you prefume to give Sentence on him, a Boldness no lefs impious than unjuft in you, were it true, fince we can never know it to be fo.

But indeed it is hard to fay,whether you have fhewn more Malice or Vanity in this notable Declaration of yours; for he that confiders the Affectation and Fantastick Lightness of your Language, (fuch as Ireland, a Land of Ire; Bite-Sheep for Bishops,and other fuch ingenious Elegancies of Quibble) muft needs confels it an Oratory more becoming a Fool in a Play, or Peters before the Rabble, than the Patrons of his Sovereign's Sovereign, or the Gravity of that Court, which you fay, right wifely, fhall be admir'd at the Day of Judgment. And therefore you do ill to accufe him of reading Johnson's and Shakespear's Plays, which, it feems, you have been more in your felf to much worse purpofe, elfe you had never hit fo right upon the very Dialect of their railing Advocates, in which (believe me) you have really out-acted all that they could fanfie of paffionate and ridiculous Outrage.

For

For certainly, Sir, I am fo charitable to believe it was your Paffion that imposed upon your Umderstanding; elfe, as a Gentleman, you could have never defcended to fuch Peafantry of Language, especially against fuch a Perfon, to whom (had he never been your Prince) no Law enjoins (whatfoever his Offences were) the Punishment of Ribaldry. And for the Laws of God they abfolutely condemn it; of which I wonder, you that pretend fo much to be of his Councel, fhould be either fo ignorant or forgetful.

Calamity is the Vifitation of God, and (as Preachers tell us) ja Favour he does to thofe he loves, wherever it falls it is the Work of his Hand, and fhould become our Pity, not our Infolence. This the ancient Heathen knew, who believing Thunder came from the Arm of God, reverenc'd the veryTrees it lighted on.

But your Paffion hath not only mifled you against Civility and Chriftian Charity, but common Senfe alfo; elfe you would never have driven your Chariot of Reafon (as you call it) fɔ far out of the Road, that you forget whither you are going, and run over

every thing that ftands in your way; I mean, your unufual,Way of Argument, not only against Reafon, but yourfelf, as you do it at the firft fally; for after your Fit of Raving is over, you beftow much Pains to prove it one of the Fundamentals of Law, That the King is not above the Law, but the Law above the King. And this you deraign, as you call it, fo far, that at length you fay, the King hath not by Law fo much Power, as, a Juftice of Peace, to commit any Man to Prison; which you would never have done, if you had confidered from whom the Juftice derives his Power, or in whose Name his Warrants run; elfe you may as well fay, a Man may give that which he hath not; or prove the Moon hath more light than the Sun, because he cannot fhine by Night as the Moon doth. But you needed not have ftrained fo hard, for this will ferve you to no purpose, but to prove that which was never denied by the King himself; for if you had not a much worse Memory than Men of your Condition fhould have, you could not fo foon have forgotten, that immediately after the reading of that Charge, the King de

manded

manded of your High Court, by what Law they could fit to judge him (as offering to fubmit if they could produce any) but then Silence or Interruption were thought the beft Ways of confeffing there was no fuch thing: And when he undertook to fhew them both Law and Reafon too, why they could not do it, the Righteous Prefident told himplainly, He must have neither Law nor Reafon, which was certainly (as you have it very finely) the moft comprehenfive, impartial, and glori ous piece of Justice that ever was played on the Theatre of England; for what could any Court do more than rather condemn itself, than injure Truth.

-But you had better have left this whole Business of the Law out of your Appeal to all Rational Men, who can make no use of it, but against yourself: For if the Law be above the King, much more is it above the Subject. And if it be so heinous a Crime in a King to endeavour to fet himself above Law, it is much more heinous for Subjects to fet themselves above King and Law both. Thus, like right Mountebanks, you are fain to wound and poyfon yourselves to cheat others, who cannot G

but

but wonder at the Confidence of your Imposture, that are not afham'd to magnifie the Power of the Law, while you violate it, and confefs you fet your felves really above the Law, to condemn the King but for intending it.

And indeed Intentions and Defigns are the moft confiderable Part both of your Accufations and Proofs, fome of which you are fain to fetch a great way off, as far as his Coronation Ŏath, which you next fay, He, or the Arch bishops by his Order, emafculated, and left out very material Words, (which the People shall choofe.) Which is falfe, for thefe Words were not left out, but rendred with more Sence, (which the Commonalty have) and, if you confider what they relate to, (Cutoms) you will find you cannot, without open Injury, interpret, Elegerit, (in the Latin Oath) fhall choose, not, hath chofen, for if you will have Confuetudines quas vulgus elegerit, to mean, Cuftoms, which are to be not only Use, which must be often repeated before it become a Cuftom, but, Choice, which neceffarily preceeds Ufe.

But fuppofe it were as you would have it, I cannot fee with what Rea

fon