Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/49

Rh to us againſt the repeated attacks of wicked and abandoned traitors, and this is only to be done by the firmneſs and intrepidity of Engliſhmen.

, that my countrymen may learn throughly to underſtand the value of their birthright, I ſhall give the hiſtory of, together with a defence of it, in the homely language of an honeſt man, againſt the aſperſions thrown on it by and many others, and now revived by thoſe who are the enemies of our liberties, and are therefore the enemies of our peace.

order to this I ſhall firſt ſhew, That Magna Charta is much elder than K. ’s time, and conſequently that its birth cannot be blemiſhed with any thing that was done in his reign, though his confirmation of it had been really extorted by rebellion. Secondly, That the confirmations which were had and procured to it in K. ’s and the third’s time, were far from being gained by rebellion.

, The contents of Magna Charta is the undoubted inheritance of England, being their antient and approved laws; ſo antient, that they ſeem to be of the ſame ſtanding with the