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power_n	authority_n	highness_n	jurisdiction_n	2,928	5	10.0687	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96259	The case of the Irish Protestants in relation to recognising, or swearing allegiance to, and praying for King William and Queen Mary, stated and resolved.	Wettenhall, Edward, 1636-1713.	1691 (1691)	Wing W1490A; ESTC R229883	19,849	30

used us But this is in our favor For it appears hereby those who were their Conquerors were our Deliverers and if it be lawful in this case for the Irish to accept of Terms 't is our duty to be thankful to God that there are those now come who can give Terms both to them and us This Plea sufficiently justifies us Irish Protestants against any possible Imputation to us from our Irish Adversaries in this behalf And as to our English Friends we will suppose them more sensible of our Condition than that before them we ought to make Apologies when in our Consciences we want none But as to the Irish let me tell them farther no imaginary freedom of theirs can now in Conscience exempt them from this Subjection The People of the Jews the Seed of Abraham were never in bondage to any as free born a People certainly as Irish Men can be yet when God put them under the Yoke of Nebuchadnazzar his command by the Prophet encouraged too by a blessing annext is serve the King of Babylon and Live The same which God speaks now by the Voice of his Providence to the Natives of this Kingdom in as much as he has left nothing else possible to them They must therefore be subject not only for Wrath but Conscience sake and for Men to swear to do what is their duty to do cannot certainly be unlawful VIII FURTHER not only God but even King James II. has made it impossible to his Protestant Subjects to keep the Oath of Allegiance to him For that Oath expresly as well as another ordinarily taken by many of us I mean the Oath of Supremacy obliges all who have taken it not only to defend to the uttermost of their power His Majesties Person Heirs and Successors but both His and Their Crown and Dignity Which Crown and Dignity signifie as the Oath of Supremacy and so the Law interprets those Terms all Jurisdictions Preeminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs or Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm that is of England The Crown of England saith our Law is Imperial and subject to no Prince on Earth but only unto God If therefore a Prince will subject his Crown and so his People to a Foreign Power and especially to that Power which has now these several Ages incessantly and indefatigably by all means within its Sphere studied and endeavor'd the Ruin of them and the Extirpation of their Religion I mean to the Pope of Rome it becomes impossible for the Subjects of such a King at once or together to the uttermost of their power to defend His Person and His Heirs and Successors His and Their Crown and Dignity The Kingdom of England of which by Law and Prescription Ireland is a Branch and dependent has ever been avowed and to this day is a Free Kingdom But how Tributary and enslaved it would become by being again subjected to the Papacy I list not to aggravate yet cannot but in short take notice that the Heir by the Subjects defending and maintaining such a King Possessor loseth of his Power and Rights and so doth the Crown of its Dignity Preeminence and Authority In such case therefore a Man can no more keep this Oath than he can reconcile Contradictions which even the Roman Catholick Divines ordinarily Teach is not in the power of Omnipotence And such is the Case between James II. and all the Protestants of these Three Kingdoms But it was worse with the Poor Irish Protestants than with the rest of the People of any of his Majesties Dominions We though most of us English-men were not only subjected to Roman Catholicks but to the most inveterate of them Irish Roman Catholicks Enemies to us on other scores besides our Religion contrary to the express Laws of both Kingdoms in this behalf contrary to the manifest Interest of the Heir contrary to the Honor and Dignity of the Crown of England from which as far as an Act of an Irish Parliament could do the feat this Kingdom of Ireland was by Statute solemnly past in that their Parliament above mentioned in effect actually separated and disunited The Crown of England was hereby to lose the Kingdom of Ireland a very considerable Emolument certainly as well as Honor and Jurisdiction These things are notorious matter of Fact and so publickly manifest that they cannot be denied I speak not of being subjected to a French Government and Governors of our being enforced to supplicate many times for our Liberties and Lives I am sure for the supports of our Lives the eating the Bread and wearing the poor Clothes which of our own were left us and some of us directly for our Lives even in Cases wherein we were Offenders against no Law of God or of Man Military or Civil I speak not I say of our being necessitated thus to supplicate to Governors of a Foreign Nation and Language who could not understand us when addressing to them in our own Speech and would not understand our Interpreters in theirs I speak not of Pacts and Sales of which great Evidence as to this Kingdom of Ireland or a great part of it might be given nor of other like or more odious things as designedly avoiding all that might exasperate some Men or together immoderately aggravate others Guilt as well as our Oppressions But it is hereby as clear as the Sun that if there could be degrees in natural Impossibilities there lay the highest natural Impossibility on all but especially the Irish Protestants in the Circumstances they were in to keep this Oath and that not by any fault of their own for they were cast into this impossibility by the Prince to whom by that Oath Allegiance was or was to have been due Now forasmuch as no one can be bound to that which is impossible of all Men the Irish Protestants stand not by the Oath of Allegiance bound to defend the Person of James II. in his or their present Circumstances IX IF it should be said by any These Pleas can only discharge Subjects of so much Allegiance as can be proved unlawful or impossible but they shall still stand obliged to what is lawful and possible I allow it for truth and together Avow that notwithstanding our Performance of what either or both the fore-mentioned Branches of Recognition by the present King and Queen required of us do contain We both may and I doubt not all considerative conscientious Persons within these Kingdoms Do bear and pay all lawful parts or Instances of Duty to our late King And principally what the Article of King John's Magna Charta in such Case as this exacts The Safety of the Persons of the King and Queen and of their Children we look upon as most religiously inviolable None of us would attempt or consent to any attempt upon their Sacred Persons There is indeed a Child in Controversie touching which it must at least be

saw their Men would not stand and they had nothing to do to think of contesting with such an Army as was against them commanded too by such a Prince for their General He therefore advised them to shift for themselves as he said he would do and indeed did and to make the best Terms they could for themselves The same in effect as is testified by many he afterwards repeated at his passage through Dublin and 't is plain he confirmed these his Sentiments by his practice Now what was said to them we cannot but take as implicitly at least reaching and extending it self to all his People in Ireland then in subjection to him as I am sure were we touching whom the present Consultation proceeds Wherefore we were then released amongst others and left to our selves to make Terms and the Conqueror allowing us no other Terms but these we are therefore by this Release if we had not been so before at liberty to embrace and accept them We have then thus done with the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy together with the Obligation of them both as to King James the Second XI IT follows we proceeed to the Oath or Declaration of Not taking up Arms against the King or any Persons commissionated by him extant in the Act of Vniformity Anno Dom. 1662. and either taken or subscribed and avowed publickly by very many of us Touching this I will not say what I have heard some Learned in our Laws have said that this Declaration is not to be found in the Original record of that statute IN TERMINIS as in our Books but has been corruptly and surreptitiously inserted as it stands into the Printed Copy If this be true it was an abominable Wrong and Imposition on the Subject and upon whom to be charged I will not speak nor so much as suffer my self to guess But certainly it would in such case much take off from the Obligation of that Oath or Declaration that it should be so fraudulently and illegally imposed My Answer then is I conceive Most I might have said all Irish Protestants have little to do wirh this Oath in the present juncture For either we are already in Arms or Not. Those of us who are already in Arms cannot but be presum'd to be satisfied touching the lawfulness of that War wherein we now are engaged and are not after Vows to make Enquiry To me truly the satisfaction seems easie For a Commission contrary to Law as are all Commissions of late years granted or in present being to R. Catholicks is by Law no Commission and consequently the Persons who bear it not commissionated but private men or rather while they Act pursuant to such Commissions Publick Robbers which point justified all that rose against Tyrconnell or any other R. Catholicks in this Kingdom pretending to Commissions from K. James And if K. James would put himself at the head of such a body to countenance and abet them I do not see how his presence even if he had been in full possession of his Crown could give them more Authority Since he could onely thereby make himself less a Legal King not them more Legal Officers And the same thing if there were no more still justifies those who now fight against them that act in his name Not to speak that K. James has otherwise here Vn King'd himself for certainly a King which releases his Subjects of their Allegiance as we have shewn him to have done is no longer their King Those who are not yet in Arms if they have any scruple for which I profess I see no reason may forbear taking Arms in that Cause wherein they are not satisfied I do not see any compulsory means used to bring them into Arms. It is not required of us all to fight but all of us are to promise to be quiet and to pray for our Protectors which certainly all may do without touching on any thing in that whether Oath or Declaration Wherefore in our present condition these also are out of Doors XII WE are in the next place to consider the Recognition which was made personally of James the Second in the late pretended Parliament of Ireland As to which parliamentary Act be it what it can be it must be said No Irish Protestant even of those few that were present in either House are accomptable for the very Body and Frame of it much less for every particular Expression or even Clause therein It was the first Act that was past and truly precipitated It was not admitted to any due debate at least in the Lords house and some who in the end earnestly desired the alteration but of one Expression which was apprehended to be improper Language could not speed therein Now those who would not at our importunity alter their style would not for our sakes have waved any of their fundamental materials of which they were much more fond What Perpetual dread and Moral Force all the protestant members were under I am very unwilling if not unable to speak It sufficiently speaks for them that as many of them as by their quality were capacitated to protest did protest against all the more Momentous Acts that passed this haply being excepted against which they had no time well to think much less to form a Protest the Act being first brought in to the House of Lords there read hastily three times for Forms sake rather than otherwise and to the best of my memory immediately sent down to the Commons and never by the Protestant Lords heard of again till brought in for the Royal Assent Besides this having been all along kept in the dark the Protestants there knew not on what bottom or in what posture things stood in England a Regency and many such Expedients were whispered up and down Nor had they had experience how a Royal Catholick would keep his renewed Promises with Hereticks Possibly they thought his own Misfortunes might have taught him if not better Faith yet more of Government And finally none could either with safety of their Liberties or even Lives have protested To have spoken against this Act had been to have struck at the Foundation of the Authority not only of that whatsoever it was of a Parliament jealous and tender enough be sure of its own Power but even of the whole Government of the Kingdom in all its Branches And it was as clear as the Sun such person would have been either ipso facto by Vote of both Houses executed for Treason or if he had got out of the Protection of either House been forthwith De Witted and torn in pieces by the Multitude In a word let this Recognition be of all the force and exactness imaginable to oblige us it was extorted from us Vi et Dolo malo And how far then it can oblige being satisfied in our own consciences we will leave to any who will be so just as to suppose themselves to have been in our case and to

Means will not do is no less necessary and lawful So that what we ought ordinarily to teach a private handful of People to save their Souls we must not dictate to the three Estates to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal together with the whole Commons assembled in Parliament a Body of near eight hundred Persons all of highest Quality in their respective Ranks and Orders in the Kingdom as a Standard by which they are to regulate the State What Sense would it be to exhort them in Authority and great is the Authority of the three Estates when the King leaves the Nation the greatest certainly in the Nation what Sense would it be I say to preach to them in Authority or to the higher Powers to be subject to and not resist themselves But it is Sense and the Duty of the Clergy to dissuade their People from Revenge from multiplying Suits at Law from Sedition Tumults and rebellious Projects and for this purpose to lay before them the Commands of the Gospel which require of them Peaceableness Meekness and rather to suffer Wrong Damage nay even Oppression it self in some measure than involve all in War and Blood which is a far greater Oppression And this is all the Non-Resistance we preach or hold But whereas we are now involved in War whose Fault is it Theirs sure who begun it who first raised and then maintained an Army contrary to Law c. In a word and to speak roundly The King of England is King of three Kingdoms by Law Protestants not Slaves It is impossible for three Kingdoms to have all their Eyes put out They must therefore see themselves ruining before ruined And it is as unreasonable as impossible to persuade three Kingdoms to give all their Throats to be cut No Law of God or Man can be thought to oblige them hereto For any therefore to think that as the three Kingdoms see so they should not withstand their own Ruin or which is much the same that the Duty of Non Resistance should take place in such a Case as this is for him to forfeit all Sense and Reason or to become really mad that he may seem to be Religious Wherefore when things have their true Names either English or Irish Protestants taking Protection under a Protestant Prince whose just Assertion of his own Rights necessarily involved also their Defence and this at a time when their own King had cast them off from Protection must be acknowledged no Rebellion I avow them who thus fly for seek or accept Protection to be as Passive as any where the Gospel requires them XVIII BUT it will be said in respect of the Invaders there must at least be acknowledged an Offensive War Be it so yet was it a most just one For the Prince of Orange was no Subject and therefore could not be a Rebel and the Causes which he had to enter England when he did and in the manner in which he did with armed Force were both more in number and for Weight and Justice far greater than it can be expected should be represented in this Paper Nor was his Advancement to the Throne less just and equitable I do not find that they who have impartially considered all can assign any thing that could be done more reasonable and as far as Man can see more wholesome to the Interest of Religion and Peace whether in the three Kingdoms or even in Christendom it self But these things have been undoubtedly deduced by abler Hands nor is it needful to our present purpose any more than to point at them We here have had a long and very dark night and have been often abused with false Lights so that perhaps we know not yet the true State of many Transactions nor are capable therefore to discourse of them as were requisite Some persons possibly there are all whose Conduct I cannot excuse but the Swearing Faith to or Praying for King William or Queen Mary does no wise involve any in a necessity of such Mens Vindication XIX THE Conclusion then of all shall be Out of the Power of a King which would not be perswaded to preserve himself and neither could nor would protect his Protestant Subjects Out of the Hands of merciless and barbarous Fellow-Subjects who were bent to have destroyed both themselves and their Country and all in it with themselves and finally from the Lashes of the Scourge of Christendom God has brought us poor oppressed Protestants under a Protestant Prince The Case now in short is whether we will accept Protection or no The Conditions indeed say our Adversaries are very hard Yes they are no less than what God has made our Duty if not our Necessity to Swear to bear Faith and true Allegiance to and to Pray for our Deliverers and their Conquerors in that Quality wherein we find them and wherein they have Delivered us and Conquered them That is to promise sacredly to Man such Subjection and to make to God such Prayers which in our present Condition even without such Promise it were sin not to do In the whole Revolution God has not vouchsafed to us such Irish Protestants who are mainly concerned in this Paper any active part in advancing these Princes to their Power He has thought fit to assign us still only a Passive Lot We must acknowledge it is not it has not been our Business to set up Powers but yet we must own it is our Duty to obey them And no less certainly to be thankful to God and them if we may be protected by them The Scripture is express Let every Soul be subject to the higher powers Such certainly the Conquerors are And I exhort that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks be made for all Men for Kings and all that are put in Authority even for the person of a Nero therefore at that time and if for the froward much more for the good and gentle Let us chearfully then comply in both points and lay down not our Conquered Arms for Arms we Protestants have not been now a long time suffered to wear but our captivated Hearts at the Feet of King WILLIAM and Queen MARY whom God long preserve AND O thou who hast hitherto delivered us from our Enemies Deliver us now from our selves Let there be no Shimei or Sheba in our Israel But bow thou the Hearts of all the Tribes as one Man that they may establish the Kingdom in their Majesties whom thy Hand and out stretched Arm has now set over us Do thou O King of Kings defend these the true Defenders of the Faith and make their Arms by Land and Sea Victorious for the Reformation if it might be thy Will at least for the Pacification of Christendom that we whom thou hast saved from the Hands of our Enemies may serve thee without fear in Holiness and Righteousness before thee all the Days of our Life and these Kingdoms may flourish in Truth and Sanctity in Peace amd Plenty to the Glory of thy Name and of the Blessed Memory of our Deliverers to all Posterity Amen FINIS