to raise Money by Commission, which the People opposed, and the King was afterwards forced to Disclaim: On the other hand abuses the King's Grace, and takes it upon himself; alters the State of the King's House, Retrenches the Allowance of his Servants; and in short, arrogates the Power over Servants, and Master also, and assumes the Power and Honour of the King, and Stiles and Directs Ego & Rex meus in his Writings and Letters to Rome, and Fo­reign Parts: This could an humble Suc­cessor of the Apostles do? And by the bye, It may be worth observing, how far Pride can inspire these Prelatical Sparks with Pre­sumption, who pretend to be but the Re­presentatives of the Apostles, to exalt them­selves above, and Lord it over Kings, whom yet they themselves acknowledge to repre­sent God: I regard not their Distinctions, neither before nor since their Compliment of the Supremacy, which they would resume if they could, without a Pope. But it happen'd the Cardinal carried on the Scene and State of Pageantry too far, even to his own Ruin; and the King's Eyes were open'd at length, after that the Cardinal had cut him out a way for the Ruin, or Reformation rather of the Church, as well as himself; and by his Exorbitant Beha­viour had open'd the Door to the Parlia­ment [Page 85] to Redress the Grievances, and provide for a Remedy against them, by restraining and wholsome Laws. I am the more particular upon this Prelate, because he was the Hinge upon which every thing turn'd; and would set a Mark upon him for Kings to know whom to avoid, and for what Reasons: And would upon all Occasions also re­mind them how wretched and inconsi­derable a Creature a King is, when he abdicates his own Reason, to submit it to another's; and waves the Publick, for any private Whispers of Admonition.

I desire to be excused from medling with the long Story of the King's Quar­rel with the Pope, and the Occasion; and shall pass over the Alterations in Religion in this King's time; or what was more considerable, the Change and Dissolution of Religious Houses: I have nothing to do with his Shifting and Dis­solving of Wives neither: There are par­ticular Histories of the Reformation enow, and fresh in every one's Memory; ha­ving had an occasion, not long since, to review them, and consider them afresh. There are Plays and Novels also of the other to gratify the Female Politicians; who, whether they ought to be severe [Page 86] upon him, or not, I know not, and leave to them to determine: This is besides my Design, as being out of all Ordinary Rules of Civil Policy: Therefore waving all Enquiry into the Reasons or Provo­cations of one or t'other, though I know some are assign'd and remark'd to his Disadvantage, others to his Advantage; I shall dismiss my self with this general Remark upon the Qualities of a Man, or King; That when Either have once broke through the first Obligations of Justice or Virtue, he makes but little difficulty in the proceeding upon At­tempts of the same Nature: Though af­ter all, to speak impartially, and with­out Reflection, I am not satisfied, but the first Occasion of Divorce, and Re­formation too, was in its self justifiable, though the Circumstances inducing it, are suspected; and it was concluded a Reason sought, not offer'd. But cer­tainly Sir Walter Raleigh's Character of him is not to be justified, who says, ‘That if all the Pictures and Paterns of a Merciless Prince were lost in the World, they might all again be paint­ed to the life out of the Story of this King:’And that of Sir Robert Naunton is as ill-natur'd; viz. ‘Having a Design to marry within the Degrees Unlaw­ful, [Page 87] he set his Learned Men at work to prove it lawful; and after a while, being cloy'd, and desiring Change, set them again on work to prove it unlaw­ful; He never spared Man in his An­ger, or Woman in his Lust:’ This is Sa­tyrically said, but not truly; For he had no mind to marry at first where he did, but did it in Obedience to his Father's Will, and against the Grain with him­self: And he liv'd with this first Wife Twenty Years, and never took notice of the Unlawfulness of that Marriage, till it was objected against him again, and the President of Paris started and moved it on the Proposal of Marriage between the Lady Mary (his Daughter by Ka­therine) and the Duke of Orleance, the second Son to the French King: And as to the Cruelty towards Men, the Death of the Lord Cromwell, and that of the Duke of Norfolk's Son, Henry Earl of Surry, sound most of Severity; yet as to the first, he had rais'd him from a Smith's Son, he was Cardinal Woolsey's Pupil, and trod in his Steps: He was Attainted by Par­liament, and the Record says, for Crimes of Heresy and Treason, perhaps the Advice of the Match with the Lady Ann of Cleve; but I think it doth not argue Cruelty in the King neither towards him or her: [Page 88] He dismiss'd her with a gentle Farewel after her Marriage was declared Unlaw­ful by the Convocation, and adjudged so in Parliament; and she lived sixteen Years after, and died in the Fourth Year of Queen Mary: As to the other, It is plain it was not to gratify his Personal Cruelty: For being no Lord of Parliament, he was Arraigned at Guildhall before a Special Commission, and found guilty by a Jury; the Charge of bearing Arms which be­longed to the King and Prince, may seem somewhat slight, yet it is always dange­rous to play with Edged Tools, and the Ragion di stato may in part excuse it. In the main he appears a King of a great deal of Honour, not without a Good-natur'd Generosity: He was careful also to maintain the Civil Constitution, and devout to the Privileges of Parliament: He carried it fair with his Subjects in the general, and was never Ill-natur'd or Fro­ward (as far as I can perceive) without some Colour of Justice. I know not whe­ther I can justify him in his Politicks so well, in his contradicting by the Will, the Disposition of the Crown, and its Succes­sion, which he had before Established in Parliament; especially to bring in Queen Mary, after his Subjects had sworn to the Parliamentary Succession of his Daughter [Page 89] Elizabeth: Besides, That this was subse­quently by Implication, to affirm the Le­gitimacy of his Mariage with Katharine of Spain, which was with so much So­lemnity laboured, and declared Unlawful: All that can be said, is, That he might, in respect to the Mother, be unwilling to suffer the Daughter to be Bastardised: And we always ought to construe the Actions of Princes in mitiori sensu, and to take them by the best part of the Handle in History: To speak well of them, if we can any ways justify it; and to be silent in Doubtful Characters, if we cannot Commend.

EDWARD VI.

I Am at a loss in speaking to the Short Reign of Edward the Sixth: He seems born and design'd for the Advancement of Ecclesiastical and Civil Polity, and to be snatched away to the Disappointment of Human Expectations; to intimate, That there is no Establishment of Happiness to be relied on here below. However, that Government which might have come to something in himself, was Unfortunate in the Administration of the Councel which his Father with so much Care had assign'd him, and impertinently enough shuffled between the Aspiring Conduct of the Great Men, and the Foolish Ambition of Pretending Women: These interrupted the Wisdom of Councels (though the Protector did his part well enough at first, till he came to pull down a Church, and two Bishops Houses in the Strand, to make him a Mansion-House, &c.) For after the Disturbances of the Nation on the Account of Religion, and the In­closures at Home, and with relation to the [Page 91] French and Scots Abroad, had been ma­naged with Prudence and Honour, and the Kingdom began to appear with a Face of Peace and Satisfaction: How vain are Mortal Considerations! Behold the whole Oeconomy is on a sudden Discomposed, and the Frame of Government Subverted: And a Frivolous Pretence of Place between two Women Unhinges the Constitution, and first exposes, and then destroys and ruins the Husbands, by vertue of the False Designs of a Third Person behind the Curtain, who grafted Villany artifici­ally upon their Follies, and at last, as was suspected, brought in the King himself, whose Death also is laid at the same Door. What the Sense of our Neighbours was concerning it, you may read in Mezeray: ‘France and England held pretty good Correspondence, when Death cut the Thread of Young King Edward's Days; It was believ'd to proceed from a slow Poyson, and John Dudley, Duke of Nor­thumberland, was suspected guilty of the Crime, he having suggested to him to Institute Jane of Suffolk for Heiress to the Crown:’ However it were, it prov'd a Fatal Policy to the poor Lady Jane and him­self too. I confess, I cannot see why Ed­ward the Sixth might not make bold with Mary, as well as his Father had done be­fore [Page 92] him, and dispose of the Crown by Will, as he did; especially for the Propa­gating and Establishing the Infant Refor­mation, if that Age had been serious, and well agreed in the Business of Religion: For we shall find, I doubt, in History (notwithstanding all Observation to the contrary), That if Religion be not sup­ported by State-props, it will not stand long; and that That which hath only for its Ingredients Mercy and Honour, will be in short time overrun, and go to the Walls, whilst the Religion of Violence and Blood will propagate it self by Inquisitions, and the Artifices of its own pretended Zeal. And that, notwithstanding all Innocent Precautions, 'tis too true, That a Prince of Matchiavell's Composition, will at present, and for once, prevail over one of a Sincere Vertue, and open Honour: This, I say, upon the appearing Reason of the thing, That our Nation in particular may not be imposed upon over and over again with the same Appearances, and only that we should stand upon our Guard against all Popish Representations, how innocently soever colour'd; and against all Foreign Overtures, how well soever baited.

Queen MARY.

ONE would have thought, that the Reign of this Queen might have sa­tisfied a Nation (of any Capacity of Thinking) in the Professions of a Papist, and what weight the Promises of the Church of Rome to Hereticks ought to have with Protestants.The Principles and Practices of Papists were well enough known, even in those times, in our Neigh­bouring Country of France under Henry the II^d, by the Execution of so great a Number of Protestants, who were Burn'd in the Greve, the common Place of Exe­cution; but the manner of it was not Common: ‘They were Haled up by a Pully and Iron Chain, then suffered to fall down in the midst of a great Fire; which was repeated several times: And 'tis said, the King himself would needs feed his own Eyes with this Tragical and Melancholy Spectacle, and that the Horrible and Mournful Shreiks of one of those poor Wretches left so lively an Impression in his Ima­gination, [Page 94] that all his Life long he had from time to time a very frightful and terrible Remembrance of those dreadful Groans: However it were, it is certain that the Smell of those Carcasses then Roasted, got into the Brains of a great many People; who on the one hand beholding the (false) Constancy, as Mezeray calls it, and on the other hand the scandalous dissolute Living, named this Justice (as he terms it) a Persecution, and their Pu­nishment a Martyrdom.’This is the tender Account given of it by a Popish Historian. And he says, ‘Faggots were then lighted every where against the Protestants.’ Queen Mary made her passage to the Throne through her Pro­mises to the Norfolk and Suffolk Gen­tlemen, that she would make no Altera­tions in Religion; but before she was warm in it, she shewed how she dis­sembled her false Favours, and removed the Protestant Bishops, and sent Cran­mer the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Latimer, and others, to the Tower, and passed Judgment on them to Dye: All this before her Coronation. And as Mezeray tells us, ‘When she was once Absolute Mistress, she Cemented the Throne with the Blood of the Lady [Page 95] Jane, her Husband, her Father, and almost all her Kindred, and after that she spilt much more to Restore the Catholick Religion; which brought the State into such Convulsions as had like to have proved Mortal, and all for the Advantage of a short Du­ration.’ Thus Mezeray still, a French and Popish Writer. And, in truth, the Lady Elizabeth escaped very narrowly; for Gardiner, that special Bishop of Win­chester, had procured her to be sent to Prison, and had framed a Warrant under certain Councellors Hands to put her to Death; but that Mr. Bridges, Lieutenant of the Tower, pitying her Case, went to the Queen to know her Pleasure, who utterly denied that she knew any thing of it, or was then ashamed, at least, to Own it; by which means her Life was preserved. This Good-natur'd Merciful Bishop, and Po­pish Priest, was not contented to Lop off Boughs and Branches, as he phras'd it at the Council-Board, but was for plucking up the Reformation by the Root, meaning Queen Eliza­beth; and to do the Spaniards Justice, 'tis said they interceded for her; per­haps it was only in Policy, that their Master might have Two Strings to [Page 96] his Bow, as it appeared by the sequel; for he Courted Queen Elizabeth after the Death of Queen Mary. 'Twas evi­dent farther, how Queen Mary in­tended to keep her Word as to Re­ligion, by her Match with Spain: No doubt she had a mind to put it out of her Power, and cast the Odi­um of Persecution off from her self. But we ought not to Reflect on her for Marrying one of her own Reli­gion; since our Protestant Kings on this side the Reformation have had a good knack ever since of providing for the Security of the Protestant Re­ligion by Popish Matches; for though King James the First did not actu­ally Wed (he did not dare to have attempted it in Scotland) a Papist, yet he was more to blame in advi­sing and pursuing One so hotly for his Son, than his Son who finished a Popish Match at last: This by the bye. The Rebellion of Wyat was an ill tim'd Attempt begun too early (as another late One since); but had he let it alone a little longer, till Queen Mary shewed her self more fully in her proper Colours; when the Pope's Primacy came to be proposed and la­boured to be Restored, and Cardinal [Page 97] Pool came over, it might have had another Effect, and proved a gene­rous Effort for the Rescuing the In­fant Reformation from the Jaws of Po­pish Tyranny: For the Pope had just Taught the People the way of being Absolved from their Allegiance; and they might infer if he could do it, or it were to be done for the sake of Religion, That they might Ab­solve themselves from their Allegiance for the good of Religion also. But when once a first Undertaking miscar­ries, through an ill-tim'd and rash Pre­cipitation, a Second seldom or never comes to Maturity in the same Shape and Nature. Her Five Years Reign passed in a Hurry of Religion, Love, Persecution, Mariage, &c. with some Lunatick Intervals of Mercy. It is said her Reign was polluted with Blood of Martyrs, Unfortunate by frequent In­surrections, and Inglorious by the Loss of Callis. It is said also, she was a Lady of Good Nature and Merciful Disposition in her self; What then can we expect from the Reign of any Po­pish Prince, where the Barbarous Zeal, and Unhuman Authority of that Church, can so far Impose upon, and Over-rule even a Merciful Prince, that D^r Heylin [Page 98] calls her's the greatest Persecution since Dioclesian's time, and which raged most terribly. 'Tis truly and absolutely im­possible for any thing of Honour, Vir­tue, or Good Nature, to have any place in a Sovereign under such a Sovereignty.

Queen ELIZABETH.

IN rhe Reign of Queen Elizabeth we may observe the difference in a method of Protestant and Popish Refor­mation, or Alteration of Religion: The Popish under Queen Mary was begun and carried on by Imprisonments, Fire and Blood: The Protestants by this Queen, with a true Christian Temper, by a gen­tle Remove, without any Blood, without Imprisoning any Person, and without in­flicting almost any Suffering or Penalty, till the Seditious Practices of the Popish Party had provoked the Arm of Justice; till the Pope had given away her King­dom of Ireland as a Heretick; and Parsons and Campian, Two of his Emissaries, had Deposed her at Home in their Doctrines. And after all, Campian, Sherwin, and Bri­ant, did not suffer as Popish Priests, but were Prosecuted on the 25^th of Edward the III^d for Plotting Destruction of the Queen, and Ruin of the Kingdom; for Adhering to the Pope, the Queen's Ene­my, and coming into England to Raise [Page 98] [...] [Page 99] [...] [Page 100] Forces against the State. And 'twas only for these Exorbitances of the Papists that new and strict Laws were Enacted against them in the following Parliaments, in the 23^d 27, 29, 35^th Years of her Reign: Be­fore that, there was only the Penalty of Twelvepence a Sunday for Absence from Church; and some other necessary provi­sions concerning the Supremacy, Admini­stration of the Sacrament, and Form of Common-Prayer; which also were very tenderly put in Execution, and for above Twenty Years no Body suffered Death for Religion; nor till long after the Pope and King of Spain had conspired her Ruin, and Gregory the XIII^th held secret Consultati­ons to Invade at once both England and Ireland, and longer after that Bloody Mas­sacre of Paris; which was a design to Cut off the Protestants, as it was Termed, or at least to give them a deep Wound; and the terrible Slaughters of Protestants through all the Cities of France, and the War afterwards declared against the Pro­testants in the time of Charles the IX^th; not to reflect on the Chambres Ardentes be­fore against Protestants in Henry the II^d's time; and after the Attempt which the Duke of Alva, on the behalf of the Queen of Scots, and the just suspicious she might entertain on her account, who [Page 101] was then accounted the great Patroness and only hopes of the Papists, and all the other Stratagems and visible Designs of that Party. And the second Execution of any Person was in her Twenty fifth Year, and upon a just necessity of Self-preservation, upon the rash and extrava­gant Proceedings of Somervill and Others. Besides, when the Queen was informed even of these Severities (as they are call'd), tender ones in comparison; she grew of­fended with the Commissioners for Po­pish Causes, Reproved them for their Se­verity (although they declared and pro­tested, they Questioned no Man for his Religion, but only for dangerous Attempts against her Majesty and the State); and the Queen forbad them afterwards to use Tor­tures, as she did the Judges other Punish­ments: And not long after that, when Se­venty Priests were taken, and some of them Condemned, and the rest in danger of the Law, she only shipp'd them away out of England. A Merciful piece of Ju­stice! So Merciful she was, that it gave her Enemies such Encouragement, as her Life was never safe; (as may appear by the Case of D^r Parry); till there was a necessi­ty for an Association to provide for the Queen's safety, which was first Voluntary by a Number of her Subjects, the Earl [Page 102] of Leicester being foremost, thence after of all Ranks and Conditions bound mu­tually thereunto to each other by their Oaths and Subscriptions, to Prosecute all those to the very Death, that should At­tempt any thing against the Queen, which the Year following was in a Par­liamentary manner Enacted into a for­mal Law. Notwithstanding which, another dangerous Conspiracy of one Savage, set on foot by Babington and Others to take away her Life, as being Excommunicated, was disco­vered, and about Fourteen were justly Executed for Treason. Upon which last Treason hung the Fate of the Queen of Scots; the Justice whereof has been so much Controverted and Debated: Rules of Policy and Self-preservation must ca­shier all Principles of good Nature or Honour: Yet, however, Execution was not done upon her, till the French Am­bassador and others, were again disco­vered to take off the Queen by way of prevention. And the Circumstances (sug­gested to the Queen at least) of the Spanish Navy being come to Milford Haven, the Scots into England, and that the Duke of Guise was Landed at Sussex, &c. may extenuate, if not ex­cuse, the Severity of her Execution, with [Page 103] any but Papists; and the manner of do­ing it at last, shews it was Extorted from her upon inevitable Considerations, and Symptoms of a relucting necessity. Her often Countermanding it, demonstrates it was not an Act of her Inclination; and at last, perhaps, (as far as it appears) it was obtained of her by Surprise, and without her Authorising Hand to the finishing Stroke. If there were any thing in it of Barbarity, 'twas the denying her a Catholick Priest or Confessor, and the Manner of her Execution: Which yet is no more than Papists deny Pro­testants on all occasions; and I know not why we should not vouch the dy­ing Honour of our Religion, as they do of theirs. But enough has been said of this Tragedy on all Hands; only it may be fit to Remark, That even the French Historians give a more favourable Ac­count of it than our own, and particu­larly Mezeray is softer in his Expressions than Baker: The first says, ‘The In­discretion of her Friends was no less the Cause of her Misfortune, than the Wickedness of her Enemies; as the First sought with violent passion af­ter some plausible pretence to Ruin her, the Other furnished them with divers, by contriving every Hour some [Page 104] odd Design, and even Conspiracies against Queen Elizabeth; so that they made her Perish by their over-much Care and Endeavours to Save her.’ The Later gives a slim, trimming Account, which was worse. Although 'tis true, the taking off the Queen of Scots did not break the Neck of the Popish De­signs (for who can restrain the Malice of Jesuits? for Men must have some in­gredient of Modesty to be convinc'd and silenc'd, and kept within the bounds of natural Virtue) yet it stopp'd their Hands for some time. And when after­wards they began again upon the Ex­ample and Encouragement of the Holy League in France (of which the Duke of Guise was Head, and in virtue of which they had taken off their own King, Henry the III^d, by the Hands of James Clement a Monk, though Guise himself was first Assassinated); and they had taken new heart upon the King of Spain's Founding a Seminary of Eng­lish at Validolid; and new Plots were contrived against the Queen: It put them somewhat out of the way, and they were at a loss where to find a Successor to the Crown for their pur­pose, when Lopez and Patrick Cullen, &c. were to have Killed the Queen: And [Page 105] they were forc'd to hunt after far-fetch'd Titles in the Infanta of Spain, and far­ther, for the Earl of Essex at Home (the Son of the Queen of Scots being a Protestant); and even at last they made but little of it: The Queen re­mained in Peace and Safety, and their Pretender Essex, was himself Executed for Treason. The Affairs of the Church were so prudently managed in her time with relation to Puritans as well as Pa­pists, that she left it in a Condition to stand upon its own Legs, and maintain it self without Danger from Opposition; had it been preserv'd with the same con­tinuance of Zeal and unshaken Fideli­ty by her Successors. As to her Civil Administration, the Heathen and Mahu­metans, the Persians and Idolaters, the Ethiopians and Muscovites, name her with Reverence. And Bossac in one of his Letters to Cecil saith, He that Excom­municated her, spoke of her with Honour.

She chose her self a Wise Councel, and shewed her own Wisdom in being Advised by them. She had a hard Game to play with Philip of Spain, as well as her own Popish Subjects; yet she managed both softly and by degrees, and at last by Parliament fix'd and [Page 106] secured the general Alteration in Reli­gion, which she could never have done by her self. First-Fruits and Tenths were Restored to the Crown, and the Supremacy Confirmed to the Queen. She avoided Matrimony, whether upon any Consideration besides Prudence, I shall not enquire; by doing so, she pre­serv'd her self Head of the Church and State, and Mistress of her self as well as her Subjects; and Oblig'd and Silenc'd the Parliament by soft Answers of de­nial, when they Remonstrated to her for that purpose, and put an unanswerable Compliment upon them, by telling them, She had placed her Affections upon her People in General. But in matters of Religion she was no Courtier; after she had once declared her self a Protestant (though some pretend she Dissembled in her Sister's Days) she did not look back towards the Pope, did not shuffle in her Religion, but refused all Com­munication with him, and also generously declined all the Overtures of Advantage made by Pius the IV^th. She equally despised his Threats and Temptations: Afterwards she readily and sincerely Assisted the Distressed Protestants, her Neighbours, on all Occasions. She provided every thing for the Strength [Page 107] and Honour of the English Nation, and saw it maintain'd in its True Glory both at Home and Abroad: Would not be whead­led, nor huff'd to betray it, but carry'd its Reputation farther Abroad than any of her Predecessors had, or Successors hi­therto have done. She shew'd it the way to overcome even the Invincible Armada of Spain, which the Spaniards with all their Force and Fraud had pro­vided to Invade us, and basely to At­tack us by Surprize, when they were at the same time in a (Treacherous) Trea­ty of a Peace: And all this she did with­out oppressing her Subjects, well know­ing (as she her self declared, when she remitted a Fourth Subsidy) that the Mo­ney was as sure in her Subjects Coffers as her Own. 'Tis said of her, Never Prince ruled with more Justice, and with her Justice mingled more of Mercy: She was term'd St. Elizabeth by some at Ve­nice, for her Merciful returning home cer­tain Italians which were taken Prisoners in the Invasion of 1588. And 'tis said, some told the Lord Carleton, being then Ambassador, That though they were Papists, yet they would never pray to any other Saint; a Compliment at that di­stance may be laid hold of at home, for an acknowledgment of a just Character. [Page 108] But her Truest Character we may take from her own Behaviour, and from her own Mouth, because it seems to have nothing of Vanity in it: In her Speech to her last Parliament, 1601. she thus expresseth her self. ‘To be a King, and to wear a Crown, is a thing more Glorious to them that see it, than it is Pleasant to them who bear it: Though you may have had, and may have many Mightier and Wiser Princes sitting in this Seat, yet you never had, nor shall have, Any that will love you better.’ Du Serres says of the Reign of Henry the Fourth of France, her Contemporary: ‘It is a Sign of a Happy Reign, when the Subject re­joyceth to see their Prince:’ 'Tis pro­bable he might mean it as well of Queen Elizabeth; Or we may apply it for him, as it was verified of her: For it was ob­serv'd in her short Progresses, that Peo­ple of all sorts would flock to see her? And not only that, (for I have known other Kings attended through Curiosity) but also what hearty Acclamations did they utter? As God save Queen Eliza­beth, &c. and she would Reply, God bless you, my People all. Few Princes mis­carry who have the Affections of the better part of their People: 'Twas for [Page 109] this Reason, I suppose, that the Mo­ther of the Duke of Guise, her profes­sed Enemy, said, ‘Elizabeth of Eng­land was the most Glorious and Hap­py Woman that ever swayed Scepter:’ And Henry the Fourth of France, in a Letter to Monsieur de Rosny, commends her with an implicit sort of Emulation. She had such a Character even with the Turks for Morality, and Natural Ho­nour, That at her Instance he counte­nanced the English Trading there, and thence came, as is said, our Turky Com­pany, and every one knows the Benefit of it to England. Also the Duke of Russia, for her sake, as is said, (who yet is so jealous of Strangers) gave Civil Reception to the English. In short, That Kingdom which she found in Troubles, and unsetled, she left Establish'd in True Religion, Peace and Plenty at Home, and Reputation Abroad.

JAMES I.

I Dare not Encounter this King so rude­ly as some have done ('tis said up­on good Experience): Nor would I be thought to offer Undecent Reflections at a King, who came Ushered into our Throne with such a Reputation for Wis­dom of his own, and such Advantages of a Councel, left him fam'd for it. Yet in my own Opinion, and poor Observa­tion, I can't for my Soul pay that migh­ty Veneration to his Character and Me­mory which the World would seem to demand. He seems to me to have stum­bled at the Threshold in our Kingdom, and to have done a thing not very Ho­nourable or Prudent. Who, after he had so poorly quitted the Resentments of his Mother's Death before, by a sort of Reflex Malice; yet in pious Memo­ry of her Sufferings, and to revive the Reasons of them here, and as it were, to Countenance and Abet the Nor­folk Family upon the same Foundations, forthwith calls the Lord Thomas and [Page 111] Henry Howard, two Papists, to the Coun­cil, thereby intimating, as it were, hopes to the Papists, &c. which they were apt enough, no doubt, to conceive. Nor will his Pretended Apprehension of the Pope's Briefs to the Catholicks, excuse him: Tho Sir Richard Baker, (who was bribed by a Knighthood at his first com­ing over) represents him in the front, to have done it only upon Prudential Mo­tives; that is, Fear: Thus he at first dash disobliged all Parties. And who knows, but this first Cast of Favour to them, and to the Earl of Southampton, (whose Father, 'tis true, was a great Friend to Mary Queen of Scots, but a greater to Popery); and his partial, aukward Be­haviour towards other Gentlemen, might be the Foundation of that complicated Treason by the Lord Cobham, Sir Wal­ter Rawleigh, and others, Protestants and Papists, amongst whom were two Priests, and for which there was no other ap­parent Occasion, only that he provok'd all Parties, whilst he sought to win One, by Fawning; to shew something like good Inclinations to the See of Rome, as the Pope expected, though they well knew, he did not mean that neither; whilst he received others cold­ly, for Reasons neither he nor they [Page 112] knew: So that they agreed, only in this, to lay him aside, who, as they con­cluded by his Behaviour, would answer the Expectations of neither. There was no necessity of adding Papists as Spies upon his Councels; he might in pru­dence been contented to have taken it at present, as left him, with the Addi­tion only of his Scotchmen to the Num­ber: And 'tis plain it gave no satisfacti­on to the Papists by the Powder-Plot which followed: His Next Step of Un­accountable Wisdom was dissolving the Parliament, for Reasons known to no body besides himself; 'tis said, because they did not comply with his Designs; but what those Designs were, do not appear Above-board. The Third Action of Moment, out of common Forms, was the sacrificing Sir Walter Rawleigh to the Importunities of Gondomar (for neither his Justice nor Mercy was to be relied on); that is, giving up the Interest of England to the Spanish Satisfaction. And his Conduct, with relation to Spain, is admirable throughout.

Queen Elizabeth had pretty well humbled that Potent Monarch; and, as Sir Robert Cotton observes, forced him in his after-Reign (that is, after his Un­successful [Page 113] Tricks with her) to that Ex­tremity, that he was driven to break all Faith with those Princes that trusted him, and paid for One Year's Interest above Twenty five thousand Millions of Crowns: Hear Sir Robert Cotton, who speaks to the Person of King James, and therefore we may assure our selves modestly and gently: ‘So low and des­perate in Fortunes your Highness found him, when you took this Crown; Thus from the abundant Goodness of your Peaceable Nature (this is the way of Banter, if Kings would see it) you were pleas'd to begin your Hap­py Reign with General Quiet, and with Spain first, which should have wrought in Noble Natures a more Grateful Recompence than after fol­lowed: For long it was not before Tyrone was hearten'd to Rebel against your Highness; and flying, had a Pen­sion at Rome paid him from the Spa­nish Agent: His Son Odonel Tyrconnel, and others, your Chiefest Rebels, re­tain'd ever since in Grace and Pay with the Arch-Duchess, at Spain's De­votion. So soon as your Eldest Son of holy Memory, now with God, was fit for Mariage, they began these Old Designs, by which before they had thri­ven [Page 114] so well, &c.’ Thus Sir R. C. in that Stile.

And thus they led him on their Dance, whilst he Deserted (or, what was worse, so meanly Vindicated) the Interest of his Son-in-Law the Prince Palatine: He must take his Measures from Gondomar; and instead of assisting him with a Powerful Army, he is treat­ing with this Spanish Agent, and must take his Advice, and Matters are to be made up with him, by a Match for his Son the Prince of Wales, with the In­fanta of Spain; and then suffers himself to be imposed upon by Idle Representa­tions, which this Ambassador carried on only in Disguise to serve his Master's Ends; whilst in the mean time the Poor Palatine is swallowed up by a Confede­racy between the Emperor and King of Spain, and all this without calling a Par­liament; that being, forsooth, an Affront to his Wisdom; then sends his Son to Spain, when he was told by Sir John Digby, &c. (who advised him not to suffer his Resolutions to be interrupted by that Overture) of the False Appear­ances and Insincerities of the Spaniards, which the Letters from the King of Spain to Olivares, and his Answer, [Page 115] would have convinced any one of, be­sides himself; and after that, his making so many and ample Concessions in fa­vour of Popery during the Treaty. And in truth, Treating of any Popish Match, are no great Arguments of Wisdom, Fa­therly Care, or indeed of Religion: The English Navy must be neglected, on pretence intimated by Gondomar, that the furnishing of it would breed suspicion in the King his Master; and the Cautio­nary Towns must be rendred up, being the Keys of the Low-Countries, to ob­lige his Friend Gondomar too: His Peo­ple of England must be Check'd, Dis­grac'd, and Silenced, for opposing this Popish Match, with their Speeches, Counsels, Wishes, and even Prayers; ('tis said Gondomar could Dissolve Parliaments also.) The Protestant Interest on his Son's Account in Bohemia slighted; though Archbishop Abbot represented the Cir­cumstances and Call of Religion to En­gage him, besides Honour: Though his Ambassador Cottington inform'd how Matters went, and though every body, besides himself, saw through the Designs of Spain, as well in the Complimenting him in the Match as Mediatorship, to keep him Neuter, and hold him in Sus­pence: And though he himself saw it [Page 116] turn to a War of Religion, and would be the Overthrow of the Protestants or Evangelicks; and though the Emperor had proscribed the Prince Palatine; yet King James's Eyes would not be open'd, nor would be persuaded to take the Alarm. These are no great Master-strokes of Po­licy, no more than of Conscience or Honour: And to War at last, when all was lost against his own avow'd Prin­ciples, was an Incomprehensible Myste­ry of Judgment and Wisdom. Besides these, of which he discharged himself thus learnedly, there was no Matter of Moment did or could Occur du­ring his Reign, to exercise any Ex­traordinary Talent. As for the Governing his People, 'tis plain he had King-Craft, as his Friend Sir Richard Baker calls it, as is pretty Evident by his Par­liamentary Speeches, and his Ways of getting Money. He could also Dissemble, and sometimes Huff, but 'twas only his own Subjects, and that with no good Grace neither.

He had Priest-Craft too, as Heylin ob­serves, who tells us, ‘'Twas his usu­al Practice in the whole Course of his Government, to Balance one extreme by the other, Countenancing the Pa­pists [Page 117] against the Puritans, and the Pu­ritans sometimes against the Papists.’ Thus he was Devout for the Church of England at Home, and for Popery A­broad; making Canons for their Con­formity here, and submitting our Or­ders to Truckle to the Popish Match, against all the Remonstrances of Par­liament, Church, and People: What could he expect from this Popish Match, from any Popish Match, but the Consequences all the World ex­pected? That it would let in Popery once more into Hopes of Success, at least to gain Breath by a suspension of the Laws against them: What could be expected but that this must create Jealousies and Misunderstandings between him and his Subjects? And 'twas not sending a Synod of Divines to Dort, or having a Convocation at Home (of which Dr. Overal, his Dean of Paul's, has given a special Account for the Edification of his Successor the pre­sent Dean) could likely settle the Affairs of the Church in Europe, when he at the same time was giving the Pope a Lifting-hand, and rais'd his droop­ing Head here so early after the Re­formation; and when at the same time the Protestants in Germany, France, and [Page 118] the Low-Countries, were groaning under a Persecution. Which made Du Plessis complain, Que Sa Majestie D'Angleterre trop arreste à quelques petits, dissensions entre les Siens, n'evoit pas assez de soin de la guerison de plus profondes playes qui sont en l'Eglise; and which made the House of Commons Petition and Re­monstrate in the Force of Fourteen Rea­sons, and Ten Remedies, in the XIX^th Year of his Reign; which had only this Effect, to make him fly to his old Refuge of Prerogative with a Huff: And that the Mariage of his Children, Peace and War, &c. were Matters of State and Government above their Conside­rations: And Speeching it backwards and forwards (which he took great Delight in) till his Son-in-Law was despoiled of his Ancient Patrimony, which he at last ingenuously confess'd was through his Default. Here's the Effect of Prerogative! These Proceed­ings, I suppose, put Sir Robert Cotton upon Enquiry what the Kings of Eng­land had done in the like Cases: And after great pains in the search of Records, he informs us, ‘That the Kings of this Nation, ever since the Conquest, so soon as they were cool enough for Councels, have usually consulted with [Page 119] their Peers in the great Council, and Commons in Parliament, of Mariage, Peace, and War.’ He might have said before the Conquest also; for Harold, who had promised William Duke of Normandy, to take one of his Daugh­ters to Wife, Answers, That he should be very injurious to his own Nobility, if he should without their Consent and Advice take a Stranger to Wife. If we look into our Neighbour Kingdoms, Mezeray will tell us, That the French, during the two first Races, and part of the third, had a Right to inter­meddle and controul the Mariages of their Kings; and neither could the King make War without the Lords In ear­nest, I know not whether Kings in Reason ought to be permitted to Con­verse with Ambassadors on t'other side of Forms, upon their own Heads with­out a Quorum of their Councils: For Nations generally send the sharpest Men on such Errands, and sometimes Kings are not a Match in Politicks for them, as it plainly appeared by this Story this King was not for Gondomar, who outwitted him, who pretended to be the wisest. But King James came o­ver to us, Tinctur'd with his Scotch Notions of Monarchical and Sovereign [Page 120] Absolute Power, without vouchsafing ever after to consider the English Con­stitution; and he lets us see what Opinion he had of Parliaments in his [...], wherein he ‘Advises his Son to hold no Parliaments but for Ne­cessity of new Laws, which would be but seldom:’ Not, it seems, for the State, Matters of War, Mariage, &c. No, not for raising Money neither, so long as he could get it by Privy-Seals and Benevolences. Besides, after all, he did not come hither without some Preju­dices to the English People, though he had none to the Crown of England. Thus there may seem to be some in­conveniences in a Learn'd Crown'd Head: This King thought himself too Wise, and too Knowing; He was above Advice or Instruction, because, as he thought, he was capable of giving it: He was too wise in himself to be taught by others, and yet not wise enough always to follow those Rules of Wisdom which he had given; As is evident by the Obser­vation of his Theory and Practice; and by his inconsistent Directions to his Sons, Henry and Charles. He was a little too much addicted to the Pedantry of a Scholar, and affected with Polemical Controver­sies in Words, which he dreaded in Acti­on: [Page] Was more for determining Quarrels by the Pen, than the Sword: And per­haps might have made a better Bishop than a King; a better Father of a Fa­mily, than Country; as being better seen in the Oeconomicks, than Political Go­vernment of a Nation.

CHARLES I.

MOntaign, (whom I confess I delight to bring in as often as I can, though I know the Philosophers are angry with him, for I do not pretend to be a better Politician, or any thing else than he was; The Grave have Gravity in them, but I know not what besides,) says, ‘That about a Month since, he read over two Scotch Authors, of which he who stands for the People, makes Kings to be in a worse condition than a Carter; and he who writes for Monarchy pla­ces him some Degrees above God Al­mighty in Power and Sovereignty:’ I'm sorry there is no Medium; and I know no Necessity for Either. Who those two Scotch Authors were, ev'ry one knows: King James complain'd of one of them, and advanc'd t'other, as it always happens to them who stretch for Kings. Such have been the Notions of Government in both Extremes, and both were unhappily experimented in this Reign. This King, flush'd I doubt [Page 123] with such Authors as the last, and per­haps withal observing what was done in France under Lewis the XI^th, who boast­ed that he had ‘mis le Royaum hors du Page,’ as he calls it; and who, as Mezeray observes, ‘had even Government with­out Council, and most commonly with­out Justice and Reason: Who thought it the finest Policy to go out of that great and beaten Road of his Prede­cessors, to change ev'ry thing, were it from better to worse, that he might be fear'd: His Judgment which was very clear, but too subtle and refin'd (as was that of King James) was the greatest Enemy to his own and his Kingdom's quiet, having, as it seems, taken pleasure in putting things into dis­order, and throwing the most Obedi­ent into Rebellion: Who rather lov'd to follow the bent of his own irre­gular fancies, than the wise Laws of the Land; and made his Grandeur consist in the Oppression of his Peo­ple, &c.’ And also in the Reign of Henry the IV^th, who gave the last stroke to Parliamentary Formalities, and Huff'd the People into a new Law, that from thenceforth the King's Edicts should be ratified on sight, without those formal triflings of Dispute, by Virtue of Living [Page 124] and Ruling always with his Sword in his Hand, might conceive some such great Hopes. These Reflections might perhaps inspire King Charles with the French Ayre of Grandeur; but a People is sometimes quick-sighted too: And hence on a sud­den grew an impertinent (as it then seem'd) Jealousy between King and People: One pretending to too much after one Author, and t'other yielding too little by the other: Whilst the former might be Nibbling at Arbitrary Power in an Extended Prerogative, and the latter enlarging their Liberties somewhat beyond a modest Bound; and there were Courtiers in those Days also, such as Philip de Comines observ'd, in Court Language to Complement a King, call'd it Rebellion to mention a Parliament; and Lewis also was a superstitious Friend to the Church, whilst he was assaulting and oppress'd the State. In these and such like Circumstances of Notional Go­vernment, in such State of picqueering Misunderstanding, King James left his Crown to King Charles, and in a War for Recovery of the Palatinate with­out any Money, and in a fair way of Quarrel at Home, as well as Abroad. Besides, the People had it in their Me­mories and Consideration, his Complaisant [Page 125] Behaviour in Spain, his Letter to, and Tampering with the Pope in Order to that Match, which rais'd new Jealou­sies on Account of Religion; and his Compleating himself the Match with France with as Frank Articles for Pope­ry, as had before been offer'd to Spain in Conjunction with his Father, con­firm'd them in them.

These Reasons and Considerations took possession justly enough in the Minds of Men, which made them ever after stand upon their guard: And setting aside all those Scurrilous Authors on the One hand, who have pretended to give us a Narrative of his Actions; and also those Fulsome Ones, on the Other; all those who would Depress or Advance his Cha­racter with Art; certainly a great many Actions of his Administration are not to be justified in a Court of Honour or Wisdom: Such as Dissolving the First Parliament meerly in Complaisance to the Duke of Buckingham: A King must necessarily Disoblige and Affront the Com­munity, when he Espouseth the Interest of a Single Person against the Publick; and it shews a Weakness to put one Man (no better than the rest) in the Scales in competition with Mankind, as [Page 126] it were: But especially a King ought to be sure the Subject-matter of such Pro­tection and Preference is good and justifia­ble, otherwise he commits a double Error. It will be thought Ill-natur'd to Argue against Favourites; but I must Argue against the Argument for them: It is a very odd Inference, That because our Sa­viour had his Favourite-Disciple, there­fore Kings must have their Favourites: I suppose No body will pretend there is any parity of Reason.

To return therefore to the Duke of Buckingham, who, without Dispute, had betrayed the Vantguard, &c. to the French, after the King and he knew both that they were to be employed against the Rochellers; this was in it self a great Abuse to the Honour of the English Nation, and a manifest Injustice and Injury to the Protestant Religion. And 'twas from this King's Reign that the French began to Date their Strength at Sea. This only Action bred such ill Blood, and created so great a Misunderstanding at first be­tween the King and his Subjects, as stuck to the Duke of Buckingham till his Death, whom Felton kill'd; and, I doubt, till the King's too.

[Page 127] His next Proceeding was Extraordina­ry, when he had thus Dissolv'd the First Parliament: To Levy Money by Privy Seals, which had so ill a savour in his Father's Time, and then to call a Parlia­ment presently on the neck of that Mis­carriage, and to side with the D. of B. against the E. of B. and the denying the latter his Writ to Parliament; this lookt inconsiderate, and a little mean; and the interposing so much on behalf of the former, even with passion as well as par­tiality, had but an ill grace. I pass by the Business of the Earl of Arundel, which also could not but breed ill Blood in the House of Peers. By the King's Obstina­cy in these Affairs (though I do not pre­tend to justify the House of Commons in theirs), instead of preserving one Friend, in the mean time he sacrifices all the rest to his Humour: For the King of Den­mark, who (at his Instance chiefly) had taken up Arms in his Quarrel, was beaten, and reduced to great Distress, for want of Succors from England, which the King had thus disabled himself to supply according to his Promise. That Necessity put him again upon Indirect Courses for Raising of Money by Com­missions of Loan, and seising all Duties [Page 128] of Customs, Privy-Seals, Benevolences, &c. as if he would shew he design'd, if he had prevail'd, to live on himself with­out a Parliament. But the Imprisoning the Gentlemen for refusing the Loan, and the Suspending and Disgracing Arch­bishop Abbot for refusing to License Sib­thorp's Book, were Strains of Arbitrary Power, which exposed Religion as well as Law into a Jest; and seem to profane the Sacred Title of a King, as well as that of an Archbishop; as appears espe­cially in that Archbishop's Narrative and Dialogue, with the Passages therein ex­press'd, if it be true, which exposes that whole Transaction as a plain Rhodo­montade and Defiance to all Rules of Justice and Reason. I will take notice only of the Observation of the Archbi­shop upon the Fourth Objection to Sib­thorp's Sermon, by which you may guess at the rest: To the Fourth; ‘Let the Largeness of those words be well consi­der'd, says the Archbishop; yea all Antiquity to be absolutely for Abso­lute Obedience to Princes in all Civil or Temporal things, for such Cases as Naboth's Vineyard may fall within this; and if I had allow'd this for Doctrine, I had been justly beaten with my own Rod: If the King the next day had [Page 129] commanded me to send him all the Money and Goods I had, I must, by my own Rule, have obey'd him: And if he had commanded the like to all the Clergy of England, by Sibthorp's Proposition, and the Archbishop of Can­terbury's allowing of the same, they must have sent in all, and left their Wives and Children in a Miserable Case; yea the Words extend so far, and are so absolutely deliver'd, that by this Divinity, If the King should send to the City of London, and the Inha­bitants thereof, commanding them to give unto him all the Wealth they have, they were bound to do it: There is a Meum & Tuum in Christian Com­monwealths; and according to Laws and Customs Princes may dispose of it. That Saying being true, Ad Reges Po­testas omnium pertinet, ad singulos proprie­tas.’ This was the Sense of the Arch­bishop on this Matter; and yet the King espoused the Fancies of a Sibthorp against him, who was not so much as a Batchel­lour of Arts, only for the merit of his Flattering Divinity: And in truth the whole Proceeding is apt to turn one's Stomach; besides, that the King in Ex­posing the Dignity of a Person of such a Figure in the Church, did also make [Page 130] bold with his own Character at second hand, who stood but one Remove Higher. And what was it but to intimate to the Lay-Gentlemen, that neither of them were so sacred or inviolable as was pretended: And, by the by, 'tis not safe to make too Light of a Spiritual Person, they can't be held too sacred on this side of Infallibility: But how like a Prophet did the Archbishop talk? How did he Rea­son like a Statesman concerning the King and Duke of Buckingham? How did the Event but too well justify the Predictions? What could the King expect from his Next Parliament, which he was in a manner forc'd to Call, after the Impri­sonment of so many Gentlemen, and the Poor-spirited Way of Releasing them, which lookt almost as bad as the Impri­soning them? What could he say after that Unfortunate Action in the Isle of Rhee? 'Twould make one sick to reflect on Sir Robert Cotton's Speech and Ad­vice, in comparison with the Giddy Pee­vish Measures taken at Court. What Event that Parliament was like to have, may be seen, together with the Talent of these two Kings, the Father and Son's King-Craft, in the Jesuits Letter, in the Speeches within Doors and without, and in the Petitions, Debates and Remon­strances, [Page 131] after that the King had brought himself and his Honour in Jealousy with the People, and the People understood the Circumstances of his Administration, and Pressures of his Affairs. But to shew there were some Dispositions to Agreement, the King's granting the Pe­tition of Right had almost reconciled and soften'd all these Discontents and Misun­derstandings; till the Old Bone was thrown in again, and the Business, that unhappy Business of the Duke of Buck­ingham, resumed, which caused Ill-natur'd Reflections, and in which, perhaps, all Parties were too stiff: Hence the Old Game was plaid over again. This set up the Dispute of Tunnage and Poun­dage; this Prorogued the Parliament, and after many Exorbitant Bickerings about Religion, and Levying this Duty, or Branch of the Revenue, the Blood was put into such a ferment, that although the Duke of Buckingham was gone, the Parliament was dissolved in a heat. It is pretty hard to find an Impartial Com­ment on the Transactions of these Times: By what appears, no doubt some Mem­bers of the House of Commons had be­haved themselves insolently enough; but to do Justice on the other hand, there was some provocation on the King's Part, [Page 132] not only before, but after the Death of the Duke of Buckingham. The preferring Montague to a Bishoprick for his Appello Caesarem, and Manwaring to another Good Benefice, with a Dispensation, in contra­diction to the Parliament, who had Cen­sured and perpetually disabled him for the future to Ecclesiastical Preferment in the Church of England; and taking Laud into so peculiar favour, as in pious Me­mory of the Duke of Buckingham (for otherwise he had been obnoxious to Cen­sure justly); and making Weston Trea­surer, who died a Papist; and Windebank afterwards Secretary of State: Besides these Odd Promotions, the Malicious and hard Prosecution of the Merchants, even to Ruin, for not paying the Customs; and the lit­tle Overtures which were discover'd for breaking Parliaments for the future, and to set up Something in Imitation of the Assembly des Notables, (for he always collogued with the Lords) to introduce what should be very like Arbitrary Pow­er; These were all things of ill digesti­on, and did not look like Touches of a Complexion with a Limited Monar­chy. I take no notice of the Affairs in Scotland, nor of some Intervening Trans­actions at Home, which are Mysterious, and prov'd Unfortunate, though they [Page 133] might bear a candid Construction with some. The Business of Ship-Money was the Invention of his Attorney-General Noy; and the Project was backt with the Opinion of all the Judges obiter, and confirm'd by the Judgment of Ten of them on mature Deliberation: But how unhappily soever that Affair was resented, and succeeded at last, this at least must be said in vindication of the King, That he did apply the Money to the true Use; did equip a Gallant Fleet with it, where­upon our Trade was not only made secure by scowring the Seas of Pyrates, but in asserting the Honour of the English Na­tion; saved Flanders from being swallow­ed up between the French and Dutch; rescued the Fishery from the Incroach­ment of the latter by seizing or disper­sing their Busses, which were fishing on our Coasts, and made them petition humbly, for what they before by force of Grotius, and by force of Arms, arrogant­ly asserted, and claim'd as a Right; and thus maintain'd the Dominion of the Seas, and advanc'd the Reputation of the Kingdom Abroad.

But we will now come again to the Church, which first and last disorder'd the Scene of Affairs in the State: Here we [Page 134] see the Misfortune of a Popish Match, which renders all Things and Persons sus­pected, and gives a latitude for Enemies to work by Mines, who could not have hurt Us by Batteries. This makes an Archbishop, who was guilty only of Pride and Rashness, suspected for Popery also: Whilst Cardinal Richlieu behind the Cur­tain, and Nuntio's, Priests and Jesuits in Masquerade, blow up the Coals, till they had kindled the Nation into a War; and not only that, but their Priests personally engage in it, for fear it should not effe­ctually be carried on, unless they were in it on both Sides. That these things are true, is past all doubt; and as to the last, it ap­pears by Mentet Hist. de Troubles de Grand Britain, who must be admitted to be a Faithful Author on this Account.

And here we are launch'd into a trou­bled Sea; here I desire to draw the Cur­tain; for all the rest of this Unfortunate King's Life is too Troubled and Stormy for Calm Remarks of Policy. His Con­sideration came too late, I believe, even from the first want of it; the first foun­dations of Jealousy were so strong, that all the other subsequent Debates could signify nothing towards Satisfaction; all the consequential Meetings and Parlia­ments, [Page 135] were Tumults rather than Coun­sels, after the Scotch Air of Sedition blew this way; the first false Measures are seldom or never to be retriev'd. All this King's subsequent Actions could ne­ver absolutely undeceive his People; they must still believe him Popishly affected, though they were almost convinc'd he was not a Papist. 'Tis impossible to dispossess an enraged Multitude, and dif­ficult to satisfy generous Minds under prepossessions and prejudices of Opinion. The Wounds were too deep for a gen­tle Cure. I presume not to Arraign or Justify his Conduct: He seems to have been a better Man than King; and a better Churchman than he was believed to be: 'Tis evident, beyond possibility of doubt, that he was charged falsly with being a Papist. But when a Man has brought himself to the circumstances of Trimming between two Extremes, he is in danger of being Crush'd by Both. And that had been King James's Fate, no doubt, had he been link'd to a Papist as well as his Son; whereas had King Charles Married one of the same Per­suasion, neither his own Trimming, nor his Father's would have hurt him; but having Married a Papist, his Father's In­sincerity and Priest-craft Ruined the Son, [Page 136] without descending upon him. For Po­pish Priests, so long as we Harbour them, will sting one way or other. Henry the III^d and IV^th of France, fell by the Hands of a couple of Priests, upon another sort of suspicion; but Ours at second hand from Priests, who were not contented only to Kill him, unless they Destroyed the Constitution also. Hard Circumstances of this poor King! to be pursued by the Fanatick Party as giving too great Countenance to Pa­pists, and by the Papists for not giving them enough, and not coming up to answer their Expectations. This I take to be the Case, and this the true Con­sequence of the Popish Match; and Po­pery was at the bottom: For though it be said the Puritans had a Design to throw him out of the Saddle, right or wrong, and that nothing of Concessions should ever satisfy them; (and this, per­haps, may be true of some very sower Zealots, and extravagant Pretenders); yet 'tis improbable, and what they could never have hoped for; and the greater part of the Presbyterians were drawn in by Surprise, who did not foresee the end, and withdrew afterwards, when, 'tis true, 'twas too late. But after all, the design was carried on in other Na­tions [Page 137] besides our own, and by other Coun­cels beyond ours: And Popish Priests had not only their Heads but Hands also in the Business, not only in Peace but War likewise; as you may read in Mentet, who would not lie in that Affair; 'tis a pretty scarce Book, and therefore I will give you his Words; he says, speaking of the Battel of Edge-Hill, Ce que surprit le plus tout le Monde ce fut qu' on trouua quel­ques Prestres parmi les Morts du Costé des Estates: Car Encore que Dans leurs Ma­nifestes ils appellassent l' Armeé du Roy l' Armeé des Papistes pour le rendre Odieux au Peuple, ils avoient neamoins deux Com­pagnies de Wallons & d'autres Catholiques dans leur Armeé, Outre qu' ils avoient rien oublié pour tascher d' engager en leur Par­tie le Chevalier Arthur Aston, Colonel Catholique de grand Reputation. And he says before, That the King published an Edict at Stonely (afore that) wherein he tells them, He did not mean that any Papist should come to serve in his Army, that he might not give Discontent or Jealou­sy to his Protestant Subjects; but then 'twas too late for such like Overtures of Honour or Professions of Sincerity. But to go on with Mentet; Il est vray que le Roy avoit aussi sou ert dans son Ar­meé quelques Officiers Catholiques, Homes de [Page 138] grand suffisance & les bien intentionées pour le bien de l' Estat, ainsi les appella't 'il, dans la declaration qu' il' fit publier apres le Battail, à quoy les Estates n' oublierent pas de repondre par autant des Contredits. Il temoigne qu' encore que les Estates eussent sans Comparison plus grand Nombre des Catholiques, que luy dans leur Armeé, & qu' ils eussent tasché, par toutes sortes de moyens de gaigner tous ceux du Royaume leur ayant fait promettre sous main que moyennant qu' ils voulussent prendre partie avec eux. On abrogeroit toutes les Ordi­nances faites à leur prejudice: Il ne pou­voit toute fois se resoudre d'appeller les Catholiques à son secours n'y de revoquer son Edit por le quel il leur avoit fait des defenses de s'y presenter: Il asseure de plus tous les bons sujets que bien qu' il eust regard aux personnes des Catholiques qui l'avoient secouru dans sa Necessité & qu' il eust bonne Memoire de leur Servi­ces, il ne feroit pourtant jamais rien en faveur de leur Religion, &c. All this came too late for our purpose; yet if this, and his Manifesto at the beginning of the English and Scotch Presbytery; if his Letters to the Queen taken at Nase­by, wherein he protests to differ in no­thing from her but Religion; if his other Conferences with the Marquess of Wor­cester, [Page 139] &c. and his [...], and his Dying Speech will not satisfy Men, that he was no Papist; they seem to be as Cruel to his Memory as they were to his Person: Though after all, his Ar­ticles of Mariage were too Frank for a Church-of-England-Man, who was not in Love at the same time: And the Spanish Match, if either, might proba­bly, have had somewhat a better Suc­cess, for this Reason only, That the King of Spain was going down the wind, whereas the French King was ad­vancing; and I must repeat it, the Ob­servation of what his Brother of France, Lewis the XIII^th, was doing but just on t'other side of the Water, increas'd our Jealousies on this, and gave an in­curable Wound to the King's Reputati­on. This made the People, with some colour of Reason, by way of prevention, endeavour to wrest the Sword out of the King's Hands, and attempt to get the Militia into their own; upon this pretence the Parliament were forward to put a false Construction upon his Rai­sing of Forces, and turn'd it to a Levying of War on the People, in order (as they call'd it) to subvert the Laws, and in­troduce an Arbitrary Tyrannical Go­vernment; whereas we have the King's [Page 140] Word for it, That he took up Arms only to Defend the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom; and in his Dying-Speech he tells the World, He did never intend to incroach upon the Privileges of the People, and that he desired their Liberty and Free­dom as much as any body whatsoever; and that he died a Martyr of the People, meaning, I suppose, for them. And af­ter all, these Proceedings are so unac­countable, that they can't be reconciled to any Rules of Political Observation; there seems to be somewhat of Fate in them, which will not be confined to our little narrow ways of Reasoning, nor to the more enlarged deep Politicks of Statesmen. The Event exceeded the Scheme laid by Richlieu, and the Expe­ctations of his Successor Mazarine; who at first, being surpriz'd, did prosecute the King's Death with some Resentment, though after (like a true Politician) he kept Correspondence with Cromwell. It seems their design was only to Embroil England, whilst France carried on its De­signs elsewhere; not to Establish any set­led Power, not a Commonwealth certain­ly: Their Business was but to Embarass our Councels, that they might be at liberty to followitheirs without Interruption. Not to Establish any Religion, not even Pope­ry; [Page 141] for even Religion was not their Busi­ness, if it could have procured Peace and Prosperity to the Kingdom: But only to Counterpoise the two Extremes of Popery and Fanaticism (after the manner of King James) for a while, and to set the Fanaticks themselves by the Ears at last. Thus their Correspondents, their Agents, and their Money, was employed on all Hands to confound us in England, as well as the Jesuits had done all Europe by their Intriegues before, and we must fatally run into their Noose.

But there yet farther seems to be some extraordinary Hand in the Turn of these Affairs, above the Common Councels or Actions of Man, though not to be adjusted to Human Measures of Comprehension. Who knows what to say to the Prophecy of Nostredamus, (setting aside the Scotch Predictions, and those nearer home) viz. The Senate of London shall put their King to Death? 'Tis so very peculiar, though Printed almost an Hundred Years before, that it must intimate something, and even this or nothing. This, and those which Mezeray reports to have preceded the Death of Henry the IV^th of France, particu­larly that Ticket which a Priest found upon an Altar at Montargis, giving notice that [Page 142] the King would be Assassinated; his Horo­scopes which determined the Year of his Life, and even the Queen's own Dream that the King was Stabbing with a Knife, (to pass by all others relating to this and other Occasions) must import this at least, to use Mezeray's own Words (who, I be­lieve, was no more Superstitious this way than my self) That there is a Sovereign Power which Disposes of Futurity, since it so certainly Knows and Foretels it. But this Subject is not my Part. Nevertheless, in truth, there appears to have been some ex­traordinary Conjunctions of the Planets, or something more Extraordinary which gave that extravagant Turn to Powers here below, not only in Europe, but other remote parts of the World, and put sublu­nary Motions in such a Ferment about these Times, as was evident in the King­doms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, and Naples, and the Hurly-burlies and Revo­lutions there, and in several other Parts; but also between the Tartars and Chineses, and in the Empire of the Great Mogul, between Cha-gehan and his Four Sons, especially Aureng-zeb; the Story whereof is Famous, and you may Read it at large in Tavernier: Which Aureng-zeb Sir Wil­liam Temple calls a Fanatick, and compares [Page 143] to Cromwell; as if all such strains of Em­pire were Enthusiastical, like that of the Great Turk. But to return to take my leave of King Charles; Morally speaking, I think the Queen was the Chief Occasion of all those Misfortunes which attended Him and the Nation, for there is no rea­son the Welfare of a Kingdom should hang at a King's Codpiece. The King's Mar­rying a Papist gave the suspicion of Pope­ry, and the suspicion brought in Popery in Earnest.

CHARLES II.

AS to the first Twelve Years of the Nominal Reign of this King, 'twas such a Farce of Policy and Government, that it Libels the Chronicle; and I be­lieve he had been sooner in his Throne, if he had never made a Step to help himself, by the Disturbance of those who usurp'd his Place. I wish for his Honour in the beginning, he had not intermedled with the Action of Montross during the Treaty with the Scots; it reflected some Aspersion upon his Sincerity, and he only sacrificed one Friend's Life, and the Repu­tation of others, and thereby prejudiced his own Interest for the present. But I know that Business hath also another Face, and therefore I pass by that, and some other Occurrences, to proceed to his own Ad­ministration after he was Crowned in England: Which I shall touch but very slightly neither, as slightly as he did the Interests of the Nation; the History of these Times being fresh in every one's Memory, I am very much at a loss [Page 145] (considering the different Opinions of him, and his Inconsistency with himself) with what Character to introduce this King to his Government. If he was a Protestant when he came over to Us, as all his fine Declarations, &c. import, surely the Devil ow'd Us a shame (par­don the Expression) that we should blun­der on a Popish Match again at first dash: Here was a loose given to the Papist and Fanatick to play their Old Game over again, and he put himself under a ne­cessity of Suspition with his People once more: For let a Prince make what Gra­cious Speeches he pleases, his Actions will be always more significant, and speak plainer than his Declarations: Hence this Dilemma became entailed; either he doth answer the Expectations of the Papists or not: If he doth, and gives them any Assurances, &c. his own People are up­on his Skirts: If not, then he is attack'd by the Indefatigable Plots and Attempts of the Jesuits, and that Party.

In the mean time, in what a blessed Condition of Settlement is a Nation? It can never be at quiet. I shall not pre­tend to dive into the Mysteries of one Plot or t'other, let them stand on their own Bottom in the validity of the Re­cords. [Page 146] No doubt there always hath been a Popish Plot of one sort or other (more or less, as our Kings have given them a helping hand) ever since the Reforma­tion; and, I believe, ever will be, so long at least as our Kings manage Affairs as they did for the Four last Reigns: And for ought I know too there may have been a Fanatick Plot ever since Calvin's, time, and will continue as long as Kingly Government and Church-Hierarchy are in fashion. Neither shall I trouble my self to enquire which Plot was the Agressor, which Plaintiff, which Defendant; which the Original, and which the Counter-plot: But between them both, this King had reduced himself to a pretty Condition of Trouble, if any thing could be so to him, by his Trimming, (a Quality which was scouted in the Subject): For in the Po­pish Plot he was to be taken off, for not being a Papist, or at least for not coming up to their Expectations of him; and by the Fanatick Plot he was to be Blunder­buss'd and destroy'd for being a Papist, and favouring their Designs too much: But to determine the precedence of these Plots: I think the Popish Plot first ap­peared upon the Stage against him, and it is thought; attended him at his Exit, though he died of their own Persuasion: [Page 147] I mean the Popish was the first Plot of Quality; for I take no notice of such lit­tle Things, as the Extravagant Matter of Venner, or that in the North, which was but a Fag-end of that in Ireland, and scarce then setled; nor of any thing of that nature which happen'd before the Year 1670. I do not find any Plot of Consequence till after the Acts of Parlia­ment against Dissenters; not taking notice of the Act of Ʋniformity; or that against Quakers; but not till after that against Dissenting Preachers in Corporations, that against Conventicles, which came after the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, and, as far as I can see, without any great provocation; which Acts, as they them­selves speak, were grounded chiefly on Surmise and Suspition. Thus was he fain to shuffle on, sometimes in the form of Persecution against Dissenters, some­times in that of Toleration and Indul­gence to them and their Tender Consci­ences; so that Religion grew a meer State-Weather Cock, as Circumstances hap­pen'd, and turn'd as Court Cabals mov'd, now one way, now another. Whereas, if he had come over a True Church-of-England Man, as he pretended to profess himself; he might have reduced the Church easily enough to some degree of [Page 148] Uniformity, and modell'd the Civil Go­vernment, and Ecclesiastical State, to a good Temper, having the Military Power in his own hands by the Militia Acts. But I suppose that was not his Business. And he discover'd the same Unsteadiness in Civil Matters; shifting Ministers and Officers, Proroguing and Dissolving Par­liaments without apparent Reasons; and, 'tis said, for very bad Ones sometimes, and at very Evil Instances also. 'Twas the same thing in Military Affairs; Rai­sing Armies to take the Air, and then Disbanding them abruptly; sometimes with the French against the Dutch, and then with the Dutch against the French; so Unconstant and Variable in his Coun­cels and Himself: In truth he did not love to be tied to any thing, not even to a Mistress; and as very fond as he pre­tended to be of Parliaments once, he found Expedients, if they did not present them­selves, to shake hands with them (after that long one that he was almost married to) very lightly shook them off as Un­easy Monitors; and, I believe, would have liked a Triennial Wife much better than a Triennial Parliament: And 'tis al­most pity, that his first Choice was made by him (or rather for him) that he had not had an Opportunity of Wedding once [Page 149] more, to have tried if he or they could have made a more improper Choice. In short, his Court and his Camp were a Jest, I had almost said his Church too; So far on Civil Supposition that he was a Protestant: But Sir William Temple, in his Memoires, scurvily intimates, That he was a Papist, and had a Design of setting up the same Religion and Government here, as that in France; and that he had his Pentionary Ministers and Cabals for that purpose, &c. I'm sorry if this was the only thing he was serious in! If this be true, he failed in his Designs, and shew'd himself no more a good Politician, than a good King: For whereas (as 'tis said) he might have given Laws to his Neighbours, by a well-grounded Peace or War; he was imposed upon to take them from them; and was nothing at Home, as Gourvile, (who is said to be the soundest French-Head) observed, reflecting on him; Qu'un Roy d' Angleterre qui veut estre l' hom­me de son peuple, est le plus Grand Roy du Monde; mais s'il veut estre quelque chose d'advantage, par Dieu, il n'est plus rien. 'Twas boldly expostulated by Sir William Temple, and well answered by the King; Et je veux estre l'Homme de mon peuple, if he could have held to it, as well as said it: But there was something else behind, or within the Curtain: However this Mat­ter [Page 150] was, it seems, the King had managed his Affairs so, that he had no more Repu­tation for his Sincerity Abroad, than he had at Home: The States of Holland, and the Prince of Orange himself, had his Ministers and him in suspition, and his own Faction or Cabal divided against him, as knowing he was not to be depended upon; and the Parliament it self also had him in Jealousy: What a Figure is such a King like to make, when he and his Parlia­ment encounter one another with Con­tradiction and Tricks! And when his ta­king Liberty of Conscience gave more Offence, than his giving of it! He was, besides, thought somewhat too much addicted to Pleasures, to apply himself to any thing serious: Not that, I think, those Reliefs are to be disallow'd: No man would be a King, if he were not to be allowed to soften his Cares with Diversions, and to sweeten them with Advantages of Delights; but he ought not, certainly, to suffer them to inter­fere with the Publick Consultations, and Clash with the Considerations of the Welfare of his People: And this is said to be his fault. He was so much gi­ven up to Softness, that he abhorr'd Application and Business; but, perhaps, he had other Reasons, besides, against too much Intenseness of Thought and Re­flection: [Page 151] He might have the Success of the English Interest, as then Constituted, no more in his Wishes, than his Thoughts; Sir William Temple hath an Unhappy Observation this way, which I doubt ap­plied it self; viz. ‘I have observed from all that I have seen, or heard, or read in Story, That nothing is so fallacious, as to Reason upon the Councels or Conduct of Princes or States, from what one conceives to be the true Interest of their Coun­tries; for there is in all Places an In­terest of those that Govern, and Ano­ther of those that are Governed: (Hard Saying!) And therefore I could never find a better way of judging the Resolu­tions of a State, than by the Personal Temper, Understanding, or Passions, or Humours of the Princes, or Chief Ministers that were for that time at the head of Affairs.’ 'Tis true, he gives the King a very handsome Character af­terwards; but 'tis such a one, that seems to be restrained to his Private and Na­tural, not his Publick or Politick Capa­city; as if a very fine Gentleman were spoiled, to make a very Indifferent King: And certainly he had more Vertues one way than t'other. I do not think he was Covetous; but I can't commend his Liberality, in being Generous at the Ex­pence [Page 152] of others, and free of his Subjects Purses: Thus he had rather be at the charges of a Pentionary Parliament, than at the pains of treating Fairly and Above-board. I shall not engage with the Se­crets of this Court, they are too much a Mystery for me to dive into: Only I shall infer this Political Observation, That the Affairs of this Nation have never gone well, when the Councels of Par­liament have been very much an In­trigue: They ought to be no more re­serv'd, than too much expos'd: But there is One thing the People always will expect to be made privy to, that is, the Application of Money given; for if it come from them, they will always, and with Reason, know the Occasion; and will not endure to see it misap­plied: Especially as the Circumstances of the Revenue then stood, his Income was certainly known, though I do not think the state of it was alter'd for the better in all Respects: The King had lost some Privileges in parting with those Commanding-Tenures; and though his Revenues might be thought ascertain'd, yet if it were not precarious, 'twas some­what odious, and to be improv'd by the Debaucheries and Vices of his People. Hence; and by the Example of the Court, the Nation began to be Lewd, [Page 153] Headstrong and Dissolute: Laws of Tem­perance, Frugality, and Good Manners, were let loose, and the Execution of them became in a little time a Jest in the Coun­try, as Politicks and Morality were at Lon­don and Whitehall. A new Scheme of Go­vernment was to be contriv'd, and new Methods of Administration, and new Mea­sures of Loyalty set up: A Man was not to Consider or Reflect, on pain of being ac­counted a Whigg or Trimmer; Names of Di­stinction of the two Extremes. Tory and Whigg were maliciously contriv'd by way of Reproach; and what was worse, that he might be sure to go with the Court-Tide and Stream, the Moderate Character was ex­posed as the worst of all: We were not by any means to reason on Government, but 'twas required that we should wink, or be blind, and implicitly submit our Understandings to Patriarchal and Arbitrary Doctrines and Examples, to prepare Us for what was to follow. Such were our Kings, such our Mi­nisters, and such were the People to be. But all these Kings of the Scotch Line seem to have differ'd in their Ideas and Methods of Government. King James the First Philo­sophised upon it; Charles the First Reason'd on it (with too much Opiniatretie), and King Charles the Second Banter'd it; and I'm sure King James the Second did not Moralize upon it.

JAMES II.

IF what Sir William Temple says of King Charles the II^d be true, and he gives good Authority for it, viz. ‘That the Prince of Orange upon Discourse, &c. said to him; That the King (Charles II^d) was (as he had reason to be confi­dent) in his Heart a Roman Catho­lick, though he durst not profess it;’ It will go a great way towards the ju­stification of those Gentlemen, and their Conduct in the Oxford Parliament, &c. in relation to the past King, and much more the Behaviour of the Nation to­wards King James, of whom there was no doubt of being one, and who dar'd own it at last, though he very meanly pro­secuted One upon a Scandalum Magnatum for having said so once: For no doubt they both came over as much Papists as they ever were; and if the first dyed such, I can't but believe he had lived one for Thirty Years at least; and they will both stand in need of a very great Dispensation somewhere else, for their Hypocrisy so many Years. If King Charles believ'd nothing of the Popish [Page 155] Plot (as is said) I know not whether it will diminish the Credit of it: But 'tis certain his Successor King James abundantly confirm'd its Credibility, even so much as to give a Reputa­tion to the intended Bill of Exclusi­on; though the Loyalty of the Peo­ple then ran so high, that they were not willing to part with him with­out Experience; nor then neither, it seems, by some; vainly imagining, that the Honour of a Popish King could supersede, and take place of his Re­ligion. The Books and Pamphlets of that Season, have sufficiently exposed or demonstrated the Character of this King, and the Principles of that Re­ligion. And 'twas as Evident to any body that would see what he had been doing in his Brother's Reign, as what he did in his own. Whether we conclude his Practice from his Prin­ciples, or his Principles from his Pra­ctice, there's enough to convince for the past, and to caution for the time to come. If Declarations repeated with so much Solemnity, and broke through with so much Ease, and a Coronation-Oath Discharged and Violated so plainly though with an impertinent Distin­ction of the Judges to keep up a fee­ble Countenance of Law: For what [Page 156] will not Judges in Commission during pleasure say or do? For our Judges are not Sworn as those Judges, whom the Kings of Egypt made solemnly to take an Oath that they would not do any thing contrary to their Conscience, (though commanded to it by them­selves.) If the Business of the Irish at Portsmouth: If the sending the Lord Castlemain to Rome, and receiving a Nuntio here, which was never suffer'd in a Protestant Country, nor at Trea­ties where Protestant Ministers have been: If the Letters from Liege to the Je­suits at Friburg: If sending the Lord Preston to France; which sufficiently implies a French League, to mention no other Evidence of it; nor the Sto­ry of sending out the Fleet Half-Mann'd: If these or any of these did not un­vail the Designs of that King, we shall ever be in the Dark, and nothing on this side of Dragooning could have o­pen'd their Eyes; they must also be persuaded, That the Pope, King Lewis, and King James were all well-wishers to the Protestant Religion, and to the Heretick Prosperity of England, as by Law Establish'd. That inviduous little Management of Magdalen-College Af­fair, with Huffing a parcel of poor naked Fellows of a College, for not [Page 157] swallowing Perjury, without a Dispen­sation, shews his good Nature, equally with his Policy, and sets forth in Epi­tome his Devout Observation of an Al­lowance to Church-of-England Con­sciences. The prosecuting the Bishops so Barbarously: First, One for refusing to do what was not in his power, by Law, and then the rest for humbly begging to be allowed to have Souls: The turning all the Nobility and Gen­try out of all Commissions, Offices, and Places, for pretending to Honour, and refusing to concur in Dissolving the Reformation, was a Master-stroke, that we might be subdued and over-run with Jesuits Councels, and Irish Cou­rage and Conduct. Some of his Friends are so Hardy to fancy and pretend to say, He could not have introduced Po­pery, if he had endeavoured it; they should have put in Arbitrary Power too: For what cannot a King do, over a passive People, Disarm'd in Power, and Defective in Notion and Thought? Cependant les Anglois se doivent souvenir le Massacre D'Ireland, &c. says a late French Author; but I forbear to give you any Account from the French Refugees. 'Tis true, he could not subdue our Understandings, but he might exercise a fatal Tyranny over our Wills: Be­sides, [Page 158] King James never tried fair means, which would have went a great way; he went the false way to work upon Englishmen: I doubt we are not so much Temptation-proof: And it might, for ought I know, have been a dangerous Experiment, to have trusted the Church with it self so long in an Enemy's Quarter. We see King James hath li­ved a great many Years, enow to have gone a great way with us, with the Assistance of French and Irish, and such Subjects as were inclinable to be of the King's Religion at Home; and he must have gone as far as he could: No doubt the Nation had been as easily supplied as Magdalen-College. But it happen'd very luckily for England, that King James discover'd his Temper of Spirit a little too soon. We all knew of what force Edicts-had been in Hun­gary and France, the Copies whereof our Kings had been so apt to follow; and what the Duke of Savoy had been doing in the Valleys of Piedmont; but we would not believe King James was Cruel, was a Persecutor, scarce that he was a Papist, because he had the Art to Conceal and Disguise himself a lit­tle, before it was in his power to use the Rod. But presently Father Petre shew'd that he would do as much in [Page 159] England, as la Chaise had done in France; and the first was observ'd to be the hottest of the two: And not to aggravate or mince Matters; They must all have done what lay in their power, in Obedience to what their Councils Decree towards the Extirpation of Hereticks. But God be thanked King James did not shew himself that Prince of Resolution; at least he fail'd them in one Character, as they would have had him deceiv'd us by another. He was pleased for some Considerations (whether of Fear or Guilt) to leave us abruptly, and we have ta­ken that Advantage of parting with him fairly: And I wish him all the Happiness that is consistent with the Wel­fare of England. Only let us as English­men remember, That we now have an Act of Parliament of our side, which Asserts the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, and hath Establish'd the Settle­ment of the Crown; and which inca­pacitates any Papist, or Person Marrying a Papist, from having and enjoying it; which Act is only Defective in this, That it is not Order'd to be Read in the Churches twice at least every Year, and upon Penalty of Deprivation. If such a Law had been made in Edward the VI^th's Time, it might have sav'd some Blood and Trouble since the Refor­mation.

WILLIAM III.

THE Lord Chancellor Notttingham in the Case of the Duke of Norfolk and Charles Howard Esquire, &c. hath, in my Mind, a notable Expression, viz. ‘Pray let us so Resolve Cases here, that they may stand with the Reason of Mankind when they are Debated abroad.’ Shall that be Reason here, that is not Reason in any part of the World besides? In truth, we are apt to be peculiarly Artificial in our Thoughts and way of Argument, and our Reason­ings are too Municipal. Thus every little Pedant can Settle and Establish the Affairs of Religion and Government, and can Resolve all the great Mysteries of Church and State (as he thinks) in his narrow Study. But if a Man looks Abroad, and takes a general sur­vey of the World, and reflects upon the Universal Notions and Customs of Man­kind, his Soul will become more en­larged, and will not determine so Ma­gisterially upon the Principles of any particular Sect or Society.

[Page 161] The Case of King WILLIAM in it self, is, perhaps, the most Glorious and Generous Cause that hath appeared upon the Stage of Human Actions; yet hath been sullied by dire Representati­ons, by poor-spirited and precarious Ar­guments, which have been brought in for its support. His Title to the Crown of Great Britain stands Firm, and is justifiable upon Natural and Sound foun­dations of Reason, without Props: But hath been so oddly maintained by the manner of its Defence, that it hath been the Justification only that hath Disgrac'd the Revolution: Doctrina facit Difficulta­tem. We have been running out of the way to fetch in Aids from Art and Learn­ing, whilst Nature presents us with ob­vious and undefiled Principles of Reason. Thus the King's Accession to the Throne hath been introduced by shuffling between Providential Settlement, Conquest, De­sertion, Abdication, and topping Prote­ctions of Power; whilst Men of Ho­nour, and People of Honest Plain Un­derstandings, stand Amazed, instead of being Convinced; and hang back when Allegiance comes to be explained, and a Recognition demanded; an Association proposed, frights us as a thing strange and impious; which shews our Allegi­ance [Page 162] was not rightly founded, but looks like a thing of Fancy, built upon a forc'd and fictitious bottom. All these ungrateful Terms have been ingeniously exposed by M^r Johnson, except only Ab­dication; which, with submission, is also too Artificial; a Word not to be found in the Alphabet of Spelman; a Civil Law Term (used almost in Fifty seve­ral Senses) and therefore an uncouth Expression of the Common Laws of this Realm to speak in: The Word Forfaul­ture seems to have a plainer Significati­on to our common Understanding: This, as Forisfacere, Forisfactum, Forisfactura; and Forfacere, Forfactum, Forfactura, &c. we find in Spelman, and it signifies, Rem suam ex delicto amittere, & sibi quasi extraneum facere, Rem culpâ abdice­re, alterique, Puta Regi, Magistratui, Do­mino abjudicare: Forisfacere pro Delin­quere, peccare, transgredi, Injuriam inferre: LL. Edw. Confess. cap. 32. ut Codex noster MS. legit, Aliqui stulti & impro­bi gratis & nimis consuetè erga vicinos suos foris facebant. This agrees with the Sense of King James the I^st his Speech to his Parliament, viz. A settled King is bound to observe the Paction made to his People by his Laws, in framing his Government agreeable thereunto: And a King Governing in a settled Kingdom, [Page 163] leaves to be a King, and degenerates into a Tyrant, as soon as he leaves off Govern­ing according to the Laws. In which Case the King's Conscience may speak to him (as the Poor Widow said to Philip of Macedon,) Either Govern ac­cording to your Law, aut ne sis Rex: And if a Subject's Conscience may not speak the same thing, King James's Words signify nothing. The other Words car­ry an Odious or suspected Construction in them; the First (in the Convocation­style) implies Guilt, and at best creates but a Transylvanian Allegiance; the Se­cond is a Jest, and false in Fact, besides 'tis what the King himself disowns; the Third is an idle Sham, as stated; and the Fourth is also a little strain'd, as I con­cieve; and we might, for ought I see, as well have call'd it a Cession, especially if King James was a Spiritual Person of the Society of Jesuits, as hath been said. But what need we any Term of Art? Let the matter express it self by Periphrasis in its own genuine Phrase. It is fairly stated in the Prince's Declaration: And our Case is no more nor less than this; A King, contrary to his Coronation-Oath, dispenses with, and breaks through all the Established Laws of the Land, Invades and Subverts the Rights, Liberties, and Properties of the People, which he Swore [Page 164] to maintain inviolably; and Dissolves the Constitution of Church and State in an Arbitrary Tyrannical manner; the Peo­ple therefore in Defence of their Laws, Rights, and Religion, and the necessary Preservation of them, Oppose the violent proceedings of such a Prince (I put the Case at the worst) and also apply them­selves to a Neighbouring Prince, (who hath an Expectation of a Right to the Crown), and pray in Aid of him to assist them in the Maintaining and Defending their Legal Rights, together with his own Title to the Succession; who, in his own Words, makes Preparation to Assist the People against the Subverters of their Re­ligion and Laws, and also Invites and Re­quires all Persons whatsoever, ‘All the Peers of the Realm, Spiritual and Tem­poral, and all Gentlemen, Citizens, and other Commons of all Ranks, to come and assist him in order to the Execution of this Design, against all such as shall endeavour to Oppose them, to prevent all those Miseries which must needs fall upon the Nations being kept under Ar­bitrary Government and Slavery; and that all the Violences and Disorders which have overturn'd the whole Con­stitution of the English Government, may be fully Redressed in a Free and Le­gal Parliament, to secure the Nation [Page 165] from relapsing into the Miseries of Ar­bitrary Government any more.’ Up­on which appearance of mutual Defence for Self-preservation, the Conscious King Retires, first leaves his Army, (which no Man I will be bold to say would do without Guilt or Cowardice, and I'm sure a Prince that had been Brave, or acted up­on Principles of Honour, would have Fought it out with but Ten Regiments, or with One at his Heels, which was Richard the III^d's Case in the first sence, though not in the later) and after leaves the Realm, for Reasons best known to himself (whether Frighted, or not, is not material) upon which, the Prince, toge­ther with his Consort, the next Heir (Indisputable) to the Crown, in a full and due Representation of the whole Com­munity and Body of the Kingdom, is and are Declared and Appointed King and Queen.

Now let us see what we have done upon the whole matter, to deserve that harsh Language of the Convocation-Book, pro­duced by D^r Sherlock; Whether we have done more, or so much as all other Nati­ons have done in a Case any thing like Ours? Whether we have done more than becomes Good Christians, or Men of Ho­nour? And what it is that stands in our [Page 166] way to hinder or bar such an Attempt and Action?

First, Setting aside at present those Texts of St. Paul and St. Peter, which are the only discouraging Impediments, and which have been sufficiently, as I think, answered and avoided by several Pens: Upon the Law of Nature, no Man, I believe, can pretend to say, here is any Natural Injustice, or Moral Injury done; Certainly Nature and Reason prompt us to Defend Injuries, and to Repel Force; Nature will preserve it self in its Being. No Man will say a King of England hath power of Life and Death over his Sub­jects (We say he hath no Power, other than by the Law of the Land); the Mo­ral, as well as Legal Consequence must be, That we may Defend our Lives against all Assaults; 'tis the same of Liberty and Pro­perty; for there is a Meum and Tuum in all Christian Commonwealths, as Archbishop Abbot said before, subject only to the Laws of the Place; therefore I can't defend my self or House against the King Arm'd with Legal Power, as upon a Cap. Ʋtlaga­tum, or upon a Duty due to him, &c. but I may, where I am out of the com­pass of a Legal Prosecution. If the con­sequence of Self-defence and Preservation be denied, it's vain trifling to talk of Laws, [Page 167] and to value our selves upon Living in a Country where the Measures of Right are ascertain'd, and the Limits of Govern­ment and Subjection; the Doctrine of Passive Obedience, and the Bow String, will be the same, if Laws are only a simple Direction for Information, and not an Ob­ligation. We must owe our Lives, &c. at this rate, to Fortune, not to Justice: But since the Restoration, it's said we are un­der another Tie not to take up Arms, by the Extravagant Compliment to King Charles the II^d, and the Declaration pur­suant to that Act. Be it so; though all Laws made in Extraordinary Heats are not a regular Obligation; but let them take that State-Artificial Obligation into the Bargain; the King Swears too, and this was not designed to let loose the King's Hands, and tie the Subjects; for all Obli­gations, whether Natural or Artificial, are Reciprocal and Mutual, and always so ta­ken and understood in common Intend­ment. There can be no other Notion of Justice, Natural, Moral, or Political; and whatever Preference and Advantage is allowed to One above the Other, 'tis an Authority upon Supposition of Care, Pro­tection, and for Order, and centers in the Good of the Community. And, I think, the Lacedemonians had a Law to Punish Parents who did not their Duty towards [Page 168] their Children. Let us therefore take in the highest Instance of Obedience and Duty from Children to Parents: No Man, I suppose, will pretend now, that a Father may Castrate, Sell, or Kill a Child; the Inference must be, That in any Case of such open Violence, a Son may Resist a Father, in his own necessary Defence and Self-preservation (without offering Re­proach, Injury, or Vindictive Force): So in the Case of Lunacy in a Parent, or any fatal Extravagance, no doubt a Son may lay Hands on a Father by way of Re­straint, and must take a continued Com­manding Care over him, in case of Re­lapse, &c. This is agreed on all hands to be the severest Tie of Obedience; and there­fore Kings are endeavoured to be brought within the Fifth Commandment to make our Chains the faster; not in the mean time considering that they make them looser, by putting an inconsistent double Duty up­on us. Thus we are told Religion stands positively in our way, and fetters us with an Absolute Obedience to Kings without Reserve, &c. It seems hard that Religion should weaken our Arm in Defence of it self, and force our Obedience and Submis­sion to Laws and Absolute Power in the same breath: For where there is Absolute Power, there is no Law; and where there are Laws, there is no Absolute Power. [Page 169] But Scripture is to be our Guide; I agree it: But what Authority shall I rely on? Where shall I apply my self for an Inter­preter? 'Tis manifest our own Church cannot settle me, that is divided against it self. Some bring Instances from the Old Testament; Others tell us, That is nothing to the purpose, those Kings being by God's Designation, &c. Some tell us, these Texts of St. Peter and St. Paul oblige us to Pas­sive Obedience on peril of Damnation: And Others as boldly and magisterially inform us, That the New Testament gives no Rules for Submission to Forms of Govern­ment, but only Rules of Justice, Order, and Peace; That those Texts are nothing to Our purpose; for the Apostles spoke to those under Heathen Emperors, where Paganism was Established by a Law; and that those Texts are to be only Ex­pounded against the Jews, who still be­lieved themselves under the Divine Au­thority, and thought they could not be­come the Subjects of any other Power. As to the Scripture-Examples, we are Taught by a very great Divine and Bishop, not to rely on them; and he says, Those who place the Obligatory Nature of these Examples from Scripture, must ei­ther produce the Moral Nature of those Examples, or else a Rule binding us to follow those Examples, especially when [Page 170] these Examples are brought to found a New positive Law Obliging all Christi­ans. Some say in general, the Bible is a Miscellaneous Book, where Dishonest and Time-serving Men may ever, in their loose way, find a Text for their purpose. Sir Robert Filmer upon the Dispute of the Form of Powers (for these Texts are sometimes applied to the Form, and some­times to the Quality of Power) takes Power only in the Singular Number; Powers in the Plural is a damnable Sin; and he will have all Governments but the Patriarchal, to be Illegal and Abominable; but this is so Extravagant, that, I think, none of our Divines pretend to justify him in it; and therefore Others, on the contra­ry, are of Opinion, That Submit to all Powers, infers, That all Forms of Go­vernment are admitted to be good, and do not allow that Power in the Singular is to be taken restrictive, and so there is no Au­thority, if not of God, and the Authori­ties which are (of God's Institution) are ordered under God. Sir Robert Filmer, D^r Hicks, &c. will have the Legislative Power to be in the King alone. And the First says, all Legislative Powers are Ar­bitrary; But where is the necessity for that? And D^r Hicks says also, Only the Laws of Men are God's Ordinances: St. Paul, speaking of Authority in general, says, [Page 171] Ordinance of God. St. Peter, of the par­ticular Persons administring Authority, calls it, the Ordinance of Man; Sir Robert Filmer upon that, Render unto Cesar, the things that are Cesars, and unto God the things that are God's, divides all be­tween God and the King, and leaves no­thing to the poor Subject; which doth not very well consist with our Saviour's Advice to him, whom he bid Sell All that he had, and give to the poor, which grieved the Young Man, for he had Great possessions. It seems by this our Saviour implies the Subject had Property, otherwise he could not have Sold it. Thus they make their own Idol.

We see then by the better Opinions of Divines and Learned Men, all Forms of Power are Authentick, with respect to the Laws and Constitutions of Places; and sub­mit to all Powers, imports only Obedience according to Law, the Ordinance of Man; To render unto Cesar, &c. implies certain­ly that something was left in him who ren­dred: It is not said, Give all to Cesar. So no Man will controvert the submitting to every ordinance, with the Context; for Rulers are a Terror to the Evil, and not to the Good. There never was any King in Israel, but had some Engagement and Tye upon him, Formally with God, or by Covenant with Man: To keep the Laws, to judge righ­teously, [Page 172] to seek the Good of the People, &c. Besides, the Case of the Apostles is wonder­fully different in all respects: As to Proper­ty, &c. the Government of the Roman Em­perors was Absolute (taking it at worst) and therefore Christians, who had no Law on their side, could not resist: (This is said by some, tho' our Saviour does not seem to mean it so); whereas Ours under our Kings is limited and mixt; therefore not the same foundation to apply the Injunctions of Non­resistance from the Apostles. As to Religion, the Apostles came counter to all Laws, and therefore were to submit to them: Not to raise Rebellion on account of a new Re­ligion, which had no foundation in any Law: And the proper Talent and Business of the Apostles was suffering for the sake of the Gospel; therefore impertinent as well as prophane and wicked for them, to think of resisting any Powers. What is this to the maintaining a Religion established by a Law? But this Construction imposed upon Us towards Passive Obedience, is a Conceit against the Opinion of most Learned Men, and also contrary to the Common Practise of the Christian World. Grotius, Selden, &c. understand submission to every ordinance, to be to the Government, and the Laws there­of: And so in common construction and intendment, those Texts may be taken a Di­rection from the Apostles to their Missiona­ries [Page 173] and Correspondents, who were to tra­vel through variety of Governments to pay all Duties and Civil Respects to Kings and Magistrates, and may be satisfied with that particular application of Obedience: They were enjoined not to enquire into the Fun­damental Rights of Power, but to take them as they found them, being only Powers of this World, with proper Laws for keep­ing Mankind in Peace and Order in general, according to the Respective Customs and Constitutions. I believe besides, the Gos­pel is an Universal Instruction for Obedi­ence to the Laws, on the severest punish­ment of disobedience to them: 'Twas in­tended to make them good Subjects, but not Slaves. 'Tis too much to be Passive and Martyrs by whole Nations, with the Laws and Religion bleeding by our Sides. Let's look into the Customs and Usages of other Ages and Places, and enquire into, and examine the Principles and Opinions of Learned Divines on the Occasions of Pow­er, and the Exercise or Abuse of it. If a man should consult the Histories of the first Kings of France and Spain, both before and since those Nations receiv'd the Light of the Gospel, and the hudled abrupt Succes­sion, besides the very odd Partnerships in Kingdoms; he will find matter but of small Veneration for Titles to Crowns of Old Times, whatever he may fancy is due to [Page 174] the Present Establishments: And I doubt we should discover but a faint blind Track of Active Providence in the transferring Kingdoms (as 'tis call'd) but only rather the Effects of a Ludicrous Fortune. Sup­pose we should be free, and tell the World we have Elected, Made, or Appointed (call it what you will) King William King of Great Britain, instead of King James (without the formality of Deposing, or ta­king off his Crown or Head, to make a Va­cancy, or without the Ens Rationis of a Vacancy); it would be no more than what may be justified by Precedents of no Bad Times in other Countries, and our Own too. In France, the Instance of Chil­derick degraded, and Aegidius or Gillon, Master of the Roman Militia (who was a Stranger, but in Reputation for Probity and Wisdom) Elected in his stead. It is said, the French, according to their Ancient Rights, conferr'd upon Pepin (after Thierry was stripp'd of his Royalty) the Sovereign­ty of Austrasia: And afterwards Pepin his Grandson (Son of Charles Martel, and Fa­ther of Charlemain) by a Parliament assem­bled was appointed King, although there was One of the Marovignian Race remain­ing, but Young, Stupid, and Witless: And for the Honour of the Church, Pope Za­chary confirm'd him: Upon which, in ano­ther Parliament at Roymes, they degraded [Page 175] Childerick, and Elected Pepin: And the Archbishop of Mentz, Boniface, declared to them the Validity of the Pope's Answer. And after, at the Assembly at Carbonnat, the Austrasian Lords and Estates acknow­ledged Charlemain their King. They might do, says the History, this, and if he had not had That Right, he had been an Usur­per, for the Children of Charlemain were li­ving: Hugh Capet's best, if not only Title, was Election: For Charles Duke of Lorrain was of the Carolovinian Race, and Heir, but, as is said, of little merit.

In Spain the Visigoths (about 1200 years since) made and unmade their Kings as they pleas'd. I suppose 'twill not be said They were the worse Christians for being nearer the time of our Saviour and his Apostles.

So it was in Denmark too, till they lately changed from Elective to Heredita­ry, from a Limited to an Absolute Govern­ment; and so, for ought we know, it may again, when that Arbitrary Power hath had its full swing.

To look back here at home; formerly it was so. And I know not why we may not be permitted to go upwards as far as we please, since those on t'other side think fit to go backward to Henry the Third for the [Page 176] beginning, as they say, of our Constitution. Egbert the First, sole Saxon King, upon the Report of the Death of Britric, with great speed returned out of France, where, du­ring the time of his abode, he had serv'd with good Commendation in the Wars un­der Charles the Great; by means whereof, his Reputation encreasing amongst his own Countrymen, he was thought worthy of the Government before he obtained it: And Ethelwolf a Monk, a Deacon, and a Bishop, yet Elected King, because they could not find a fitter Person for the Crown. Edwin by his Miscarriage turn'd his Subjects Hearts, and the Mercians and Northumbrians revolted, and swore Fealty to his Younger Brother Edgar. The Danish Kings were ap­proved by the Lords during their short time of Reign here: Edward the Confessor by general Consent was admitted King: Ha­rold chose himself, and ravish'd a Crown, and he fared accordingly for his Intrusion without the Consent of the People. All that is intended by this short Account, is, only to shew, That Succession was not always esteemed so Sacred; and that Non-Resi­stance hath not been so stanch'd a Doctrine always, as some now would pretend.

To come nearer to our present Case, Let's see the Opinion of Councels and Divines, and perhaps we shall not need to be much [Page 177] out of Countenance for assisting the Prince of Orange in the Vindication of our Civil Rights and Religion, and I believe the Church of England will stand by Us: And Divines of great Reputation gave their Judgment for Subjects defending them­selves against their Princes in Cases not near so strong as Ours.

Queen Elizabeth gave Countenance and Aid to the Revolt of the Low-Countries, or Rebellion, as it is call'd, against the King of Spain; and did it by Advice of Learned and Religious Divines, as Dr. Bancroft, &c. And 'twas for the sake of Religion: Queen Eli­zabeth also assisted the Protestants in Scot­land against the French Faction: Cambden says, she had a Consultation about that Matter; and although it was urged, That it was of Ill Example to patronise another Prince's Subjects in Commotion; yet it seem'd to be an Impious thing to be want­ing to them of the same Religion.

Bishop Bilson justifies the Defence which the French and Dutch made, on supposition that it was for the Maintenance of the Laws.

If we look into the Affair of the King of Bohemia, or Prince Palatine, we find (tho King James was backward, i. e. fearful, and [Page 178] had not Courage when the War broke out in Germany) the Sense of the Archbishop, in his Letter to Sir Robert Naunton, Secretary of State, when he advised the King to send Aid against the Emperor's Attempts of in­troducing Popery and Arbitrary Power; he encourages the Prince Palatine as King of Bohemia by Election, in the matter for pro­pagation of the Gospel, and to protect the Oppress'd, and declares for his own part, He did not dare but give Advice to follow where God leads; apprehending the Work of God in This, and That of Hungary; and that he was satisfied in Conscience that the Bohemians had a Just Cause, &c.

King Charles the First, who appeared to be of as Scrupulous a Judgment in the Point as any, By the Advice of Archbishop Laud, not only assisted the King of Denmark (who assisted others) against the House of Austria, to keep the King of Spain from overrunning the Western part of Christendom, and sent Forces and Supplies for the Cause of Reli­gion; as his Reasons are emphatically ex­press'd in the Declaration: But also some time after published a Declaration of War against France, chiefly on Account of that King's Protestant Subjects, for Violation of Edicts, and Breach of Articles and Contracts with them. Whereas Contracts and Arti­cles at other times with Us have, by some, [Page 179] been pronounced Prophane Absurdities, &c.

The Revolt of Catalonia hath had its due Representation here as well as elsewhere: The only Reason for their taking up Arms, was, in plain Terms, to rid themselves of their Oppressors, which the Nobility said was their Duty; and to preserve their An­cient Form of Government from the En­croachments of the King of Spain, who Op­press'd Rich and Poor by Arbitrary Taxa­tions; Religion was no Ingredient in their Rebellion: Their Acclamations were, Long live the new King D'Juan de Braganza, and let them dye that govern ill. His Accession to the Crown of Portugal was Congratula­ted and Countenanced by all the Kingdoms and States in Europe upon the Return of his Manifesto's; (only the Emperor, whose In­terest it was, condemn'd it) the Pope him­self did not Resent it. And they congratu­lated him upon the Merits, as well as Suc­cess of the Attempt.

Where then is this Ambitious Prince? Where is that Wicked and Ungodly People, as they call Us? We have done no more than what hath been done upon a Godly Conside­ration in like Cases; nay not so much, and our Case goes farther; for these had only Edicts and Acts of Grace to maintain; We defend our Religion Establish'd by the Laws of the Land.

[Page 180] This Family of the Nassaus have the hardest Measure under the Sun; To be sti­led Daring and Ambitious Spirits, and to have Damnation thus Entailed upon them, only for undertaking the Cause of the Op­press'd, and Rescuing Abus'd Innocence from the Tyranny of Arbitrary and Bar­barous Power.

Why then are the Gentlemen of the Church of England so resty upon this Revo­lution? There is scarce any Reason to be imagined, unless it be for those which they bring themselves; such as the Convocation-Settlement, Conquest, &c. If we should en­quire into their Opinions, and variety of Principles, I doubt we shall find them so Un-uniform, that we shall never ground any fixt Authority upon them in this Point, or any other. Tho it seems but an Ungrateful Task to expose their Contradictions and Contrarieties in all Ages: But if they have differ'd amongst themselves in their Do­ctrines and Notions of Obedience, or Re­sistance, and the Settlement of Crowns, I hope they will give Us leave in Equal Au­thorities to chuse which we will follow: In truth, he who will be at the pains to exa­mine their Writings, i. e. their General Councels themselves, even from the first Four, to the Last, I'm sorry to say it, will, [Page 181] I believe, find but a Sandy Foundation to fix his Conscience or Judgment in Articles of Faith. What have they been doing with the Trinity of late? What have they not been doing to get the Government into the Church-Conusance by way of Success and Providence? Tho I would have this Go­vernment setled to satisfy and please every one in their own way, if it were possible, for Men have different Ideas of things: Yet I'am unwilling the Government should be trick'd and impos'd upon: And that Men should advance their own Stations and Inte­rest, by publishing and mis-applying Notions which expose the Church and King both: I must confess, I think Dr. S—Rea­sons for the Government have been the greatest against it with all Men of Reason and Honour, and have hindred many from coming into it. What stuff have we produ­ced in a Convocation-Book! the greatest Affront to a King and People that was ever offer'd with a salvo to the Church. It is said, ‘Providence may actually, and God will, when he sees fit, and can serve the Ends of his Providence, set up Kings without any Regard to Legal Right, or Human Laws; and when they are thus set up, they are invested with God's Authority, which must be obey'd, and this supersedes all Le­gal Disputes of Right, and our old Oaths and our old Allegiance are at an end: For [Page 182] when God transfers Kingdoms, and hath set over Us a New King (and setled him) and requires our Obedience to a New King, he necessarily transfers our Allegi­ance, &c. And the Authority unjustly got­ten and wrested from the True and Law­ful Possessor, being always God's Authori­ty, and therefore receiving no Impeach­ment from the Wickedness of those that have it, is ever, when any Alterations are truly setled, to be obeyed:’Why all this, (tho as with a supposing) to Us? It seems by this, That the Nobility and Gentry of this Nation have been bantering God Al­mighty with Prayers and Praises all this while, whereas both Prince and People, and All of Us, should have been humbling our selves in Sackcloth and Ashes, and doing Pennance for our Rebellion and Wickedness. I shall not trouble a Serious Thought about this Convocation-Book, or the Occasion of it; enough hath been said about that and the Doctor already. King James I. in his Letter to Dr. Abbot, shews his Resentment of the Proceedings of that Convocation. Only I will produce another Convocation, to shew how the former hath setled the Govern­ment: The first was in the time of James the First, the other in James the Second. Now you shall see the Judgment of the Fa­mous University of Oxon: They in their Convocation reflecting (as they tell Us) [Page 183] upon certain Pernicious Books, and Damna­ble Doctrines, (viz amongst others, Propo­sition 10. ‘That Possession and Strength give a Right to Government; and Suc­cess in a Cause or Enterprize proclaims it to be Lawful and Just; (Nota) To pur­sue it, Is to comply with the Will of God, because it is to follow the Conduct of his Providence:’ Hobbes, Owen, Baxter, Jen­kins, &c. And Proposition 15. ‘If a Peo­ple, who by Oath and Duty are ob­liged to a Sovereign, shall sinfully Dis­possess him, and, contrary to their Co­venant, chuse and covenant with ano­ther, they may be obliged by their Lat­ter Covenant, notwithstanding their Former;’ Baxter, H. C. &c.) by their Judgment and Decree, Ann. 1683. pro­nounced these, amongst many other such like Propositions, Heretical; and Decreed, Judged, and Declared them to be False, Seditious, and Impious, Blasphemous and Infamous to Christian Religion, and de­structive of all Government in Church and State: What a Blessed Establishment is here! What an Honourable Title hath the King! in what a Condition is the Subject! Thus we see how unsafe 'tis to imply or suppose a Providential Usurper, or King de facto, which is all one; and then to secure him by Arguments out of the Clouds. So 'tis of a Forcible Usurper, or King de facto, [Page 184] t'other way, to Establish him with a Provi­dential Success, as Conqueror, without Right: As if we come to measure the My­steries of Providence by our narrow Com­prehensions and Rules, and tack it to every Success, we shall make a very odd Business of it, and put Providence upon very Irre­verent Offices. We know how That, and Scripture hath been interpreted upon other Occasions: In less than half a Century, up­on a Certain Revolution, One Side said, God shewd his Indignation in Thunder and Lightning: T'other, That he Congra­turated the Success with his Guns and Fire­works from above. Plato in his time said, Lawyers and Physicians were the Pest of a Country: Would he not have added, Di­vines also; had he lived in some other Ages?

When these Gentlemen were upon their Providential Disposal and Settlement of Kingdoms, They might as justly have brought some Instances from Scripture, which would have been for the Honour of the Revolution. Where God vouchsaf'd his Assistance to a good Cause for a Blessing to a People (as well as always for a Curse to a Bad and Sinful Nation) Instances which comply and would have stood with the Or­dinary Rules of Morality and Human Ju­stice. As the Case of Solomon and his Son, [Page 185] between Hezekiah and Josiah, and the suc­ceeding Tyrants, and Wicked Princes. Also in the Case of Rehoboam, where God seems to give a Countenance to the Revolt of the Ten Tribes, and assist against his Tyranny and Oppression; for God says, 'twas his doing there also. David seems to agree with this: He sufficiently differences his Expressions, according to the Chara­cters of Princes and Rulers, as good or bad: He tells us the Fate of wicked ones, not by executing upon them God's imme­diate personal Judgments, or by the visi­ble Hand of Providence; but by Human Mediums of interposing Power to restrain them, &c. by the Favour of God's Assi­stance in an Ordinary Course of Provi­dential Justice: The Prophets did not preach Passive Obedience to the Idolatrous Kings of Israel and Judah, but inveigh'd against them. Did not David and his Adherents resist Saul, though he spared his Person: (I do not pretend to plead for a Vindictive Account against the Per­son of Kings) And the Story of Manasses methinks seems something toward ours: He Set up, Repaired, Adorn'd, and Fur­nish'd the Altars, Temples, and High Pla­ces in which the Devil was by the Hea­then Worshipp'd, forgetting the Piety of his Father, and most abominably burnt his Sons for a Sacrifice to the Devil, [Page 186] Moloch, and shed so much innocent Blood, that 'tis said, Jerusalem was re­plenish'd therewith. And when after all, he was reprehended by the Reverend Pro­phet Esai, he caus'd him to be Saw'd asunder with a Wooden Saw. There­fore for his Sins, the Lord brought upon him the Captains of the Host of the Kings of Ashur, who took Manasses, and put him in Fetters, and bound him in Chains, and carried him to Babel, where, after he had lain Twenty Years as a Captive, despoiled of all Honour and Hopes of do­ing Mischief, God inspir'd him with Re­pentance, and afterwards mov'd the Assyri­ans Heart to deliver him; after which he forgot his Impieties and Villanies, detest­ed his Idolatry, cast down the Idols of his own Erection, repaired Jerusalem, and at last Dyed in a Religious Peace. But 'tis not my Province to apply Scripture, only to my self: And I know not what Commission They have so familiarly to de­termine the Councils of the Almighty. ‘'Tis true, as St. Augustin says, Nothing is sensibly and visibly done in the World, which cometh not from the Interior and Invisible Cabinet of God, whether it be commanded or permitted;’ though some will not allow a permissive Provi­dence, yet the Psalmist says, Oh God! How profound are thy thoughts! and how un­searchable [Page 187] to the ignorant and foolish? Yet Man must be presently making Inferences. Providence is said to take care of the most minute Creatures, as well as the greatest. And these great Texts and Stories of Pre­rogative and Supremacy, with Comple­ment to each other, are only taken no­tice of; whilst Others as positive lye dor­mant; as, Resist not evil; Turn t'other Cheek; and about giving the Cloak also. These might do mischief, and the Wicked of the World might take Advantage by return­ing them upon the Exhorters. The Pra­ctice of the World runs otherwise, and the Prospect is too Melancholy, where there is no Sunshine in the Landscape.

If then neither the Historical part of the Old Testament, nor the Doctrinal parts of the New, nor the certain Authority of Councils or Convocations, nor the Extra­judicial Opinions of Divines, do unani­mously evince our Duty of blind Obedi­ence, or Non-resistance, under a total subversion of a Constitution in Church and State, and the Practice of the Chri­stian World, in all places is counter to it; Why are these Gentlemen so severe upon us, and so resty themselves? Lay the Scene in Holland, Germany, France, (where a Holy League is no News) or Portugal, &c. Resistance is an Orthodox [Page 188] Doctrine; but put the Case at Home, it must be Heretical, and no less than Dam­nation. Why must English-men be the only Cullyes of Europe, and have their hands ti'd? Although the Church of En­gland does not pretend to follow the Do­ctrines of the Church of Rome; yet I ve­rily believe they never thought to betray their own Church to that, by setting up a contrary Doctrine. Suarez de Legibus acquaints us with the Popish Doctrine, expresly in this Case, viz. ‘That Heathen Kings can't be depriv'd of their power by War, unless they abuse it, to the In­jury of Christian Religion, or the Destru­ction of the Faithful that are under them, as is the constant Opinion of Divines, meaning of the Church of Rome.’ And again, If Infidels have the Faithful for their Subjects, and would turn them from the Faith or Obedience of the Church, then the Church hath just cause of War against them: But for Heretick Princes, he says, the Church hath Direct power over them, and may deprive them in punish­ment of their Infidelity or Heresy. This we saw verified in Queen Elizabeth, and she by Advice of her Divines, in preservation of Church turn'd the Tables upon them. I do not believe any of our Divines are so pas­sive, to betray their Church, and yield to the Pope, or any one commission'd by him, their [Page 189] Dignities and Revenues, though they Deli­ver over the Nobility and Gentry to Dam­nation, for preserving them in possession of them. I mean they who have taken the Oaths to the Government, as a King de facto, for I believe the Others who are not come in, are more charitable; for I confess I have an Honourable pity for them, and va­lue them never the less for sticking to some­thing, though they are unfortunate, and dif­fer from me in Judgment. But besides the Business of Religion, the Papists ought not to be angry with us, for Deposing or Remo­ving a King; they are uneasy as soon as o­thers, and do not take the Passive Doctrine to be any Restraint upon them, even in the ill Administration of a Popish King; Wit­ness that Story of the King of Spain in Portugal, and the Advance of the Duke of Braganza. And here at home to look back and instance only in Edward the II^d, who, as the History says, being govern'd by Gave­ston and the Spencers, murder'd his Uncle Thomas Earl of Lancaster, and numbers of Great men, The People, the Popish People, rose against him, Imprison'd him, and a full Repesentative of the Nation, in a solemn manner renounced their Allegiance to him; but told him withal, they would suffer his Son Edward to succeed, which was a fa­vour, it seems, in those Times. Therefore, I think, the Papists, whether they consider [Page 190] their Doctrine or their Practice, can't hit us in the Teeth justly: Their only Grie­vance is, That the Person is mistaken, and doth not prove for their turn. And I do not doubt, notwithstanding Dr. Sherlock's Settlement, they would endeavour to re­move King William, for King James, or any other Popish King again: And I can't blame them for it, for 'tis their Principle; but as Gentlemen they ought to give us leave to enjoy our fancy too. And so to look into our own Church-men, who would seem to mince the matter, either in their Principles or Practice; They tell us a Story of Li­cinius and Constantine; and endeavour to parallel the first with King James II^d, and justify the latter for making War upon him, by whom they intimate King William; but they manage it so scurvily, on and off, that one knows not where to have them; they would, and they would not, as if they were asham'd of their Passive Doctrine, and yet asham'd to quit it. The Bishop of A. allows a Foreign Prince to make War upon Another, who prosecutes his Subjects for Religion, if the Religion be his that makes War, for that reason; and what is this more than hath been said before? But Puffendorf speaks boldly, and allows also Subjects to use an Absolute Prince as an Enemy, if he discovers an Hostile Mind towards them. We keep a Clutter with­our [Page 191] filial Obedience to the Patriarchal Power, &c. But Puffendorf grounds even the Paternal Power over Children upon their presum'd Consent, and says, 'tis ad­mitted, Sons may, when they come of Age; chuse whether they will be under their Fa­ther's Government, or not. And here (by way of Parenthesis,) a Man might raise an unlucky Dispute; Whether there be any Government Legal and Rightful, but what is only obtain'd by Consent? For if this be true, it will go a great way in the Argu­ment, even of their Patriarchal Power, which for this reason cannot be Absolute, and no Other way can give any Right at all; for Conquest is but an overgrown Trespass upon the Possession and Right of another: And if there be no Government, but by Consent of the Governed, whether the People's Consent will carry a Govern­ment farther without a subsequent and con­tinued Approbation? And the Consequence of that, when we Swear Allegiance to a King, be not that it is to be understood no farther than he governs by Law; and that our Allegiance is due to Law, not to the person of a King? Whether these Con­siderations may not be offer'd with as good a Colour, as some others have been? Whether Kings do not mean this, when the consent of the People is ask'd? Or whether they mean nothing? Whether 'tis not understood [Page 192] by the consent, &c.? We might also enquire, how our Gentlemen came to be wiser and more scrupulous in their Allegiance than their Forefathers? And what Titles William the II^d, Henry I^st, K. John, K. Ste­phen, Henry IV^th, V^th, VI^th, and VII^th had, if not by Consent? We might far­ther ask them, If this Patriarchal, De­spotick, Absolute Power be the Right of Kings, and Non-Resistance is not Lawful upon any occasion whatsoever, Why they are not Unanimous in their Doctrine? And what Lay-men are to do when there is a Schism in the Church? But these may be thought invidious Queries?

But what if these Passive-Gentlemen are not consistent with themselves? 'Tis plain, our Divines here were not so stiff to the first Motions of the Prince's At­tempts for our Rescue. He himself tells us, that Several of the Lords Spiritual as as Temporal were in the Inviting of him over; and the Dissenting Archbi­shop, who thought fit to draw back afterwards, was pleased to Counte­nance his coming to London, and to assist with his Counsels. He was wil­ling to be in the Sanhedrim upon the Va­cancy; which by his favour was as far from being Passive, as Harnessing and Equipping, [Page 193] &c. and several Noblemen with their Chaplains at their Elbows agreed upon the first Overtures against King James, who only differ'd after in the Form of Admini­stration, and supplying the Power. There were those who would have been contented and satisfied with a Regency, which by the by was as much against the late Notions of Loyalty; and 'twas once taught, that it was as Damnable to put any Restraint up­on a King, or Fetter his Prerogative, or to limit the Measures of our Obedience, as to cancel and throw them off.

If then there be no steady Obstruction in our way, no Irrefragable Arguments, but what are Overturn'd or Embarrass'd; Why may we not throw off the Mask, and declare our selves frankly and sincere­ly? And talk as becomes Gentlemen or Free-born Creatures, of Reason, and tell the World, That King James was no longer fit to be entrusted with the Government; That he could give no Adequate Security for his Administration: That it was no more in his Power, than his Will, to Rule according to Law: That it could not be therefore safe to Re-admit him on any Terms, because he would not be restrain'd by any Qualifications. In short, That King Jamess Character and Administrati­on are inconsistent and incompatible with [Page 194] the Laws of this Realm; and that there­fore it was necessary, absolutely necessary, That the Government should be supplied, and some Other Person admitted and pla­ced in the Throne, from, and by whom might be assur'd he would Observe and Maintain the Constitution in Church and State: And that for these Reasons, we have admitted King William to the Crown, allow'd him to take the Government as King of England, and consented to transfer our Allegiance to him; and have Recognized, Acknowledged, and De­clared His Majesty, (he having accepted the Crown and Royal Dignity) To be of Right, and by the Laws of this Realm, our So­vereign Lord and King, of England, France, and Ireland, and the Dominions thereunto belonging, &c.

If our Principles are just, the Conse­quence must be so too. If the Premises be true, the Conclusion is warrantable. Mon­taign says, Authority is not given in favour of the Magistrate, but of the People: And 'tis the general Opinion, That Govern­ment was made for them, whether o­riginally it were made by them, or not. All the respective Schemes of it are contrived to provide for the Welfare of the Community; and the Laws and Constitutions of Power are [Page 195] the Measures of Submission to it. Thus the Notions of Providence and Human Right may be understood, and consist in Human Understanding. Kings and Subjects may know their Duties; Kings may preserve their Rights so long as they continue to be (Rational) Men; and Man may preserve his Native Honour in the Character of his first Creation, as he was made after God's Image also.

Thus I hope this Present King may at last rest in Peace, being setled by such a Recognition, and guarded by an Association in Parliament. Though 'tis hard to imagine how the Volunta­ry one came to be boggled at, after such a Declared Right in Parliament be­fore, and Oaths of Allegiance taken to it.

And long may He live to Assert the Rights of the People; To administer Ju­stice, and to retrieve the Honour of Great Britain, by vindicating it from the Encroachments suffer'd (not to say consented to) in the late Reigns.