Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A29406
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A Brief account of the nullity of King James's title and of the obligation of the present oaths of allegiance
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1689
(1689)
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Wing B4512; ESTC R21834
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7,210
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14
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hostile Enterprizes no less than any other open Invader By this means we find the Legal Government did for the time expire His Commands were in a Language strange and unknown to our Laws to which therefore none were bound to pay Allegiance His Magistrates such as had no Union or Communion with the lawful Members of the Kingdom which might not therefore be moved or acted by them insomuch as the Body Politick lay as it were a lifeless Carcass as tho' we had been dissolved into an aggregate Multitude having no common Interests nor any proper Methods to pursue them by reduced as it were to a state of Anarchy and Confusion Therefore it must be concluded That when he first embraced these Principles he became uncapable of our Legal Government which he did thereby vertually renounce and when he first made his Designs public he likewise made it appear how little Allegiance was due to him No man can be invested with any Authority but by his own consent and when it appears that he will not accept of that Authority which is consistent with the Constitution he at the same time disclaims all those Prerogatives that are annex'd to that Authority If our Fundamental Laws require themselves to be observed beyond all other Laws they must needs invalidate all such Pleas as might be brought from any other Laws in the behalf of such a person which might prove destructive of themselves they can no more bestow or approve the Government of such a person than they can require or approve the subversion of that Politie which they establish or contradictions can consist together If a total Anarchy or suspense of Government be inconsistent with our Laws much more such a Monarch who will not only not execute but is resolved to cancel them It is impossible to conceive an attempt of a more publick Robbery or tragical Mischief than this That one man should make himself Master of the Lives and Fortunes of a whole Nation which he should by his Principles be obliged to destroy This is so great a Change or rather Destruction of our Government as nothing could be greater If a Duke of Venice should go about to make himself a Legal Monarch to establish the Government in his Family to be administred according to Law the Change had been insensible in comparison of this when a free People are wholly enslav'd and are made Tenants at Will for all their Goods and Possessions If it would be lawful to defend the Rights of the Republick against the Usurpations of the one kind it would be much more so to defend our Rights against the other which are far greater And so far is this Change from being feigned that our Enemies did not only project our Ruin but rather did openly triumph in the expectation of it From all which we see the demonstrative Evidence of this Argument Whosoever lives amongst us cannot but know our Fundamental Laws and Customs which by no means allow but cancel that usurp'd Power and Authority of any Prince which is not directed by Law. And the same persons cannot choose but know the Principles and Undertakings of King James that he did utterly disclaim such a limited Power as being insufficient to answer his ends And the Conclusion is contained in these self-evident Premisses That since he would not accept of such a â—oâ—er he could have no other Power or Authority according to our Constitution and consequently he could be no legal or rightful King therefore his Title must be utterly null and void That our Laws might make it appear more expresly that such a person is uncapable of the Government they have declared without all exception That all such as revolt to that Church which is our professed Enemy shall be esteem'd as Traytors and Outlaws And it would be strange that any person should be capable to become the Head of the Body Politick who by vertue of those Principles was so utterly cut off from all share of Communion and Society in it that according to the sense of our Laws he became uncapable to enjoy any priviledge as a common Member of it We see how excellently our Constitution is fram'd which requires that the Laws of God should be apply'd to our particular circumstances and as each Member is concern'd for the Interest and Happiness of that Society to which he appertains so they all are oblig'd in their several stations to maintain the same Government for the honour of God and the good of the People and therefore in cases of extremity they may use those means which are necessary for that end If there had been no Law for that purpose yet the Law of Nature gives every Regular Government a Right to defend it self against all the p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d Enemies of it It is a Maxim of our Law That the Laws of God and Nature should take place before all other Laws The same Law of Nature teaches That he can never be capable to be the Head of any Society who cannot imploy the proper Offices of the Head for their due Ends but is oblig'd to pervert them to quite contrary purposes such a Society is to all intents and purposes destitute of a Governour when he who usurps that place neglects to afford those necessary assistances that are due from him But the case is yet far worse when such an Enemy challenges the Power and Trust which belongs only to a Guardian and Father who thinks it his Duty to ruine those whom he ought to protect and defend Since therefore it appears That there was an utter incapacity in the Person of the late King to become the Legal Rightful King of this Realm and such an Incapacity as was grounded in the Laws of God and Nature in the Fundamental and other Municipal Laws of this Land. Hence it follows That none of these Prerogatives not to be resisted not to forfeit not to be depos'd which by the Laws of God and of this Land do seem plainly to be annex'd to the persons of all our True and Rightful Kings acting legally as the Church of England ever has and does still teach could any way in conscience be accounted due to him who did not only grosly abuse but quite endeavour'd to destroy the true Legal Power of an English Monarch And therefore so soon as his dissembl'd incapacity was discovered the Nullity of his Title might appear to have been from the Beginning And consequently since there can be no Interregnum the Right must descend to such as were qualify'd according to Law who with the Consent of Parliament may dispose of the Regal Power in such manner as might seem most useful for the publick Good. And if our Allegiance thus appear to be due to 'em it ought to be declared in such manner and by such Oaths as the Law appoints FINIS
defence of the Government By which Power of disposing all the Principal Offices Ecclesiastical Civil and Military if he approves himself sincere and faithful to his own and the Publick Interest and Honour he cannot easily fail to establish his Authority so securely that he may command all the Force of a Nation for his Service But that it may appear This Power of disposing all Magistrates was designed purely in order to the Publick Good All those Magistrates which he appoints are sworn to execute their Offices strictly according to Law though it be contrary to the personal Commands of the Prince The Law over-rules all those Commissions which he grants contrary to it self and his Ministers shall be punish'd as Betrayers of the Publick Weal if they execute any of his private Commands contrary to Law. This is the short account of the Fundamental Laws of this Land which are antecedent to all Statute-Laws the prime Branches of our Common Law which are to be seen by the constant Practices Customs and Vsages in the Administration of our Government In the next place if we consider the great Authority of these Laws the very nature of the thing requires that they should over rule all other Laws which were made only to be subservient to 'em by which the great Ends of Government are supported Therefore the Harmony and Analogy of our Constitution requires That all other Laws should be constru'd in a sense consistent and agreeable to these Laws Therefore it is confessed by Lawyers and Politicians That the Reason of State is the Rule and Measure of all Laws Upon this account it is declared That all Acts and Statutes shall be null which are contrary to Mag. Charta cap. ult 42 Ed. 3. c. 1. Though that Charter contains only the principal heads of Caution against such Abuses as might tend to the subversion of these Fundamental Laws for the same reason it is declared That the King can make no Act which should tend to his own Disinherison because it is supposed the great Council of the Nation is called together to consult of the best means to secure the present Government not to reduce it to a Democracy Therefore whatever the Terms of any Statute may be neither the King nor that Council are supposed to design his Disinherison And for the same Reason if the Members of Parliament endeavouring to prevent Faction should pass any Acts which might seem to tend to the enslaving of the People such Statutes shall be so far null or they shall be construed in such a qualify'd sence as may be consistent with the Fundamental Laws because otherwise this would be no less destructive of the Government than the former And the People are supposed not to design any such change of Government that their Lives and Fortunes be dependent purely at pleasure but rather that the Government should be dissolved than that they should be obliged to accept such intolerable Conditions of it Which further appears because not only they but even the Princes themselves have still acknowledged That the Government has all along continued the same This is the account of the great Authority of these Fundamental Laws by which the Rights and Liberties of the People are establish'd by which the power of the Prince is most happily directed and limited And so into possible it is that any of our Princes should have any Right or Power but what they may claim by these Laws that we have not so much as the Being of a Body Politick but by vertue of the same Laws Therefore the same Laws which bestow the very Essence of the Body Politick do likewise pâ—â—scribe the Essential Qualifications of the Prince or Political Head of it From whence we may see in short the definitive account of an English Monarch That he must be such a Legal Heir of the Royal Family who is willing to exercise the Soveraign Power according to the direction of the Fundamental Laws for the preservation of his own Prerogative and the due Rights of the People in order to the Publick Good. And when by the constant Tenour of his actions he makes it appear That he is obstinately bent not to accept of such a Legal Power he does thereby demonstrate that he has renounc'd the Government and has devested himself of all Power and Authority Now if we consider in the last place the Principles and Undertakings of King James nothing can be more notorious than that he was averse to such a Legal Power and utterly uncapable of it For he did declare himself a zealous Member of a foreign Church and Society which were the declared Enemies of our Government by whose Canons he was obliged to destroy our Laws and root out all the Lawful Members of the Government as Hereticks He was oblig'd to change our Constitution by vertue of which he enjoyed his Power to destroy our Laws and with them our Liberty and Property and his own Legal Authority to make himself Absolute and Arbitrary and all out Lives and Fortunes dependent upon his pleasure So that we see in Speculation the Essential Qualifications of an English Monarch could not be found in him his Principles were utterly opposite and inconsistent therefore it is self-evident he was uncapable to be the true and Rightful King or Head of this Political Body The same did appear no less evident in Practice than Speculation for it is manifest in all his Undertakings he went quite Counter to the Fundamental Institution of an English Monarch Instead of maintaining our Laws he usurped a Power to suspend and null them Instead of preserving the true course of Judicature he appointed such as were Enemies of the Constitution to be Judges and Jurors and Officers to pass unjust Sentences upon the Legal Members and to execute the same Instead of defending our Faith and Religion established by Law he was resolved to obtrude another that was destructive of it Instead of appointing Magistrates Ecclesiastical and Civil that should be duly sworn and zealous to maintain the Laws of Church and State he was resolved to constitute none but such as were the professed Enemies or such as he expected would prove the Betrayers of them who should use all Arts of fraud and force to pervert the People and undermine the Laws Instead of imploying the Militia for the defence of the People his Enterprizes were notorious whereby he endeavoured to enslave them He accepted no Taxes in the ordinary course of Law and to answer the ends of it but waited an opportunity to make himself Master of all the Estates and Wealth of the Nation In short he was oblig'd by his Principles and wholly bent in all his Endeavours to destroy all the proper Regalia of the English Monarchy His actions did loudly declare That he renounc'd all Authority allowed him by the Fundamental Constitution He depended altogether upon a Power which he expected to gain by force upon which account he might be oppos'd in all such