laws, by which the king came to his crown; and no otherwife to the king, than whilft he fhould act according to thofe laws, that "the common People," that is, the houfe of Commons, fhould choofe; (quas vulgus elegerit.) For it were folly to alter the phrafe of our law, and turn it into more genuine Latin. This clause (quas vulgus elegerit) which the commons fhall chooie, Charles before he was crowned procured to be razed out. "But," ay you, "without the king's aflent the people can choofe no laws;" and for this you cite two ftatutes, viz. Anno 37 H. VI, Cap. 15, and 13 Edw. IV, Cap. 8: but thefe two ftatutes are fo far from appearing in our ftatute-books, that in the years you mention neither of those kings enacted any laws at all. Go now and complain, that thofe fugitives, who pretended to furnish you with matter out of our ftatutes, impofed upon you in it; and let other people in the mean time ftand aftonished at your impudence and vanity, who are not ashamed to pretend to be thoroughly versed in fuch books, as it is fo evident you have never looked into, nor fo much as feen. And that claufe in the coronation oath, which such a brazen faced brawler as you call fictitious, "The king's friends," you fay yourself, " acknowledge, that it may poffibly be extant in fome ancient copies, but that it grew into difufe, because it had no convenient fignification." But for that very reafon did our ancestors infert it in the oath, that the oath might have fuch a fignification as would not be for a tyrant's conveniency. If it had really grown into difufe, which yet is moft falfe, there was the greater need of reviving it; but even that would have been to no purpofe, according to your doctrine: "For that cuftom of taking an oath, as kings now a days generally use it, is no more," you say, "than a bare ceremony." And yet the king, when the bishops were to be put down, pretended that he could not do it by reafon of that oath. And confequently that reverend and facred oath, as it ferves for the king's turn, or not, must be folemn and binding, or an empty ceremony: which I earneftly entreat my countrymen to take notice of, and to confider what manner of a king they are like to have,

if he ever come back. For it would never have entered into the thoughts of this rafcally foreign grammarian, to write a difcourfe of the rights of the crown of England, unless both Charles Stuart now in banishment, and tainted with his father's principles, and thofe profligate tutors that he has along with him, had induftrioufly fuggefted to him what they would have writ. They dictated to him, "That the whole parliament were liable to be proceeded againft as traitors, because they declared without the king's affent all them to be traitors, who had taken up arms againft the parliament of England; and that parliaments were but the king's vaffals: that the oath, which our kings take at their coronation, is but a ceremony:" And why not that a vaffal too? So that no reverence of laws, no facrednefs of an oath, will be fufficient to protect your lives and fortunes, either from the exorbitance of a furious, or the revenge of an exafperated prince, who has been fo inftructed from his cradle, as to think laws, religion, nay, and oaths theinfelves, ought to be fubject to his will and pleasure. How much better is it, and more becoming yourfelves, if you defire riches, liberty, peace, and empire, to obtain them affuredly by your own virtue, induftry, prudence, and valour, than to, long after, and hope for them in vain under the rule of a king? They, who are of opinion that these things cannot be compaffed but under a king, and a lord, it cannot well be expreffed how mean, how bafe, I do not fay, how unworthy thoughts they have of themselves; for in effect, what do they other than confefs, that they themfelves are lazy, weak, fenfelefs, filly perfons, and framed for flavery both in body and mind? And indeed all manner of flavery is fcandalous and difgraceful to a freeborn ingenuous perfon; but for you, after you have recovered your loft liberty, by God's affiftance, and your own arms; after the performance of fo many valiant exploits, and the making fo remarkable an example of a moft potent king, to defire to return again into a condition of bondage and flavery, will not only be fcandalous and difgraceful, but an impious and wicked thing; and equal to that of the Ifraelites, who for defiring to return to the Egyptian flavery

But

were fo feverely punished for that fordid, flavish temper of mind, and fo many of them deftroyed by that God who had been their deliverer. But what fay you now, who would perfuade us to become flaves? "The king,' fay you, "had a power of pardoning fuch as were guilty of treafon, and other crimes; which evinces fufficiently, that the king himfelf was under no law." The king might indeed pardon treafon, not againft the kingdom, but againft himfelf; and fo may any body elfe pardon wrongs done to themfelves; and he might, perhaps, pardon fome other offences, though not always. does it follow, because in fome cafes he had the right of faving a malefactor's life, that therefore he must have a right to deftroy all good men? If the king be impleaded in an inferiour court, he is not obliged to anfwer, but by his attorney does it therefore follow, that when he is fummoned by all his fubjects to appear in parliament, he may choofe whether he will appear or no, and refute to anfier in perfon? You fay, "That we endeavour to juftify what we have done by the Hollanders example;" and upon this occafion, fearing the lofs of that ftipend with which the Hollanders feed fuch a murrain and peft as you are, if by reviling the English you thould confequently reflect upon them that maintain you, you endeavour to demonftrate "how unlike their actions and

ours are." The comparison that you make betwixt them I refolve to omit (though many things in it are moft falfe, and other things flattery all over, which yet you thought yourself obliged to put down, to deferve your pention. For the English think they need not allege the examples of foreigners for their juftification. They have municipal laws of their own, by which they have acted; laws with relation to the matter in hand the beft in the world: they have the examples of their anceftors, great and gallant men, for their imitation, who never gave way to the exorbitant power of princes, and who have put many of them to death, when their government became infupportable. They were born free, they stand in need of no other nation, they can make what laws they pleafe for their own good government. One law in particular they have a great veneration for,

and a very ancient one it is, enacted by nature itself, That all human laws, all civil right and government must have a refpect to the fafety and welfare of good men, and not be fubject to the lufts of princes. From hence to the end of your book I find nothing but rubbifh and trifles, picked out of the former chapters; of which you have here railed fo great a heap, that I cannot imagine what other defign you could have in it, than to prefage the ruin of your whole fabric. At last, after an infinite deal of tittle-tattle you make an end, calling God to witnefs, that you undertook the defence of this caufe, not only becaufe you were defired fo to do, but becaufe your own confcience told you, that you could not poflibly undertake the defence of a better." Is it fit for you to intermeddle with our matters, with which you have nothing to do, becaufe you were defired, when we ourselves did not defire you? to reproach with contumelious and opprobrious language, and in a printed book, the fupreme magiftracy of the English nation, when according to the authority and power that they are intrufted with, they do but their duty within their own jurisdiction, and all this without the leaft injury or provocation from them? (for they did not fo much as know that there was fuch a man in the world as you.) And I pray by whom were you defired? By your wife, I fuppofe, who, they fay, exercifes a kingly right and jurifdiction over you; and whenever he has a mind to it (as Fulvia is made to fpeak in that obfcene epigram, that you collected fome centoes out of, Pag. 320) cries,

Either write, or lct us fight;" that made you write perhaps, left the fignal fhould be given. Or were you afked by Charles the younger, and that profligate gang of vagabond courtiers, and like a fecond Balaain called upon by another Balak to reftore a defperate caufe by ill writing, that was loft by ill fighting? That may be; but there is this difference, for he was a wife understanding man, and rid upon an afs that could speak, to curse the people of God thou art a very talkative afs thyself, and rid by a woman, and being furrounded with the healed heads of the bishops, that heretofore thou hadft wounded, thou feemeft to reprefent that beaft in the Re

velation.

velation. But they fay, that a little after you had written this book you repented of what you had done. It is well, if it be fo; and to make your repentance public, I think the beft courfe that you can take will be, for this Yong book that you have writ, to take a halter, and make one long letter of yourfelf. So Judas Iscariot repented, to whom you are like; and that young Charles knew, which made him fend you the purie, Judas his badge; for he had heard before, and found afterward by experience, that you were an apoftate and a devil. Judas betrayed Chrift himfelf, and you betray his church; you have taught heretofore, that bishops were Antichriftian, and you are now revolted to their party. You now undertake the defence of their caufe, whom formerly you damned to the pit of Hell. Chrift delivered all men from bondage, and you endeavour to enflave all mankind. Never queftion, fince you have been fuch a villain to God himfelf, his church, and all mankind in general, but that the fame fate attends you that befel your equal, out of defpair rather than repentance, to be weary of your life, and hang yourself, and burft afunder as he did; and to fend before-hand that faithlefs and treacherous confcience of yours, that railing confcience at good and holy men, to that place of torment that is prepared for you. And now I think, through God's affiftance, I have finifhed the work I undertook, to wit, the defence of the noble actions of my countrymen at home and abroad, againft the raging and envious madnefs of this diftracted fophifter; and the afferting of the common rights of the people against the unjuft domination of kings, not out of any hatred to kings, but tyrants: nor have I purpofely left unanswered any one argument alleged by my adverfary, nor any one example or authority quoted by him, that feemed to have any force in it, or the leaft colour of an argument. Perhaps I have been guilty rather of the other extreme, of replying to fome of his fooleries and trifles, as if they were folid arguments, and thereby may feem to have attributed more to them than they deferved. One thing yet remains to be done, which perhaps is of the greatest concern of all, and that is, That you, my countrymen,

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refute