Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A31173
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The Case of the people of England in their present circumstances considered shewing how far they are, or are not obliged by the Oath of allegiance.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing C1132; ESTC R36280
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14,605
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23
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legally and formally renounced or abdicated If he had done this after that time when Constantine was in possession of the Power and had declared himself a Christian and resolved to support Christianity I say what if he or his Friends at that time had made their Argument and sent abroad this Plea in his behalf That he was once Emperor owned and acknowledged as such in full exercise of the Power he had never Demised or Abdicated or Deserted the Government for so his Colleague Maximianus Herculeus really thought and did actually reassume and persuaded Dioclesian to do the same he had withrawn indeed and stept aside to his Gardens at Salonae to see how his Cabbages thrived to take care that they were well ordered so that they might live and grow and become at length great according to his Wishes but he is now returned and demands his former Rights and expects that the People should come in to his Assistance Here the Query is what the Christians would and what they ought to do And what can we think Would they leave their Constantine their dearest Friend their Brother Christian their Deliverer the greatest Blessing that God had ever given to the Christian Name one that freed 'em from Slavery and Misery from the Racks and Gibbets by which other Christians had formerly suffered and were then anew designed against them and actually preparing for them One who had secured to them the common Rights of Liberties and Properties which by Law they ought to have and which others were complotting injuriously by Force and Violence to snatch from them What can we think That Dioclesian their Enemy a known Persecutor a furious Designer against themselves their Lives their Religion might be able to execute all the mischievous purposes which he or the naughty People about him might contrive He that can think that the Christians would have done this he must have express clear Texts to prove that this was their Duty or else he must think that they were mere Bedlams and Mad Men. And when he has done that he must conclude too that God the Father had resolved that his Son Christ should never have a Kingdom in this World to be sure not that which is promised to be set upon a Hill unto which all Nations might resort but that he had predestinated Christians not only to a Purgatory but a Hell in this World from whence there is no Redemption For if they must choose Misery when they have the greatest Appearances possible that he by his Providence works most effectually for their delivery then they must be miserable without hope of Recovery Many more things might be added to shew that the Christians Duty and Interest go the same way in this and such like Cases but it belongs to the Adversary if there be any such to prove Christians under duty by Christs Law to give Active Assistances either to Nero or Dioclesian or any like them for the recovery of their Rights after they have withdrawn from the Government and left the Community without any benefit of Protection and Defence from them It was enough for them to be submitted unto to be not resisted whilst they were the powers and bore he Sword. And it was enough for the Christians to be under Passive Obedience all that time and they were sufficiently exercised with it Beyond this it is not conceivable that God would lay any farther Duty upon them He might as well command them to put Swords into mad-mens hands as oft as they find them disarmed He may as well command them to hang themselves for the sport of Fools for it is much the same thing to assist those in the regaining of lost power who will certainly rack hang and gibbet them No publick Good no true Right of Princes no Interest of Religion can be forced to speak one word in this Case tho each of them most apparently and strongly plead for the Duty of Passive Obedience It is not for the Publick Good to favor the Cause of fierce violent heady bold presumptuous men or of those that set lip their own wills and humours against Law and Justice Whilst they are Powers the publick Good requires that we should suffer 'em and suffer for them But if they divest themselves of Power Whether with design or by mistake their Cause is not favorable the Publick Good is no way concerned for them if it be not for the avoidance of a greater Evil. If they be catched with a Why-not who can help it if they will go none are bound to fetch them back their Rights as they are Princes do not require it and there is no Vertue no point of Religion that does oblige men to it I have been long in this point on purpose to free mens thoughts from Confusion and Mistake that they may see what vast difference there is betwixt the Duty of Passive Obedience and the false plea's for Active Assistances I shall end this by hinting a known Apologue which seems to speak clearly common Sense and Reason and may help the apprehensions of some Men. It is said that a fierce wild Beast was catched in a snare and there held till he was almost famished a man passing by the Beast beseeches him to unty and loose his bonds and set him at Liberty and for that favour promises Amity and perpetual Friendship the man complies and the Beast is freed He must live by prey and since he had no other to supply his necessities he must prey upon him The man pleads his merits that he had saved the Beast's life and therefore ought not to lose his own for it The Beast alledges present Urgences and insuperable Necessities Whilst they are high in this altercation they are both cited to the Lyons Den and the Fox is appointed to hear and decide the Controversie betwixt them Upon hearing he finds there is much in the Mans Plea and much in the Beasts and would not positively determine against either But that he might judge fairly and equitably at last he fix'd upon this Expedient That all things should be put into the same state wherein they were before the Controversie began Let the Beast says he be put into the snare again and let the Man pass by him again and if at the request of the Beast the Man think good to loose him again let the Beast e'en devour him if he will. FINIS
THE CASE OF THE People of England IN THEIR Present Circumstances CONSIDERED SHEWING How far they are or are not Obliged BY THE Oath of Allegiance LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Randall Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1689. THE CASE OF THE People of England IN THEIR Present Circumstances CONSIDERED c. KING James rightful Heir of the Crown by the death of his Brother enters into the full possession has all the Rights Dues and Prerogatives of a King of England and all his Subjects are bound to him by their Oaths of Allegiance He selects and chooses out of his Subjects as many as he pleases He forms them into a regular Army maintains them trusts and depends upon them to preserve and secure to himself all his Rights and Interests The rest of his Subjects neither He nor the Laws of the Land permit to take up Arms to oppose his Enemies without his Commission And some of them freely offering themselves to raise Forces in his Service and for his Defence he rejects and will not Commission them commands them to go home to live quietly there and leave Him to conduct and manage his own Affairs and Interests He gives Just cause of War to a Neighbor Prince by invading his Rights by an Action generally presumed and believed by all his Subjects or at least by nine parts of ten of them most base against the Laws of Nature Nations and of this Land against his own Crown and Dignity and against the plain and most manifest interest of his Nobility and Commonalty or the main Body of his People and that on purpose to subvert the Laws the Rights the Religion of All one onely Party or Faction excepted and thereby to give that Party power to ruine and destroy all the rest which too is a Party laid aside by Law and declared and made in all possible ways uncapable of being trusted in the Government or of such Offices as He by vertue of his Regal Power is to execute by Ministers and that because the designs and interests of that Party have been found by the experience of four preceding Reign 's to have been contrariant to the Crown and Dignity of the Kings of England and against the plain Interest and Rights of the People In this state of Affairs the injured Neighbor Prince invades this Land Declares that He is wronged and desires that Justice may be done him K. James calls together his Army and goes out to oppose and to Fight him The Foreign Prince offers to refer the decision and ultimate determination of the Controversie to K. James 's own Subjects in a Regular Lawful Parliament assembled and desires that such a one might be Called K. James will not do it but trusts to his Soldiers and will not trust to the Body of his People who only can speak their sense Legally in Parliament He is deserted of his Soldiers They will not Fight against but joyn themselves to the Foreign Prince perhaps Judging in their private opinions his Cause right and just Upon this K. James makes his Escape flies to the Old Enemy of the English Nation one who desires nothing more than to destroy and ruine the People to change and subvert their Laws and Religion and by this esertion and Flight leaves his own Liege People in the hands under the Power and at the disposal of that Foreign Prince In this State of Affairs it is matter of Consideration What particular persons who are under Oaths of Allegiance to K. James by Vertue of those Oaths are bound to do I. Here it is plain that they are not bound to take up Arms and oppose that Prince under whose power they were when K. James left them Because they are bound by the Law not to take up Arms or raise Forces either for any Friend or against any Enemy of the Kings without his Commission They have no Commission and so cannot be bound to do this for no man can be bound by a Legal Oath to do that for which the Law condemns them as highly Criminal and adjudges them to the Gallows for so doing II. They are not bound to leave their Houses and Families and follow K. James and tender him their Services because they are not assured that He is able to maintain them or willing to receive them inasmuch as in their absence another Invader may come and seize upon the Country and destroy their Families and make their condition deplorable And that must be presumed to be as much against K James's mind as against their own Besides He is now in the power of the Old Enemy of the Kings and People of England And if great Numbers of the English should go to K. James in France the French King may be jealous of their designs and take opportunity to destroy them at best He may use them as well to flight His quarrells as K. James's as well against him as for him Besides it is notorious that He neither will nor dares trust any Number of Armed Protestants to be in his Country for so small a time as is necessary to fit them for any publick Service III. They are not bound by their Oaths of Allegiance to continue in the same state wherein K. James left them For at that time there was no Government no Justice no benefit of Law They were no longer a People but a confused multitude every one did what he pleased none could command and none could obey But the Mobile the scum and Rabble of the Nation ruled All as K. James himself found by Lamentable experience Now the Oath of Allegiance cannot oblige Men to continue in this State because it was made on purpose to keep Men from such a State to secure Government to support Justice and provide for the Execution of Law for this end the King requires it to be taken and to this end every single Man upon occasion takes it IV. As they are not bound to continue in that State so they are not bound not to endeavour a deliverance from it or to refuse the most likely and perhaps the onely possible way to get out of it because they are bound to seek their own preservation and do what in each Mans power lies to secure the Common good of the Nation If K. James by his own default and ill conduct gives occasion for an Invasion and cannot oppose the force of the Invader but runs away and shifts for himself and provides for his own safety and so leaves his People under the power of and at the mercy of the Invader and in such a condition that they cannot lawfully fight against him nor with reason fly from him and whilst they remain at home they have neither Government nor Justice nor benefit of Law but are obnoxious to the rage and fury of every Villain and Cut-throat in this Case They cannot be bound by the Oath of Allegiance from complying with present necessities and using all for possible means of their own preservation at