GOD's WAYS OF Disposing Kingdoms AND Some CLERGY-MEN'S Ways c. Vtrum horum OR GOD's WAYS OF Disposing of KINGDOMS AND Some CLERGY-MEN's Ways OF Disposing of THEM Who is blind but my servant or deaf as my messenger that I sent Isa 42.19 The Prophets prophesie lies in my name neither have I commanded them neither spake unto them They prophesie unto you a false vision and divination and a thing of nought and the deceit of their heart Jer. 14.14 O ye hypocrites ye can discern the face of the sky and can ye not discern the signs of the times Matth. 16.3 LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Oxfords-Arms Inn Warwick-Lane MDCXCI TO THE READER IT is the General sense of Mankind That Discourses upon any Particular Government ought to be grounded upon the Laws and Constitution of that Government And it is a Position so clear in it self that applied to any other thing whatsoever the contrary will appear ridiculous No man that were to build a Ship would consult the Commentators upon the Book of Genesis for the Fabrick and Dimensions of Noah's Ark. Nor is Solomon's Temple made the Pattern of our Churches Nor are the Laws of the Jews observ'd by any Christian Kingdom or State And yet some late Divines in their Discourses upon our Present Government and the Settlement of the Nation under Their Majesties and the Revolution that brought it about do not confine themselves to our Laws and Ancient Government but broach Opinions of their own or other Mens Invention pretended to be grounded upon Scripture or Reason to justify what has been done and to persuade the People of England that 't is their duty to submit and to plight their Allegiance to Their Majesties or at least that it is lawful for them so to do Whether the Grounds they proceed upon are consonant to right Reason the Laws of God and of this Realm or are not is far from the Design of these following Papers to dispute That which is aim'd at being no more than to present the Reader with the Sense and Judgment of those who acted in the Revolution and who contributed their Endeavours to settle the Nation after the Late King's withdrawing himself with the Sense and Principles of some few Divines amongst us concerning these Matters If the latter run wide from the former then it is to be feared that those Gentlemen who would seem to espouse the Interest of the Government by putting Pen to Paper in Defence or at least in excuse of it do it more disservice than if they had forborn the venting their Opinions For it cannot but weaken a well-establish'd Government to persuade the People under it that it stands upon another Foundation than really it does especially when that Foundation is not only contrary to the Sentiments of the Nation express'd as will appear hereafter but is really a Fiction of speculative Heads and no better than the building of a Castle in the Air. The Opposition will appear in a great measure by considering these few Particulars His Highness the then Prince of Orange declared That his Expedition was intended for no other Design but to have a Free and Lawful Parliament Assembled for doing all things which the Two Houses should find necessary for the Peace Honour and Safety of the Nation To which Parliament he referred all things relating to the Succession and promised to concur in every thing that a Free and Lawful Parliament should determine They tell us of Sovereign Princes Successes in Just Wars and Appeals to God Whereas the Prince of Orange was not actually a Sovereign Prince being dispossess'd of his Principality Nor made war upon the Nation or so much as upon King James but came over with an Army to enforce the sitting of a Free Parliament to which Parliament he made his Appeal and not to God though as a Pious and Christian Prince he relied on the blessing of God for the success of his Undertaking in which he placed his whole and only Confidence His Highness invited and required all Persons whatsoever All the Peers of the Realm both Spiritual and Temporal All Lords Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenant and all Gentlemen Citizens and other Commons of all Ranks to come and assist him in order to the executing of his said Design against all such as should endeavour to oppose him And accordingly great numbers actually did and many more nay the body of the Nation would if there had been occasion And when the Government was setled Their Majesties with the concurrence of both Houses of Parliament Enacted That the Oath appointed by the Statute of 13 Car. II. Entituled An Act for ordering the Forces of the several Counties of this Kingdom And also so much of a Declaration prescribed in another Act made in the same year Entituled An Act for the Uniformity of Publick Prayers and Administration of the Sacraments c. as is expressed in these words viz. I A. B. declare That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King and that I do abhor that Trayterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are commissioned by him Should not from henceforth be required or enjoined But these Gentlemen tell us That notwithstanding the unreasonable Cavils of Gainsaying Men Hickman Passive Obedience always was and they hope always will be the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of England That Kings are the only Persons upon Earth unto whom God has given an immediate delegation of his Authority whom to obey is to obey his Ordinance and whom to resist is to resist his Power They tell us That the Church of England has been very careful to instruct her Children to obey their Princes Laws Sherlock and submit to their Power and not to resist tho very injuriously opprest and that those who renounce these Principles renounce the Doctrine of the Church of England That whatever Prince is setled in the Throne is to be obeyed and reverenced as God's Minister and not to be resisted That the Church of England condemns all those wicked means by which Changes of Government are made That Subjects have no right to make war without the leave of their Princes for that St. Asaph as God has given to Princes the Power of the Sword so he has forbid it to Subjects under a great penalty They that take the Sword shall perish with the Sword When the Lords and Commons met at Westminster they grounded the Vacancy of the Throne upon the Late King 's having subverted the Fundamental Laws of the Realm and since withdrawn himself Whereas according to these Gentlemens Notions they ought not to have gone upon a Vacancy but have recognized the Prince of Orange's Title to the Crown as being already chosen thereunto by God who had given him success in a Just War against King James Tho it would have been a hard task for them to have brought the Queen in at
Disobedience and wilful Rebellion but it is no-where said That where the Right of Sovereignty is transferred by a Successful War there is no Allegiance due to those who possess it p. 2. Ours is only the Case of Just War ☜ Apage nugas which is allowed by all sorts of Casuists who do agree that Allegiance is due to the Party that prevails in it and if it be due to one it cannot be due to another at the same time although he be living and do not discharge Persons from their Oaths for the obligation of Oaths depends on the nature and reason of things and not upon the Pleasure of those to whom they are made But where there is a Right to govern there must be a Duty of Allegiance And that Success in a Just War doth give such a Right What Right do you mean I could produce so many Testimonies of all kinds of Writers as would make the reading of them as tedious as of those in the History of Passive Obedience Nay some go so far as to assert a Right of Sovereignty to be acquired by success even in an Vnjust War So 't is as much as by a Just War But we need none of these Testimonies But doth not all this resolve this whole Controversie into a Right of Conquest 'T is not a pin-matter whether it does or no. which is not so much as pretended in our present Case * It 's a fine thing to be a Schollar I answer That we must distinguish between a Right to the Government and the Manner of Assuming it The Right was founded on the Just Causes of the War and the Success in it But the assuming of it was not by any ways of force or violence but by a Free Consent of the People who by a voluntary Recognition and Their Majesties acceptance of the Government as it is setled by our Laws take away any pretence * But not to an Ecclesiastical Whimsie of an imaginary Right by the Choice of God to a Conquest over the People or a Government by Force The Case of the Allegiance due to Sovereign Powers c. THAT which has perplexed this Controversie is the intermixing the Dispute of Right with the Duty of Obedience or making the Legal Right of Princes to their Thrones the only Reason and Foundation of the Allegiance of Subjects That Allegiance is due only to Right not to Government though it can be paid only to Government It seems to me to be unfit to dispute the Right of Princes a thing which no Government can permit to be a Question among their Subjects p. 1. And therefore I shall not meddle with this Dispute as being both above me and * Then you 'll say nothing to the purpose nothing to my present purpose Subjects have a plain Rule of Duty without understanding Laws and Politicks the Intrigues of Government the Revolutions of States the Disputes of Princes which I am sure is both for the security of Governments and Subjects If then Allegiance be due not for the sake of Legal Right but Government If Allegiance be due not to bare Legal Right but * That is to Glergy-mens Crockets to the Authority of of God If God when he sees fit and can better serve the ends of his Providence by it sets up Kings without any regard to Legal Right or Humane Laws p. 2. If Kings thus set up by God are invested with God's Authority which must be obey'd not only for wrath but also for conscience sake If these Principles be true it is plain That Subjects are bound to obey and to pay and swear Allegiance if it be required to those Princes whom God hath placed and settled in the Throne whatever Disputes there may be about their legal Right when they are invested with God's Authority And then it is plain That our old Allegiance and old Oaths are at an end when God has set over us a new King For when God transfers Kingdoms and requires our Obedience and Allegiance to a new King he necessarily transfers our Allegiance too This Scheme of Government may startle some men at first From you it will startle no man of common sense before they have well considered it p. 2 3. The Church of England has been very careful to instruct Her Children in their Duty to Princes to obey their Laws and submit to their power and not to resist tho very injuriously oppressed and those who renounce these Principles renounce the Doctrine of the Church of England But she has withal taught That all Sovereign Princes receive their Power and Authority from God and therefore every Prince who is setled in the Throne is to be obey'd and reverenced as God's Minister and to be resisted which directs us what to do in all Revolutions of Government when once they come to a Settlement and those who refuse to pay and swear Allegiance to such Princes whom God has placed in the Throne whatever then Legal Right be do as much reject the Doctrine of the Church of England as those who teach the Resistance of Princes For the proof of which I appeal to Bishop Overal's Convocation-Book p. 4. I know not how it was possible for the Convocation to express their sense plainer That all Usurped Powers when throughly settled have God's Authority and must be obey'd So that here are the Two great points determined whereon this whole Controversie turns 1. That those Princes who have no legal right to their Thrones may yet have God's Authority 2. That when they are throughly settled in their Thrones they are invested with God's Authority and must be reverenced and obeyed by all who live within their Territories and Dominions as well Priests as People If these propositions be true it is a plain Resolution of the Case that if it should at any time happen that the rightful Prince should be driven out of his Kingdom and another Prince placed in his Throne and settled in the full Administration of Government Subjects not only may but must for Conscience sake and out of reverence to the Authority of God with which such a Prince is invested pay all the Duty and Allegiance of Subjects to him As for the first the Case is plain That the Convocation speaks of illegal and usurped Powers and yet affirms that the Authority exercised by them is God's Authority and therefore those Princes who have no legal right may have God's Authority p. 5. The Moabites and Aramites never could have a Legal Right to the Government of Israel What not by a Conquest and yet the Convocation asserts That when Israel was in subjection to them they knew that it was not lawful for them of themselves and by their own Authority to take Arms against the Kings whose Subjects they were Prove they were Tyrants tho indeed they were Tyrants The like they teach of the Kings of Egypt and Babylon p. 6 There is no Duty Subjects as
your means be brought out of those straights to which they are at present reduced We hope likewise that ye will not suffer your selves to be abused by a false Notion of Honour but that you will in the first place consider what you owe to Almighty God and your Religion to your Countrey to your Selves and to your Posterity which you as Men of Honour ought to prefer to all private Considerations and Engagements whatsoever We do therefore expect that you will consider the Honour that is now set before you of being the Instruments of serving your Countrey and securing your Religion and we shall ever remember the Service you shall do Us upon this occasion and will promise you That we shall place such particular Marks of our Favour on every one of you as your Behaviour at this time shall deserve of Us and the Nation in which we shall make a great distinction of those that shall come seasonably to joyn their Arms with Ours and you shall find Us to be your well-wishing and assured Friend W. H. P. O. And another to all the Officers and Seamen in the English Fleet. Gentlemen and Friends AS We have given to our Faithful and Well-beloved Admiral Herbert a full power so we hope that you will give him an intire credit as to all he shall say to you on our part We have published a Declaration which contains the Reasons which moved Us to enter upon this Expedition in which you will see We had no other design than the preservation of the Protestant Religion and the re-establishment of the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom of England because it is evident that the Papists have resolved the intire ruin of Our Religion in Great Britain as it is effected already in France And to you it is only to be imputed if they are Masters We are persuaded that you already perceive that you are made use of only as an Instrument for the bringing your selves and your Countrey under the yoke of the Papacy and into Slavery by the means of the Irish and other Foreigners who are prepared to finish your Destruction And therefore we hope God will inspire you with more salutary thoughts for the facilitating your Deliverance and for the delivering you from all your Miseries with your Countrey and Religion And this is in all appearance impossible without your joyning with us and assisting us who seek nothing but your Deliverance And we also assure you That we wlll never forget the Services which you shall do us on this occasion and we promise to give every one particular marks of our favour who shall deserve it of us and the Nation We are sincerely your very affectionate Friend W. H. P. O. These Letters were spread underhand over the whole Kingdom and read by all sorts of men and the reason of them being undeniable it had a great force on the Spirits of the Soldiery and Seamen so that those who did not presently comply with them yet resolved they would never strike one stroke in the quarrel till they had a Parliament to secure the Religion Laws and Liberties of England which the Court on the other side had resolved should not be called till the Prince of Orange with his Army were expelled out of the Nation and all those who had submitted to him were reduced into their power to be treated as they thought fit The particulars of the Prince's March to London where he arrived on the 18th of December and the very few Skirmishes that hapned betwixt some of his and the King's Soldiers being inconsiderable shall not be recounted But betwixt his Landing and coming to Town 1. The Lord Delamere assembled Fifty Horsemen and at the head of them marched to Manchester and the next day to Boden-Downs being then a Hundred and fifty strong declaring his design to join with the Prince of Orange which he did 2. On the 22d day of November the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty at Nottingham made this Declaration WE the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of these Northern Counties assembled at Nottingham for the defence of the Laws Religion and Properties according to the free-born Liberties and Privileges descended to Us from our Ancestors as the undoubted Birth-right of the Subjects of this Kingdom of England not doubting but the Infringers and Invaders of our Rights will represent us to the rest of the Nation in the most malicious dress they can put upon us do here unanimously think it our duty to declare to the rest of our Protestant Fellow-Subjects the grounds of our present Undertaking We are by innumerable Grievances made sensible That the very Fundamentals of our Religion Liberties and Properties are about to be rooted out by our late Jesuitical Privy-Council as has been of late too apparent First By the King's dispensing with all the Established Laws at his pleasure 2. By displacing all Officers out of all Offices of Trust and Advantage and placing others in their room that are known Papists deservedly made incapable by the Estastlished Laws of this Land 3. By destroying the Charters of most Corporations in the land 4. By discouraging all persons that are not Papists and preferring such as turn to Popery 5. By displacing all honest and conscientious Judges unless they would contrary to their Consciences declare that to be Law which was merely Arbitrary 6. By branding all Men with the name of Rebels that but offered to justify the Laws in a legal course against the Arbitrary Proceedings of the King or any of his corrupt Ministers 7. By burthening the Nation with an Army to maintain the Violation of the Rights of the Subjects and by discountenancing the Established Religion 8. By forbidding the Subjects the benefit of Petitioning and construing them Libellers so rendring the Laws a Nose of Wax to serve their Arbitrary Ends. And many more such like too long here to enumerate We being thus made sadly sensible of the Arbitrary Tyrannical Government that is by the influence of Jesuitical Councils coming upon us do unanimously declare That not being willing to deliver our Posterity over to such a condition of Popery and Slavery as the aforesaid Oppressions do inevitably threaten we will to the utmost of our power oppose the same by joining with the Prince of Orange whom we hope God Almighty hath sent to rescue us from the Oppressions aforesaid will use our utmost endeavours for the recovery of our almost ruin'd Laws Liberties and Religion and herein we hope all good Protestant Subjects will with their Lives and Fortunes be assistant to us and not be bugbear'd with the opprobrious terms of Rebels by which they would fright us to become perfect Slaves to their Tyrannical Insolences and Usurpations For we assure our selves that no rational and unbiass'd Person will judge it Rebellion to defend our Laws and Religion which all our Princes have sworn at their Coronation which Oath how well it hath been observed of late we desire a Free Parliament may have
the consideration of We own it Rebellion to resist a King that governs by Law but he was always accounted a Tyrant that made his Will the Law and to resist such a one we justly esteem no Rebellion but a necessary Defence And in this Consideration we doubt not of all honest Mens assistance and humbly hope for and implore the Great God's Protection that turneth the hearts of his People as pleaseth him best it having been observed that People can never be of one mind without his Inspiration which hath in all Ages confirmed that Observation Vox populi est vox Dei The present restoring the Charters and reversing the oppressing and unjust Judgment given on Magdalen-College Fellows is plain are but to still the People like Plumbs to Children by deceiving them for a while But if they shall by this Stratagem be fooled till this present Storm that threatens the Papists be past as soon as they shall be re-setled the former Oppressions will be put on with greater vigour but we hope in vain is the Net spread in the sight of the Birds For first The Papists old Rule is that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks as they term Protestants tho the Popish Religion is the greatest Heresie And secondly Queen Mary's so ill observing her Promises to the Suffolk Men that help'd her to her Throne And above all thirdly the Pope's dispensing with the Breach of Oaths Treaties or Promises at his pleasure when it makes for the Service of Holy Church as they term it These we say are such convincing Reasons to hinder us from giving credit to the aforesaid Mock-shews of Redress that we think our selves bound in Conscience to rest on no security that shall not be approved by a freely-elected Parliament To whom under GOD we refer our Cause 3. The King having marched his Army as far as Salisbury to meet the Prince published a Proclamation of Pardon to all such of his Subjects as had taken up Arms and sided with the Prince provided they deserted the Enemy within 20 days and promising Pardon and protection to such Foreigners as would come into his Service and freedom of passage to others to return into their respective Countries But this Proclamation was not at all regarded 4. When the King was at Salisbury the Popish Party seeing their Affairs grow every day more desperate began to employ all their Politicks to invent some Remedy for them and then first formed the Design of the King's with-drawing which they grounded upon this Supposition and Expectation That within two years or less the Nation would be in such Confusion that he might return and have his Ends of it 5. In the mean time the King being unmoveably fixed in a Resolution not to call a Parliament part of the Army revolted and went over to the Prince and the rest either discouraged by the desertion of them that went or by the averseness they found in the body of the People from making any opposition to the Prince's Arms or out of a sense that in fighting against him they should fight against their own Religion and native Country appeared so lukewarm in the Cause that the King did not think fit to hazard a Battel 6. Prince George of Denmark the Duke of Grafton the Lord Churchill and many others of the Protestant Nobility left the King and went over to the Prince of Orange then at Sherborne and on the 25th of November in the night Princess Ann the King 's Second Daughter withdrew privately from White-hall with the Lady Churchill 7. The going off of these Great Men struck the King with terror and the Army being before much in disorder became thereby so full of fear and suspicion that a false Alarm being made whether by design or accident the King and the whole Army left Salisbury the Army retreating to Reading and the King to Andover and on Monday the 26th of November he returned in the Evening to London 8. The first thing the King did being at London was to remove Sir Edward Hales from being Lieutenant of the Tower and to put Sir Bevill Skelton a Protestant in his room Sir Edward had displeased the whole City to the utmost by planting several Mortar-pieces on the Walls towards the City which tho designed only to awe it had more enraged than afrighted them So that his Majesty thought he was not safe at White-hall so long as Sir Edward was Master of the Tower 9. On the 28th His Majesty ordered in Privy Council the Lord Chancellor to issue Writs for the sitting of a Parliament at VVestminster the 15th of January following But it was now too late and the Nation in such a ferment that it was not regarded what the Court said or did 10. Scotland was by this time almost in as bad a Condition as England and some of the Nobility and Gentry were sent up with a Petition for a Free Parliament The Popish Chappels at Bristol York Glocester Worcester Shrewsbury Stafford Wolverhampton Bromingham Cambridge and St. Edmundsbury were about this time demolished and where-ever the Lords in Arms came the Papists were disarmed And in Norfolk the Duke of Norfolk their Lord Lieutenant had a great appearance of the Gentry with him where he and they declared for a Free Parliament and the Protection of the Protestant Religion This Meeting was at Norwich the first of December and after that the same Declaration was renewed at Yarmouth and Lyn and the Suffolk-Men approved of it but wanted a Lord Lieutenant to assemble and head them in order to the shewing their concurrence with safety 11. Bristol was seized by the Earl of Shrewsbury and Sir John Guise the Lord Lovelace who had been seized as he was going to join the Prince was by the Gentry of Glocester-shire delivered out of the Castle of Glocester where till then he had been imprisoned The Lords Molineux and Ashton in the mean time seized Chester for the King being Roman Catholicks and Berwick stood firm to him but Newcastle received the Lord Lumly and declared for a Free Parliament and the Protestant Religion York was in the hands of the Associated Lords and the Garison of Hull seized the Lord Langdale their Governour a Papist and the Lord Mountgomery and disarmed some Popish Forces newly sent thither and then declared for a Free Parliament and the Protestant Religion And Plimouth had long before submitted to the Prince of Orange 12. The Popish Party was grown so contemptible that on Thursday the 6th of December there was a Hue and Cry after Father Peters publickly cried and sold in the Streets of London And about the same time came out a Third Declaration in the Prince's name but not emitted by him which very much alarm'd the Popish Party and as it is thought contributed very much to the fixing and hastning the King's Resolution of leaving the Nation It was read in many Towns throughout England at the Market-cross the People universally believing till some time after