Witnesses and misleading the Juries convicted of the said Pretended Perjuries and received this inhumane and unparallel'd Sentence following viz. To pay two thousand Marks to the King To be devested of his Canonical Habit To be brought into Westminster-Hall with a Paper upon his Head with this Inscription Titus Oates convicted upon full Evidence of two horrid Perjuries To stand in and upon the Pillory two several days for the space of an Hour To be whip'd by the comman Hang-man from Aldgate to Newgate on Wednesday and to be whip'd again on the Friday following from Newgate to Tiburn To stand in and upon the Pillory five times in every Year of his Life and to remain a Prisoner during his Life Which Sentence being intended as your Petitioner hath just reason to believe to murther him was accordingly executed with all the Circumstances of Barbarity he having suffered some thousands of Stripes whereby he was put to unspeakable Tortures and lay ten Weeks under the Surgeons Hands Neither did their Cruelty cease here but because your Petitioner by God's Mercy miraculously supporting him and the extraordinary Skill of a Judicious Chirurgion outlived that Bloody Usage some of them afterwards got into your Petitioner's Chamber whilst he was weak in his Bed and attempted to pull off the Plaisters apply'd to cure his Back and threatned to destroy him And that nothing within their Power or Malice might be wanting to compleat your Petitioner's Misery they procured him to be loaded with Irons of excessive Weight for a whole Year without any Intermission even when his Legs were swoln with the Gout and to be shut up in the Dungeon or Hole of the Prison whereby he became impair'd in his Limbs and contracted Convulsion Fits and other Distempers to the great Hazard of his Life All which illegal Proceedings and barbarous Inhumanities your Petitioner humbly conceives were not only intended as a Revenge upon him but likewise to cast a Reproach upon the Wisdom and Honour of four successive Parliaments who had given him Credit and upon the Publick Justice of the Nation And your Petitioner humbly hopes that since the Papists themselves have verified and confirmed his Evidence by their late open and avowed Violations of our Religion Laws and Liberties this Honourable House will vindicate the Proceedings of former Parliaments and discharge your Petitioner from those Arbitrary and Scandalous Judgments and the unjust Imprisonment he lies under Your Petitioner doth therefore most humbly beseech your Lordships and your Honours to take his deplorable Case into your generous and tender Consideration and to give him such Redress therein as to your Lordships and your Honours great Wisdom Justice and Goodness shall seem meet And your Petitioner shall ever pray c. An Account of the Convention of SCOTLAND THE Convention of Scotland met the 14 th of March 1685 in Obedience to the Prince of Orange's Letteâ—â— They choice the Duke of Hamilton their President â—fter which they had several Debates about the Duke of Gâ—â—don a Papist who keeps the Castle notwithstanding many offers of Surrender does still keep it for King James They read a Letter from the King of England in which he exhorts them to lay aside all Animosities and Factions and mind the Publick Good in securing the Protestant Religion and the ancient Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom on sure and lasting Foundations particularly that they would endeavour a Union between both Kingdoms as one of the best Means for the Happiness of both especially at this time when the common Enemy is restless to procure the ruine of Britain and the Protestant Religion every-where After which a Letter was read from King James requiring them to support his Royal Authority by many Threats and Promises which made no Impression on them but after some time they drew up and sent a Letter to King William full of dutiful Respects promising to do that which may be acceptable to him and suitable to the Genius of the Nation After setling the Militia and other State-Matters and having resolved the Power into themselves they appointed a Commitee of 24 made up of all the Estates to settle the Government Which Commitee have provided for the full Meeting of the Convention Grounds and Reasons on which they have declared the Throne Vacant A SPEECH made by a Member of the Convention of the States in SCOTLAND WE are now called together by his Highness the Prince of Orange to Consult and Deliberate what Methods will be most proper to secure Our Religion Laws and Liberties in order to which the first thing that will fall under our Consideration is the setling the Sovereign Power I take for granted that you are fully convinced that King James the Seventh by his many Violations of the Fundamental Laws by his endeavouring to establish a Despotick and Arbitrary Power and introduce Popery tho he himself had confirmed all the Laws that were enacted in Favour of the Protestant Religion has thereby subverted the Constitution and that our Miseries might have no Redress from him has left us in a time when we needed his Protection most The Eyes of all Europe are upon us and it is in our Power to make our Selves and our Posterity either Happy or Miserable by making a choice either to call back the same King James and hazard once more all that Men account dear to his Mercy or to settle the Government on some other under whom we may live Quiet and Peaceable Lives without the perpetual Terror of being swallowed up by Popery and Arbitrary Government which all good Men hoped were now banished and yet behold a new Off-spring is sprung up which plead eagerly for both tho under the mistaken Names of Duty and Allegiance It 's strange that any Man can so far degenerate as to prefer Slavery to Liberty and that they should be so much in love with Chains that when they were fairly shaken off they should run suriously to be Fettered again as if the Ottoman and French Government were so charming in our Country that we cannot live without it tho we have so lately groaned under the dismal Burden of it And it might have been supposed that even these who had been Instrumental in Enslaving their Fellow-Brethren and were grown Fat with Sucking the Nations Blood would have taken another Method to Reconcile themselves than by persuading us to purchase their Safety at so vast an Expence as the Ruin of more than three Parts of the Nation will necessarily amount to If we do but a little reflect on the Motives which these Men blinded by Self-Interest make use of to delude the Nation into a Security that wanted very little of proving Fatal to it and compare them with the strong Reasons we have to disswade us from being so imposed on they will be found so Weak and Impertinent that we must judg it next to Impossibility to suffer our selves to be twice Deceived But if the Experience of our former Miseries
ELEVENTH Collection of Papers Relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England and Scotland VIZ. I. An Answer to the Desertion Discuss'd being a Defence of the late and present Proceedings II. Satisfaction tendred to all that pretend Conscience for Non-submission to our present Governours and refusing of the New Oaths of Fealty and Allegiance III. Dr. Oates his Petition to the Parliament declaring his barbarous Sufferings by the Papists IV. An Account of the Convention of Scotland V. A Speech made by a Member of the Convention of the Estates in Scotland VI. The Grounds on which the Estates of Scotland declared the Right of the Crown of Scotland Forfaulted and the Throne become Vacant VII The Opinion of two eminent Parliament-Men justifying the Lawfulness of taking the Oaths of Allegiance to King William and Queen Mary London printed and are to be sold by Richard Janeway in Queen's-head-Court in Pater-noster-Row 1689. AN ANSWER TO THE DESERTION DISCUSS'D IF many of our Long-Rob'd Divines puft up with a Conceit of their own Parts would but keep closer to their Texts and their Duties most certainly our Peace and Union would be much firmer and more assured then it is For being sway'd by Interest and Profit they are more afraid of losing the Advantages of Earthly Preferment then the Treasures of Heavenly Felicity Unless they swim in their own Wishes and Desires all Things are out of Order The Church is in danger they cry here are Sharers coming in among Us And by an odd kind of Ecclesiastical Policy seem rather inclinable to return under the Yoke of Popery then to endure the Equality of a Dissenting Protestant rather to be at the check of a Pope's Nuncio then suffer the Fraternity of a Protestant Nonconformist They said nothing to the late King till he began to touch their Copy-holds then they call'd out for Help and now they are angry with their Relief because they are afraid of well they know not what And this is their Misfortune that if all things answer not the full Height of their Expectations they are the first that should be last dissatisfied If all things go not well as they imagine they presently grow moody and waspish and while they insinuate their empty Notions into others who admiring the fluency of their Pulpit Language either out of Ignorance or Laziness allow them a Prerogative over their Understandings the whole Nation must be embroyl'd by their Surmises and Mistrusts Else what had that Gentleman who wrote the Desertion Discuss'd to do to busy his Brains with a Subject neither appertaining to his Function nor proper for his Talent Why should â—e be setting himself up against the voted Judgment of the chiefest and greatest part of the Kingdom A Man of his Profession would have doubtless better employ'd himself in contemplating the Story of the Three Murmurers against Moses and there have learn'd a more sanctifi'd Lesson then to exalt his Sophâ—stry against the Debates of a Solemn Assembly contriving the Publick â—reservation For certainly never was a fairer Prospect then now since the many Revolutions under which the British Monarchy has labour'd of its being restor'd to its ancient Grandeur and Renown and of enjoying the Advantages of Peace and Prosperity in a higher measure then ever So that it must be look'd upon as the Effect either of a most pernicious Malice or a strange distraction of Brain for such Discussers as these to be throwing about the Darnel of their nice and froward Conceptions on purpose to choak the Expectations of so glorious a Harvest For they must be Men that want the government of right Reason within themselves as being enslav'd either to vicious Custom or partial Affection or else they would never run themselves and others with so much precipitancy into the shame and ignominy of upholding the subvertors of National Constitutions And all this to blacken and defame the noble Endeavours and prudent Counsels of those renowned Patriots that pursu'd the only means to rescue a languishing Monarchy from impending Thraldom and Ruin. He does not wonder he says that a Man of so much sense and integrity as his Friend is should be surprized at the Thrones being declared Vacant by the Lower House of Convention For how says his Friend can the Seat of the Government be empty while the King who all grant had an unquestionable Title is still living But the Discusser here forgot that it had been the resolv'd Opinion of two Parliaments already That there was no Security for the Protestant Religion the King's Life or the establish'd Government of the Kingdom without passing a Bill for disabling the Duke of York to inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and that unless a Bill were pass'd for excluding the Duke of York the House could not give any Supply to the King without Danger to his person the Hazard of the Protestant Religion and Breach of the Trust in them repos'd by the People Upon which a Bill did pass the Commons and was sent up to the Lords for their Concurrence by which James Duke of York was excluded and made for ever uncapable to Inherit Possess or Enjoy the Imperial Crown of this Realm c. and he adjudg'd Guilty of High Treason and to suffer the Pains and Penalties as in Case of High Treason if after such a Time he should claim challenge or attempt to possess or exercise any Authority or Jurisdiction as King c. in any of the said Dominions 'T is true the Lords did not pass this Bill for Reasons well known yet was it such a mutilation to the Duke's Title to be disabled from succeeding in the Kingdom by the whole Body of the Commons who are the Representatives of the Nation that it can never be said that all Men granted his Title unquestionable as the Discusser imposes upon the World. Besides the many Instances in History of several Princes who have forfeited their Succession and consequently their Title to the Crown for revolting from the Establish'd Religion of the Realm But says the Discusser for I look upon his Friend and Him to be all one and that he does but put the Question with one side of his Mouth and answer it with the other I had thought our Laws as well as our Religion had been against the Deposing Doctrine That 's not the Question but whether a Prince may commit those Miscarriages in Government whether he may not so far peccare in Leges Rempublicam as to incur the Forfeiture of his Regal Power and whether a Prince may be allow'd to subvert the ancient Constitutions and Religion of a Nation and yet be said to be the Lawful King of that Realm These are the Questions For then it is not the Law that deposes him nor the Religion that justifies it But it is He that deposes Himself 't is the bad Advice of Evil Counsellors to which he Listens and which he follows to the ruin of the Kingdom contrary to the Original
ever except against the Validity of it May it not seem something unjust to deny this Liberty to Princes when they find themselves overcharged with the Weight of Government to retire into a Privacy for the better enjoyment of their inward Peace and Quiet But I presume no Man will deny this Hypothesis It remains to prove the Thesis That the late King did abdicate 1. I will not dwell upon what was done by the Metropolitan and other Lords of the Council upon his first withdrawing they came into the City and with the Lord Mayor sent for the Lieutenant of the Tower seize upon the Keys dispossess the Souldiers place a new Garrison there and desire the Prince of Orange to assume the Regency Why all this if he had not Abdicated Upon what other ground durst they raise Arms seize upon his Royal Fort Or how can they excuse themselves from formal Rebellion and breach of Oaths if this be not granted and is not unpresidented That Princes shall take up their Scepters again when they have laid them down But to pass by this 2. I would willingly be resolv'd by any Thinking Man whose Judgment and Testimony is most authentick in this Particular Whether I am to resolve my self into the Judgment of the whole Nation in a full and clear Representation in Parliament or into the private Fancies or Opinion of a few Men I remember what you once repli'd to this That every Mans Conscience is to judg for himself in point of Practice But do you not know when and by whom this Principle was exploded whilst some were prosecuted for meer Matters of Worship And shall this be pleaded by those Men who so vigorously have acted against it when in its own Nature it is so destructive of the Civil Peace A Line and a Line is an Abomination Did ever any Government upon the Pretence of Conscience dispence with Disobedience in Things necessary to its Establishment And can any Man expect to be excus'd from taking the Oaths which is the only Moral Security the Government can expect or require and upon this very Pretence which if allowed all Kingdoms must dissolve into Anarchy and Confusion Religion and Conscience being the Common Pretentions of all Male-Contents This may suffice to satisfy any sober Rational Man that is not resolv'd to maintain the Conclusion be the Premises never so weak Some there are that presume their Subscription to the Doctrine of the Church of England in her Book of Articles will not permit them to yield their Obedience to these Alterations But if this shall prove a Mistake and our Obedience shall be conformable to our Principles will it not rather be esteemed Peevishness than Conscience To discover the Mistake let us consider when and by whom the Articles were composed and refer the Practices of those Times to the Articles as an authentick and clear Interpretation of them and this also will vanish like Smoak 1. The Articles were made or at least confirmed in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth who was a constant asserter and maintainer of this Maxim That it is lawful for a neighbouring Prince to relieve and defend the Subjects of another when invaded in their Laws Liberties and Religion Who was it that protected and assisted the Hugonets in France against the Tyranny and Violence of their Princes Was it not this Gracious and Heroick Queen And who was it that protected the Netherlands against the Violence and Usurpations of the Spanish Monarch And was all this contrary to the avowed Doctrines of our Church of which she was the Defender Was not this defended or at least allowed of by the Church-Men of those Times must it be now inconsistent with the Principles of our Times Do they bind our Hands so that if we are invaded we may not crave the like Protection Let any sober scrupulous dissatisfied Person give a sober Answer and Resolution to these Queries The Dutch Netherlands erected a new Model of Goverment under her Protection after they had shaken off the Spanish Yoak 2. Let it be granted what ought not to be denied That the late King did abdicate and that the Government did devolve upon the People and these in a full Representative of the whole Nation whether in Parliament or in a Convention it matters not which whilst that was a free and fair Choice have constituted these to be our Governours Are we not to pay and swear Obedience unto them as well as their Predecessors And if this were rightly weigh'd would answer an Objection from that Declaration in the Act of Uniformity I abhor that Traiterous Position c. If after all this Men will fix all upon a Jus divinum and fly to Scriptures let them give plain positive Texts for a general Form with Rules universally relating unto and obliging all Places and Men. If they cannot let them confess that God hath left all Nations and People to be ruled by that Government and those Laws which are most suitable to the Constitution and Temperament of the People and this I lay down for a Foundation not to be overthrown But to Answer those places which are so much insisted upon that of our Saviour's St Paul's and St Peter's we need to make use of that absurd Assertion of some of the Romanists That this was only enjoyn'd and to be performed until they had opportunity to make a Resistance This would stain the Glory of the Primitive Martyrs Not a forced but a voluntary Martyrdom deserves the Crown however this gives a taste of the Loyalty of these Men and their Religion to the maintaining of which the Popish Princes sacrifice all their Power and Policy But for a more Substantial Answer by way of Satisfaction to these Scruples let it be duly considered that the Primitive Christians and we were under 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
could be a greater Desertion than this for the sake of a Wife and a Son to leave three Kingdoms at six and sevens He speaks of securing himself as well as he can but mentions nothing of Danger only leaves it to the Lord Feversham and others to presume the Causes of his Fears But certainly the apprehension of Danger can never excuse a Sovereign Magistrate from the Desertion of his Dominions at the same time striving and strugling under the Pangs of the Dissolution of Government If such a Desertion of his Territories in that forlorn and languishing Condition to accompany the Tribulations of a Wife and a Son be not a perfect Abdication of his Territories the Words relinquish desert forgo abandon abdicate have lost their Signification Thus Lysimachus in Plutarch de sera vindicta Dei after he had surrendered his Person and Dominions to the Getae for a Draught of Drink in the extremity of a parching Thirst when he had quench'd his Thirst cryed out O pravum Hominem that for so small a Pleasure have lost so great a Kingdom He would be thought very unfit to be the Master of a Ship that should throw himself into the Sea when his Vessel and Cargoe were almost ready to perish And I will appeal to the Lord of Wemm himself whether if he were to try an Abdicating Prince upon this Point with the same Huffing and Domineering as he did Inferiour Offenders he would take it for a good Justification to say I had thought or I apprehended my Person to be in Danger Rather it becomes a Prince at such a time to exert his Courage and contemn his own when the publick Security lies at Stake especially when the Remedy propounded was so easy as the Convoking of a Free Parliament But to withdraw at such a perillous Conjuncture from the Application of his desir'd nay almost implor'd Assistance What can the Discusser think of himself to deny so plain an Abdication And this I take to be the Opinion of the late King's Abdication intimated by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal assembled at Guild-Hall Decemb. 1688. where they are pleased to say That they did reasonably hope that the King having sent forth his Proclamation and Writs for a free Parliament they might have rested secure as doubtless the King might also have done in that Meeting But his Majesty having withdrawn himself c. they did therefore unanimously resolve to apply themselves to his Highness the Prince of Orange c. That is to say The King having withdrawn himself from the Cure of the Grand Distempers of the Nation and consequently Abdicated the Government they resolv'd to apply themselves to a more Skilful at least a more Willing Physician Which had the Discusser more considerately discuss'd when he wrote his Discussion would have sav'd him a great deal of trouble and expence Thus much for the Reasons which the Discusser brings to prove that the King before his withdrawing had sufficient Grounds to make him apprehensive of Danger and that therefore it cannot be call'd an Abdication That which follows being altogether grounded upon certain Statutes and Laws of the Land to the knowledg of which the Discusser seems to be a great Pretender is answer'd in a Word That they who pronounc'd the Throne Vacant understood the Latitude of their Power and the Intent and Limits of the Laws and Statutes of this Realm to that Degree that if nothing else the Consideration of that might have deterr'd the Discusser from the Presumption of appearing so vainly and scandalously in the World. Nor would I be thought so impertinent to transgress the Bounds of my own Understanding as he has done For indeed to tell ye the Truth if the Discusser should come to a Trial at Westminster-Hall I am afraid the Lawyers will certainly inform him that he has very much either mistaken or misquoted his Authors FINIS SATISFACTION tendred to all that pretend Conscience for Non-submission to our present Governours and refusing of the New Oaths of FEALTY and ALLEGIANCE In a LETTER to a FRIEND By R. B. late Rector of St. Michael Querne London And now Rector of Icklingham All-Saints Suffolk SIR I Cannot but admire at the Stiffness not to say Obstinacy of some in not complying with the present Government considering the late danger of Popery and that an Arbitrary Power was exercised amongst us by our late Rulers in asserting their Dispensing Power by the Mercenary Judges declared to be Law. You may remember in our late Conference upon this Subject you pleaded in Defence of your selves and others the Obligation you lay under to the Oath of Allegiance with your Subscription to the Doctrine of the Church of England contained in the 37 th Article and the First Canon of the Church but if it appear that all this is rather grounded upon Mistake than any solid Reality I will not question your ready Submission Oaths I confess are very strong Ties upon Men of Conscience and they are to be tenderly dealt with until that Prejudice be removed give me leave therefore with Sobriety and Meekness to enquire Whether that Oath be still in Force with the Obligation to it if not that Plea must vanish and disappear And here first let me remind you of the occasion of imposing the Oath of Allegiance it was injoyn'd to distinguish betwixt Church and Court Loyal and Disloyal Papists upon that honid Gunpowder-Treason which hath left a Stain of Villany and Cruelty upon that Religion never to be wiped off Read over the Anatomy of that Oath made by K. James the First in his Book of the Defence of it And what is there in it that can stick upon any Protestant except that Clause of denying all Foreign Jurisdiction Prince or Potentate And this you seem'd to hint at when you said the Prince of Orange was a Foreign Prince Will you be pleased in answer to this to fix your Thoughts upon that of the great Apostle St. Paul he is excepted that put all things under him So here without Question the King may divest himself of all Authority and Power and when this is done the Obligation ceaseth as if he were really Dead The Preface to the New Oath is not an authoritative Abdication but rather a Declaration of Matter of Fact that the late King James hath abdicated So that in fine the main of the Controversy lies here Whether the late King did abdicate For if he did without all Question the Obligation of all Oaths taken unto him is ceased In confirmation of the Affirmative I shall endeavour to make it clear that any King may And secondly That the late King did abdicate That Kings may denude themselves of their Princely Power and Sovereignty appears from what was done by Charles the Fifth Emperor of Germany and King of Spain at the same time who did abdicate both and his Subjects took new Oaths of Fealty to other Princes Some of those Times might question his Courage but none did
so lately hanging over our Heads the very Thoughts of renewing which make all good Men to tremble has not made us Wiser and be not of Efficacy enough to deter us from venturing another Shipwrack and exposing all again to the Discretion of Roman Catholicks It 's more than probable that GOD has abandoned us and given us up to believe strong Delusions First Thay will endeavour to perswade us that Kings are eximed from Punishments here on Earth and nothing they do can be quarrelled by their Subjects which indeed might with some Reason be urged among the Turks who reserve nothing from the Power of their Sultans and where it 's Death to dispute his Commands tho never so Arbitrary and Tyrannical But with what Impudence can such Stuff be imposed on us who never admit our Kings to the Government till they swear to rule us according to Law and no otherways The Laws are the only Security we have for our Lives and Properties which if our Sovereign subvert Subjects cannot be blamed for making use of the ordinary means to preserve them and since that cannot be done without withdrawing Obedience from such a Magistrate as goes about to destroy them such an Act cannot properly be said to punish him because we take nothing from him to which he has a just Claim but do only shun the occasion of making our selves miserable The Speculative Doctrine of Passive Obedience has done too much mischief among us and what has befallen the King may be justly imputed to it for the believing that without Opposition he might do what he pleased encouraged him to take such measures as have drawn all these Misfortunes on him Secondly Others are so Fond as to believe that we may be Secure in calling the King back provided they so Limit him that it will not be in his power to hurt us These Men do not consider how small a Complement this is to a Man of the Kings Temper from â—â— an Absolute Prince as he was pleased to fancy himself to content himself with the bare Title of a King and how insupportable the Charge must be if from being Master of all he must force himself to comply with a thousand Masters and see his Throne become his Prison But how airy is it to fancy that any Restrictions of our Contrivance can bind the King For 1 st It 's most certain they can never be Voluntary and what is constrained and done by Force is by Law declared to be Void and Null to whose Assistance the Popeâ— Dispensing Power being joined would quickly blow off these Sampson Cords and the Royal Power would again revive with all its Vigour and Luster Thirdly The King is of a Religion that has in a famous Council decreed That no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks much less with Subjects whom he looks upon as so many Rebels and will not miss to treat them as such whenever they give him the Opporportunity of doing it for his greatest Admirers do not run to that height Idolatry to imagine him so much Angel as not to take all methods to revenge so great an Affront and secure himself at our Gost from such a Treatment for the future the apprehensions of which Resentments will strike such terrour in Mens minds that nothing will be capable to divert them from offering up All for an Atonement and Popery and Slavery will be thought a good Bargain if they can but save their Lives Then we may lament our Miseries but it will not be in our power to help them for a Prince of Orange is not always ready to rescue us with such vast Expence and so great hazard to his Person and if our Madness hurry us so far we deserve rather is pity than his resentment Fourthly What Arguments has the King given since he left us to persuade us he will be more faithful in observing his Words and Oaths than hitherto he has been Does he not in a Letter lately printed here expresly say he has ruled so as to give no occasion of complaint to any of his Subjects Is not the same Letter signed by one who sacrificed both Conscience and Honour to Interest whose pernicious and headstrong Counsels has posted him to his Ruine tho' all that has been done cannot make Him sensible of it Sure the re Hereticks to the See of Rome is not less Meritorious than before noâ— King James the Seventh by breathing the French Air become less Bigot It were a Dream to fancy it For so long as the Vatican thunders Excommunications against all such as do not use their utmost endeavours to extirpate Heresie a Roman Catholick must have no Religion at all if they be not terrible to him The fourth Argument they made use of to persuade such as are and shall be chosen Members of the Convention That their Interest to call back the King is That the Peace and Happiness of the Nation cannot be otherwise secured nor Factions or Divisions extinguished But what Factions do you observe but such as they themselves do foment on purpose to disturb our Harmony all which would immediately die if the Government were once setled on those who deserved it best for then if these Fops continued still fond of Popery and Tyranny they would be chastised as Disturbers of the Publick Peace The Argument may very justly be retorted for if the King return we will burst out into a flame and England which has already declared will quickly be on our Top an Enemy too Potent and too Numerous for us tho' we were all united besides the Danger to which such a Procedure will expose us we cut off all hopes of an Union with that Nation and thereby deprive our selves of an unspeakable Advantage which would redound to all sorts of People and would be the only means to support an impoverish'd and sinking Nation Neither is this the only Inconveniency tho' it be a very great one for if we state our selves in opposition to England by Restoring the King whom they Rejected it is not to be doubted but he will use his uttmost endeavour to recover that Kingdom the loss of which is so considerable Now seeing it were vain to suppose that the Scots alone were able to second his desires he must needs have recourse to the French and Irish whose Religion will procure a more intire Confidence than His Majesty can repose in any others These therefore must be received into our Bosom and because Scotland is the most proper place for Invading England it must be the Scene of all the Blood and Confusion that this melancholly Thought gives us a Prospect of And what treatment can such Sham-Protestants expect from these who otherwise would have become their Friends and Allies And what Figure will they pretend to make when they set up for a separate Interest from all the Confederate Protestants in the World besides The happy Success the PRINCE his Enterprize has met with has made a considerable Alteration in
the Affairs of Europe for that great Enemy of the Protestants and even of Christianity it self who had propos'd nothing less to himself than an Universal Monarchy whom the Strictest Leagues and Contracts cannot bind but without regard to GOD or Man threatens all his Neighbours with utter Destruction by the Scene 's being changed among us is so far humbled that from a Proud and Insulting Enemy he is become a Supplicant for Peace well foreseeing that if Britain join with those other Princes whom his Insolence Cruelty and Avarice has so justly Armed against him his Ruine is Inevitable So that if we have not Soul enough to enjoy this great Blessing and can easily part with the Glory of being once more the Arbiters of Europe let us at least have so much Christian Love and Charity for the Neighbouring Nations of our own Perswasion as not to expose them to a necessary Participation of these Plagues which our Common Enemies are preparing for us and which will certainly Terminate in all our Destructions Lastly I beseech you to consider what Persons they are who would Instill this Poyson in you and you will find them of three kinds First those who Postponing the Common Good of the Nation are wholly acted by Self-Interest considering that in a Government where Justice and Mercy equally Flourish Virtue and Merit not Villany will be rewarded Secondly They who are ignorant of the Nature of Government and were never at the pains to inform themselves what Measures the Law of Nature and Nations have set to mens Obedience but are angry at every thing that thwarts their wild Notions and will admit of nothing tho never so reasonable and convincing if their dull Capacities cannot reach it The third sort are such as have been instrumental in the inslaving their Country and are afraid if they be called to an Account they may be brought to suffer Condign Punishment if such cannot succeed in their Design they at least hope to be overlook'd in a General Confusion so they have nothing unessayed that may tend to their own safety and if Heaven fail them they summon Hell to their Aid not that Love to their Prince but meer Ambition and Interest drives these Criminals to such Attempts neither are they much to blame if they are at such pains to sow Divisions among us But no Person of Wit and Judgment nor any Good Man that is truly Protestant and minds the good of his Country will suffer himself to be so grosly imposed on by such Firebands who would build their Furture Imaginary Greatness on the Ruine of Our Religion Laws and Country The Grounds upon which the Estates of Scotland Declared the Right of the Crown of Scotland FORFAULTED and the Throne become VACANT I. BBcause King James the Seventh is a Professed Papist II. That the said King James did assume the Royal Power and acted as King without ever taking the Oath required by Law. III. That he hath by the Council of evil Men invaded the Fundamental Constitution of the Kingdom and changed it from a limited Monarchy to an Absolute and Despotick Power IV. Which Power he hath imployed to the Subversion of the Protestant Religion and the Violation of the Rights of the Subject And thereby V. Hath inverted all the Ends of Government The Opinion of two eminent Parliament-Men justifying the lawfulness of taking the Oaths of Allegiance to King William and Queen Mary I. FIdelity and Allegiance sworn to the King is only a Fidelity and Obedience as it is due to him by the Law of the Land for were that Faith and Allegiance more than what the Law requires we should swear our selves Slaves and the King Absolute whereas by the Law we are free notwithstanding these Oaths II. When therefore by the Law Fidelity and Allegiance ceaseth then our sworn Allegiance ceaseth for if Allegiance might be due by the Oath to one Person whilst by the Law it ceaseth to him and becomes due to another Person the Oath then would oblige Men to transgress the Law and become Traytors and Rebels whereas the Oath is part of the Law and therefore ought to be so interpreted as may consist with it III. Fidelity and Allegiance are due by the Law to King William and not to King James for the Statute of 25 of Edward 3 d which defined all Treasons against the King and is the only Statute to that purpose now that Statute by the King understands not only a King de jure but also a King de facto tho not de jure against whom those Treasons Lie whence the Lord Chief Justice Hales in his Pleas of the Crown p. 12. discoursing of that Statute tells us that a King de facto and not de jure is a King within that Act and that Treason against him is Punishable tho the Right Heir get the Crown and that this hath been the common Sense of the Law Sir R. S. upon application to him about it hath assured us And according to another Statute 11 Hen. 7. ch 1. It is declared Treason to be in Arms against a King de facto such as Richard the 3 d was tho it was in behalf of a King de jure So then by the Law of the Land all things are Treason against King William which have been Treason against former Kings therefore the same Fidelity Obedience and Allegiance which was due to them is due to him and by Consequence may be Sworn to him by the Law of the Land. Allegiance and Protection are always Mutual and therefore when King James ceased to Protect us we ceased to owe him Allegiance by the Law of the Land and when King William began to Protect us we began our Allegiance to him These Considerations are in our Opinion sufficient to remove the Grand Scruple about the Oaths If the dissatisfied Party accuse the Convention for making the Prince of Orange King it is not my Duty to judge those above me therefore I shall only say that if they have done ill Quod fieri non debuit factum valot and they of the Clergy ought not to censure their Superiours but obey according to the Law and Doctrine of Passive Obedience FINIS