A FREE DISCOURSE Wherein the DOCTRINES Which make for TYRANNY Are Display'd The TITLE of our Rightful and Lawful King WILLIAM Vindicated And the unreasonableness and mischievous Tendency of the odious distinction of a King de Facto and de Jure discover'd By a Person of Honour Quo sis Africane alacrior ad tutandam Rempublicam sic habeto Omnibus qui Patriam conservaverint adjuverint auxerint certum esse in Coelo ac definitum locum ubi beati sempiterno aevo fruantur Somn. Scip. è l. 6. Ciceronis de Republica London Printed for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultrey and Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane 1697. A FREE DISCOURSE Wherein the DOCTRINES Which make for TYRANNY Are Display'd I HAVE never been Conscious to my self that the Temptation of any base Interest or the Apprehension of any threatning Danger could corrupt me to betray or force me to decline that which I well knew to be the true Interest of my King and Country and therefore have I constantly look'd upon those that made it their Business to break in upon the just Rights of the one or the other as unhappy Contrivers to involve the Nation in a consuming Debt to Tyranny or Confusion which the People shall be sure to pay out of their Enjoyments in Life Liberty and Property Of Consequence therefore I must with grating Affliction have observ'd how strenously this vile Design has been labour'd from towards the latter end of King Charles the 2d to this present time Under the screening shelter of that Prince Popery and Arbitrary Power were favour'd and cherish'd with all the Art and Industry which Men of slavish Principles and profligate Consciences could devise and apply till the twin Monsters were thought arriv'd at that fulness of prodigious Stature as no longer to need his Life for their Concealment or Protection As a good Preparative for the Introduction of Arbitrary Power in which are all the hopes of Popery pernicious Pamphlets were publish'd in which it was magisterially asserted That the Realm of England was such a compleat Imperial Soveraignty as wherein the King had full perfect and intire Jurisdiction from God alone and that his Subjects ought rather to suffer Death wrongfully than resist him It was speciously granted indeed That there were Political Laws to secure the Rights of the Subject but it was stifly maintain'd That the Imperial Laws which ascertain'd the Rights of the Sovereign Prince were superiour to the Political and might and ought to determine when the Political Laws should be observ'd when not As much as to say The Rights of the Subject should be secure from all Invasion but that of their King Well! that 's worth something tho' the Clown in the Greek Epigram would not have much valued it For said he a little irreverently indeed but very plainly and to the purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hercules that defends my Flock from the Wolf has ever and anon a fat Sheep for Sacrifice the Wolf has no more for prey I lose on both sides for 't is all one to me whether the God has it roasted or Isgrim raw The Judges in King James's time very leernedly stated and decided the Matter pronouncing That in Cases of Necessity the King might dispense with the Laws and that he was Judge of the Necessity These Gentlemen seem to have had some Modesty tho' no more Conscience than the other or perhaps this little show of Modesty was a cast of their Wit they made use of the Fowler 's cunning stalkt under shelter to get a full shoot at the Peoples Liberties which was the Quarry they aim'd at and dead they laid it beshrew their hearts for their pains But 't was a sorry piece of cunning which would never have taken but that the Game they shot was ' tangled in a Net before Who sees not that if the King may dispense with the Laws in Cases of Necessity and be Judge of the Necessity he may dispense with them as often as he pleases wherefore his learned Sages of the Law might have spar'd their Wit and more ingenuously with open boldness have asserted and declar'd like Richard the 2d That the King's Will was the Law This is what the false Coiners of the cheating distinction of Imperial and Political Laws and the corrupt Putters of Necessity-Cases which makes the People's Slavery the one thing necessary would fain be at But the Design is so wicked and odious that to own it in plain words were the way to overthrow it In truth subtle Distinctions and Cases which have never happen'd are like to make the most of this bad Market Thus all in the Land of Metaphysicks where every Period or Page of famous School-Divinity harbours wild Notions of Religion which cannot be explain'd and made intelligible much less prov'd and ascertain'd by clear Reason the Sons of Science supernatural the Mystic Adepti introduce them with proper Terms of Art Terms useless to any other purpose and settle and ' stablish them for ever i.e. as long as ever they can be settled and establish'd on the unexamin'd Foundation of perplexing Distinctions There were not wanting among the eminent Clergy who as if they would go a length K. Richard never dream't on seem'd to intimate That the King's Will was not only the Law but the Religion of the Country too and Passive Obedience the only wretched Portion of the unpeopled People for then they were no longer a People but a plunder'd and enslav'd Rabble left only Tenants at Will for their Lives Liberties and Properties In such a wretched Case it would become the unpeopled People to have always their Loins girt Shoes on their Feet and Staves in their Hands not like Israelites taking leave of their hard Masters and going to set up for themselves but like the Shepherds of Cremona waiting for the terrible Sentence Veteres migrate coloni Be gone ye old English Race of strubborn Free-holders ne're trouble your selves how ye shall drive your Flocks but leave such things behind you haste haste you have nothing to pack up unless your old Wives and young Children haste and make room for naked Colonies of tres humble Monsieur Serviteurs that shall not dare to call their Wooden Shoes their own but Soul and Body become all Obedience let with Spiritual Curb or Temporal Snaffle Priest or Tyrant ride them The design of changing our Legal into an Arbitrary Government was copy'd from the French Original In France t was laid in the Reign of Lewis the XI and took effect to the destruction of the Rights of the People by destroying the Power of Parliaments The destruction of the Power of Parliaments was carried on by very sober paces by the most easie and modest Encroachments that People weary of their Liberties could have wish'd for The King did not pretend to raise Money when he pleas'd by
August Assembly presently cheerfully subscrib'd the Association wherein after they Sincerely and Solemnly Profess Testifie and declare That his present Majesty King WILLIAM is Rightful and Lawful King of these Realms they mutually promise and engage to stand by and assist each other to the utmost of their Power in the support and defence of his Majesties most Sacred Person and Government against the late King James and his Adherents Further they oblige themselves if the King should come to any violent and untimely death which God forbid to revenge the same on his Enemies and their Adherents Lastly To support the Succession of the Crown according to an Act made in the First Year of KING WILLIAM and QUEEN MARY The House of Lords also moved by the same amazing occasion as the Commons damn'd the Mischievous distinction DE FACTO and DE IVRE declaring that His present Majesty King WILLIAM hath A Right by Law to the Crown which Words one might be afraid of but that their Lordships ever Honourable and Sincere took care to secure them from Exception by the next Plain Righteous and Decretory Sentence And that neither the late King James nor the pretended Prince of Wales nor any other Person hath any right whatsoever to the same I can't see wherein this Declaration comes short of that of the House of Commons for here the Lords determine that King WILLIAM hath a Right by Law to the Crown and such a Right by Law that neither the late King nor the pretended Prince of Wales nor any other Person hath any Right whatsoever to the same then of Consequence He hath all the right to the Crown that can be all the right that ever Prince had or can have And is in their Lordships Judgments what the Commons have declar'd him Viz. our Rightful and Lawful King I am glad the Houses are so well agreed But alas neither has their happy Agreement nor the following hearty and just Votes of the Commons carried the Association of the Commons thro' the Kingdom with that success as might have been expected and as was due to so well advised a Sanction for the Publick good The reason of which disappointment I cannot imagine for I hope that Commoner's Chaplain was not in the right who openly told an Acquaintance that the Penalties inforcing the Association were only In terrorem But as if he had been able to give the Refusers Security many stood off and began to frame Exceptions against it To pass by the little Cavils and impertient Sarcasms started by vain and unquiet Men who are proud to tell the World with what unfair Equivocation they swallow'd the Oaths of Allegiance and consonant to that Scandalous Wickedness will affix a sense of their own devising to the Parliament Association or else Associate in a cold empty Form of their own drawing up to pass by every thing of this nature I shall only reflect on the grand Exception which is so common in the mouths of all the De facto Men. And that is this They have as their bounden duty does require that awful regard for the Divine Prohibition of Revenge that they can by no means agree to oblige themselves to revenge the King 's violent death upon his Treacherous Enemies To this I have several things to reply 1. Tho' with some Men the Blood of a King is so cheap that it may be spilt like Water on the Ground and they never trouble their hearts about it Yet I make no question but were it the Blood but of an Arch-Bishop of St. Andrew they would be very active to hunt the Murtherers from their Coverts and bring them to condign Punishment That these words may not be wrested I do avow that it was a necessary piece of Justice the Punishment of that Arch-Bishop's Murtherers But I argue a fortiori how necessary then is it to punish Wicked Regicides II. when a Noble Peer is impeach'd in Parliament for High-Treason the Lords Spiritual pretend to a Right of Siting and Voting among his Judges so that Clergy-Men are not willing to be wholly Sequestred from their share in legal Revenges III. When the House of Commons declar'd upon the occasion of the Popish Plot discover'd by Doctor Oates that if His Majesty King Charles that then was should come to any violent Death which they pray'd God to prevent tho' as 't is thought they were not heard they would revenge it to the utmost on the Papists None of this Clan of Non-Associators bawl'd against that Vote as unchristian and yet I do not see but King WILLIAM's Life is as precious and ought to be as dear to the Nation as ever King Charles's was besides I perswade my self that popish Assassines deserve not to be more severely treated than than any other Assassines IV. When any private Person unites with the House of Commons to revenge the Violent death of the King which God prevent he unites with the Representatives of the Body of the People for the just Execution of a legal Revenge V. He that is not willing to do his part towards the bringing the Assassines of the King to suffer the Law may be justly suspected as an Abettor of the Assassination if such a thing should happen which God prevent and if he be treated accordingly he is not worse treated than the old Lady Lisle VI. In a state of Nature every Man has a Right to preserve all his honest Interests against the Injuries of others and to punish such Injuries according as he judges they deserve to be punish'd In political Society every Man resigns up this natural right to the Community who intrust some chosen Man or Men to govern them by setled Laws made with their own Consent Now if wicked Assassines shall traiterously take off the chief Head or Heads that govern and so reduce the People to the unhappy Necessity of a new Choice from whence may arise infinite Mischiefs by Reason of the Differences of ambitious Pretenders the People seem reduc'd to a state of Nature and then every particular individual Person has a Right to be reveng'd of the Assassines It is true the English Government is Hereditary and by Act of Parliament setled after the Death or demise of King William on the Princess Ann and the Heirs of her Body but then there is Danger that Jacobite Zeal may wade thro' more Blood to make a clear Vacancy for a Royal Abdicator and if so there 's Reason for every true Englishman by the Parliaments Association to denounce Vengeance against the Assassines but the single loss of King William alone by violent sudden Treachery might chance to throw us into those Confusions that it is just and prudent to associate to be aveng'd of them that shall tear that dear Interest from us VII Let who will refuse the Association yet it is honestly and wisely done of them who enter into it for thereby they not only discharge the Duty which they owe to the King but also do
himself and without his Parliament no good Prince not He. All that he desir'd was only to be permitted to raise Money now and then upon occasion in the Intervals of Parliament and not that neither but in Cases of pure Necessity when the Safety of his good Subjects absolutely requir'd it And how could it be deny'd him who lov'd his People so well to judge of Cases of Necessity But the Power of raising Money being once gone the deluded People presently perceiv'd that they had purchas'd their Slavery with it For now all Power fell easily into the Hands of the King In vain it was to dispute with him any Civil Rights not yet parted with by name or even the publick Profession of Religion For the Power of Raising Money is in effect the Power of doing all things just so is it with the Article of Infallibility admit but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that first false Article and you must stand with his Holiness for nothing but believe thro' thick and thin in spight of Sense and Reason Well! the French King became by the abovesaid Artifice at perfect Liberty to be or not be a Tyrant which he pleas'd Let no one ask how he govern'd himself for did ever Man grasp at the Power to do Mischief without the purpose If there have been such mysterious Riddles of irregular Vertue yet the French King 's after Lewis XI were no instances of it In them it plainly appear'd how effectually the temptation of unlimited Power works on Ambitious Nature Ambitious Nature seldom or never esteems any thing enough if there be any thing at all out of her Possession It has not been enough for Lewis the XIV to be the Law but he must be the Religion also of his Slaves With a great many it was Argument enough to be of the Religion he requir'd because it was his while his Spiritual Dragoons disputed more forcibly with those of a more backward Faith The Priests had stood altogether idle and unconcern'd in this Conversion but for the merit of that flattering Doctrine A King is accountable to none but God but to make amends for their being less serviceable than the Military Men their unaccountable King shall be stil'd the Vicegerent of God nay the very Image of the Most High tho' they spoil the Argument in the First Chapter to the Hebrews for the Divinity of Christ. I wonder they do not maintain That their King is accountable to none but himself For if he prescribes them their Religion as well as dictates their Law he is their Idol God as well as their Royal Tyrant But as I noted Ambitious Nature never esteems any thing enough when there is yet something out of her possession therefore Lewis the XIV is for advancing his Tyranny over his Neighbours also To this purpose his method has long time been to corrupt the Courts of Princes by his Lovis d'Ors to surprize Un-armed Countries and Ill-provided Forts by breach of his Oaths Thus his Treachery has many Years purvey'd for his Cruelty and his Cruelty shed Torrents of Blood to quench the raging Thirst of his Ambition He has plunder'd the Monuments of the Dead and the Altars of his own Gods nor Fearing nor Reverencing one more than the other He has broke his Leagues with Christian Princes as long as they would trust him has kept them something better indeed with the Turk for it was his Interest tho' the Turk is not his only Allie for he has the Devil and the Pope beside What good understanding there is between him and the Pope the World sees and he that will not grant him to be in League with the Foul Fiend also must believe that there 's no Devil in Hell or no Monkish Conjurer in France to bring those mighty Potentates together Is there any difference between Neighbouring States Lewis will interpose to settle it and never leave 'till he has settled or made it wider Is any Prince or Princess to be Married He proposes a Match for them some Bastard Son or Daughter of his own well pre-instructed what returns to make him for their Preferment Is there any Candidate labouring for a Sovereign Bishoprick or Coadjutorship who has very little reason to support his pretences Lewis the Grand will serve his hopeless interest out of his own free mischievous Generosity When he prospers he fights for the glory of his Majesty When his Affairs are in some danger he labours only to extirpate Heresie but in neither of these Cases thinks it improper to assist an Heretical Noble Revolter against his Catholick Lord and Master In sending abroad Embassadors he choses Huguenot Ravigni for England a stout Toper for Germany a bold Marquess for Rome a grave Clergy-man for Spain In short he makes himself all things for all that he may confound all Nations and turn the World into a Wilderness This is the French Original which some unhappy men among us have studiously set themselves to Copy Now in the First place God be prais'd then due thanks paid to King William our Deliverer and every Noble Afferter of our English Liberties in the Convention-Parliament for that the work of those unhappy Copyers was disturb'd and so they could never finish their Piece but they gave us a plaguy sketch of it in the last Reign But there is another Original Draught of a Tyrant set forth in that excellent History of the Revolution in Sweden wherein many particulars bear a perfect resemblance of our Late Times as to the great Transactions both in France and England which is not to be wonder'd at but rather to be consider'd as a good Evidence that all Tyranny is alike for tho' the Streams from the same Fountain may run in several Ways and Channels yet they all tend to the same Ocean of Blood After the Death of the Brave Steno the Worthy Administratour of Sweden Christiern II. succeeded his Father in the Kingdom of Denmark and obtain'd the Crown of Sweden by Conquest This Prince was not more ambitious to make others his Slaves than he was himself to become the Slave of Sigebrite a Woman who had neither the Charms of Youth or Beauty to Captivate him But this notwithstanding her Power was as great over him as if she had seem'd intit'led to it by all the Perfections which Nature could have bestow'd upon her It is hard to be imagin'd how an Old Dutch Woman could obtain this absolute Dominion over a haughty Monarch unless it were by perswading him to assume the same over others The Inhumane Polities of this She-Favourite were extremely agreeable to the fierce and cruel Disposition of Christiern He look'd upon the Antient Liberties of his Subjects as inconsistent with his Royal Honour and Dignity and she tempted him to sacrifice a whole Senate to his Arbitrary Ambition This this was the pleasing Conjuration that charm'd him whose Nature was not so pardonably wicked as to dote on Youth and Beauty The Tyrant receiv'd
with the first Exercise of an Arbitrary Power the Popish Religion began to appear on the Stage and the Monks and Friars enter'd to act in their proper Habits Seminaries were set up in several places and Houses fill'd with those Religious Furies Father Peter a Jesuit was made of the Privy Council and reign'd Chief Minister Thus from the Spring of Imperial i.e. Arbitrary Power an over-flowing Deluge broke forth threatning miserable occasions for the Religious Exercise of that Fatal Duty Passive Obedience King James no sooner altered from what he seem'd to be in his first Speech but the People alter'd from what they were Their Satisfaction in their new King vanish'd and from the hopes of living happy Subjects under him they sank into the Apprehensions of becoming despis'd and ear-boar'd Slaves A general Consternation fell upon the whole Body of the People and even those Clergy-men that were the Tools to Subvert their own Religion and the Civil Rights of their Brethren were afraid that themselves should feel the Thunder with which they had arm'd their Tyrant This brought them quickly to interpret away the grammatical plain mischievous Sense of Passive Obedience and as for the Exercise of it that they were so far from practising being above their own Ordinances that no honest Men were more forward to invite and joyn with a Deliverer than these Shifters The miserable Condition of England at that time did not only move Compassion in our Neighbours but as we have reason to believe put them in mind that the Disease we labour'd under was catching and if it was not timely repell'd by their Assistance it would not be long before they lamented their own Fate They were therefore for our and for their own sakes aiding and assisting to our rightful and lawful King the then Prince of Orange whom God and his own Vertue prompted to attempt our Deliverance The difficulties that threatned this attempt were great and discouraging but he who was incapable of fear despis'd the Dangers Landed some Forces at Torbay and met a Success answerable to the justness of his Cause and the greatness of his Courage But before he set forward to take off all Suspicions that might reasonably arise where an Army came that might pretend to Conquer as well as to relieve he put forth a glorious Declaration Proclaiming that his Expedition was intended for no other end but to have a Free and Lawful Parliament Assembled soon as possible to secure to the whole Nation the free enjoyment of their Laws Rights and Liberties to preserve the Protestant Religion and cover such as would live peaceably under the Government as becomes good Subjects from all persecution on the account of Religion Papists themselves not excepted King James was now reduc'd to that wherein he seem'd always to place his greatest trust an Army for the Preachers had forsook him and their own Slavish Doctrines sometime before with the Army then he advanced to Salisbury but found that they were a part of injur'd English Men seeing himself therefore deserted by them as well as by his Chaplains who invested him with his illegal Arbitrary Power and all the honest English he left the Kingdom thus he did as it were Sign and Seal his own Abdication which was grown as full and perfect as obstinate Tyranny could make it And as his Act and Deed the Nation took it then the Lords and the Commons represented in their chosen Trustees settled the Crown and Royal Dignity on King William and Queen Mary the exercise of Regal Power on their glorious Deliverer only Thus did they restore the Old Constitution of redem'd England in King Lords and Commons There was before the settlement of the Crown Feb. 4. 1688. a great Conference between the Lords and Commons chiefly on two Particulars Voted by the Commons 1. That King James had Abdicated the Government 2. That thereby the Throne became vacant The Lords insisted on altering the Word Abdicated and in the place thereof to insert Deserted Also they were not willing to willing to admit those Words The Throne is thereby become vacant The exception against the Word Abdicated was that in the common acceptation of the Civil Law it imports a voluntary express Act of Renuntiation which was not in this case and did not follow from the Premises To this the Commons answer'd that the doing an Act inconsistent with the being and end of a thing about which it is conversant or which shall not answer the end of that thing but go quite contrary That Act shall be construed an Abdication and formal Renunciation of that thing This they exemplified Thus the Government is under a Trust and any acting contrary to that Trust is a Renuntiation of that Trust tho' it be not a Renuntiation thereof by a formal Deed. For Act and Deed is as plain and full a Declaration as a Writing can be He that acts contrary to a Trust is a Disclaimer of that Trust tho' he does not disclaim it by a formal Deed. From all this they drew these just Consequences That King James having Acted contrary to his Trust had Abdicated his Government and that having Abdicated it the Throne is thereby become Vacant But the Lords insisted that the Throne could not be Vacant because there was an Heir and that in a Successive Kingdom an Abdication of the Government by a Tyrannous breach of Trust could be a forfeiture only as to that Person who Tyrannically breaking his Trust does Abdicate the Government but not as to the next Heir so as to put him by and make the Government elective Therefore the Abdication of King James the II. could not prejudice the next Heir and then by consequence the Throne was not vacant The Commons upon this demanded that the Lords would tell them with whom the Throne was fill'd The Lords only answer'd in general that it was sufficient to know that there were Heirs to take by lineal Succession tho' they did not or could not expressly name the particular Person whose right it was to fill the Throne And therefore tho' they could not say who fill'd the Throne yet they had reason to conclude it was not Vacant The Commons then represented to the Lords that their Lordships would neither agree that the Throne was Vacant nor say how it was full and desir'd to know who was King if King James was not or were they to be always in that doubtful Condition For none could be King James his Heir during his Life the Crown could not descend till his Death The Lords replied That tho' the King be not dead Naturally yet if he is so Civilly the next of course ought to come in as by Hereditary Succession The Commons replied That their Lordships held it a difficult thing to go upon the examination who is Heir and demanded if that was not clear whether they were always to remain under the difficulty As for the Commons they were not concern'd what Words were us'd Fill
now fain to trim the matter with loose general talk and softning Interpretations But then the Sense of Original Contract runs thro' all our Law-Books the unanswerable Mr. Johnson has cited so many so clear Testimonies of this that I will only mention the Confession of an English Monarch King James I. who tho' he uses not the Word Contract yet he does a Synonimous if Paction signifies the same as Contract In his Speech to the Parliament 1603. he sets down the just Distinction between a King and a Parliament But in his Speech to them 1609. he hath these Words The King binds himself by a double Oath to the Observation of the Fundamental Laws of his Kingdom tacitly as by being King and so bound to protect as well the People as the Laws of his Kingdom and expresly by his Oath at his Coronation So as every just King in a setled Kingdom is bound to observe that Paction made to his People by his Laws in framing his Government agreeable thereunto But he that is most a stranger to our Law-books may easily be able to prove that the beginnings of all Forms of Government could not but proceed from the Choice or Consent of the People It is true God is the Fountain of all Power but he does not communicate it immediately to Man at least he has not done so in these later Ages Nay in the Designation of Saul and David which is recorded to have been from God 't is remarkable that after the Divine Unction the People assembled and by their Votes freely chose them and before the Peoples Choice they were not actually Kings of Israel But I will make short of this matter Original Contract there must have been between King and People wherever lawful Power is exercised by a King because Kings are not immediately chose of God But such a thing as a Power to do mischief which ought not to be resisted never could be because 't is against the Nature of God to give such a Power to any Man and that which inclines People to set up a King over them restrains them from giving him such a Power If this be a Digression I beg the Readers pardon but I hope I have fully prov'd that at the time of the Convention when 't is confess'd we were without a setled Form of Government so that the Lords of their own free Motion address'd the Prince of Orange to take upon him the Administration for a while the Government could not have been setled otherways than it was setled viz. by the choice of the Community and if they had not made so wise a Choice as they did in the Person of King William yet his Title would have been Lawful and Rightful because his Person was the free Choice of the Community at that time when they had no King But notwithstanding this plain state of the Case and as I presume to think these unanswerable reasons the Old Tyrannical Doctrine had still a spreading root and tho' the common Sense and Honesty of the Nation long provok'd and almost undone by it was ready to check the incouragements formerly given it and blast its open growth yet now it began to shoot forth its baneful branches under the sheltring distinction of a King DE FACTO and a King DE IVRE Of all the mischievous Doctrines that ever were topt upon a Nation by holy Priestcraft none ever stood more in need of Shelter The Doctrines of Popery commit but slight depredations on the Liberties and Properties of a People but by IMPERIAL LAWS controuling the Political by quiet Submission to illegal Violence they are with a vengeance swept quite and clean away Our comfort is that no Parliament Men can possibly believe that the People have no right to their Liberties because the People chuse Knights and Burgesses to defend their Liberties and Properties and 't were the most disingenuous injustice in the World for Gentlemen to accept such a Trust if they are of opinion that the People are not rightfully possess's of their Liberties and Properties No Parliament Men can possibly believe that King William is only a King DE FACTO because it were the most Infamous Self-contradiction to joyn with a King to make Laws in whom they did not own a right to give them a Sanction Indeed when I look back on the beginning of this King's Reign I call to mind those things which somewhat amaze and puzzle me For who can take notice without some extraordinary emotion that any of the King 's Chief Councellours should urge him not to insist on his Title DE IVRE or that when the owning him rightful and lawful King was started and propos'd in the House of Commons it should be coldly received and rejected For if the King shall not hold his Title to be DE IURE he must be an Enemy to his own quiet Possession and if the Commons shall not own him for their rightful and lawful King they must needs look upon themselves as Slaves not Subjects holding their Honours Estates and Interests precariously For my part I cannot but conceive that when the Lords and Commons in the Grand Convention declared the Prince and Princess of Orange King and Queen of England c. and setled the full and sole exercise of Regal Power on the Prince they made him their Lawful and Rightful King They made him their Lawful and Rightful King or they made him nothing Can any Man think or talk so absurdly as that the Lords and Representatives of the People chose the Prince of Orange to the infamous honour of an Usurper and a Tyrant praying him to play the Tyrant and Administer that Government which he had no right to meddle with or that at one and the same time they own'd King James his right to govern them and would not admit him to exercise that right These are absurd Contradictions which cannot consist with the Honour and Wisdom of English Senators But whatever any Enemy of our Settlement may pretend was meant by the Convention who made choice of the Prince and Princess of Orange to be King and Queen of England c. and of the Prince alone to exercise the Regal Power this I am sure that the distinction of a King DE IVRE and a King DE FACTO is ill-grounded and mischievous 1. It is ill-grounded This distinction can be trac'd no higher than Edw. the IV. and his first Parliament invented and made use of it not as a Salvo for the justification of any thing done by and under the Kings of the House of Lancaster but in contra-distinction to a King DE IVRE and that Parliament did thereby denote that they held a King in Possession to be a King falsly so call'd only and to have no right to the Allegiance of the People But our Ancient Common Lawyers Bracton Fortescue c. knew nothing of this distinction A DE FACTO KING OF ENGLAND according to their sense of Words is as perfect Nonsense
and Contradiction as ever was made use of to illustrate the Romish Anti-evangelical Mysteries of Priestcraft A KING DE FACTO is just as much as a Rightful and Lawful Usurper or a Mild and Gracious Tyrant Our honest Ancient Lawyers were not wont to flatter Ambitious Princes with such odd and wickedly devis'd Distinctions at the expence of their Countries Honour and Safety A King with them was but of one sort Viz. The Creature of the Law The Ordinance of the People The King says Bracton has a Superiour God also the Law by which he is made King A King is made and ordain'd says Fortescue for the Defence or Guardianship of the Laws of his Subjects and of their Bodies and Goods whereunto he receiveth power of his People Let Kings therefore it is the monition of Bracton temper their power by the Law which is the Bridle of Power These Famous and Learned Lawyers would certainly have thought it very ridiculous that the Title of a KING should be deriv'd only from the Notion of a Fact and the Exercise of his Kingship made to consist in the Execution of the Imperial Law of his Will Between such a King as this and a People there can never be a good Understanding but they will be eternally at variance for their Interests are distinct and separate and cannot but often happen to be directly contrary to one another I wish the Clergy Advocates of Imperial Power would but well weigh the reasoning of the Reverend Mr. Hooker a justly celebrated Writer and I hope they will take his Word for more than a Ceremony I will Transcribe a Passage they that like it not let them answer it He says That for any Prince or Potentate on Earth of what kind soever to exercise Government and not either by express Commission immediately and personally receiv'd from God or else by the Authority deriv'd at first from the consent of the People upon whom he imposes Laws is no better than meer Tyranny for Laws they are not which Poitical Approbation hath not made so but approbation they only give who personally declare their consent or by others in their Names by right originally deriv'd from them as in Parliaments c. But all of this Learned Wise and Good Man's order are not of his excellent true Christian Spirit some of them among those that best understand this matter in spight of Reason and common use of Speaking will set themselves up for such imperious Dictators of Words that the word King must needs signifie an Absolute Monarch But what if it should be admitted to signifie so sometimes in some Countries yet this is plain and undeniable it does not signifie so always nor so at all in England The bare Word or Title KING does not distinstly inform us what Power belongs to him that must be known by examining the Constitution of the State wherein he presides Perhaps some may object that if a King has not an Absolute Power he is dignified with a name which does not belong to him But this is like all the rest a positive stroke of Arbitrary Philosophy Words signifie as custom and common consent make them there is nothing in the nature of Words themselves but that TYRANT might have signified a Just a Gracious Prince a Father of his Country and KING a faithless cruel Tyrant a Lewis or a James The Gibberish of a KING DE FACTO and the Cant of an IMPERIAL LAW are of the same nature and design levell'd at the two Northern equal and equally hated Heresies the Protestant Religion and Monarchy limited by Law Mr. Johnson observing how long and how troublesomely the Nation had been haunted with the Word DE FACTO out of pure kindness to his Countrymen try'd to lay the Goblin but tho' he had exercis'd many a stubborn Devil in his time nay once not only rescued and restor'd some possess'd Creatures but thrown the very Devil himself into flames yet has he not been able to lay this DE FACTO Goblin Perhaps I ought not to pretend to more powerful Charmes than he however I will repeat the Exorcism there may be something in that And who knows but 't is towards day-break with the Common People if they once begin to discern the Priestcraft and State-craft of the distinction a little matter will rid all King WILLIAM's Dominions of the Mischeivous Phantom The plain English of a KING DE FACTO is of or from Fact or Deed. A KING DE FACTO must denote one that by the means of some Fact or Deed is denominated a KING DE FACTO in contradistinction to DE IVRE implies an unrighteous forcible an illegal violent Act. A KING DE FACTO then is a false King a wrong King a King who carries Usurpation and Tyranny in his very Title A King so far remov'd from Rightful and Lawful that he has not no not a right by Law unless the Law of his Sword a King that has no right to govern the People but the People a very good one to take away his DE FACTOSHIP from him But there is nothing in this false and dishonourable Title of a King DE FACTO that can be affix'd to King WILLIAM without the most impudent and malicious injustice tho more of it than the Advocates of the late King are well aware of really agrees to their Abdicatour If they who administred the Coronation Oath to the late King left out the Provision in the Ancient Oath for the Peoples enjoying St. Edward's Laws and added a special clause in favour of the Clergy's Canonical Priviledges if they Clogg'd the promise of securing the Civil Rights of the Nation with a Salvo for Kingly Prerogative then we may safely say that the late King was no more than a King DE FACTO from the very first and all the Oaths that were made to him are of no Obligation he not being the Person he was taken for But supposing that the late King did oblige himself by solemn Oath to Govern according to Law without any unrighteous Omission Addition or Salvo yet when he notoriously violated that sacred Oath by claiming an imperial arbitrary Power above and contrary to Law and by exercising the same in very many and those the most dangerous Instances that could be then he disclaimed all the Legal Title he could ever be supposed to have had tho' he continued indeed but too long afterwards a King De Facto a King in Possession doing all the despight he could to our Old English Constitution and our Holy Reform'd Religion But this false and dishonourable Title of a King de facto as I said just now cannot be affix'd to King William without the most impudent and malicious Injustice for he came over upon the earnest Sollicitation of Lords Spiritual and Temporal and other Subjects of all Ranks to deliver the Nation from Popery and Slavery To this purpose he declar'd himself in Words the Truth of which was clear enough from matter of fact for
the Forces he brought over with him were proportion'd to the Design of Relief and Assistance not of Invasion and Conquest He took not on him the Administration of Affairs for a time but at the Request of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal assembled in the House of Lords and of those Parliament Men that had serv'd in the Reign of Charles II. being assembled in the House of Commons and at the meeting of the Convention he gave up that Trust which had been committed to him but for a time and and left it to the Convention to lay such a Foundation for the Security of their Religion Laws and Liberties as they themselves should think good It was never yet objected to him by his most inveterate Enemies that by any Acts of Force or Arts of Corruption he endeavour'd to work on the Members of either House to labour his own Advancement But that was the free Election of the Majority after long Debates and Consultations on other Expedients He did not lay violent hands on the Crown but only accepted it when offer'd and upon the Conditions offer'd with it It is a Truth undeniably manifest that King William did not purchase to himself the Title of a King by any Fact of his own save that by his Vertue and his Merit he recommended himself to the Community and their Choice it was that made him King that 's the Fact and Deed he claims by and 't is the most Righteous and Lawful that can be without a Miracle which I think the Jure Divino Doctors do not pretend that we ought to wait for that so we may have a lawful King The Election of the Prince of Orange to supply the Vacancy of the Throne gives him as Rightful and Lawful a Title as the Election of any Community ever gave to the first elected King There 's nothing in the nature of a King De Facto but King William has shown his abhorrence of it when he took the Oath together with the Crown offer'd him by the Scotch Commissioners he demurr'd at one dubious Expression and call'd Witnesses that he did not intend by it to oblige himself to be a Persecutor as if he had said He would not be obliged by any means to Govern in any Instances as a Tyrant he would be no other than a Legal King In short if the Choice of a People whose King has broke the Original Contract and will not govern by Law but be the Law himself or nothing if this Choice cannot create a Rightful and Lawful King then the Fault must be in the Office but if the Office has no Fault in it and it has none that I know of I am sure there is no Flaw in the present Possessor's Title It is impossible that every Member of the Community should be pleas'd with the Settlement of the Crown but if a Party think much to be concluded by the Votes of the Majority they ought to withdraw their Persons from this Kingdom thus setled contrary to their likings and seek out some Country where Government is model'd more to their Mind For while they stay here and question the Right of King William what do they but ridicule and reproach their own Act In their Supposition that they have set up a King DE FACTO and no more they suppose that they have given a Man Authority to play the Tyrant and do Mischief they suppose that they have made Slaves of themselves and given away their Liberties and Properties they suppose they have done all that against their own Interest which they were angry that the late King attempted to do They will never vindicate their Honour unless they renounce their Distinction which I have prov'd ill-grounded I will next show the mischievous Consequences of it The mischievous Consequences of it are these I. It lessens the Honour of the King This Distinction was reviv'd in the first Infancy of our present Settlement by some disappointed Persons who when they found they could not serve their turns of the Prince of Orange whom with humble Supplications they had call'd in to their rescue from Popery and Slavery nor prevent his Election to the Crown presum'd that they should take from him by Artifice that which was confirm'd upon him maugre all their Opposition by Law It would have pleas'd them well to have been screen'd from the Tyranny of King James and protected in their Tyranny over their Brethren but missing their point there they thought they might safely restore the Divine Right to their late King who could no longer hurt them and as for the new elected Successor who seem'd not made to serve their Party-interest before all things else he should be to them but as an Usurper not have more than the empty Name of a King De Facto and De Jure nick'd this Contrivance to an hair impair'd the Fame of their envied Deliverer and gave them the ravishing Hopes of having their old Master again upon their own Terms They could not have started had they studied for it a more mischievous Reproach than this against their generous Deliverer for thus they charg'd his honest and well aim'd Declarations with want of Truth and Sincerity they rob'd his heroick Actions of their Civic Garland they plunder'd his happy Successes of much of the just Welcom and Esteem which was due to them from every free-born English-man Every dissatisfied Person that reviles the King's Honour with this illegal De Facto Title Assassinates his glorious Fame and comes but little behind if he does not exceed nor equal a Granvil Friend or Perkins We have reason to believe that our glorious King William values his honourable Fame more than his Life his honourable Fame may last thro' many Ages his Life cannot the Nation indeed is most concern'd in his Life Posterity in his Fame But we ought to be tender of the last for they who hold him but a King De Facto appear by their common Discourses very tender even of the Fame of his murderous Assassines what little Stains a Brace of those Miscreants had contracted are thought to have been done away by a Triumvirate of Absolvers I should be glad to see that Affront to the Government reproved by other Arguments besides what our Reverend Teachers use The Vncanonicalness and Vnrubricalness of the bold Deed not but that it might be Uncanonical and Unrubrical too for ought I know but I will swear that the Publick Absolution of Traytors who are not pretended to have declar'd their Sorrow for that devillish Treason which brought them to the Gallows no not so much as in the Ear of the Absolver was a more impudent piece of Roguery than ever was committed by the Gown in the Face of the Sun with a Reverend Grace and Solemnity I am afraid I digress but I hope I am within the Purlues of the Forest. It is the Distinction of De Facto and De Jure which I am to arraign and I charge it to be Mischievous
as under a Power limited by those Laws which they themselves had a share in making In short if this be good Reasoning he that fills a Throne tho' he has no right to fill it does by filling it give Protection to the People and by governing them without their Consent bestows a Benefit upon them in return for which they are oblig'd to obey him Then Thieves that break open a House and spare the Lives of the Family may be said to give them Protection and in disposing the Goods at their own Pleasure to bestow a Benefit on the true Owners and what the Owners suffer under such a Terror may be called Obedience Nay according to these Measures the Man that is hang'd may be said to pay Obedience and he that trusses him up right or wrong is his Ruler De Facto The Preachers of Passive Obedience made it their Business to abuse the People with a very pernicious false Doctrine but they gave it a proper agreeable and true Name for the plain signification of Passive Obedience is Suffering Actual Suffering Irremediable Suffering With a bareface it teaches that if we receive no manner of Protection or Benefit by the Laws of the Land but on the contrary are depriv'd of our Liberties and Properties yet we must submit and suffer But the Authors of the Argument which I am reproving are pleas'd to call Suffering Obedience the one would enslave us by a confident belying of Religion the other by a subtle misuse of seeming Reason I have prov'd in General that the distinction of a King De Jure and De Facto as applied to King William weakens the Government I will now exemplisy the same in some Particulars I. They that do not believe King William to be their King De Jure i. e. their True and Lawful King are not like to bear true Faith and Allegiance to him They have no Motive no Temptation to induce them If they bear true Faith and Allegiance to a King in their Opinion an Usurper they must contradict the Principles which God and Nature have implanted in them they must cross their own present Inclinations without the Prospect of a future Advantage It is as much as ever our Preachers can do to keep Men from indulging their present Inclinations by the Hopes of a Recompence hereafter but 't would puzzle all their Eloquence to persuade them to this when the Instance is not a moral Action fit to be done nor any thing to be got by it The wonderful and unreasonable Confidence of those Jacobizing Authors who would persuade their Readers that Allegiance ought to be paid to a King whom they believe to have no Right to require it made me with a strict Thoughtfulness consider on what Bottom they could pretend to ground the Obligation but Bottom could I find none save that from the Christian Precept of loving Enemies a merry Man might make a Jest on 't By the way this most difficult of Christian Precepts had been recommended to the World before our Blessed Master's Time by wise Heathens Grotius in his Book De Ver. Rel. Christianae quotes several but no wise Heathen or Christian ever explain'd that Precept so far as to exact the Payment of good Offices to an Enemy at the Expence of the just Rights of a Friend or Allegiance to an arbitrary King in Possession to the Wrong of the lawful King unhappily dispossess'd And I am Opinion that the Consideration of this or a less justifiable cause mov'd a good Doctor to mince the matter thus It is our Duty to pray for the King in Possession while we take care to do it in such terms as not to pray against the dispossess'd Prince Which is as much as to say We may pray that God would do such a King some small Personal Kindnesses or so but not to discomfit his Enemies or establish his Throne and this justifies my Position That they who do not believe King William to be their King De Jure are not like to bear him true Faith and Allegiance we have but too long seen the Effects of the Doctor 's Caution one while many were contented to pray for King William only from the Desk in appointed Forms they abstain'd from mentioning his Name in the Pulpit the most thought it enough in General Terms to pray God to be Gracious to King William not one of a hundred at this Day dares pronounce him Rightful and Lawful King they will 't is true not grudge to call him the King that God has set over them but that 's an oblique Reflexion for the same is their Phrase also for an Usurper The questioning King William's Title was always the profess'd Cause of the Refusal of Swearing to bear Faith and true Allegiance to him Indeed the above mention'd Doctor was pleas'd to tell the Nation That he did not refuse the Oaths out of any Fondness for the Government of King James nor Zeal for his Return But I am confident he did not refuse them out of any Persuasion of the Right of King William nor Zeal for his Establishment in Truth his Refusal of the Oaths was a plain Declaration of his Sense against King William's Right but when he took the Oaths then to insinuate that King William had no Legal Right hic nigrae succus soliginis haec est aerugo mera Yet this Doctor is a Saint in Comparison with that Loyal Rector who essay'd to prove that notwithstanding his Oath to King William and Queen Mary he had not put himself out of a Capacity to perform what he swore to the late King Which makes it plain that they who are not persuaded of King William's Rightful Title cannot be willing to give him no not their Oaths unless it be for the better Opportunity to betray him In short I would sooner hope to find an Atheist zealous to promote the practise of Vertue and Piety than that the Government under King William should be rightly serv'd by those that are persuaded of the Right of the late King When the late King sent Forces against the late Duke of Monmouth he was in the right not to put his trust in the County Troops for he look'd upon many of them to have no opinion of his Title but rather to think well of the cause of the Invader 'T is the ordinary Policy of every Tyrant to oppress his own People with Mercenary Foreigners or such Subjects of his own as are Souldiers who have nothing but Fortune and his Bounty to trust to 't were as foolish to go about to suppress them by other Instruments as 't is wicked to oppress them at all Perhaps a hungry Lawyer may plead for his Fee against his Conscience but a lover of his Country will not be the Chief Justice of an Arbitrary Monarch II. They that do not believe King WILLIAM to be their Righful and Lawful King are bound in Conscience to endeavour to dispossess him I know there be some Casuists who contend