41. quotes out of Dan. 5. 18 19. That God gave Nebuchadnezzar such an Absolute Kingdom that whom he would he slew and whom he would he made alive and whom he would he set up and whom he would he pulled down And I hope no Man tyrannizes over his People who uses the Prerogatives which God has given him tho' He does over Authors who quotes what he will and suppresses what he will and construes them how he will and renders Lex facit Regem To govern by Law makes a Sovereign Prince a King and distinguishes him from a Tyrant which will pass with none but such Ordinary Readers as he writ his Book for and who never saw Bracton Chancellor Fortescue likewise says That a Limited Monarch receives his Power a Populo efluxam which unriddles our Author's Riddle in the same place How the Law can make the King when the King makes the Law But is it such a wonderful thing that there should be a Law to create a King and to enable him so far in the making of Laws as to make his Consent necessary to the Being of all future Laws Was it not thus when the Two Houses were erected and endowed with the like Power For our Author says amiss when he says The Law has no Authority but what it receives from the King for the Laws are made Authoritate Parliamenti which is by the Authority of the King Lords and Commons But to lay aside Bracton and Fortescue at present let us a little reason the matter This Personal Authority of the King antecedent to all the Laws of the Land independent on them and superiour to them whence is it Has He a Throne like God Is he of Himself and for Himself Or has he a Personal Authority from God antecedent to Laws to be a King Then shew a Revelation from God where he is named Or has he the Natural Authority of a Father to govern his Children Then it must be proved that he has begotten his Three Kingdoms and all the People in all other His Majesty's Dominions Or has he a Personal Patriarchal Authority which is set up as a Shadow of the Authority of a Father whereby the eldest Son is his Father by Representation Then it must be proved that the King is the Eldest Son of the Eldest House of all the Families of the Earth Or were Mankind made in the day of their Creation by Nations and created Prince and People as they were created Male and Female But if none of these things can be said then it remains that a Civil Authority that is a mutual Consent and Contract of the Parties first founded this Civil Relation of King and Subject as we see it every day does of Master and Servant which is another Civil Relation and that the Consent of a Community or Society is a Law and the Foundation of all Civil Laws whatsoever is proved beyond all Contradiction by Mr. Hooker Eccl. Pol. Lib. 1. Cap. 10. And as this Personal Authority of the King which is antecedent to all the Laws of the Land and independent on them is airy and imaginary and has no Foundation but is of this Author 's own making so he has been pleased to make it very large and lawless and though he be but a Subject yet like Araunah the Iebusite he gives like a King. For it is a Personal Authority Superiour to the Laws of the Land whereby all manner of Arbitrary Acts are binding whereby the Prince may trample upon all the Laws and in vertue whereof he still governs in the violation of all these Laws by which he is bound to govern Whereas the Law of England absolutely denies that the King has any such Personal Authority For not to mention King Edward's Laws Chap. 17th De Officio Regis which were confirmed by William the Conqueror and sworn to by all succeeding Kings nor to mention the Mirror which page 8. gives us a far different account of things nor to mention Magna Charta which Chap. 37. says That if any thing be procured by any person contrary to the Liberties contained in that Charter it shall be had of no force or effect So that a Personal Authority which can trample upon the Liberties of the Subject and violate the Laws is an Authority of no force nor effect a void Authority or in other words it is nothing I say not to insist upon any of these I shall quote some passages out of my Lord Chancellor Fortescue where he professedly handles the difference betwixt an Absolute Monarchy and a Limited Monarchy and after he has shewn the different Original of them he thus proceeds in the 13th Chap. Now you understand most Noble Prince the form of Institution of a Kingdom Politick or limited Monarchy whereby you may measure the Power which the King thereof may exercise over the Law and Subjects of the same For such a King is made and ordained for the Defence of the Law of his Subjects and of their Bodies and Goods whereunto he receiveth Power of his People so that he cannot govern his People by any other Power To whom the Prince thus answer'd in the 14th Chap. You have good Chancellor with the clear light of your Declaration dispelled the Clouds wherewith my Mind was darkened so that I do most evidently see that no Nation did ever of their own voluntary mind incorporate themselves into a Kingdom for any other intent but only to the end that they might enjoy their Lives and Fortunes which they were afraid of losing with greater security than before And of this intent should such a Nation be utterly defrauded if then their King might spoil them of their Goods which before was lawful for no Man to do And yet should such a People be much more injured if they should afterwards be Governed by foreign and strange Laws yea and such as they peradventure deadly hated and abhorred and most of all if by those Laws their Substance should be diminished for the safegaurd whereof as also for the security of their Persons thcy of their own accord submitted themselves to the Governance of a King. No such Power for certain could proceed from the People themselves and yet unless it had been from the People themselves such a King could have had no Power at all over them Now this Discourse of the Institution of a Political Kingdom was to shew the Prince of Wales that he ought to study the Laws of England and not the Civil Laws by which an English King cannot Govern whereof the Prince stood in doubt Chap. 9. But now you see that Cloud is dispelled and he is convinced by this That a Political Kingdom cannot be govern'd by foreign and strange Laws which had signified nothing toward his Conviction if England were not a Political Kingdom And I think there cannot be a plainer Comment upon those former words of Bracton Lex facit Regem attribuat igitur Rex Legi quod Lex attribuit ei videli
Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That the King 's most Excellent Majesty his Heirs and Successors shall and may from Time to Time as occasion shall require issue forth several Commissions of Lieutenancy to such Persons as his Majesty his Heirs and Successors shall think fit to be his Majesties Lieutenants for the several and respective Counties Cities and Places of England and Dominion of Wales and Town of Berwick upon Tweed which Lieutenants shall have full Power and Authority to call together all such Persons at such Times and to arm and array them in such Manner as is hereafter expressed and declared and to form them into Companies Troops and Regiments and in case of Insurrection Rebellion or Invasion them to lead conduct and imploy or cause to be led conducted or imployed as well within the said several Counties Cities and Places for which they shall be Commissionated respectively as also into any other the Counties and Places aforesaid For suppressing all such Insurrections and Rebellions and repelling of Invasions as may happen to be according as they shall from Time to Time receive Directions from his Majesty his Heirs and Successors And that the said respective Lieutenants shall have full Power and Authority from Time to Time to constitute appoint and give Commissions to such Persons as they shall think fit to be Colonels Majors Captains and other Commission-Officers of the said Persons so to be armed arrayed and weaponed and to present to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors the Names of such Person and Persons as they shall think fit to be Deputy-Lieutenants and upon his Majesties Approbation of them shall give them Deputations accordingly always understood that his Majesty his Heirs and Successors have Power and Authority to direct and order otherwise and accordingly at his and their Pleasure may appoint and commissionate or displace such Officers any thing in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding And that the said Lieutenants respectively and in their Absence out of the Precincts and Limits of their respective Lieutenancies or otherwise by their Directions the said Deputy-Lieutenants during their said respective Deputations or any two or more of them shall have Power from Time to Time to Train Exercise and put in Readiness and also to Lead and Conduct the Persons so to be armed arrayed and weaponed by the Directions and to the Intents and Purposes as is hereafter Expressed and Declared Here you see all is Regulated and Limited and the Lieutenancy have no other Powers nor Authorities nor can execute them but by the Directions and to the Intents and Purposes expressed and declared by Law. Consequently The Lieutenancy have no Power to raise Insurrections or Rebellions or to assist Invasions for that is directly contrary to the Intent and Purpose of this Act which is In Case of Insurrection Rebellion or Invasion whereby occasion shall be to draw out the Militia into Actual Service to imploy these Forces for suppressing all such Insurrections and Rebellions and repelling of Invasions as it is frequently repeated in this Act. Nor Secondly have they Power to act contrary to the Directions of these Acts as for Instance to search for Arms in the Houses of Persons judged to be dangerous without a Constable or Parish-Officer nor to search in Villages or Country-Towns other than within the Bills of Mortality between Sun-setting and Sun-rising nor have the Commissioned Peers Power to imprison a Peer where he is expresly excepted from that Penalty The rest of this Act is spent in charging the Quota's and Proportions of Men and Arms in setling Pay for the Souldiers and in declaring what Powers and Authorities shall be executed in all Cases relating to the Militia And to the Persons concern'd we leave them only taking notice of this Oath which is directed by the Act to be administred to all Officers and Souldiers in the Militia in these following Words I A. B. do declare and believe that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King And that I do abhor that Traiterous Position That Arms may be taken by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissioned by Him in pursuance of such Military Commissions But as I said before neither are the People of England enslaved by this Oath For as for the first Clause It never was lawful upon any Pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King for that in other Words is to levy War against Him. And as for the first part of the Position to be abhorred That Arms may be taken by the King's Authority against his own Person it was always Traiterous Non-sence and fit to go along with the other Proposal in the Oxford Expedient of inthroning the Name of a Prince but banishing his Person 500 Miles off under Pain of Death And so the other part of the Position That Arms may be taken by the King's Authority against those who have received Authority from the King in the Execution of that very Authority is Stuff as ill put together as the other for it makes the King's Authority to supplant and destroy it self And therefore the renouncing and abhorring of such Positions can never be interpreted to be parting with our English Liberties which having been all along preserved by our Ancestors at a vast Expence both of Blood and Treasure must needs be presumed to be something that was more valuable than barbarous Nonsence But because there are many Men who like Trouble-all in Bartholomew-Fair take two or three Words under the Hand of a Magistrate to be a sufficient Warrant for any thing and think all to be Commissions which are so called whether they be so or no it will be necessary to take into Consideration this last part of the Oath and to shew 1. What a Commission is And 2. Who act in Pursuance of such Commission 1. A Commission is the Legal Appointment of a Legal Person to execute or exercise some Legal Power or Authority And therefore the first thing requisite to a Persons being Commissionated is that he be Legally appointed So Dr. Falkner commenting upon this Clause of the Oath by a Commission understands a Commission regularly granted Book 2. chap. 1. Sect. 6. But though as he says that be the true Sense of the Clause yet it is not the whole Truth For tho a Commission may be issued in due Form of Law and be regularly granted yet the Incapacity or Disability of a Person to receive a Commission or the Illegal Powers of the Commission it self may render it void 2. The next thing requisite to a Persons being Commissionated is that he be a Legal Person For First a Person may be uncapable by Law of being Commissionated as he that was not a Natural-born Subject of England was uncapable of being an High-Commissioner Or Secondly A Person may be disabled by Law from having a
REMARKS UPON Dr. SHERLOCK'S BOOK INTITULED The Case of Resistance of the Supreme Powers Stated and Resolved according to the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures Written in the Year 1683 By SAMVEL IOHNSON London Printed for the Author and are to be sold by Richard Baldwin 1689. To the Right Honourable WRIOTHESLY Lord RVSSEL My Lord YOur Lordship has the largest Inheritance of Honour of any Englishman besides and your very early Years promise to the World that you will rather improve than waste your Patrimony I hope your Great Father will Live in You and that there never will be wanting a Great Lord Russell in Succession which is the only way wherein Mortal Men can stay any while here upon Earth That You may follow Him in his Piety in his Devotedness to his Religion and Countrey in his Integrity Wisdom Magnanimity Constancy and all the Parts both of a Christian and a Nobleman And that You may be the Joy and Delight of your Countrey as He was but Never their Grief is the Hearty Prayer of My Lord Your Lordship 's Most Humble and Most Obedient Servant SAMUEL JOHNSON THE PREFACE I Have Published these Papers which I had not seen for above five Years before to rid my Hands of the baffled Cause of Non-Resistance and to offer my Service to do as much for some Men's new-fashioned Loyalty which is in election likewise to be Adopted for Church-of England-Doctrine as the other was It consists in being Discontented with the present Government in loathing our late and wonderful Deliverance and in hankering after Egypt again in refusing to swear Allegiance to the King and in effect forbidding him to be King without their leave And after all it lies hid in lurking Scruples and in Reasons best known to Themselves Now till we are worthy to know to whom these Persons think themselves under Engagements whether to the late King or to the Prince of Wales or to Tyrconnel or to what Foreign Prince or Potentate it is And for what Reasons they are not free to take the present Oaths it is impossible to say any thing in particular to them For the Errors and Windings of Ignorance and Interest are intricate and endless And the Reasons of a self-willed Obstinacy which is in it self an unreasonable Principle must needs be Incomprehensible If any Man had told me seven Years ago that the Doctrine of Passive Obedience should be maintained by such Arguments as I have since met with I could not have believed him For no Man who has used his Thoughts to Evidence and Coherence could possibly foresee or forestall those Arguments And therefore till these Reserved Persons will please to let their Scruples see the Light and bring forth all their strong Reasons they must enjoy the Priviledg of being Vnanswerable But in the mean time we are able to Prove if the Nation wanted any Satisfaction in that Point That King William a Prince of God's sending and whom He have in his especial keeping is the Rightfullest King that ever sat upon the English Throne For he is set up by the same Hands which made the First King and which hereafter will make the Last and which have always unmade all Tyrants as fast as they could And the Realm has not chosen him like a Persian King by the neighing of an Horse or by some light Accident but in the wisest way and upon the most weighty and valuable Considerations For if he had not come there had not been a Kingdom for him to Govern England had now been a Wilderness of howling Irish a Rendevouz of French Apostolick Dragoons a Nest of Priests and Iesuits and any thing but a Kingdom So that he is a Prince who Governs his Own Kingdom which he first saved from Perishing and though Conquest never was a Title yet Redemption is In such Cases Men used heretofore to become Slaves to their Deliverers Now this indeed is a thing impossible for English-men but they never had such a Temptation to it before The least they can do is to make him a Present of their Lives and Fortunes not in foolish and flattering Addresses but in real Services and to perpetuate his Benefits to this Nation to the World's-end by passing them into such advantageous Laws for the Publick as could not be had in other Reigns We are able to prove likewise That if the Realm has a Right to provide themselves of a King when they have none much more they may do so when they have one who has made himself a thousand times worse than none One who was long since known to be a publick Enemy to this Kingdom and had utterly unqualified himself for the Government and forfeited his Remainder in the Crown by rendring himself uncapable of the Regal Office. For we knew before-hand that he was not capable of taking the Coronation-Oath with any other Intention than to break it and that he wanted to be let into the Government only to spoil and subvert it And therefore in Pursuance of the Ancient Rights of the Realm whose Consent is the Foundation of all Government and who never made any Establishment of the Crown for the Destruction of the Nation nor ever intailed the Government but upon the Terms of the Government He was Excluded by no less than three Successive Houses of Commons Which was such a Caveat entred by all the Counties and Boroughs of England against his Succession as never was against any other This had passed into an Act of Parliament had it not been for the mean and indirect Practices of some Persons who owed their Native Country better Offices than to bring the Calamity and Vengeance of a Popish Successor upon it After this Successor with the help aforesaid had paved his Way to the Throne upon the Ruins of the Franchises of most Corporations and upon the Heads of the Best Men in England of a sudden when for many Years before the King was to out-live the Duke on the other Hand the Duke out-lives the King and makes himself King. But if he had been a Rightful King when he took Possession of the Crown as he was not but a publick Enemy he has since that time broken the Fundamental Contract or Covenant of the Kingdom or Coronation-Oath for they are but several Names for the same Thing with that Perjury and Perfidiousness as never any Prince did before him I will not mention his smothering of all the Laws against Popery and Priests whom he ought immediately to have apprehended prosecuted and hanged if he had taken the Oath in Good Faith which according to the Constitution he was bound to do For according to ancient Custom he was to be Adjured not to meddle with the Crown unless he would take his Oath sine Fraude malo ingenio and mean Honestly Neither need I say any thing of his holding Correspondence with the Foreign Tyrant Vsurper and publick Enemy of this Kingdom by sending a pompous Embassy to Rome and by obtruding a