used us But this is in our favor For it appears hereby those who were their Conquerors were our Deliverers and if it be lawful in this case for the Irish to accept of Terms 't is our duty to be thankful to God that there are those now come who can give Terms both to them and us This Plea sufficiently justifies us Irish Protestants against any possible Imputation to us from our Irish Adversaries in this behalf And as to our English Friends we will suppose them more sensible of our Condition than that before them we ought to make Apologies when in our Consciences we want none But as to the Irish let me tell them farther no imaginary freedom of theirs can now in Conscience exempt them from this Subjection The People of the Jews the Seed of Abraham were never in bondage to any as free born a People certainly as Irish Men can be yet when God put them under the Yoke of Nebuchadnazzar his command by the Prophet encouraged too by a blessing annext is serve the King of Babylon and Live The same which God speaks now by the Voice of his Providence to the Natives of this Kingdom in as much as he has left nothing else possible to them They must therefore be subject not only for Wrath but Conscience sake and for Men to swear to do what is their duty to do cannot certainly be unlawful VIII FURTHER not only God but even King James II. has made it impossible to his Protestant Subjects to keep the Oath of Allegiance to him For that Oath expresly as well as another ordinarily taken by many of us I mean the Oath of Supremacy obliges all who have taken it not only to defend to the uttermost of their power His Majesties Person Heirs and Successors but both His and Their Crown and Dignity Which Crown and Dignity signifie as the Oath of Supremacy and so the Law interprets those Terms all Jurisdictions Preeminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs or Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm that is of England The Crown of England saith our Law is Imperial and subject to no Prince on Earth but only unto God If therefore a Prince will subject his Crown and so his People to a Foreign Power and especially to that Power which has now these several Ages incessantly and indefatigably by all means within its Sphere studied and endeavor'd the Ruin of them and the Extirpation of their Religion I mean to the Pope of Rome it becomes impossible for the Subjects of such a King at once or together to the uttermost of their power to defend His Person and His Heirs and Successors His and Their Crown and Dignity The Kingdom of England of which by Law and Prescription Ireland is a Branch and dependent has ever been avowed and to this day is a Free Kingdom But how Tributary and enslaved it would become by being again subjected to the Papacy I list not to aggravate yet cannot but in short take notice that the Heir by the Subjects defending and maintaining such a King Possessor loseth of his Power and Rights and so doth the Crown of its Dignity Preeminence and Authority In such case therefore a Man can no more keep this Oath than he can reconcile Contradictions which even the Roman Catholick Divines ordinarily Teach is not in the power of Omnipotence And such is the Case between James II. and all the Protestants of these Three Kingdoms But it was worse with the Poor Irish Protestants than with the rest of the People of any of his Majesties Dominions We though most of us English-men were not only subjected to Roman Catholicks but to the most inveterate of them Irish Roman Catholicks Enemies to us on other scores besides our Religion contrary to the express Laws of both Kingdoms in this behalf contrary to the manifest Interest of the Heir contrary to the Honor and Dignity of the Crown of England from which as far as an Act of an Irish Parliament could do the feat this Kingdom of Ireland was by Statute solemnly past in that their Parliament above mentioned in effect actually separated and disunited The Crown of England was hereby to lose the Kingdom of Ireland a very considerable Emolument certainly as well as Honor and Jurisdiction These things are notorious matter of Fact and so publickly manifest that they cannot be denied I speak not of being subjected to a French Government and Governors of our being enforced to supplicate many times for our Liberties and Lives I am sure for the supports of our Lives the eating the Bread and wearing the poor Clothes which of our own were left us and some of us directly for our Lives even in Cases wherein we were Offenders against no Law of God or of Man Military or Civil I speak not I say of our being necessitated thus to supplicate to Governors of a Foreign Nation and Language who could not understand us when addressing to them in our own Speech and would not understand our Interpreters in theirs I speak not of Pacts and Sales of which great Evidence as to this Kingdom of Ireland or a great part of it might be given nor of other like or more odious things as designedly avoiding all that might exasperate some Men or together immoderately aggravate others Guilt as well as our Oppressions But it is hereby as clear as the Sun that if there could be degrees in natural Impossibilities there lay the highest natural Impossibility on all but especially the Irish Protestants in the Circumstances they were in to keep this Oath and that not by any fault of their own for they were cast into this impossibility by the Prince to whom by that Oath Allegiance was or was to have been due Now forasmuch as no one can be bound to that which is impossible of all Men the Irish Protestants stand not by the Oath of Allegiance bound to defend the Person of James II. in his or their present Circumstances IX IF it should be said by any These Pleas can only discharge Subjects of so much Allegiance as can be proved unlawful or impossible but they shall still stand obliged to what is lawful and possible I allow it for truth and together Avow that notwithstanding our Performance of what either or both the fore-mentioned Branches of Recognition by the present King and Queen required of us do contain We both may and I doubt not all considerative conscientious Persons within these Kingdoms Do bear and pay all lawful parts or Instances of Duty to our late King And principally what the Article of King John's Magna Charta in such Case as this exacts The Safety of the Persons of the King and Queen and of their Children we look upon as most religiously inviolable None of us would attempt or consent to any attempt upon their Sacred Persons There is indeed a Child in Controversie touching which it must at least be
THE CASE OF THE Irish Protestants In Relation to RECOGNISING OR Swearing ALLEGIANCE to And PRAYING for King WILLIAM and Queen MARY Stated and Resolved LONDON Printed for Robert Clavel and are to be Sold by John North Bookseller in Dublin M DC XC I. Advertisement THE following Paper contains the Result of a certain Persons Thoughts sometime since when he being cut off from the usual means of consulting with others could only enter into a Consultation with himself for resolving his own Conscience It is no mans sin simply to doubt but it is every mans business to endeavor his own Satisfaction and 't is some mens Duty to satisfie others besides themselves Of this number because the Author took himself to be he communicated these his Thoughts to such for whom he was concern'd and 't is at their Promotion if they now go further In his Arguing he chose for Satisfaction to proceed rather on Foundations of Divinity than Policy and Law little meddling with those Grounds on which since the Writing hereof he finds abler Heads most to build He is very content to leave each Man to his own Province and only desires he may not be censured as too ignorant for keeping so close within what he apprehends to be his It is indeed herein he finds most solid Content Resolution and Repose of Mind God make all of us Sincere Humble Satisfied and if not Vnanimous yet at least Peaceable and Quiet Octob. 27. 1690. THE CASE OF THE IRISH PROTESTANTS In Relation to RECOGNISING King WILLIAM and Queen MARY STATED and RESOLVED I. FOR the due Stating and so more satisfactory Resolving this our Case it will be necessary to consider in the beginning what Recognition of these Princes or of their Sovereignty is either expresly or by consequence required of us and then what Barrs there lie in Conscience to our making such Recognition II THERE can be no doubt but it is intended that we should receive and submit to King William and Queen Mary as perfectly and intirely as ever by Law we submitted to or owned any of our late Sovereigns And I must add we Protestants especially in Ireland have all the Reason in the World even from our own Interest to do it with more Zeal and Passion than we did to either of their immediate Predecessors But all the Recognition which as far as yet to me appears is expresly required from any is only to take an Oath of Fidelity to them and to pray for them as King and Queen and perhaps as our Deliverers from Oppression Now that Oath as I am informed is pen'd in a shorter easier and milder Form than any of our Oaths of Allegiance in the Reigns of our former Kings Thus it is said to run I do swear to bear Faith and true Allegiance to King William and Queen Mary The very penning of this Oath shews the Tenderness Moderation and Temper of these great Princes For there is nothing therein Dogmatical if I may use that Term of which Nature was the greater part and most of the Paragraphs of the former Oath but only a Sacred Promise of what is needful Faith and true Allegiance Which tho I say it be most certainly intended it should be firm and plenary and according to the Intention of the Imposer must every Oath be understood by them that take it else there is Fallacy and Equivocation therein yet as to each Man 's secret Sentiments there is by these indefinite Terms much left to the Judgment and Conscience of every individual Subject what the particulars of that Faith and true Allegiance are A Temper not observed in the penning the former Oaths of Allegiance or Supremacy III. THE Barrs in Conscience which any I think can pretend to against such Recognition are Oaths formerly taken and a Recognition made of James II. who is yet alive and the Bond with which Holy Scriptures tie all Oaths upon our Consciences and Practice yea tho somewhat unadvisedly and prejudicially made even to our own Hurt and Damage The Oaths I think which can stick upon any are chiefly Two The Oath of Allegiance and of Supremacy Yet there is also if I mistake not besides these what some called the Short Oath Not to take up Arms against the King or any Commissioned by him imposed on the Members of most Corporations in this Kingdom as I have been informed of late days However there is a Declaration in these Words subscribed and publickly read or recognised In Sacris by all the Conforming Clergy of the three Kingdoms in so solemn a manner that it was even upon them equivalent to a most solemn Oath The Recognition is that made in the late pretended Irish Parliament May 7. 1689 and past in form of an Act penned I confess with all the Weight and Emphasis which I think either proper or improper Language could put into it Now that the Resolutions of all Doubts arising from any of these may be as distinct as the Brevity designed will permit we will consider each severally And if in the end it appear that in our present Circumstances there lies no Obligation upon us to James II. from any of these Ties then we may with safe Conscience perform what is required IV. AND first for the Oath of Allegiance This Oath was lawful and wholesome enough and in former Reigns even to Protestants possible to be kept and also Obligatory But there are three things which wholly take off our being obliged by it to King James First he the said King James II. has made it to us unlawful Secondly God and King James have made it at present impossible Thirdly we in Ireland are formally released from it perhaps by Law I am sure in Reason and Equity Now if any one of these three be true the Obligation thereof to King James is discharged much more if all V. FIRST I say King James II. has made it to us who are Protestants unlawful to pay him such Allegiance as was due to his Predecessors and would have been due to him by virtue of that Oath had he trod in his Predecessors Steps His Predecessors since the framing this Form of Oath went not about to subject the Imperial Crown and Dignity of the three Kingdoms as King James has done especially that of Ireland with a Witness to the Power of any Foreign Prince or Potentate no not of the Pope himself Which for a Subject to do for of Princes we will not speak is unlawful and Treason by our Laws We cannot therefore with all our might assist and defend such a King which yet in the Oath of Allegiance we seem to have sworn to do because by this assistance we are guilty of contributing to the highest Breach of our Laws we commit Treason against the Crown And there being no Accessories in Treason I will not say in what danger we should be in a Protestant Successors Reign But there is more yet in the Case It is unlawful by the Law of God
for a Protestant People to assist and defend in the Exercise and Possession of Regal Power such a King as James II. has made and carried himself for they could not thereby but manifestly contribute and put their Hands not only to the destroying their own but their Protestant Fellow Subjects Estates Liberties and Lives and what is more their Common Religion too * The proof of these Particulars by some Historical Instances in the Treatment which the poor Irish Protestants found from those in Power under the late King would cast such Odium on more perhaps than were guilty that I cannot persuade my self to set it down and possibly it is so notorius that I need not Enough has fallen from my Pen in the Sequel through a kind of Impotency or too tender Sense of what I have seen If it be said the King promised to maintain us in the Profession of our Religion and Possession of our Estates Liberties c. He did indeed so promise and I believe of himself at first intended it But he had put the Power of all into such Mens hands thar he could not perform what he had promised Were not our Rights our Lands our Goods and our Churches themselves taken from us contrary not only to his Promises but Proclamations And which of any of these especially our Churches tho upon his express Command under his Hand and Seal was ever restored What can be expected from him who first incapacitates himself to perform and then makes fair Promises Did not the Irish Act of Attainder debar the King of his Prerogative to pardon those which it made Criminals and Traitors contrary to the Law of Nature that common Test of Equity so much appealed to by some in the late Irish House of Lords for flying merely to preserve their Lives or securing themselves from Irish Mercy that is from what I will not say Nor will I insist upon what I might add and aggravate By the Constitution and Laws of the Religion he professes he either had sworn to destroy or ought to have sworn to destroy both us and our Religion And when Men first swear to do a thing and then promise not to do it and capacitate themselves to perform their Oaths but incapacitate themselves to perform their Promises which can be expected should take place the Promise or the Oath I may safely avow in behalf of the Protestants of the three Kingdoms there is not a conscientious Man amongst us would ever have withdrawn from King James even our Active Obedience could we have secured our Religion and good Conscience by active Adhesion to him I will add also because in my Conscience I believe it had not the securing the Protestant Religion more forcibly moved the Prince of Orange than the Ambition of a Throne he would never have attempted so speedy a Succession In a Word we did obey as far as God's Command goes Gods Command is with Limitation Obey in the Lord we did so We did obey as long and as far as was lawful and that is as far as any Oath can bind us for to an unlawful Act no Oath can bind Herod's Oath did not bind him to cut off S. John Baptist's Head nor can our Oaths oblige us to be Assistants and aiding to the cutting off the Heads of innocent Protestant Peers or hanging up such Commons and to the disarming and putting out of Power all Protestants and arming and advancing all Papists and so destroying our selves Neighbors and Religion This is unlawful by the Law of God VI. I might here instead of saying King James has made the Allegiance due to him by this Oath unlawful for Protestants to pay have said perhaps with more Propriety of Speech he has made the Oath as to him void and null For all his Subjects who took it were supposed by Law to swear to a Legal King that is to a King who would govern according to Law and protect his Subjects and their Rights as by his Oath and Law bound Such a King the Oath was design'd to and actually to such a King we swore Allegiance But such King James did not please to be Wherefore by this Oath no Allegiance is due to him But I thought this notion might seem to some more subtile and the proof of it might as above suggested have been more odious than the other Each comes much to the same final issue for according to either the Obligation ceaseth as concluded and the Reader may take in his Candor which he pleases To proceed then VII GOD has made it to us the Irish Protestants here at least morally impossible to perform to King James the Duty which in the Oath of Allegiance we swore Therefore the Obligation of that Oath ceaseth as to him or which is the same we are not bound to him by that Oath I doubt not but that our Adversaries will say defending the Person and Possession of a King by force of Arms to be a point of Allegiance I say we are here by God's Providence unable to defend King James by Arms in the Possession of the Crown Not to mention that it is not long since our Roman Catholick Adversaries by King James's Orders as they said took away our Arms from us and surely we are not perjur'd for not being in Arms for a King who would not suffer us to bear Arms God has now put us under the Power of the Second William the Conqueror whom I must affirm besides his being more ways than one otherwise justly intitle'd to have a Right to our Allegiance by Conquest that which gave the King of England the first and still avowed Title to Ireland I do averr us in Ireland conquered and with my Heart bless God for it For besides our being thereby delivered intirely and finally I hope from Popery we are delivered also if we attend thereto from all Scruple which would stick in us touching the Will of God as to our Subjection to our new King For we cannot doubt but that we ought to be subject to them whom God has set over us And when by his Providence he so plainly pulls down one and sets up another we cannot doubt who it is whom he has set over us If still any will doubt I demand of them what should a vanquish'd Multitude what should Men Women and Children brought under Subjection do Must they all dye Martyrs for the Title of a Prince who would not preserve their Rights by Law and Peace and through the hand of God has not been able to defend his own or theirs by War Do not the Irish Roman Catholicks who blame us most daily make Conditions for themselves and shall it be unlawful for us to do the same The great difference betwixt them and us as to our present Circumstances is They were conquered with their Swords in their hands We as being their Prisoners perhaps they may think Slaves and Properties as it has been too plain to us they would have
Means will not do is no less necessary and lawful So that what we ought ordinarily to teach a private handful of People to save their Souls we must not dictate to the three Estates to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal together with the whole Commons assembled in Parliament a Body of near eight hundred Persons all of highest Quality in their respective Ranks and Orders in the Kingdom as a Standard by which they are to regulate the State What Sense would it be to exhort them in Authority and great is the Authority of the three Estates when the King leaves the Nation the greatest certainly in the Nation what Sense would it be I say to preach to them in Authority or to the higher Powers to be subject to and not resist themselves But it is Sense and the Duty of the Clergy to dissuade their People from Revenge from multiplying Suits at Law from Sedition Tumults and rebellious Projects and for this purpose to lay before them the Commands of the Gospel which require of them Peaceableness Meekness and rather to suffer Wrong Damage nay even Oppression it self in some measure than involve all in War and Blood which is a far greater Oppression And this is all the Non-Resistance we preach or hold But whereas we are now involved in War whose Fault is it Theirs sure who begun it who first raised and then maintained an Army contrary to Law c. In a word and to speak roundly The King of England is King of three Kingdoms by Law Protestants not Slaves It is impossible for three Kingdoms to have all their Eyes put out They must therefore see themselves ruining before ruined And it is as unreasonable as impossible to persuade three Kingdoms to give all their Throats to be cut No Law of God or Man can be thought to oblige them hereto For any therefore to think that as the three Kingdoms see so they should not withstand their own Ruin or which is much the same that the Duty of Non Resistance should take place in such a Case as this is for him to forfeit all Sense and Reason or to become really mad that he may seem to be Religious Wherefore when things have their true Names either English or Irish Protestants taking Protection under a Protestant Prince whose just Assertion of his own Rights necessarily involved also their Defence and this at a time when their own King had cast them off from Protection must be acknowledged no Rebellion I avow them who thus fly for seek or accept Protection to be as Passive as any where the Gospel requires them XVIII BUT it will be said in respect of the Invaders there must at least be acknowledged an Offensive War Be it so yet was it a most just one For the Prince of Orange was no Subject and therefore could not be a Rebel and the Causes which he had to enter England when he did and in the manner in which he did with armed Force were both more in number and for Weight and Justice far greater than it can be expected should be represented in this Paper Nor was his Advancement to the Throne less just and equitable I do not find that they who have impartially considered all can assign any thing that could be done more reasonable and as far as Man can see more wholesome to the Interest of Religion and Peace whether in the three Kingdoms or even in Christendom it self But these things have been undoubtedly deduced by abler Hands nor is it needful to our present purpose any more than to point at them We here have had a long and very dark night and have been often abused with false Lights so that perhaps we know not yet the true State of many Transactions nor are capable therefore to discourse of them as were requisite Some persons possibly there are all whose Conduct I cannot excuse but the Swearing Faith to or Praying for King William or Queen Mary does no wise involve any in a necessity of such Mens Vindication XIX THE Conclusion then of all shall be Out of the Power of a King which would not be perswaded to preserve himself and neither could nor would protect his Protestant Subjects Out of the Hands of merciless and barbarous Fellow-Subjects who were bent to have destroyed both themselves and their Country and all in it with themselves and finally from the Lashes of the Scourge of Christendom God has brought us poor oppressed Protestants under a Protestant Prince The Case now in short is whether we will accept Protection or no The Conditions indeed say our Adversaries are very hard Yes they are no less than what God has made our Duty if not our Necessity to Swear to bear Faith and true Allegiance to and to Pray for our Deliverers and their Conquerors in that Quality wherein we find them and wherein they have Delivered us and Conquered them That is to promise sacredly to Man such Subjection and to make to God such Prayers which in our present Condition even without such Promise it were sin not to do In the whole Revolution God has not vouchsafed to us such Irish Protestants who are mainly concerned in this Paper any active part in advancing these Princes to their Power He has thought fit to assign us still only a Passive Lot We must acknowledge it is not it has not been our Business to set up Powers but yet we must own it is our Duty to obey them And no less certainly to be thankful to God and them if we may be protected by them The Scripture is express Let every Soul be subject to the higher powers Such certainly the Conquerors are And I exhort that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks be made for all Men for Kings and all that are put in Authority even for the person of a Nero therefore at that time and if for the froward much more for the good and gentle Let us chearfully then comply in both points and lay down not our Conquered Arms for Arms we Protestants have not been now a long time suffered to wear but our captivated Hearts at the Feet of King WILLIAM and Queen MARY whom God long preserve AND O thou who hast hitherto delivered us from our Enemies Deliver us now from our selves Let there be no Shimei or Sheba in our Israel But bow thou the Hearts of all the Tribes as one Man that they may establish the Kingdom in their Majesties whom thy Hand and out stretched Arm has now set over us Do thou O King of Kings defend these the true Defenders of the Faith and make their Arms by Land and Sea Victorious for the Reformation if it might be thy Will at least for the Pacification of Christendom that we whom thou hast saved from the Hands of our Enemies may serve thee without fear in Holiness and Righteousness before thee all the Days of our Life and these Kingdoms may flourish in Truth and Sanctity in Peace amd Plenty to the Glory of thy Name and of the Blessed Memory of our Deliverers to all Posterity Amen FINIS