and King James but indeed in the next Reign when Popish and French Councils found admission at our Court then arose together the New Principles of superconformity in the Church and of Super Loyalty in the State which like a preternatural ferment have ever since disturb'd the peace of both and must be again cast out if we ever recover a true English Temper or a peaceful settlement If then we frame our Character of the Church of England from the first and purest half of her Age before she was secretly practis'd upon by the Arts of her subtle Adversary we shall easily discover that her principles of Conformity and Loyalty are far more moderate and intelligible than those which since that time have been most industriously and impetuously recommended under her Venerable Name And I wish that every one who professeth an Honourable and kind regard for our Church would no longer ascribe to her such Principles and Doctrines which she for many years was ignorant of wherewith the Church hath given great advantage to her Enemies and receiv'd nothing but Scorn and Contempts and by which she may oblige the present Government to treat her with less kindness than she might otherwise expect But I forget that I am writing a Letter and how much pardon I already need for running it into so great a length but I thought it better to give you so long a trouble in reading than to leave any trouble on your mind unremoved I beseech you to excuse candidly the mistakes I may have committed and to accept the Services of Reverend Sir London March 1688 / 9 Your Affectionate Brother and Faithful Friend c. Books Lately Printed for RIC. CHISWELL AN Explication of the Catechism of the Church of England Viz. The Creed Lords Prayer Ten Commandements and the Sacraments in IV. Volumes Fol. by Gabr. Towerson D. D. The Fifteen Notes of the Church as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin examined and confuted by several Hands with a Table to the whole 4to Reflexions upon the Books of the Holy Scripture in order to establish the Truth of the Christian Religion in Two Parts Oct. By Mr. Alix The TEXTS which the Papists cite out of the Bible for Proof of the Points of their Religion Examined and shew'd to be alledg'd without Ground In twenty five distinct Discourses by several Hands Viz. Popery not founded in Scripture The Introduction TEXTS concerning the Obscurity of Holy Scriptures Of the insufficiency of Scripture and necessity of Tradition Of the Supremacy of St. Peter and the Pope over the whole Church In two parts Of Infallibility Of the Worship of Angels and Saints departed In two Parts Of the Worship of Images and Reliques Of the Seven Sacraments and the Efficacy of them In two Parts Of the Sacrifice of the Mass In two Parts Of Transubstantiation Of Auricular Confession Of Satisfactions In two parts Of Purgatory In two Parts Of Prayer in an unknown Tongue In two Parts Of Coelibacy of Priests and Vows of Continence In two parts Of the Visibility of the Church Of Merit of Good Works Two Tables to the whole will shortly be published A Continuation of the state of the Controversie between the Church of England and the Church of Rome being a full account of the Books that have been of late written on both sides By William Wake M. A. 4to Dr. Patricks Parable of the Pilgrim The Sixth Edition corrected A Private Prayer to be used in difficult Times 8to Exposition of the Ten Commandments 8to His Sermon before the Prince of Orange 20. January 1688. A Sermon before the Queen at Whitehall March 1. 1688. Books lately Published by Dr. Gilbert Burnet A Collection of Tracts and Discourses written after the Discovery of the Popish Plot from the years 1678 to 1685. To which is added a Letter written to Dr. Burnet giving an Account of Cardinal â—ools Secret Powers The History of the Powder Treason with a Vindication of the Proceedings thereupon An Impartial Consideration of the Five Jesuites dying Speeches who were Executed for the Popish Plot 1679. A Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England In which is demonstrated that all the Essentials of Ordination according to the Practice of the Primitive and Greek Churches are still retained in our Church Reflexions on the Relation of the English Reformation lately printed at Oxford in two Parts 4to Animadversions on the Reflections upon Dr. BVRNET's Travels 80 Reflexions on a Paper intitled his Majesties Reasons for withdrawing himself from Rochester An Enquiry into the present State of Affairs and imparticular whether we owe Allegiance to the King in these Circumstances And whether we are bound to Treat with Him and call Him back or no A Sermon Preached in St. James's Chappel before the Prince of Orange 23d Decemb 1688. A Sermon Preached before the House of Commons 31 January 1688 being the Thanksgiving day for the deliverance of this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power His Eighteen Papers relating to the Affairs of Church and State during the the Reign of King James the Second Seventeen whereof were written in Holland and first Printed there the other at Exeter soon after the Prince of Orange's Landing in England A Letter to Mr. Thevenot Containing a Censure of Mr. Le Grand's History of King Henry the Eighth's Divorce To which is added a Censure of Mr. de Meauxâ—s History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches Together with some further Reflections on Mr. Le Grand 1689. Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Historia Literaria a Christo nato usque ad Saeculum XIV Facili Methâ—do digesta Qua de Vita illorum ac Rebus gestis de Secta Dogmatibus Elogio Stylo de Scriptis genuinis dubiis supposititiis ineditis deperditis Fragmentis deque variis Operum Editionibus perspicue agitur Accedunt Scriptores Gentiles Christiane Religionis Oppugnatores cujusvis Saeculi Breviarium Inseruntur suis locis Veterum aliquot Opuscula Fragmenta turn Graeca tum Latina hactenus inedita Praemissa denique Prolegomena quibus plurima ad Antiquitatis Ecclesiasticae studium spectantia traduntur Opus Indicibus necessariis instructum Autore GVILIELMO CAVE SS Theol. Profes Canonico Windesoriensi Accedit ab Alia Manu Appendix ab ineunte Saeculo XIV ad Annum usque MDXVII Fol. 1689. ADVERTISEMENT Whereas a Book Intituled FASCICULUS RERUM EXPETENDARUM ET FUGIENDARUM with a large Additional APPENDIX was promised by Richard Chiswell the Undertaker to be finished in Michaelmas Term last This is to give Notice That by reason of the Sickness of the Printer and some necessary Avocations of the Publisher it has been retarded But for the Satisfaction of Subscribers the Book will be forty or fifty Sheets more than was promised in the Proposals which will cost the Undertaker 100 l. extraordinary yet in Consideration thereof he will not expect one penny above the first Subscription price only craves their patience till the Book can be done which is now going on with all possible speed and so soon as finished Notice shall be given in the Gazette In the mean time there being some few of the Impression not yet subscribed for such Gentlemen as please to take the Benefit thereof may be admitted Subscribers and may have Printed Proposals for sending for at the Rose and Crown in St. Pauls Chuch-Yard or at most Booksellers Shops in City or Country
he would be an absolute Monarch which is before disprov'd or else it must be a conditional Right respecting the Office he is to discharge and then the Right in Equity must cease upon the non-performance of the condition Supposing also that a Person 's Right to the Re al Estate be founded on the Civil Constitutions of our Government if he will set himself to subvert those Constitutions he cannot thereby but Vndermine and Destroy his own Right which was superstructed on them And if he obstinately refuse to discharge the Regal Office according to the proper fixt rule of the Law though he still usurp the title of King yet he is become quite another thing such as our English Constitutions assign no Authority to and to which we are not supposed to owe any Allegiance and which we cannot recognize without becoming Accessaries to the most illegal practices and deriving on our selves the heinous guilt of contributing to the ruine of the Government and our Selves And as such a determination of the Case is most consonant to reason so it is most agreeable to the antient principles and practices of England By a Law made in King Edward the Confessor's time it is declared Quod nisi fecerit nec nomen Regis in eo constabit Lamb. de priscis Atglorum legibus p. 142. That if a King doth not perform his Office he shall not retain so much as the name of a King. We read also that * In principio secundi Anni Regni sui cum incorrigibil s superbiâ—e â—â—quitiae esset congregati sunt Proceres Populus totius Regni eun proâ—ida deliberatione à Regno unanimi consensu omnium expellebant Collect. p. 769. c. Sigebert King of the West-Saxons being incorrigibly Proud and Wicked he was in the beginning of the second year of his Reign by the Nobles and the People of the whole Kingdom assembled together upon mature deliâ—eration and by unanimous consent of them all driven out of his Kingdom Thus also King John having broken his Coronation-Oath and endeavour'd by many ways to inslave both the Church and the Realm after many applications and a defensive War waged by the Barons against him it was at last agreed that if he did again return to his former wicked Courses Inter caetera de ejus expresso consensu ita convenit ut si idem Johannes ad flagitia prima rediret ipsi Barones ab ejus fidelitate recederent nunquam ad eum postmodum reversuri Cum autem ille fecit novissima sua pejora prioribus illi de communi Regni Consilio approbations ipsum Regno indignum judicarunt Collect. 1868. c. Chron. W. Thorn. the Barons should be for ever releas'd from all Allegiance to him and when he afterward relaps'd into the same courses they in a general Assembly with the approbation of all the Realm adjudg'd him unworthy to be King. We find also that King Edward the Second for following Evil Counsel and refusing to hearken to good counsel for his pride arrogance for breaking his Coronation Oath De Consilio assensu omnium Praeâ—â—torum Baronum totius Comnunitatis Regui amotus est à Recimiâ—e Regni Apolog. Adami de Orleton Collect. p. 2765. for wasting his Kingdom and being found incorrigible and past all hopes of amendment was by advice and assent of all the Prelates Earles and Barons and of the whole communitie of the Kingdom depos'd from the Government Habent â—r antiquo Statuto de facto non longe retroaciis temporibus experienter quod dolendum est habito Si Rex ex maligno consilio quocunquae vel inepta contamacia aut contemptu seu proterva Voluntate singulari aut quovismodo irregulari fe alienaverit à à populo suo nec voluerit per jura Regni Statuta ac landabiles Ordinationes cum salubri consilio Dominorum Procerum Regni gubernari regulari sed capitose in suis insanis consiliis propriam Voluntatem suam singularem proterve exercere extunc licitum est iis cum communi assensu consensu Populi Regni ipsum Regem de â—egali solio abrogare propinquiorum aliquem de stirpe Regia loco ejus in Regni solio sablimare H. Knighton Collect. 2681. I shall add only one instance more of King Richard the Second to whom his Parliament sent Messengers to declare to him among other things that they find in an antient Statute and it hath been done in fact not long ago that if the King through any evil counsel or foolish contumacy or out of Scorn of some petulant wilfulness or any other irregular way shall alienate himself from his people and shall refuse to be govern'd and guided by the Laws of the Realm and the Statutes and laudable Ordinances thereof together with the wholsome advice of the Lords and great Men of his Realm but persisting headstrong in his own mad counsels shall petulantly prosecute his own private humour that then it shall be lawfull for them with the common assent and consent of the people of the Realm to depose that same King from his Regal Throne and to set up some other of Royal Family in his place The present Case stated These Testimonies which I met with in a late Pamphlet and which I am assur'd from an able hand to be faithfully recited and of an unsuspected credit I have abridg'd and transâ—rib'd to confirm that truth on which the Argument is built that according to our English Constitutions a person may forfeit his Regal Rights and cease de jure to be King and that according to the antient Statutes and irreprovable Vsages of this Country the Nobles and Commons of England may remove such a person from the Government when necessary to prevent a general ruine otherwise inevitable Now that the late King had brought matters to so great an extremity as is in the Argument suppos'd is evident from many instances so recent and notorious that it was lately acknowledg'd by all of us in the lowdest Complaints We saw him attempting to subvert our Parliaments by cortupting their Elections with the meanest arts and using his power to pervert or frustrate their counsels We heard those high strains in which he claim'd an absolute and arbitrary Power our Laws were trampled on in illegal dispensations and the most partial Execution Some were disseised of their Freehold without a trial and levies of Mony were made without and against Law Our Religion and Church which are the best of all those interests which are secured to us by a legal Establishment were so boldly threatned and attacked that we seemed to enjoy them but precariously and to be in danger of seeing them speedily ravish'd from us And when we consider that the late King was instigated and conducted in these exorbitant courses by the Jesuits and the French King who have long since convinced the World that they dare to perpetrate any
mischief or wickedness that will advance their glory and promote their interests When also we consider that he proceeded in these courses with so obstinate a resolution that when his Peers indeavoured to raclaim him by advice they only thereby lost his favour and all their Preferments and when some of his Bishops petitioned him in the humblest manner they were answered only with fury and imprisonment When lastly we consider how far he had advanc'd in this way that we already began to despair and our Enemies to triumph and if our Glorious Deliverer had not timely intervened we might have been in a few months past all hopes of Recovery We may surely upon these considerations be allowed to conclude That England could not be in more danger or any Prince lie under juster exceptions or a people be more disoblig'd from their Allegiance There are some who say that if the League with France the Imposture of a young Prince the Murder of the Earl of Essex c. were clearly proved they should not be able to contain themselves from renouncing all Allegiance to him But though these may perchance be proved in due time yet if they never are there is certainly enough and too much besides to satisfie any reasonable Man. 2. If James the Second deserted the Kingdom without any necessity but what he induced on himself and if he made no provision for the administration of the Government in his absence but by taking away the publick Seals and cancelling the Writs of Parliament design'd to obstruct all regular proceedings and if also he hath put himself into the hands of the French King the greatest Enemy of our Religion and Country without whom he cannot return to us and with whom he cannot return without apparent ruine to his Kingdom he doth thereby cease de facto to be our King and we become discharged from all further Allegiance to him I suppose few would haesitate in granting such a conclusion if the Late King had by a writing under his hand and Seal solemnly abdicated the Government but I know not what mighty force there is in a form of Words for renouncing the Government that it may not be as effectually performed by a proper and notorious fact or that a King may not as well renounce his Crown by doing it as by saying it and it is the thing it self and not the way of expressing it which is the ground on which the relation between a King and his Subjects is dissolved and therefore if a King doth actually desert his People his Government and their Obedience must thereupon actually cease You would perchance easily allow the argument if the King had withdrawn deliberately and of choice but it is said that he was rather hurried out of his Kingdom by force and fear It will be therefore necessary to relate to you the History of that transaction which according to the truest account that I can meet with is this When the King went hence the first time the Prince and his Armie were at a great distance and a Treatie between them was pretended but he left the City before his Commissioners could return with an Answer to his Demands and it is certain that the Treaty was but a delusive Pretence and that his Departure was resolv'd on some Days before for he himself declar'd to a Person of Credit that the Queen had obtained from him a Solemn Oath upon the Sacrament on the Sunday that if the went away for France on Monday he would not fail to follow her on Tuesday Which he accordingly attempted and we are very well assur'd that tho his Subjects used some Force to hinder his Flight yet they used none to compel him to it When he left this City the second time he receiv'd a Message from the Prince which desir'd him to withdraw some few Miles from London lest the Army coming thither and Whitehall being throng'd with Papists some Disorders might thence arise not consistent with the Publick Peace or the Kings Safety but we are sure that it was altogether of his own Choice that he went first to Rochester and thence out of the Kingdom If you reply that the late King being deserted by his Subjects and exposed naked to the Prince's Power was brought under a necessity of flying I must answer that that Necessity was not absolute but conditional For the Prince to whom he lately allowed the Character of being always Just to his Word had assur'd him in his Declaration that if he would suffer the Grievances of his People to be redress'd in a Free Parliament his Army should peaceably depart And not a few of his Nobles and others did earnestly beseech him to comply with those Terms and solemnly assure him that in such a Compliance they would faithfully adhere to him If therefore the late King would have return'd to the English Government he need not have left the Kingdom but if he chose rather to depose and banish himself than acknowledg and correct the Errors of his Government or let fall those glorious Projects of advancing Popery and an Arbitrary Power in England we have no Reason to think such a wilful Necessity which he imposed upon himself a sufficient Excuse for deserting his Kingdom but rather to conclude that if he would rather leave us than leave off to oppress us we are happily releas'd from our Allegiance and Oppression together Yet if we should impute his Flight rather to the weakness of his Fear than to the obstinacy of his Resolution I do not see how the same Conclusion can be avoided For if he leave off to administer the Government himself and rather hinder than promote its Administration by others the course of the Government is thereby stop'd and either this Nation must disband into Confusion or we are necessitated to seek out and imploy some other Expedient If you think that he might in short time overcome his Fears and return to his People and Government even this Hope is fatally precluded by his making himself a Royal Prisoner to the French King from whom he can expect only to be used and managed as will most contribute to the Designs and Interests of that Haughty Monarch insomuch that we cannot conceive his Return possible without the Consent and Conduct of Him whom he hath made his Patron and without the dreadful attendance of a French Army and the dismal Consequence of utter Ruine to our Church and Nation And surely that Prince who can forsake his People and abandon them out of his Care and make it impossible to return except as an Enemy to vanquish and destroy them may very well be thought to cease de facto to be a King and his Subjects to owe any Allegiance to him 3. It the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons of England assembled in the late Convention have upon mature Deliberation resolved and declared that James the 2d hath abdicated the Government and vacated the Throne we may be satisfactorily
all Civil Cases decided by their proper Judges my Conscience ought to acquiesce and if I may be thereby misled into any Error it will be without Guilt before God. And I am also inform'd that by a Statute made 11 Hen. 7. we are legally indemnified in paying our Allegiance to the King in being it we continue faithful therein however infirm his Title may afterwards appear and therefore I cannot see what Danger can affright us from our Allegiance or with what Safety we can refuse it Thirdly I have now given you my Resolution of the chief Difficulties in the Case propounded and the Reasons on which it is built and I can think of nothing more requisite to your Satisfaction except to shew how this Resolution doth consist with all the Obligations which may affect a good Conscience in the present Case which are I suppose chiefly these three viz. the Prescriptions of that Holy Religion we profess the Solemn Oaths we have taken or the Declaration we have subscribed and the avowed Principles and Doctrines of this Church in whose Communion we live 1. As to the first The Rule of our Religion being the Holy Scriptures nothing can be inconsistent with one which is not repugnant to the other and according to the best of my Understanding the principles I have proceeded upon do not disagree with any Sacred Text rightly interpreted The first King of Israel we meet with in the Old Testament is Saul who was advanc'd to the Throne as well by God's Institution as the Peoples Election and who was according to the Peoples desire an absolute Monarch like the other Kings in those Eastern Countries But this thanks be to God is not our Case who live under a mixt Government and a Monarchy limited by the fundamental Constitutions of this Realm And yet I cannot but observe how David who is usually prescribed as an eminent Pattern of Loyalty thought it lawful to raise a band of Souldiers for a defensive Resistance against the unjust Persecutions of Saul tho an absolute Prince and surely we may conclude a minori ad majus that such a defensive Resistance cannot be less lawful when apparently necessary to preserve a whole People from imminent Ruine I remember our Lord's determination that his Kingdom is not of this World and as I think We rightly infer from thence that there is no secular Force belonging to his Kingdom for inlarging it's Borders or securing its Intereslts so I can see nothing in these words to hinder but that when any of the Kingdoms of this World is become the Kingdom of Christ by incorporating his Religion among its civil Constitutions then we may use any Expedients for the defence of our Religion which we might use in defending any other Privilodges of our Civil Establishment Our Lord hath taught us to render unto Cesar the things that are Cesar 's and his Apostle that we must render to all Men their Dues Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custom to whom Custom Fear to whom Fear and Honour to whom Honour but they have lest us to the Constitutions of our Country to determine what the things of Cesar are what Custom and Tribute is due and when to be paid I have already had occasion to consider the Doctrine of St. Paul and St. Peter concerning our duty of Submission to the Supreme Authority and to those who administer it And upon the general review of the whole he seems to me to do the part of a good Christian as well as of a good Englishman who hath on his Mind an awful regard for the Supreme Authority which is op divine Institution who will not refuse an Active Obedience to the Laws of our Legislators if consistent with the Laws of God who can readily submit to the King and to those that are commission'd by him in the Execution of those Laws who pays the highest Civil Honour to the King as the Supreme Magistrate of the Kingdom who makes the most candid and honourable Constructions he can of all his Princes Actions who can quietly submit to any acts of Government tho they seem very unjust and grievous to his private Interestes and who never thinks a defensive Resistance lawful but when apparently necessary to save a Kingdom from utter Ruin. He that can do all this is a good Proficient in his Religion for he will find it not very easy to Flesh and Blood to go so far But they who are not content with any Notion of Religion which will not expose to ruin the Kingdom that embraceth it do but traduces our holy Religion and expose it to the Contempt and Hatred of the World. 2. Let us next consider how the Resolution I have given will consist with the Oaths we have taken and the Declaration we have Subscribed You will here give me leave to premise that the Forms we have sworn or subscrib'd are not to be taken carelesly according to the meer sound of words but are to be understood according to the Sense which they plainly express and which appears to be intended by our Superiors in impasing them And if we consider our Oaths and Declaration according to this Rule we shall discover that they have brought upon us no new degree of Allegiance or Subjection which was not always due according to the ancient Fundamental Constitutions of this Kingdom that we have hereby lost none of our English Rights and Liberties nor the King inlarg'd his Prerogative beyond what it always was and ought to be and therefore if according to the ancient Constitutions of this Kingdom the Government is mixt and the Monarchy limited so it continues If the Freemen of England were before these Oaths bound to no Active or Passive Obedience beyond what the Law of the Land prescribes they arc bound to no more since and if it was formerly lawful for the People of England in an extreme necessity to remove a King whose Government was became inconsistent with the Publick-Weal and to set up another by whom the publick Interest may be secur'd it is as lawful still notwithstanding these Oaths we have taken or the Declaration we have subscribed And to evince this more satisfactorily let us descend to Particulars 1. The Oath of Supremacy prescribed 1 Eliz. doth plainly appear from the Preamble and Body of the Act and from all the parts of the Oath it self to be intended only for asserting to the Queen a Supremacy over Ecclesiastical Persons and in Ecclesiastical Causes in opposition to the pretentions of the Pope and Court of Rome When therefore it speaks of bearing Faith and true Allegiance to the Queen and her Heirs and lawful Sucessors it is in oppolition to all Foreign Jurisdictions Powers Superiorities and Authorities and when it speaks of our assisting and defending her Jurisdiction Preheminencies and Authorities it is only of such as have been granted or belonging or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm And that no new Power was hereby given to
of the Supreme Authority in this Kingdom From these and other such easie Observations any impartial unprejudiced person will certainly conclude that our English Government according to its Essential Constitution is a mixture of Three Forms of Government for he observes a Monarchy in the King an Aristocracy in the Peers and a Democracy in the Commons all which share it that Part of the Sovereignty which consists in making Laws And though our Government be called a Monarchy because That Kind is predominant in the Constitution according to the known Rule That the Denomination is to be taken from the Excelling Part the King having not only a share in the Nomothetick Power but also the whole Executive Power committed to Him yet we cannot but conclude from the foregoing Observations That our Monarchy is not Absolute and Unlimited that the Law is the stated Rule and Measure of our Government and that the Law cannot be made altered or annulled by the sole Pleasure of the King but as it is the first determinate Rule by which the King is to Govern and the People to Obey so it is to be made or chang'd only by the Consent of Both in a Parliament I might confirm all this by transcribing out of Books several Testimonies which occur in the Declarations of Parliaments in the Writings of Judges and others Learned in the Law but as these would make a Letter too tedious so they are unnecessary to an unprejudic'd Considerer and by others would be suspected of partiality to the People of whom they are a part I shall therefore only add the Testimony of King Charles the I. who of all men had most reason to study understand and assert the Rights of the English Monarchy He freely declares in his Answer to the Nineteen Propositions p. 96. That there being Three Kinds of Government among Men. Absolute Monarchy Arislocracy and Democracy and all these having their particular Conveniences and Inconveniences the Experience and Wisdom of our Ancestors hath so moulded This out of a mixture of These as to give to this Kingdom as far as Human Prudence can provide the Conveniences of all Three without the Inconveniences of any One. He also in the same Answer affirms That in this Kingdom the Laws are jointly made by a King by a House of Peers and by a House of Commons He likewise affirms in his Declaration from Newmarket That the Law is the Measure of his Power And in another Declaration to the Ministers and Freeholders of the County of York he acknowledgeth That his Prerogatives are built upon the Law of the Land. From these and other such Passages which frequently occur in the Writings of the King who so earnestly disputed for the Rights of the Crown we may be abundantly convinc'd that the English Monarchy is not unmixt or unlimited and cannot therefore enough admire the lewd presumption of others who have dar'd to attempt a change in our English Government who prefer the extremes of Tyranny and Slavery to the just temperament of our English Constitution who have labour'd to tempt our Kings into an affectation of absolute and arbitrary Power and have miserably overlay'd the Consciences of their Fellow-subjects with a boundless unlimited dread of a boundless unlimited Power 3. There are also great mistakes about the measures of our Obedience and Submission which are necessary to be removed before our Consciences can make a free and impartial determination of the Case before us We have been told it often and with great earnestness that we are bound in Conscience to yield an active Obedience to the King in all cases not countermanded by God and to resist him in no case whatsoever If indeed the two foregoing Errors had stood the proof this would have follow'd by necessary consequence for if a Monarch be jure Divino he must be absolute and if he be so there is no case not excepted by God in which we must not obey him and none at all in which we may resist him but then we may make this advantage from the connexion which these Errors have one to another That if one of them be refuted the rest much necessarily fall with it and if according to the English Principles premis'd our Government be founded on the Constitutions of this Country and according to those Constitutions be mixt and limited then there may be some cases in which it may be lawful for us not to obey the King and not unlawful to resist him For tho it may be true that we are bound to obey actively whatever is commanded by the Legislative Power of the Kingdom and is not repugnant to any Law of God yet we cannot assert so much with respect to the King only because he having not the whole Legislative Power an Act of his private Will is destitute of that Authority which can derive an obligation upon Conscience altho therefore a King may require things not inconsistent with the Law of God yet if they are beyond that Authority which the Constitutions of England have assign'd to him his Subjects are not bound in conscience to obey those Commands and tho in some cases they may comply by a voluntary Concession yet they are oblig'd to condemn and withstand such proceedings if they increase so far as to threaten a fatal subversion of the Government But how can we defend our selves against any exorbitant Acts of the King 's private Will if disarm'd and fetter'd by the Doctrines of passive Obedience and Nonresistance what may not a King do and a People suffer if no defence may be us'd I do not here forget to consider what submission God hath requir'd to that Supreme Authority which he hath instituted or what honour and reverence we are to pay to those Governors who sustain and administer it nor how impatient men ordinarily are of the yoak of Government and how apt to inlarge their liberty into licentiousness nor how pernicious disorder and confusion must needs be to any Society and therefore I use the utmost Caution I can to steer aright amidst the Rocks on the one hand and the Sands on the other that I may not make shipwrack of a good Conscience I therefore premise and sincerely acknowledg as I have learn'd from St. Paul that Every soul must be subject to the Supreme Authority which God hath instituted and that if he resist he is worthy of condemnation and according to S. Jude that we must not despise dominions or speak evil of dignities and that those untameable Spirits which are impatient of Government are like wild Beasts made to be destroyed I have also learn'd from S. Peter to submit to every ordinance of men for the Lord's sake whether to the King as supreme or to Governors sent by him so as not to disobey or resist them in the use of that Authority which the Constitutions of the Kingdom have assigned to them I have from the same Apostle learned farther to be subject with all fear not
confirm'd from their Authority and Judgment that he ceaseth to be our King and we to be his Subjects That they have fully and expresly asserted so much I need not prove and their Testimony is so proper and anthentick in die present case that we may with good Reason suffer our selves to be concluded by it For the matter of the Enquiry consists of several ancient Laws and customary Usages of this Kingdom of which the two Houses are the most competent Judges and they representing the whole Nation and being by our Choice commission'd to consider and determine this Case for us we cannot with any Modesty or Equity reject their Determination If also we consider that in all Cases of a like Nature the Nobles and People of England by their Representatives have usually and finally determin'd them and that upon the late King 's withdrawing the chief Power of the Nation could reside no where rather than in the two Houses it seems according to our English Constitutions to be the Duty of private Men to submit to such a publick Judgment And indeed if such a solemn Assembly of the three Estates of the Kingdom after a long and serious Consultation upon the Case shall not be thought sufficient to determine it I wonder who can or may do it For as particular Persons are less capable of making so exact a Judgment so if every one should undertake to decide it we must be reduc'd thereby into a helpless state of utter Confusion Secondly The other Difficulty in the present Case to be consider'd is Whether we may lawfully transfer our Allegiance to the present King he being not the next immediate Heir I may here presuppose that our present King is acknowledged by the World to be so eminently indued with all Royal Virtues and Abilities and to have obliged the Gratitude of this Nation with so glorious and happy a Deliverance that every wise and good Man among us cannot but be ready to address an hearty Allegiance to him if it can appear lawful for him to do so and where the Heart is so well inclined it will not be difficult to convince the Judgment if we consider these few Particulars 1. That according to our English Constitutions it is not necessary that the next immediate Heir should succeed For if we review in History the ancient Vsages and Practices of our Country which are the Common Law of our Government we shall find that tho the Crown hath been usually appropriated to the Royal Family and in that Latitude is said to be Hereditary yet it hath very frequently passed over the next Heir to some other Branch of the Family which was thought more capable of promoting the publick Ends of the Government in its present Circumstances And we find no publick Censure ever passed upon such a King or his Authority and Government in the least disabled thereby And to make this matter unquestionably evident to any Man who is not far gone in the Conceit that the Inheritance or Succession of the Crown is Jure divine I add that the Kings of England have been allow'd by die whole Legislative Power of this Nation to dispose of the Crown by their Nomination which as it may suppose that they would not give it out of the Royal Family so it must suppose that it was not necessary it should descend to the immediate Heir for he being determined by Nature could receive no Advantage from such a Nomination Thus particularly it was allow'd to Henry the Eighth and he according to the Statute in that behalf setled the Crown on his Son Edward and the Remainder on his Daughters Mary and Elizabeth both which could not be Heir And we find it also enacted in the 13th of Eliz. that whoever should maintain in her Time that she and her Parliament might not limit the Descent of the Crown should incur the Guilt of High-Treason and after her Life the Forfeiture of his Goods From which Authentick Testimonies we cannot conclude less than that it is not necessary that the neat immediate Heir should always succeed 2. Let us consider that our Allegiance being removed from the late King it must be referr'd to some other Person and we can think of none for whose sake we may justly deny it to the present King. The pretended Prince of Wales lying under such a general and vehement suspicion of being an Impostor and being at present under the Conduct and disposal of the King of France we see in him more Reasons to dissuade than invite our Allegiance Our present Queen who is the next immediate Heir is not pretermitted and tho she hath a Consort in the Royal Dignity yet he is such as was by Marriage become out with her and who was admitted to the Partnership not without her Advice and Consent And the King himself being a Branch of the Royal Family not far removed in the Succession and who by the late glorious Enterprize hath retrieved the Right of both the Royal Sisters and secured the Government it self from Subversion it cannot but seem very indecent and unjust to overlook him in our Allegiance If lastly we consider that the Protestant Interest in Christendom and the Civil Interests of our own Nation and of some of our best Neighbours are at present in most imminent and extraordinary Danger which in Human Probability is not to be avoided but by the Prowess and Conduct of this Illustrious Prince whom God hath by a Special Providence raised up among us we cannot but conclude that the Series of Providence and the Necessity of Affairs have determin'd our Allegiance to His Majesty and that they seem to be unreasonably nice who can sacrifice such great Interests to an empty Formality 3. The great Council of the Nation having actually invested our King with the Royal Dignity he hath thereby a Right to our Allegiance and according to the Laws of this Realm we become punishable in refusing it and are indemnified in performing it altho his antecedent Title to the Crown may not be such as to exclude all Exception So great to Article of State as this can be fit to be decided only by the Wisdom of the Nation in the most Solemn Assembly and when so decided ought to be submitted to by all private Persons or all Settlement must be an impracticable thing and if our Laws should not be executed according to such an authentick Determination the Government seems to be at a stop beyond all hopes of reviving into Motion I wish that they who pretend or perplex their Consciences about such Affairs would consider seriously whether they are proper or capable Judges of such Matters and whether their Consciences may not be better conducted by the Resolution of such as are whether they behave themselves as becomes private Persons who oppose their Sentiments â—o the publick Judgment or whether any Government can subsist if such a Presumption be not restrained For my own part I am verily persuaded that in