obliquely elude, confesses he has not a right absolutely to refuse. 'Tis natural to Kings, especially to the worst, to scrue up their Authority to the height; and nothing can more evidently prove the defect of it, than the necessity of having recourse to such pitiful evasions, when they are unwilling to do that which is required. But if I should grant that the words import a denial, and that (notwithstanding those of the Coronation Oath, Quas vulgus elegerit) they might de∣ny; no more could be inferred from thence, than that they are en∣trusted with a power equal in that point, to that of either House, and cannot be supreme in our Author's sense, unless there were in the same State at the same time three distinct supreme and absolute Pow∣ers, which is absurd.
His cases relating to the proceedings of the Star-Chamber and Council-Table, do only prove that some Kings have encroached upon the rights of the Nation, and bin suffer'd till their excesses growing to be extreme, they turn'd to the ruin of the Ministers that advised them, and sometimes of the Kings themselves. But the jurisdiction of the Council having bin regulated by the Statute of the 17 Car. 1. and the Star-Chamber more lately abolished, they are nothing to our dispute.
Such as our Author usually impute to treason and rebellion the changes that upon such occasions have ensued; but all impartial men do not only justify them, but acknowledg that all the Crowns of Eu∣rope are at this day enjoy'd by no other title than such acts solemnly performed by the respective Nations, who either disliking the person that pretended to the Crown (tho next in blood) or the government of the present possessor, have thought fit to prefer another person or family. They also say, that as no Government can be so perfect but some defect may be originally in it, or afterwards introduced, none can subsist unless they be from time to time reduced to their first in∣tegrity, by such an exertion of the power of those for whose sake they were instituted, as may plainly shew them to be subject to no power under Heaven, but may do whatever appears to be for their own good. And as the safety of all Nations consists in rightly placing and measuring this power, such have bin found always to prosper who have given it to those from whom usurpations were least to be feared, who have bin least subject to be awed, cheated or corrupted; and who having the greatest interest in the Nation, were most concerned to preserve its power, liberty and welfare. This is the greatest trust that can be reposed in men. This power was by the Spartans given to the Ephori and the Senat of twenty eight; in Venice to that which they call Concilio de Pregadi; in Germany, Spain, France, Sweedland, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, Scotland, England, and gene∣rally all the Nations that have lived under the Gothick Polity, it has bin in their General Assemblies, under the names of Diets, Cortez, Parliaments, Senats, and the like. But in what hands soever it is, the power of making, abrogating, changing, correcting and inter∣preting Laws, has bin in the same; Kings have bin rejected or depo∣sed; the Succession of the Crown settled, regulated, or changed: and I defy any man to shew me one King amongst all the Nations abovementioned, that has any right to the Crown he wears, unless such acts are good.