Right to chufe them, being no Freeholders, nor having Title to any Goods or Lands, by any Tenure whatsoever. In fhort, by the Judgment and Sentence of their Church, all Ranks among us are in a State of Ufurpation, we have no Right to Eftate or Life (as we are like to find when they have Power;) much lefs any Authority to make Laws. What our Parliaments have enacted, or may do, for the fecuring of our Religion, or reftraint of Catholicks, is no more valid, no more obliging with them, than the Acts or Ordinances of meer Ufurpers, nor do they owe, nor will they pay them more Obfervance (when time ferves) than to the Conftitutions of to many Thieves and Robbers. But fuppofe our Laws were valid, and enacted by a competent Authority, yet being against the Laws of the Church, the Sovereign Authority of thefe will fuperfede the other: For fo they determine, that when the Canon and the Civil Laws clafh, one requiring what the other allows not; the Church-Law must have Obfervance, and that of the State be neglected. The Law (q) provides for its Pre-eminence, in thefe Words, Conftitutions against the Canons and Decrees of the Roman Bishops are of no Moments. Their best Authors (r) are pofitive in it, and our own Country affords us Inftances of it. The Statutes of Provifoes, and others of like Nature, made in the Reigns of Edward I. Edward III. Richard II. and Henry IV. for the Relief of the Nation against Papal Incroachments: They were defeated by the Pope's Authority, and in Effect repealed, there being no effectual Execution of them till Henry VIII's Time. And if the Pope (the Throne being once at his Devotion) fhould appear against any Statutes or Provifions made for our Security, as Pope Martin V. (5) did against the Statutes of Edward II and Edward III. that would be enough to null them as to the Confciences of Roman Catholicks; or to lay them afleep, and render them ineffectual to the Purposes they are defigned for.

We may fee hereby what Laws made now for our Security will fignify, when fuch a Succeffor is in Poffeffion.

Upon the whole, our Danger as to all our Concerns, Civil and Religious, is very apparent, and looks upon us with fuch a terrible Afpect, as scarce any true Proteftant can fully view it without Horror and Trembling. Our Eftates, Lives, and Souls are in extreme Hazard, and what have we more? That which will not fecure us is difcernable by the Premifes; what Expedient may be effectual to rescue us and our Pofterity, who with us and all that is dear to both, are now in the very Jaws of Deftruction, is humbly left to the Wisdom of the Nation in Parliament.

(9) Conftitutiones contra canones & decreta præfulum Romanorum vel bonos mores, nullius funt momenti. Diftinct. 10. c. 4.

(r) Victoria relect. p. Navar. c. 7. n. I.

Fumus v. lex. n. 7. Bonocina. Tom. 2. Difp. 1. q. 1. punct. 4. n. 17. Diana. Sum. v. inquifitor. n. 10. after Barbofa and others. (s) Burnet's Hift. Reformation, p. 110.

PE

PEREAT PAPA or

REASONS why a Pre

fumptive Heir, or Popifh Succeffor fhould not inherit the CROwn.

T is conceived, and that very candidly, without Prejudice to other Judgments, or troubling ourfelves by reflecting on that fo often baffled a Caufe or called Popery, that a Papift, or one Popishly affected, ought not to inherit or fucceed in the Management of the Crown.

Reason I.

In ftrictness of Law, becaufe one fo qualified, hath wilfully difabled or rendered himfelf uncapable of that Benefit, which, the common Law (after the ufual Course of Defcent) doth pofitively require; for it is prefumable, that he that fucceeds in the Office of the Crown, fhould be legally adopted to execute fo great a Truft; and therefore if Minus, Idoneus, be not fufficiently ballafted with the Notion and Intrigues of State, others are to govern in Aid of him, as in Cafe of Idiocy, Lunacy, or the like, and the Parliament is bound (as intrufted to redrefs Grievances, and fecure the Nation) to place it where Religion and Property fhall be adjudged most safe.

There are feveral Precedents of this Nature.

1. Edgar Abeling (as Stories agree) was the undoubted Heir, yet William the Norman, commonly called the Conquerer, was called in to oppofe Harold, and invefted with the Crown; and Atheling for ever an Exile, and dif inherited.

2. After him fucceeded his fecond Son William Rufus, and not Robert the Eldeft.

3. King John not only laid afide, after Plantagenet his eldest Brother's Son; but likewife put him to Death,

4. In Sicily there was lately a great Contest between the two Sons of Charles II. Mortelu and Robert, and I find the Crown awarded to Robert the younger, as Magis dignis ad Regnandum.

5. Alexander was demanded to whom he fhould bequeath his Scepter, he faid, the Worthieft, and to him whofe Sword had the fharpeft Point; meaning, whofe Virtues were most luculent, and of the brightest Integrity: After the Difpofition of Jacob, paffing by Manaffes, and conferring the Bleffing upon Ephraim the younger, as more deferving, and acceptable to God.

6. The State of France rejected the King of Navarre, and appointed another to reign over them, because of his Religion. And when afterwards the faid King of Navarre came to be Henry IV. of France, it was by his forfaking God, and complying with the Church of Rome, by means of which he thought to fettle the Crown upon his Head, but was fo much mistaken therein, that he thereby loft both Crown and Life together.

VOL. III.

Rr

Reafon

Reafon II.

Can it be thought but that he that fucceeds in the Crown fhould not fucceed Concurrentibus his qui in jure requirunt, as the Civil Law expreffes it, that is in all the Concerns thereof, which are the Laws, principally thofe that relate to Religion, and not for one Man led away with a blind Perverfenefs, renouncing the Religion he knows not why (and fo wilfully attainting himfelf) to inthral the Nation in Superftition and Tyranny; for regularly in all Parts where Popish Lords are in the Church, there Tyranny (on courfe) rages in the State.

Reason III.

It is a Maxim amongft Lawyers, that Lex facit Regem, and Maxims must not be denied; if fo, then to fpeak out after the true Intendment of Law, he that comes not to the Crown fatiatim, as the Law notifies and prescribes, it is no lawful Succeffion, but downright Ufurpation. And without fcruple, it is the endeavour of every good Chriftian to withstand an Ufurper, it being undoubtedly more pleafing to God to put one Man by, who thus wilfully difables himself, and withal moft fhamefully ufurps, than expofe Millions of Souls to Damnation, and the Streets to flow with Blood by fuffering that Religion to creep in, whofe Reformation (at the mildest rate) will certainly prove Fire and Faggot.

For this very cause Maacha was removed (from being Queen) by her Son King Afa, for making an Idol in a Grove, incited thereunto by the Prophet Azariah.

Reafon IV.

The Succeffion of the Crown, and a common Defcent much differ; for if an Heir that is a Subject prove loofe and debauched, it little damnifies the Publick, more deferving Perfons may happily perchance ftep into his Poffeffions, and be more ferviceable to the Publick; the Damage is ftill but private to his own Family; but in cafe of the Crown, there is none fo fenfeless but must needs conceive the Damage moft fatal because univerfal.

The whole Nation muft inevitably fuffer; Religion fubverted, and Property deftroyed, and the whole People in danger of their Lives. It is well known in a private Cafe, the Heir is ufually thrown off and difinherited: If an Entail, it may be destroyed: And if Law juftifies it, the like in the Publick. And therefore the grand Inquifitors of State, and Confervators of the Liberties of England, the Parliament, may for weighty Causes refuse the Heir Prefumptive, and for the Safety of the Nation fettle it where they in Honour and Prudence shall conceive moft proper.

Reafon V.

We read in Scripture (which is the Golden Rule that we muft walk by) that Libnab revolted from Jeboram, because he had forfaken the God of his Fathers; fo we had better forfake Man, adhere to God in keeping our Religion, than truft to Man, and lofe God, to be unavoidably deftroyed here, and hereafter

irrecoverably

irrecoverably damned in ferving Baal, and parting with the Divinity now established.

Reason VI.

When Reboboam had prepared a great Army to reduce the Ifraelites, he was forbidden by the Prophet. Thus faid the Lord, ye shall not go up, nor fight against your Brethren, for they are from me; mark, he calls them Brethren, not Rebels.

Paffive Obedience therefore is fimple, and fit for fuch that knows no better; now God has difcovered the Snare and the Pit of Ruin that the Pope and the Devil has prepared for us, if we do not timely countermine it by cautionary Laws, to fupprefs those that digged it, we may in a fhort Space be thrown into it headlong, and none pity us..

But the right Line with fome fhallow pated Talkers, is a Noli me tangere, fo facred (forfooth) that we must rather venture Body and Soul in fubjecting ourfelves to all the Curfes imaginable that Hell itself can inflict on us, than in the leaft alter or controul it; a very frivolous Caveat, and not to be heeded by us; for human Examples (as I fhewed before) have been noted against it, and the Scripture warrants it. Samuel foretold in the Cafe of Saul, that he would be rejected for his Difobedience, though not his Perfon degraded or deposed, yet that the Kingdom fhould be removed, both from his Line and Tribe, which was done accordingly, and transferred on David: This proves very fully, that the Heirs, or the next in Succeffion, are not fo immovably placed, but that they may lawfully (on juft Caufe) be difplaced, if not legally qualified, and other put up for God's Glory in their Rooms. God raised Jebu to purge Idolatry against the Houfe of Abab; all the Sons of Ahab were beheaded, and in a manner his whole Line cut off. For his good Service, he had a Promise of a fpecial Bleffing for his Iffue to continue the Throne to the fourth Generation. Several other Inftances I could give, but this may fuffice.

In brief, there is no Reformed Church, from the first Waldenfes of Lyons and Languedoc, to this very Day, but have held it lawful.

Reason VII.

It is conceived by half-witted Statesmen, that reftrictive Laws may preventall Mischiefs, and fecure the Proteftants; a very vain Opinion, and most fallacious; for Laws will never bind, but more enrage; fhackle him as ye will,, and load him with never fo many Laws when King, he and his Party will be reftless, till they have fet themselves at Liberty, to have the Proteftants under; for when King, he is not impeachable, and the Poft Regni will be at his Disposal.

When the Wolf is Shepherd, the Flock is very fafe indeed, and like to be well looked after, all may devour that will; for if his Party commit such Outrages, that no Age can parallel, what will they do then? Now, no Man is fafe in his Bed, then none safe at all; they will adventure to murder People in their very Houfes; for they hold it no more Sin than to kill a Dog,

1

1

Reason VIII.

In fine, be fure he and his Party (which will increafe daily, and the Proteftants decline) will foon get an Opportunity by either Stratagem, or open Force, to avoid all Laws, though they are never fo ftrong and wary, and therefore it will be impoffible to be fafe without a Proteftant Succeffor.

The laft MEMORIAL of the SPANISH Ambaffador. Faithfully tranflated into England. 168r.

SIR,

D

Jan. 6

I

ON Pedro Ronquillo, Ambaffador of Spain, that by a Memorial which he prefented to your Majefty the 2 of December, he did fet forth the Infractions which the most Christian King hath made fince the Peace of Nimeguen from the Month of September, after the Difference was agreed about the Title of the Duke of Burgundy, which was alledged for a Pretence to suspend the Conference at Courtray, according to the fifteenth Article of that Treaty, in order to the adjusting in an amicable Way all the Limits, Pretenfions and Differences of the two Crowns, which fhould refult from that Treaty; and your Majefty was pleafed by your Royal Order of the 2% to order your Envoy Dec. Extraordinary at Paris, to put in Execution what was contained in the faid Memorial. By the laft Poft, the faid Ambaffador received Letters of the Inftant, from the Marquis de la Fuente, who is Ambaffador at Paris, in which he gives him an Account of the Complaints he had made to the Chriftian King, about the Exceffes and Infractions which are committed against the Inhabitants of Fuenta Rabia, and in the Low Countries, and particularly about a Meffage which the Governor of Tournay fent to the Prince of Parma, pretending that not one Pallifado fhould be laid at Bovignies, (which incontestably hath been a feparated State, and comprehended in the Country of Namure.) After many violent Contestations, the Anfwer of the most Chriftian King was, That he did not doubt but that the Catholick King would give Order to his Commiffioner at Fuente Rabia to proceed in the Treaty, leaving each Party in the Poffeffion which at prefent they hold, (as if a violent Ufurpation, under the Surety of the good Faith of the Conference, could in one Day be concluded to be an actual Poffeffion) that for what relates to the Low Countries, he cannot abstain from taking Poffeffion of that which he fuppofes doth appertain to him, according to what he fball declare at the Conference of Courtray.

To this violent, as well as undecent Anfwer, the Marquis de la Fuente with the Strength of the undoubtful Juftice and Reafon which the King my Master hath, concluding he did not receive the fame, not knowing how to impart it to his Catholick M jfty, and that he befeeched him to refolve what was just ; to which Reply it was answered, That he would confider it. And at the fame time his mot Christian Majefty hath ordered his Forces to enter in the Spanish Low Countries, to hinder the fortifying of Bovignies.

This