our Religious and Civil Rights and therefore we swore to obey him But when he broke his own Oath and employ'd his Power to Ruin us and our Religion out Allegiance was at an End and we had no Reason to observe those Oaths that were taken when Things were in a better Posture and which we should never have took if we could have fore-seen what since has unfortunately happen'd for tho' we were cheated by our Credulity the Change of Circumstances has cancell'd the Obligation of those Oaths and made it our Duty to do the contrary We are oblig'd to obey our Parents while they maintain their Characters but our Obedience ceases when they command what is sinful Nature founded our Obedience to Authority upon a Supposition that it was for the Good of the Community Kings are the Guarrantees of this Formal Alliance and from the Obligation of the Original Compact arises our Submission But if Princes extend their Authority beyond the first Design of its Institution and destroy the Society over which they preside our Obedience is at an end and we may justly oppose them for no Oath or Promise of Obedience can supercede our Antecedent Obligations to our selves or our Country Had King James kept his own Oath we had been oblig'd to ours but his changing from what he promis'd to be set us at liberty The Deceit was his own Contrivance in disguising himself for had he appear'd in his own Likeness and honestly told us what he design'd before we were decoy'd into Oaths I believe there would have been as many Non-Jurants then as there were Honest and Thinking Men in the Kingdom All Oaths tho' never so cautiously worded have still some Tacit Exceptions or else they would sometimes Interfere with Common Equity Therefore 't is a good Exception in Law and a Salvo in Conscience to say that the Thing when the Oath was taken was Unforeseen and so unlikely to happen that it was thought almost impossible to come to pass viz. That the late King James should endeavour to Ruin his Subjects which of necessity must have been his own Ruin also when the Account should be adjusted between himself and Partners Again As the late King manag'd his Affairs these Oaths and our Obedience were Contradictory to themselves and therefore not Obliging We swore in the Oath of Supremacy that the King is Supream Head and Governor in his Dominions and that the Pope neither hath nor ought to have any Superiority or Authority therein But the late King notwithstanding this Law would have the Pope Supream in Spirituals Could we make him what he would not be Could he absolve us from those Oaths after we had taken them Or how was it possible for to observe them but we must offend one Way or t'other The Low says we must take these Oaths or pay Five Hunder'd Pounds besides other Penal Disabilities The King says we must not take them upon pain of his Displeasure and being turn'd out of the Offices we enjoy as our Freeholds by taking the Oaths what must the Subject do when the Law and the King are at so great Variance and the Subjects Duty involv'd in such Intricacies that could never be salv'd but by the Monarch's Abdication But That which utterly puts an End to the Obligatory Part of these Oaths and makes them Null and Void was his Voluntary Withdrawing himself from the Kingdom Abdicating the Government and Leaving the Throne Vacant for that set his Subjects Free to all Intents and Purposes because he that leaves the Government of his Subjects must be suppos'd to Resign his Interest in them for Government is so necessary for the Preservation of Subjects that he who intends to have Subjects must at the same time intend to have them Govern'd or their whole Allegiance ceases Nor if he could pretend he was forc'd to go off will that avail him because it was of his own procuring He might have prevented it by Calling a Parliament and Complying with Justice and the not doing what he ought makes his Desertion Voluntary I mention this only to answer those that object it without Cause whose Partiality spoils their Judgments and drives them to little Shifts to support their false Pretences His Departure into France and Desertion of the Crown was whol Voluntary no Force compell'd him no Danger threaten'd him the People were willing to have Retain'd him but he according to Hales's and Brent's Advices would leave the Kingdom in Confusion that he might return the sooner and have his Ends of us which would bear very Severe Reflections but his Going off being the only kind Act that ever that King did for England I shall omit them now out of pure Gratitude for that transcendent Favour What remains then but a serious Advice to our Scrupulous or Obstinate Brethren that they would no longer insist upon Controverted Cases and Ill-tim'd Niceties that hinder their Obedience or slacken their Gratitude to God and our Sovereign Lord King William for our Miraculous Deliverance nor Ruin themselves nor expose the Nation to Danger for the sake of the late King when they neither ought nor can do him any Service for seeing by the Law of Nature the Design of Government and the Practice of all Nations the late King hath Forfeited and Renounc'd his Right and they are discharg'd from their Oaths and Allegiance to him that they would now honourably deliver up that Pretence which they can no longer defend and pay their Obedience where Divine Providence the Laws of the Land and an Extraorninary Merit has made it due What can be more dishonourable than that the Dishonour and Loss that has befallen this Unfortunate Prince was the Consequence of his own Arbitrary Actions and is primarily to be imputed to himself in exceeding the Bounds of his Limited Authority which he ought in no wise to have done for the Royal Dignity of England is so far from being a Despotick kind of Government that it carries along with it in its very Essence a Mixture of Interests betwixt King and People and lays an Obligation upon the King to govern not by his own Arbitrary Will but according to Law And so careful have the English Subjects always been to preserve the Government in this Equal Poize that every Deviation from it has been look'd upon by them as a Step towards Tyranny And not only the English but so strangely has all Antiquity look'd upon the Affectation of Absolute Power that Isidore lays it down as the Character of a Tyrant That he is Ambitious of Absolute Dominion and oppresses his Subjects by a Lawless Authority And the Scholiast of Aristophanes says That a King differs from a Tyrant in this that a King possesses his Kingdom as receiving it from his Subject upon certain Conditions prescrib'd by Law but a Tyrant Enters and Rules by Force and Violence James the Second could not be ignorant that other Kings of England have sometimes shew'd their Inclinations and made some private Lashes and subtile Essays towards an Unlimited Power but
late King James's Reign was a Necessary Tyranny and so much the more necessary to push him forward to accomplish his Designs that this Necessity was impos'd upon his Conscience by the Laws of his Church under the Expectation of Rewards or Dread of the Punishments that would attend his Obedience or Disobedience to their Decrees All the Popish Writers agree that * Beccan Theol. Scot. p. 1. c. 13. quaest 5. Tho. Aquin. Summmae quaest 10 art 3. Durand Sancta Portian quaest utrum Haeret. sint tolerand quaest 5. Bellarmin de hicis l. 3. c. 21. Concilio Tolof p. 46. Concil Later 4. every Prince ought to Exterminate his Protestant Subjects that the Omission of that Duty is Damnable and that putting them to Death when they have nothing else to lose is a Just Meritorious Action And we have Reason to believe if Heaven was to be purchas'd God pleas'd the Papists gratify'd and his own Ambition and Prejudice humour'd in doing it the late King would not leave these Blessings behind him Now where the People claim a Right to their Privileges as well as the Prince to his Prerogative the Prince will certainly begin his Reign with the Destruction of those that have a Right to oppose his Absolute Authority And these Maxims of a Right to do it in Conscience were the Inducements to King James's Tyranny which we might expect to see Increas'd but never Relax'd for tho' he might change his Councils he could not change his Conscience nor whilst he had such Directors of it as the Jesuits are can it be suppos'd otherwise but that he would follow the Lessons they taught and he imbib'd as conducing to his Eternal Happiness Fifthly 5. It was a Consummated Tyranny nothing remain'd Entirely Free but all was subjected to the good Pleasure of his own Will His Arbitrary Power influenc'd all in Authority His Privy Council generally speaking were made up of such as would concour with his Unlimited Authority and were oblig'd by their Interest to assist the Project and Subvert all that oppos'd it The Judges gave it for Law that he had a Dispencing Power and ought not to be Resisted in the Exercise of it The Magistracy was infected with the same Malady and the Soldiery were oblig'd to defend it with Sword in Hand 6. It was as intended an Eternal Tyranny for besides that his Abrogating the Laws gave an Example to his Successors to trace his Methods and in time make themselves as Despotick Princes as the Czar of Moscovy or the Turkish Emperor he was introducing a Suppositious Heir that should be train'd up in the same Principles and invested in the same Power and so keep out a Protestant Successor whose Religion would better instruct him in his Duty in maintaining his own Prerogative and yet indulging his Subjects in such a Liberty as does no way Impair or Attaint their Allegiance Whereas a Popish Successor would have made Tyranny as perpetual as 't is Absolute 7. To conclude The Tyranny of the late King's Reign was an Incurable Tyranny If it had arose from the Heat of Youth Time might have quench'd that Fire in correcting the Cause If it had proceeded from any Corporeal Disease a Remedy might have been found to cure it If it had been the Effect of an Incurable Disorder in his Intellects or Temperature we might have flatter'd our selves that it would last but one Reign or that Defect might have been supply'd by a Regent But none of these can be objected against the late King James for he Nurs'd it many Years in his own Bosom it grew up with his Understanding and was a true Tyranny in its Design necessary as impos'd on him by his Conscience evident in all his Actions Universal in its Object and Extent Consummated in its Degrees Eternal in its Consequence and altogether incurable by reason of his Age and introducing a Popish Heir without the Application of such a Speedy and Effectual Remedy as God was pleas'd to send us in our Extremity Some of the late King James's Friends are pleas'd to extenuate the Crimes they cannot defend in charging all the Faults of his Reign upon his Ministers which if allow'd to be True might lessen them in part but not discharge him of the whole For if the Master's Actions be never so Innocent or Inoffensive yet if out of Cowardice or Affection he becomes the Patron of his Servants Insolencies and Outrages by Protecting or not Punishing their Misdemeanours he renders himself Guilty and will share in the Contempt and Hatred of his People But when we consider how he labour'd the Point himself by Closetting Persuading and Threatning many Great Men and others to engage with him in his Design of Setting up Popery and Dispencing with Laws and whose Image and Superscription it bears the Glory of the Enterprize will be all his own for I can never think his Ministers capable of all those Extravagancies themselves any further than that they knew it would please him Indeed I can very easily suppose them chiefly Devoted to their Own Interests and willing to Share in the Spoil of Ruin'd Subjects yet methinks there should be some kind Remembrance of their Native Country that would sometimes check the Dissoluteness of such Arbitrary Managements And a certain Pride that Men take in acting prudently and not exposing themselves to the Hatred and Derision of all Mankind should have stopp'd their Carier in such Illegal Proceedings And so it appear'd for at last under these Apprehensions we find many that deserted the late King after he thought himself sure of them and resign'd their Places and refus'd to act by his Commission or obey his Orders after their Names were Inserted in Commissions and their Persons Actually Engag'd in his Service So that 't is plain this Project was the Issue of his own Brain heated by the Jesuitical Dictators of his Conscience The Fountain was corrupted and then no wonder the Streams run foul Something might be said in favour of the late King if he had set up his Dispencing Power for a General Good but 't is evidemt that it was only intended to enable Papists to ruin Protestants and therefore the Irish Parliament in their Act of Attainder put it out of their King's Power to exercise his Prerogative in shewing Kindness to Protestants that wanted it For when * See The State of the Protestants in Ireland by Bishop King p. 179. Sir Thomas Southwell was contrary to the Articles on which he Surrender'd himself condemn'd for High Treason against King James and at the Request of the Lord Seaford that King was willing to Pardon him and sent his Warrant to the Attorney-General Sir Richard Neagle to draw a Fiat the Attorney-General positively told the King he could not Pardon him and tho' the late King seem'd to be in a Heat and told Sir Richard he had betray'd him yet it must be presum'd they Understood one another for so the Matter ended and Sir Thomas went
into Scotland with the Lord Seaford without being able to obtain a Pardon for his Life or Estate From this and other Instances that might be given we may see their Popish Juggling for when an Act of Parliament is made against a Papist 't was no less than Treason to question the King 's Pardoning and Dispencing Power but when an Act bears hard on a Protestant and their King as he pretends has a Mind to Ease them then the King has no Power to Dispence he cannot grant a Pardon his Hands are bound up by Law So that the End of Setting up this Dispencing Power was only to shelter Papists from the Law and ruin Protestants for the Papists in their Hearts we see are as much against it as the Protestants To go on The late King declar'd in Council that he would publish such a Proclamation in England as he had done in Scotland and that none should have Employments under him that would not co-operate in taking off the Penal Laws And he began to execute these Resolutions with a Conduct full of Violence and Injustice The Lord Bishop of London was put out of the Privy Council and Suspended from his Episcopal Office because he would not Suspend Doctor Sharp now Archbishop of York without Legal Process The Earl of Rochester was depriv'd of his Office of Lord Treasurer because he would not change his Religion And the Duke of Sommerset lost his Office because he would not violate the Laws of the Kingdom in performing the Honours at the Reception of the Pope's Nuncio as is usual at the Introduction of Ambassadors To say in Excuse of this that James the Second turn'd out Great Officers of State because they would not obey him and concurr with his Intensions is to publish a Truth that ought to have been Conceal'd by his own Party because it was an evident Demonstration that his Intentions were Unjust and level'd against our Laws and Religion In Things Lawful tho' not Expedient he found a Tacit Compliance nay some of them to keep him in Temper perhaps comply'd further with him than the Strictness of the Law would justifie as Men pull down some Houses at a Fire to preserve the whole Town from Burning But to comply in all things had been to forfeit their own Honours to justifie his Illegalities and Tyranny 2. The Second Means that the late King James employ'd for the Destruction of the Religion and Liberties of England was granting an Ecclesiastical Commission directly contrary to Law This declar'd by what Methods he intended to govern for every Step he made was a new Project to assert his Arbitrary Power and acquaint his Subjects that he would make all Laws Useless that all Power should rest in his own Hands and the Administration be Issu'd from no other Source but his own Will and Pleasure for there was no Occasion for such a Commission but only to shew what he would be at and declare his Purpose to ruin the Church of England Therefore the Commissioners were Devoto's of the Court for the Archbishop's Name was put in but to grace the Matter They knew before that he would not Act and therefore to colour the Sham they oblig'd him to ask Leave to be absent To make this Commission more Illegal a Papist is appointed one of the Commissioners and the whole cloathed with as Absolute a Power as the late King himself was aspiring after They had not only Power to Repress and Punish all Abuses punishable by the Ecclesiastical Laws and to proceed against Offenders by Interdiction Suspention Excommunication Perpetual Imprisonment c. but they had also Power to Exercise their Authority in all Parts of England to Visit Cathedral-Churches the Universities Colleges Parishes Schools and Hospitals to Judge in all Causes and make new Laws Rules Orders and Statutes and Abolish the Old ones as the present Necessity requir'd notwithstanding any Privilege Statute Exemption or Prerogative to the contrary Which was such a boundless Stretch of Power as never had nor I hope never will have any other President than it self Thirdly He pursu'd his Arbitrary Methods by 3. Setting up Popery in Opposition to the National Religion to Ruin his Protestant Subjects and force the whole Kingdom under Subjection to the Papal Laws which had already sentenc'd them to Destruction and that nothing less could be the Design of this Unhappy Monarch will evidently appear if we consider how Popery represents us to the World and how Papists think themselves oblig'd to treat us under those Characters The modestest Terms the Popish Writers can afford the English Protestants is That they are a Pack of Sacrilegious Usurpers of their Church's Patrimony and a Nest of Obstinate Hereticks that ought to be Sacrific'd to their Revenge and Rooted out of the World by any Means whatsoever and this say they is always to be attempted by every good Prince according to Bellarmine's Salvo Ne sint fortiores nobis Unless they be too strong to be subdu'd For otherwise even Massacres are never condemned but when they are unsuccessful And how then they would have us'd us if they could have established their Mischiess by Laws as Bloody as their Minds let the Marian Persecution acquaintus And why should we tempt them again whose Religion is Cruelty and smells so much of Fire that the very Smoak makes us tremble The Laws of England always intend the Preservation of the Subject but Popery when Triumphant in respect of Protestants is destructive to all Laws contrary to the Law of Society to the Law of Government to the Law of Empire to the Law of Royalty and especially to the Laws of a Mix'd Monarchy such as England's are and Protestants can never be safe where 't is Regnant First 1. Popery is against the Laws of Society in all Protestant Countries as well as in England for according to the Romish Tradition the Reform'd are all Hereticks and as such are Ipso Facto depriv'd of the Right they had to their Goods their Children their Liberty their Privileges and even of their Country and ought to be regarded only as Robbers * Becan Theol Scol p. 1. cap. 15. quaest 6. Thieves Murtherers Rebels and Traytors condemn'd to Death by the Church and ought to be deliver'd to the Secular Power to be Executed And to compleat the Tragedy that Holy Church appoints prodigious Recompences to Princes that Exterminate them and Anathematize those that refuse it Now whilst a Popish Prince lies under the Persuasion that his Protestant Subjects are such as his Church represents them that they are not a People nor have Right to any thing they possess he lies under so great a Temptation to destroy them that they had no Reason in the World to trust him with their Lives or suffer him to set up a Power that will inevitably destroy them Secondly 2. It is not less Incompatible with the Law of Government for that is design'd to Protect and Defend And how can that
being such that where one Party does not perform his Covenant the other are absolv'd from theirs Which Advice being approv'd the Lords and Great Men of the Kingdom Assemble at Soissons Depose Childeric and Elect Pepin to be their King But above all I am amaz'd to hear the * Advice de Refugies p. 60. French Missionaries and other Writers so openly and scandalously Declaim against Dethroning Kings when the very Monarch that now enjoys the Crown of France wears the Crown in Consequence and by Right of such Depositions Nay It would be no hard matter to prove that almost all the Governments in the World owe their Settlements to Conventions of Estates Assembl'd and Authoriz'd by a Necessity of providing for the Publick Safety So that the Conventional Parliament of England in Deposing James the Second made no Incroachment upon the Rights of Kings nor Violation of the Law of God of Nature or the Law of Nations but agreeably to all these Laws Asserted their own Rights in taking more Care for the Safety of a whole Kingdom than the Pretentions of a Single Person who endeavour'd to destroy it And in this they did but follow the Practice of former Ages in their own Country as will appear by and by in the following Examples God has invested Kings with a Power to do Justice but not to commit Violences and therefore when they wilfully convert their Authority into a Power of Destruction as James the Second did Subjects have a Right by the Law of Nature to Repel Force by Force for the Necessity of Publick Safety is a Law so Sacred that it Abolisheth all others that oppose it and Justifies all the Revolutions and Settlements in the World that are built upon that Foundation It is the First and greatest Obligation of Mankind to procure and promote the Welfare of the Body whereof they are Members which if every one would think himself oblig'd to do there would be a Circulation of Safety and Prosperity through the whole * Eâque lege notus sis ut ea habeas principia naturae quibus parere quae semper sequi debeas ut utilitas tua communis utilitas sit vicissimque communis utilitas tua sit Cicero lib. 3. expresseth this to the Life in saying That we are born under a Law and instructed by the Principles of Nature that oblige us to prefer the Common Good before our own so that at length the Common Good may be our own Advantage also With a single Respect to this Common and Mutual Good the Light of Reason shining in Wiser Heathens which yet shines brighter in Christians exalted by Revelation dictated the Necessity of Government as an Instrument without which it could not possibly be attain'd Fair Useful Just and Equal Rules of Conversation were by Common Consent agreed on and some One or More Persons Renown'd for Wisdom Probity and Courage were Intrusted and Impower'd to Inforce as Occasion should require the Community to observe them Which Ruler was bound by Mutual Compact to govern by the Rules agreed on and under that Condition the People gave their Oaths to obey him So that those People that think themselves bound by their Oaths to an Absolute Obedience to their Prince without Reserve forget that the Rulers Office is merely Relative to their People's Welfare and they also forget their first Obligation to seek the Good of the Community If a Ruler act contrary to his Trust by setting aside the Laws of the Constitution made and agreed on by Prince and People as necessary for the Conservation of every Individual Person and by excercising an Arbitrary Power of his Own Erecting evidently seeks the Ruin of that Body he ought to preserve the Necessary Defence of themselves is no Offence against the Nature of Government which was Originally Instituted for the Preservation and not for the Destruction of the Society and therefore cannot be looked upon as Criminal The Judgment of the great Melancton concerning Government in his Exposition on the Fifth Commandment will clear this Point In regard saith he something will go amiss in every Society for the Love of Peace we must bear with many Faults of our Princes and so long as they design well in the main tho' they fall into Mistakes we ought to bear them with Patience and hide their Frailties as much as possibly we can But of a Tyrant he says a few Lines before * Nec praetextu operis Divini excusanda aut tuenda sunt vitia nec propter loci dignitatem tolerandae sunt manifestae Atroces injuriae impietates flagitiosae libidines Tyrannorum sine fine grassantium sed reliqua politia cui Deus gladium dedit recte facit cum Caligulas Nerones similia portenta removent a Gubernatione That the Pretence of a Divine Right can neither excuse or justifie his Crimes nor the Dignity of his Office tolerate him to exercise a Wicked and Wilful Tyranny but when his Impieties and Injuries to his People are evident and unsufferable the Powers to whom God hath in such an Extremity committed the Sword to protect and deliver an Oppress'd Nation may remove him from the Government as the Romans did Caligula Nero and other Monsters of Cruelty who were not only Enemies to the Commonwealth but to all Mankind Indeed when an Absolute Government hath for the Sins of the People taken firm Rooting which Thanks be to God was not England's Case I deny not but such as were born under it ought to be content with their Servile Condition till Heaven is prevail'd with by their Prayers and Piety to release them from Thraldom But in a Free Estate the Case stands as is before rehears'd Polanus in proposing the Question whether we ought to obey an Absolute and Tyrannical Prince exactly answers the Case of England under the Reign of the late King James saying We must distinguish between an Absolute and a Limited Monarchy in the former it must be born with because the Prince does but exercise his own Authority like Nebuchadnezzar But Sed si Rex seu Princeps habeat limitatum adstrictum certis conditionibus in quas juravit seu quas se promisit servaturum Penes Status aut Primores Regni seu Principatus est coercere Regis seu Principis Tyrannidem immanitatem Syntag. lib. 10. cap. 62. if the King or Prince governs in a Limited Monarchy where he receives his Crown on certain Conditions which he promises and swears to observe but instead of it breaks his Oath and sets up a Despotick Power unknown to the Constitution and Inconsistent with the Safety of it the Estates of the Kingdom may depose him from his Royal Dignity And this is Melancton's meaning also as may be collected from his Words already cited cui Deus gladium dedit to whom God hath given the Authority The Case thus stated makes England unconcern'd in the Deep Submissions of the Primitive Christians who tho'
own Will should prescribe to it By virtue of this Unlimited Power he brought a Jesuit into the Privy-Council made a Profess'd Papist Secretary of State constituted two Popish Judges and fill'd up many of the most Important Offices and Places of Trust and Profit in the Kingdom with Papists such as Sheriffs Justices of the Peace Mayors of Cities and Corporations and Officers in his Army And that he might be able to gain his Point and force those that refus'd to comply voluntarily he put the Tower of London the great Magazin of England and Keeper of the Regalia into the Hands of Sir Edward Hales as Rank and Sowr a Papist as ever our Soil produc'd and fill'd all the Vacant Places of his Army with Popish Officers By the same Authority he granted an Ecclesiastical Commission gave Four Popish Bishops Power to visit several Districts in England plac'd a Society of Jesuits in the Savoy and erected Popish Schools and Mass-Houses in most of our Cities and Corporations And Lastly To annoy his Subjects and force his Way through all Difficulties in Times of Peace kept a Standing Army 'T is needless to tell the Reader that these Proceedings were contrary to the Laws of the Land and wholly Inconsistent with them for there are very few or none but know it already in general Terms I shall therefore apply my self to shew you how it was against Law and what would have been the Consequences of this Unlimited Power if the late King had continu'd longer amongst us And this brings me to shew you his particular Actions To feel the Pulse of England and try how they Resented his Proceedings the late King commonly began the Exercise of his Arbitrary Power in Scotland and from the Measures that were taken there we might take a Prospect of his Tyranny and our own Calamities for tho' he shew'd us his Designs under the Soft Title of Dispencing in Scotland he threw off that Vizor and explained himself in calling it Vide Scotch Declaration Annulling and Disabling Laws And to shew all the World his Arbitrary Ends he gave such a Specimen of his Single Unlimited Power there that he attempted to do more in that Kingdom which as well as ours is a Limited Monarchy than the United Power of King Lords and Commons together were able to do and that was by imposing an Oath on that People contrary to Law in these Words You shall swear to the utmost of your Power to Defend Assist and Maintain the King and his Successors in the Exercise of their Absolute Power And this I take Leave to say the King and Parliament could not impose upon the Subject because it was in it self a Subversion of the Constitution as being an Obligation to support a Power destructive to the whole Frame of the Government This Caprichio of the late King James was the Master-piece of all his Jesuited Counsels and the Finishing Stroke of an Eternal Vassalage for this Oath was created by his Arbitrary Power and his Arbitrary Power was to be supported by this Oath and both must grow together and run in an Endless Circle to the utter Extinction of all the Remains of our Natural Liberty or Legal Government And what was done in Scotland we have Reason to believe in its Course must have been exercis'd in England also the late King having no more or other Authority in one Kingdom than he has in the other and both then govern'd by the same Arbitrary Maxims and Popish Ministers In England the late King assuming a Dispensing power Usurp'd the whole Legislative Authority into his own Hands for to Dispense with Laws is as great a power as to make them and by the exercise of it invested himself with a power as great if not greater than that of King and Parliament together who can joyntly but not severally give any Resolve the Authority of a Law The pretences to justifie this Action was that he might have the assistance of all his Subjects and that the Papists having been equally Loyal to his Progenitors they might not be discourag'd by legal Discriminations This was but a light pretence tho' part of the Intrigue for his dispencing power was chiefly directed to another and more considerable purpose From the latter end of King Charles's Reign the Press was loaden with Pamphlets and City and Country fill'd with invectives against Parliaments as unnecessary Wenns in the Government that were fit to be cut off that the Royal Authority might be without any Legal or Pecuniary Restraint or Limitation Now the Dispencing Power would do this Work effectually for it put the whole Legislative Authority into the King's Hands and made Parliaments Useless and signifie Nothing For this End was it set up And the Employing Papists that were Unqualify'd by Law was for no other End but to support the Dispencing Power till it had accomplish'd what was intended by it Protestants could not be suppos'd to engage in this Design for the Law was made in their Favour and was their Security against Romish Persecutions and Depredations and therefore the late King would bring Papists into the Government to whom the Laws were Enemies that in requital they might be Enemies to to the Laws and stick at nothing to support their King's Power that made them what they were and would only continue them in their Advantageous Stations So that if that King should gain his Point there seem'd a kind of Mutual Necessity for the late King to Introduce Papists and for Papists to execute his Orders or the Power and the Officers would sink into their Original Nothing But the Snare is broken and we are Deliver'd Strong Desires are the Common Temptations to the Use of Ill Means and never did any Man grasp at the Power to do Mischief without the Purpose If ever there have been such mysterious Riddles of Irregular Vertue yet James the Second never gave any Instances of it for it plainly appear'd in him how effectually the Temptation of Unlimited Power work'd in his Ambitious Humour He never thought any thing Enough till he had ingross'd a Power to Ruin All and turn Old England into a Wilderness of New Confusions By this Dispencing Power he at once suspended above Forty Statures relalating to our Religion and the next Week by the same Arbitrary Power might have suspended Forty more that secur'd our Civil Properties likewise for he had no more Right to do the one than the other and so might have gone on to the End of the Chapter till he had Abrogated all the Laws in the Statute-Book and acted here as afterwards Doctor King tells us he did in Ireland * State of Ireland p. 92. Seize Men's Goods for his own Use by a File of Musqueteers or at best by his own Warrant without any kind of Legal Process and to which he had no other Claim but that he wanted them Now if this be not Tyranny nothing in the World can merit that Appellation and therefore
since I have been often forc'd to give his Government that Title that I may not seem to beg the Question or slander the Reign of that Unfortunate Prince give me leave to shew you here that it was a Tyranny through the whole Course of his unhappy Reign and that the Power he assum'd and the Maxims he acted by had all the Marks of Tyranny First It was a True Tyranny for the Violence he offer'd his Subjects was not the Effect of Inadvertency Ignorance Weakness or Passion which may sometimes attend the best of Princes but it was the deliberate Act and Execution of many premeditated Resolutions and grounded upon a Belief that he had a Right to do whatever he thought fit to his Subjects To do an ill Action may be sometimes the Misfortune not always the Fault of a Prince But when that Action is justify'd by a Right to do it tho' the Laws utterly forbid it it is an Act of True and Absolute Tyranny and can neither be defended or palliated David was not a Tyrant in the Affair of Uriah for he committed the Crime like a Criminal he was asham'd of the Action and did all he could to smother it and never attempted to change his particular Passion into a publick Law or Example He who kills one or a few says * Sen. Ep. 17. Qui unum qui plures occidit non tamen Reipublicae laesae sed caedis est Seneca is not a Tyrant against the Commonwealth but a Murtherer For Tyranny consists in doing Wrong to all grounded upon a Principle that he may do it Lawfully So Ahab's Action in taking away Naboth's Vineyard was a heinous Crime but not properly an Act of Tyranny because he did it by Collusion and under Colour of purchasing it without any Pretence of Right to do it But all the late King James's Actions had another Face he justify'd his doing private and particular Injuries by assuming a Right to do so by All. He intail'd Misery and Destruction upon the Kingdom by suspending and abolishing all Laws that were made for its Security and setting up his own Will instead of them He was not content to imprison some Bishops or to affront some great Lords or deprive some particular Persons of their Rights but he struck a Blow at the Root and by the Exercise of his Dispencing Power and giving Authority to Papists whose Consciences laid them under a Necessity of destroying Hereticks he was Ruining All For to suspend the Penal Laws against Papists was in plain English but to give them Power in time to execute the Bloody Decrees of the Romish Church upon English Protestants Secondly 2. The late King James's Tyranny was not only a True but it was also a Notorious and Evident Tyranny No Artifice Pretence or Colour could hide it from the Eyes of all Men it was to be Read in All his Actions past and present What he had in Speculation when he was Duke he practis'd when he was King The Maxims of the greatest * Quod Principi placuit Lex esto Tyrants he still laid Claim to and observ'd no Rule or Law but his own Will Am not I your King and ought to be obey'd without Reserve was the Language of his Proclamations as well as his private Closetings He threaten'd all that would not comply with his Absolute Power that they should feel the Effects of his Displeasure and by discarding some of the most Intelligent and Experienc'd Men in the Kingdom to to usher in Raw and Head-strong Papists proclaim'd to all the World he aim'd at something that was Illegal and could not be compass'd but by Agents of his own Creation that would venture at All to please their Master And that the Knowledge of what he design'd might not be confin'd within his own Territories he sent an Ambassador to the Pope directly against the known Laws of the Kingdom and receiv'd a Nuncio from thence with as much publick State and Pomp as if he design'd to let all the World see how far his Vanity and Affectation of Arbitrary Power and Affronting the Laws would carry him tho' in that he had no better Success than in the rest of his Negotiations for the Pope knew him too far in League with the F K to think him a Friend of his and treated his Ambassador accordingly 3. It was an Universal Tyranny Nothing was exempted from his Lawless Will for by his false Persuasion in Religion that we as Hereticks were fallen from our Rights and had no just Claim to any thing we possess'd our Consciences our Lives and our Estates were all at his Disposal and tho' he might by straining the Point shew us a little Favour and let us enjoy them a while yet he could do us no Wrong in taking them away at his pleasure Agreeably to this Persuasion he adapted all his Actions and no Order Degree or Condition of Men in the Kingdom but in some Instance or other felt the Smart of them The Nobility and Gentry by the Inquisition that was made after Popish Lands and the Promise of Restoring them to the Church saw themselves in danger of being Robb'd of their Estates or holding them precariously at the Pleasure of Monks or Friars And some that were then forc'd to sell their Estates were great Losers and could scarce find Chap-men as Things then stood that car'd to buy them Some of the Reverend Bishop's were Imprison'd for declaring they had Consciences others Cited before the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for not admitting Popish Priests into Benefices and all frown'd on that durst take the Liberty to Preach against the King's Religion They saw their Power declining by the Authority that was given to four Popish Bishops to hold Visitations in their Diocesses and the whole Body of the Protestant Clergy were on the Brink of Ruin for not Reading his Illegal Declaration Both the Universities felt the Effects of his Unlimited Power in the Dissolution of Magdalen-College in Oxford and the Suspension and taking away the Perquisites of the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge The Parliament to whom he had many Obligations were Dissolv'd for refusing to Repeal a Law made against Papists The Judges that had so much Law and Honesty as to declare their Opinions against his Dispencing Power were laid aside and others thrust into their Places that would serve his Arbitrary Purposes Protestant Officers in the Army were to their great Loss Cashier'd to make way for Papists and some of them threaten'd with Death for * Lieut. Col. Beaumont Tho. Paston Simon Park Tho. Orm Will. Cook and John Port all Officers 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—anders refusing to admit Irish Papists into their English Protestant Companies that had the Guard of no less important place than Portsmouth Merchants were forc'd to pay Custom where no Law enjoin'd it Inn-keepers Victuallers and other Trades-men were impoverish'd by Free Quarter and the Poorest People in the Kingdom were Oppress'd by the Illegal Exaction of Hearth-Money Fourthly 4. The
Consideration of Affairs Abroad which makes it fit for you to expedite your Business not only for making a Settlement at home upon a good Foundation but for the Safety of all Europe The Lords having declar'd by a Vote of that House That Popery was Inconsistent with the Government of England the Commons upon the 28th of January passed the following Vote viz. Resolved THat King James the Second having endeavour'd to Subvert the Constitution of this Kingdom by breaking the Original Contract between King and People and by the Advice of Jesuits and other Wicked Persons having withdrawn himself out of this Kingdom hath Abdicated the Government and that the Throne is thereby Vacant This Vote occasion'd several Conferences between the two Houses of Lords and Commons in the Painted Chamber at Westminster the Substance whereof as they are transmitted * 〈◊〉 Debate at large between the House of Lords and House of Câ—â—â—â—â—â— to us will be occasionally produc'd in the Sequel But on the 7th of February the Lords sending a Message to the Commons that they had Agreed to the Vote sent them up on the 28th of January last without any Alterations on the 12th of February following both Houses Unanimously Agreed to Declare as followeth The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster VVHereas the late King James the Second by the Assistance of divers Evil Counsellors Judges and Ministers employ'd by him did endeavour to Subject and Extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom By Assuming and Exercising a Power of Dispencing with and Suspending of Laws and the Execution of Laws without Consent of Parliament By Committing and Persecuting divers Worthy Prelates for humbly Petitioning to be excus'd from Concurring to the said Assumed Power By Issuing and Causing to be Executed a Commission under the Broad Seal for Erecting a Court call'd The Court of Commission for Ecclesiastical Affairs By Levying Money for and to the Use of the Crown by Pretence of Prerogative for other Time and in other Manner than the same was Granted by Parliament By Raising and Keeping a Standing Army within the Kingdom in Time of Peace without Consent of Parliament and Quartering of Soldiers contrary to Law By Causing several good Subjects being Protestants to be Dis-arm'd at the same time when Papists were both Arm'd and Employ'd contrary to Law By Violating the Freedom of Elections of Members to Serve in Parliament By Prosecutions in the Court of King's Bench for Matters and Causes Cognizable only in Parliament and by divers other Arbitrary and Illegal Courses And whereas of late Years Partial Corrupt and Unqualify'd Persons have been Return'd and Serv'd on Juries in Trials and particularly divers Jurors Serv'd in Trials for High Treason which were not Free-holders And Excessive Bail had been Required of Persons Committed in Criminal Causes to Elude the Benefit of the Laws made for the Liberty of the Subject And Excessive Fines have been Impos'd And Illegal and Cruel Punishments Inflicted And several Grants and Promises made of Fines and Forfeitures before any Conviction or Judgment against the the Persons upon whom the same were to be Levy'd All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known Laws and Statutes and Freedom of this Realm And whereas the late King James the Second having Abdicated the Government and the Throne being thereby Vacant His Highness the Prince of Orange whom it hath pleas'd Almighty God to make the Glorious Instrument of Delivering this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power did by the Advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and divers Principal Persons of the Commons cause Letters to be written to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being Protestants and other Letters to the several Counties Cities Universities Boroughs and Cinque-Ports for the Choosing such Persons to represent them as were of Right to be sent to Parliament to Meet and Sit at Westminster upon the 22th Day of January 1688. in order to such an Establishment as that their Religion Laws and Liberties might not again be in danger of being Subverted Upon which Letters Elections have been made And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons pursuant to their respective Letters and Elections being now Assembl'd in a Full and Free Representative of this Nation taking into their most Serious Consideration the best Means for attaining the Ends aforesaid do in the first place as their Ancestors in like Cases have formerly done for the Vindicating and Asserting their Antient Rights and Liberties Declare That the Pretended Power of Suspending of Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority without Consent of Parliament is Illegal That the Pretended Power of Dispencing with Laws or the Exercise of Laws by Regal Authority as has been Assum'd and Practis'd of late is Illegal That the Commission for Erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes and all other Commissions and Courts of the like nature are Illegal and Pernicious That Levying of Money to or for the Use of the Crown by Pretence of Prerogative without Grant of Parliament for a longer Time or in other Manner than the same is or shall be Granted is Illegal That it is the Right of the Subject to Petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning is Illegal That the Raising or Keeping a Standing Army within the Kingdom in Time of Peace unless it be by Consent of Parliament is against Law That the Subjects being Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Condition and as Allow'd by Law That the Election of Members of Parliament ought to be Free That the Freedom of Speech and Debates or Proceedings in Parliament ought not to be Impeach'd or Question'd in any Court or Place out of Parliament That Excessive Bail ought not to be Requir'd nor Excessive Fines Impos'd nor Cruel and Unusual Punishments Inflicted That Jurors ought to be duly Impannell'd and Return'd and Jurors which Pass upon Men in Trials for High Treason ought to be Free-Holders That all Grants and Promises of Fines and Forfeitures of particular Persons before Conviction are Illegal and Void That for Redress of all Grievances and for the Amending Strengthening and Preserving of the Laws Parliaments ought to be held frequently And they do Claim Demand and Insist upon all and singular the Premisses as their Undoubted Rights and Liberties and that no Declarations Judgments Doings or Proceedings to the Prejudice of the People in any of the said Premisses ought in any wise to be drawn hereafter into Consequence or Example To which Demand of their Rights they are particularly Encourag'd by the Declaration of His Highness the Prince of Orange as being the only Means for Obtaining a full Redress and Remedy therein Having therefore an Entire Confidence that His said Highness the Prince of Orange will perfect the Deliverance so far advanc'd by him and will still preserve them from the Violation of their Rights
always Differences among them concerning Ecclesiastical Government and Discipline and about Forms and Modes of Divine Worship yet they always accorded in Essentials of Religion and in the Preservation of their Natural and Legal Rights and Privileges as well as in a Common Detestation of Popery and Tyranny and the Sinister Arts of promoting them But when these Fiery Bombs of a Popish Court were by various Hands thrown among Protestants all went to wrack by our fatal Divisions and such an Unlimited Power was thrust into the Hands of Caesar over our Lives Religion Laws Estates and Liberties that if his Amorous Intrigues and Careless Temper had not diverted him he had certainly arriv'd at that Pitch of Absoluteness in Church and State that he aspir'd after and had laid all his Subjects at the Discretion and Will of the Monarch 3. The next Expedient that King Charles employ'd to accomplish his Design was Encouraging and Cherishing Papists upon every Occasion when it might be done without an open Reflexion on himself or Government and yet sometimes he broke through those Maxims also tho' one would have thought their Intolerable Insolencies on every Gleam of Royal Favour might have justly check'd his Clemency Instances of his particular Respects for that People might be easily given but because it will be particularly discours'd in his Successor's Reign I shall give but Two here and those were His Conniving at their Increase and Executing the Laws with greatest Rigour against Protestant-Dissenters giving private Instructions to his Judges to stifle the Execution of the Laws against Popish Recusants tho' directly levell'd against them and but by a forc'd Construction inflicted upon Protestants 4. But the last and most Effectual Stratagem for the Service of this King 's Arbitrary Ends was Tying all his Ecclesiastical Promotions to the Preaching up Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance And in this he succeeded so unluckily that those who refus'd to comply with this Upstart Doctrine were scarce reckon'd among the Number of Christians whilst a little Court-Zealot that had nothing else to recommend him but a Blind Obedience to the Orders of Whitehall in Preaching up this Slavish Doctrine was Dignify'd with the Title of a True Son of the Church and Loaded with Preferments Into what a doleful Condition was this Nation reduc'd when Religion was forc'd to truckle to New-invented Politicks and our Laws were Brib'd into a Conspiracy against themselves Now both Pulpit and Press were Surfeited with such Discourses as these viz. That Monarchy was a Government by Divine Right That it was in the Prince's Power to Rule as he pleases That it was a Grace and Condescention in the King to Govern by Laws That for Parliaments to Direct or Regulate the Succession border'd upon Treason and was an Offence against the Law of Nature and That the only Benefit left to Subjects in case the King will Tyrannize over their Consciences Persons and Estates is tamely to suffer and as they Absurdly express'd it to Exercise Passive Obedience Thus were Minds and Consciences of the Subjects corrupted with such Pestilent and Slavish Notions that at length the whole Nation was betray'd into such a Stupidity and Insensibility of their Religion and Legal Rights that our Limited Monarchy was almost turn'd into an Absolute Tyranny and our Antient Privileges dwindl'd into nothing Under pretence of Preserving the Church too many of the Clergy gave themselves over to an Implicit Serving of the Court and became not only Advocates but Instruments for the Robbing Corporations of their Charters Imposing Sheriffs upon the City of London who were not Legally Elected and of Fining and punishing Men Arbitrarily for no Crime save their having by Modest and Lawful Ways Asserted their Own and the Nations Rights Under pretence of Jealousie of the Fanaticks they became Tools under this King for Justifying the Dissolution of so many Parliaments the Invasion made upon their Privileges the Ridiculing and Stifling Popish Plots the Shamming of Forg'd Conspiracies upon Protestants the Condemning of several Men to Death for High Treason who could be Render'd Guilty by the Transgression of no Known Law and finally for Advancing the Duke of York into the Throne who was engag'd in a Conjuration against Religion and the Civil-Government and whom Three several Parliaments for those Reasons would have Excluded from the Succession But When I say these Enormities were committed by the Clergy I desire not to be understood as if I intended to comprehend all that Sacred Order under the Guilt of such Rash and Inconsiderate Designs for there were many Good Men among them who were so far from Sacrificing our Religion and Laws to Popery and Arbitrary Power that they publickly declar'd their Dis-likes and Abhorrence of such Extravagant Proceeding tho' they wanted Power to stem the Torrent that was overflowing both Church and State and as soon as Providence minister'd an Occasion were the first that put to their Hands to stop the Violence of the Stream and Confine the Power of the Late King within the Bounds of Law and Justice But to return from this Digression This Passive Obedience Doctrine was broach'd by some Modern Divines about the middle of the Reign of King James the First who in Opposition to Buchanan Knox and other Scotch Ministers that gave too great Encouragement to Sedition and Rebellion and to Curry Favour with that Monarch run into contrary Extreams under the Names of Duty and Loyalty So hard and difficult it is to observe the Golden Mean Dr. Harsnet Bishop of Chichester was the first I meet with in that Reign that gave himself the Liberty from these Words Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's to discover New Notions in Politicks as well as Divinity and to Assert publickly That the King had an Absolute Right to all that Subjects were possessed of And for this Service in Betraying his Country he was Translated from the Diocess of Chichester to Norwich and thence to the Archbishoprick of York In the Beginning of the Reign of King Charles the First these Preachments run something higher and Dr. Manwaring holding forth before that King at Whitehall Invested him with an Uncontrollable Authority gave him Power to Raise Taxes or Subsidies without Consent of Parliament and in the Conclusion resign'd all the King's Subjects to the Devil that refus'd to obey it For which he was presented to a Fat Living in Essex and afterwards promoted to the Bishoprick of St Davids which under what sad Constellation or Fate I know not has often been Pester'd with Men of the same Principles The Promotion of these Temporizers encourag'd Dr. Sybthorp a Confident and Kinsman to Dr. Lamb to attempt the Mending his Circumstances by Tracing their Steps And in an Assize-Sermon at Northampton on Rom. 13.7 he laid our All at the King's Feet and left poor Subjects nothing but Tears for their Loss and Prayers to be supply'd in their Wants Thus bating Preferments Sybthorp soon obtain'd his Ends and his Vicaridge of
without Intermeddling in Nice and Secret Matters of State that are out of his Reach and Inconsistent with his Duty that heartily Obeys the King in all his Commands that do not thwart the Laws of God Nature or his Country that Honours Loves and Defends the King's Person Crown and Dignity and Chearfully Contributes to the Support of his Government that makes his Private Concerns stoop to the Publick Good and Sustains those Losses with Patience that he suffers for the Common Interest One that can distinguish betwixt Slavish Fear and Religious Obedience betwixt the Interest and Cause of a whole Nation and the Clamours and Discontents of a Litigious and Incorrigible Faction One that will be True to his King without being False to his God or Treacherous to his Country And to conclude One that like the Poet 's Dyal always stands True tho' the Sun of Reward or Favour never shines upon him In this Portraicture of an English Subject in Little you may see the whole Design of Christianity on this Subject which is Keeping every thing within its proper Bounds without Needless Increments or Criminal Abatements of Royal Authority which always terminate in Vanity or Wickedness and consequently are extreamly prejudicial to the Receiver and Detractor 'T is the Evil in the Increase and Use of Power that those declaim against who are for no more than a Legal Obedience for Non-Resistance in its proper Latitude has its true Weight and Value with us as much as any other Christian Duty and tho' we cannot swallow it so Glibly as it was Adulterated in the late Prescription to serve a Temporizing Interest abstracted from the Publick Good yet that does not hinder us from Digesting it better and Practising it more Dutifully and Constantly than those who were as Ready to Throw it up as they were to Imbibe it or that still Retain it to do further Mischief And having thus secur'd our Loyalty and Fidelity to our Sovereign under this Supposition I shall re-assume the Argument for Resistance when the Necessity of it is as Certain and General as ours was All differing Persons about Non-Resistance agree in this That if a King is resolutely bent to Destroy his Subjects and that no Perswasion can alter his Purpose but that he stocks himself with such Ministers and Officers as will co-operate with him in the execution of his Tragical Designs his Subjects may Desert him Decline his Government and Service and seek Protection where they can find it Of this Opinion is the Excellent Grotius Barclay Pufendorf Bodin Bishop Bilson Bishop Sanderson Dr. Hammond and Mr. Falkener I confess they say the case is not to be put as almost impossible to happen yet I think it but Reasonable to suppose it here because I shall prove it in the Sequel beyond Contradiction that the late King James was under a necessity of destroying his Protestant Subjects that all his Actions openly declared it and therefore may say with the Author of Jovian That 't was Lawful to resist him since he himself has said in the same Page That he should be tempted to pray for the Destruction of such a Prince as the only means of delivering the Church and for that Reason I am charitably inclin'd to think that the great Promoters of Non-Resistance never intended this Doctrine should extend beyond Private and Tolerable Evils for stretching it to Intolerable and Universal Mischiefs would have proclaim'd 'em void of Sence and common Discretion as well as Humanity which can no way agree with some of their Characters Sober Men would soon be agreed about the Resistance pleaded for if they were not more prejudic'd against the Word than against what is intended in the Thing either as to the Object or End of it for to resist Violent Usurpations and Horrid Cruelties is not Resisting the Supreme Authority or the Ordinance of God but opposing Murderers and Cut-Throats who under Venerable Disguises are Destroying the People and covering the Land with Blood and Carnage Names and Titles can never Sanctifie or Alter the Nature of Facts the thing done and the Manner and End of doing it will denominate the Action For tho as King he may put his Subjects to Death by form of Law he cannot kill or otherwise destroy them without it but at the same time he gives himself another Epithet looses the Right he had and ceases to be a King by such repeated Acts of Illegality and Tyranny The Ends of Government which is the Peoples Good are as Sacred as the Prince's Authority and if as the Apostle says he be not to us the Minister of God for Good he looses the Title of God's Minister for his Servants they are whom they obey St. Paul never Intended to Abrogate the Laws of Nature which gives every Individual Person a Right to his Own nor Expose Men to Beggary Slavery Inevitable Ruine here and Damnation hereafter for Resisting a Prince that was ingaged to destroy his People since no Man that has not lost the use of his Reason can believe that Murdering Ruining and Inslaving the Bodies and Souls of the People is any part of Civil Government or that Resisting an Implacable Tyrant is Resisting the Ordinance of God when 't is plain that God never gave him any such Authority To say that such Kings are set up by the Almighty as a Punishment for our Sins is no Argument against Resistance but a strong one for it for the Pestilence Famine and the Sword of Foreign Enemies are all of them Evils sent by God for the punishment of our Offences yet I think no Man will say but we ought by all Natural and Humane Indeavours to free our selves from those Calamities without an immediate Revelation The like may be said of Tyrants for the contrary would level us with Beasts which may be Sold Kill'd and Devour'd at the Will of those that have power over them So that from what has been said 't is evident that Resisting Tyrants is not Resisting the Supreme Authority but Defending our selves against the Insults of a Destroyer under the cover of another Title This Consideration will set us right and not Rob us of the pleasant Idea's that spring from our Deliverance for if any for by Ends deny what has been said above to be a Truth now they will be of another Mind at the Day of Judgment when things shall appear as they are The Ends of Resistance and Self-Defence does also prove the Lawfulness of it as it Respects the King or his Subjects who are equally concern'd in the Benefit of it Is it not better for a King to Assure his Authority by rendring it Just and Moderate than expose it to danger by Arbitrary Attempts Is it not better to comply with the kind Persuasions and Dutiful Admonishments of his true Friends and Faithful Counsellors which is always presumed to go before Actual Resistance than to feel the bad Effects of his own misguided Will Cicero says Cicero pro Balb.
* By this means the Romans establish'd their Empire in sharing the Advantages of it among the People whose Obedience is secur'd by Acts of Grace and Protection from Danger and truly did not the boundless Ambition of Unwary Monarchs blind the Eyes of their Reason from discerning their True and Lasting Interests they would never run into such Extreams of Arbitrary Sway as render'd their Government Odious and their Persons Hated No King in Europe has more his own Will and lives more happily than He which conforms his Inclinations and Actions to the Sense of the Law and the Love of his People and in this Sense he may be as Absolute as he pleases without Overturning the World to accomplish it He can Desire nothing but what will be freely Granted him nor Do any thing that will be Distasted And what can the greatest Monarch in the World desire more than to have his Wants Liberally Supply'd his Actions Universally Approv'd and Applauded This and no other End is the Design of the Resistance contended for but that a Prince misguided by ill Counsel may without Injury to his Person or Diminution to his Rightful Authority if fair Means can prevail be Reclaim'd from Violating the Rights of his Subjects and brought to a Temper consistent with his Own and his Subjects Happiness And if any Ill-minded Men carry it further we can only say that the Abuse of a Thing does not impeach the Lawful Use of it Let those that offend the Law suffer for the Breach of it Another End of Resistance is the Good of the People for when all other Means to reduce the Prince into a right Temper has with all due Respect and Submission been us'd but effected nothing then and not before Resistance is necessary for our Privileges are granted by the same Laws by which the Prince has his Authority and makes an Universal Defection or Resistance lawful when all would be Ruin'd without it for the Doctrine of Non-Resistance is not of Constant and Eternal Obligation in all Circumstances Calling to Account are Acts of Authority but Resistance for Self-Defence is a Right of Nature and Inalienable In every Province and Kingdom of the Universe we may find Instances where Subjects have been necessitated to secure Themselves their Religion and Liberties by Resisting their Prince whose repeated Acts of Tyranny did visibly threaten their Ruin and this was always look'd upon as a sufficient Reason to dispence with their Allegiance especially when the Necessity was not pretended or Created by themselves but apparently forc'd on them by their Prince who was oblig'd to preserve them When our Saviour was walking in the Garden and expected the Jews to come and Seize him by Violence he was pleas'd to command that he which had a Sword should take it and being told there were Two Swords he said it was Enough How Enough Not to encounter the Arm'd Multitude that came along with Judas he could not think so But they were Enough to let his Disciples know that upon such Occasions they had a Right to defend themselves In Extream Dangers we are allow'd to make use of Extream Remedies Former Ages it seems were Strangers to the Doctrine of Non-Resistance for Resistance has been allow'd by Kings themselves Henry the Second allow'd it by causing his * Barons to Swear â—russel's History of 〈…〉 that if he should not perform the Covenants between himself the King of France and Richard Earl of Poictou his Son they should renounce him and join with the King of France and Earl Richard against him Richard the First when he went to War in the Holy Land substituted William Bishop of Ely and Lord Chancellor of England to Govern in his Absence who abusing his Authority the Bishops Earls and Barons having Routed his Party they Depos'd and Banish'd him and these Proceedings were approv'd and confirm'd by the King himself at his Return So that in those Early Days the Nobility Clergy and People had no Apprehensions of an Irresistible Power in Kings and those Commission'd by them when they found their Power grew Tyrannical and Unsupportable King John attempting to destroy the Liberties and Privileges of his Subjects granted by Magna Charta the Bishops Barons and Great Men of the Kingdom of all Degrees and Conditions took up Arms against him and never laid them down till the King and the Prince his Son had sworn upon the Holy Evangelists to maintain the Subjects Privileges and if they should break them that it should be lawful for his Subjects to Renounce their King and to gain them by Force And this was never accounted Rebellion for the Pardon that follow'd it was mutual not only for those that adher'd to the Earl of Gloucester but for those also that took part with the King In the Reign of Edward the Second this Doctrine of Resistance was asserted upon several Occasions and so gross were the Enormities of this Prince that in an Act of Indempnity in the First of Edward the Third the particular Illegal Acts of the King his Father are recited and all that Resisted him are Pardon'd without loading their Memories with Reproachful Epithets Henry Duke of Gloucester oppos'd the Tyranny of Richard the Second and had the Crown for his pains and those that came over with him were pardon'd in decent Language without calling them Rebels or Traytors So that it seems the Parliaments of Edward the Third and Henry the Fourth that Pass'd these Acts of Indempnity had no ill Opinion of the Doctrine of Resistance in Cases of Extream Necessity To which give me Leave to add the Opinion of a Learned Man on this Subject and I shall ease the Reader of further Trouble 'T is * Opusc advers Adulat consid 7. Gerson the famous Chancellor of the University of Paris who says 'T is an Errour to assert that an Earthly Prince as long as his Dominion lasts is not engag'd to his Subjects in any thing for according to the Divine Law Natural Equity and the true End of Power as Subjects owe their Prince Fidelity Subsidy and Obedience so their Prince owes them Fidelity and Protection and in case he does Publickly Obstinately and Imperiously oppress them their Natural Right takes place and makes it Lawful for them to Repel Force by Force So that the late King James has no Reason to complain of Hard Measure from his late Subjects For if the King of England be a Limited Prince as certainly he is and bound by Oath to Govern according to Law and that his Authority depends upon the Right Exercise of it and can claim no Allegiance but upon those Conditions they are not to blame for they did not Desert or Resist him till he had Renounc'd to be their King according to the Constitution by avowing to Govern by a Despotick Power unknown to the Constitution and Inconsistent with it The Breach was first made on his part by Renouncing to be their King according to the Law that made
him King that is such a King as he Swore to be at his Coronation such a King to whom the Obedience and Allegiance of English Subjects are due and Setting up a Dominion which to all Intents and Purposes was as manifest an Abdication or Abandoning his Legal Title as if had done it by Express Words or Formal Deed. So that 't is plain his Subjects did not Desert or Resist him till he had Abdicated his Kingship and Licens'd them to provide for themselves under another Monarch that would govern according to the Laws of the English Constitution which he had Renounc'd If the Intreaties Persuasions Admonitions Addresses or Petitions of the Greatest Men of all Qualities in the Kingdom could have prevail'd with him to have done himself and his Subjects Justice the Crown had been still upon his Head and his Subjects happy under him But he positively refus'd all Advices but what tended to his Ruin and neither his good Subjects Prayers the Fear of God the Love he ought to have born to his own Country now on the Brink of Destruction nor his own Interest could influence him to Act Reasonably or see his own Ruin before an Obstinate Perseverance had render'd it desperate What then must his Subjects do To content our selves with Praying to God only for our Deliverance were to exclude the Measures of Humane Prudence We take not those Methods when our Houses are on Fire or a Mad-man comes to cut our Throats To wait for his Death had been to make our selves miserable while he liv'd And by suffering his Arbitrary Power to Increase and take Deeper Footing was to have Entail'd Slavery upon our Posterities and to have expected a Miracle for his Conversion was to suffer the Fate of a whole Kingdom to depend upon a Sensless and Dubious Peradventure All which being seriously consider'd nothing in the World will appear more Reasonable Just and Necessary than our Self-Defence against the Exorbitancies of James the Second and providing for our selves without his Concurrence it being not in the Design of God or Nature or in the Power of Art to make that Man happy who instead of Co-operating to it Acts directly against it And therefore his Interest was not so considerable as to be preferr'd before the Safety of the Kingdom and the Lives and Fortunes of his Quondam Subjects which were snatched as Brands out of the Fire by the Doctrine of Resisting in our Own Defence 'T is true the Promoters of Slavery under the Umbrage of Non-resistance fall very heavy upon this Innocent Principle and upbraid the Notion as opposite to the Law of God to the Law of Nature and to the Laws of our own Land but a brief discussion of their suggestions will shew their Lyon is not so fierce as they have painted him The Holy Scripture does command Obedience to Authority without Exceptions and forbids Resistance of the Supreme Power under severe Penalties but it seems very hard that Religion should weaken our Arm in defence of it self and force our Obedience to a Power set up to Ruin it and therefore unless our Adversaries can prove this General prohibition is extended in the Design of the Lawgiver to all cases of Apparent and Extream Necessity such as ours was under the late Reign which I am assur'd they cannot do they say nothing to the purpose for we urge it no farther and equally abhor it when it exceeds those Cases as a Doctrine inconsistent with Christianity but yet we say also that Non-resistance is not always obliging as affairs may be circumstantiated General Precepts or Prohibitions are always to be understood with particular exceptions to unforeseen accidents and makes what was forbidden at some time and in some cases become our Duty in others Therefore Men must not run into a Triumph when a Text or two seems to favour their opinion for as an Ingenious Author observes Eternal Righteousness Justice and Truth Upright Honesty the Right of the Case and the Reason of the thing must always govern the sense of Scriptural expressions Saul was an Anointed King and yet David had commission from God Almighty to make War against him when he transgressed the bounds that God had set him And it may be shew'd in many Instances tho' scarce parallel with our Dreadful circumstances under the Reign of James the Second where Resistance was not only allow'd but commended The Judges of Israel who must be presum'd to know the Law of God better than others and were fill'd with the Spirit of God in all their Actions incourag'd the Israelites to rise in Arms against their Princes who kept them in continual bondage and slavery and the Names of Deborah Barach Gideon Abimelec Jeptha Samson c. are celebrated upon the same occasion Nor is the Law of Nature against Resistance in cases of Extream Necessity and I wonder how any Man can urge the contrary since it both Asserts and Approves it The Law of Nature says the incomparable Grotius is a Judgment or Instinct of Right Reason which Judges by the conformity and contrariety of an Action with Reasonable Nature what there is in every action of moral turpitude or moral goodness and how far it is commanded or forbidden by the Author of Nature Now Right Reason tells us it is Reasonable to defend our Lives against the Attempts of every unlawful Aggressor And Mr. Hobbs who can never be suspected to give too little power to Kings or too much to the People says 't is the First principle of Natural Right for every Man to defend his Life and his Limbs by all means that he possibly can for tho' when Communities and Societies are form'd this Right of Defending and Avenging our selves devolves upon the Supreme Magistrate and consequently makes it unlawful for us to kill a Man that endeavours to Assassinate us if we can prevent his efforts by addressing our selves to Justice yet if by that means we cannot secure our lives that Necessity puts us in possession of our Natural Right and our own Arm becomes our Magistrate and gives us Authority to defend our own lives tho' if it cannot be avoided with the loss of the Aggressors Let us put the Case Suppose a Prince had resolv'd on a design to Kill his Subjects that he solemnly swore to protect what are the Subjects to do in this condition To say they will implore the assistance of the Laws was to mock them and delude our selves for they cannot resist Dragoons and Fire-Locks To go to the King is to no purpose he is in the Design and so far engaged that he thinks in Conscience he cannot go back and is therefore stocking himself with a sett of Men that will not boggle at the execution of it In such a Case this Absolute Necessity where the Society must perish for want of Protection puts us in possession of our Natural Right to defend our selves for none has a power in Right of his own Will to take away our Lives
but the Almighty power that gave them If an Inferior Magistrate Governor of a Province or City Rebels against the King from whom he received his Authority in order to deprive him of his Crown and Dignity none will scruple to resist him in defence of the King who is Supreme Lord both of him and us And by the same Reason may a Sovereign Prince be Resisted that Usurps upon the Rights of God for no Prince is more Superior to his Subalterns than God Almighty is to all the Kings and Potentates of the whole Earth Reason and Religion command and commend a dutiful submission to Authority but neither Reason Nature nor Religion obliges us to comply with the Sovereignty of the Creature to the prejudice of the Creator or subscribe to such orders of an Arbitrary Prince as manifestly oppose the Rights of God unless we are fond of Inheriting the Title of being Cruel to our selves Unnatural to our Children and profess'd Enemies of our Country for tho' slavery may be the misfortune of good People to submit to it can never be their Duty Another great Engine wherewith our Adversaries serve themselves to batter down the Doctrine of Resistance is the Law of the Land and particularly the Act of Parliament made in the 13th of King Charles the Second which seems in their apprehensions to extirpate this Principal Root and Branch tho' I believe 't will fail them when we have consider'd the Occasion of that Law and the Intention of the Ligislators And this I hope to do with a Modesty suitable to the great Veneration and Esteem that is due to those August Assemblies Acts of Parliament in my opinion being only subject to the Censure of those that have a Right and Power to make them And yet I hope with submission 't will not be indecent to say that Laws made in extraordinary Heats are not Regular Obligations nor ought to let Loose the Kings Hands and Tie up the Subjects England had been long Harrass'd Enslav'd and almost Ruin'd by an Unnatural War Scandaliz'd by the Murther of a King under Forms of Law and Justice Oppress'd by the Tyranny of their Fellow-Subjects and wearied out with changes of Governments and variety of afflictions Sometimes a Common-Wealth the Keepers of the Liberties of England a Rump Parliament then two successive Protectors a Council of Officers a Committee of Safety the Rump restor'd another Committee of Officers the Fag end again the Secluded Members a Junto that brought in King Charles the Second and deliver'd England out of Cruel Servitude that was so sick with changing Masters that when King Charles was Inthron'd and call'd a Parliament which chiefly consisted of Sufferers under the late Mock-Governments or the Persons Sons or Relations of such as had been in actual War against the Parliament or Sufferers for Charles the first the Excess of Joy that attended their Deliverance and a Resolution to prevent such Commotions and troubles for the future so transported them that they thought they could never do enough to Greaten their Monarch or discountenance the late Republicans and therefore in the heat of their Zeal tho' they aim'd well might overshoot the mark and stretch the Prerogative of the King and the Obedience of the Subject beyond their ordinary Limits and like Fond Bridegrooms give away more Authority in a Week than they could Redeem in their whole Lives which has been too often practis'd in England in former times in hopes to oblige their Monarchs tho' as often attended with Sorrow and Repentance and these or at leastwise some of these things might be the occasion of that Law For it could never be the Intention of a Parliament to make the most Violent and Illegal Actions of Arbitrary power wholly Irresistable or pull down the excellent structure of a Limited Monarchy and set up an Absolute Despotick Tyranny where the King and those commission'd by him might do what they pleas'd with our Religion Lives and Estates and make it Treason to resist in any case whatsoever Was not this to give away their own share in the Legislative Power and contradict the Preamble of every Act of Parliament which says all Laws are made by the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons assembled in Parliament and by the Authority of the same never failing to insert those Words And that this would have been the inevitable consequence of such an Unlimited obligation upon the People is plain for what makes a King Absolute but that his Subjects are under a necessity of Obeying him without reserve i. e. never to oppose his commands in any case whatsoever And to confirm my self that they never intended such a breach in our constitution is because the extravagancy of the Act with such a design would have accus'd both their prudence and Fidelity Judge Cook in his Institutes says that Laws made against Right Reason and the Law of Nature are void in themselves and then there 's no necessity of obeying them longer than till we are in a capacity to deny or dispute it what Man of Common Sense can believe that so many Wise Men how good an opinion soever they might have of the King then in the Throne would Arm all his Successors with a power as Despotick and Absolute as the great Turk who may have the Heads and Estates of his Subjects as often as he pleases to command them The last Argument I shall use to shew that that Parliament did not Intend to couch the People under such an Intire and Universal Submission as is maintain'd by our Adversaries is because they had no Power to do it for no Power can reach beyond the Reason of its Institution which is to preserve the Lives and Priviledges of the People and not make 'em Slaves and Vassals to a Delegated Authority Who can believe that the Nation ever Intrusted any sort of Men with a Power to destroy them or to Surrender their All into the Hands of a Cruel Tyrant As Representatives of the People they could have no more Power than the People could give them nor could it be extended beyond theirs from whom it was derived or that is allow'd by the Law of Nature Nam quodcunque suis mutatum sinibus exit * Lucrit l. â— Continuo hoc mors est illius quod fuit ante Since what doth its limits pass By change quite perishes from what it was because it was not in their power to grant it No Man can licence another to kill him because the consent is Unnatural and Null and Void in it self so no Community can give any persons power to destroy them either directly or by consequence for 't is preposterous in Nature that the Means should be destructive in the End and that those that were substituted for our Preservation should be the Instruments of our Ruin which must necessarily follow if they Intended by that Law to Invest all our Princes with a Power to do whatever they please
being told of it as an Incroachment upon the Laws they have always publickly disclaim'd it and yet the late King would attempt it Fortunae miseras auximus arte vias Propert. lib. 3. El. 6. He with Misfortune ' gainst himself took part And his own Wickedness increas'd by Art King Charles the First in his Declaration from * 1694. Newmarket shew'd the Unlawfulness of it for says he The Laws are the Measures of my Power Few Words but very significant and agree with what was said by that great Lawyer Bracton That he is no King that governs by his own Will and not by Law nor are his Commands obliging Which made King James in one of his Speeches to the Parliament call those Flatterers that persuade Kings not to confine themselves within the Bounds oâ— their own Laws Vipers and the Pests of King and Kingdom And the Lord Verulam says the People have as good a Right to their Laws as to the Air they breath in and he that persuades his Prince to break them is as great a Traytor to him in the Court of Heaven as the Villain that draws his Sword upon him in his own Palace Lewis the Eleventh of France tho' he had been a very Arbitrary Prince when he lay upon his Death-Bed told his Son Charles the Eighth that it was a Diminution to the Greatness of a King not to govern by Law and treat his Subjects Humanely for no Man can be call'd a King but he that governs Free-men King James the First in another Speech to his Parliament sums up all in this memorable Passage viz. That a King governing in a settl'd Kingdom leaves to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant when he ceases to rule according to Law And yet all this could not restrain James the Second from endeavouring after an Absolute Power The Sentiments of these Great Men might be very prevalent upon Ingenuous Princes yet our Ancestors unwilling to expose themselves and us to Contingent Hazards or leave it to the Mercy or trust only to the Good Nature of Princes who being but Men might be sway'd by their own Passions abus'd by their Credulity or mis-guided by Evil Counsellors to act against their own and their Kingdom 's Safety they thought fit to bind up their Kings from Invading their Laws or venturing upon an Unlimited Power by the most Sacred Obligation in the World viz. a Solemn Oath and Promise at their Coronations to govern according to the Laws of the Land And Taking this Oath has always been the constant Practice of our Saxon Danish and Norman Kings even to James the Second who made no Scruple in Taking nor no Conscience in Breaking it To this I might add that our Kings are Circumscrib'd by Law because in many Instances the Law hath determined what they can and what they cannot do lawfully But because this Point has been Invidiously and Indecently handl'd by some Perulant and froward Tempers who have set too narrow Bounds to the Royal Prerogative I shall wave it and conclude this Paragraph with that excellent Saying of King James the First to both Houses of Parliament Wherein he expresly tells them * See his Works That a King of England binds himself by a double Oath to the Observation of the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Tacitly as being a King and so bound to protect his People and the Laws of the Kingdom And Expresly by his Oath at his Coronation So that every King in a settl'd Kingdom is bound to observe that Paction made to his People by his Laws in framing his Government agreeably thereunto according to the Paction that God made with Noah after the Deluge To Recite more upon this Head was to pour Water into the Sea for that King that does not think himself oblig'd by his Oath to govern according to Law no other Legal Mound can hold him from breaking down the Fences of the Kingdom and laying all Waste before him Which tho' others might aim at by a Side-Wind no King of England ever claim'd a Right to it but the late King James and it was a piece of Haughtiness and Extravagance above all Example except what his own following Practices has furnished us with And having thus proved that the late King James was by his Oath oblig'd to Govern by Law I proceed to shew you that instead of Answering this great End He made it the whole Business of his Reign to act directly against the Laws to subvert the whole Constitution and expose the Nation to certain Ruin and Destruction And Secondly That by so doing he renounc'd to be our King and justify'd the Legality of the Estates proceedings against him That he intended no Good to England might plainly be discern'd by the great Number of Jesuits and Popish Priests that from all Parts flocked about him and were Caress'd and Indear'd by him at his very first Accession to the Crown for if Charity could have oblig'd us to believe him never so Good-natur'd it was Morally Impossible for him to continue Good in such Ill Company who where-e'er they come set the Country in a Flame that receives them 'T was I say a Sign that some very Ill Thing was to be done when such Sanguinary Hands were to be employ'd as were Reeking hot in the Blood of Neighbouring Protestants and against whose Cruelties Self-Interest Love of Glory Greatness of Mind nor Goodness of Nature could never divert those Princes from Persecuting and Rooting out their Protestant Subjects that had once imbibed the pernicious Principles of the Jesuits who like their Father the Davil are always wandring about seeking whom they may devour In what a happy Estate was the German Empire till the Jesuits prevail'd with the Emperor to espouse their Interest and rather than let a few Protestants live peaceably in Hungary involv'd the Empire in a War that has lasted Thirty Years already and God only knows when there will be an End of it What Scandalous Breaches of Promises and Havock has been among the Hugonots in France by Merciless Cruelties Murthers Thefts Rapine and all kind of Devastations since the Jesuits have been permitted to influence the Affairs of that Kingdom To give no more Presidents of their Barbarities to Protestants and bewitching with their Poysonous Tenents the Counsels of Unwary or Bigotted Princes How have they persuaded the Duke of Savoy contrary to all Politicks to Persecute and Banish his Protestant Subjects who in all probability would have given him the best Assistance when he shall want their Service for the Preservation of his Dukedom And how far the late King James would have follow'd those Presidents while these Incendiaries were the Directors of his Conscience may be easily understood by the first Steps he made towards the Ruin of the Protestant Interest First In Setting up a Dispencing Power and Assuming an Arbitrary Authority that should know no Bounds but what his
Laws do not only totally exclude Papists from Military Offices but injoin them to be Disarm'd also Notwithstanding James the Second did not only Arm them but put them into the First Employments of the Army and all other Stations And was so fond of them that no Consideration either of Quality Loyalty or Merit except he was a Papist could Recommend any Man to this King's Favour or give him Title to the common Kindness of a Civil Reception but all were Smil'd or Frown'd on as they were distinguish'd by their Religious Principles Men may live happily under a Government and yet be excluded from having any Office or exercising any Authority under it and therefore the late King's Fondness and the Papists Forwardness to thrust themselves into Employments gave a great Suspition that it was for no good End that he put Wise and Experienc'd Men out to make room for a sort of Raw Papists who being not us'd to Publick Business were not capacitated for it No Man can imagin that the late King made this bold Adventure in Employing Papists for nothing or that he would disoblige the Body of his People for their sakes only without designing some other Advantage to himself by it He must have some peculiar Service for these Unqualify'd Favourites to do in which the rest of the Nation would not inter-meddle The Contest was between the King 's Absolute Power on the one side and our Laws and Religion on the other And therefore to know what Work their King had for them to do and to what End he would have employ'd these Services here is but to see Vide State of Ireland under the Reign of the late King James what Use he put them to in Ireland and how they demean'd themselves towards Protestants where the Scene was open'd and all manner of Violences committed upon Protestants by his Authority He also corrupted the Exercise of Justice on which depends the Safety of the Nation and the Stability of the Throne The Judges were Tamper'd with and Admitted upon Condition of favouring and promoting the late King 's Arbitrary Power and the Popish Interest Those Judges were Depos'd who were fix'd in their Religion and Resolutely defended the True Interest of their Country and others put into their Places of no Honour Integrity or Capacity but known Temporizers or Papists who were excluded by the Laws of their Country Upon this follow'd very Arbitrary and Illegal Proceedings in the Courts of Judicature A Prosecution was carry'd on against Seven Reverend Prelates for Petitioning the King to Redress their Grievances and giving their Reasons why they could not obey his Arbitrary Commands Causes were Try'd in the Court of King's Bench that were only Cognizable in Parliament Partial Corrupt and Unqualify'd Persons were Return'd and Serv'd on Juries in Cases of High Treason that were not Free-Holders Great Bail requir'd of Persons Committed in Criminal Causes Excessive Fines Impos'd for small Offences Illegal and Cruel Punishments Inflicted without Example or Law to warrant them And for a finishing Stroke The late King was also pleas'd to Grant and Seal a Commission to several Unqualify'd Persons to Examine the Revenues and Search into the Foundations of all the Hospitals in the Kingdom and see to what Uses they were first given by their Benefactors And into the Estates that some time ago belong'd to Monks Friars and other Religious Orders of the Romish Church with Intent to Restore them to the Papists who complain'd to the late King that they were Wrongfully Depriv'd of them In brief Never any Prince in so short a time committed so many Irregularities and made such Inroads upon our All as James the Second did by his Dispencing Power in England his Absolute Power without Reserve in Scotland and his Actual and Absolute Destruction of the Liberties and Religion of the Protestants in Ireland To which if we add the more than seeming Probability of the late King 's Leaguing with France for the Extirpation of the Northern Heresie 't will compleat his Design and make the intended Ruin of England unavoidable for more Hands would have made lighter Work and Experienc'd Artists would have finish'd it sooner I will not urge this League as a plain and positive Truth tho' I am strongly inclin'd to believe it and therefore shall only produce my Reasons and leave them with the Reader to judge as he pleases Mr. Coleman who must be presum'd to know much of his Master's Mind being in the same Interest and the Tool he work'd with in all his Secret Practices gives great Suspicion of the Truth of this Combination in a Letter to Sir William Throgmorton Feb. 1. 1678. You well know saith he that when the Duke comes to be Master of our Affairs i. e. to be King of England the King of France will have Reason to promise himself All things that he can desire And in a Letter to Father Le Chaise Confessor to the French King he says That His Royal Highness was convinc'd that His Interest and the King of France 's were the same And whether he ever thought fit to change his Mind since his Accession to the Crown his own Actions will better declare than any Gloss of mine In this State of Amity Things continu'd between the French King and the Duke of York till he was King And when the Prince of Orange's Fleet was preparing for his Noble Expedition into England they seem'd to rest on the same Foot for Monsieur le Comte d' Avaux the French King's Ambassador at the Hague in a Memorial to the States General acquaints them That his Master knowing the great Preparations for War that their Lordships were making both by Sea and Land was not without some Design form'd answuerable to the greatness of those preparations and his Master believing that it threaten'd England he had Commanded him to declare on his part that the Bands of Friendship and Allyance between him and the King of Great Britain will oblige him not only to assist him but also to look upon the first Act of Hostility that shall be committed by your Troops or your Fleet against his Majesty of Great Britain as a manifest Rupture of the Peace and a Breach with his Crown To this Memorial the States of Holland gave Answer That they Arm'd after the Example of their Neighbours to be ready upon Occasion 'T is true the French Ambassador does not mention the League in express words yet he gives very shrewd Hints that there was some such thing as a League or an Equivilent between the two Crowns and so the States of Holland took it For in their Answer to the English * The Marquiss d'Arbaville Ambassadors's Memorial their Lordships tell him That they were long since fully convinc'd of the Allyance which the King his Master had treated with France and which has been mention'd by Mr. Le Comte d'Avaux in his Memorial The Industry and Care that has been us'd to stifle this League does also
of his People to prevent Distractions and the effusion of Christian Blood to call a Parliament free in all its circumstances but the late King was pleas'd to Deny their Request till the Prince of Orange had acquitted the Realm * vid. his Answer to the Lord's Petition Several Privy Counsellors before this had advis'd his Majesty to call a Parliament without delay and before his Subjects Ask'd it assuring him that if any attempts were made upon his Royal Person or Authority it would effectually engage many honest Men to stand by him besides no ill consequences could be suspected from it because it would always be in his Power to Prorogue or Dissolve it and then he might at the last Shift trust to his Land and Sea Forces But The Jesuites who had his Ear and Heart entirely open and fix'd to their pernicious Counsels on the other hand represented to him that he would be in Danger to see the great Forces which he had then on foot join with his Parliament against him or at least Discontents and Divisions would arise amongst them But if he stood his Ground and suffer'd no Parliament to meet All would faithfully adhere to him so long as he absolutely rely'd on his Forces And accordingly he took this last and worst Advice and would never be brought off till it ended in his Ruin In order to fight the Prince the late King having sent a great Army before he marches down to Salisbury himself where continuing a while and finding his Army daily Desert and being assur'd by the Lord Feversham and others that he could not Rely upon the remaining part of his Soldiery who unanimously declar'd they would not fight against Protestants nor offend the Prince that Heaven had sent for the Deliverance of the Nation from Popery with a very small Number of Attendants the late King returns again to London and in Council orders the Lord Chancellor Jeoffreys to * vid. the Proclamation dat Nov. 30th 1688. Issue out Writs for the Sitting of a Parliament at Westminster on the 15th Day of January following And To second this plausible Pretence of Gratifying the Prince and the whole Nation in Calling a Parliament the late King by three Noble Peers sets on foot a Treaty with the Prince for the Security of the Parliament's Sitting without Interruption the Accommodating all Differences and Restoring Peace and Tranquility to the Nation The Prince freely accepts it and with the Advice of the Lords and Gentlemen assembl'd with him his Highness was pleas'd to send the late King such Proposals as he was pleas'd to say * The Letter to a Bishop q. 14. were Better and Fairer than he could or did expect from him But all this on the late King's part was only a Flourish a Touch of the Jesuits Morals for the late King never intended to perform one Syllable of these Specious Pretences and therefore having sent away the Queen the Child Count Dada the Pope's Nuntio Father Petre and caused the Broad Seal to be thrown into the Thames he only shew'd this Complaisance to Gain Time for his own Departure into France after them What a fair Opportunity was now at the very last put into the late King's Hands to have Redeem'd his Honour Settl'd the Nation and prevented all ill Consequences to his Person and Affairs if he had pursu'd his own propos'd Methods for an Accommodation and kept his Voluntary Promises but he would not So that we can solve these Self-sought Evils no otherwise but by saying What Heaven in the Eternal Council of his own Will has Decreed can never be Revok'd and that for the Accomplishing God's Divine Pleasure Men act directly contrary to their own Interests which has been notorious in the whole Conduct of this Unhappy Prince and has been Jocosely observ'd by others I remember to have seen a Letter written into France from Ireland by a French Commander there giving an Account of the late King James's Management of his Affairs in that Kingdom wherein he expresses himself after this manner That if the late King James had as many Kingdoms to lose as are number'd in Europe his own Conduct would forfeit them all for if he had Twenty Counsellors and Nineteen of them were Men of approv'd Wisdom and Integrety and but one Fool and sensless Person among them he would certainly follow the advice of that blind Bayard in opposition to all the other Sages But Without reflecting upon his Counsellors the late King confirm'd the French Gentleman's Opinion of himself in pursuing the False and Destructive Opinions of those that advised him to withdraw himself against the wholesome Counsels of so many Wise Men that advis'd Calling of a Parliament in order to his own and the Nation 's future Happiness and made it appear a Project so weak and silly that there seems something of a Divine Infatuation in it But he had promis'd the Queen and as some say taken the Sacrament upon it to follow her and thought fit rather to break his Promise with a whole Nation than not humour a pettish Woman Go he must go he will let whatever will be the Consequence of it And therefore to do all the Mischief he could before he went and leave the Realm in all the Confusion was possible He Order'd all those Writs for the Sitting of a Parliament that were not sent out to be burnt and a Caveat to be Enter'd against the making use of those that were sent out and about the same time sent Orders to the Earl of Feversham to Disband the Army and Dismiss the Soldiers which was done accordingly And then the late King made his first Attempt to leave the Kingdom How could the Jesuits have done their King a greater Injury than in persuading him to a continual Breach of his Promises which expos'd his Honour and Integrity to common Censure and drew the Contempt of the whole Nation upon him as a Prince never to be trusted At his first Accession to the Throne one of the Things his Favourites magnify'd him for was for being True to his Word but he resolv'd to prove the contrary and break it in every Instance He promis'd to protect the Church of England and maintain the Protestant Religion when his whole Design was to destroy both and declar'd it in every Action He promised to Govern by Law and not Arbitrarily and at the same time was Investing himself and his Ministers with a Power to destroy them He promis'd an equal Distribution of his Favours and that he would serve himself and the Government indifferently with the Use of All his Subects yet set up Papists to crush the Protestants And when driven to the last Extremity when his All was at Stake He promis'd to Call a Parliament when he was resolv'd it should have no Effect and therefore burnt the Writs to hinder their Sitting He promis'd by this Means to secure the Peace and Happiness of the Kingdom when he had resolv'd before-hand
they had Power made no use of it to free themselves by throwing off their Tyrannical Emperors Their Lots fell to them under an Absolute Government and they remain'd contented with the Dispensation of God's All-wise Providence But may I not be permitted to say their Natural Liberty to cast off their heavy Yoke was restrain'd by Christian Prudence The Church was yet in too narrow a Room but was intended by God Almighty to be spread thro' the other Parts of the World and therefore Rulers would have been far more averse from admitting the Propagators of it into their Territories if the Christians had contracted the Imputation of Turbulency by standing upon their Natural Right to defend themselves whereas their Lamb-like Deportment gave them an easier Access to all Places and Persons And if their Forbearance and Patience was the Fruit of this sole Prudential Consideration their Successors are not so much oblig'd to the same Course in those Countries where Crowns and Sceptres have submitted to the Cross and the Christian Religion has obtain'd a Civil Right of Protection and Immunity from Persecution for then they ought not they cannot relinquish this Right no more than they can destroy themselves or suffer Violence and Cruelty to destroy the Innocent And what is said of the Christian Religion in reference to Paganism holds also true between the Reform'd Religion and Popery But The great Objection which they call Unanswerable is yet behind viz. That a King in Scripture-Language is call'd a Father to honour a Father is the Fifth Commandment and therefore the Obedience of a Subject is as immutably fasten'd to him whatever his Miscarriages are as that of a Natural Son to a Vicious Barbarous Parent A powerful Objection which is always in their Mouths on a double Account But if I can prove that a Natural Father may lose his Claim to his Son's Obedience their King 's Right to our Obedience must fall with it and proves his Abdication Lawful which I shall attempt by giving these several Things in Answer all grounded upon no mean Authorities And First 1. The Appellation Father only describes the Nature of the Kingly Office which is the Tender Care and Studious Regard he ought to exercise for the Safety and Prosperity of his Subjects It tells not what he always is but what he always should be And while he carries it to his People as a Father it is no less than a Damnable Sin not to pay him a Filial Obedience But whether the late King James had any Claim to our Duty upon that Consideration I leave it to the Reader who by this time has had a Glimpse of his Conversation Secondly Our Obligation to obey Natural Parents must give place to our Endeavours to preserve our Country Cicero saw this by the Light of Nature and therefore says * Quid si Tyranidem aucâ—pare si patriam prodere conabitur Pater Selebitne filius Imo vero obsecrabit patrem ne id faciat si nihil proficiet accusabit minabitur etiam ad extremum si ad pernitiem Patriae res spectabit Patriae salutem anteâ—onâ—t saluti patris If a Father acts the part of a Tyrant and endeavours the Destruction of his Country the Son may lawfully oppose him and if he will not be reclaim'd and brought to Reason the Son may accuse him threaten him with Punishment or confine him being oblig'd to prefer the Safety of his own Country before the private Satisfaction of his Father Thirdly 3. A Natural Father by repeated Acts of Barbarity and Cruelty upon his Son alone may forfeit all Just Claims to his Son 's Filial Obedience Let us put the Case A Man who lives near the Sea harbours and cherishes in his Mind a perfect Hatred of his Son upon Contrariety in Religion or some other Cause and in the Heat of his Fury resolves to destroy him History will warrant this Supposition and therefore to prevent the Eye and Censure of the World privately binds him puts him in a Chest and carries him to the Sea-side at Low-Water Mark that the Returning Flood may carry him to his Death I also suppose that after the Son has floated a while in this helpless hopeless Condition a Ship or Boat coming by the Mariners take him up and save that Life which his Father Intentionally and Actually thought he had made away In this Case The Father can never have any Right to his Son's After-Obedience because he endeavour'd to destroy that Being wherein the Relation and Duty was founded And is a good Argument to oblige us to a Grateful and Dutiful Return to our Great Deliverer King William but utterly destroys the Pretence of a Paternal Right in the late King James after he had converted his Power of Preservation into a Power of Desolation and Destruction because he had destroy'd the Relation on which our Duty was Originally founded and without which he had no Claim to it In such and Easier Cases than now is put Wise Men for above a Thousand Years together have judg'd that such Cruel Fathers have lost all Just Title to their Abus'd Children as may be read in the Decrees of the Emperors Valentinianus Valens and Gratianus directed to Probus the Prefect Recorded by Justinianus Codicis liber octavus Tit. 52. and in the Decree of Justinian the Emperor directed to Demosthenes his Praetorian Prefect By all which it appears that a Man's exposing his own Child in a Box or Basket on the High-way at a Stranger 's Door or elsewhere where he is sure to perish unless some Charitable Hand by chance takes him up and preserves him amounts in Sound Judgment to the Forfeiture of his Claim to their future Obedience supposing their Casual Preservation notwithstanding the firm Tyes of Nature and Property All the great Interpreters of the Civil Law from Justinian hitherto have approv'd the afore-cited Judgment Baldus Salycetus and others have done it of old and the latter Swarms of Civilians Hermannius Vulteius Harpprectus c. have given their Assent to it All which I shall wave and only recite the Words of Hadrianus Saravia who tho' a Stranger was in respect of his great Learning preferr'd here by Queen Elizabeth He expresses the Sense of all the rest in his First Book de Imperandi Authoritate Christiana Obedientia in saying that * Qui recens natos Infantes abjiciunt feris devorandos aut a quovis tollendos omne jus paternum simul objeciunt Nihil enim genuisse promerentur nisi Natos educaverint Cap. 2. if Parents grow so unnatural and cruel to the Issue of their own Loins as to expose them to Wild Beasts or by other Cruelties endeavour to deprive them of their Lives they forfeit all kind of Paternal Right to and Authority over their Children because they had divested themselves of Humanity and not answer'd the End for which God and Nature design'd them which was to educate and preserve their Children but not do them any