H ory of the Puritans, examin'd. '5 5 and unmake at his pleafure fo Kings can give Life and Death, judge all, and bejudged of none. And was not this very gracious, to promife them to forego a Power, which he thought belong'd to him ? But to Phew how little Inclination he had to be Arbitrary, in the very fame Speech; 2I March I bog, he has the following Words : * ' Every juft King in a fettled Kingdom, is bound to ob- ferve that Paaion [fpeaking of the Coronation- Oath] made to his People -by his Laws, in fra- ming his Government agreeable thereunto. And ' therefore a King governing in a fettled Kingdom, ' leaves to be a King, and degenerates into a Ty- ' rant, as foon as he leaves off to rule according to his Laws, In which Cafe the King's Confcience may fpeak unto him, as the poor Woman faid to Philip of Macedon, either govern according to your Law, aut ne Rex fis ; and tho' no Chri- ' f ian Man, ought to allow any Rebellionof Peó- ple againít their Prince, yet doth God never leave Kings unpunilhed, when they tranfgrefs thefe Limits, &c. Therefore all Kings that are no;. Tyrants, or perjured, will be glad to bound themfelves within the Limits of their Laws ; and they that perfuade them to the contrary, are ' Vipers and Pefts, both againft, them and the Commonwealth. For it is a great difference be- tween a King's Government in a fettled State ; and what Kings in their original Power might do ti in Individuo Vago. As for my part, I thank God I have ever given good proof; that I never had Intention to the contrary : And I am lure to go to the Grave with that Reputation and Con- fort, that never King was in all his time more careful to have his Laws duly obferved, and £ himfelf to govern thereafter then I;" * King James's Works, p. 531. 4 Neal,
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