the very first Descent that it could never be throughly setled in after Ages The Truth is before the Flood the Scripture is so silent in this matter that no Man can affirm whether the Government of the World in those yearly Ages was Regal Aristocratical or Paternal and consequently not in which Form to fix this pretended Divine Right without offering injury to the other Nor after the Flood do we mind this Right granted to Noah in greater proportion than to his Sons in common Which was to acquire what they could and enjoy what they acquir'd for these are the words of their Charter to subdue the earth and * Gen. 9. possess it The New Testament gives no greater incouragement to this pretence of Divine Right than the Old for tho' in the Theocracy Kings were set up by God yet that method ceas'd when Shylo came and tho' the blessed Jesus and his Holy Apostles were very pressing in those Moral duties of Obedience to Superiors yet they no where asserted a Divine Right nor prescrib'd any Forms of Government or making alterations but yielded a cheerful Submission to the Reigning Powers where they came without calling their Titles into doubtful Disputations Now seeing we cannot find this Divine Right of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession granted by the Law of God as founded in Paternal or Patriarchal Authority nor Morally impress'd on human Nature nor possitively Reveal'd in holy Scripture which I shall particularly discourse hereafter let us descend into our own Histories and if we cannot find it there we must leave it as a Chimera or a politick Stratagem to Introduce Tyranny Democracy was the first Government in this British Isle Their Druids serv'd both for Priests and Judges the whole Nation were a barbarous People that knew not God and worship'd Idols And it would seem strange to search for a Pearle in this Dunghil to derive a Pedigree from these bruitish Ancestors or build a Divine Right of Succession upon such a Heathenish foundation when a Human Right is more Eligible and Honourable After the Druids succeeded a Race of Lords or Petty Kings that divided Britain into eight and twenty Provinces and chang'd the Democracy into an Aristocracy every Province paying Allegiance to their own Lord and because among such a Medly it would be hard to find from which of them to derive a Divine Right of Succession I shall leave it as too Nice and Intricate a matter and pass to the Romans Whose Government when Julius Caesar made his first and second Descent into Britain was Aristocratical and he himself had then no greater title than Dictator and if we examine the whole time of their continuance here which was Five hundred Years we shall find that all the several Governors came in by Intrusion Usurpation Adoption Confirmation or Purchase but not one of them ever claim'd by Hereditary Succession Britain being abandon'd by the Romans they elected Vortigern Earl Cornwall King but upon the Leudness and Debauchery of his life and neglecting the true Interest of the Kingdom they Depos'd him and chose his Son Vortimer and after his decease upon promising to Govern more Regularly by a new Election re-inthron'd Vortigern who was Conquer'd by the Saxons whom he call'd in to assist him in his Wars against the Picts and Scots so that here also we have quite lost all pretences to a lineal Succession from the Britains or a pretended Power from God to Oppress and Ruin his People The Saxons were a Wild Illeterate and Barbarous People living by Plunder and Rapine Souldiers of Fortune without any certain Habitation and having no Title of their own as they Demean'd themselves could very ill pretend to have one from God nor could their Heptarchy introduce a Divine Right among us for then we must allow seven Kings at once to Govern by Divine Right in England The Danes drove out the Saxons injoy'd the Monarchy many Years and after much strugling were repuls'd by the Saxons and they again by the Danes among whom were so many Kings Banish'd Murther'd and Depos'd that 't is impossible with any kind of certainty to fix a Succession from any of them For Edward the Confessor that succeeded Harold the last Danish King in England and in whom for want of Issue that Line was extinguish'd had no Hereditary Right 'T was at first indisputably in Edward Son of Edmond Ironside Father to Edgar Etheling his Nephew during his Life and after his Decease to that Edgar who was also Nephew to the Confessor Harold Son of Earl Godwyn that without other Ceremony set the Crown upon his own Head had no pretence of Right to it tho' as affairs then stood was very fit for it for Edgar Etheling was then living and claim'd it tho' he wanted Power to maintain his Right and so Harold kept the Crown till he was depriv'd of that and his Life by one of another Family and a Foreign Nation which has utterly destroy'd all pretensions to the Divine Right of Succession in this Kingdom unless you will make God the Author of all those horrid Murthers Devastations and Confusions that were committed by many of these Princes in acquiring their Crowns And here I must pursue the Succession from the Norman Race William the First was Illegitimate and had no Right but from his Sword and the Peoples submission and Electing him after he had subdu'd King Harold and the latter Right he always preferr'd before the former William the second was Elected against the Right of his Elder Brother Robert who was then living Henry the first was Elected King Favente Clero Populo his Elder Brother Robert being living at the same time and claim'd the Crown in Right of his Birth King Stephen was Elected a Clero Populo and Maud who had the Right of Succession was excluded Henry the second came in by consent yet he had no Hereditary Right for his Mother Maud the Empress Daughter and Heir to Henry the First was then living King John had no Right of Succession for he had an Elder Brother Jeffery Earl of Brittany who had issue Arthur and Eleanor whose Heirs for ought we know to the contrary may still have a being in the World but John tho' Arthur his Eldest Brother's Son was then living was Elected a Clero Populo and being divorc'd from his Wife had Henry the Third by his new Queen Henry the third was Crown'd and settl'd in the Kingdom by the general Election of the People tho' he had no Right to the Succession for Eleanor Daughter to Jeoffry his Father's Eldest Brother was then living Roger Mortimer Earl of March Son of Edmund by Philippa Daughter and Heiress to Lionel Duke of Clarence a younger Son of Edward the Third was by Parliament in the 9 R. 2. declared Heir apparent to the Crown which could not be but by vertue of an Act of Parliament Henry the Fourth came to the Crown by way of Election and in the eighth Year
* 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
TYRANNY DETECTED AND THE Late Revolution Justify'd BY THE LAW of GOD the LAW of NATURE AND THE PRACTICE of All NATIONS BEING A History of the Late King JAMES's Reign and a Discovery of His Arts and Actions for Introducing Popery and Arbitrary Power and the Intended Subversion of the Protestant Interest in the Three Kingdoms AND How that Design affected all EUROPE WHEREIN All the Arguments against the REVOLUTION are fairly Propounded and Candidly Answer'd the Pretended Reasons against the Present SETTLEMENT Recited and Modestly Refuted and Obedience to King WILLIAM and his Government Legally and Religiously Asserted By RIC. KINGSTON LONDON Printed for John Nutt near Stationers Hall MDCXCIX To the Right Honourable WILLIAM Earl of Portland Viscount Woodstock in the County of Oxon Baron of Cirencester in the County of Gloucester Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter One of the Lieutenant-Generals of His Majesty's Forces Groom of the Stole First Gentleman of the King's Bed-Chamber One of the Lords of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Council c. May it please your Lordship MY vast Obligations to your Lordship's Goodness exceeding all possibility of Retaliation and a private Acknowledgment being too faint a Testimony of the Gratitude of my Mind I have presum'd on this Method to make my Thankfulness extend beyond the Limits of my Life and acquaint the World that His Majesty's Bounty and your Lordship's Favours have not been thrown away upon an Ungrateful Person but bestow'd upon a Dutiful Subject who hath hitherto and as long as God affords him Life will express his Duty to your Lordship in the Sincerity of his Service to His Majesty's Government and that I know will be more acceptable to your Lordship than tedious Harangues or elegant Expressions where the greatest I can make is the least that I acknowledge to be due to your Lordship from me The following Discourse my Lord shews the Lawfulness of our late happy Revolution and might justly command my Obliging the World with an Account of your Lordship's extraordinary Merits in that and all other Occasions for England's Safety But when I consider your Lordship is better pleas'd in deserving than hearing an excellent Character and that your Lordship being one of those Pillars that under His Sacred Majesty support the Weight of Publick Transactions I cannot hope the Great Affairs of your Eminent Station should afford you Time to Read a longer Dedication and therefore dare not give my self the Liberty of writing so much as a short Elogy upon a Subject that is able to justifie the largest Panegyrick Now That your Lordship may enjoy a long and happy Life exalted in your Prince's Favour and prosperous in all your Negotiations to the Encouragement of true Piety Loyalty and Vertue shall be the Incessant Prayers of My Lord Your Lordship 's Most Humble and Entirely Devoted Servant RIC. KINGSTON The PREFACE Reader THis small Treatise that now salutes your Hands and is submitted to your Censure is the Tenth I have Writ and Publish'd on the Government 's Behalf since the happy Revolution and for some Reasons being forc'd to conceal my Name some of the Scribling Tribe have been pleas'd to call themselves the Authors of them and have stolen Rewards from Publick Hands for what were only my Productions therefore seeing most of those Books are Sold off and as soon as a Work of another Nature is Compleated that has been long under hand I shall Collect them all into one entire Volume Publish it with my Name to it and leave the Usurpers to prove their Titles to what they have so unjustly claim'd In relation to the Subsequent Discourse I must acknowledge the Path has been already trod by others but whether in Brevity and Perspicuity they have made the Way so plain to every Understanding your self not I must now determine However since large Volumes neither correspond with the Purses nor Leisure of the Generality of English Readers and that our Enemies talk this Subject as leudly now as at the Beginning of the Revolution I have accommodated our Friends with an Antidote against that Infection at a Price and in a Volume that will neither burthen the Reader 's Memory waste his Time nor disoblige his Pocket and yet furnish him with Reasons to answer all Objections in favour of James the Second or those advanc'd against our Legal Establishment Vale. Tyranny Detected AND THE Late REVOLUTION JUSTIFIED c. WHoever has an Inclination to satisfie himself or others that the Attempt of the late King in Subverting the Protestant Religion and Introducing and Establishing Popery in these Kingdoms was no Design of a late Invention nor only owing to the Caprichio of his own Bigotry in the Romish Persuasion to go no further backward must take his Aera from the Restoration of Charles the Second who was Imbark'd in the same Enterprize tho' for fear of Travelling again as he was pleas'd to phrase it he was unwilling to divulge it till he was leaving the World and thought it Inconsistent with his future Estate any longer to conceal the Secret To the Banishment of the Royal Family and their sitting loose in the Principles of that truly Catholick Religion in which they were Educated must be ascrib'd this fatal Change Their Exile and other Inconveniencies laid 'em open to many Temptations The Allurements and Promises of those Popish Princes on whom they must necessarily have some kind of Dependance smooth'd the Way and the Caresses and Incessant Importunities of their Mother assisted by the Crafts and Treachery of Priests and Jesuits who know how to improve every Advantage at length prevail'd upon the Unsteady Royal Brothers to Abjure the Protestant and Espouse the Popish Religion Their Example Influenc'd many that had either Dependance on them or Expectation from them to Write after * Quicquid Principes faciunt praecipere videntur Quint. â—la 4. their Copy and so the King and Duke were early furnish'd with a Sett of Men Ready Prepar'd to execute what was subservient to the Great Design of Subjecting England's Obedience to the Triple Crown Nor can any Rational Man at this time of day doubt but that Charles the Second Liv'd and Dy'd a Papist who hath either heard what he both Said and Did when under the Prospect of approaching Death and past hope of Acting a Part any longer or who have Read the two Papers left in his Strong Box publish'd to the World and Attested by the late King James to be Genuine No less have we Reason to doubt but Setting up Popery and Arbitrary Power was his Darling-Project since the whole Course of his Reign was but one Entire Confirmation of those Destructive Machinations And tho' with the Highest Asseverations and Dreadful Imprecations he often deny'd both making us believe what he was not by Inveighing against what he really was yet the Actions of Princes that speak louder and convince more effectually than feign'd Declarations or Proclamations Evidently shew'd he did but
of his Reign was the first Act of Parliament made for entailing the Crown with Remainders By vertue of which Entail his Son Henry the fifth became King and after him Henry the sixth in whose time Richard Duke of York claim'd the Crown and an Act of Parliament was made 39 Hen. 6. that Henry should enjoy the Crown for his Life and Richard and his Heirs after him After which King Henry raise's an Army kills Richard for which He the Queen and Prince were all Attainted 1 Edw. 4. because Richard was declared Heir apparent to the Crown after Henry by Act of Parliament but this Attainder was repeal'd in terms of Disgrace and Detestation 1 Hen. 7. Rot. Parl. 1 Hen. 7. Edward the fourth succeeded Henry 6. by vertue of an Act of Parliament made in the time of Hen. 6 for entailing the Crown as Son and Heir to the Duke of York Richard the third was confirmed King by Act of Parliament tho' he came to it by blood and murther Henry the seventh comes in by no Legal Title because Edw. the fourth's Daughter and his own Mother were both living In his time the Crown was entail'd on him and his Heirs by an Act of Parliament and he would never suffer any other Title to declare his Right Henry the eighth succeeded who as all his Laws speak deriv'd his Title to the Crown from his Father by vertue of the Act of Parliament above-nam'd and not by any Title from his Mother tho' by the Law of Succession his Right from Queen Elizabeth Daughter of Edw. 4. was indisputable In his Reign the Crown was thrice entail'd but the great one was that of 35. c. 1. by which Edward the sixth Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth succeeded in whose Reign was made an Act of Parliament making it high Treason to say it was not in the Power of Parliaments to limit the Succession of the Crown Upon the Marriage of Queen Mary to King Philip of Spain both the Crowns of England and Spain were entail'd and the Articles of Marriage confirm'd by Act of Parliament and by that Act of Parliament Philip was created King and exercis'd Sovereign Authority and particularly in making Laws together with the Queen the Style of the Royal Assent to Bills in Parliament being at that time Le Roy La Reigne les veulent by all which it appears that the Kings of England since the Crown was setl'd in a particular Family as well as before are Kings by the Laws of the 〈…〉 of human Constitution tho' their Power is from God Almighty Nor does this opinion aim at the changing our Hereditary Monarchy into an Elective Kingdom but shews that there is no such absolute necessity of keeping the Lineal Descent in respect of a single Person that it cannot be chang'd for the preservation of a Kingdom contrary to the Opinion of our Lawyers who affirm from History Records and Law-Books that our Monarchy is Hereditary as to a Family but Elective as to Persons However to obviate the prejudice that might arise from that preconceit I shall shew you 't is Hereditary and yet that that Hereditary Right came also by Law and therefore may be interrupted by our Legislators That England is an Hereditary Monarchy and that the common course of Succession is to be inviolably observ'd when it consists with the publick good and safety of the Kingdom none will deny for our own Laws have so determin'd it as a custom grounded upon sufficient Reasons Our Ancestors perceiving that the way of Electing Kings was subject to many Inconveniencies and often expos'd the Kingdom to Tempests Interregnum's and Revolutions as well as to the seditious commotions of under-hand dealers and the Pride and Ambition of Men too desirous to be uppermost And that Kings coming to the Crown by Election neglected the Demeans and squander'd away the Treasure of the Nation because they had no prospect of leaving the Crown to their Heirs 't was therefore thought advisable and beneficial to the Publick to fix the Royalty in a particular Family As for example In the eighth of Hen. the fourth there was an Act of Parliament which entail'd the Crown with Remainders And to name no other instances of the like kind it was made Treasonable by an Act of Parliament in the thirteenth of Queen Elizabeth for any Man to affirm that the common Laws of this Realm ought not to direct the Right of the Crown of England or that the Laws were not of sufficient force and validity to limit and bind the Crown of this Realm and the Descent Limitation Inheritance and Government thereof So that 't is plain an Hereditary Right is a Right by the Laws of England and not otherwise And what need is there of any other since a Right by Law makes a Rightful and Lawful King in despite of all the over-nice Distinctions of State-Criticks to the contrary And truly Of all Men living the late King James and his Defenders have least Reason to quarrel this Right by Law For How came it to pass that the Line of the Stewarts had a better Title to the Crown of Scotland than that of the Baliols but only that the Laws of Scotland that is the Consent of the Estates of that Kingdom made them so For otherwise if we search into the Pedigrees of those two Families we shall find that Baliol according to the common receiv'd Rules of Descent was nearer in Blood to the last King David than Bruce and was so adjudg'd at a solemn Hearing * Bak. Chron. pag. 96. between both Parties by our King Edward the First in Parliament Besides the late King has left it upon Record from his own Mouth that the Laws of England were able to make a King as great and happy as he could desire to be and after that I cannot imagine what he could wish for next But His Intentions being fix'd to destroy those Laws that in observing them would have made him great and happy he stood in need of a Title Superior to them therefore his Flatterers contriv'd one of a Divine Original and yet it dy'd before him the Divinity of his Office was more Mortal than that of his Person and well it might having no Being unless in the Heads of its first Inventore The Scripture has declar'd the Falsity of this new Hypothesis †Rom. 13. St. Paul saying There is no Power but of God must be understood of Government in general For the Apostle does not say There is no Prince but is of God but There is no Power but of God St. Peter also makes Kings to be of Humane Constitution as well as our Laws which know no such thing as a Personal Authority in the King Antecedent and Superiour to all Laws nor no Divine Law or just Inference from it which does any where set aside Humane Constitutions agreeable to Christianity and beneficial to Civil Societies Therefore if a King by Lawful Succession shall act unlawfully and
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
short view how these Princes carried it one towards the other None are Ignorant that the F. K. as soon as he apprehended that a pretended Zeal for Religion was the only way to advance his Ends and humor his Ambition but that he trumpt it up in all Courts where the same Religion was profess'd Religion was a Cloak to his Designs when he made an Incursion into the Spanish Netherlands and in the last Dutch War * Anno 1671. from whence We may date all our Misfortunes He in Conjunction with the King of Great Britain to destroy the States of Holland Intimated by his Ambassadors to the Pope to the Emperor of Germany and all other Princes whom he had a mind to deter from lending Assistance to the Dutch that they were a Nation fallen into Abominable Heresies and therefore all Christians were oblig'd in Conscience to War against them and rend in pieces that flourishing Republick and this furnish'd King James with the same Religious pretences against his own People At the very beginning of the late King's Reign the F. K. set him a Pattern at home and broke the inviolable Edict of Nants * Vid. Ed. Nants 1685. and King James in imitation of so pious an Example set up his dispencing Power in England violated his Oaths and Promises to his People and both under pretence of Zeal for Religion but all the Roman Catholick Princes were sensible to what eminent dangers that boasted Zeal had reduc'd them to for what Reverence what Veneration could they think those Princes had for the Name of Christian that made no Conscience of their Oaths that broke their Faith with Christians and leagu'd with Infidels who prefer'd the Crescent of Mahomet before the Cross of Christ and brib'd the Turks to begin a War against the Emperor * 1683. and Ruin that Capital City Vienna which is the Bulwork of Christendom against the Incursions of the Barbarians Who can think that Spiritual Things ever imploy'd the thoughts of that Monarch unless in order to Temporals that reflects with what violence he makes ostentation of his Zeal at home and at the same time espouses the Cause of the Protestants in Germany and Hungary perswading them to follow the Fortune of Count Teckeley and to joyn with the Turk to demand satisfaction for the violence offer'd to their Religion And this deceitful Artifice and Chichanery was the Cause that the Pope for some time resolutely refus'd to elect Fourbin into the Coledge of Cardinals As this affected Devotion of the F K. was subservient to his Ambition so James IId's Biggotry was early suspected to rise from the same Cause as the Earl of Shaftsbury declar'd before King Charles II. in a Speech * Shaftsbury's Speech State tracts Part 1. p. 463. in the House of Lords that the Duke of York had quitted his Religion that he might gain a powerful party to his Faction And this agrees with a Letter written about the same time and Recorded in the fifth Book of Collections wherein the Author tells the Duke of York that 't is the opinion of all Men that he Apostatiz'd from his Old and embrac'd a New Religon not as Charm'd by its Perfections but allur'd by the promises of an Absolute Monarchy and the blandishments of a Despotick Power which by this means would one time or other fall into his Hands Afterwards the same Letter admonishes the Duke to beware lest being dazled with the splendour of the French Monarchy he should endeavour to overthrow the best Government in the World since he seem'd to imitate King John who offer'd to turn Mahometan if the Emperor of Morocco would assist him with a Force to Revenge the Insolency of the Barons who vindicated their Liberties against the Encroachments of their King The Successes of France in War the intimate correspondence between the Duke of York and that King who manag'd England by the Politicks of Cardinal Richlieu and Mazarine at length induc'd the Duke of York to publish himself a Papist and knowing that thereby he hazarded the loss of the Church of England party he cajoll'd the Dissenters and heap'd his Favours upon them that they might be the Tools of his Ambition and also caress'd the Romanists both at home and abroad that they might be inclin'd for Religion sake to assist him But the Catholick Princes fathomed his design which was staged under the mask of Piety and joyn'd with the Interest of France and therefore Pope Innocent XI was not only incens'd with the French King and when he was drawing his last breath recommended his Emnity to the Cardinals that stood about him but also deliver'd it as his Judgment * Vindic. Gov. p. 44. that the designs of the late King James tended only to his own Ambition and his Brother 's of France and therefore did not receive the Earl of Castlemain his Ambassador with so much Honour as was due to such a magnificent and sumptuous appearance for his Holiness knew how all things were so manag'd by the Jesuits that every thing should be a Sacrifice to the Ambition of France and therefore as the Pope Complimented the late King James with a coolness of affection so he allways suspected him sometimes discover'd his Animosity and received the News * Vid. representat of Dangers in pol. tract par 2. p. 398. of his Abdication with transports of Joy and Gladness 'T is manifested the Emperor of Germany concurr'd in opinion with the Pope for after the late King's Abdication when he beg'd the Emperor's assistance in his misfortunes * Tracts of pol. col 12. vid. the Emp. of Ger. Letter and made use of his affection to the Romish Religion as a motive to encline him the Emperor return'd this Answer That the late King James 's Affairs had been now in a prosperous condition if he had hearkn'd to the advice of his Ambassador * Comitis de Kaknuits and not to the perfidy and flattery of the F King and had hindred by his Authority and Arms the F from violating the League and Peace whereof he was made Guarrantee by the Treaty of Nimeguen Now says the Emperor How can I assist you who must be forc'd to oppose the Forces of F and the Turk who did not doubt of the Fidelity and Assistance of England for the greatest injury that can be offer'd to our Religion is done by the F who is Confederated with the Turk the inveterate Enemy of Christianty So that the Jesuits that perswade the Roman Catholick Princes for their Religion sake to desert the Friendship of our Potent Monarch who has restor'd us to our Dying Liberties is just as if they should perswade the Confederate Princes to declare for those two Kings who not only design'd to enslave all Europe but also cherish'd the cause of the Infidels against the Christians and this brings me again into England And here it would be vain and impertinent in me to attempt to give a
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