own Will should prescribe to it By virtue of this Unlimited Power he brought a Jesuit into the Privy-Council made a Profess'd Papist Secretary of State constituted two Popish Judges and fill'd up many of the most Important Offices and Places of Trust and Profit in the Kingdom with Papists such as Sheriffs Justices of the Peace Mayors of Cities and Corporations and Officers in his Army And that he might be able to gain his Point and force those that refus'd to comply voluntarily he put the Tower of London the great Magazin of England and Keeper of the Regalia into the Hands of Sir Edward Hales as Rank and Sowr a Papist as ever our Soil produc'd and fill'd all the Vacant Places of his Army with Popish Officers By the same Authority he granted an Ecclesiastical Commission gave Four Popish Bishops Power to visit several Districts in England plac'd a Society of Jesuits in the Savoy and erected Popish Schools and Mass-Houses in most of our Cities and Corporations And Lastly To annoy his Subjects and force his Way through all Difficulties in Times of Peace kept a Standing Army 'T is needless to tell the Reader that these Proceedings were contrary to the Laws of the Land and wholly Inconsistent with them for there are very few or none but know it already in general Terms I shall therefore apply my self to shew you how it was against Law and what would have been the Consequences of this Unlimited Power if the late King had continu'd longer amongst us And this brings me to shew you his particular Actions To feel the Pulse of England and try how they Resented his Proceedings the late King commonly began the Exercise of his Arbitrary Power in Scotland and from the Measures that were taken there we might take a Prospect of his Tyranny and our own Calamities for tho' he shew'd us his Designs under the Soft Title of Dispencing in Scotland he threw off that Vizor and explained himself in calling it Vide Scotch Declaration Annulling and Disabling Laws And to shew all the World his Arbitrary Ends he gave such a Specimen of his Single Unlimited Power there that he attempted to do more in that Kingdom which as well as ours is a Limited Monarchy than the United Power of King Lords and Commons together were able to do and that was by imposing an Oath on that People contrary to Law in these Words You shall swear to the utmost of your Power to Defend Assist and Maintain the King and his Successors in the Exercise of their Absolute Power And this I take Leave to say the King and Parliament could not impose upon the Subject because it was in it self a Subversion of the Constitution as being an Obligation to support a Power destructive to the whole Frame of the Government This Caprichio of the late King James was the Master-piece of all his Jesuited Counsels and the Finishing Stroke of an Eternal Vassalage for this Oath was created by his Arbitrary Power and his Arbitrary Power was to be supported by this Oath and both must grow together and run in an Endless Circle to the utter Extinction of all the Remains of our Natural Liberty or Legal Government And what was done in Scotland we have Reason to believe in its Course must have been exercis'd in England also the late King having no more or other Authority in one Kingdom than he has in the other and both then govern'd by the same Arbitrary Maxims and Popish Ministers In England the late King assuming a Dispensing power Usurp'd the whole Legislative Authority into his own Hands for to Dispense with Laws is as great a power as to make them and by the exercise of it invested himself with a power as great if not greater than that of King and Parliament together who can joyntly but not severally give any Resolve the Authority of a Law The pretences to justifie this Action was that he might have the assistance of all his Subjects and that the Papists having been equally Loyal to his Progenitors they might not be discourag'd by legal Discriminations This was but a light pretence tho' part of the Intrigue for his dispencing power was chiefly directed to another and more considerable purpose From the latter end of King Charles's Reign the Press was loaden with Pamphlets and City and Country fill'd with invectives against Parliaments as unnecessary Wenns in the Government that were fit to be cut off that the Royal Authority might be without any Legal or Pecuniary Restraint or Limitation Now the Dispencing Power would do this Work effectually for it put the whole Legislative Authority into the King's Hands and made Parliaments Useless and signifie Nothing For this End was it set up And the Employing Papists that were Unqualify'd by Law was for no other End but to support the Dispencing Power till it had accomplish'd what was intended by it Protestants could not be suppos'd to engage in this Design for the Law was made in their Favour and was their Security against Romish Persecutions and Depredations and therefore the late King would bring Papists into the Government to whom the Laws were Enemies that in requital they might be Enemies to to the Laws and stick at nothing to support their King's Power that made them what they were and would only continue them in their Advantageous Stations So that if that King should gain his Point there seem'd a kind of Mutual Necessity for the late King to Introduce Papists and for Papists to execute his Orders or the Power and the Officers would sink into their Original Nothing But the Snare is broken and we are Deliver'd Strong Desires are the Common Temptations to the Use of Ill Means and never did any Man grasp at the Power to do Mischief without the Purpose If ever there have been such mysterious Riddles of Irregular Vertue yet James the Second never gave any Instances of it for it plainly appear'd in him how effectually the Temptation of Unlimited Power work'd in his Ambitious Humour He never thought any thing Enough till he had ingross'd a Power to Ruin All and turn Old England into a Wilderness of New Confusions By this Dispencing Power he at once suspended above Forty Statures relalating to our Religion and the next Week by the same Arbitrary Power might have suspended Forty more that secur'd our Civil Properties likewise for he had no more Right to do the one than the other and so might have gone on to the End of the Chapter till he had Abrogated all the Laws in the Statute-Book and acted here as afterwards Doctor King tells us he did in Ireland * State of Ireland p. 92. Seize Men's Goods for his own Use by a File of Musqueteers or at best by his own Warrant without any kind of Legal Process and to which he had no other Claim but that he wanted them Now if this be not Tyranny nothing in the World can merit that Appellation and therefore
our Religious and Civil Rights and therefore we swore to obey him But when he broke his own Oath and employ'd his Power to Ruin us and our Religion out Allegiance was at an End and we had no Reason to observe those Oaths that were taken when Things were in a better Posture and which we should never have took if we could have fore-seen what since has unfortunately happen'd for tho' we were cheated by our Credulity the Change of Circumstances has cancell'd the Obligation of those Oaths and made it our Duty to do the contrary We are oblig'd to obey our Parents while they maintain their Characters but our Obedience ceases when they command what is sinful Nature founded our Obedience to Authority upon a Supposition that it was for the Good of the Community Kings are the Guarrantees of this Formal Alliance and from the Obligation of the Original Compact arises our Submission But if Princes extend their Authority beyond the first Design of its Institution and destroy the Society over which they preside our Obedience is at an end and we may justly oppose them for no Oath or Promise of Obedience can supercede our Antecedent Obligations to our selves or our Country Had King James kept his own Oath we had been oblig'd to ours but his changing from what he promis'd to be set us at liberty The Deceit was his own Contrivance in disguising himself for had he appear'd in his own Likeness and honestly told us what he design'd before we were decoy'd into Oaths I believe there would have been as many Non-Jurants then as there were Honest and Thinking Men in the Kingdom All Oaths tho' never so cautiously worded have still some Tacit Exceptions or else they would sometimes Interfere with Common Equity Therefore 't is a good Exception in Law and a Salvo in Conscience to say that the Thing when the Oath was taken was Unforeseen and so unlikely to happen that it was thought almost impossible to come to pass viz. That the late King James should endeavour to Ruin his Subjects which of necessity must have been his own Ruin also when the Account should be adjusted between himself and Partners Again As the late King manag'd his Affairs these Oaths and our Obedience were Contradictory to themselves and therefore not Obliging We swore in the Oath of Supremacy that the King is Supream Head and Governor in his Dominions and that the Pope neither hath nor ought to have any Superiority or Authority therein But the late King notwithstanding this Law would have the Pope Supream in Spirituals Could we make him what he would not be Could he absolve us from those Oaths after we had taken them Or how was it possible for to observe them but we must offend one Way or t'other The Low says we must take these Oaths or pay Five Hunder'd Pounds besides other Penal Disabilities The King says we must not take them upon pain of his Displeasure and being turn'd out of the Offices we enjoy as our Freeholds by taking the Oaths what must the Subject do when the Law and the King are at so great Variance and the Subjects Duty involv'd in such Intricacies that could never be salv'd but by the Monarch's Abdication But That which utterly puts an End to the Obligatory Part of these Oaths and makes them Null and Void was his Voluntary Withdrawing himself from the Kingdom Abdicating the Government and Leaving the Throne Vacant for that set his Subjects Free to all Intents and Purposes because he that leaves the Government of his Subjects must be suppos'd to Resign his Interest in them for Government is so necessary for the Preservation of Subjects that he who intends to have Subjects must at the same time intend to have them Govern'd or their whole Allegiance ceases Nor if he could pretend he was forc'd to go off will that avail him because it was of his own procuring He might have prevented it by Calling a Parliament and Complying with Justice and the not doing what he ought makes his Desertion Voluntary I mention this only to answer those that object it without Cause whose Partiality spoils their Judgments and drives them to little Shifts to support their false Pretences His Departure into France and Desertion of the Crown was whol Voluntary no Force compell'd him no Danger threaten'd him the People were willing to have Retain'd him but he according to Hales's and Brent's Advices would leave the Kingdom in Confusion that he might return the sooner and have his Ends of us which would bear very Severe Reflections but his Going off being the only kind Act that ever that King did for England I shall omit them now out of pure Gratitude for that transcendent Favour What remains then but a serious Advice to our Scrupulous or Obstinate Brethren that they would no longer insist upon Controverted Cases and Ill-tim'd Niceties that hinder their Obedience or slacken their Gratitude to God and our Sovereign Lord King William for our Miraculous Deliverance nor Ruin themselves nor expose the Nation to Danger for the sake of the late King when they neither ought nor can do him any Service for seeing by the Law of Nature the Design of Government and the Practice of all Nations the late King hath Forfeited and Renounc'd his Right and they are discharg'd from their Oaths and Allegiance to him that they would now honourably deliver up that Pretence which they can no longer defend and pay their Obedience where Divine Providence the Laws of the Land and an Extraorninary Merit has made it due What can be more dishonourable than that the Dishonour and Loss that has befallen this Unfortunate Prince was the Consequence of his own Arbitrary Actions and is primarily to be imputed to himself in exceeding the Bounds of his Limited Authority which he ought in no wise to have done for the Royal Dignity of England is so far from being a Despotick kind of Government that it carries along with it in its very Essence a Mixture of Interests betwixt King and People and lays an Obligation upon the King to govern not by his own Arbitrary Will but according to Law And so careful have the English Subjects always been to preserve the Government in this Equal Poize that every Deviation from it has been look'd upon by them as a Step towards Tyranny And not only the English but so strangely has all Antiquity look'd upon the Affectation of Absolute Power that Isidore lays it down as the Character of a Tyrant That he is Ambitious of Absolute Dominion and oppresses his Subjects by a Lawless Authority And the Scholiast of Aristophanes says That a King differs from a Tyrant in this that a King possesses his Kingdom as receiving it from his Subject upon certain Conditions prescrib'd by Law but a Tyrant Enters and Rules by Force and Violence James the Second could not be ignorant that other Kings of England have sometimes shew'd their Inclinations and made some
private Lashes and subtile Essays towards an Unlimited Power but being told of it as an Incroachment upon the Laws they have always publickly disclaim'd it and yet the late King would attempt it Fortunae miseras auximus arte vias Propert. lib. 3. El. 6. He with Misfortune ' gainst himself took part And his own Wickedness increas'd by Art King Charles the First in his Declaration from * 1694. Newmarket shew'd the Unlawfulness of it for says he The Laws are the Measures of my Power Few Words but very significant and agree with what was said by that great Lawyer Bracton That he is no King that governs by his own Will and not by Law nor are his Commands obliging Which made King James in one of his Speeches to the Parliament call those Flatterers that persuade Kings not to confine themselves within the Bounds oâ— their own Laws Vipers and the Pests of King and Kingdom And the Lord Verulam says the People have as good a Right to their Laws as to the Air they breath in and he that persuades his Prince to break them is as great a Traytor to him in the Court of Heaven as the Villain that draws his Sword upon him in his own Palace Lewis the Eleventh of France tho' he had been a very Arbitrary Prince when he lay upon his Death-Bed told his Son Charles the Eighth that it was a Diminution to the Greatness of a King not to govern by Law and treat his Subjects Humanely for no Man can be call'd a King but he that governs Free-men King James the First in another Speech to his Parliament sums up all in this memorable Passage viz. That a King governing in a settl'd Kingdom leaves to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant when he ceases to rule according to Law And yet all this could not restrain James the Second from endeavouring after an Absolute Power The Sentiments of these Great Men might be very prevalent upon Ingenuous Princes yet our Ancestors unwilling to expose themselves and us to Contingent Hazards or leave it to the Mercy or trust only to the Good Nature of Princes who being but Men might be sway'd by their own Passions abus'd by their Credulity or mis-guided by Evil Counsellors to act against their own and their Kingdom 's Safety they thought fit to bind up their Kings from Invading their Laws or venturing upon an Unlimited Power by the most Sacred Obligation in the World viz. a Solemn Oath and Promise at their Coronations to govern according to the Laws of the Land And Taking this Oath has always been the constant Practice of our Saxon Danish and Norman Kings even to James the Second who made no Scruple in Taking nor no Conscience in Breaking it To this I might add that our Kings are Circumscrib'd by Law because in many Instances the Law hath determined what they can and what they cannot do lawfully But because this Point has been Invidiously and Indecently handl'd by some Perulant and froward Tempers who have set too narrow Bounds to the Royal Prerogative I shall wave it and conclude this Paragraph with that excellent Saying of King James the First to both Houses of Parliament Wherein he expresly tells them * See his Works That a King of England binds himself by a double Oath to the Observation of the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Tacitly as being a King and so bound to protect his People and the Laws of the Kingdom And Expresly by his Oath at his Coronation So that every King in a settl'd Kingdom is bound to observe that Paction made to his People by his Laws in framing his Government agreeably thereunto according to the Paction that God made with Noah after the Deluge To Recite more upon this Head was to pour Water into the Sea for that King that does not think himself oblig'd by his Oath to govern according to Law no other Legal Mound can hold him from breaking down the Fences of the Kingdom and laying all Waste before him Which tho' others might aim at by a Side-Wind no King of England ever claim'd a Right to it but the late King James and it was a piece of Haughtiness and Extravagance above all Example except what his own following Practices has furnished us with And having thus proved that the late King James was by his Oath oblig'd to Govern by Law I proceed to shew you that instead of Answering this great End He made it the whole Business of his Reign to act directly against the Laws to subvert the whole Constitution and expose the Nation to certain Ruin and Destruction And Secondly That by so doing he renounc'd to be our King and justify'd the Legality of the Estates proceedings against him That he intended no Good to England might plainly be discern'd by the great Number of Jesuits and Popish Priests that from all Parts flocked about him and were Caress'd and Indear'd by him at his very first Accession to the Crown for if Charity could have oblig'd us to believe him never so Good-natur'd it was Morally Impossible for him to continue Good in such Ill Company who where-e'er they come set the Country in a Flame that receives them 'T was I say a Sign that some very Ill Thing was to be done when such Sanguinary Hands were to be employ'd as were Reeking hot in the Blood of Neighbouring Protestants and against whose Cruelties Self-Interest Love of Glory Greatness of Mind nor Goodness of Nature could never divert those Princes from Persecuting and Rooting out their Protestant Subjects that had once imbibed the pernicious Principles of the Jesuits who like their Father the Davil are always wandring about seeking whom they may devour In what a happy Estate was the German Empire till the Jesuits prevail'd with the Emperor to espouse their Interest and rather than let a few Protestants live peaceably in Hungary involv'd the Empire in a War that has lasted Thirty Years already and God only knows when there will be an End of it What Scandalous Breaches of Promises and Havock has been among the Hugonots in France by Merciless Cruelties Murthers Thefts Rapine and all kind of Devastations since the Jesuits have been permitted to influence the Affairs of that Kingdom To give no more Presidents of their Barbarities to Protestants and bewitching with their Poysonous Tenents the Counsels of Unwary or Bigotted Princes How have they persuaded the Duke of Savoy contrary to all Politicks to Persecute and Banish his Protestant Subjects who in all probability would have given him the best Assistance when he shall want their Service for the Preservation of his Dukedom And how far the late King James would have follow'd those Presidents while these Incendiaries were the Directors of his Conscience may be easily understood by the first Steps he made towards the Ruin of the Protestant Interest First In Setting up a Dispencing Power and Assuming an Arbitrary Authority that should know no Bounds but what his
End agree with that of Popery which is to Exterminate Hereticks By the Law of Government we are Objects of Protection by the Law of Popery we are Subjects of Destruction The Prince receives from God and the Society a Power to protect his People but he receives from the Church his Mother an Order to destroy them as Condemn'd Hereticks And which of these two Orders think you shall prevail with a Popish King above the other Why thot in which he is most Concern'd and to which Eternal Recompences are inseparably annex'd And then in what a sad Condition were the Protestants of England in the Reign of the late King Thirdly Against 3. The Law of Royalty to which Popery in the Case suppos'd has an absolute Antipathy as will appear if you consider that all Royalty necessarily contains three Things viz. the Consent of the People engaging to obey the Consent of the King promising to protect and the Manner by which the King and People confirm their Promises which is a Religious Oath Now a Popish Prince that governs a Protestant People will be always wanting on his part of the Contract if he takes the Maxims of his own Religion for the Rule of his Government 'T is a Contradiction to believe he will act against his own Inclination or that he will cancel the Antecedent Obligation which he was under to the Church his Mother in preserving Hereticks that are not a People but a loose sort of Animals doom'd to Destruction Does the Prince break his Faith in not performing the Oath he took when Invested with his Kingly Authority and promis'd to protect his People No say the Directors of his Conscience The Oath was against the Laws of Holy Church therefore sinful and void Besides say they the Prince took the Oath with Intention to break it and the Intention must always govern the Action especially when it falls under the Church's General Rule of not keeping Faith with Hereticks 4. To dismiss this Argument Popery is particularly against the Laws of a Mix'd Monarchy such as England's is because the Prince believes he has a Right to treat Hereticks as he pleases and may lawfully take away their Lives and seize their Estates without doing them any kind of Injustice for being fallen from the Right of Society he can do them no Wrong Besides All Princes that attribute to themselves an Absolute Power think they owe an Account of their Actions to none but God and a Prince under the Circumstances that we have observed will never think he displeases God by destroying Hereticks * Durand a San. Port. quaest 5. utr sint tolerand that as their Writers say are Enemies to GOD and Man So that we see the Advancement of Popery in a Protestant Kingdom is a necessary Introduction of Tyranny and Intails a Law of Misery and Desolation upon all Protestants And such was King James's Design here Let no Man argue the Impossibility of Introducing Popery into this Kingdom because the Number of Papists are but small in respect of the Protestants for that will not render the Design Impracticable but rather make the Execution of it more cruel and barbarous A whole Nation upon the matter must be coâ—rupted from the Faith of the True Religion or be destroy'd You know what Progresses were made towards it by Tying all Preferments to Popery Unarming Protestants putting the whole Strength and Power of the Kingdom into the Hands of Papists and sending over Irish Soldiers to increase a needless and dangerous Army And what this might have grown to in time was easier to foresee than Remedy for an Ordinary Strength Unresisted might Assassinate a whole Nation Fifthly 5. In the Heat of the late King's Zeal and Fury to procure such a Parliament as might set up a Power and Interest agreeable to his Humour and destructive to the Kingdom Quo Warranto's like Bombs were thrown into Cities and Boroughs to destroy the Freedom of Elections which is the Foundation of Government for What will become of the Liberty of Parliaments without the Freedom of Elections And how can England enjoy their Privileges without the Freedom of Parliaments All which were to be violated at once by this Undermining Project and Persons must be imposed upon them for their Representatives in Parliament which were none of their Choice but Press'd by a Popish Court and solely at their King's Devotion Some are pleas'd to express themselves in very harsh Language against that which they call the Pentionary Parliament as more zealous for the Advantage of the Crown than the Welfare of the Kingdom But what dreadful Consequences might be predicted from a Parliament consisting both of Papists and Popish Pensioners if it had been possible for the late King to have accomplish'd his Designs are almost beyond the Power of Melancholy to suggest them in Figures black enough to express their Horrour The Choice of a Parliament that would do whatever he thought fit was the only thing wanting therefore all things were dispos'd and regulated after such a manner as might bring such a sort of Men together at Westminster as might gratifie his Popish Arbitrary Ends and Vote Protestants to be the main Grievance of the Nation 6. Another Intrigue of the late King 's was to Ruin the Kingdom by a Chain of Consequences and as the Destruction of the Liberties of England was the Overthrow of the Protestant Religion so he would make the Subversion of our Religion serve to destroy our Liberties This made him impatiently covet that Papists might be freed from the Penal Laws and Tests which were the Barriers to Defend the Nation from Romish Usurpation And this piece of Tyranny above all the rest is most notorious A Protestant Nation makes Laws to preserve themselves from being Victims of Popish Fury These Laws were necessary at all times but more especially under the Reign of a King that had been pleas'd to declare himself a Papist and yet these are the Laws that the late King would violate and not violate only but utterly * Non tam commutandarum sed evertendarum rerum cupidi Abolish and persecuted those who had a Zeal to preserve them Imprisoning some Destituting others and Threatning all without Exception that dar'd to gain-say it For this End he rais'd an Army kept it up in Time of Peace and put into it as many Irish as he could find of the Posterity of those who committed the Barbarous and Bloody Murthers and Massacres on the Bodies of English Protestants in 1641. and to do the like to us in England or force us to submit to the cruel Yoke of Slavery and Superstition 'T is natural for a Prince to Raise Forces for the Defence of his Dominions when he fears Enemies from abroad But to entertain an Army in Times of Peace only to Rob his People of their Laws and Privileges to Ravage his Universities and to put publick Destroyers into the Govent must surely pass for a manifest Tyranny Our
particular account of the Prince his successful and prosperous Expedition where there were so many Eye-Witnesses of that great and miraculous Providence that was visible in the progress thereof which was such as shew'd the undertaking to be acceptable to Almighty God who prospers the endeavours of Good Men but taketh the wicked in the Nets which they spread for the Innocent I shall therefore only tell the Reader that His Highness the Prince of Orange being happily and safely arriv'd in England He was Saluted and Welcom'd with all the demonstrations and transports of Joy and Gladness that an ill us'd Nation were able to Express under a sense of their Calamity and a hopeful prospect of Deliverance from a cruel Tyranny This Joy and Satisfaction daily increas'd as his Highness's Declaration was spread through the Kingdom For the Jesuits having loaded this Pious and Noble Expedition with all the Odium of Virulent Pens and Tongues his Highness's Declaration which shew'd the End of his coming was not with any design upon the Person of the late King Aspiring at his Crown or with any intention to subdue the Kingdom as had been maliciously suggested but purely that the Abuses and Grievances of the People Pathetically and Truly Enumerated in his Highness's Declaration might be Redress'd by a Parliament free in all its circumstances all Fears and Jealousies vanish'd and Men of all Qualities hasten'd to put themselves under the Auspicious Conduct of this Illustrious Prince that God in the Eternal Counsel of his Wisdom had Appointed to be the Glorious Deliverer of England Now let all Men judge of the Equity of his Highness's Demands and the Justice of his Proceedings His Own and his Princess's Right to the Succession of the Crown was like to be supplanted by a supposititious Child and a flourishing Kingdom in danger of Destruction and both evidently plainly and certainly so And can any Man think he ought to Renounce his Own and his Princess's Right and frustrate the Expectation of a whole Kingdom to which he was Allied by Blood Nature and all the sacred Obligations of Religion rather than disturb the progress of a Jesuitick Tyranny cover'd under Royal Authority Sure none in the World can think so Had this Illustrious Prince conceiv'd any Prejudice against this Unfortunate Monarch James II. Turn'd his Eye toward the Crown or would have seen England's Misery before the Oppress'd Subjects themselves Represented it to him and pray'd his Relief His Highness was not without an earlier * Defence de la Nation Britanique p. â—â— knowledge of it and Solicitations to do what at last Necessity compell'd him to For there are many yet alive in Germany Holland and England that very well remember how much his Highness was Importun'd at James the 2d's first coming to the Crown to make a Descent into England with a Force able to Redress the Affairs of that Country and prevent the inevitable Ruin which so openly threaten'd it This was known immediately after the Death of Charles the Second when one of the most powerful Princes of Europe having represented to his Highness that All was going to Ruin and would be utterly lost in England if a sudden Interposition of the Prince of Orange did not prevent its impending Destruction and therefore Offer'd him what Assistance was requisite for such a Noble and Pious Enterprize but that Puissant Prince receiv'd no other Answer but that his Highness was in hopes that God and that King 's own Interest would possess him with better Sentiments and therefore his Highness would Attempt nothing in that kind against the late King till he was forc'd to it by the last Extremity but if his hopes were disappointed and there was no other Remedy he would not be wanting in his Duty And God be prais'd his Highness at length in due time perform'd his Promise and Silenc'd all that declaim against it It cannot be imagin'd that his Highness was pleas'd to see the Efforts of the late King in abolishing the Penal Laws against Papists which were so essentially necessary to our Preservation nor can his Highness be thought easy at the sight of the late King 's climbing up a Precipice from which he must necessarily fall or by an Artificial and Politick Silence incourage K. James's Ministers to carry all things to such Extremities as might render his Conduct Odious for the Letter of Mr. Fagell upon this Subject will be an Eternal Monument of the Free and Sincere proceedings of his Highness with the late King in this whole Matter Much less can our Adversary deny that his Highness was Requested by the People to Defend their Religion Rights and Privileges for God Almighty to the eternal Confusion of our Enemies suffer'd themselves to declare it in a Memorial they publish'd to all the Confederate Princes with design to break the League they were so much afraid of for after they had in that paper undecently treated his Highness and menac'd him with I know not how many Tragical Stories they yet acknowledge that He was Invited by the Nation Nor could his Highness hinder the Lords and other Persons of the best Quality in England from shewing their Grievances and Imploring his Gracious Succor when the Extremities they were under compell'd them to it and also told Him that if his Highness refus'd them they would enter into their Natural Right and Defend themselves by their own strength against a Power which was become as they declar'd to his Highness in their Memorial a Power of Destruction Let our Adversaries now tell us if the Case was not very Important and whether the Prince of Orange ought to have contemn'd the just Fears of the English and all the Protestants of Europe who are imbark'd in the same Interest and Danger and have slighted all the Princes that either by themselves or by their Ministers perswaded his Highness to enter upon an Action on which depended the Common Safety of Europe I don't believe they dare say after all the Facts we have enumerated that his Highness ought to contemn the Publick or dispute Matters of so great Notoriety but if the English Fears were well grounded and their Oppressions True and Real and that if his Highness could not perswade himself from being of the same Opinion with the rest of the World that he could refuse to assist those that requested it in such a pressing necessity and on an Occasion where Providence appear'd so expresly for our Deliverance and which if neglected perhaps could never be Retriev'd Now let the French Missionaries or their English Pupils produce their Fine Reasons and tell us if his Highness ought to forget his God his Religion the Rights of his Princess his Own the Liberty of England and of Holland which must Infallibly share in the Misfortunes and Depredations of England the Protestant Religion breathing its last and all Europe in danger of losing its Liberty Let them also tell us if they can whether the Respects due to a Father
in-Law could counter-balance so many Great and stupendious Interests or the Sacred and Inviolable Obligations that ingaged him to God and the publick good of so many Millions of Souls that depended on it Every Prince of the Royal Blood of England is in Right of that Blood oblig'd to regard England as his Own Country and to take care of the Inhabitants over whom he has a Right to Reign that the Demeans of the Crown be not Wasted nor the Subjects Injur'd and the nearer he approaches the Succession the greater is his Obligation to Defend them from Violence and his Country from Ruin to which Country next unto his God * Chari sunt parentes chaâ—â—i liberi propinqui familiares sed omnes omnium charitates Patriae una complexa est pro qua quis bonus dubitet mortem oppetere fi ea sit profituturus 〈…〉 and before all other Relations whatsoever he stands Particularly and Religiously concern'd for its Peace and Preservation His Highness the Prince of Orange could not neglect it now in common Prudence without manifest prejudice to his Right of Succession for the People of England by applying to his Highness had not only Recognized his Right to the Succession but also acqaainted him in their Memorial that if he refused them Succor under their present Ill Circumstances they would Assume their own Right and Free themselves and how far their Resentments of such a Slight might have Transported them is not easy to imagine Now altho the Reasons alledg'd are sufficient to shew the Justice of the Prince's Interposing between the late King and his Subjects yet I shall shew also that it is justified by many Presidents and where the Emergencies were not so considerable as ours nor their Titles to the Government so Incontestable as the Prince of Orange's was to the Crown of England who yet are Celebrated in History for their great Atchievements on such Occasions Constantine's quarrel with Maxentius * Eusebius Eccl. Hist p. 268. had no other ground and that was enough than that Maxentius Tyranniz'd over the Romans for which Constantine Invaded him Slew him and was receiv'd by the Romans as their Deliverer As remarkable was his Raising War against his Brother in Law Licinius because he persecuted the Christians for which when he had overcome the Tyrant the Christians plac'd him on the Throne in Licinius's Room and Historians have Celebrated his Name as a most Holy and Generous Champion in the Cause of Christ and their Country Constantine the Younger Son of Constantine the Great threatned his Brother Constantius with a War and made him desist from persecuting the Catholick Bishops and forc'd him to Restore Athanasius to his Bishoprick of Alexandria The like was done by King Pipin and Charles the Great against the Lomlards and by all the Christian Princes against the Turk in the Holy War To come nearer our own times Queen Elizabeth gave a Powerful Aid to the Hollanders * Vid. English Chron. and Hist of her Life against the Tyranny of the Spaniards King James the First * See his Manifesto 16. and K. C. Declaration on that Subject on the behalf of the Prince Palatine against the Emperour of Germany King Charles the First assisted the Rochellers with a Fleet and an Army against the French King in the cause of Religion and was incouraged to it by several of his Bishops and 't was always look'd upon as a great Blemish on the Reign of King Charles the Second and gave suspicion of his being in the Popish Interest that he suffered the F. K. to proceed so far in destroying his Protestant Subjects without such a seasonable Interposition as might have prevented it or gain'd an Opportunity of making his Reign glorious and his Kingdom easy by a War which in all probality would have brought that Monarch into better Terms for the Advantage of Europe So that from the Reasons aforementioned and the Presidents now alledg'd his Highness's Expedition to Rescue an Injur'd People from the Tyranny of Arbitary Power was one of the most Generous and Pious Enterprizes that any Age has acquainted us with and that the Good of this Nation was the only motive that gave birth to this undertaking see it in the Words of his Highnesses own Declaration Since the English Nation has always testified a most particular Affection and Esteem both to our Dearest Consort the Princess and to our selves we cannot excuse our selves from Espousing their Interests in matters of such high Consequences and from contributing all that lies in us for maintaining both of the Protestant Religion and of the Laws and Liberties of those Kingdoms and for the securing to them the continual enjoyment of all their just Rights to the doing of which we are most earnestly solicited by a great many Lords both Spiritual and Temporal and by many Gentlemen and other Subjects of all Ranks Therefore it is that we have thought fit to go over into England and to carry over with us a Force able by the Blessing of God to defend us from the Violence of those Evil Counsellors and we being desirous that our Intentions in this may be rightly understood declare that this our expedition is intended for no other design but to have a free and lawful Parliament assembled as soon as is possible and that in order to this all the late Charters by which the Elections of Burguesses are limited contrary to the Antient custom shall be considered as Null and of no Force and likewise all Magistrates who have been unjustly turn'd out shall forthwith Resume their former Imployments as well as all the Boroughs of England shall return again to their ancient prescriptions and Charters and that the Writs for the Members of Parliament shall be addressed to their proper Officers according to Law and Custom That also none be suffer'd to choose or to be chosen Members of Parliament but such as are qualified by Law and that the Members of Parliament shall meet and sit in full freedom that so the two Houses may concur in preparing such Laws as they upon full and free debate shall judge Necessary and Convenient both for the confirming and executing the Law concerning the Test and such other Laws as are necessary and convenient for the security and maintenance of the Protestant Religion c. Thus his Highness was pleas'd to declare his intentions with which the Nation was so Intirely satisfied that they conquer'd all that Read or heard them insomuch that many Persons of Quality and others met his Highness at Exeter put themselves under his Conduct and many other Lords and Great Men who had rais'd Forces in all parts of the Kingdom to strengthen the Prince's Expedition were marching with all speed to joyn his Highness's Troops And now A War being ready to break forth in the Bowells of the Kingdom several Spiritual and Temporal Lords in an humble Petition to the late King advise him in order to Redress the Grievances
came to Redress the Grievances of the Nation by Calling a Free Parliament so he would abide by their Determination in what concern'd his own Person and not by any Rash or Precipitate Action seem to cross the End of his Coming which was to have all Things settl'd according to Law and therefore he left that and all other our Affairs to be settl'd by the approaching Parliament In the mean time the Prince Advis'd with the Lords how to pursue the Ends of his Declaration in Calling a Free Parliament for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion Restoring the Rights and Liberties of the Kingdom and Settling them so firmly that they might not lie in danger of being again Subverted To Answer this Great End in Setling the Nation by a Parliamentary Proceeding the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Assembl'd in their House at * Decemb. 22 Westminster and being agreed on the Particulars Humbly desire †Decemb. 25. His Highness the Prince of Orange to take upon him the Administration of Publick Affairs both Civil and Military and the Disposal of the Publick Revenue for the Preservation of the Religion Laws Liberties and Properties and the Peace of the Nation And that His Highness would take into his particular Care the present Condition of Ireland and endeavour by the most speedy and effectual Means to prevent the Dangers threatning that Kingdom All which their Lordships requested His Highness to undertake and exercise till the Meeting of the intended Convention on the 22th of January ensuing and presented it to His Highness with their Proposals about Calling a Parliament at St. James's December the 25th 1688. To which His Highness was pleased to return this Answer to the Peers assembl'd at the same place on December the 28th following My LORDS I Have consider'd of your Advice and as far as I am able I will endeavour to secure the Peace of the Nation until the Meeting of the Convention in January next for the Meeting whereof I will forthwith issue out Letters according to your Desire I will also take care to apply the Publick Revenue to the most proper Uses that the present Affairs require and likewise endeavour to put Ireland into such a Condition that the Protestant Religion may be maintain'd in that Kingdom And I assure you that as I came hither for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom so I shall always be ready to expose my self to any Hazard for the Defence of the same His Highness's Letters being dispers'd the Election of Members for the Convention was carry'd on with all the Expedition and Freedom imaginable and the Temper of the Nation fully discover'd in the Choice they made The 22th of January 1688. both Houses met again and having chosen their Speakers the following Letter from His Highness the Prince of Orange was Read in both Houses My LORDS I Have endeavour'd to the utmost of my Power to perform what was desir'd from me in order to the publick Peace and Safety and I do not know that any thing hath been omitted which might have tended to the Preservation of them since the Administration of Affairs was put into my Hands It now lies upon you to lay the Foundations of a firm Security for your Religion your Laws and your Liberties I do not doubt but that by such a full and free Representative of the Nation as is now met the Ends of my Declaration will be attain'd And since it hath pleas'd God hitherto to bless my good Intentions with so great Success I trust in him that he will compleat his own Work by sending a Spirit of Peace and Union to influence your Counsels that no Interruption may be given to a happy and lasting Settlement The dangerous Condition of the Protestants in Ireland require a large and speedy Succour And the present State of Things Abroad oblige me to tell you that next to the Danger of Unseasonable Divisions amongst your selves nothing can be so fatal as too great Delay in your Consultations The States by whom I have been enabl'd to rescue this Nation may suddenly feel the ill Effects of it both by being too long depriv'd of the Service of their Troops which are nowhere and of your Early Assistance against a powerful Enemy who hath Declar'd a War against them And as England is by Treaty already engag'd to help them upon such Exigencies so I am confident that their Chearful Concurrence to preserve this Kingdom with so much Hazard to themselves will meet with all the Returns of Friendship and Assistance which may be expected from you as Protestants and English-men when-ever their Condition shall require it Given at St. James's the 22th of January 1688. Will. H. P. d' Orange The Two Houses under a deep Sense of their Dangers and Deliverance in the first place by mutual Consent express'd their Thankfulness to God by appointing a Day of Publick Thanksgiving throughout the Kingdom and to His Highness as the Glorious Instrument of the Great Deliverance of this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power in the following Address which was presented to the Prince of Orange the 22th of January 1688. in these Words Die Martis 22 Jan. 1698. The Address of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminister in this present Convention to His Highness the Prince of Orange WE the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembl'd at Westminster being highly sensible of the great Deliverance of this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power and that our Preservation is next under God owing to your Highness do return our most humble Thanks and Acknowledgments to your Highness as the Glorious Instrument of so great a Blessing We do further acknowledge the great Care your Highness has been pleas'd to take in the Administration of the Publick Affairs of the Kingdom to this time And we do most humbly desire your Highness that you will take upon you the Administration of Publick Affairs both Civil and Military and the Disposal of the Publick Revenue for the Preservation of our Religion Rights Laws Liberties and Properties and of the Peace of the Nation And that your Highness will take into your particular Care the present State of Ireland and endeavour by the most speedy and effectual Means to prevent the Dangers that threaten that Kingdom All which we make our Request to your Highness to undertake and Exercise till further Application shall be made by us which shall be expedited with all convenient Speed And we shall also use our utmost Endeavaurs to give Dispatch to the Matters recommended to us by your Highness's Letter To which Address presented by both Houses at St. James's His Highness the Prince of Orange made this Reply the same Day My Lords and Gentlemen I Am glad that what I have done has pleas'd you And since you desire me to continue the Administration of Affairs I am willing to accept it I must recommend to you the
Consideration of Affairs Abroad which makes it fit for you to expedite your Business not only for making a Settlement at home upon a good Foundation but for the Safety of all Europe The Lords having declar'd by a Vote of that House That Popery was Inconsistent with the Government of England the Commons upon the 28th of January passed the following Vote viz. Resolved THat King James the Second having endeavour'd to Subvert the Constitution of this Kingdom by breaking the Original Contract between King and People and by the Advice of Jesuits and other Wicked Persons having withdrawn himself out of this Kingdom hath Abdicated the Government and that the Throne is thereby Vacant This Vote occasion'd several Conferences between the two Houses of Lords and Commons in the Painted Chamber at Westminster the Substance whereof as they are transmitted * 〈◊〉 Debate at large between the House of Lords and House of Câ—â—â—â—â—â— to us will be occasionally produc'd in the Sequel But on the 7th of February the Lords sending a Message to the Commons that they had Agreed to the Vote sent them up on the 28th of January last without any Alterations on the 12th of February following both Houses Unanimously Agreed to Declare as followeth The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster VVHereas the late King James the Second by the Assistance of divers Evil Counsellors Judges and Ministers employ'd by him did endeavour to Subject and Extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom By Assuming and Exercising a Power of Dispencing with and Suspending of Laws and the Execution of Laws without Consent of Parliament By Committing and Persecuting divers Worthy Prelates for humbly Petitioning to be excus'd from Concurring to the said Assumed Power By Issuing and Causing to be Executed a Commission under the Broad Seal for Erecting a Court call'd The Court of Commission for Ecclesiastical Affairs By Levying Money for and to the Use of the Crown by Pretence of Prerogative for other Time and in other Manner than the same was Granted by Parliament By Raising and Keeping a Standing Army within the Kingdom in Time of Peace without Consent of Parliament and Quartering of Soldiers contrary to Law By Causing several good Subjects being Protestants to be Dis-arm'd at the same time when Papists were both Arm'd and Employ'd contrary to Law By Violating the Freedom of Elections of Members to Serve in Parliament By Prosecutions in the Court of King's Bench for Matters and Causes Cognizable only in Parliament and by divers other Arbitrary and Illegal Courses And whereas of late Years Partial Corrupt and Unqualify'd Persons have been Return'd and Serv'd on Juries in Trials and particularly divers Jurors Serv'd in Trials for High Treason which were not Free-holders And Excessive Bail had been Required of Persons Committed in Criminal Causes to Elude the Benefit of the Laws made for the Liberty of the Subject And Excessive Fines have been Impos'd And Illegal and Cruel Punishments Inflicted And several Grants and Promises made of Fines and Forfeitures before any Conviction or Judgment against the the Persons upon whom the same were to be Levy'd All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known Laws and Statutes and Freedom of this Realm And whereas the late King James the Second having Abdicated the Government and the Throne being thereby Vacant His Highness the Prince of Orange whom it hath pleas'd Almighty God to make the Glorious Instrument of Delivering this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power did by the Advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and divers Principal Persons of the Commons cause Letters to be written to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being Protestants and other Letters to the several Counties Cities Universities Boroughs and Cinque-Ports for the Choosing such Persons to represent them as were of Right to be sent to Parliament to Meet and Sit at Westminster upon the 22th Day of January 1688. in order to such an Establishment as that their Religion Laws and Liberties might not again be in danger of being Subverted Upon which Letters Elections have been made And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons pursuant to their respective Letters and Elections being now Assembl'd in a Full and Free Representative of this Nation taking into their most Serious Consideration the best Means for attaining the Ends aforesaid do in the first place as their Ancestors in like Cases have formerly done for the Vindicating and Asserting their Antient Rights and Liberties Declare That the Pretended Power of Suspending of Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority without Consent of Parliament is Illegal That the Pretended Power of Dispencing with Laws or the Exercise of Laws by Regal Authority as has been Assum'd and Practis'd of late is Illegal That the Commission for Erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes and all other Commissions and Courts of the like nature are Illegal and Pernicious That Levying of Money to or for the Use of the Crown by Pretence of Prerogative without Grant of Parliament for a longer Time or in other Manner than the same is or shall be Granted is Illegal That it is the Right of the Subject to Petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning is Illegal That the Raising or Keeping a Standing Army within the Kingdom in Time of Peace unless it be by Consent of Parliament is against Law That the Subjects being Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Condition and as Allow'd by Law That the Election of Members of Parliament ought to be Free That the Freedom of Speech and Debates or Proceedings in Parliament ought not to be Impeach'd or Question'd in any Court or Place out of Parliament That Excessive Bail ought not to be Requir'd nor Excessive Fines Impos'd nor Cruel and Unusual Punishments Inflicted That Jurors ought to be duly Impannell'd and Return'd and Jurors which Pass upon Men in Trials for High Treason ought to be Free-Holders That all Grants and Promises of Fines and Forfeitures of particular Persons before Conviction are Illegal and Void That for Redress of all Grievances and for the Amending Strengthening and Preserving of the Laws Parliaments ought to be held frequently And they do Claim Demand and Insist upon all and singular the Premisses as their Undoubted Rights and Liberties and that no Declarations Judgments Doings or Proceedings to the Prejudice of the People in any of the said Premisses ought in any wise to be drawn hereafter into Consequence or Example To which Demand of their Rights they are particularly Encourag'd by the Declaration of His Highness the Prince of Orange as being the only Means for Obtaining a full Redress and Remedy therein Having therefore an Entire Confidence that His said Highness the Prince of Orange will perfect the Deliverance so far advanc'd by him and will still preserve them from the Violation of their Rights
Example of former Times and their own Prudence should direct them And truly it would be very absurd to imagin that the Legislative Power was so streighten'd that it had no Right to provide against Unforeseen Accidents that might happen or that where the Old Laws seem'd opposite to the publick Good or were wholly silent as not foreseeing every extraordinary Event they could not supply that Defect by making * Quae de novo cinergunt novo indigent auxilio New Ones that might reach the present Circumstances of Affairs or Extend and Explain the Old ones as the Necessity of the State requir'd Laws themselves in time may grow pernitious and tho' well intended at their first Promulgation as Things might after happen would be dangerous to be Retain'd Therefore on all such Occasions the Assembly of Estates have an Indubitable Right to wave the Letter of the Law and explain them or make New ones according to Equity that is according to what the precedent Legislators would have done if they had Foreseen what then had come to pass Private Persons are oblig'd to observe the Letter of the Law but Publick Estates are not under such a Confinement but for the Safety of the Nation must respect the Intention of the Law because the Letter of the Law by Length of Time or a General Corruption of Manners may seem to thwart the Common Interest but the Intention of the Law always respects the publick Good and is never against it This is done every Day in Courts of Equity and ought never to be omitted for the Preservation of a Kingdom where Laws Unrepeal'd and whose Consequences were not dreamt of seem to make Tyranny Lawful And therefore the Convention of Estates in Shutting the Door against James the Second and making it fast after him by an Act of State who had first excluded himself and setling the Government on the Foot it now stands did no more than Assert their own Right and prevent the Mischiefs that have attended the Mis-construction of the Intention of some Laws in Force Now that the Estates of the Kingdom have such a Right is Incontestible in the Opinion of our Adversaries yet they deny that the Convention had such a Power because they were not Conven'd by the late King's Authority A frivolous Objection and returns upon the Head of that deluded Faction For This Defect if it were one was not the Nation 's Fault but lies wholly upon the late King He was Sought to Address'd and Petitioned to Call a Parliament It was the great Importance of the Prince's Declaration He often promis'd it and by Proclamation made a Feint of keeping his Word yet at last burnt the Writs and declar'd positively he would not do it Could the Nation compel him to do what he would not Must the Kingdom be Ruin'd for want of a Formality that was not in their Power to compass Must a Glorious Opportunity of Settling the Kingdom be lost for want of a Punctilio that yet was answer'd in the Intent of it Must the Nation be be blam'd for helping themselves when the late King refus'd it No this would be very loose Reasoning and the Thread is of too course a Spinning to pass upon the Thinking Part of Mankind Had they Objected against the Qualification of the Members the Want of Freedom in their Election or shew'd any Unreasonableness in the Action they had said something worthy of Answer but since they could not I shall go on and prove it Just Necessary and Agreeable to the Practice of All Nations The Laws of God Nature and Nations justifie the Deposing of a Prince whose Arbitrary Government is not only Inconsistent with but Destructive to the Kingdom over which he Presides To name no other Instances in the Old Testament Rehoboam and Jeroboam are Examples of Divine Vengeance for their Tyranny and their Stories are Argumentative The Jews asserted the Lawfulness of Resisting and Dethroning their Kings in many Cases * Joseph l. 4. c. 8. especially in their Wars with Antiochus Epiphanes and the †St. Aug. libr. cont Adem 1.17 Christians follow'd those Examples without thinking their Religion oblig'd them by a Childish Submission to yield up their Natural and Legal Rights and consent to their own Ruin How unreasonable would it be to imagin that a whole Kingdom should deprive it self of the Right of Deposing a Tyrant and preserving themselves since * Principio generi animantium omni est à Natura tributum ut se vita corpúsque tueatur declinétque ea quae noscitura videantur Cicero de Offic. Nature has communicated this Right to all Rational Creatures together with their Being which they can neither give away themselves nor can be justly taken from them by others as I have already prov'd in part and shall do it beyond Contradiction in the following Pages and therefore shall descend to shew you that the Deposing the late King is Warranted by the Practice of other Nations as well as our own in Former Ages The Power of the Emperor of Germany is Limited in many Particulars He cannot alter their Fundamental Laws nor make the Empire Hereditary and the College of the Princes Electors may Depose him for Male Administration as they did Lewis the Good in the Year 833. Which Act was always look'd upon as the Right of the Empire in the Opinion of the German Lawyers and so is transmitted to Posterity be the best of their * Lampadius Diderick Conring Lambert Schafnaburg Aventin l. 7. Annal. Cuspin in Vita Wincesl Carpsor de Leg. Reg. Imperat Germaniae Imperial Capitular Writers One of the Charges against Lewis was that he had broken his Coronation-Oath and Rul'd by Maxims of his own contrary the Establish'd Laws of the Empire The Estates of the Empire also at another time Warr'd against the Emperor Henry the Fourth for the same Cause and at length Depos'd him in a Solemn Assembly A later Instance of the same People was in Deposing Wenceslaus in the Year 1400. And he that will give himself the Satisfaction of Reading the Articles Exhibited against him by the Electors of the Empire will be tempted to think that James the Second had transcrib'd them as the Rules of his Despotick Government they agreed so exactly with it from the Beginning to the fatal End of it The Monarchical Government of Poland being extinct at the Death of †Cromer King Lech it was chang'd by the States into a Government of Twelve Palatins who abusing their Authority were all Depos'd and Lesko Elected King and he withdrawing himself out of the Kingdom to secure himself against the Fury of the Tartars was for that Reason Depos'd and a new King Elected So was Henry the Second Duke of Anjou depos'd by the Poles by the Government of Poland for leaving that Kingdom And the great States-man Bodin tells us 't was expresly inserted as a Condition in that King's Coronation Oath when he was Elected
since I have been often forc'd to give his Government that Title that I may not seem to beg the Question or slander the Reign of that Unfortunate Prince give me leave to shew you here that it was a Tyranny through the whole Course of his unhappy Reign and that the Power he assum'd and the Maxims he acted by had all the Marks of Tyranny First It was a True Tyranny for the Violence he offer'd his Subjects was not the Effect of Inadvertency Ignorance Weakness or Passion which may sometimes attend the best of Princes but it was the deliberate Act and Execution of many premeditated Resolutions and grounded upon a Belief that he had a Right to do whatever he thought fit to his Subjects To do an ill Action may be sometimes the Misfortune not always the Fault of a Prince But when that Action is justify'd by a Right to do it tho' the Laws utterly forbid it it is an Act of True and Absolute Tyranny and can neither be defended or palliated David was not a Tyrant in the Affair of Uriah for he committed the Crime like a Criminal he was asham'd of the Action and did all he could to smother it and never attempted to change his particular Passion into a publick Law or Example He who kills one or a few says * Sen. Ep. 17. Qui unum qui plures occidit non tamen Reipublicae laesae sed caedis est Seneca is not a Tyrant against the Commonwealth but a Murtherer For Tyranny consists in doing Wrong to all grounded upon a Principle that he may do it Lawfully So Ahab's Action in taking away Naboth's Vineyard was a heinous Crime but not properly an Act of Tyranny because he did it by Collusion and under Colour of purchasing it without any Pretence of Right to do it But all the late King James's Actions had another Face he justify'd his doing private and particular Injuries by assuming a Right to do so by All. He intail'd Misery and Destruction upon the Kingdom by suspending and abolishing all Laws that were made for its Security and setting up his own Will instead of them He was not content to imprison some Bishops or to affront some great Lords or deprive some particular Persons of their Rights but he struck a Blow at the Root and by the Exercise of his Dispencing Power and giving Authority to Papists whose Consciences laid them under a Necessity of destroying Hereticks he was Ruining All For to suspend the Penal Laws against Papists was in plain English but to give them Power in time to execute the Bloody Decrees of the Romish Church upon English Protestants Secondly 2. The late King James's Tyranny was not only a True but it was also a Notorious and Evident Tyranny No Artifice Pretence or Colour could hide it from the Eyes of all Men it was to be Read in All his Actions past and present What he had in Speculation when he was Duke he practis'd when he was King The Maxims of the greatest * Quod Principi placuit Lex esto Tyrants he still laid Claim to and observ'd no Rule or Law but his own Will Am not I your King and ought to be obey'd without Reserve was the Language of his Proclamations as well as his private Closetings He threaten'd all that would not comply with his Absolute Power that they should feel the Effects of his Displeasure and by discarding some of the most Intelligent and Experienc'd Men in the Kingdom to to usher in Raw and Head-strong Papists proclaim'd to all the World he aim'd at something that was Illegal and could not be compass'd but by Agents of his own Creation that would venture at All to please their Master And that the Knowledge of what he design'd might not be confin'd within his own Territories he sent an Ambassador to the Pope directly against the known Laws of the Kingdom and receiv'd a Nuncio from thence with as much publick State and Pomp as if he design'd to let all the World see how far his Vanity and Affectation of Arbitrary Power and Affronting the Laws would carry him tho' in that he had no better Success than in the rest of his Negotiations for the Pope knew him too far in League with the F K to think him a Friend of his and treated his Ambassador accordingly 3. It was an Universal Tyranny Nothing was exempted from his Lawless Will for by his false Persuasion in Religion that we as Hereticks were fallen from our Rights and had no just Claim to any thing we possess'd our Consciences our Lives and our Estates were all at his Disposal and tho' he might by straining the Point shew us a little Favour and let us enjoy them a while yet he could do us no Wrong in taking them away at his pleasure Agreeably to this Persuasion he adapted all his Actions and no Order Degree or Condition of Men in the Kingdom but in some Instance or other felt the Smart of them The Nobility and Gentry by the Inquisition that was made after Popish Lands and the Promise of Restoring them to the Church saw themselves in danger of being Robb'd of their Estates or holding them precariously at the Pleasure of Monks or Friars And some that were then forc'd to sell their Estates were great Losers and could scarce find Chap-men as Things then stood that car'd to buy them Some of the Reverend Bishop's were Imprison'd for declaring they had Consciences others Cited before the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for not admitting Popish Priests into Benefices and all frown'd on that durst take the Liberty to Preach against the King's Religion They saw their Power declining by the Authority that was given to four Popish Bishops to hold Visitations in their Diocesses and the whole Body of the Protestant Clergy were on the Brink of Ruin for not Reading his Illegal Declaration Both the Universities felt the Effects of his Unlimited Power in the Dissolution of Magdalen-College in Oxford and the Suspension and taking away the Perquisites of the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge The Parliament to whom he had many Obligations were Dissolv'd for refusing to Repeal a Law made against Papists The Judges that had so much Law and Honesty as to declare their Opinions against his Dispencing Power were laid aside and others thrust into their Places that would serve his Arbitrary Purposes Protestant Officers in the Army were to their great Loss Cashier'd to make way for Papists and some of them threaten'd with Death for * Lieut. Col. Beaumont Tho. Paston Simon Park Tho. Orm Will. Cook and John Port all Officers 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—anders refusing to admit Irish Papists into their English Protestant Companies that had the Guard of no less important place than Portsmouth Merchants were forc'd to pay Custom where no Law enjoin'd it Inn-keepers Victuallers and other Trades-men were impoverish'd by Free Quarter and the Poorest People in the Kingdom were Oppress'd by the Illegal Exaction of Hearth-Money Fourthly 4. The
Inactivity to which the Kings of France were then accustom'd was grown very disadvantageous to the Government But France was not in danger of perishing by his Idleness and England was on the very Moment of being destroy'd by the late King's Tyranny and Subversion of the Laws And so much Difference as there was between doing Nothing and endeavouring to Ruin All so much Difference was there between the Dethronement of Childeric and that of James the Second There have been Kings Depos'd for Involuntary Absence upon certain Occasions but that cannot stand in Competition with the late King 's wilful Renunciation of the Government by refusing to Govern by the Laws of the Constitution and his Voluntary Deserting the Kingdom when no Force compell'd him to it Was there ever any Mention of Introducing another King till the Throne stood empty by the late King 's going away Did ever so Great a People comport themselves with so little Disorder when they were Lawless and without a Government And was it not high time to provide for the Safety of the Nation when he that should have Govern'd it had voluntarily left it and not only so but left it in the greatest Confusion he could possibly reduce it to and went off only to procure a Foreign Army to Conquer and Subdue the whole Nation into Slavery and profest himself an open and Hostile Enemy to the Kingdom Was the Absence of a Prince to be compar'd with these Extravagancies Were they any longer to be submitted to when there was no Hope of Amendment They that assert such Contradictions and Improbabilities might as well affirm that a Fever was a Recipe for Health and the Plague a Medicine for Long Life and would gain Credit as soon to one as they can do to the other Subjects have Renounc'd their Kings for Usurping a Power to treat them as they pleas'd as was the Case of Rehoboam and Jeroboam But what is Arbitrary Power tho' bad enough too when compar'd with an Actual Necessity of Destroying the Nation and that Necessity impos'd upon the Prince by his Conscience under the Expectation of Eternal Rewards in the World to come There may be Hopes of Reclaiming a Prince from the Evil Counsel of Others but there is no dividing a Man from himself In culpa est Animus * Hor. lib. 1. ep 14. qui se non effugit unquam In James the Second's Mind the Fault did lie That never from it self could fly Constantius Copronimus was Deposed for Impiety but that being a Personal Evil affected the Publick only by the Ill Consequences of a Regale Example And Impiety was never the Parent of so many Cruelties as the Superstition we are speaking of has been amongst us Atheism and Infidelity are Sins of the highest nature but never were guilty of Shedding so much Humane Blood as Superstition And therefore Princes have not been thought so Justly to deserve a Deprivation and the Loss of their Crowns and Countries as a Prince Superstitiously devoted to a False Religion who thinks his Actions Pious at the same time that he is * Que est facto pius est sceleratus eodem committing the greatest Wickedness and †Crudelitas nobilitata Religione rendring himself Infamous by Inglorious Cruelties to his Subjects Which we had Cause to dread for * Lucret. l. 5. Saepius olim Religio peperit Scelerosa atque Impia facta In our Fore-Fathers Times Religion did commit the foulest Crimes Some Princes have been Depos'd for Cruelty but their Cruelty not to be compar'd with his for a Transient Cruelty was always thought more tolerable than one that was Durable A particular rather than a publick Mischief A Cruelty hated by all the World as appearing in its own Likeness frightful rather than a Cruelty hidden under the pretext of Piety and Religion A Cruelty which destroys the Body only rather than a Cruelty that destroys both Body and Soul at the same time A tolerable Cruelty and Oppression before a Cruelty advanc'd before we are aware into an Inviolable Law of the Kingdom and may be justly nam'd an * Immortale odium nunquam Sanabile Vulnus Juvenal Sat. 13. Immortal Hatred and an Incurable Wound in the Body Politick that threatens Destruction to the whole Nation Such was the Tyranny of the late King whose Outside was Devotion and In-side Destruction for tho' in the general Representation of Things he seem'd but to take off the Penal Laws against Papists yet in the Distinct Idea he design'd to execute the Penal Decrees of the Church of Rome against Protestants which was visible in setting up Popish Magistrates who think themselves oblig'd to work our Ruin And in these cover'd Designs he exceeded most of the Tyrants that went before him who were contented to abuse their Subjects themselves without endowing their Inferiour Magistrates with a Supream Power for the same Purposes Nero kill'd his Mother and Brother and most of his Honest Courtiers but did not command his Governors of Provinces to follow his wicked Example Astiages gave his Favourite the Head of his Son to eat but did not impose upon his Lieutenants a Necessity of Imitating him in his Barbarous Repasts The Roman Emperors persecuted the Primitive Christians with all manner of Cruelties but we do not find that they were so oblig'd in Conscience to do it that they put it out of their power to shew them any Mercy But that Popery does it is known to Heaven and Earth and they must pull out their Eyes that will not perceive it So that our Adversaries must consent that the Proceedings of the late Convention of Estates in Deposing James the Second were the most Natural Just Necessary and Lawful that ever was or can be on the like Occasion And they have nothing left them to object unless they can prove that the Laws of which we have spoken were not of great Consequence to the Nation or that the late King did not break them since I have already prov'd that no Prince can have such an Absolute Right to a Crown but for the Safety of a Kingdom he may be Dethron'd For By the same Reason that he may Lose it to a Conqueror or Resign it to a Successor he may Abdicate it Otherwise the very End of Government would be lost if the Prince that endeavours to subvert the Kingdom does not at the same time forfeit his own Right to it And therefore the Convention of Estates who bless'd the Nation with the present Settlement had been Justifiable though they had fail'd of Success the late King having long before ceas'd to be a Legal King of England My next Undertaking is to shew that King William the Third now in the Throne of his Ancestors is Rightful and Lawful King of England Scotland France and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging And to prove this beyond all possibility of Dispute tho' I need use no other Argument than that he is King by the