AN ARGUMENT IN DEFENCE OF THE HOSPITALLER OF St. THOMAS SOUTHWARK AND OF His Fellow-Servants and Friends in the same House.  
LONDON, Printed in the Year, MDCLXXXIX.   

To the Right Honourable The LORD-MAYOR of the City of London. and to the Honourable the Court of Aldermen.  
Right Honourable,  
I Confess it was a great surprise to me to see an Order of Court made for my Ejectment out of this House, in behalf of Mr. Hugh's the old Illegal Incumbent, without being first heard what I had to say for myself, but an after game being better than no Game at all, I have here made the best I can of a bad Market, and have endeavoured to lay before you a true state of the Case, humbly Entreating you to consider a little further before you determine finally and Peremtorily in the matter, against the only Son of a Citizen like yourselves, who hath upon that account an equitable pretence to your favour, to say nothing of that Justice which every Foreign Petitioner may claim.  
I am satisfied by the wording of your said Order that you have been misinformed in the nature of the Controversy betwixt Mr. Hughes and me, as if he had a legal night accrueing to him upon the restitution of the Charter, which I am well assured he hath not, and I must appeal to all indifferent persons whether I have not sufficiently proved it.  
This is one plain misapprehension, which seems to me to evacuate the said Order, because it is Founded upon it, and if it had not been for that, it appears to me by the express tenor of it, that no such Order had ever been made.  
Another is, that the very Order itself in whatsoever words it be conceived, supposeth the Cognizance of this matter to lie immediately and properly before you, which I humbly conceive it doth not, but before the King, till he shall be pleased to remit it ba●k to you, which I shall be so far from being dissatisfied at, that I repose a perfect confidence in your goodness and justice to me, and I attribute it to nothing but a misunderstanding that any prejudice hath been done me in this affayr. You ought not, my Lord and Gentlemen, to think yourselves depretiated or undervalued in that I say, the King is your Superior in those things which belong properly and legally to his inspection, when ever he pleaseth to concern himself about them, and which he hath actually taken into his immediate care; King Charles the Second, of Glorious and Blessed memory, having made a Royal regulation in this House, which cannot be altered, as I am humbly of opinion, by any lesser power without the Royal assent. Neither is it or can it be thought any diminuition to your Honourable Court, that you should reverse the sentence you have past, when even the greatest Lawyers do frequently alter their minds, and the decrees of Chancery reversing one another are a plain indication that even they are not infallible, whose business and employment it is to understand these matters better than others; I leave it to your Lordship and the Court to consider among many other things that appear to be foul against him, whether the King if it were referred to his Majesty to determine, would think it fit to feed with his own proper bread, or to bestow the rewards of Virtue and Obedience upon the Patron and Encomiast of his Grandsire's Murder. I wish your Lordship and the Honourable Court all Happiness and prosperity, and I pray as for the Peace of the Land of Canaan in general, this Land of our Nativity that flows with Milk and Honey, so more especially for that of your Jerusalem, and that they may prosper that love it. I am, may it please your Lordship and the Honourable Court,  
Your Honour's most humble, Obedient and obliged Servant John Turner.   

THE CASE Between Mr. Hughes, the late pretended Hospitaller of St. Thomas Southwark, and Mr. Turner the present Lawful Incumbent of the same, truly Stated.  

Qui aliquid Statuerit parte inaudita altera  
Aequum licet Statuerit, haut aequus fuerit.  
Ad orbilium Hugonem  
Carpere vel noli nostra, vel Ede tua.   
BEcause Mr Hugh's the late pretended Hospitaller of St Thomas Southwark, renews his pretensions upon the Restitution of the Charter, as if there were such a necessary Connexion betwixt old Men and old Franchises, that both must unavoidably be restored together, therefore I am obliged in my own just and necessary defence, in opposition to the false and unjust insinuations of an Illegal pretender, to State the whole matter as it is in itself, and to suggest such considerations as do naturally arise from it, to keep the Legal possession I am in, and to preserve myself from his intended intrusions and usurpations upon it.  
Mr Hughes was ejected at the same time or within a very little while after, that Judgement was had and Entered upon the Quo Warranto against the Charter of this Famous City, and therefore this is all which he urgeth in his defence, the Charer is restored, and so am I: For we are more nearly related then the two Tyndaridae, (Mr Hughes, who is a Schoolmaster knows who I mean) that use to live and die by Turns, and like Hypocrates his twins, we both of us share in the same common Fate, we laugh in consort, and we weep together.  
Now to answer the more effectually this shrewd and Pestilent objection raised against me, by a man, that I hope, understands Grammar a little better than he seems to do Sense, I beg leave in the first place to lay down Mr Seymours' Case, as it was ingeniously and truly Stated by himself, together with the opinions of three of the best Lawyers and persons of the most unquestionable Honour and Integrity, as well as Skill in their Profession, that this Nation affords upon it, and then to raise such observations from the whole, as affect my Case as well as his, and to make such other animadversions and remarks upon the Circumstances peculiar to Mr Hughes or me, as the occasion calls for, which I will do with all the Clearness and brevity I am able, without giving myself that Latitude either for anger or wit, which Mr Hughes his provocations would incite me to, or which his untoward History would afford me, and in a word, without any other reflection, than what the matters of Fact essential to my defence do of necessity constrain me to, reserving his life to be written by some other hand, if there be any that think it worth their while, or if there be any that can take a pleasure, which I find to be very unnatural to me, in exposing the Faults or Follies or in upbraiding the complexional misfortunes of little or imprudent men.  

The Case as it was Stated by Mr S. and was resolved by those Learned Gentlemen, is as follows.  
The Case.  
KIng Edward the 6th. having Founded and Endowed St. Thomas Hospital in Southwark, grants the Lands and Revenues belonging to the same, to the Mayor Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, for the benefit of Sick and Lame indigent Persons, with liberty in his Charter reserved to visit and inquire into the management of the trust.  
According to the usage of the City, the house hath been always governed by Citizens and others appointed by the Court of Aldermen, the Governors of the house for the time being, and the Court of Aldermen, according to the laws and customs of the City, chose A their Clerk.  
A Quo Warranto being afterwards brought against the City and Judgement Anno 1683. being thereupon had and entered, a Commission was thereupon granted to certain Aldermen and others to regulate the said Hospital, and (inter alia) to appoint Governors and Officers of the house.  
The said Commissioners appoint B. to be Clerk of the house instead of A. during the pleasure of that Court of Commissioners.  
His Late Majesty (James the Second, when this Case was stated) restores to the City their ancient government, Lands, Tenements, Franchises, Privileges, etc. and soon after issues out his Proclamation for restoring Corporations, etc. dated the 17th of October 1688. and dissolves the said Commission.  
The Case being thus stated the question is.  
Whether by the said restitution of the Charter, etc. and by the said Proclamation or either of them (B not having been discharged of his office by the Commissioners) A hath any right to be restored to his office of Clerk; especially if the Court of Aldermen hath since the restitution of the Charter, confirmed all officers belonging to the City in their respective places and the right should appear in that Court to choose a Clerk of the said Hospital.  
Sr. Francis Pembertons resolution of this Case.  
I conceive that the Court of Aldermen being the persons who authorised the Governors of this Hospital by their order, when the Corporation of the City of London was dissolved by the Judgement in the Quo Warranto, the authority of those Governors of the Hospital ceased, and they cannot act again without a new order or appointment of the Court of Aldermen, and I conceive the King's proclamation in October, 1688. doth not give any Authority to the former Governors of the hospital to Act by the former Authority to them given by the former order of the Court of Aldermen, but they ought to be Commissionated by a new order, before they Act as Governors.  
I do apprehend this place of Clerk to the Governors not to be a standing Office, but rather an Employment in its nature, to be put in or out by the Court of Aldermen if they please, or, if the Court of Aldermen please, by the Governors, but such Clerk hath no fixed interest in his Employment, and A. hath, I conceive, no right to this place, unless be should see a new chosen and appointed thereunto by a new Order, and the King's Proclamation in October extends to the enabling and empowering all members & Officers of Corporations to act as they might have done before the Quo Warrantoes were brought, but that extends only to what they might do, as members or Officers of those Corporations, but not to any collateral matters, which they might have done by virtue of any collateral Commissions derived from those Corporations, as the case of these Governors and clerk of this Hospital are.  
And I conceive that any Governors of this Hospital appointed by those who acted as Mayor and Aldermen of London by virtue of any Letters Patents, since the Judgement in the Quo Warranto, are all disabled to act or do any thing as Governors, Letters Patents to those Mayors and Aldermen being set aside by this King's Proclamation in October last, and all the authorities derived under those Letters Patents, as depending on them, falling with them.  
Fr. Pemberton.   

Mr. Pollexfen's Opinion of the same Case.  
I conceive that the Clerk hath not any Office or Estate, but is only a Servant to the Governors, not within the Charter of restitution, or the Proclamation, claiming any legal right or interest; but is at will of the Governors, and they at their will and pleasure may put out or take in, or employ in the place whom they think fit.  
Hen. Pollexfen. Jan. 11. 1688.   

Sir John Holt's Opinion to the same purpose.  
I conceive that the Clerk not being a Charter Officer is not restored by the King's Proclamation, which extends only to such Officers and members of the Corporations, which were made upon the Original constitution, or by virtue of some Charter, but the Clerks place is only a Service or an employment, which is wholly at the disposal of the Governors, as they shall think fit.  
J. Holt. January. 15. 88   

The First observation I shall make from hence shall be taken from the stateing of the Case itself, wherein it is set forth that this Hospital being Founded by King Edward the Sixth, the care and trust of it from time to time was committed to the Mayor, aldermans, and Commonalty of the City of London, reserving to himself and Successors a liberty to visit and inquire into the management of the trust, and without any such express reservation in the Charter itself, it is but reasonable and Just that in all Hospitals that are of Royal Foundation, the King should be the proper and Supreme Visitor, because without this the King and his Successors can have no Assurance, but that his Royal Intentions may be disappointed, his Charity embezzled, and the trust which is reposed in certain Persons for the due management of it betrayed, and besides the Nature of the thing added to the express reservation of our Royal Founder in his Charter, the King by Act of Parliament is the Supreme Visitor of Hospitals and Public Charities, to see that they be conferred upon fit and suitable objects, and managed by Officers well qualified for their Employments.  
Now from hence it appears that the avoidance of the Charter and the Regulation of the Hospitals that Followed quickly after it, have no manner of Connexion with each other; it is true indeed that after Judgement was had and entered against the Charter, all trusts that were reposed in the City, as a Corporation, did of necessity fall together with it, but yet it is Equally true that the King might have visited and regulated this and other Hospitals though the Charter had stood, he being Supreme Visitor and Inspector of the same, but more Especially of Royal Hospitals that own their Foundation, derive their Constitution, and receive their very being from the Crown, so that it is plain that the old Officers might have continued in this house, if the King had so pleased, notwithstanding the Charter of the City was made void, and that the destruction of the Charter had no immediate or consequential Operation upon the Officers of this House, they not being Charter Officers, but Persons Employed in a trust under the King, whom he may always place or displace at his pleasure, and of whose fitness and capacity for their respective Employments he is the Supreme and unaccountable Judge. What therefore can the man do that cometh after the King? Eccl. 2. 12. Or what inferior Authority can annul that which the Supreme hath ordered and appointed? To be plain in a Case that is not to be dallied with, my meaning is this, that during the Life of that Glorious & Blessed Prince King Charles the Second, it would not have been Lawful for any inferior Authority, though the Charter had been restored, to displace any Officer of his Appointment in this house, by virtue of any Arbitrary Power lodged in them, without a cause of Misdemeanour, or of incapacity particularly assigned & represented to the King himself, whose gifts, that are properly and Legally in his disposal, cannot be taken away by any subordinate Power, without his consent First had and obtained in the matter. But yet I grant, that now after the decease of that incomparable Prince, and the Restitution of the Charter, all the Trusts that were Formerly lodged in the City do naturally return together with it, and that the ordinary Visitation of this Hospital is in them, unless the King and Queen shall please to interpose, which they may by Law do as often as they think Fit, and take the Jurisdiction in General or the ordering of any particular matter or affair into their own hands, but yet still it continues good, that that which was Legally Established by a Lawful and rightful King, cannot, and ought not to be changed or altered by any Subordinate Power or Authority whatsoever, without a Cause assigned, without a Grievance proved, without a fault alleged, in the Person that is intended to be displaced, because this is not so much to claim a Jurisdiction over A. or B. to whom I grant as Governors, they are Superior, but to Challenge and Arrogate a Power to themselves Superior to that, From which alone they derive it, and that is From the King, which all Men must needs see to be impossible & absurd. Neither let any man here object that we were placed here by the King's Commissioners not by the King himself, and that the Commission was Arbitrary and Illegal. For First, it is a Maxim in Law and reason, quod quis facit per alium Facit peruse, what the King does by his Commissioners he does by himself, and though I will not meddle with the Legality of the proceeding in the avoidance of the Charter, and entering up Judgement against it, yet thus much I will say, that the Charter, whether right or wrong, being Actually voided, there was no way left to manage the Affairs of the City but by Commission from the King, and that what is necessary in the present Circumstances for the quiet and peaceable Administration of so Populous a City, may be said at least to have Secondary Lawfnllness, a lawfulness deriving and holding from that necessity, though that which gave occasion to it, should be allowed and admitted to be Illegal, a Controversy with which I have nothing to do, & which I do not pretend to understand; but as for that part of the Commission which concerned the Hospital, it was in Virtue of a Power, which was always vested in the King, and which he might always delegate to whom he pleased, so that all the Acts they did in this affair, were unquestionably valid and Lawful in themselves, and cannot be cancelled or evacuated by any less Authority, without a reason of Equity, or an Emergent reason of necessity assiigned. Suppose the King and Queen should graciously commit to the Mayor, aldermans, and Commonalty of the City, the care and management of the Tower of London, and the disposal of the Places of Constable and Lieutenant, and Master of the Ordinance etc. they shall still be presumed notwithstanding this, to reserve a Power of Visitation to themselves, it is reserved in the nature of the trust, though it were not expressly and positively provided for, and so it is here, the King's Charity is as much and as naturally in his own disposal whenever he pleaseth to concern himself about it, as his arsenals or Magazines, and, indeed the difference between these two is no more, then that by the one the King provides for the Safety and defence of his Subjects, and by the other he relieves the necessities of those by an effect of his mercy, whom all his power cannot defend against the wants and Infirmities that are and will be always incident to humane Nature, and it is but fit he should be satisfied, whenever he desires it, as to the Conduct and management of one of these trusts, as well as of the Other. If the King notwithstanding such Commission, should after Enquiry and Visitation made, displace the respective Officers in the Tower, and put others in their stead, there is no man living, I believe, in this case that will pretend to dispute his unquestionable right in doing it, neither would it be Lawful to displace them without his consent, though in all other matters, and in all Future Elections when a Vacancy shall happen, the Commission should still continue & the powers to act under it remain entire as before, but their Commission cannot extend to things already determined by the King, because the King's authority is the Fountain of their power; and to reverse his determination without a reason of equity or necessity, is to disown that authority under which they act, and by consequence to disannul their own, for rivers must be dry when the Fountain is destroyed.  
If a man be Tenant to a Landlord and have a lease under him, he performing the Covenants that are stipulated between them, he cannot be ejected out of his Farm, or deprived of his Tenant-right, which is a sort of secondary Frcehold, so that he may renew his lease from time to time, and aught to be considered caeteris paribus, beyond any other pretender, this being a kind of Charter-Office under the Lord of the Fee, but if a man take a Servant without any other condition then that of paying him wages for his service, he may part with him at pleasure for a good reason or for none at all, for the law does not tell us who shall be are servants, ● or oblige us to ●●ep them who her we will ●●honi which were in some sense ●●●● 〈◊〉 our 〈◊〉 our 〈◊〉, and I to 〈◊〉 order of Government 〈◊〉 of things, but we may k●●● whom we please; and as long as we please, and dismiss them 〈◊〉 humour as well as for a reason. If therefore ●●e in this Hospital are Servants to a● Master, receiving wages and Salaries for our work, which Master is first of all the King, and Secondly a Corporation entrusted by and under him, there is 〈◊〉 question but that the King in whom the first power is lodged, may eject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mr. 〈◊〉 at his pleasure, and we cannot complain of any legal wrong. neither can we renew any pretensions for the future, 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of a legal right, we never having had any other sort of right than what was orbitrary and dependent upon his will; but a Corporation acting under him, though the general 〈◊〉 be actually 〈◊〉 upon them, yet they cannot displace a particular person whom the King hath chosen, with out first representing to his Majesty the reasons of it in order to the obtaining his consent, so long as he is alive. For a deputy & a servant can do no legal act in opposition to the principal from whom the power is derived, but they may and aught to represent their reasons, if they be of consequence to the good of the house, and if he will not Dear them, they have discharged their duty, and aught to be content with the honour and satisfaction of having endeavours to do justice, and of having eased their consciences of the guilt that would have lain upon them, by a wilful neglect of the trust committed, to them, and after his decease, as it is in our case, only the Successor can destroy, what the Predecessor hath done out of the fullness and plenitude of his power, it being as impossible for a lesser power to destroy the act of a greater, as it is for a private man by virtue of any private authority and right, which he may assume or fancy to himself, to choose whether he will obey an act of Parliament that concerns him, 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 with by another act, of equal authority in its legislative original, and of greater in its post liminious application, because it supersedes the obedience to the other, and for any less power without a reason given or an application made to the Sovereign then in being, to reverse what the 〈◊〉 by his own rightful power hath ordained, is for servants to assume that dispensing power to themselves, which they decry so loudly and so desprvedly in their Masters, for there is no right in nature but legal right, and for any that have not authority, to reverse the legal act of a superior power, must needs be inauthoritative, illegal, and void.  
If this argument which I design only to justify myself, and to show upon what bottom my title to the place of Hospitaller stands, does in its application prove too much, and extend itself to others as well as myself, those Gentlemen that claim and are actually repossessed upon the restitution of the Charter, may thank themselves for soliciting Mr. Hughes to come up and renew his cracked and illegal pretensions, and for making this defence, which I would have been very glad to have let alone, to become as necessary with respect to me, as is is just and honest in itself.  
If the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, and the Honourable Court of Aldermen, to whom I pay all that deference and respect which their great quality and Character Justly calls for, shall look upon this as written in derogation to them, and to the power and trust committed to their Honourable Court, I humbly hope. when they have duly considers of the matter, they will concur with me, and that if I should maintain the contrary position they would think themselves concerned out of a principle of Loyalty and duty to eject me out of this house, that it is by no means a diminution to their just Rights, in those things which the Sovereign hath not determined, to acknowledge his Legal Sovereignty in th● which he hath, For the King acted in the Regulation of this House, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Virtue of any Arbitrary Power, which he unjustly assumed and arrogated to himself, but by such an one, as is inherent in him, by the reserve in th● Charter of the Royal Founder, by Act of Parliament, and by the very Nature and reason of the thing, by which he must always be supposed to be invested with a Power, to see that his own Charities be rightly disposed. The King is the First Visitor of this Hostell de die●, this House of Invalids, the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen are the Second, acting by a Power derivative from him, and therefore it is plain they cannot rescind an Act of his, which would have been Legal in itself, because all Legal Acts done and passed by a Legal Superior Power, cannot be rescinded without the consent of the Sovereign, by any Subordinate Authority acting under it, because this were to rob and deprive him of that Supremacy and to assert his Prerogative to themselves, and if that grave and wise Assembly in this hurry of Affairs have yielded a little too far to the Solicitations and Importunities of Men without a Title, and proceeding upon a false & Erroneous Hypothesis of the Restitution of the Charter, which hath no manner of connexion with our Case, yet a Facto ad jus Consequeutia non valet, the Fact and the right are two things, and the Judgement of that right, in what Persons it is placed, we humbly conceive with all imaginable submission to the Court of Aldermen, lies unquestionably before the King, whose just Power in this or any other matter, I hope it will never be a crime to maintain. For as one Act of Parliament cannot be repealed but by the Act of another, so the Act of a King in those Affairs wherein he hath a proper cognizance and Legal Power can only be rescinded by himself or his Successor in the Imperial Seat, unless they be such Acts as are Limited by time, as in the affair of Parents or Temporary Proclamations or the like; and then at the expiration of that term they die, and are repealed of themselves; so that having been placed in this Station by one King and allowed by another, I trust his present Majesty shall have no occasion to think any otherwise then Favourably concerning me, and I rely upon the Grace and Goodness of King William and Queen Mary, that the Gift of God's Viccgerents will still be without repentance, as well is those of the Divinity itself.  
That I appeal to the Throne, it is because I see the whole affair lying so naturally prostrate at the Footstool, and that the Judgement of it cannot appertain to any other Court or Judicature whatsoever, till it be remitted from thence, and I shall very willingly acquiesce in the Determination of that Power, in whomsoever it is lodged, (is being too little an Employment for the thoughts of Princes that have so vast objects to exercise themselves upon) to whomsoever the Sovereign shall please to refer it, but more especially I repose an entire confidence, a Fixed, unshaken, and I had almost said; a demonstrative assurance, in the Favour of that Honourable Court to which the ordinary inspection and Visitation of this house belongs, being in some sense an Orphan of the City, left destitute by a good, but an unfortunate Parent, that was undone in part by the Fatal Conflagration, and in part by other accidents incident to Trade. I have a great deal of reason to expect from such a Constitution, where the Lord Mayor, next under his Majesty whom God preserve, is my Political Father, the aldermans my Guardians, and the Commons all allied to me in the Quality of Brethren, I say, I have a great deal of reason to expect and I do with great assurance wait for it, that I shall not only have strict Justice done me, if my cause come to be determined at that Bar, but that I shall have all the Favour that Equity will afford me, and such an Equity that is mixed with something of affection to a shrubb of their own growth, that calls for no reins, no dews but what are Natural and Hereditary to it, for water and Refreshment.  
I know no person in the Court of Aldermen, whom upon this account at least, I have not reason to believe my friend, unless it be one Gentleman, Sir patient Ward I mean, before whom when I preached, when he was Lord Mayor of this City, I had the misfortune to leave him out of my prayer before Sermon, for that it was an involuntary thing, arising from an undesigning negligence, without any ill intention, I call the great God of Heaven and Earth to witness, and this is no more than what I have affirmed a thousand times in the company of my friends, when I had no interest to persuade me not to own it, if the affront that was suspected, had been real on my part, and it is further observable that I did not only omit him, but the Aldermen, Sheriffs, and Commonalty too, who are all of them prayed for upon these occasions; now there is no man in his wits but must suppose me to have been quite out of them, if I had designed a Public affront to so Venerable an Assembly, so Illustrious a Bench, so great and populous a City, in which I had not only received my Nativity, and a great part of my Education, but in which I had at that time among all ranks, so many favourers, Godspeeders and friends, and if after this any suspicion can remain upon the mind of that Gentleman, that it was designedly done, which to me it seems impossible that it should, than I humbly entreat him if no other consideration will prevail with him, to let the memory and old friendship of my deceased Father, intercede with him for my forgiveness.  
But if it be as I have represented, that the true and only legal decision of the controversy between Mr. Hughes and me lies solely and entirely in the King's breast, unless he shall please to put it into some other hands; Mr. Hughes knows who it is that preached a famous Sermon at Abingdon Assizes upon a most infamous subject, the justification of the worst of parricides, of the Execrable Murder of that glorious Martyr, who fell a Sacrifice to the Church of England and the Protestant Religion. He justified and gloried in that horrid Fact when many of the pretended Judges themselves had repent, he Crucify'd the Royal Saint afresh and put him to an open shame before a numerous assembly, and in the face of justice itself, when others were washing off that blood with their tears, and would have been glad with the expense of their own lives to have retrieved the inestimable loss of his, which brought so black a guilt, and was followed by so miserable usurpation and confusion. Now what favour can Mr. Hughes expect from the Royal Grandson of that Martyred Prince, when the principles of that Sermon are levelled at himself and at all Succeeding Princes whatsoever, when Mr Hughes and his Partisans are angry: though there be no good Subject but hath ever maintained that the Persons of Princes are unquestionably sacred, notwithstanding the real and gross exercise of Arbitrary Power, whatever becomes of their Political capacity and Regal administration. Mr Hughes may think it pleasant to wash his impure hands in Royal blood, but that was not that washing which the Prophet David required in all that minister in the holy things. I will wash my hands in Innocence, said he, and so will I go to thine Altar. It is true the act of oblivion pardons this crime, but to pardon and to forget are two things, to pardon and to reward are two more: if Salmosius would have accepted of so small a pittance, as the place of Hospitaller of St. Thomas Southwark, he would have become the place and title very well, because it was very suitable for him, to eat the King's bread who had defended his cause, but Milton would certainly have been an awkward man in that station, and what is Mr. Hughes I pray better than he? unless, it be that Mr. Milton understood reason, argument and wit, if he would but have employed those-talents to better purpose, which Mr. Hughes does not; but that Mr. Hughes is more malicious, black and Saturnine in his Sermon, than Mr. Milton in his book, and that the one is more dull and Phlegmatic than the other. John Goodwin a man of much more honesty and sense then Mr. H. being so far carried away by the Republican bigotry of those unhappy times, which overflowed and bore-down Loyalty with a rapid and resistless torrent, was content with his pardon and leave of retirement into a private corner, without perking up impudently for preferments and rewards, when he had so justly forfieted his life; and the same was Mr. Milton's case, who en deavoured to make some sort of atonement for his crime in the English History which he after Published, by offering up a devout sacrifice of praise and admiration to the memory of that excellent and incomparable King, and giving him that great and lofty Character which he deserved: but what hath Mr. H. ever done to make amends for his fault? what instance can he produce of his sorrow & repentance? And yet so foul a crime so publicly committed, a preaching and a printed crime, can never be said to be truly repent of without a preaching and printed fatisfaction, for otherwise though there may be some inward compunction & remorse, yet the satisfaction & the injury are to hold some sort of proportion with each other, and to do a public, a notorious crime, without a repentance and satisfaction equal to it, does not come up to the nature of true repentance, but it is like robbing our Brother of a Pound and paying him a Penny by way of Restitution, which is but to continue in the Robbery still, and rather to own and justify the fact, then to condemn and disapprove it.  
Mr. H. can farther inform us if he pleaseth, who it was that vexed and persecuted his neighbour for teaching a School without a licence, and yet had no licence for himself at the same time, but answered to the name of Thomas instead of William to save his Bacon at a Visitation, and he can tell us further of the selfsame person, how he stood engaged by promise for the payment of a sum of money, and yet refused it after seven years' time, under the protection of the statute of limitation, and many other things Mr. H. can tell of that man, when he hath a mind to furnish a Biographer with materials for the life of foe matchless a worthy, and if this man should happen to be the same with the tother, I doubt me he hath not yet repent of his Treason, for this is treason too; it is treason against humane Society, which such principles and such practices would certainly destroy, and this is the very foundation of Treason against Princes, whose Persons are so Sacred above all other men, not so much upon their own private account, as for the sake of the public, which is highly concerned & interested in their safety, and suffers in all the injuries they receive, and thus much may suffice for the Character of Hugonides and his Friend, whom I would not have treated at so rough a rate, but that they have turned raillery into a pertinent thing, and made it so absolutely necessary for me to expose them, that it may appear at least there is no merit of congruity betwixt my small preferment and them.  
What hath been said hitherto, hath been upon occasion of the Stating of the Case, as it was represented to Three worthy Gentlemen, learned in the Law, in order to obtaining their Opinions upon it, I come now very briefly to say something with relation to the Opinions themselves, by all which it is agreed that the ordinary Power of Visitation and inspection into the affairs and Officers of this House is in the Governors for the time being, that is to say, First in the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen, and Secondly those other Gentlemen and Citizens that are deputed by them or allowed by their permission to manage and Transact the Hospital Affairs, and that the respective Officers belonging to it, are not Charter Officers that have a fixed Interest and a settled right, but only Servants at pleasure receiving wages for their work, and to be dismissed at discretion, when the Governors think fit, though behaving themselves well in their several Employments, they may be said to have an Equitable right, and that it would be an Hardship in the Governors, which they could not justify to themselves, to turn them off against their wills in such Circumstances as these, but however these Opinions do at least say thus much for us, that the Persons claiming against us have no Legal right, and that there is no necessary Connexion betwixt the Regulation of the Hospital and the Restitution of the Charter, so that Mr Hughes is very much out of the way, when he insists so unskillfully upon a Legal right, and proves himself to be as bad a Lawyer, as he is a Divine or a man.  
But yet I confess there is one thing in the opinion of that great and Excellent Person Mr Sergeant Pemberion, which I cannot perfectly assent to, though I should not presume to own a difference in matters of this nature from a Person so profoundly Learned in his Profession, but that the Success of our cause does in some measure depend upon it, he is pleased to say that upon the Restitution of the Charter, and the avoidance of that Commission that supplied its place, there were no Governors left either old, or new, but that it was perfectly at the discretion of the Court of Aldermen to regulate and order all those matters as they pleased; but in an humble Opposition to this, I presume to offer, that the King being at all times vested with a Power of Visiting the Hospitals and of making from time to time such Regulations in them as to his Princely Wisdom shall seem most meet and Expedient, though the Commission be dissolved, yet the Regal Power and Authority still remains, and what a King hath done by virtue of his Legal, and rightful Power, always inherent and vested in his Person, that nothing less them a King can destroy, so that those new Governors being a Constitutive and Essential part of this very Regulation, they must stand Independent from the Court of Aldermen, till the King declare them to have nothing to do in this House, and the old ones that were Ejected, whether Officers or Governors cannot be readmitted without the King's consent, the King's Authority and the Validity of it in all those Acts to which it extends itself, being always the same, though indifferent Persons that are invested with it, so that in all the Legal Jurisdictions of a King, it is ille aperit & nemo claudit, he openeth and no man shuts, he shuts and no man opens, nothing but a King can dissolve those Obligations or annul those Rights which a Lawful King hath Established. And indeed it were a great incongruity in the King, very unbecoming either his wisdom or greatness, and a great diminution to his power, if he should erect and constitute a Commission to regulate abuses, in such things as do naturally and legally belong to his visitation and inspection, and yet when the Commission was dissolved, the regulation should cease, which would be to as little purpose, as if no such regulation had ever been made, only it would reflect a disparagement upon the King as weak and inconsiderable, and pretending to more power then really he had, for that regulation which is actually dissolved, after the dissolution of that Commission by which it was made, must needs have been unjust and unlawful before it, for lawful and just things will-endure. Nay, I appeal to all the world, what confusion it would introduce into the affairs of the City, if all the acts of the Commissioners for the space of five years together, should by the expiration or dissolution of the Commission be rendered null and void, though yet upon supposition that the Charter could not be voided, which I do not concern myself whether it could or no, the Commission was so far illegal, if we look down to its root, though its necessity may perhaps plead something in its excuse, as I have hinted before; but as for that branch of the Commission which concerned the Hospitals, it was as I have shown, strictly legal, and therefore all those acts which passed under and from it, of which the election of Governors and Officers were two, must need be legal and consequently valid. No Mr. Hughes, do not please and flatter your little self with vain imaginations, the regulation is as valid, as the first authority from whence it sprang, and that is the Kings, though the Commission that managed and ordered that whole matter be now actually dissolved, and I think I have given so very good reason for it that even your own impudence, that face of yours which is your unquestionable Property, and is peculiar to yourself, cannot without some small discolouring, some streaks and Essays towards the Modesty of a blush, oppose it any longer.  
But yet I grant, that though the Governors do manifestly hold by a Superior Tenure, to any that the Court of Aldermen can give them, yet the Charter being restored, the Ordinary Visitation and Inspection of the Hospital returns together with it, and the Aldermen in the Course of things and in the Right and Power of Administration being Superior to the Commons of the City, and much more to any among the Governors that are not Free of the City, they may so tie up the hands of the Subordinate Powers, as that they shall have no right to any thing but their Green S●aves, and cannot move one step in any Emergent business of the House without the direction of the Court of Aldermen or at least their tacit consent, so that I confess the Aldermen have Fully retrived the exercise of all their Power, in all Emergencies that shall happen de futuro, and in all matters which the King hath not determined, and which none but the King can Evacuate or disannul, and have left the others little or nothing, but the Style and Title of Governors, of which I conceive they cannot be divested without the Kings express, or at least implicit concurrence by referring the whole matter to the Honourable Bench, but for us that are Officers, it is a little otherwise; it is true we are at his Majesty's disposal, as well as the others, but only that during his Majesty's pleasure, we know our respective Places and our Stations, and are obliged to act in our respective Spheres; otherwise the business of the house must be at a stand, and by consequence the Royal Charity be disappointed, and this is true likewise as to our Masters themselves, as to some particular Acts, that is, of taking in the Sick, and dismissing the Sound or the Incurable and auditing the Accounts, but only they can make no new order as a Court, without the Express or at least the tacit and implicit consent of the Court of Aldermen. It is no derogation to that great and wise Court to say that the King is their Superior, not only in General in his Transcendent Dignity and Power, but more particularly in all those matters which belong naturally and Legally to his inspection and care, though by the Charter of his Royal Predecessor, the ordinary administration of that very Province be committed to them. For this I am sure there is none of them but will very readily grant and Zealously assert, that the King is their unquestionable Superior in all Lawful matters, and that the King of England never dies, but is always the same, & we do very willingly acknowledge that by the Restitution of the Charter, their old Authority returns together with it, only that that Authority hath now a Partial and a Temporary restraint upon it, by the King, (who is the Fountain of that Power by which they Act,) his having already determined the Rights and Stations of some particular persons, and we say we are legally possessed of our respective places, till we are legally ejected, that is, till it be done by an equal authority to that which put us in, or till the King please to determine otherwise concerning us, either expressly or by returning back to the Court of Aldermen the entire ordinary power of visitation, which it doth not appear to me that he hath yet done, in things that by the Royal authority have been already determined and ought to stand firm till they be annulled by the same: and I do not speak this, neither would I be so understood, as if I were afraid of the Judgement of that Honourable Court, for I know their Justice, their Goodness, their Integrity and Candour, and am not afraid to throw myself upon it, but I have said this for no other reason, but that in my apprehension, upon the best and most impartial judgement I can make of things, it is the true state of the Case, and I hope his Majesty will not be offended with me for having thus largely vindicated his Royal rights, though in an instance of greater consequence to us his poor Suppliants and Servants than himself, and I entreat the Right-Honourable the Lord Mayor and the Honourable Court of Aldermen to consider, that it is not we that encroach upon their rights or pretend to dispute their lawful jurisdiction, but it is they who upon grounds which they cannot justify, would supplant us, for they pretend a legal Claim upon the restitution of the Charter, which is to disown the ordinary Jurisdiction and to put themselves out of the discretion of the Court, upon a bottom of legal property, which they have not, whereas we do not disown it upon any other account, then only upon an Emergent point of Law, particular to the circumstances we are in, in which the King's honour and prerogative are concerned.  
It remains now only that I consider as clearly as I can, the circumstances peculiar betwixt Mr. Hughes and me, as to the right or equity of our Case, and I think in general it is already proved, supposing Mr. Hughes to have had a legal choice, when he first made his entrance upon this little preferment, yet that he was legally Ejected, that is, Ejected by virtue of that Authority-Royall, which hath reserved to itself in the very Charter and Constitution itself (besides other reasons that do naturally suppose and justify such a of visiting and inspecting the affairs of this house, with a non obstante to all former orders of any inferior and delegated power concerning them, and if these two authorities may mutually reverse what either of them hath at any time ordained, than Superiority and Subjection does manifestly lose their nature; and there is nothing but disorder and confusion succeeding in their stead, for no Government can stand in any place whatsoever, where there are two contrary Authorities dissolving one another, and rescinding each others Constitutions and Decrees. Mr. Hughes being therefore ●ejected by the King, and I by the same Authority put into his place, does in vain insist upon the Illegality of my choice, or upon the Firmness and validity of his own, unless he can show an Authority Superior to that by which he was ejected and I chosen, which was done, as he knows very well, by the Supreme Ordinary and Visitor of this house, or unless he can give a reason why a Master of an house may not act with his servants after an arbitrary and unaccountable manner, so far as the retaining them in his house & service, or the dimissing of them from it is concerned, and since he cannot say any thing to the diminution of one King, especially in a matter of incontestable right, which does not equally strike at the unquestionable right and prerogative of another, he will do well to tread gingerly upon so tender a point, and to speak very softly concerning it, and yet when he hath done and said the most he can, the Hospital though they may possibly pretend to be exempt from Episcopal Jurisdiction, and if they had not pretended to thus much at least, Mr. Hughes had never come thither, yet they will never I hope, be exempted from the Kings, and will not only remain to be a real, though lame and imperfect part of his Dominions, but also the object of his peculiar care; who is in general the Father of his Country, but more especially the refuge of the Infirm and Weak.  
Mr Rustat whose Exemplary bounty and Munificence founded those Scholarships that are called by his name in the Flourishing Society of Jesus College in Cambridge, reserved to himself during his own life time, the Approbation of such as should be chosen into them, and it would have been very hard to deny him, though he had not claimed it, a Prerogative so natural and so just as this, much more would this have been ungrateful and disloyal in Subjects to their King, during the whole Reign of Edward the 6th, after the Foundation and Endowment of this House, to deny him a right of Enquiring from one time to another into the management of so great a trust, though no reservation in his Charter had been made, which reservation must for that reason more especially respect his Successors then himself, who had an undoubted and unquestionable right of Inspecting and enquiring into that Royal Charity which was so strictly and so immediately his own; it was I say, a reservation to his Successors rather than to him, which gives them a right of Law, (besides a right of Congruity which they will always have in the Donations of their Predecessors, to see that their Piety and Charity be not abused) to examine or inquire into the management of this Trust, and to confirm or alter, what is already Established by a Subordinate Power, as to their Princely Wisdom shall seem meet, and when Mr Hughes or any of his Friends, can clear themselves handsomely of this one consideration, which stabs his whole claim, and goes to the heart of his cause, than I will yield to him without any more ado, though I have several other material things to suggest in bar to his pretences, which are so unsound and rotten in every Point and Circumstance, that no man ever appeared to lay his claim to any thing with greater disadvantage than Mr Hughes hath done.  
For first it is notorious that when he was first admitted into this place and for about three years after he never was Episcopally ordained, as the Constitutions of the Church of England, and the several Acts of Uniformity, but more especially that which is called the Bartholomew Act, do unavoidably require, nothing of that Act being ever yet repealed that I know of, unless it be that Clause which concerned the Solemn League and Covenant, which was intended to be only a Temporary thing and was to expire of itself after a certain term of years, which is now long since Elapsed. He says he was chosen into this House by Fourscore Governors, and to do him a kindness it shall be if he pleaseth, four thousand, For let them be never so many, it was in itself a void Act, For they could not choose a Nonconformist to be Chaplain here, to eat at the King's cost in the King's House, who is the Protector and Guardian of the Laws, and to be maintained by way of Salary under the Notion of an Ecclesiastical Person out of the Public Revenues of the State, as if Nonconformity were to be encouraged out of the Public Revenue, at the same time when it was so severely and expressly forbidden by the Statute Laws of the Kingdom, several times reiterated and repeated.  
I do not speak this out of any want of Tenderness to a Religious dissent, For God Forbidden but every man should Act according to his Conscience, neither did I ever oppose any dissenting Party, so as to think them in Justice punishable for their dissent, out of any other Principle then what was merely Political, for the Preservation of the Public Peace, which is the certain and undoubted measure upon which the Acts of Parliament in that behalf have proceeded, and if I have any where said any thing with heat or with contempt of Separatists and Dissenters, out of too much precipitance in writing, or out of the rashness and inadvertency which is incident to Youth, yet it was always my Principle, that all Mankind by nature are Endowed with all that Liberty of Action, of Opinion and Enjoyment, which is consistent with private peace and rest, on with the Safety and Tranquillity of the Public, which in a Society or body Politic is that which is most especially to be regarded, and that the Legal restraints are only Artificial things superinduced by necessity, experience and length of time, to promote the advantage of a Nation, by making provision for its Peace, Ornament, Plenty and Protection, or to prevent its ruin by restraining and curbing those interferring passions that have a Natural Tendency to so bad an End; No man can complain of me that ever I Persecuted him for his Conscience sake, but some that have been actually under the Hatches of the Law, I have endeavoured to relieve and bring off as well as I could, as the Persons, if they be living, whose names I have now forgot, may remember; I never pronounced an Excommnication in my life, and am naturally very tender in a matter of such dreadful consequence as that is, but an Absolution from it, I have with great Cheerfulness and Alacrity recited; there is nothing in the whole world that hath afforded me greater trouble and dissatisfaction of mind, then to see the Frailty, Folly, and perverseness of humane nature to be such, that we must needs be Falling out and Squabbling about opinions, which may be United in Charity, though never so opposite or distant in themselves, and which are by no means incompetible or inconsistent with our common happiness and Salvation; but yet I have always been and I am still in my own thoughts a professed Enemy to an unlimited Toleration, though the Natural tenderness and compassion of my Temper, to which even Justice hath a Cruel and Frightful appearance, will never suffer me to vex my Neighbour upon a Religious account; my reason why I am against it, is, because long experience hath Taught and inculcated a Lamentable truth, that men will always be Embroiling the Peace of their Country upon Religious pretences, that there is a mixture of passion, a leaven of design, a secret root of Ambition or Revenge, that frequently lies hid under a sanctify'd appearance, and that it is not so much Salvation in the other World or truth in this, as power that is aimed at and contended for; and if these inconveniences could any way be prevented without the rigours and severities of humane Laws, I for my part should think it the blackest Tyranny in the World, that the Liberty of thought and of opinion, or the freedom of a pleasant and diverting Conversation (that aught in reason to be the result of such differences as these, by men's comparing their Sentiments together) which are the first, most Natural, most Essential and deeply rooted Liberties of mankind, so long as they keep within the bounds of modesty and Friendship, should be Fettered and Entangled by positive Constitutions, which is the true Spirit and Mystery of the Papacy itself, and is the greatest enemy that can be to that curious & inquisitive temper, that Philosophical Genius, that soaring & searching disposition of our minds, in which the true perfection & dignity of humane nature consists, and if any expedient of comprehension can be found, that shall upon experiment prove successful to the reconciling those Feuds and Animosities which we labour under, by making the passage into our Church so much more wide and spacious than it was before, that weak, but conscientious men may enter in without the danger of being Crowded or hurt, if any way can be contrived that Liberty may be granted without injury to the Public, even to those who will still separate after the largest Concessions, there is no person living that would more sincerely rejoice, to see that punishment was rendered an useless and unnecessary thing, by Charity's being substituted in the place of Justice, and all those breaches made up by a Practical agreement, which it is impracticable and impossible ever to reconcile, by a concord of thought, or a Symphathetique harmony of opinion, but this though I could wish to see with all my heart, yet I must needs say I never can expect it, and therefore all that can be reasonably done in such a case, is to make the Terms of Communion so large, which I am glad to see doing by the Wisdom and Prudence of this present Parliament, as that great numbers of Honest and good men, who cannot get rid of their prejudices and mistakes may be added to the Church, taking care all the while, which I doubt not but such a wise Assembly will effectually do, that we do not pull down the Church under pretence of Enlarging it, for a Vineyard is always supposed to have its Fences, and a Church that has no Walls or Hedges to defend it is so far from being a Christian Society, that it is indeed no Society at all, and is rather to be called a common Field than a Catholic Church or a Garden full of Spices which the Lord hath blessed.  
It is not therefore Mr. Hughes his dissent from the Established worship, when he took upon him first to be Chaplain of this place, that I reprove or find fault with, but that he only washed the outside of the Cup and Platter, and was like those Tombstones which our Saviour speaks of, which notwithstanding they had an outward comelyness and Beauty in the sight of those that past by, yet within they were full of rottenness and dead men's bones, for what else but such a False and Pharisaical disposition as this should make him less afraid of Sacrilege then of a Surplice? Of Robbery then of Common-Prayer? Of Prostrating and Prostituting his very Soul and Conscience to the Unrighteous Mammon, then of bowing to the Name, and by that gesture adoring the Divinity of the Holy Jesus? and what was it less than this for him to take the King's Money for disobeying his Laws, and to receive the rewards of the State, which are paid and distributed out of the Public Revenue, for those very Actions or rather Omissions of his to which the Law had allotted nothing but Fines and Imprisonments and such like grievous things? Mr. Hughes knows very well that his Salary could not be Legally paid to him as Chaplain or Hospitaller of this House, upon any other supposition then that of his Conformity to the Established Church, and to the Laws of the Land, of which the King is the Guardian and Protector, and whatever his Friends might give him as a dissenting Preacher, which I should never envy him, though it were never so much, Yet for him unjustly to rob the Church of its Patrimony, and to appropiate to himself, what the Law never designed for a Person so unquallif●ed to receive it, as he then was, how little does it differ in its nature from picking of Pockets? Or padding upon Clapham Common, or between that and London? though the Governors would have given it him, unless it were out of their own proper pockets, not out of the Stated and Public Revenue of the House, yet Mr. Hughes ought not in Conscience to have received it, it was in him a point of Knavery to receive, in them a breach of Trust to give, he dispensed with his Conscience and they dispensed with theirs, and with the Laws to boot, which it seems it is the clear Prerogative of Subjects to do, though at the same time we justly take it in, that our Princes should not Govern themselves and us according to them, or rather it is the peculiar Privilege of some sort of men with a non-obstante to the rest of mankind. Those Fourscore Governors he talks of, that Voted him hither, who they were I know not; neither shall I ever give myself the Trouble to inquire, but this I am very sure of, that this was so great, so Criminal a breach of Trust, the greater for being committed under the formality of a pretended Authority and Power, that from that time forward they have forfeited their Title and aught to have broken their Green Staves, as my Lord High Steward doth his white one after the Trial of a Peer is over, and never to have pretended to the ordering or Government of this Hospital any longer, for they were not sent hither to break the Laws of the Land and of the house together, but to observe them both and to see that others in their Stations do the same. At least, thus much, I suppose, will be granted by all impartial Men, that as Governors they had no such Power, as that which they then assumed and arrogated to themselves, so that they not being qualified to choose Mr. Hughes, nor Mr Hughes to be chosen by them, it was a void Act on both sides, and where then, I beseech you, is Mr Hughes his Title? What becomes of his claim, and his fine show? When without Quo Warrantoes, Forfeitures of Charters and Commissions from above, the law in its own proper Channel ran so strong against him, that he was Legally ejected at the very instant when he was so Illegally chosen.  
Mr Hughes, I presume, remembers what his answer was, when I put the question to him, whether at his admission into this house, he were in Orders or not? his Answer was affirmative and positive that he was; well pla●'d old Hugo, thought I to myself, but Sir, said I, what Orders do you mean? 〈◊〉 you Episcopally Ordained at that time? this question did not please him, 〈◊〉 after some rumbling within, as if he were troubled with wind, occasion as I suppose, by a contest betwixt Interest and truth, the man made a 〈◊〉 after a very wry face, which I have no words to describe, to make a ve●● same answer every whit as much distorted and awry as that; why truly said he, I do not well remember what date my Orders do bear, which was but the second part of Shuffling and Cutting; the First answer was an Equivocation, the Second no Answer at all, for he knew very well that they did not 〈◊〉 date, till very long after his admission into this place: the first was thought a figure peculiar to the Jesuits, but now it seems the Schoolmasters have ●●● it too, God grant they do not teach it their boys, the Second besides, that it was a very shameless evasion in itself, was a very mean affront and 〈…〉 nity put upon me, as if I were so silly to swallow such weak answers ●or ●●●● and Substantial things. Heaven help the good Gentleman and instruct him better by a ray of light from thence, for his noddle is as shallow as the 〈◊〉 is high, as cold and as numbed as the grey head of Brecknock, where the sn●● is a perpetual Incumbent all the year, even when the Sun returning brings his Quo Warranto against the Winter's Charter, or if two Learned 〈◊〉 please him better, because he pretends to something of that same, let it be Rhodope and Haemus if he will, for the Top of Parnassus he hath nothing to do with, although he be a Pedagogue, and to that of Olympus I am sure he will never come, unless he mends his manners.  
I know Mr Hughes urgeth in his own defence, he did it to me in a short Conference which we had together, that though it is true he were incapable by Law to execute any Ministerial Office in this place when first he came to it, and for a great while after, yet at last he leapt into a Cassock and a Girdle, the knot of which was a great deal. Lower than it should be, and that his peaceable Enjoyment to be computed from that time to the time of his Ejectment, was to be interpreted as a new choice, and is to looked upon as a tacit consent in the Governors who made no objections, but suffered him to go on silently and smoothly in the execution of his Charge, and I am content upon one condition that this Argument shall pass Muster in his behalf, and that is, that he refund to the use of the Poor of this House, or to the Ornament of that Chapel which he had converted into an Illegal Conventiele, all that ill gotten money, amounting in all to about 200 pounds, of which he robbed the King, Cheated the Hospital and bereft the Church, by withholding it from some other Person more capable and more deserving, which is no more than what, I think, he is bound in strict Conscience to do, he being the first man I believe to be met with in History that ever received a Public and Stated Pension for a Public and contained act of Disobedience and Contempt to the Laws of his Country, a Pension from the King, in the Kings own House, who is the Guardian and Executor of the Laws he broke. But yet supposing the connivance and sufferance he speaks of, to have signified as much as a choice, or Approbation, yet he was Legally ejected notwithstanding this, by a Legal Authority abundantly Paramount to that Illegal and Arbitrary little Power by which he was first introduced into his Place, it was done by the King the Supreme Visitor and Ordinary of this House, whose hired Servants we all are, and may be Ejected at his pleasure without any wrong or injustice, when ever he is weary of our Service, or is disposed to take other Servants in our stead.  
But I fancy I know Mr. Hugh's his Temper so well that he will never consent to this costly Proposition, of part with such a sum of money to appease a Conscience, which is by no means squeamish, and that he would rather have stayed at home quietly in the Country, then have taken such a troublesome and expensive Journey to meet with such an irksome demand, that had been made by those that have Power to exact its performance; For it is plain he received this money in the Hospitall's wrong and that in strict Justice he is bound to Restitution. Wherefore since Mr H. will not part with his Coin, he must not take it ill if we stick close to our Argument and to him, by disallowing and Protesting against his tac●t consent, for 'tis plains this Notion of a tacit consent involves the Court of Aldermen and the King and all the Superiors, as much as it did those honest and worthy trusties. who broke their Trust when they chose him; For they did therefore only not oppose this choice, because they knew nothing of it, they had no notice or Cognisence of the matter, and it is as plain that neither the Court of Aldermen, nor the King would at that time have suffered it, had a due and particular Representation of the matter been made; not the Court of Aldermen, who were all of them Members and Communicants of the Church of England, and much less the King who would never have consented that the Panegyrist of Traitors, and the vile assertor of his Father's Parricide, should eat of his bread and live upon the fruits of his bounty, and if this did still lie heavy against him even after his Admission into Holy Orders, than the King who was the First Visitor and Inspector of our Affairs, can never be supposed in any reasonable Construction to have given his Tacit consent; so that in all this affair tho' we should admit a tacit consent of the Subordinate Powers, yet the Court of Aldermen and the King not concurring, it was a consent of Deputies against their Principals which is a void thing in itself, and is as much as no consent, a consent to that which they were obliged by their trust & by their duty to their Principals to disallow. I shall not here trouble myself to compute how many infractions M. Hughes made upon the known Laws of the Land, every minute was a repeated breach For after three years that he was possessed of this place, it is enough that after his Conformity to the Church, he was Guilty of very gross and Scandalous neglects of his duty, of which I shall say more hereafter, and this is Sufficient to destroy his Notion of a Tacit consent, for nothing ought to be tacitly consented to, that cannot be explicitly and fairly defended.  
Mr. H. his not being in Orders for so long a time, his having abused the charity of the house, publicly affronted and mocked the laws of the Land, cheated the King and interverted the public Revenue to an illegal use, was reason enough to justify his expulsion from hence, notwithstanding his halt conformity, for about a year or two before he left it, and if the King as a master had not had a legal arbitrary power to turn away his Servant, as every master hath, even without a fault, yet I hope it was a sufficient reason for a Son to proceed upon, that he had justified the Murder of his Father, and it was still a further aggravation that in his proper business, as a Chaplain to the house, after his pretended conversion to the Church of England, he was so grossly neglectful in the duties of his office, so that if ever Servant was legally turned away, it must be confessed Mr. H. had law of his side when he was dismissed from his employment, but hath no Claim, no Shadow, no Colour, no imaginable appearance or pretence of right, for a reinvestiture into his lapsed charge, forfieted by Sins of omission and of commission too, and forfieted for such reasons that I had almost said, it would be a sin and a crime even in the supreme power itself, which alone can legally ●● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him, but by any inferibur Authority it cannot be done, 〈◊〉 the 〈…〉 ties and irregularity of the proceeding, without affront to the memory of 〈◊〉 blessed Kings, as well as injury to the affairs of the house, for let him 〈◊〉 what he will, he will still be as negligent as he was before, he will 〈◊〉 bury the Dead, nor visit the Sick, nor read prayers to the Poor, a● 〈◊〉 were so strangely neglected and omitted by him, that it ●● 〈◊〉 he 〈◊〉 Clupham all the week round, and his friend Mr's Knight re●ded here in 〈◊〉 place, and was of the two more properly to be styled the Hospitaller ●● ●● Thomas Southwark, she managed all things in his absence, as she easily might, because there was nothing to do, unless now and then a dead Corpse to ●● put into the hole, to prevent staunch and Annoyance to the living, which ●● seems was the Sex'ton business and not his, for the space of four year together, till toward the very Fag end of his time; and then by the clamours of ●●ny but especially of Mr Molins, who was then one of the Surgeon's i● 〈◊〉 house, he was at last prevailed upon to take some very little care that t●● o● three bodies should have Christian burial according to the usage of ●●● Church of England, whereas before the Sexton was the Curate, a●● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Service at the Grave was, Let the dead bury the dead for William 〈◊〉  
Can it be Prudent or Rational to trust such a Man again, ●ho 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ once discarded among other things for so foul and Criminal a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 duty? or do we think in earnest that Mr. W. H. is any other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than Hypocrites and Apostates usually are, who have no Principle but 〈◊〉 and fear; for by his behaviour after his Conversion to the very 〈◊〉 or his being turned out of his place, by his almost total neglect, and by his slovenly performance of the Offices of the Church, you may guests what respect he had for them, a Form of Prayer made him puke, he sweat a● the 〈◊〉 and at the Second Service died away, and he still hates every thing in 〈◊〉 Church but its Preferments, and this some of his Friends are so 〈◊〉 ●ssu●●● and satisfied to be true, tho' it may be not quite so far a● I have 〈◊〉 that for this only reason they abett his pretensions, in opposition to every thing that is either Just or Sacred among Men, neither can it indeed be expected that he should be much a friend to positive Constitutions, which must needs lie flat and cold upon his Stomach, who scorns to be Fettered by those Eternal restraints the Convictions of truth, the Laws of Essential and 〈…〉 terable reason, the Adamantine ties and obligations of nature.  
For my part double diligence in any Employment, is a thing which I 〈◊〉 pretended to in my Life, but without entering into Comparison with him. I can say, that I have faithfully discharged my trust, or else have made Provision that it should be done by others, when either my occasions called me abroad, or my indisposition kept me at home, or my Studies were too importunate to be denied my attendance upon them. For the first four years ●● thereabouts, there were Prayers duly twice a week, upon Wednesdays and Frydays according to the Canon, and afterwards when this did not satisfy the Governors, I allowed eight Pounds yearly out of my Pocket, to which they were pleased of their goodness to add twelve more for a Competence for a Reader every Morning and Evening▪ I have visited the 〈◊〉 as there ●as occasion, and administered the Sacrament, when I thought it fit for in that I must beg leave to be my own carver, and all this five years' time and upwards I know not that ever a Sermon was omitted once a week unless it were once, when I fell ill in the midst of the Prayers and could not go through my whole task, and as I have done all the good I am able in the House, as opportunity bathe administered occasion for it, so I shall not only still continue to do it as long as I stay there, but as long as I live it shall have my good wishes, and all the small assistances I am able to afford it, even though I be Illegally and arbitrarily dispossessed of what I have so long Legally enjoyed.  
One particular instance I ●rave leave here to insert of my readiness to serve the Hospital upon any occasion, though it be only an expression of my good will towards it, and at the same time an Intimation of my want of Power, because the design dropped and fell to the Ground. It is now above three years ago, as I remember, that there was a very worthy project under consideration of Re building this decayed and ruinated house, which call● for another Hospital to receive itself, and is almost as weak, and crazy, as any of the Patients within its Walls, the design went so far that if I am not misinformed, that Famous Mathematitian and Architect Sir Christopher Wren, was brought hither to take an Actual survey of the building intended, which upon so large and spacious a plat of Ground improved by the great Genius of that Admirable man would have made a most Noble and Magnificent Structure. A Private contribution from one good man to another, whether among the Governors, or at Court or abroad in the world, was the way proposed to bring this great work to perfection, which I confess I looked upon to be Magnae molis, a thing of great labour and difficulty, like the work itself, and that the Fatigue and Tediousness of such a Collection, (especially when Chelsey College and other public buildings, which I knew of, had Exhausted so much) would give a damp and discouragement to the undertaking, not but that considerable sums might have been advanced this way, but to help the business forward I was for procuring a brief to be read in all Churches and Chappells through the Kingdom, the whole Kingdom being more or less obliged to the Charity of this House, and concerned in Gratitude and in prospect of what future occasion there might be of applying to it for the relief of their Sick or wounded, as well as out of a public Principle of Christianity and good nature, to contribute to so worthy and useful a design. This I Communicated in discourse to Mr. Seymour, who so well approved it, that he immediately imparted it to some others, and I, while the fancy was warm and fresh within me, drew up, as well as I could, the sor●● of a brief, to be corrected and altered by such as understood the methods of such things better than I do, which I have still by me, but after much discourse and many Consultations, for what reason I know not, whether as impracticable or unseasonable at that time, the thing fell asleep and past off in Fumo without any effect. I mention this, I say, only to show my good will to the House, and I desire Mr H. during his four years' Reign and residence at his Court at Clapham to give such another instance of his, and I do here again Solemnly protest that no ill usage which I have never deserved, shall ever alienate my affection from this House, but that I will always Remember, upon all occasions, the kindness and support I have received from it, without reflecting upon the wrongs and Injuries that are or have been done me.  
So much for Mr. Hugh's his not being in Orders and for his tacit consent, a sort of consent which God abhors and utterly protests against, that ever it should be given to unlawful things. These things hast thou done, saith he, and I held my Tongue, and thou thoughtest wickedly, that I am even such an one as thyself, but I will reprove thee and set before thee the things that thou hast done. And I must confess I do not a little wonder that the present Court of Aldermen should ratify that Election with more than a tacit consent, which that which was then in being, when Mr H. his Fourscore Governors pitched upon him for the object of their Choice, if they had taken any cognizance or received any particular Information of it, would have condemned and evacuated with the last degree of Scorn and Indignation, but Mr. Hughes is now a Conformist, which he was not then, and I do really attribute this unequal proceeding in a Court of so great Justice and Honour as that is, to the misrepresentations of Mr H. and his Friends, and to their want of sufficient Information in the matter.  
It is next to be considered, that when Mr H. was Ejected out of this house, for the Reasons that have been already declared, it was not long before he was otherwise provided for, with a Freehold instead of an Arbitrary dependence, and with a Living of at least Sixscore Pounds a year, that being the lowest Computation that ever I heard made of it, instead of a Salary of Threescore, dependant upon pleasure, which Living was bestowed upon him in pity to his Circumstances, and out of that excess of Charity which is natural to great minds, in lieu of what he was deprived of here, they believing, because they were not capable of Hypocrisy themselves, that the pretences of this Vineyard were real, and that being so true a Convert to a Church which he mortally hates, it was a great piece of hardship and next kin to Injustice, upon him, to dispossess him of his place. I know Mr Hughes is used to say, he said it more than once to me and to my Wife, and he hath blown it about among all his Friends, that this Living was not given him in lieu of what he had lost, but for some other reasons best known to himself, which he is not pleased to discover, but yet this he does discover by this Cryptic Method, which is usually accounted an argument of Wisdom, that he believes me at the same time a most despicable fool, and that he himself is a most Flagitious, abominable Knave, for I love dearly to call things by their right names, and if the last of these Characters especially be true, he should be no true Member of the Church of England, which detests and devotes the Principles and practices of such wretched Fellows. For I appeal with great assurance to those Reverend and Learned Gentlemen that were concerned in this his new Promotion, whose great and Venerable names I will not fully by inserting them in a just satire against so vile a Caitiff, First, whether they would have stickled so hard to have this Hypocrite restored, if they had designed or intended any other preferment for him, which might have been an equal or a greater support than that was, I can never induce myself to believe this, because it would look with so particular, a pointed hatred against me, which I no more believe than I do that Mr H. is an honest man, and with all Imaginable franckness, Sincerity and thankfulness I speak it, though they thought Mr H. to have been a little too hardly dealt with, I know that they are now, and I am very well satisfied they were then all my Friends, and it shall be my constant endeavour, with a Proviso against this Simpleton Mr H. whom I am resolved not to spare, and whose Interest against mine in this particular Case, I am very confident they will no longer espouse, not to undeserve the Honour of such good opinions.  
Secondly, I presume to appeal to them, and do perfectly throw myself upon their free and open answer to the Question, whether they did not really and purposely prefer Mr H. or cause him to be preferred to his Living in the Country upon this Consideration and no other, that they thought him hardly treated in being ejected from hence.  
But without the rudeness of Catechising my Superiors, the thing speaks so plainly for itself, that I might have spared those names which nature calls him, and which all men of ●ense must acknowledge to be his due, for to what purpose should they give him another Living in Conjunction with this? the whole Salary of this was but Threescore pounds a year, and he must supply one of these places by a Curate, to whom when he had allowed an Honest Maintenance, what could he get? besides, that something may well be supposed to be lost by Nonresidence upon his Country Living, for the Country people are usually as sharp as their Parson, though it were Mr. Hugh's his own self, and something must be paid here for rent, had he lived out of the Hospital, as I take it for granted he would never have lived in it, any more than he did before, for I see not what inducement there could be to alter his mind, and of what advantage, than could the Hospital have been at the Foot of this Account? or would it not rather have been his Interest as well as duty, to have thrown up this, leaving it free for me or any body else, and to have retired into his Country Living, there to have spent the remainder of his days, as Nuns that were no Nuns formerly do in a Cloister; in Beads and Penances for his Abingdon Sermon, and for the Hypocrisy of his pretended Conversion, and all the other sins of his Life? I say, it was his duty no less than his interest, and thereby hangs a tale, for you must know this Mr H. among other of his works, writ a very Pious and 〈◊〉 Treatise against Pluralities and Nonresidence, and he could not hold his Living and his Hospital together without confuting his book. For two Live I suppose, will be granted to be a Plurality, and it is a known Maxim in the 〈◊〉 Philosophy, which is like Mr Hughes for that, that it is sometimes in the right, though it be but very seldom, that one and the same numerical, and Individual body cannot be present in two Places at once, and from thence Nonresidence must unavoidably have followed. So that Mr. H. in this Case had no more choice than this, he must either have affronted his Conscience (and what a Conscience is that that would Prostitute itself for so very small an advantage, as I have computed this would have amounted too) or he must have relinquished one of his places, or reca●●ted his book and own himself to have written or rather brayed Heresy before he was ware, like the dull animal that mumbles Thistles. I grant indeed that in law these two preferments would have made no plurality, because one of them is not in the legal stile properly termed cura animarum, but yet there are Souls in one place as well as in the other, and it may be more in this then in his Country Living, so that it is a plurality in Conscience though not in Law, and I challenge him to show me one argument in his Book, that does not ●ly in his face and call him by those names which I will not give myself the liberty to use, being sensible I have called him but too severely already, for which I beg his excuse, as I hope he will think it but just and honest to beg mine too, for having given me so Foul a Provocation, by endeavouring to eject me out of what I legally and rightfully enjoy, though he himself can get nothing by the bargain, which is infernal quintessence, the Devil rectified to his highest pitch, it is Malice not in words, (as he may perhaps interpret my raillery to be, a poor piece of business for a man that is robbed of his right) but in very deed and in truth. I say, he can get nothing but infamy and disgrace among all the Catholic Church of honest men, for none but such do properly belong to the mystical body of Christ, and if this be the gain he contends for, much good may it do him, and I call it malice, because I cannot call it Revenge, for Revenge is the retaliation of an injury received, but I never did him any; he delerved its true to be turned out of his place, but I knew not the man nor his place neither, I never supplanted him, I scorn such profligate and degenerous acts, I was actually appointed in his stead by the kindness of my friends, before I knew the least Syllable or letter that any such thing was designed, and if I had not had it, it is undoubtedly certain that some body else must, so that I in particular was so far from doing him any injustice, that my very succeeding him really did him no harm, since it must have been done by some body else, if it had not been done by me, and yet if providence had not just then pointed out that refuge for me to fly to, my affairs were brought to that extremity that I was in danger of immediate ruin, so that he is angry with providence for providing for my safety, as it did afterwards more plentifully for his, he is angry with me for giving myself up to the Guidance and conduct of those happy Stars that would not see me perish with Hunger and Cold, and he makes it now his business to procure my ruin, though at the same time he knows, he can get nothing by it, but the odious reputation of the worst of men, so that if this be not malice, there is no such thing, and if ever man were  for a sharp invective upon an invererate, but causeless Enemy, 'tis I.  
But saith Mr. Hughes, as to the business of Pluralities, it was his own evasion when I urged it to him, Sauce for a Goose is Sauce for a Gander, why may not I be a Pluralist, as well as you? No Mr. Hughes, it is not the same case, for I never writ agrinst pluralities, as you have done, and besides you cannot accuse me of nonresidence, from whence all your arguments, if you would speak any thing that looks like sense, must of necessity derive their force, and by this you made the Hospital a Plurality though it were but one place: It is not a plurality in law, because neither of the Places is cum cura animar●● in the legal stile, nor in Conscience, (though I am for Pluralities in a sober sense, if I knew how to come at them) because they are contiguous, and may both very well be sufficiently taken care of, even in the Judgement of those that quarrel most at such things, by the same Person, it is after the Example of St Bartholomew's itself, which is the older Foundation of the two, where both the Hospital and Parish are United, it is pursuant to the reason and intention of that Act of Parliament, by which small Live were united and joined together after the Fire of London, and there is no doubt but if that fatal Calamity had spread itself so far, as by God's great Mercy it did not, the same provision upon the same ground would have been made here, and Lastly the Justice and even necessity of it is acknowledged by the Excellent Dr. Burnet, now the Right Reverend Lord Bishop Elect of Sar●m, in his Sermon before the Commons at the beginning of this present Parliament, where among other things that are managed like himself, with an Air and vigour peculiar to their Author, he piously recommends the encouragement of the Clergy and the increasing of small Live for their support; I know not whether Mr. Hughes hath read that Sermon or no, but I am sure he dare not read his two other Admirable discourses, from the Pulpit, The Royal Martyr, I mean, and the Dutiful Subject, for fear of reflecting too severely upon his own doughty Performance, to be admired for nothing that I know of, but that it is so resinedly, so admirably wicked, His Abingdon Law, his Banqueting house Entertainment, more Cruel than those of Progne and Thyestes wherein he caressed himself and entertained his Friends (O scelus! O Flagitium!) with the Mangled and bleeding Father of his Country.  
I shall conclude this whole matter with these two things. First, I desire that it may be taken notice, that when upon the death of the Reverend & my late dear friend Mr Sowton, the Parish of St. Thomas' became void, his Majesty King James the Second, was pleased upon a Representation of the Equity of my Case to him, the Hospital alone not affording a sufficient maintenance for a Clergy Man in this Town, to withdraw a Mandate granted in behalf of another in my Favour, and accordingly upon this notice that it was his Majesty's pleasure, as I think a plainer Indication of it could not possibly be given, I had an Order from the Commissioners for the Union, that is, in effect I had two Legal Orders for the place of Hospitaller, and one for the Parish, the latter of which two Orders was with his Majesty's particular knowledge and Approbation, so that it was his own Act in his own House, and what more Legal choice than this there can be, where the King meddles with nothing but what is Legally in his own disposal, as this matter of the Union manifestly was, I would be glad to be informed. For it is plain that this was not only the Act of the Commissioners, who gave their consent, as indeed they could not well deny it, to what they knew to be the King's pleasure, but more immediately and expressly of the King himself, who if he did many Arbitrary things, which I neither can nor will defend, though in Gratitude I ought not to upbraid him with them, yet I hope the Legal Acts of a Lawful and rightful King, as all men will acknowledge that Prince to have been at that time, ought not to be the less binding and valid, because afterwards, (for this was in the first year of his Reign) he did several things which were Arbitrary and Illegal. If a Mandate be sent down to any College in either University for the admitting of a Master or Fellow who could not Statutably be chosen, supposing he lie under no incapacities by Act of Parliament or by the known Laws of the Realm, this Mandate according to the common Practice of the University takes place without any more ado, unless there be some great exceptions against the Person, or else some other more deserving or more desirable Person be precluded by it, in which Case they usually represent back again to the King, and Endeavour to get it withdrawn, not that they dispute the King's Power, but that they endeavour to incline his will to a choice more agreeable and pleasing to themselves, or more for the Interest and Honour of their Society, in deferrence to which it is very well known that they do sometimes Court a Mandate instead of refusing it, and are glad in such Cases where their local Statutes are a little too hard upon Merit, that the King interposeth his Authority Royal for the Encouragement of Arts and the advancement of Learning, and that in those Colleges that are not of Royal Foundation, & yet by such Mandates a Freehold is conveyed, & the Person invested hath an equal right, in at common acceptation, with any other Member whosoever. But whatever exceptions may possibly be offered against this practice in the Universities, tho' nothing hath been in repetition more frequent, ever since I knew what the University was, and a great while before, nor any thing in Fact more firm than such investitures by the King's letter, yet no man sure will dispute the King's Prerogative in his own Foundation, and a Foundation in the Charter, of which there is an express reservation to himself and Successors to inspect and visit at all times hereafter, and where the King hath an undoubted and unquestionable right of putting in and putting out when he pleases, provided they be not unqualifyed by law for their employments which was Mr. H's Case, when he came first to this house, who was so unqualifyed by law for his place, that even the King himself could not dispense with him; in such an house as this, I suppose it will be granted that the King's Mandate ought to take place, and I had more than a mandate, if more than that can be, because a mandate was recalled for my advantage. I had the concurrence of the King and Commi●●ioners, for an union of the two places, that is, for an actual possession and enjoyment of them both, and what firmer title to a thing of this nature there can be I cannot Imagine, and certainly the law would have done very weakly to entrust the King with the disposal of so many and so great Spiritual preferments, so as to entitle the persons on whom they are conferred to a  in the same, if at the same time he shall not be allowed to place a Chaplain in his own house, of his own or his Royal Ancestors Foundation, in the constitutions of which he hath expressly reserved a right of inspection and regulation to himself.  
The Second thing I hinted at, with which I shall shut up all, is what I have already pretty largely insisted upon, but cannot in this cause be too frequently repeated, or too heedfully attended to, and that is, that the dissolution of the Commission by which this regulation was made, doth not at all affect the regulation itself, so as that must of necessity be dissolved together with it, for this were to suppose that an house can be no sooner built, but it must tumble and fall down again, as soon as the Scaffolds, by the help of which it was erected, are removed, and the Artificers dispersed and gone away, whereas then indeed it is, and not till then that the house appears in its true Beauty and Strength.  
It hath been proved sufficiently already that the King had always a power of visiting this house, even though the City Charter had stood, so that though the administration of the City and the visitation of this house were both of them entrusted with the same Commissioners, yet they were manifestly two Commissions tacked together that were in themselves distinct from one another, and the King if he had pleased, might have put the visitation of this house at that time into other hands, and as soon as the regulation had been perfected, he might have dissolved the Commission, but what a mock regulation had this been? what a Scandal and Contempt would it have brought upon such a regulating design as this, if the regulation had been dissolved together with it? or indeed to what purpose would such a regulation have been? and yet if it be not actually dissolved upon the dissolution of the Commission itself, than the Governors and Officers must stand as they were, till they are displaced by the same or an equal power, because in this it was that the regulation consisted.  
Queen Elizabeth by her Commissioners visited the Universities, altered their Statutes and made many great and lasting regulations which remain to this day, notwithstanding the Commission be not only dissolved, but the Commissioners long since dead and mouldered away to dust in their graves. And so in the late Case of Magdalen College, there is no man of common sense can question but if the Commission had been legal or managed and pursued after a Legal manner, but the Regulation would have been valid, though the Commission had expired, after the business, it was intended for, had been done, otherwise it would have been a Commission as Ridiculous and absurd, as it is acknowledged to have been Arbitrary and Illegal.  
This is what I have to say for myself and my Friends and Fellow-Servants in this house, but against Mr. Hugh's in particular all things are so strong, and run upon him with so fierce a Stream, that I suspect the soundness of his understanding for offering to attempt a thing in which he could reasonably propose nothing but infamy and disgrace to himself, he seems to me to be got into the predicament of Dr Rolls, and that even Hellebore and Anticyra itself, are unable to restore him to his right mind, so far are his Wits run a Woolgathering from it.  
And now upon the whole matter I am very sure of the Victory, which I have already obtained by dint of Argument against him, though he may possibly run away with the Triumph, and I had much rather lose so fair a cause as mine is, then gain a Scandalous Conquest, by succeeding in his  
Victrix c●usa Deis placuit, sed victa Catoni.   

POSTSCRIPT.  
I Have two things further to add, which occur-now newly to my mind, and are, I think, material to the purpose, the First as to the Regulation in general, the design of which seems to have been, to displace all that were not at that time Communicants of the Church of England, that being the interest which the Court thought fit at that juncture to encourage: It is not my business in this place to weigh the Merits of Causes or of Persons, neither do I at all intent by this to reflect upon the Persons Ejected, as if they were defective in the discharge of their trust, the contrary of which, bating only what concerns my Friend Mr Hughes, is that which I did always and do still very firmly believe; but this I say, that by this it appears, that it was a Regulation not only made by him, that had a Legal right to do it, of which I have already spoken very largely, but it was also such a Regulation, as the Laws of this Land, if they did not Expicitely enjoin, yet they did manifestly encourage and abett, it being very incongruous to prosecute the same Persons upon account of their Religion, which was no more than what the Laws put in Execution would certainly have done, and yet at the same time to reward them with public Salaries, for the same services, that Members of the Established Communion were capable of performing with equal, if not greater advantage to the House, I say, greater, in reference to that part of the Governors, to whom their service will always be most acceptable, who have without question, the most of the Gentleman in them, and will at the long run, prove the most generous Benefactors to us, if they be not disobliged, for he hath no Honour that hath no resentment. I appeal to the greatest favourers of Mr. H. and others, if a set of Papists were put into the House, to fill up the respective Offices belonging to it, whether they would then grumble at a Royal Regulation, whether they would not allow the King a Power of Visiting in this Case? whether they would not agree, that the Ejection of such Persons, was not only necessary, but Legal too? and Lastly whether they would not think it a very unreasonable thing, that they that stand impeached and Condemned by so many Laws, should be Encouraged with Salaries out of the public Kevenue, and preferred before those, upon whom the Laws never look but with a kind and favourable aspect? I do not in this make any odious comparison betwixt a Papist and Protestant Dissenter, as if the one were as much to be discountenanced as the other, but yet I challenge any man to show a reason, why a Papist should be Ejected, which will not, in the dry consequence and Inference of the matter, affect and reach a Protestant Dissenter, to whose dissent I cannot help it that the Laws are no friends, and that he cannot be encouraged in an affair of this Nature, without something that squints towards a dispensing Power. Not to prefer can never be thought a piece of Persecution, and the Government will always choose its own Servants, as it is but reason it should, so that this Regulation being made by a Legal Power & for a reason agreeable to the Laws. I think it hath all the Validity and Strength, that any Act in the World can be supposed to have.  
Secondly, the second thing I must Suggest, is only in Fayrness to the other Side, that I may not seem to conceal or smuggle any thing, that hath a  Appearance towards them. It is, that our Orders run only during Pleasure, therefore the Question is, upon the Dissolution of the Commission, whether that pleasure be not dissolved, and I answer not, because first durante beneplacito signifies till that Court otherwise determine, which they never did. Secondly, though these express words had not been inserted, yet the thing itself was plainly supposed, we being all of us at the pleasure of that Court and of the King from whom they derived their Commission, and holding by no other Tenure, so that all the question here is, whether all their Acts were vacated by their dissolution, which I conceive they were not, and I hope I have given some reason for it.  
Thirdly and Lastly, that pleasure, being a real Power, can never die, like matter and motion that are always equal and the same taken in the gross, neither can a greater pleasure be swallowed up in a less, any more than a greater quantity can be, and for this reason the pleasure or Power of the Commissioners can never be the pleasure or Power of the Court of Aldermen, but returns back again to its Eountain the King, to whose Royal Justice, Goodness and Wisdom, I am very willing to refer my Cause, if Mr Hughes think fit to make his appeal to it, In the mean time I would willingly see a reason, before I abandon and relinquish my possession.   
FINIS.