Witnesses and misleading the Juries convicted of the said Pretended Perjuries and received this inhumane and unparallel'd Sentence following viz. To pay two thousand Marks to the King To be devested of his Canonical Habit To be brought into Westminster-Hall with a Paper upon his Head with this Inscription Titus Oates convicted upon full Evidence of two horrid Perjuries To stand in and upon the Pillory two several days for the space of an Hour To be whip'd by the comman Hang-man from Aldgate to Newgate on Wednesday and to be whip'd again on the Friday following from Newgate to Tiburn To stand in and upon the Pillory five times in every Year of his Life and to remain a Prisoner during his Life Which Sentence being intended as your Petitioner hath just reason to believe to murther him was accordingly executed with all the Circumstances of Barbarity he having suffered some thousands of Stripes whereby he was put to unspeakable Tortures and lay ten Weeks under the Surgeons Hands Neither did their Cruelty cease here but because your Petitioner by God's Mercy miraculously supporting him and the extraordinary Skill of a Judicious Chirurgion outlived that Bloody Usage some of them afterwards got into your Petitioner's Chamber whilst he was weak in his Bed and attempted to pull off the Plaisters apply'd to cure his Back and threatned to destroy him And that nothing within their Power or Malice might be wanting to compleat your Petitioner's Misery they procured him to be loaded with Irons of excessive Weight for a whole Year without any Intermission even when his Legs were swoln with the Gout and to be shut up in the Dungeon or Hole of the Prison whereby he became impair'd in his Limbs and contracted Convulsion Fits and other Distempers to the great Hazard of his Life All which illegal Proceedings and barbarous Inhumanities your Petitioner humbly conceives were not only intended as a Revenge upon him but likewise to cast a Reproach upon the Wisdom and Honour of four successive Parliaments who had given him Credit and upon the Publick Justice of the Nation And your Petitioner humbly hopes that since the Papists themselves have verified and confirmed his Evidence by their late open and avowed Violations of our Religion Laws and Liberties this Honourable House will vindicate the Proceedings of former Parliaments and discharge your Petitioner from those Arbitrary and Scandalous Judgments and the unjust Imprisonment he lies under Your Petitioner doth therefore most humbly beseech your Lordships and your Honours to take his deplorable Case into your generous and tender Consideration and to give him such Redress therein as to your Lordships and your Honours great Wisdom Justice and Goodness shall seem meet And your Petitioner shall ever pray c. An Account of the Convention of SCOTLAND THE Convention of Scotland met the 14 th of March 1685 in Obedience to the Prince of Orange's Letteâ—â— They choice the Duke of Hamilton their President â—fter which they had several Debates about the Duke of Gâ—â—don a Papist who keeps the Castle notwithstanding many offers of Surrender does still keep it for King James They read a Letter from the King of England in which he exhorts them to lay aside all Animosities and Factions and mind the Publick Good in securing the Protestant Religion and the ancient Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom on sure and lasting Foundations particularly that they would endeavour a Union between both Kingdoms as one of the best Means for the Happiness of both especially at this time when the common Enemy is restless to procure the ruine of Britain and the Protestant Religion every-where After which a Letter was read from King James requiring them to support his Royal Authority by many Threats and Promises which made no Impression on them but after some time they drew up and sent a Letter to King William full of dutiful Respects promising to do that which may be acceptable to him and suitable to the Genius of the Nation After setling the Militia and other State-Matters and having resolved the Power into themselves they appointed a Commitee of 24 made up of all the Estates to settle the Government Which Commitee have provided for the full Meeting of the Convention Grounds and Reasons on which they have declared the Throne Vacant A SPEECH made by a Member of the Convention of the States in SCOTLAND WE are now called together by his Highness the Prince of Orange to Consult and Deliberate what Methods will be most proper to secure Our Religion Laws and Liberties in order to which the first thing that will fall under our Consideration is the setling the Sovereign Power I take for granted that you are fully convinced that King James the Seventh by his many Violations of the Fundamental Laws by his endeavouring to establish a Despotick and Arbitrary Power and introduce Popery tho he himself had confirmed all the Laws that were enacted in Favour of the Protestant Religion has thereby subverted the Constitution and that our Miseries might have no Redress from him has left us in a time when we needed his Protection most The Eyes of all Europe are upon us and it is in our Power to make our Selves and our Posterity either Happy or Miserable by making a choice either to call back the same King James and hazard once more all that Men account dear to his Mercy or to settle the Government on some other under whom we may live Quiet and Peaceable Lives without the perpetual Terror of being swallowed up by Popery and Arbitrary Government which all good Men hoped were now banished and yet behold a new Off-spring is sprung up which plead eagerly for both tho under the mistaken Names of Duty and Allegiance It 's strange that any Man can so far degenerate as to prefer Slavery to Liberty and that they should be so much in love with Chains that when they were fairly shaken off they should run suriously to be Fettered again as if the Ottoman and French Government were so charming in our Country that we cannot live without it tho we have so lately groaned under the dismal Burden of it And it might have been supposed that even these who had been Instrumental in Enslaving their Fellow-Brethren and were grown Fat with Sucking the Nations Blood would have taken another Method to Reconcile themselves than by persuading us to purchase their Safety at so vast an Expence as the Ruin of more than three Parts of the Nation will necessarily amount to If we do but a little reflect on the Motives which these Men blinded by Self-Interest make use of to delude the Nation into a Security that wanted very little of proving Fatal to it and compare them with the strong Reasons we have to disswade us from being so imposed on they will be found so Weak and Impertinent that we must judg it next to Impossibility to suffer our selves to be twice Deceived But if the Experience of our former Miseries
ELEVENTH Collection of Papers Relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England and Scotland VIZ. I. An Answer to the Desertion Discuss'd being a Defence of the late and present Proceedings II. Satisfaction tendred to all that pretend Conscience for Non-submission to our present Governours and refusing of the New Oaths of Fealty and Allegiance III. Dr. Oates his Petition to the Parliament declaring his barbarous Sufferings by the Papists IV. An Account of the Convention of Scotland V. A Speech made by a Member of the Convention of the Estates in Scotland VI. The Grounds on which the Estates of Scotland declared the Right of the Crown of Scotland Forfaulted and the Throne become Vacant VII The Opinion of two eminent Parliament-Men justifying the Lawfulness of taking the Oaths of Allegiance to King William and Queen Mary London printed and are to be sold by Richard Janeway in Queen's-head-Court in Pater-noster-Row 1689. AN ANSWER TO THE DESERTION DISCUSS'D IF many of our Long-Rob'd Divines puft up with a Conceit of their own Parts would but keep closer to their Texts and their Duties most certainly our Peace and Union would be much firmer and more assured then it is For being sway'd by Interest and Profit they are more afraid of losing the Advantages of Earthly Preferment then the Treasures of Heavenly Felicity Unless they swim in their own Wishes and Desires all Things are out of Order The Church is in danger they cry here are Sharers coming in among Us And by an odd kind of Ecclesiastical Policy seem rather inclinable to return under the Yoke of Popery then to endure the Equality of a Dissenting Protestant rather to be at the check of a Pope's Nuncio then suffer the Fraternity of a Protestant Nonconformist They said nothing to the late King till he began to touch their Copy-holds then they call'd out for Help and now they are angry with their Relief because they are afraid of well they know not what And this is their Misfortune that if all things answer not the full Height of their Expectations they are the first that should be last dissatisfied If all things go not well as they imagine they presently grow moody and waspish and while they insinuate their empty Notions into others who admiring the fluency of their Pulpit Language either out of Ignorance or Laziness allow them a Prerogative over their Understandings the whole Nation must be embroyl'd by their Surmises and Mistrusts Else what had that Gentleman who wrote the Desertion Discuss'd to do to busy his Brains with a Subject neither appertaining to his Function nor proper for his Talent Why should â—e be setting himself up against the voted Judgment of the chiefest and greatest part of the Kingdom A Man of his Profession would have doubtless better employ'd himself in contemplating the Story of the Three Murmurers against Moses and there have learn'd a more sanctifi'd Lesson then to exalt his Sophâ—stry against the Debates of a Solemn Assembly contriving the Publick â—reservation For certainly never was a fairer Prospect then now since the many Revolutions under which the British Monarchy has labour'd of its being restor'd to its ancient Grandeur and Renown and of enjoying the Advantages of Peace and Prosperity in a higher measure then ever So that it must be look'd upon as the Effect either of a most pernicious Malice or a strange distraction of Brain for such Discussers as these to be throwing about the Darnel of their nice and froward Conceptions on purpose to choak the Expectations of so glorious a Harvest For they must be Men that want the government of right Reason within themselves as being enslav'd either to vicious Custom or partial Affection or else they would never run themselves and others with so much precipitancy into the shame and ignominy of upholding the subvertors of National Constitutions And all this to blacken and defame the noble Endeavours and prudent Counsels of those renowned Patriots that pursu'd the only means to rescue a languishing Monarchy from impending Thraldom and Ruin. He does not wonder he says that a Man of so much sense and integrity as his Friend is should be surprized at the Thrones being declared Vacant by the Lower House of Convention For how says his Friend can the Seat of the Government be empty while the King who all grant had an unquestionable Title is still living But the Discusser here forgot that it had been the resolv'd Opinion of two Parliaments already That there was no Security for the Protestant Religion the King's Life or the establish'd Government of the Kingdom without passing a Bill for disabling the Duke of York to inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and that unless a Bill were pass'd for excluding the Duke of York the House could not give any Supply to the King without Danger to his person the Hazard of the Protestant Religion and Breach of the Trust in them repos'd by the People Upon which a Bill did pass the Commons and was sent up to the Lords for their Concurrence by which James Duke of York was excluded and made for ever uncapable to Inherit Possess or Enjoy the Imperial Crown of this Realm c. and he adjudg'd Guilty of High Treason and to suffer the Pains and Penalties as in Case of High Treason if after such a Time he should claim challenge or attempt to possess or exercise any Authority or Jurisdiction as King c. in any of the said Dominions 'T is true the Lords did not pass this Bill for Reasons well known yet was it such a mutilation to the Duke's Title to be disabled from succeeding in the Kingdom by the whole Body of the Commons who are the Representatives of the Nation that it can never be said that all Men granted his Title unquestionable as the Discusser imposes upon the World. Besides the many Instances in History of several Princes who have forfeited their Succession and consequently their Title to the Crown for revolting from the Establish'd Religion of the Realm But says the Discusser for I look upon his Friend and Him to be all one and that he does but put the Question with one side of his Mouth and answer it with the other I had thought our Laws as well as our Religion had been against the Deposing Doctrine That 's not the Question but whether a Prince may commit those Miscarriages in Government whether he may not so far peccare in Leges Rempublicam as to incur the Forfeiture of his Regal Power and whether a Prince may be allow'd to subvert the ancient Constitutions and Religion of a Nation and yet be said to be the Lawful King of that Realm These are the Questions For then it is not the Law that deposes him nor the Religion that justifies it But it is He that deposes Himself 't is the bad Advice of Evil Counsellors to which he Listens and which he follows to the ruin of the Kingdom contrary to the Original
Contract between Princes and People grounded upon the Foundations of all Original Government I say 't is that Adhering to Evil Counsel which deposes a Prince by degrading him from a Lawful King to an Unlawful Tyrant and renders him Liable to the Animadversion of the Law and the impeachments of the oppress'd and injur'd People To assert otherwise were to deprive all National Law and Religion of their self Defence which is against all the Law and Religion in the World. I am apt to believe that Christ himself had no very good Opinion of the lawfulness of Herod's Regality when he sent him that Message Go tell that Fox Herod Which I look upon as a Deposal and Degrading of that Arbitrary Prince by the Founder of our Religion in his own Breast and Judgment though he forbore the Execution of his Celestial Power And therefore it is not the Error of Religion but the Fault of those that do not well distinguish that Religion suffers in her Doctrines For only he who governs according to Law is a King he that endeavours to subvert the Law is none Nor is every rambling and precipitate Brain to be Judg of this neither but the Solid Law and fundamental Constitutions of the Realm So that the Country Gentleman was mistaken in his Thoughts both of our Laws and our Religion However the pretended Scrupulous Country Gentleman desires the Discusser to expound the State-Riddle of the Vacancy and to give him the Ground of the late extraordinary Revolution To which the Discusser gives no direct answer at present but desires his Friend to take notice That the Gentlemen of the Convention who declar'd a Vacancy in the Government lay'd the main Stress of their opinion upon the King's withdrawing himself For that since the Story of the French League and the Business of the Prince of Wales were pass'd over in silence most Men believed that the pretended Breach of that which they called the Original Contract was no more then a popular Flourish All which is such an imperfect peice of Incoherence that none but a madman would have thrust in by Head and Shoulders as the Discusser has done For how can it be inferr'd that the Breach of the Original Contract should be a Popular Flourish because the Clandestin League and the False Birth are hitherto pass'd over in silence As for the surreptitious Birth one would think it was sufficiently dilated upon in the Declaration of the Lords and why it is not farther brought upon the Stage there may be several Reasons given and among the rest because it may be thought that the Imposture will vanish of it self and so there will be no need of casting an Eternal Blot upon the memory of them that contriv'd and own'd it Then for the Clandestin League it Suffices that there is apparent Proof of it in Bank. But to call the Breach of the Original Contract pretended and a Popular Flourish is a yerk of Malitious Reflection which only serves to expose the Discusser to Publick censure For as there is nothing more certain then that there is an Original Contract between the King and People of England the Breach of which has cost the Effusion of so much Blood so is it as certain that that Original Contract was never so infallibly broken then it was of late Which as it is allow'd by all the Laws of God and Man to be a sufficient ground to seek a Remedy so was nothing more vigorously urg'd by the Convention Which might have convinc'd the Discusser that they did not pretend it for a popular Flourish But now lest the Country Gentleman should be shogg'd by seeing the Votes of so considerable a Meeting debated by a private Hand the Discusser reminds him That a Parliament and a Convention are two different Things The latter for want of the King's Writs and Concurrence having no share in the Legislative Power But the Discusser forgets that it was only a Convention of Lords that sent to Richard the Second to meet them at Westminster which the King at first promis'd to do but upon altering his Mind sent him another peremptory Message that if he would not come according to his Promise they would chuse another King and then proceeding farther according to that Power they had expell'd against the King's Will several of his chiefest Favourites from the Court constrain'd others to put in Sureties to appear at the next Parliament and caus'd several others to be arrested and committed to several Prisons If a Convention could do this where the King was present what signifi'd the Writs and Concurrence of an absent Prince Nor did they contend for Legislative Power but only met in a kind of embodied Dictatorship to take care of the present Necessity of Affairs But this says the Discusser was not justifiable for that the Nenessity which they pretended was either of their own making or of their own submitting to which is the same Thing But this is all Nonsence For if the Necessity was of their own making then were the Lords and Commons the Authors of all the Miscarriages which they laid to the late King's Charge If of their own submitting to then would they never have call'd out for succour and crav'd Relief from their Oppressions No They were those crying Grievances sum'd up in the Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembl'd at Westmister presented to their Present Majesties upon the Twelfth of February Last which when the late King could not justify them by force of Arms but fled for it not being able to answer his endeavours to subvert and Extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom put them to that necessity of assembling after an Unusual Manner to provide for the Common Safety How ever the Discusser will have it a Necessity of their own creating tho never so false For says he if the King had either not bin driven out of his Dominions or invited back upon honourable Terms they needed not have had recourse to such unusual singular Methods of proceeding And thus the Discusser rambles out of one Untruth into another For he fled from offer'd Treaty forsook the defence of his own Forces and left them to be disbanded in Arrears and without Payment slipt from his own Council by Night after he had appointed to meet them in Consultation the next Morning Nor could he justly suspect that any Violence would have been offer'd to Him in particular being so well assur'd as he could not choose but be of the Generous Inclination and profound Respect which the Prince had to his Person But if the Guilt of peculiar Miscarriages hasten'd his Departure or oversway'd him toleave the Heâ—m of Rule without any Form or Face of Goverment That could ne're be call'd an Expulsion out of his Dominions And therefore when a certain Gentleman waiting on him at Feversham besought him to return to London he gave the Person this Reply That he was an honest
ever except against the Validity of it May it not seem something unjust to deny this Liberty to Princes when they find themselves overcharged with the Weight of Government to retire into a Privacy for the better enjoyment of their inward Peace and Quiet But I presume no Man will deny this Hypothesis It remains to prove the Thesis That the late King did abdicate 1. I will not dwell upon what was done by the Metropolitan and other Lords of the Council upon his first withdrawing they came into the City and with the Lord Mayor sent for the Lieutenant of the Tower seize upon the Keys dispossess the Souldiers place a new Garrison there and desire the Prince of Orange to assume the Regency Why all this if he had not Abdicated Upon what other ground durst they raise Arms seize upon his Royal Fort Or how can they excuse themselves from formal Rebellion and breach of Oaths if this be not granted and is not unpresidented That Princes shall take up their Scepters again when they have laid them down But to pass by this 2. I would willingly be resolv'd by any Thinking Man whose Judgment and Testimony is most authentick in this Particular Whether I am to resolve my self into the Judgment of the whole Nation in a full and clear Representation in Parliament or into the private Fancies or Opinion of a few Men I remember what you once repli'd to this That every Mans Conscience is to judg for himself in point of Practice But do you not know when and by whom this Principle was exploded whilst some were prosecuted for meer Matters of Worship And shall this be pleaded by those Men who so vigorously have acted against it when in its own Nature it is so destructive of the Civil Peace A Line and a Line is an Abomination Did ever any Government upon the Pretence of Conscience dispence with Disobedience in Things necessary to its Establishment And can any Man expect to be excus'd from taking the Oaths which is the only Moral Security the Government can expect or require and upon this very Pretence which if allowed all Kingdoms must dissolve into Anarchy and Confusion Religion and Conscience being the Common Pretentions of all Male-Contents This may suffice to satisfy any sober Rational Man that is not resolv'd to maintain the Conclusion be the Premises never so weak Some there are that presume their Subscription to the Doctrine of the Church of England in her Book of Articles will not permit them to yield their Obedience to these Alterations But if this shall prove a Mistake and our Obedience shall be conformable to our Principles will it not rather be esteemed Peevishness than Conscience To discover the Mistake let us consider when and by whom the Articles were composed and refer the Practices of those Times to the Articles as an authentick and clear Interpretation of them and this also will vanish like Smoak 1. The Articles were made or at least confirmed in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth who was a constant asserter and maintainer of this Maxim That it is lawful for a neighbouring Prince to relieve and defend the Subjects of another when invaded in their Laws Liberties and Religion Who was it that protected and assisted the Hugonets in France against the Tyranny and Violence of their Princes Was it not this Gracious and Heroick Queen And who was it that protected the Netherlands against the Violence and Usurpations of the Spanish Monarch And was all this contrary to the avowed Doctrines of our Church of which she was the Defender Was not this defended or at least allowed of by the Church-Men of those Times must it be now inconsistent with the Principles of our Times Do they bind our Hands so that if we are invaded we may not crave the like Protection Let any sober scrupulous dissatisfied Person give a sober Answer and Resolution to these Queries The Dutch Netherlands erected a new Model of Goverment under her Protection after they had shaken off the Spanish Yoak 2. Let it be granted what ought not to be denied That the late King did abdicate and that the Government did devolve upon the People and these in a full Representative of the whole Nation whether in Parliament or in a Convention it matters not which whilst that was a free and fair Choice have constituted these to be our Governours Are we not to pay and swear Obedience unto them as well as their Predecessors And if this were rightly weigh'd would answer an Objection from that Declaration in the Act of Uniformity I abhor that Traiterous Position c. If after all this Men will fix all upon a Jus divinum and fly to Scriptures let them give plain positive Texts for a general Form with Rules universally relating unto and obliging all Places and Men. If they cannot let them confess that God hath left all Nations and People to be ruled by that Government and those Laws which are most suitable to the Constitution and Temperament of the People and this I lay down for a Foundation not to be overthrown But to Answer those places which are so much insisted upon that of our Saviour's St Paul's and St Peter's we need to make use of that absurd Assertion of some of the Romanists That this was only enjoyn'd and to be performed until they had opportunity to make a Resistance This would stain the Glory of the Primitive Martyrs Not a forced but a voluntary Martyrdom deserves the Crown however this gives a taste of the Loyalty of these Men and their Religion to the maintaining of which the Popish Princes sacrifice all their Power and Policy But for a more Substantial Answer by way of Satisfaction to these Scruples let it be duly considered that the Primitive Christians and we were under different and distinct Administrations they liv'd under absolute Monarchs their Grandeur was won by the Sword and confirm'd by a pure Despotick Power and therefore their Resistance had been unlawful contrary to the Rule and Force of their Government but it is quite otherwise with us We are setled upon a Gothick Model our Princes make no Laws without our own Consent they are obliged to the excution of Laws made by our selves with their Consent they have no Power to dispense with the breach of them by others nor to invade them themselves This was own'd by the seven Bishops declar'd by former Parliaments so that no Man is bound to pay their Allegiance any further Let Caesar have what is Caesar's and the Subjects what is theirs their Laws their Birth-right In some cases Moral positive Duties are superseded by what is naturally Moral as in the Duties of the fourth Command so here Tho Government in general be founded upon Nature yet this or that Form is but positive and if it be not consistant with the end of Government Self-preservation Why should not it be either altered or fixed in those who will prosecute the right end the
the Affairs of Europe for that great Enemy of the Protestants and even of Christianity it self who had propos'd nothing less to himself than an Universal Monarchy whom the Strictest Leagues and Contracts cannot bind but without regard to GOD or Man threatens all his Neighbours with utter Destruction by the Scene 's being changed among us is so far humbled that from a Proud and Insulting Enemy he is become a Supplicant for Peace well foreseeing that if Britain join with those other Princes whom his Insolence Cruelty and Avarice has so justly Armed against him his Ruine is Inevitable So that if we have not Soul enough to enjoy this great Blessing and can easily part with the Glory of being once more the Arbiters of Europe let us at least have so much Christian Love and Charity for the Neighbouring Nations of our own Perswasion as not to expose them to a necessary Participation of these Plagues which our Common Enemies are preparing for us and which will certainly Terminate in all our Destructions Lastly I beseech you to consider what Persons they are who would Instill this Poyson in you and you will find them of three kinds First those who Postponing the Common Good of the Nation are wholly acted by Self-Interest considering that in a Government where Justice and Mercy equally Flourish Virtue and Merit not Villany will be rewarded Secondly They who are ignorant of the Nature of Government and were never at the pains to inform themselves what Measures the Law of Nature and Nations have set to mens Obedience but are angry at every thing that thwarts their wild Notions and will admit of nothing tho never so reasonable and convincing if their dull Capacities cannot reach it The third sort are such as have been instrumental in the inslaving their Country and are afraid if they be called to an Account they may be brought to suffer Condign Punishment if such cannot succeed in their Design they at least hope to be overlook'd in a General Confusion so they have nothing unessayed that may tend to their own safety and if Heaven fail them they summon Hell to their Aid not that Love to their Prince but meer Ambition and Interest drives these Criminals to such Attempts neither are they much to blame if they are at such pains to sow Divisions among us But no Person of Wit and Judgment nor any Good Man that is truly Protestant and minds the good of his Country will suffer himself to be so grosly imposed on by such Firebands who would build their Furture Imaginary Greatness on the Ruine of Our Religion Laws and Country The Grounds upon which the Estates of Scotland Declared the Right of the Crown of Scotland FORFAULTED and the Throne become VACANT I. BBcause King James the Seventh is a Professed Papist II. That the said King James did assume the Royal Power and acted as King without ever taking the Oath required by Law. III. That he hath by the Council of evil Men invaded the Fundamental Constitution of the Kingdom and changed it from a limited Monarchy to an Absolute and Despotick Power IV. Which Power he hath imployed to the Subversion of the Protestant Religion and the Violation of the Rights of the Subject And thereby V. Hath inverted all the Ends of Government The Opinion of two eminent Parliament-Men justifying the lawfulness of taking the Oaths of Allegiance to King William and Queen Mary I. FIdelity and Allegiance sworn to the King is only a Fidelity and Obedience as it is due to him by the Law of the Land for were that Faith and Allegiance more than what the Law requires we should swear our selves Slaves and the King Absolute whereas by the Law we are free notwithstanding these Oaths II. When therefore by the Law Fidelity and Allegiance ceaseth then our sworn Allegiance ceaseth for if Allegiance might be due by the Oath to one Person whilst by the Law it ceaseth to him and becomes due to another Person the Oath then would oblige Men to transgress the Law and become Traytors and Rebels whereas the Oath is part of the Law and therefore ought to be so interpreted as may consist with it III. Fidelity and Allegiance are due by the Law to King William and not to King James for the Statute of 25 of Edward 3 d which defined all Treasons against the King and is the only Statute to that purpose now that Statute by the King understands not only a King de jure but also a King de facto tho not de jure against whom those Treasons Lie whence the Lord Chief Justice Hales in his Pleas of the Crown p. 12. discoursing of that Statute tells us that a King de facto and not de jure is a King within that Act and that Treason against him is Punishable tho the Right Heir get the Crown and that this hath been the common Sense of the Law Sir R. S. upon application to him about it hath assured us And according to another Statute 11 Hen. 7. ch 1. It is declared Treason to be in Arms against a King de facto such as Richard the 3 d was tho it was in behalf of a King de jure So then by the Law of the Land all things are Treason against King William which have been Treason against former Kings therefore the same Fidelity Obedience and Allegiance which was due to them is due to him and by Consequence may be Sworn to him by the Law of the Land. Allegiance and Protection are always Mutual and therefore when King James ceased to Protect us we ceased to owe him Allegiance by the Law of the Land and when King William began to Protect us we began our Allegiance to him These Considerations are in our Opinion sufficient to remove the Grand Scruple about the Oaths If the dissatisfied Party accuse the Convention for making the Prince of Orange King it is not my Duty to judge those above me therefore I shall only say that if they have done ill Quod fieri non debuit factum valot and they of the Clergy ought not to censure their Superiours but obey according to the Law and Doctrine of Passive Obedience FINIS