that Door And whereas the Parliament that is now in being recognized Their Present Majesties to be Rightful and Lawful King and Queen of this Realm according to the Laws of the same They ought to have acknowledged him King as being set up by God who is not bound by Humane Laws and the Queen as set up by God-knows who who is not bound by Humane Laws neither and at the same time to have own'd that this Providence of God in setting up the King and this Providence of God-knows-who in setting up the Queen does not take away the Legal Right of the Late King but that he having a Legal Right may assert and vindicate it in opposition to the Providence of God and the Providence of God-knows-who and that all who are not under any obligation to Their Present Majesties may lawfully assist him in order to the recovery of this Legal Right Tho we who are under an obligation to Their Present Majesties are bound to obey them by reason of the Events of the Providence of God and of the Providence of God-knows-who Other Instances of this kind might be added and it were a very easie matter to word some parts of the then Prince's Declaration the Votes of Parliament the Instrument of Government and some few Laws made since the Settlement as they ought to and would have been worded if the Prince the Two Houses and the People of England had proceded upon these Gentlemens Principles But that I forbear because it would seem scurrilous I leave it to be the result of comparing the two Columes of these ensuing Papers In short here 's the Sense of the Legislative Body of the Realm and of the People of England set Cheek by Jowle with the Sense of a few Gentlemen of the Sacred Order who would persuade us that our Government is drop'd out of the Skies like the Image that fell down from Jupiter or as the Egyptian Priests persuaded Alexander the Great that he was the Son of their God being convinced of it themselves I suppose by the Events of Providence and his Success in a War Just or Vnjust God's Ways of Disposing of Kingdoms AND Some Clergy-mens Ways of Disposing of Them THE Measures that were taken in the late King's Reign for the introducing of Popery and Arbitrary Power were so open and undisguised That the most purblind amongst us could not but see them and all Protestants that is the whole Body of the People were uneasie under their then present Circumstances and dreadfully apprehensive of their future Instead of enumerating the several Illegal Practices then on foot to subvert the Establish'd Religion and Government I shall insert verbatim the Declaration of his present Majesty then Prince of Orange which gives a true and lively Scheme of the Condition of the People of England under King James his Government and grounds the Lawfulness and Justice of his Arms who had so near a concern in the Succession upon the Obligation he was under for his Princess's his Own and the Nation 's Interest to interpose in order to their deliverance God's Ways of Disposing of Kingdoms The Declaration of his Highness William Henry by the Grace of God Prince of Orange c. of the Reasons inducing him to appear in Arms in the Kingdom of England for preserving of the Protestant Religion and for restoring the Laws and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland 1. IT is both certain and evident to all men That the Publick Peace and Happiness of any State or Kingdom cannot be preserved where the Laws Liberties and Customs established by the lawful Authority in it are openly transgressed and annulled More especially where the Alteration of Religion is endeavoured and that a Religion which is contrary to Law is endeavoured to be introduced Upon which those who are most immediately concerned in it are indispensably bound to endeavour to preserve and maintain the Established Laws Liberties and Customs and above all the Religion and Worship of God that is established among them and to take such an effectual care that the Inhabitants of the said State or Kingdom may neither be deprived of their Religion nor of their Civil Rights which is so much the more necessary because the Greatness and Security both of Kings Royal Families and of all such as are in Authority as well as the Happiness of their Subjects and People depend in a most especial manner upon the exact Observation and Maintenance of these their Laws Liberties and Customs 2. Upon these grounds it is that we cannot any longer forbear to declare That to our great Regret we see that those Counsellors who have now the chief Credit with the King have overturned the Religion Laws and Liberties of those Realms and subjected them in all things relating to their Consciences Liberties and Properties to Arbitrary Government and that not only by secret and indirect ways but in an open and undisguised manner 3. Those Evil Counsellors for the advancing and colouring this with some plausible pretexts did invent and set on foot the King 's Dispensing Power by Virtue of which they pretend that according to Law he can suspend and dispense with the Execution of the Laws that have been enacted by the Authority of the King and Parliament for the Security and Happiness of the Subject and so have rendred those laws of no effect tho there is nothing more certain than that as no Laws can be made but by the joynt concurrence of King and Parliament so likewise Laws so enacted which secure the Publick Peace and Safety of the nation and the Lives and Liberties of every Subject in it cannot be Repealed or Suspended but by the same Authority 4. for tho the King may pardon the Punishment that a Transgressor has incurred and to which he is condemned as in the Cases of Treason or Felony yet it cannot be with any colour of Reason inferred from thence That the King can entirely suspend the Execution of those Laws relating to Treason or Felony unless it is pretended that he is clothed with a Despotick and Arbitrary Power and that the Lives Liberties Honours and Estates of the Subjects depend wholly on his good Will and Pleasure and are intirely subject to him which must infallibly follow on the King 's having a power to suspend the Execution of the Laws and to dispence with them 5. those Evil Counsellors in order to the giving some Credit to this strange and execrable Maxim have so conducted the Matter that they have obtained a Sentence from the Judges declaring That this Dispensing Power is a Right belonging to the Crown as if it were in the power of the Twelve Judges to offer up the Laws Rights and Liberties of the whole Nation to the King to be disposed of by him Arbitrarily and at his Pleasure and expresly contrary to Laws enacted for the Security of the Subjects In order to the obtaining this Judgment those Evil Counsellors did before-hand examine secretly the Opinion
King VVilliam and Queen Mary John Brown Clericus Parliamentorum Some Clergy-mens Ways of Disposing of Them A Discourse of God's Ways of Disposing of Kingdoms c. Promotion cometh neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South But God is the Judge He putteth down one and setteth up another TWO things the Psalmist shews in the words of this Text. First The true Original of Power This in David's time all men took to be from Heaven but from whom there many knew not The Eastern Nations who were generally given to Astrology took it to come from their Stars and especially from the Sun which was the chief Object of their Worship The Psalmist tells them No. Promotion cometh not that way Neither from the Planets rising nor setting nor from its exaltation in Mid-Heaven That 's the meaning of the words from the East But Wise-men come out of the East tho' Promotion come from the North They are not Country-men nor from the West nor from the South From the North of the Zodiac or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hidden part under the Horizon they never thought it to come And as some think that 's the reason why that part of Heaven is not mention'd But the Psalmist might have another Reason to himself why he did not think fit to say it comes not from the North. For there as he saith elsewhere on the North-side of Jerusalem was Mount Sion the City of the great King of Heaven and Earth There in David's time was the Tabernacle and afterwards there was the Temple in which the Mercy-seat between the Cherubims was the place of the Symbolical Presence of God p. 2 3. could David say Promotion comes not from thence No he saith the contrary in the following words for God is the Judge plainly shewing that to him Kings owe their Authority But Secondly It is to him as Judge He gives it Judicially And so to him they are to account for it p. 4. 'T is the Prerogative of God by which He acts both in the disposing and also in the transferring of Kingdoms The word God in bringing His Majesty into this Kingdom was truly God's making use of the latter branch of his Prerogative in putting down one and setting up another p. 5. The Powers that be are of God That is the several Kingdoms and States even all that are in the World all have their Authority from God I. This at first was from God we are sure because it was from the beginning of Mankind The first Men that were born into the World were all of Adam's Family p. 7. Noah was the Father of all them that liv'd after the Flood When the Fathers or Heads of some of those Nations made Conquests upon one another as Nimrod did on the Nations about him who was therefore call'd a mighty hunter before the Lord or when they were otherwise incorporated together these made the ancient great Monarchies whereof the Assyrian and Egyptian are famous in Ancient History Other of those Nations or rather great Families continu'd in their ancient way of Patriarchal Government Particularly in that Line out of which God chose his peculiar People Abraham was a mighty Prince in his days But all his Subjects were of his Family out of which proceeded many Nations From his Son Isaac there came two Nations of People one of them by Esau Father of Edom the other by Jacob the Father of Israel who for their times also govern'd those Families or Nations When Jacob and all his Family went down into Egypt there ended their Patriarchal Government After which being Subjects to the King of that Country they were brought into a long and sore Bondage which made their Lives bitter to them for many Generations 2. From this God deliver'd them by the hand of Moses And to shew them how they ought to value this mercy from thence he entitled himself to be their King and dated the beginning of his Reign 3. This Theocracy as we call it continu'd from their coming up out of Egypt till such time as God at his Peoples desire gave them a King to judge them like all the Nations p. 8 9. God was pleas'd so far to grant his Peoples Request that they should be an Hereditary Kingdom But for the first King of the reigning Line I thought the People had chosen him by lot at Mispah God would have the chusing of him himself And accordingly first he chose Saul Then God made choice of David I thought the People had chosen David too a man after his own heart There was no other standing Government in that Nation which God chose to be his peculiar People but what was administred by single Persons And those Persons Title to the Government was either Patriarchal or by Divine nomination Both which ways of coming into Power were so wholly of God that the People had nothing to do but to accept the Choice of God and to submit to it II. In other Nations indeed that did not keep up the Patriarchal Right there the Peoples Consent was required except in the Case of Conquest p. 10 11. And this Consent being merely an humane Act it may seem that the Authority it gives is not as we are here taught from God only But we are to consider by what Motives it is that the People are generally led to chuse any one to rule over them All their Motives may be reduc'd to these two either Merit or Favour If there be any other they are but Compositions of these I. The first Choice of Kings I conceive to have been made on account of Merit the People being led to it by a sense of the Benefits they had receiv'd I judge so from that which having been already shewn I take now for granted that the Earth was peopled at first by great Families Now when those by oppression of powerful Neighbours or by Civil Discord among themselves came to be in great distress such as made them see the necessity of being united in greater Bodies for their own preservation those Heroic Men that shew'd them the way of it and that brought them under Government and Laws these were called the FOUNDERS of the Nations Such was Moses among the People of Israel When he had brought them out of Egypt they own'd this as a Title to Government that he would have had even without Divine Nomination Such was Cecrops among the Athanians and Romulus among the Romans and other first Kings in other Nations p. 11 12. Next to these and something like them were the first Planters of Colonies Such as Cadmus was at Thebes Aeneas in Latium and the like In England such were Hengist and the rest that began the Seven Kingdoms of the Saxon Heptarchy From one of these namely But not in the Right Line Sir under favour from Cerdic King of the West-Saxons the Descent of our Royal Family is unquestionable But the most like to Founders are they
Disobedience and wilful Rebellion but it is no-where said That where the Right of Sovereignty is transferred by a Successful War there is no Allegiance due to those who possess it p. 2. Ours is only the Case of Just War ☜ Apage nugas which is allowed by all sorts of Casuists who do agree that Allegiance is due to the Party that prevails in it and if it be due to one it cannot be due to another at the same time although he be living and do not discharge Persons from their Oaths for the obligation of Oaths depends on the nature and reason of things and not upon the Pleasure of those to whom they are made But where there is a Right to govern there must be a Duty of Allegiance And that Success in a Just War doth give such a Right What Right do you mean I could produce so many Testimonies of all kinds of Writers as would make the reading of them as tedious as of those in the History of Passive Obedience Nay some go so far as to assert a Right of Sovereignty to be acquired by success even in an Vnjust War So 't is as much as by a Just War But we need none of these Testimonies But doth not all this resolve this whole Controversie into a Right of Conquest 'T is not a pin-matter whether it does or no. which is not so much as pretended in our present Case * It 's a fine thing to be a Schollar I answer That we must distinguish between a Right to the Government and the Manner of Assuming it The Right was founded on the Just Causes of the War and the Success in it But the assuming of it was not by any ways of force or violence but by a Free Consent of the People who by a voluntary Recognition and Their Majesties acceptance of the Government as it is setled by our Laws take away any pretence * But not to an Ecclesiastical Whimsie of an imaginary Right by the Choice of God to a Conquest over the People or a Government by Force The Case of the Allegiance due to Sovereign Powers c. THAT which has perplexed this Controversie is the intermixing the Dispute of Right with the Duty of Obedience or making the Legal Right of Princes to their Thrones the only Reason and Foundation of the Allegiance of Subjects That Allegiance is due only to Right not to Government though it can be paid only to Government It seems to me to be unfit to dispute the Right of Princes a thing which no Government can permit to be a Question among their Subjects p. 1. And therefore I shall not meddle with this Dispute as being both above me and * Then you 'll say nothing to the purpose nothing to my present purpose Subjects have a plain Rule of Duty without understanding Laws and Politicks the Intrigues of Government the Revolutions of States the Disputes of Princes which I am sure is both for the security of Governments and Subjects If then Allegiance be due not for the sake of Legal Right but Government If Allegiance be due not to bare Legal Right but * That is to Glergy-mens Crockets to the Authority of of God If God when he sees fit and can better serve the ends of his Providence by it sets up Kings without any regard to Legal Right or Humane Laws p. 2. If Kings thus set up by God are invested with God's Authority which must be obey'd not only for wrath but also for conscience sake If these Principles be true it is plain That Subjects are bound to obey and to pay and swear Allegiance if it be required to those Princes whom God hath placed and settled in the Throne whatever Disputes there may be about their legal Right when they are invested with God's Authority And then it is plain That our old Allegiance and old Oaths are at an end when God has set over us a new King For when God transfers Kingdoms and requires our Obedience and Allegiance to a new King he necessarily transfers our Allegiance too This Scheme of Government may startle some men at first From you it will startle no man of common sense before they have well considered it p. 2 3. The Church of England has been very careful to instruct Her Children in their Duty to Princes to obey their Laws and submit to their power and not to resist tho very injuriously oppressed and those who renounce these Principles renounce the Doctrine of the Church of England But she has withal taught That all Sovereign Princes receive their Power and Authority from God and therefore every Prince who is setled in the Throne is to be obey'd and reverenced as God's Minister and to be resisted which directs us what to do in all Revolutions of Government when once they come to a Settlement and those who refuse to pay and swear Allegiance to such Princes whom God has placed in the Throne whatever then Legal Right be do as much reject the Doctrine of the Church of England as those who teach the Resistance of Princes For the proof of which I appeal to Bishop Overal's Convocation-Book p. 4. I know not how it was possible for the Convocation to express their sense plainer That all Usurped Powers when throughly settled have God's Authority and must be obey'd So that here are the Two great points determined whereon this whole Controversie turns 1. That those Princes who have no legal right to their Thrones may yet have God's Authority 2. That when they are throughly settled in their Thrones they are invested with God's Authority and must be reverenced and obeyed by all who live within their Territories and Dominions as well Priests as People If these propositions be true it is a plain Resolution of the Case that if it should at any time happen that the rightful Prince should be driven out of his Kingdom and another Prince placed in his Throne and settled in the full Administration of Government Subjects not only may but must for Conscience sake and out of reverence to the Authority of God with which such a Prince is invested pay all the Duty and Allegiance of Subjects to him As for the first the Case is plain That the Convocation speaks of illegal and usurped Powers and yet affirms that the Authority exercised by them is God's Authority and therefore those Princes who have no legal right may have God's Authority p. 5. The Moabites and Aramites never could have a Legal Right to the Government of Israel What not by a Conquest and yet the Convocation asserts That when Israel was in subjection to them they knew that it was not lawful for them of themselves and by their own Authority to take Arms against the Kings whose Subjects they were Prove they were Tyrants tho indeed they were Tyrants The like they teach of the Kings of Egypt and Babylon p. 6 There is no Duty Subjects as
of the Four Monarchies is not yet at an end for under the fourth Monarchy the Kingdom of Christ was to be set up and Antichrist was to appear and the increase and destruction of the Kingdom of Antichrist is to be accomplished by great Changes and Revolutions in Humane Governments and when God has declared that he will change Times and Seasons remove Kings and set up Kings to accomplish his own wise Counsels it justifies our necessary and therefore innocent compliances with such Revolutions as much as if we were expresly commanded to do so as the Jews were by the Prophet Jeremiah This a man may say without Enthusiasm or pretending to understand all the Prophesies of the Revelations and to apply them to their particular events for without that we certainly know that all the great Revolutions of the World are intended by God to serve those great Ends and when God will overturn Kingdoms and Empires remove and set up Kings as he sees will best serve the accomplishment of his own Counsels and Decrees it is very hard if Subjects must not quietly submit to such Revolutions we must not contrary to our sworn Duty and Allegiance promote such Revolutions No tho we be upon the point of losing our Lan's and Liberties upon a pretence of fulfilling Prophesies but when they are made and setled we ought to submit to them We have no direction in Scripture at all about making or unmaking Kings or restoring a dispossessed Prince to his Throne again and all the Commands we have in Scripture about Obedience and Subjection to Government manifestly respects the present Ruling Powers Let God Almighty turn Kingdoms topsie turvie as he pleases the Doctor will always fall upon his feet without any distinction between rightful and Usurped Powers it seems therefore plainly to determin this Question on the side of the present Powers p. 22 23. If the Choice and Consent of the people makes a Prince then no man is a Subject but he who consents to be so for the Major Vote cannot include my consent unless I please that is the effect of Law and Compact or Force not of Nature If Subjects give their Prince Authority they may take it away again if they please there can be no irresistible Authority derived from the people for if the Authority be wholly derived from them who shall hinder them from taking it away when they see fit If a man gives me a pair of Gloves who shall hinder him from taking them away again when he sees fit Upon these Principles there can be no Hereditary Monarchy one Generation can only chuse for themselves their Posterity having as much Right to chose as they had p. 24. I cannot see where to fix the Foundation of Government but in the Providence of God who either by the choice of the major or stronger part of the people or by Conquest or by Submission and the long successive continuance of power or by Human Laws gives a Prince and his Family possession of the Throne which is a good Title against all Humane Claims and requires the Obedience and Submission of Subjects as long as God is pleased to continue him and his Family in the Throne but it is no Title against God if he please to advance another Prince p. 24. To say that God sets up no Prince who ascends the Throne without a Humane and Legal Right is to say that some Kings are removed and others set up but not by God which is a direct contradiction to Scripture it is to say That the Four Monarchies were not set up by God because they all began by Violence and Usurpation It is to say That God as well as men is confined by Humane Laws in making Kings It is to say That the Right of Government is not derived from God without the consent of the people for if God can't make a King without the people or against their consent declared by their Laws the Authority must be derived from the people not from God or at least if it be God's Authority yet God can't give it himself without the people nor otherwise than they have directed him by their Laws This is all very absurd So 's all the rest of your Book Sir The Providence of God removes Kings and sets up Kings but alters no Legal Right nor forbids those who are dispossessed of them to recover their Right when they can While such a Prince is in the Throne it is a declaration of God's Will that he shall Reign for some time longer or shorter as God pleases and that is an obligation to Subjects to submit and obey for Submission is owing only to God's Authority but that one Prince is at present placed in the Throne and the other removed out of it does not prove that it is God's Will it should always be so and therefore does not divest the dispossessed Prince to recover his Legal Right A Legal and Successive Right is the ordinary way whereby the Providence of God advances Princes to an Hereditary Throne And this bars all other humane Claims but yet God may give the Throne to another if he pleases and this does not destroy the Legal Right of the dispossessed Prince lindx nor hinder him from claiming it when he finds his opportunity p. 26. It is a great Question Why 't is a Legal Commission but it has not the Authority of God which I am not Lawyer enough to decide Whether a Commission granted by a King out of Possession be a Legal Commission p. 31. Oaths oblige every particular man to do no injury to the King's Person or Crown not to enter into Plots and Conspiracies against him and as for actual defence chearfully to venture his Life and Fortunes with his Fellow-subjects to preserve the King But in case the great Body of the Nation absolve themselves from these Oaths and depose their King and drive him out of his Kingdom and set up another Prince in his room it is worth considering Whether some private men i may be but a little handful are still bound by their Oath to make some weak and dangerous attempts and to fight for their King against their Countrey certainly this was not the intention of the Oath for it is a National not a private Defence we swear and therefore a general revolt of a Nation tho it should be wicked and unjustifiable yet it seems to excuse those who had neither hand nor heart in it from their sworn defence of the King's Person and Crown and to make their compliane with the National Government innocent and necessary For an Oath to fight for the King does not oblige us to fight against our Countrey which is as unnatural as to fight against our King The sum is this God when he sees fit can remove Kings or set up Kings without any regard to humane Right as being the Sovereign Lord of the World who rules in the Kingdoms of Men and
GOD's WAYS OF Disposing Kingdoms AND Some CLERGY-MEN'S Ways c. Vtrum horum OR GOD's WAYS OF Disposing of KINGDOMS AND Some CLERGY-MEN's Ways OF Disposing of THEM Who is blind but my servant or deaf as my messenger that I sent Isa 42.19 The Prophets prophesie lies in my name neither have I commanded them neither spake unto them They prophesie unto you a false vision and divination and a thing of nought and the deceit of their heart Jer. 14.14 O ye hypocrites ye can discern the face of the sky and can ye not discern the signs of the times Matth. 16.3 LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Oxfords-Arms Inn Warwick-Lane MDCXCI TO THE READER IT is the General sense of Mankind That Discourses upon any Particular Government ought to be grounded upon the Laws and Constitution of that Government And it is a Position so clear in it self that applied to any other thing whatsoever the contrary will appear ridiculous No man that were to build a Ship would consult the Commentators upon the Book of Genesis for the Fabrick and Dimensions of Noah's Ark. Nor is Solomon's Temple made the Pattern of our Churches Nor are the Laws of the Jews observ'd by any Christian Kingdom or State And yet some late Divines in their Discourses upon our Present Government and the Settlement of the Nation under Their Majesties and the Revolution that brought it about do not confine themselves to our Laws and Ancient Government but broach Opinions of their own or other Mens Invention pretended to be grounded upon Scripture or Reason to justify what has been done and to persuade the People of England that 't is their duty to submit and to plight their Allegiance to Their Majesties or at least that it is lawful for them so to do Whether the Grounds they proceed upon are consonant to right Reason the Laws of God and of this Realm or are not is far from the Design of these following Papers to dispute That which is aim'd at being no more than to present the Reader with the Sense and Judgment of those who acted in the Revolution and who contributed their Endeavours to settle the Nation after the Late King's withdrawing himself with the Sense and Principles of some few Divines amongst us concerning these Matters If the latter run wide from the former then it is to be feared that those Gentlemen who would seem to espouse the Interest of the Government by putting Pen to Paper in Defence or at least in excuse of it do it more disservice than if they had forborn the venting their Opinions For it cannot but weaken a well-establish'd Government to persuade the People under it that it stands upon another Foundation than really it does especially when that Foundation is not only contrary to the Sentiments of the Nation express'd as will appear hereafter but is really a Fiction of speculative Heads and no better than the building of a Castle in the Air. The Opposition will appear in a great measure by considering these few Particulars His Highness the then Prince of Orange declared That his Expedition was intended for no other Design but to have a Free and Lawful Parliament Assembled for doing all things which the Two Houses should find necessary for the Peace Honour and Safety of the Nation To which Parliament he referred all things relating to the Succession and promised to concur in every thing that a Free and Lawful Parliament should determine They tell us of Sovereign Princes Successes in Just Wars and Appeals to God Whereas the Prince of Orange was not actually a Sovereign Prince being dispossess'd of his Principality Nor made war upon the Nation or so much as upon King James but came over with an Army to enforce the sitting of a Free Parliament to which Parliament he made his Appeal and not to God though as a Pious and Christian Prince he relied on the blessing of God for the success of his Undertaking in which he placed his whole and only Confidence His Highness invited and required all Persons whatsoever All the Peers of the Realm both Spiritual and Temporal All Lords Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenant and all Gentlemen Citizens and other Commons of all Ranks to come and assist him in order to the executing of his said Design against all such as should endeavour to oppose him And accordingly great numbers actually did and many more nay the body of the Nation would if there had been occasion And when the Government was setled Their Majesties with the concurrence of both Houses of Parliament Enacted That the Oath appointed by the Statute of 13 Car. II. Entituled An Act for ordering the Forces of the several Counties of this Kingdom And also so much of a Declaration prescribed in another Act made in the same year Entituled An Act for the Uniformity of Publick Prayers and Administration of the Sacraments c. as is expressed in these words viz. I A. B. declare That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King and that I do abhor that Trayterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are commissioned by him Should not from henceforth be required or enjoined But these Gentlemen tell us That notwithstanding the unreasonable Cavils of Gainsaying Men Hickman Passive Obedience always was and they hope always will be the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of England That Kings are the only Persons upon Earth unto whom God has given an immediate delegation of his Authority whom to obey is to obey his Ordinance and whom to resist is to resist his Power They tell us That the Church of England has been very careful to instruct her Children to obey their Princes Laws Sherlock and submit to their Power and not to resist tho very injuriously opprest and that those who renounce these Principles renounce the Doctrine of the Church of England That whatever Prince is setled in the Throne is to be obeyed and reverenced as God's Minister and not to be resisted That the Church of England condemns all those wicked means by which Changes of Government are made That Subjects have no right to make war without the leave of their Princes for that St. Asaph as God has given to Princes the Power of the Sword so he has forbid it to Subjects under a great penalty They that take the Sword shall perish with the Sword When the Lords and Commons met at Westminster they grounded the Vacancy of the Throne upon the Late King 's having subverted the Fundamental Laws of the Realm and since withdrawn himself Whereas according to these Gentlemens Notions they ought not to have gone upon a Vacancy but have recognized the Prince of Orange's Title to the Crown as being already chosen thereunto by God who had given him success in a Just War against King James Tho it would have been a hard task for them to have brought the Queen in at
We have understood that the Subverters of the Religion and Laws of those Kingdoms hearing of Our Preparations to assist the People against them have begun to retract some of the Arbitrary and Despotick Powers that they had assumed and to vacate some of their Injust Judgments and Decrees The sense of their Guilt and the distrust of their Force have induced them to offer to the City of London some seeming Relief from their great Oppressions hoping thereby to quiet the People and to divert them from demanding a Re-establishment of their Religion and Laws under the shelter of our Arms They do also give out That we do intend to Conquer and Enslave the Nation and therefore it is that we have thought fit to add a few words to our Declaration We are confident that no Persons can have such hard thoughts of us As to imagine that we have any other Design in this Undertaking than to procure a Settlement of the Religion and of the Liberties and Properties of the Subjects upon so sure a Foundation that there may be no danger of the Nations relapsing into the like Miseries at any time hereafter And as the Forces that we have brought along with us are utterly disproportioned to that wicked Design of Conquering the Nation if we were capable of Intending it so the great numbers of the Principal Nobility and Gentry that are Men of Eminent Quality and Estates and Persons of known Integrity and Zeal both for the Religion and Government of England many of them being also distinguished by their constant Fidelity to the Crown who do both accompany us in this Expedition and have earnestly solicited us to it will cover us from all such malicious Insinuations For it is not to be imagin'd that either those who have Invited us or those that are already come to Assist us can join in a wicked attempt of Conquest to make void their own lawful Titles to their Honours Estates and Interests We are also confident that all Men see how little weight there is to be laid on all Promises and Engagements that can be now made since there has been so little regard had in the time past to the most solemn Promises And as that imperfect Redress that is now offered is a plain Confession of those Violations of the Government that we have set forth so the Defectiveness of it is no less apparent For they lay down nothing which they may not take up at pleasure and they reserve entire and not so much as mentioned their Claims and Pretences to an Arbitrary and Despotick Power which has been the Root of all their Oppression and of the total Subversion of the Government And it is plain that there can be no Redress nor Remedy offered but in Parliament by a Declaration of the Rights of the Subjects that have been invaded and not by any pretended Acts of Grace to which the extremity of their Affairs has driven them Therefore it is that we have thought fit to declare That we will refer all to a Free Assembly of the Nation in a Lawful Parliament Given under our Hand and Seal at our Court in the Hague the Twenty fourth day of October in the year of our Lord 1688. William Henry Prince of Orange By his Highness's special Command C. Huygens Pursuant to the Peoples Invitation and to carry on the ends os the foregoing Declaration the Prince set Sail from Holland with betwixt Four and Five Hundred Capital Ships Fire-Ships Pinks and Tenders And upon the Fifth of November landed in Torbay in Devonshire The people in great Numbers welcom'd his Highness with loud Acclamations of Joy His Army consisted of about 15000 Horse and Foot After the Army was landed and the Prince come to Exeter the Gentry from all parts of Devonshire Somersetshire c. flock'd to him in great numbers few absenting themselves Several of the Nobility came to him likewise whilst in and about Exeter others afterwards when he was farther advanced towards London Before his Roayl Highness left Exeter there was an Association drawn up and signed by all the Lords and Gentlemen that were with him in these words viz. WE whose Names are hereunto subscribed who have now joyned with the Prince of Orange for the defence of the Protestant Religion and for the maintaining the Ancient Government and the Laws and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland do engage to Almighty God to his Highness the Prince of Orange and to one another to stick firm to this Cause and to one another in the defence of it and never to depart from it until our Religion Laws and Liberties are so far secured to us in a Free Parliament that we shall be no more in danger of falling under Popery and Slavery And whereas we are engaged in this common Cause under the Protection of the Prince of Orange by which in case his Person may be exposed to danger and to the cursed attempts of Papists and other bloody men we do therefore solemnly engage to God and one another That if any such attempt be made upon him we will pursue not only those who make it but all their Adherents and all that we find in Arms against us with the utmost severity of a just Revenge to their Ruin and Destruction And that the execution of any such Attempt which God of his Infinite Mercy forbid shall not divert us from prosecuting this Cause which we do now undertake but that it shall engage us to carry it on with all the rigor that so barbarous a Practice shall deserve About this time a Printed Letter was dispersed amongst the Army directed to the Officers and inviting them to join with the Prince in the Deliverance of their Countrey Gentlemen and Friends WE have given you so full and so true an Account of our Intentions in this Expedition in our Declaration that as we can add nothing to it so we are sure you can desire nothing more of us We are come to preserve your Religion and to restore and establish your Liberties and Properties and therefore we cannot suffer our selves to doubt but that all true English-men will come and concur with us in our desire to secure these Nations from Popery and Slavery You must all plainly see that you are only made use of as Instruments to enslave the Nation and ruin the Protestant Religion and when that is done you may judge what you your selves ought to expect both from the Cashiering all the Protestant and English Officers and Soldiers in Ireland and by the Irish Soldiers being brought over to be put in your places and of which you have seen so fresh an Instance that we need not put you in mind of it You know how many of your Fellow-Officers have been used for their standing firm to the Protestant Religion and to the Laws of England and you cannot flatter your selves so far as to expect to be better used if those who have broke their Word so often should by
for the King 's or the Prince's person to be together in one place with their several Guards Whereupon the Guards at White-hall were dislodged by Count Solmes by the Prince's order and the Prince's Guards placed in their room And the King was that same night being the 17th of December desired by a Message from the Prince to remove to some place at a reasonable distance from London and Ham was proposed But the King chose to return into Kent which he did the next day and got away privately from the Guards and embark'd for France The same day that the King withdrew from White-hall the second time the Prince of Orange came to St. James's attended by Monsieur Schomberg and a great number of Nobility and Gentry and was entertain'd with a joy and concourse of the People which appear'd free and unconstrain'd and all the Bells of the City were rung and Bonfires in every Street Thus the body of the People being uneasie under the Late King's Government and not thinking it either their Interest or their Duty to support him in it who had made use of his Authority only to carry on an Interest inconsistent with the welfare of a Protestant Nation and that by all the Illegal Methods that his Evil Counsellors could advise or durst put in execution and who to awe the People from giving any check to his Career had not only Judges at hand that would wrest the Law to serve his Ends without any regard to their Oaths or the trust of their Places but had raised an Army in times of Peace directly against Law and in effect had thereby waged war against his own Subjects The People I say being thus affected either actually join'd with the Prince or openly declared for him or testified by other demonstrations their joy for his arrival and interposing betwixt them and utter ruine Whereupon the King was left to shift for himself and flew for protection to his old Ally the Enemy of God and Man The first thing the Prince did when come to Town after he had received the Congratulations of the City by all the Aldermen and two Common-Council-men for every Ward and taken care about the Army was to desire the Advice of such Lords as were in or about the Town and of such Gentlemen as had served in any Parliament in the Reign of the Late King Charles what course to take for the settlement of the Nation These advised him to take upon himself the Administration of publick Affairs Civil and Military and the disposal of the Publick Revenue and to issue out Circular Letters for the calling a Convention to meet and fit at Westminster on the 22d of January next ensuing Which was done accordingly and the Elections went on with the greatest liberty that could possibly be conceived The Two Houses met the 22d of January and the Upper House chose the Marquess of Halifax for their Speaker and the Commons Henry Powle Esq After which a Letter from the Prince of Orange was read to them Exhorting them to unity and speed in their Consultations The Houses ordered the 31st of January to be appointed for a day of Publick Thanksgiving to Almighty God for delivering this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power by means of his Highness the Prince of Orange That Day to be observed in London and Westminster and ten miles distance and the 14th of February after throughout the Kingdom On the 28th of January the Commons passed this Vote viz. Resolved That King James the IId having endeavoured to subvert the Constitution of the Kingdom by breaking the Original Contract between King and People and by the Advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons having violated the Fundamental Laws and having withdrawn himself out of this Kingdom hath abdicated the Government and that the Throne is thereby become Vacant On the 6th of February the Lords assented to the Vote It will not be material to give a particular Account of the Debates and Conferences that arose and were occasioned by this and other Votes of the Commons I hasten to the Conclusion which was That on the 12th of February the Two Houses fully agreed all things in dispute betwixt them on this manner viz. The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembed at Westminster WHereas 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 Dispensing with and suspending of Laws and the Execution of Laws without consent of Parliament By committing and prosecuting divers worthy Prelates for humbly Petitioning to be excused from concurring to the said Assumed Power By issuing and causing to be executed a Commission under the Great 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 Soldiers contrary to Law By causing several good Subjects being Protestants to be disarmed at the same time when Papists were both Armed and imployed 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 unqualified Persons have been returned and served on Juries in Trials and particularly divers Jurors in Trials for High-Treason which were not Free-holders And Excessive Bail hath been required of Persons committed in Criminal Cases to elude the Benefit of the Laws made for the Liberty of the Subject And Excessive Fines have been imposed And Illegal and cruel Punishments inflicted And several Grants and Promises made of Fines and Forfeitures before any Conviction or Judgment against the Persons upon whom the same were to be levied 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 pleased 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 Burroughs Cinque-Ports for the chusing of such Persons to represent them as were of right to be sent to Parliament to meet and sit at Westminster upon the 22d day of January 1688 in order to such an Establishment as that their
learned Man's Judgment Who yet judges That even here it may be not only Lawful but a Duty to obey him that is in possession when the Legal King is reduced to that pass that he can no more do the Office of a King to his people For saith he the Kingdom cannot be without Government and if the Usurper preserves the Kingdom a Lover of his Countrey ought not as things are to give any further cause of trouble by his unprofitable Contumacy But then put case the Usurper hath sworn the people to him and doth the Office of a King which it seems in his Judgment doth not take away the duty that is owing to that former King how one can pay his duty to both the expell'd Legal King and to such an Usurper This our Author says is a most difficult Scruple and so it seems both by his and our most Learned Casuist's handling the Question where they shew how far one ought and how far one ought not to comply with such an Usurpation p. 56 57 58. But these Difficulties are only in case the possession is obtained by a War that was certainly unjust for if the cause of the War was but doubtful and a Conquest follows upon it there is no place for these difficulties Much less where the cause of War was certainly Just for if a Conquest follows upon this it gives a Right and then there is no Usurpation It has been commonly judg'd by the Law of Nations That the Right goes along with the Possession Of this we see Examples in every Revolution that happens in this or any other Kingdom When a King is driven out with any colour of Right the Neighbouring Princes and States make no great difficulty of applying themselves to him that comes in his stead wherein though perhaps they too much follow their own Interest yet it cannot be said that what they do is against the Law of Nations But what should Subjects do in this Case Of this we have an Example in the People of God when they pass'd successively under the Yoke of those Four great Monarchs that were formerly mention'd It is likely that each of those Kings that got the Power over them first declar'd the Cause of the War that he made upon the former Lords In that Case though they could not judge of the Cause whether it was Just or Unjust yet no doubt they did well in adhering to him that was in present Possession p. 60 61. To a People that are in such a case it is no small Comfort that whatsoever doubt they may have of the Cause of the War yet there is no doubt at all concerning their Duty There is nothing more certain than this that they ought to preserve themselves if they can do it lawfully But it is lawful for them to forbear fighting when they are unsatisfied of the Cause And if their own prince is not able to protect them it is lawful for them to take protection elsewhere Therefore in case of Invasion for a Cause which is just for ought they know it is lawful for them to live quietly under the Invader nay it is not only lawful but their duty as hath been already shewn to acquiesce in his Government when he cornes to be in Possession But when they are certain that a War is made upon their Prince for just Cause that is when they plainly see he hath drawn it upon himself by making it not only lawful but necessary for another Prince to invade him for his own Preservation What are the People to do in this Case No doubt they ought first to have a care of their Souls and not to endanger them by being Partakers of other mens Sins They cannot but see that by engaging in the War they abet their own Prince in his Injustice though not in his doing the Injury yet in continuing what is done and in his not giving Reparation And therefore they are subject to the same punishment with him Nay their Condition is worse than his For he may shift for himself and leave them and all they have to be a Prey to the Enemy Who by right of War may do with them and theirs what he pleases It is therefore certainly their wisest Course to keep themselves free from all offence both towards God and towards Man That having had no part in the Cause of the War they may not be involv'd in the ill Consequences of it And this they have reason to expect from a Generous Enemy that he will not use the Right of War against them that desire to live peaceably Much more if he hath declar'd he would not hurt them that should not resist him they have reason to trust a just Prince upon his Declaration And if he went so far as to declare That upon their Submission they should enjoy the benefit of their own Laws then although it should come to a Conquest they may reasonably expect to be in no worse condition under the Stranger than they were under their own Prince They have his Faith engaged to them for this But if the Stranger declares he makes War in defence of another King's Subjects as we have shewn he may lawfully do when he finds himself in danger of suffering by that King's Oppression of his own People in this Case they are first to consider whether it is a mere pretence or whether there be a real ground for his Declaration If they find there is a just and sufficient ground for it they see in effect that it is through Them that he is struck at and therefore the War is not so much His as their own It is true according to our Doctrine they are united to their Prince as a Wife to her Husband so that they can no more right themselves by Arms than she can sue her Husband while the Bond of Marriage continues Yet as When her Husband uses her extremely ill she may complain of him to the Judge who if he sees Cause may dissolve the Marriage by his Sentence and after that she is at liberty to sue him as well as any other Man So a People may cry to the Lord by reason of their Oppression and he may raise them up a Deliverer that shall take the Government into his hands a Foreign Prince may lawfully do this as hath been already shewn and then they are not only free to defend themselves but are oblig'd to join with him against their Oppressor p. 62 63 64 65. In this Case if another Prince having a just Cause of War is so far concern'd for such a People as to take them into his Care and to declare that he makes the War for their Deliverance The effect of this War though we may call it a Conquest because it has resemblance of it yet it cannot be properly so in any respect whether we consider the Prince on whom it is made or the People that have their Deliverance by it As to him it is properly an Eviction
Ark of God they must be handled with Ceremony and tho we approach them with never so much respect yet by an unskilful touch we may easily offend and 't is a trespass upon Majesty to come too near it The 15th of February the Lords and Commons ordered That His Majesties most gracious Answer this day be added to the Engrossed Declaration in Parchment to be enroll'd in Parliament and Chancery which is as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen THis is certainly the greatest proof of the Trust you have in Us that can be given which is the thing that maketh Us value it the more and We thankfully accept what you have offered And as I had no other intention in my coming hither than to preserve Your Religion Laws and Liberties So you may be sure that I shall endeavour to support them and shall be willing to concur in any thing that shall be for the Good of the Kingdom and to do all that is in my Power to advance the Welfare and Glory of the Nation Thus ended that stupendious Revolution in England which we have so lately seen to the great Joy of the Generality of the Protestants of Europe and of many of the Catholick Princes and States who were at last convinced that the attempting to force England to return under the Obedience of the See of Rome in the present conjuncture of Affairs would certainly end in the Ruin of this potent Kingdom and whilst it was doing the present French King would possess himself of the Remainder of the Spanish Netherlands and the Palatinate and perhaps of the Electorates of Cologne Mentz and Triers a great part of which he hath actually seized whilst the Prince of Orange was thus gloriously asserting the English Liberty The Convention having declared the King and Queen as aforesaid proceeded to Declare themselves a Parliament to settle the Coronation-Oath to Repeal that Clause in an Oath and Declaration That it is unlawful upon any pretence whatsoever to Take up Arms against the King or those Commissioned by him To revive the Administration of the Law which had been interrupted and therein they particularly Enact That Indictments c. for Offences committed betwixt the 11th of December and the 13th of Feb. 1688 should run Contra Pacem Regni And by the First Act of this present Parliament The Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons did Recognize and Acknowledge That their Majesties were and of Kight ought to be by the Laws of this Realm their Sovereign Liege Lord and Lady King and Queen of England c. And by the same Act it was enacted That all and singular the Acts made and Enacted by the last Parliament were and are the Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom and as such ought to be reputed taken and obeyed by all the people of the same God save King WILLIAM and Queen MARY FINIS BOOKS Printed for Richard Baldwin TRuth brought to light by Time or the most remarkable Transactions of the first fourteen Years of King James's Reign The second Edition with Additions A New Plain Short and Compleat French and English Grammer whereby the Learned may attain in few Months to Speak and Write French Correctly as they do now in the Court of France And wherein all that is Dark Superfluous and deficient in other Grammers is Plain Short and Methodically Supplied Also very useful to strangers that are desirons to learn the English Tongue For whose sake is addded a Short but very Exact English Grammer The Second Edition By Peter Berault The Devout Christian's Preparation for holy Dying Consisting of Ejaculations Prayers Meditations and Hymns adopted to the several States and Conditions of this Life And on the four last things viz. Death Judgment Heaven and Hell Victoriae Anglicanae being an Historical Collection of all the Memorable and Stupendious Victories obtain'd by the English against the French both by Sea and Land since the Norman Conquest viz. The Battle 1. Between K. Henry II. and Robert of Normandy 2. At Morleis 3. At the Rescue of Calice 4. At Poicters 5. At Cressey 6. At Agincourt 7. At the mouth of the River Seine 8. At Vernoil 9. At Cravant 10. At the Relief of Orleance with the great Actions of the Lord Salisbury and Talbot 11. Of Spurrs Dedicated to all the Commission'd Officers of the Maritime and Land Forces Price stitcht 6 d. Mathematical Magick Or the Wonders that may be Performed by Mechanical Geometry In Two Books Concerning mechanical Powers Motions Being one of the most Easie Pleasant Useful and yet most neglected part of Mathematicks Not before treated of in this Language By J. Wilkins late Lord Bishop of Chester The Fourth Edition The Memoirs of Monsieur Deagant Containing the most Secret Transactions and Affairs of France from the Death of Henry IV. till the beginning of the Ministry of the Cardinal de Richlieu To which is added a particular Relation of the Archbishop of Embrun's Voyage into England and of his Negotiation for the advancement of the Roman-Catholick Religion here together with the Duke of Buckingham's Letters to the said Archbishop about the Progress of that Affair Which happen'd the last Years of King James I. his Reign Faithfully translated out of the French Original A True Relation of the Cruelties and Barbarities of the French upon the English Prisoners of War being a Journal of their Travels from Dinant in Britany to Thoulon in Provence and back again With a Description of the Scituation and Fortifications of all the Eminent Towns upon the Road and their Distance c. Faithfully and impartially Performed by Richard Strutton being an Eye-witness and a Fellow-Sufferer The State of Savoy In which a full and distinct Account is given of the Persecution of the Protestants in the Valleys of Piedmont by means of the French Councils As also of the Unreasonable Conditions and Demands that the French King would have put on the Duke of Savoy And of the just Causes and Motives that induced that Duke to break off from the French Interest and join with the Confederates Together with the most memorable Occurrences that have since hapned there As also the true Copies of all the Letters and Dispatches that have passed between them
soever their Power has been and how Arbitrary and Despotick soever they have been in the exercise of it have ever reckoned it a Crime for their Subjects to come in all Submission and Respect and in a due number not exceeding the limits of the Law and represent to them the Reasons that made it impossible for them to obey their Orders Those Evil Counsellors have also treated a Peer of the Realm as a Criminal only because he said That the Subjects were not bound to obey the Orders of a Popish Justice of Peace though it is evident that they being by Law rendred incapable of all such Trusts no regard is due to their Order This being the security which the People have by the Law for their Lives Liberties Honours and Estates That they are not to be subjected to the Arbitrary Proceedings of Papists that are contrary to Law put into any Employment Civil or Military 17. Both We our selves and our Dearest and most Entirely Beloved Consort the Princess have endeavoured to signify in terms full of respect to the King the just and deep Regret which all these Proceedings have given us and in Compliance with his Majesty's De\sires signified to us We declared both by Word of Mouth to his Envoy and in Writing what our Thoughts were touching the Repealing of the Test and Penal Laws which we did in such a manner that we hoped we had proposed an Expedient by which the Peace of those Kingdoms and a happy Agreement among the Subjects of all Persuasions might have been setled but those Evil Counsellors have put such ill Constructions on these our good Intentions that they have endeavoured to alienate the King more and more from us as if We had designed to disturb the Quiet and Happiness of the Kingdom 18. The last and great Remedy for all those Evils is the calling of a Parliament for securing the Nation against the evil Practices of those wicked Counsellors But this could not be yet compassed nor can it be easily brought about For those Men apprehending that a Lawful Parliament being once assembled they would be brought to an account for all their open Violations of Law and for their Plots and Conspiracies against the Protestant Religion and the Lives and Liberties of the Subject they have endeavoured under the specious Pretence of Liberty of Conscience first to sow Divisions among Protestants between those of the Church of England and the Dissenters The design being laid to engage Protestants that are ail equally concerned to preserve themselves from Popish Oppression into mutual Quarrellings that so by these some Advantages might be given to them to bring about their Designs and that both in the Election of the Members of Parliament and afterwards in the Parliament it self For they see well that if all Protestants could enter into a mutual good understanding one with another and concur together in the preserving of their Religion it would not be possible for them to compass their wicked Ends. They have also required all Persons in the several Counties of England that either were in any Employment or were in any considerable Esteem to declare before-hand that they would concur in the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws and that they would give their Voices in the Elections to Parliament only for such as would concur in it such as would not thus preingage themselves were turned out of all Employments And others who entred into those Engagements were put into their places many of them being Papists And contrary to the Charters and Privileges of those Burroughs that have a Right to send Burgesses to Parliament they have ordered such Regulations to be made as they thought fit and necessary for assuring themselves of all the Members that are to be chosen by those Corporations and by this means they hope to avoid that Punishment which they have deserved tho it is apparent that all Acts made by Popish Magistrates are null and void of themselves So that no Parliament can be Lawful for which the Elections and Returns are made by Popish Sheriffs and Mayors of Towns and therefore as long as the Authority and Magistracy is in such hands it is not possible to have any Lawful Parliament And tho according to the Constitution of the English Government and Immemorial Custom all Elections of Parliament-men ought to be made with an entire Liberty without any sort of Force or the requiring the electors to chuse such Persons as shall be named to them and the Persons thus freely elected ought to give their Opinions freely upon all Matters that are brought before them having the good of the Nation ever before their eyes and following in all things the Dictates of their Conscience yet now the People of England cannot expect a Remedy from a Free Parliament legally called and chosen But they may perhaps see one called in which all Elections will be carried by Fraud or Force and which will be composed of such Persons of whom those Evil Counsellors hold themselves well assured in which all things will be carried on according to their Direction and Interest without any regard to the Good or Happiness of the Nation which may appear evidently from this that the same Persons tried the Members of the last Parliament to gain them to Consent to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws and procured that Parliament to be dissolved when they found that they could not neither by Promises nor Threatnings prevail with the Members to comply with their wicked Designs 19. But to Crown all there are great and violent Presumptions inducing us to believe that those Evil Counsellors in order to the carrying on of their ill Designs and to the gaining to themselves the more time for the effecting of them for the encouraging of their Complices and for the discouraging of all good Subjects have published That the Queen hath brought forth a Son though there have appeared both during the Queen's pretended bigness and in the manner in which the Birth was managed so many just and visible grounds of Suspicion that not only we our selves but all the good Subjects of those Kingdoms do vehemently suspect that the pretended Prince of Wales was not born by the Queen And it is notoriously known to all the World that many both doubted of the Queen's Bigness and of the birth of the Child and yet there was not any one thing done to satisfie them or to put an end to their Doubts 20. And since our Dearest and most Entirely beloved Consort the Princess and likewise We Our Selves have so great an Interest in this Matter and such a Right as all the World knows to the Succession to the Crown Since also the English did in the Year 1672. when the States General of the Vnited Provinces were invaded in a most unjust War use their utmost endeavours to put an end to that War and that in opposition to those who were then in the Government and by their so doing they ran
the consideration of We own it Rebellion to resist a King that governs by Law but he was always accounted a Tyrant that made his Will the Law and to resist such a one we justly esteem no Rebellion but a necessary Defence And in this Consideration we doubt not of all honest Mens assistance and humbly hope for and implore the Great God's Protection that turneth the hearts of his People as pleaseth him best it having been observed that People can never be of one mind without his Inspiration which hath in all Ages confirmed that Observation Vox populi est vox Dei The present restoring the Charters and reversing the oppressing and unjust Judgment given on Magdalen-College Fellows is plain are but to still the People like Plumbs to Children by deceiving them for a while But if they shall by this Stratagem be fooled till this present Storm that threatens the Papists be past as soon as they shall be re-setled the former Oppressions will be put on with greater vigour but we hope in vain is the Net spread in the sight of the Birds For first The Papists old Rule is that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks as they term Protestants tho the Popish Religion is the greatest Heresie And secondly Queen Mary's so ill observing her Promises to the Suffolk Men that help'd her to her Throne And above all thirdly the Pope's dispensing with the Breach of Oaths Treaties or Promises at his pleasure when it makes for the Service of Holy Church as they term it These we say are such convincing Reasons to hinder us from giving credit to the aforesaid Mock-shews of Redress that we think our selves bound in Conscience to rest on no security that shall not be approved by a freely-elected Parliament To whom under GOD we refer our Cause 3. The King having marched his Army as far as Salisbury to meet the Prince published a Proclamation of Pardon to all such of his Subjects as had taken up Arms and sided with the Prince provided they deserted the Enemy within 20 days and promising Pardon and protection to such Foreigners as would come into his Service and freedom of passage to others to return into their respective Countries But this Proclamation was not at all regarded 4. When the King was at Salisbury the Popish Party seeing their Affairs grow every day more desperate began to employ all their Politicks to invent some Remedy for them and then first formed the Design of the King's with-drawing which they grounded upon this Supposition and Expectation That within two years or less the Nation would be in such Confusion that he might return and have his Ends of it 5. In the mean time the King being unmoveably fixed in a Resolution not to call a Parliament part of the Army revolted and went over to the Prince and the rest either discouraged by the desertion of them that went or by the averseness they found in the body of the People from making any opposition to the Prince's Arms or out of a sense that in fighting against him they should fight against their own Religion and native Country appeared so lukewarm in the Cause that the King did not think fit to hazard a Battel 6. Prince George of Denmark the Duke of Grafton the Lord Churchill and many others of the Protestant Nobility left the King and went over to the Prince of Orange then at Sherborne and on the 25th of November in the night Princess Ann the King 's Second Daughter withdrew privately from White-hall with the Lady Churchill 7. The going off of these Great Men struck the King with terror and the Army being before much in disorder became thereby so full of fear and suspicion that a false Alarm being made whether by design or accident the King and the whole Army left Salisbury the Army retreating to Reading and the King to Andover and on Monday the 26th of November he returned in the Evening to London 8. The first thing the King did being at London was to remove Sir Edward Hales from being Lieutenant of the Tower and to put Sir Bevill Skelton a Protestant in his room Sir Edward had displeased the whole City to the utmost by planting several Mortar-pieces on the Walls towards the City which tho designed only to awe it had more enraged than afrighted them So that his Majesty thought he was not safe at White-hall so long as Sir Edward was Master of the Tower 9. On the 28th His Majesty ordered in Privy Council the Lord Chancellor to issue Writs for the sitting of a Parliament at VVestminster the 15th of January following But it was now too late and the Nation in such a ferment that it was not regarded what the Court said or did 10. Scotland was by this time almost in as bad a Condition as England and some of the Nobility and Gentry were sent up with a Petition for a Free Parliament The Popish Chappels at Bristol York Glocester Worcester Shrewsbury Stafford Wolverhampton Bromingham Cambridge and St. Edmundsbury were about this time demolished and where-ever the Lords in Arms came the Papists were disarmed And in Norfolk the Duke of Norfolk their Lord Lieutenant had a great appearance of the Gentry with him where he and they declared for a Free Parliament and the Protection of the Protestant Religion This Meeting was at Norwich the first of December and after that the same Declaration was renewed at Yarmouth and Lyn and the Suffolk-Men approved of it but wanted a Lord Lieutenant to assemble and head them in order to the shewing their concurrence with safety 11. Bristol was seized by the Earl of Shrewsbury and Sir John Guise the Lord Lovelace who had been seized as he was going to join the Prince was by the Gentry of Glocester-shire delivered out of the Castle of Glocester where till then he had been imprisoned The Lords Molineux and Ashton in the mean time seized Chester for the King being Roman Catholicks and Berwick stood firm to him but Newcastle received the Lord Lumly and declared for a Free Parliament and the Protestant Religion York was in the hands of the Associated Lords and the Garison of Hull seized the Lord Langdale their Governour a Papist and the Lord Mountgomery and disarmed some Popish Forces newly sent thither and then declared for a Free Parliament and the Protestant Religion And Plimouth had long before submitted to the Prince of Orange 12. The Popish Party was grown so contemptible that on Thursday the 6th of December there was a Hue and Cry after Father Peters publickly cried and sold in the Streets of London And about the same time came out a Third Declaration in the Prince's name but not emitted by him which very much alarm'd the Popish Party and as it is thought contributed very much to the fixing and hastning the King's Resolution of leaving the Nation It was read in many Towns throughout England at the Market-cross the People universally believing till some time after
Religion Laws and Liberties might not again be in danger of being subverted upon which Letters Elections have been accordingly made And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons pursuant to their Respective Letters and Elections being now Assembled 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 case have usually done for the vindicating and asserting their Ancient 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 Dispensing with Laws or the execution of Laws by Regal Authority as it hath been assumed and exercised 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 longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be Granted is illegal That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning are 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 allowed 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 impeached or questioned in any Court or Place out of Parliament That Excessive Bail ought not to be required nor Excessive Fines imposed nor cruel and unusual Punishments inflicted That Jurors ought to be duly Impannell'd and Returned and Jurors which pass upon men in Trials for High-Treason ought to be Freeholders That all Grants and Promises of Fines and Forfeitures of particular persons before Conviction are illegal and void And that for Redress of all Grievances and for the amending strengthning and preserving of the Laws Parliaments ought to be held frequently And they do claim demand and insist upon all and singular the Premises 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 Premises ought in any wise to be drawn hereafter into Consequence or Example To which demand of their Rights they are particularly encouraged 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 intire Confidence that his said Highness the Prince of Orange will perfect the Deliverance so far advanced by him and will still preserve them from the violation of their Rights which they have here asserted and from all other Attempts upon their Religion Rights and Liberties The said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled at Westminster do Resolve That WILLIAM and MARY Prince and Princess of Orange be and be declared King and Queen of England France and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging to hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to them the said Prince and Princess during their Lives and the Life of the Survivor of them and that the sole and full exercise of the Regal Power be only in and executed by the said Prince of Orange in the Names of the said Prince and Princess during their joynt Lives and after their Deceases the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to be to the Heirs of the Body of the said Princess and for default of such Issue to the Princess Anne of Denmark and the Heirs of her Body and for default of such Issue to the Heirs of the Body of the said Prince of Orange And the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons do pray the said Prince and Princess of Orange to accept the same accordingly And that the Oaths hereafter mentioned be taken by all persons of whom the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy might be required by Law instead of them and that the said Oarhs of Allegiance and Supremacy be abrogated I A. B. Do sincerely Promise and Swear That I will be Faithful and bear true Allegiance to Their Majesties King WILLIAM and Queen MARY So help me God I A. B. Do Swear That I do from my Heart Abbor Detest and Abjure as Impious and Heretical this Damnable Doctrine and Position That Princes Excommunicated or Deprived by the Pope or any Authority of the See of Rome may be deposed or murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do declare That no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Prcheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm So help me God Jo. Brown Cler. Parliamentor The same day this Declaration bears date Her Royal Highness the Princess of Orange arrived in the River of Thames in the Afternoon and was received with all the Hearty Demonstrations and Expressions of Joy by the City that are usual on such occasions The 13th of February the Lords and Commons ordered the following Proclamation to be published and made WHereas it hath pleased Almighty God in his great Mercy to this Kingdom to vouchsafe us a miraculous Deliverance from Popery and Arbitrary Power and that our Preservation is due next under God to the Resolution and Conduct of his Highness the Prince of Orange whom God hath chosen to be the Glorious Instrument of such an inestimable Happiness to us and our Posterity And being highly sensible and fully persuaded of the great and eminent Virtues of Her Highness the Princess of Orange whose Zeal for the Protestant Religion will no doubt bring a Blessing along with Her upon this Nation And whereas the Lords and Commons now assembled at Westminster have made a Declaration and presented the same to the said Prince and Princess of Orange and therein desired Them to accept the Crown who have accepted the same accordingly We therefore the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons together with the Lord Mayor and Citizens of London and others of the Commons of this Realm do with full consent publish and proclaim according to the said Declaration WILLIAM and MARY Prince and Princess of ORANGE to be KING and QUEEN of England France and Ireland wit all the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging Who are accordingly so to be owned deemed and taken by all the people of the aforesaid Realms and Dominions who are from hence-forward bound to acknowledge and pay unto them all Faith and true Allegiance Beseeching God by whom Kings reign to Bless King VVilliam and Queen Mary with long and happy Years to reign over us God save
whom God raises up to be the Restorers and Delivers of a People when they are either brought low by Tyranny and Oppression or when they are torn in pieces by Factions among themselves p. 12 13. Thus when the Roman State being torn by a long Civil War had even bled it self to death it had certainly expir'd if it had been left to it self Augustus came in and not only bound up the Wounds but put as it were a new Soul into the Body He made it not only live but flourish by his great Care and Wisdom and Industry which so oblig'd the People that they even forc'd him to accept of the Empire These were such Benefits to Mankind as whosoever was enabled to do it was as if God had put a Glory about his Head it so markt him out to the People that they could not go beside him in their Choice No they took him as a successful Tyrant whom they had not power to withstand The Romans did not understand our new-coin'd Choice of God And if our Regency-men had known that the Prince of Orange was chosen of God they would not have voted as they did they took him as one already chosen of God p. 13. In those Kingdoms wherein the Succession is continued by a new Election upon every Vacancy or wherein a new Election is made upon the Extinguishing of the Royal Family the person on whom the Election falls in either case owes his promotion to God from whom it comes the same way to him as it came to his first Predecessor in that Kingdom p. 16. In all sorts of Government as the Sovereign Power in every Countrey or Nation is of God so they that are invested with it whether one or many are in the place of God and have their Promotion from him The Transferring of this Power from one to another is the Act of God And this he does proceeding Judicially as being Judge p. 17. First God does this Secondly He does it Judicially For the first of these God has such an Interest in the disposing of power as none can pretend to but himself Men have their part in setting up what they cannot put down again It is a Woman's Consent makes a Man be her Husband the Fellows of a College chuse one to the their Head a Corporation chuse one to be their Mayor All these do only chuse the person they do not give him the Authority It is the Law that gives that and that Law so binds their hands that they cannot undo what they have done No more can a Nation undo its own Act in chusing Men into Sovereign power I do not say but they may chuse Men into Government expresly with that Condition That they shall be accountable to the people and then the Government remains in the Body of the Nation it is that which we properly call a Commonwealth But for Sovereign Princes and Kings even where they are chosen by the Nation and much more in Hereditary Kingdoms as they have their Authority from God so they are only accountable to him For he is the only Potentate King of king and Lord of lords He alone both makes Kings by his Sovereign Power and by the same he can unmake them when he pleases p. 18 19. Nay more than so He puts down one and sets up another Both the Words imply something of an high place and here they are used of Civil Government or Dominion Of this it is said That God so deprives one of it as that he advances another in his stead This can be understood of nothing else but the Conquest of one Prince over another For what one resigns by a Voluntary Act he is said to lay down or to give it up to another But putting down is the Act of a Superior by which one 's place is taken from him against his Will Now God being the Superior that does this by the Act of his Providence it must be such an Act as gives the Power from one against his Will to another whom God is pleased to set up in his stead Thus in giving one Prince a Conquest over another he thereby puts one in Possession of the other's Dominions he makes the other's Subjects become his Subjects or his Slaves accordingly as they come in upon Conditions or at the Will of the Conqueror In short he giveth him the whole Right and Power of the other Prince p. 18 19 20. When those Kings that living in a settled Kingdom will not govern according to the Laws thereof it is a breach of Faith not only to their people but to God also where they are sworn to the observing of Laws And though they are not therefore to be deposed by the people yet they cannot escape the vengeance of God who ordinarily punishes them with the natural effects of their Sin On the other hand if a Prince will have no law but his Will if he tramples and oppresseth his people their patience will not hold out always they will at one time or other shew themselves to be but Men. At least they will have no heart to fight for their Oppressor So that if a Foreign Enemy breaks in upon him he is gone without remedy unless God interpose But how can that be when God is Judge himself Should the Judge hinder the doing of Justice It is God's Work that Foreigners come to do Howbeit he meaneth not so He means nothing perhaps but the satisfying of his own Lust But though he knoweth it not he is sent in God's Message for which all things being prepared by Natural Causes and God not hindering his own Work but rather hastning it no wonder that it succeeds and that oftentimes very easily p. 24 25. When it happens as it doth sometimes and that especially for the Sins of a Nation that they come to be under weak or wicked Kings even these they must not resist God hath taught them otherwise What then Must they be left to the Wills of these Tyrants Or of them that govern weak Kings which is commonly worse Must they endure all the load of Oppression that these will lay upon them That is For a few Mens pleasure must a Nation be made miserable This is far from God's design in the Institution of Government He makes Kings his Ministers for the good of their People If any will take that Office upon them they must be have themselves accordingly Otherwise if they take it as given them only for themselves it is such a breach of Trust that God cannot but punish them for it But how should he do this so as that the punishment may have its effect in warning others not to transgress in like manner He cannot do this better than by making Men his Instruments in it And therefore it is that God tho he has infinite ways yet commonly chuses to employ Men in this Service He either finds them at home that are not afraid of the Power as they ought to be or
them As it was just and necessary on those former Accounts so this makes it a pious Cause and therefore the more worthy of a true Christian Prince It has been judg'd so by them whose Names we have in great Veneration We have the Examples of our own Princes here in England in the best of Times since the Reformation These the Reader may sind collected to his hand in an excellent Book that hath been lately published But this may as well be shewn in the Example of them whom our Princes chose to follow as their Paterns namely of the Christians in Primitive Times and especially at the time of the first Nicene Council In these times we find that Constantine and Licinius having shar'd the Roman Empire between them had passed a Decree together at Milan for Christianity to be the Established Religion And when afterward Licinius in his part of the Empire would have oppress'd it contrary to Law for that cause Constantine the Great made War upon him and in prosecution of that War thrust him out of his Empire For which he was so far from being blamed by any Christian in those times even by those that had been Licinius's Subjects as most of those Bishops were that sate in the Nicene Council that they all gave him the highest Praises and Encomiums and blessed God that had sent them that happy Deliverance by his means Eusebius was Licinius's Subject and he afterwards writ the Life of Constantine the Great in which they that please may read whole Chapters to this purpose As that is a just War which is made upon just and sufficient Cause so the Effect of such a War being a Conquest is Just Conquest being the way by which a Kingdom or Dominion is taken from a Sovereign Prince against his Will and by which another Prince gets it into his Possession as often as this happens there arises a Question between the two Princes whether of them hath a Right to that Kingdom or Dominion For the deciding of this Question it must be by such a Law as is common to both the Parties whose Rights are to be judg'd by it That cannot be the Law of the Kingdom for tho the Prince that is disseiz'd was obliged by that Law while he was in possession yet now it seems he is not and it never was a Law to the Prince that is now in his place It must therefore be a Superior Law such as is common to all Sovereign Princes in their Affairs with one another and that as hath been already shewn is ordinarily the Law of Nations I say ordinarily because there is yet a Superior Law namely the Law of God whether written in our Hearts which we commonly call the Law of Nature or whether an express Revelation from God such as was sometimes given to Men in Ancient Times either of these may derogate from the Law of Nations For this being made up of Customs observ'd by Princes and States among themselves is always subject to the will of him that is Lord of lords and King of kings But whether or how far this may alter the case will be considered afterwards at present we are only to consider what Judgment can be made of it according to the Law of Nations By this it seems to be plain That the Right should go along with the compleat possession So as that wheresoever this is once settled whether by length of time or even sooner by a general Consent of the people there it ought to be presumed there is a Right at least there ought to be no farther Dispute of it There seems to be the same reason for this that there is for the Law of Nations it self for if that Law was ordained for the peace of mankind this quitting of possession must be a part of it for there can be no end of Wars otherwise p. 45 46 47 to 51. This appears by Jephtha's Speech to the King of Ammon that had Chemosh for his God Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy God giveth thee to possess So whomsoever the Lord our God shall drive out from before as them will we possess p. 51. It is by way of Conquest that God puts down one and sets up another For so the Babylonian Empire was put down by Cyrus who set up the Persian in its stead The Persian Empire was put down in their last King Darius and Alexander set up the Macedon in its stead The Macedon Kingdom was put down in their last King Perseus and the Roman was fet up in its stead All these Kingdoms were changed by Conquests that they made one upon another And so it was by those Conquests that God removed Kings and set up Kings p. 53. I do not say but they would have opposed the making of one of those Conquests namely that of Alexander the Great because King Darius was then living But when they saw they could not Oppose the Conquest being already made then Just or Unjust they submitted to it and having submitted they were subject without any more Controversie Therefore also Just and Religious Kings have reckoned their Conquests among the great things that God wrought by their means and accounted them as much their Subjects whom they had gain'd by the Sword as them that were born in their Dominions Therefore also God hath commanded his people to give Obedience to the Kings that came in by Conquest without any other Title Nay to such as were capable of no other for they were forbidden to set a stranger over them which was not their brother And yet they were Subjects to strangers such as Cushan Eglon and Jabin c. And in Zedekiah's time God commanded them upon pain of death to become the Subjects of Nebuchadnezzar who had made a full Conquest over them and held their lawful King Jeconiab then in Captivity This is plainly the Doctrine of that Convocation which sate in the beginning of King James I. his time and therefore it cannot but be very unjust to charge any Man with Singularity or Novelty that goes in the steps of so many and so great Authors p. 53 54 55. But some Learned and Judicious Men think That whereas an unjust Conquest happens through the Judgment of God for the punishing of a sinful Prince or Nation it doth not appear that he that is the Instrument of this acquires any Right by it more than those Pirates or Robbers who are instrumental likewise in the punishing of inferior Transgressors And if God gives no Right to him whom he sets up then it remains still in him whom he has put down So that he is rightful King still tho he is out of possession and the other is but an Usurper that is in possession In this case if the Usurper has no pretence of Right no prescription of Time no Consent of the people but only an unjust possession how a Subject ought to behave himself towards him even this is a Difficult Question in a most
by the just Sentence of God who thus puts him out of a Trust that he abused to the hurt of them for whose sakes it was given him And as to the people it cannot be a Conquest over them who are so far from having the War made against them that it was made chiefly for their sakes If there be any pretence of a Conquest it is only over them that were their Oppressors p. 66 67. An Answer to Mr. Ashton's Paper c. THE Matter in dispute is not whether Rightful Lawful Kings are to be obeyed but who in our present Circumstances is our Rightful Lawful Sovereign not whether Kings be not God's Vicegerents but whether God doth not sometimes confer the Right of Sovereignty by a Law superiour to the Laws of particular Countries that is by the Law of Nations which establisheth such a Right upon the success of a Just War not whether Sovereign Princes are not accountable only to God but whether Allegiance be not due where the Rights of Sovereignty are placed by an extraordinary Act of Providence and the concurrent Consent of the Nation p. 9 10. We must of necessity look back to the Occasions of this great Revolution And there were two principal Occasions of it First Great and violent Presumptions of an Injury to the Right of Succession Secondly Too great Evidences of a formed Design to subvert the Established Religion and Civil Liberties of the Nation Now there are two very material Questions which arise from hence First Whether these were the just Occasions of a War Secondly Whether upon the success of this War the Rights of Sovereignty were duly transferred If these were just Occasions of a War and upon the Success thereof the Sovereignty was duly transferred then there can be no Dispute left to whom our Allegiance is due It is taken for granted by all who understand these Matters That as there is a Law of Nature which determines the Rights and Properties of particular Nations and that all private Persons are bound to submit to the Municipal Laws of those Societies for their Peace and Security So there are other Laws which concern those Nations as they make up several independent Governments upon each other And there are several Rights which belong to them with respect to one another which do not belong to private Persons as they live in subjection to any particular Government And as there are such Rights so there must be a just and lawful way for reparation of Injuries In particular Governments the thing is plain by Established Laws and Courts of Judicature whose Sentence is executed by the Civil Power but in Separate Nations and Independent Governments although there be Laws by consent called the Law of Nations yet there is no common Judicature to determine of Right and Wrong and therefore in case of Injury there is an allowance for the injured Party by this Law of Nations to right himself by force as there would be to every particular Person if there were no Laws nor Power to see them executed There is then a Right in every Sovereign and Independent Prince to exercise Force against another Prince who detains any Right from him or doth any Injury to him or to those he is bound to defend The Question then comes to the Just Occasions of such a War and here are two assigned First Great and violent Presumptions of an Injury to the Right of Succession This is expresly mentioned and insisted on in the Declaration of the then Prince of Orange our present King p. 9 10 11. There have been many Instances in History of suborned and suppositious Princes and therefore there was reason that sufficient Evidence should be given in a Case of such Importance and which was under so great Suspicion But if there was no reasonable care taken to prevent or remove these Suspicious then the Parties most concerned have a right to assert their own Pretensions in such a way as the Law of Nations doth allow And in this Case no private Depositions or confident Affirmations of such as are Dependents or otherwise liable to Suspicion can in reason be taken for satisfactory Evidence p. 13. Secondly There was a further Just Occasion for that Expedition which was the Design to subvert our Religion and Civil Liberties As to the Particulars they are fully set down in the Declaration and need not to be repeated That which I am to make out is That the then Prince of Orange by his Relation to the Crown had a just Right to concern himself in the Vindication of both and that this is not repugnant to the Doctrines and Principles of the Church of England It was not thought disagreeable to them for Queen Elizabeth to assist the Dutch against the King of Spain yet she had no such reason for it as our King and Queen had to prevent the suppression of their own Religion here and the Rights of that people to whom they were so nearly related p. 15. In the beginning of the Reign of King Charles the First when I suppose it will be granted ☜ That the Doctrines and Principles of the Church of England were understood and followed the King of Denmark had taken up Arms to settle the Peace and liberty of Germany as he declared But he met with a great Defeat Whereupon King Charles the First thought himself concerned to give Assistance to him And Archbishop Laud was then employed as Dr. Heylin confesseth by the King's Command to draw up a Declaration to be published in all the Parishes of England which was read by the King and approved by the Council wherein the Greatness of the Danger they were in is set forth and the People are exhorted to serve God and the King and to labour by their Prayers to divert the Danger Wherein lay this Danger It is there said to be That by the Defeat of the King of Denmark there was little or nothing left to hinder the House of Austria from being Lord and Master of Germany And what then Why then there will be an open way for Spain to do what they pleased in all the West Part of Christendom It seems then it was not thought disagreeable to the Principles and Doctrines of our Church to hinder the growth of a Western Monarchy although it be by assisting Subjects against their Princes who promote it p. 17. But yet here is another Difficulty ariseth concerning the transferring Allegiance from a Lawful Prince to him that met with unexpected Success in his Design And here I shall endeavour to make it plain That this is not against the Doctrines and Principles of the Church of England p. 20. The Articles of our Church declare That the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm doth appertain to the Civil Magistrate But they no-where say That in a Just war the Superior Power cannot be acquired or that God doth never confer it in an extraordinary method The Book of Homilies is very severe against