Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/180

134 ſays, the King has theſe above him, ; alſo the law, which makes him a King; alſo his parliament, namely, the earls and barons, who ought to bridle a lawleſs King, &c. In this large paſſage you plainly ſee that what the barons did was ſo far from being the abſurd and preſumptuous uſurpation of making themſelves judges and executors in their own cauſe, that it was their bounden duty. It was not only lawful for them to reſtrain and bridle a lawleſs King, but it was incumbent upon them under the greateſt penalties, and neither lawful nor ſafe for them to let it alone. So that here the barons were hard beſet; the pope delivers them up to Satan for what they did, and they had expoſed themſelves to the vengeance of, and going to hell, if they had not done it. But they choſe to do their duty to and their diſtreſſed country, and to venture the cauſeleſs curſe from Rome.

multiply quotations out of Fleta and others to the ſame purpoſe, but what I have ſet down is ſufficient; and therefore I ſhall rather take this occaſion to admire the wiſdom of the Engliſh conſtitution, which ſeems to be built for perpetuity.