give cause to suspect it For the Revoking and Imprisoning Sir Bevel Skelton the English Agent in France upon a Supposition that he had talk'd of it and Rewarding him afterwards with the Lieutenancy of the Tower are plain Contradictions and therefore the English and Dutch had reason to believe the League and Insist upon it when the French themselves had discover'd it Now compare all this with Mr. Coleman's Letters and the barbarous persecutions of the French Protestants so tragically carried on in France and which were also going on to be Imitated in England at the same time that the French Memorial was deliver'd and you will have all the Reason in the World to to continue your belief of it for the greater security of England Thus have I given a brief Survey of the late King's Tyranny in Matters of publick Fact as the natural consequence of his Espousing and Advancing the Popish Religion upon the Ruins of the Reformed I must now acquaint you what Course the Nation took to procure their Deliverance Who seeing themselves Involv'd in such deplorable Circumstances Gaul'd under the Yoke of Papistick Tyranny Afflicted at the dismal prospect of being depriv'd of the Exercise of their Establish'd Religion and the loss of their Civil Properties and Privileges After they had ineffectually imploy'd all Dutiful and Obliging Methods to Reclaim the King and waited till England was on the Brink of Destruction before they would assume their Natural Right and Defend themselves God Almighty who from Heaven beheld their approaching Calamities put it into the Hearts of some thoughtful Persons of all Qualities Degrees and Conditions in the Kingdom to make their humble Application to the Illustrious Prince of Orange who as a Soveraign Independant Prince nearly allyed by his own Blood but nearer by his Virtuous Princess to the Crown of England and a Protestant in his Religion had an undoubted Right to interpose between the late King and his injur'd Subjects and according to his own Benignity and the Example of his Illustrious Progenitors Defend and Deliver an oppress'd People Divine Providence having thus prescrib'd the Means of our Deliverance some good Men whose Names ought to be Celebrated with Eternal praises found a way maugre the danger that attended it to Address this magnanimous Prince Lay the Complaints and Dangers of the Kingdom before him and Implore his Gracious Aid and Effectual Assistance to Free a Languishing people from inevitable Ruin promising to Live and Dye with his Highness in so Glorious an Enterprize Animated by his known Piety and Christian Compassion his Native Heroick Bravery and the Prayers and Necessities of a miserably Harrass'd and almost Ruin'd Kingdom he was pleas'd to undertake our Deliverance and to the Goodness of God and this Great Prince's Wise and Valiant Conduct only We owe that Mercy for tho God can work miraculously for the Accomplishment of his own Will yet in Human Reasoning no other Prince but our now Gracious King was qualify'd to undertake it For He is a Prince of a Ripe and Excellent Apprehension of a strong and profound Judgment has a Right Notion in all Ambiguities and is not easily Impos'd upon by the Sentiments of others Able to Determine in all Occurrences by the strength of his own Genius and yet never unwilling to hear the Opinions of his Counsellors Deliberate in his Resolves and Firm in his Purposes Undaunted in Dangers and of a steddy Conduct in Security That knows how to gain Power and how to make it Pleasant and dureable by the Regular use of it as appeared to all the World in the Upright and Discreet management of this Great and almost Miraculous Revolution The States of Holland accommodated the Prince of Orange with Shipping and other Necessaries for this glorious Expedient and meritted our eternal Gratitude but having met with ill Returns * Dutch Design Anatomized from some Mercenary Pens I shall take off the Scandal and Reproach they have thrown upon that Action by shewing it Kind Grateful and Justifiable to all the World There are many Considerations that justify the Interposition of the States of Holland and the first is That 't was to preserve the Peace of Europe for all their Neighbouring Princes perceiving the growing power of France to threaten the Welfare and Quiet of Christendom and that the Obsequious compliance of the late King James in all the Proceedings of that Towering Monarch as well as Monsieur le Comte d'Avaux's Memorial shew'd a dangerous Allyance between those Two Crowns the Princes of Europe and the States of Holland enter'd into a Confederacy to prevent the Conjunction of the Armies of these two Princes and save Europe This memorable Concurrence happening about the same time that the Prince of Orange had promis'd to Assist the People of England in Redressing their Grievances and Restoring them to their Just Rights and Privileges Whilst the Prince of Orange was doing that Good Office in England the other Princes in the League watch'd the the Motions of France and made them uncapable of helping each other and so the Emperor of Germany the Pope himself and the rest of the Confederate Princes as well as the States of Holland were in the same design against the late King James as the only means to preserve the peace of Europe Besides in this Generous Action the States of Holland writ after an English Copy and express'd their Gratitude for the same Good Office the English did them on the like occasion * Hist Belg. p. 203. when the Spaniards threaten'd not to leave a Protestant alive in Holland Those Provinces are of the same Religion with us and when they saw our Prince had form'd Designs to make us all Papists or Destroy us even Humanity oblig'd them to succour us when the whole Nation so apparently wanted it but the best Reason for what they did except those of common Christianity is given by themselves as I find it in an Extract of the Resolutions of the States of Holland upon the 28th of October 1688. where among other Reasons for Assisting the Prince of Orange with a Fleet and an Army this is one The King of France say they hath upon several Occasions shew'd himself disaffected to that State which gave Cause to fear and apprehend that in case the King of Great Britain should happen to obtain an Absolute Power over his People that then both Kings out of Interest of State and Hatred and Zeal against the Protestant Religion would endeavour to bring that State to confusion and if possible quite subject it There is no question but this Wise and Prudent State saw our Ruine would in time prove their own also and Foreseeing and Preventing it will Justify them before God and all the World Now to shew that other Princes were of the same Opinion with the States of Holland and saw the Designs of the F. K. and the late King James threaten'd the Peace and Safety of Europe Let us take a
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
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
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
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
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