THis Discourse which was intended to be spoken to your Lordship in our common Defence, con­taining a full and clear Representation of our Case, I do most humbly beseech your Lordship, of your love to Justice, to accept and consider, at your leisure, on our behalfs. I had not been so hardy to take the part of an Ad­vocate upon me, but that I knew nothing when I began to write this, and till I had well nigh finish'd it, of the other Side's appearing by their Counsel against us, and then it was not for me to pretend to enter the Lists with Men so used to Pleading, and so particularly Eminent and Learned in their Possession as they are: however having written it at first to satisfie my self and others as well as I could in the true Me­rits of the Cause we were ingaged in; I have presumed so far at this juncture, wherein our Affairs are hastening to their [Page] Crisis, as to publish and expose it to the open view of the World, because it may be there may be some things in it, which even the ablest Practiser of the Long-Robe, distra­cted by so many Avocations, and full of other Thoughts and Business, might have omitted.

These Two things I humbly conceive to be very plain in it, First, That the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London cannot restore the Ejected, whether Governors or Officers, without as plain and manifest a Dispensing Power, as that which even the late King assumed to himself; for if the Court of Aldermen may put out those at pleasure, whom the King by virtue of a Power given him by an ex­press Act of Parliament hath put into their respective Pla­ces, and if they may restore those whom he by the same Au­thority hath legally ejected, what is this but at pleasure to dispense with the Act it self? and to render such a Provisi­on in the King's behalf, as vain and fruitless as if it had never been made? What is it else but for the Court of Aldermen to challenge that exorbitant Privilege, as it's due, which is deny'd and barr'd by an express Act of Parliament even to Kings themselves, and all this for Causes so just and weighty, from the foresight of the Mischiefs which such a Power may produce, and from the Experience of those which it actually hath, that they carry their own Sanction included in them­selves, though no Act of Parliament to forbid or foreclose the Exercise of a Power so Arbitrary and Boundless in it self, and in its Consequences so pernicious and destructive had ever been enacted? And whether a Court comparatively In­ferior, however otherwise deserving a due Reverence and Respect from us, ought to be allowed to trample upon the just Authority of Kings, and to disappoint the true meaning and intention of the High Court of Parliament it self by any Order of theirs, is a thing that may deserve your Lordship's [Page] Consideration, and I doubt not, my Lord, but you will cer­tainly consider it to our advantage, and for the restraining of a dangerous Power, which may dispense with the whole Sta­tute Book, or with what part or parcel of it pleaseth, as well as with any one Law.

I know there are many very worthy Gentlemen in the Court of Adermen, that abhor the very thoughts of arrogating and assuming thus much to themselves, many that are well sa­tisfied with the necessary Regulations made in the Reign of King Charles II. in which they themselves were instrumen­tal, being thereunto commissionated under the Broad Seal of England, and that it is only those who are in truth no Al­dermen, that would be more than such, if they knew how.

The other thing, which to the best of my understanding, is every whit as clear as the former is, that if the Mayor or Court of Aldermen's Power (though it had been a legal Court of Aldermen, which the Act of Parliament hath declared at that time it was not) may over-rule the King's in our Case; then I cannot see that the Hospitals are his in any sense, his Power and Prerogative in them will be utter­ly destroyed, and he cannot so much as send a sick Seaman or Soldier into any of these Houses, without first asking leave of the City, which although, it may be, (especially in the pre­sent Circumstances) they would not deny him, yet it is infinitely beneath the Majesty of Princes to acknowledge or submit to a precarious Dependence, wherever it can be pro­ved they have a Right, even a private Person where he can make out his Title, would disdain to aceept of his own upon these terms, by holding it only du [...]ante beneplacito, by an uncertain, capricious and revocable Grant from another, and therefore it concerns all that love the Monarchy of England, and much more all those that are under more particular Ob­ligations to maintain and assert it, to see that its Honor and [Page] just Prerogative do not suffer in so important a Branch as this which concerns the Royal Hospitals, is, through the Mi­stakes and Encroachments of a few Men, that aim at a Pow­er, which they can never prove in the present Circumstances to be their due.

It is not their due in our Circumstances, who were put in by the King, by whom the very Persons whom they will needs restore were ejected, nor in theirs neither if it be true, that a certain Gentleman who takes much upon him, neither is nor ever was, since the avoidance of the Charter, a legal Ma­gistrate of this Renowned City, and that several Assessors in the Court of Aldermen, have as little right to the Bench, as he hath to the Chair, a Controversie, which in my small Opinion, the Parliament hath determined already, or if they have not yet done it so clearly as might be wished, yet in a short time it may be hoped they will.

In the mean while I cannot forbear saying, That I never saw less good Manners, less Decency, or less Modesty in the Management of a Cause, than I have done in this, our Ad­versaries have confess'd by an obstinate and stubborn silence after so many fair Challenges and repeated Provocations, not­withstanding all the Mercenary Pens that are always at their Service, that they have nothing to say for themselves, and that both in Law and Equity it is a very plain Case against them: but yet still they have a Confidence, not in their Cause, which they know to be very bad, but in their Pow­er, which they persuade themselves is greater than the Power of Truth, that is proof against all this, they are resolved upon their own Conclusion, and leave our naked Premises to shift for themselves. Poor Premises! so destitute and so friend­less, that even Hospitals refuse them Entertainment.

Nay, not only so, but when the Lords of the Council have been pleased to honor this little Cause of ours, little in its self, [Page] but in its Consequences great, and worthy that Sacred and Majestick Board, with their sublime and weighty Contem­plation, when they have referred the further Examination of it by an express Order made in that behalf to your Lord­ship's known Wisdom and untainted Justice, the result of which Enquiry is to be reported back again to them to put a final period and issue to it, which a Man would think in Reason should have put a stop to any further Proceedings on their part, while the Affair was depending, out of a dutiful Reverence and Regard to that awful Judgment and Decision that was expected, yet even now do they go on, as they have always done, with taking it for granted that they are in the right, even now doth Hughes, in contempt of every thing that is Great or Good, in Defiance to all the most solemn Orders of Suspension that can be made, and in Despite of his own recoiling and upbraiding Book, written against Plu­ralities and Non-Residence, before it happen'd to be his own Case, receive his quarterly Payments for doing nothing, while I have nothing but my labor for my pains; and while I have not wherewithal to defend their Majesties Prerogative, other­wise than with my Pen, which was a Reason of necessity why I should plead my own Cause, and why I intended to do it in the following Remonstrance; while I am intangled in Debt, and run into Extremities by a great deal of barbarous and unchristian Ʋsage: My Adversaries have the King's and the Hospital Revenues at their Service, to overthrow his Title and assert their own. So deeply rooted even in some that call themselves Church men is the love of a Common­wealth Interest, and a Dissenting Party; so great is the Me­rit of a Sermon dedicated to his Excellency the Lord Crom­wel, in defence of the worst Action that ever he did or could do by a Trooper formerly under his Command, by one that first fought against Monarchy with his Sword, then writ and [Page] preach'd and printed against it too, and was not content with Treason against the King without spitting his Venom against the Saint and the Martyr.

My Lord, If Ludlow were so severely and yet justly treat­ed by the Resentment of the House of Commons, and if his Majesty in Compliance with their humble Remonstrance and Petition was pleased to issue out his Royal Proclamation for his Apprehension for High Treason wherever he could be found above forty Years after that Regicide was committed; Ludlow, that had but one Hand, one Finger in that fearful Crime; Ludlow, that had but one Voice in that execrable Doom, past by the vilest of Traytors, and of Men upon the best of Kings. If he were forced to seek his Safety in his Flight; if he were necessitated to compound for a Life scarce worth the saving, after having lived so much beyond the com­mon periods of human Life, by a silent and voluntary Exile to Climes far distant from his native Country, to mountainous and barren Places, where Nakedness and Thirst, and Hun­ger reign, where Want and Beggery have their Habitation; then what doth he deserve who by defending all the Regicides in what they had done, by studied Blasphemies and elaborate Harangues upon so horrid a Subject, hath pull'd down the Guilt of them all upon himself, and hath contracted their di­vided Impieties into one, nay, hath done his utmost, which is worst of all, to persuade these Miscreants as much as in him lay, not to repent and be sorry for what they had done, and to encourage others to the like Attempts.

The Act of Grace, my Lord, that hath remitted the Pu­nishment, hath not made the Fault less heinous than it was before; it is plain that his Case was rather more heinous than any of the Judges; and it is very strange that this Man should be thought to have a Right to eat the King's Bread, when others in Circumstances scarce altogether so criminal as [Page] his, are forced in foreign Countries to beg their own, and glad that even that least and last of Liberties belonging to Man­kind is not denied them by the pursuit of Justice, and the Anger of a People barbarously robb'd of an indulgent Father, a Wise, Religious, Chast, Temperate, Just, Merciful, Mag­nanimous and Heroick King, which neither time nor distance are able to appease. Certainly the King hath either no power to visit, though never such Enormities be committed, though never such personal Affronts be put upon him, as it was in Mr. Hughes his Case, who preach'd and pray'd in this Hospi­tal as the King's Chaplain, when he was scarce qualified to breath in his Dominions, or to enjoy any benefit of a Subject; certainly the King's Hospitals are any bodies rather than the King's, or in this instance, at least, he might exercise his Power, this was an allowable Cause of Visitation.

If the Mayor and Commonalty of the City of London had had in this Case an Authority so wholly independent on the King, as that his Majesty could not by Law have interme­dled in any Affair relating to the Hospitals of the City, yet the disposal of the Officers of the said Houses, so as to retain and dismiss them at their pleasure, being wholly Arbitrary and unaccountable in themselves, without any remedy or appeal to an higher Power, or a superior Court; It must needs have appeared to have been very hard, if they who might have dis­mist a Servant or an Officer for no reason at all, would not have thought it reason sufficient to discard any Man, that the King was displeas'd at him, that he look'd upon him as dis­affected to his Person or Government, that he had been guil­ty of such things as had given just cause of Anger and Of­fence to his Majesty against him; and the Hospital being con­fessed on all hands to be a Royal Foundation, that Gratitude and Piety which was due to the Memory of the Royal Foun­der, would have obliged the Trustees in future Generations [Page] to have such regard to his Successors in the Throne, that his Request should be Sacred as to all those things which they might lawfully have done without it, not only without the actual assignment of a Reason, but without the inward Power of being able to give one, if it were demanded: if must be confessed in this Case, that it would have been a great Affront, an unpardonable Contempt of Majesty for Subjects to stand it out with their King, in a Matter wherein he thought his Honor interested and concerned, though he had nothing that could be called a Right; but when he himself by an Authori­ty superior to theirs, by his own Authority, by his Preroga­tive Royal, by a Right given and granted him by the Par­liament it self, hath displaced or ejected any Person in such Circumstances as these out of any Office or Employ­ment, whereof he stood formerly possessed; for a subordinate Power to pretend to restore such an one in desiance of his ab­solute and unaccountable Right, and in Contempt of the Rea­sons which he vouchsases to assign, for which he did it: this certainly is so insufferable, so insupportable, so full of the ut­most Indignity and Affront in Subjects to their Prime, that nothing can be more.

Disaffection to a Government, or Disobedience to it, are very good Reasons why a King should visit, wherever he hath a legal Power of Visitation, because the King is the Head of the Body Politick, and these are the greatest political Offen­ces that can possibly be committed, and he must be the Judge who are disaffected and who not, so far as concerns all Places of trust and profit in his disposal, wherein the present Occu­pants or Incumbents have only an Arbitrary, not a legal Te­nure, otherwise he can never visit at all upon any such ac­count, unless those to whom he must be supposed to be ac­countable in this Case shall concur with him in Judgment, that he hath good cause so to do, so that it is but the Court of [Page] Aldermen's first demanding his Reasons, and then pretend­ing to be dissatisfied with them; and he hath effectually lost his power of Visitation.

It cannot be denied, that all that were ejected in the late Visitation of King Charles II. were Dissenters, or at least so great Favorites of that Interest and Party, notwithstand­ing their Conformity in their own Persons, that they were rather more dangerous to the Government than the other: A Dissenter, as such, is one that separates from the Establish'd Worship and Communion for Conscience sake, which Consci­ence of his is either real or pretended; if it be only a pre­tended Conscience, this Man in plainer terms is what we call an Hypocrite and a Knave, he plays a Game of Interest, ei­ther to be reveng'd of an whole Party for the sake of some, against whom he hath conceiv'd an implacable Displeasure, or because he is of Opinion, and he may be extremely in the right so far, that it is for his advantage in point of Trade and Commerce to herd himself among the tender Consciences, and the Men of Scruples, though he inwardly despise and laugh at them all this while, or else he designs to furnish and enrich himself with the Spoils and Ornaments of Temples, and of Al­tars, and with the Revenues of a Church, which are the first and last of his Objections, and afford his covetous and ambi­tious Humor the best and the only Argument against it, or lastly, he is one that being deprest by the present posture of Af­fairs, and having a Mind too great for the meanness of his Fortune, will needs be shuffling the political Cards to try what new Game Confusion will produce: And it is all one to him whether he raise himself upon the Ruins of the Govern­ment, as it is by Law Establish'd both in Church and State, or upon terms of Honor and Advancement from it, by ma­king himself necessary to its Preservation.

These are four sorts of Hypocritical Dissenters, to which we might also add a fifth, that of a cross-grain'd and new­fangl'd Tribe, whose Humor leads them naturally to Con­tradiction and Strife; and who, for that Reason, are always against all things that have the publick Sanction on their Side; but that though there be nothing of Conscience and Tenderness in such an Humor as this, yet there seems to be a sort of Sin­cerity in a peevish Temper, which is inconsistent with Hypo­crisie and Dissimulation.

But there is also the weak Brother, the real and conscien­tious Separatist from the Church of England, who is sincerely of opinion that his Salvation lies at stake, and that he cannot comply with the Establish'd Worship and Service, without a wilful hazarding his everlasting Happiness in the World to come, and a perpetual pain and disquiet to his Conscience in this, the Peace of which, though he may be under a specula­tive Mistake, is that which he ought certainly to prefer before any worldly advantage whatsoever, and the pains of it con­tracted by a wilful Resistance of its inward motions, though his Ʋnderstanding all this while may be misled and corrupted by Prejudice and Mistake, are far more exquisite and sensibly tormenting than the utmost Punishments that Law makers can invent, or Laws denounce, or Wit and Cruelty in confederacy together can inflict upon him.

This sort of Dissenter therefore, as such I believe there are many to be found, is a very proper Object of [...] Pity and Com­passion from us, as the other, whenever he is openly detected, is of our scorn and hatred; but still we ought to be very cha­ritable and cautious in our Censures as to particular Persons, notwithstanding some failings, or wilful misearriages altoge­ther inconsistent with the Professions which they make, which they may have afterwards repented of, and we are to judge the best, without notorious Evidence to the contrary; for the [Page] Peace of the World, which is embroil'd, and endanger'd by a censorious and reproachful Spirit, and for the quiet of our own Minds which is strangely disturbed by angry and uncharitable Opinions of other Men; only this in general we may say of all the Parties among us, even those of the Establish'd Commu­nion not excepted, that while the belief and hope of another World, is every where pretended, it is the Enjoyment of this, and the Gratification of the Desires and Appetites belonging to it, that is every where chiefly sought after.

But of all Men there are none that may be more justly or more safely censur'd, than those that look one way while they row another, that pretend to be strict Members of the Nati­onal Communion, and yet make it their study under that dis­guise to do it all the mischief they can, and to encourage and abet the separating Parties in their Designs against it, for nothing is more plain than that this Man hath added Ma­lice to Hypocrisie, the most exquisite Hatred to the most pro­found and criminal Dissimulation, that he lies in wait to de­ceive, that he may the more securely destroy, without giving warning of the Blow before it comes, or owning so much as a sincere Enmity, or a frank and fair Intention of Revenge.

Now this is common to all the several Parties of Dissenters from our Church, and of those that favor and abet them in disguise, that they all aim at an Ecclesiastical and a Civil Commonwealth, and their Principles even among those that are most honest and conscientious in them, do naturally aim at the Subversion both of Church and State, as to the present Establish'd Constitution of them: for Church and State, tho they be two things, yet they both consist and are made up of the same Persons, and the nature of Government is the same in both, and it is an Agreement between the Modes and Forms of Government in the Ecclesiastical and Civil Ad­ministration, that makes each of these most firm, strong and [Page] lasting in it self, and also most useful and serviceable to the other.

It is certain, that he that in his Scruples is really Consci­entious, he that hath all that tenderness of Sense, that nicety of Palate in matters of Religion to which he outwardly pre­tends, he looks upon the Liturgy and Ceremonies by Law Establish'd, and upon the Hierarchy or subordinate Govern­ment of this wisely constituted Church, with all the Aversion which we have for Idolatry it self, or for the most gross and palpable Superstition of which the Church of Rome is guilty at this day. He that pretends the same Scruples but really hath them not doth all the same things, as to any outward appearance that the other doth; and his Thoughts not being busied about the other World, which he looks upon as a re­mote and an uncertain thing, (and perhaps observing the secu­lar Intrigues and Policies of all Parties, while Heaven and Conscience is every where pretended; he is the more harden­ed in his Contempt of every thing that is good or sacred) this Man's immediate and direct aim, without any respect to his Happiness or Misery in a future State, is at the Ruin of that Establishment, (for Reasons of Interest, or out of Envy, Pride, or a new fangl'd Temper, that is always un­easie under present things) from which he pretends to sepa­rate for Conscience sake. Lastly, he that in his own Person conforms to the Establishment, but in his practice under I know not what healing, uniting, and moderate Pretences, is always a fast Friend to the Dissenting Parties, making use of all the Power and Interest he hath to advance their Credit, and to encrease their weight in the political Balance; he is manifestly got into a triple League with the other two, and he is much the most dangerous Confederate of the three, because he is an Enemy in our own Quarters, an Adversary in the disguise and habit of a Friend, a Traytor that be­trays [Page] and crucifies with a Kiss, and makes a shew of great Zeal for the good of that Establishment, which he designs to ruin and overthrow.

There is nothing more certain than that all these several sorts of Men do agree at the long run at the Subversion of the Monarchy it self, or whatever they may say or suggest in excuse of themselves, or to palliate so foul and true an Accusation; yet it is certain in the Experience of this and other Nations: that the Monarchy cannot subsist where Prelacy is destroy'd; and I wish some new Experiment of Disciplinarian Princi­ples and Practices in our own Age may not further convince us of the truth of this, for we have Moses and the Prophets already, past Experiences do sufficiently assure us, what the Event of such Practices and Designs must be, where they have scope and liberty enough allowed them, and now I pray God those old Confusions may never rise from the dead to convince us, that the same Causes, the same Passions, Designs and Interests, let alone to themselves and pursued into their Consequences, will everlastingly produce the same effects.

Nay, in Reason, my Lord, as well as in Experience, there is nothing more plain, if we argue forward from the Cause to the Effect, than that the Demolition of the Hierarchy and its Dependences together with it, which all of them have their first Spring and Fountain in the Crown, must be the depri­ving it of so many Friends, and by Consequence of so much Power; it not only throws a powerful and certain Interest, as it were by way of scramble, among the People, but by dis­arming and disabling the circumvented Prince, whose true Greatness consists in the multitude of those whose Interest it must always be to be his Friends, it arms and sets up a Commonwealth Party against him at his own Charge, and we know in days of yore, when the Bishops were once gone, the next thing complain'd of was the House of Lords, and [Page] then the King himself was an insupportable Grievance, and all Orders and Degrees of Men amongst us, all that had ei­ther Honesty or Money and were dissatisfied with such Pro­ceeding, or were suspected or represented so to be, or had ap­pear'd in the defence of their Religion and Country were plundered, sequester'd, banish'd, and what not; as if the way to reform were to destroy, and the only means to make a Nation glorious and happy, were by oppressing it and tearing it in pieces.

But, my Lord, I shall not lanch out any further into these things, only what I have said was in order to shew the Rea­sons, why that Wise Prince and Excellent Person, King Charles II. made his Royal Visitation by his Commissioners under the Broad-Seal in this House, and why he thought fit to eject so many out of it, and to deprive them of all Inte­rest, Authority, or Concern in it, both among the Officers and the Governors themselves, because he knew many of them to be profest Dissenters, or which is all one, Enemies to Mo­narchy, and Friends to no political Interest but a Common­wealth; and he suspected others not to be so good as they should be, and his Suspicion must be allowed to be a very good Rea­son in Places at his own disposal, when himself is the Judge without controul or appeal of the fitness respectively of every Person for them.

He had Reigned very happily for many years, with uni­versal Peace and satiating Plenty, belov'd by his Subjects, and dreaded by his Neighbors round about, as Glorious and as Great in all respects as a great Fortune added to a great Mind could make him; and if we inquire into the Reasons of this wondrous Calm, those Halcyon Days, and Blessed Years that followed the Storms and Tempests of the late bar­barous and bloody Ʋsurpation, it can be imputed so proper­ly to no human means, as to his Restoring and Re-establish­ing [Page] the Church in its ancient Beauty, Order, Purity and Splendor, and to his asserting it and defending it against all its Enemies by good and wholsom Laws; but when for Rea­sons which I do not meddle with, and which I cannot approve, he thought fit to lay the reins upon the Dissenters Necks by a Toleration granted without Act of Parliament, and to let them take their full swing of liberty in Religious Matters, insomuch that the Parliament then thought it necessary, as well to as­sert their own Authority, and to quash this Attempt at a Dis­pensing Power, as for other Considerations, which they had before them, to get the Declaration of Indulgence cancell'd and withdrawn; yet from that time there was every where to be seen a virtual, though not an explicit and declared In­dulgence, and the numbers of Dissenters were every where so considerable, that if they were but kept out of all places of Trust and Consequence in the Kingdom; Reason of State might even then have required, that so numerous a Party should be considered as to the liberty of their Consciences, and as to the outward exercise of their Religion, with an Indulgence ratifi­ed by the Publick Sanction, upon which they might safely rely, and not have the Oppression of their Consciences, or the Fears of it, to urge for a Pretence to justifie or palliate Disobedi­ence upon any future occasion, but this, though it was not then granted, yet if it had, it would not have served the turn as ap­peared by this, that to get into Employments and Publick Trusts in the Kingdom, their Casuists had started a new sort of Divinity among them, and made it lawful to serve the In­terests and Designs of their Party, which can be nothing else when their Scruples are indulged, but the getting of the Go­vernment into their own hands, by telling them as to Oaths, which it was presumed by the Authority that enjoin'd them, such Persons would not take, that they were to be taken not in the sense of the Imposers, but of the takers themselves, and [Page] so every Oath was either altogether uncertain, that is vain and of no force at all, or it had as many Meanings as there could be private Interpretations made, or it was taken with the Proviso's and Limitations of the Casuists of the Party, who would be sure so to order the matter, as not to be exclu­ded out of any Office or Employment by any Oath or Test that could be put upon them: and as for Oaths, so also for the Sa­crament, they could not digest it upon every ordinary occasi­on, according to the usage and practice of the Church of Eng­land; but when the Receiving after that manner was made a Qualification for every publick Employment, then they di­stinguish'd very nicely betwixt the Religious Act and the Civil, or Political Qualification, they look'd upon it only as a civil Thing, a political Formality, a pre-requisite Agendum en­join'd by the Laws of their Country, in order to qualifie and prepare them, for their respective Offices and Employments, the better to serve their own Party, and to do mischief to the Government in them, without any regard to the Religious My­steries, comprehended under that awful and blessed Institution.

And as some did by occasional Communion, so others did by constant, and were great Zealots for the Establish'd Church, constant frequenters of the Divine Service and Sa­craments, only to let them into Opportunities, as appeared by the Event; For the tree is known by its fruits, di­sturb and overturn it, by favoring and abetting as much as in them lay all the Designs and Practices of the Separating Parties.

This being therefore an extraordinary Disease, to which no ordinary Remedies could be apply'd with success; for what can bind or tie up the hands of such Men whom nei­ther Oaths nor Sacraments are able to oblige. It was judg­ed by those that were then at the Helm of Affairs, that some extraordinary and unusual Course must be taken, to hinder [Page] these profligate and wicked Principles, so destitute of the fear of God, and so destructive of all Faith and Society among Men, from having those mischievous Effects upon the Pub­lick for which they were designed, and this at length ended in the seizure of so many Charters into the King's hands, and in his new modelling all Corporations at Discretion; displa­cing all such at his pleasure, as he had any proof of Disaffecti­on, or any ground of Jealousie against, and placing others in their stead, in whom he might better confide.

I shall not go about to defend the Legality of such a Course as this; if the necessity of it will not defend it nothing will, for that there was a necessity of something extraordinary at that time to be done is apparent, and what was done had really this good Effect, that the Government was generally speaking put into better hands, the Republican Faction were every where discouraged, and the Monarchy and Church were set upon a firmer bottom than they had stood upon for many Years before: so that if this turn of State were in it self illegal, yet it cannot be deny'd, but it had wholsom Effects; and what with this and the legal Penalties which were then re­vived, and the many excellent Discourses published by our Clergy, to satisfie the Scruples, and rectifie the Mistakes and Misapprehensions of the Dissenters; things were now arrived to a very great degree of composure, and the Schism was now in a very fair probability of moldering into nothing.

This present Parliament, however dissatisfied with such Proceedings, as supported barely by the King's Prerogative without any consent of theirs, and being look'd upon perhaps, as I am persuaded it was, as a design, among other things, to model Parliaments at the pleasure of the Court; and for that Reason such a general Disfranchisement of the Corpora­tions, must needs in its Example and Consequence at least be a thing very dangerous to the liberty of the Subject, as [Page] it proved afterwards in the late King's Reign, when the Corporations were put into the hands of Dissenters and Pa­pists: yet notwithstanding considering what sort of Men they were that were at that time put into publick Trusts, and how well the Corporations, as obnoxious to and dependent upon the Crown as they were, did afterwards acquit themselves in the beginning of the late King's Reign, by sending such Re­presentatives to Parliament, as approved themselves upon the severest tryals to be so true to the Establish'd Protestant Reli­gion, and to the liberties of the People, by refusing to revoke the Test and Penal Laws, and by a bold and generous dis­owning of the Dispensing Power, for which they were not on­ly dissolved, as unfit and unserviceable for the present turn, but also put out of all places of trust, honor, profit and power through the Nation; I say, for these Reasons, and out of a just respect to the Eternal Merit of so much Virtue, Integrity and Courage in a critical and dangerous Juncture; the Parliament were so well satisfied and pleas'd with them, that they would not suffer them to be call'd in question, and much less would they be persuaded to render them incapable of any future Service, for so many Years together, as would have put the whole Power of the Nation effectually into such hands, as in all likelihood would have alter'd the Government both in Church and State, and secured a perpetual Republick to them­selves.

It is our Saviour's own Rule, that a Kingdom or an House divided against it self cannot stand, not but that in this Kingdom or this House, there may be divers Opinions, and yet the Peace of them both may be maintain'd, either by Cha­rity on the one hand, or by putting the whole Power of this Kingdom or this House into the hands of one sort, who want not sufficient means to defend themselves, and to keep the rest from doing them or one another any considerable harm on the [Page] other; but where not only Opinions, but also Powers are divi­ded, where they that separate in Opinion from the rest, are sharers in the Civil Power together with them, there being no use of Power but for Defence or Annoyance, it is impossible but a divided Power must be proportionably weakened, but that Powers mixt that are imploy'd upon different Designs must pro­duce a dangerous Ferment, and that Powers divided and bent against each other must break and shatter one another's Strength; the Consequence of all which is, that when diversity of Opinions concerning matters of Religion or Government produceth State Factions and Parties in a Nation, there the Peace of that Nation cannot be preserved, but by putting the Civil Power entirely into the hands of one of them, and in this case that Party hath the greatest right, nay, it is a secun­dary Law of Nature, it is an Eternal Law of human Society supposing it once to subsist. that that Party should have the as­cendent over the rest, which by its strength and credit is the best able to preserve it self, and to protect the rest, and which the rest may live the most easily and happily under; but let it be how it will where there are several Parties, it is necessary for the quiet of the World, and for the end of Government which is Peace, that one Party should have the Government over the rest, and (besides the assu [...]ed hopes and expectati­ons of a future and a better Life,) upon this very political Principle it was, that the Primitive Christians endured the bit­terest Persecutions and the utmost Cruelties without the least thought of Resistance, it being better for the Civil Interest, and for the temporal Quiet and Happiness of this World, which good Men ought to prefer upon a publick Principle before any thing personal and belonging to themselves, that even the best of Men should suffer by Injustice, than that the State should be endangered or embroiled by a tumultuous Endeavor to free our selves from the Tyranny of the Laws, when ever they hap­pen [Page] to patronize the wrong side, as in many Countries they have always done.

Again, Where there is a Balance betwixt the contending Parties, or very nigh the matter, if we were to proceed by the Poll, there still it is a Law of Nature in the secundary Sense, it is a standing Law and Rule of human Society, that one of the Parties is to govern, the other to obey, because a mixture of both in places of trust and profit, will through the interfering Appetites and Designs of Men, and through the ridiculous and superstitious Fondness which most Men for want of Philosophy and Charity have entertained for their re­spective Opinions; it cannot fail but the Powers of such a Government will bulge upon each other and fall foul upon themselves. Its Laws and Edicts cannot have that force and efficacy which they should have, because such a Government hath divers Wills which cannot all be obey'd, and wants an uniform and steady Principle of Jurisdiction within it self, whereby to exact and force Obedience to its commands.

Where the Balance as to number is in a manner equal there the Party that is in Possession hath the right, because a real Possession of Offices of Trust and Profit, and which is more, of Arsenals, Magazines, and Places of strength, of Arms, Am­munition and Military Stores, and of the Ports and Naval Forces belonging to a Nation is such a vast addition of strength, though without number, to the one Party, that it is in vain and against the great Law of Self-Preservation for the other to contend: it is their truest Interest to submit to them, provided they may purchase their Safety by their Obe­dience, and that though they be excluded from any share in the Government, yet they are not deny'd the just liberties of Subjects, and have such a Security as may be depended upon for their Persons and Estates.

But here when I speak of Possession and of Right, I mean, such a Right and such a Possession as is Establish'd by Law, according to the usual Methods and Formalities by which the Laws of any Country are enacted, for all other strength be­sides this is not properly potestas but latrocinium; it is a perpetual State of Violence and Piracy upon the People, and they who have the Laws on their side, though they should want other defences, are naturally bold and daring, their Complaints and Remonstrances will be always more or less considered and reflected upon even by their Enemies them­selves, whereas a Party that useth force in Opposition to a legal Right, is always suspicious and timorous of it self, it hath always many Deserters that will be straggling from it, many secret Enemies harboring within its bosom, many Fears and Jealousies which rebate its edge and weaken its Resolu­tion, and rob it of that Trust and Confidence within it self, which is always of necessity required to its Preservation.

Lastly, In such a case where a Nation consists of several divided Parties, and one of them able to poise and balance all the rest, there that is the Party that for the safety of the whole, hath the most natural and unquestionable right to go­vern, and if to this natural Right, resulting from its weight and number, there be added a legal Possession of the Govern­ment; this strengthens the natural by a positive or civil Title, and is the same sort of Right by which every Man holds his own, and if its Frame and Constitution within it self be such, as gives it the greatest fitness to govern and to preserve the Peace and Tranquillity of a Nation; here is an intrin­sick Dignity and Worth belonging to it, added to the out­ward Circumstances of number and Possession, that finishes and completes this Right of presiding with Authority and Jurisdiction over all the rest, and gives the last strokes of Brightness and Perfection to it: Now this, my Lord, is ma­nifestly [Page] the Case of the legal Establishment of the Church of England, with respect to all the separating and dissenting Parties amongst us; First, In number it equals, nay, I hope it exceeds and over-balances all the rest; Secondly, It hath the publick Sanction on its side, and is put into the Possession of the Government by the Laws; and Thirdly, Whe­ther we respect its Principles which are mild and moderate, and have a noble mixture of the Gentleman and the Christi­an in them, or its Government which consists in a comely, beautiful and regular Subordination, in which Majesty, Pro­portion, and Strength, a graceful Hew, an healthful Con­stitution, a firm and well-compacted Organization are united; there can be no Establishment that is more fit to govern con­sidered in it self, or is more able in the first place to secure its own peace and safety, and in the next to diffuse and pro­pagate those blessings to all the several Parties of the Separati­on, by taking even those into its Guard and Protection, who will not admit of its more close Embraces, and refuse to be warm'd and cherished in its bosom, whereas if Power be in­differently lodged in Men of all Persuasions, it is impossible that any one Party should be safe, but the Vibration of Inte­rests by giddy and uncertain Motions, and the mixture of Powers that are at strise and enmity with each other, will make every party diffident of it self; apprehensive of its fel. lows, insatiably thirsty of the Sovereign Power, which only can free it of its Fears and Dangers, and will infallibly produce some publick and intestine Commotions, if seasonable and ef­fectual Remedies be not applied.

And as the Church of England is that Constitution, which is the best able to stand upon its own bottom, and to give Protection to the Parties dissenting from it, so is it also that Establishment whether we consider its Doctrine or its Go­vernment, its inward Sentiments, or its outward Polity, [Page] which is the truest Friend and Supporter of the Crown, it is that without which the Monarchy can no more subsist, than a Candle can burn without Flame, than a Lamp can be main­tain'd without Oil, or a Fire subsist without Heat; so that every Dissenter who envys at the Hierarchy, or endeavors to level the Ecclesiastical State into a new Model of his own or his Teacher's making, does by robbing the Crown of its best and most powerful Friends, its most faithful, steady and af­fectionate Champions and Defenders: leave it to the mercy of Republican Designs, and expose it to the Rage and Fury of the worst of Men; every Dissenter is either an Enemy to Monarchy, or he does not understand his own Principles, if he be not, (and this I believe to be the Case of very great numbers amongst them,) for his Principles and Models of Government in the Church will as certainly destroy and over­throw Monarchy in the State, as Fire will melt Wax, or Wa­ter extinguish Fire; So that I take a Dissenter and a Com­monwealthsman to be in a manner convertible terms, and that no considering Man can pretend with a safe Conscience that Episcopacy is unlawful, but he must own with the same breath that Monarchy is so too; for these two things will always have such a Connexion, that it will be impossible to separate the one of them from the other, neither can any Man who is a Friend to his Prince, be an Enemy to the Grandure of the Ecclesiastical State, though it were indeed much greater, and more invidi­ous than it is.

There is no one Party of the Separation that will pretend to vie Strength or Interest with the Church of England, but be­ing all united in confederacy together, and in favorable Jun­ctures to wicked. Designs and Men, when the People are dis­contented, the State is troubled, and Animosities are grown high, and in a manner incurable betwixt the King and his two Houses, they may and they have actually destroy'd and over­thrown [Page] it, as it happened in the late times in the troublesome and distemper'd Reign of King Charles I. but when that work is done, they cannot all Rule together, and they have no one Party that is fit to govern the rest; the Presbyterians who are perhaps the fittest to govern of all the Dissenting Par­ties were the first that leap'd into the empty Saddle, but they wanted an Academy to teach them to ride, for they could not sit long there, but were dismounted with Contempt and Scorn by the growing Interest of the Independent Party, the rigor of their Discipline would not be endured, the Meanness of their Persons was despised, and their whole Management was so distastful, that it hath made them odious to the best and wisest part of the Nation ever since, they wanted the two things without which it will be always impossible to govern; Sirength on the one side and Reverence on the other; to make amends for which defect, and to reconcile the People to the new Model, by making them Parts of the Building, and Sharers in the Administration of Ecclesiastical Affairs; the Lay-El­ders were called in, and they, as is usual for Men of Mechanick and frequently even sor did Education, when they are gotten into power, were the most insolent, intolerable and insupport­able People in the World.

[...] Presbytery either emergeth out of the state of Parity, which is a State of Force and Rigor, that hath no Reverence for its own Authority, and is uneasie under its own Bonds, into the noble and only natural state of an Episcopal Subordination; (for Government and Subordination, the several degrees of the one and of the other, and the Perfection of them both, are indeed but the same things under several and distinct Names,) or else it drops downwards into Independency, that is distinct and separate Assemblies without any common appeal amongst them all, which is the last and most imperfect state of human Society, whether in Sacred or in Civil Bodies, and is the next step to [Page] Confusion, if it be not Confusion it self, out of which, as from a Chaos, weary of it self and of its own dark, distracted and dis­ordered Nature, a new World of Beauty and of Order doth na­turally arise, and from the Inconveniences, the endless Troubles, the wild Enthusiasms, the mad and extravagant Perplexities and Tormoils of such a State; at length it comes to pass that the Spirit of God begins to move upon the face of the Waters and Light to flutter with uncertain motions, and with a gloomy and imperfect Beam, till Monarchy and Prelacy the two great Lights, the Sun to Rule the Passions and Appetites of the Day, the Moon to dispel the Ignorance and Darkness of the Night, begin to rouse their drooping and disconsolate Heads, as they did at the end of our late unhappy Confusions, and like the Phenix burnt in its own spicy Nest, to revive those Odors and retrieve [...] themselves into a new vigorous and fragrant Life, gaining new Strength, and Youth, and Beauty, from their Ruins: for this is, and will always be, the standing nature of things, that as order degenerates through carelessness or through design into Confusion; so Confusion must either end in absolute Destruction, or retrieve it self back again into necessary Order, and there being but two ways to keep Mankind in Obedience, that is, either by Force or Persuasion, Force is an uncertain and capricious thing, and where it conquers most, its conquest is imperfect, because it hath no empire over the Will, in the Obedience of which alone it is, that any Empire or Govern­ment is secure, and Persuasion without Force will scarce do so much as Force without Persuasion, amongst so many obsti­nate and perverse Wills as every Government is to work upon for its own Peace and Safety, but it is a willing Fear, a Fear mixt with Reverence and blended with Love, it is wholesom Laws enforced by a comely and subordinate dependence of all the parts of a Government upon each other, and recommend­ed by the greatness and dignity of the Persons with whom the [Page] Execution of them, whether in Sacred or in Civil Matters, is intrusted, it is a certain mixture by wise and just Proportions of these two Principles together, so as to render Disobedience not only unsafe, but also unreasonable and inexcusable too, and to enforce Obedience by the Beauty and Majesty, and wise Contexture of that Government to which it is pay'd, that when all is done is the only true Elixir of Life, and the best Expe­dient to make any Body or Community of Men both firm and happy, to secure it the most effectually from intestine Maladies, and external Dangers, and make it pleased and contented within it self.

That Form of Government is certainly the best, whether in Church or State, which gives the greatest Encouragement to Virtue and to Merit, and propounds the fairest hopes to great Minds, to animate and inspire them with an impatient Constancy in the pursuit of Praise, through all the Fatigues and Difficulties that attend it; and this without question is the subordinate Form, as well in Church as State, wherein a Scale of Honor is propounded, and every new step, as it is a Reward of past Endeavors, so is it a strong Incitement for the future, to go on in the same Courses with new and daily Im­provements of Wisdom and of Virtue to our lives end; this gives Authority and Reputation to a Church, and makes its Laws more easie by the Reverence which is paid to those with whom the Ecclesiastical Discipline is intrusted, it refines and sublimates, by the Example and Doctrine of its Teachers, the Genius of a Nation, whose true Pride and Ornament consists in the Exaltation of those Faculties, and in the Exercise of those Moral Virtues, by which we are Men, and by which we differ from the Beasts that perish.

That cannot be a true and perfect Constitution, where Learn­ing and Philosophy, for want of sufficient Encouragement in the Prosecution of them, are first of mere Necessity disregard­ed, [Page] (Mens Minds being sunk into a proportionable degree of Poverty with their Fortunes and their Hopes) and then by way of plea for Ignorance, decry'd; nor that where the unnatu­ral Rigors of Discipline are such that they destroy the true Free­doms, and innocent Divertisements of human Conversation, Nor lastly that, which by Hypocrisie or something very like it, by uncouth Formalities, and uneasie Affectations renders it self nauseous, to the best and wisest part of Mankind, to Men of the best Principles, and to the most candid and ingenuous Tempers belonging to a Nation, to the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom in particular, and to all the Men of frank and liberal Education, who will never endure that intolerable Yoak of Pharisaick Righteousness, and Saucy Rigor, that turns Men either into Hypocrites or Fools, and makes them look as if they were bewitch'd or enchanted, to sit upon their Necks, but will be sure to shake it off, and free themselves from under its in­supportable pressures with all the Indignation and Scorn which it deserves.

To conclude this matter therefore, the Church of England among all the several Parties and Distinctions that are amongst us, is singly and alone that Body of Men to which the Govern­ment of the rest is due, whether we consider the greatness of its numbers, the extent and wideness of its Interest and Power, the Wisdom and Moderation of its Principles and Doctrines, the Candor and more than usual Humanity and Ingenuity of its Members, the learning and universally acknowledged Merit and Dignity of its Pastors, the Strength and Beauty of its subordinate Constitution, its agreeableness to Monarchy, and to the Genius and Temper of the best and wisest part of the Nation among all Ranks and Qualities whatsoever; all other Parties may be shaded and protected by this and kept from annoying it or one another, supposing all Offices of publick Trust; and all things that belong to the Exercise of Power be put into [Page] its hands, but without it, it is impossible they should all be safe and scarce any one of them would be able to subsist, which thing if all the honest part of the Dissenters would seriously con­sider, they would be content, with the liberty of their Consci­ences, which without Necessity ought not to be denied them, that is, with all that liberty of Action and Profession in Re­ligous Matters which they do not abuse to the prejudice of their Neighbor or the Publick, without pretending to any share in the Government, which in a Monarchy cannot subsist upon their terms, but is greatly endangered, though but by a mix­ture of such, or their notorious Abetters in it, and if nothing but the Government will serve their turn, notwithstanding all the other Blessings and Privileges of Subjects, whether they be of a Temporal or a Spiritual Nature, which they are allowed to enjoy, they cannot in reason expect in this case to be treated as Men of tender Consciences, but of seditious Tempers, and as Disturbers of the publick Peace, which by such turbulent and ambitious Practices they go about to undermine, and to confirm us in an Opinion, which for my part I have always entertained concerning the Men of the best Parts and Abili­ties among them, that a Dissenter and a Commonwealths-man hardly differ so much as the two Amphytruoes or the two Sosiaes in Plautus; for they, though they were very like, yet they were not the same; neither in all this have I said any more than what the Wisdom and Authority of this present Par­liament will justifie me in, for they though they have granted an universal Indulgence to all the Protestant Denominations among us, yet they have not taken off those Tests, which will effectually secure all that are not openly false and treacherous to their own avowed Principles among them, from having any share in any Publick Trust, or in any matter of Poli­cy or State.

I have insisted the more largely upon this weighty Subject concerning the necessity of there being one Governing Party in a Nation, where there are several differing and disagree­ing with each other, as to their Sentiments in Religion, or as to their Notions of Government, whether by a Monarchy or a Commonwealth, that I might represent in as clear a Light as my Meanness would permit; the Reasons of State that moved that discerning Prince K. Charles II. to take so extraordinary and unusual Measures in the regulating and new modelling the Corporations of England; which being now confessed on all hands to have been very Ʋnwarrantable, Arbitrary, and Illegal, it hath derived no small Prejudice upon some other Affairs, which though legal in themselves, were yet not only consequent upon it in point of Time and Or­der, but perhaps if it had not been for the aforesaid Regula­tion, had never been transacted; and such the Visitation of the Hospitals seems to have been.

For my own part, my Lord, I am very clearly of Opini­on, that the Seizure and Avoidance of the Charters, and the almost forceable Surrenders that were made, however it might be done for Reasons of Publick Good, so far as the present Turn was concerned, yet in the way of doing it by the sole Authority and Prerogative of the Prince, through almost all Corporations, almost at the same time, it was altogether Arbitrary and Illegal, and that in its Consequences, as ap­peared sufficiently in the next Reign; it was pernicious and destructive to that very Design for which it was first made use of, when by the very same Power, added to that other of dispensing with Tests and Penal Laws, the Corporations were so regulated, that Papists and Dissenters were almost the only Men that were trusted or employed, and the Go­vernment of all Places was put into such Hands as the Law had expresly and sollicitously precluded from having any share [Page] in the Publick Administration; not that the Romanists had any such real Tenderness for the Dissenters, or that they on the other side by all the Caresses and Endearments in the World, could be brought off from their deserved Aversions to the Church of Rome; but in this common Design they both agreed, That the Church of England must down; and then a new Tryal of Skill would have succeeded, which of these two should be triumphant at last, and trample upon the other after all this Fawning and Friendship: the Romanists, who can never tolerate but when it is not in their Power to punish, relyed upon the Favor of the King, the Advantages of that Power and Interest that would be put into their Hands, and their then very formidable Alliances abroad; but yet the Dissenters still looked upon them but as an handful of Men, and thought at last by their Numbers to prevail: and this was plainly and manifestly the Game that was then played on both sides.

The Regulation of Corporations by the Quo Warranto's, must be acknowledged to have had a great deal of Arbitrary in it, because, as I have already hinted, it seemed to strike at the great Fundamental of the English Liberty, which con­sists so much in the Freedom of Elections for Burgesses to serve in Parliament; and by this means, if Corporations might be dissranchis'd and renewed according to the King's Pleasure, Parliaments might be molded according to the same. And there was also a particular Account upon which this Proceedure was very offensive and ungrateful to great numbers of Men; and that is, that it was designed to en­sure the Succession, without any Interruption or Exclusion to the next Heir, whose Religion was a Pretence with some, and a Reason of Conscience with others, for hindering his Ac­cession to the Crown; and this it did effectually do, there being few or none permitted to have any Power, or to make [Page] any Figure in this unprecedented universal Regulation, but such as had beforehand openly declared against any such Ex­clusion, and were zealous Asserters of the Monarchy in its old course of Descent: but it must always be owned, to the Ho­nor of those Gentlemen, generally speaking, all over the Na­tion, that bating the Authority by which they acted, which the Parliament have declared to have been Arbitrary and Illegal, and the Reason of the Thing speaks as much, yet as to their Actings themselves, or as to their Behaviour in their respe­ctive Charges, they shewed plainly, that what they had done was only out of an honest and an upright Zeal for the Pre­servation of the Monarchy in its true Line, in opposition to the Practices and Designs of Republicans and Dissenters, who were glad of any colour or shadow of a Reason, to inter­rupt, and as they thought, to weaken it, and render it more precarious by so doing, without any thought of Compliance with a false Religion, or of submitting themselves and their Posterity to the old Bondage of the See of Rome. And as one great Instance and assured Token of their Firmness and Con­stancy to the Religion establish'd, they sent us a Representa­tive like themselves, after all the Art and Industry used by Court Emissaries and Agents at the respective Elections in the beginning of the last Reign; a Parliament that could distinguish rightly betwixt God and Caesar, and was resolved to give to each of them their due; a Parliament that opposed vigorously the Dispensing Power, and stood up firmly to the Church and the Laws; and a Parliament that, as the Right Reverend my Lord Bishop of Salisbury in one of the six Papers that go under his Name, observes, made sufficient Amends for the Faults of their Election, by their personal Virtues, and by the Courage and Constancy which they shewed in the Defence of their Religion and Country: so that when the Point of Succession was now over by the immediate Heir's [Page] being actually in the Throne, and when they would not break in upon those Walls and Fences that had so long preserved this Paradise of England from the Revages and Incursions of the Boars out of the Wood, and the savage Beasts of the Desart and the Field, there was now no longer use of such Men, they were discarded and dissolved, as unfit for any future Ser­vice; and new Regulations, and of another sort, were at­tempted, in which none could be found so fit for the present Turn, as they that were formerly the most eager and clamo­rous for the Passing the Bill of Exclusion, the Commonwealth and the Dissenting Party, who more out of Hatred to the Church of England than Love to that of Rome, to which they were still more averse, made large Promises of revoking all those Tests and other Penal Laws relating to Religion, by which the establish'd Church was fortified and defended: and this was done, as it were, by way of Bargain between the two Parties; for the King would not annul the Penal Laws against Protestant Dissenters, unless the Tests and other Laws against Popish Recusants, might be abolished and abro­gated at the same time; and the Dissenters, great numbers of them, for I do not, I dare not charge them all, were content, upon this Condition, to let their new Confederates, the Papists, enjoy the same Freedom and Liberty with themselves, inten­ding after this, when they had destroyed the Church of Eng­land, to try what work they could make with their new Friends and Allies, which at the long run, and at the wind­ing up of the bottom, was manifestly the Design of both Parties upon each other; for the nature of things will never permit there should be a lasting Peace. betwixt Parties of Such different Interests, and of such fix'd and rooted Aversions on both sides; so that it must needs be plain to any Man that shall consider it, that the Dissenting and Commonwealth Party, who were generally the most hot for Passing the Bill [Page] of Exclusion, besides the just Aversions which they had to Po­pery, had an eye at the weakning of the Monarchy it self, which they thought by this means might be impaired, and that the other who were against it, had not the least thought of Pre­judice to the establish'd Religion, but rather acted, as they then conceived, for the Defence and Preservation of it, the Mo­narchy and the Establishment of the Church of England being so plainly bound up in each other: tho I deny not all this while, but many worthy Gentlemen acted in this Affair for the Excluding Side, out of no other Principle but a just Tenderness and conscientious Regard to their Religion and Liberties, and because they were of Opinion, the Monarchy was not like to run so great an hazard by one single Inter­ruption in the Succession to the Crown: and on the other side, the Non-Excluders, tho what they did was out of Rea­sons of Policy and State, and out of Principles of Consci­ence too; yet Time, the only true Judge of Controversies of this nature, hath at length taught them by an Experience much to be lamented and deplored, that there may be an Excess of Loyalty upon some Occasions, and that Princes of that Persua­sion are never to be obliged by all the utmost Services that can be done them, that they know no Gratitude, and can remem­ber no Kindness, but look upon all as unprofitable Servants that will not be Converts, as well as they have been Friends.

Now though nothing be more unskilful, if it be not unjust and wicked, than to tack the Avoidance of the Charters and the Regulation of the Hospitals so very close together, as if they had an inseparable Connexion with each other and were not to be parted, and to affirm, that the one being Arbi­trary and Illegal, the other must of necessity be so too; yet this is almost the only thing that is pretended against it; this is that that hath drawn such an Odium upon this latter Action for the sake of the former, that it is reckoned by all [Page] that have not, or cannot, or will not pry into the true state of the Case, among the Arbitrary Transactions of that Reign, and the Persons employed in the Service of these Houses, in the room of any that were [...]ejected from them, are blackned and branded by their Enemies for the sake of their Cause; we will allow them, that the first Hint of the aforesaid Regula­tions was taken from the seizure of the City Charter into the King's Hands, and that the Charter being voided, there was a necessity that the Hospitals, which were annexed to and incor­porated into the City, should be managed as the City was, by a more particular and immediate Commission from the King; but yet the King need not have made any Regulation all this while; and unless they can prove that the King might not have visited, though the Charter had been in full force and virtue, they do nothing at all, or at least nothing to the pur­pose; for if he might not have visited and made what Re­gulations he saw fit, in case the Charter had been standing, I would fain know what is the meaning of that Clause in the Act of Parliament of K. Hen. 8. which I have cited, or of that Reservation in the Grant of K. Edw. 6. ? but if he might visit though the Charter were still standing, then the Il­legality of the Seizure or Avoidance of the Charter, could by no means affect the Regulations that were made in these chari­table Houses, because they have another and a distinct Autho­rity whereby to defend themselves.

Again, if the Seizure of the Charters themselves, though it could not be justified by Law, and was defective and arbitrary as to the Authority upon which it proceeded; yet had such a Reason of Equity, or of Prudence, or Necessity, or whatever we shall call it, as did really reconcile, if not recommend it too, to some that were no Friends to Arbitrary Power, how much more reasonable was the Visitation made in this and other Houses, and the Regulations consequent upon it, when the [Page] King proceeded by virtue of a Power, which even the bitter­est Adversaries it hath must after all acknowledge to be his due; nay, what an Absurdity would it have been for him not to visit, where he hath such an unquestionable Right of Visita­tion, to expel those Enemies of his out of his own House that say in their Hearts, We are for a Commonwealth, and we will not have this Man to reign over us. For, turn a Dissenter, or an Half conformist, or a Favourer or Abetter of such, turn him forward and backward, topsy turvy, inside and out-side, set his Face towards Samaria, or set it towards Jerusalem, he is still the same Person all over, in every part and in every Position, a Commonwealth-man, and an Enemy to Monarchy, whether he knows it or designs it or no; and he differs no more under one Representation from what he is in another, any honest and fair Representation I mean, than the Southern and the Eastern Prospect of the same Building, which are all essential to, and constitutive of the whole, and are but several Parts of the same Aggregate or Commonwealth of Stones of which it is compiled. It is an hard Case that a King must be forced to accept of such to be his Governors or Officers and Servants in his House, that are all of them Ene­mies to his Government in their Notions, and most of them in their Designs; and if he be not forced to submit to these extravagant terms, so that Governors of a Feather shall chuse one another by consent, and shall administer the Affairs of the House whether he will or no, and shall call Committees if they please, of a select number, to plot against the Go­vernment, under pretence of doing the Business of the House; I say, if he be not thus forced, but may be Law discard either Officers or Governors at his Pleasure, then it is plain, that they who pretend to restore the very Persons that were so eje­cted, do assume to themselves a Dispensing Power in no less than five several Respects, which is enough in all Conscience for Subjects to do.

First, They dispense, and whether the King will or no; whose Authority first gave the Sanction to the Law, with that Clause of the Act of King H. 8. by which the King and his Successors for the time being, were for ever invested with a Power and Right of Visitation and Redress, by rendering that Clause altogether fruitless, insignificant and vain.

Secondly, They dispense with the Reservation in the Grant of King Edward VI. by which after all his Concessions to the City of London, he still reserved this Power and Right to himself and to his Successors in the Throne for ever.

Thirdly, They dispense with that particular Clause in the said Grant, whereby a fit and convenient Minister is provi­ded to celebrate Divine Services, and administer the Sacra­ments and Sacramentals to the Poor and Officers, and Mini­sters of the said Hospital and House; for by that fit and con­venient Minister, I have undeniably proved in my Appendix to the Queries upon the Statute of H. 8. That a Clergy-man of the Church of England according to Law was intended, and the same must be understood of the Officers of the House, to whom the said Hospitaller cannot otherwise administer the Sacraments and Sacramentals, nor celebrate Divine Services in their presence and hearing, as King Edward required they should do; but as for the Poor indeed it is another Case, there is an occasional Dispensation certainly included in the na­ture of the thing, for it does by no means follow, because a Man cannot bring himself to be of our Persuasion, that there­fore his Necessities must not be relieved, his Wants supplied, or his Diseases, Wounds, or Ailments cured, but for Officers and Servants there is no color of excuse in so great Choice of fit Persons to be found; and if not Officers of a Dissent­ing Party, then it follows plainly, nor Governors neither, because such Governors will always abuse their Trust in favor of that Interest and party to which they belong, and they will think themselves bound to contravene and disap­point [Page] this Provision of King Edward even for Conscience sake, to propagate and encourage that which they esteem the only true Profession of the Gospel, and to discourage that For­mality and Superstition of ours, which they so loudly and so pas­sionately, and in their own Thoughts so deservedly complain of; nay, if we add Experience to Reason and conjecture, we know by long Experience, that they have always acted according to these measures.

Fourthly, They dispense with the qualifying Act of the 25 Car. 2. as I have proved sufficiently in the following Pa­pers, it is Sir Edward Hales his Case, the Bishop of Oxford's Case, the Charter House Case, and the whole Magdalen Col­lege Case, as exactly as any thing can be, only with this Aggra­vation, which makes it so much the worse, that it is a Power exercised by Subjects, not by Kings, by Subjects in contempt of the just Power and Prerogative of their Prince, by Subjects in derogation to the standing Laws of the Realm, and in defiance both of King and Parliament together.

Fifthly and lastly, They dispense with the late Act for re­versing the Judgment in a quo Warranto, &c. for by that Act, or I am much mistaken, after having very seriously consi­dered it, the present Lord Mayor, commonly so call'd, and several of his Collegues and Assessors upon the Bench are de­clared not to be, and never to have been legal and rightful Lord Mayor and Aldermen of this City so that the Governors and Officers pretending to be restored, holding by no other Authority but theirs, and there not being a Majority in that Court without them: There is nothing more certain than that they hold by nothing, which is hardly so good as a drown­ing Man by a Reed, and yet he must drown for all that.

For my part, I must be frank and clear with your Lord­ship and the World, that it seems to me a great Scandal to the Government, it casts a Blemish of Dishonor, and Re­proach of Weakness and Infirmity upon the Supreme Power [...], [Page] when its Enemies, such as are at least virtually and conse­quentally, if not actually so, shall be suffered to swagger and domineer, with the blustring Title of Governors, to which they have no Title, though they behave themselves of all Men the most imperiously and proudly under the lofty Imaginations that it puts into their weak Heads, in a place where the King hath a legal and rightful Visitation, and it is a further dishonor in this Case, where they can make out no Title to so proud a Word, that his Friends and Servants shall be affront­ed and curb'd, after having had the Improvements of a polite and liberal Education, by every little thing that hath neither Parts nor Breeding, merely because it presumes to call it self a Governor, though it knows not how to govern it self, and is hardly qualified to be Governor of Jack Strawe's Castle, but yet is [...] as full and as big swell'd with the title, as if it were indeed the Governor of some mighty Fortress, that had a powerful Garison at its Devotion, and the Country for twenty or thirty Miles round under Military Contributi­on, and if the King of the Country, by whose only Power and Authority he acts, should pretend to visit or call him to an account; he could immediately set him and his Army under Water, and so farewell to Pharaoh and his Host, for all are Aegyptians to the Dissenters and Commonwealths-men but themselves, they are the only true Israelites when all is done, and they make no bones of stealing this Crown Jewel of a Pre­rogative to visit from an Aegyptian King, or indeed any King whatsoever, for no King comes amiss, they love them all and their Prerogative so well.

My Lord, I do humbly propose it to your Lordship's Con­sideration, that it is not only a dishonor to their Majesties, that any of their Charities should be wholly managed by Men of a Republican Principle and Party, but that the Peace of this Housecan never be secured, unless we be all of a Mind, as well the Governors as the Officers and Servants, true and [Page] hearty Communicants of the Establish'd Church, and such as have given such proofs of Conformity and Steadiness to the Government both in Church and State, as the Law requires; then, and not before, it is that we may expect to see happy Days, if it be possible in a miserable Place, and in the midst of Sickness and Diseases; not till then it is that the Affairs of this House, disturbed by mutual Animosities and intestine Broils, will go on with an even and successful Pace, to the Credit of the Government, and to the utmost Advantage of the Sick and Wounded.

My Lord, I humbly beg your Lordship's Pardon for this very long, this unexpectedly long preliminary Address; I shall add but two things more, and that very briefly, and so con­clude. My Lord, What are these Gentlemen that will needs make themselves Parties, and will needs be Defendants in this Cause against us? The Plaintiffs certainly know best who it is by whom they are aggrieved, and they complain of none but of Sir T. P. the pretended Lord Mayor, and those of his Brethren that have concurred with him for the displacing of those whom K. Charles II. by an undoubted Prerogative in­herent in the Crown sent hither, and for the restoring of those whom he by the same Right hath ejected. I have nothing to say to Hughes, as to the Money that hath been paid him; but I must expect my Satisfaction from those by whose Order it was done; and they, if any, are the Defendants in this Cause. And here there are two Points to be insisted upon: first, Whether the Court of Aldermen, at the passing of those Orders, were a legal Court? or, Whether it be so or no to this very day, till it be purged of those that have nothing to do to sit there, and till the Number be filled up by those that are better qualified to take the Stile and Dignity of Aldermen upon them? Secondly, The King's Power of Visitation being [Page] acknowledged, as we are ready to prove it undeniably, if it be disputed, whether even a legal Court of Aldermen can re­scind the legal Act of the King, in an Affair that lies so plainly and so properly within his Royal Cognizance and Vi­sitation. But as for these Gentlemen that call themselves Governors, and will by all means be Parties under that Name and Notion, who are they? Are they not all, or the much greatest part of them, the very same Men that were ejected by K. Charles II.? so that their Title to the Stile and Office of Governors of this House, is a thing every whit as much disputed, and for the same Reason, as that of any of the Officers pretending to be restored? How then comes it to pass, that they so confidently presume to act as the De­legates or Attorneys of this House, and to appear before Your Lordship as a Representative of the whole Body of Governors in its behalf, when yet all this while it is a very great Que­stion, whether they do really belong to it or no, and a Que­stion that cannot be resolved in their Favour, as I humbly conceive, without the Admission of a Dispensing Power in Men that never pretended to it till now, and that decry it in Princes themselves. But they appear in the Hospital Behalf, and they were to be commended for their Charity to appear in the Behalf of a charitable Foundation, to rescue it from Abuses, and to assert its Rights, if they did all this at their own Charge; but it is their Majesties and the Hospital that must pay for all this out of the Hospital Stock, though the Design be nothing else but to overthrow the Royal Preroga­tive, and to clip the Wings of the Imperial Eagles: but this is the Commonwealth Notion of the Liberty of the Subject, the Destruction of the Rights and Prerogatives of Kings.

But secondly, my Lord, as the best refuge which our Ad­versaries have in a very shameless and defenceless Cause, they are pleased to say, that our Orders from the Commission run [Page] only during pleasure, and that that pleasure and its effects are extinct, the one of which we grant, the other we deny, for the pleasure of that Court was the pleasure of the King, who ne­ver dyes, though he may recal what he hath done by a new Commission or by a new and further Declaration of his own will, but for an inferior Court, whose Abuses were intended to be corrected, to renew and act over again the same Abuses, and to restore the very same Persons and Powers that were dis­carded, upon pretence that the pleasure of the Commission, which they never withdrew by any act of theirs is extinct by their Dissolution, is to render the King's Power of Visitation, a thing so extremely mean, little and contemtible, and besides to cast a Blemish either of Ignorance, or which is a greater dishonor, of injustice upon him that it is plea not to be endured; and I am sure it scarce deserves an Answer. If the Governors had chosen an Officer upon a Competition, and and the odds had been thirty and thirty one, or any other number making only one difference; it is certain it he odds had carried it; but suppose within a day or two, two of the thirty one had died or resigned their Staves as Governors of the House or in this Case it is certain, that the pleasure of the thirty one, had been extinct, in the same Sense that that of the Commissioners is pretended to be, and then the Will of the thirty still supposed to be surviving must have prevail­ed, and the Officer chosen by the thirty one, ejected to make room for him that was chosen by the thirty, which is flat and clean contrary to the Course and Practice of all Elections, and is a sufficient Idication, that the Legality of such Acts when they are done, derives a Validity upon them, even in Arbitrary Dependences sor the time to come, unless they be repealed by a superior or at least an equal Authority, and the nature of Justice and Morality require that it should be done likewise for equitable Reasons; and if [Page] the Act of Parliament for the reversing the Judgment, hath confirm'd all those Acts during the avoidance of the Charter, which would have been legal, had the Charter stood, how much more might those Acts to be esteem'd valid, which have also a legal Foundation, as this Commission manifestly had, so far as the Hospitals were concern'd, whether the Charter had been seized or no?

My Lord, It is rather the King and Queen are the Plain­tiffs in this Cause than we, it is their Eternal Prerogaiive, more than our Temporary Interest that is concerned, and it is plainly a Contest and a Struggle betwixt a Common­wealth-Faction, and the Monarchy and Crown of England. I shall detain your Lordship no longer from the perusal of the following Memorial, but humbly beg leave to write and subscribe my self, My Lord,