own Will should prescribe to it By virtue of this Unlimited Power he brought a Jesuit into the Privy-Council made a Profess'd Papist Secretary of State constituted two Popish Judges and fill'd up many of the most Important Offices and Places of Trust and Profit in the Kingdom with Papists such as Sheriffs Justices of the Peace Mayors of Cities and Corporations and Officers in his Army And that he might be able to gain his Point and force those that refus'd to comply voluntarily he put the Tower of London the great Magazin of England and Keeper of the Regalia into the Hands of Sir Edward Hales as Rank and Sowr a Papist as ever our Soil produc'd and fill'd all the Vacant Places of his Army with Popish Officers By the same Authority he granted an Ecclesiastical Commission gave Four Popish Bishops Power to visit several Districts in England plac'd a Society of Jesuits in the Savoy and erected Popish Schools and Mass-Houses in most of our Cities and Corporations And Lastly To annoy his Subjects and force his Way through all Difficulties in Times of Peace kept a Standing Army 'T is needless to tell the Reader that these Proceedings were contrary to the Laws of the Land and wholly Inconsistent with them for there are very few or none but know it already in general Terms I shall therefore apply my self to shew you how it was against Law and what would have been the Consequences of this Unlimited Power if the late King had continu'd longer amongst us And this brings me to shew you his particular Actions To feel the Pulse of England and try how they Resented his Proceedings the late King commonly began the Exercise of his Arbitrary Power in Scotland and from the Measures that were taken there we might take a Prospect of his Tyranny and our own Calamities for tho' he shew'd us his Designs under the Soft Title of Dispencing in Scotland he threw off that Vizor and explained himself in calling it Vide Scotch Declaration Annulling and Disabling Laws And to shew all the World his Arbitrary Ends he gave such a Specimen of his Single Unlimited Power there that he attempted to do more in that Kingdom which as well as ours is a Limited Monarchy than the United Power of King Lords and Commons together were able to do and that was by imposing an Oath on that People contrary to Law in these Words You shall swear to the utmost of your Power to Defend Assist and Maintain the King and his Successors in the Exercise of their Absolute Power And this I take Leave to say the King and Parliament could not impose upon the Subject because it was in it self a Subversion of the Constitution as being an Obligation to support a Power destructive to the whole Frame of the Government This Caprichio of the late King James was the Master-piece of all his Jesuited Counsels and the Finishing Stroke of an Eternal Vassalage for this Oath was created by his Arbitrary Power and his Arbitrary Power was to be supported by this Oath and both must grow together and run in an Endless Circle to the utter Extinction of all the Remains of our Natural Liberty or Legal Government And what was done in Scotland we have Reason to believe in its Course must have been exercis'd in England also the late King having no more or other Authority in one Kingdom than he has in the other and both then govern'd by the same Arbitrary Maxims and Popish Ministers In England the late King assuming a Dispensing power Usurp'd the whole Legislative Authority into his own Hands for to Dispense with Laws is as great a power as to make them and by the exercise of it invested himself with a power as great if not greater than that of King and Parliament together who can joyntly but not severally give any Resolve the Authority of a Law The pretences to justifie this Action was that he might have the assistance of all his Subjects and that the Papists having been equally Loyal to his Progenitors they might not be discourag'd by legal Discriminations This was but a light pretence tho' part of the Intrigue for his dispencing power was chiefly directed to another and more considerable purpose From the latter end of King Charles's Reign the Press was loaden with Pamphlets and City and Country fill'd with invectives against Parliaments as unnecessary Wenns in the Government that were fit to be cut off that the Royal Authority might be without any Legal or Pecuniary Restraint or Limitation Now the Dispencing Power would do this Work effectually for it put the whole Legislative Authority into the King's Hands and made Parliaments Useless and signifie Nothing For this End was it set up And the Employing Papists that were Unqualify'd by Law was for no other End but to support the Dispencing Power till it had accomplish'd what was intended by it Protestants could not be suppos'd to engage in this Design for the Law was made in their Favour and was their Security against Romish Persecutions and Depredations and therefore the late King would bring Papists into the Government to whom the Laws were Enemies that in requital they might be Enemies to to the Laws and stick at nothing to support their King's Power that made them what they were and would only continue them in their Advantageous Stations So that if that King should gain his Point there seem'd a kind of Mutual Necessity for the late King to Introduce Papists and for Papists to execute his Orders or the Power and the Officers would sink into their Original Nothing But the Snare is broken and we are Deliver'd Strong Desires are the Common Temptations to the Use of Ill Means and never did any Man grasp at the Power to do Mischief without the Purpose If ever there have been such mysterious Riddles of Irregular Vertue yet James the Second never gave any Instances of it for it plainly appear'd in him how effectually the Temptation of Unlimited Power work'd in his Ambitious Humour He never thought any thing Enough till he had ingross'd a Power to Ruin All and turn Old England into a Wilderness of New Confusions By this Dispencing Power he at once suspended above Forty Statures relalating to our Religion and the next Week by the same Arbitrary Power might have suspended Forty more that secur'd our Civil Properties likewise for he had no more Right to do the one than the other and so might have gone on to the End of the Chapter till he had Abrogated all the Laws in the Statute-Book and acted here as afterwards Doctor King tells us he did in Ireland * State of Ireland p. 92. Seize Men's Goods for his own Use by a File of Musqueteers or at best by his own Warrant without any kind of Legal Process and to which he had no other Claim but that he wanted them Now if this be not Tyranny nothing in the World can merit that Appellation and therefore
of his Reign was the first Act of Parliament made for entailing the Crown with Remainders By vertue of which Entail his Son Henry the fifth became King and after him Henry the sixth in whose time Richard Duke of York claim'd the Crown and an Act of Parliament was made 39 Hen. 6. that Henry should enjoy the Crown for his Life and Richard and his Heirs after him After which King Henry raise's an Army kills Richard for which He the Queen and Prince were all Attainted 1 Edw. 4. because Richard was declared Heir apparent to the Crown after Henry by Act of Parliament but this Attainder was repeal'd in terms of Disgrace and Detestation 1 Hen. 7. Rot. Parl. 1 Hen. 7. Edward the fourth succeeded Henry 6. by vertue of an Act of Parliament made in the time of Hen. 6 for entailing the Crown as Son and Heir to the Duke of York Richard the third was confirmed King by Act of Parliament tho' he came to it by blood and murther Henry the seventh comes in by no Legal Title because Edw. the fourth's Daughter and his own Mother were both living In his time the Crown was entail'd on him and his Heirs by an Act of Parliament and he would never suffer any other Title to declare his Right Henry the eighth succeeded who as all his Laws speak deriv'd his Title to the Crown from his Father by vertue of the Act of Parliament above-nam'd and not by any Title from his Mother tho' by the Law of Succession his Right from Queen Elizabeth Daughter of Edw. 4. was indisputable In his Reign the Crown was thrice entail'd but the great one was that of 35. c. 1. by which Edward the sixth Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth succeeded in whose Reign was made an Act of Parliament making it high Treason to say it was not in the Power of Parliaments to limit the Succession of the Crown Upon the Marriage of Queen Mary to King Philip of Spain both the Crowns of England and Spain were entail'd and the Articles of Marriage confirm'd by Act of Parliament and by that Act of Parliament Philip was created King and exercis'd Sovereign Authority and particularly in making Laws together with the Queen the Style of the Royal Assent to Bills in Parliament being at that time Le Roy La Reigne les veulent by all which it appears that the Kings of England since the Crown was setl'd in a particular Family as well as before are Kings by the Laws of the 〈…〉 of human Constitution tho' their Power is from God Almighty Nor does this opinion aim at the changing our Hereditary Monarchy into an Elective Kingdom but shews that there is no such absolute necessity of keeping the Lineal Descent in respect of a single Person that it cannot be chang'd for the preservation of a Kingdom contrary to the Opinion of our Lawyers who affirm from History Records and Law-Books that our Monarchy is Hereditary as to a Family but Elective as to Persons However to obviate the prejudice that might arise from that preconceit I shall shew you 't is Hereditary and yet that that Hereditary Right came also by Law and therefore may be interrupted by our Legislators That England is an Hereditary Monarchy and that the common course of Succession is to be inviolably observ'd when it consists with the publick good and safety of the Kingdom none will deny for our own Laws have so determin'd it as a custom grounded upon sufficient Reasons Our Ancestors perceiving that the way of Electing Kings was subject to many Inconveniencies and often expos'd the Kingdom to Tempests Interregnum's and Revolutions as well as to the seditious commotions of under-hand dealers and the Pride and Ambition of Men too desirous to be uppermost And that Kings coming to the Crown by Election neglected the Demeans and squander'd away the Treasure of the Nation because they had no prospect of leaving the Crown to their Heirs 't was therefore thought advisable and beneficial to the Publick to fix the Royalty in a particular Family As for example In the eighth of Hen. the fourth there was an Act of Parliament which entail'd the Crown with Remainders And to name no other instances of the like kind it was made Treasonable by an Act of Parliament in the thirteenth of Queen Elizabeth for any Man to affirm that the common Laws of this Realm ought not to direct the Right of the Crown of England or that the Laws were not of sufficient force and validity to limit and bind the Crown of this Realm and the Descent Limitation Inheritance and Government thereof So that 't is plain an Hereditary Right is a Right by the Laws of England and not otherwise And what need is there of any other since a Right by Law makes a Rightful and Lawful King in despite of all the over-nice Distinctions of State-Criticks to the contrary And truly Of all Men living the late King James and his Defenders have least Reason to quarrel this Right by Law For How came it to pass that the Line of the Stewarts had a better Title to the Crown of Scotland than that of the Baliols but only that the Laws of Scotland that is the Consent of the Estates of that Kingdom made them so For otherwise if we search into the Pedigrees of those two Families we shall find that Baliol according to the common receiv'd Rules of Descent was nearer in Blood to the last King David than Bruce and was so adjudg'd at a solemn Hearing * Bak. Chron. pag. 96. between both Parties by our King Edward the First in Parliament Besides the late King has left it upon Record from his own Mouth that the Laws of England were able to make a King as great and happy as he could desire to be and after that I cannot imagine what he could wish for next But His Intentions being fix'd to destroy those Laws that in observing them would have made him great and happy he stood in need of a Title Superior to them therefore his Flatterers contriv'd one of a Divine Original and yet it dy'd before him the Divinity of his Office was more Mortal than that of his Person and well it might having no Being unless in the Heads of its first Inventore The Scripture has declar'd the Falsity of this new Hypothesis †Rom. 13. St. Paul saying There is no Power but of God must be understood of Government in general For the Apostle does not say There is no Prince but is of God but There is no Power but of God St. Peter also makes Kings to be of Humane Constitution as well as our Laws which know no such thing as a Personal Authority in the King Antecedent and Superiour to all Laws nor no Divine Law or just Inference from it which does any where set aside Humane Constitutions agreeable to Christianity and beneficial to Civil Societies Therefore if a King by Lawful Succession shall act unlawfully and
instead of preserving the Religious and Civil Rights of his Subjects shall endeavour to destroy them he may be set aside without Prejudice to the Constitution since we are not oblig'd to preserve the Right of the Succession to the Destruction of the Kingdom Fit and Just ought to over-rule Custom and Formalities give way to the Necessities of the Publick 'T was a common Saying amongst the late King James's Favourites that their King had a Divine Right and therefore he would not be a Slave to the Law And there is greater Reason that his Subjects should not be Slaves to a Tyrant that broke them nor Millions of Souls be ruin'd to humour a Single Person No pretended Right whatsoever can Legitimate Unlawful Practices and therefore when a King forgetting whose Minister he is degenerates into Tyrant and deprives the Nation of all those Blessings that Heaven had given us the quiet Enjoyment of I think there can be no Reason assign'd why we should endure those Violences any longer than till we are in a Capacity to help our selves The Right of Succession has been always Claim'd but not constantly Enjoy'd and the Two Houses of Parliament notwithstanding this Claim have set the Crown upon the Heads of those Princes whom they knew had no Hereditary Right to it and yet they have been esteem'd as Lawful Kings in all our Chronicles and Laws while those who were next of Blood were laid Aside when the Safety of the Kingdom which is to be consider'd in the first and chiefest place makes it necessary so to do Into what a lamentable Condition would this Kingdom have been reduc'd if the Law that Intails the Succession on the Next in Blood should also give him a Power to do what he pleases be it Right or Wrong Wherefore as the Law has often dispenc'd with the Next Heir before he came to the Crown for the former Reasons so it shews us that we are no ways bound to a Prince on the Throne who by Breaking the Laws of the Constitution has Abdicated the Government and stands Virtually Depos'd by his own Actions as well as by a Law as antient as Edward the Confessor or rather Edgar his Grandfather which says If the King refuseth to govern by Law not so much as the Name or Title of King remains to him For * Nec nomen Regis in eo constabit Spel. Concil leg Guil. c. 6. Hoveden's Annals Part 2. p. 608. he ceases to be King that governs by his own Will and not according to Law So that 't is plain the Kings of England are not Kings by a Divine but Humane Appointment They are not Absolute but Limited Monarchs and Circumscrib'd and Bounded in their Powers and Prerogatives from Oppressing and Destroying their Subjects which if the late King had observ'd without suffering himself to have been abus'd by False Notions and Fawning Flatteries he might have been as Great and as Happy a Prince as he could have wish'd himself to be Whereas striving to be above all has reduc'd him into a Mean and Insignificant Station So true is that Maxim That they which Wrestle with Laws are always Thrown and fall Uneasie and Unpity'd But As Mischiefs seldom come Alone so this pretended Divine Right was accompany'd with the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance the first set him above all kind of Restraint and the other laid his Subjects under his Feet to be Trampled on or Destroy'd at his Pleasure and both being of pernicious Consequence I shall endeavour to stop the Currency of the latter also by shewing that the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance are False in their Application of it and Dangerous to Kings and Destructive to Subjects They are false as the Authors apply them in Licensing all kind of Wickedness and putting it into the Power of every Arbitrary Ruler to invade the Laws and Liberties the Lives and Fortunes of his Subjects and to do what Mischief he pleases whilst by a Voluntary Submission we yield up our Rights which tho we might have been able to have Kept them while we had them may never be in any possibility of Regaining them when we have lost them Nam quid vis citius dissolvi posse videmus Quam rursus reficio For Things much sooner perish than attain Being dissolv'd to be repair'd again Sad Examples whereof we have in our Neighbouring Kingdoms who for want of a timely opposing the Arbitrary Power of their Kings have fallen into Governments as Absolute and Tyrannical as the Ottoman Empire where no Man can call any thing his own Certainly those which with so much Zeal contend for Passive Obedience never consider'd the Consequences of it What would not some Princes do if they were assured that no body would oppose them Nay what would not the late King have done had he been let alone to pursue his Violent Methods without that most admirable Check of Providence that encounter'd him Nature has founded our Obedience upon a Supposition that it was for the Good of the Community and not otherwise And would it not be a Contradiction if Princes might extend their Authority beyond the Design of its Institution and attempt the Destruction of the Society and we quietly submit to whatever they pleas'd to do I am as far from denying the Persons of the Kings and Queens of this Nation to be Sacred and Inviolable as any Man living yet I dare not say they are to be Obey'd in All Cases whatsoever for then the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and the Bow-string would be the same and we must owe our Lives to Fortune not to Justice What if a King should take pleasure in Burning of Cities Murthering Men and Ravishing Women for such Kings there have been in the World and what has been may be again Sure 't would be a piece of the greatest Impiety and Wickedness but to imagin he might do it without Control Fathers by the Law of Nature have a greater Authority over their Children than Kings have over their Subjects and yet if a Father comes to kill his Child he is not oblig'd to submit and open his Breast to the Dagger or hold up his Throat whilst his Father cuts it No Nature Common Sense Self-preservation and the Practice of all Nations is too powerful for the Sophistry of such Principles and those that cannot reason can feel what they are to do in such Cases Grotius says The King must be bereav'd of his Wits that attempts the Destruction of his whole People but grants that they do sometimes destroy one Part for the sake of another as King James's Design was to destroy the Protestants in favour of the Papists and the English in favour of the Irish but says he ought not to be Obey'd in such Frentick Depopulations And if Grotius thinks the Prince Mad that attempts it we may conclude them little better that mis-apply their Parts to defend it For tho' the Scripture commands Obedience to Authority without Exception
without Intermeddling in Nice and Secret Matters of State that are out of his Reach and Inconsistent with his Duty that heartily Obeys the King in all his Commands that do not thwart the Laws of God Nature or his Country that Honours Loves and Defends the King's Person Crown and Dignity and Chearfully Contributes to the Support of his Government that makes his Private Concerns stoop to the Publick Good and Sustains those Losses with Patience that he suffers for the Common Interest One that can distinguish betwixt Slavish Fear and Religious Obedience betwixt the Interest and Cause of a whole Nation and the Clamours and Discontents of a Litigious and Incorrigible Faction One that will be True to his King without being False to his God or Treacherous to his Country And to conclude One that like the Poet 's Dyal always stands True tho' the Sun of Reward or Favour never shines upon him In this Portraicture of an English Subject in Little you may see the whole Design of Christianity on this Subject which is Keeping every thing within its proper Bounds without Needless Increments or Criminal Abatements of Royal Authority which always terminate in Vanity or Wickedness and consequently are extreamly prejudicial to the Receiver and Detractor 'T is the Evil in the Increase and Use of Power that those declaim against who are for no more than a Legal Obedience for Non-Resistance in its proper Latitude has its true Weight and Value with us as much as any other Christian Duty and tho' we cannot swallow it so Glibly as it was Adulterated in the late Prescription to serve a Temporizing Interest abstracted from the Publick Good yet that does not hinder us from Digesting it better and Practising it more Dutifully and Constantly than those who were as Ready to Throw it up as they were to Imbibe it or that still Retain it to do further Mischief And having thus secur'd our Loyalty and Fidelity to our Sovereign under this Supposition I shall re-assume the Argument for Resistance when the Necessity of it is as Certain and General as ours was All differing Persons about Non-Resistance agree in this That if a King is resolutely bent to Destroy his Subjects and that no Perswasion can alter his Purpose but that he stocks himself with such Ministers and Officers as will co-operate with him in the execution of his Tragical Designs his Subjects may Desert him Decline his Government and Service and seek Protection where they can find it Of this Opinion is the Excellent Grotius Barclay Pufendorf Bodin Bishop Bilson Bishop Sanderson Dr. Hammond and Mr. Falkener I confess they say the case is not to be put as almost impossible to happen yet I think it but Reasonable to suppose it here because I shall prove it in the Sequel beyond Contradiction that the late King James was under a necessity of destroying his Protestant Subjects that all his Actions openly declared it and therefore may say with the Author of Jovian That 't was Lawful to resist him since he himself has said in the same Page That he should be tempted to pray for the Destruction of such a Prince as the only means of delivering the Church and for that Reason I am charitably inclin'd to think that the great Promoters of Non-Resistance never intended this Doctrine should extend beyond Private and Tolerable Evils for stretching it to Intolerable and Universal Mischiefs would have proclaim'd 'em void of Sence and common Discretion as well as Humanity which can no way agree with some of their Characters Sober Men would soon be agreed about the Resistance pleaded for if they were not more prejudic'd against the Word than against what is intended in the Thing either as to the Object or End of it for to resist Violent Usurpations and Horrid Cruelties is not Resisting the Supreme Authority or the Ordinance of God but opposing Murderers and Cut-Throats who under Venerable Disguises are Destroying the People and covering the Land with Blood and Carnage Names and Titles can never Sanctifie or Alter the Nature of Facts the thing done and the Manner and End of doing it will denominate the Action For tho as King he may put his Subjects to Death by form of Law he cannot kill or otherwise destroy them without it but at the same time he gives himself another Epithet looses the Right he had and ceases to be a King by such repeated Acts of Illegality and Tyranny The Ends of Government which is the Peoples Good are as Sacred as the Prince's Authority and if as the Apostle says he be not to us the Minister of God for Good he looses the Title of God's Minister for his Servants they are whom they obey St. Paul never Intended to Abrogate the Laws of Nature which gives every Individual Person a Right to his Own nor Expose Men to Beggary Slavery Inevitable Ruine here and Damnation hereafter for Resisting a Prince that was ingaged to destroy his People since no Man that has not lost the use of his Reason can believe that Murdering Ruining and Inslaving the Bodies and Souls of the People is any part of Civil Government or that Resisting an Implacable Tyrant is Resisting the Ordinance of God when 't is plain that God never gave him any such Authority To say that such Kings are set up by the Almighty as a Punishment for our Sins is no Argument against Resistance but a strong one for it for the Pestilence Famine and the Sword of Foreign Enemies are all of them Evils sent by God for the punishment of our Offences yet I think no Man will say but we ought by all Natural and Humane Indeavours to free our selves from those Calamities without an immediate Revelation The like may be said of Tyrants for the contrary would level us with Beasts which may be Sold Kill'd and Devour'd at the Will of those that have power over them So that from what has been said 't is evident that Resisting Tyrants is not Resisting the Supreme Authority but Defending our selves against the Insults of a Destroyer under the cover of another Title This Consideration will set us right and not Rob us of the pleasant Idea's that spring from our Deliverance for if any for by Ends deny what has been said above to be a Truth now they will be of another Mind at the Day of Judgment when things shall appear as they are The Ends of Resistance and Self-Defence does also prove the Lawfulness of it as it Respects the King or his Subjects who are equally concern'd in the Benefit of it Is it not better for a King to Assure his Authority by rendring it Just and Moderate than expose it to danger by Arbitrary Attempts Is it not better to comply with the kind Persuasions and Dutiful Admonishments of his true Friends and Faithful Counsellors which is always presumed to go before Actual Resistance than to feel the bad Effects of his own misguided Will Cicero says Cicero pro Balb.
* By this means the Romans establish'd their Empire in sharing the Advantages of it among the People whose Obedience is secur'd by Acts of Grace and Protection from Danger and truly did not the boundless Ambition of Unwary Monarchs blind the Eyes of their Reason from discerning their True and Lasting Interests they would never run into such Extreams of Arbitrary Sway as render'd their Government Odious and their Persons Hated No King in Europe has more his own Will and lives more happily than He which conforms his Inclinations and Actions to the Sense of the Law and the Love of his People and in this Sense he may be as Absolute as he pleases without Overturning the World to accomplish it He can Desire nothing but what will be freely Granted him nor Do any thing that will be Distasted And what can the greatest Monarch in the World desire more than to have his Wants Liberally Supply'd his Actions Universally Approv'd and Applauded This and no other End is the Design of the Resistance contended for but that a Prince misguided by ill Counsel may without Injury to his Person or Diminution to his Rightful Authority if fair Means can prevail be Reclaim'd from Violating the Rights of his Subjects and brought to a Temper consistent with his Own and his Subjects Happiness And if any Ill-minded Men carry it further we can only say that the Abuse of a Thing does not impeach the Lawful Use of it Let those that offend the Law suffer for the Breach of it Another End of Resistance is the Good of the People for when all other Means to reduce the Prince into a right Temper has with all due Respect and Submission been us'd but effected nothing then and not before Resistance is necessary for our Privileges are granted by the same Laws by which the Prince has his Authority and makes an Universal Defection or Resistance lawful when all would be Ruin'd without it for the Doctrine of Non-Resistance is not of Constant and Eternal Obligation in all Circumstances Calling to Account are Acts of Authority but Resistance for Self-Defence is a Right of Nature and Inalienable In every Province and Kingdom of the Universe we may find Instances where Subjects have been necessitated to secure Themselves their Religion and Liberties by Resisting their Prince whose repeated Acts of Tyranny did visibly threaten their Ruin and this was always look'd upon as a sufficient Reason to dispence with their Allegiance especially when the Necessity was not pretended or Created by themselves but apparently forc'd on them by their Prince who was oblig'd to preserve them When our Saviour was walking in the Garden and expected the Jews to come and Seize him by Violence he was pleas'd to command that he which had a Sword should take it and being told there were Two Swords he said it was Enough How Enough Not to encounter the Arm'd Multitude that came along with Judas he could not think so But they were Enough to let his Disciples know that upon such Occasions they had a Right to defend themselves In Extream Dangers we are allow'd to make use of Extream Remedies Former Ages it seems were Strangers to the Doctrine of Non-Resistance for Resistance has been allow'd by Kings themselves Henry the Second allow'd it by causing his * Barons to Swear â—russel's History of 〈…〉 that if he should not perform the Covenants between himself the King of France and Richard Earl of Poictou his Son they should renounce him and join with the King of France and Earl Richard against him Richard the First when he went to War in the Holy Land substituted William Bishop of Ely and Lord Chancellor of England to Govern in his Absence who abusing his Authority the Bishops Earls and Barons having Routed his Party they Depos'd and Banish'd him and these Proceedings were approv'd and confirm'd by the King himself at his Return So that in those Early Days the Nobility Clergy and People had no Apprehensions of an Irresistible Power in Kings and those Commission'd by them when they found their Power grew Tyrannical and Unsupportable King John attempting to destroy the Liberties and Privileges of his Subjects granted by Magna Charta the Bishops Barons and Great Men of the Kingdom of all Degrees and Conditions took up Arms against him and never laid them down till the King and the Prince his Son had sworn upon the Holy Evangelists to maintain the Subjects Privileges and if they should break them that it should be lawful for his Subjects to Renounce their King and to gain them by Force And this was never accounted Rebellion for the Pardon that follow'd it was mutual not only for those that adher'd to the Earl of Gloucester but for those also that took part with the King In the Reign of Edward the Second this Doctrine of Resistance was asserted upon several Occasions and so gross were the Enormities of this Prince that in an Act of Indempnity in the First of Edward the Third the particular Illegal Acts of the King his Father are recited and all that Resisted him are Pardon'd without loading their Memories with Reproachful Epithets Henry Duke of Gloucester oppos'd the Tyranny of Richard the Second and had the Crown for his pains and those that came over with him were pardon'd in decent Language without calling them Rebels or Traytors So that it seems the Parliaments of Edward the Third and Henry the Fourth that Pass'd these Acts of Indempnity had no ill Opinion of the Doctrine of Resistance in Cases of Extream Necessity To which give me Leave to add the Opinion of a Learned Man on this Subject and I shall ease the Reader of further Trouble 'T is * Opusc advers Adulat consid 7. Gerson the famous Chancellor of the University of Paris who says 'T is an Errour to assert that an Earthly Prince as long as his Dominion lasts is not engag'd to his Subjects in any thing for according to the Divine Law Natural Equity and the true End of Power as Subjects owe their Prince Fidelity Subsidy and Obedience so their Prince owes them Fidelity and Protection and in case he does Publickly Obstinately and Imperiously oppress them their Natural Right takes place and makes it Lawful for them to Repel Force by Force So that the late King James has no Reason to complain of Hard Measure from his late Subjects For if the King of England be a Limited Prince as certainly he is and bound by Oath to Govern according to Law and that his Authority depends upon the Right Exercise of it and can claim no Allegiance but upon those Conditions they are not to blame for they did not Desert or Resist him till he had Renounc'd to be their King according to the Constitution by avowing to Govern by a Despotick Power unknown to the Constitution and Inconsistent with it The Breach was first made on his part by Renouncing to be their King according to the Law that made
into Scotland with the Lord Seaford without being able to obtain a Pardon for his Life or Estate From this and other Instances that might be given we may see their Popish Juggling for when an Act of Parliament is made against a Papist 't was no less than Treason to question the King 's Pardoning and Dispencing Power but when an Act bears hard on a Protestant and their King as he pretends has a Mind to Ease them then the King has no Power to Dispence he cannot grant a Pardon his Hands are bound up by Law So that the End of Setting up this Dispencing Power was only to shelter Papists from the Law and ruin Protestants for the Papists in their Hearts we see are as much against it as the Protestants To go on The late King declar'd in Council that he would publish such a Proclamation in England as he had done in Scotland and that none should have Employments under him that would not co-operate in taking off the Penal Laws And he began to execute these Resolutions with a Conduct full of Violence and Injustice The Lord Bishop of London was put out of the Privy Council and Suspended from his Episcopal Office because he would not Suspend Doctor Sharp now Archbishop of York without Legal Process The Earl of Rochester was depriv'd of his Office of Lord Treasurer because he would not change his Religion And the Duke of Sommerset lost his Office because he would not violate the Laws of the Kingdom in performing the Honours at the Reception of the Pope's Nuncio as is usual at the Introduction of Ambassadors To say in Excuse of this that James the Second turn'd out Great Officers of State because they would not obey him and concurr with his Intensions is to publish a Truth that ought to have been Conceal'd by his own Party because it was an evident Demonstration that his Intentions were Unjust and level'd against our Laws and Religion In Things Lawful tho' not Expedient he found a Tacit Compliance nay some of them to keep him in Temper perhaps comply'd further with him than the Strictness of the Law would justifie as Men pull down some Houses at a Fire to preserve the whole Town from Burning But to comply in all things had been to forfeit their own Honours to justifie his Illegalities and Tyranny 2. The Second Means that the late King James employ'd for the Destruction of the Religion and Liberties of England was granting an Ecclesiastical Commission directly contrary to Law This declar'd by what Methods he intended to govern for every Step he made was a new Project to assert his Arbitrary Power and acquaint his Subjects that he would make all Laws Useless that all Power should rest in his own Hands and the Administration be Issu'd from no other Source but his own Will and Pleasure for there was no Occasion for such a Commission but only to shew what he would be at and declare his Purpose to ruin the Church of England Therefore the Commissioners were Devoto's of the Court for the Archbishop's Name was put in but to grace the Matter They knew before that he would not Act and therefore to colour the Sham they oblig'd him to ask Leave to be absent To make this Commission more Illegal a Papist is appointed one of the Commissioners and the whole cloathed with as Absolute a Power as the late King himself was aspiring after They had not only Power to Repress and Punish all Abuses punishable by the Ecclesiastical Laws and to proceed against Offenders by Interdiction Suspention Excommunication Perpetual Imprisonment c. but they had also Power to Exercise their Authority in all Parts of England to Visit Cathedral-Churches the Universities Colleges Parishes Schools and Hospitals to Judge in all Causes and make new Laws Rules Orders and Statutes and Abolish the Old ones as the present Necessity requir'd notwithstanding any Privilege Statute Exemption or Prerogative to the contrary Which was such a boundless Stretch of Power as never had nor I hope never will have any other President than it self Thirdly He pursu'd his Arbitrary Methods by 3. Setting up Popery in Opposition to the National Religion to Ruin his Protestant Subjects and force the whole Kingdom under Subjection to the Papal Laws which had already sentenc'd them to Destruction and that nothing less could be the Design of this Unhappy Monarch will evidently appear if we consider how Popery represents us to the World and how Papists think themselves oblig'd to treat us under those Characters The modestest Terms the Popish Writers can afford the English Protestants is That they are a Pack of Sacrilegious Usurpers of their Church's Patrimony and a Nest of Obstinate Hereticks that ought to be Sacrific'd to their Revenge and Rooted out of the World by any Means whatsoever and this say they is always to be attempted by every good Prince according to Bellarmine's Salvo Ne sint fortiores nobis Unless they be too strong to be subdu'd For otherwise even Massacres are never condemned but when they are unsuccessful And how then they would have us'd us if they could have established their Mischiess by Laws as Bloody as their Minds let the Marian Persecution acquaintus And why should we tempt them again whose Religion is Cruelty and smells so much of Fire that the very Smoak makes us tremble The Laws of England always intend the Preservation of the Subject but Popery when Triumphant in respect of Protestants is destructive to all Laws contrary to the Law of Society to the Law of Government to the Law of Empire to the Law of Royalty and especially to the Laws of a Mix'd Monarchy such as England's are and Protestants can never be safe where 't is Regnant First 1. Popery is against the Laws of Society in all Protestant Countries as well as in England for according to the Romish Tradition the Reform'd are all Hereticks and as such are Ipso Facto depriv'd of the Right they had to their Goods their Children their Liberty their Privileges and even of their Country and ought to be regarded only as Robbers * Becan Theol Scol p. 1. cap. 15. quaest 6. Thieves Murtherers Rebels and Traytors condemn'd to Death by the Church and ought to be deliver'd to the Secular Power to be Executed And to compleat the Tragedy that Holy Church appoints prodigious Recompences to Princes that Exterminate them and Anathematize those that refuse it Now whilst a Popish Prince lies under the Persuasion that his Protestant Subjects are such as his Church represents them that they are not a People nor have Right to any thing they possess he lies under so great a Temptation to destroy them that they had no Reason in the World to trust him with their Lives or suffer him to set up a Power that will inevitably destroy them Secondly 2. It is not less Incompatible with the Law of Government for that is design'd to Protect and Defend And how can that
As for his Departure out of the Kingdom tho' I have already prov'd it was a Plot of his own laying in hopes to Involve the Nation in greater Confusions than his own Conduct had already reduc'd it to yet in this Case 't is not material whether it was Voluntary or Involuntary since his Withdrawing himself was but a Continuation of his former Actings wherein he declar'd he would not govern by those Laws that made him King of England and was an express Renunciation of his Regal Authority To say that Abdication implies a Formal Renunciation by Deed is to mistake the Case for in the Common Law of England and in the Civil Law and in Common Acceptation there are Express Acts of Renunciation that are not by Deeds * Debate between Lords and Commons pag. 35 36. The Government and Magistracy are under a Trust and Acting contrary to that Trust is a Renunciation of that Trust tho' it be not a Renouncing by a Formanl Deed for it is a plain Declaration by Act and Deed tho' not in Writing that he who hath the Trust and acting contrary is a Disclaimer of the Trust especially if the Actings be such as are Inconsistent with and Subversive of this Trust For how can a Man in Reason or Sense express a greater Renunciation of a Trust than by the constant Declarations of his Actions to be quite contrary to that Trust and therefore must be constru'd an Abdication and Formal Resignation of it That a King may Renounce his Kingship may be made out by Law and Fact as well as any other Renunciation And that it may and hath been will be no Difficulty to to make out by Instances in all Countries not only where the Crown is or was Elective but also where it was Hereditary and Successive * Debate aforesaid p. 76. If a King will Resign or Renounce he may do so as particularly Charles the First did 'T is an Act of the Will and consequently in his Power to do as he thinks fit And the late King gave manifest Declarations of his Resolutions to do it in several Instances as has been particularly shew'd already Grotius and all other Authors that treat of this Matter and the Nature of it do agree That if there be any Word or Action that does sufficiently manifest the Intention of the Mind and Will to part with his Office that will amount to an Abdication or Renouncing Now had King James the Second came into †Idem p. â—7 â—8 an Assembly of Lords and Commons in Parliament and expressed himself in Writing or Words to this purpose I was born an Heir to the Crown of England which is a Government limited by Laws made in full Parliament by King Nobles and Commonalty and upon the Death of my last Predecessor I am in Possession of the Throne and now I find I cannot make Laws without the Consent of the Lords and Representatives of the Commons in Parliament I cannot suspend Laws that have been so made without the Consent of my People This indeed is the Title of Kingship I hold by Original Contract and the Fundamental Constitution of the Government and my Succession to and Possession of the Crown on these Terms is part of that Contract This part of the Contract I am Weary of I do Renounce it I will not be oblig'd to observe it I will not execute the Laws that have been made nor suffer others to be made as my People shall desire for their Security in Religion Liberty and Property which are the two main Parts of the Kingly Office in this Nation I say suppose he had so express'd himself doubtless this had been a plain Renouncing of that Legal Regular Title which came to him by Descent If then he by particular Acts such as are enumerated in the Vote of the Convention of the 27th of January he has declar'd as much or more than these Words can amount to then he has thereby Declar'd his Will to Renounce the Government He has by the Acts before-mention'd manifestly declar'd that he will not govern according to the Laws made nay he cannot do so for he is under a strict Obligation yea the strictest and Superiour to that of the Original Compact between King and People to Act contrary to the Laws or to Suspend them This did amount to a manifest Declaration of his Will that he would no longer retain the Exercise of his Kingly Power as it was Limited and Restrain'd and sufficiently declar'd his Renouncing the very Office And his Actings declar'd quo Animo that he went away because he could no longer pursue nor accomplish what he design'd and was so strongly oblig'd to that the Splendour of three Crowns could never divert him from it It was an Abdication in the highest Instances Not a particular Law was violated but he fell upon the whole Constitution in the very Foundation of the Legislature Not only particular Persons were injur'd but the whole Frame of the Kingdom the Protestant Religion and our Laws and Liberties were all in danger of being Subverted And which aggravates the Circumstances the late King himself who had the Administration Intrusted to him was the Author and Agent in it And when he cold no longer afflict us himself went away with Design to obtain Foreign Forces to compel our Submission to his Arbitrary Power Now because the late King had thus Violated the Constitution by which the Law stood as the Rule both of the King's Government and the People's Obedience therefore it was judg'd an Abdication to all Intents and Purposes and that by his Abdication the Throne became Vacant Nothing less than Things grown to such Extremities could warrant these Proceedings for God forbid every Violation of the Law or Deviation from it should be accounted an Abdication of the Government The Thoughts of such a Severity upon * Debate between the Lords and Common pag. 86. Crown'd Heads is abhorr'd by all Good Men. For when a King breaks the Laws in some few particular Instances it is sufficient to take an Account of it from those Ill Ministers that were Instrumental in it Why such a thing was done contrary to Law Why such a Law was not put in Execution by them whose Duty it was to see it done In Ordinary Cases of Breaking the Laws you have Remedy in Ordinary Courts of Justice and in Extraordinary Cases in the Extraordinary Court of Parliamentary Proceedings But in our Case where we were left without Redress the Malefactor being both a Party and Judge of his own Breaches of Law made Extream Remedies absolutely necessary and has been always practis'd upon the like Emergencies For The Great Council or Assembly of the Estates of this Kingdom from the first Institution of the Government had an Inherent Right to Assemble themselves in all Cases of Necessity such as Abdications Depositions Disputable Titles to the Crown Setling the Successions and to supply the Vacancy of the Throne as the
Example of former Times and their own Prudence should direct them And truly it would be very absurd to imagin that the Legislative Power was so streighten'd that it had no Right to provide against Unforeseen Accidents that might happen or that where the Old Laws seem'd opposite to the publick Good or were wholly silent as not foreseeing every extraordinary Event they could not supply that Defect by making * Quae de novo cinergunt novo indigent auxilio New Ones that might reach the present Circumstances of Affairs or Extend and Explain the Old ones as the Necessity of the State requir'd Laws themselves in time may grow pernitious and tho' well intended at their first Promulgation as Things might after happen would be dangerous to be Retain'd Therefore on all such Occasions the Assembly of Estates have an Indubitable Right to wave the Letter of the Law and explain them or make New ones according to Equity that is according to what the precedent Legislators would have done if they had Foreseen what then had come to pass Private Persons are oblig'd to observe the Letter of the Law but Publick Estates are not under such a Confinement but for the Safety of the Nation must respect the Intention of the Law because the Letter of the Law by Length of Time or a General Corruption of Manners may seem to thwart the Common Interest but the Intention of the Law always respects the publick Good and is never against it This is done every Day in Courts of Equity and ought never to be omitted for the Preservation of a Kingdom where Laws Unrepeal'd and whose Consequences were not dreamt of seem to make Tyranny Lawful And therefore the Convention of Estates in Shutting the Door against James the Second and making it fast after him by an Act of State who had first excluded himself and setling the Government on the Foot it now stands did no more than Assert their own Right and prevent the Mischiefs that have attended the Mis-construction of the Intention of some Laws in Force Now that the Estates of the Kingdom have such a Right is Incontestible in the Opinion of our Adversaries yet they deny that the Convention had such a Power because they were not Conven'd by the late King's Authority A frivolous Objection and returns upon the Head of that deluded Faction For This Defect if it were one was not the Nation 's Fault but lies wholly upon the late King He was Sought to Address'd and Petitioned to Call a Parliament It was the great Importance of the Prince's Declaration He often promis'd it and by Proclamation made a Feint of keeping his Word yet at last burnt the Writs and declar'd positively he would not do it Could the Nation compel him to do what he would not Must the Kingdom be Ruin'd for want of a Formality that was not in their Power to compass Must a Glorious Opportunity of Settling the Kingdom be lost for want of a Punctilio that yet was answer'd in the Intent of it Must the Nation be be blam'd for helping themselves when the late King refus'd it No this would be very loose Reasoning and the Thread is of too course a Spinning to pass upon the Thinking Part of Mankind Had they Objected against the Qualification of the Members the Want of Freedom in their Election or shew'd any Unreasonableness in the Action they had said something worthy of Answer but since they could not I shall go on and prove it Just Necessary and Agreeable to the Practice of All Nations The Laws of God Nature and Nations justifie the Deposing of a Prince whose Arbitrary Government is not only Inconsistent with but Destructive to the Kingdom over which he Presides To name no other Instances in the Old Testament Rehoboam and Jeroboam are Examples of Divine Vengeance for their Tyranny and their Stories are Argumentative The Jews asserted the Lawfulness of Resisting and Dethroning their Kings in many Cases * Joseph l. 4. c. 8. especially in their Wars with Antiochus Epiphanes and the †St. Aug. libr. cont Adem 1.17 Christians follow'd those Examples without thinking their Religion oblig'd them by a Childish Submission to yield up their Natural and Legal Rights and consent to their own Ruin How unreasonable would it be to imagin that a whole Kingdom should deprive it self of the Right of Deposing a Tyrant and preserving themselves since * Principio generi animantium omni est à Natura tributum ut se vita corpúsque tueatur declinétque ea quae noscitura videantur Cicero de Offic. Nature has communicated this Right to all Rational Creatures together with their Being which they can neither give away themselves nor can be justly taken from them by others as I have already prov'd in part and shall do it beyond Contradiction in the following Pages and therefore shall descend to shew you that the Deposing the late King is Warranted by the Practice of other Nations as well as our own in Former Ages The Power of the Emperor of Germany is Limited in many Particulars He cannot alter their Fundamental Laws nor make the Empire Hereditary and the College of the Princes Electors may Depose him for Male Administration as they did Lewis the Good in the Year 833. Which Act was always look'd upon as the Right of the Empire in the Opinion of the German Lawyers and so is transmitted to Posterity be the best of their * Lampadius Diderick Conring Lambert Schafnaburg Aventin l. 7. Annal. Cuspin in Vita Wincesl Carpsor de Leg. Reg. Imperat Germaniae Imperial Capitular Writers One of the Charges against Lewis was that he had broken his Coronation-Oath and Rul'd by Maxims of his own contrary the Establish'd Laws of the Empire The Estates of the Empire also at another time Warr'd against the Emperor Henry the Fourth for the same Cause and at length Depos'd him in a Solemn Assembly A later Instance of the same People was in Deposing Wenceslaus in the Year 1400. And he that will give himself the Satisfaction of Reading the Articles Exhibited against him by the Electors of the Empire will be tempted to think that James the Second had transcrib'd them as the Rules of his Despotick Government they agreed so exactly with it from the Beginning to the fatal End of it The Monarchical Government of Poland being extinct at the Death of †Cromer King Lech it was chang'd by the States into a Government of Twelve Palatins who abusing their Authority were all Depos'd and Lesko Elected King and he withdrawing himself out of the Kingdom to secure himself against the Fury of the Tartars was for that Reason Depos'd and a new King Elected So was Henry the Second Duke of Anjou depos'd by the Poles by the Government of Poland for leaving that Kingdom And the great States-man Bodin tells us 't was expresly inserted as a Condition in that King's Coronation Oath when he was Elected
always Differences among them concerning Ecclesiastical Government and Discipline and about Forms and Modes of Divine Worship yet they always accorded in Essentials of Religion and in the Preservation of their Natural and Legal Rights and Privileges as well as in a Common Detestation of Popery and Tyranny and the Sinister Arts of promoting them But when these Fiery Bombs of a Popish Court were by various Hands thrown among Protestants all went to wrack by our fatal Divisions and such an Unlimited Power was thrust into the Hands of Caesar over our Lives Religion Laws Estates and Liberties that if his Amorous Intrigues and Careless Temper had not diverted him he had certainly arriv'd at that Pitch of Absoluteness in Church and State that he aspir'd after and had laid all his Subjects at the Discretion and Will of the Monarch 3. The next Expedient that King Charles employ'd to accomplish his Design was Encouraging and Cherishing Papists upon every Occasion when it might be done without an open Reflexion on himself or Government and yet sometimes he broke through those Maxims also tho' one would have thought their Intolerable Insolencies on every Gleam of Royal Favour might have justly check'd his Clemency Instances of his particular Respects for that People might be easily given but because it will be particularly discours'd in his Successor's Reign I shall give but Two here and those were His Conniving at their Increase and Executing the Laws with greatest Rigour against Protestant-Dissenters giving private Instructions to his Judges to stifle the Execution of the Laws against Popish Recusants tho' directly levell'd against them and but by a forc'd Construction inflicted upon Protestants 4. But the last and most Effectual Stratagem for the Service of this King 's Arbitrary Ends was Tying all his Ecclesiastical Promotions to the Preaching up Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance And in this he succeeded so unluckily that those who refus'd to comply with this Upstart Doctrine were scarce reckon'd among the Number of Christians whilst a little Court-Zealot that had nothing else to recommend him but a Blind Obedience to the Orders of Whitehall in Preaching up this Slavish Doctrine was Dignify'd with the Title of a True Son of the Church and Loaded with Preferments Into what a doleful Condition was this Nation reduc'd when Religion was forc'd to truckle to New-invented Politicks and our Laws were Brib'd into a Conspiracy against themselves Now both Pulpit and Press were Surfeited with such Discourses as these viz. That Monarchy was a Government by Divine Right That it was in the Prince's Power to Rule as he pleases That it was a Grace and Condescention in the King to Govern by Laws That for Parliaments to Direct or Regulate the Succession border'd upon Treason and was an Offence against the Law of Nature and That the only Benefit left to Subjects in case the King will Tyrannize over their Consciences Persons and Estates is tamely to suffer and as they Absurdly express'd it to Exercise Passive Obedience Thus were Minds and Consciences of the Subjects corrupted with such Pestilent and Slavish Notions that at length the whole Nation was betray'd into such a Stupidity and Insensibility of their Religion and Legal Rights that our Limited Monarchy was almost turn'd into an Absolute Tyranny and our Antient Privileges dwindl'd into nothing Under pretence of Preserving the Church too many of the Clergy gave themselves over to an Implicit Serving of the Court and became not only Advocates but Instruments for the Robbing Corporations of their Charters Imposing Sheriffs upon the City of London who were not Legally Elected and of Fining and punishing Men Arbitrarily for no Crime save their having by Modest and Lawful Ways Asserted their Own and the Nations Rights Under pretence of Jealousie of the Fanaticks they became Tools under this King for Justifying the Dissolution of so many Parliaments the Invasion made upon their Privileges the Ridiculing and Stifling Popish Plots the Shamming of Forg'd Conspiracies upon Protestants the Condemning of several Men to Death for High Treason who could be Render'd Guilty by the Transgression of no Known Law and finally for Advancing the Duke of York into the Throne who was engag'd in a Conjuration against Religion and the Civil-Government and whom Three several Parliaments for those Reasons would have Excluded from the Succession But When I say these Enormities were committed by the Clergy I desire not to be understood as if I intended to comprehend all that Sacred Order under the Guilt of such Rash and Inconsiderate Designs for there were many Good Men among them who were so far from Sacrificing our Religion and Laws to Popery and Arbitrary Power that they publickly declar'd their Dis-likes and Abhorrence of such Extravagant Proceeding tho' they wanted Power to stem the Torrent that was overflowing both Church and State and as soon as Providence minister'd an Occasion were the first that put to their Hands to stop the Violence of the Stream and Confine the Power of the Late King within the Bounds of Law and Justice But to return from this Digression This Passive Obedience Doctrine was broach'd by some Modern Divines about the middle of the Reign of King James the First who in Opposition to Buchanan Knox and other Scotch Ministers that gave too great Encouragement to Sedition and Rebellion and to Curry Favour with that Monarch run into contrary Extreams under the Names of Duty and Loyalty So hard and difficult it is to observe the Golden Mean Dr. Harsnet Bishop of Chichester was the first I meet with in that Reign that gave himself the Liberty from these Words Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's to discover New Notions in Politicks as well as Divinity and to Assert publickly That the King had an Absolute Right to all that Subjects were possessed of And for this Service in Betraying his Country he was Translated from the Diocess of Chichester to Norwich and thence to the Archbishoprick of York In the Beginning of the Reign of King Charles the First these Preachments run something higher and Dr. Manwaring holding forth before that King at Whitehall Invested him with an Uncontrollable Authority gave him Power to Raise Taxes or Subsidies without Consent of Parliament and in the Conclusion resign'd all the King's Subjects to the Devil that refus'd to obey it For which he was presented to a Fat Living in Essex and afterwards promoted to the Bishoprick of St Davids which under what sad Constellation or Fate I know not has often been Pester'd with Men of the same Principles The Promotion of these Temporizers encourag'd Dr. Sybthorp a Confident and Kinsman to Dr. Lamb to attempt the Mending his Circumstances by Tracing their Steps And in an Assize-Sermon at Northampton on Rom. 13.7 he laid our All at the King's Feet and left poor Subjects nothing but Tears for their Loss and Prayers to be supply'd in their Wants Thus bating Preferments Sybthorp soon obtain'd his Ends and his Vicaridge of
but the Almighty power that gave them If an Inferior Magistrate Governor of a Province or City Rebels against the King from whom he received his Authority in order to deprive him of his Crown and Dignity none will scruple to resist him in defence of the King who is Supreme Lord both of him and us And by the same Reason may a Sovereign Prince be Resisted that Usurps upon the Rights of God for no Prince is more Superior to his Subalterns than God Almighty is to all the Kings and Potentates of the whole Earth Reason and Religion command and commend a dutiful submission to Authority but neither Reason Nature nor Religion obliges us to comply with the Sovereignty of the Creature to the prejudice of the Creator or subscribe to such orders of an Arbitrary Prince as manifestly oppose the Rights of God unless we are fond of Inheriting the Title of being Cruel to our selves Unnatural to our Children and profess'd Enemies of our Country for tho' slavery may be the misfortune of good People to submit to it can never be their Duty Another great Engine wherewith our Adversaries serve themselves to batter down the Doctrine of Resistance is the Law of the Land and particularly the Act of Parliament made in the 13th of King Charles the Second which seems in their apprehensions to extirpate this Principal Root and Branch tho' I believe 't will fail them when we have consider'd the Occasion of that Law and the Intention of the Ligislators And this I hope to do with a Modesty suitable to the great Veneration and Esteem that is due to those August Assemblies Acts of Parliament in my opinion being only subject to the Censure of those that have a Right and Power to make them And yet I hope with submission 't will not be indecent to say that Laws made in extraordinary Heats are not Regular Obligations nor ought to let Loose the Kings Hands and Tie up the Subjects England had been long Harrass'd Enslav'd and almost Ruin'd by an Unnatural War Scandaliz'd by the Murther of a King under Forms of Law and Justice Oppress'd by the Tyranny of their Fellow-Subjects and wearied out with changes of Governments and variety of afflictions Sometimes a Common-Wealth the Keepers of the Liberties of England a Rump Parliament then two successive Protectors a Council of Officers a Committee of Safety the Rump restor'd another Committee of Officers the Fag end again the Secluded Members a Junto that brought in King Charles the Second and deliver'd England out of Cruel Servitude that was so sick with changing Masters that when King Charles was Inthron'd and call'd a Parliament which chiefly consisted of Sufferers under the late Mock-Governments or the Persons Sons or Relations of such as had been in actual War against the Parliament or Sufferers for Charles the first the Excess of Joy that attended their Deliverance and a Resolution to prevent such Commotions and troubles for the future so transported them that they thought they could never do enough to Greaten their Monarch or discountenance the late Republicans and therefore in the heat of their Zeal tho' they aim'd well might overshoot the mark and stretch the Prerogative of the King and the Obedience of the Subject beyond their ordinary Limits and like Fond Bridegrooms give away more Authority in a Week than they could Redeem in their whole Lives which has been too often practis'd in England in former times in hopes to oblige their Monarchs tho' as often attended with Sorrow and Repentance and these or at leastwise some of these things might be the occasion of that Law For it could never be the Intention of a Parliament to make the most Violent and Illegal Actions of Arbitrary power wholly Irresistable or pull down the excellent structure of a Limited Monarchy and set up an Absolute Despotick Tyranny where the King and those commission'd by him might do what they pleas'd with our Religion Lives and Estates and make it Treason to resist in any case whatsoever Was not this to give away their own share in the Legislative Power and contradict the Preamble of every Act of Parliament which says all Laws are made by the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons assembled in Parliament and by the Authority of the same never failing to insert those Words And that this would have been the inevitable consequence of such an Unlimited obligation upon the People is plain for what makes a King Absolute but that his Subjects are under a necessity of Obeying him without reserve i. e. never to oppose his commands in any case whatsoever And to confirm my self that they never intended such a breach in our constitution is because the extravagancy of the Act with such a design would have accus'd both their prudence and Fidelity Judge Cook in his Institutes says that Laws made against Right Reason and the Law of Nature are void in themselves and then there 's no necessity of obeying them longer than till we are in a capacity to deny or dispute it what Man of Common Sense can believe that so many Wise Men how good an opinion soever they might have of the King then in the Throne would Arm all his Successors with a power as Despotick and Absolute as the great Turk who may have the Heads and Estates of his Subjects as often as he pleases to command them The last Argument I shall use to shew that that Parliament did not Intend to couch the People under such an Intire and Universal Submission as is maintain'd by our Adversaries is because they had no Power to do it for no Power can reach beyond the Reason of its Institution which is to preserve the Lives and Priviledges of the People and not make 'em Slaves and Vassals to a Delegated Authority Who can believe that the Nation ever Intrusted any sort of Men with a Power to destroy them or to Surrender their All into the Hands of a Cruel Tyrant As Representatives of the People they could have no more Power than the People could give them nor could it be extended beyond theirs from whom it was derived or that is allow'd by the Law of Nature Nam quodcunque suis mutatum sinibus exit * Lucrit l. â— Continuo hoc mors est illius quod fuit ante Since what doth its limits pass By change quite perishes from what it was because it was not in their power to grant it No Man can licence another to kill him because the consent is Unnatural and Null and Void in it self so no Community can give any persons power to destroy them either directly or by consequence for 't is preposterous in Nature that the Means should be destructive in the End and that those that were substituted for our Preservation should be the Instruments of our Ruin which must necessarily follow if they Intended by that Law to Invest all our Princes with a Power to do whatever they please
our Religious and Civil Rights and therefore we swore to obey him But when he broke his own Oath and employ'd his Power to Ruin us and our Religion out Allegiance was at an End and we had no Reason to observe those Oaths that were taken when Things were in a better Posture and which we should never have took if we could have fore-seen what since has unfortunately happen'd for tho' we were cheated by our Credulity the Change of Circumstances has cancell'd the Obligation of those Oaths and made it our Duty to do the contrary We are oblig'd to obey our Parents while they maintain their Characters but our Obedience ceases when they command what is sinful Nature founded our Obedience to Authority upon a Supposition that it was for the Good of the Community Kings are the Guarrantees of this Formal Alliance and from the Obligation of the Original Compact arises our Submission But if Princes extend their Authority beyond the first Design of its Institution and destroy the Society over which they preside our Obedience is at an end and we may justly oppose them for no Oath or Promise of Obedience can supercede our Antecedent Obligations to our selves or our Country Had King James kept his own Oath we had been oblig'd to ours but his changing from what he promis'd to be set us at liberty The Deceit was his own Contrivance in disguising himself for had he appear'd in his own Likeness and honestly told us what he design'd before we were decoy'd into Oaths I believe there would have been as many Non-Jurants then as there were Honest and Thinking Men in the Kingdom All Oaths tho' never so cautiously worded have still some Tacit Exceptions or else they would sometimes Interfere with Common Equity Therefore 't is a good Exception in Law and a Salvo in Conscience to say that the Thing when the Oath was taken was Unforeseen and so unlikely to happen that it was thought almost impossible to come to pass viz. That the late King James should endeavour to Ruin his Subjects which of necessity must have been his own Ruin also when the Account should be adjusted between himself and Partners Again As the late King manag'd his Affairs these Oaths and our Obedience were Contradictory to themselves and therefore not Obliging We swore in the Oath of Supremacy that the King is Supream Head and Governor in his Dominions and that the Pope neither hath nor ought to have any Superiority or Authority therein But the late King notwithstanding this Law would have the Pope Supream in Spirituals Could we make him what he would not be Could he absolve us from those Oaths after we had taken them Or how was it possible for to observe them but we must offend one Way or t'other The Low says we must take these Oaths or pay Five Hunder'd Pounds besides other Penal Disabilities The King says we must not take them upon pain of his Displeasure and being turn'd out of the Offices we enjoy as our Freeholds by taking the Oaths what must the Subject do when the Law and the King are at so great Variance and the Subjects Duty involv'd in such Intricacies that could never be salv'd but by the Monarch's Abdication But That which utterly puts an End to the Obligatory Part of these Oaths and makes them Null and Void was his Voluntary Withdrawing himself from the Kingdom Abdicating the Government and Leaving the Throne Vacant for that set his Subjects Free to all Intents and Purposes because he that leaves the Government of his Subjects must be suppos'd to Resign his Interest in them for Government is so necessary for the Preservation of Subjects that he who intends to have Subjects must at the same time intend to have them Govern'd or their whole Allegiance ceases Nor if he could pretend he was forc'd to go off will that avail him because it was of his own procuring He might have prevented it by Calling a Parliament and Complying with Justice and the not doing what he ought makes his Desertion Voluntary I mention this only to answer those that object it without Cause whose Partiality spoils their Judgments and drives them to little Shifts to support their false Pretences His Departure into France and Desertion of the Crown was whol Voluntary no Force compell'd him no Danger threaten'd him the People were willing to have Retain'd him but he according to Hales's and Brent's Advices would leave the Kingdom in Confusion that he might return the sooner and have his Ends of us which would bear very Severe Reflections but his Going off being the only kind Act that ever that King did for England I shall omit them now out of pure Gratitude for that transcendent Favour What remains then but a serious Advice to our Scrupulous or Obstinate Brethren that they would no longer insist upon Controverted Cases and Ill-tim'd Niceties that hinder their Obedience or slacken their Gratitude to God and our Sovereign Lord King William for our Miraculous Deliverance nor Ruin themselves nor expose the Nation to Danger for the sake of the late King when they neither ought nor can do him any Service for seeing by the Law of Nature the Design of Government and the Practice of all Nations the late King hath Forfeited and Renounc'd his Right and they are discharg'd from their Oaths and Allegiance to him that they would now honourably deliver up that Pretence which they can no longer defend and pay their Obedience where Divine Providence the Laws of the Land and an Extraorninary Merit has made it due What can be more dishonourable than that the Dishonour and Loss that has befallen this Unfortunate Prince was the Consequence of his own Arbitrary Actions and is primarily to be imputed to himself in exceeding the Bounds of his Limited Authority which he ought in no wise to have done for the Royal Dignity of England is so far from being a Despotick kind of Government that it carries along with it in its very Essence a Mixture of Interests betwixt King and People and lays an Obligation upon the King to govern not by his own Arbitrary Will but according to Law And so careful have the English Subjects always been to preserve the Government in this Equal Poize that every Deviation from it has been look'd upon by them as a Step towards Tyranny And not only the English but so strangely has all Antiquity look'd upon the Affectation of Absolute Power that Isidore lays it down as the Character of a Tyrant That he is Ambitious of Absolute Dominion and oppresses his Subjects by a Lawless Authority And the Scholiast of Aristophanes says That a King differs from a Tyrant in this that a King possesses his Kingdom as receiving it from his Subject upon certain Conditions prescrib'd by Law but a Tyrant Enters and Rules by Force and Violence James the Second could not be ignorant that other Kings of England have sometimes shew'd their Inclinations and made some
private Lashes and subtile Essays towards an Unlimited Power but being told of it as an Incroachment upon the Laws they have always publickly disclaim'd it and yet the late King would attempt it Fortunae miseras auximus arte vias Propert. lib. 3. El. 6. He with Misfortune ' gainst himself took part And his own Wickedness increas'd by Art King Charles the First in his Declaration from * 1694. Newmarket shew'd the Unlawfulness of it for says he The Laws are the Measures of my Power Few Words but very significant and agree with what was said by that great Lawyer Bracton That he is no King that governs by his own Will and not by Law nor are his Commands obliging Which made King James in one of his Speeches to the Parliament call those Flatterers that persuade Kings not to confine themselves within the Bounds oâ— their own Laws Vipers and the Pests of King and Kingdom And the Lord Verulam says the People have as good a Right to their Laws as to the Air they breath in and he that persuades his Prince to break them is as great a Traytor to him in the Court of Heaven as the Villain that draws his Sword upon him in his own Palace Lewis the Eleventh of France tho' he had been a very Arbitrary Prince when he lay upon his Death-Bed told his Son Charles the Eighth that it was a Diminution to the Greatness of a King not to govern by Law and treat his Subjects Humanely for no Man can be call'd a King but he that governs Free-men King James the First in another Speech to his Parliament sums up all in this memorable Passage viz. That a King governing in a settl'd Kingdom leaves to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant when he ceases to rule according to Law And yet all this could not restrain James the Second from endeavouring after an Absolute Power The Sentiments of these Great Men might be very prevalent upon Ingenuous Princes yet our Ancestors unwilling to expose themselves and us to Contingent Hazards or leave it to the Mercy or trust only to the Good Nature of Princes who being but Men might be sway'd by their own Passions abus'd by their Credulity or mis-guided by Evil Counsellors to act against their own and their Kingdom 's Safety they thought fit to bind up their Kings from Invading their Laws or venturing upon an Unlimited Power by the most Sacred Obligation in the World viz. a Solemn Oath and Promise at their Coronations to govern according to the Laws of the Land And Taking this Oath has always been the constant Practice of our Saxon Danish and Norman Kings even to James the Second who made no Scruple in Taking nor no Conscience in Breaking it To this I might add that our Kings are Circumscrib'd by Law because in many Instances the Law hath determined what they can and what they cannot do lawfully But because this Point has been Invidiously and Indecently handl'd by some Perulant and froward Tempers who have set too narrow Bounds to the Royal Prerogative I shall wave it and conclude this Paragraph with that excellent Saying of King James the First to both Houses of Parliament Wherein he expresly tells them * See his Works That a King of England binds himself by a double Oath to the Observation of the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Tacitly as being a King and so bound to protect his People and the Laws of the Kingdom And Expresly by his Oath at his Coronation So that every King in a settl'd Kingdom is bound to observe that Paction made to his People by his Laws in framing his Government agreeably thereunto according to the Paction that God made with Noah after the Deluge To Recite more upon this Head was to pour Water into the Sea for that King that does not think himself oblig'd by his Oath to govern according to Law no other Legal Mound can hold him from breaking down the Fences of the Kingdom and laying all Waste before him Which tho' others might aim at by a Side-Wind no King of England ever claim'd a Right to it but the late King James and it was a piece of Haughtiness and Extravagance above all Example except what his own following Practices has furnished us with And having thus proved that the late King James was by his Oath oblig'd to Govern by Law I proceed to shew you that instead of Answering this great End He made it the whole Business of his Reign to act directly against the Laws to subvert the whole Constitution and expose the Nation to certain Ruin and Destruction And Secondly That by so doing he renounc'd to be our King and justify'd the Legality of the Estates proceedings against him That he intended no Good to England might plainly be discern'd by the great Number of Jesuits and Popish Priests that from all Parts flocked about him and were Caress'd and Indear'd by him at his very first Accession to the Crown for if Charity could have oblig'd us to believe him never so Good-natur'd it was Morally Impossible for him to continue Good in such Ill Company who where-e'er they come set the Country in a Flame that receives them 'T was I say a Sign that some very Ill Thing was to be done when such Sanguinary Hands were to be employ'd as were Reeking hot in the Blood of Neighbouring Protestants and against whose Cruelties Self-Interest Love of Glory Greatness of Mind nor Goodness of Nature could never divert those Princes from Persecuting and Rooting out their Protestant Subjects that had once imbibed the pernicious Principles of the Jesuits who like their Father the Davil are always wandring about seeking whom they may devour In what a happy Estate was the German Empire till the Jesuits prevail'd with the Emperor to espouse their Interest and rather than let a few Protestants live peaceably in Hungary involv'd the Empire in a War that has lasted Thirty Years already and God only knows when there will be an End of it What Scandalous Breaches of Promises and Havock has been among the Hugonots in France by Merciless Cruelties Murthers Thefts Rapine and all kind of Devastations since the Jesuits have been permitted to influence the Affairs of that Kingdom To give no more Presidents of their Barbarities to Protestants and bewitching with their Poysonous Tenents the Counsels of Unwary or Bigotted Princes How have they persuaded the Duke of Savoy contrary to all Politicks to Persecute and Banish his Protestant Subjects who in all probability would have given him the best Assistance when he shall want their Service for the Preservation of his Dukedom And how far the late King James would have follow'd those Presidents while these Incendiaries were the Directors of his Conscience may be easily understood by the first Steps he made towards the Ruin of the Protestant Interest First In Setting up a Dispencing Power and Assuming an Arbitrary Authority that should know no Bounds but what his
since I have been often forc'd to give his Government that Title that I may not seem to beg the Question or slander the Reign of that Unfortunate Prince give me leave to shew you here that it was a Tyranny through the whole Course of his unhappy Reign and that the Power he assum'd and the Maxims he acted by had all the Marks of Tyranny First It was a True Tyranny for the Violence he offer'd his Subjects was not the Effect of Inadvertency Ignorance Weakness or Passion which may sometimes attend the best of Princes but it was the deliberate Act and Execution of many premeditated Resolutions and grounded upon a Belief that he had a Right to do whatever he thought fit to his Subjects To do an ill Action may be sometimes the Misfortune not always the Fault of a Prince But when that Action is justify'd by a Right to do it tho' the Laws utterly forbid it it is an Act of True and Absolute Tyranny and can neither be defended or palliated David was not a Tyrant in the Affair of Uriah for he committed the Crime like a Criminal he was asham'd of the Action and did all he could to smother it and never attempted to change his particular Passion into a publick Law or Example He who kills one or a few says * Sen. Ep. 17. Qui unum qui plures occidit non tamen Reipublicae laesae sed caedis est Seneca is not a Tyrant against the Commonwealth but a Murtherer For Tyranny consists in doing Wrong to all grounded upon a Principle that he may do it Lawfully So Ahab's Action in taking away Naboth's Vineyard was a heinous Crime but not properly an Act of Tyranny because he did it by Collusion and under Colour of purchasing it without any Pretence of Right to do it But all the late King James's Actions had another Face he justify'd his doing private and particular Injuries by assuming a Right to do so by All. He intail'd Misery and Destruction upon the Kingdom by suspending and abolishing all Laws that were made for its Security and setting up his own Will instead of them He was not content to imprison some Bishops or to affront some great Lords or deprive some particular Persons of their Rights but he struck a Blow at the Root and by the Exercise of his Dispencing Power and giving Authority to Papists whose Consciences laid them under a Necessity of destroying Hereticks he was Ruining All For to suspend the Penal Laws against Papists was in plain English but to give them Power in time to execute the Bloody Decrees of the Romish Church upon English Protestants Secondly 2. The late King James's Tyranny was not only a True but it was also a Notorious and Evident Tyranny No Artifice Pretence or Colour could hide it from the Eyes of all Men it was to be Read in All his Actions past and present What he had in Speculation when he was Duke he practis'd when he was King The Maxims of the greatest * Quod Principi placuit Lex esto Tyrants he still laid Claim to and observ'd no Rule or Law but his own Will Am not I your King and ought to be obey'd without Reserve was the Language of his Proclamations as well as his private Closetings He threaten'd all that would not comply with his Absolute Power that they should feel the Effects of his Displeasure and by discarding some of the most Intelligent and Experienc'd Men in the Kingdom to to usher in Raw and Head-strong Papists proclaim'd to all the World he aim'd at something that was Illegal and could not be compass'd but by Agents of his own Creation that would venture at All to please their Master And that the Knowledge of what he design'd might not be confin'd within his own Territories he sent an Ambassador to the Pope directly against the known Laws of the Kingdom and receiv'd a Nuncio from thence with as much publick State and Pomp as if he design'd to let all the World see how far his Vanity and Affectation of Arbitrary Power and Affronting the Laws would carry him tho' in that he had no better Success than in the rest of his Negotiations for the Pope knew him too far in League with the F K to think him a Friend of his and treated his Ambassador accordingly 3. It was an Universal Tyranny Nothing was exempted from his Lawless Will for by his false Persuasion in Religion that we as Hereticks were fallen from our Rights and had no just Claim to any thing we possess'd our Consciences our Lives and our Estates were all at his Disposal and tho' he might by straining the Point shew us a little Favour and let us enjoy them a while yet he could do us no Wrong in taking them away at his pleasure Agreeably to this Persuasion he adapted all his Actions and no Order Degree or Condition of Men in the Kingdom but in some Instance or other felt the Smart of them The Nobility and Gentry by the Inquisition that was made after Popish Lands and the Promise of Restoring them to the Church saw themselves in danger of being Robb'd of their Estates or holding them precariously at the Pleasure of Monks or Friars And some that were then forc'd to sell their Estates were great Losers and could scarce find Chap-men as Things then stood that car'd to buy them Some of the Reverend Bishop's were Imprison'd for declaring they had Consciences others Cited before the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for not admitting Popish Priests into Benefices and all frown'd on that durst take the Liberty to Preach against the King's Religion They saw their Power declining by the Authority that was given to four Popish Bishops to hold Visitations in their Diocesses and the whole Body of the Protestant Clergy were on the Brink of Ruin for not Reading his Illegal Declaration Both the Universities felt the Effects of his Unlimited Power in the Dissolution of Magdalen-College in Oxford and the Suspension and taking away the Perquisites of the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge The Parliament to whom he had many Obligations were Dissolv'd for refusing to Repeal a Law made against Papists The Judges that had so much Law and Honesty as to declare their Opinions against his Dispencing Power were laid aside and others thrust into their Places that would serve his Arbitrary Purposes Protestant Officers in the Army were to their great Loss Cashier'd to make way for Papists and some of them threaten'd with Death for * Lieut. Col. Beaumont Tho. Paston Simon Park Tho. Orm Will. Cook and John Port all Officers 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—anders refusing to admit Irish Papists into their English Protestant Companies that had the Guard of no less important place than Portsmouth Merchants were forc'd to pay Custom where no Law enjoin'd it Inn-keepers Victuallers and other Trades-men were impoverish'd by Free Quarter and the Poorest People in the Kingdom were Oppress'd by the Illegal Exaction of Hearth-Money Fourthly 4. The
late King James's Reign was a Necessary Tyranny and so much the more necessary to push him forward to accomplish his Designs that this Necessity was impos'd upon his Conscience by the Laws of his Church under the Expectation of Rewards or Dread of the Punishments that would attend his Obedience or Disobedience to their Decrees All the Popish Writers agree that * Beccan Theol. Scot. p. 1. c. 13. quaest 5. Tho. Aquin. Summmae quaest 10 art 3. Durand Sancta Portian quaest utrum Haeret. sint tolerand quaest 5. Bellarmin de hicis l. 3. c. 21. Concilio Tolof p. 46. Concil Later 4. every Prince ought to Exterminate his Protestant Subjects that the Omission of that Duty is Damnable and that putting them to Death when they have nothing else to lose is a Just Meritorious Action And we have Reason to believe if Heaven was to be purchas'd God pleas'd the Papists gratify'd and his own Ambition and Prejudice humour'd in doing it the late King would not leave these Blessings behind him Now where the People claim a Right to their Privileges as well as the Prince to his Prerogative the Prince will certainly begin his Reign with the Destruction of those that have a Right to oppose his Absolute Authority And these Maxims of a Right to do it in Conscience were the Inducements to King James's Tyranny which we might expect to see Increas'd but never Relax'd for tho' he might change his Councils he could not change his Conscience nor whilst he had such Directors of it as the Jesuits are can it be suppos'd otherwise but that he would follow the Lessons they taught and he imbib'd as conducing to his Eternal Happiness Fifthly 5. It was a Consummated Tyranny nothing remain'd Entirely Free but all was subjected to the good Pleasure of his own Will His Arbitrary Power influenc'd all in Authority His Privy Council generally speaking were made up of such as would concour with his Unlimited Authority and were oblig'd by their Interest to assist the Project and Subvert all that oppos'd it The Judges gave it for Law that he had a Dispencing Power and ought not to be Resisted in the Exercise of it The Magistracy was infected with the same Malady and the Soldiery were oblig'd to defend it with Sword in Hand 6. It was as intended an Eternal Tyranny for besides that his Abrogating the Laws gave an Example to his Successors to trace his Methods and in time make themselves as Despotick Princes as the Czar of Moscovy or the Turkish Emperor he was introducing a Suppositious Heir that should be train'd up in the same Principles and invested in the same Power and so keep out a Protestant Successor whose Religion would better instruct him in his Duty in maintaining his own Prerogative and yet indulging his Subjects in such a Liberty as does no way Impair or Attaint their Allegiance Whereas a Popish Successor would have made Tyranny as perpetual as 't is Absolute 7. To conclude The Tyranny of the late King's Reign was an Incurable Tyranny If it had arose from the Heat of Youth Time might have quench'd that Fire in correcting the Cause If it had proceeded from any Corporeal Disease a Remedy might have been found to cure it If it had been the Effect of an Incurable Disorder in his Intellects or Temperature we might have flatter'd our selves that it would last but one Reign or that Defect might have been supply'd by a Regent But none of these can be objected against the late King James for he Nurs'd it many Years in his own Bosom it grew up with his Understanding and was a true Tyranny in its Design necessary as impos'd on him by his Conscience evident in all his Actions Universal in its Object and Extent Consummated in its Degrees Eternal in its Consequence and altogether incurable by reason of his Age and introducing a Popish Heir without the Application of such a Speedy and Effectual Remedy as God was pleas'd to send us in our Extremity Some of the late King James's Friends are pleas'd to extenuate the Crimes they cannot defend in charging all the Faults of his Reign upon his Ministers which if allow'd to be True might lessen them in part but not discharge him of the whole For if the Master's Actions be never so Innocent or Inoffensive yet if out of Cowardice or Affection he becomes the Patron of his Servants Insolencies and Outrages by Protecting or not Punishing their Misdemeanours he renders himself Guilty and will share in the Contempt and Hatred of his People But when we consider how he labour'd the Point himself by Closetting Persuading and Threatning many Great Men and others to engage with him in his Design of Setting up Popery and Dispencing with Laws and whose Image and Superscription it bears the Glory of the Enterprize will be all his own for I can never think his Ministers capable of all those Extravagancies themselves any further than that they knew it would please him Indeed I can very easily suppose them chiefly Devoted to their Own Interests and willing to Share in the Spoil of Ruin'd Subjects yet methinks there should be some kind Remembrance of their Native Country that would sometimes check the Dissoluteness of such Arbitrary Managements And a certain Pride that Men take in acting prudently and not exposing themselves to the Hatred and Derision of all Mankind should have stopp'd their Carier in such Illegal Proceedings And so it appear'd for at last under these Apprehensions we find many that deserted the late King after he thought himself sure of them and resign'd their Places and refus'd to act by his Commission or obey his Orders after their Names were Inserted in Commissions and their Persons Actually Engag'd in his Service So that 't is plain this Project was the Issue of his own Brain heated by the Jesuitical Dictators of his Conscience The Fountain was corrupted and then no wonder the Streams run foul Something might be said in favour of the late King if he had set up his Dispencing Power for a General Good but 't is evidemt that it was only intended to enable Papists to ruin Protestants and therefore the Irish Parliament in their Act of Attainder put it out of their King's Power to exercise his Prerogative in shewing Kindness to Protestants that wanted it For when * See The State of the Protestants in Ireland by Bishop King p. 179. Sir Thomas Southwell was contrary to the Articles on which he Surrender'd himself condemn'd for High Treason against King James and at the Request of the Lord Seaford that King was willing to Pardon him and sent his Warrant to the Attorney-General Sir Richard Neagle to draw a Fiat the Attorney-General positively told the King he could not Pardon him and tho' the late King seem'd to be in a Heat and told Sir Richard he had betray'd him yet it must be presum'd they Understood one another for so the Matter ended and Sir Thomas went
Laws do not only totally exclude Papists from Military Offices but injoin them to be Disarm'd also Notwithstanding James the Second did not only Arm them but put them into the First Employments of the Army and all other Stations And was so fond of them that no Consideration either of Quality Loyalty or Merit except he was a Papist could Recommend any Man to this King's Favour or give him Title to the common Kindness of a Civil Reception but all were Smil'd or Frown'd on as they were distinguish'd by their Religious Principles Men may live happily under a Government and yet be excluded from having any Office or exercising any Authority under it and therefore the late King's Fondness and the Papists Forwardness to thrust themselves into Employments gave a great Suspition that it was for no good End that he put Wise and Experienc'd Men out to make room for a sort of Raw Papists who being not us'd to Publick Business were not capacitated for it No Man can imagin that the late King made this bold Adventure in Employing Papists for nothing or that he would disoblige the Body of his People for their sakes only without designing some other Advantage to himself by it He must have some peculiar Service for these Unqualify'd Favourites to do in which the rest of the Nation would not inter-meddle The Contest was between the King 's Absolute Power on the one side and our Laws and Religion on the other And therefore to know what Work their King had for them to do and to what End he would have employ'd these Services here is but to see Vide State of Ireland under the Reign of the late King James what Use he put them to in Ireland and how they demean'd themselves towards Protestants where the Scene was open'd and all manner of Violences committed upon Protestants by his Authority He also corrupted the Exercise of Justice on which depends the Safety of the Nation and the Stability of the Throne The Judges were Tamper'd with and Admitted upon Condition of favouring and promoting the late King 's Arbitrary Power and the Popish Interest Those Judges were Depos'd who were fix'd in their Religion and Resolutely defended the True Interest of their Country and others put into their Places of no Honour Integrity or Capacity but known Temporizers or Papists who were excluded by the Laws of their Country Upon this follow'd very Arbitrary and Illegal Proceedings in the Courts of Judicature A Prosecution was carry'd on against Seven Reverend Prelates for Petitioning the King to Redress their Grievances and giving their Reasons why they could not obey his Arbitrary Commands Causes were Try'd in the Court of King's Bench that were only Cognizable in Parliament Partial Corrupt and Unqualify'd Persons were Return'd and Serv'd on Juries in Cases of High Treason that were not Free-Holders Great Bail requir'd of Persons Committed in Criminal Causes Excessive Fines Impos'd for small Offences Illegal and Cruel Punishments Inflicted without Example or Law to warrant them And for a finishing Stroke The late King was also pleas'd to Grant and Seal a Commission to several Unqualify'd Persons to Examine the Revenues and Search into the Foundations of all the Hospitals in the Kingdom and see to what Uses they were first given by their Benefactors And into the Estates that some time ago belong'd to Monks Friars and other Religious Orders of the Romish Church with Intent to Restore them to the Papists who complain'd to the late King that they were Wrongfully Depriv'd of them In brief Never any Prince in so short a time committed so many Irregularities and made such Inroads upon our All as James the Second did by his Dispencing Power in England his Absolute Power without Reserve in Scotland and his Actual and Absolute Destruction of the Liberties and Religion of the Protestants in Ireland To which if we add the more than seeming Probability of the late King 's Leaguing with France for the Extirpation of the Northern Heresie 't will compleat his Design and make the intended Ruin of England unavoidable for more Hands would have made lighter Work and Experienc'd Artists would have finish'd it sooner I will not urge this League as a plain and positive Truth tho' I am strongly inclin'd to believe it and therefore shall only produce my Reasons and leave them with the Reader to judge as he pleases Mr. Coleman who must be presum'd to know much of his Master's Mind being in the same Interest and the Tool he work'd with in all his Secret Practices gives great Suspicion of the Truth of this Combination in a Letter to Sir William Throgmorton Feb. 1. 1678. You well know saith he that when the Duke comes to be Master of our Affairs i. e. to be King of England the King of France will have Reason to promise himself All things that he can desire And in a Letter to Father Le Chaise Confessor to the French King he says That His Royal Highness was convinc'd that His Interest and the King of France 's were the same And whether he ever thought fit to change his Mind since his Accession to the Crown his own Actions will better declare than any Gloss of mine In this State of Amity Things continu'd between the French King and the Duke of York till he was King And when the Prince of Orange's Fleet was preparing for his Noble Expedition into England they seem'd to rest on the same Foot for Monsieur le Comte d' Avaux the French King's Ambassador at the Hague in a Memorial to the States General acquaints them That his Master knowing the great Preparations for War that their Lordships were making both by Sea and Land was not without some Design form'd answuerable to the greatness of those preparations and his Master believing that it threaten'd England he had Commanded him to declare on his part that the Bands of Friendship and Allyance between him and the King of Great Britain will oblige him not only to assist him but also to look upon the first Act of Hostility that shall be committed by your Troops or your Fleet against his Majesty of Great Britain as a manifest Rupture of the Peace and a Breach with his Crown To this Memorial the States of Holland gave Answer That they Arm'd after the Example of their Neighbours to be ready upon Occasion 'T is true the French Ambassador does not mention the League in express words yet he gives very shrewd Hints that there was some such thing as a League or an Equivilent between the two Crowns and so the States of Holland took it For in their Answer to the English * The Marquiss d'Arbaville Ambassadors's Memorial their Lordships tell him That they were long since fully convinc'd of the Allyance which the King his Master had treated with France and which has been mention'd by Mr. Le Comte d'Avaux in his Memorial The Industry and Care that has been us'd to stifle this League does also
short view how these Princes carried it one towards the other None are Ignorant that the F. K. as soon as he apprehended that a pretended Zeal for Religion was the only way to advance his Ends and humor his Ambition but that he trumpt it up in all Courts where the same Religion was profess'd Religion was a Cloak to his Designs when he made an Incursion into the Spanish Netherlands and in the last Dutch War * Anno 1671. from whence We may date all our Misfortunes He in Conjunction with the King of Great Britain to destroy the States of Holland Intimated by his Ambassadors to the Pope to the Emperor of Germany and all other Princes whom he had a mind to deter from lending Assistance to the Dutch that they were a Nation fallen into Abominable Heresies and therefore all Christians were oblig'd in Conscience to War against them and rend in pieces that flourishing Republick and this furnish'd King James with the same Religious pretences against his own People At the very beginning of the late King's Reign the F. K. set him a Pattern at home and broke the inviolable Edict of Nants * Vid. Ed. Nants 1685. and King James in imitation of so pious an Example set up his dispencing Power in England violated his Oaths and Promises to his People and both under pretence of Zeal for Religion but all the Roman Catholick Princes were sensible to what eminent dangers that boasted Zeal had reduc'd them to for what Reverence what Veneration could they think those Princes had for the Name of Christian that made no Conscience of their Oaths that broke their Faith with Christians and leagu'd with Infidels who prefer'd the Crescent of Mahomet before the Cross of Christ and brib'd the Turks to begin a War against the Emperor * 1683. and Ruin that Capital City Vienna which is the Bulwork of Christendom against the Incursions of the Barbarians Who can think that Spiritual Things ever imploy'd the thoughts of that Monarch unless in order to Temporals that reflects with what violence he makes ostentation of his Zeal at home and at the same time espouses the Cause of the Protestants in Germany and Hungary perswading them to follow the Fortune of Count Teckeley and to joyn with the Turk to demand satisfaction for the violence offer'd to their Religion And this deceitful Artifice and Chichanery was the Cause that the Pope for some time resolutely refus'd to elect Fourbin into the Coledge of Cardinals As this affected Devotion of the F K. was subservient to his Ambition so James IId's Biggotry was early suspected to rise from the same Cause as the Earl of Shaftsbury declar'd before King Charles II. in a Speech * Shaftsbury's Speech State tracts Part 1. p. 463. in the House of Lords that the Duke of York had quitted his Religion that he might gain a powerful party to his Faction And this agrees with a Letter written about the same time and Recorded in the fifth Book of Collections wherein the Author tells the Duke of York that 't is the opinion of all Men that he Apostatiz'd from his Old and embrac'd a New Religon not as Charm'd by its Perfections but allur'd by the promises of an Absolute Monarchy and the blandishments of a Despotick Power which by this means would one time or other fall into his Hands Afterwards the same Letter admonishes the Duke to beware lest being dazled with the splendour of the French Monarchy he should endeavour to overthrow the best Government in the World since he seem'd to imitate King John who offer'd to turn Mahometan if the Emperor of Morocco would assist him with a Force to Revenge the Insolency of the Barons who vindicated their Liberties against the Encroachments of their King The Successes of France in War the intimate correspondence between the Duke of York and that King who manag'd England by the Politicks of Cardinal Richlieu and Mazarine at length induc'd the Duke of York to publish himself a Papist and knowing that thereby he hazarded the loss of the Church of England party he cajoll'd the Dissenters and heap'd his Favours upon them that they might be the Tools of his Ambition and also caress'd the Romanists both at home and abroad that they might be inclin'd for Religion sake to assist him But the Catholick Princes fathomed his design which was staged under the mask of Piety and joyn'd with the Interest of France and therefore Pope Innocent XI was not only incens'd with the French King and when he was drawing his last breath recommended his Emnity to the Cardinals that stood about him but also deliver'd it as his Judgment * Vindic. Gov. p. 44. that the designs of the late King James tended only to his own Ambition and his Brother 's of France and therefore did not receive the Earl of Castlemain his Ambassador with so much Honour as was due to such a magnificent and sumptuous appearance for his Holiness knew how all things were so manag'd by the Jesuits that every thing should be a Sacrifice to the Ambition of France and therefore as the Pope Complimented the late King James with a coolness of affection so he allways suspected him sometimes discover'd his Animosity and received the News * Vid. representat of Dangers in pol. tract par 2. p. 398. of his Abdication with transports of Joy and Gladness 'T is manifested the Emperor of Germany concurr'd in opinion with the Pope for after the late King's Abdication when he beg'd the Emperor's assistance in his misfortunes * Tracts of pol. col 12. vid. the Emp. of Ger. Letter and made use of his affection to the Romish Religion as a motive to encline him the Emperor return'd this Answer That the late King James 's Affairs had been now in a prosperous condition if he had hearkn'd to the advice of his Ambassador * Comitis de Kaknuits and not to the perfidy and flattery of the F King and had hindred by his Authority and Arms the F from violating the League and Peace whereof he was made Guarrantee by the Treaty of Nimeguen Now says the Emperor How can I assist you who must be forc'd to oppose the Forces of F and the Turk who did not doubt of the Fidelity and Assistance of England for the greatest injury that can be offer'd to our Religion is done by the F who is Confederated with the Turk the inveterate Enemy of Christianty So that the Jesuits that perswade the Roman Catholick Princes for their Religion sake to desert the Friendship of our Potent Monarch who has restor'd us to our Dying Liberties is just as if they should perswade the Confederate Princes to declare for those two Kings who not only design'd to enslave all Europe but also cherish'd the cause of the Infidels against the Christians and this brings me again into England And here it would be vain and impertinent in me to attempt to give a
King of Poland that if he broke his Oath and violated the Laws the People of that Kingdom should not be oblig'd to pay him Obedience and these two Cases are Parallel in Fact with the late King James's in Deserting the Kingdom of England The Fundamental Laws of Hungary * Bonfin decad 4. lib. 9. C. 11. Restrain and Limit the Power of their Kings by a Coronation Oath expresly conditional and have given so many Instances of their Right to Depose them * Chalcondil Hist l. 2. p. 120. that 't were lost labour to Recite them having refer'd to the Authors that Treat on that Subject In Spain we find Peter of Castile Depos'd for a Suppositious Birth and Philip of Arragon for Incontinency Indeed the Nobility and Commonality of that Kingdom have formerly took such a Power and Liberty in Censuring the Actions and Deposing their Kings for slight and trivial Causes that they are not fit to be reckon'd among the material Instances of other Nations in cases of Certain and extreme Necessity In the ancient Kingdoms of Denmark * Pontanus l. 8. c. 9. Sweden and Norway which are all of Gothic Original the meanest people had a Voice in the Elections of their Kings and if mistaken in their Choice they Depos'd him and chose another still giving preference to the Royal Family if there were any of them qualify'd Sometimes they wholly neglected that Method and Elected the Brave and Valiant Hero that had signaliz'd his Kindness and Courage in the Expulsion of a Tyrant and Rescuing their Privileges out of the hands of an Oppressor And sometimes they chose a private Person whose Eminent Parts and Probity had mark'd out as worthy of that Dignity which himself ne're thought on Give me leave to give you a Remarkable Instance in the Kingdom of Sweden of the Tyranny of an Absolute Monarch Christern the Second King of Denmark obtain'd the Crown of Sweden by Conquest and looking upon the Ancient Privileges of those Subjects as Inconsistent with his Royal Dignity quickly came to Resolutions of destroying of the Senators and Principal Noble-men that he thought Enemies of his Imperial Arbitrary Power and to facilitate the execution of his barbarous Decree he put on a Kinder Visage than he commonly wore suffering no Cloud to possess his Royal Brow but appear'd in shew of Respect and Kindness that he might oblige them to trust that before suspected him Under this Visor of Friendship and Affability he invites the Lords to a magnificent Feast at Stockholm where two days together they were splendidly treated and the third day basely Murther'd This surprizing bloody start from a King to a Tyrant so terrify'd the Nation that it put them upon freeing themselves and whilst they were revolving various Means to Accomplish it a Deliverer appears in the Person of Gustavus Ericson descended from the Ancient Kings of Sweden and Nephew to King Canutson who so effectually check'd the Tyrant that Christern who had Abdicated the Government by his continued Tyranny was so Hated by his Subjects Deserted by his Soldiers and beaten by his Rival that he consummated his Abdication by flying out of the Kingdom and Gustavus the Generous Deliverer by a Convention of the Estates * Peterson in Chronic. Holsat l. 8. was Elected and Crown'd King of Sweden which he Govern'd happily all the days of his Life I am sensible that some will tell me that things are now otherwise than I have related of Denmark and that the Government there is an Absolute Monarchy to which I reply Let them take it for their pains I did not speak of things as they are now perverted by Fear and Force but as they were Originally constituted and dare promise him that will give himself the pleasure of reading the English History of the State of that Kingdom he will not think the Model ought to be transported into England Portugal by telling Alphonsus the Third that if he would not adict himself to the Affairs of the * History Portual in Reign Alphons 3. l. 6. and Ordin Portugal 17. l. 2. Sect. 3. 4. 5. 6. Kingdom the Estates of the Realm would Depose him and Elect another King and by Banishing their late Monarch for the barbarous Effect of his Frenzy have fully declar'd their Opinions in that Matter When the Kings of France abus'd their Authority that Nation afferted their Right as in Deposing Childeric Father of * Greg. Tower l. 2. c 11. Clowis and in the same manner proceeded against another Childeric in the Eighth Century And if we descend to the Race of Charles the Great their Histories will inform us that Louis Surnam'd The Good was Dopos'd by a General Assembly of the Estates at Thionville and the Articles on which they proceeded to his Deposition are to be read in Baronius and du Chesne le Comte After him the Estates Depos'd Charles the Gross and Charles the Simple and stood so much upon their Right to do it that when in another Instance they were threatned by Pope Adrian the Second with Excommunication they sent him word They would defend their Privileges and their Liberties unto Death In the Second Race of their Kings notwithstanding Charles of Lorrain was * Guil. de Nanz. ad an 987. Heir to Lewis the Fifth and consequently ought to have enjoy'd the Crown of France yet the Estates laid him aside for no other Reason but because he was suspected to be in the German Interest who were Enemies to France and gave the Crown to Hugh Capet Henry the Third that had been Depos'd in Poland was also Depos'd in France by Advice of the Sorbonne and the greatest part of the Estates When Theodore the Second attempted to make himself Master of the Lives and Estates of his Subjects they â—â—se against him Depos'd him Shav'd him thrust him into a Monastery and plac'd his Brother Chilpric in the Throne In the Time of Charles the Simple mention'd before finding him unfit to encounter the Insults of the Normans the Estates conferr'd the Soverignty on Lewis and Charlemain who tho' of the same Blood had not the same Right to the Crown And 't is but consulting their own * Important Maxims publish'd by Mr. Joly in 1663 Can. d' Egles Paris Histories to shew that that Nation was always in Possession of the Right of Explaining Limiting Extending and Altering the Succession as often as their Circumstances requir'd it And truly I cannot but wonder the French Jesuits who in favour of the late King James have so slovenly Rail'd against our †Pere d'Orleans Hist Revol d'Angleterre Convention of Estates for Deposing him dare bespatter the Judgment of their Infallible Pope Zachary whose Opinion being ask'd by the French Lords about the Lawfulness of Deposing King Childeric answer'd That the French were discharg'd of their Oath of Fidelity to Childeric since he had not acquitted himself towards them as he had solemnly promised the Nature of Conditional Contracts
being such that where one Party does not perform his Covenant the other are absolv'd from theirs Which Advice being approv'd the Lords and Great Men of the Kingdom Assemble at Soissons Depose Childeric and Elect Pepin to be their King But above all I am amaz'd to hear the * Advice de Refugies p. 60. French Missionaries and other Writers so openly and scandalously Declaim against Dethroning Kings when the very Monarch that now enjoys the Crown of France wears the Crown in Consequence and by Right of such Depositions Nay It would be no hard matter to prove that almost all the Governments in the World owe their Settlements to Conventions of Estates Assembl'd and Authoriz'd by a Necessity of providing for the Publick Safety So that the Conventional Parliament of England in Deposing James the Second made no Incroachment upon the Rights of Kings nor Violation of the Law of God of Nature or the Law of Nations but agreeably to all these Laws Asserted their own Rights in taking more Care for the Safety of a whole Kingdom than the Pretentions of a Single Person who endeavour'd to destroy it And in this they did but follow the Practice of former Ages in their own Country as will appear by and by in the following Examples God has invested Kings with a Power to do Justice but not to commit Violences and therefore when they wilfully convert their Authority into a Power of Destruction as James the Second did Subjects have a Right by the Law of Nature to Repel Force by Force for the Necessity of Publick Safety is a Law so Sacred that it Abolisheth all others that oppose it and Justifies all the Revolutions and Settlements in the World that are built upon that Foundation It is the First and greatest Obligation of Mankind to procure and promote the Welfare of the Body whereof they are Members which if every one would think himself oblig'd to do there would be a Circulation of Safety and Prosperity through the whole * Eâque lege notus sis ut ea habeas principia naturae quibus parere quae semper sequi debeas ut utilitas tua communis utilitas sit vicissimque communis utilitas tua sit Cicero lib. 3. expresseth this to the Life in saying That we are born under a Law and instructed by the Principles of Nature that oblige us to prefer the Common Good before our own so that at length the Common Good may be our own Advantage also With a single Respect to this Common and Mutual Good the Light of Reason shining in Wiser Heathens which yet shines brighter in Christians exalted by Revelation dictated the Necessity of Government as an Instrument without which it could not possibly be attain'd Fair Useful Just and Equal Rules of Conversation were by Common Consent agreed on and some One or More Persons Renown'd for Wisdom Probity and Courage were Intrusted and Impower'd to Inforce as Occasion should require the Community to observe them Which Ruler was bound by Mutual Compact to govern by the Rules agreed on and under that Condition the People gave their Oaths to obey him So that those People that think themselves bound by their Oaths to an Absolute Obedience to their Prince without Reserve forget that the Rulers Office is merely Relative to their People's Welfare and they also forget their first Obligation to seek the Good of the Community If a Ruler act contrary to his Trust by setting aside the Laws of the Constitution made and agreed on by Prince and People as necessary for the Conservation of every Individual Person and by excercising an Arbitrary Power of his Own Erecting evidently seeks the Ruin of that Body he ought to preserve the Necessary Defence of themselves is no Offence against the Nature of Government which was Originally Instituted for the Preservation and not for the Destruction of the Society and therefore cannot be looked upon as Criminal The Judgment of the great Melancton concerning Government in his Exposition on the Fifth Commandment will clear this Point In regard saith he something will go amiss in every Society for the Love of Peace we must bear with many Faults of our Princes and so long as they design well in the main tho' they fall into Mistakes we ought to bear them with Patience and hide their Frailties as much as possibly we can But of a Tyrant he says a few Lines before * Nec praetextu operis Divini excusanda aut tuenda sunt vitia nec propter loci dignitatem tolerandae sunt manifestae Atroces injuriae impietates flagitiosae libidines Tyrannorum sine fine grassantium sed reliqua politia cui Deus gladium dedit recte facit cum Caligulas Nerones similia portenta removent a Gubernatione That the Pretence of a Divine Right can neither excuse or justifie his Crimes nor the Dignity of his Office tolerate him to exercise a Wicked and Wilful Tyranny but when his Impieties and Injuries to his People are evident and unsufferable the Powers to whom God hath in such an Extremity committed the Sword to protect and deliver an Oppress'd Nation may remove him from the Government as the Romans did Caligula Nero and other Monsters of Cruelty who were not only Enemies to the Commonwealth but to all Mankind Indeed when an Absolute Government hath for the Sins of the People taken firm Rooting which Thanks be to God was not England's Case I deny not but such as were born under it ought to be content with their Servile Condition till Heaven is prevail'd with by their Prayers and Piety to release them from Thraldom But in a Free Estate the Case stands as is before rehears'd Polanus in proposing the Question whether we ought to obey an Absolute and Tyrannical Prince exactly answers the Case of England under the Reign of the late King James saying We must distinguish between an Absolute and a Limited Monarchy in the former it must be born with because the Prince does but exercise his own Authority like Nebuchadnezzar But Sed si Rex seu Princeps habeat limitatum adstrictum certis conditionibus in quas juravit seu quas se promisit servaturum Penes Status aut Primores Regni seu Principatus est coercere Regis seu Principis Tyrannidem immanitatem Syntag. lib. 10. cap. 62. if the King or Prince governs in a Limited Monarchy where he receives his Crown on certain Conditions which he promises and swears to observe but instead of it breaks his Oath and sets up a Despotick Power unknown to the Constitution and Inconsistent with the Safety of it the Estates of the Kingdom may depose him from his Royal Dignity And this is Melancton's meaning also as may be collected from his Words already cited cui Deus gladium dedit to whom God hath given the Authority The Case thus stated makes England unconcern'd in the Deep Submissions of the Primitive Christians who tho'
they had Power made no use of it to free themselves by throwing off their Tyrannical Emperors Their Lots fell to them under an Absolute Government and they remain'd contented with the Dispensation of God's All-wise Providence But may I not be permitted to say their Natural Liberty to cast off their heavy Yoke was restrain'd by Christian Prudence The Church was yet in too narrow a Room but was intended by God Almighty to be spread thro' the other Parts of the World and therefore Rulers would have been far more averse from admitting the Propagators of it into their Territories if the Christians had contracted the Imputation of Turbulency by standing upon their Natural Right to defend themselves whereas their Lamb-like Deportment gave them an easier Access to all Places and Persons And if their Forbearance and Patience was the Fruit of this sole Prudential Consideration their Successors are not so much oblig'd to the same Course in those Countries where Crowns and Sceptres have submitted to the Cross and the Christian Religion has obtain'd a Civil Right of Protection and Immunity from Persecution for then they ought not they cannot relinquish this Right no more than they can destroy themselves or suffer Violence and Cruelty to destroy the Innocent And what is said of the Christian Religion in reference to Paganism holds also true between the Reform'd Religion and Popery But The great Objection which they call Unanswerable is yet behind viz. That a King in Scripture-Language is call'd a Father to honour a Father is the Fifth Commandment and therefore the Obedience of a Subject is as immutably fasten'd to him whatever his Miscarriages are as that of a Natural Son to a Vicious Barbarous Parent A powerful Objection which is always in their Mouths on a double Account But if I can prove that a Natural Father may lose his Claim to his Son's Obedience their King 's Right to our Obedience must fall with it and proves his Abdication Lawful which I shall attempt by giving these several Things in Answer all grounded upon no mean Authorities And First 1. The Appellation Father only describes the Nature of the Kingly Office which is the Tender Care and Studious Regard he ought to exercise for the Safety and Prosperity of his Subjects It tells not what he always is but what he always should be And while he carries it to his People as a Father it is no less than a Damnable Sin not to pay him a Filial Obedience But whether the late King James had any Claim to our Duty upon that Consideration I leave it to the Reader who by this time has had a Glimpse of his Conversation Secondly Our Obligation to obey Natural Parents must give place to our Endeavours to preserve our Country Cicero saw this by the Light of Nature and therefore says * Quid si Tyranidem aucâ—pare si patriam prodere conabitur Pater Selebitne filius Imo vero obsecrabit patrem ne id faciat si nihil proficiet accusabit minabitur etiam ad extremum si ad pernitiem Patriae res spectabit Patriae salutem anteâ—onâ—t saluti patris If a Father acts the part of a Tyrant and endeavours the Destruction of his Country the Son may lawfully oppose him and if he will not be reclaim'd and brought to Reason the Son may accuse him threaten him with Punishment or confine him being oblig'd to prefer the Safety of his own Country before the private Satisfaction of his Father Thirdly 3. A Natural Father by repeated Acts of Barbarity and Cruelty upon his Son alone may forfeit all Just Claims to his Son 's Filial Obedience Let us put the Case A Man who lives near the Sea harbours and cherishes in his Mind a perfect Hatred of his Son upon Contrariety in Religion or some other Cause and in the Heat of his Fury resolves to destroy him History will warrant this Supposition and therefore to prevent the Eye and Censure of the World privately binds him puts him in a Chest and carries him to the Sea-side at Low-Water Mark that the Returning Flood may carry him to his Death I also suppose that after the Son has floated a while in this helpless hopeless Condition a Ship or Boat coming by the Mariners take him up and save that Life which his Father Intentionally and Actually thought he had made away In this Case The Father can never have any Right to his Son's After-Obedience because he endeavour'd to destroy that Being wherein the Relation and Duty was founded And is a good Argument to oblige us to a Grateful and Dutiful Return to our Great Deliverer King William but utterly destroys the Pretence of a Paternal Right in the late King James after he had converted his Power of Preservation into a Power of Desolation and Destruction because he had destroy'd the Relation on which our Duty was Originally founded and without which he had no Claim to it In such and Easier Cases than now is put Wise Men for above a Thousand Years together have judg'd that such Cruel Fathers have lost all Just Title to their Abus'd Children as may be read in the Decrees of the Emperors Valentinianus Valens and Gratianus directed to Probus the Prefect Recorded by Justinianus Codicis liber octavus Tit. 52. and in the Decree of Justinian the Emperor directed to Demosthenes his Praetorian Prefect By all which it appears that a Man's exposing his own Child in a Box or Basket on the High-way at a Stranger 's Door or elsewhere where he is sure to perish unless some Charitable Hand by chance takes him up and preserves him amounts in Sound Judgment to the Forfeiture of his Claim to their future Obedience supposing their Casual Preservation notwithstanding the firm Tyes of Nature and Property All the great Interpreters of the Civil Law from Justinian hitherto have approv'd the afore-cited Judgment Baldus Salycetus and others have done it of old and the latter Swarms of Civilians Hermannius Vulteius Harpprectus c. have given their Assent to it All which I shall wave and only recite the Words of Hadrianus Saravia who tho' a Stranger was in respect of his great Learning preferr'd here by Queen Elizabeth He expresses the Sense of all the rest in his First Book de Imperandi Authoritate Christiana Obedientia in saying that * Qui recens natos Infantes abjiciunt feris devorandos aut a quovis tollendos omne jus paternum simul objeciunt Nihil enim genuisse promerentur nisi Natos educaverint Cap. 2. if Parents grow so unnatural and cruel to the Issue of their own Loins as to expose them to Wild Beasts or by other Cruelties endeavour to deprive them of their Lives they forfeit all kind of Paternal Right to and Authority over their Children because they had divested themselves of Humanity and not answer'd the End for which God and Nature design'd them which was to educate and preserve their Children but not do them any
Injury So that the Inference from these Premisses will utterly overthrow the Objection of our Adversaries in favour of the late King James For if a Patron that out of a Principle of Cruelty exposeth the Life of his Slave makes a Forfeiture of his Property in him much more may a Prince for the same Reason forfeit all his Interest in his Free-born Subjects And if a Natural Father who seeks the Destruction of his Son does therefore lose all just Claim to that Son's Obedience much more may a Prince who is but a Casul Political Father and is invested with that Relation only by Agreement and Compact may a Fortiori for the same Reason make a just Forfeiture and lose all just Claim to the Obedience of his Political Children So that the Convention of the Estates Assembl'd at Westminster in Deposing the late King and conferring the Crown upon our Gracious King William the Third have done nothing against the late King James but what they were necessitated to do and what they are justify'd in doing by the greatest Authorities in the Christian World At the late King 's Going off and making no manner of Provision for the Administration of the Government the Nation seem'd to be in the same Condition they were in when the Original Contract was first made and the same Care was requisite to settle the Distracted Affairs of the Realm under that Confusion wherein he left it as if we never had been bless'd with any Settlement at all and consequently the Convention upon the Vacancy of the Throne had Power to Model Things as the present Circumstances of the Publick exacted without being confin'd to the Presidents of former Ages and yet so great was the Modesty of that Venerable Assembly and their Care to prevent Innovations that they did nothing but what had been already done upon the like Occasion many Hundred Years before How the Clergy the Barons and the Commons deported themselves towards King John five Hundred Years ago and Deposing him and Electing Lewis of France I have already acquainted you and therefore shall say no more here than that the Grounds of their Proceedings were for Re-gaining those Franchises that were notoriously invaded by that Arbitrary Prince and are contain'd in the Great Charter of England King Edward the Second tracing the same Arbitrary Methods the Barons send him word That * Trussell 's Hist p. 2â—6 unless he put away Peirce Gaveston that corrupted his Counsels and squander'd his Revenue and also addicted himself to Govern by the Laws of the Land they would with one Consent Rise in Arms against him as a Perjur'd Person And so they did and Beheaded his Minion Gaveston notwithstanding the King 's earnest Sollicitation for his Life The same Fate attended the Spencers And a Parliament being call'd without his Consent at length himself was Depos'd who confess'd the Sentence of his Deposition was just that he was sorry he had so offended the State as they should utterly Reject him but gave the Parliament Thanks that they were so * Trussell 's Hist p. 218. gracious to him as to Elect his Eldest Son their King King Richard the Second being laps'd into the same Misfortune of Affecting a Tyrannical Government the Lords and Commons declare unto him then at Eltham That †Knighton An. 1386. in case he would not be govern'd by the Laws Statutes and Laudable Customs and Ordinances of the Realm and the Wholsome Advice of the Lords and Peers but in a Head-strong Way would exercise his own Will they would Depose him from his Regal Throne and promote some Kinsman of his of the Royal Family to the Throne of the Kingdom in his stead But this Warning having no Effect at length a Parliament is Call'd without the King's Consent or Approbation by Henry Duke of Lancaster They requir'd him to Resign his Crown which tho' he condescended to and actually perform'd it as directed yet the * Trussell l. 2. p. 43. Parliament then Sitting thinking this Abdication not sufficient to build upon because the Writing might be the Effect of Fear and so not Voluntary and Spontaneous they thereupon proceed to a Formal Deposition in the Names of all the Commons of England upon the Articles Exhibited against him which consisted of Twenty nine Particulars and the greatest part of them relating to the Affairs of that Time in which this Age is not concern'd I have contracted them into a narrower Compass than in the Trussell's Hist Original without omitting any thing that is material and are what follows viz. That King Richard the Second wasted the Treasure of the Realm That he Impeach'd several Great Lords of High Treason that Acted for the Good of the Kingdom by Order of Parliament That he perverted the Course of Justice and took away the Lives and Estates of certain Noble-Men without Form of Law That he affirm'd All Law lay in his Head and Breast and that all the Lives and Estates of his Subjects were in his Hands to dispose of at pleasure That he put out divers Knights and Burgesses Legally Elected and put in others of his own Choice to serve his Turn That he Rais'd Taxes contrary to Law and his own Oath And Banish'd the Archbishop of Canterbury without Just Cause or Legal Judgment pronounc'd against him For these Reasons he was formally Depos'd by Parliament who at the same time Consented that Henry Duke of Lancaster should be Crown'd King tho' the Right of Blood was in Edmund Earl of March because now Henry the Fourth had signaliz'd himself in Delivering the Nation from the Tyranny of Richard the Second And after the same manner tho' with a more Free and Absolute Election proceeded the late Convention of Estates in Deposing James the Second and filling the Vacant Throne with our present Monarch William the Third who under God was the Glorious and Happy Instrument of Freeing England from the Tyranny of the late King These Proceedings I have already prov'd to be consentaneous to all Laws And to confirm it shall only add That amongst all the Unfortunate Princes that have been laid aside by their Subjects none were more justly Dethron'd than James the Second We read of some Princes that were Depos'd because they were Infected with the Leprosie but I think none will pretend that Leprosie under the Law was as Incompatible with the Government as Tyranny and Setting up of Idolatry was at this Juncture for that Disease was not in the power of Oziah to help but Tyranny was the Efflux of the late King 's Arbitrary Will and the Gratification of his Sensual Appetite Besides Leprosie is but a Disease in the Body but Tyranny in the Soul Leprosie was but a Ceremonial Evil but according to this manner of Speaking Tyranny is a Moral Evil. Leprosie does but infect Tyranny destroys King Childeric of France was Depos'd for Slothfulness and neglecting the Affairs of the Kingdom and it it must be acknowledg'd this shameful
the Designs of Ambitious Rival Princes His Rare and Distinguish'd Wisdom and Conduct has bless'd us with so happy a Change that even our Interest combines with our Duty and is complicated with it Blessed be God we have now a King that is a Defender of our Faith a Sovereign to whom it hath so far approv'd it self as he hath given the Nation all imaginable Security of our Religion Laws and Properties and that they shall never be again in danger of being depriv'd of them for the future in which all good Men Rejoice and Triumph and no Men doubt the Sincerity of it but those whose own Guilt renders them always Suspitious and Diffident of all Mankind Add hereto that as His Majesty's Personal Merits has engag'd our Obedience so are we also oblig'd to it by that Singular Providence that has still attended and Miracles of it guarded his Sacred Person through all the Fatigues and Dangers of War and set His Majesty on a steady Throne in Peace How Plain and Visible then is the Argument for Obedience to his Sovereignty in our Case And how effectually ought it to work upon this Generation when the greatest Favours and Kindnesses on Earth Invite and when Miracles from Heaven command our Duty and Obedience to him Thus are we oblig'd to obey King William for his own sake It remains also as a Duty upon us that we obey His Majesty for God's sake and that I hope will keep it firm in this wavering Generation I mean when our Subjection is founded where it truly ought to be viz. upon Reasons of Religion upon Principles of Conscience and Duty to God which St. Peter calls Submitting for the Lord's sake And I hope I need not dwell long upon this Head amongst Christians for if the plain Principles of the New Testament may be allow'd to be a Rule of Conscience and God's immediate Commands do lay any Obligations upon us then it is evident that Men are as immediately ty'd to the Duty of Obedience to their Prince in point of Conscience as to any other Duty whatsoever Let Conscience be as Free as Men assert it to be and Accountable to God only yet it cannot be dispenc'd withall in this Duty For if Government be God's Institution Kings his Vicegerents and that he hath charg'd all Men to be obedient to them and their Lawful Commands upon pain of Damnation and his highest Displeasure then I am sure if Conscience be an honest Respect to God and his Laws it must necessarily oblige all Men in this Instance If St. Paul and St. Peter understood the Obligation of Conscience or were able to direct the Obedience of it no more need be added on this Subject than to desire Men to open their Bibles and Read their Duty from those Apostles tho' if need were I might appeal to the Old Testament the Doctrine and Example of the Blessed Jesus in the New the Consonant Doctrine and Practice too of the Antient and Best Christians to Vouch the Truth of Obedience to Kings for the Lord's sake And therefore I shall close up this Discourse with my Hearty Wishes That God Almighty would please to Bless Preserve Protect and Keep King William that we may long enjoy him and all those Great and Invaluable Blessings which by him God has vouchsafed to us And that God would so Rule the Heart of his Chosen Servant William our King and Governour that he knowing whose Minister he is may above all things seek his Honour and Glory And that we and all his Subjects duly considering whose Authority he hath may faithfully Serve Honour and Humbly Obey him in God and for God according to his Blessed Word and Ordinance FINIS ADVERTISEMENT A True History of the several Designs and Conspiracies against His Majesty's Person and Government As they were continually carry'd on from 1688 to 1697. Containing Matters Extracted from Original Papers Depositions of the Witnesses and Authentick Records as appears by the References to the Appendix wherein they are Digested Publish'd with no other Design than to acquaint the English Nation that notwithstanding the present Posture of Affairs our Enemies are still so Many Restless and Designing that all Imaginable Care ought to be taken for the Defence and Safety of His MAJESTY and His Three Kingdoms By the same Author Sold by Abel Roper at the Black Boy against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street
Inactivity to which the Kings of France were then accustom'd was grown very disadvantageous to the Government But France was not in danger of perishing by his Idleness and England was on the very Moment of being destroy'd by the late King's Tyranny and Subversion of the Laws And so much Difference as there was between doing Nothing and endeavouring to Ruin All so much Difference was there between the Dethronement of Childeric and that of James the Second There have been Kings Depos'd for Involuntary Absence upon certain Occasions but that cannot stand in Competition with the late King 's wilful Renunciation of the Government by refusing to Govern by the Laws of the Constitution and his Voluntary Deserting the Kingdom when no Force compell'd him to it Was there ever any Mention of Introducing another King till the Throne stood empty by the late King 's going away Did ever so Great a People comport themselves with so little Disorder when they were Lawless and without a Government And was it not high time to provide for the Safety of the Nation when he that should have Govern'd it had voluntarily left it and not only so but left it in the greatest Confusion he could possibly reduce it to and went off only to procure a Foreign Army to Conquer and Subdue the whole Nation into Slavery and profest himself an open and Hostile Enemy to the Kingdom Was the Absence of a Prince to be compar'd with these Extravagancies Were they any longer to be submitted to when there was no Hope of Amendment They that assert such Contradictions and Improbabilities might as well affirm that a Fever was a Recipe for Health and the Plague a Medicine for Long Life and would gain Credit as soon to one as they can do to the other Subjects have Renounc'd their Kings for Usurping a Power to treat them as they pleas'd as was the Case of Rehoboam and Jeroboam But what is Arbitrary Power tho' bad enough too when compar'd with an Actual Necessity of Destroying the Nation and that Necessity impos'd upon the Prince by his Conscience under the Expectation of Eternal Rewards in the World to come There may be Hopes of Reclaiming a Prince from the Evil Counsel of Others but there is no dividing a Man from himself In culpa est Animus * Hor. lib. 1. ep 14. qui se non effugit unquam In James the Second's Mind the Fault did lie That never from it self could fly Constantius Copronimus was Deposed for Impiety but that being a Personal Evil affected the Publick only by the Ill Consequences of a Regale Example And Impiety was never the Parent of so many Cruelties as the Superstition we are speaking of has been amongst us Atheism and Infidelity are Sins of the highest nature but never were guilty of Shedding so much Humane Blood as Superstition And therefore Princes have not been thought so Justly to deserve a Deprivation and the Loss of their Crowns and Countries as a Prince Superstitiously devoted to a False Religion who thinks his Actions Pious at the same time that he is * Que est facto pius est sceleratus eodem committing the greatest Wickedness and †Crudelitas nobilitata Religione rendring himself Infamous by Inglorious Cruelties to his Subjects Which we had Cause to dread for * Lucret. l. 5. Saepius olim Religio peperit Scelerosa atque Impia facta In our Fore-Fathers Times Religion did commit the foulest Crimes Some Princes have been Depos'd for Cruelty but their Cruelty not to be compar'd with his for a Transient Cruelty was always thought more tolerable than one that was Durable A particular rather than a publick Mischief A Cruelty hated by all the World as appearing in its own Likeness frightful rather than a Cruelty hidden under the pretext of Piety and Religion A Cruelty which destroys the Body only rather than a Cruelty that destroys both Body and Soul at the same time A tolerable Cruelty and Oppression before a Cruelty advanc'd before we are aware into an Inviolable Law of the Kingdom and may be justly nam'd an * Immortale odium nunquam Sanabile Vulnus Juvenal Sat. 13. Immortal Hatred and an Incurable Wound in the Body Politick that threatens Destruction to the whole Nation Such was the Tyranny of the late King whose Outside was Devotion and In-side Destruction for tho' in the general Representation of Things he seem'd but to take off the Penal Laws against Papists yet in the Distinct Idea he design'd to execute the Penal Decrees of the Church of Rome against Protestants which was visible in setting up Popish Magistrates who think themselves oblig'd to work our Ruin And in these cover'd Designs he exceeded most of the Tyrants that went before him who were contented to abuse their Subjects themselves without endowing their Inferiour Magistrates with a Supream Power for the same Purposes Nero kill'd his Mother and Brother and most of his Honest Courtiers but did not command his Governors of Provinces to follow his wicked Example Astiages gave his Favourite the Head of his Son to eat but did not impose upon his Lieutenants a Necessity of Imitating him in his Barbarous Repasts The Roman Emperors persecuted the Primitive Christians with all manner of Cruelties but we do not find that they were so oblig'd in Conscience to do it that they put it out of their power to shew them any Mercy But that Popery does it is known to Heaven and Earth and they must pull out their Eyes that will not perceive it So that our Adversaries must consent that the Proceedings of the late Convention of Estates in Deposing James the Second were the most Natural Just Necessary and Lawful that ever was or can be on the like Occasion And they have nothing left them to object unless they can prove that the Laws of which we have spoken were not of great Consequence to the Nation or that the late King did not break them since I have already prov'd that no Prince can have such an Absolute Right to a Crown but for the Safety of a Kingdom he may be Dethron'd For By the same Reason that he may Lose it to a Conqueror or Resign it to a Successor he may Abdicate it Otherwise the very End of Government would be lost if the Prince that endeavours to subvert the Kingdom does not at the same time forfeit his own Right to it And therefore the Convention of Estates who bless'd the Nation with the present Settlement had been Justifiable though they had fail'd of Success the late King having long before ceas'd to be a Legal King of England My next Undertaking is to shew that King William the Third now in the Throne of his Ancestors is Rightful and Lawful King of England Scotland France and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging And to prove this beyond all possibility of Dispute tho' I need use no other Argument than that he is King by the
Unanimous Vote and Universal Election of the People Confirm'd and Recogniz'd by the same Authority and Law of England by which all his Royal Predecessors enjoy'd the Imperial Crowns of these Kingdoms besides the Undoubted Right of his Excellent Princess and his own Right of Blood and that the Submission of the People and Determination of the Estates of the Kingdom grounded not only upon the Supream Law of Publick Good but also upon the Known and Declar'd Positive Laws and Constitutions of this Government as there has been Occasion in all Ages from the first Foundation of this Limited Monarchy and that this is Conclusive to all Private Subjects Yet because we ought to Resolve Cases here that may stand with the Reason of Mankind when they are debated abroad and that some that have writ on the Behalf of the Government by their weak and precarious Arguments have set up divers Titles that make it look like a Fanciful Chimera or built upon a Sandy or Fictitious Bottom and have more disparag'd the Revolution by their Impertinencies than all that have exercis'd their Pens or Spleens against it I crave Leave to be a little more particular upon it The Crown of England as placed on the Head of our Dread Sovereign William the Third stands Firm and Immoveable there on the Right of the Case and the Reason of the Thing without the Props of Art Oratory or Learning to support it Shuffling between Providential Settlement Conquest and Topping Protections of Power scandalize the King 's Legal Title and mis-lead his Subjects Let but the Matter express it self plainly and it will carry an Entire Conviction and Satisfaction with it in its own Genuine Phrase and Designment 'T is truly and plainly stated in the Prince of Orange's Declaration and is neither more nor less than what briefly follows James the Second directly contrary to his Coronation-Oath breaks through all the Establish'd Laws of the Land Invades and Subverts the Religious and Civil Rights Liberties Privileges and Properties of his Subjects which he solemnly Swore to Protect and Defend and in an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Manner Dissolves the Constitution of Church and State by Usurping a Power unknown to the Constitution and as Inconsistent with it as Light with Darkness His Subjects perceiving All going to Ruin having first us'd all Means to Reclaim him but to no purpose Assume their Natural Right in Defence of their Laws their Lives their Religion and to preserve them Entire oppose the Violent and Arbitrary Methods of the late King and apply themselves to the Prince of Orange our now Gracious King who had a Just Expectation of a Right to the Crown and humbly pray His Highness to assist them in Recovering and Defending their Legal Rights together with his own Title to the Succession both apparently Invaded and endeavouring to be Destroy'd by Clandestine Methods This Illustrious Prince gives the People Assistance and by the Blessing of God and the Mutual Appearance of the Nation for their Self-Defence and Preservation James the Second Conscious of his own Guilt in endeavouring to subvert the Constitution and breaking the Original Contract between King and People and that by the Advice of Jesuits and other Wicked People he had Violated the Fundamental Laws and thereby Abdicated the Government he leaves the Kingdom Upon which Vacancy of the Throne His Highness the Prince of Orange together with his Royal Consort of ever Blessed Memory the next Indisputable Heir to the Crown in a Full and Free Representation of the whole Community and Body of the Kingdom is and are Declar'd and Constituted King and Queen of England c. Now since 't is visible that the late King James was fled and that it was absolutely necessary the Government should be supply'd and some other King plac'd in the Throne who accepting the Crown upon the Conditions tender'd with it would give Assurance of Governing by the Laws of the Constitution and secure our Happiness under him there can remain no reasonable Objection against his Title Besides His Sacred Majesty King William the Third in a more especial manner is God's King as being appointed by his Providence by whom Kings Reign assisted by his Almighty Power and the Glorious Instrument in his Hand to Enterprize and Accomplish such a Deliverance as in common Gratitude without Respect to other Right in all Nations of the World has been constantly Rewarded with a Crown and more particularly in England upon that Respect Alone has justly meritted the Sovereignty His present Majesty is also God's King as being the Wise and Valiant Champion of all the Reformed Churches in Europe and who with his Sword his Head and Heart fights for Christ's Religion and to rescue the Professors of it from mighty Combinations to destroy them Root and Branch In which Great and Glorious Work God Almighty has signally own'd him as his Anointed King in preserving his Sacred Person in the Open Dangers of Wars and from the many Close and Barbarous Conspiracies of Ingrateful Regicides He is also the People's King as being their Voluntary Choice when they had no King and Establish'd by those Laws that were of their own making and the Precedents of their Fore-Fathers on the like Occasions For to rise no higher than the Norman Race William the Second Henry the First King John King Stephen Henry the Fourth Henry the Fifth Henry the Sixth and Henry the Seventh had no other Title but the Consent Election of the People and a Parliamentary Recognition of their Rights But King William the Third 's Right is not only Recogniz'd by a Statute-Law but his Person and Right is Guarded by an Act of Assotiation wherein all his Subjects have oblig'd themselves to Defend him with their Lives and Fortunes and to Revenge the Injury of his Person upon all the Agressors And what could be more done to declare his Right and engage our Obedience 'T is the Rarity of these Things happening and a general Ignorance in the History of Precedent Times that makes such Proceedings seem strange and unaccountable to those who have been Nurs'd up in Slavish Notions and apprehend not the Necessity of those Overtures against King James the Second and Supplying the Throne by the Coronation of William the Third For Our present King William came into as Empty a Throne as the late King James himself did a Civil Death in the Eye of the Law making as effectual a Vacancy as a Natural Death and therefore King William had the same Forms of Investiture as if his Abdicated Predecessor had left the World as well as his Native Country Why then should Men create themselves Trouble or disquiet their own and other Men's Consciences by Vexatious Disputes against the Divine Will Positive Laws and the Concurrence of a whole Nation Solomon was not David's Heir and yet he Reigned and was Obey'd with good Conscience Joram was Ahab's Son but Jehu succeeded King Joram had a Right from Ahab but Jehu from God