THE PREROGATIVE OF THE MONARCHES OF GREAT BRITAIN, ASSERTED According to the Ancient Laws of ENGLAND.  
ALSO, A Confutation of that False Maxim, that Royal Authority is Originally and Radically in the People.  
By Bartholomew Lane, Esq  
LONDON: Printed for William Bateman, at the Kings-Head, in the Old-Change, 1684.   

TO THE READER.  
THe Laws and Constitutions of Kingdoms and Commonwealths have ever been esteemed by those happy Subjects whose lot it hath been to be governed by them, as the most Precious and Sacred Treasure wherewith the Divine Bounty had Enriched them, and therefore they would as soon have been prevailed upon to part with their Lives as their Laws, and among all those Nations whose Monarches are truly Royal, and whose happy Subjects are Ruled and Governed by the Unerring Precepts of Equity and Law, England is yet the most happy, and challengeth the Precedency above the rest of her Neighbours, for the Constitutions of her Government are the best in the World, being no Absolute, Arbitrary, or Despotic Tyranny, wherein the Will and Pleasure of the Prince disposeth of the Lives and Fortunes of his miserable Vassals; nor is it an Oligarchy wherein the Nobles and those who bear sway, like the larger Fish in the Ocean, prey upon, and live by devouring the smaller, and raise themselves to Wealth and Grandeur by the Oppression and Ruin of their Inferiors; nor yet is it a Popular Democracy, or a Confused Anarchy, but the Law maintains the Sovereign's Dignity, and yet secures the Subject's Liberty. It is by the Law that the King is enabled to govern and dispose of all things with a Royal Sovereignty, and free from any kind of Arbitrary Severity, & thereby obliged the People to a willing subjection without force or compulsion; and the same Laws by uniting the Interest of the Prince who governs by that of the People who are governed, hath so firmly knit and tied them together, that the happiness of the one is inseparably wrapped up and Involved in the good of the other, so that Majesty may be maintained in its just splendour, and the Royal Prerogatives of the Crown preserved from any kind of Diminution, and yet the Liberty of the Subject be secured, and Property no way infringed or violated, and thereby approves itself to be the best security of both, and that when it is trampled under Foot, and violated, neither the one nor the other is safe.  
And that which still augments the excellency of our Constitution, and renders it the most happy, desirable thing under the Sun, for the Prince to govern, and the People to be governed by Law, is its exact agreement with the dictates of Heaven, and the resemblance it bears to the Original of all Government. For the Supreme Monarch and Sovereign of the Universe governs his Subjects by Laws, clearly stating and ascertaining the Duties commanded, and the Crimes forbidden, together with the rewards of the one, and the purishments of the other.  
And as those Sacred Precepts whereby the Almighty rules his Subjects are all of them designed for, and directly tend to the Honour and Glory of God, who is the Lawgiver, so they are as properly designed for, and have as direct a tendency to the present good and felicity, and the fortune, happiness and glory of Mankind who is to yield obedience to them, and the honour of the Sovereign and the happiness of the Subject are thereby so inseparably united, that one and the same Act of Obedience effects both, and the same act of Rebellion reflects dishonour upon the Sovereign, and merits punishment to the disobedient Subject; so our Wise Legislators in the composeing of our Laws, have so contrived them, that by the very same act of Subjection whereby we manifest our obedience to them, we bring happiness and safety to ourselves, as well as yield honour and homage to our Prince, as is more fully proved in the following Tract, wherein you'll find a brief account of the Laws and Customs of most Nations, and a Convincing Demonstration from the most Authentic Historians, that those Countries have ever been the most happy and flourishing whose Prince have ruled, and whose Subjects have obeyed by Law.  
J. N.   

IT has been always the Great Happiness of this Nation, even as far as we can pierce into the dark and obscure Coverts of Antiquity, to have been famous for the Equity and Justice of her Princes: and that from such most wise and prudent Legislators, she has received the chiefest of her wholesome Laws, according to the Temper and Genius of the People. So that although perhaps some few in the long successive Series of her Monarches, may have aspired to absolute and  Dominion, yet the Opposition which they met with from the provident Establishments of their Predecessors, would in no wise suffer them to be successful in their Attempts; and others, tho' perhaps meaning no better than the worst, have thought it no imprudence not only to confirm those ancient and wholesome Laws of their Ancestors, but to make some new additions of their own, to rivet themselves into the favour of the People, as being otherwise obnoxious to those Violences incident to Usurpation and a crazy Title. Which as it was their Wisdom to do, so was it an Excellency in their Government far longer lived, and much more beneficial to the Public than the Peccadillio's of their Ambition could be prejudicial to private Interests. For all good Laws are the Honour and Renown of them that frame them, whether out of real, or out of seeming Virtue and Affection to the People.  
Yet some there are, perhaps, that may despise the Generous Constitutions of their Native Country, believing nothing superexcellent, but what is Foreign. But they are not to imagine there is the same judgement to be made of Governments, as of Diet and Habits; besides, that it is the Fate of English Travellers to be very unhappy in their Observations of things of Moment: Neither is the Insight into Government to be travelled for only into France, or Italy, or Spain, nor to Jerusalem neither, unless it were the ancient Zion; but into History and approved Authors, where is to be seen the Reasons of the Periods and Dissolutions of Boundless Empires, and the Causes of the Revolutions and overturnings of Potent Commonwealths.  
That Law and Government are of Celestial Extraction, is a Dispute which will admit of no Controversy. For no sooner Man committed a Transgression, but Nature, which is that Reason which Man at first derived from the benignity of his Maker, soon informed him he had done amiss. And no sooner was Mankind multiplied into Numbers, with disparity of Parts and Genius, Temper and Humours, but the same Nature taught them the necessity of Rule, and the Benefit of Subjection. I say these things were instilled into the Breasts of Men by Nature, and not by the growing Experiences which one day prompted by another perceived, and concluded to be the only Remedies of the Evils they sustained. Those Conjectures therefore of Tacitus and Livy are altogether to be laid aside, who tells us of the Simplicity and Virtues of the first Ages of the World, and that the most ancient of Mortals co-habited without inordinate Desires, free from Villainy and Impiety, and so not under fear of Punishment or Coercion; and that there was no need of reward, when every one voluntarily pursued the Tracts of Virtue, and void of all extravagant Desires, required no restraint of their Excesses. These were only florid Conjectures: For it is apparent from authentic History, that Violence and Treachery entered the World when there was yet but the small number of Four, and of them, the one that slew, and the other that was slain. Of which the Tyranny and Cruelty of Lamech being no less an immediately ensuing Instance, they both afford an emergent Evidence, that they were not ignorant of the Enormity of the Facts they had committed, as convicting themselves by that Law of Nature which inwardly upbraided them for having so highly transgressed. So though in part it might be true, that Luxuriant Dominion and Injurious Violence, when just Equality and Modesty grew out of date, enforced the necessity of Laws, yet does it not appear that the World was so long ignorant of Mischief, as to merit those Encomiums of Ethnic Fancy.  
But though the Apprehension of a Law commanding Good, and restraining Evil, and a deep fence of Punishment incurred by the breach of that Law, were imprinted thus in our first progenitors, yet we do not hear in all the Thousand six hundred fifty six Years (for I omit the fabulous Calculations of the Egyptians) before the Flood, that ever any one attempted to erect a Sovereignty, or to assemble the confused Multitude under any settled Constitutions. Although there be who affirm, Dresserus among the rest, that Cain Erected a Peculiar Kingdom and a Religion of his own, which well he could not do without prescribing Rules and Institutions proper to his Government.  
After the Flood, no longer than a Hundred sixty one Years, (so ancient is Kingly Government) most certain it is, that Nimrod assumed to himself Imperial Dignity and Dominion, as being the first Founder of the Assyrian Monarchy: In whose Reign also Ashur went out of Shinar and built several Cities; wherein it cannot be thought Men lived without the Ties and Bands of Political Government. Nimrod having led the way, we read of many others in many other places, as Amraphel, Kedorlaomer, Tidal King of Nations, and therest all mentioned together. And now Particular Laws and Customs apparently discovered themselves. Abraham gives the Tenth of his Booty to Melchisedech, and the reseued Kings voluntarily resign him the share of the Spoil which he had won in Battle. Leagues were made for mutual defence; and under variety of Governments, every one held their Native Rights and Customs so dear, that as the first War we read of in the World was made to subdue, the next was a revolt, to recover lost Liberty, and to throw off the Yoke of Arbitrary Dominion.  
Now the same Law that restrained Injury and Wrong, asserted Right and Property, or lawful and peculiar Possession of the Assistances and Conveniences of Living. And this was also taught to Man by Nature: For at the same time that the Breath of Life was infused into him, was also bequeathed him that light of Nature, that gave him not only Reason, but right Reason, and consequently the true Grounds and Foundations of Law. Therefore it was that Cain and Abel betook themselves to different Occupations, to the end they might the better understand what belonged of right to each other; it being but reason that they should both enjoy the advantages and emoluments of their different Labours. Thus Adam was the first that Planted, Cain the first that dealt in Pasturage, and Abel the first that followed Agriculture. Who as the World increased made a disposition of right to others according as they saw convenient. And it was but rational for them that were thus invested in possession, to establish the right of their peculiar Claims and Properties upon the Divisions and Bequests of them that were Lords of All. After them were born the Inventors of Arts and Handicraft Trades. From whom 'tis very improbable to think 'twas then lawful to rifle their Inventions, without Exchange or the plenary satisfaction of one Commodity for another.  
These things were well observed by Seth, the third Son of Adam, 235 Years after the Creation, in the hundred and fifth Year of his Age, by which time as the World was vastly stored with People, so had they as greatly increased their Proportions of Stock and Substance, and improved their Allotments and Inheritances of Land. And therefore he began to deem it now high time to think of Framing Laws and Ordinances, for the better Government of so numerous a Common-Weal. And this fell out to be in the Year that his Son Enoch was born; at what time, as the Text records, Men first began to call upon the Name of the Lord. For that then it was, that Seth first introduced the Practice of Religion, or the Awe of Divinity, and made Laws and Constitutions for the safety and security of Right and Property; and to prevent those disorders and disturbances of common Tranquillity, of which it may be well conjectured he was not a little fearful from the bad Examples of Cain and Lamech. So that although Cain and his Offspring, that totally perished in the Deluge, were the first that broke the Law of Nature, Yet Seth, by another Line; another Son of Adam, begot by him after his own Image and Likeness, that is to say, Prudent, Good and Virtuous, as he was, whose Race re-peopled the drowned World, and continues to this day; He it was that made this Light of Nature burn more clearly, by bringing Religion into Form of Worship, and Law into Precept and Practice. And it may not vainly otherwise be thought, but that under that same Form of Worship, and under those Laws, Men in all respects continued obedient and conformable while Adam lived; that is, till within seven hundred and seven years before the Flood, so great a veneration they might have for him that was so well known to be the surviving Original of all Humane Race. However it were, this remains unquestionable, that the general Corruption and Impiety of Mankind, occasioned the Wrath of the Omnipotent Creator, and that thereupon he sent the Deluge to destroy from the Earth that numerous Succession which had so highly offended him. Of this the reason assigned in general was that already mentioned; a total Defection of all the Sons of Men from God, which had infected every thought of their hearts. All the Precepts of Religion and Nature, all that good Order which Seth had settled in the World, was at length utterly ranversed; Liberty and Property was invaded, and the Repose and Peace of Common Society spurned and trampled on by Potent Cruelty and Domineering Injustice. And all this seems to be included under the particular reason of Divine Vengeance. For says the Text, In those days were Giants upon the Earth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say, Men who either were such as bore down all others before them, by reason of their vast strength, and huge proportion of bulk, from Naphal, to throw down; or from the same word signifying, to revolt; such as were Revolters from God, or from the same Root again, signifying to rush upon, such as by violence invaded the Rights of others by Violence and Oppression. According to which two latter significations, the mighty Men of those times were called Giants. For that contrary to the Law of Nature, supposing then no other Law, by force and power they despoiled the weaker sort not only of their Goods and Possessions, but robbed them of their Children, their beautiful Daughters at their will and pleasure; so the words Lakach, and Bathar imply, the one signifying to ravish away by violence, and the latter to cull and choose. Otherwise, with reverence be it spoken, it cannot be thought, that the being delighted with the Charms of beautiful Women, and taking them for Wives, was a Crime to merit the Destruction of the Almighty's Handiwork; or as the Scripture terms it, the Repentance of the Creator that he had made Man. But this is mentioned as a Crime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, including all those other Violations of Law and Justice then raging in the World. And this is apparent from the Context, which gives the best and brightest light to Interpretation. For among all the High Crimes and Misdemeanours that so insanely provoked the Indignation of the Lord, there is none particularised, but this one Act of the Mighty, styled the Sons of God, encroaching upon the Rights and Privileges of the meaner sort, called the Sons of Men, by taking forcibly from them their Daughters and Virgins, to satisfy the fury of their Lust and Incontinency. For which, at first, God only determined to abbreviate their Days, and shorten the measure of their long Lives. Perhaps he might forbear, expecting a Reformation of their Oppression and Cruelty, repeated in the next Verse, with aparticular aggravation of the same Fact, of going into the daughters of Men; not to be avoided by reason of their  force and power, as being the Sons of God and Giants. But by virtue of those Conjunctions, the Giants had Sons, who became afterwards Men of Renown; that is, such as made themselves terrible and redoubted by their Cruelties, and Exercise of Illegal Dominion; and as they multiplied, filled the World, no doubt, with Arbitrary Rapine, and wilful Bloodshed, to obtain their wicked purposes. Which is also more palpably discovered in the following words, explanatory of the preceding general Accusation, that the Earth was filled with Violence. A word so diffusive in its signification, that it comprehends all the signal breaches of the Law and Religion, and all the Effects and ill Consequences of Violence, Rape, and Injury; which where ever they predominate, renders the sufferers miferable.  
Thus we are come to the Destruction of the First World; and find the Causes that hastened it, to be the want of Order and good Government. So that it may well be said, that while all the Sons of Men had abandoned themselves to the neglect and contempt of the Law and Justice, while Dominion ranged without the curb of Primitive Reason, and Obedience was only Passive Confusion, the general Inundation of merciless Cruelty and remorceless Violence, set open the Floodgates of the Deep, and let lose the general Inundation of Water, that overwhelmed the whole Earth. From whence it being apparent, that the contempt and disregard of right Reason, and consequently of Law, Government, Order, Justice and proportionate Equality between Dominion and Subjection, produced those Effects which were the universal subversion of Mankind, the chiefest Lesson which the next World had afterwards to learn, was to observe the Failings and Miscarriages of their Predecessors, and to be tender of running into these Enormities that draw down the Judgements of Heaven, and distract and dislocate the Unity and Society of Mankind.  
And had it not been for the solemn Promise of the Almighty, how soon another Deluge might have washed away the replenished Race of Noah, no Man can say. Yet might it well be thought there was cause enough given for it, while early Nimrod trod the Giant's steps, became the Proverb of those times, and was called Gibbor Tsaid, or the strong Hunter before the Lord. For He perceiving the People terrified with the thoughts of the late Deluge, and afraid themselves of the same Calamity, takes from thence a plausible Pretence to make himself their absolute Lord and sovereign Commander; and to inculcate into their grosser apprehensions a deeper awe and reverence of his Person, persuades them that he had found out a Means to secure them from all their Fears, 
Joseph. Antiquit. l. 1. c. 4.  and to that purpose puts them upon that stupendious Labour of building a Tower, whose vast height should bid defiance as well to Heaven itself, as to all future Inundations. Which Toil and Travail while they undertook, he had the advantages both to exercise and establish the Tyranny which he had long before affected. In the pursuit of which Design the numberless Multitude being shattered into several Languages, were constrained to quit their intended Enterprise, and having no way to unite again, they only assembled and embodied together, as variety of Language prompted their understanding, and parting sundry ways sought out particular Habitations, some in the nearer, some in the remoter empty Regions of the Earth, as Room and Convenience led them. Where under several Kings and Princes doubtless were Erected several Forms and Constitutions of Government, according to the Genius of them that bore sway.  
Nimrod all this while kept his station with those that spoke his own Dialect, and minding nothing more than to extend his Territories, propagated his Dominion where he built Nineveh and Resen, particularly called the great City, by subduing his Neighbours, and laid the first Foundation of that Monarchy. And these were the first beginnings, according to the report of the best Authors, of Political Rule and Political Subjection. Nor were they in those times, though the true Worship of the true God were altogether forgot, quite void of a sense of Religion. And therefore Nimrod being dead, for his great Prowess and admired Achievements, after his decease was worshipped, though not by the Name, yet in the Person of Saturn. And the Statue of Belus his Successor promoted also to Celestial Dignity, was adored under the Name of Jupiter. Which is thought to be the Original of all the Heathenish Idolatry. For tho', as already hath been said, there was then a general Oblivion of all true Religion, yet they found it absolutely necessary there should be some sort of Religion conjoined with Policy, finding it so impossible they should be separate, and that they were so dependent one upon another, that neither could subsist without the other's support.  
To this same Ninus, Justin seems to attribute what Scripture imputes to Nimrod. For first he asserts, that Kingly Government was the most ancient in the World: 
l. 1. c. 1. deleg 3.  Principio rerum, saith he, gentium, nationumque Imperium penes reges erat. Conformable to that of Cicero, Omnes antiquae gentes regibus quondam paruerunt. Confirmed by that of Sallust, 
Sal. l. 1.  Initio reges diversi; nam in terris nomen Imperii id primum fuit. Then he also pretends to tell us the Manners and Customs of those Times preceding Ninus, That the People were restrained by no Laws, but that the Determinations of Princes were obeyed as such. That it was the Custom to Defend not to Enlarge their Empires. But that Ninus was the first who made War upon his Neighbours, and by subduing People unskilful in making resistance, extended the Limits of his Dominions, and violated the former Justice and Moderation of regal Power. In all which it cannot be said that Justin was any where mistaken, but only in the Person of Ninus. For that the Antiquity of Kingly Government is unquestionable, and that so highly commended equality of Temper between Prince and People, by him suggested before the Birth of Nimrod, is not at all improbable. However, Scripture and Justin with others, agree all in this, that there was a Law in the World from the beginning, tho' only of Reason and Nature, so long as Men obeyed in Quiet and Repose, and Princes Ruled with Justice and Prudent Equity. On the other side, when Men were deprived of that Primitive Safety and Tranquillity, Law ceased, giving way to War and Public Devastation. Which Cessation of Law began in the time of Nimrod, and not of Ninus.  
And certainly tho' the Nature of Man be in part corrupt, yet there are those Seeds of Virtue and Divine Reason still remaining in his Soul, which will not suffer him to deny, but that the real distinctions between Good and Evil, are Members of that True Reason, and Divine Knowledge, which were at first infused into him. Cicero, 
De leg. l. 1.  by a light more than Human, labours hard to make this out, that the Foundations of Law and Justice are fixed in Man by Nature, and in that reason with which Man is naturally endued to difference Right from Wrong, Justice from Injustice, and Evil from Good. Seeing that Men are in the first place furnished and adorned with heavenly Gifts. Next, because there is but one consentaneous and common Method of men's living one among another. And in the third place, by reason that all Men are obliged and bound one to another, as well by a certain natural Indulgence and kindness one toward the other, as by the Tie of the Law. Which being granted to be absolutely true, how is it possible to separate Law and Right from Nature. And indeed should it be otherwise, it would fall out unhappily for the preserving the Strength and Unity of a Nation, or the People in their right Senses. Seeing that no Laws ought to be propounded, but such as are approved by those who believe all things just and honest to be desirable for their own sakes, and that nothing was to be reckoned in the number of good things, but what was laudable in itself.  
Again, if only Fear of Punishment, and not Nature, were the only reason that deterred Men from Acts of Impiety and Injustice, no Man could be properly said to be unjust; but the wicked were rather to be accounted inconsiderate and imprudent. Or if advantage and profit were the only Motives to do well, then were Men to be accounted rather subtle & cunning, than naturally and intrinsically just. Consequently the Law, tho' never so strict, has no effectual or valuable tye upon such persons, and the security expected from it, is in a manner rendered void to all Civil Society and Co-habitation. For what will not persons so principled adventure to act in the dark, when they are out of the danger of Witnesses, and by that means freed from the fear of a Judge? The Giants of the old World had forgotten Nature, when they acted only by the sway of Arbitrary Will and Pleasure. For Nature proposes but one Law for the preservation of Mankind; that is, the right Method of commanding and restraining upon the solid knowledge of Nature's Good and Evil. Which they who understand not, or at least neglect and scorn, must of necessity be unjust. And such were they who by neglecting Natures good and evil, ranversed the Laws of Human preservation, and ruin'd not only themselves, but all the Earth besides. Nor was it any Opinion or singular Judgement of their own, that could make their Actions just, seeing that all Virtue is inherent in Nature, and cannot be separated from it. Only Men may be so wicked as to despise Nature, and cry up that for good and honest, which is not so in itself. Not considering that what ever is virtually good, must of necessity include within itself that which is without all contradiction to be valued and esteemed. And thus in all Governments that pretend to right reason, tho' Circumstantial Laws may differ, yet the Law of Nature is  throughout all Nations. Otherwise should one Nation think it lawful to Kill, another to Rifle and Steal, or another believe Perjury no Crime, not only Public Commerce between Nation and Nation, but Private Dealing betwixt Man and Man would be at an end. Nor that Men were instructed of the Mischief of these things by the Conveniencies of peaceable Living one among another; but by the Dictates of Nature, and Impressions of right Reason.  
Cicero goes yet a little farther, affirming, That it was the Opinion of the wisest of the Ancients, That Law was never the Invention of Humane Wit, but something Eternal that governed the Universal World by the wise Conduct of Command and Prohibition. Which supreme and ultimate Law, was the Mind or Omniscience of the Deity, enjoining or forbidding all things according to reason. Wherefore that Law which Heaven imparted to Mankind, is rightly to be extolled, as being the reason and intelligence of a wise Man proper to control and deter. Which Power was not only elder than the Age of People or Cities, but coeternal with God that rules and governs both Heaven and Earth: for that neither can the Divine Intelligence be without reason, neither is it possible but that such reason should be incapable to determine what was good and what evil. So that had there been no Law against those who first were guilty of Murder, Envy or Malice, or any other sort of destructive Violence, this Law would have condemned them, as it did in Cain. In regard that same reason proceeded from the Divine Light of Nature, persuading Men to do well, and dissuading them from evil, which did not then begin to be a Law, when it first came to be written, but when it first had a being; that is, from Eternity. Which being the Original of all upright and just Law, we must thence conclude, that the true End of all Laws, are the Safety and Welfare of those Nations, and the Peace and Tranquillity of such Societies for which they are ordained. Law being as it were the Distinction between the just and unjust, derived, next to God, from the most ancient Fountain of all things, Nature to which all the Laws of Men, that punish the bad, and protect the good, should tend as to their centre of Light and Information.  
And this was that which the Poets meant by all their Fables of the Golden Age, which is described by them to be a time when Men lived in Peace, Plenty, and Liberty, without written Laws, but by those Rules of Justice and Sincerity which Primitive Nature had planted in their minds, when it was a pleasure to Rule with Mildness and Equity, and without Care, keeping just Dominion within her proper bounds; and a happiness to obey without Disorder, Tumult and Contention, while Astrea herself held the Balance of Authority and Subjection in an equal poise.  
Which reverence of Law and Justice was not then committed to Parchment, nor cut in Brass, but imprinted in the Hearts of Men: According to that of Virgil,  
— Neve ignorate Latimos  
Saturni Gentem, haud vinclo, neclegibus aequam  
Sponte sua, veterisque Dei se more tenentem.  
And Hesiod, also describing the Golden Age, says, that they lived like the Gods, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1.  without care or fear. For most certainly they who are constrained, through fear of punishment, to live according to the Integrity of written Laws, not out of a spontaneous probity, cannot be said to be good or virtuous Men, seeing that they who forbear to commit evil, through fear of punishment, cannot be said to be really good, but only not to be evil. They are only said to be good Men, who by the conduct of Nature, and not to avoid the lash of Human provision against Vice, bend their minds to practice Honesty, Virtue, and Justice. And thus this Golden Age continued, till Jupiter, ambitious of Empire, overturned this Harmonious Frame of Nature's Law, and expelled his Father from his Kingdom.  
Tunc Jove sub Domino caedes & vulnera semper. 
Yibul. l. 1.   
— Tunc Lethi mille repente viae.  
Which is no more than this, that after the Golden Reign of Noah, the Earth was filled with Iron Violence, by Nimrod and his Successors. Yet as Jupiter, by his Example, taught those that came after him to lay violent hands on Thrones and Sceptres, so may good and virtuous Princes be said to restore, as it were, so many Golden Ages at least within their own Dominions, by making wholesome Laws for the benefit and security of the People. For tho' the Tyranny of Jupiter chased Astrea from the World, yet it is said, and the Allegory may well hold, that she left behind her, as her Legacy, that Primitive light of Nature and right Reason, which they who follow closest may be accounted the nearest Restorers of the Primitive Purity and Innocence of Law and Justice. And for this reason some will have the Golden Age to be no other than the Common Liberty of People in a Common-weal, established and secured by wholesome Constitutions; where Hares with Hounds, Sheep with Wolves, converse together with freedom and safety, under the protection of good Laws.  
This is then the difference between the Primitive Ages of the World, and those that succeed. At first the Natural Inclination of Man to Good, and his Aversion from Evil, governed his Actions so exactly, that there was no need of any other Law, than that Law of Nature which was imprinted in his mind. Afterwards when Ambition, Pleasure, and Profit, had, it cannot be said extinguished, but only eclipsed that Light of Nature, than Men resolved they would not see or understand what Law was, until they saw it first put down in Writing, and obedience thereto commanded, under such and such Penalties. So that before there were none at all, now there was an absolute necessity of written Ordinances and Constitutions.  
And indeed it was high time to set up Law and Government, when Wrong and Injury did so infest the World, that there was no security of Liberty and Property, but what Law and good Government procured. From which Men reaped those vast Advantages, and superlative Benefits, that then they began to acknowledge the Sacred Original of Nature's Law, as descending first from Heaven. Therefore was Themis presently exalted to be a Goddess. No less than the Wife of Jove himself, and said to be the Mother of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or Law, Justice, 
Hes. ●●●og.  and Peace, as Hesiod witnesses. And Law or Eunomia is made the eldest Sister, 
Pind. Ode. 9  whom Pindarus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or servatricem; as well knowing that the making and observance of Good Laws are the preservation of all Kingdoms; without which they would soon fall to ruin. He also adds the Epithet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in regard that good Laws bring both Honour and Glory, as well to the Legislators, as to the Observers. In another place the same Author, applauding Law, entitles her the Queen of Cities. And Homer, speaking of Jupiter, does not attribute to his Divinity, the giving to Princes and Sovereign Rulers, the Destructive Instruments of War and Bloodshed, but his arming them with Laws and Justice. And therefore it was the saying of the Orator Demosthenes, that Law was the Soul of a City: seeing that as the natural Body of Man could not subsist, without a Soul, so without Law and Justice, Cities and Kingdoms, and all Politic Bodies, were but as expiring slumbers, which nothing can preserve from Politic Death. And thus the Primitive Light of Nature and right Reason was in some measure recovered from that neglect and oblivion which had overwhelmed it. For that this written Jus, or Genus of written Law, had the same Original with the spontaneous and harmonious Concord of the Golden Age. Seeing that if all Men at that time had been principled like their Legislators, they might doubtless have lived in the same happy Estate and Condition, as their first Forefathers.  
By which Encomiums and high Applauses of Law and Government, it appears, that the End of all Law is in general the preservation of Mankind; more particularly of all Public Weals and Societies of Men.  
Among those that first made use of written Laws, 
L. 6.  are reckoned the Locri Epizephirij, as Strabo relates. A flourishing People once in the farther part of Calabria, in the Kingdom of Naples, not far from the Promontory, now called Punta di Saetta. Pindarus gives them a high Commendation in these words, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Ode. 10.  Truth governs the City of Locri. So careful had Zaleucus their Legislator, been to pick and cull the choicest of their Cretan, Lacedaemonian and Athenian Customs.  
But Scripture, of indisputable Authothority, tells us that in the time of Moses, the first Lawgiver in the World, the Decalogue was written in Tables of Stone, and for the rest of his Constitutions they were also otherwise committed to Letters, as being too prolix to be preserved by Memory or Tradition, and the Original Copied up in the Ark, by the command of Moses, where the Levites might have recourse to it upon all occasions; who also had it in Charge to read it in the hearing of all the people at the end of every seven Years. And certainly there never was a nobler mixture of Civil and Ecclesiastical Sanctions, all tending to perpetuate the Establishment of the Jewish Nation; nay, they had the absolute promise of God for their Duration, upon the bare condition of Dutiful performance. All the encouragement of Victory, Plenty, Peace, Renown and Liberty to the Observers of this Law; and on the other side, all the fair warnings of that Misery and Destruction that would befall them, if they revolted from it. And to preserve them from all occasions of going astray, the strictest injunctions and prohibitions that could be devised, were laid upon them against Idolatry. To which purpose they were as straight commanded not so much as to cast their Eyes upon the alluring Beauty of strange Women; and as expressly inhibited from the use of such Diet and Meats, both Flesh and Fowl, as by their luscious moisture and extraordinary nutriment excited the heat of their natural Incontinency; and as a farther bar to Foreign lust and female communication, the Pander to Idolatry, they were permitted to take as many free Women and Bond Servants of their own, as their Revenues would allow of. In a word the whole scope of Moses Law, the sole intent of all his Constitutions both Ecclesiastical and Civil, was for the glory of God, the safety and preservation of the whole Nation in general, and the security of every individual person in particular. That by the Observation of the words of his Law, which as he told them was their Life, they might prolong their days in the Land which God had given them; That Israel might dwell in safety alone, that the Fountain of Jacob might be upon a Land of Corn and Wine, their Heaven's drop Dew, and they themselves tread upon the High Places of their Enemies. In which words are summed up all the blessings that can befall a free Nation under good Government. Yet all this while, for all his pains and travel, for all his restless Study, and incessant cares, for his prophetical Blessings upon every particular Tribe, for his atoning even God himself, upon their hasty and rash erection of the Molten Calf, he does not exact one single kindness for himself or his Sons; but as if the Laws of God had been the only Successors which he took care of, enjoins Obedience only to them as well to the chiefest in Authority, as the meanest under Subjection.  
And thus Moses having fitted them for peace by Laws and Statutes that gave to God his own established Reverence and Worship, to the Church her due, to the people their just Rights and Privileges (not excluding the Daughters of Zelophahad from the Inheritance of their Male-issueless Father) Joshua was next appointed by God, who had inspired him with Valour and Conduct fit for so great an undertaking, to lead them in the Field. Yet not so, but that although the people hearkened to him in reference to Military Affairs, yet in other things they did as the Lord Commanded Moses.  
But Moses had the pre-eminence above all that came after him: He had the supreme Oracle of the World to consult upon all Occasions. The pretences of Others were but mere Imposture, and Delphian Figments. Which however it is not improbable but that they might have learned from the obscure and imperfect knowledge which they had gathered among the Egyptians of the Story of Moses. And therefore Rhadamanthus among the Cretans is said to have feigned a Familiarity with Jove in Jupiter's Den. Numa pretended to frequent consultation with the Goddess Egeria. He first Civilised the Romans by introducing among them the practice of Religious Ceremonies, and the worship of the Gods. To which Seru. Tull. added several Institutions relating to the Civil Administration,  quemadmodum Numa divini auctor Juris fuisset ita Servium conditorem Omnis in Civitate discriminis, Ordinumque, 
Liv. l. 1.  quibus inter Gradus Dignitatis, Fortunaeque aliquid interlucet, posteri Fama Ferrent. Which Laws were afterwards collected and digested into a Method by Papirius, from it was called Jus Papirianum. But the chief of the Roman Laws were those that were contained in their Twelve Tables cut in Brass; of which ten were compiled by the Decemvirs, after the return of those Ambassadors which were sent by the Senate to Athens to Transcribe the Laws of Solon, and of those other Cities of Greece which were most famous for the Excellency of their Government; to which soon after two others were added. Of which Ten Tables Livy writes that in his time, 
L. 3.34.  when there was such a prodigious pile of Laws heaped one upon another, they were still the Fountain of all the Roman Equity. And it is observable that when the Decemvirs first proposed them to the People, they commanded them to consider 'em well, that there might be nothing but what was for the good and prosperity of the Common-weal and their posterity. For that as much as lay in the wit of Ten men, they had adapted the equality of the Law with the same respect to the meanest as to the most Wealthy and Noble.  
Lycurgus' boasted Apollo for his grand Associate, and made the World so far believe it, that both Plutarch and Strabo confirm it, and Herodotus tells ye the very Verses with which the Priestess of Delphos congratulated him at his Entrance into the Temple, wherein she gave him the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Friend of Jove, and all the Gods besides. And most certainly he was a Person of exquisite Justice, as appeared in the preservation of the young Prince Charilaus, whom his Mother offered to stifle in her own Womb, and to give him possession of herself and the Kingdom, if he would have Married her. And therefore fit to give Laws to a Kingdom that could refuse one, when it was thrown into his Embraces. Neither could any thing be more signal than his Love to his Country, while he so laboriously turmoiled not only to advance but to perpetuate the felicity of the Lacedaemonian Kingdom. Justin says of him, that he was not more famous for the Invention of his Laws, than for the Example which he set in his own Person, for that he never decreed any Law against others, which he was not most punctual to observe himself. Populum in obsequia Principum, Principes ad justitiam Imperiorum formavit. In which words, could they be but faithfully and candidly extracted, lies that grand Arcanum, the True Balance between Dominion and Subjection.  
He so endoctrinated his Lacedæmonians, that they should neither be willing, nor indeed know how to live asunder; but that, like Bees, they should always stick to their Hives, and be always ready about their Prince to receive and execute his Just Commands.  
Neither did he care to put his Laws in Writing; as judging that those things which most conduced to the felicity of the City, and the bravery of the Inhabitants, were to be planted in their Minds by Education and Custom.  
At length, having done as much as he thought could be done to advance the Glory and Renown of his Country, and the Welfare of the Realm, that he might render the effects of his labour diuturnal, he assembles the People, and takes an Oath from the highest to the lowest, that they would observe the Form of Government which he had established among them till his return; for that he was then going to consult the Oracle, about something farther of great Importance for the Common Good. To the Oracle thereupon he goes, and after Consultation, sends back Apollo's Answer, that Lacedaemon should flourish so long as they observed Lycurgus' Institutions; which done, he starved himself to death at Delphos, that he might not absolve the People from their Oaths by his Return.  
Solon also refused the Kingdom of Athens, when he might have had it. 
Justiu, l. 2. c. 7.  A Person of that extraordinary Justice, that he is by the Historian said to have made Athens a new City, behaving himself with that equal Temper between the Senate and the People, that both himself and his Laws were equally grateful to both. And Lucian also brings in Anacharsis, 
Dial. de Gymnal.  highly commending him, as one that had framed most excellent Laws, and introduced most useful Customs into the Country where he lived, to the great benefit of the Public. Which Laws, as Lucian afterwards, in the same Dialogue, makes Solon to acknowledge, were publicly exposed in the City of Athens, for every one to peruse, that so they might understand when they did well, and what they were to avoid. He could not 'tis true reduce the Athenians to that austerity of living, to which the Institutions and Education of Lycurgus had enured the Lacedæmonians, as being of a quainter and more airy Genius, where Mercury had an equal ascendant with Mars, and would therefore have an equal share in the public Concerns. Yet the renowned Captains that Athens bred, the many and famous Victories which they won, the Learning of her Philosophers, the Liberty of the People, and the long flourishing Estate of the Government, make it appear that there is more than one way for a Nation to be happy by her own Laws. And that Laws agreeable and consentaneous to the Temper of one People, will not correspond with the Humour of another. On the other side, when a Kingdom is once established under settled Constitutions, which are found to suit with the Disposition of the People, those Constitutions are the Safety and Protection of that People, and the Change of such Ordinances has been always the forerunner of their destruction, as by History has been fatally verified in the Athenians, Lacedæmonians, and Romans themselves.  
But they who laid the Foundations of Despotic Turanny and Absolute Dominion in War and Devastation, cannot be said to have those noble aims of bequeathing Liberty and Safety to the People under their Subjection: but only the advancement of lawless Power, as believing all Mankind besides to be their Vassals and Slaves: and therefore in the height of their over-soaring and presumptuous Mortality, calling themselves Lords of the Earth, and Kings of Kings, which swelling Titles were derided in Alexander, tho' in the midst of his Victories, by his Followers better observing the Laws of Nature and Reason. All this while they disregarded the equal distribution of Right and Propriety to any, and denied the Privilege of Liberty to all, while most lived miserably, and contemptibly, none lived free. This unhappy Bondage the Europeans contemned. While Conon refused to worship the Persian Monarch in all his Glory, 
Just. l. 6. c. 2.  and Manius the Consul, called the Asiatic Grecians, and Syrians. 
Liu. Hist. l. 36.  Levissima Hominum Genera & Servituti nata. For here was no Safety, no Security for the People, whose Lives were at the Mercy and Beck of one Man. They Tilled the Earth and Laboured only for him; they got Posterity only for him to sport away in the bloody Games of War and wilful Vexation. Whereas in well Constituted Governments, the People enjoying all those Privileges with which they are satisfied themselves, by the same Law that warrants their security are bound to pay the Homage of their Obedience to the Prince, for his continual Care of their safety. And Princes can claim a security of their own, without fear or hazard, which Tyrants in continual distrust and jeopardy are forced to hire and largely pay for. Thus if we consider the mighty Ottoman Empire, we find him indeed expanding his vast Dominion over the largest part of the habitable World, yet through those Violences which his Inhuman Constitutions of Self-safety commit against the Dictates of Nature and Primitive Reason, he may be said to be an Emperor rather over Solitudes and Deserts, and the wild Beasts that ravage the forsaken Habitations of Mankind, than the potent Lord of Numerous Cities. He is indeed surrounded with populous Guards; but what are they? the enforced Tribute of Christian Children through the neighbouring Territories under his Subjection, who are more his Lords and Masters, than he theirs. If those his own Domesticated Lions once begin to roar for want of Pay or other discontent, all his Majestic Titles tremble, and he must appease their fury with the Heads of his best beloved Favourites. His Armies, a confused Rabble of several Nations brought together to stop the Mouths of Cannons, and overbear his less powerful Adversaries with the weight of Multitude. In whom there is no faith or confidence neither, as not being reciprocally obliged by any Act of Kindness which his care confers upon them; and therefore following him for Fear, not Love. And then their own Thrones so tottering, that they never think 'em fixed, till they have cemented them to the Floor with the Blood of their Brethren, or obliged their Stipendiaries with a Magnificent Overplus, like Amurath the Third. 
Thuan. l. 104.  And yet notwithstanding all their Care and Courtship an Ibrahim lies strangled at the feet of his Stipendiaries. In a word, the Emperor's Will is his Law, a Capricio lutestrings the most deserving of his Princes. And to preserve himself in this excess of Arbitrary Power, he deprives the People of their self-Defence, their Arms, and puts them under the domineering Mastership of Christian Apostates. So that in short, all things are carried on for the sole benefit and advantage of the Tyrannical Monarch, without any regard to the good and welfare of the People; contrary to the true end of Law and Justice, which equally respects the good of all, and therefore advances the Shepherd, to take care of the Flock.  
As for the Persian Monarch, it is accorded on all hands, that his Dominion is not altogether so uneasy to the Subject, however he is an absolute Tyrant, the People enjoying nothing of their own, but what is absolutely at the disposition of the Sophi. And the Constitution of the Government is wholly such as mainly aims at the profit of the Sovereign, with little regard to the safety and well-being of the People: nor is there any other method or distribution of Public or Common Justice, but what lies solely in the breast of the Emperor. His Princes, like those of the Grand Turk, are his Slaves, and he sends for their Heads as he pleases himself upon the least jealousy or distaste; nor does the Despotic Tyrant think himself obliged to give the World satisfaction for what he does. So that Shakstone Shephi is said to have carried his Scimitar always ready drawn in his bosom, to cut off the Heads of his Nobles upon every slight occasion. Yet is he for this never a whit the safer; as being harassed with frequent Rebellions of his Shans; and Emir Hemptza Mirza had the sad fate to have his Throat cut by his Barber, by the Command of his great Officers. Which is confirmed by Thuanus in these words, speaking of the Persians, Crebrae inter eos contra principes suos conjurationes; nec in Regia Familia inter fratres aut silios cum patribus Pietatis Officia constant. So little does Arbitrary Power avail to the Security of a Prince.  
The Great Mogul is said to be a mere Sponge, that sucks away all the Wealth of his chief Governors and Khans, after they have squeezed out the very Heartblood of the People. Who may be only said to Sow, the Khans to Reap, but the Mogul himself to inn the Harvest. And thus he supports his Grandeur by the Misery of his Subjects. And yet for all his Guard of 30000 Men watching Day and Night about his Person, he is forced to part with his Command sometimes to his rebellious Peers, sometimes to his undutiful Sons. And Aurangzeeb now holds, or lately held the Sceptre of that vast Empire wrested out of his Father's hands.  
The Ethiopian or Abissinian Potentate, commonly, tho' erroneously, called Prester John, is so absolute, that none of his Subjects, whether noble or plebeian, can claim any Propriety in what he enjoys. Which is the reason that they adore their Prince as their absolute Lord and Master, as being perfect Slaves to his Will and Pleasure. Yet notwithstanding all their absolute Dominion, none less secure in their Thrones than the Habessinian Monarches. As the stories of Maenas, slain in battle by his rebellious Subject Bernagassus. Jacob, Crowned, Deposed, Recalled, and Redeposed by his own Nobility, and the frequent Rebellions against one of the best of their Emperors, Susneus, sufficiently declare. Fatal Documents that the slavery of Subjects is no such protection to regal Power, as vainly some imagine.  
Thus it appears upon what Foundations stands the absolute Dominion of the Asiatic and Ethiopian Monarches. Their Subjects are made a Prey, as having no refuge to the Sanctuary of known Laws, and Soldiers of Fortune are the Pillars upon which they depend. For it is necessary that the Power of Princes be sustained by the Love of their Subjects, or of others: for he that is feared by all can assure himself of no long continuance. But when Tyrants can promise to themselves nothing of security from their Subjects, whom they treat as their Slaves, there is a necessity for them to guard themselves with Foreign armed Forces; and to merit their favour, to allow them their full swinge of preying upon, and insulting over their Subjects. Thus the Turk supports himself by Janissaries, who know not only no other Lord, but indeed scarce any other Father than himself, and therefore he indulges them in all things to preserve their affection. And the Kings of Ormus, Cambaya, Decan and Achen commit the management of their Affairs to their Slaves. Whereas a lawful and just Prince takes care to be beloved by his own Subjects, as being the safest. Bulwark against his external and domestic Enemies. Nor is there any better or securer way to gain the Affections of a People, than by protecting them under the rules of their ancient Customs and Constitutions.  
The Europeans are of a more fierce and haughty temper, and were always more impatient of servitude. Tho' some of them much more than others. In which variety we may easily observe those Princes most secure, where the Laws and Constitutions of the Realm are most sincerely adapted for the preservation and welfare of the People.  
The Spaniard takes the first care of himself, in the next place indulges his Nobility, and takes the least care of his People. The Nobility and Clergy get all, being altogether Tribute free; the People lose all, being so intolerably burdened that they are forced to forsake the Tillage of their Country, 
Oldenburgh. T. 1. p. 166.  not being able to support their Families. Hence a scarcity of the People, and the strength of the Kingdom weakened. Hence the Castilians out of their natural Pride no great Lovers, sometimes contemners of their Prince.  
The Arragonians cannot forget the loss of their ancient privileges. The Catalomians impatient of their Subjection, as they have made apparent by their late revolts. The Neapolitans, Sicilians and Milaneses unfaithful and tottering upon all opportunities; as finding themselves reduced to misery to enrich their Oppressors. And what he has got by the neglect of his People, and by Riding with so strict a Curb, is sufficiently known to the most meanly read in modern History.  
As for the Portugals, the Scope of their ancient Government was the joint regard equally both of the Prince and People's safety; 
Olden. T. 1. p. 370.  for some time interrupted under the Spanish Usurpation, but afterwards restored by John of Braganca. Therefore such is their Love to their natural Princes, such their hatred of the Castilian, that Thuanus said of them, in quorum animis incertum plus ad insaniam usque improbus in reges suos amor, 
Lib. 126. circa fin.  cum implacabile Hispani nominis odium valeat. Him they Defend, him they Adore and Honour, because under him they live in plenty and freedom governed by just and equal Laws. And if their Country be not over-abounding in People, it is to be attributed partly to the heat of the Climate, but more especially to their draining their own Country to supply their great Navies, and more beneficial acquists in other parts of the World.  
And that the safety of Prince and People are equally sought in that Nation, appears by the Laws to which King Philip was sworn in the year 1580. Nor is it a mean sign that the Laws are good and wholesome, when they agree with the Constitution of the People. The health and soundness of a Common-weal appears in the health and vigour of its particular Members. It being the Maxim of Tyranny, only to keep the Subject poor. To which auri vis, 
Arist. l. 5. pol. c. 11. Annal. l. 11. c. 1.  & opes infensae, saith Tacitus. Nero never gave to any Favourite any great employment, but he added, Thou know'st what we want. Let us take care, 
Sueton in Neron.  ne quis quidquam habeat. And it is a Proverb relating to the great Turk, That where he has once trampled, there neither grow Leaves nor Grass. On the other side, we find with what a torrent the Portugals bore down all before 'em to recover their ancient Laws, and the Sovereignty of their lawful Princes, from the servitude and oppression of the Spaniards; insomuch, that when the Duke of Braganca had once declared his mind, the revolt was universal, and with such a rapid motion, that one single day determined the contention with little blood; so swift and astonishing was the surprise. Nor must we forget how impatiently this Nation bowed under Usurpation; how heinously they bore the exilement of his present Majesty, and the loss of their ancient Liberties, almost buried in a most impious Tyranny, not ceasing till they had recovered both their Prince and their Laws, to the unspeakable joy of the whole Kingdom.  
In France the King is Absolute and Arbitrary. His word is the Law. He may thank Lewis the XI. for laying the Foundations, and Richlieu and Mazarine for perfecting the work. However, 
Olden. T. 2.  as it is brought about, the Final cause of the French Government, at present, is the Grandeur of the Monarch; for the support of which, the welfare of the People is but trampled under Foot. The King squeezes with his Exactions, the great Lords and Gentry for their Rents, till the Commonalty are reduced to utmost penury. For which reason France is compared to a most flourishing plain, that feeds innumerable Flocks of Sheep, which are to be fleeced when the Shepherd pleases. He is never safer than when he is in War, to keep his haughty Nobility from hatching mischief. But his own Subjects being so cowed and out of heart for Infantry, he is forced to hire among his Neighbours, and Skins the servile Peasant for their pay: by that means dilating his Territories to the intolerable detriment of his enslaved People. Only they are happy, because they know no better.  
In Swedeland it is quite otherwise; 
Olden. T. 2.  for there the King is bound to govern by the Laws of the Country, which he has no power to alter without the consent of the People. So that the Character of the Swedish Government is this, That it aims more at the welfare of the Subject than the Interest of the Prince. And therefore it is observed, that no Commonalty in the World live more happy than they. Which renders them stout defenders of their Country, and formidable to the most formidable of their Neighbours.  
The Danish Government regards the Common Interest of the People, who are governed by the ancient Laws of the Country; which the King is sworn to observe at his Coronation. Therefore the People thrive, and live in a plentiful and flourishing condition.  
Whether the English imbibed their love of Liberty from their ancient Ancestors the Danes, is not material here to discuss. Yet certainly no Nation under Heaven enjoys those Rights, those Privileges, that uncontrolled Propriety with more ample provision, and careful circumspection of Law, or a more equal balance between the Prince and the Subject, than the People of England; which makes them jealous of their infringement, sometimes even to excess. For the Laws of England are made with the consent of the People themselves. By which means they prevent the imposing any oppressive Burden upon their own Shoulders. So that it may well be said, that the safety and security of the English People, their Lives, their Liberties, and peculiar Proprieties, are as it were entrusted to the Guardianship, and deposited in the keeping and defence of Laws and Constitutions of their own framing. Not of yesterday, but derived from the provisions of distinct Legislators and Princes, from the most ancient to these present times, carefully deliberated and debated among the most eminent for Wisdom and Counsel in the Nation. The want of Laws in the greatest part of those Governments already recited sufficiently declare, how little the People have to trust to, that are only governed by Will and Power. On the other side, those People who are governed by Kings, not Tyrants, are the most happy; and those Kings approach nearest to the King of Kings, who govern like Shepherds not like Wolves. Which is the reason that David calls God himself the Shepherd of Israel. Now than the Common good being the Rule and Quadran of good Government, the better the Laws are, and the more they tend to the Common good, their ultimate end, the better must that Government be; in regard that where the Law is predominant, the Common good can receive no injury: and where the Common good is so secured, there the People are safe in all things that concern their Civil welfare. And in this appears the excellency of those Laws that mainly design the common Benefit, that they resemble nearest the Laws of God, whose Dispensations of Justice were the same to the Peasant as to the Prince. And as it was most certainly a greater Prerogative of the Hebrew Kings above all other Kings and Monarches whatsoever, that they governed by the Law of God, so does it not admit of much dispute, whether the Monarches of England may not claim a Prerogative of the same kind over all other Potentates, by governing by a Law, the nearest to Divine of any extant: more justly far deserving the Title of most Christian Kings, than they who glory only in commanding numerous swarms of Slaves. But where the National Constitutions of a Kingdom have so interwoven and twisted the Interest of Prince and People, that they are inseparable without detriment to both, there the Laws are the safety of the Prince, and the security of the People; and as the balance kept but duly even, renders the Obligation and reciprocal relation between the one and the other indissoluble, so it perpetuates their mutual happiness and tranquillity.  
Now the People claim their security by the Law from the equal distribution of Justice, the preservation of their Freedom and Proprieties, and protecting the public Peace from Tumult and Disorder. On the other side, the Prince expects all due Obedience from the People in the execution of the Law, and an exact condescension to his just Prerogatives, without which his Authority lessens, and grows into contempt. The Laws of England ordain to these ends, a limited Authority to the Prince, and a consigned freedom to the Subject; thereby providing at one and the same time, for the safety of the Prince and the security of the People. For it is as equally dangerous and wicked for the People to deny the Prince his just Prerogatives, as it is of ill consequence to deny the People their Freedoms warranted by the National and Fundamental Laws of the Land. We are then to believe that the Princes just Prerogatives, and the People's safety, are the common Good of this Nation; and that their Lives and Fortunes equally depend upon those Provisions which the Law has so equally made for the security of the whole Body of the Commonweal, of which the Sovereign Prince is the Head.  
It is one of the Excellencies then of the English Laws, that they provide for the Common good, which is the end of all true Law. For this is the general Axiom, That the Reason and Substance of Law, demands that every part should be framed for the Common Benefit, 
Greg. Lop. in l. 9. ●●t. 1. part 1.  which was the Condition that Alphonsus King of Spain required also in his Laws. And thus it is understood by the Interpreters of the Civil Law, who affirm that the Law is a common Precept, respecting the Benefit of all. Aristotle observes, that the chief end of a Commonweal is to live well and happily. And therefore adds, 
Ethied. 4. c. 1.  That the Laws are to be accommodated to the Commonweal, not the Common-weal to the Laws. In my opinion, saith Plato, the Law is made for Benefits sake, 
In Dialog. Hippias.  as intended by the Legislator to be the supreme happiness of a Commonweal; for the Law being taken away, there is no well being in a City. And in another place he shows at large, that the end of Law is the common safety and felicity. And Plutarch tells us, 
In Problem. tit. 40.  That Laws are then accounted good and wholesome when they procure the public Benefit.  
Which is evident from the most sacred Laws of the Almighty. For though they be ordained to the honour of God (for that God cannot will any thing without himself; nor operate, but for himself) yet in those Laws the great Monarch of Monarches, seeks not his own Benefit, but the good and felicity of Mankind. 
Suarez l. 1. c. 7.  Which then also the Laws of Man most nearly imitate, when they drive nearest to the same Perfection. Therefore as Laws are imposed upon a Community, so are they to be framed for the good of that Community: otherwise they are irregular. For it is against all rectitude and justice, to direct the Common good to private Interest, or to make the whole relate to the part, for the parts sake. And therefore when the Law is framed for a public Society, the good of that Society ought primarily and principally to be procured. The same thing is apparent from the Order of small Causes. For the end ought to be proportionate to the act, its beginning, and its virtual efficacy. Now the Law is the common rule of moral actions; and therefore the first principle of moral actions ought to be the first beginning of the Law. For in Morals, the End is the beginning of Operation, and so the ultimate end is the first beginning of such Operations: But common good and felicity is the ultimate end of a Commonweal; therefore, that also aught to be the beginning of the Law, and therefore the Law ought to aim at the Common good.  
This is illustrated by St. Austin, who collecting a Consequence, from the Relation of the part to the whole, argues, that a Master of a Family ought to take his pattern from the public Laws, and so to govern his House, as to be conformable and agreeable to the public Peace. Therefore ought the public Laws to give a good Example of public Benefit, and common Safety, that Domestic Government may not be ruined by a bad Precedent.  
Suarez brings another reason from the Original of Law, For that the ruling power which is in Men, is either immediately from God, as in spiritual Power; or from men, as in Power purely temporal. But both ways, 
Suarez l. 1. c. 7.  such Authority is given for the public advantage of all in general. For therefore are the Rulers of the Church called Pastors, because it behoves them to lay down their Lives for their Sheep; and Dispensers', not Lords, and Ministers, not Primary causes; and therefore they are obliged to be conformable to the Divine Intention in the use of such Authority. Therefore also are the supreme Magistrates called the Ministers of the Public: as not being created for their own benefit, but for the advantage of them from whom they derive their Power. They are also called the Ministers of God, and therefore aught to use the Power entrusted in their hands in imitation of the King of Kings, who in his Government, solely respects the common good of Mankind. For which reason St. Basil makes this distinction between a Tyrant and a King, that the one seeks his own proper advantages, the other labours chief for the common good and benefit of all his Subjects; not excluding himself, as being the supreme Member, and consequently the first that aught to share in the public and general Emolument.  
The reason why so few People attain this summum bonum of Government, appears by the ways of practising Dominion already recited; the want of a due poise between Rule and Subjection. For in the Arbitrary Eastern Monarchies, the People are altogether Slaves, and may be only said to live, not to live with any comfort or enjoyment of themselves. In the Elective Kingdom of Poland, the Nobility carry such an unbridled sway, that the King is but a cipher, a King and no King; which subjects the Royal Sovereignty to such an insufferable Bondage, that the Title is hardly worth the acceptance of an English Knight. A King in subjection to many Kings. And all this while the People live miserably under the Slavery of a many-headed Tyranny.  
The Emperor is so overmastered by his Golden Bull, and so hampered with Electors and Diets, that in the most emergent affairs, the slowness of deliberation, many times renders him useless to his Friends, and his Authority cumbersome to himself. So that he never moves but like a Clock, when his weights are hung on. Such clogs upon Sovereignty, are frequently the ruin of great Achievements. Neither do the Laws of God any where enjoin the Kings of Judah when they should make either War or Peace.  
The Ephori were added as a check to the Lacedaemonian Kings. Which tho' it grieved the Wife of Theopompus, who upbraided her Husband for suffering such an Eclipse of his Authority, yet was not Theopompus of her mind; who returned her answer, So much the greater, by how much the more lasting. And this Remedy saith Plutarch, was invented by the Lacedæmonians, to prevent the evil accidents and ruin that befell the Kings of the Messenians and Argines, who lost all for obstinately refusing to condescend a little to the Grievances of the People. 
Plut. in vit. Lyc.   
The Romans were terribly pestered about keeping the balance even between the People and the supreme Magistrate. For after they had ingratefully thrown out the Regal Government, which had laid the Foundations of all their Grandeur, they betook themselves to their Annual Consuls; but when the Nobility had engrossed that Office to themselves, the Plebeians began to wince at their Oppression, and departing to Mount Aventino, threatened the Roman Nobility to forsake the City unless they released them of their Burdens. Thereupon the Tribunes of the People were invented to be Protectors of the Commons (for I omit the Consular Praetors and Decemvirs, as of no continuance) but their Power was over-large, and they rastled with Authority at too high a rate. Sometimes the Tribunes, saith Tacitus, were mutinous and headstrong, sometimes the Consuls prevailed, whence Civil bloodshed and slaughter, even in the heart of the City. Till at length Marius one of the meanest rank of Plebeians, and Sylla the most cruel of the Nobility, turned the Roman Liberty, vanquished at length by both their Arms, into Arbitrary Dominion. After which, no other Contests but those of Ambition. So that it is apparent that the Romans lost their Liberty for want of the Tribunes prudent management of the Balance which was put into their hands, whereas the Ephori knew the Limits of their own Authority, as well as the Bounds of that Power to which they were appointed as Assistants and Moderators.  
Nor is this Equilibrium in Government an airy Notion or Idea; It may easily be found in the moderation of our own Laws, wherein there is that veneration of Just Prerogative, and that care of the People's Rights and Liberties, that did not sometimes Popular Affectation, sometimes the Ambition of evil Ministry shog the Beam, it would be a difficult thing for Sovereignty to find an occasion to complain, or subjection to murmur. And for this excellency of our Laws, we are chief beholding to the prudence and moderation of our own Princes. Two such Celestial Virtues, that of the whole Succession of Roman Emperors, they rendered only Vespasian, his Son Titus, and Antoninus Pius the most Illustrious Monuments of the Imperial Dignity. Neither is good Government any other thing than Justice by another name; which is always pictured with an even Balance in her hand. And that high Character sounds like somewhat immortal, given of Hiero King of Sicily, that he was, justus in negotio, in imperio moderatus. Of whom Livy also reports, 
Justin. l. 23 c. 24.  that he would have made the Romans his Heirs, that he might leave the Syracusans in the same Liberty which for fifty years he had maintained among them. 
l. 24. c. 4.  In all which time his Subjects had not beheld him nor his Son Gelo, aut vestis habitu, 
Justin. l. 7. c. 6.16.  aut alio ullo insigni differentes. And it is reckoned among the Eulogies of Philip of Macedon, that he was not only moderatus, verum etiam mitis adversos victos. It is farther said of Valerius Poblicola, that when he was advanced to the highest degree of Roman Honour, he lessened his own Authority by degrees, that the Law of the whole City might appear more free. To which we may add the saying of Theopompus, a King himself, who being asked by his Intimate, which was the most severe method for a Prince to preserve his Dignity, made answer, If he made his Friends sharers of his Prerogative and Authority, and took care that no injury were done to his Subjects.  
Nor can any thing more brightly illustrate the moderation of ancient Legislators, than the Laws themselves which they have left behind, so easy and gentle, so tender of Life and Limb, so indulgent to reputation, so strict in the preservation of Liberty and Propriety, so equal to the highest, to the lowest, to the most wealthy and the poorest, that if they fail of their aim, the Common good and welfare of All, 'tis when they fall into the hands of bad interpretation, and such as wrest their sincere and just intention. Which creates no little astonishment in the breasts of many judicious men, that the Remedy of their strictness should be so highly advanced, which frequently proves worse than the Disease, and proves ofttimes more fatal both to Purse and Person, than the most grievous sentence, that lies in their Power to pronounce. The main blot in the fair Scutcheon of our English Constitutions. Tho' there may sometimes happen another misfortune to their Noble Characters, when Ecclesiastical jealousy seeks to gall the People with spiritual Impositions, or Temporal for the sake of spiritual Interest; by which means the Yoke of Christ, by himself asserted to be light and easy, is made like Rehoboams little Finger, thicker than the Loins of humane Sanction.  
Pulton, the Laborious Collector of all the Fundamental Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom, highly extols them beyond the Constitutions of the Roman Emperors, and of all other Nations. And before him the Great and Learned Fortescue was also of the same Judgement, who prefers the Law of England far beyond the Civil Edicts. But above all, nothing commends it more than that it preserves the Rights and Liberties of the Subject inviolable, and is of that nature that as the same Fortescue affirms, the Prince himself cannot change them without the Consent of his Subjects, 
Delaud. Leg. Ang. c. 9  nor charge them with strange Impositions against their wills. For which reason the People frankly and freely enjoy and occupy their own Goods, being ruled by such Laws as they desire. Therefore saith he, rejoice O Sovereign Prince, and be glad that the Law of your Realm wherein you shall succeed, is such. For it shall procure to you and your People no small security and comfort. With such Laws should all mankind have been governed if in Paradise they had not transgressed. With such Laws was the Synagogue ruled, while it served under God only as King, who adopted the same to him for a peculiar Kingdom. Concluding with a short Memorandum of the wealthy and flourishing Condition of the Jews under their good Kings, and the Misery and Captivity that attended wilful and Arbitrary Idolatry.  
St. Augustine's Definition of a People may be rightly applied to the English Nation; 
De civet. Dei, l. 19  A People, saith he, is a multitude of Men associated by the consent of the Law, and Communion of public Benefit. Which as it is most certainly true of the English Nation, so may it farther be said, that this same Body of Men thus Incorporated within this Island, has from the first beginning had that peculiar Felicity never to have had any other Head but what wore a Royal Diadem. And these Laws which are the Guard and Muniments of the Common Good, may be said to have been compiled by a grand Sanhedrim of Sovereign Potentates, West Saxon, Danish, Northumbrian, Mercian, Ina, Ethelwolph, Cednulph, Alfred, Athelstan, Edwin and Canute, every one throwing the Royal Contributions of his particular Cares and Studies into the public Treasury of the Common Good; which being the Act and Deed of Sovereignty itself, it cannot be thought that Regal Power was regardless of its just Prerogative, or that Edward the Confessor would have been so chary of them to collect and reduce them into one Body, and leave them as a sacred Relieque to the prejudice of his Successors. And from thence our Fundamental Laws derive their illustrious Descent, and may therefore justly claim the Title of Highborn, contrived by Sovereign Princes, as well for their own safety as the People's security. Which being at length made public with the unanimous consent and approbation of the People's Suffragans; there was nothing binding to the Prince, but what Princes had already condescended to; and nothing imposed upon the People, but what themselves thought necessary and convenient.  
To come to particulars, first in reference to the safety of the Prince; those good and famous Monarches of our own gave ample testimonies, that they were not ignorant what procures the Honour and Esteem, what the ill will of the Subject. And therefore in the first place, none were more devout according to the knowledge of those times, none greater observers and setlers of Religion, and none more bountiful enlargers of the Church's Privileges. And in regard the next Applause belongs to them who best provide for the Civil Government, therefore they took care to make good Laws, that by them they might govern well. For as they have justly merited immortal Honours who have been the Establishers of Religion and good Government, so none have clouded their Memories with greater infamy, than the Contemners of Religion, the Subverters of established Government, and Oppressors of the People. For it is but the Counterfeit Glitter and Delusion of false Honour, that captivates the Ambitious, and enslaves them to the desire of enslaving others; and mounts their unruly passions rather to an affectation of upbraided Tyranny, then renowned and Godlike Kingship. And yet there is that shame of ignominy, and that eager thirst after what is most praiseworthy among Men, that the worst of Tyrants would sooner be accounted Agesilaus', Timoleon's and Dio's, than Nabis', Phalaris' and Dionysius'.  
Nor shall we find that Timoleon and the rest, had less Authority in their several Dominions, than Phalaris or Dionysius; but this is certain, they lived in much more safety and security. If we consider the difference between those Roman Emperors, and virtuous Princes that ruled according to Law, and those that took a contrary course, Story is full of the never dying Encomiums of Nerva, Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Antoninus, who needed not the Guard of Praetorian Bands, nor the Defence of armed Legions to secure them, as being sufficiently defended by their own Justice and Moderation, the Affection of the People, and Love of the Senate; whereas all the Power of the Roman Empire could not save Caligula, Nero, Vitellius, and those others like themselves from those mortal Enemies which their own depraved Lusts and Tyranny raised to their destruction; the most abandoned of Men at their Falls. Which was the reason, that of twenty six Emperors from Caesar to Maximus, sixteen came to untimely and unfortunate Ends. Landmarks sufficiently visible, whereby to discover the happy Road of Honour and Security, from the Sands and Shelves of Reproach and timorous Anxiety. It is a pleasure to dwell in History under the Reigns of those virtuous Emperors, which give us a full view of Princes, safe and secure in the midst of their secure and faithful Subjects; the World flourished in Peace and Justice; the Senate enjoyed their Authority; the Magistrates their due Honours, the People grew Rich and Wealthy; Virtue and Nobility was exalted; and fear only possessed the Gates of the Enemy. Reverence, Obedience, and the People's Hearts, were the Prince's satisfaction; Freedom and Security the People's. On the other side, under the Lawless Reign of Will and Tyranny, behold the World all in dismal Combustion, there War and Bloodshed, here Tumult and Sedition, City's dis-peopled, Rapes and Adulteries Triumphant, Guards doubled, the Prince in perpetual Fears and Jealousies, in continual disquiet and distrust; the People mad and raging, and unruly as the inundations of the unfettered Ocean: and in a word, nothing but disorder and confusion, till the gaping Jaws of Ruin swallow All.  
And therefore it is recorded of Numa, 
Plut. in vit. Num.  so highly eminent for his Justice and Affection to his People, that during all his Reign, there was neither War nor Sedition, nor so much as the least commotion that tended to a Tumult. Which was the reason of Plato's assertion, That it was impossible to move the Throne of that Prince, in whom a Philosopher's mind and Regal Supremacy met together. On the contrary, it is said of Tiberius, Non Fortuna, 
Tacit. Annal. l. 6. c. 6.  non Solitudines prolegebant, quin Tormenta pectoris suasque ipse paenas fateretur. Therefore, saith Cicero, Fear is an ill preserver of Diuturnity, but love and respect is faithful, and to Perpetuity. And from hence it was, that when the Poets represented, in the person of Jove, a wise and virtuous Prince, they brought him in, attended by Obedience and Equity; but when they make him a Tyrant, they associate with him Injury and Fear. And Juvenal setting forth the unsafe Condition of Arbitrary Pomp, and the perilous Estate of Tyranny, goes a great way in two lines,  
Ad generum Cereris, 
Sat. 10.112.  sine caede & vulnere pau●●  
Descendunt Reges & sicca morte Tyrann●●  
Reges being there taken abusive, in the same sense with Tyranni.  
But the words and sentence of a King are of greater force. Therefore let us hear the determination of Ferdinand of Arragon, 
●●uan. l. ●. 4.  who married Isabel of Castil●. It was a part of the Arragonian Constitutions at that time, that if the King went about to violate the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom, it might be lawful for the Nobility to create another in his room. This seemed very severe to the Castilians; and therefore they advised Ferdinand to abolish that Law, as prejudicial to Royal Dignity. But Ferdinand replied, That he was bound by the sacred Oath which he had taken, from doing any such thing. Besides, that he was of Opinion, that the safety of a King and Kingdom was secured by the equal poise of Power; and that if at any time it happened, that the Power of the one out-hallanced the other, that without doubt the ruin of the one or the other would ensue. And it is recorded of Augustus Caesar, That when he listened to the Advice of his Wife Julia, and governed by the Law, 
Dio in vit. August.  that he was from thenceforth free from Conspiracies, and that the People and Senate were always after that faithful and obedient to him. Which was also Escovedo's Counsel to John of Austria, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands; telling him withal, that he could never be safe among those, who were not safe from his own Ministers: for that Security was to be obtained by mutual Security. 
S●ada l. 9 circa princip.   
And indeed the Kingly Office (made and ordained for the defence of the Law of the Subjects, 
Forts Cur. de Laud. leg. Angl. c. ●●  their Bodies and Goods, to which end a Prince receives Power of his People, so that he cannot govern his People by any other Law) is of that vast and high importance to the preservation of Mankind, especially considered according to those Appellations which are given to virtuous Princes, for the reasons aforesaid, that nothing in the World ought more to oblige the Subject to the perfect awe and reverence of it, as well for their own as the Prince's sake. Which awe and reverence, while it continues towards the Dignity, it is impossible but that the Person must be secure and safe in all respects. For while Princes govern by the Fundamental Laws of Justice and Equity, they are not only impaled with the defence of a Loyal People, but under the promised Protection of God himself. Their Justice and Moderation demands both Honour and Veneration; their Vigilancy Obedience and Loyalty. In this respect all Virtuous Princes, that seek the prosperity and felicity of the People under their charges, are called by Homer, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Shepherds of the People. And certainly it would be the highest Iniquity imaginable for the Sheep to rebel or murmur against a Shepherd, that sought nothing more than the common welfare of them all, and never sheared them, but when the Tribute of their Fleeces was justly due. For which reason Pindarus calls the Royal Dignity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an Honour given to Princes for nourishing and cherishing the People. He also calls Apollo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Olymph. Ode 6.  and Acastus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Inspectors, Overseers, or Guardians of Delos, 
Nemeor. Ode 5.  and the Magnetes, denoting the cares and continual watch that attend upon true Kingly Government; which is also the Character given of it by Homer,  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
And for these reasons is Royal Sovereignty the highest Dignity among mortal men. For the Title of Emperor is only a nominal, no real difference. Wherefore Pindarus speaking of Jamus, the Ancestor of Agesias, that he was as great as Man could be. Some, saith he, are more eminent than others, but he, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, had attained to the utmost extent of Honour, as being in the number of Kings. It was the public Benefit which Men received by the Glorious Actions of the Ancient Hero's, that made them ascribe Divine Honours to their deceased persons. And the same Virtues in all just and virtuous Princes produce the same Effects of Veneration and Reverence, Obedience and Loyalty in all good Subjects. A King thus armed with his own Virtues, and for their sakes, with the Hearts and Affections of his People, may justly warrant that Axiom of the King of the Argines in Aeschylus, 
In Trag. H●ertides.   〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 
The Awe and Terror of Princes is hardly to be imagined.  
And yet he was none of those that lawlessly controlled; for presently after, saith he,  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will persuade the Common Good. 
From all that has been said, it plainly appears wherein the true and diuturnal security and repose of a Sovereign Prince mainly and principally consist. In which particular, the Laws of England cannot be said to have been any way defective; as having extended their power all along to their own satisfaction; rather have they been so tender of it, that they would not suffer the Pope to make his Ecclesiastical encroachments upon it, even in the most flourishing Estate of Papal Usurpotical. Which was never admitted in England, but only when the Desertion of his Barons exposed King John to the Exorbitancy of Papal Triumph.  
To deseend to the cause, and primum mobile of the Subjects security, none can be found more apparent than good Laws, including Justice and Freedom; And he that is the Sovereign of a People so governed, may be rightly said to be as Agamemmon is frequently styled by Homer, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the King of Men. Which cannot be thought to be, where Arbitrary Will only controls a multitude of Slaves.  
Therefore, says the famous Pindar, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
The foundation of Cities is firm Justice, and Peace accomplished with her Virtues, the Dispensers' of Riches to Men, the Golden Daughters of considerate Thenis. 
Olymp. Ode 13.  And praising the City of Opus, the Metropolis of the Locrians, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Which Themis, and her Sisters good Government, the preserver of Common Weals, took into their protection. And in another place, extolling the City of Aetna for its freedom, which is the other main happiness of a Kingdom, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. To whom, meaning his Son, Hiero gave that City which he had built, and endowed with Divine Liberty, according to the Standard of the Laconic Laws. Taking an occasion to commend the Constitutions the Aetnean Commonweal, from the Excellency of its Government founded in Justice and Liberty, after the example of Lacedaemon, then accounted the most exact Form of Dominion in the World; and therefore by the Poet styled the Standard of all other Governments.  
Certainly the Government of England cannot be thought to stand upon a slight Foundation, that has stood so long upon the single Basis of her own Laws. And it is observable, that then England first began to flourish, when the Laws, being reduced into one Body, were under the execution and care of one Universal Monarch. Nor could the Breach of Norman Conquest hinder the Chasin of long enjoyed Liberty, from uniting again, and closing itself more firmly with the Cement of its former Constitutions; calculated by so many Kings of this Island for the Meridian of English Freedom.  
To come to particulars; the Statutes are made not only by the Prince's pleasure, but also by the Assent of the whole Realm; so that of necessity they must procure the Wealth of the People, and in no wise tend to their hindrance: and it cannot be thought but that they are replenished with much prudence and wisdom, seeing that they are ordained not by the Providence and Deliberation of one Man alone, but of more than five hundred chosen persons.  
And here now in the distribution of Justice between Man and Man, the Excellency of the English above the Civil Laws, is manifest from hence, that the Issue of the Plea is not tried by the Deposition of two Witnesses only, according to the proceed of the Civil Law, but the Truth of the matter must appear evident to the Judge, by the Oaths of Twelve men, Neighbours to the place. For that Man may well be thought to be the Master of little Cunning or Industry, that cannot find two persons, who either for fear, for love or profit, will not be ready to contradict the Truth. Nor is it so easy a thing to disprove the affirmative, or to expose the wicked Lives and Conversations of persons altogether unknown.  
The second Excellency of the English Laws derives itself from the Equitable proceeding, or at least, intention of the Law in the Election and Swearing of Jurors. Who when the parties are come to the Issue of the Plea upon matter of Fact, are by Writ directed to the Sheriff of the County, by him to be chosen, good and lawful Men, Neighbours to the place where the Fact is supposed to be done. Upon their attendance, either party may refuse them, upon the reasonable Allegations of Favour or Affection in the Return. Which Exceptions proving true, the Panel shall be quashed, and another Writ directed to the Coroner for the Return of a new Panel. And if that be found faulty, the Judges shall appoint two Clerks of the same Court, who upon their Oaths are bound to make up an indifferent Panel, which shall be challenged by neither party; yet notwithstanding all this, either of the parties has the liberty to make his particular Exceptions against the person of any, if they can tax him either of Alliance, Friendship, or any other warrantable suspicion of prejudice; upon which the name of the person shall be cancelled in the Panel. Moreover, they must have Lands or Revenues for term of Life at the least, to the yearly value of Forty shillings, lest for need or poverty such Jurors might be corrupt and suborned. Being thus admitted and sworn to Impartiality, their determination of the matter is called a Verdict, or Verum dictum, a true Report.  
Here it is evident, that the final Cause of this Constitution, is the determination of Controversy as much as can be devised, to the satisfaction as well of the loser as of the gainer. For in regard every man is apt to believe his own cause to be the justest, he can have no reason to be discontented, when he finds himself convinced by a fair Trial, and the true report of so many good and substantial Men; of whose probity he has as it were, the winnowing and sifting, before he is bound to submit to their Arbitrement. The same method, or very little different, is observed in Criminal Proceed. So that no Man can be condemned either in Life, Forfeiture, or any other penal Punishment, unless so many men, whose integrity and probity cannot be impeached, be upon their Oaths, and upon mature deliberation fully evinced of the Merits of his Crime.  
By this means the Lives and Estates of the People of this Nation are in a great measure secured. For that no man can be deprived of his Possessions, if his Tenure be just. Nor is his Life or Liberty liable to the blasts of Arbitrary breath. So that the Courts of Justice are as it were public Registers, ready to give an Account of all the particular Actions and demeanour of the Law. Insomuch that the Law itself may in a manner be said to be upon its Good Behaviour. And therefore it behoves every Juryman and every Evidence, to be in the highest degree careful how they misled the intent of the Law, since he may have need at one time or other, of the same Justice himself. And he is to consider that his own Verdict is the fence and pale of all his fellow Subjects Right and Liberty. And that he is guilty of all the mischief which shall ensue, who opens the least Gap for Injury and Injustice to break in upon Right and Freedom; and that thereby he violates the intent of the Law, which is the common good as well of himself as of all the rest. For Injury and Injustice are of the Nature with Quicksilver; which upon a smooth and polished Table cannot take the least advantage, but where it finds the most diminutive chink, there it harbours and corrodes. Hence we may conclude, that there are not two things more pernicious to the Probity of English Verdicts, than Ignorance and Faction. For the end of Juries being to distribute equal Justice for the public security, Ignorance not knowing when she does well or ill, must of necessity be guilty of many gross and foul transgressions, while not understanding their value, she sport's away the Jewels of other Men, as Children play away their Parents Jacobus'. Therefore the Law has with solemn prudence provided, that none should be the Judges of Estate and Liberty, but such as enjoy both. And therefore if others are put upon that employment, whose familiarity with Beggary values not Estate, or whose abject Spirit matters not Liberty, 'tis the miscarriage of Execution, not of the Law itself. Which many times may prove dreadful in the conclusion, even to Posterity.  
Nor is Faction less dangerous, which seldom makes a true construction of the Law, but carries along with it prejudice, and an opiniatered Zeal for biased Interest to the Bar. Thus a Ghibelline is a forejudged Offender right or wrong, in the breast of a Guelph. And a Guelph is fore-condemned without any farther consideration, by the Verdict of a Ghibelline. So that where persons are brought to Trials, where they who try believe themselves cocksure of a Jury for their Turn, those cannot properly be said to be Trials, but only the Formalities of Trials. And Jurors that go with a premeditated goodwill or aversion to such a Trial, may not be said to give a Verdict, but to follow the dictates of Passion and Affection, more frequently in the wrong, then in the right; as being carried like floating and unfixed pieces of Timber, which way soever the Stream runs. And therefore what is done by Faction cannot be said to be a Law. For it brings the World into confusion; while one thing shall be accounted lawful to day, and another thing lawful to morrow. But the Law of England is certain and unalterable; It had its Birth from King and People, and was solely intended for the common good and preservation of Both. So that there needs no picking and culling of Jurors by Interest and Faction, but the return of Men of Understanding, Integrity and Probity, and then they who fall by their Judgements, may be rightly said to fall deservedly.  
The Law most certainly aimed at the right mark; and there is undoubtedly that security of our Lives and Liberties from it, that without it there cannot well be any. And therefore if there be any such who strain it from its natural and genuine Intention. They are in the fault and not the Law; and Heaven will require the oppression and blood of the Innocent at their hands. For the Law itself is absolutely grounded upon the firm Basis of Reason, Nature and Justice, the Common good of Prince and People.  
And most assuredly, Fortescue, when he was so deeply engaged with Prince Edward in the praise of the Laws of England, might have pitched upon far more noble Themes, setting this of Juries aside, then to set them at variance with the Civil Laws, only about Bastardy and Wardships. But he aimed at Brevity, and therefore passes over Magna Charta in silence; wherein, as in a Mirror, all the World may take a lovely Prospect of the advantages which this Kingdom of England has above all other Nations under the Sun. Yet can it not be said to be the Original of the Laws of this Realm, but a Collection of those ancient Constitutions of the Saxons, Danes, Mercians and Northumbrians, which were by Matthew Paris called Bonae & adprobatae antiquae Regni leges; & leges Edvardi Regis, quae prius inventae sunt, & constitutae in tempore Adgari, avi sui; & leges aequissimi Regis Edvardi.  
These the English, oppressed by Norman Tyranny, eagerly thirsted to have restored, and were impatient, till they were at length in most solemn manner confirmed, first by King John, and afterwards by Henry the Third, with the severest Anathama upon the Infringers of it, that State or Religion could devise. Know ye, saith the King, that We, in the fear of God, for the Salvation of our Soul, the Exaltation of the Church, and the Amendment of the Kingdom. In which words are contained the Motives inducing the King to make the Grant, and next the Final causes of the Grant. The first Inducement is the Fear of God. And this those Two Great Monarches, Favourites of the Almighty, Victorious David and Wise Solomon both conclude to be the beginning of Wisdom. Which Wisdom, as it can consult nothing but what is good and virtuous in General, so when It comes to be chief Privy Counsellor and Minister of State to a Prince in the Establishing a particular National Government, can never be suspected to advise otherwise then for the general Good and Preservation of the People from whom Obedience to that Government is required. 'Twould be impiety to think that the Beginning of Wisdom could have any other aim or intention then what is just and profitable. Therefore where a Prince is blessed with the fear of God, That Religious Fear instructs him with Heavenly Wisdom; and that Heavenly Wisdom guides him to make and establish such Laws as may come nearest to the Laws of God himself, which respected nothing more than the safety, repose, protection and welfare of his own People. Happy then is the English Nation, whose Lives, Estates and Liberties are wrapped and folded up in such a Charter of Laws, which had its Confirmation from the fear of God. Certainly their Estates, their Lives and Liberties can no where be more safe then in the fear of God; by nothing more cordially or warily preserved, then by the Beginning of Wisdom. Which when the late Usurpers violated, they soon found it to be the Beginning of Folly.  
The second Inducement was the Good of the Kings Soul. Which he well might hope for from the Promises of the King of Kings Himself. He might well have a fair prospect of Eternal happiness, when he was so largely providing for the Temporal Felicity of his People. It was an Argument of the Queen of Sheba, That God delighted in Solomon, and that the Lord loved the People of Israel, because he had made him King to do Judgement and Justice. This is the Great Charter of Heaven, by which Princes hold their Supreme Dignity; the Execution of Judgement and Justice is the high Employment, to which God has appointed Kings. In so doing, they observe the Statutes and Ordinances of Heaven. The Rock of Israel spoke to David, saying, Let him that ruleth over Men be just, ruling in the fear of God. The recompense of which, is to be rewarded according to their Righteousness. Which is the Guerdon that David acknowledges to have been the happy retaliation of his Integrity in observing the Precepts and Statutes of God, by him framed for the public Benefit of his People; and who may be also said to be the Author of all good and wholesome Laws grounded upon Reason and Nature. And therefore the King might well hope for the reward of his Equity and Justice from the God of Both. And the People might well hope for security temporal of their Lives and Liberty, from Laws confirmed for the Eternal security of the Confirmer.  
And as the Motives and Incentives to pass this Grant were twofold, so were likewise the Final causes of the Grant itself.  
First the Exaltation of the Church. Thus Moses provided first for his own Worship in general, in the first part of the Decalogue; as he also did in his particular Worship, in the Erection of the Tabernacle, and the Consecration of the High Priest and subordinate Levites. And this order and method the very Heathens were prompted to observe by the very Light of Nature. The first care of Numa was to settle the Heathen Worship of the Gods, the next care of Servius Tullus was to provide for the good Order of the Politic Government. And Justin speaking of Moses and a feigned Son of His, whom he calls Arnas, and the great Benefit which the Jewish Commonweal had reaped from their good Government, Quorum Justitia, saith he, Religione permixta, incredibile quantum coaluere. Which mixture of Religion with Justice, was by some of the Heathens accounted so absolutely necessary that they would not separate the Priesthood from the Kingly Office, as we may read in Virgil:  
Rex Anius, Rex idem hominum, Phoebique Sacerdos  
Vittis, 
Aene●d. l. 3.  & sacro redemitus tempora Lauro.  
And it was the Fatherly advice of Charles the Fifth to his Son, whereby he might approve himself a worthy Prince, 
Strada, l. 1.  to be constant in the Patronage of Religion and the protection of the Laws, which he calls the true and certain Establishments of all Kingdoms. For the Ship of the Common-weal can never Ride safe without the sacred Anchor of Religion.  
For it concerns all Princes that Study the Diuturnity of their Dominions, above all things, to preserve the Worship of God in its entire purity. There being no more dangerous symptoms of a perishing Kingdom, than the neglect and contempt of Religion. This is easy to be understood, if Men would give themselves to understand the Fundamental ground and reason of the Religion where they are born and bred. For that Religion has its Birth from some peculiar and awful Original or other. The Religion of the Heathens was grounded upon the Answers of the Oracles, and the Observations of Diviners and Soothsayers. Believing that those Gods which could foretell good and evil, could also bequeath them the same Felicities, or vex them with the same Misfortunes. But the Foundation and Original of Christian Religion, it is not to be questioned but that we all know, as being established in the World by the Eternal Son of the ever living God. And the ends of it are to procure Salvation in Heaven, and Tranquillity, Union and Peace upon Earth. And while the Faith and Integrity of Men makes no other use of it, the Intermixture of it with secular Justice makes that binding Cement, that renders the Bulwark of Government impenetrable to all the assaults of Humane Violence. For by the Exaltation of the Church is not meant the Exaltation of Pomp and Gawdy Ceremony, and the pampering it up in worldly Honour and exorbitant Wealth, quite contrary to the Institutions of the Founder, who laid the Foundations of his Doctrine in Humility and Peace. From whence while Men in Holy Orders deviate, and maintain the forbidden Interest of Worldly Glory, while they seek to support the name and show of Religion, they Adulterate Justice, and many times become the main disturbers of the public Peace. Whence Matchiavel makes this observation, 
Matchiavel. dis●c●●si. l. 1. c. 12.  That those People who inhabit nearest to the Church of Rome, have the least Religion; and ascribes the Bad Estate of Italy to the Roman See. And for this, he gives two invincible, as he calls them, Reasons. First, for that by the evil and wicked Examples of that Court, the whole Nation have lost all their Piety and Devotion. The next Reason proceeds from the different Interest of Christian Humility, and Antichristian Vain-glory. For the Roman Court to maintain the Pomp and Splendour of a Temporal Hierarchy, is forced to keep not only Italy, but all Europe in Division, and sometimes to League even with the Turk for its own preservation; by which means unhappy Italy, being prevented from uniting under their own supreme Prince, and one frame of Law, is exposed to all the Pretences of her more powerful Neighbours, and her petty Princes are but the precarious Tenants at Will to more mighty Potentates.  
Nor does the Exaltation of the Church encourage the Priesthood to move irregularly out of their Sphere, or to lead an Amphibious Life, sometimes in the running Streams of the Gospel, sometimes upon the Terra Firma of Temporal Government. Nor is it in Scripture a warrantable method of seeking Church preferment to oblige the secular Interest by strained and wrested Interpretations of the Immaculate Scripture. Like Shaw Preaching up the Title of Richard the Third, and Latimer the right of Jane Seymour. For if the Kingdom of their Lord and Master be not of this World, no more does temporal preferment belong to the Ministers of his Doctrine. But the true Exaltation of the Church is to protect its Ministers in the Preaching of sound Scripture, to the Conversion of Souls, to the building up the new Jerusalem, and advancing the future Kingdom of Christ, by their endeavouring to increase the number of his Celestial Subjects. The Exaltation of the Church protects her neat and pure, and exactly cleansed and swept from all the Cobwebs of Babylonish Superstition. For than will Rome despair of ever setting Foot in England more, when with grief she beholds all her Follies and inveigling Allurements Root and Branch, extirpated. To which end, the same resolution might well become the Clergy of England in reference to the Relics of Popish Ceremonies, which was applauded in King Stephen in relation to the Roman Laws; who hearing that they were brought into England, and lodged in the custody of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, commanded them out of his House, published an Edict against the Laws of Italy, and banished them out of his Realm. Not enduring, tho' a Foreigner himself, any other than the Honesty of the English Constitutions. An Act of his not recorded by any of our Historians, but by the Learned Selden in his Notes upon Fortescue, cited from Roger Bacon's Compendium Theologiae, and John of Salisbury in his Treatise de nugis Curiaticum.  
On the other side, the Wolf in Sheep's clothing, outwardly Meek, and insinuating Heresy and Schism, are equally dangerous and contagious. For Heresy, the Illegitimate Brat of Contumacy, while it labours to shake off from the minds of Men the easy Yoke of Christ, at the same time teaches Men to violate their Allegiance to their lawful Princes: and they that strive to bring in the Innovations of obstinate Opinion, if they get the upper hand, seldom change the Religion alone.  
Therefore the Exaltation of the Church defends and guards those Men that give themselves to compose the breaches of Ecclesiastical Differences, and labour to beget a harmony and unity of Faith and Devotion, which then Religion most truly useful, and the most unblemished Aid of Civil Justice.  
The second final Cause of this Great Charter, was the Amendment of the Kingdom. The miscarriages of those times are by our Historians said to be the Cancelling of the Great Charter, by the advice of Hubert de Burgh, Chief Justiciary of England, as first confirmed by the King during his Nonage. The displacing the English Nobility, and admitting Poictovins and Foreigners into the Chief employments of the Kingdom, and the Impoverishment of the Nation by vast and continual Taxations. By the means of which undue proceed the ancient Laws of the Realm were rendered useless, and the Liberty of the People lay at the Mercy of Evil Ministers. The amendment of which Grievances, as being an Act due to the Honour of God, the Salvation of the King's Soul, and the Exaltation of the Church, is now intended by the Confirmation of this Great Charter. From whence it is inductively demonstrable, that if the Establishment of good Laws be the way to procure such inestimable Happiness to a Prince, the continuance of bad Customs and Oppression inclines to all the contrary consequences; that is, to be dishonourable to God, hazardous to Salvation, and injurious to the Church. Which considerations of Eternal Detriment or Felicity, when they come to be the inducements to Reformation, must certainly be a great advantage to such Reformation, that it may prove effectual to all its purposes. And then such Act of Reformation is of that high Merit, that it produces a benefit of the good, exceeding the mischief of the Evil; the reason perhaps why Machiavelli ascribes a more Exalted renown to those Princes who reform the corruptions of a disordered State, then to those who only continue the Good Government which they found. E verament, saith he, un Prencipe cercando la gloria del mondo doverebbe desiderare di possedere una Citta corrotta, non par guastarlo, come Caesare, ma per riordinarla, come Romulo. A Prince Ambitious of the Honour of this World would desire to come to a Kingdom under the corruption of ill Customs, not to ruin it like Caesar, but reform it like Romulus. For as it is impossible but that Ambition, desire of absolute Dominion, and many other oversights of Government, will many times disturb the Courts of Justice, and let in confusion at the Breaches of the Law, so is that Prince the more highly to be honoured, who reforms those abuses, and restores exiled Justice, by how much such Reformation must needs be the more welcome and acceptable, even as health is more valued by such as know the Inconveniencies of Sickness, then by those who never understood the want of Cure: and by how much the Joy is greater for the recovery of the lost Sheep, then for those that never went astray.  
Now this Amendment of the Kingdom employed the defect of Government, and such a defect which endangered the Estates, Lives and Liberties of the Subject; which since they could be no way secured, but by the Recovery of the Ancient Laws of the Kingdom, it follows, that seeing the Rights and Liberties of the English People are still the same, they can be guarded by no better security than what has hitherto preserved them, as upon which the Salvation of the Prince's Soul, and the Exaltation of the Church depend, and all redounding to the Honour of God.  
Neither could Time itself dissolve this Charter, as being granted to all the Freemen of the Kingdom, to be held and enjoyed in the Kingdom for ever.  
But what those Liberties were, and what the Amendments were, is better seen by the Charter itself: in regard that what was good by Amendment, was on the contrary, evil and unjust in practice: No Man may be taken or imprisoned, or disseised of his Free Tenement, his Liberties or Free Customs, or be Outlawed or Exiled, or any way destroyed, nor will we enter upon his Possession, 
Nec super eum ibimus, nec super eum mittemus.  nor Commit him (so Selden renders the last words) but by the Loyal Judgement of his Peers, or Men of his Condition, or by the Law of the Land.  
By this Paragraph of the Charter it is plainly to be made out, that the Estates and Liberties of the English Subjects are descended and guarded as well by the Law of Nature, as by the Law of the Land: as having embodied those Principles of Morality, which most conduce to Public Honesty, which is the Common Security. All which are mustered up under that General Head of Alterine feceris quod tibi fieri non vis. Which being the Law of Nature, is also the Will of God, who is the Author of Nature. So that as God can command nothing but what is purely honest and just, no more can the Law of Nature. Now that the Materia prima of this Law is the same with that of the Law of Nature, is apparent from hence, that it enjoins necessary Honesty, and forbids the Evil contrary to it. To clear the point a little farther, This Paragraph contains nine Branches relating to the Liberty of Person, the security of Property and Possession, and the general execution of Justice.  
1. No Freeman may be taken or imprisoned; That is, as the Lord Chief Justice Cook expounds it: No Man shall be restrained of his Liberty by Petition or Suggestion to the King or his Council, but by Indictment, or Presentment of good and lawful Men, where such deeds be done. For Liberty is the power of living at pleasure. And no Man lives as he pleases, who is not permitted to enjoy that repose and tranquillity both of Mind and Body which he proposes to himself. Which Liberty was given him by Nature, and in some measure granted even to the wild Beasts themselves. And therefore to deprive him of the Power of himself, is to deprive him of the gift of Nature, to which there is nothing that he can have more Right, until he forfeit it back to the Law by transgressing it. And that it is the gift of Nature, is evident from that Love of Liberty which Nature has infused even into all the particular Members of the Creation. The Elements themselves disdain the Curb of Servitude. Imprisoned Fire when it gets lose revenges itself with greater fury. The fettered Ocean foams and roars at his Confinement; The Winds against their will detained in the Earth's bowels, put the Earth into most violent Convulsions. We see how impatiently young Horses brook their Imperious Curbs; and how the little Birds at first bewail the Captivity of the Cage. Liberty is one of the chiefest Felicities Man has to boast of that he is by Nature Lord of himself, and has only Reason to be his Governor. Nor does the Law require slavish Subjection from him, but natural and necessary Obedience; which is therefore so far from being oppressive, that it becomes delightful to him, because he finds thereby his Liberty preserved. For these reasons every Man that enjoys his Liberty is said to be the treasurer of a most inestimable Jewel, the Privilege of Nature and his Birthright, which they who ravish from him by violence and against the Law of Nature, despoil him of the Benefit of Heaven, and reduce him to the slavish condition of Beasts, as if he were only made for the use of Tyrannising Power.  
Therefore says this Law, let No man be restrained of his Liberty or imprisoned but by the Law. I omit the fatal Consequences of endangering the Liberty of a People enured to Privilege and Freedom, the love of which to them is so excessive, that accounting nothing dearer to them in this World, they prostrate Life, Estate, and all at the feet of its Preservation. On the other side, Popular Licence is with all the severity imaginable to be restrained; for that unhinges public Safety, and makes an Inundation upon the true Justice of Government. Then which nothing can be more pernicious to the Public Security, and the Common Good of Prince and People.  
2. Let no man be disseised or dispossessed of his Freehold, that is, of his Lands, Livelihood, Liberties, or free Customs as belong to him by his free Birthright.  
And this also depends upon the Law of Nature. For no sooner was the World Created, but immediately appeared Propriety. Abel was a Keeper of Sheep, and Cain a tiler of the DGround. And therefore was Man endued by Nature with Industry, to advance his Estate, to the end he might not only live, but live comfortably upon what by his Labour he enjoyed. Which being obtained by his own industry and pains, Nature instilled that Moral Principle among Men, that it was but just that every man should quietly and peaceably enjoy what he had got by his Labour and the sweat of his Brows. And this is evident from the Law of Inheritance, the Institution of God himself. For if by the Law of Nature he had not power to possess and keep, he could not have power to dispose. But the undeniable Power of disposition confirms the right of Property and Possession. So that for a Man to be despoiled of the fruits of his Labour, or of the Inheritance of his Ancestors, is against the Law of God and Nature. Thou shalt eat of the Labour of thy hand; happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee; and He that gathereth by Labour shall increase. This was the Establishment of Property by two of the best of Kings, by the dictate of God himself. And therefore for Tyranny to waste the Labours of the Subject profusely upon illegal Innovasions, and unnecessary Pomp and Riot, is a piece of Injustice of the highest Nature. And therefore this Law grounded upon the Law of God and Nature, takes especial care to secure the Property of the Subject from Exorbitancy and Oppression.  
Not that hereby the Laws of legal Tributes are any way contradicted. For they are imposed upon the People, and given to the Prince as a public Person for the Common Good; of which the support of his Dignity is a part. And generally in England they are given with the Subjects consent. And this is also warranted by Scripture. For this reason you pay Tribute also; for they are Gods Ministers. Nor can the People expect to be safe in what they possess, unless the Prince be sufficiently supplied for their defence. And yet the Law has so provided too, that they cannot be put upon the expense of chargeable and unnecessary Wars; for though it be in the power of the Prince to make and proclaim the War, yet the Sinews of it are in the People's keeping. However, for the People to deny their Prince his just and legal Tributes is altogether as unnatural, as it may be thought unkind in him to deprive them of their Goods and Fortunes, without a lawful cause against their goodliking.  
The third and fourth Branches are made to interpose in bar of unjust Exilements and Outlaries. Of which the one is the Occasion that a Man is said Perdere Patriam, to lose his Country; and the other to be deprived of the benefit of his Native Laws. Two heavy Burdens, and two unmerciful Injuries for a Freeborn Man to take at the hands of Violence without a Legal Provocation. They are a sort of Civil Excommunications, which cut a Man off from the society and commerce with his dearest Friends and Countrymen, and the benefit of the Law; and leave him as it were forsaken both of God and Man. Banishment was looked upon in former times, as an affliction so heavy and so insupportable, that it was thought a Punishment sufficient for Treason in the Reign of Henry the First. Even in the time of Richard the Second, the offences of great Personages were punished by Banishment. In short, they are both when undeserved, Breaches of Man's Liberty, and consequently contrary to the Law of Nature, which gives to every Man the right of a Civis Natu in the Country where he was born. For it is not to be questioned, but the Land which the Lord thy God has given thee, was spoke to every individual Native of the Country, and not to particular persons. And therefore it is not a thing of that slight Importance, to hurry the Freeborn Citizens of a Commonweal, out of the Land of their Nativity, or to put them upon the necessities of voluntary Exile, upon the Score of Conscience and Ecclesiastical Interest. For all true Ecclesiastical Interest is the Interest of Christ, and as such the Interest of Christian Religion as to this World, is grounded upon the Law of Nature; one of whose chief Maxims therefore is, Do as you would be done by. For which reason that Law which forces the freeborn Subject of a Nation into Exile, and all Men are constrained that go to avoid some inconvenience or violence prejudicial to their present Peace, is contrary not only to this Statute, which says, that no Man shall be exiled but by the Legal judgement of his Peers, but also to the Laws of Christian Liberty, which admits of no Corporeal punishment upon the score of Religion, much less of Exilement, which is a forfeiture of the highest degree. Ecclesiastical Interest, which is far the more sublime and more noble Power, may exterminate from Heaven, but not from Earth; For it is the same thing whether Interest advise or act. According to that of the Learned Bishop Taylor, Many, saith he, have got a trick of giving People over to the Secular Power, which at the best is no better than Hypocrisy, removing Envy from themselves, and laying it upon others; a Refusing to do that in external Act, which they do in Counsel and approbation; which is a transmitting the Act to another, 
Liberty of Prophesying, p. 229  and retaining a proportion of the Gild to themselves, even their own and the others too.  
And therefore this Law, having a greater regard to the Public good and the Defence of the Prince, enervated by the dispeopling and emptying of his Country of its chiefest Sinews and Strength which consists in the Number of Inhabitants, (and which he that travels the Pope's Territories may easily observe not to be the Interest of Rome) has here taken care that no Man should be exiled before legal judgement of his Peers. Not but they who deserve Banishment ought to be punished according to their deserts; but then they must be first convicted according to the Law of the Land. Otherwise it is not only contrary to the Law but the Customs of the Realm, by which no Man can be banished out of his Native Country, but either by Authority of Parliament, or in case of Abjuration for Felony by the Common Law.  
Therefore the secular Law, (never so certain in its course, as when it steers without the helm of Ecclesiastical Ambition) is so tender of Exilement, that it will not permit even the Prince himself to send any Subject of England to serve him against his will: nay, if you believe the Lord Cook, a Man cannot by constraint be commanded out of England into Ireland, tho' for his Honour to be Deputy of the Kingdom. Which shows how nice the Laws of England were to tread the Footsteps of Nature and Reason in this particular.  
5. No Man shall be destroyed, that is, by the interpretation of the Lord Cook, No Man shall be forejudged of Life or Limb, disinherited, or put to torture or Death.  
And thus all oppression against Law, by colour of any usurped Authority, or under the pretence of Justice, is a kind of destruction. Which is neither to be done aliquo modo, by any way, means, pretence or shadow whatsoever.  
Of this sort of Destruction the Psalmist complains when he cries out, All the Foundations of the Earth are out of course. The public good and safety was turned into public Violence and Oppression, while Lawless Power and Arbitrary Dominion made Havoc of the Lives and Liberties of the succourless People. Then which a greater Calamity cannot befall Mankind. For what more irreparable injury can be done to a Man then to deprive him of his life, or maim him in his limbs; thereby to demolish not only his wellbeing, but his very Being itself, upon every Choleric Incentive of Lust, Ambition, Superstition, Revenge, and many times of Interest and Politic Conveniency? This prudent Nature foresaw, and engraved in the heart of every Man a desire of association for mutual defence against the Rage of licentious Will and Pleasure. Nature approved their design, aided them with her own Light, and dictated to them Herself those Principles and Precepts of Honesty, Justice, and Moderation, which Heaven had infused into Her, that they might reduce them into Laws, to prevent the Havocks of unlimited Control, which wherever it sets footing, reduceth All to Beggary, Slavery and Destruction. Which while it is the chief endeavour of Nature, aiming at nothing more than preservation, to keep fast bound in the Chains and Fetters of her own Law, warrants the same method in Constitutions of Human Frame. And certainly if they are to be thought the only Foelices Agricolae, that live under the Protection of good Laws, the English may be said rightly to be They, who have the Laws of God and Nature spreading their Cherubim-Wings over the Lives and Liberties of every particular person in the Nation.  
The next and sixth Branch, Neither will we enter upon his Possession, nor commit him, may seem to be a particular Promise of moderate Indulgence to the Subject in reference to the peculiar claims and Suits of the King relating to the Crown, yet still springing from the same Original. Which shows the Kings of England truly fit to rule, while they themselves submit to the Laws by which they govern. As it was said of Lycurgus, Quod nihil lege ulla in alios Sanxit, cujus non ipse primus in se Documenta daret.  
The three next Branches relate to the great prejudices and damages which are sustained by the ill management and Execution of Justice through the Corruption of its Ministers; against which the Law provides in these words:  
We shall sell to no Man Justice or Right.  
We shall deny to no Man Justice or Right.  
We shall delay to no Man Justice or Right.  
The selling of Justice or taking Bribes, and the denial and delay of Justice as they are equally dishonourable to God, so are they to them that require Justice equally injurious. For it is the highest presumption that Man can be guilty of to expose to sale one of the chiefest Attributes of the Almighty. There is nothing whereby God more exalts himself to Mankind, then in the frequent Repetitions of his Justice. Of which he that makes Merchandise, prostitutes the Honour of his Maker for filthy lucre: and yet neither is it his own to sell; for God is the Fountain of Justice; from him it all flows, and his it is. Only he entrusts it with the Ministers of Justice for the good of Mankind. He that does Justice uprightly, acts like God; but he that sells it, sells the Act of God and not his own; for though it prove Justice in the purchaser, yet it is not Justice in the seller, but the Price of the Buyer, which if the poor and needy want, they must not have, because they have not wherewithal to bid for it, who are nevertheless under the Protection of Justice equally with the most Opulent. However God out of his boundless Providence foresaw how great would be the Temptations of Avarice, and the allurements of Gold, though currant no where but upon Earth, that he provides against the charming Iniquiry by a strict command, Thou shalt not respect persons, nor take a Gift, for a gift blinds the eyes of the wise. So that the high Crimes alleged against the Sons of Samuel were, that they turned after Lucre, and took Bribes. From whence the Light of Nature infused the same detestation of these Misdemeanours in all other Ministers of Justice. By Hesiod they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or Gift-eaters, whom he makes Justice to follow weeping, and bewailing the fatal Consequences of her bad usage. Phocyllides also, from the same Law of Nature could give this advice,  — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
Let not favour bias Justice; for if thou dost saith he,— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. God will afterwards judge thee. And another of the gnomonics, wouldst thou support thy life, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by doing justly? then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, fly ill got gain. We read in Herodotus of Sesamnes one of the Persian Judges, put to death for Bribery by Cambyses, who caused him to be flayed after he was dead, and his Tanned Skin to be cut into Thongs to make a Seat for his Son.  
Among the Roman's by the Junian Law Bribery or selling of Justice was punished with Exile; and by the Acilian Law, they were immediately to receive Judgement, without any demurs. It may be thought that selling of places relating to Courts of Judicature was not a custom then in practice, else we might conclude that they who made such ample provision against the selling of Justice, would have as carefully provided against the selling of those Inferior Authorities that refer to the Execution of it. Especially when the Rates run so High as now they do. Twelve hundred, Two Thousand pound for a Jaylours' place, Four hundredfold Sergeants, and so proportionably for others. For it serves for a specious Plea to those that shall be called to account for their miscarriages, that they have bought so dear. Nor does the Name of a Favourite in Court sound well, for though it may not be so effectual as some may think, yet is the thing itself suspicious to all, especially when they see the Fortunes and Emoluments of that person advanced above others of equal merit.  
But after pardon for this short digression, the two next Grievances by this Charter promised to be reformed are the delay and denial of Justice; both much of the same Nature, seeing that the Delay is in some measure the denial of Justice. Which words, delay of Justice, are so expounded by several Acts of Parliament, that by no means Common Right or Common Law should be disturbed or delayed, tho' it be commanded under the Great or Privy Seal, or by any Order, Writ, Letters or Command whatsoever, even from the Prince himself, or any other; but that the Justices shall proceed, as if no such Writs, Letters, Messages or Commandment were come to them. And therefore the Epithet of Celeris is given to the Law; in regard there is nothing which can be more welcome to those who are aggrieved or distressed then quick and speedy Relief. And this is without doubt the meaning of those positive Commands in Scripture to which the Judges of the Earth, to hear the cries of the Poor and Needy; who if not soon redressed, are doubly undone by unnecessary Expense, and withholding from them the profit of their legal and just claims. But as the Delay is bad, so is the positive denial so much the more to be avoided, by how much the Lamentations and Cries of the injured make a louder sound in the Ears of Heaven, and open with greater swiftness and more rapid violence the Floodgates of Divine Vengeance upon a Nation. For if the cause of the oppressed be the cause of God, than the denial of Justice is the denial of the Almighty's own Suit, with whom this great Charter would not contend. And therefore the Prince, here minding his future Salvation, freely discards the selling, delay and denial of Justice, knowing how little they would avail, when unrelieved Oppression should plead against him at the Bar of Heaven. If then the Law of England be the surest Sanctuary which an English Man can take, and the strongest Fortress to protect the weakest of All, it must be assuredly much more sacred and beneficial, when built up of the Materials of God's Commands and Natures Light. Nor can they who at any time shall seek to destroy so beautiful a Structure, expect other then to perish in its Ruins.  
But here may some advance a Quaere, and ask, what is meant by this Per legem terrae, this Law of the Land? A Scrutiny with the same facility as made plainly resolved by the Statute of the 25 Ed. 3. c. 4. where per legem terrae is expounded to be by due Process of the Law. For thus the words run: Whereas it is contained in the Great Charter, etc. that no Man shall be imprisoned, etc. It is accorded, assented and established, That no Man shall be taken by Petition or Suggestion to our Lord the King, or his Council, unless it be by Indictment or Presentment of his good and lawful People of the same Neighbourhood where such Deeds be done, in due manner, or by Process made by Writ Original at the Common Law. Nor that none be outed of his Franchise or his Freehold, unless he be duly brought in answer, and forejudged of the same by the Course of the Law. And if any thing be done against the same, it shall be redressed and holden for none. Upon which words the Lord Cook observes, that Process of Law is twofold, By the King's Writ, or by due proceeding and Warrant, either in Deed, or in Law without Writ. Which latter way of Proceeding is against Criminals, where there is good Witness against the Offender. And Evidence must proceed from persons of good Fame, Credit and Honesty, not from debauched, malevolent and scandalous Informers. And therefore the Law requires, that they who grant any such Warrant have lawful Authority; that the Warrant be lawful, and under Hand and Seal; that the Cause be specified in the Warrant; and lastly, that the intent of the Warrant be Legal, for the safe Custody of the Party till he be delivered by due course of Law. Which is plain from the Style of our Habeas Corpus',  Justiciarii nostri visa causa, fieri faciant quod de Jure & secundum Legem & Consuctudinem Regni Nostri Angliae foret faciendum.  
In farther proof of which Exposition, we sinned it Enacted in the 27 of Ed. 3. c. 3. That no Man of what Estate or Condition that he be, shall be put out of Land or Tenement, nor taken nor imprisoned, nor disherited, nor put to death without being brought to answer by due Process of the Law. Which last words expounding and fully answering the doubt upon per Legem terrae, plainly evince the Law of the Land to be such, that no Man ought to receive detriment either in Person or Estate before legal Trial and due proof of the Offence.  
True it is, that the Lord Cook brings an Instance of an Act of Parliament made in the face of this Fundamental Law of Magna Charta in the 11th year of Hen. 7. That as well Justices of Assize, as Justices of the Peace (without any finding or Presentment of Twelve Men) upon a bare Information for the King before them made, should have full Power and Authority by their discretions to hear and determine all Offences and Contempts committed or done against the form of any Statute in force and not repealed. But the Fence of Common Justice being thus broken, what ensued? By this Act, shaking the Fundamental Law of Magna Charta, it is not credible, saith He, what Oppressions and Extortions to the Ruin of infinite numbers of People were committed by Empson and Dudley.  
Therefore in th' first year of Hen. 8. that Act was repealed and made void; and the reason is given, For that by force of the said Act, many sinister, crafty, feigned and forged Informations had been pursued against divers of of the King's Subjects, to their great Damage and wrongful vexation. So that even Acts of Parliament themselves, if they entrench upon the Subjects Liberty grounded upon the sacred meaning and intent of this Fundamental Law of Magna Charta, are as liable to be put to death, as any that offend against the justest Ordinances of the Realm. Neither was this a thing that scaped the consideration of former Princes. And therefore to prevent so foul a miscarriage by the best means that could be, It was Enacted at Westminster in the Third year of Ed. 1. That, because all Elections ought to be free, no Man should under grievous forfeiture by force, malice or menaces, disturb any to make free Election. It being the ancient maxim of the Law, Fiant Electiones Rite, & libere sine aliqua interruptione, Let all Elections be due and Free.  
By the 1 Hen. 5.1. it is ordained and Established, That the Citizens and Burgesses of the Cities and Boroughs be chosen of Men, Citizens and Burgesses Resiant and dwelling, and free in the same Cities and Boroughs, and no otherwise.  
The like provision is also made by the 23 of Hen. 6. c 15. Nor was there less care taken to commit the charge of Elections to Men of Substance and Estate; besides that all Sheriffs and Mayors, and others concerned are liable to great Fines and Actions of the parties injured for undue Returns.  
For it might be well thought, that Persons of Credit and Reputation in the places of their Birth, or long habitation, and where their Fortune's lie, will be more tender of the Common Good and welfare of their Friends, Relations, and Neighbours with whom they have daily Converse, than Strangers creeping in at the back doors of vast Expense and Purchase to gratify their own Ambition. Which sort of Ambitus by the Culpurnian Law among the Romans was punished by heavy Fine on the Canvasser; beside that, he was afterwards rendered uncapable of being Elected into a Senator's place. And the same Law was also after that ratified by the Senate in the Consulship of Tullius and Antonius. And by the Tullian Law the Commonalty themselves offending in that point were also most severely punished, beside that the Canvassers were to suffer ten years' Exilement. And thus we may see how vigilant even our Princes themselves have been to set strong Watch and Ward about the Election of our Lawmakers and Preservers. But if needy Corporations will sell their Rights, and surrender the Fortress of wholesome Statutes to Philip of Macedon's laden Mules, they must not blame the steady Ordinances of the Realm, and the just Provisions of their most Noble Princes, but their own Edomite Hunger after the Amiable Pottage.  
There is a second Question which may be propounded by some, Where the Remedy lies if a Man be wronged or injured contrary to the Law of the Land? To which the Lord Cook himself replies, That every Act of Parliament made against any Injury, Mischief or Grievance, either expressly or impliedly, give a remedy to the party wronged; which also is done by many Chapters of the Great Charter; and therefore he may have an Action grounded upon the Charter itself. And that moreover it is provided by the 36 Ed. 3. That if any Man feeleth himself grieved contrary to any Article in any Statute, he shall have his present Redress in Chancery, that is, by Original Writ, by force of the said Articles and Statutes.  
That Nation would enjoy a most perfect Happiness indeed that were not sometimes liable to the encroaching Distempers and Corruptions of a sickly Government. The most healthy person in the World may sometimes need a little Physie; and the most temperate and sane may sometimes disorder the frame of their Health by their own Excesses. But it is rarely known that such accidental Commotions of the blood prove mortal; as meeting with those timely Applications which soon restore and settle all again. Thus the Epidemic Fever of Dudley and empson's Prosecutions infected for a while the Veins of the whole Nation, but the Healthy Constitution of the Kingdom soon threw it off, and it was cured with a little Blood-letting.  
The Proceed, Censures and Decrees of the Star-Chamber, were for some time in the very words of the Act an Intolerable Burden to the Subject, and looked upon as a means to introduce Arbitrary Power and Government. Even the Privy Council itself was taxed, with determining of the Estates and Liberties of the Subject contrary to the Law of the Land. Therefore was the Power of the Star-Chamber by that Act absolutely and clearly dissolved, taken away and determined. And that not only for the general reasons already recited, but upon the rehearsal of the Grand Charter, and the several Confirmations of it from time to time; First, because the Judges of that Court, had undertaken to punish where the Law did not warrant, to make Decrees for things having no such Authority, and to inflict heavier punishments then by Law were warrantable; and secondly, for that all matters examinable and determinable before the said Judges might have their proper remedy and redress, and th●ir due punishment and correction by the Common Law of the Land, and in the ordinary Course of Justice elsewhere. And with this same Court fell also several other Jurisdictions of the same Nature.  
Then for the Regulation of the Council, it was enacted, that neither the Prince or his Council had or aught to have any Jurisdiction, Power or Authority by English Bill, Petition, Articles, Libel, or by any other Arbitrary way whatever, to examine or draw into question, determine or dispose of the Lands, Tenements, Hereditaments, Goods or Chattels of any of the Subjects of this Kingdom, but that the same aught to be tried and determined in the ordinary Courts of Justice, and by the ordinary Course of the Law.  
And thus the Grievances of a well constituted Nation at one time or other have still their mortal Periods, and are forced to fly from the stern and awful Countenance of Fundamental Law. For Law has Heaven on her side, which Injustice and Oppression cannot pretend to. For where Laws are grounded upon the firm Basis of Divine Reason, the violation of Humane Constitution, is the violation of Heavenly Justice. Against which for Cruelty and Oppression to make a kind of a Titanic War, proves as fatal in the end as the Insurrection of those Giants against Heaven itself. Leges dormiunt, non moriuntur. The Laws may sleep but never die. The locks of the Law may be cut off, but they will grow again; and then she rouzes up herself more vigorously and with new recovered strength, shaking off the feeble bands of Violence, ne'er ceases till she has brought Illegal Force and Arbitrary prosecution upon their Knees.  
Nor fares it better with those who to enrich and raise their own Families advise the infringement of Fundamental Law and moderate Rule. Who for the sake of Temporary Splendour and Command, care not though they drive the Chariot Wheels of their Ambition over the Necks of undone Millions. And thus we may behold in History, even where Tyranny itself controls, an Ibrahim Bassa with all his tickling flattery dragged to the block to atone the oppression of the Incensed Multitude with the loss of his Criminal Head. Our own story brings us forth the Great Justiciary of England, Hubert de Burgo, once a Patriot and lover of his Country, but at length beguiled by the Advantages of Honour and Preferment, for Caressing the humour of a young Prince, and instructing him which way to avoid this very Charter granted by his Father, and by himself in his Nonage confirmed, (for which he was advanced to the highest Dignity in the Kingdom, and made Earl of Kent,) not only degraded of his Honour, not only stripped of all his Wealth which he had so unduly obtained, but which what more, he saw himself a forlorn sufferer under the heavy Indignation of that Prince to whom he had so officiously devoted his Illegal Industry. We may also in the progress of the same Story read the Tragical Exits of the Potent and Opulent Spencers, Father and Son, for giving rash and evil Counsel to their Sovereign against the Form of the Grand Charter. So hard a matter it is for the most powerful and politic Champions of Illegality and Oppression to wrestle with the Fundamental Law of this Nation without a dismal fall. According to that of Pindar, for this is not novel but ancient Experience. 
Isthm. Ode 7. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Most bitter is the end which attends the sweets of Injustice. And therefore Thuanus reflecting upon the Calamity of Ibrahim Bassa beforementioned, A most remarkable example, saith he, to those, who for the sake of one person, whose favour they have won by most unseemly and pernicious Devotion, trample under Foot the general Hatred of all others; whereas they ought rather to imitate those persons, who being advanced to highest preferments, so behaved themselves in the discharge of their Trusts, 
Thuan. l. 96.  that they may be always ready to part with their preferments, and not be afraid to retire to a private life, if it be their Fortune to be removed. Otherwise it many times falls out that they are left to the free revenge of all whom they have offended, or else with the great regret of the Prince himself are hurried away to open punishment for the satisfaction of Popular indignation.  
Even Princes themselves have laboured under the evil consequences that have attended the Injuries which they have done to the fundamental Constitutions of their own Realms; which has only served to render their Lives and all their Glory troublesome, vexacious, and full of perplexity; and to deprive them of that quiet and tranquillity which makes the Enjoyment of Life sweet.  
Lewis the XI, as Comines his own Servant records, was the first, to use his own words, who at his own pleasure levied money upon the People without their consent. And to gain the consent of the Nobility so to do, within their own Jurisdictions, promised them Annual Pensions. Certainly saith the Historian, he gave so great a wound to France, that it will not easily be cured. For none of the former Kings so afflicted France as he did, but more especially by subverting the Authority of their Parliaments. And is therefore said to have been the first of the French Monarches that freed his Successors horse de Page, out of Guardianship.  
Of this Prince, Mezeray gives this account. The Conduct which Lewis while he was yet but Dolphin, observed in all his Actions, particularly toward his own Father, and Subjects of the Dauphinate, 
La vie du Lovis XI.  sufficiently demonstrated what his Friends and Subjects were to hope from him. He governed always without Counsel, most commonly without Justice, without reason. He thought it the height of Policy to forsake the Road of all his Predecessors, and to leave nothing unassayed, whether good or evil to make himself redoubted. His piercing but too fine and crafty Wit, was the greatest Enemy of his own and the repose of France. He chose rather to follow his own irregular Fancies, than the prudent Laws of the Realm. And he caused his Grandeur to consist in the Oppression of his People, the undoing and debasing his Nobility, and the advancement of the meanest and most indigent. But when he grew near his end, than the considerations of what he had done, tormented him in so cruel a manner, that he was afraid of every one that came near him, grew jealous of his own Son and Daughter; 
Comines.  and he that had invented Prisons and Fetters for others, was now his own Prisoner in his Castle of Plessis, fortified with a grate of Iron-Bars; and planted with Watch-houses of Iron for his Guards. So that it was impossible to hold a King in a straighter Prison than he held himself; where he lived unseen of any, because he would let none come at him. His Physician, who had sworn to him he should not live eight days, if he turned him away as he did his other Servants, he so dreaded, that he flattered him to obtain his Favour. And to prolong his Life which he was so afraid to lose, he superstitiously sent for a Hermit from the farthest Corner of Italy, expecting great matters from his prayers. In short, says Comines, From his Childhood to his Death he was in continual noise and trouble, so that were his joyful days to be numbered, they would be found but very few. But when there was no hopes of life, he sent for his Son, and gave him other advice than he had followed himself, to rule according to the Law, to ease his People, and reduce the Taxes to their former Establishment.  
So that the Law is as much the security and safety of the Prince as of the People; and the Observation of the Law is so far from being a servitude, that it is a Royal Virtue. For this is that, which as it secures his outward felicity, secures the Inward tranquillity of his mind, and raises him a Monument of lasting Fame and Veneration after death in the hearts of his Subjects from Generation to Generation.  
And thus Lewis the XII. surnamed the Just, so dear to his People while He lived, became so much the Darling of Posterity, and his memory continued so sacred and so much reverenced even in the time of Thuanus, that when any debate arose either in Council, Parliaments, or Courts of Judicature, about the Miscarriages of the Government, always the Reign of Lewis the XII. was proposed as the Pattern and Standard of the Reformation intended.  
Thus the Law of England is the Security of the Prince and People. The security of the Prince as being the security of his Prerogative, which is a part of the Law, and comprehended in it. And so the security of the Prerogative becomes in course the security of the People's Liberty, being both determined by the Law and Customs of the Land; there being no other Prerogative, nor any other Liberty of the Subject then what they allow.  
So that there is nothing can injure the Law of England but wresting and misinterpretation, nor can it well be wrested neither, unless it be screwed from the intent of Reason and Honesty. Neither is it possible for any man to misinterpret it, without the Shipwreck of his Conscience upon the Rocks of specious pretence. For misinterpretation misguides the Law to Evil; which no man can think to be a virtuous Act, whatever may be his aim in doing of it. The Law of England imposes nothing but what is grounded upon the Maxims of what is just and honest in itself, and is currant to all, as bearing the Stamp of Right Reason and Divine Truth; which They who misinterpret, sergeant the Impression, and utter the base Coin of Falsehood and Dissembled Pretence for Real Verity.  
But when Dominion and Authority believing itself too rudely curbed, or Popular Liberty deeming itself too severely checked, seek to transcend the Limits of the Law; then Interest and Faction create Sidings and Parties, and invent wicked Names of Distinction; and the whole Frame of Law is put into Disorder. Nor does either party want Incendiaries, who for their private Emoluments and Advantages kindle those Fires on Earth that shall torment 'em hereafter. Whereas the strict observance of Command according to the Law, and the due performance of Homage and Obedience according to the Injunctions of the same Law would keep all things right, and nothing could shake the Prerogative and Safety of the Prince, or the Liberty and Security of the Subject.  
The greatest Happinesses that God bestows upon Mankind have all their Limits set. The Sun is tied to his Diurnal and Annual Motions; The Stars are fixed within their proper Spheres, and cannot stir beyond the Law of Nature. The Seasons have their limits; the Sea and Land have both their bounds. Nay Virtue herself, if she runs into Excess, mounts or descends to some particular Vice. And therefore good Government cannot take it ill, if it be impaled within the Laws of Order and Moderation. Especially seeing that Justice itself whose Minister it is, is restrained and limited in her Power.  
The same considerations fasten the Ligaments of Obedience. For the whole World is but one entire piece of Obedience to its Sovereign, of which that only unruly part is Man himself. We are bound to obey our lawful Supreme not only as Subjects, for the outward benefits of Peace and Protection, but as Christians, for the inward satisfaction of Conscience, as being a part of our Christian Duty. Neither is it less folly than Impiety to be disobedient to those that govern by good and wholesome Laws. For thereby they destroy their own preservation. Therefore it was one of the highest praises of the Lacedæmonians, that they knew when they had good and wholesome Laws, and as well knew how to obey them. And it was their constancy in adhering to their fundamental Laws, and the reverence they bore to their Princes so strict in the Observance of them, that so long preserved them their Reputation of being what they were, the most renowned People of Greece.  
To serve a Prince because we receive particular Benefits and Graces from his Authority, is no Obedience but Self-Interest, and consequently there is no assurance of their Fidelity, which changes of an instant upon the hopes of a better Market.  
Neither can that be said to be true Obedience, which is only a submission out of fear of punishment. For that is only Self-love, and a natural propensity to ease and repose. If it may not rather be said to be Slavery. For submission out of fear denotes compulsion: and compulsion is a mark of servitude and vassalage, rather than of real Homage and Obedience.  
But the Fidelity and Obedience of a true Subject proceeds from the obligation of Conscience; and is the same Tie to his Prince, by which the Prince is bound to God Himself, by Conscience to do Acts of Justice and Mercy, as being the Vice-Pastor of the People of God, and the Vicegerent of the King of Peace and Justice. Nay he is the living Image of God; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And how comes that to be? The Light of Nature tells us, shining even among the Heathen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. For that having obtained a Kingdom, he is to show himself most worthy of so supreme a Dignity. Which high deserving Excellence then most radiantly displays itself in Majesty, when it appears arrayed with the Beams of Divine Attributes. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Philo.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As to bodily substance a King is like another Man, but in the power of his Dignity he is like to God who is above all. So that when the Authority of a King is like the Authority of God, (and Righteous and true are all his ways) there to refuse Obedience to the King, is the same impiety as to refuse Obedience to God himself. However, it is not to be imagined that so much strictness can be expected from Mortality: the resemblance is enough to fix our Veneration. Therefore all Princes are by the Psalmist styled Gods; though he is very severe against those that deviate from the Resemblance of the Heavenly Prototype. Niloxenus also the Wise Man, being asked what was the most profitable and useful Thing in the World, answered, a King, as most resembling God in his works of Justice and Mercy, and to whom therefore the People by Conscience are bound with all humility to pay the Tribute of Homage and Obedience. And for this reason all persons, of what Quality, Condition, or Sex soever, though they never took the Oath of Allegiance, are as firmly bound by it, as if they had taken it, as being written by the Finger of the Law in the hearts of every one, and the taking it is but an outward Declaration of the Act itself. For as it is proprium Imperiis imperare per leges, So is it proprium Subjectionis, obedientiam praestare per leges. Which is no more than the reciprocal Stipulation of God himself with his Creature Man. I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt, therefore thou shalt have no other Gods but me. I am the Lord thy God, etc. therefore obey my Commandments. And it is remarkable that God always expostulates with his People for their Ingratitude for signal benefits received, before he punish them for disobedience.  
Now there is one prevailing Lure that draws Men into the Snare of Disobedience, and that is called pretence of Religion; which falling into the management of Crafty Heads, proves the pernicious Coverture of Rebellious and Traitorous designs, and therefore one of the greatest Enemies of Law and Government in this World. It ought to be marked for destruction, as Cain was for his preservation. For it is a hard matter to discover it, so exactly do the Incendiaries and Promoters of Sedition paint and dress their false Plantagenets, and Pseudo-Mustapha's in resemblance of the real Portraiture. Especially when they come to be fucussed and periwigged by the Skilful hands of Spiritual Ambition, for the support of Ecclesiastical Pomp and Superstition. It is nefarious any where, but never proves worse than when it ascends the Pulpit. From whence it ought to be exterminated with all the care imaginable; there being nothing more fatal to all good Government then to foster it in the Bosom of Interest. Which sullied the Encomium of Ferdinand of Arragon, a most prudent and happy Prince, in whom says the Historian, there was nothing to be desired but that Integrity with which he used to cloak his ambition and immoderate desire of enlarging his Dominions, under the pretence of Religion. 
Thuan. l. 1.  Nor need there any farther Examples of the mischiefs of dissembled Piety, than those which so lately imbrued their hands in the bowels of this Nation.  
However, the truest touchstone of feigned Zeal and counterfeit Religion is the Fundamental Law of the Land; which being grounded, as hath been already made out, upon the Law of God and Nature, nothing of true Zeal, nothing of sincere Religion, nothing of Conscience will adventure to violate or disturb. No real Christian Subject, no person of Conscience, no man professing the true grounds of Religion will deny his Prince the least tittle of his lawful Rights, or refuse him the least Mite of his Legal Tributes, or whisper the least undecent Murmur against his just proceed, according to the Fundamental Law of the Land, which if true Prerogative itself cannot pretend against, much less are the Encroachments upon it of dissembled Piety and masqueraded Zeal to be endured. So that whatever pretence of Religion impugns the Fundamental Law of the Land, the pretence is unjust and irreligious; and such pretences are to be grappled with, as the intending Introducers of Confusion and Subversion.  
Not that this extends to the enforcement of Obedience to any unjust Law which the Self-ends of Interest, may produce. For according to the Sentence of all the Grand Casuists now in Fame, and of Suarez among the rest, an unjust Law is no Law, 
L. 3. de leg. c. 19  and therefore lays no obligation upon the Conscience or Moral Obedience of the People, but is rather to be peremptorily refused. Now whither any Law be unjust or no, is to be decided by Magna Charta, for that all Laws made contrary to That, are by other Fundamental Laws of the Realm adjudged to be void and of no effect. And thus the Great Charter becomes the Judge of True Religion as well as True Law. For True Law commands nothing but what is just and consonant to true Religion. But an unjust Law is ex parte materiae unjust, as commanding that which is dishonest and Irreligious; of which only the pretence of Religion will adventure to be the Patron; and which they who wrist the favour of the Law to protect, can never be accounted Men of Religion or Piety. And therefore the vigorous defenders of pretended Religion cannot be too severely censured, as being breakers of the Law. For,  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
A wicked Orator pollutes the Laws; defending Falsehood by Fallacy, and Imposture by deceitful Argument. Which though they have their successes for a time, yet no sooner comes the Storm of Reformation, but they dash to pieces against the Rock of Fundamental Law. Against which all the Cabals and Combinations of Policy and pretence of Religion have not yet been able to prevail. Even the most Potent and Arbitrary Usurpation that ever hampered this Kingdom, and the most powerfully defended in all it's specious Pretences tam Marte quam Mercurio, by Arms and Pens, was compelled at length to surrender all its counterfeit Glory to the Restoration of Legal Sovereignty and Fundamental Law.  
Since then the Fundamental Law of England is the free and open Asylum for every Freeborn English Man to repair to for the Redress of Grievances, and Oppression; as they who have recourse to other Remedies travail with Reproach and Scandal, so they who suffer Languishment and Ruin, without seeking relief in its proper place, and by those declared means, which with the consent of the Prince himself the Law of the Land, for so many Ages constituted and confirmed, so frankly affords, are themselves the Felo's of their own Rights and Liberties. And if by other attempts they show their desire of Innovasion, and have it, though perhaps not to their own content, they are the cause Original of such Encroachments, and chief to be blamed if any Violence be offered to the Fundamental Laws. It is their Interest therefore to defend those Laws which defend and secure their Prince and them; their Prince's Successors and their own Posterity. It is their business to stand by the sincerity of Religion, and the Integrity of their established Law: And therefore as the Patronage of True Religion and the Guardianship and Protection of the Fundamental Law belongs to the care of the Prince, so for the Subject to desert the Prince in the prosecution of such high designs, is to desert the chief security of their own Rights and Liberties: and to ramble after Innovasions and Changes of their Established Laws, is to forfeit their Estates and Fortunes, and the Felicity of the whole Realm to the next most Potent Seizer. Nothing rendered the Lacedæmonians more formidable to Foreign Nations than the strict observance of their fundamental and experienced Laws. And then their ancient Glory and Renown first deserted Them, when first they began to relinquish their own Security.  
'Tis a folly therefore for a Nation to dis-unite about Trifles which the Law of Man is able to decide whether just and honest in Temporals, and the Holy Scripture to determine whether necessary or useful in Spirituals. To insist upon the determination of these sacred Arbitrators is not only Regular but necessary, to avoid the forfeiture of Temporal Right and Christian Freedom.  
If a rigorous Creditor should come and sweep away with an Execution ten times the value of his Debt, he would be thought to have a strange distrust of the Law, and to be monstrously forgetful of his Family and himself, that should forgo the relief of the Law, and suffer his Creditor to enrich himself with the Spoils of his ransacked Estate. Or if a Person of great wealth and high Authority should set up a feigned Title to the small Tenement of a Poor man, he must be deemed to have a very slight Opinion of the Law, that should stand still, and suffer his slender Patrimony to be ravished from him by the violent hands of opulent Oppression. The Law has provided Remedies against all sorts of Cruelty, and infringements of legal and due Liberty, which the natural Law of Self-preservation encourages every Man to lay hold of. So that he who carelessly neglects, deservedly suffers under the neglect of his own Security. Therefore 'tis a Maxim of the Law, Vigilantibus, non Dormientibus Jura subveniunt. And therefore also says the Son of Syrach, A man of understanding trusteth in the Law, 
Eccles. 3.33.  and the Law is faithful unto him, as an Oracle.  
But wherever Division and Distraction, displacing Concord and Unity so like the precious Ointment that ran down from the Beard to the Skirts of the sacrificers Garment, disturb the Oeconomy of good Government, and disorder the steady Course of Meum and Tuum, Justice is put to a Nonplus, being courted of all hands at the vast Expense of fawning Rhetoric and Reward, while both Parties endeavour to make her the Patron of their pretensions. So that when Grievance seeks redress, or Wrong and Injury implore relief, Justice like a certain kind of Sentinel, demands first of all, Who are ye for? and puts ye to the Shibboleth Test, before she will admit a Parley. And while a Nation is thus embroiled, what can be expected, but saeva Jussa, continuae accusationes, & fallaces Amicitiae; Which only tend to Ruin and Destruction. A Scene far different from those Times of Unity and Peace, of which Tacitus speaks, when it was lawful to think what a Man pleased, and speak what he thought: 
Hist. l. 1. c. 1.  the surest Character of National Quiet and Unanimity.  
The Romans had no less than four Temples in Rome, dedicated to Concord. More than are sometimes to be found in some Christian Cities, which have three times the number of Churches. Concord is the Medulla Spinalis of a Kingdom, that fortifies and strengthens the several parts of a Realm, gives it Force and Activity, and makes it pliable to all the performances of Virtue and Heroic Magnanimity, that renders it compact and strong at home, and formidable abroad, and consequently secure from Clandestine and Domestic Distempers, and the Menaces of Foreign Violence. And for this reason it was that the Thebans assigned the Protection of their City to the Goddess Harmonia; Thereby intimating the vast benefits which Kingdoms and Cities received from the strict observance of Unity and Concord among themselves. And the Achaeans then flourished most highly in renown, when, singularium urbium pericula mutuis viribus propulsabant. For such was the Unanimity of the several Cities under their Jurisdiction, that they were said to be but one City environed with several Walls. And it is farther recorded to their fame, that while Justice and Concord hold the Rains of their Government, not all the force of their confederated Adversaries could remove them from their Station. But when those Virtues were exiled by Avarice and Ambition, and the poison of Discord had infused itself into their Counsels, 
Polybius.  than fell that noble and renowned Commonwealth. Which Felicities of Justice and Concord proceeded from the equal poise between the Authority of the supreme Rulers and the People's Liberty.  
But the Concord and Unanimity of a Nation, more especially born to Freedom and the remembrance of their Ancestors Heroic Achievements, are such frightful Apparitions to the jealous Politics of all the Neighbouring World, that every one endeavours to prevent the progress of such a menacing Association. Nor are the fatal Instruments of Discord wanting to assist and forward their designs. So prevalent are the sedulous and crafty to the service of the worst of Mistresses.  
Among the rest, none have infused their poison more deeply into the veins of secular Authority and spiritual Jurisdiction, than the Mysterious Society of Jesus, combined against the Maxims of the Sovereign of their own Order. Whose only business and employment in this World it is, to incense the People against their Princes, and Princes against their Subjects. These Vermin far excel Proteus, or any Infernal Spirit in the Assumption of Shapes, and are now at length a Terror even to their first Indulger, even Antichrist Himself.  
To arm themselves against these several Pests of National Concord and Unanimity, it behoves every true Christian and every good Subject. For it can be no Crime for Men born Free, to preserve their Ancient Liberties and Rights by the proper and legal means by Fundamental Law prescribed. It can be no Crime to countermine the hidden Trains of Ambitious Project, and self-ended Advice, which for present gratification lie sapping the very foundations of Common Good and National Unanimity. It can be no offence to have a watchful and vigilant Eye upon the concealed Corroders into the Bowels of Law and Liberty, and to display the discoveries of their Wiles and Frauds. For, for want of detection the Law loses in part the opportunity of Reformation. Nature has given to all Creatures some or other defence to preserve them from the Oppression of superior Violence. To some Horns, Claws, Tusks, Probosces, Taloons and Stings, from the Lion to the Crawling Serpent. To others Scales and Armour Cap. a pe from the Leviathan to the little pitiful Prawn. Neither are Vegetatives without their Thorns, Barks and Prickles. And it would be unreasonable to think, that Man should be the only part of the Creation left altogether naked. To him therefore is given, both for private and for general preservation, the defence of Reason and Law. Which they who enjoy by Fundamental Constitution, are the most happy People in the World; nor can they be deprived of their Inestimable Treasure, their Strength in the Law of Justice, enless they will be so unkind to themselves, and so treacherous to their Posterity, as to surrender it to the Green Withs, and weak Cords to such as love not Righteousness, 
Wisdom 1.1.  nor think of the Lord with a true heart.  
And as the People are allowed the Defence of the Law for the maintenance and Protection of their Liberties. So is the same Law no less the Fortress and Bulwark of Prerogative. And indeed the Law gives to Princes the highest Prerogative imaginable. For the Law of Justice is Wisdom, and not the Wisdom of one single Person, but the Wisdom of God and Nature. Which therefore Kings are advised to seek, that they may Reign for evermore. And who knows, for it is not improbable, seeing there are Thrones and Dignities and Preeminencies in Heaven, that the Just Vicegerents of God upon Earth, may be allowed to reassume their Dignities in the New Jerusalem; which though just and virtuous Princes cannot be sure of, yet Tyrants and Oppressors can have little hope, that it shall ever be their Lot.  
Princes without their just Prerogatives look like the Sun in Winter deprived of all his Beams by a thick Fog. They are but Fettered Dukes of Venice, or Elective Kings of Poland. Their Res Angusta domi, levels their condition with the meanest; obstat Virtutibus; It will not let them display their Virtues in the performance of those glorious Erterprises which their Heroic Souls pant after. Their Subjects, if so they may be called, cannot apprehend whether they deserve or not. For 'tis no thanks that they do justly, when they have no power to do ill. And it is apparent that the too much overweening and over-wary curbing of Regal Power, has been the utter overthrow of many a glorious Undertaking. And we find the Romans, though they had expelled their Kings, were forced, when they knew not what else in the Earth to do, in the low Ebb of their Affairs, to trust a greater Power than ever their Kings had in the Hands of a Dictator. A remedy which never failed 'em. And therefore it behoves the People to defend the just Prerogatives of the Prince with the same Zeal, the same Conscience, and the same Resolution which they own to the maintenance of their Liberties, Lives and Fortunes. Since it may well be thought that the one cannot subsist without the other. The same Divine Oracle of Truth, that said to Kings, Do Justice and lead my People, commanded the Subject to give Caesar his Due. In which proportionate and equal Poise of Relative Care and Obedience whatever State or Kingdom keeps its Station fixed upon the Foundations of Law and Unanimity, may be certain of an unshaken and  Diuturnity.  
FINIS.