klyn, p. 56. Rushworth, vol. i. p. 21, 36, 55. The
king also, in imitation of his predecessors, gave rules to
preachers.

All history, said the partisans of the court, as well as the history
of England, justify the king's position with regard to the origin
of popular privileges; and every reasonable man must allow, that as
monarchy is the most simple form of government, it must first have
occurred to rude and uninstructed mankind. The other complicated and
artificial additions were the successive invention of sovereigns and
legislators; or, if they were obtruded on the prince by seditious
subjects, their origin must appear, on that very account, still more
precarious and unfavorable. In England, the authority of the king, in
all the exterior forms of government, and in the common style of law,
appears totally absolute and sovereign; nor does the real spirit of the
constitution, as it has ever discovered itself in practice, fall much
short of these appearances. The parliament is created by his will; by
his will it is dissolved. It is his will alone, though at the desire of
both houses, which gives authority to laws. To all foreign nations, the
majesty of the monarch seems to merit sole attention and regard. And no
subject who has exposed himself to royal indignation, can hope to live
with safety in the kingdom; nor can he even leave it, according to law,
without the consent of his master. If a magistrate, environed with such
power and splendor, should consider his authority as sacred, and regard
himself as the anointed of Heaven, his pretensions may bear a very
favorable construction. Or, allowing them to be merely pious frauds, we
need not be surprised, that the same stratagem which was practised by
Minos, Numa, and the most celebrated legislators of antiquity, should
now, in these restless and inquisitive times, be employed by the king of
England. Subjects are not raised above that quality, though assembled in
parliament. The same humble respect and deference is still due to their
prince. Though he indulges them in the privilege of laying before him
their domestic grievances, with which they are supposed to be best
acquainted, this warrants not their bold intrusion into every province
of government. And, to all judicious examiners, it must appear, "That
the lines of duty are as much transgressed by a more independent and
less respectful exercise of acknowledged powers, as by the usurpation
of such as are new