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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42629	The defence of the Parliament of England in the case of James the II, or, A treatise of regal power and of the right of the people drawn from ancient councils ... and more especially the ordinances of the doctors of the Church of Rome ... : wherein is demonstrated that the Holy Scriptures are so far from being contrary, that they do even assent thereto / written in Latin by P. Georgeson, Kt. ; translated by S. Rand.	Georgeson, P., Sir.; Rand, S.	1692 (1692)	Wing G533; ESTC R18626	44,763	42

at such time as it confines it self within its just limits No Man of judgment will ever condemn any sort of Government whatsoever when is it settled and is agreeable to the Humour and Genius of the People What I have advanced that toucheth them the most to the quick is taken from a Sermon that Gerson Chancellor of the University of Paris Preached before King Charles the VI. and the Dolphin who found no fault with it If I have defended the Conduct and Proceeding of the Parliament of England it is because they have changed the Governor only but not the Government and that it had substituted in the room of an Oppressor a pious just and wise Prince Nay and a Prince too who was rightful Heir to the Crown whom they went about to dispoil and devest of his Rights by a certain fraudulent way never heard of in any Age. Some may be apt to say that this Treatise would have come more seasonably three Years ago then now I grant that but I had not then the opportunities and helps I met with since which were absolutely necessary for me nay I must confess I had not so much as thought of it had it not been for an insipid and impudent French Book which hath made a great Noise in the World 't is call'd Advis aux Refugiez the impertinent Scribler of this Libel by establishing Absolute Power in a gross manner which smells more of his Pension then of Love for Truth hath wickedly charged all those of his Nation of Rebellion who did not blindly obey the Will of their King and involves the English Nation in the same if not in a greater for loving its Religion and its Laws I was moreover confirmed in my Design by the reading of a posthumons Piece of Richer Dr. of Paris which was published the last Year as well as the other and upon the same Accunt I have in compiling this Piece been more solicitous about things than words and that is the Reason why one will scarce find in it any Ornaments but such as do naturally arise from the subject Matter whether I have succeeded well in the Design I have propounded to my self I leave that to the Readers judgment I will assure him only that I have been exceeding faithful in whatsoever I have reported from the Authors I have quoted The Defence of the Parliament of England in the Case of JAMES the Second NExt to the Questions that are conversant about Faith there is not any one of greater consequence we meet with that falls under debate than that Question touching Regal Power for it highly concerns the Publick to understand whether or no it be limited and circumscribed by humane Laws or is to be accounted supreiour to them all It will be therefore worth our while especially in this new unexpected Conjuncture and change of the British Affairs that have so much astonished the World to attempt some discourse of it exactly and succinctly But now to decide each Controversie that may arise concerning Regal power as well by divine as humane Rights nothing seems more to the purpose than to begin with the Authority Ecclesiastical tempered and allayed with the Civil for since it consists of both Rights it deservedly holds the first place and amongst humane Authorities is lookt upon as the greatest Come on then as Studiers of brevity laying aside any further preamble let us hasten to the matter in hand CHAP. I. Decrees of several Councils whereby the Regal Power is Circumstantiated and Bounded within its Limits THe Fourth Council of Toledo assembled out of Ecclesiastical persons and States of the Realm Anno 633. which is named by the Spanish Councils The Grand and General Council concerning Kings that shall hereafter succeed We Enact and Decree this Sentence ●aith the Council that if any amongst them contrary to the respect due to the Laws out of an haughty arbitrary ambition to Lord it over his Subjects shall assume and exercise Cruelty and Tyrannical power and shall abandon himself to unjust and vitious excesses and shall exercise cruelty over his People Let him be condemned by the Sentence of Anathema from our Lord Christ and may be receive judgment and condemnation from God for asmuch as he hath presumed to act wickedly and to bring the Kingdom to ruin and destruction But as for Simithilana who dreading his own evil courses hath abdicated and forsaken his Kingdom and divested himself of Regal Authority It is by and with the consent of the Nation Decreed That we will never admit him or his Wife by reason of the exorbitant mischiefs they have committed no nor his Sons into our Unity or Communion nor over advance or promote them at any time to those Dignities and Honours from which they by their iniquity have lapsed and fallen 'T is to be observed that this Convention or Synod composed of the States of the Nation or rather of the whole Nation in general do in the Synod put Kings in mind of their duty and withal do exert their power upon male-administratours and that not in words only but in truth and effect as evidently appears by the example of Simithiliana between whom and King James there is a most wonderful and particular resemblance as also an exact conformity and agreement between the Synod and Act of Parliament The Sixth Council of Toledo assembled of Ecclesiastical persons and States of the Nation An. 676. a Law of King Chintilanus about banishing the Jews out of the Realm being introduced with commendations annexed the Synod adds these words But this is by us with all care and diligence to be established least the heat and energy of it and our labour should abate and prove of none effect in our Posterity wherefore by an unanimous consent of heart and tongue together with the consent of his Peers and mature deliberation of the Nobility we decree and enact That whosoever in future Ages shall chance to be intrusted with the supream management of the Realm shall never aseend the Regal Throne before amongst other obligations and solemn Oaths of conditions to be performed he shall promise and declare that he will vever suffer the Jews to violate the Catholick Faith moreover that by no manner of wayes he shall be abetting to their treachery or induced by any neglect or covetousness shall open the way to their prevaricating who run headlong to down right Paganism and Infidelity but what is most aimed at and desired in our time is that he should remain untainted and blameless for the future for in vain is it to do good if perseverance in the same be not provided for wherefore at such time as conformable to the said order he shall be admitted and have access to the Throne to hold the reins of Government if he shall prove to be a violator of this promise let him be Anathama Maranatha from the presence of the everlacting God and may he afford fuel to everlasting Fire yea of

it I hope for the future those passive obedient Parasites of Tyrants will not expect to find any thing to encourage them The Appendix to this small Treatise WHen I had quite made an end of this small piece I accidentally met with the posthumous Work of Edmond Richer Doctor of the faculty of Paris no obscure person touching Ecclesiastical Power in Temporal Matters it was published at Cologne Anno 1691. wherein he makes as if he would lay some foundation for the absolute Power of the King but defends it with such sorry pitiful Arguments that altho he had a mind to sacrifice Truth to Regal Power yet in spight of his Teeth Truth for it 's stronger than any King will bravely hold up its Head against Error nor would I have you take my word for it let him have a● hearing bringing in his Evidence for Truth As to the Second Doubt saith he I grant that every Commonwealth standeth upon its own Legs and is sufficient for its self by Divine and Natural Right should it be either a Republick or a Monarchy so it be done by a free Consent of the Estates and the Publick Peace kept for by what Right it doth by the undnimous consent of all chuse freely a Prince by the same Right also may it abrogate and disown that Prince provided that in so abrogating the Publick Tranquility and Peace be not disturbed for if the Publick Peace suffer thereby it is far the wiser course to rest satisfied and endure the Grievances and Tyranny of one single person than of many conformable to that Precept of our Blessed Lord not to plu●k up the Tares with harm to the Wheat In this Thesis Richerius does not only settle and maintain the Right inherent to the People to depose ill Princes but does also mightily approve of the late change that happened in the British affairs as lawful For Charles the Second dying without lawful Issue it was in the Parliaments Power either to elect or refuse James the Second by reason of his great averseness to the True Religion it was therefore in the Parliaments Power to eject him but they ejected him as one who did not administer aright neither was the Peace and Tranquility disturbed in so abrogating him neither were there more Tyrants placed in his stead but the true rightful Heirs to the Crown William and Mary and by rooting up the greatest part of the Tares no damage to the Wheat ensued yea it becau●e more pure and clean therefore Richerius could have desired nothing more in this Revolution Furthermore the said Richerius tells us that as well Reason as the Practice of the Primitive Church do confirm that it is altogether unlawful to shock the Peace and Quiet of the Publick only upon the acco●nt of a Princes oppressing or forsaking the Religion professed and established by his Predecessors unless at the same time he injure the Peace with the State of the Kingdom We have before lookt into the reason it self and constant practice of the Primitive Church but for all that Richerius must needs confess that it is Lawful to restrain one that does injury to publick Tranquility But this great Parisian Doctor useth a strange kind of distinction Except it so fall out saith he that he violate or corrupt the Peace together with the state of the Kingdom He seems to make small account of Religion who supposeth that the Religion of a Kingdom may be supprest and that yet the Peace of the Kingdom may not b● disturbed and destroyed the good man knows that Religion is one of the tenderest things in the World and thus you see how Truth uses to compel the Maintainers and Abettors of Falshood to acknowledge her and even whether they will or no to extort an evidence for her against themselves Give me leave now to finish this Appendix with Richerius's own Words We must conclude then says he that it is one of the greatest Miracles that can possibly happen t● Mankind in any Civil Society to be blest with a good Prince which God out ●● his mercy bestows on them as he gives ill Princes in his wrath O Fortunates nimium sua si bona norint Anglicolas What mighty blessings may the English find If to their happiness they are not blind Gloria Deo in Excelss From Binius Conc. Tolet. 4. c. 74. By others Cintillanus VI. Conc. Toled c. 3. Eighth Synod of Toledo a Law of King Beccesuinthus enacted VIII Synods Universal Decree in the Name of the Prince * XII Synod Toledo c. 2. to ward the end Salmat is mistaken who in defence R. C. 4. p. 144. Printed 1652. affirms that Pope Zacharius was the first who absolved People from the Oath of Allegiance since that was done by this Synod seventy Years before Zacharias who lived seventy Years who lived about the middle of the eighth Century XIII Toled Synod Flavius Ervigius to the Holy Fathers Mezeray in the ● life of Child the 3 d. Idem in the life Lewis the pious Psal 110. 4. Heb. 6. 16. To Volusius Praefect of the Praetorium Aen. Sylv. de gestis Concil Basil l. 1. f. 4. in fasciculo rerum Expeterdarium faciendarum Pristinae Editionis T●o 2a 2ae quest 12. art 22. at the end 2a 2ae quest 10. art 10. quest 12. 2. Joan. Gerson edit Paris 1606. fo 79. 8. sequent art Prima veritas Secund. Verit. Tert. Ve●is VII Consider In his Treatise of Guelph and Gibellin Bellermin in Exca sat Bar claij ca. 22 in princip Ibidem in 3. respons Torrensis d● sum Pontif supra co●●ilij auth●●itate Anal. divin fidei l. 2. c. 9. corallar de homine in so●ietate constitute 〈…〉 20. Be●an in controver Angl. p. 120. Edit p●im Joan. Albint 1612. Ma●ian l. 1. de institut Regis c. 6. S●ar desenfidei Catholic l 3. c. 3. lib. 6. c. 4. Instit l. 1. c. 2. Tit. 2. Lipside Constan Lib. 2. Cap. 29. Salmatius Edmund Riche●ius Mem. de du Tillet in the Chapter of the Coron●tion of Kings Deut. 17. 15. Matth. 17. 25. Instit l. 1. Tit. 8. c. 2. Exod. 21. This is an incomp●●able D●monstration and not to be ●vaded Antonin was an Heachen Grot de jure belli pa● l. 1. c. 4. n. 7. Salm. cap. 5. p. 164. G●●t ut supra He reckons seven causes why he may be removed from the Throne Salm. c. 7. p. 24. C●un Constan s●ssion 4. and 5. Basil 12. and 18. A●bas Vrsparg Chron. p. 46. Lewis of Bavaria Winceslaus and others Javenal 13. Sat. 13. Milton against Salmatius Amongst which we reckon Gerson Aen. Syl. and late writers Edm. Richer Elias du Pin. and many others Add to these Beller Peron Torrensis and many Jesuits Cap. 2. p. 43. 44 45 46. Deut. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. p. 4. Grotius vide supra Cap. 6. p. 195. ● Sam. 24. 1 Sam. 26. 1. Sam. 24. 2 Sam. 3 1 Kings 21. 2 Sam. 2. 2 Sam. 3. 2 Sam. 4. 2 Kings 11. 2 Chron. 25. 2 Kings 14. Chap. 4. p. 121 122. Cap. 2. p. 50 51 and 55. Majmonidt Halac Melac Cap. 3. 1 Sam. 11. 1 Kings 11. 2 Kings 12. 2 Kings 14 and 21. Salmas cap. 4. p. 111 112. Cap. 13. 2 Sam. 3. 2 Kings 11. Vales in Eusebium in Hist Eccles lib. 4. cap. 7. Up and down in Ec●le● Histr Salmas cap. 4. p. 138.

whose power it is to depose a Pope even by the Confession of the Assertors of pontifical Tyranny were not quite as much a Beast with many Heads as the States General Torenfis also insisting upon the same Principles with Beliermin saith He that holds that the Authority of the Church is greater then that of a Pope seems to me to mean nothing else but that the King of the Church whose Regal Power is derived not from the Human Law as is that of a secular King but from the Divine Law d●th not at all differ from a secular King who if he proves troublesom and pestilent and a Tyrant may be deposed by the Subject To both these aforesaid doth Henry Holden a Doctor of the Sorbon subscribe in a Book he ventured to publish at Paris The short and long of it is saith he considering that all Society co mence h from contracts and covenants entered into between the People and the Sovereign Power of which Government and Discipline Laws and Rules interchangeably ratified and agreed upon by mutual consent are the Foundation of the Society or Community as well as the Form and Life of it manifest it is that if Supream Authority shall command any thing oppugnant and contrary to the Laws and having a design to erect an Absolute and Arbitrary Power shall say stet pro ratione voluntas my will shall stand for a Law by that very thing his Subjects are ipso facto freed and exempted from their obedience to such an ones Orders and Declarations What hath been hitherto said concerning non Obedience may be also transfer'd to open Resistance for upon the same account that Subjects are dispensed from paying Obedience and Service to a Ruler by the same right it may be lawful for them to resist and withstand the same Government for when the Emperor or King shall exceed and go beyond the limits and bounds of his Power and shall design to force things upon his Subjects and compel and constrain them to wicked and unjust things contrary to divine natural and human Laws it is evident from the Premisses that it may be and is lawful for Subjects in such Circumstances by the Law of Nature by all ways and means they can he think themselves of to stand upon their guard for their own defence yea and sometimes perhaps do lye under an obligation so to do I should disert and be wanting to my Cause should I omit on this occasion the Testimony of grave Didacus Savedra Faxardus Plenipotentiary of the House of Burgundy who acquitted himself with so much Applause in those several Ambassies he undertook for Philip the IV. whose words are the more consp●c●ous and remarkable for that they were written for the Education of Charles the II. reigning at this day in Spain they run thus Let the Prince know and acknowledge the nature of his power also n●r let him look upon it so Supream and Absolute but that some part thereof at least resides in the people which at the first they had either a mind to reserve to themselves or else natural reason did grant it to them for their own preservation and defence against the unjust and manifest Tyranny of the Prince Good Princes do not take it much amiss that their Subjects should enjoy some sort of Freedom or other none but Tyrants exercise Absolute Power in Government the Welfare and Prosperity of the Publick ariseth out of the due mixture and temperament of publick Liberty accompanied with the Prince's Authority and is thereby mainly secured not a pu●ssant Prince but a just upright Prince is the safest nay and he never Ioseth any thing in his Government who does not violate and infring the Priviledges of the Subject besides ' t is the part of a prudent Prince to grant and concede the free enjoyment of his Subjects Rights and Priviledges especially when nothing of the Prince's Authority is lost by such concession which then only suffers some damage when he goes about to cozen and bereave Subjects of their Priviledges may it suffice a Prince to leave that Crown he received from his Ancestors as he found it Paper and Ink would fail me should I endeavour to trace all those who were possitive in the opinion and have assented thereto especially them of Loyala's Tribe those Becanus's Marianaes and Suarezes nay and the whole Gang of the Regicides I ●orbear to name as being the profest Enemies of Kings and consequently unfit for Witnesses in this Matter The courteous Reader may easily pardon me too though I should not summon in the Doctors of the Reformed Church as witnesses of this Truth who are the rather to be consided in as being greater Divines and more happily versed in Sacred Writ then the Papists be Yet seeing that this Intent of ours is usually objected and charged upon the Reformed as peculiar to them I supposed it will be my chief business clearly to evince this to be not only the mind and suffrage of one Nation of one Religion and Perswasion but of all Christians yea and of all Mankind in general but that the Reformed did countenance this Opinion the more noble part of the Christian World may convince us which did not suffer Power to oppress and bear down Religion by the Tyranny of Idolatry and Superstition What is spoken of the Reformed in general is not meant of every one in particular for I am not ignorant that there are a great many to be found amongst them either too much addicted to Tyrants or else living under Tyrants being timerous have taught the quite contrary to this our Sentiment even as amongst the Papists there is not wanting a good many Slaves of Tyrants because it is the main Design of the Roman Church to subdue and captivate Man to Man and not to Christ CHAP. III. Wherein by Arguments brought from the Law of Nature and of Nations is evinced that there is no such thing as Absolute Power WE have produced but too many illustrious Examples and grave weighty determinations to overthrow the Absolute Power of Princes yet peradventure some may desire that we would impugn and oppose it by Arguments deduced from the Law of Nature and Nations we shall not think much to gratifie their request for there is a vast company of Arguments do continually flow from the very Fountains of Nature it self wherewith as by so many battering Rams the strong hold of Tyranny may be battered and levelled with the Ground It might perhaps stand us upon in this place to enter upon a Discourse concerning the Rise and Origin of Powers but since that is so long and tedious considering our present design we are willing to leave that task to your Civiliars it will serve our turn to have only touched cursorily upon some of the chief Points which conduce to our purpose 'T is believed by all true Christians that if Adam had stood and persevered in his primitive Integrity his Posterity would