to their conversion, is, to make them sensible of
their errours; and this your Majesty out of
your
fatherly indulgence, amongst other experiments
which you have made, is pleased to allow them in
this book, which you have commanded to be
translated for the publick benefit, that at least all
such as are not wilfully blind may view in it, as in
a glass, their own deformities. For never was
there a plainer parallel than of the troubles of
France and of Great Britain; of their leagues,
covenants, associations, and ours; of their Cal-
vinists and our Presbyterians: they are all of the
same family, and Titian's famous table* of the
altar-piece, with the pictures of Venetian senators
from great-grandfather to great-grandson, shews
not more the resemblance of a race than this: for
as there, so here, the features are alike in all; there
is nothing but the age that makes the difference;
otherwise the old man of an hundred, and the
babe in swadling-clouts, that is to say, 1584, and
1684, have but a century and a sea betwixt them
to be the same. But I have presumed too much
upon your Majesty's time already, and this is not
the place to shew that resemblance, which is but
too manifest in the whole history. It is enough
to say, your Majesty has allowed our rebels a

* A table (tableau, Fr.) in old language, signified-a
picture, or painted board. The picture of Titian here
alluded to is, I believe, that of the Cornaro family, now
in Northumberland-House.-Pictures, in the next line, is
inelegantly used for portraits.

4

greater favour than the law; you have given them the benefit of clergy: if they can but read, and will be honest enough to apply it, they may be saved. God Almighty give an answerable success to this your royal act of grace! may they all repent, and be united as the body to their head! May that treasury of mercy which is within your royal breast, have leave to be poured forth upon them, when they put themselves in a condition of receiving it! And in the mean time, permit me to implore it humbly for myself; and let my presumption in this bold address be forgiven to the zeal which I have to your service, and to the publick good. To conclude, may you never have a worse-meaning offender at your feet, than him who, besides his duty and his natural inclinations, has all manner of obligations to be perpetually,

SIR,

Your MAJESTY's most humble,

Most obedient, and most faithful

Subject, and Servant,

JOHN DRYDEN.

THAT government, generally considered, is

of divine authority, will admit of no dispute; for whoever will seriously consider, that no man has naturally a right over his own life, so as to murder himself, will find by consequence, that he has no right to take away another's life; and that no pact betwixt man and man, or of corporations and individuals, or of sovereigns and subjects, can entitle them to this right; so that no offender can lawfully, and without sin, be punished, unless that power be derived from GOD. It is he who has commissioned magistrates, and authorized them to prevent future crimes by punishing offenders, and to redress the injured by distributive justice. Subjects therefore are accountable to superiours, and the superiour to Him alone; for the sovereign being once invested with lawful authority, the

subject has irrevocably given up his power, and the dependance of a monarch is alone on God. A King, at his coronation, swears to govern his subjects by the laws of the land, and to maintain the several orders of men under him in their lawful privileges, and those orders swear allegiance and fidelity to him; but with this distinction, that the failure of the people is punishable by the King, that of the King is only punishable by the KING OF KINGS. The people then are not judges of good or ill administration in their King; for it is inconsistent with the nature of sovereignty that they should be so. And if at some times they suffer through the irregularities of a bad prince, they enjoy more often the benefits and advantages of a good one, as GOD in his Providence shall dispose, either for their blessing or their punishment. The advantages and disadvantages of such subjection are supposed to have been first considered; and upon this balance they have given up their power without a capacity of resumption; so that it is in vain for a commonwealth party to plead, that men, for example, now in being, cannot bind their posterity, or give up their power; for if subjects can swear only for themselves, when the father dies the subjection ends, and the son who has not

5 Our author, in the courtly doctrine here stated, was but too much countenanced by the clergy, many of whom en. forced from the pulpit the slavish tenet of passive obedience and non-resistance, grounded on the exploded notion of the divine right of Kings.

sworn can be no traitor or offender, either to the
King or to the laws and at this rate a long-lived
prince may outlive his sovereignty, and be no
longer lawfully a King. But in the mean time, it
is evident that the son enjoys the benefit of the
laws and government, which is an implicit ac-
knowledgment of subjection.

It is endless to run through all the extrava-
gancies of these men, and it is enough for us that
we are settled under a lawful government of a
most gracious prince; that our monarchy is here-
ditary; that it is naturally poized by our municipal
laws, with equal benefit of prince and people;
that he governs as he has promised, by explicit
laws; and what the laws are silent in, I think I
may conclude to be part of his prerogative; for
what the King has not granted away is inherent in
him.

The point of succession has sufficiently been
discussed, both as to the right of it, and to the
interest of the people. One main argument of the
other side is, how often has it been removed from
the right line! as in the case of King Stephen,
and of Henry the Fourth, and his descendants of
the house of Lancaster. But it is easy to answer
them, that matter of fact, and matter of right,
are different considerations.
Both those Kings
were but usurpers in effect; and the Providence
of God restored the posterities of those who were
dispossessed. By the same argument they might
as well justify the rebellion and murder of the late.