by two Princes put to the Decision of the Sword and the Sword hath decided it in favour of him whom the far-greater Part of the Nation did at that time for good reason believe to be injured he ought still to leave it to an Arbitration as if it were not already decided And if an Arbitration ever was in any case unreasonably expected after a Decision it is so in this For when King James fled he took along with him all that were able to have given positive Evidence all that had been Intriguers supposing a Trick and all that by answering of cross Questions might unawares have discovered the Truth 2. In bar of the Right of the Prince of Wales supposing him to be Genuine or of whatever other Issue King James may have had since or may have at any time hereafter I have this further to offer The Title of Conquest is good against the conquered Prince and his Heirs born after the Conquest So that in an Hereditary Monarchy as he loses the Crown so do his Posterity lose all Right of Succession For certainly we must not say the Conqueror may hold the Government during the Life of the Dispossessed but is bound at his Death to surrender it to his Heir The Mischiefs and Absurdities that follow such an Opinion every Man sees so plainly that they need not now be particularly mentioned Let it suffice at the present to say that the Good of the Community which is the End of Government and the chief Reason that makes Conquest a good Title against the Conquered Prince makes it likewise hold against his whole after-Line For the Inthroning of any of the whole Line is as difficult and as full of Hazard and Detriment to the Publick as the Re-inthroning of the Conquered Prince and therefore the former ought no more to be attempted than the latter Nor doth this that I have said at all prejudice the Right of the Princess Ann of Denmark and her Heirs To clear this 1. It is to be remembred that I have already said our present Soveraigns conquered King James but not the Nation and therefore they acquired a Title to all the Rights of King James but not to any one of the Rights of the Nation Now King James before this Conquest had a Right that his Children should succeed Had he not been conquered to have put any of them by the Succession when legally it should have come to their Turn would have been an Injury to him and to them as having his Right descend upon them But by his being conquered that Right is lost and to put any of them by is no Injury to him nor to them by virtue of any Right derived from him considered solely by himself But then the Nation also hath a Right that his Children succeed as aforesaid and since the Nation was not conquered it hath not lost that Right 'T is true the Prince of Wales supposing him to be Genuine and whatever other Issue King James may since have had or may hereafter have is uncapable of the Succession because whatever Right comes to them as descended from him is lost by his being conquered and the Nation by Act of Parliament hath given away or annulled her Right to have them succeed But as I have said the Right of the Princess of Denmark and her Heirs which was before the Conquest is secured And not only for this Reason but 2. Because their Majesties the Victors having given their Consent to the Act of Settlement have thereby established it If it be said Supposing this to be true King and Parliament may at any time alter the Succession by a Bill of Exclusion of the next Heir Whether they may or no I do not take upon me to determine however it doth not follow from what I have written that they may ever do it but when it is manifestly as necessary to the End of Government viz. the Good of the Community as it is that the Heirs of the Conquered Prince do lose their Right of Succession 6. It follows from what I have written that no Imputation of Disloyalty can justly be laid on the Church of England Nor are the main Body of her Clergy who have sworn Allegiance to their present Majesties to be censured for so doing They have done no more than what the Principles of Government when rightly understood do justify nor have they in so doing renounced any one Doctrine taught either by the holy Scriptures or by our Church So that God whose own Right Hand at the first planted this Church and hath ever since watered her and been as a Hedg about her hath not only continued to defend her at this dangerous Crisis but hath done it after such a way as leaves no Stain upon her And I hope this Effort of his Power and Goodness and Wisdom is an Argument that he intends still to preserve her notwithstanding the Malice of her Enemies and the Weakness of some of her Friends who have at this time unhappily joined Hands with them and act against her Interest altho without any such Design When in the late Reign I considered the restless Malice of her Enemies the bold Steps that had been already taken and that were daily taking to her Ruine that no Petitions on her behalf would be heard no not so much as pardoned that nothing but Horce was left to save her and that any Resistance to Sovereign Authority offered by her Members would in the Judgment of many rob her of that bright Character of Loyalty which her very Enemies had not hitherto had Forehead enough to deny her It was a very melancholick Thought But when I further considered that her Members were so fully perswaded of the Unlawfulness of resisting that it was not to be expected from them however not such a vigorous united Force as would have effected her Deliverance and that any lesser Force would have helped forward her Ruin I say when I considered these things I greatly feared that was the time when God resolved to visit her in Anger and to reckon with us for our walking so unworthy of the most holy Faith professed by her and for our horrible Abuse of all our other Mercies But he is pleased not only to consult the Safety but the Honour and Reputation of our Church He hitherto spares us for the sake of those holy Souls that pray for the Peace of our Jerusalem and as it seems to me that he may give this unbelieving Age another Argument of his Being of his Providence and of his Care of the Protestant Religion that is of True Christianity And therefore such as make the late little less than miraculous Revolution an Argument against these go a great way towards the filling up the measure of their Iniquity I hope Authority will be so careful to restrain them that their horrid Impiety shall not be charged upon the Nation And now I shall leave what I have written to the Reader 's sober Thoughts repeating my Request That he would consider maturely and judg impartially I know some will be apt to say There is no occasion for so much Caution to Protestants whose Interest may be suppos'd to be a Byass on the Side I write for and not against it But to such I observe That a fancied Reputation of extraordinary Loyalty Scorn to change an Opinion that a Man has pleaded for suffer'd for and perhaps written for having espoused a Party and been considerable on that account and imbittered against the contrary side These and some other Circumstances do many times with some Tempers out-ballance even Interest it self and turn the Scale of Mens Judgments against it And of this I am so fully perswaded that I cannot but fear worse Effects from these and such like Prejudices than from any thing that can be objected against what I have said The God of Light and Love open our Understandings govern our Wills cool our Heats and temper all our Affections so as we may see and embrace the things that belong unto our Peace before they be hid from our Eyes FINIS 〈◊〉 â—st of â—he Deserâ—â—on Pa. 81. Hist. of the Desertion Pag. 7. Pag. 24. Prince of Orange's Declaration Reasons for withdrawing himself from Rochester Prince's 1st Declaration Hist. of the Desertion p. 8. Pag. 10. Pag. 13. Pag. 43. Object Answ. Pag. 76. Pag. 79. P. 81 82. Pag. 89. Pag. 92. Pag. 93. P. 91 92. Pag. 92. Pag. 100 101. Ibid. Pag. 105. Pag. 104. Pag. 106. Object Baker's Life of Rich. II. His Life of Hen. IV. Pag. I. Reign of Hen. VII Pag. 3 4 5 6. Pag. 11 12. Speed Edw. 4. p. 886. Object Ansm. O 〈…〉 Reasons for withdrawing himself from Rochester Object Lord Herbert's Life and Reignof Henry 8th p. ag 184 to 192. Pag. 192. Pag. 204. De Serres p. 617. De Jure Belli Pacis lib. 3. cap. 15. Sect. 1 2. Ibid. Sect. 1. Object Answ. Object Answ. Object Answ. P. 45 to48
is a Passage in the Lord Churahil's Letter lest for King Jamâ—s when he went off from him at Salisbury which implies that he was either Privy to or smelled out some such Design His words are Heaven knows with what Partiality my dutiful Opinion of your Majesty hath hitherto represented those unhappy Designs which inconsiderate and self-interested Men have framed against your Majesty's true Interest and the Protestant Religion But as I can no longer joyn with such to give a Pretence by Conquest to bring them to Effect His Lordship best knows what he means by the Pretences by Conquest to bring those unhappy Designs to Effect But to me at present it seems that his words are capable of no other Interpretation than that they were resolved to provoke us to make some opposition that they intended to call a Rebellion the which being quelled they might pretend us to be in the state of a Conquered People and so over rule our Laws and make their own the Legal Religion And what greater Provocation could be given than to make us believe they had thus imposed upon us as to the Succession And if this be the Case as they that believe there was a Prince of Wales have great Reason to think it is then Righteous art thou O Lord and upright are thy Judgments For the Priests and Jesuits are sunk down in the Pit that they made in the Net which they had hid for us is their own Foot taken We can never enough adore the Divine Goodness and Justice and Wisdom in turning the Mischief that these Wretches intended against his Church upon their own heads For at the same time that they designed to render the Birth of the Child doubtsul that so they might provoke us to do what might minister to them an occasion to Destroy or Enslave us they likewise rendered it suspected to a Soveraign Prince nearly concerned to maintain the Succession who had both the Wit and Courage to sift out the Truth in this matter And how well these Sons of Wisdom carryed it when he came to make inquiry we have seen and shall consider by and by But however this be the most probable Reason of their perplexing things at this rate that any Man can think of who believes it was a Genuine Prince yet was not this to be owned for the Reason And therefore we have not forgotten that some of their then Majesties Friends bethought themselves of another They could not deny but that things were very strangely carryed and that they both might and ought to have dealt more above-board But they would have had us believe that the Reason why they did not was the late Queen's mighty Spirit She took it so very ill to be Suspected that she scorned to give any Satisfaction But what had not the King more Temper Had not their Ghostly Fathers more Or could not they who had inspirited their Majesties to run such mighty Risques for the Catholick Cause prevail with them in the space of Forty Weeks to give Law to their Passion when it was so necessary to the great Design and when the not doing of it was like to ruine all Or if they scorned to give Satisfaction to the Subject was it below them to give Satisfaction to a Soveraign Prince whose Consort was the Presumptive Heir of the Crown This Reason must I think be unsatisfactory to every indifferent â—â—dgment and I am sure notwithstanding this Allegation the then Prince and Princess of Orange had all the Reason in the World to inquire into this doubtful Birth For notwithstanding all that can be alledged since there were during the time of the Queens pretended Bigness such general and confident Expectations of foul Play some Men of Honour and Prudence of the Protestant Party Friends to the Succession of their present Majesties should have been admitted into the Room and placed so near the Queen as that they might have been able to have given positive home Evidence on her Majesty's side And it was but reason that the Princess of Denmark and a sufficient number of Ladies that were her Friends should have been convinced by a sensible Demonstration But now instead hereof how quite contrary were all things carried And this brings me in the Second Place To the very suspicious Circumstances that attended this doubtful Birth They are not yet forgotten and therefore I need only mention some of them in order that this Discourse may not be imperfect The Queen shifted her Lodgings to and fro at the expected time of Travail gave out That she would lye-in sometimes at White-Hall and sometimes at St. James's was delivered if at all in Bed in so short a Space that there was not time to find out a Trick supposing there had been any nor to make any Remarks how Matters were Few Witnesses called but such as were either Papists or so obnoxious to the Laws by their bâ—ing Parties to the illegal Proceedings that it stood them in Hand as much to have a Prince of Wales as if they had been Papists And the disinterested Protestants that were called so placed that they could only give Evidence Thaâ— they heard the Queen complain and that there was a Child But for speaking home to the Matter they were no more able to do it than as if they had been at some Miles distance I grant that some of these Circumstances might not be of their designing or ordering and that had they hapned alone they would have been of no moment to create a Suspicion But yet being joyned with the others that were undeniably of their Ordering and that might have been ordered other ways they are of very great weight And I am perswaded when a Man who is altogether disinterested considers all Circumstances laid together he will conclude that supposing there were foul Play Things must needs have been carried just as they were And they that suppose there was not can give no Reason why they were so carried but such as are altogether unsatisfactory and that notwithstanding all that can be alledged the Presumptive Heirs to the Crown had reason to expect the Matter should be looked into But it will be said No sooner did the Prince and Princess discover their Jealousie but the late King gave them all the Satisfaction that they could reasonably desire such as might and ought to have contented them For the King did not hear of the Prince's Preparation against him before the 9th or 10th of September 1688 and on the 22d of October he ordered the Council to be assembled and such of the Peers of this Kingdom both Spiritual and Temporal as were in Town together with the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London and the Judges and several of his Majesty's Council learned in the Law And Queen Dowageâ— and the Lords and Ladies and others that were present at the Queens Labour did appear and declare all of them except Queen Dowager upon Oath what they knew of the Birth of
his Royal Highness the Prince of Watos Of all which a particular Relation was published by the King's Order and this ought to have satisfied the Prince and Princess But I answer This was not reasonable Satisfaction for 1. It was not as it ought to have been the Satisfaction that the Prince desired 2. Nor was it sufficient in it self 1. It was not as it ought to have been the Satisfaction that the Prince desired He had just cause to suspect a Trick as hath been proved and therefore it cannot be denied but that he ought to have had the Privilege of chusing how he would have the Truth found out provided the Method he pitched upon were possible and reasonable Now it was both for he offered to refer the Matter in dispute to a Free Parliament The King might have called a Parliament had he pleased and have made it Free so that it was possible And who might more reasonably judg of the Matter than a Parliament The King and Prince were too much Parties to be either of them Judges And who then so fit as the Nation 's Representatives to decide a Controversy about the Succession Had not they formerly been the usual Umpires in parallel Cases And if they might not be so in this I know no other but the Sword For 2. The Satisfaction that the King gave by examining Witnesses was not sufficient in it self 1. Because few were called to the Queen's Labour but such as were either Papists or obnoxious to the Laws or absolute Creatures of the Court And the few disinterested Protestants that were there were not able to speak home to the Matter in question 2. The Witnesses were under too great an Awe to have their Evidence accounted free they were all the King's Subjects and his Majesty had all along before and did at that instant shew himself too passionately concerned to have it believed a Genuine Prince Had the King himself desired Satisfaction or but stood Neuter they might have been supposed to speak freely But it was quite otherwise for besides what he had done before to discourage all such as were dissatisfied there is one material Circumstance previous to the Depositions of the Witnesses which hath not as yet been taken notice of in Print that I know of that deserves to have a particular Remark set upon it and it is this Before the Examination of any one Witness his Majesty was pleased to express himself to this purpose I would have set down his Words but that I could not procure the Depositions however I believe I shall not vary from the Sense in any thing material to my present Design I was always with the Queen during her Bigness I constantly lay with her I could not possibly be imposed upon I knew her to be with Child And therefore if there were any foul Play I must needs be a Party to it And having said this he bids the Withesses speak their Knowledg Which was as much as to say Is there ever a Person here that dare accuse me of the greatest Folly and Injustice in the World Come tell me Am I your Soveraign guilty of this unnatural Villany Or have I so little common Sense as to be imposed on in a thing of this Nature I use these Expressions because his Majesty afterwards used them I confess I lay great Stress upon this and think this one Circumstance enough in all Reason to set aside all that was then sworn and make it go for nothing Indeed had the Prince been there as well as the King with a number of Guards equal to his Majesty's and the two Armies at equal distance as the Prince required in his Answer to the Lords sent by the King to adjust Preliminaries in order to the holding of a Parliament and consequently able to have protected any that should have given Evidence on his side as well as the King was to protect those that gave Evidence for the Party he was pleased to espouse all this had been no great matter But that the King should express himself in this Sense and with so much Warmth when he alone was present able to crush any Man that should offend him and the Prince with his Army on the other side the Sea is I think such a mighty Prejudice against all was thereafter sworn at that time that no wise Man will much regard it but will conclude that the Prince had still reason to adhere to his first Demand of having it lost to a Free Parliament He did so First he signified his Dissatisfaction in these Words There are great and violent Presumptions inducing us to believe that those Evil Counsellors in order to the carrying on of their ill Designs and to the gaining to themselves more time for the effecting of them for the encouraging of their Complices and for the discouraging of all good Subjects have published that the Queen hath brought forth a Son though there have appeared both during the Queen's pretended Bigness and in the manner in which the Birth was managed so many just and visible Grounds of Suspicion that not only we our selves but all the good Subjects of those Kingdoms do vehemently suspect that the pretended Prince of Wales was not born by the Queen And it is notoriously known to all the World that many both doubted of the Queen's Bigness and the Birth of the Child and yet there was not any one thing done to satisfy them or to put an end to their Doubts Then he declares for a Free Parliament and saith To this Parliament he will also refer the Enquiry into the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales and of all things relating to it and to the Right of Succession But is K. James likewise willing to stand to their Determination No he is so far from it that whereas immediately after notice of the Prince's intended Expedition he endeavoured to wheedle the Nation with hopes of a Parliament by his Proclamation of September the 20th and did issue out Writs accordingly Having received more certain Intelligence of the Prince's coming he recalled the Writs by his Declaration of the 28th of September and could never be induced to consent to a Parliament until the Prince should be driven out of the Nation And how could a Parliament then have been Free or with what Freedom could they then have enquired into the Birth of the Child However in this fatal Resolution he persisted to the last And what was this but to decline the Decision of a Parliament and to put it to the Sword All his Proclamations are in pursuance of this Resolution And from it not the seasonable Advice of the Bishops nor the earnest Petition of several Lords both Temporal and Spiritual presented to him by the two Archbishops and the Bishops of Ely and Rochester nor the rising of several Bodies up and down the Nation who all declared for a Free Parliament can divert him But down he follows a
puissant Army to Salisbury meaning that way and no other to give the Prince Satisfaction And now I desire the Reader to consider that from the time that the King declined the Decision of a Parliament declared the Prince an Enemy and marched down against him in Hostile manner the Prince had a just ground of War against him Certainly no Man can doubt this who considers what hath been said and proved of the King 's having given the Prince just cause of Suspicion that he had greatly injured him of his denying him Satisfaction of his declaring him an Enemy and of his marching down against him as such But perhaps some will be ready to object That the Prince begun the War by coming over into England with an armed Power He might have staid in Holland or have come without an Army and then he might have had Satisfaction To this I answer 1. That the Prince utterly disclaimed any Design of warring upon the King He declared only for a Free Parliament to the which he promised to refer all Matters in Dispute and his Sincerity was so universally believed that the whole Nation except such whose Crimes had made the contrary their Interest besought the King to yield to his Demand promising that as soon as the State of the Nation would admit of it he would send back all his Foreign Forces and in the mean time keep them under such Strictness of Martial Discipline that the People of the Country through which they were to march should not suffer by their Means 2. That there is not the least shew of Reason that if either the Prince had staid in Holland or had come over unarmed the King would have called a Parliament that should have been Free much less that he would have suffered them to enquire into the Birth of the Child He that would leave the Nation rather than yield to these things would never have done it when he was under no such Necessity If it be said The Prince should first have tried him I answer That had been to alarm him and the French King and so to have made it utterly impossible to have gained Satisfaction The State of Europe at that time is known to have been such as that Secresy and Expedition were two Things without which the Prince could never have carried his Points and upon both these Accounts it was necessary that he should make his very first Demand of Satisfaction with his Sword in his Hand And if it was necessary then it was lawful For since it was through the King's Fault that the Matter was become doubtful it was lawful for the Prince to do what was necessary to his gaining Satisfaction So that notwithstanding these Objections I conclude for the Reasons mentioned That K. William and Q. Mary had a just Ground of War against K. James which was the sirst Thing I undertook to prove SECT II. Their Mnjesties K. William and Q. Mary conquered K. James THE second Thing to be proved is That the Prince and Princess of Orange our present Soveraigns conquered K. James In order to the making of this clear it will be requisite to lay before the Reader Matter of Fact that so it may appear they were actually in a State of War with the King and what their Success thereupon was I shall still make use of the History of the Desertion as I have hitherto done for the Proof of Matter of Fact It seems to me to be written with great Judgment and hath I thankfully own contributed more to my Satisfaction as to the Lawfulness of paying Allegiance to Their Present Majesties than any one Tract that I have met with on the Subject However the Substance of what I quote from it is known to be true It hath already been observed That K. James declined the Decision of a Parliament That he declared the Prince an Enemy and that at Salisbury he put himself at the Head of a puissant Army Now with what Success remains to be considered November 20th there happened a Skirmsish at Wincanton between a Detachment of 70 Horse and 50 Dragoons and Granadiers commanded by Sarssield and about 30 of the Prince of Orange's Men commanded by one Cambel where saith my Author notwithstanding the great Inequality of the Numbers the latter fought with that desperate Bravery that it struck a Terror into the Minds of the Army At Salisbary the King was deserted by part of his Army as he had been before his leaving White-hall by the Lord Cornbury and such as would follow him particularly by the Duke of Grafton and the Lord Churchil and either there or at Andover by Prince George of Denmark himself upon which the King and his Army were so disheartned that upon a false Alarm made either with Design or by Accident on the 25th of November they left Salisbury the Army retreating to Reading and the King to Andover and on the 26th in the Evening he returned to London The Army at Reading upon another false Alarm on the 8th of December retired in great haste to Twiford-Bridg and endeavouring to regain their Post a Party of the Prince's Men who were sent for by the Inhabitants of Reading upon their threatning to plunder and fire the Town attacked the Irish Dragoons and slew sifty of them The King being returned to London and having how no longer any Confidence in that way of deciding the Dispute that he himself had chosen on the 28th of November in a Privy-Council ordered the Lord-Chancellor to issue out Writs for the Sitting of a Parliament on the 15th Day of January following But the Reader must observe that this was not done until he was forced to it and therefore the Prince was now no longer under any Obligation to the King of standing to the Decision of a Parliament He might had he pleased without any Injustice with respect to him have made use of his good Fortune and pursued the Advantage he had gained which must in all likelihood have ended in Victory the Earl of Feversham the King's General not having with him at that time above four thousand Men. But yet such was his Moderation that upon the King 's sending the Lords Hallifax Nottingham and Godolphin to treat with him and to adjust Preliminaries to the holding of a Parliament He with the Advice of the Lords and Gentlemen of his Party accepted the Motion and as things then stood returned a most reasonable Answer The which was sent to the King before his first Attempt to withdraw himself out of the Nation and yet he did not alter his Resolution to do it It was sent to his Majesty by an Express and yet he resolved to leave the Town and ordered all those Writs for the Sitting of the Parliament that were not sent out to be burnt and a Caveat to be entred against the making use of those that were And at the same time he sent Orders to the Earl of Feversham to
to him as a Conqueror although he do not require me to swear on that Ground And it is sufficient to justify my doing of it that I know my former Soveraign is unable to protect me and I to defend my self in my Refusal and that he cannot be restored without great Detriment to my Country For as has been said the principal Reason that makes the Title of Conquest good is the same with the great End of Government viz. The Good and Safety of the Community and consequently my own Good and Safety and not that it is claimed or not claimed by the Victor 2. I have already said that King William conquered King James but not the Nation and therefore he acquired a Title to all the Rights of King James but not to any of the Rights of the Nation Now K. James had a Right to govern these Nations until by being conquered he lost it that Right K. William never gave him back again but insisted upon his Right and Conquest against him as appears by what I have already said of his treating him like a Prisoner and I now add what is very material his referring it to the Convention to settle the Government This he could not do but upon a Supposition that he had lost his Right to it Had he not claimed against him as Conqueror he must have left him in possession of his Dominions And this being so since he did not re-instate him he did not give him back his Right But then the Nation had also a Right to their King And since King William as I have said did not conquer the Nation nor ever had any Quarrel against it he did not acquire a Title to any of the Rights of the Nation nor particularly to that of being governed by K. James Wherefore he did what became a just Prince in leaving it to the Nation 's Representatives whether they would be any longer governed by him or no. And they having given up their Right to him and consented to accept our present Soveraigns and that their Act being owned by the major Part of the People they have an undoubed Right to the Crown and consequently to the Allegiance of the Subject a Right of Conquest against King James and a Right over the Nation by her own Consent which she cannot now recal And whether a Man be of an Opinion that the Convention did well or ill in consenting yet may he honestly enough swear to King William and Queen Mary because their Title of Conquest against K. James still remains so far from being overthrown that it is rather established by that Act of the Convention However 3. Their Majesties by referring the Matter to the Convention and making use of their Concurrence have no more prejudiced their Title of Conquest than Princes do by making use of such as they can draw to their Party of their Enemies Souldiers or Subjects to drive them either out of the whole or any part of their Dominions But the Convention did ill in giving up their Right to their King and the Nation did ill in owning that their Act and therefore we are bound to make all the Recompence we can for what has been amiss by denying Allegiance to the present Powers and doing all we can to re-inthrone our former Soveraign 1. I much question whether or no the Conclusion follow from the Premises Supposing the Convention did ill in giving up their Right to the King and the Nation in owning that their Act I very much doubt whether it follows from thence that therefore we ought to deny Allegiance to King W. and Queen M. and to do all we can to restore K. James For ought I know as things now stand we may very well deny that Consequence This is certain that many things that are ill done must not afterwards be undone But 2. I deny that either the Convention or the Nation have in this done ill They gave up no body's Right but their own K. James's was lost to the Conqueror And certainly the Nation might if she pleased recede from her own Right especially he having first abdicated and consequently given up his Right to her But we have all done ill in sitting still and suffering a Foreign Prince to expel our Soveraign and therefore upon that Account we owe him a Recompence and it should not be less than the restoring of him 1. The King had with him an Army sufficient to have expelled the Prince and his Forces an Army in which he confided without summoning other private Persons to come under his Standard or to arm on his Behalf And if some of them forsook him and he durst not adventure to head the rest against his Enemy what was that to the main Body of the Nation or to such as now refuse the Oath But 2. It is not true that as things then stood we were bound to fight for the King Subjects are not obliged to defend their King his Crown and Dignity when he makes it impossible for them to do it without apparent Ruine to the Nation If we had at that time enabled the King to drive the Prince of Orange out of the Nation we must have accepted of the Child as a genuine Prince of W. without ever inquiring into his Birth and have bid good-Night to all our Rights both Civil and Religious And this being the Case if we might not assist the Prince however we had no Reason to assist the King so that in sitting still we have done no Wrong and therefore have no Satisfaction to make Nor doth any thing that I have said justify Cromwel and his Usurpation or any of the illegal Powers that were about that time set up For as to Cromwel and what I say against him will equally affect those other Usurpations 1. He was a Subject and therefore ought not for any Provocation then given to have rebelled against his Soveraign much less to have held on the War when the Parliament had voted his Concessions satisfactory They must be extraordinary Circumstances that will justify a Subject's fighting against his Prince It is certain no illegal Administrations that are tolerable will Because the Mischiefs of Civil War are so great that they are not to be out-ballanced with such I think however less will not do it than that it is manifest that the Prince indeavours to overthrow the great End of Government and that without being resisted he will in all humane Probability effect his Purpose I do not say this will do it for I meddle not with the Argument but I think however less than this will not do it And there was nothing of this to justify the Doings of that wicked Traitor And therefore 2. He ought not to have made use of his Success against that best of Men who was always a very tolerable Prince and whom Experience had taught to amend such Errors as had been committed in the beginning of his Reign even before the War brake
out as appears by his many gracious Concessions at that time and especially to name no more by his passing the Bill for the Continuance of the Parliament not to be Prorogued or Adjourned but by Act of Parliament 3. If he would make any use of his Success it should have been to the Good of the Nation as settled under her lawful Prince But what had he and his Creatures to do to dissolve the Government especially to usurp the Supreme Power himself since he got it not either by the Consent of the King or of the Nation both which had been in his Case necessary A great deal more might be said to shew the Disparity between that and our present Settlement but I refer the Reader to Dr. Sherlock's Case of Allegiance due to Sovereign Powers where he will find the Prejudices raised from the Rump Parliament the Protector and the Committee of Safety removed Nor doth my asserting their Majesties Right acquired by Conquest at all thwart the Determination of the Convention viz. That the late King James Abdicated the Government and left the Throne Vacant For that the late King was Conquered and that he Abdicated the Government are not inconsistent It was by his own fault that he fell into such a Condition as that he thought it unsafe to stay in England yea and even to the last if he would have consented that the Ends of the Prince's Declaration might have been gained he needed not to have left us And since he rather chose to go away than to do Right either to Us or the Prince and did so without deputing a Vice-Roy what was this but to Abdicate us For certainly if a Prince rather chooseth to desert his People than to do what is just and reasonable when that and no more is made the Condition of his continuing with them he may be truly said to throw up the Government and to leave them to shift for themselves But of this enough That Vote of the Convention and the Methods of settling the Government thereupon taken have been justified by other Pens and the doing of it is not now my Province But then since it was the Success of the Prince's Arms that made him go away or rather since he would not have gone away had it not been for that Success it might be a Conquest too and I think I have proved it to have been so in the Sense I have explained my self that is it had attending it the principal Reasons that make Conquest a good Title and that is enough for our Satisfaction SECT IV. Concluding with some necessary Consequences of the three foregoing Propositions I Must now draw towards a Conclusion I hope I have proved my three Propositions 1. That King William and Queen Mary had a just Quarrel against King James 2. That they conquered him And 3. That Conquest is in this case a good Title I am sure I have offered nothing but what I thought to be Reason Nor have I baulk'd any Objection because it was too hard to be answered I will conclude with some Inserences from what I have written And 1. It follows That our most gracious Soveraigns King William and Queen Mary in order to gain these Kingdoms and in ascending the Throne have done nothing but what is consistent with Justice and Honour For if they had a just Cause of War with King James and have conquered him in the Sense I have said and Conquest be in this Case a good Title and it were absolutely necessary not only for the Interest of these Kingdoms but also for that of Europe and the Protestant Religion that they should make use of their Success then have they in so doing acted nothing but what became them And the asserting of this since it is true is a necessary piece of Gratitude to our glorious Deliverers And I the rather do it because I observe that many of the Tracts that have been written on the behalf of the Oath of Allegiance are rather in desence of the Subjects Submission and taking of it than of their Majesties Title So that the Authors seem rather concerned for their own than their Majesties Vindication and however glad they are of the unexpected Deliverance that hath been wrought for them yet are they over-regardless of the Honour of those blessed Princes who have been in God's Hands the Instruments of it 2. The Subject is justified in swearing and paying Allegiance to them and that as to Princes de jure For they have on their side all the Right of Conquest consequent to a just War and at a time when it was absolutely necessary to insist upon it 3. Those that refuse to swear Allegiance to their Majesties thereby doing what in them lies to weaken their Hands and so to hinder their good Purposes are guilty of a very great Sin And I the rather say this because I am apt to think a great many honest Men who are not very confident of the Unlawfulness of the Oath do judg it however best to refuse it because they believe they cannot sin in so doing but may in taking it Whereas whoever well considers our present Circumstances and the Matters depending must grant that if it be lawful to swear not-swearing is a Sin attended with much more dangerous Consequences than is Swearing supposing it to be unlawful And a Man's erring in the Negative has greater Aggravations than in the Affirmative 4. That King James hath totally lost his Right to these Kingdoms and therefore if he comes again with an Army he is to be looked upon by the Subjects with no other Eyes than any other Invader but is to be resisted by them Our Fleets and Armies without any scruple of Conscience to weaken their Hands may and ought to fight as becomes valiant Men in the defence of their present Soveraigns and their Countrey and that not only against the French King but likewise against the late King James if he should come along with a Fleet or head an Army against us 5. No Man need trouble himself with any Scruple as touching any Right of the Prince of Wales supposing him to be Genuine or of whatever other Issue the late King may since his Birth have had or may hereafter have For as to the pretended Prince his Birth being doubtful his Father declined the Arbitrement of a Parliament and put it to the Decision of the Sword and the Sword hath determined against him and therefore if he hath any Wrong done him he hath no body to blame but his Father And here I cannot but take notice of the Folly of some People who after King James was conquered and gone expected the Parliament should have examined the Birth of the Child as if when Princes fall out and the Injurer is utterly vanquished the injured Victor is still obliged to accept of the same Satisfaction that would have contented him before he drew his Sword Or as if when a Doubt about the Succession is
KING WILLIAM AND QUEEN MARY Conquerors OR A DISCOURSE Endeavouring to prove that Their MAJESTIES have on Their Side against the Late King the Principal Reasons that make CONQUEST a Good TITLE Shewing also how this is consistent with that Declaration of Parliament King James Abdicated the Government c. Written with an especial Regard to such as have hither-to refused the Oath and yet incline to allow of the Title of Conquest when Consequent to a Just WAR Licensed January 11. 1693. Edmund Bohun London Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Oxford Arms in Warwick-Lane and at the Black Lyon between the Two Temple Gates in Fleet-Street 1693 THE PREFACE THE very hard measure that King Charles the First met with hath raised in the Minds of all good Men a just Abhorrence both of the Persons and Principles that caused his Sufferings And as it commonly falls out we have been apt to run into extreams on the other Hand We are not content to disown with Indignation the Barbarities that he endured but are apt to think that a Crowned Head can never ake but the Subject is in some fault let the Occasion be what it will The Church of England is very Loyal to all Kings by Principle but she was so to him likewise by the superadded Ties of Friendship And the singular Affection all her Members bore to that blessed Prince hath made them very favourable to the Sovereign's Cause however different from his and of this we have now a plain instance in the Adherence of so many of her Members to K. James in favour of whose Interest they are very partial even against their own K. Charles the First was a Friend to our Church and our Liberties and was ready upon Complaint to have redressed all our Grievances and to have confirmed our Rights before there appeared any armed Force to have compelled him But K. James the Second was the avowed Enemy of our Church and in order to her Ruin as well as out of a Desire of Arbitrary Power had many ways struck at the very Root of all our Civil Rights Nor did he ever shew the least Inclination to redress what had been done amiss it was so far from it that he threatned and imprisoned the Reverend Prelates for but petitioning to be excus'd from giving their helping Hand to the Destruction of the Church Themselves and the Laws until meer Necessity forced him to it and even then he gave us only Words some Superficial Promises of a Parliament to be held when we should have assisted him to drive our Champion out of the Nation ruin'd our Friends and left our selves wholly at his Disposal i. e. at the Mercy of the Jesuits And yet I am apt to think that one Reason that hath made some Men so very angry at such as were in Arms in favour of the Prince of Orange at his first Land was the black Idea of all Resistance against Sovereign Power formed in their Minds by that Rebellion against King Charles the First And I verily believe had not the Crown as well as his Life been most uunjustly ravished from him few would have hlamed the Estates for setting it upon the Head of his Grand-children after his Son had thrown it away However I mean not at this time at all to meddle with the Case of Subjects resisting their Sovereign much less to determine either way about it What I now intend is to assert the Right of King William and Queen Mary to the Crown of England and its Depednencies and consequently to the Allegiance of the Subject And I doubt not but to do it upon Principles not in the least Antimonarchical or suspected to be so without either asserting the Popish deposing Doctrine or that the People of England are the Sovereigns Masters and may call him to an Account and either depose or other ways punish him for his Misgovernments or even affirming that a King of England may be resisted there are other Principles not in the least scandalous that do intitle their Majesties to the Crown and to the Allegiance of the Subject But some will be ready to ask why I write on this Argument at this time of Day after the Matter hath been so canvassed and so many learned Men having already written upon it may be supposed to have aid all of Moment that is to be said upon it But my Answer is That notwithstanding all that hath been written a great many do yet remain unsatisfied And it grieves me to think that their Majesties who have run such mighty Hazards and done so much for us should still have so many secret Enemies in the Nation or if that be too hard a Character for some that have refused the Oath so many that are not yet such Hearty Friends as they ought to be That Protestants are so backward at making use of the fairest Opportunity of securing themselves and fencing against Popery that they have had these many Years which the Papists have given them by an over-active Zeal for their Destruction while Papists do readily embrace and make use of all Advantages against them tho never so foul That some who are seemingly zealous Sons of the Church of England should take such Measures as tend to her Destruction That such as have most bitterly declaimed against Separation from our Assemblies as a great Sin should themselves hold separate Meetings upon a meer State-point and as it seems to me be in the wrong Opinion too That any who mean honestly should be doing the French King's and the Papists Business at a time when the Protestant Cause and the Fate of Europe lie at Stake And lastly that any Conscientious and Learned Men should lose Preferments and that the Church should be deprived of the benefit of their Labours These are the Reasons that have at length overcome my great Aversion to writing The Argument I make use of hath indeed been lightly touched upon by some others and it could not well fall out otherwise within the compass of so much time as this Dispute hath been on Foot in But let not this Acknowledgment at the Entrance at all prejudice any Man against reading what I have written upon a Belief that I offer nothing new nothing but what he hath already met with and can answer for For any thing I know my manner of prosecuting it is different from what hath yet been published whether it be to better purpose or no the Reader is to judge But although it should not be so yet may it be of some use since oftentimes the same Arguments that have been rejected do prevail when urged in a different way although with a great deal less Skill But whether I have written better or worse upon this Subject than other Men is not at all the Question But whether or no I have made good my Undertaking I confess when I consider how subject all Men are to mistake and what Cause my after-thoughts have many times found of altering my
Judgment even where at the first I have had some measure of Assurance I distrust my Performance But when I abstract from my own Management set aside the Sence I have of my own Weakness and consider the force of the Arguments themselves I cannot but think them convincing and if I did not think so I would never have written However I shall leave all to the Reader 's Censure and to the Consideration of such as have hitherto refused the Oath of Allegiance when I have desired of them these few Things 1. That they would lay aside all Prejudices and read with Minds prepared to receive satisfaction 2. That they would not pass a Judgment against what I offer before they fully understand me and comprehend the force of my Reasoning 3. That they would consider over and over the Force of each Argument where several are offered and of each Answer to such Objections as are made and if one or more shall prove unsatisfactory that it may not hinder them from weighing impartially the rest Lastly that they would take in good part my charitable meaning And if any Man is pleased to write against what I have said I desire he will write like a Person that contends for Truth rather than Victory That he will neither trouble the Press nor me with any thing that I have already answered either explicitely or implicitely or that he himself can answer That he will avoid all undue Reflections and all bitter provoking Sarcasms remembring that he and I are both Christians however we differ about the Matter in dispute KING WILLIAM AND QUEEN MARY CONQUERORS SECT I. Their Majesties King William and Queen Mary had a just Ground of War with King James THE Question is Whether or no the Subject do owe Allegiance may lawfully and ought when required to swear Allegiance to K. William and Q. Mary in these Words I A. B. do sincerly Promise and Swear That I will be Faithful and bear True Allegiance to Their Majesties King William and Queen Mary So help me God I have undertaken to make good the Assirmative and before I proceed to Argument it is necessary in order to avoid Confusion hereafter that I premise Two Things 1. What I mean by being Faithful and bearing true Allegiance And here I shall grant the Non J 〈…〉 rs all they can desire 〈◊〉 That these Words ought to be understood in a Sense that a scrupulous Mind would last swear in That the Oath when taken doth not only oblige a Man to be a true Prisoner to pay Taxes and not to disturb the Government but to bear all the Allegiance to their Present Majesties that was ever owing to any King of England whatever although his Title was most indisputable so as is the late K. James himself should land in England and lay with an Army on the left Hand and K. William and Q. Mary with an Army on right yet so long as K. William and Q Mary were possessed of the Crown and the Regalia the Subjects were bound in Conscience to look upon J. as an Invader and every Man in his Place and Calling were to be aiding and assisting to K. William and Q. Mary the Priesthood with their Prayers the Militia with their Arms and the People with their Purses c In this Sense I am content to understand the Oath and I think it very probable that this is the Sense of the Imposers because they intended it as a means to secure the Crown to those on whose Heads they had plac'd it and less than this will not do it The 2d Thing to be premised is That I make no difficulty at all about any Title that Q. Mary may by some be supposed to have antecedent to that of K. William Because she having submitted her Right and being very well satisfied with the Share allotted her by the Convention no Man else hath any thing to do to move any Controversie about it Wherefore when I say Allegiance is due to K. William and Q. Mary I mean it in the Sense that the Oath it self implies it to be due to each of them which for ought any Man knows is the very Sense that each of them do best like of And these things being premised I now proceed There are three Topicks from whence we may argue for the Oath and as it seems to me from each of them very solidly 1. We may affirm That their present Majeâ—â—ies had a just Quarrel against the late King and conquered him and that Conquest is in such a Case a good Title 2. That the late King Abdicated the Crown and left the Throne vacant And that although the former Tit'e were not good yet the Convention having place I them there and the Body of the Nation submitted to them they have thereupon a good Title And 3. That their Majesties are possessed of the Crown and that Possession is in their Case a good Title although the other two should fail The two last I shall wave because they have been already very largely prosecuted by others and as it seems to me to good purpose however they have not hapned to give satisfaction to some Men. The first I shall endeavour to manage because however it may have been touch'd upon by some others yet hath it not been so fully laid open and urged by any that I know of as the other Two If in this I am mistaken I must plead for my excuse the Circumstances I am in especially my â—istance from Business and such Books as have been lately written which is to me unavoidable But the chief Reason that hath at this time determined my Choice to this Argument is Because I find that several who are not yet satisfied with any thing that hath been hitherto offered do declare That if it could be made appear that their present Majesties have on their side all the Right of Conquest they would entirely submit to the Government and take 〈◊〉 O 〈…〉 They are to be understood of a Conquest consequent to a just Quarrel and therefore it is that they so importunately demand our proving either the League with France or that the pretended Prince of Wales is not Genuine They seem to own that either of these would have been on the then Prince of Orange's part a just Ground of War and that thereupon he might lawfully have made use of his Success And if this be true then must the Conclusion be the same by whatever Argument we prove the Premises Wherefore for these Mens Satisfaction as well as for the vindicating of their Majesties and their Loyal Subjects in point of Honour and Conscience I have undertaken to do it And to put the matter if it be possible out of Controversie I shall endeavour to prove these three things 1. That their Majesties K. William and Q. Mary had a just Ground of War with K. James 2. That they conquered him And 3. That Conquest is in this their Case a good Title 1. Their
Majesties K. William and Q. Mary had a just Ground of War with K. James This hath been endeavoured to be made good from K. James's assaulting and labouring to subvert the Fundamentals of our Constitution which the next Heirs are supposed under obligations of preserving or securing And by passing it over I do not mean to intimate that it is not a good Argument But I shall at this time argue from another Topick which I believe more likely to give satisfaction to the Persons I am dealing with and that is K. James's imposing an Heir to the Crown upon their Majesties and these three Kingdoms Or if not that at the least his carrying of 〈◊〉 so darkly as gave just Ground of Suspicion that he had done it and his refusing to give any reasonable Satisfaction or Proof of the contrary Now for the clearing of this I shall do these two things 1. I shall lay before the Reader some of the many suspicious Circumstances that were previous to this pretended Birth And 2. The much more suspicious Circumstances of it From both which laid together it will be undeniable that there were just Grounds of suspecting foul Play And then that the late King did not give any reasonable Satisfaction under these Suspicions or sufficient Proof of the contrary will appear when I come to answer Objections As to the suspicious Circumstances both preceding and accompanying the Queens pretended lying-in I shall not critically insist upon them nor spend much time in enquiring after and aggravating every Particular For seeing such as this Discourse is intended for are no Strangers to them a Disquisition of that Nature is needless on this occasion And yet it is necessary that I mention some of them in order to my Design of proving that there were just Grounds of suspecting an Imposture As to the suspicious Circumstances previous to this pretended Birth I desire the Reader will call to mind and impartially consider these following 1. That all the Children born of Q Mary before it dyed young and that it was generally said and reported to be the Opinion of the Physicians too That their Majesties could not have a Child that should live for any considerable time and that for a very probable Reason not to be mentioned out of Respect to a Crowned Head once my Sovereign and so nearly related to their Present Majesties 2. The consecrated Linen sent to the Queen just at the time before her supposed Conception deserves to be considered The Story was generally said to be true and never that I know of contradicted Now however this might be intended as an Artifice to make some People believe that it availed their then Majesties by working powerfully upon their Fancies or to make others more Superstitious believe that it supplied them with Strength and Vigour as the Reward of their Faith or Confidence in the blessed Virgin yet wiser Headâ— who have no great Faith in the Miracles of that corrupt Church and are no Strangers to her holy Cheats will look upon it to be no other than a well timed Trick to make People expect an Heir to the Crown just at the time when they had resolved one should be born 3. That her Majesty had two different Reckonings For altho this of it self be no extraordinary matter yet being attended with other suspicious Circumstances it looked as if the Intriguers were provided of several Women who would fall in Travail at several times that so if the Children born at her Majesty's first reckoning should prove Females that could not inherit before the Princess of Orange they might have other Chances for it at the other Reckoning 4. 'T was notoriously suspected that the Queen was not with Child at all during the time that she pretended to be so bâ—cause it was otherwise with her than it is usually with Women in thâ—â— Condition And of these Suspicious their then Majesties and the Court were not ignâ—nt For iâ— was common Talk and Lampoons slew about ridiculing their Majesties and the pretended Royal Embryo Insomuch that Menaces were published and Rewards promised to any that would discover the Spreaders of such Reports and the Authors and Abettors of such Libels 5. What serves to add great Force to all thâ—se other Circumstances is the absolute necessity of a Male-Child that should be believed to be Heir Apparent to the Crown This was necessary 1. for the perfecting of that good Work that K. James who was in Years might reasonably be feared to want time to finish I mean the setling of the Catholick Faith in these Kingdoms especially in England This Nation hath long been averse to that Religion and jealous of its return but never more than in the late Reign and therefore this was not like to be the business of a day no nor of a few Autumnal Years 2. Because all this was so well considered by those who are guided chiefly by their Interest in the choice of their Religion who are commonly the far greater numbâ—r that they made no haste to come over For to what purpose was it for Knaves to turn Papists when they might in Reason expect that was not like to be long a thriving Religion But let them but see a Prince of Wales and then well were he that could first declare himself And when Mens interests had once prevailed with them to declare themselves Papists they would likewise engage them to do all they could to introduce Popery or to maintain it when it was introduced So that you see it was highly conducing to the good of the Catholick Cause as they call it that there should be a Prince of Wales either Real or Pretended And when a Man considers the sâ—â—ming Zeal that the late King had ever shewn for it the mighty Hazards he had already run and was still running and the Pains he was taking to introduce it and what a glorious Piece of Self-denial it would be to disinherit his own Children for the sake of it and for how many Sins it would compensate I say when a Man considers this Temper in a Prince not over apt to look a great way before him managed to the height by subtle Priests many of which were of the most cunning intriguing Order of Men in the whole World he will conclude that greater matters than this in Question would not be stuck at when conducing to this glorious end And when he joyns hereunto the Consideration of the concurring suspicious Circumstances already mentioned and several others that may probably come into his Mind he will be very apt to fear a Trick But it will be said here are only Grounds for violent Presumptions but none for concluding It might be a real Prince still and consequently here was no just cause for the Prince of Orange to draw his Sword and drive his Royal Father out of his Kingdoms This is more than ought to be granted from bare Circumstances however suspicious they were I grant it is so and it is more
than I ask All I ask is what no reasonable Man can deny me viz. That under these Grounds of Suspicion it had been both a point of Wisdom and Justice to have given both the Prince and Princess of Orange and the Nation all the Satisfaction that the matter was capable of at the time of the Queen's Labour Supposing the Queen to have brought forth it might then easily have been proved beyond all Contradiction and if it was not proved it is very suspicious that it could not be proved I never heard any Man doubt but that it had been a Point of Wisdom to have proved it if they could and nothing need be said to satisfie an unbiassed Mind that it had been a Point of Justice too Is it not a Common thing in the case of an Heir to a Crown being born to give the Presumptive Heirs all the satisfaction imaginable And under these very suspicious Circumstances Previous to this supposed Birth ought it not if ever to have been done What great Matter had it been if an Ocular Demonstration had been given or at the least offered to the Princess of D. or to some other grave Ladies related to her by the Mothers side Where had been the Harm or Indecency of this Nay was it not highly necessary that it should have been done Would it not have quite confuted all the Pretences of malicious Hereticks and have rendred the Birth of the Prince indisputable And if they did not do it was it not very Suspicious that the Reason was because they could not For what other Reason can be given Shall we say it was an Oversight What the subtle Jesuits overseen in a Matter of this Consequence Suppose Father Petre wanted what many Polititians have was there never a Wise Man amongst them Were not those about Their Majesties Men chosen out for the carrying on of that great Work And had they not time enough before the Queen's Lying-in to consider the Suspicions that were raised the Reports that went about and to Fence against them Did it not stand them in hand to put the King in mind of laying hold of an Opportunity which if lost could never be retrieved Of giving that satisfaction that might for ever confute these Stories and secure his Son's Title and this mighty Advantage to the Catholick Cause Truly considering the Necessity of doing the thing and that those about their Majesties were no Fools it seems to me next to impossible that it should have been an Oversight But suppose we should grant that it might or might not be an Oversight For that is all that the Friends of the pretended Prince of W. can desire They can never evince that it was an Oversight nor ought they to expect we should grant it All they can reasonably ask is That we grant it might be an Oversight And if we should grant them that what will they gain by it e'en nothing at all For had their present Majesties any Reason to acquiesce in an It may be or a Perhaps To give up their Claim to three Kingdoms to a meer Peradventure Will it ever be possible at this rate to secure a Presumptive Heir against an Impostor Ought the Prince and Princess of O. to sit stall to have let this Birth justly suspected by five parts in six of the whole Nation go unquestioned and consequently to have lain under the Torment of believing while they should live and to have left it suspected to Posterity when they were dead that they had weakly given up their Right to these Kingdoms and the Protestant Interest to boot I say was this Reason Or rather was it not Reason that they who were thus far as is now supposed Overseen should reap the fruits of their own folly and suffer for their Oversight If it was not an Oversight the Prince and Princess of O. were wronged and he being a Soveraign Prince and no Subject of England had Reason to demand Satisfaction If it was onely an Oversight yet since it was never sufficiently proved to have been so by giving up the Prince of Wales they might have sustered loss but were not wronged because the Fault was their own For certainly in a doubtful Case we should conclude against those that are in all the Fault and in Favour of them that are in no Fault at all Since it cannot be proved either way their 's ought to be the loss who were guilty of perplexing Matters at this rate Or however Their present Majesties had Reason to demand that the Matter should be reviewed and lest to the determination of a Parliament the most competent Judge that could be pitched upon This cannot be denied And this is all that I ask at present because it is all that our present Soveraign asked in his Declaration at his first coming into England Some may think what is not indeed altogether improbable supposing it to be a genuine Prince that Matters were thus darkly carried on purpose to have provoked the Nation or rather some of the forwardest to a Rebellion that so they might have had an Occasion against us to fall upon us and take us for Bondmen The Principles of the Church of England were known to be so Loyal to all Kings in the General and she had done so much for King James in Particular in bringing him to the Throne and in keeping the Crown on his Head She had so lately given an undeniable Token of her Fidelity to him by what she had done in opposition to the Duke of Monmouth that the Popish party could not for shame fall foul upon her without some Pretence or other but if they could but provoke her or some part of her Members to a Rising then she would have cancelled all the Obligations that her former Loyalty had laid upon the Crown And then the Cry would have been Her Members are not more Loyal than those of other Sects or Religious when she is discontented or doth but fear that her Interest lies at stake And then there would have been just cause for the King to have adherâ—d to the Loyal Roman Catholicks who had never faiâ—ed him and to have set them uppermost Or supposing they had a Mind to bring in Arbitrary Power and make it an Handmaid to Popery then would any Stirs that they were resolved to call a Rebellion render it â—asy and hasten it And certainly as to Invade our Laws our Liberties and our Religion so openly was highly provoking So to impose upon us a Prince of Wales or which is all one to make us believe they had done it and so to rob us of our hopes of Ease when those blessed Princes our present Soveraigns should of right have succeeded the Crown was the readiest way to make us desperate And did I believe that the Child was really born of the Queen I should think this so fair an Account of their carrying it as if it was not that I should never pitch upon any other And methinks there
disband the Army and dismiss the Souldiers which was accordingly done telling him in his Letter that things being come to that extremity that he had been forced to send away the Queen and his Son that they might not fall into the Enemies Hands he himself was obliged to do the same thing And presently after his Majesty was taken by the Inhabitants of Feversham in a small Vessel endeavouring to go out of the Nation And after this it is manifest the Prince never considered him as King of England but as his Prisoner or as a Person conquered It is true the Lords invited him back to London but it was without the Prince's Consent and in all Likelihood without his Knowledg For although he treated him with all imaginable Respect as a Person so nearly related to himself and the Princess and with a due Regard to Majesty with which he had been so lately vested yet still it was but like a Person conquered For understanding he was at Rochester he sent to him to continue there by Monsieur Zulestein but he missing of him he sent another Order after him to remove from Whitehall whither he was gone to Ham. The Message was to be delivered by the Marquess of Hallifax the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Lord Delamere after the Prince's Guards were in possession of the Posts about Whitehall and a Note drawn up to that Purpose Likewise the Prince committed the Earl of Feversham to the Castle of Windsor who had been sent by the King to invite him to St. James's And if he committed the Servant to Prison it is not hard to determine in what Condition he judged the Master to be Princes do not use to imprison each others Servants sent on kind Messages while their Masters are free that is as King James in his Reasons for withdrawing himself from Rochester words it against the Practice and Law of Nations But the Truth is he considered him as a Prince conquered by him and treated him accordingly although with all imaginable Respect and with great Tenderness This is the plain meaning of such Actions and in this Sense King James understood them and therefore he sent to desire leave of the Prince to return to Rochester which was granted And in this Sense he interprets them in his Reasons for withdrawing himself from Rochester For having mentioned them he adds these memorable Words I was born Free and I desire to continue so Wherefore in his own Opinion his going privately from Rochester into France was no other than an Escape out of Captivity or rather out of a Conqueror's Hands whose Prisoner he was I insist the longer upon these things for the sake of such as own Conquest upon a just Quarrel to be a good Title as indeed it is but say the Prince did not make use of his Fortune but declined it by leaving the Matter to the Convention Of which I shall say more hereafter when I come to answer Objections In the mean time I will contract into a narrow Compass what I have said at large that so the Reader may at once take a View of it Here were violent Presumptions of an unsufferable Injury done to the Prince and a Refusal of giving reasonable Satisfaction to the last a marching down with an Army to oppose him when he came to examine the Truth Two Battels fought how much Blood spilt it matters not in both which the Prince had the better The King fled before the Prince to London from thence towards Gravesend went on board a Vessel in order to leave the Nation without deputing a Vice-Roy is brought back again but being used as he thought like a Prisoner makes his Escape a second time and leaves the Nation And now good Reader do not deceive thy self nor suffer thy self to be imposed upon by the little Pretences of such Men whose Interest it is never to be satisfied consider well and judg impartially What was there wanting in the Case of King James to make it fall short of a Conquest There can be no Objections against this as it seems to me of any great Moment however I will not pass by unanswered any Scruple that I can foresee and much less any Objection that I know hath been made In the 1st Place it hath been said The Prince by his fair Pretences in his Declaration stole away the Hearts of his Majesty's Subjects and Souldiers so that they forsook him and therefore he may be said rather to have been betray'd than conquer'd To this I answer two things 1st That the Prince's Declaration was most reasonable and thought to be so by the most considerable both for Learning and Quality of those that now refuse the Oath who therefore urged the King over and over to condescend without Fighting to his Demand of referring all Differences to a Free Parliament And since his Majesty's Refusal was a Refusal to give Satisfaction about the Rights and Liberties of the Nation which had been infringed and about the Succession to the Crown which was suspected to be in Danger of being altered It is more than any Man can prove that the Subject was bound to assist the King especially if we add that if he had got the Victory it must in all Probability have ended in the utter Subversion of our Laws and legal Government and in the Destruction of our Rights both Civil and Religious That Subjects may not resist the King although he indeavour their Destruction unjustly hath been taught and that is Loyalty enough in all Reason But that they are bound to assist him to destroy the main Body of a Nation is such a Notion of Loyalty as will not down with wise Men. But 2dly Supposing the King had been unjustly betray'd by his Subjects and Souldiers or deserted by them who ought to have stood by him in the Quarrel what was that to the Prince who was none of the King 's Subject but a Soveraign Prince It behoved the King to have assured himself of the Loyalty and Courage of his own Souldiers and People And if he did not and was therefore beaten it was never the less a Conquest over him because his Men either would not or durst not fight For when Princes take the Field the Question as to Right of Conquest is which overcomes not whether his Souldiers that is overcome fought or not nor whether his Subjects adhered firmly to him or not When Henry Duke of Lancaster came into England and gathered an Army traiterously against his Soveraign King Richard the Second who was then in Ireland the King sent the Earl of Salisbury before him into England to gather an Army against his Coming over But staying longer than the time by himself appointed the Army would no longer be kept together The King coming over and finding that they were dispersed and hearing that all the Castles from the Borders of Scotland and Bristol were delivered to the Duke and that the greatest part of
the Nobility and Commons took part with him and that his principal Counsellors had lost their Heads he fell so utterly to Despair that calling his Army together he licensed every Man to be gone and to shift for himself After which he was made a Prisoner and frightned into a Resignation of his Crown which was unjustly accepted of and confirmed by a Parliament illegally called by the Duke in the King's Name Here was never a Battel fought nor a Stroak struck the King's Subjects and Souldiers forsook him and went to Henry who was indeed a Traitor and consequently an Usurper both which are far from being in the present Case And yet Henry being placed in the Royal Seat and possessed of the Regalia thought it necessary to assure them that he meant not to take Advantage against any Man's Estate as coming in by Conquest but that every one should freely injoy his own as in the times of lawful Succession Here are a great many ill Circumstances that make all this unlawful in H's Doings which do not accompany the late Atchievements of our glorious Prince which do even as to the Question of Conquest leave the Advantage plainly on our Soveraign's side and yet we see Henry thinks good to assure them that he will not make use of his Victory we are to understand him against any Man but the King A plain Intimation that supposing his Quarrel to have been just and justly managed he thought he had the Right of Conquest on his Side yea and that he thought they were of the same Opinion for whose sakes he gave his Assurance A like Instance we have in two other Princes of the same Names Richard the Third and Henry the Seventh The Duke of Buckingham King R's Subject and Bishop Morton his Prisoner plot together that Henry Earl of Richmond Heir of the House of Lancaster should marry the Lady Elizabeth Heiress of the House of York and also to depose King R. Many of the King's Subjects join in the same Conspiracy While Henry lay at Lichfield with his Forces and K. Richard with his at Nottingham part of King Richard's Forces revolted to Henry and in the King's March towards him Sir Walter Hungerford and some others withdrew themselves from King R's Party And Sir John Savage Sir Brian Stamford and Sir Simon Digby with their several Forces joined with the Earl The Treachery was so plain that it was written over the Gate of the Duke of Norfolk who was faithful to King R. the Night before the Battel Jacky of Norfolk be not too bold For Dickon thy Master is bought and sold. Nay in the very Battel the Lord Stanley who had been sent to levy Forces for the King comes in and joins with the Earl and yet notwithstanding King Richard being slain and I hope to shew that the Case had been the same if he had only been driven out of the Nation and Henry obtaining the Crown the Lord Bacon saith Besides his other two Claims that of Heir to the House of Lancaster in his own Person and that of Heiress to the House of York with whom he meant to marry he had also the Title of Conquest And although he chose not to make such use of the Title of Conquest as of that of Heir to the House of Lancaster partly because he came in upon Conditions and Agreements and partly because he knew that to claim as a Conqueror was to put as well his own Party as the rest in Fear as that which gave him Power of disannulling of Laws and disposing of Mens Foutunes and Estates and the like Points of absolute Power yet he made use of it to beat down open Murmur and Dispute And afterwards he got the Crown to be entailed upon him by Act of Parliament and the said Act to be confirmed by the Pope's Bull the Year following with mention nevertheless by way of Rooâ—tal of his other Titles both of Descent and Conquest So as now saith the same learned Author the Wreath of three was made a Wreath of five for to the three first Titles of the two Houses or Lines and Conquest were added two more c. So that Henry the Seventh as wise a Prince as ever sway'd the English Scepter of whose Opinion the Lord Bacon seems to be thought he had the Title of Conquest the which he might and did make use of as far as he saw convenient Although he brought over with him but two thousand Mercenaries a small Force in comparison of those that the Prince brought over with him and got the Crown almost purely by the help of King Richard's Subjects and by the Treachery of his pretended Friends many of which had been preferred by him and yet forfook him I grant indeed that King Richard was an Usurper and a cruel Prince But what of that Although his being so was a just reason why Henry who had been conveyed into Britain in the Reign of King Edward the 4th and never returned into England until that fortunate Expedition which made him King and consequently who had never sworn Allegiance to him might agree to marry the undoubted Heiress of the House of York and thereupon do his utmost to deprive him of his Crown yet did it not make the Success against him either more or less a Conquest It made it lawful to conquer him but it did not make the Victory ever the more a Conquest And further whatever Weight there is in that is likewise in the Title of their present Majesties For as Henry the 7th had a just Quarrel against Richard the 3d so also had their present Majesties against King James the 2d It is true in both these Instances there is a Mistake under which the Lord Bacon himself seems to lie in the Case of Henry the 7th viz. That the Victors are thought to have gained not only a Title to the Crown against the Vanquished Princes but also an Absolute Power over the Rights and Liberties of the Subject Whereas in these and all other such like Cases where the Nation stands Neuter no Man is conquered but the King and such as assisted him and therefore no Right is gained over the Laws or the Peoples Liberties But of this more hereafter At the present it is enough to observe that these two Instances make it plain to be the Opinion of those Times that to the Right or Title of Conquest it is not necessary that the Souldiers and Subjects of the Prince Conquered proved faithful to him it is enough that he be either slain or which I hope I shall prove to be all one rendred unable any longer to defend his Subjects and his Crown against the Victor And is it not likewise the general Opinion of these present Times Do not the Christian Princes now in a State of War with each other endeavour each to draw Assistance from his Enemies by Manifesto's Declarations Memorials And do not Souldiers daily desert one Prince whose natural Subjects
they are and run to another But is that thought a Reason why the Victors should quit any thing that their Swords do gain If their Declarations be untrue or in any respect unreasonable there is Sin in that and in making any Advantage of them but the Prince's was not and therefore as there was no Evil in it so is there no reason why he should quit any Advantage gained by it 2. But it may be said That the Nation was not conquered nor was it possible it should be by such a small number of Forces as the Prince brought over with him And that no Right of Conquest could accrue to the Prince so long as the King had Subjects enow able to have defended him Had the Nation done its utmost in defence of the King and yet been overpowred the Assertion had been true but it was so far from it that it was the Poisoned Nation K. James feared more than the Foreign Army A great part of the Nation took against the King and almost all the rest looked on while he was driven out of his Dominions And call you this a Conquest To this I reply 1. That this was much-what the Case in the two Instances I have given and yet as has been shewn it was the Opinion of those Times that the two Princes I have mentioned were conquered 2. As to the Nation 's standing Neuter or taking against the King I have considered it already and need not now repeat This Objection is much-what the same with the former only it appears in a different Dress 3. As to the Prince's conquering England I say he never pretended to it nor could he have done it justly for he had no Quarrel against the Nation It was so far from it that he never pretended any His Quarrel against the King was likewise the Nation 's Complaint against him and at the same time he asserted his own Right and in that very Particular he asserted the Right of the Nation For as he had a Right to be satisfied about the Succession so also had the Nation and the Nation too desired Satisfaction as well as he Nay he came not only to assert his own Right jointly with ours in this Particular but even all our Rights and Liberties which were struck at and in great danger of being utterly subverted So that this Glorious Prince was so far from being our Enemy that he was our Champion and Deliverer He conquered nothing but our Hearts And if he never pretended to be our Enemy he could not be said to conquer us Had he conquered the Nation he would have had a Right to somewhat else besides the Crown viz. to our Laws Liberties and Estates and we should have been in a very ill Condition until by submitting all to the Convention and suffering the Government to settle upon the Antient Basis he gave us all back again It is true many times the Quarrel of Prince and People are twisted together and then they stand or fall together but here they were severed and therefore the King fell by himself And although it be a hard Saying yet is it too true that his Fall was his Countrey 's Rise The Nation was never conquered since the Days of William the First supposing that may be called such a Conquest Nor is such a Conquest necessary to give the Victorious Prince a Right to the Throne of the Vanquished Enough it is that he be reduced to such a Condition as to be unable to help his Friends and they to help him Such a Conquest was that of Henry the 4th over Richard the 2d although he thought not to have made use of that Title because his Quarrel was not just nor his Success gained without Dissimulation and Perjury And such a Conquest was that of Henry the 7th over Richard the 3d. And yet both these as I have said thought they had good Titles as being Conquerors And such a Conquest was this of our present Soveraigns over King James the 2d 3. It may be said All this would be true were King James out of all possibility of ever helping his Friends or of receiving Help from them But he is only retired into a Neighbouring Kingdom And there he is within Call whenever the Nation 's Eyes shall be opened He only waits for a fair Opportunity of returning to succour his Friends and right himself To this I answer 1. King James is in such a Kingdom as we can expect no Good from and if ever he returns out of it we have reason to think he will succour no Friends but those of his own Religion and such as are for Arbitrary Power But as for all the rest which are the main Body of the Community we have great cause to fear they will be in a much worse Condition than they are under the present Government It is highly probable that he went away with hopes that the Distractions he took care to throw us into and our own mistaken Notions of Loyalty with the Assistance of the French King would in a short time bring him back a Conqueror upon the Necks of our Laws and our Religion And what Encouragment can a wise Protestant find in this to be undone by suspending his Allegiance to our present most gracious Soveraigns Shall we for the present make our selves miserable and do our utmost to make the Nation so too in hopes that e're long he will return and be in a Condition to make both us and it more effectually so But 2. It is not essential to a Conquest nor to the Right it gives that the Prince supposed to be conquered be out of all possibility of ever helping his Friends or of receiving Help from them No Prince is in such a Condition while he lives It is sufficient that the main Body of a Kingdom have submitted to the Conqueror and the greatest Part of such as have been required to fwear Allegiance to him have done it so as that he is fully possessed of the Government and that the vanquished Prince is not able to protect those that refuse to submit to him but that they may be ruined before he could come in to their Assistance and would be so were it not for the meer Mercy of the Conqueror For one great Reason why Conquest in a just Quarrel gives the Subject a rightful Liberty of transferring his Allegiance to the Conqueror is Because his former Soveraign is by his own Fault fallen into such a Condition as that he cannot to him answer the Ends of Government nor he to his Soveraign the Ends of Allegiance and Subjection And as it would be very hard that a King should be obliged to throw away himself for the sake of his Subjects when his doing so would not in the least advantage them so is it no less hard that Subjects should be obliged to throw away themselves for the sake of their King when their doing of it will not at all advantage him
For both these suppose Men are obliged to be undone for no Reason and to no End Nor are we bound to be undone at the present in hopes that hereafter his late Majesty may recover his Throne For another Reason and indeed the chief why such a Conquest as we now speak of gives the Subject a Right to transfer his Allegiance is Because the ejected Prince cannot be restored without the very great Misery if not the utter Ruin of his Country But of this I shall say more in answer to the next Objection to the which I now proceed 4. It must not be dissembled that some are of an Opinion that it is no Conquest or rather that no Right to a Crown is acquired by Conquest without either the Death or at the least the Cession of the vanquished Prince And since this is a Scruple that mainly sticks with some that refuse the Oath I will give as full an Answer to it as I can Cession is either voluntary or forced The former of these is the same with voluntary Resignation and has no place here For whatever Prince being conquered resigns his Crown to the Conqueror it is against his Will it is not to be thought a voluntary Resignation The latter I think sufficient to give the Victor a Right to a Crown and to give the Subject a Right of transferring his Allegiance to him but I believe a great many are of an opinion that such a Resignation or Cession will bind the vanquished Prince no longer than he is under Force or Necessity For has it not been frequently said That whatever Promises a Prince makes for fear when under Force or for the gaining of his Liberty are all void as soon as the Necessity ceases Thus Francis the First King of France being the Prisoner of the Emperor Charles the Fifth bound himself by the Concord of Madrid solemnly swore to That when at liberty he should perform divers Conditions and amongst the rest restore the Dutchy of Burgundy not withstanding any Decrees of Parliaments Pretence of the Salique Law or other Claim whatsoever or else return a Prisoner to Charles And at their parting when he was dismissed Charles demanded of him If he well remembred all that was capitulated bet wixt them Francis answered Yes for further Confirmation repeating the most particular Articles Charles then demanded Are you willing to perform them Francis answered again Yes adding He knew no Man in his Kingdom would hinder him And when you find I do not keep my Word with you I wish and consent that you hold me for Laschs and Meschant By this Account it is manifest that Francis bound himself as falt as a King under restraint could and yet afterwards in a Cartel sent to Charles he thought it a good Excuse to say That no Man under Restraint can plight his Faith It is true the same Historian adds that this Answer was generally not approved of but yet he also says that if he had excused his not returning by his being a Publick Person and had said that his Obligation by Oath when he was crowned unto his People and Kingdom was a greater Tie than that of his particular Honour And together had alledged That he could not obtain their Consent either to perform his Promise for Restitution of Burgundy or to go single out of his Kingdom it was thought by some he might have vindicated himself in great part and even laid some Imputation on Charles for demanding things impossible to be performed The same Account as to the Substance of it is likewise given by the French Historian although he gloss over the matter as well as he can and he makes much what the same Excuse for Francis So that some for one Reason and some for another have been of opinion That whatever Promises are made and Engagements entred into by Kings under Force are not binding when they are at liberty and consequently if a Prince in such a Condition shall resign his Crown he may whenever he finds an Opportunity re-assert his Right and the Subject will be bound to assist him against the Victor So that the Cession of the Prince conquered will give some Men as little Satisfaction as his being reduced to such a Condition as to be unable to help his Friends gives those that pretend they would be satisfied with such a Cession As to those that would be satisfied with the Death of the conquered Prince although he should not resign his Crown but will be satisfi'd with no less the necessary Consequence of their Opinion is That one Prince must never take another Prisoner nor give him leave to escape if he aims at his Crown because while he is alive he can have no Assurance of the Subjects Loyalty And such Protestants as are of this Opinion must say That had K. William dispatched K. James when he was in his Power he had likewise dispatched all their Scruples nay and they will be tempted to wish he had done so How kindly K. James will take it I know not But I am perswaded if it ever is in his Power he will reward them for it partly after the same rate as for their other Services Having thus shewn my Reader some Inconveniences that seem to attend or follow from the Opinion that the Objection supposes to be true I now proceed to a direct Answer K. James is still alive and has not resigned his Kingdoms but has escaped out of the Victor's Hands who as soon as he was possessed of his Dominions required an Oath of Allegiance of the Subjects who have generally submitted and accordingly sworn Allegiance K. James in the mean time is in such a Condition and has been ever since his Flight that he is not able to protect those that refuse the Oath but their Lives and Safety are owing purely to the Mercy of the present Government The Question is Whether may those that have hitherto refused the Oath now suppose both their late King and themselves to be as to all the Ends of Government in the State of Conquest and so take the said Oath and pay Allegiance to K. William and Q. Mary Or on the contrary are they still to believe it no Conquest and consequently to adhere to K. James Now when I say K. William and Q. Mary conquered K. James I do not mean nicely to consider the Meaning of the words Conquered and Conquest Nor to determine whether or no a Man may properly be said to be conquered who although he be fled away yet lies at all Advantages seeking for Opportunities of fighting with those that have brought him to this Necessity These are Niceties not necessary to be discussed at this time All I mean by it is That their Present Majesties have on their side the great Reason that makes Conquest a good Title and without which it would not be a good Title And if this appear to be true certainly it is in all reason sufficient for