The First observation I shall make from hence shall be taken from the state­ing of the Case it self, wherein it is set forth that this Hospitall being Found­ed by King Edward the Sixth, the care and trust of it from time to time was committed to the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the City of London, re­serving to himself and Successours a liberty to visit and enquire into the ma­nagement of the trust, and without any such express reservation in the Char­ter it self, it is but reasonable and Just that in all Hospitals that are of Royal Foundation, the King should be the proper and Supream Visitor, because without this the King and his Successours can have no Assurance, but that his Royal Intentions may be disappointed, his Charity Embezled, and the [Page 4] trust which is reposed in certain Persons for the due management of it be­trayed, and besides the Nature of the thing added to the express reservation of our Royal Founder in his Charter, the King by Act of Parliament is the Supreme Visitor of Hospitalls and Publick Charities, to see that they be con­ferred upon fit and suitable objects, and managed by Officers well qualify'd for their Employments.

Now from hence it appears that the avoidance of the Charter and the Re­gulation of the Hospitalls that Followed quickly after it, have no manner of Connexion with each other; it is true indeed that after Judgment was had and entred against the Charter, all trusts that were reposed in the City, as a Corporation, did of necessity fall together with it, but yet it is Equally true that the King might have visited and regulated this and other Hospitalls though the Charter had stood, he being Supream Visitor and Inspector of the same, but more Especially of Royal Hospitalls that owe their Foundation, derive their Constitution, and receive their very being from the Crown, so that it is plain that the old Officers might have continued in this house, if the King had so pleased, notwithstanding the Charter of the City was made void, and that the destruction of the Charter had no immediate or consequentiall Operation upon the Officers of this House, they not being Charter Officers, but Persons Employ'd in a trust under the King, whom he may always place or displace at his pleasure, and of whose fitness and capacity for their respe­ctive Employments he is the Supreme and unaccountable Judge. What there­fore can the man do that cometh after the King? Eccl. 2. 12. Or what inferiour Authority can annull that which the Supreme hath ordered and appointed? To be plain in a Case that is not to be dallyed with, my meaning is this, that during the Life of that Glorious & Blessed Prince King Charles the Second, it would not have been Lawful for any inferiour Authority, though the Charter had been restored, to displace any Officer of his Appointment in this house, by virtue of any Arbitrary Power lodged in them, without a cause of Misdemeanor, or of incapacity particularly assigned & represented to the King himself, whose gifts, that are properly and Legally in his disposall, cannot be taken away by any subordinate Power, without his consent First had and obtained in the matter. But yet I grant, that now after the decease of that incomparable Prince, and the Restitution of the Charter, all the Trusts that were Former­ly lodged in the City do naturally return together with it, and that the or­dinary Visitation of this Hospitall is in them, unless the King and Queen shall please to interpose, which they may by Law do as often as they think Fit, and take the Jurisdiction in General or the ordering of any particular matter or affair into their own hands, but yet still it continues good, that that which was Legally Establish'd by a Lawfull and rightfull King, cannot, and ought not to be changed or altered by any Subordinate Power or Authority what­soever, without a Cause assigned, without a Grievance prov'd, without a fault alledg'd, in the Person that is intended to be displac'd, because this is not so much to claim a Jurisdiction over A. or B. to whom I grant as Go­vernors, they are Superiour, but to Challenge and Arrogate a Power to themselves Superior to that, From which alone they derive it, and that is From the King, which all Men must needs see to be impossible & absurd. Nei­ther let any man here object that we were placed here by the Kings Commis­sioners not by the King himself, and that the Commission was Arbitrary and Illegall. For First, it is a Maxim in Law and reason, quod quis facit per alium Fa­cit [Page 5] per [...]se, what the King does by his Commissioners he does by himself, and though I will not meddle with the Legality of the proceeding in the avoid­ance of the Charter, and entring up Judgment against it, yet thus much I will say, that the Charter, whether right or wrong, being Actually voided, there was no way left to manage the Affairs of the City but by Commission from the King, and that what is necessary in the present Circumstances for the quiet and peaceable Administration of so Populous a City, may be said at least to have Secondary Lawfnllness, a Lawfullness deriving and holding from that necessity, though that which gave occasion to it, should be al­lowed and admitted to be Illegall, a Controversy with which I have nothing to do, & which I do not pretend to understand; but as for that part of the Com­mission which concern'd the Hospital, it was in Vertue of a Power, which was always vested in the King, and which he might always delegate to whom he pleased, so that all the Acts they did in this affair, were unquestionably va­lid and Lawfull in themselves, and cannot be cancell'd or evacuated by any less Authority, without a reason of Equity, or an Emergent reason of necessity as­siign'd. Suppose the King and Queen should graciously commit to the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the City, the care and management of the To­wer of London, and the disposall of the Places of Constable and Lieutenant, and Master of the Ordinance &c. they shall still be presumed notwithstanding this, to reserve a Power of Visitation to themselves, it is reserved in the nature of the trust, though it were not expressly and positively provided for, and so it is here, the Kings Charity is as much and as naturally in his own dispo­sall whenever he pleaseth to concern himself about it, as his Arsenalls or Maga­zins, and, indeed the difference between these two is no more, then that by the one the King provides for the Safety and defence of his Subjects, and by the other he relieves the necessities of those by an effect of his mercy, whom all his power cannot defend against the wants and Infirmities that are and will be always incident to humane Nature, and it is but fit he should be satis­fy'd, whenever he desires it, as to the Conduct and management of one of these trusts, as well as of the Other. If the King notwithstanding such Commis­sion, should after Enquiry and Visitation made, displace the respective Offi­cers in the Tower, and put others in their stead, there is no man living, I be­lieve, in this case that will pretend to dispute his unquestionable right in do­ing it, neither would it be Lawfull to displace them without his consent, though in all other matters, and in all Future Elections when a Vacancy shall happen, the Commission should still continue & the powers to act under it re­main entire as before, but their Commission cannot extend to things already determin'd by the King, because the Kings authority is the Fountain of their power; and to reverse his determination without a reason of equity or neces­sity, is to disown that authority under which they act, and by consequence to disannull their own, for rivers must be dry when the Fountain is destroyed.

If a man be Tenant to a Landlord and have a lease under him, he perform­ing the Covenants that are stipulated between them, he cannot be ejected out of his Farm, or deprived of his Tenant-right, which is a sort of secondary Frcehold, so that he may renew his lease from time to time, and ought to be considered caeteris paribus, beyond any other pretender, this being a kind of Charter-Office under the Lord of the Fee, but if a man take a Servant with­out any other condition then that of paying him wages for his service, he may part with him at pleasure for a good reason or for none at all, for the law does [Page 6] not tell us who shall be are servants, [...] or oblige us to [...]ep them who her we will [...]honi which were in some sense [...] [...] our [...] our [...], and I to [...] order of Government [...] of things, but we may k [...] whom we please; and as long as we please, and dismiss them [...] humour as well as for a reason. If therefore [...]e in this Hospitall are Servants to a [...] Master, re­ceiving wages and Salaries for our work, which Master is first of all the King, and Secondly a Corporation entrusted by and under him, there is [...] question but that the King in whom the first power is lodged, may eject [...] or Mr. [...] at his pleasure, and we cannot complain of any legall wrong. neither can we renew any pretentions for the future, [...] the [...] of a legall right, we never having had any other sort of right then what was or­bitrary and dependent upon his will; but a Corporation acting under him, though the generall [...] be actually [...] upon them, yet they cannot displace a particular person whom the King hath chosen, with out first repre­senting to his Majesty the reasons of it in order to the obtaining his consent, so long as he is alive. For a deputy & a servant can do no legall act in oppo­sition to the principall from whom the power is derived, but they may and ought to represent their reasons, if they be of consequence to the good of the house, and if he will not Dear them, they have discharged their duty, and ought to be content with the honour and satisfaction of having endeavour [...] to do justice, and of having eased their consciences of the guilt that would have lain upon them, by a willfull neglect of the trust committed, to them, and after his decease, as it is in our case, only the Successor can destroy, what the Predecessor hath done out of the fullness and plenitude of his power, it be­ing as impossible for a lesser power to destroy the act of a greater, as it is for a private man by virtue of any private authority and right, which he may as­sume or fancy to himself, to chuse whether he will obey an act of Parlia­ment that concerns him, [...] be [...] with by another act, of equall au­thority in its legislative originall, and of greater in its post liminious applica­tion, because it supercedes the obedience to the other, and for any lesse power without a reason given or an application made to the Sovereign then in being, to reverse what the [...] by his own rightfull power hath ordained, is for servants to assume that dispensing power to themselves, which they de­cry so loudly and so desprvedly in their Masters, for there is no right in na­ture but legall right, and for any that have not authority, to reverse the legal act of a superiour power, must needs be inauthoritative, illegall, and void.

If this argument which I design only to justify my self, and to shew upon what bottom my title to the place of Hospitaller stands, does in its applicati­on prove too much, and extend it self to others as well as my self, those Gen­tlemen that claim and are actually repossessed upon the restitution of the Char­ter, may thank themselves for solliciting Mr. Hughes to come up and renew his crackt and illegall pretentions, and for making this defence, which I would have been very glad to have let alone, to become as necessary with re­spect to me, as is is just and honest in it self.

If the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, and the Honourable Court of Aldermen, to whom I pay all that deference and respect which their great quality and Character Justly calls for, shall look upon this as written in derogation to them, and to the power and trust committed to their Ho­nourable Court, I humbly hope. when they have duely considers of the matter, they will concurr with me, and that if I should maintain the contrary [Page 7] position they would think themselves concerned out of a principle of Lo [...] ­alty and duty to eject me out of this house, that it is by no means a d [...] ­minution to their just Rights, in those things which the Sovereig [...] hath not determined, to acknowledge his Legall Sovereignty in th [...] which he hath, For the King acted in the Regulation of this House, [...] Virtue of any Arbitrary Power, which he unjustly assumed and arrogat [...] to himself, but by such an one, as is inherent in him, by the reserve in th [...] Charter of the Royal Founder, by Act of Parliament, and by the very N [...] ­ture and reason of the thing, by which he must always be supposed to be in­vested with a Power, to see that his own Charities be rightly disposed. The King is the First Visitor of this Hostell de die [...], this House of Invalids, the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen are the Second, acting by a Power deriva­tive from him, and therefore it is plain they cannot res [...]ind an Act of his, which would have been Legall in it self, because all Legall Acts done and passed by a Legall Superior Power, cannot be rescinded without the con­sent of the Sovereign, by any Subordinate Authority acting under it, because this were to rob and deprive him of that Supremacy and to assert his Prero­gative to themselves, and if that grave and wise Assembly in this hurry of Affairs have yielded a little too far to the Sollicitations and Importunities of Men without a Title, and proceeding upon a false & Erroneous Hypothesis of the Restitution of the Charter, which hath no manner of connexion with our Case, yet a Facto ad jus Consequeutia non valet, the Fact and the right are two things, and the Judgment of that right, in what Persons it is placed, we humbly conceive with all imaginable submission to the Court of Aldermen, lyes unquestionably before the King, whose just Power in this or any other matter, I hope it will never be a crime to maintain. For as one Act of Parlia­ment cannot be repealed but by the Act of another, so the Act of a King in those Affairs wherein he hath a proper cognizance and Legall Power can only be rescinded by himself or his Successor in the Imperial Seat, unless they be such Acts as are Limited by time, as in the affair of Parents or Temporary Procla­mations or the like; and then at the expiration of that term they die, and are repealed of themselves; so that having been placed in this Station by one King and allowed by another, I trust his present Majesty shall have no oc­casion to think any otherwise then Favourably concerning me, and I rely up­on the Grace and Goodness of King William and Queen Mary, that the Gift of Gods Viccgerents will still be without repentance, as well is those of the Divinity it self.

That I appeal to the Throne, it is because I see the whole affair lying so naturally prostrate at the Footstool, and that the Judgment of it cannot ap­pertain to any other Court or Judicature whatsoever, till it be remitted from thence, and I shall very willingly acquiesce in the Determination of that Power, in whomsoever it is lodged, (is being too little an Imployment for the thoughts of Princes that have so vast objects to exercise themselves upon) to whomsoever the Sovereign shall please to referr it, but more especially I re­pose an entire confidence, a Fixt, unshaken, and I had almost said; a demon­strative assurance, in the Favour of that Honourable Court to which the or­dinary inspection and Visitation of this house belongs, being in some sense an Orphan of the City, left destitute by a good, but an unfortunate Parent, that was undone in part by the Fatall Conflagration, and in part by other ac­cidents incident to Trade. I have a great deal of reason to expect from such [Page 8] a Constitution, where the Lord Mayor, next under his Majesty whom God preserve, is my Political Father, the Aldermen my Guardians, and the Com­mons all allyed to me in the Quality of Brethren, I say, I have a great deal of reason to expect and I do with great assurance wait for it, that I shall not only have strict Justice done me, if my cause come to be determin'd at that Barr, but that I shall have all the Favour that Equity will afford me, and such an Equi­ty that is mixt with something of affection to a shrubb of their own growth, that calls for no raines, no dewes but what are Naturall and Hereditary to it, for water and Refreshment.

I know no person in the Court of Aldermen, whom upon this account at least, I have not reason to believe my friend, unless it be one Gentle­man, Sr Patiente Ward I mean, before whom when I preached, when he was Lord Mayor of this City, I had the misfortune to leave him out of my pray­er before Sermon, for that it was an involuntary thing, arising from an un­designing negligence, without any ill intention, I call the great God of Hea­ven and Earth to witness, and this is no more then what I have affirmed a thousand times in the company of my friends, when I had no interest to perswade me not to own it, if the affront that was suspected, had been re­all on my part, and it is further observable that I did not only omit him, but the Aldermen, Sheriffs, and Commonalty too, who are all of them prayed for upon these occasions; now there is no man in his wits but must suppose me to have been quite out of them, if I had design'd a Publick affront to so Venerable an Assembly, so Illustrious a Bench, so great and po­pulous a City, in which I had not only received my Nativity, and a great part of my Education, but in which I had at that time among all ranks, so ma­ny favourers, Godspeeders and friends, and if after this any suspicion can remain upon the mind of that Gentleman, that it was designedly done, which to me it seems impossible that it should, then I humbly intreat him if no other consideration will prevail with him, to let the memory and old friendship of my deceased Father, intercede with him for my for­giveness.

But if it be as I have represented, that the true and only legall decision of the controversy between Mr. Hughes and me lies solely and entirely in the Kings breast, unless he shall please to put it into some other hands; Mr. Hughes knows who it is that preached a famous Sermon at Abingdon Assizes upon a most infamous subject, the justification of the worst of parricides, of the Execrable Murther of that glorious Martyr, who fell a Sacrifice to the Church of England and the Protestant Religion. He justifyed and gloried in that horrid Fact when many of the pretended Judges themselves had repent­ed, he Crucify'd the Royall Saint afresh and put him to an open shame be­fore a numerous assembly, and in the face of justice it self, when others were washing off that bloud with their tears, and would have been glad with the expence of their own lives to have retrieved the inestimable loss of his, which brought so black a guilt, and was followed by so miserable usurpation and confusion. Now what favour can Mr. Hughes expect from the Royall Grandson of that Martyred Prince, when the principles of that Sermon are levell'd at himself and at all Succeeding Princes whatsoever, when Mr Hughes and his Partizans are angry: though there be no good Subject but hath ever maintain'd that the Persons of Princes are unquestionably sacred, notwithstand­ing the reall and gross exercise of Arbitrary Power, whatever becomes of their [Page 9] Politicall capacity and Regall administration. Mr Hughes may think it plea­sant to wash his impure hands in Royall bloud, but that was not that wash­ing which the Prophet David required in all that minister in the holy things. I will wash my hands in Innocence, said he, and so will I go to thine Altar. It is true the act of oblivion pardons this crime, but to pardon and to forget are two things, to pardon and to reward are two more: if Salmosius would have accepted of so small a pittance, as the place of Hospitaller of St. Tho­mas Southwark, he would have become the place and title very well, be­cause it was very suitable for him, to eat the Kings bread who had defend­ed his cause, but Milton would certainly have been an awkward man in that station, and what is Mr. Hughes I pray better then he? unless, it be that Mr. Milton understood reason, argument and wit, if he would but have em­ployed those-talents to better purpose, which Mr. Hughes does not; but that Mr. Hughes is more malicious, black and Saturnine in his Sermon, then Mr. Milton in his book, and that the one is more dull and Phlegmatique then the other. John Goodwin a man of much more honesty and sense then Mr. H. being so far carried away by the Republican bigotry of those unhappy times, which overflowed and bore-down Loyallty with a rapid and resistless torrent, was content with his pardon and leave of retirement into a private corner, without perking up impudently for preferments and rewards, when he had so justly forfieted his life; and the same was Mr. Milton's case, who en deavoured to make some sort of attonement for his crime in the Eng­lish History which he after Publish'd, by offering up a devout sacri­fice of praise and admiration to the memory of that excellent and incompa­rable King, and giving him that great and lofty Character which he de­served: but what hath Mr. H. ever done to make amends for his fault? what instance can he produce of his sorrow & repentance? And yet so foul a crime so publiquely committed, a preaching and a printed crime, can never be said to be truly repented of without a preaching and printed fatisfacti­on, for otherwise though there may be some inward compunction & remorse, yet the satisfaction & the injury are to hold some sort of proportion with each other, and to do a publique, a notorious crime, without a repentance and satisfaction equall to it, does not come up to the nature of true repentance, but it is like robbing our Brother of a Pound and paying him a Penny by way of Restitution, which is but to continue in the Robbery still, and ra­ther to own and justify the fact, then to condemn and disapprove it.

Mr. H. can farther inform us if he pleaseth, who it was that vext and persecuted his neighbour for teaching a School without a licence, and yet had no license for himself at the same time, but answer'd to the name of Thomas instead of William to save his Bacon at a Visitation, and he can tell us further of the self-same person, how he stood engaged by promise for the payment of a sum of money, and yet refused it after seaven years time, under the protection of the statute of limitation, and many other things Mr. H. can tell of that man, when he hath a mind to furnish a Biographer with mate­rials for the life of fo matchless a worthy, and if this man should happen to be the same with the t'other, I doubt me he hath not yet repented of his Treason, for this is treason too; it is treason against humane Society, which such prin­ciples and such practices would certainly destroy, and this is the very foun­dation of Treason against Princes, whose Persons are so Sacred above all o­ther men, not so much upon their own private account, as for the sake of [Page 10] the publique, which is highly concern'd & interested in their safety, and suf­fers in all the injuries they receive, and thus much may suffice for the Cha­racter of Hugonides and his Freind, whom I would not have treated at so rough a rate, but that they have turn'd raillery into a pertinent thing, and made it so absolutely necessary for me to expose them, that it may appear at least there is no merit of congruity betwixt my small preferment and them.

What hath been said hitherto, hath been upon occasion of the Stating of the Case, as it was represented to Three worthy Gentlemen, learned in the Law, in order to obtaining their Opinions upon it, I come now very briefly to say something with relation to the Opinions themselves, by all which it is agreed that the ordinary Power of Visitation and inspection into the affairs and Offi­cers of this House is in the Governors for the time being, that is to say, First in the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen, and Secondly those other Gen­tlemen and Citizens that are deputed by them or allowed by their permission to manage and Transact the Hospitall Affairs, and that the respective Officers belonging to it, are not Charter Officers that have a fixt Interest and a setled right, but only Servants at pleasure receiving wages for their work, and to be dismist at discretion, when the Governors think fit, though behaving themselves well in their severall Employments, they may be said to have an Equitable right, and that it would be an Hardship in the Governors, which they could not justify to themselves, to turn them off against their wills in such Circumstances as these, but however these Opinions do at least say thus much for us, that the Persons claiming against us have no Legall right, and that there is no necessary Connexion betwixt the Regulation of the Hospitall and the Restitution of the Charter, so that Mr Hughes is very much out of the way, when he insists so unskillfully upon a Legall right, and proves himself to be as bad a Lawyer, as he is a Divine or a man.

But yet I confess there is one thing in the opinion of that great and Excel­lent Person Mr Sergeant Pemberion, which I cannot perfectly assent to, though I should not presume to own a difference in matters of this nature from a Per­son so profoundly Learned in his Profession, but that the Success of our cause does in some measure depend upon it, he is pleased to say that upon the Re­stitution of the Charter, and the avoidance of that Commission that supply'd its place, there were no Governors left either old, or new, but that it was perfectly at the discretion of the Court of Aldermen to regulate and order all those matters as they pleased; but in an humble Opposition to this, I presume to offer, that the King being at all times vested with a Power of Visiting the Hospitalls and of making from time to time such Regulations in them as to his Princely Wisdom shall seem most meet and Expedient, though the Com­mission be dissolved, yet the Regall Power and Authority still remains, and what a King hath done by vertue of his Legall, and rightfull Power, always inherent and vested in his Person, that nothing less them a King can destroy, so that those new Governors being a Constitutive and Essentiall part of this very Regulation, they must stand Independent from the Court of Aldermen, till the King declare them to have nothing to do in this House, and the old ones that were Ejected, whether Officers or Governors cannot be readmitted without the Kings consent, the Kings Authority and the Validity of it in all those Acts to which it extends it self, being always the same, though indiffe­rent Persons that are invested with it, so that in all the Legall Jurisdictions of a King, it is ille aperit & nemo claudit, he openeth and no man shuts, he shuts [Page 11] and no man opens, nothing but a King can dissolve those Obligations or an­null those Rights which a Lawfull King hath Establisht. And indeed it were a great incongruity in the King, very unbecoming either his wisdom or greatness, and a great diminution to his power, if he should erect and con­stitute a Commission to regulate abuses, in such things as do naturally and le­gally belong to his visitation and inspection, and yet when the Commission was disolved, the regulation should cease, which would be to as little pur­pose, as if no such regulation had ever been made, only it would reflect a disparagement upon the King as weak and inconsiderable, and pretending to more power then really he had, for that regulation which is actually dissolved, after the dissolution of that Commission by which it was made, must needs have been unjust and unlawfull before it, for lawfull and just things will-endure. Nay, I appeal to all the world, what confusion it would in­troduce into the affairs of the City, if all the acts of the Commissioners for the space of five years together, should by the expiration or dissolution of the Commission be rendered null and void, though yet upon supposition that the Charter could not be voided, which I do not concern my self whether it could or no, the Commission was so far illegall, if we look down to it's root, though its necessity may perhaps plead something in its excuse, as I have hinted before; but as for that branch of the Commission which concerned the Hospitalls, it was as I have shewn, strictly legall, and therefore all those acts which pass'd under and from it, of which the election of Governours and Officers were two, must need be legall and consequently valid. No Mr. Hughes, do not please and flatter your little self with vain imaginations, the regulation is as valid, as the first authority from whence it sprang, and that is the Kings, though the Commission that managed and ordered that whole matter be now actually dissolved, and I think I have given so very good reason for it that even your own impudence, that face of yours which is your un­questionable Property, and is peculiar to your self, cannot without some small discolouring, some streaks and Essays towards the Modesty of a blush, oppose it any longer.

But yet I grant, that though the Governors do manifestly hold by a Superi­or Tenure, to any that the Court of Aldermen can give them, yet the Char­ter being restored, the Ordinary Visitation and Inspection of the Hospitall re­turns together with it, and the Aldermen in the Course of things and in the Right and Power of Administration being Superior to the Commons of the City, and much more to any among the Governors that are not Free of the Ci­ty, they may so tye up the hands of the Subordinate Powers, as that they shall have no right to any thing but their Green S [...]aves, and cannot move one step in any Emergent bus'ness of the House without the direction of the Court of Aldermen or at least their tacit consent, so that I confess the Aldermen have Fully retrived the exercise of all their Power, in all Emergencies that shall happen de futuro, and in all matters which the King hath not determin'd, and which none but the King can Evacuate or disanull, and have left the others little or nothing, but the Stile and Title of Governors, of which I conceive they cannot be divested without the Kings express, or at least implicit con­currence by referring the whole matter to the Honourable Bench, but for us that are Officers, it is a little otherwise; it is true we are at his Majesties dis­posal, as well as the others, but only that during his Majesties pleasure, we know our respective Places and our Stations, and are obliged to act in our [Page 12] respective Spheres; otherwise the business of the house must be at a stand, and by consequence the Royall Charity be disappointed, and this is true likewise as to our Masters themselves, as to some particular Acts, that is, of taking in the Sick, and dismissing the Sound or the Incurable and auditing the Ac­counts, but only they can make no new order as a Court, without the Express or at least the tacit and implicit consent of the Court of Aldermen. It is no derogation to that great and wise Court to say that the King is their Superior, not only in Generall in his Transcendent Dignity and Power, but more par­ticularly in all those matters which belong naturally and Legally to his in­spection and care, though by the Charter of his Royall Predecessor, the or­dinary administration of that very Province be committed to them. For this I am sure there is none of them but will very readily grant and Zealously assert, that the King is their unquestionable Superior in all Lawfull matters, and that the King of England never dyes, but is always the same, & we do very wil­lingly acknowledge that by the Restitution of the Charter, their old Authority returns together with it, only that that Authority hath now a Partiall and a Temporary restraint upon it, by the King, (who is the Fountain of that Power by which they Act,) his having already determin'd the Rights and Stations of some particular persons, and we say we are legally possessed of our respe­ctive places, till we are legally ejected, that is, till it be done by an equall au­thority to that which put us in, or till the King please to determine other­wise concerning us, either expressely or by returning back to the Court of Aldermen the entire ordinary power of visitation, which it doth not appear to me that he hath yer done, in things that by the Royall authority have been already determined and ought to stand firm till they be annull'd by the same: and I do not speak this, neither would I be so understood, as if I were a­fraid of the Judgment of that Honourable Court, for I know their Justice, their Goodness, their Integrity and Candour, and am not afraid to throw my self upon it, but I have said this for no other reason, but that in my ap­prehension, upon the best and most impartiall judgment I can make of things, it is the true state of the Case, and I hope his Majesty will not be offended with me for having thus largely vindicated his Royall rights, though in an in­stance of greater consequence to us his poor Suppliants and Servants then himself, and I entreat the Right-Honourable the Lord Mayor and the Ho­nourable Court of Aldermen to consider, that it is not we that encroach up­on their rights or pretend to dispute their lawfull jurisdiction, but it is they who upon grounds which they cannot justify, would supplant us, for they pretend a legall Claim upon the restitution of the Charter, which is to dis­own the ordinary Jurisdiction and to put themselves out of the discretion of the Court, upon a bottom of legall property, which they have not, where­as we do not disown it upon any other account, then only upon an Emergent point of Law, particular to the circumstances we are in, in which the Kings honour and prerogative are concerned.

It remains now only that I consider as clearly as I can, the circumstances peculiar betwixt Mr. Hughes and me, as to the right or equity of our Case, and I think in generall it is already proved, supposing Mr. Hughes to have had a legall choice, when he first made his entrance upon this little preferment, yet that he was legally Ejected, that is, Ejected by virtue of that Authority-Royall, which hath reserved to it self in the very Charter and Constitu­tion it self (besides other reasons that do naturally suppose and justify such a [Page 13] of visiting and inspecting the affairs of this house, with a non obstante to all former orders of any inferiour and delegated power concerning them, and if these two authorities may mutually reverse what either of them hath at any time ordained, then Superiority and Subjection does manifestly loose their nature; and there is nothing but disorder and confusion succeeding in their stead, for no Government can stand in any place whatsoever, where there are two contrary Authorities dissolving one another, and rescinding each o­thers Constitutions and Decrees. Mr. Hughes being therefore [...]ejected by the King, and I by the same Authority put into his place, does in vain insist up­on the Illegality of my choice, or upon the Firmness and validity of his own, unless he can shew an Authority Superiour to that by which he was ejected and I chosen, which was done, as he knows very well, by the Supreme Or­dinary and Visitor of this house, or unless he can give a reason why a Master of an house may not act with his servants after an arbitrary and unaccountable manner, so far as the retaining them in his house & service, or the dimissing of them from it is concerned, and since he cannot say any thing to the diminution of one King, especially in a matter of incontestable right, which does not equal­ly strike at the unquestionable right and prerogative of another, he will do well to tread gingerly upon so tender a point, and to speak very softly con­cerning it, and yet when he hath done and said the most he can, the Hospi­tall though they may possibly pretend to be exempt from Episcopall Jurisdicti­on, and if they had not pretended to thus much at least, Mr. Hughes had ne­ver come thither, yet they will never I hope, be exempted from the Kings, and will not only remain to be a reall, though lame and imperfect part of his Dominions, but also the object of his peculiar care; who is in generall the Fa­ther of his Countrey, but more especially the refuge of the Infirm and Weak.

Mr Rustat whose Exemplary bounty and Munificence founded those Scholarships that are called by his name in the Florishing Society of Jesus Colledge in Cambridge, reserved to himself during his own life time, the Ap­probation of such as should be chosen into them, and it would have been ve­ry hard to deny him, though he had not claimed it, a Prerogative so natu­rall and so just as this, much more would this have been ungratefull and dis­loyall in Subjects to their King, during the whole Reign of Edward the 6th, after the Foundation and Endowment of this House, to deny him a right of Enquiring from one time to another into the management of so great a trust, though no reservation in his Charter had been made, which reservation must for that reason more especially respect his Successors then himself, who had an undoubted and unquestionable right of Inspecting and inquiring into that Royall Charity which was so strictly and so immediately his own; it was I say, a reservation to his Successors rather then to him, which gives them a right of Law, (besides a right of Congruity which they will always have in the Donations of their Predecessors, to see that their Piety and Charity be not abused) to examine or inquire into the management of this Trust, and to confirm or alter, what is already Establisht by a Subordinate Power, as to their Princely Wisdom shall seem meet, and when Mr Hughes or any of his Friends, can clear themselves handsomely of this one consideration, which stabs his whole claim, and goes to the heart of his cause, then I will yield to him without any more ado, though I have several other material things to suggest in bar to his pretences, which are so unsound and rotten in every Point and Circumstance, that no man ever appeared to lay his claim to any [Page 14] thing with greater disadvantage then Mr Hughes hath done.

For first it is notorious that when he was first admitted into this place and for about three years after he never was Episcopally ordained, as the Consti­tutions of the Church of England, and the severall Acts of Uniformity, but more especially that which is called the Bartholomew Act, do unavoidably require, nothing of that Act being ever yet repealed that I know of, unless it be that Clause which concerned the Solemn League and Covenant, which was intended to be only a Temporary thing and was to expire of it self after a certain term of years, which is now long since Elapsed. He says he was cho­sen into this House by Fourscore Governors, and to do him a kindness it shall be if he pleaseth, four thousand, For let them be never so many, it was in it self a void Act, For they could not chuse a Non-Conformist to be Chaplain here, to eat at the Kings cost in the Kings House, who is the Protector and Guardian of the Laws, and to be maintain'd by way of Salary under the No­tion of an Ecclesiasticall Person out of the Publick Revenues of the State, as if Non-Conformity were to be encouraged out of the Publick Revenue, at the same time when it was so severely and expressly forbidden by the Sta­tute Laws of the Kingdom, several times reiterated and repeated.

I do not speak this out of any want of Tenderness to a Religious dissent, For God Forbid but every man should Act according to his Conscience, nei­ther did I ever oppose any dissenting Party, so as to think them in Justice punishable for their dissent, out of any other Principle then what was meerly Political, for the Preservation of the Publick Peace, which is the certain and undoubted measure upon which the Acts of Parliament in that behalf have proceeded, and if I have any where said any thing with heat or with contempt of Separatists and Dissenters, out of too much precipitance in writing, or out of the rashness and inadvertency which is incident to Youth, yet it was al­ways my Principle, that all Mankind by nature are Endowed with all that Liberty of Action, of Opinion and Enjoyment, which is consistent with pri­vate peace and rest, on with the Safety and Tranquillity of the Publique, which in a Society or body Politique is that which is most especially to be re­garded, and that the Legall restraints are only Artificial things superinduced by necessity, experience and length of time, to promote the advantage of a Nation, by making provision for its Peace, Ornament, Plenty and Protection, or to prevent its ruine by restraining and curbing those interferring passions that have a Naturall Tendency to so bad an End; No man can complain of me that ever I Persecuted him for his Conscience sake, but some that have been actually under the Hatches of the Law, I have endeavoured to relieve and bring off as well as I could, as the Persons, if they be living, whose names I have now forgot, may remember; I never pronounced an Excommnication in my life, and am naturally very tender in a matter of such dreadfull conse­quence as that is, but an Absolution from it, I have with great Chearfullness and Alacrity recited; there is nothing in the whole world that hath afforded me greater trouble and dissatisfaction of mind, then to see the Frailty, Folly, and perverseness of humane nature to be such, that we must needs be Falling out and Squabbling about opinions, which may be United in Charity, though never so opposite or distant in themselves, and which are by no means incom­petible or inconsistent with our common happiness and Salvation; but yet I have always been and I am still in my own thoughts a profest Enemy to an unlimited Toleration, though the Naturall tenderness and compassion of my [Page 15] Temper, to which even Justice hath a Cruell and Frightfull appearance, will never suffer me to vex my Neighbour upon a Religious account; my reason why I am against it, is, because long experience hath Taught and inculcated a Lamentable truth, that men will always be Embroiling the Peace of their Country upon Religious pretences, that there is a mixture of passion, a leaven of design, a secret root of Ambition or Revenge, that frequently lies hid un­der a sanctify'd appearance, and that it is not so much Salvation in the other World or truth in this, as power that is aimed at and contended for; and if these inconveniences could any way be prevented without the rigours and severities of humane Laws, I for my part should think it the blackest Tyranny in the World, that the Liberty of thought and of opinion, or the freedom of a pleasant and diverting Conversation (that ought in reason to be the result of such differences as these, by mens comparing their Sentiments together) which are the first, most Naturall, most Essentiall and deeply rooted Liber­ties of mankind, so long as they keep within the bounds of modesty and Friendship, should be Fettered and Entangled by positive Constitutions, which is the true Spirit and Mystery of the Papacy it self, and is the greatest enemy that can be to that curious & inquisitive temper, that Philosophicall Geni­us, that soaring & searching disposition of our minds, in which the true perfe­ction & dignity of humane nature consists, and if any expedient of comprehen­sion can be found, that shall upon experiment prove successfull to the recon­ciling those Feuds and Animosities which we labour under, by making the passage into our Church so much more wide and spatious then it was before, that weak, but conscientious men may enter in without the danger of being Crowded or hurt, if any way can be contrived that Liberty may be granted without injury to the Publique, even to those who will still separate after the largest Concessions, there is no person living that would more sincerely rejoyce, to see that punishment was rendered an useless and unnecessary thing, by Charities being substituted in the place of Justice, and all those breaches made up by a Practicall agreement, which it is impracticable and impossible ever to reconcile, by a concord of thought, or a Symphathetique harmony of opinion, but this though I could wish to see with all my heart, yet I must needs say I never can expect it, and therefore all that can be reason­ably done in such a case, is to make the Termes of Communion so large, which I am glad to see doing by the Wisdom and Prudence of this present Parliament, as that great numbers of Honest and good men, who cannot get rid of their prejudices and mistakes may be added to the Church, taking care all the while, which I doubt not but such a wise Assembly will effectually do, that we do not pull down the Church under pretence of Enlarging it, for a Vineyard is always supposed to have its Fences, and a Church that has no Walls or Hedges to defend it is so farr from being a Christian Society, that it is indeed no Society at all, and is rather to be called a common Field then a Catholique Church or a Garden full of Spices which the Lord hath blessed.

It is not therefore Mr. Hughes his dissent from the Establish'd worship, when he took upon him first to be Chaplain of this place, that I reprove or find fault with, but that he only washed the outside of the Cup and Platter, and was like those Tomb-Stones which our Saviour speaks of, which not­withstanding they had an outward comelyness and Beauty in the sight of those that past by, yet within they were full of rottenness and dead mens bones, for what else but such a False and Pharis [...]icall disposition as this should [Page 16] make him less afraid of Sacriledge then of a Surplice? Of Robbery then of Common-Prayer? Of Prostrating and Prostituting his very Soul and Con­science to the Unrighteous Mammon, then of bowing to the Name, and by that gesture adoring the Divinity of the Holy Jesus? and what was it less then this for him to take the King's Money for disobeying his Laws, and to receive the rewards of the State, which are pay'd and distributed out of the Publique Revenue, for those very Actions or rather Omissions of his to which the Law had allotted nothing but Fines and Imprisonments and such like grievous things? Mr. Hughes knows very well that his Salary could not be Legally paid to him as Chaplain or Hospitaller of this House, upon any other supposition then that of his Conformity to the Establisht Church, and to the Laws of the Land, of which the King is the Guardian and Protector, and whatever his Friends might give him as a dissenting Preacher, which I should never envy him, though it were never so much, Yet for him unjustly to rob the Church of its Patrimony, and to appropiate to himself, what the Law never designed for a Person so unquallif [...]ed to receive it, as he then was, how little does it differ in its nature from picking of Pockets? Or padding upon Clapham Common, or between that and London? though the Governors would have given it him, unless it were out of their own proper pockets, not out of the Stated and Publique Revenue of the House, yet Mr. Hughes ought not in Conscience to have received it, it was in him a point of Knavery to receive, in them a breach of Trust to give, he dispensed with his Conscience and they dispensed with theirs, and with the Laws to boot, which it seems it is the clear Prerogative of Subjects to do, though at the same time we justly take it in, that our Princes should not Govern themselves and us according to them, or rather it is the peculiar Priviledge of some sort of men with a non-obstant [...] to the rest of mankind. Those Fourscore Governors he talks of, that Voted him hither, who they were I know not; neither shall I ever give my self the Trouble to enquire, but this I am very sure of, that this was so great, so Criminall a breach of Trust, the greater for being committed under the for­mality of a pretended Authority and Power, that from that time forward they have forfeited their Title and ought to have broken their Green Staves, as my Lord High Steward doth his white one after the Tryall of a Peer is over, and never to have pretended to the ordering or Government of this Hospitall any longer, for they were not sent hither to break the Laws of the Land and of the house together, but to observe them both and to see that o­thers in their Stations do the same. At least, thus much, I suppose, will be granted by all impartiall Men, that as Governors they had no such Power, as that which they then assumed and arrogated to themselves, so that they not being qualify'd to chuse Mr. Hughes, nor Mr Hughes to be chosen by them, it was a void Act on both sides, and where then, I beseech you, is Mr Hughes his Title? What becomes of his claim, and his fine show? When without Quo Warranto's, Forfeitures of Charters and Commissions from above, the law in its own proper Channell ran so strong against him, that he was Legally eje­cted at the very instant when he was so Illegally chosen.

Mr Hughes, I presume, remembers what his answer was, when I put the question to him, whether at his admission into this house, he were in Orders or not? his Answer was affirmative and positive that he was; well pla [...]'d old Hugo, thought I to my self, but Sir, said I, what Orders do you mean? [...] you Episcopally Ordained at that time? this question did not please him, [...] [Page 17] after some rumbling within, as if he were troubled with winde, occasion as I suppose, by a contest betwixt Interest and truth, the man made a [...] after a very wry face, which I have no words to describe, to make a ve [...] same answer every whit as much distorted and awry as that; why truly said he, I do not well remember what date my Orders do bear, which was but the second part of Shuffling and Cutting; the First answer was an Equivocation, the Second no Answer at all, for he knew very well that they did not [...] date, till very long after his admission into this place: the first was thought a figure peculiar to the Jesuits, but now it seems the Schoolmasters have [...] it too, God grant they do not teach it their boys, the Second besides, that it was a very shameless evasion in it self, was a very mean affront and [...] ­nity put upon me, as if I were so silly to swallow such weak answers [...]or [...] and Substantiall things. Heaven help the good Gentleman and instruct him better by a ray of light from thence, for his noddle is as shallow as the [...] is high, as cold and as numb'd as the grey head of Brecknock, where the sn [...] is a perpetuall Incumbent all the year, even when the Sun returning brings his Quo Warranto against the Winters Charter, or if two Learned [...] please him better, because he pretends to something of that same, let it be Rhodope and Haemus if he will, for the Top of Parnassus he hath nothing to do with, although he be a Paedagogue, and to that of Olympus I am sure he will ne­ver come, unless he mends his manners.

I know Mr Hughes urgeth in his own defence, he did it to me in a short Conference which we had together, that though it is true he were incapable by Law to execute any Ministeriall Office in this place when first he came to it, and for a great while after, yet at last he leapt into a Cassock and a Girdle, the knot of which was a great deal. Lower then it should be, and that his peaceable Enjoyment to be computed from that time to the time of his Eject­ment, was to be interpreted as a new choice, and is to looked upon as a tacit consent in the Governors who made no objections, but suffer'd him to go on silently and smoothly in the execution of his Charge, and I am content upon one condition that this Argument shall pass Muster in his behalf, and that is, that he refund to the use of the Poor of this House, or to the Ornament of that Chappell which he had converted into an Illegall Conventiele, all that ill gotten money, amounting in all to about 200 pounds, of which he robb'd the King, Cheated the Hospitall and bereft the Church, by withholding it from some other Person more capable and more deserving, which is no more then what, I think, he is bound in strict Conscience to do, he being the first man I believe to be met with in History that ever received a Publick and Stated Pension for a Publick and continned act of Disobedience and Contempt to the Laws of his Country, a Pension from the King, in the Kings own House, who is the Guardian and Executor of the Laws he broke. But yet supposing the connivence and sufferance he speaks of, to have signify'd as much as a choice, or Approbation, yet he was Legally ejected notwithstanding this, by a Legall Authority abundantly Paramount to that Illegall and Arbitrary little Power by which he was first introduced into his Place, it was done by the King the Supreme Visitor and Ordinary of this House, whose hired Servants we all are, and may be Ejected at his pleasure without any wrong or injustice, when e­ver he is weary of our Service, or is disposed to take other Servants in our stead.

But I fancy I know Mr. Hughes his Temper so well that he will never con­sent [Page 18] to this costly Proposition, of part with such a sum of money to appease a Conscience, which is by no means squeamish, and that he would rather have staid at home quietly in the Country, then have taken such a trouble­some and expensive Journey to meet with such an irksome demand, that had been made by those that have Power to exact its performance; For it is plain he re­ceived this money in the Hospitall's wrong and that in strict Justice he is bound to Restitution. Wherefore since Mr H. will not part with his Coin, he must not take it ill if we stick close to our Argument and to him, by disal­lowing and Protesting against his tac [...]t consent, for 'tis plains this Notion of a tacit consent involves the Court of Aldermen and the King and all the Su­periors, as much as it did those honest and worthy Trustees. who broke their Trust when they chose him; For they did therefore only not oppose this choice, because they knew nothing of it, they had no notice or Cognisence of the matter, and it is as plain that neither the Court of Aldermen, nor the King would at that time have suffered it, had a due and particular Repre­sentation of the matter been made; not the Court of Aldermen, who were all of them Members and Communicants of the Church of England, and much less the King who would never have consented that the Panegyrist of Traytors, and the vile assertor of his Fathers Parricide, should eat of his bread and live upon the fruits of his bounty, and if this did still lie heavy against him even after his Admission into Holy Orders, then the King who was the First Visitor and Inspector of our Affairs, can never be supposed in any rea­sonable Construction to have given his Tacit consent; so that in all this affair tho' we should admit a tacit consent of the Subordinate Powers, yet the Court of Aldermen and the King not concurring, it was a consent of Deputies against their Principalls which is a void thing in it self, and is as much as no consent, a consent to that which they were obliged by their trust & by their duty to their Principalls to disallow. I shall not here trouble my self to compute how many in­fractions M. Hughes made upon the known Laws of the Land, every minute was a repeated breach For after three years that he was possest of this place, it is enough that after his Conformity to the Church, he was Guilty of very gross and Scandalous neglects of his duty, of which I shall say more hereafter, and this is Sufficient to destroy his Notion of a Tacit consent, for nothing ought to be tacitly consented to, that cannot be explicitly and fairly defended.

Mr. H. his not being in Orders for so long a time, his having abused the charity of the house, publickly affronted and mock'd the laws of the Land, cheated the King and interverted the publique Revenue to an illegall use, was reason enough to justify his expulsion from hence, notwithstanding his halt conformity, for about a year or two before he left it, and if the King as a master had not had a legall arbitrary power to turn away his Servant, as every master hath, even without a fault, yet I hope it was a sufficient reason for a Son to proceed upon, that he had justify'd the Murther of his Father, and it was still a further aggravation that in his proper business, as a Chaplain to the house, after his pretended conversion to the Church of England, he was so grossely neglectfull in the duties of his office, so that if ever Servant was legal­ly turn'd away, it must be confest Mr. H. had law of his side when he was dismist from his employment, but hath no Claime, no Shadow, no Colour, no imaginable appearance or pretence of right, for a reinvestiture into his lapsed charge, forfieted by Sins of omission and of commission too, and for­fieted for such reasons that I had almost said, it would be a sin and a crime [Page 19] even in the supreme power it self, which alone can legally [...] [...] him, but by any inferibur Authority it cannot be done, [...] the [...] ­ties and irregularity of the proceeding, without affront to the memory of [...] blessed Kings, as well as injury to the affairs of the house, for let him [...] what he will, he will still be as negligent as he was before, he will [...] bury the Dead, nor visit the Sick, nor read prayers to the Poor, a [...] [...] were so strangely neglected and omitted by him, that it [...] [...] he [...] Clupham all the week round, and his friend Mr's Knight re [...]ded here in [...] place, and was of the two more properly to be stiled the Hospitaller [...] [...] Thomas Southwark, she managed all things in his absence, as she easily might, because there was nothing to do, unless now and then a dead Corpse to [...] put into the hole, to prevent stanch and Annoyance to the living, which [...] seems was the Sex'ton business and not his, for the space of four year together, till toward the very Fag end of his time; and then by the clamours of [...] ­ny but especially of Mr Molins, who was then one of the Surgeons i [...] [...] house, he was at last prevail'd upon to take some very little care that t [...] o [...] three bodies should have Christian buriall according to the usage of [...] Church of England, whereas before the Sexton was the Curat, a [...] [...] Service at the Grave was, Let the dead bury the dead for William [...]

Can it be Prudent or Rational to trust such a Man again, [...]ho [...] ▪ once discarded among other things for so foul and Criminall a [...] duty? or do we think in earnest that Mr. W. H. is any other [...] then Hypocrites and Apostates usually are, who have no Principle but [...] and fear; for by his behaviour after his Conversion to the very [...] or his being turned out of his place, by his almost totall neglect, and by his [...]oven­ly performance of the Offices of the Church, you may guess what respect he had for them, a Form of Prayer made him puke, he sweat a [...] the [...] and at the Second Service dy'd away, and he still hates every thing in [...] Church but its Preferments, and this some of his Friends are so [...] [...]ssu [...] and satisfy'd to be true, tho' it may be not quite so far a [...] I have [...] that for this only reason they abett his pretentions, in opposition to every thing that is either Just or Sacred among Men, neither can it indeed be ex­pected that he should be much a friend to positive Constitutions, which must needs ly flat and cold upon his Stomach, who scorns to be Fetter'd by those Eternal restraints the Convictions of truth, the Laws of Essentiall and [...] ­terable reason, the Adamantine tyes and obligations of nature.

For my part double diligence in any Employment, is a thing which I [...] pretended to in my Life, but without entring into Comparison with him. I can say, that I have faithfully discharged my trust, or else have made Pro­vision that it should be done by others, when either my occasions called me abroad, or my indisposition kept me at home, or my Studies were too im­portunate to be deny'd my attendance upon them. For the first four years [...] thereabouts, there were Prayers duely twice a week, upon Wednesdays and Frydays according to the Canon, and afterwards when this did not satisfy the Governors, I allowed eight Pounds yearly out of my Pocket, to which they were pleased of their goodness to add twelve more for a Competence for a Reader every Morning and Evening▪ I have visited the [...] as there [...]as occasion, and administer'd the Sacrament, when I thought it fit for in that I must begg leave to be my own carver, and all this five years time and up­wards I know not that ever a Sermon was omitted once a week unless it [Page 20] were once, when I fell ill in the midst of the Prayers and could not go tho­rough my whole task, and as I have done all the good I am able in the House, as opportunity bath administred occasion for it, so I shall not only still con­tinue to do it as long as I stay there, but as long as I live it shall have my good wishes, and all the small assistances I am able to afford it, even though I be Illegally and arbitrarily dispossest of what I have so long Legally enjoyed.

One particular instance I [...]rave leave here to insert of my readiness to serve the Hospitall upon any occasion, though it be only an expression of my good will towards it, and at the same time an Intimation of my want of Pow­er, because the design dropt and fell to the Ground. It is now above three years ago, as I remember, that there was a very worthy project under con­sideration of Re building this decayed and ruinated house, which call [...] for another Hospitall to receive it self, and is almost as weak, and crazy, as any of the Patients within its Walls, the design went so far that if I am not misinform'd, that Famous Mathematitian and Architect Sir Christopher Wren, was brought hither to take an Actuall survey of the building intend­ed, which upon so large and spatious a plat of Ground improved by the great Genius of that Admirable man would have made a most Noble and Magnifi­cent Structure. A Private contribution from one good man to another, whe­ther among the Governors, or at Court or abroad in the world, was the way proposed to bring this great work to perfection, which I confess I looked up­on to be Magnae molis, a thing of great labour and difficulty, like the work it self, and that the Fatigue and Tediousness of such a Collection, (especially when Chelsey Colledge and other publique buildings, which I knew of, had Exhausted so much) would give a damp and discouragement to the under­taking, not but that considerable sums might have been advanced this way, but to help the business forward I was for procuring a brief to be read in all Churches and Chappells thorough the Kingdom, the whole Kingdom being more or less obliged to the Charity of this House, and concerned in Grati­tude and in prospect of what future occasion there might be of applying to it for the relief of their Sick or wounded, as well as out of a publick Principle of Christianity and good nature, to contribute to so worthy and usefull a design. This I Communicated in discourse to Mr. Seymour, who so well ap­proved it, that he immediately imparted it to some others, and I, while the fancy was warm and fresh within me, drew up, as well as I could, the sor [...] of a brief, to be corrected and altered by such as understood the methods of such things better than I do, which I have still by me, but after much dis­course and many Consultations, for what reason I know not, whether as im­practicable or unseasonable at that time, the thing fell asleep and past off in Fumo without any effect. I mention this, I say, only to show my good will to the House, and I desire Mr H. during his four years Reign and residence at his Court at Clapham to give such another instance of his, and I do here a­gain Solemnly protest that no ill usage which I have never deserved, shall ever alienate my affection from this House, but that I will always Remember, upon all occasions, the kindness and support I have received from it, without reflecting upon the wrongs and Injuries that are or have been done me.

So much for Mr. Hughes his not being in Orders and for his tacit consent, a sort of consent which God abhorrs and utterly protests against, that ever it should be given to unlawfull things. These things hast thou done, saith he, and I held my Tongue, and thou thoughtest wickedly, that I am even such an one as thy self, [Page 21] but I will reprove thee and set before thee the things that thou hast done. And I must confess I do not a little wonder that the present Court of Aldermen should ratify that Election with more then a tacit consent, which that which was then in being, when Mr H. his Fourscore Governours pitcht upon him for the object of their Choice, if they had taken any cognizance or received any particular Information of it, would have condemned and evacuated with the last degree of Scorn and Indignation, but Mr. Hughes is now a Conformist, which he was not then, and I do really attribute this unequall proceeding in a Court of so great Justice and Honour as that is, to the misrepresentations of Mr H. and his Friends, and to their want of sufficient Information in the matter.

It is next to be considered, that when Mr H. was Ejected out of this house, for the Reasons that have been already declared, it was not long before he was otherwise provided for, with a Freehold instead of an Arbitrary dependance, and with a Living of at least Sixscore Pounds a year, that being the lowest Computation that ever I heard made of it, instead of a Salary of Threescore, dependant upon pleasure, which Living was bestowed upon him in pity to his Circumstances, and out of that excess of Charity which is naturall to great minds, in lieu of what he was deprived of here, they believing, because they were not capable of Hypocrisy themselves, that the pretences of this Whineyard were reall, and that being so true a Convert to a Church which he mortally hates, it was a great piece of hardship and next kin to Injustice, upon him, to dispossess him of his place. I know Mr Hughes is used to say, he said it more then once to me and to my Wife, and he hath blown it about among all his Friends, that this Living was not given him in lieu of what he had lost, but for some other reasons best known to himself, which he is not pleased to discover, but yet this he does discover by this Cryptic Method, which is usually accounted an argument of Wisdom, that he believes me at the same time a most despicable fool, and that he himself is a most Flagitious, a­bominable Knave, for I love dearly to call things by their right names, and if the last of these Characters especially be true, he should be no true Member of the Church of England, which detests and devotes the Principles and pra­ctices of such wretched Fellows. For I appeal with great assurance to those Reverend and Learned Gentlemen that were concerned in this his new Pro­motion, whose great and Venerable names I will not fully by inserting them in a just Satyr against so vile a Caitiff, First, whether they would have stick­led so hard to have this Hypocrite restored, if they had design'd or intended any other preferment for him, which might have been an equall or a greater support then that was, I can never induce my self to believe this, because it would look with so particular, a pointed hatred against me, which I no more believe then I do that Mr H. is an honest man, and with all Imaginable franck­ness, Sincerity and thankfullness I speak it, though they thought Mr H. to have been a little too hardly dealt with, I know that they are now, and I am very well satisfy'd they were then all my Friends, and it shall be my con­stant endeavour, with a Proviso against this Simpleton Mr H. whom I am re­solved not to spare, and whose Interest against mine in this particular Case, I am very confident they will no longer espouse, not to undeserve the Ho­nour of such good opinions.

Secondly, I presume to appeal to them, and do perfectly throw my self up­on their free and open answer to the Question, whether they did not really [Page 22] and purposely preferr Mr H. or cause him to be preferred to his Living in the Country upon this Consideration and no other, that they thought him hard­ly treated in being ejected from hence.

But without the rudeness of Catechizing my Superiors, the thing speaks so plainly for it self, that I might have spared those names which nature calls him, and which all men of [...]ense must acknowledge to be his due, for to what purpose should they give him another Living in Conjunction with this? the whole Salary of this was but Threescore pounds a year, and he must supply one of these places by a Curate, to whom when he had allowed an Honest Maintenance, what could he get? besides, that something may well be suppo­sed to be lost by Non-Residence upon his Country Living, for the Country people are usually as sharp as their Parson, though it were Mr. Hughes his own self, and something must be pay'd here for rent, had he lived out of the Hospitall, as I take it for granted he would never have lived in it, any more then he did before, for I see not what inducement there could be to alter his mind, and of what advantage, then could the Hospitall have been at the Foot of this Account? or would it not rather have been his Interest as well as duty, to have thrown up this, leaving it free for me or any body else, and to have retired into his Country Living, there to have spent the remainder of his days, as Nuns that were no Nuns formerly do in a Cloyster; in Beads and Penances for his Abingdon Sermon, and for the Hypocrisy of his pretend­ed Conversion, and all the other sins of his Life? I say, it was his duty no less then his interest, and thereby hangs a tale, for you must know this Mr H. among other of his works, writ a very Pious and [...] Treatise against Pluralities and Non-Residence, and he could not hold his Living and his Hospitall together without confuting his book. For two Livings I suppose, will be granted to be a Plurality, and it is a known Maxim in the [...] Philosophy, which is like Mr Hughes for that, that it is sometimes in the right, though it be but very seldom, that one and the same numericall, and Indivi­duall body cannot be present in two Places at once, and from thence Non-Re­sidence must unavoidably have followed. So that Mr. H. in this Case had no more choice then this, he must either have affronted his Conscience (and what a Conscience is that that would Prostitute it self for so very small an ad­vantage, as I have computed this would have amounted too) or he must have relinquisht one of his places, or reca [...]ted his book and own himself to have written or rather bray'd Heresy before he was aware, like the dull animal that mumbles Thistles. I grant indeed that in law these two preferments would have made no plurality, because one of them is not in the legall stile properly term'd cura animarum, but yet there are Souls in one place as well as in the other, and it may be more in this then in his Country Living, so that it is a plurality in Conscience though not in Law, and I challenge him to shew me one argument in his Book, that does not [...]ly in his face and call him by those names which I will not give my self the liberty to use, being sensible I have called him but too severely already, for which I beg his ex­cuse, as I hope he will think it but just and honest to beg mine too, for ha­ving given me so Foul a Provocation, by endeavouring to eject me out of what I legally and rightfully enjoy, though he himself can get nothing by the bar­gain, which is infernall quintessence, the Devill rectify'd to his highest pitch, it is Malice not in words, (as he may perhaps interpret my raillery to be, a poor piece of business for a man that is robb'd of his right) but in very deed [Page 23] and in truth. I say, he can get nothing but infamy and disgrace among all the Catholique Church of honest men, for none but such do properly belong to the mysticall body of Christ, and if this be the gain he contends for, much good may it do him, and I call it malice, because I cannot call it Revenge, for Revenge is the retaliation of an injury receiv'd, but I never did him any; he delerv'd it's true to be turn'd out of his place, but I knew not the man nor his place neither, I never supplanted him, I scorn such profligate and dege­nerous acts, I was actually appointed in his stead by the kindness of my friends, before I knew the least Syllable or letter that any such thing was design'd, and if I had not had it, it is undoubtedly certain that some body else must, so that I in particular was so far from doing him any injustice, that my very succeeding him really did him no harm, since it must have been done by some body else, if it had not been done by me, and yet if providence had not just then pointed out that refuge for me to fly to, my affairs were brought to that extremity that I was in danger of immediate ruine, so that he is angry with providence for providing for my safety, as it did afterwards more plentifully for his, he is angry with me for giving my self up to the Guidance and con­duct of those happy Starrs that would not see me perish with Hunger and Cold, and he makes it now his business to procure my ruine, though at the same time he knows, he can get nothing by it, but the odious reputation of the worst of men, so that if this be not malice, there is no such thing, and if ever man were excuseable for a sharp invective upon an invererate, but causeless Enemy, 'tis I.

But saith Mr. Hughes, as to the business of Pluralities, it was his own eva­sion when I urg'd it to him, Sauce for a Goose is Sauce for a Gander, why may not I be a Pluralist, as well as you? No Mr. Hughes, it is not the same case, for I never writ agrinst pluralities, as you have done, and besides you can­not accuse me of non-residence, from whence all your arguments, if you would speak any thing that looks like sense, must of necessity derive their force, and by this you made the Hospital a Plurality though it were but one place: It is not a plurality in law, because neither of the Places is cum cura animar [...] in the legall stile, nor in Conscience, (though I am for Pluralities in a sober sense, if I knew how to come at them) because they are contiguous, and may both very well be sufficiently taken care of, even in the Judgment of those that quarrell most at such things, by the same Person, it is after the Example of St Bartholomew's it self, which is the older Foundation of the two, where both the Hospitall and Parish are United, it is pursuant to the reason and intention of that Act of Parliament, by which small Livings were uni­ted and joyn'd together after the Fire of London, and there is no doubt but if that fatall Calamity had spread it self so far, as by Gods great Mercy it did not, the same provision upon the same ground would have been made here, and Lastly the Justice and even necessity of it is acknowledged by the Excel­lent Dr. Burnet, now the Right Reverend Lord Bishop Elect of Sar [...]m, in his Sermon before the Commons at the beginning of this present Parliament, where among other things that are managed like himself, with an Air and vigour peculiar to their Author, he piously recommends the encouragement of the Clergy and the encreasing of small Livings for their support; I know not whether Mr. Hughes hath read that Sermon or no, but I am sure he dare not read his two other Admirable discourses, from the Pulpi [...], The Royall Martyr, I mean, and the Dutifull Subject, for fear of reflecting too severely upon his own [Page 24] doubty Performance, to be admired for nothing that I know of, but that it is so resinedly, so admirably wicked, His Abingdon Law, his Banqueting house Entertainment, more Cruell then those of Progne and Thyestes wherein he caress'd himself and entertain'd his Friends (O scelus! O Flagitium!) with the Mangled and bleeding Father of his Country.

I shall conclude this whole matter with these two things. First, I desire that it may be taken notice, that when upon the death of the Reverend & my late dear friend Mr Sowton, the Parish of St. Thomas's became void, his Majesty King James the Second, was pleased upon a Representation of the Equity of my Case to him, the Hospitall alone not affording a sufficient maintenance for a Clergy Man in this Town, to withdraw a Mandate granted in behalf of ano­ther in my Favour, and accordingly upon this notice that it was his Maje­sties pleasure, as I think a plainer Indication of it could not possibly be given, I had an Order from the Commissioners for the Union, that is, in effect I had two Legall Orders for the place of Hospitaller, and one for the Parish, the lat­ter of which two Orders was with his Majesties particular knowledge and Approbation, so that it was his own Act in his own House, and what more Legall choice then this there can be, where the King meddles with nothing but what is Legally in his own disposall, as this matter of the Union manifest­ly was, I would be glad to be informed. For it is plain that this was not only the Act of the Commissioners, who gave their consent, as indeed they could not well deny it, to what they knew to be the Kings pleasure, but more im­mediately and expresly of the King himself, who if he did many Arbitrary things, which I neither can nor will defend, though in Gratitude I ought not to upbraid him with them, yet I hope the Legall Acts of a Lawfull and right­full King, as all men will acknowledge that Prince to have been at that time, ought not to be the less binding and valid, because afterwards, (for this was in the first year of his Reign) he did several things which were Arbitrary and Illegall. If a Mandate be sent down to any Colledge in either University for the admitting of a Master or Fellow who could not Statutably be chosen, supposing he ly under no incapacities by Act of Parliament or by the known Laws of the Realm, this Mandate according to the common Practice of the University takes place without any more ado, unless there be some great ex­ceptions against the Person, or else some other more deserving or more desira­ble Person be precluded by it, in which Case they usually represent back again to the King, and Endeavour to get it withdrawn, not that they dispute the Kings Power, but that they endeavour to encline his will to a choice more agreeable and pleasing to themselves, or more for the Interest and Honour of their Society, in deferrence to which it is very well known that they do sometimes Court a Mandate instead of refusing it, and are glad in such Cases where their local Statutes are a little too hard upon Merit, that the King in­terposeth his Authority Royall for the Encouragement of Arts and the ad­vancement of Learning, and that in those Colledges that are not of Royall Foundation, & yet by such Mandates a Freehold is convey'd, & the Person in­vested hath an equall right, in at common acceptation, with any other Member whosoever. But whatever exceptions may possibly be offer'd against this pra­ctice in the Universities, tho' nothing hath been in repetition more frequent, ever since I knew what the University was, and a great while before, nor any thing in Fact more firm then such investitures by the King's letter, yet no man sure will dispute the Kings Prerogative in his own Foundation, [Page 25] and a Foundation in the Charter, of which there is an express reservation to himself and Successors to inspect and visit at all times hereafter, and where the King hath an undoubted and unquestionable right of putting in and putting out when he pleases, provided they be not unqualify'd by law for their em­ployments which was Mr. H's Case, when he came first to this house, who was so unqualify'd by law for his place, that even the King himself could not dispense with him; in such an house as this, I suppose it will be grant­ed that the Kings Mandate ought to take place, and I had more then a man­date, if more then that can be, because a mandate was recalled for my ad­vantage. I had the concurrence of the King and Commi [...]ioners, for an union of the two places, that is, for an actuall possession and injoyment of them both, and what firmer title to a thing of this nature there can be I can­not Imagine, and certainly the law would have done very weakly to en­trust the King with the disposall of so many and so great Spirituall prefer­ments, so as to intitle the persons on whom they are conferred to a Free-hold in the same, if at the same time he shall not be allowed to place a Chaplain in his own house, of his own or his Royall Ancestors Foundation, in the con­stitutions of which he hath expressly reserved a right of inspection and regula­tion to himself.

The Second thing I hinted at, with which I shall shut up all, is what I have already pretty largely insisted upon, but cannot in this cause be too fre­quently repeated, or too heedfully attended to, and that is, that the dissolution of the Commission by which this regulation was made, doth not at all affect the regulation it self, so as that must of necessity be dissolved together with it, for this were to suppose that an house can be no sooner built, but it must tum­ble and fall down again, as soon as the Scaffolds, by the help of which it was erected, are removed, and the Artificers disperst and gone away, whereas then indeed it is, and not till then that the house appears in it's true Beauty and Strength.

It hath been prov'd sufficiently already that the King had always a power of visiting this house, even though the City Charter had stood, so that though the administration of the City and the visitation of this house were both of them intrusted with the same Commissioners, yet they were manifestly two Commissions tack't together that were in themselves distinct from one ano­ther, and the King if he had pleas'd, might have put the visitation of this house at that time into other hands, and as soon as the regulation had been perfect­ed, he might have dissolved the Commission, but what a mock regulation had this been? what a Scandall and Contempt would it have brought upon such a regulating design as this, if the regulation had been dissolved together with it? or indeed to what purpose would such a regulation have been? and yet if it be not actually dissolved upon the dissolution of the Commission it self, then the Governours and Officers must stand as they were, till they are dis­placed by the same or an equall power, because in this it was that the regu­lation consisted.

Queen Elizabeth by her Commissioners visited the Universities, altered their Statutes and made many great and lasting regulations which remain to this day, notwithstanding the Commission be not only dissolved, but the Commissioners long since dead and mouldered away to dust in their graves. And so in the late Case of Magdalen College, there is no man of common sense can question but if the Commission had been legall or managed and pursued [Page 26] after a Legall manner, but the Regulation would have been valid, though the Commission had expired, after the business, it was intended for, had been done, otherwise it would have been a Commission as Ridiculous and absurd, as it is acknowledged to have been Arbitrary and Illegall.

This is what I have to say for my self and my Friends and Fellow-Servants in this house, but against Mr. Hughes in particular all things are so strong, and run upon him with so fierce a Stream, that I suspect the soundness of his understanding for offering to attempt a thing in which he could reasona­bly propose nothing but infamy and disgrace to himself, he seems to me to be got into the predicament of Dr Rolls, and that even Hellebore and Anticyra it self, are unable to restore him to his right mind, so far are his Wits run a Woolgathering from it.

And now upon the whole matter I am very sure of the Victory, which I have allready obtain'd by dint of Argument against him, though he may pos­sibly run away with the Triumph, and I had much rather lose so fair a cause as mine is, then gain a Scandalous Conquest, by succeeding in his

Victrix c [...]usa Deis placuit, sed victa Catoni.