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authority_n heir_n power_n successor_n 3,459 5 9.2559 5 true
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A66454 An answer to sundry matters contain'd in Mr. Hunt's postscript to his argument for the bishops right in judging capital causes in Parliament ... whereunto is added a query to be put to the scrupulous and dissenting brotherhood : with an advertisement how usurpers of the crown ought to be dealt with / by Wa. Williams of the Middle Temple, a barrister at law. Williams, Walter, of the Middle Temple. 1683 (1683) Wing W2773A; ESTC R7863 19,108 36

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be no other than the next of Kin to the deceased King and the joyning of Successors to Heirs is capable of or at leastwise in the common sense and understanding thereof which is the sense it ought to be taken there can have no other construction but that the Kings Heirs shall be his Successors for ever and that we shall pay the same Allegiance to the Kings Heirs in their turns as we do to them but you say the unlimited power of the Legislative Authority can do any thing alter Succession yea Monarchy it self even at the very day that you wrote the Postscript without Controversie the power of the Legislative Authority is very great but I must distinguish between what may be done and what may be justly done If Monarchy or the Succession thereof should be altered by the Legislative power as it was by a Part of the Legislative Authority in dismal 48. and as is apparent some wish it should again It doth not therefore follow that it should be just to do so any more for whatsoever is contrary to the Eternal Law of God though commanded by the Legislative Authority is unjust and though the Legislative Authority may be of that power and force as to compel Obedience to their Laws yet they can never make Vice a Vertue or give Sanctity to a thing that is malum in se evil in it's very nature and essence By the Oath of Allegiance we declare that we do plainly and sincerely swear according to the express words there set down and according to the plain and common sense and understanding of these words If so by Heirs there must be meant the same that is meant thereby according to the common sense in common discourse and according to that sense then by Heirs is meant the next of Kin for when we enquire who is such a mans Heir we mean who is next of Kin to him But oh say you and the new-true Protestants the Succession of the Crown was not intended to be so absolutely limited to the Heirs but that if the Parliament thought fit to appoint another that is not the real Heir he must be the man This is a very vain idle and empty Hypothesis and a meer groundless supposition for the Oath it self restrains the meaning of the words to their common sense and understanding and renounces all manner of mental evasion or reservation whatsoever so here 's no reservation for an objection against the Heir neither as to his Religion or Person Here I have shewed you Gods Example of Establishing an Hereditary Monarchy and his precepts to obey it in no place in Divinity do I find a power given from God to the people to alter it at pleasure or when they think fit upon any pretence whatsoever here 's also an Oath of Obedience required by Act of Parliament from all people to stand to and defend the Hereditary Succession of the Crown here 's also in that Oath a Renuntiation of all Pardons and Absolutions from that Oath and an Explanation that it is to be understood according to the common sense and meaning of the words and this Oath is on ought to be taken by all people in the Kingdom How justifiable then would it be in the Legislative power to Act Counter to all these and having once required us to swear fidelity to an Hereditary Successor and to renounce all Absolutions from that Oath yet after wards to compel us to swear fidelity to one that is not the Hereditary Successor Dic quibus in terris eris mihi magnus Apollo from such Legislative power as despise Gods Example Reject his Providence and will engage a whole Nation to forswear themselves rather than use other means to Restrain even a Popish Successor Good Lord deliver me As to this point of Succession I shall add what I find Recommended by Mr. Prin in his Preface to Cottons Records fol. 10. Observe 14 Kings says he Created and set up merely by Parliaments and their own power in them without any true Hereditary Title have seldom answered the Lords and Commons Expectations in the preservation of their just Laws Liberties and Answers to Petitions yea themselves branded at last for Tyrants Traytors Murderers such another Doom as the ambitious Tower-Builders had confusion of Tongues yea and Senses to And as to the Scrupulous Brotherhood Recommend me to them and let them know that I dare affirm their Teachers are most of them Jesuits the true Papists in Masquerade who instead of Preaching Peace incite the people by a side-wind to Rebellion and let them know also That I desire to know of those seeming tender Conscienced Dissenters what Answer they will make at the great Tribunal when it shall be askt them why they occasioned the Murthering of their King put three Nations together by the Ears made them suck each others Hearts blood out Rob Ravish and Burn for that hath once been the consequence of their Scrupulosity and may be so again if they be not prevented Do you and they think it will be a sufficient excuse to say we could not hear a man Preach in white sleeves we had more kindness for one in a little round Cloak we could not look upon the Minister making the sign of the Cross in Baptism or we were loth lest we should spoil our silk Stockings to kneel at the Sacrament for our Consciences told us he was the finer man that Pray'd and Preach'd without Book by the help of the Spirit whither good or bad than he that well weighed and considered what he should say before he spoke though we are commanded not to be hasty to utter any thing before God Sure these reasons will never excuse them the rather for that they themselves acknowledge that they are but indifferent things in their own nature wherein they dissent from the Government and being so they are the more to blame that dissent and there is greater reason that they should comply with the Government than that the Government should truckle to every Humorist You say well in that you say there is nothing more exposeth the Authority of Government to contempt than a publick and open neglect of its Injunctions therefore I do heartliy wish our Magistrates would use civil force and power as far as by Law they may to enforce Obedience to the Laws both in Church and State and like good wise Parents give their stubborn Children the Rod of Correction in due time before they grow too head-strong I had almost omitted to say any thing touching Usurpers which I conceive may be very material for it is not enough to know who hath right to the Crown at the Decease of a King but it behoves us also to know how to prevent or remove Usurpers in case any such should happen and for that purpose I cannot but inform you that in my reading I find mention made of two sorts of Tyrannical Monarchs one sort of Tyrant is he who of his own
taught no Popery in Pulpits unless among the Lawless Conventicles whose Teachers if the Law be put in Execution against their Disciples will have but few Hearers and if all this be not enough his Majesty was Graciously pleased to assure us that he would make any new Law to secure us from Popery Yea even to the restraining of a Popish Successor so that the Succession of the Crown were not put out of its Lineal Course of Descent and I dare say the great Gown-man whoever he was whose Opinion as some say so far sway'd the Commons that they thought no Law could sufficiently secure us against a supposed Popish Successor but Exclusion from the Succession could not really be of that mind for a King can do no great harm he is but one man and if he should in his own Person attempt to offer any unjust violence to any man it is an easie matter to fly from him and that without imputation of Cowardise it being upon no account justifiable to resist the Kings Person with force but if any man Officer or other should by the Kings Command kill wound or beat any man that doth not obstinately refuse to answer his charge by course of Law before he is Convicted of the Fact by Verdict of his Peers or Equals or by his own Confession and before he is sentenc'd by a Judg for that purpose lawfully Authorised he that should so do is punishable notwithstanding such Command and moreover though the King by his Prerogative Royal may lawfully cause any man to be Imprisoned in order to come to Tryal yet if in the Commitment it appear not to be for Treason or Felony specially nam'd he must be bayl'd by the Judg and though Imprison'd for any of those offences yet he is to continue in Prison but until he may be Try'd by due Course of Law but unto the Kings Legal Commands in a Judicial way the whole Strength and Power of the Nation is bound to assist in compelling Obedience thereunto be his Commands signified by Himself or by his Magistrates and Judges in his Name who are sworn to do therein as the Law requires and not otherwise so that the King hath all Power to do lawful things lawfully yet to do any thing illegally he hath so little Power that it is truly said the King can do no wrong and besides all this every King at his Coronation takes an Oath to confirm the Laws to his People to maintain the Gospel established in the Kingdom to keep Peace execute Justice and grant the Commons their rightful Customs be his own Religion what it will So that here 's all the Bars and Bolts imaginable to keep out Popery from being imposed on the People of England whatever the Kings Religion be which those do not well consider that compare these days with those of Queen Mary which were long before any of these Laws before-mentioned were made and when Reformation was but scarce begun by her Father towards the later end of his Reign and countenanced but not much improv'd by her Brother who died an Infant King and when that Queen came to the Crown it cannot be supposed that the tenth part of the Nation were Converts from Popery as appears by what then hapned for she soon got a Popish Parliament who as soon submitted themselves to the Pope and asked Pardon for their offences against him and declared themselves ready to abrogate all Laws prejudicial to the See of Rome but the Case is alter'd now Here 's no Popish Members can be elected the whole Nation being almost Protestants and consequently will elect no Papist nor one suspected to be so or if any such should chance to be so elected yet no such Popish Member is to be admitted into Parliament So here 's no Popish Parliament can be that should consent to make Laws in savour of Popery nor can there be any Popish Magistrates admitted that should favour the Papists by omitting to execute the Laws against them Nor is there any Priests that should perswade them to Popery to be heard among us unless in Conventicles so that here 's no room by Law for Popery sure in England nor ever can be if we keep to the course we are in and gape not after changes in the Government or suffer our selves to be frighted with shadows so far as to depend more upon dishonest Policy than Gods Providence and honest Prudence But suppose that Originally the Succession of the Crown were in the people yet in the same breath you contradict your self by saying it is so now for you say also that they have appointed and consented that it should be Hereditary Is not a Bargain a Bargain Do you think they can Revoke this Agreement at pleasure I think there is no Law for that That the people of England both in this and former Ages as far as an Oath Established by Act of Parliament can oblige which I think no man will say but it is the greatest obligation in the World have or ought to have ●ound themselves that the Succession of the Crown shall ●e Hereditary The Oath of Allegiance Established by the Legislative ●uthority in your own Notion and by the Statute 3. ●●c and 4. and elsewhere so frequently obliged to be ●●ken is in these words viz. That we will bear faith and true ●llegiance to his Majesty His Heirs and Successors and him ●●d them will defend to the utmost of our power against all ●●nspiracies and Attempts whatsoever which shall be made ●●ainst his or their persons c. Now for a little Exposition upon the Text for nothing can be so plain but some may invert the sense of it since some wrest even the Scriptures to their own Damnation and yet go according to their Consciences still such as their nature is such is their Logick the Spider draws Poyson from the same Flower that the Bee gathers Honey First I shall observe only That the Statute which appoints this Oath of Allegiance was made since the Statute of the 13. of Queen Elizabeth which made it an Offence to say the Queen by Authority of Parliament could not limit the Descent of the Crown and if the said Statute that appoints the said Oath by such appointment hath so limited and setled the Descent and Succession of the Crown that I cannot perceive how now it can be justly altered for demonstration whereof it is requisite the signification of the word Heirs be rightfully understood this word Heirs is in our English Dialect the same the Latins called Heredes Sanguinis Heirs of the Blood not adopted Heirs still the next of kin to the Deceased Successively one after the other for ever for though a Father should give away his Estate from his Eldest Son yet he is Heir though a disinherited one and though men dispose of their Lands as they think fit Yet Deus facit Haeredes God makes Heirs and I take the meaning of the word Heirs in that Oath to