THE RIGHTS OF THE CROWN OF England, As it is established by Law.  
Written in the time of the Late King, By Edward Bagshaw Esquire, an Apprentice of the Common-Law.  Ad Conservationem Jurium Coronae nostrae, eò nos decet studiosius operam adhibere, quó ad hoc astringimur Vinculo Juramenti, Regist. fol. 61. b. Antiqua Maneria Coronae annexa; Regi non licebit alienare: sed omnis Rex Coronae suae alienata revocare tenetur, Fleta lib. 1. cap. 8. 
LONDON, Printed by A. M. for Simon Miller at the Star in St Paul's Churchyard, 1660.   

TO THE KING'S MOST Excellent Majesty.  
Most great and most gracious Sovereign,  
During my long Imprisonment in the King's Bench and other places, for my adherence to the Cause of my late Sovereign (your most pious Father, and Gods most glorious Martyr) accounted at that time High Treason, and upon that score I was committed Prisoner to the King's Bench, June the 29th 1644.  
I had than leisure to bethink myself what that Treason was; which I could not found written in Books of Law, but on Banners of War; not amongst men of the Gown, but men of the Sword: a Sword sharpened by them at that time for the cutting down of Monarchy and Hierarchy, and thereby to engross to themselves the rich Crop of the Kings and Bishops Lands, which they had no possibility to bring about, but by making the one Tyrannical, the other Antichristian.  
Whereupon I adventured in this my restraint, to run the hazard of writing three Books: The first defending the Revenues of the Church in Tithes and Glebe. The second maintaining the Doctrine, Liturgy, and Discipline of the Church of England, as they were established by Law. The last asserting the Rights of the Crown of England.  
The two former were long since Printed; this last I made ready for the Press, and left it in the hands of Doctor Ouldsworth for that purpose, Dedicating they to your Majesty's most Royal Father: but that sudden and barbarous blow which fell upon him, and in him upon the whole Nation, to the astonishment of men and Angels, confounded the Press, my Book, and me; a fact so transcendently horrid and monstrous, that it filled me as much with amazement that it could be done; as with sorrow that it was done.  
This Book brought to the birth, and thus despoiled of its Royal Patron, waited long for the support of a Sovereign Power, and now humbly supplicates your Princely Patronage, for strength to bring forth; which in justice your Majesty cannot well deny, you being as well an inheritor of your Father's Virtues, as of his Crown: nay more, a happy restorer of it when it was fallen, by your accession to it the 29th of May last (being your birthday) when you were received with such Gallantry of the Nobility and Gentry, and with such acclamations and shouting for joy by all the people, that I who have lived to see the glory of your Royal Father and Grandfathers Reign, never saw the like to that triumphant Entry, which (I fear) I should lessen, should I attempt to describe.  
I am only able to liken it to the Inauguration of King Solomon; there were than such blowing of Trumpets, such piping with Flutes, such huge shouts of all the people, with God save King Solomon, that the earth rend with the sound of them; and there were such rejoicings in the City of Gihen, where he was anointed King, that the City rang for joy: so did the City of London, when you our Solomon entered it on that day.  
For my own part, such was my joy, that I thought it satisfaction and comfort enough, for the sufferings I had undergone for above sixteen years, in Body, Estate, and Profession; in that God hath heard my constant Prayers for the restitution of your Majesty to your Crown; the Church of England to her Religion; the Law of England to its ancient Glory and Splendour; and the people of England to their Magna Charta-Liberties.  
So that according to your Father's prediction, I have seen you Charles le bon, 
Εἰκων Βασιλ Sect. 27.  and Charles le Grand. And I doubt not, but Almighty God who hath done such wonderful things for you, will so continued you to the end.  
I here conclude, humbly begging leave to pray for my Lord the King, in the language of a King (your blessed Father now with God) I pray God bless you, and establish your Kingdoms in Righteousness; your Soul in true Religion; and your Honour in the love of God and your People. And this shall ever be the Prayer of  
Your most loyal and humbly devoted Subject Edward Bagshaw.   

ERRATA.  
Page 7. line 18. for etc. read and. p. 8. l. 16. for Recorders r. Records. p. 10. l. 14. for quellet r. avellet. p. 22. l. 4, 5. for Queen Maries Injunctions read Queens Majesty's Injunctions. p. 28. l. 4. for that King r. this King. p. 43. l. 3. for fortious Act r. tortuous Act. p. 45. l. 7. read by some of the common people. p. 47. l. 21. read doth the word King intimate. p. 48. l. 19 deal so.   

THE RIGHTS OF THE Crown of ENGLAND as it is Established by Law.  
TO persuade a People armed with a violent Sword, to cut out to themselves their own Government, to embrace Monarchy (lying under many disloyal reproaches, which it hath received from Pen and Pulpit,) as the best Form of Government, to make them happy; may seem rather the work of an Angel, than of a man. But yet it will be no hard matter to persuade English men to embrace Monarchy, under the name and notion of the Crown of England, when it shall be made apparent to them, that in the peace thereof consisteth their peace, and by the splendour and majesty of the Crown, they receive Ease and Justice, the two darling delights of the People.  
If men did but consider the glory and beauty of the Crown of England, as it is in itself, and as it stands in relation to the people, in those two lovely properties of Justice and Mercy, it would draw all hearts to love it, all hands to defend it, all pens to writ for it, and all tongues to pled for it. For what is it else, but that Supreme Sovereign power, 
Description.  given by God the founder of it, to the King, and so acknowledged by the people; annexed by Law to the natural body of the King; and unto it united and incorporated, for the Government of all his Subjects in peace and safety, according to the Laws of the Land? This is briefly the description of it, which I will now fortify with some Reasons and Authorities.  
And for a more succinct proving of all the parts of this description, I shall make good these six conclusions according to Law.  
1. That the Sovereign Power belonging to the Crown of England, is, according to the Law of the Land, given to the King by God, not by the People.  
2. That it is so assented to by the People of England; and this their assent openly declared by divers Acts of Parliament.  
3. That this Sovereign Power, is by Law inseparably and undividedly united to the natural Body of the King, and maketh in him but one Royal Person.  
4. That this Sovereign Power is over all the Subjects of England, as well in a Collective Body, or Representative, as over every singular Subject.  
5. That this Power is given to the King, as well for the preservation of Himself, as for the Government of all his People in peace and safety.  
6. That this Government is to be according to the Laws of the Land, not by an Arbitrary Illegal Power.  
For the more sincere handling of all these, I shall endeavour to avoid these two Rocks:  
First, Flattery of the King, a vice which King James calls, 
Basi. l Doron. lib. 2.  the pest of all Princes, and wrack of Republics.  
Secondly, Injury of the People, (the unruly ringleader of all Sedition and Rebellion:) and truly to state the Prerogative of the King, as it relates to the liberty of the people, in joining them together in marriage (as the Law hath joined them) with an indissoluble knot.  
Concerning the first Conclusion; Conclus. 1  
Though the Law of Reason be the 
* Dr & Stu. lib. 1. cap. 5.  first Ground of the Law of England, and from thence I might insist upon that Argument mentioned by those two Patriarches of Philosophy and Policy, Plato and Aristotle 
Plato lib. 3ᵒ de Leg. Aristo. 1ᵒ lib. Pol. cap. 30.  (the Master and the Scholar) That the chiefest person in every household is in nature of a King; and when numbers of Families joined themselves in civil societies, Kings were the first kind of Governors; and from thence enforce this Conclusion:  
That as the Fathers of Families have (by the consent of all Opposites to Monarchy at this day) their Government immediately from God, so have the Fathers of their Countries. But because nothing hath been more tortured upon the rack than the Law of Reason, I will only hold myself for the proof of this point, to the positive Laws of this Kingdom, from the first Christian King of it, to this very day.  
I will begin with King Lucius, who after he had received the Christian faith almost fifteen hundred years ago, by the means of Eleutherius than Bishop of Rome, (the most pious Father of the the Church than living) he writes to that Bishop to sand to him the Roman Laws (than famous over the world) whereby he might the better Govern the People of England. The good Bishop writes to him an Epistle back again, 
Lamb. inter. Leg. Edw.  Anno. Dom. 169 (as I found it printed amongst the Laws of the Saxon Kings, put forth by Mr Lambert) and styles him in that Epistle, Vicarius Dei in Regno suo; Gods Vicegerent in his own Kingdom: and adviseth him to reject the Laws of Caesar, and to choose a Law ex utraque pagina, from the Old and New Testament, and by that to Govern his People. Now the Laws of England are more agreeable to the Laws of God, than the Laws of any Commonwealth, Graecian, Roman, or other, etc. though without much difficulty it might be proved; yet being not to the Point I have in hand, I will pass it by, and only prove this; That according to that stile of Eleutherius, The Kings of England have by the Laws thereof, and by the constitution of this Kingdom from that day to this, been accounted Gods immediate Lieutenant's, and to have the Supreme Sovereign Power from God in their Kingdoms, and not from the People.  
The Laws of England from the days of this Lucius, and the succeeding Kings, till the days of Edward the Confessor, were cut in pieces by the sharp Sword of Civil War, which continued here in England for divers hundred of years, (that of the Danes alone continuing two hundred and thirty,) and divided into the Laws of the Mercians, called Marchen-leg, into the Laws of the Danes, 
Leg. Edw. c. 1.  called Dane-leg, and into the Laws of the West- Saxons, called Westsaxon-leg. This good King Edward, (for so the Recordors of that time call him) out of the broken pieces of these Laws, chose twelve of the most learned men of the Law within the Realm, to compile one entire complete Body of the Law, and Customs of the Kingdom; charging them upon an Oath, that they should perform it justly and truly, not turning to the right hand or to the left; Nihil praetermittentes, nihil addentes, nihil mutantes, as the words of that Law are: which they did accordingly; and that King Enacted it to be used commonly throughout the whole Kingdom, from whence it had the appellation of the Common Law; and not upon that ground given by a Member of the Commons-house, in the beginning of this Parliament; 
Hen. Martin.  That Common Law was nothing, but Common Reason; and therefore he saw no cause why a Gentleman in a short Cloak, might not declare what was the Law of the Realm, as well as a Gentleman of the long Robe.  
The words of my Author are these, Ex immensa legum congery, quas Brittani, Romani, Angli, Daci condiderunt, optima quaeque selegit, ac in unam coegit, quam vocari voluit Communem Legem. These Laws and Customs are set down in several Chapters vulgarly called, St. Edward's Laws, which are in substance the same with our Magna Charta, and which the Kings of this Realm heretofore at their Coronation swore chief to observe, 
Vet. N. bre. fol. 164. Juramentum Regis. Leg. Edw. c. 17.  in these words; Praesertim Leges, consuetudines, & libertates à glorioso Rege Edwardo, clero populoque concessas, as it is at large expressed in the Oath of the King at his Coronation in the M. Charta, Printed Anno. Dom. 1656. in the 17. Chapter of that Law, under the Title, de Officio Regis. The King of England is styled, as in the days of Lucius, Vicarius summi Regis, the Lieutenant of the highest King. The words of the Law run thus; Rex autem quia Vicarius summi Regis est, ad hoc est constitutus, ut regnum terrenum & populum Domini & super omnia sanctam Ecclesiam ejus regat, & ab injuriosis defendat & maleficos ab ea quellet & destruat & penitus disperdat. These Laws are much refined by King H. 1. the Conquerors Son surnamed Beauclerke; but much more by H. 2. his grandchild, who wrote a book entitled, pro Republica, Leges: of which there remains not any fragment at this day: only the book of Glanvile Lord Chief Justice of England, and a Book called Regia Majestas, both written in King H. 2. days, of the Customs of England, do both of them make the Sovereign Power of the King of England to be immediately from God.  
King H. 2. compiled also an other Book, called Statuta Regalia, which to the punishment of this Kingdom was unhappily lost. For by want of setting down the particular Rights of the Crown, chief in the Laws of the Forest, most grievous to the Subject, and over liberal to the Crown, by reason of those great afforestations made by himself and his two Sons, Rich. 1. and King John, grew those long bloody and rebellious Wars (for so do Historians call them) of the Barons, lasting about sixty years in the days of King John and H. 3. 
Ch. de For. cap. 1. & 3.  for the settling and confirming the great Charter of Liberties, and the Charter of the Forest, agreed unto by King John, in the 17. year of his Reign, and Enacted by Parliament in the 9 year of H. 3. while he was in his minority; and solemnly afterwards confirmed in Parliament, when he was of full age. And yet notwithstanding these Civil Wars, Bracton a learned Writer of the Law in those troublesome days of H. 3. 
Stat. de Marle. cap. 5.  and a Judge of the Realm, and one that professeth of himself, that he did with exceeding labour and pains search out diligently antiqua Justorum judicia, (for so he styleth the Laws of England, the ancient judgements of the just) doth stile H. 3. in the time of the Wars against him by his Barons, according to the stile given before to Edw. the Confessor, Vicarius Dei; His words are these, Rex autem cùm sit Dei Vicarius in terra, separare debet jus ab injuria, aequum ab iniquo, ut omnes sibi subjecti honestè vivant & nullus alium laedat; Potentia omnibus sibi subjectis debet praecellere, etc. Which words are in themselves a notable Confutation of those two seditious distinctions, lately sprung up against the Crown of England, by some Divines and worse Lawyers; That the King is the Supreme Person, but not the Supreme Power. That he is, singulis major, but universis minor: whenas the words of Bracton are full, That he hath a Sovereign Power over all his Subjects universally; and if so, than over them all, as they are united in one Body, as over every singular person. But these two disloyal distinctions I shall have occasion more particularly to refute, when I come to prove my fourth Conclusion; and than I shall make them as irrational as they are illegal.  
Britton, 
Brit. fol. 1.  another ancient Writer of the Laws of England, saith thus of the King; That he is ordained of God, that the Peace be kept, 
Co. 11. Rep. 72. Blow. f. 115.  and therefore he is called by latter Authorities, God's Lieutenant, the Fountain of Justice and of common Right, the most excellent Person in the Realm, and to have the most excellent things that are in the Earth and in the Sea.  
By reason of this Ordination from God, 
F. N. br. 21. Plow. 234. Plow. 238. Plow. 242, & 243. stat. 27. H. 8. c. 1. H. 7. 4. Blow. Dame Hales Case. Plow. 177. 1. H. 7. 10.  he is said in Law to have divers divine resemblances; as ubiquity, to be present in all his Courts, and in all places of his Kingdom; a kind of Omnipotency in the Attributes of Justice and Mercy, distributing them to all his People, whereupon he is counted in Law the Fountain of Justice and Mercy. Nay he is reported by Plowden to be the chief Head of the Law, fol. 242, 243, & 502. Immortality, in that he never dies, hath no infancy, no folly, no corruption of blood, etc. The King saith Plowden, a learned and famous Author of Law, is a name of continuance, which shall always endure, as Head and Governor of the Commonwealth. Many more Authorities may be cited in this nature, which for brevity's sake I omit. I will only add one Authority more, and conclude with it, because it fully proves my first Conclusion. Bracton in his first Book, handling on purpose the Sovereign Power of the King, hath these words, Ipse autem Rex non debet esse sub homine, 
Bract. lib. 1. cap. 8.  sed sub Deo, A King (saith he) aught not to be under man, but God; and he gives a notable reason for it: For if the King should be dependant upon men, those men must have an equal Power with the King, or a Superior Power; if an equal, than the King should have no Power, for (saith he) Par in parem potestatem non habet, one equal hath not jurisdiction over his Companion; if a Superior Power, than should he be no King, but a Subject, and so without Sovereignty. And therefore as a man expert in the Laws and Customs of the Realm, he sets down the Constitution of the Crown of England that all are subject to him, but he to none but only to God; Omnis sub eo, & ipse sub nullo, nisi tantum sub Deo.  
But it is here objected by the People: 
Ob.  It may be true that you say, that this is the Law of England concerning the Sovereign Power of Kings; but how doth it appear that this Law was not imposed, or enforced upon the people? If you can prove it, say they (and so I have heard some speak) that the people of England have assented to this Law, God forbidden that any should be so wicked as to oppose it, and so execrable as to resist it, contrary to their own consent, but to trust God with the Issue and event of things in whose power it is alone to lose the bond of Kings, and gird their loins with a girdle (as Job speaketh) and who will punish their faults the more severely, 
Ser. Dr Jo. Burgess 19 Junii at Hampton Court. An. D. 1604.  because none can do it but he: as a learned and pious Preacher spoke before King James in the behalf of all the Nonconforming Ministers than in the Kingdom, the very next year after the conference at Hampton-Court.  
Answ. To which Objection I answer, by maintaining my second Conclusion, which is this▪  
Conclus. 2 That this Law concerning the Sovereignty of Kings, is thus assented to by the People of England, and this their assent openly expressed and declared by divers Acts of Parliament.  
For the proof whereof I shall make good these two things.  
1. That the People of England have assented to this Law by a  and employed assent.  
2. By an open and manifest assent in sundry Acts of Parliament.  
As concerning the first, it is to be known that the People of this Realm are Governed by three kinds of Law.  

1. Common Law.  
2. Customs.  
3. Statute Law, or Acts of Parliament.   
Common Law, which standeth upon divers ancient Maxims, and Principles of Law admitted and consented to by the people.  
Customs, which are either generally allowed throughout the Kingdom, as Gavelkind, Borough-English, Copyhold, etc. or by prescription in certain Counties, and Towns, which are likewise incorporated into the Body of the Common Law upon this Maxim, Consuetudo ex rationabili causa facit Jus. Now these two Laws do much exceed that which we call Statute Law, as being more constant and fixed, less mutable, and more incorrupt; as might abundantly be proved, were it incident to the point in Question. It is by this Common Law, before any Statute was made, that the Crown of England is not dependant on any other than God alone (this kind of Independency the Law doth allow, but not some other:) I say, by the Common Law, which hath this Privilege above all human Laws, (the Laws of the Grecians and Romans not excepted) That no man could ever stand up, and say, that he was the first Lawgiver to this Nation, (like Lycurgus and Solon amongst the Greeks, Papirius and Sempronius amongst the Romans:) For neither did the King make his own Prerogative, nor the Judges the Rules and Grounds of Law; nor did the people prescribe unto themselves their own Rights and Liberties; but what Liberties and Customs had been by long tract of time assented unto, approved and enjoyed by Prince and People, not disagreeing to the Laws of God, that ever was, and is still, the Common Law: Amongst which Liberties and Customs, this of the Sovereignty of Kings from God over the people, is by Glanvile, Bracton, and the Mirror of Justices, (a Book treating of the Customs of England before the Conquest) made to be one.  
2. I will now come to the second thing, and prove this Sovereign Power of the Crown immediately from God, to be expressly and openly assented to by the people in sundry Acts of Parliament.  
I will first begin with the Act of Parliament of 16. Rich. 2. c. 5. 
16. Rich. 2. c. 5.  because it took its rise from the humble desires of the Commons of England, as appears by the Preamble of that Statute, wherein they all make an acknowledgement in these very words, That the Crown of England hath been so free at all times, that it hath been in no earthly subjection, but immediately subject to God in all things touchin the Regality of the said Crown, and to no other. And so was it accordingly enacted by the Statute of 25. Hen. 8. 
25. Hen. 8. c. 31.  All the Commons of England (at whose humble suit that Law was made) do there declare it for a Maxim and Ground of Law, That the Realm of England recognizeth no Superior under God but only the King. Which authority also the whole Clergy of England recognized in their Synods and Convocations, as appears by that Statute.  
But in the Parliament of 28. Hen. 8. 
28. Hen. 8. c. 10.  there is a more full expression, where it is declared by the whole Parliament, That the King's Majesty is the only Supreme Head of the Realm of England, and that this Right, Honour and Pre-eminence is due unto him by the Law of God. And in this manner did the Crown of England sit upon the Head of Kings Hen. 8. and King Edw. his Son, 
1. & 2. P. & M. c. 3.  till Queen Mary, loving the Pope's Crown better than her own, repealed some of this power, and placed it in the Pope, which Queen Elizabeth in the first year of her Reign took away, 
1. Eliz. c. 1.  and restored it in the same plight as it was in the days of her Father King Hen. 8. only changing but a word, Supreme Governor for Supreme Head; the same in substance, though a fit expression in regard of the Honour she bore to her Saviour, to whom she thought the title of Supreme Head, in respect of the Church, more properly to belong; Whereupon she altered the two Oaths that were made in Parliament An. 26, 
26. Hen. 8. c. 1.  and 28. of the Reign of her Father, to the Oath that now is taken throughout the Kingdom, and which every Parliament is to take, 
28. Hen. 8. 10.  by the Statute of 5 Eliz. 
5. Eliz. c. 1.  ere he can sit in the House of Commons, or have a vote there. As namely, That our Sovereign Lord King Charles, is the only Supreme Governor of this his Realm, and of all other his Highness Dominions and Countries, 
1. Eliz. c. 1.  as well in all Spiritual and Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal, etc. Which general words touching the King's Supreamacy, are now to be expounded by those Statutes of Hen. 8. which I mentioned before, and do contain within them these three Properties;  
1. That the Kings Supreme Power is immediately from God.  
2. That the Realm of England hath no Superior under God (whether they be any or many persons, for the word Superior includeth both) but only the King.  
3. That this Honour and Pre-eminence of the King, is due unto him by the Law of God.  
And that this is no exposition of mine, but the true genuine exposition of Law, It is provided by the Statute of 5 Eliz. 
5. Eliz. c. 1.  that the Oath of Supreamacy made in the first year of Queen Eliz. shall be taken and expounded in such form as is set forth in An Admonition annexed to the Queen Maries Injunctions published in the first year of her Majesty's Reign: That is to say, to confess and acknowledge in her Majesty, her Heirs and Successors, none other Authority than was challenged and lately used by the Noble King Hen. 8. and King Edw. 6. And that Authority, together with all Dignities, Regalities, and Preeminences belonging to the Crown of England, are by the Statute of Recognition of 1 Eliz. c. 3. 
1. Eliz. c. 3.  declared to be as rightfully and entirely Vested in her, as they were in the late King Hen. 8. and King Edw. 6. as by that Statute may at large appear: Some of which Regalities were, that the Crown is dependant on God alone, and subject to no Superior under him; And this to be due to him by the Law of God.  
I might add more Statutes to prove this point: I will only conclude with one Statute more, enacted within my own remembrance, and the best in that kind that ever was made in my days, and the most emphatically penned. It is the Statute of Recognition made in the first year of King James by the whole Parliament, 
1. Jac. cap. 1.  which I will writ more largely, because there are many memorable things in it.  
First, They acknowledge the blessing of God upon this Kingdom, in the Unions of the Houses of York and Lancaster, especially of the two Kingdoms England and Scotland, under King James, and thereby free from bloody civil wars.  
Next, They testify their unspeakable joy for his Majesty's most happy Inauguration and Coronation.  
Than they agnize upon the knees of their hearts (it is their own expression) their most constant faith, obedience and loyalty to his Majesty, and his Royal Progeny (of which our now Sovereign Lord King Charles, was than an Infant about three years old.)  
Afterwards, in most lowly and humble manner, they beseech his most excellent Majesty, That (as a memorial to all Posterity amongst the Records of his High Court of Parliament for ever to endure, of their loyalty, obedience, and hearty and humble affection,) it might be publicly declared and enacted in the High Court of Parliament; That they (being bounden thereunto by the Laws of God and man) did with unspeakable joy, recognize and acknowledge, that immediately upon the decease of Queen Elizabeth, the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England, and the Rights belonging to the same, (of which this point of the Sovereignty of the Crown from God was a principal one,) did by inherent Birthright and lawful succession, descend and come to his most excellent Majesty, as next and sole Heir of the Blood-Royal of this Realm. And to this Recognition we do (say they) must humbly and faithfully submit and oblige ourselves and Posterities for ever, until the last drop of our blood be spent. And we do beseech your Majesty to accept the same, as the first fruits in this High Court of Parliament, of our Loyalty and faith to your Majesty, and to your Royal Progeny and Posterity for ever. And in the conclusion of the Act, they have these words; Which if your Majesty shall be pleased (as an argument of your gracious acceptation) to adorn with your Majesty's Royal assent (without which it can neither be complete nor perfect; nor remain to all Posterity, according to our most humble desires, as a memorial of your Princely and tender affection towards us) we shall add this also to the rest of your Majesty's unspeakable and unestimable benefits.  
In which Statute these things are observable:  
1. That this Act of Parliament doth not give any manner of Title to the King or his Posterity, to the Crown of England, but this Right and Title to the Crown, is expressly said to be by the Laws of God and man, by inherent birthright, and lawful sugcession: And therefore they humbly desire, this their Recognition may be accepted of him, as a testimony of their constant faith and Loyalty to him and his Posterity for ever.  
2. They do not subject the Crown of England to any forfeiture to the people, or to any conditional Limitation in Government, by way of preservation of Religion, Laws, Liberties, etc. but leave it pure and free according to the Laws I cited before, without any condition, which the wisdom of the Law doth not admit of; as I shall more fully show in the proof of my fourth Conclusion.  
3. As they put no conditions upon the Crown, so they put no conditions upon their own Obedience and Loyalty, but freely and absolutely oblige themselves and their posterities for ever, to this their Recognition to King James, and King Charles' his Son, and to their Posterity, to the spending of the last drop of their bloods.  
4. Though the two Houses of Lords and Commons, with one unanimous consent (nullo contradicente) agreed upon this Act of Parliament, and though it was for the public peace and tranquillity of King and People, yet they acknowledged that it was not complete or perfect, or could remain as a Law to Posterity, unless the King did give his Royal assent to it. The new light and new Law of making Laws in Parliament, binding to the people, without the Royal Assent, were not known to this Parliament, though as wise and as learned men were of it, as ever were either before or since.  
5. That though it was an Act of public concernment, yet they do not desire the King should pass it out of duty, which he could neither will nor choose (as the late Language hath been) but that he would pass it as an Act of his grace and ten der affection to them; And what is of grace is not of duty and right.  
They lastly desire, it may remain amongst the Records of Parliament, as a memorial to all posterity for ever to endure, of the Loyalty and Obedience of them and their Posterity, to that King and his Progeny for ever; And how this Recognition, according to this Obligation, hath been observed by them and their Children; to that King and his Posterity, I had much rather weep, than speak in it: The Lord of Heaven add it not to that measure of iniquity in this Kingdom, pressed down and running over with blood.  
And as this is the Law of the Kingdom of England, concerning this Sovereign Power in the Crown; So it is the Divinity of the Kingdom, as may appear by the Doctrine of the Church of England, in the 37. Article of Religion, in these words; The Queen's Majesty hath the chief Power in this Realm of England, and other her Dominions, unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm, whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil, in all Causes doth appertain. By which the King of England is made to have the chief Power, against that seditious and newfound distinction infused into the head of the People, by some as ignorant of Religion as of Law: That the King of England is the Supreme Person or Governor, but not the Supreme Power.  
I will shut up all I have more to say upon this Point, 
King James Remonstrance against Card. Peron.  with the only Authority of King James in his most learned Defence for the Right of Kings, against Cardinal Peron; wherein he unanswerably handles this Point against Bellarmine, Mariana, and other Jesuits; and against some Protestants (whetting their Swords against Kings at the forge of those Philistims:) Of which exquisite Piece I may say with Solomon upon another Subject, What can the man do, 
Eccles. 2.12.  that cometh after the King.  
My third Conclusion is this; That Conclus. 3 this Kingly Power, is by Law inseparably and individedly united to the natural body of the King, and make in him but one entire Royal Person.  
The Person of the King is by Law made up of two bodies, A natural body, subject to Infancy, infirmity, sickness and death, And a politic body, perfect, powerful, and perpetual: These two bodies are inseparably and individedly united together, and consolidate in each other. 
Blow. Duchy of Lanchasters' Case. 2 13.  Corpus corporatum (saith the Law) in Corpore naturali, & Corpus naturale in Corpore corporato; So that you may distinguish them, but not divide them. This union is like that between the Soul and the Body; The Soul it animates, it quickens, it beautifies the body; so this politic body dignifies, or (rather to speak in a Law-phrase) it magnifies the natural body of the King, 
Plow. 213.  by greatning it with a threefold greatness.  

1. Of Perfection.  
2. Of Power.  
3. Of Majesty.   
1. Of Perfection, By freeing the person of the King from infancy, folly, infirmity, impotency, etc.  
2. Of Power, By giving him a command over all his Subjects, and by Ruling and Governing them, and and not they him.  
3. Of Majesty, By making him the Fountain of all Honour, of all Justice, and of all Mercy within the Realm.  
Three the most orient and flagrant flowers of the Crown, and which no Subject can challenge; for all Subjects put together, are but as the Trunk of the body in man to the Head, which without the Head, can not more Rule and Govern the Members of the body in Order and Honour, than the lest finger or toe; And therefore if they should all presume to join without the King, to confer Honour, Justice, or Mercy upon any of their fellow-Subjects, that Honour is accounted in Law but a Tumour, the Justice they should distribute is but Tyranny, and the Mercy they bestow is but a specious Injury. A notable Case in proof of this, is that of King Hen. 7. who when he was Earl of Richmond, was with many Lords and Commons that took his part against Rich. the 3d (a King in fact, but a Tyrant in Title, saith a learned Historian) attainted of High-treason in the days of that King. At the battle of Redmore-downe, 
Bal. Hist. Hen. 7. fol. 1.  near Bosworth in Leicester-shire, on the 22. day of Aug. 1485. the Earl got the Victory, slew Rich. 3. in the field, and on the same day took the Crown upon him, and assumed the stile of a King; and in September following (and before his Coronation) summoned a Parliament to begin the 7. day of November following.  
On the first day of this Parliament, the Judges were all met together in the Exchequer Chamber, to resolve a very rare and perplexed Case, and such as had not happened since the Conquest, 
1. Hen. 7. fol. 4, 6.  viz. What should be done about the reversal of the Attainders of the King, and of divers Lords, and many Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses that were to sit in Parliament that day. This Question (the Kingdom at that time being in such exigence) had been of no difficulty, if those learned Judges had been Conusant of any such Law, That an Ordinance of the two Houses without the King's actual assent, had been as effectual as an Act of Parliament. But neither they nor their Fathers ever heard or read of such Law, and therefore they fell upon this Resolution; That as concerning the Lords and Commons that were attainted, they advised not to sit in Parliament, till an Act of Parliament was passed by the other Lords and Commons not attainted, and assented to by the King for the reversal of those Attainders, and after the reversal, than all of them to sit in the Houses; For that it was not convenient, that any should sit as Judges in those Houses that were attainted. And as concerning the King they thus Resolved (saith my Author) That the Crown takes away all defects and stops in blood, 
Bac. Hist. H. 7. p. 13.  and that from the time the King did assume the Crown, the Fountain was cleared, and all attainders and corruption of blood discharged. But yet for honour's sake it was Ordered by Parliament; That all Records wherein there was any memory or mention of the King's Attainder, should be defaced, canceled, and taken of the File. But King Hen. 7. thought it not convenient any Act of reversal should in any wise pass concerning him, as knowing that the Title to the Crown of England had its dependence on God and the Law, and not on the people; And therefore the grace of pardoning such Offenders as took up arms against him, being an Act of Mercy belonging to the Crown, he would not pass by Parliament, that thereby he might the better impropriate the thanks to himself: And published his Royal Proclamation to that purpose in that Parliament; likewise he did of himself and of his own grace confer the Honours of the Lord Brook to Sr. Rob. Willoughby, of Lord Dawbeny, to Sr. Giles Dawbeny, and of the Earl of Bath, to the Lord Chandos, without the assent of Parliament.  
Thus have I by this one single Case, without need of adding any more, fully proved, that by the accession of the Crown to the natural body of the King, his Royal Person partakes of many, high pre-eminences of Perfection, Power and Majesty, in the Acts of Justice, Mercy, and Honour (without any dependence or contribution from his people,) by calling of Parliaments, by pardoning Offenders, and advancements in Nobility, all of them Acts of Majesty and Sovereign Power.  
This Conjunction of the Office of the King with his natural body, doth draw to the Person of the King, the Obedience and Ligeance of all his Subjects. 
7. Rep. Calvins Case.  Now Ligeance is nothing else in Law but the true and faithful obedience of a Liegeman, and Subject to his Liege-Lord and Sovereign. Not that Ligeance is only tied to the Kingly Office, without relation to the natural Person of the King, which was the traitorous and seditious distinction of Hugh Spencer the younger; for which and other his Treasons he was condemned by two several Acts of Parliament; 
Vide Stat. in Vet. M. Ch. 1556.  the one called Exilium Hugonis de Spencer, the other 1. Edw. 3. cap. 1. For by this damnable Doctrine (for so the Law calls it in Calvins Case) if the King should not be thought by his Subjects to Govern according to his Kingly Office, 
1. E. 3. c. 1.  the Subject is not longer tied to obedience, but may rise up in arms against him, which cuts in sunder all the bonds of Government, as well in Families as in the Commonwealth. And so Children may rise up against their Parents, Servants against their Masters, Wives against their Husbands, and pled for themselves the ill government of their Superiors; and so parties shall become Judges, and Subjects Sovereigns, and the world by this means turned into a worse estate than the first Chaos.  
But the Law of England, which is a Law of order and decency, and not of confusion and deformity, is quite otherwise: for the Ligeance of the Subject is tied principally and properly to the natural body of the King, sustaining and supporting the Royal Majesty, and in which it doth inseparably inhere, as in its proper Subject. For Ligeance being a corporeal Service, is to be done to a visible, corporeal, and local Person; not to a thing invisible, incorporeal, and not circumscribed to any place (as is the Royal Dignity.) This appears plainly by the old Oath of Allegiance, taken by all the King's Subjects, above the age of twelve years, in the days of King Edw. 1. and long before, and is at this day given in Court-Leets, which being by Britton set down in Law-French, 
Brit. fol. 74.  I will truly set down in English, You A. B. shall swear that you shall be faithful and Loyal to our Lord King Edward, (at this day King Charles) and his Heirs, and faith and Loyalty you shall to him hear of life and member, and of earthly Honour, and you shall not know of any hurt or damage to be done to him, which you shall not resist to your Power; So help you God. By which Oath it appears plainly, that Ligeance is a corporeal service, whereby the Body, Life, and Honour of the Liege Subject, is engaged to his Sovereign, named by his proper name King Charles, a name given to his natural body, capable of Baptism only (and to his Heirs) words proper to his natural body, as the word (Successor) to his body politic (and for the preservation of his Person from all hurt and damage) things incident only to his natural body, for his politic capacity, viz. his Kingly Office is incapable of beating, wounding, kill, or any other hurt, being a thing invisible, incorporeal, impassable. Hence it is that the Ligeance of an English Subject is called natural Ligeance, and the King is called his natural Liege Lord, insomuch as to compass the death of the King, or to levy War against him, which are acts of violence against his natural Person, are in all Inditements of High-Treason, 
Cal. Case. 7. Rep.  said to be done, contra ligeantiae suae debitum, against the duty and bond of Allegiance. This old Oath of Allegiance, is by the Steward of Leets to be tendered to all men of the age of twelve years and upwards, upon a Fine to be laid on his head, 
43. E. 3. fol. 27.  that shall refuse it; and Pledges to be found for him, that he be of the good behaviour; Which Law was so strictly observed in the days of King Edw. 3. 
1. E. 3. fol. 26.  that a Master for retaining a man in his service, not being sworn to the King, was presensented for it in the Leet, and Amerced. By this excellent Law in Court- Leets, this Realm was kept in such tranquillity and peace by King Alfred, (for so ancient are these Courts) that this King caused chains of Gold to be hanged up in the high ways, and none durst take them away. The words of my Author are these, 
Guliel. lib. 1. de Reg. Ang  Armillas aureas juberet suspendi quae viantium aviditatem irritarent, dum non essent qui eas abriperent. Which is the more to be credited, in that it doth appear, that stealing and thieving were so rare in this Kingdom in those times, That the punishment of theft was not made capital till above 200 years after, to wit, in the third year of the Reign of King Edw. 1. 
West. 1. c. 15.  Which Court Leets had they been to this day duly kept by men learned in the Laws of the Realm, as they aught to have been, (for so are the words of Fleta, 
Fleta. lib. 2. cap. 6. Co. 9 rep. 48. b. 6. rep. Bulleus' Case. fol. 77.  Provideat sibi dominus de senescallo fideli, etc. qui in legibus & sub consuetudinibus provinciae, & jura domini sui in omnibus tueri affectet, quique Ballivos Domini in suis erroribus & ambiguis sciat instruere, etc.) And not turned over to Solicitors, Proctors, Servingmen, etc. as at this day (by which means scarce a shadow of the ancient Jurisdiction of this Court doth remain) this Kingdom had not so often and inwardly bled, by many bloody civil Wars, to the endangering of the Commonwealth: Like as it is to the natural body of man, when the blood falls into the body extra vasa, and keeps not in the proper veins, as Physicians observe.  
This faith and Ligeance to the Royal Person of the King, so adorned with Honour and Majesty by the Common-Law, doth leave as natural an impression of duty and Loyalty in a true born Subject to his Prince, as it doth in the heart of a Child to his Father, or of a Servant to his Master. For the Commandment of Honour thy Father and thy Mother, etc. doth belong unto Kings, and was ever so expounded, or else it is not where to be found in the Decalogue. Now the subjection of Children and Servants, is to Parents and Masters, whether good or bad; and so the Apostle Peter declares the Law, not only (saith he) to the good and gentle, but also to the froward: 
1. Pet. 2.17.  for this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience sake towards God, 
1 Pet. 2.18.  endure grief, suffering wrongfully. And the like subjection is to Kings, whether good or bad, in the judgement of the best Expositors that ever wrote upon the 13. Chapter to the Romans. This made Hubert De Sanctâ Clârâ, receive the Arrow shot against King Hen. 2. into his own bosom, to save the life of his Liege Lord: and this made Tho. Howard Earl of Surrey, son to John Duke of Norfolk, to fight stoutly for King Rich. the 3. (as horrid a Tyrant as ever trod on English mould) against King Hen. 7. and being asked the reason by the King, he answered, (That Rich. 3. was than his Crowned King, and did he see the Crown set upon the stump of a Thorn, (a fit resemblance for the King he fought for) he would fight for that stump, and so he would fight for King Hen. 7. now he was his King, which he valiantly performed to his Son King Henry the 8, at the battle of Flodden-field.  
And although amongst the multiplicity of new Sects that are sprung up at this day, the traitorous opinion of the said Hugh Spencer be revived (if Treason may be called a Sect,) That the Allegiance of the Subject, is only tied to the Office of the King, not to his Person; yet there was none that ever I could hear or read of, pleaded this Plea at their arreignment for Treason. But the ordinary and common excuse hath been, of the persons Indicted, that they never intended hurt to the King's Person, but only to remove evil Counsellors from him, or the like, which were the pleas of the two Earls of E. and S. in the latter days of Queen Eliz. and yet adjudged to be High Treason. 
Hill. 43. Eliz. Co. 3. Insti. p. 12.  But the reason is not reported by Sr Edw. Cook, who citeth the case in the 3d part of his Institutes. But by a private report which I have seen, was thus delivered by Sr John Popham Chief Justice, That the Law construeth Treasons by Acts, and by those Acts judgeth of Intents, and the levying of War by them without the King's assent, 
Glan. lib. 1. cap. 2. Bract. lib. 3. fol. 1. Co 3. Insti. p. 9  being a sortious Act at the first, (for that no Subject can levy War within the Realm without authority from the King;) That the levying a War to remove a Counsellor of State, is to levy War against the King, and so High Treason. For what did let but that the same violence which prevailed to remove the Counsellor, might have prevailed, if not only to have removed, but to have imprisoned, deposed, and destroyed the Queen, being all of them Acts of High Treason.  
I will conclude all with a story of old Father Latimer, told by him touching the Lord Darcy, the Lord Hussey, and Sr Robert Constable, 
Lat. Sermon at Stanford. fol 56. Edit. 1635.  presently after the Rebellion in the North, temp. H. 8. I will barely relate it in the words of that godly Bishop and renowned Martyr, and leave the application of it to others.  
I will go further with you, I have traveled in the Tower myself by the King's Commandment, and the Counsel, and their was Sr Robert Constable, the Lord Hussey, and the Lord Darcy; and the Lord Darcy was telling me of the faithful service he had done the King's Majesty, that dead is. If I had seen my Sovereign Lord in the field, (saith he) and seeing his Grace coming against us, I would have lighted from my horse, and taken my sword by the point, and yielded it into his Grace's hands. Marry (quoth I) in the mean time, you played not the part of a faithful Subject, in holding with the people in a commotion and disturbance. It hath been the craft of all Traitors to pretend nothing against the King's Person; they never pretend the matter to the King, but to others. But Subjects aught not to resist any Magistrates, nor aught to do any thing contrary to the King's Laws.  
Conclus. 4 My fourth Conclusion is this, That this Sovereign Power is over all the Subjects of England, as well in a Collective Body as Representative, as it is over every particular Subject.  
I have before shown the Nature and Constitution of a King of England; I shall now show the Universality of his Power. And because in this last and worst age of the world, there is some opposition against this by the common people, who delight in change, by parting with truth for error, and receiving error for truth, from a New-Light, proceeding from the old Prince of Darkness: I will therefore in the first place Explain this Conclusion. Secondly, I will show what the Law of the Land, and the Constitution of the Kingdom is in it. Thirdly, I will show the Reasons of the Law in the same. Fourthly, I will Answer all Objections against it.  
For the first, It is not questioned by any, but that the King hath a Sovereign Power over every particular Subject, and therefore I will pass over that. But question is made, whether the King hath a Sovereign Power over all the people in a collective Body, congregated together in one place from each corner of the Land, from Dan to Beershebah, 
Judges 20.1.  as the Israelites were in Mispeh; which I say he hath; and that they all put together, are but this Politic Body, of which he is Head, and therefore hath the Sovereign Power over it, as the Head hath over the Natural Body, and not that a Power over the Head: for than should the Head be the only Subject in the Kingdom, and the People Sovereigns. The like I say for the Representative Body of the People, which is nothing else in Law, but a calling by the King's Writ, of all the Nobility and People of the Land represented in Parliament, by certain Heads of the People, chosen by them upon their own free Elections; (otherwise it is no Representative Body, as appears by the Statute of 1 Jac. c. 1. 
1 Jac. c. 1.  and is there so explained.) Over this Representative Body, distinguished into two Houses of Lords and Commons, 
Co. 3. Insti. fol. 3. D. & Stud. fol. 43.6.  the King hath likewise a Sovereign Power, being called in Law Caput Parliamenti.  
Which Conclusion thus Explained, I shall in the next place prove by the Law and constitution of this Kingdom, That the King hath a Sovereign Power over the whole Body of the People, as well collective, as representative.  
Two Greek words for the Name King, do aptly express the Nature of it in our Law; Βασιλευς, 
Co. 4. rep. in praef.  so was our King Edgar called Anglorum Basileus, quasi Βασις τοῦ λαῦ, the foundation or support of the people. And Homer calls the King, ποιμην λαων, the Shepherd of the people. He is not Head of a particular man, but of a whole people; He is not Shepherd of a single sheep, but of a whole Flock. And therefore he is called in our Law, not the Head of one man, but of the whole Commonwealth. 
1 H. 7. 10●  And so much doth the King intimate, derived from the Dutch Koennen, signifiing Power, because his Power extends over all his People. Bracton declares it more fully and exactly, by handling it on purpose in the 8th Chapter of his first Book, where having showed the Reason of the King's Superiority over his Subjects, he than positively declares the Constitution of the Kingdom in these words; Sunt sub Rege (saith he) liberi homines, etc. reckoning up there the Degrees of all the Subjects, both Lords and Commons; and than addeth these words; Et omnis sub eo, & ipse sub nullo, tantum sub Deo. There are (saith he) under the King Freemen of all sorts, 
Bract. l. 1. c. 8.  both Lords and Commons, and all under him, and he under none, but only under God. Omnis & Nullus, are in Schools called, signa universalitatis, comprehending the whole Species of men collectively, as well as every singular Individuum: and so is it there necessarily so understood. For having reckoned up before the heads of the mixed people, he concludes, Omnis sub eo, ipse sub nullo; which is to say, That all of these are under the King, and he not under them: And than presently raiseth an Objection, which is made at this day. If the King be over all his people, and he in no case under them, in case than that the King deny to do this people justice, he presently makes this answer, Locus erit supplicatoni quod facta sua corrigat & emendet; quod si non fecerit, satis sufficit ei ad paenam, quod dominum expectet ultorem: That is, you must Petition the King to amend his faults, which if he shall not do, it is a sufficient punishment to him, that God will be revenged on him. The like he speaketh in another place: Rex omnes potentia praecellit, etc. 
Bract. lib. 2. cap. 9  The King exceeds all people in Power; But yet (saith he) his heart is in the hand of God, lest that power should prove Tyrannical. So by the Oath of Supremacy, the King is said to be the only Supreme Governor within his Dominions, in all Causes, 
1 Eliz. cap. 1.  etc. without exception, which particle Only, excludes all  power with him by his Subjects, much more a Superior Power. And Exclusio firmat regulam in non exceptis, as they say in Schools, The 37th Article of Religion is more fully confirmed for Law, by the Statute in the 13. year of Eliz. which saith; The King hath the chiefest Power in this Realm of England, 
Art. 37.13. Eliz. cap. 12.  unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm doth appertain, etc. which is as much to say, as that he hath the chief Government of all the people of the Realm, whether in a collective or representative body, comprised under the Estates of Nobility, Gentry, and Commons. This made Sr. John Markham, Lord Chief Justice of England tell King. 
1 Hen. 7.4.  Edw. the 4. that he could not Arrest any man for suspicion of Treason or Felony, as any of his Subjects might, because that if he did any of his Subjects wrong, they could have no Action against him, in that all original writts are in the King's name and he cannot sue himself. But a fuller proof for the Law, and constitution of the Kingdom in this point, is the Statute of 24. Hen. 8. cap. 2. 
24. Hen. 8. c. 12  where the Realm of England is acknowledged to be an Empire, and so hath been accepted in the world, governed by one Supreme Head and King, having the dignity and Royal estate of the Imperial Crown of the same, unto whom a body politic, compact of all sorts of people, divided in terms by names of spiritually and temporalty, been bounden over to bear next to God a natural and humble obedience; where it is showed.  
1. that England is an Empire, and so was King Edgar styled, Totius Angliae imperator: And Empire and Emperors hold their Tenure next under God; Colimus imperatorem tanquam à Deo secundum, & solo Deo minorem, saith Tertullian. 
Co. 4. rep in Praefat. ex Chart. Edgard. Tertul. ad Scap.   
2. That the King of England is head, not of single people, but of a body Politic, Collective of all sorts of people; Representative, of degrees of people, the terms of spiritualty and temporalty.  
3. That this Collective and Representative body, do own to the King as a debt, a duty, not a courtesy, all natural and humble obedience without putting conditions on it.  
Hence it is that the two Houses of Parliament, being the Representative body of the Kingdom, do in their Bills of Parliament tendered to the King, 
1. Eliz. cap. 4. 1. Jac. c. 1. 2. Jac. c. 2.  style themselves sometimes, your most humble, faithful, and obedient Subjects; sometimes, your most humble and loyal Subjects; and sometimes, your most loyal, faithful, and truehearted Subjects. And it is impossible, most humble, faithful, obedient, loyal, and truehearted Subjects, should have a coercive, coactive, and punitive power, over their Liege-Lord. With this Law the prayers of the Church of England do agreed, established by three several Acts of Parliament, and used in the times of four Princes, King Edw. 6. Queen Eliz. King James, and King Charles; by which the Ministers of England, in behalf of all the people do acknowledge, that God is the King of Kings, and the only Ruler of Princes; that King Charles is their gracious Lord and Sovereign; And that having God's authority, they prayed that they may faithfully serve, honour, and humbly obey him; that God would endue him plenteously with heavenly gifts; that he would grant him in health and wealth long to live, strengthen him to vanquish and overcome all his enemies, and after this life attain everlasting joy and felicity. And I am peaswaded, That if these Prayers for the King, and that of the House of Commons by their Speaker (that God would so unite the hearts of King and People, that they might never be divided,) had been still used, we had not seen such miserable days. But the fullest of all and unto which I will add not more authorities, is the positive Doctrine of the whole Church of England, confirmed by Act of Parliament, in these words, 
3 Hom. of obedience. Artic. of Rel. 35. Stat. 13. Eliz. cap. 12.  This is God's Ordinance, God's Commandment, and Gods holy will; That the whole body of every Realm, and all the parts and members of the same, shall be subject to their Head, their King.  
And though this Law so universally consented to, and not disagreeing with Right and Justice, is a sufficient ground to 'cause every good man to believe and obey it, according to that of the Poet, 
Vir bonus est quis?  
Qui consulta patrum, leges qui juraque servat.  Yet I will in the next place give some Reasons for it.  
Reas. 1 The first Reason is taken from the nature of this Government, being Monarchy, The Government by which God Governs all the world, the government by which the Sun rules the day; the government which God instituted in Paradise, when he created Adam, making him a Man and a King at once, giving him the Command over all creatures, especially his own family, in which the Kingship continued in him, and the Primogeniture of his Family for above 2000 years; So that Kingly Government, and that of Families, having their original together, differ not in nature but in extent (Kingship being nothing else but an orderly rule over multiplied families, under one governor in chief) Now the Law of England being 
* 34. Hen. 6.40. 12 Hen. 8. 2. ●ol. 7. Hen. 8. Ket. rep. D. & St. cap. 6.  founded on the Law of God, resembles the Sovereign Power over Subjects like that of families; and therefore the King of England is called in our Books of Law, 
11 Rep. f. 20.  Parens patriae & paterfamilias totius regni; the father of all his Subjects, and the whole Kingdom to be but the family, of which he is the Head. And therefore what the blessed Apostle observes of his Israel, I may observe the same of our England, We have had (saith he) the Fathers of our flesh correcting us, 
Heb. 12.9.  and (instead of resisting) we gave them reverence; But who ever saw children beating their parents, but with horror and amazement: the like may be said of Subjects fight, beating, and deposing their Kings; And howsoever by the judgement of God, and as a plague upon this Kingdom, such abominable Acts have been done by Parliaments, witness those tragic examples of the two second Kings of their name, Edward and Richard, coloured under a misshapen form of Law, by two traitorous and perjured Judges of the Realm, Trussell and Thirning, (the worst of their name, and the indelible stain of their profession) yet what became of the prime Actors in that bloody scene, and how God revenged the blood of those Kings upon the whole Kingdom, I refer my Reader to the learned Pen of the most famous Historian of our time, 
〈◊〉 W. Raul. Praf.  for a large and exact relation of so sad and bad a story.  
Reas. 2 My second Reason is taken from the regard the Law hath to the person of the Supreme Governor, 
11 Rep. f 20. Hen. 7.  esteeming him the Head of the Law, and the Fountain of Justice, and calling him Capitalis Justiciarius totius Angliae; Now both Law and Justice, should ill provide for the King, if they should leave him to the correction and punishment of his own Subjects; For than it would be impossible for him to be safe, whether good or bad; Nay good Princes would hereby be in the worst condition. For this being true, that fare the greater part of the people are wicked, and wicked people do naturally hate good Princes, even for their goodness, (as David, a King and a good King speaks of himself, Psal. 38.20. They also that tender evil for good are my adversaries, because I follow the thing that good is,) it will consequently follow, that good Princes are in the worst condition, if it should be in the Power of the people to punish them. For it hath been found true in all ages, that the best of Princes have had the most rebellions against them: Infinite examples might be produced, I shall name but two or three. David we know was a King after Gods own heart, and yet as good as he was, he was not free from many treasons and rebellions against him; Whereas of Manasses a most wicked and Idolatrous King, and who Reigned much longer, we read not so much as of on treason or rebellion against him all his long Reign of five and fifty years, My next instance shall be nearer home; Those two matchless Princes for piety and virtue, children of one Father, King Edward, and Queen Elizabeth, scarce a year in either of their Reigns passed over their heads without some treason, rebellion, or insurrection, plotted or acted against them by their own Subjects. And for this cause it is that the Law hath left the King to the judgement of the highest judge. For if the Subject should judge him, it must be by some process of Law, which is altogether in the King's name, and it is absurd to think, that the King can either sue or judge himself. And therefore in the Writ of Assize of deraign Praesentment, 
Fitz. nat. brev. 31. F.  which in the case of the Subject runs thus; Rex Vicecom '. etc. salutem, si A. fecerit te securum, etc. tunc sumon'. per bonos Cummonitis, etc. But in the King's case, the words si, etc. fecerit te securum, are left out, in that the King, for the dignity of his person, cannot found pledges, for than he might be amerced or punished for want of them, which is against the nature of royal Majesty: Besides how is it possible the King should be tried, he having no Peers, when all Trial in Law is per paeres, 
Bracton.  Monarchy and Peers being as incompatible and inconsistent as order and confusion.  
Reas. 3 My third Reason is taken from the nature of the people, impatient of the yoke, and apt to quarrel with government, be it never so good, 
Plutarch.  Omni enim populo inest malignum quiddam & querulum in imperantes: And therefore it is that the Law of England hath exalted the Thrones of Kings above the reach of the people, and submitted them to God: And it is for the benefit and safety of the people it should be so, 
Co. Instit. 1. part f. 64.  Imperii majestas est tutelae salus (saith the Law) the dignity of the Prince is the people's security; And so it hath fallen out in all ages, that so long as the people upheld the Majesty of the King, so long they have been happy; But as soon as they forsook it, they themselves have been crushed to pieces under the fall. So it fell out at Athens, one of the most flourishing Commonwealths in the world: The people weary of the Government of their hereditary Kings, first expelled them, & than set up Decennimicall Governors in their rooms; After that their Olygarchy of four hundred Commoners, And after them their thirty Tyrants, who brought their Commonwealth to utter ruin; And thus it was with poor England in the days of King John and King Hen. 3. his son, when the Lords and Commons waged war against these Princes, assumed the Government of England to themselves, and deputed it into the hands of twenty four Commissioners; took King Hen. 3. and Edward his son, and kept them Prisoners in Killingworth Castle for almost two years. But what was the issue of this glorious misrule, which lasted first and last almost threescore years? what good had the people by it? I will tell you in the language of Tacitus, Auferre trucidare, rapere pro imperio habent, atque ubi solitudinem fecerint, hoc pacem appellant; to rob them, to spoil them, to kill them, was all the justice they had; And when they were stripped of all, and their possessions laid waste and desolate, that was accounted there Peace. And what these Lords of misrule gained by it, the Statute called Dictum de Killingworth tells us. 
V M. . Anno. 1556. 51. Hen. 3.  They were all glad to compound with that merciful King for their fines and ransom, at that very Castle where they kept him Prisoner. Hence it came to pass, that the poor Commoners of England (so made, by the low and dejected state of the Crown, in the days of King Rich. 2.) joined with the Lords by Petition in Parliament to the King: 
Rot. Par. 14. R. 2. n. 15.  That the Majesty and Prerogative of his Crown might be maintained and kept, And that all things done to the contrary might be redressed, knowing that men's private estates are not safe, when the Crown is not secure: And therefore the spirit of truth commands us in the first place to pray for Kings, That under them we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty; 
1 Tim. 2.2.  Intimating, that when the Crown is disturbed, no quietness, no peace, no godliness, no honesty is to be found in that Kingdom. I will shut up this in the observation of Comines, a great and wise Statesman, That he never knew a man in all his life, that sought to put in fear, or hold his Prince in subjection, that ever came to good end.  
4. These amongst divers more are the Reasons of Law in this point, touching the Supremacy of Kings. I come now to the Objections, all of them consisting upon distinctions, which often argue a galled conscience, as if conscience told them this to be true, but were willing to be cheated into error by a distinction, and than it falls out to be true, what was spoken by a judicious Divine, 
Hooker Eccl. Pol.  That obedience accompanied with unwillingness to obey, is no better than disobedience.  
Object. 1 First they object, This obedience to Kings is not absolute, but upon condition, so that they govern according to Law?  
Answ. The Law of England makes no such distinction, as I have said and proved before, Et ubi lex non distinguit, nec nos distinguere debemus. Neither could I ever read, that any Monarchy in the world was so founded. For as for that of the Ephori amongst the Lacedæmonians, and the Demarchy, amongst the Athenians, which are commonly objected, for the power they had of the coersion of Kings: It is well known, that they were both of them usurpations, and contrary to the first foundation and constitution of the Government of those famous Cities, Athens and Sparta.  
But they say, though the Law have Object. 2 no such express condition, yet it is employed in this manner; Kings are ordained for the good of the People, and therefore if they rule to their hurt, the people may right themselves.  
Answ. This is an absurd consequence, that shakes the foundation of all Government, for Pastors, Husbands, Fathers, Masters, are ordained for the good of their flock, their wives, their children and servants, if they discharge not their several duties to all these, they by this reason may be not longer obeyed by them, And so by this means Inferiors shall Lord it over Superiors, contrary to the order of Nature, Reason, and Law; Not, but the Argument holds thus; Pastors, Husbands, Parents, Masters, etc. being ordained by God, to govern their flock, their wives, their children, and servants, in godliness and honesty, shall severely answer to God for breach of this trust committed to them by him if they govern amiss.  
Object. 3 But Kings are not the Ordinance of God but of men, for it's said 1 Pet. 2.13. Submit yourself to every ordinance of man, etc. whether to the King as Supreme.  
Answ. Many learned Expositions are given of this place by very learned Divines, Dr Hammond and others. I shall for the present only content myself with that brief one of Piscator, who expounds it, Ratione subjecti non ratione causae, That is, Kings are said to be the Ordinance of men, as they exercise their Authourity amongst men, not as men are Authors of their Authority, for that only belongs to God; and therefore the King is called Rom. 13. the Minister of God; and the words of that Text intimate so much, that this subjection should be unto Kings, Dei causa, for the Lords sake, for only by him Kings Reign, Prov. 8. Like as it is of Ministers of the Gospel, they have imposition of hands from men, and preach to men, but their function and authority is from God, and therefore they are called, Ministers of God, and of Jesus Christ.  
4. It is objected, that the King is not King till he be Crowned, and than at his Coronation he promiseth by Oath to his people three things, saith Bracton. 1. 
Bracton Lib. 2. Sanf. pl. Cor.  To see the peace of the Church and people be kept. 2. To repel all force, and keep his people from wrong. 3. That in all his judgements he exercise Justice and Mercy; Now if he perform not these Conditions, the people are free, and not bound to obey.  
Answ. It is neither so nor so, 
C. 7. Rep. Calvins case.  for Kings are absolute Kings before they be Crowned, for Coronation is not essential to the King, but only ornamental: Edward the 4th called his Parliament before he was Crowned, so did King Hen. 6. call divers, being not Crowned till the 10th year of his Reign; and it was adjudged in the Case of the Lord Cobham, 
Cok. 3. Inst. 1. Hen. 7.  Sr Walter Rawley, etc. 1. Jac. that to conspire the death of the King before his Coronation was High-Treason.  
2. The Oath he takes at his Coronation to perform those recited promises to his people, is not Conditional, neither doth any clause in it sound like a Condition, unless they will have it to be in the conclusion of the Oath, which than also makes against them; for the words are, Ita me Deus adjuvet, Let God deal thus and thus with me, if I perform not the Oath made to him: It is not, Ita me juvet populus, Let the people do so and so to me. And the Perjury of Princes is tried at God's Bar, not at man's.  
Object. 5 It is confessed to be true, that the King is greater than any one single person in the Kingdom, but he is not greater than all the people of the Kingdom put together, And therefore a new distinction kindled from a new-found-light of singulis major and universis minor, infused into some people, have made them swell at this day till they are ready to burst; which being strictly examined, will prove nothing else but bulla bullata, a blown bubble, which experience tells us, is nothing till it be blown, and quickly blown into nothing: And therefore I will give it a twofold answer.  
Mayor and Minor are terms of quantity, Answ. as magis and minus are terms of quality. Now in things of quantity, the distinction of singulis major, and universis minor, holds true; but not in things of quality, (quantity and quality being of several natures, and belonging to several Predicaments,) as for example, a Schoolmaster of a School is for the most part in respect of quantity of body greater than any Boy of the School, and lesle than all put together; But that man deserves to be whipped that will affirm, that in respect of power and authority, he is not greater than all the Boys in the School put together, he having power to correct them, not they him.  
So, and much more may it be said of Kings and Princes, that they are in power and dignity universis majores, greater than all the people joined together, in that the whole people make but one body Politic, of which the King is the Head, and hath as much power and superiority over that Body politic without check or control, as the head of any man hath over the natural body, for so is the resemblance of Law.  
Secondly, I answer, the King's Supremacy doth not as other Powers receive their efficiency from natural and inferior Causes, for his preferment doth not spring from the dust, but from him who styles himself the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, who removeth Kings, and setteth up Kings, as Daniel speaks. 
Dan. 2.21.  And therefore the King's Authority being from him, it cannot possibly be subject to any inferior Magistracy which derives itself only from the Prince; for not only all single-people within the Realm, but all Corporate and Representative Bodies derive their dignity and power from him, and acknowledge in their entire and universal capacities, to own unto him all humble obedience, as it is expressed in the Statute of 24. Hen. 8. 
24. Hen. 8. c 12.  And than it necessarily follows according to that Maxim in Schools, Quicquid efficit tale, illud magis tale, He that as Head gives power to his Subjects, cannot himself be subject to that power he gives.  
The sixth and last Objection, and Object. 6 the most Giantlike, from whence all other Objections, like hands from the shoulders of Briareus, are derived from two new coined distinctions from new men, and of a new Mint, viz. A Subordinate Power to the King, and a  Power with the King; An actual power or presence of the King, and a virtual power or presence of the King: and upon these two distinctions the Objection stands thus. When the King, Lords and Commons meet in Parliament, they meet as three Estates, The King the first, the Lords the second, and the Commons the third. These three (say they) in the passing of Bills have a  power. So that if the Lords and Commons do pass a Bill, and the King refuse it, yet it shall pass as a Law, by virtue of two  powers against the third power, and so the King shall have no negative voice. And in case the King shall be absent from Parliament, whereby he cannot assent, than by reason of a virtual power of a King, which in case of his absence is vested in the two Houses, the consent of the two Houses shall include his assent, and so shall pass as a Law by way of Ordinance: So that in both cases, the scope and drift of the Objection is to exclude the King from having any Negative voice.  
Answ. Admitting this distinction to be true (though I can show divers Parliaments which make the King more than a third estate,) I shall notwithstanding give this answer; That this being an Objection so greatly countenanced by men of the Gown, I will not be so uncivil, as to say it is absurd, irrational, and illegal; But I will crave leave to endeavour to prove all these three.  
For the first; If the King and Lords which (as they say) are two the greatest Estates in Parliament, (though in truth the King be more than an Estate) should agreed upon a Bill, and the House of Commons should refuse to agreed to it; yet if this should be true, as is objected, than the two  powers (as they speak) of King and Lords assenting to the Bill, should overrule the third, not assenting to it, and so the Bill should pass as a Law to bind the whole Kingdom, without the House of Commons: Or put the case the House of Commons should absent themselves, (Speaker and all) as it is not time out of mind that such a case hath been, yet the two other  Powers, in this case of absence, might by the like reason, by a kind of virtual power, (I know not from whence) pass the Bill as a binding Law for the whole Kingdom, which how absurd these Conclusions are from the two former distinctions, I leave to all the Commons of England to judge of: Eadem est lex, ubi par ratio; nay the reason is much stronger in the King's case. For if the Lords and Commons which are the lesser Powers, may exclude the King's negative voice, which is the Supreme Power, much more may the King and Lords being the greatest Powers, exclude the Commons which is the lest. And if so, than what need is there of their presence in Parliaments; And if that, than what need of Parliaments? So endless are the absurdities that follow upon conclusions, that arise from brainless distinctions.  
Secondly, It is irrational; for how can it be thought reasonable, that the King who hath the sole right of Calling Parliaments at his will and pleasure, to give him counsel and advice touching those weighty affairs, for which he calls them, should not have liberty to assent or disassent to what both Houses advice, be it good or bad? Otherwise it will follow, that if they shall tender him a Bill for the taking away the Rights of his Crown, which by his Coronation-Oath, he is bound to maintain, or tender him a Bill for his deposition or dethroning (as they did to those two unfortunate Princes, Edw. 2. and Rich. 2.) he must yield his assent to those Bills, in that the concurrence of the two other  Powers (as they call them) had taken away his Negative voice. What had become of our Religion at this day, if this had been either Law or Reason in the first year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, when the Lords and Commons of that Parliament would never have abolished Popery and the Mass, had it been in their Power by Law, to have excluded that religious Queen of her Negative voice? But the Judges of the Realm (though all of them at that time Popishly affected, and) as learned men as any were either before, or since, knew no such Law, as by two illegal distinctions (as they are applied) to deprive the Crown of its most ancient Prerogative.  
3. But thirdly and chief, The two distinctions of  and Subordinate Power, Actual and Virtual Presence, as they are applied in the Objection, are against Law.  
Co-ordination as well in Logic as in Law, are of things of the same rank, of the same dignity, and of the same order: As for example, four Judges of the King's Bench are said to be  in Power, because they are men of the same rank, of the same dignity, of the same power; and the like of the four Judges of the common-Pleas, and the Barons of the Exchequer. And the King's Commission under his own broad-Seale (not any other) which gives them their dignity, is alike to them all. But it is otherwise in the high Court of Parliament; the King sits there as the Supreme Power, the Lords sit beneath his Throne all uncovered before him; the Commons stand bore at the Bar; and both of them in all their public Acts, where they speak of him, acknowledge themselves his humble and dutiful Subjects. So likewise, between the Lord's House, and the Commons House, there is a great difference in point of rank and order. For the Lords House is by divers Acts of Parliament, 
33. Hen. 8. cap. 21. Co. 5. rep. 14. à Crompt. Jurisd. tit. Parl.  and Book-cases, called the upper, or higher House; The Commons House is called, the nether or lower House. And when these Houses sand to one another, the Commons sand Members of their own, on the message; the Lords sand no Members, but only Attendants on their House. No Lord comes to the Commons House, much lesle stands at the door, and waits as the Commons do. And when both Houses meet at a Conference, the Lords sit with their Hats on, the Commons stand before them with their Hats of, with many more differences of rank and order, disproving a Co-ordination between them, which for brevity's sake I omit. The truth is, 
☜  that in passing of Bills there is a joint concurrent agreement of the King, and two Houses of Parliament, which may be properly called a Co-agreement, arguing a Co-assent of will, but by no means can it be called a Co-ordination, intimating a sameness in rank, dignity and power.  
For the other distinction of actual and virtual presence, or actual and virtual power, as it is applied in the Objection, it is alike illegal, which will thus appear.  
Before the Statute of 33. Hen. 8. cap. 21. never any Bill passed in Parliament for a Law (the King being within the Realm) by the Lords and Commons alone, without the King's personal assent in Parliament to the Bill, as he that gave life and being to the Law; And therefore their ancient Statutes ran in the King's name alone, as the principal Agent and efficient in passing a Law, as the Statute of Mag. Charta, 9 Hen. 3. though made with the assent of Lords and Commons, yet it runs in this form, Henricus Dei gratiâ, etc. Sciatis quod Nos intuitu Dei ad exaltationem Sanctae Ecclesiae, & emendationem Regni nostri, spontanea & bona voluntate nostra dedimus & concessimus, etc. has libertates subscriptas, etc. So the Statute of West. 1. in 3. Edw. 1. runs thus; 
41. Hen. 3. 52. Hen. 3. West. 2. c. 3. 28. Edw. 1. c. 5. 1. Edw. 2.  Ceux sont le establishments, le Roy Edw. fitz l' Roy, Hen. faits à Westminster. The like is said of the Statute of York, 12. Edw. 2. and many more, which for brevity's sake I have quoted in the Margin.  
Neither can any man alive give me one instance since Parliaments began in England, that while the King was within the Realm, in what condition soever he was in, that ever any Act or Ordinance of Parliament passed as a Law without his personal assent. I put the case of the Kings being within the Land. For when he was necessitated to go out of the Land, as Edw. 1. into the holy Land, Hen. 5. into France, they made by their Commissions a Custos Regni, which supplied the Kingly office, as William Longchamp Bishop of Eli, was made Custos Regni, to Hen. 5. and the reason of the Law was plain in it, for while the King is in England, he aught to Act as a King, by personal assenting to Bills, one of the highest Acts of Majesty which he is to enjoy by Law.  
But the Statute of 33. Hen. 8. cap. 21. 
Stat. 33. Hen. 8. cap. 21.  made a little alteration of the Law in the manner of passing of Bills, which Statute was made at the humble desire of the Lords and Commons in Parliament, upon their impeachment of Queen Katherine Howard, (King Hen. 8. wife) of High-Treason, where they humbly beseech the King, (for fear trouble should arise to his heart, and unquietness to his mind, to the shortening of his days, if he should appear in person in the Parliament, and assent to the Bill of her Attainder,) To grant his Royal Assent to the Bill of her Attainder, by his Letters Patents to be Signed with his own hand, and to be put under his Great Seal, and so to be notified and published in the Higher House, etc.  
Higher House (so it is there called) to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons, there to be assembled; and such assent by the Letters Patents of the King, is declared to make a perfect Act for the Attainder of that Queen; and that no scruple might be made hereof in time to come, concerning this particular, a general provision is there made for all future Parliaments in these words following.  
Be it declared by Authority of this present Parliament, that the King's Royal assent by his Letters Patents under his Great Seal, and Signed with his hand, and declared and notified in his absence to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, (and to the Commons Assembled together) in the higher House, is, and ever was of as good strength and force, as though the King's person had been there personally present, and had assented openly and publicly to the same.  
In which Statute (which I have diligently perused) these things are very observable.  
1. That before this Statute, the King's personal and open assent to Bills in Parliament, was so requisite that they could not pass without it; which was the cause that made the Lords and Commons in those dismal Parliaments, in the days of those two infortunate Princes, Edw. 2. and Rich. 2. to require their personal assent to their own deposition by Act of Parliament, before they went to execute the sentence of deposition against them, which they like two weak Princes yielded unto, especially the latter, who had he had but a piece of that Lion-like heart of the first of his name, 
King Rich. 1. called Ceur de Lyon.  he would never have assented to an Act of the Renunciation of his own Crown; and not only so, but to swear to it upon the Gospel, never to impugn it in thought, word or deed, (so saith the Record of that Parliament) and after to subscribe to it with his own hand; and further in Confirmation of it, pulled a Gold Ring of his finger, (being his Privy-Signet) and put it on the finger of his usurping Successor, the Duke of Lancaster. All which things he so tamely yielded unto, 
Rot. Parl. 1. Hen. 4. n. 13, 13, 15, 58, 59, 60.  and when Chief-Justice Thirning (too bad a man for so good an office) upon that renunciation pronounced the sentence of deposition against him, the poor King gave him this pitiful answer, That he looked not after rule, but only hoped his Cousin would be a good Lord to him.  
Had this virtual power of passing Bills by the two Houses, without the personal assent of the King, been taken for currant Law in those days. The Judges of those times would not have advised Hen. 4. to obtain a personal assent especially of an imprisoned King.  
2. And therefore the vanity of this virtual power was well discerned by the Lords and Commons in that Parliament of 33 Hen. 8. as may appear in this; That because it was not thought convenient the King should personally assent in Parliament to the Attainder of his own Queen, yet they devised a way by that Act, whereby in substance he should do (in effect) the very same thing; for by his Letters Patents he was to assent to the Bill, and that virtual assent was to be Signed with his own hand, and the Commissioners appointed by the Letters Patents to signify his assent to the Bill, were to notify it to the Lords and Commons Assembled in the Higher House, not as their own, but as the King's assent. What needed all this ado and caution, if this new device of the virtual Power in the two Houses would have served the turn.  
2. The second thing observable in this Act of 33. Hen. 8. is this, that the manner of assent to Bills by the King's Letters Patents, seemed by that Act to be a doubt and ambiguity to the Lords and Commons, who thought that after-ages might confirm it so; And therefore they made a general provision by that Act, that for all time to come, the King's Royal assent to Bills, by his Letters Patents Signed with his hand, and notified by his Commissioners to the Lords and Commons, should be of as good force and strength as if the King had personally appeared in Parliament, and openly assented: Which strongly implies, that out of those two cases, no Bill in Parliament could pass by the King's assent. From whence than should this virtual power and presence proceed, when neither given to the Houses by the King, nor created by Law, it is not easy to be imagined, unless from some turbulent brain, like that of a Monosyllable Judge in the days of King Edw. 2. (the worst kind of Judge, when opposite to the Crown) called Judge Inge, who delivered it for Law, that the Lords of the upper House without the King and Commons might make Ordinances, displace offices, etc. and had a joint regiment with the King, in the Government of the Kingdom; etc. for which opinions notwithstanding his great skill in the Law, he obtained among the Commons no other reputation, than of a learned Traitor.  
3. The third thing observable is this, That as it is a just privilege of the Lords and Commons in Parliament, to assent or disassent to Bills in Parliament, though never so beneficial to the Commonwealth, so it is likewise an undoubted prerogative in the King, being the Highest Estate in Parliament to have that power and privilege. And therefore the Lords and Commons do in that Parliament humbly desire the King, that for the entire love and affection he beareth to the Commonwealth, for the conservation of his own Majesty, and for the peace and unity of all his Subjects, he would pass that Act of Parliament, which plainly showeth, that the King had a negative voice as well as they, and might assent or disassent at his pleasure, and an undoubted right of his Crown, as might be proved by infinite examples in all times.  
4. The fourth and last thing observable in that Act is this, That when an Act is passed by both Houses of Parliament, yet it is not perfect, nor can be put in execution as a Law, till after the King's royal assent, and so is the expression of the Lords and Commons in that Act of Parliament, That his Majesty would grant his royal assent to that Act, that so after that, it might stand as a perfect Act, and be put in due execution accordingly. And so was the Law ever taken by those two famous Lawyers and Parliament men, the Lord Cook, and Mr Plowden, 
Blow. fol. 79. Co. Com. Lit. fol 90.  in their learned writings of the Law. But concerning this negative voice of the King, I shall have occasion to reserve it hereafter for a longer discourse, concerning the Privileges of the Estates in Parliament, what belongs to the King as he is King, and the Supreme Estate in Parliament; What belongs to the Lords called in sundry Acts of Parliament, the Higher House and what belongs to the Commons called in these Acts the lower House, a work not done by any, and yet not much difficult to be done But I cannot yet perform it, till I can recover those Notes and Collections I have made out of divers Records of Parliaments, which are now by these unhappy times divided from me, and I from them.  
And thus have I endeavoured to answer the main Objections against this Sovereign Power of the Crown of England, and cleared it from the Disloyal aspersions of undutiful men; And therefore shall now in the next place handle the exercise of this Sovereign Power in the two last Conclusions, and so make an end.  
The fifth Conclusion is this, That Conclus. 5 this Sovereign Power is given to the King, as well for the preservation of himself, as for the government of his People in Peace and safety, for the performance whereof the Law of England, doth furnish him with the power of the Sword, and annexeth to his Crown the Sovereign Command of the Militia, and therefore he is by our Law called, the chief Captain of all Chivalry within his Dominions. This unquestionable Prerogative of the Crown, 
Blow. Com. fol. 268. a.  I could prove by many Arguments derived from the Law of God, the Law of nature and reason, the Law of Nations, and most abundantly from the Imperial Laws, digested into a complete Body by Justinian, out of a vast confused heap of former Laws. From these Laws doth the common Law of England borrow many grounds of Law, in so much that in divers things a man cannot understand the depth of the Laws of England without some insight and knowledge in the Civil Law; and it is well known, that our ancient Lawyers, such as Glanvill, Bracton, Britton, etc. were well studied in the Civil Law. But I intent a compendious discourse, and not a volume, and therefore shall prove this point sufficiently by the common Law without the help of any Ground or Maxim taken from the former Laws, but only of such as are incorporate into the common Law of England.  
In the very beginning and in the very first words of Justinians Institutes, (an exact Compendium of the fifty Books of his Pandects) it is thus said, Imperatoriam majestatem non solum armis decoratam sed etiam legibus opus esse armatam: ut utrumque tempus & bellorum & pacis recte possit guhernari; This Text of the Civil Law is admitted by Chief Justice Fortescue, 
De Laud. Leg. Aug cap. 1. fol. 4.  to belong by the common Law to the Crown of England, and therefore as to the first part concerning the Militia, I will first prove it by ancient and sound authourities in Law. 2. By many Acts of Parliament. And 3. I will give the Reasons of the Law in both, and so conclude this fifth Proposition, reserving the latter part concerning the Laws in the sixth and last Conclusion.  
Chief Justice Glanvile 
Glanvil in Prolego.  in his learned Book of Law, Written in the time of Hen. 2. hath these words; Regiam Majestatem non solum armis contra rebels & gentes sibi regnoque insurgentes oportet esse decoratam: 
Reg. Ma. in Praef.  sed & legibus ad subditos & populos pacificè regendos decet esse ornatam.  
Regia Majestas, A learned Treatise of Law Written at the same time thus saith; Regi duo sunt necessaria, Arma quibus hostes debellet, leges quibus subditos pacificè regat.  

Lib. 1. in Princip.  Bracton, A learned Judge of the Land, in the days of Hen. 3. thus Writeth; In Rege qui recte regit necessaria sunt duo haec, viz. Arma & Leges; 
Cat. br. fol. 113.  quibus utrumque tempus bellorum, & pacis recte possit gubernari.  
The Natura brevium, A Book of high esteem in our Law, layeth down this for a Ground, Et est à entendre que le roy, doit de droit sauver & defender son Reaume verse la mere comme verse enemies, q' il ne soit surround, ou degaste & de provider remedy pur ceo. 
Cook. 2. Rep.  It is to be understood, (saith that Book) that the King aught of Right to save and defend his Realm, as well against the Sea, as against enemies, that it be not surrounded and spoiled, and to provide remedy for it.  
It is likewise resolved for Law in Wiseman's case, that to give Land to the King in consideration that he is head of the Commonwealth, preserveth his people in Peace, and repelleth the enemies of it, is no consideration in Law to raise a use; because the King by his Office aught to do all this. And the reason of all these Authorities is upon this ground. The Law which trusteth the King with the end, viz. the preservation of his people in War and Peace, trusteth him with the means to do it, viz. Arms and Laws. Many more Authorities might be cited, which for brevity I omit, and come in the second place to the Acts of Parliament.  
And the first and most ancient is that Law of King Canutus, 
Inter leges Canuti. c. 10. Cook 2 Instit. fol. 701. Lamb. 135. Cook. 1. Instit. fol. 75.  which was before the Conquest; Qui pensionem ad oppida pontesve reficiendos denegabit▪ Militiamve subt●rfugerit, dabit Regi si Anglus fuerit 26 solidos; where it appears, that the Subject was bound as well to contribute to the King's Militia (for that is the word there used) as he was to contribute to the repair of highways and Bridges; which strongly infers, That the King hath as much Sovereign Power over the Militia of the Kingdom, as he hath over highways and Bridges.  
Amongst the Laws of King Edward the Confessor, it is thus provided in these words: Debent enim universi liberi homines secundum feudum suum & secundum tenementa sua arma habere, & illa semper prompta conservare ad tuitionem Regni & servitium Dominorum suorum juxta praeceptum Domini Regis explendum & peragendum.  
And William the Conqueror confirmed that Law in these words: Statuimus & firmiter praecipimus, ut omnes comites, & Barones, & Milites, & servientes, & universi liberi homines totius regni nostri praedicti habeant & teneant se semper in armis, & in equis ut decet & oportet, & quod sint semper prompti & parati ad servitium suum integrum explendum & peragendum cum semper opus adfuerit secundum quod nobis debent de feudis & tenementis suis de jure facere, etc. By both which Laws it plainly appears; That all Earls, Barons, Knights, and Freemen of England, (and such were all those that were not villains, Sockmen, or Copy-holders') were to be in arms upon the Command of the King, and defence of his Kingdom (for so he calls it, because King and Kingdom are Relatives, and that man that loves not the one loves not the other, let his pretence be what it will) And not only such Freemen that held their Lands by bearing arms, but all others, as the exigence of the Kingdom should require, which appears in this, That the King before the Statute of Quia Emplores terrarum in 18. E. 1. 
Litt. l. 2. c. 8. Cook. Instit. fol. 75.  might created tenors by bearing of Arms; nay more, by creating the greatest Officers of Arms in the Kingdom, as to be Marshal of the King's Host, to be high Constable of England, and Earl Marshal of England, etc. By which means it grew to be a usage and custom in the Crown of England, 
30. Octob. 7. Ed. 1.  to have the sole command of the Militia in the Kingdom, as appears plainly by the Statute of 7. Ed. 1. where it was agreed by the Prelates, Earls, and Barons, and Commonalty of that Parliament held at Westminster.  
That it was the King's right, and belonged to him of his Royal Seignory, to defend all force of Armour, and all other Force against the Peace, at all times when it shall please him, and to punish them which shall do the contrary according to the Laws and usages of the Realm; And hereunto the people are bound to aid the King as their Sovereign Lord at all seasons, when need should be.  
And the same King Edward the first, to show his chief Power and Command in this matter of the Militia, given to him by the ancient Laws and Statutes of this Realm, about six years after, viz. in the 13. year of his Reign, doth by the Statute of Winchester provide in this manner, That every man shall have Harness in his house to keep the Peace according to the ancient assess. That ancient assess is thus explained, 
Stat. de Winchester, 13. ●. 1. cap. 6.  that is to say, Every man from fifteen years old to forty, shall be assessed and sworn to armour according to their quantity of Lands and Goods, to wit, from fifteen pound Lands, and forty marks goods a Halberd, a Breastplate of iron, a sword, a knife, and a horse: and from ten pound Lands, and twenty marks Goods, a Halberd, a Breastplate of Iron, a sword and a knife: and from forty shillings Land to an hundred shillings of Land, a a Sword, a Bow and arrows, and a knife, etc. And so downward, as appears more at large in that Statute: Wherein it is likewise provided, that two Constables in all hundreds should be chosen (now called high Constables) for this purpose, that twice every year they should take view of the Armour, and present to the Justices such defaults about Armour, as they should see in the Country.  
It is true, 
4ᵒ & 5o. Phil. & Mar. cap. 2.  that at the Parliament of 4, 5. Phil. and Mar. this Statute was repealed, not as to the power of imposing Arms, but as to the Quantity and proportion of Arms, (the manner of Arms being at that time changed, and the value of Lands increased, whereby a greater proportion was assessed) this may appear by the third Chapter of that Parliament, where the power of mustering of men, and levying a number of them for the King's service in his wars, is placed wholly in the Crown. And therefore that Statute of Repeal is warily penned, for it is not a repeal of the common Law concerning Arms, but of such Statutes only as concern the keeping and finding of Horse, horses, or Armour: which Statute of Repeal was afterwards repealed by King James, so that it necessarily followeth, that either the Statute of Winchester is still in force, and standeth for Law, or else if it be repealed, the common Law of England concerning finding of Arms, is in force at this day. Many more Statutes there are concerning this Royal Prerogative of the Militia in the times of the succeeding Kings between Ed. 1. and Q. Mar. especially in the days of E. 3. a martial Prince, and a great Soldier, which for the great number of them I shall omit, and come in the last place to consider the reasons of the Law in thus placing the chief power of the Militia in the Crown.  
And the first Reason is taken from the Office and Duty of a King, mentioned by Plowden in the case of the Information for Ours; where it is said, 
Blow. Com. fol. 315. b.  That the King is the Head of the Commonwealth, and the Subjects are his Members, and the King's Office to which he is appointed by Law, consisteth in two things; to wit, in Armour to defend them against all hostility, and in good Laws. And therefore it is that Lipsius makes military Prudence a necessary requisite for a Prince for the defence of his own Person, his Crown and people, 
5o. lib. Pol. c. 2.  which would not be so necessary, if the power of the Sword did not properly and peculiarly belong unto him. And therefore thus is laid down by him, Tolosanus, Bodine, and Bozerus (famous and learned Politicians) as a maxim most essential to royal Majesty, Solius est Principis bellum suscipere, decernere, indicere, & administrare. It is only proper to a Prince to denounce War, to undertake it, to order and determine it, which they largely prove; I shall only but quote the places in the Margin. 
Tolos. l. 9 c. 1. Bod. l. 1. c. 10. Bo●er. de Jur. Belli c. 4. Lipsius' l. 5. c. 4. Cook. 3. Instit. fol. 9  And agreeable to this is the Law of England; No Subject saith Sir Edw. Cook (an Author of an approved Authority) no Parliament, can levy War within the Realm without Authority from the King, for to him, saith he, it only belongeth. And therefore he puts these cases, That if Subjects (in the Plural number) shall levy War to expulse strangers, to deliver men out of prisons, to remove Counselors, or against any Statute, or to any other end, pretending Reformation of their own heads, without warrant, they are (his own words) saith he, a levying of War against the King. And hereupon it was resolved for Law in the days of King Edward the 4th, 
19 E. 4. fol. 6. b.  That if the King of England do make a league with the King of Denmark, and all the Subjects of England will make War against those of Denmark, if the King of England assent not to it; It shall not be accounted a War. For none in England can raise War, but by Authority from the King, as was said before.  
The second Reason is drawn from the Office and Duty of Subjects, which is to be obedient to Authority, and to fear and honour their Princes. It is the speech of God from the Law of Nature, 
Mal. 1.6.  If I be a Father, where is my honour? and if I be a Master, where is my fear? King's are both, and therefore honour and fear do naturally belong to them. And can the King have either, if the Sword should not be in his hand? It is the very argument of the Apostle, to persuade Subjects to be afraid of committing evil, 
Rom. 13.4.  because the King beareth not the Sword in vain, but is God's minister, to execute wrath upon him that doth evil. A King without a Sword is like a Father without a rod, the child incorrigible, the Subject rebellious. The true duty of Obedience to a Prince, is a sweet mixture of fear and love; they are loved for their mercy, they are feared for their Justice, of which the Sword is the proper Ensign.  
Smite the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. King's are smitten, when they are deprived of their Swords; and we have seen the sad experience of it with our eyes. Since our Shepherd hath lost his Sword, what a scattering there hath been of all his people, of all sorts, of all Countries, of all Cities, Towns and Families, breach upon breach, worse than that scattering in Israel, when there was no King: And which will never be happily pieced again, till the people be reduced to their obedience, and the King restored to his honour.  
Fire we know, when it is held from ascending to its proper Element, by the obstinacy of a thick Cloud, how it rends the Heavens in pieces by horrible thundering and roaring: Such is military power withheld by the Subject from the Crown, till it return thither again, it causeth the pillars of a Kingdom to shake and tremble: It turns Law into Lust, Justice into Oppression, Kindness into Cruelty, Liberty into Slavery, and a well composed Commonwealth into a rude disorderly Camp.  
My third and last reason is taken from the constitution of the Commonwealth.  
The world (of which all orderly Republics, are but so many handsome pieces) is named in Gteek Κόσμος, signifying Order and Ornament; the obedience of Heaven and Earth to that Law of Nature God hath set them in the stay of the whole world, and makes it at this day so lovely and beautiful: For should the Sun and Moon wander from their beaten ways (as a Reverend Divine elegantly expresseth it) the times and seasons of the year blend themselves by a disorderly and confused mixture the winds breath out their last gasp, the Clouds yield no rain, the earth be defeated of heavenly influence, the fruits of the Earth pine away as Children at the withered Breasts of their Mother; what would become of man, whom these things now do all serve? The like I say in a Commonwealth. If Kings should yield up their Crowns unto their Subjects, whereby Servants should ride on Horseback, and Princes walk like Servants on the ground, which must needs so come to pass, if the Chivalry should be in the people, what confusion and deformity should we than behold in the Commonwealth? It would be as monstrous and ugly a sight in that Politic Body, as in the Body Natural; To see the Head become the Foot, and the Foot the Head, from whence Anarchy and Desolation must needs follow, when the King by this means shall become the only Subject in the Land.  
Many more reasons may be added, but these shall suffice, and I shall in the next place handle the second weapon of the Crown, by which the People of the Realm is governed in the time of Peace, viz. The Laws of the Land, by discussing the sixth and last conclusion, which is this.  
That this Kingly Government be according to the Law of the Land, not by the Laws of lust, but by the Laws of the Land; by legal, not by arbitrary power; and this makes the King of England the greatest and most complete Monarch in the world. That the Crown of England is incorporated, and interwoven with the Laws of the Land. For it is the gross ignorance of those men, that make Monarchy to consist in Exemption from Laws; such a Monarchy is rather to be called Dissolute, than Absolute; Impotent, than Powerful; Tyrannical, than Regal. I have many learned Authors to warrant this; I will only instance in three, Rex (saith Bracton 
Bracton l. 2. c. 9 ) dicitur à bene regendo, non à regnando; quia Rex est dum bene gerit, Tyrannus autem dum Populum sibi concreditum violenta opprimit Dominatione, saith Sir Jo. Fortescue. Ch. Just. of Engl. 
Forts. de laud. leg. Ang. c. 37.   
Quis enim (Rex) potentior liberiorve esse potest quam qui non solum alios, sed & seipsum sufficit debellare; quod potest, & semper facit Rex politice regens populum suum?  
But above all is the Testimony of King James, as great a Prince in Learning, as in Power; A King, saith he, governing in a settled Kingdom, leaves of to be a King, and degenerates into a Tyrant, as soon as he leaves of to rule according to his Laws. Therefore all Kings that are not Tyrants, or perjured, will be glad to bond themselves within the limits of their Laws, and they that persuade them the contrary, are vipers and Pests both against them, and the Commonwealth. And afterwards declaring to the Lords and Commons his opinion of the Common Laws by which his Realm was governed he thus speaketh, First as a King I have beast cause of any man to dislike the Common Law. For no Laws can be more advantageous for a King, and extendeth further his Prerogative than it doth. And for a King of England to despise the Common Law, it is to neglect his own Crown.  
And how apt and convenient a Law it is for the people as well as for the Crown, he expresseth it in another speech to the Parliament, I must needs confess, and I think I am able to prove it, that the grounds of the Common Law of England are the best of any Law in the world, either civil or municipal, and the fittest for this people. Upon all which it plainly appears, as I said before, that a King of England governing according to his Laws, is the most absolute and free Monarch of the world; For this is true freedom in a Prince, to be loved at home, and feared abroad, to be able to defend his own people at home from oppression and violence by his Laws, without the help of an Army; to keep and conserve all his Subjects in happy peace, by a sword made of Parchment and Paper in his Laws, and not by a Sword made up of Iron and Steel in his Armies. This is excellently and at large declared by the same Sr John Fortescue, 
Chap. 35, 36, 37.  in his book of the praise of the Laws of England, where in three several Chapters he sets down the differences betwixt the English Government by the Laws, and the other Government by Arbitrary power (misnamed Regal Power) and there makes the Comparison betwixt the Government of England, and that of France; That they are poor Peasants, we a rich people; They are so peeled and polled with Taxes and Impositions (especially that of Salt) that they are not able to supply their King, if he should need their succour, we are able to secure him in War, and to relieve him in want; No Soldiers (in time of peace) can come by Law into our Houses, spoil our Goods, and eat us out with Freequarter as they do there; Nor are we privily executed by Martial Law, without open and ordinary Justice as they are, with many more grievances which he there relateth at large, and unto which I refer my Reader. So that no Nation under Heaven is more happy under Kingly Government, than we are here in England, were we a thankful people, or rightly prized our own happiness, For the Crown of England is so encircled with good Laws, that it is scarce possible for a King of England to fall into Tyranny, 
8. Hen. 4.19. 8. Hen. 6.20. 2. Rich. 3.11.  for he neither speaketh, nor acteth, nor judgeth, nor executeth, but by his Writ, by his Laws, by his Judges, and Ministers, and both these sworn to him to judge a right, and to execute justice to his People. For the King doth nothing in his own Person. 
Forts. de de Land Leg. cap. 8.  If he sit in judgement as he may do in any of his Courts, as King Richard 2. King Edward 4. and King Henry 8. did in the Kings-Bench, King Henry 7. and King James in the Star-chamber, yet he pronounceth 〈◊〉 not judgement himself upon his People, but it is left by him to the proper Judges of that Court under him, which is the reason why it is said in our Law, that the King can do no wrong; for if the Subject here in England be wronged, it is by some Judge, Officer, or Minister, etc. under the King which hath wronged him, and for which the Subject may have his proper remedy in Law, in which justice cannot be denied him, or delayed by the Judges, 
9 Hen. 3. c. 29. 5. Edw. 3. c. 9  who are required by their duty and Oath, not to stay or stop Justice, 
2. Edw. 3. c. 8.  either for the Great Seal or Little Seal, which are the highest Commands of the King. The words of the Statute are more Emphatical, Item, It is Accorded and Established, 
18. Edw. 3. Oath of the Justice.  that it shall not be commanded by the Great Seal, nor the Little Seal, to disturb or delay Common Right; And though such commandment do come, the Justices therefore shall not leave to do right in any point.  
But above all the Statute of 20. Edward 3. is remarkable, which hath these words, We Command all Our Justices that they shall from henceforth do equal Law and Execution of Right to all Our Subjects rich and poor, without having regard to any person, and without omitting to do Right for any Letters or Commandment, which may come to them from us, or from any other, or by any other Cause. Let the Judges do right, and the Kings of England, as they can do no wrong; so are not they willing to do it, as may appear in the examples of King James and the King that now is, T Then I was a Reporter in the Common-Pleas about 12ᵒ Jac. There happened in that Court a Suit in a Quare Impedit, Between Sr Edward Pincheon, and one Harris the King's Incumbent, which Suit after a long and tedious delay in Chancery, came at last to receive a Judgement, in the Court of Common-Pleas; At the day appointed for giving of Judgement, The Lord Hubert Chief Justice of that Court, produced a Letter out of his Pocket from King James, for deferring Judgement, which he shown to the rest of the Judges of that Court, Warburton, Winch, and nicols, desiring their Advice what to do: Justice nicols Puisne Judge of the Court, and first to Argue, spoke openly in this manner; My Lord, This Cause hath had many delays, It is our duty to do equal right to all his Majesty's Subjects, and that we aught not to delay Justice, neither for the Great Seal, nor the Little, and much less for a Letter; And therefore for my part I will go on and proceed to Judgement, which he than gave for Sr. Edward Pincheon, and the rest of the Judges followed according to their turns and did the like. How this wrought with King James the Consequence will show. For about a year after, when Officers were to be chosen for the Prince his Son, the King that now is, than newly made Prince of Wales, The Highest Office being the Office of Chancellor, had divers great Competitors, the Lord Hubert, and Sr. Francis Bacon than Atturnay General and some others. The King rejected them all, and of himself chose Justice nichols, that neither sought it, or thought of it, sixty miles of at his house in the Country, being in the long Vacation; and I was sent for from the Temple to convey his Patent to him into the Country, which I did accordingly; and about a Month after, going up at Michaelmas Term, he was presented to the King, who scarce ever saw him before. The King told him, That he took notice of him for an honest and a just Judge, and one that would take no Bribes, and therefore had made choice of him to serve his Son in his Highest Office, etc.  
The like I have heard of his Majesty that now is, by another Judge a Successor of his in the same Court of Common Pleas, who did Execution of Justice notwithstanding the King's Letter, whereupon he was sent for to the King, who grew angry with him for doing contrary to his Letter; The Judge acquainted him with that high command that was laid upon him by the Statute of 2ᵒ Edward 3, to do equal Law and Execution of Right to all his Majesty's Subjects, and by his Oath to the King to perform it; telling his Majesty, That his Throne was established by executing Justice, and much Honour redounded to him thereby, and many other words delivered in better Language than I am able to express, whereupon the King's heart began to melt, telling the Judge he was well pleased with him, and bade him go on in the ways of Law and Justice, and he should have his favour in stead of his frown. And hereupon I heard the Judge deliver this opinion of him. That he thought he would make the justest Prince upon Earth, had he Ministers about him answerable to his goodness. Thus are good Kings sooner brought to said their Errors in the quiet and still ways of Justice grounded upon the sincerity of impartial Laws, than by the Counsels of public Persons, when they are prosecuted in a violent way. And such a natural Inclination to the love of Justice doth possess the spirits of Princes, that they seldom miscarry in their duties, did not their Ministers under them, whom they entrust with their Laws, first fail in theirs. And therefore I do affirm and maintain, that since the bloody contentions about Magna Charta, which were begun and continued in the Reigns of King John and Henry 3, and happily quieted by King Edward 1, who redeemed his Captive Father out of Prison, vanquished the rebellious Barons, and confirmed the great Charter, the Oppressions of the People of England, have been chief caused by their fellow Subjects, not by their Princes. And therefore the Arms taken up against them for that cause were utterly groundless and unlawful, as were the Arms taken up against those lawful, but very infortunate Princes Edward the 2. and Richard 2. which brought on their Deposition, and Murder afterwards (the most traitorous and bloody acts that ever were committed by Englishmen against their Sovereign) none of which acts do the known and established Laws of England allow, in Subjects against their own lawful Sovereigns.  
A short touch of which Laws, joined with an expression of the form of their Oaths, taken at their Coronation, (not commonly known, and less understood by the People) I will in the next place handle, and so end this my sixth and last Conclusion. The whole frame and Body of the Common Law of England, is aptly divided into these two parts: 

1. Jus Regium.  
2. Jus Populi.    
1. The Law which concerns the King, being an essential part of the Common Law, the Subject of England is bound by his Allegiance and Oath to observe and keep, as strictly and exactly, as that Law which concerns himself, which every religious and conscientious Subject will readily do. For I do not found in all the Book of God a more certain mark of an irreligious man, than a despiser of the just Government and commands of his Sovereign.  
2. The Law which concerns the People being another essential part of the Common Law, the King of England is tied by his Oath at his Coronation, as much to maintain, defend and keep, as he is the Rights of his Crown. So that the Law makes a Marriage between these two Rights, as well in respect of the Prince, as of the People.  
The Jus Regium belonging to the King is divided into 

1. Jus Majestatis.  
2. Jus Praerogativae.    
Jus Majestatis is that which belongs to him as King, common to him, with other Princes, by the Law of Nature and Nations; as for example, to have the Supreme Power in making Laws, the chief command of the Militia, by which he bestows the Degrees of Knighthood, the coining of Money, the giving of Honour, the pardoning of Offences, the sole making and disposing of the Great Seal, the dispensing with penal Laws, the making of Judges and Officers, with divers more.  
The Jus Praerogativae, is that which belongs to him as King of England, and given to him by that Law alone, which is very large, and of which the Statute De Praerogativa Regis made 17ᵒ E. 2. is but a piece.  
The Jus Populi is that, which by the same Common Law belongs to the People, divided into two parts, Clergy and Laity; the one called Jus Ecclesiae, the other called Jus Regni, and so distinguished in the Parliament Writ. These two Rights of King and People make up the Body of the Common Law of England, chief consisting in Customs, Liberties, Privileges and Immunities belonging to Prince and People, and by them approved of, as good and profitable to both, by an immemorial prescription, which maketh the best Law of all, as most fixed and immutable. For other Laws which are not so tried by long tract of time, are much subject to change and fluctuation, which is the reason why the Laws of England have at this day the honour above others, in that they consist upon such ancient and unshaken Principles. But this is a great misery which hath befallen this Kingdom, and which we feel at this day, that the People of England have been very industrious, to know their own Rights, but are very ignorant in the Rights of the Crown. Though by their Oath set down in the Statute of 1. Elizab. they are bound to know them in what they swear, That they shall to their Power assist and defend all Privileges, Preeminencies and Authorities granted, or belonging to the King's Highness, his Heirs and Successors, or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm. The ignorance whereof, hath, I fear, to the crying sins of this Land, added the Luod cries of Perjury and Rebellion. And herein those of our own Profession are not without blame, in that I found many Tracts of Law, touching the full Rights of the People; but not one complete Treatise of the whole Prerogative of the King. One Judge Stanford hath learnedly written upon the Statute of Praerogativae Regis, made and enacted 17ᵒ. Edward 2. consisting chief in Wardships and Tenors; but what is that to the large Prerogatvie of the King, extending to other things? Had that been well done, things had not been so ill done at this day.  
The Laws of England, as well those which concern the King's Prerogative, as those that concern the People, are both of them so united to the Crown, that the one cannot be without the other: insomuch as the safety of the one, is the safety of the other; and the hurt of the one, is the hurt of the other: of which many instances might be given, and some of them not written in Ink, but in Blood; whereby a man would think it impossible for a King of England to govern otherwise, than by his Laws. And therefore for preventing that possibility, and all jealousies and fears touching the same, the King takes a solemn Oath at his Coronation to maintain them all, which I will set down verbatim, as it is to be found in an old Abridgement of the Statutes of H. 8. in these words,  
THat he shall keep and maintain the Rights and Liberties of the Holy Church, 
Oath.  of old time granted by the righteous Christian Kings of England: And that he shall keep all the Lands, Honours and Dignities righteous and free of the Crown of England, in all manner whole, without any manner of minishment. And the Rights of the Crown, hurt, decayed, and lost, to his power shall call again into the ancient Estate: And that he shall keep the Peace of the Holy Church, and of the Clergy, and of the People with good accord. And that he shall do in all his Judgements, Equity and Right, Justice with Discretion and Mercy. And that he shall grant to hold the Laws and Customs of the Realm, and to his power keep and affirm them, which the Folk and People have made and chosen: And the evil Laws and Customs wholly to put out: And steadfast and stable Peace to the People of this Realm keep, and cause to be kept to his power. And that he shall grant no Charter, but where he may do it by his Oath.  
In which these things are shortly observable,  
1. That the King aught by his Oath, under the pain of Perjury, to maintain the Rights of his Crown, as well in time of War by his Sword, as in time of Peace by his Laws, without any manner of diminution: And this belongs to him to do so, as an essential part of his Office, mentioned in the Laws of St Edward, in these words, 
Leg. Edw. cap. 17. de offic. Regis.  Rex quia Vicarius summi Regis esse, debet de jure omnes terras, & honores omnes, dignitates Jura, & Libertates Coronae Regni hujus in integrum cum omni integritate, & sine diminutione observare, & defendere, etc.  
2. That if the Rights of the Crown be hurt, decayed or lost, the King is bound as well in duty as by his Oath, to the uttermost of his Power to endeavour the restitution of them to their ancient estate; And this is to be done, as well for the safety and benefit of his people, as for his own honour and dignity, as may appear by the Petition of the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of 14ᵒ Rich. 2. in whose Reign the Crown suffered much loss and damage; 
Rot. Parl. 14. R. 2. n. 15.  where they desire, That the Prerogative of the King and of his Crown may be kept, And that all things done or attempted to the contrary might be redressed, and that the King be as free as any of his Progenitors were.  
3. That the King is to keep and maintain the Rights and Liberties of the Church and Clergy of England, consisting not only in their Functions and Jurisdictions, but in their Lands and Revenues.  
4. That the Laws and Customs of the Realm, which the people have made and chosen, are to be understood only of those Laws and Customs than in being at the time of the taking of that Oath: For these Reasons;  
1. The words are in the Preterperfect Tense, which the people have made and chosen, not in the Future Tense, which they were hereafter to make, and which the King could not swear to keep, till he knew what they were.  
2. The words are chief meant of such Laws and Customs which lay in usage and immemorial prescription, which have their essence and life from time past; For no Customs can begin by Law in time to come.  
3. They were such Laws and Customs which the King at the time of the taking of this Oath had a Legal power to judge of and determine, whether those Laws were good or bad; for the evil Laws and Customs he was wholly to put out, which must of necessity be referred to the time past or present: for of future things he could possibly have no knowledge; Where also by like necessary consequence it follows, that the King hath a Supreme Vote in all Laws whatsoever, to judge whether they be good or evil, for his Crown, his Church and Kingdom, and accordingly to assent or disassent, or else it will be impossible for him to avoid the Crime of Perjury.  
5. The King shall grant no Charter but where he may do it by his Oath; Now the Charter there meant, is the Charter of Pardon, granted by the King in the Cases of Manslaughter, Robberies, 
6. E. 1. Stat. de Gloc. c. 9.2. E. 3. Stat. de Northton. c. 2. 4. E. 3. c. 13.10. E. 3. c. 2.14. E. 3. c. 15.  Felonies, and other trespasses against the Peace; And what in these Cases shall be done according to the King's Oath, and what not, is resolved and determined by divers Acts of Parliament, which I have Quoted in the Margin.  
So that by all I have said it plainly appears, that the King in respect of his Duty and Office, in respect of his Oath, in respect of the Dignity and Honour of his Crown, and the good of his People, is to Govern them by the Laws of the Land. And so have I made good my sixth and last Conclusion.   

THE CONCLUSION TO THE READER.  
Courteous Reader,  
FOr so I hope I shall found you in pardoning any error or mistake which may hap in this Discourse against my will; when I shall acquaint you that it was Penned in the time of my Imprisonment, and my Chamber, Study, and Books in the middle Temple Sequestered from me.  
In that very time when the greatest Monarch of all Europe, even the King of Great 
Azor. Tom. 2. l. 11. c. 5. Col. 1668.  Britain was become a Prisoner, Great by Extraction of Birth, being legally and successively descended from above an hundred Kings; Great in the abilities of his mind, but Greatest of all in Piety, Patience, Wisdom, Fortitude, and other lovely Graces and Virtues, etc. In the loss of whose Liberties I evidently saw the loss of the People's: for the which, I had not long before suffered by defending their Liberties against the Usurpations of the High-Commission.  
I hereupon thought it incumbent upon my soul to defend the Rights of the Crown of England; the huge supporter of the People's Liberties, unto which, I held myself bound in Duty and Conscience by a double Caution; First to my Prince by my Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance, which I had taken five times; part of which are to assist and defend all Jurisdictions, Praeheminencies and Authourities annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm.  
Next to my Borough of Southwark, where I was freely chosen their Burgess for that Parliament, and maintaining theirs and the whole People's Liberties annexed to that Imperial Crown; part of which Jurisdiction is to maintain their Rights. Of which, that blessed Prince gave a signal testimony, by professing at the time of his death, That he died a Martyr for the Liberties of his People.  
After whose death; I saw with grief, what I ever feared would come to pass with Horror; Liberty, Truth, and Peace, so much cried up and contended for, quickly turned into Licentiousness, Lies and War: their Liberties confirmed to them by above thirty Parliaments, and holden for divers hundreds of years by the Great Charter, they at that time held them by no other Tenure, than the sharper Sword, and the stronger Arme.  
Me thinks good Reader I still hear in my ears the woeful cry of the People of England at that time, much like that in the Lamentations of Jeremy, The Crown is fallen from our Head, the breath of our Nostrils is gone: woe unto us that we have sinned. And this we long continued amongst us, and had done so still, had not God who giveth salvation to Kings, and by a miracle of Mercy sent us a Deliverer our now gracious Sovereign, whom like another David, he had often saved from the hand of Saul, and from his hurtful Sword. And therefore you, and I, and all the people of England, as we have wonderful cause to praise God for him; so have we 'cause mightily to pray for him. That Almighty God who hath appeared to him like to another Moses, as well in the Flags as in the Bush, and delivered his soul from death, & his feet from falling, would bless him with such a spirit of Government, that Judgement may run down as Waters, and Righteousness as a mighty stream in all the parts of his Dominions. And likewise would bless all his People with such a spirit of Obedience, 
Isai. 2.4.  That they may beat their Swords into Plowshares, and their Spears into Pruning-hooks; and that they may not learn War any more. But that instead of the deformity of War, the Beauties of Grace and Glory may ever devil in our Land.  
FINIS.   

The Rights of the Crown.   

Courteous Reader, These Books following, are Printed for Simon Miller, and Sold by him at the Star in St. Paul's Churchyard.  

Small Folio.  
DOctor Lightfoot his Harmony on the New Testament, which will shorely be reprinted with large Additions.  
Astrology restored; or an Introduction to the language of the Stars in four Books, by William Ramsey Gent.  
The civil Wars of Spain in the Reign of Charles the fifth, Emperor of Germany, and King of that Nation, wherein our late unhappy differences are paralleled in many particulars.  
A general History of Scotland, from the year 767 to the death of K James, etc. By David Hume of Godscroft.  
The History of this Iron Age, wherein is set down the true state of Europe, as it was in the year 1500 also the causes of all the Wars and Commotions that have happened to this present time; with the memorable sieges and battles; together with the lively Effigies of the most renowned persons.  
Mr Paul Baine his practical Commentary on the whole Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians.  
The most pleasant and profitable History of Frantion, wherein all the vices that usually attend youth are plainly laid open, that the misfortunes of some may teach others to abandon vice, done into English by a person of honour.  
Eighteen Books of the Secrets of Art and Nature, being the sum and substance of Natural Philosophy, first designed by Doctor John Wecker, and now much enlarged by Doctor R. Read.  
The Queen of Arragon, a Play in folio.   

In Quarto large.  
Jo. Barklay his Argenis, Translated by Sir Robert le Grise Knight, by his Late Majesty's special Command with Figures or without.   

Quarto Small.  
An Experimental Treatise or Surgery, by Felix Wortz.  
Abraham's Faith, or the good Old Religion etc. By John Nicholson Minister of the Gospel.  
The Anatomy of Mortality: By George Siroad.  
Three T●eatises: 1 The Conversion of Nineveh, touching Prayer and Fasting. 2. God's Trumpet sounding to Repentance. 3. Sovereign preservatives against distrustful thoughts and cares: By William. Attersoll Minister of God's Word at Isfield in Sussex  
Aynsworth on the Cantic.  
Paul Baine his Diocesans Trial  
Gr I'll against Appolonius.  
A Treatise of Civil policy etc. By Samuel Ru●herford Professor of Divinity of St Andrews in Scotland.  
Politic and Military Observations of Civil and Military Government, containing the Birth, Increase, Decay of Monarchies, the carriage of Princes and Magistrates.  
Mr Pinchin his Meritorious price of man's Redemption, cleared.  
Astrology Theologised, showing what nature and influence the Stars and Planets have over men, and how the same may be diverted and avoided.  
Wells his Soul's Progress.  
Christ tempted, the Devils Conquered; Being a plain Exposition on the fourth Chapter of St Matthews Gospel: By John Gumbleden Min. of the Gossip.  
The Saint's Society.  
D. Stoughtons thirteen choice Sermons, with his Body of Divini y.  
The Reasons of the dissenting Brethrens concerning the Presbyterian Government, together with the answer of the Assembly of Divines.  
The Doctrine of man's Redemption by Edward Holioke  
Camden's Remains.  
O● th' doctrine of the Church of England, sweetly harmonizing with the Confessions of Faith of all the Protestant Reform Churches.  
The Philosophical Touchstone; or Observations upon Sir Kenelm Digbye's Discourses of the nature of bodies, and of the reasonable soul, by Alexander Ross.  
The Saints Triangles of dangers, deliverances, and duties, by Nathaniel Whiting Minister of the Gospel.  
The Confession of Faith, of all the congregational Churches of England agreed upon at the Savoy, 1659.  
The Description of the Universal Quadrant, etc. By Tho. Stirrup Mathem.  
The whole Art of drawing, painting, limning and etching: collected out of the choicest Italian and Germano Authors, by Alex Brown Practitioner.   

Large Octavo.  
A Treatise of the Divine Promises: By Edw. Leigh Esq;.  
The Rights of the Crown of England, as it is established by Law, by Edward Bagshaw of the Inner-Temple, and Apprentice to the Law.  
Florus Anglicus, with the Lively Effigies of all the Kings and Queens, since the conquest, cut in brass.  
The Reconciler of the Bible, wherein above two thousand seeming contradictions are fully and plainly Reconciled.  
Evidences for Heaven, containing infallible signs, and real demonstrations for Assurance of Salvation, published by Edm. Calamy  
The Life and Reign of King Charles, from his Birth to his Death, by Lambert Wood  
The Night-search, the second part: by H. Mill.  
A view of the Jewish Religion, with their Rites, Customs and Ceremonies.  
Useful Instructions for these Evil times, held forth in 22. Sermons, by Nich. Lockyer, Provost of Eton College  
The Nullity of Church-Censu●es, or Excommunication, not of Divine Institution, but a mere human Invention: Written by the famous Tho. Erastus, and never before Englished.   

Small Octavo.  
Ed Waterhouse Esq; His Discourse of Piety and Charity.  
Panacea, or the Universal Medicine; being a Discourse of the Admirable Nature and Virtues of Tobacco: By Dr. Everard and Others.  
A view and Defence of the Reformation of the Church of England, very useful in these times.  
Mr. Pet. du Moulin, his Antidote against Popery; published on purpose to prevent the Delusions of the Priests and Jesuits who are now very busy among us.  
Vinditiae Gratiae Sacramentalis duobus Tractatulis comprehensae. 1. De efficaciâ Sacramentorum in genere. 2. De efficaciâ Baptismi, quantum ad parvulos quibus praefigitur.  
Epistola Reverendissimi Patris Johannis Davenanti nuper Episcopi Sarisburiensis.  
Herbert's Devotions, or a Companion for a Christian, containing Meditations and prayers useful upon all occasions.  
Rare verities; or the Cabinet of Venus unlocked, and her secrets laid open.  
Extraneus Vapulans, or the Observator rescued from the violent but vain assault of Haman Lestrange Esq;, and the backblows of D. Bernard an Irish Dean: by P. Heylin D.D.  
Ovid de Ponto, in English.  
The Loves of Clerrio and L●zio a Romance.  
Mr. Knowles, his Rudiment of the Hebrew Tongue.  
A Book of Schemes or Figures of Heaven, ready set for every four Minutes of times, and very useful for all Astrologers.  
Florus Anglicus, or an exact History of England, from the Reign of William the Conqueror to the death of the Late King.  
Lingua, or the Combat of the Tongue, and five Senses for Superiority: a serious Comedy.  
The Spirits Touchstone; being a clear discovery how a man may certainly know whether he be truly taught by the Spirit of God, or not.  
The poor man's Physician and Chirurgeon.  
Physical Rarities, containing the most choice Receipts in Physic and Chirurgery, for the cure of all Diseases Incident to man's body: By R Williams. To which is added the physical Mathematics: By Hermes Tris-Megiston.  
The Idol of Crowns, or the Relation of Wat Tiler's Rebellion.  
The Christian Moderator, in 3 parts.  
The Ra●onian Catechism in English.  
The life of that incomparable man, Faustus Socinus ●enensis, described by a Polonian Knight.  
The Golden Fleece, or a Discourse of the clothing of England.  
Dr. Sibbs his Divine Meditations.  
Vigerius Precepts of Idiotismes.  
Grotij Poemata.  
Three Books of M. Matthews Minister at Swansey in South-wales.  
1 The Messiah Magnified by the mouths of Babes in America; or Gaius and Gamaliel, a helpful Father, and his hopeful Son, discoursing of the three most considerable points. 1. The great want of Christ. 2 The great worth that is in Christ. 3. The good way that is chalked out by Christ  
2. The New congregational Church, proved to be the old Christian Church, by Scripture, Reason, and History.  
3. The Rending Church-member Regularly called back to Christ and his Church.  
A physical Dictionary.  
An exact History of the several changes of Government in England, from the horrid Murder of King Charles the first, to the happy Restauration of King Charles the second, with the Renowned Actions of General Monck, by F. D.   

Duodecim.  
Dr. Smith's practice of physic.  
The Grammar War.  
Posselius' Apothegms.  
Fasciculus Florum.  
Crashaw's Visions.  
The Juniper Lecture.  
Helvicus Colloquies.  
The torments of hell shaken; or a Discourse with many proofs, showing that there is not a punishment after this life for any to endure that shall never end, by Samuel Richardson.  
The understanding Christians duty, often to commemorate the death and passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus; with the necessary preparatives thereunto.  
The Christian Soldier, his Combat with the three arch-enemies of mankind, the world, the flesh, and the devil.  
Seasonable advice to the Apprentices of the Honourable City of London, touching their duty to God, and their Masters.  
Heinsius de Crepundi●s.  
The History of Russia, or the Government of the Emperor of Muscovia, with the manner and fashions of the people of that Country.  
Drexeliu's school of Patience.  
Drexelius his right Intention of every one's action.  
A School or Nurture for Children, or the Duty of Children, or the Duty very useful for all that intent to bring up their children in the fear of God.   

Viginti Quarto.  
The New Testament.  
The third part of the Bible.  
Sir Richard Bakers Meditations and Prayers for every day of the Week.   

Plays.  
The Ball.  
Chawbut.  
Conspiracy.  
Obstinate Lady.  
The London Chanticlers: a Comedy foll of various and delightful Mirth, never before published.