different and distinct Administrations they liv'd under absolute Monarchs their Grandeur was won by the Sword and confirm'd by a pure Despotick Power and therefore their Resistance had been unlawful contrary to the Rule and Force of their Government but it is quite otherwise with us We are setled upon a Gothick Model our Princes make no Laws without our own Consent they are obliged to the excution of Laws made by our selves with their Consent they have no Power to dispense with the breach of them by others nor to invade them themselves This was own'd by the seven Bishops declar'd by former Parliaments so that no Man is bound to pay their Allegiance any further Let Caesar have what is Caesar's and the Subjects what is theirs their Laws their Birth-right In some cases Moral positive Duties are superseded by what is naturally Moral as in the Duties of the fourth Command so here Tho Government in general be founded upon Nature yet this or that Form is but positive and if it be not consistant with the end of Government Self-preservation Why should not it be either altered or fixed in those who will prosecute the right end the Preservation of the publick Peace and Liberties of the People To what hath been said let me add ex abundanti the late King 's retiring into France if it amount not to an Abdication it comes near unto a Forfeiture and no Prince or State can have less Reason to indeavour to restore him to his Crown and Dignity than that Monarch Whence hath he his Claim but from Hugh Capet and he from the Election of the great Men of the Kingdom and why did they pretend to lay aside Charles Duke of Lorrain whose Right it was by Succession but meerly upon this ground He had joyned himself to the Enemies of the Kingdom and so they transfer the Crown unto another Family that of the Capets And does not all Christendom in general and the English Nation in particular look upon that great Man of France as a Common Enemy shall not that which may hinder Succession justify in part a translating of it unto another But blessed be God all these are cleared in an Abdication and that asserted by the Representative Body of the whole Nation And now good Sir be perswaded to lay aside all Prejudice submit your Sentiments to the Judgment of your Superiors yield your Obedience and Fealty in taking the Oaths this you see is your Duty and not only so but your Interest It is not long since we were apprehensive of Popery and the Church-of England-Men did set themselves in direct Opposition against it and all the Accesses toward it for which the Generations to come shall call them blessed But whence come these Apprensions to be lessened can we expect a perfect Freedom from these Fears should he be re-admitted to his Authority It is not possible a Popish Soveraign should keep Promise with his Heretical Subjects as they stile us their words and Oaths if Roman Catholicks bind no further then stands with the Interest of their Religion and we know who both can and will dispence with Oaths and Promises made to Hereticks Would you fetter him by Laws these have been like Sampsons Cords easily broken Would you place him under Tutors and Governours He is no minor cannot submit aut Caesar aut Nullâ—s Men are but Men at the best and Time and Preferment may alter their Judgments However these would make him a Prisoner and no King. Should we submit in hopes of another Opportunity Would he not settle a Correspondence with Male-contents at Home and Foreign Princes Abroad and if he prosper in the Design hath that Common plea That his Promises are Void because made by him when under Restraint And then What will become of all that is dear unto us Religion Lives Liberties and Estates This is prevented by an Abdication so that if he return it must be by Conquest and then he will rule by the Sword we shall all be in the same Condition lie under the charge of Hereticks Rebels and Traytors the Government chang'd from a regulated Monarchy into an absolute Tyranny our Religion abrogated we shall be sold as Slaves or burnt as Hereticks If Men love Bonds and Imprisonments Rapine and Sequestration Racks and Tortures Fire and Faggots let them continue this Humor and Aversation but if none of these be lovely as indeed they are not let us bless God who hath redeemed us from the Hand of our Enemies and the Hand of all that hate us Let us joyn issue with the Divine Providence which hath delivered us from all these Evils in submitting and yielding our Obedience to our Soveraign Lord and Lady by whose Conduct and Courage we are brought into a state of Freedom and Peace Be not affrighted out of this by the false Rumors and Reports spread abroad by evil-minded Men but let us unite in our Submission to our present Rulers that thereby we may strengthen their Hearts and Hands in our common Defence There remains one Prejudice but no Objection arising from the vain Fears of some Men that the Church begins to be shaken in her Authority whilst matters of Religion fall under a Dispute and no Convocation consulted with But this if fully considered would swell a private Letter into too great a Bulk Let me for the present desire you to consider there is nothing design'd in Doctrinals but meer Matters of Ceremony and a relaxation of some Laws not consistent with the greatest Interest of the Nation in this present Juncture the Union of Protestants And out of experience that the severity of those Laws never reclaim'd one Dissenter but rather did drive others out of the Pale of the Church it is not unworthy of but highly becoming the Wisdom of those worthy Patriots to find out a Method whereby all Protestants of every Form may be brought into an easy Condition This Subject if this Letter find a candid Reception may be more fully considered of by Your very Friend Servant and Brother R. B. To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal And to the Honourable the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in this present PARLIAMENT Assembled The Humbletition of TITUS OATES D. D. Most Humbly sheweth THat your Petitioner in the Year 1678 discovered a horrid Popish Conspiracy for the Destruction of the late King Charles the Second His Present Majesty and the Protestant Religion within these Kingdoms and prov'd it so fully that several Parliaments and Courts of Justice before whom he gave his Testimony declared their Belief of it by publick Votes and the Condemnation of several of the Conspirators For which Reason and because your Petitioner would not be terrified by their Threats nor seduced by their Promises of great Rewards with both which Temptations they often assulted him to desist in his Discovery the Jesuits and Papists pursued him with an implacable Malice and endeavoured to take away his Fame and Life by suborning Witnesses to
of Delays whereas the second of taking Revenges or Reparations is not of such haste but that it may be brought under Rules and Forms III. The true and Original Notion of Civil Society and Government is that it is a Compromise made by such a Body of Men by which they resign up the Right of demanding Reparations either in the way of Justice against one another or in the way of War against their Neighbours to such a single Person or to such a Body of Men as they think fit to trust with this And in the management of this Civil Society great distinctions is to be made between the Power of making Laws for the regulating the Conduct of it and the Power of executing those Laws The Supream Authority must still be supposed to be lodged with those who have the Legislative Power reserved to them but not with those who have only the Executive which is plainly a Trust when it is separated from the Legislative Power and all Trusts by their nature import that those to whom they are given are accountable even though that it should not be expresly specified in the words of the Trust it self IV. It cannot be supposed by the Principles of Natural Religion that God has authorised any one Form of Government any other way than as the general Rules of Order and of Justice oblige all Men not to subvert Constitutions nor disturb the Peace of Mankind or invade those Rights with which the Law may have vested some Persons for it is certain that as private Contracts lodg or translate private Rights so the Publick Laws can likewise lodg such Rights Prerogatives and Revenues in those under whose Protection they put themselves and in such a manner that they may come to have as good a Title to these as any private Person can have to his Property so that it becomes an Act of high Injustice and Violence to invade these which is so far a greater Sin than any such Actions would be against a private Person as the publick Peace and Order is preferrable to all private Considerations whatsoever So that in Truth the Principles of Natural Religion give those that are in Authority no Power at all but they do only secure them in the Possession of that which is theirs by Law. And as no Considerations of Religion can bind me to pay another more than I indeed owe him but do only bind me more strictly to pay what I owe so the Considerations of Religion do indeed bring Subjects under stricter Obligations to pay all due Allegiance and Submission to their Princes but they do not at all extend that Allegiance further than the Law carries it And though a Man has no Divine Right to his Property but has acquired it by human means such as Succession or Industry yet he has a Security for the Enjoyment of it from a Divine Right so tho Princes have no immediate Warrants from Heaven either for their Original Titles or for the extent of them yet they are secured in the Possession of them by the Principles and Rules of Natural Religion V. It is to be considered that as a private Person can bind himself to another Man's Service by different degrees either as an ordinary Servant for Wages or as one appropriate for a longer time as an Apprentice or by a total giving himself up to another as in the case of Slavery in all which cases the general Name of Master may be equally used yet the degrees of his Power are to be judged by the nature of the Contract so likewise Bodies of Men can give themselves up in different degrees to the Conduct of others and therefore though all those may carry the same Name of King yet every ones Power is to be taken from the measures of that Authority which is lodged in him and not from any general Speculations founded on some Equivocal Terms such as King Sovereign or Supream VI. It is certain that God as the Creator and Governour of the World may set up whom he will to rule over other Men But this Declaration of his Will must be made evident by Prophets or other extraordinary Men sent of him who have some manifest proofs of the Dvine Authority that is committed to them on such occasions and upon such Persons declaring the Will of God in favour of any others that Declaration is to be submitted to and obeyed But this pretence of a Divine Delegatation can be carried no further than to those who are thus expresly marked out and is unjustly claimed by those who can prove no such Declaration to have been ever made in favour of them or their Families Nor does it appear reasonable to conclude from their being in Possession that it is the Will of God that it should be so this justifies all Usurpers when they are successful VII The measures of Power and by consequence of Obedience must be taken from the express Laws of any State or Body of Men from the Oaths that they swear or from immemorial Prescription and a long Possession which both give a Title and in a long Tract of Time make a bad one become good since Prescription when it passes the Memory of Man and is not disputed by any other Pretender gives by the common Sense of all Men a just and good Title so upon the whole matter the degrees of all Civil Authority are to be taken either from express Laws immemorial Customs or from particular Oaths which the Subjects swear to their Princes this being still to be laid down for a Principle that in all the Disputes between Power and Liberty Power must allways be â—roved but Liberty proves it self the one being founded onâ—y upon a Positive Law and the other upon the Law of Nature VIII If from the general Principles of Human Society and Natural Religion we carry this matter to be examined by the Scriptures it is clear that all the Passages that are in the Old Testament are not to be made use of in this matter of neither side For as the Land of Canaan was given to the Iews by an immediate Grant from Heaven so God reserâ—â—â— still this to himself and to the Declarations that he shoulâ—â—â—â—â—ke from time to time either by his Prophets or by the Answers that came from the Cloud of Glory that was between the Cherubims to set up Judges or Kings over them and to pull them down again as he thought fit Here was an express Delegation made by God and therefore all that was done in that Dispensation either for or against Princes is not to be made use of in any other State that is founded on another Bottom and Constitution and all the Expressions in the Old Testament relating to Kings since they belong to Persons that were immediately designed by God are without any sort of Reason applied to those who can pretend to no such Designation neither for themselves nor for their Ancestors IX As for the New Testament it is
have heard forfeit all Right either to chuse or be chosen in any Publick Councils And then all Laws which have been made for the Protestants and against the Popish Religion will be null and void as being enacted by an incompetent Authority as being the Acts of Hereticks Kings Lords and Commons who had forfeited all their Rights and Priviledges But Thirdly suppose our Laws were valid as enacted by competent Authority and such good and wholsome Provisions as were those Statutes made by our Popish Ancestors in those Statutes of Provisoes in Edward the I. Edward the III. Time and that of Praemunire in Richard the II. and Henry the IV. for Relief against Papal Incroachments and Oppressions Yet being against the Laws and Canons of Holy Church the Sovereign Authority they will be all superseded For so they determine That when the Canon and the Civil Laws clash one requiring what the other allows not the church-Church-Law must have the observance and that of the State neglected And Constitutions they say made against the Canons and Decrees of the Roman Biâ—hops are of no moment Their best Authors are positive of it And our own Experience and Histories testify the Truth thereof For how were those good Laws before-mention'd defeated by the Pope's Authority so that there was no effectual Execution thereof till Henry the 8 th's Time as Dr. Burnet tells us And how have the good Laws to suppress and prevent Popery been very much obstructed in their Execution by Popish Influence An Answer to a late Pamphlet Intituled A Short Scheme of the Usurpations of the Crown of England c. THE World may very justly wonder at several Passages in this ill-designed and as ill-writ Pamphlet which the Author has taken the pains to collect from some petty Grubstreet Chronicle Henry II. is call'd an Usurper pag. 4. because he accepted of the Crown of England in his Mothers Life-time tho' by her not opposing his Claim it may very reasonably be concluded that she freely consented to his Promotion as the most effectual means to secure the Crown to her Posterity But we are told That a Crown is no Estate to be made over in Trust If our Author's meaning is that a Crown is an Estate which the Possessor cannot divest himself of by a voluntary Resignation both Reason and a multitulde of Examples in several Ages and â—ations prove that the Principle our Author has laid down is founded on a gross Mistake Therefore if our Author designs to publish any more Schemes of Usurpation let him first inform us what it is and how far it extends lest the World should accuse him of having as notoriously usurped to himself the Title of a Writer as any of our Princes ever did the Crown of England He would perswade his Readers to believe that God punish'd King Edward III. and King Henry V. for their Usurpations with frequent and unexpected Victories in the acquisition of which tho' there was some English Blood shed as it was impossible it should be otherwise yet the Enemies paid an excessive Price for it after the defeat of their great Armies and the Imprisonment of their King they being forced to buy their Peace upon such Terms as our conquering Usurpers pleased to impose Nor did ever any well-wisher to the English Nation deny that these Two Princes were the Glory of their Age and of our British History If I should reckon up all the evident Mistakes and false Inferences in this Libel it would be too tedious since a careless Eye cannot easily overlook them If the Pamphlet finds so undeserved a Reception in the World as to need a Second Impression the Author is desired to add to it this Postscript which being founded on the Principles asserted by him will shew the World that he hath wilfully and perhaps partially forborn to speak of as notorious an Usurper as any that are mentioned in his Scheme Queen Mary the Off-spring of an Incestuous Marriage had no other unquestionable Divine Right to the Crown of England than what was given her by an Act of Parliament made in her Father's Reign and the common Consent of the Nobility and People after the Death of her Brother King Edward VI. whose disposal of the Crown by Letters Patents under the Great Seal being directly contrary to the former Entail of it limited by a higher Authority His Sister the Lady Mary was acknowledged Queen Therefore according to our Author 's abstruse Notions She as well as her Grand-father Henry VII must be reckoned among the Usurpers of the Crown of England Let us now see what success attended her and whether the Nation was happy under her Government As soon as She saw her self fixed in the Throne She imprisoned and deprived several of the Protestant Bishopâ— contrary to the then Establish'd Laws of the Realm She intruded Popish Bishops into the Sees thus declared vacant the small remainder of the Protestant Bishops who had beâ—n called to Parliament by Writ were nevertheless violently thrust out of the Parliament-House for refusing to worship the Mass. The Members of the House of Commons in her First Parliament were chosen by force and threats the Free-holders were hindred by violence from exercising their Right of chusing Representatives false Returns were made and those who were for the Reformed Religion tho' duly elected were by force expelled the House So that we cannot wonder at the Statues made in this pretended Free Parliament which was in every Thing influenced by the Court-Party Shortly after her Marriage with the haughty jealous Spaniard of which She her self felt the ill Consequences was justly disliked by the Nobility and Commonalty Her base Design of setting up a Supposititious Child for Heir to the Crown was not only happily defeated but deservedly exposed to the Censure of the Nation Her Design to erect the Spanish Inquisition in England was disappointed Calais after having belonged to the Crown of Englâ—nd about two hundred and eleven Years and which was gained with great difficulty after eleven Months Siege was in the depth of Winter lost in a Weeks time And quickly after all the English Territories were with small difficulty recovered by the French. We must not forget how exactly She put in practice the base treacherous and destructive Principles of the pretended Catholick Religion in these remarkable Particulars She barbarously used her only Sister the Lady Elizabeth and designed to have taken away her Life for no other Cause but her firm adherence to the Protestant Religion She imprisoned and burnt Arch-Bishop Cranmer who had formerly sheltered her from her Father's Fury She deprived and imprisoned Judg Hales who alone resolutely opposed King Edward the Sixth's Will and preferred Judg Bromley to be Lord Chief Justice though he had without any reluctancy prepared the Letters-Patents for her Exclusion The Inhabitants of Norfolk and Suffolk who were the first that took up Arms for her upon her Promise to permit them the Exercise of their Religion