Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A46385
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Just principles of complying with the new oath of allegiance by a Divine of the Church of England.
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A. B.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing J1236_VARIANT; ESTC R6490
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11,672
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22
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JUST PRINCIPLES OF COMPLYING With the NEW Oath of Allegiance By a Divine of the Church of England Licensed and Entred according to Order LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Black Bull in the Old-Bailey 1689. JUST PRINCIPLES Of Complying with the New Oath of Allegiance THE New Oath is certainly an intricate case and incumbred with no small difficulties But it will appear unexceptionably lawful if without intermedling with the Politicks of these times we suppose that there may be three Parties concern'd in an Oath of Allegiance A Ruining-Prince A Saviour-Prince And innocent Subjects The terms of ruining and destroying are ambiguous and may signifie in a lax or strict acceptation and therefore a Prince may be ruining and malificent in several degrees He may be so far ruining and malificent as to Abdicate his People from being his People whereby he loseth and forfeiteth all Title to them and their Allegiance * Grot. de J. B. ac P. l. 1. c. 4. S. XI Existimat Barclaius amitti Regnum si Rex vere hostili animo in totius populi exitium feratur quod concedo consistere enim simul non possunt voluntas imperandi voluntas perdendi quare qui se hostem totius populi profitetur is eo ipso abdicat regnum If a King maketh Himself a Destroyer of his whole people He Abdicateth the Kingdom according to Grotius and Barclay because the Will of destroying is inconsistent with the Will of being their governing Head. It is possible that a Bigotted pontifician Prince may not be in this notion a ruining Prince for although He manifestly designeth to subvert and extirpate the Protestant Religion and to introduce his own which every Prince desireth yet He may not design to extirpate the Body of Protestants out of his Kingdom But the World need not be told that the Principles of his Religion oblige Him to it And 't is not probable that the French King 's principal Allie would be better natur'd to his Protestant Subjects than his most Christian Majesty The sinking calamities which He was gradually introducing Popery and Gallican Slavery which have all manner of Evils in the Bowels of them as also his Combination with the common Enemy of Christendom ruinous to the State of Europe and the Protestant Party in Europe may justly denominate Him a ruining Prince at a Superlative rate The notion of a Saviour-Prince usually occurreth in History as in the instances of Ptolomy Antigonus and Demetrius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Under this notion our present King ought to be consider'd which is far more honourable than the style of a Kind de facto competible to every vile Usurper nor is He only a Saviour-Prince to these Nations but to harass'd afflicted Europe and the Reformed Churches abroad A Saviour-Prince may be such before his entrance upon the Government if with vast expence and hazard He becometh our Redeemer from the calamities of Popery and Arbitrary Power And being seated in the Government He subsisteth in the quality of a Saviour-King A man shall be an hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the tempest as rivers of water in a dry place as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land By innocent Subjects I understand Subjects unconcern'd in the Revolutions of Government who cannot be thought under any Obligatio delicti to their former King and who will not fail to judge of all his pretensions ex aequo bono Subjects are thought incompetent Judges of the Rights of Princes but they that dare not swear Allegiance to an Usurper against their rightful Sovereign must take upon them to make a judgment of his Pretensions that calleth himself by that venerable name Having thus represented the notion of Innocent Subjects and of two opposite sorts of Princes we may proceed to affirm I. If the main of our Allegiance to a Ruining-Prince out of possession be ceas'd and expir'd and the rest be forfeited by Him it is lawful to swear Allegiance to the King in possession The Law determineth our Subjection and Allegiance to the King in possession but the same Law and our Oath also determineth who it is that should be and be continu'd King in possession From whence it followeth That the Duties of Allegiance which is the business of being Liege-Subjects are of two sorts Bounden Duty to Government which is plainly legible in the Law Submission Obedience Tribute Gratitude and such more and bounden Duty of Friendship and Adherence to the rightful Governour commonly call'd the King de Jure If the rightful Governour was by fraud and violence kept out of possession or unjustly thrown out of place faithful Subjects in former Ages suppos'd themselves under an Obligation to this Jural King. Which supposition of theirs was not ill grounded as appeareth from the contexture of the old Oath of Allegiance from our Obligations to Justice and from the Nature of Fidelity and Friendship for the relation between Sovereign and Subject is a relation of Friendship amicitiae imparium but to this latter sort of the Duties of Allegiance a Ruining-Prince out of place can pretend no Title If He be kept out of possession faithful Subjects are not bound to introduce Him but rather to endeavour his legal Exclusion or if He be thrust out of place they are not bound to adhere to him own him reduce him fight or struggle for him they owe him nothing but may entirely forsake him and be glad that they are rid of him for by seeking their ruin He hath justly forfeited the Friendship of his innocent people and therefore the fidelity of their Friendship and all the Offices of Friendship which are otherwise due to a rightful Governour out of place The other sort of Duties of Allegiance Duties to Government the Law transferreth to the King in possession and they are deservedly given to a Saviour-King If therefore a Ruining-Prince be out of Place and governing Power the Bond or Relation between Him and his innocent People is entirely dissolv'd by a Cessation of one part and a Forfeiture of the other part of their Allegiance and the whole business of their Adherence Fidelity and Allegiance to him is at an end A faithful Subject will not easily forsake a tolerable Prince but there may be a Prince of such a character that there is no owning Him adhering to Him or suffering for Him with Honour and Conscience And if He ought to be intirely forsaken by his innocent Subjects they are not bound to reserve for Him any Allegiance nor to make his pretended Rights the matter of their care II. There are several Total Modes of destroying a King's Right of Regality and there are several Partial Modes of destroying it approaching to a Total If by this latter sort of Modes the Competitor-King's Right of Regality be sufficiently destroy'd innocent Subjects may swear Allegiance to the King in possession Suppose a King hath not alienated or given away his Kingdom nor thrown it away
and abandon'd it nor hath sought in an hostile way the destruction of his whole People or the Body of them which are total Modes of destroying his Right of Regality yet if it plainly appeareth that the kindness which he hath for Protestants the Body of his People and the usage which He designeth them cannot be much dissonant from his Neighbours Tell me with whom thou goest and I will tell thee what thou art saith the Spanish Proverb This can be thought nothing less than a partial Mode of destroying his Right of Regality approaching to a total If a King hath laid a design and manag'd it for several years of ruining his People in every thing that is dear to them in their Laws Liberties Property and Religion This also must be thought a partial Mode of destroying his Right of Regality approaching to a total for it approacheth to an Abdication of his People And there is the same reason for Abdicating the Government The Violation of Laws ought not to be aggravated beyond its just bounds no more than Recessions from the great Rule of Government the publick good but many heinous Violations of the Laws in several great instances the assuming a Power of Dispensing with Laws at pleasure and a declared resolution not to administer the Government according to Law are an Abdicating the legal English Government in a great degree they are such Violations of the Coronation-Oath as approach to a nulling the contract between King and People whatever that signifieth And if a Prince affecteth Arbitrariness at such a rate that nothing less will satisfie him than the administring all things according to his own will without regard to Oaths Laws Property if he altereth the whole Species of the Government or manifestly maketh it his design to exterminate it This is a total Abdication of our legal English Government and a deposing that officiary Dignity the legal Regality But that the string may not be over-stretch'd in any thing let all that hath been done in the late Reign towards the subversion of our constitution and the introduction of the French Mode of Government be thought nothing more than a partial destroying the Right of Regality approaching to a total A King may make such a Recession from the Government as may be a degree of abandoning the governing of us and there may be a fair appearance of a Conquest of the King For although there was no formal Declaration of War upon the King in the Prince of Orange's Discent it seem'd not an hostile aggression nor any thing more than a request of Right with the Sword in his hand yet it must be acknowledg'd that the Prince did expresly declare War against all those that oppos'd his designs which implieth a Declaration of War upon the King the King expresly declar'd War upon the Prince and therefore they were in the state of War the issue whereof was the King's removal from the Government and out of the Kingdom which carrieth a fair appearance of a Conquest of the King. A Conquest of the King is a Mode of total destroying the Right of Regality But because the Army of Multitudes of the Subjects and a desertion of the Souldiery were complicate with the Prince's Arms we will suppose this appearing Conquest of the King to be nothing more than a partial destroying the Right of Regality approaching to a total If a King be ruining at such a rate that He is as unfit for Government as an Idiot or Lunatick and if a Regency be necessary for the safety of the Nation This must be thought a partial destroying the Right of Regality approaching to a total There are some Doctrines in the Roman Church destructive of civil Society such as the principle of not keeping Faith with Hereticks If any King should expresly own this principle it would be totally destructive to his Right of Sovereignty in a Protestant Kingdom for He could have no Right to demand the Faith and Allegiance of the People nor could He be a capable object of Faith or Credit nor of Promises Contracts and Oaths if he doth not expresly avow this principle yet if it be highly probable from many indications that He is a Man of that principle This can be thought nothing less than a partial destroying the Right of Regality approaching to a total If Kings of the Pontifician perswasion manage Government at such a rate of Craft and Cruelty that there is no living for Protestant Subjects in Society with such Sovereigns insomuch that they have made it matter of dispute Whether a Nation of Protestants especially an unenslav'd Nation be bound to be Liege-Subjects to Kings of such a character that keep no Faith with them observe no Rules of Justice towards them stick at nothing to destroy them This must be thought a partial destroying the Right of Regality approaching to a total If a Ruining-King be thrown out of place this is a total destroying his Right of Regality in respect of his innocent Liege-Subjects whose Friendship and Adherence he hath justly forfeited as is before discours'd but because these are only part of the People let this be thought nothing more than a partial destroying the Right of Regality approaching to a total If upon a Breach between King and People justifiable on the People's part the King recedeth and there be no place for a tolerable re-coalition nor for any tolerable projects of Government consistent with his Allegiance This can be thought nothing less than a partial destroying the Right of Regality approaching to a total Breaches with the King are not easily reconcileable with the Law of God and of the Land nor with the Doctrine of the Church of England from the rise of the Reformation That 't is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King. But doubtless the Doctrine of due Non-resistance ought to be restrain'd to such resistance which is hurtful and destructive to the King agreeably to the usual sence of that Political Aphorism The King can do no wrong his Ministers only are accountable and punishable it designeth not to abridge the Body of the People of the Right of resisting an extravagant Prince in cases of evident and great necessity provided they contain themselves within the limits of just bounding their Prince and of just Self-defence and Self-security for beyond these bounds Protestants never pretended to proceed in their Oppositions to their Princes But there may be a Prince not to be bounded or brought to any thing which is the general sence of Wise men touching our late King the Estates of the Realm have adjudg'd that there was no reducing Him upon terms or conditions no place for Treaty they have debated the project of a Regent and determin'd it impracticable and that no provision could be made for the Government but by a new Establishment and a new Allegiance inconsistent with any measure of his Allegiance supposing them to have proceeded upon great Reasons and with