A FREE DISCOURSE Wherein the DOCTRINES Which make for TYRANNY Are Display'd The TITLE of our Rightful and Lawful King WILLIAM Vindicated And the unreasonableness and mischievous Tendency of the odious distinction of a King de Facto and de Jure discover'd By a Person of Honour Quo sis Africane alacrior ad tutandam Rempublicam sic habeto Omnibus qui Patriam conservaverint adjuverint auxerint certum esse in Coelo ac definitum locum ubi beati sempiterno aevo fruantur Somn. Scip. è l. 6. Ciceronis de Republica London Printed for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultrey and Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane 1697. A FREE DISCOURSE Wherein the DOCTRINES Which make for TYRANNY Are Display'd I HAVE never been Conscious to my self that the Temptation of any base Interest or the Apprehension of any threatning Danger could corrupt me to betray or force me to decline that which I well knew to be the true Interest of my King and Country and therefore have I constantly look'd upon those that made it their Business to break in upon the just Rights of the one or the other as unhappy Contrivers to involve the Nation in a consuming Debt to Tyranny or Confusion which the People shall be sure to pay out of their Enjoyments in Life Liberty and Property Of Consequence therefore I must with grating Affliction have observ'd how strenously this vile Design has been labour'd from towards the latter end of King Charles the 2d to this present time Under the screening shelter of that Prince Popery and Arbitrary Power were favour'd and cherish'd with all the Art and Industry which Men of slavish Principles and profligate Consciences could devise and apply till the twin Monsters were thought arriv'd at that fulness of prodigious Stature as no longer to need his Life for their Concealment or Protection As a good Preparative for the Introduction of Arbitrary Power in which are all the hopes of Popery pernicious Pamphlets were publish'd in which it was magisterially asserted That the Realm of England was such a compleat Imperial Soveraignty as wherein the King had full perfect and intire Jurisdiction from God alone and that his Subjects ought rather to suffer Death wrongfully than resist him It was speciously granted indeed That there were Political Laws to secure the Rights of the Subject but it was stifly maintain'd That the Imperial Laws which ascertain'd the Rights of the Sovereign Prince were superiour to the Political and might and ought to determine when the Political Laws should be observ'd when not As much as to say The Rights of the Subject should be secure from all Invasion but that of their King Well! that 's worth something tho' the Clown in the Greek Epigram would not have much valued it For said he a little irreverently indeed but very plainly and to the purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hercules that defends my Flock from the Wolf has ever and anon a fat Sheep for Sacrifice the Wolf has no more for prey I lose on both sides for 't is all one to me whether the God has it roasted or Isgrim raw The Judges in King James's time very leernedly stated and decided the Matter pronouncing That in Cases of Necessity the King might dispense with the Laws and that he was Judge of the Necessity These Gentlemen seem to have had some Modesty tho' no more Conscience than the other or perhaps this little show of Modesty was a cast of their Wit they made use of the Fowler 's cunning stalkt under shelter to get a full shoot at the Peoples Liberties which was the Quarry they aim'd at and dead they laid it beshrew their hearts for their pains But 't was a sorry piece of cunning which would never have taken but that the Game they shot was ' tangled in a Net before Who sees not that if the King may dispense with the Laws in Cases of Necessity and be Judge of the Necessity he may dispense with them as often as he pleases wherefore his learned Sages of the Law might have spar'd their Wit and more ingenuously with open boldness have asserted and declar'd like Richard the 2d That the King's Will was the Law This is what the false Coiners of the cheating distinction of Imperial and Political Laws and the corrupt Putters of Necessity-Cases which makes the People's Slavery the one thing necessary would fain be at But the Design is so wicked and odious that to own it in plain words were the way to overthrow it In truth subtle Distinctions and Cases which have never happen'd are like to make the most of this bad Market Thus all in the Land of Metaphysicks where every Period or Page of famous School-Divinity harbours wild Notions of Religion which cannot be explain'd and made intelligible much less prov'd and ascertain'd by clear Reason the Sons of Science supernatural the Mystic Adepti introduce them with proper Terms of Art Terms useless to any other purpose and settle and ' stablish them for ever i.e. as long as ever they can be settled and establish'd on the unexamin'd Foundation of perplexing Distinctions There were not wanting among the eminent Clergy who as if they would go a length K. Richard never dream't on seem'd to intimate That the King's Will was not only the Law but the Religion of the Country too and Passive Obedience the only wretched Portion of the unpeopled People for then they were no longer a People but a plunder'd and enslav'd Rabble left only Tenants at Will for their Lives Liberties and Properties In such a wretched Case it would become the unpeopled People to have always their Loins girt Shoes on their Feet and Staves in their Hands not like Israelites taking leave of their hard Masters and going to set up for themselves but like the Shepherds of Cremona waiting for the terrible Sentence Veteres migrate coloni Be gone ye old English Race of strubborn Free-holders ne're trouble your selves how ye shall drive your Flocks but leave such things behind you haste haste you have nothing to pack up unless your old Wives and young Children haste and make room for naked Colonies of tres humble Monsieur Serviteurs that shall not dare to call their Wooden Shoes their own but Soul and Body become all Obedience let with Spiritual Curb or Temporal Snaffle Priest or Tyrant ride them The design of changing our Legal into an Arbitrary Government was copy'd from the French Original In France t was laid in the Reign of Lewis the XI and took effect to the destruction of the Rights of the People by destroying the Power of Parliaments The destruction of the Power of Parliaments was carried on by very sober paces by the most easie and modest Encroachments that People weary of their Liberties could have wish'd for The King did not pretend to raise Money when he pleas'd by
now fain to trim the matter with loose general talk and softning Interpretations But then the Sense of Original Contract runs thro' all our Law-Books the unanswerable Mr. Johnson has cited so many so clear Testimonies of this that I will only mention the Confession of an English Monarch King James I. who tho' he uses not the Word Contract yet he does a Synonimous if Paction signifies the same as Contract In his Speech to the Parliament 1603. he sets down the just Distinction between a King and a Parliament But in his Speech to them 1609. he hath these Words The King binds himself by a double Oath to the Observation of the Fundamental Laws of his Kingdom tacitly as by being King and so bound to protect as well the People as the Laws of his Kingdom and expresly by his Oath at his Coronation So as every just King in a setled Kingdom is bound to observe that Paction made to his People by his Laws in framing his Government agreeable thereunto But he that is most a stranger to our Law-books may easily be able to prove that the beginnings of all Forms of Government could not but proceed from the Choice or Consent of the People It is true God is the Fountain of all Power but he does not communicate it immediately to Man at least he has not done so in these later Ages Nay in the Designation of Saul and David which is recorded to have been from God 't is remarkable that after the Divine Unction the People assembled and by their Votes freely chose them and before the Peoples Choice they were not actually Kings of Israel But I will make short of this matter Original Contract there must have been between King and People wherever lawful Power is exercised by a King because Kings are not immediately chose of God But such a thing as a Power to do mischief which ought not to be resisted never could be because 't is against the Nature of God to give such a Power to any Man and that which inclines People to set up a King over them restrains them from giving him such a Power If this be a Digression I beg the Readers pardon but I hope I have fully prov'd that at the time of the Convention when 't is confess'd we were without a setled Form of Government so that the Lords of their own free Motion address'd the Prince of Orange to take upon him the Administration for a while the Government could not have been setled otherways than it was setled viz. by the choice of the Community and if they had not made so wise a Choice as they did in the Person of King William yet his Title would have been Lawful and Rightful because his Person was the free Choice of the Community at that time when they had no King But notwithstanding this plain state of the Case and as I presume to think these unanswerable reasons the Old Tyrannical Doctrine had still a spreading root and tho' the common Sense and Honesty of the Nation long provok'd and almost undone by it was ready to check the incouragements formerly given it and blast its open growth yet now it began to shoot forth its baneful branches under the sheltring distinction of a King DE FACTO and a King DE IVRE Of all the mischievous Doctrines that ever were topt upon a Nation by holy Priestcraft none ever stood more in need of Shelter The Doctrines of Popery commit but slight depredations on the Liberties and Properties of a People but by IMPERIAL LAWS controuling the Political by quiet Submission to illegal Violence they are with a vengeance swept quite and clean away Our comfort is that no Parliament Men can possibly believe that the People have no right to their Liberties because the People chuse Knights and Burgesses to defend their Liberties and Properties and 't were the most disingenuous injustice in the World for Gentlemen to accept such a Trust if they are of opinion that the People are not rightfully possess's of their Liberties and Properties No Parliament Men can possibly believe that King William is only a King DE FACTO because it were the most Infamous Self-contradiction to joyn with a King to make Laws in whom they did not own a right to give them a Sanction Indeed when I look back on the beginning of this King's Reign I call to mind those things which somewhat amaze and puzzle me For who can take notice without some extraordinary emotion that any of the King 's Chief Councellours should urge him not to insist on his Title DE IVRE or that when the owning him rightful and lawful King was started and propos'd in the House of Commons it should be coldly received and rejected For if the King shall not hold his Title to be DE IURE he must be an Enemy to his own quiet Possession and if the Commons shall not own him for their rightful and lawful King they must needs look upon themselves as Slaves not Subjects holding their Honours Estates and Interests precariously For my part I cannot but conceive that when the Lords and Commons in the Grand Convention declared the Prince and Princess of Orange King and Queen of England c. and setled the full and sole exercise of Regal Power on the Prince they made him their Lawful and Rightful King They made him their Lawful and Rightful King or they made him nothing Can any Man think or talk so absurdly as that the Lords and Representatives of the People chose the Prince of Orange to the infamous honour of an Usurper and a Tyrant praying him to play the Tyrant and Administer that Government which he had no right to meddle with or that at one and the same time they own'd King James his right to govern them and would not admit him to exercise that right These are absurd Contradictions which cannot consist with the Honour and Wisdom of English Senators But whatever any Enemy of our Settlement may pretend was meant by the Convention who made choice of the Prince and Princess of Orange to be King and Queen of England c. and of the Prince alone to exercise the Regal Power this I am sure that the distinction of a King DE IVRE and a King DE FACTO is ill-grounded and mischievous 1. It is ill-grounded This distinction can be trac'd no higher than Edw. the IV. and his first Parliament invented and made use of it not as a Salvo for the justification of any thing done by and under the Kings of the House of Lancaster but in contra-distinction to a King DE IVRE and that Parliament did thereby denote that they held a King in Possession to be a King falsly so call'd only and to have no right to the Allegiance of the People But our Ancient Common Lawyers Bracton Fortescue c. knew nothing of this distinction A DE FACTO KING OF ENGLAND according to their sense of Words is as perfect Nonsense
and Contradiction as ever was made use of to illustrate the Romish Anti-evangelical Mysteries of Priestcraft A KING DE FACTO is just as much as a Rightful and Lawful Usurper or a Mild and Gracious Tyrant Our honest Ancient Lawyers were not wont to flatter Ambitious Princes with such odd and wickedly devis'd Distinctions at the expence of their Countries Honour and Safety A King with them was but of one sort Viz. The Creature of the Law The Ordinance of the People The King says Bracton has a Superiour God also the Law by which he is made King A King is made and ordain'd says Fortescue for the Defence or Guardianship of the Laws of his Subjects and of their Bodies and Goods whereunto he receiveth power of his People Let Kings therefore it is the monition of Bracton temper their power by the Law which is the Bridle of Power These Famous and Learned Lawyers would certainly have thought it very ridiculous that the Title of a KING should be deriv'd only from the Notion of a Fact and the Exercise of his Kingship made to consist in the Execution of the Imperial Law of his Will Between such a King as this and a People there can never be a good Understanding but they will be eternally at variance for their Interests are distinct and separate and cannot but often happen to be directly contrary to one another I wish the Clergy Advocates of Imperial Power would but well weigh the reasoning of the Reverend Mr. Hooker a justly celebrated Writer and I hope they will take his Word for more than a Ceremony I will Transcribe a Passage they that like it not let them answer it He says That for any Prince or Potentate on Earth of what kind soever to exercise Government and not either by express Commission immediately and personally receiv'd from God or else by the Authority deriv'd at first from the consent of the People upon whom he imposes Laws is no better than meer Tyranny for Laws they are not which Poitical Approbation hath not made so but approbation they only give who personally declare their consent or by others in their Names by right originally deriv'd from them as in Parliaments c. But all of this Learned Wise and Good Man's order are not of his excellent true Christian Spirit some of them among those that best understand this matter in spight of Reason and common use of Speaking will set themselves up for such imperious Dictators of Words that the word King must needs signifie an Absolute Monarch But what if it should be admitted to signifie so sometimes in some Countries yet this is plain and undeniable it does not signifie so always nor so at all in England The bare Word or Title KING does not distinstly inform us what Power belongs to him that must be known by examining the Constitution of the State wherein he presides Perhaps some may object that if a King has not an Absolute Power he is dignified with a name which does not belong to him But this is like all the rest a positive stroke of Arbitrary Philosophy Words signifie as custom and common consent make them there is nothing in the nature of Words themselves but that TYRANT might have signified a Just a Gracious Prince a Father of his Country and KING a faithless cruel Tyrant a Lewis or a James The Gibberish of a KING DE FACTO and the Cant of an IMPERIAL LAW are of the same nature and design levell'd at the two Northern equal and equally hated Heresies the Protestant Religion and Monarchy limited by Law Mr. Johnson observing how long and how troublesomely the Nation had been haunted with the Word DE FACTO out of pure kindness to his Countrymen try'd to lay the Goblin but tho' he had exercis'd many a stubborn Devil in his time nay once not only rescued and restor'd some possess'd Creatures but thrown the very Devil himself into flames yet has he not been able to lay this DE FACTO Goblin Perhaps I ought not to pretend to more powerful Charmes than he however I will repeat the Exorcism there may be something in that And who knows but 't is towards day-break with the Common People if they once begin to discern the Priestcraft and State-craft of the distinction a little matter will rid all King WILLIAM's Dominions of the Mischeivous Phantom The plain English of a KING DE FACTO is of or from Fact or Deed. A KING DE FACTO must denote one that by the means of some Fact or Deed is denominated a KING DE FACTO in contradistinction to DE IVRE implies an unrighteous forcible an illegal violent Act. A KING DE FACTO then is a false King a wrong King a King who carries Usurpation and Tyranny in his very Title A King so far remov'd from Rightful and Lawful that he has not no not a right by Law unless the Law of his Sword a King that has no right to govern the People but the People a very good one to take away his DE FACTOSHIP from him But there is nothing in this false and dishonourable Title of a King DE FACTO that can be affix'd to King WILLIAM without the most impudent and malicious injustice tho more of it than the Advocates of the late King are well aware of really agrees to their Abdicatour If they who administred the Coronation Oath to the late King left out the Provision in the Ancient Oath for the Peoples enjoying St. Edward's Laws and added a special clause in favour of the Clergy's Canonical Priviledges if they Clogg'd the promise of securing the Civil Rights of the Nation with a Salvo for Kingly Prerogative then we may safely say that the late King was no more than a King DE FACTO from the very first and all the Oaths that were made to him are of no Obligation he not being the Person he was taken for But supposing that the late King did oblige himself by solemn Oath to Govern according to Law without any unrighteous Omission Addition or Salvo yet when he notoriously violated that sacred Oath by claiming an imperial arbitrary Power above and contrary to Law and by exercising the same in very many and those the most dangerous Instances that could be then he disclaimed all the Legal Title he could ever be supposed to have had tho' he continued indeed but too long afterwards a King De Facto a King in Possession doing all the despight he could to our Old English Constitution and our Holy Reform'd Religion But this false and dishonourable Title of a King de facto as I said just now cannot be affix'd to King William without the most impudent and malicious Injustice for he came over upon the earnest Sollicitation of Lords Spiritual and Temporal and other Subjects of all Ranks to deliver the Nation from Popery and Slavery To this purpose he declar'd himself in Words the Truth of which was clear enough from matter of fact for
using the lawful means to free themselves from Oppression and Slavery When the Calvinists are charg'd with making God the Author of Sin they commonly answer that the Divine Decrees do indeed necessitate every Action taken materially not formally I acknowledge this Distinction to be an empty nominal distinction not containing any sound reason to invalidate the heavy charge brought against them But however it showes that the Men have some modesty for whatever may be the Consequence of their Doctrines which they pretend not to see they will not charge God so foolishly as to say in direct terms that he is the Author of Sin But the Defenders of the De facto Notion applied to King WILLIAM are not afraid to make God the Author of Usurpation They Blasphemously affirm That Allegiance is due not to legal Right only but to the Authority of God who sets up Kings without any regard to legal Right or humane Laws If there be any Doctrine which more than another deserves to be call'd a Doctrine of Devils it must be this which boldly flies in the Face of God himself and in downright terms proclaims that the Judge of all the World does wrong The publishing and defending such Notions as this naturally tends to promote all flagitious and unjust attempts and thereby to bring Confusion and Ruin upon a Nation The Great God has a just Authority over all Men for He made them they ought to obey him for his commands are just when he expostulates with Disobedient Sinners he appeals to them whether his Laws are not reasonable He gives none but reasonable commands but to obey Usurpers and Tyrants is not reasonable nor any command of his The success of Ambitious Usurpers is not promoted by any favourable assistance from Heaven but is only the consequence of the Wit Vigour and industry of those Usurpers the Almighty permiting and leaving the course of things to the force of Natural Causes It is a most impious thought to imagin that the Righteous God should require us to be aiding and assisting to wicked Usurpations It might as well be thought that he should bid us disobey lawful Powers as bid us to obey Usurpers In short even the De facto Men themselves have granted all this in their Discourses of God and Providence when they have not had a By-cause to serve What I have now mention'd and censur'd was all which for some while Envy and Ingratitude against our Glorious Deliverer and Rightful King could advance in behalf of that shameful Paradox which requires Allegiance to be paid to a successful Usurper a King DE FACTO who has no right to govern But when it was observ'd that neither our Law-Books nor Bibles by all the artful application of ill-affected Lawyers and Priests could be perswaded to spread a sheltring Umbrage over that shameful Paradox of theirs which the denial of King WILLIAM's Right forc'd them to devise some more refin'd Phoilosophers with a particular Court-like Address thought to save its Credit The Throne say they being fill'd no matter how we are protected by it and the benefit of Protection requires the reciprocal duty of Obedience By this one Argument they would have us believe that all Differences may be compromiz'd their Consciences sav'd and the Government in no danger But by their Favour tho' perhaps their Consciences may shift well enough come what will yet I think the Government cannot be safely ventur'd upon their gratitude we have had so many Plots and Trayterous Correspondencies of Discontented Men who were not only protected but some of them trusted and honour'd that there 's no avoiding such a suspicious thought But to speak close to their Argument They make possession of the Throne tho' obtain'd by bloody and violent Mischiefs the same thing as Protection to an Usurper's Administration they give the name of a Benefit and to such a Violent Benefit obtruded upon Men against their wills they would have Obedience paid as Duty More Absurdities cannot well be crowded into so few words A violent Possessour is like to give but an odd sort of Protection to them who do not uphold his violent Possession as far as they are able his dealing to all but the Friends of his Usurpation will look more like Tyranny than Protection and must more properly be called an Injury than a Benefit A violent Possessor does by his first unjust Violence a present great Injury to all them on whom he imposes his Yoke and how should they expect any future Benefit from him For by his Usurpation they are depriv'd of all Right to claim or expect it by any Obligation of Laws or claim of Justice what they shall chance to meet with of that kind they must have from his unconfin'd Will and arbitrary Power which is a very Capricious and Fortuitous thing Are we oblig'd to obey a Prince whom not our Law but his own Might advanc'd over us Then it must be his Might that obliges us and the Obedience which we pay is Obedience per Force Obedience falsly so call'd in truth it is no more Obedience than Possession is Protection and Governing us whither we will or no a Benefit true Obedience is from choice and always paid for real and valuable Considerations The due Allegiance of Subjects is paid for the Enjoyment of Life Liberty and Property defended by such Laws as the Subjects have consented to the Execution of which Laws is committed to his Trust who is by due Course of Law made their Governor under what high Character or Title soever He that is advanc'd to the Throne by due course of Law and Consent of the People becomes a King De Jure a Rightful and Lawful King and to him Obedience is really due for from his legal Possession we have a real and not an imaginary Benefit under his Government we have a Protection from certain and known Laws not from uncertain and unknown Will and Power From this plain and clear state of the Case it appears That our refin'd Philosophers in their neat Argument are guilty of a wilful or weak Mistake in putting one Word for another in calling violent Possession Protection an Injury a Benefit Suffering Obedience Whether I should call it a wilful or weak Mistake I know not for ' t is not plain to me which they value most their Wit or Honesty but a manifest Mistake it is and will not pass upon the Nation unless they who take such pains to dress things in Disguises had that Command in Rhetorical Sophistry which the old Declamators at Athens so valued themselves upon pretending to be able to make the worst Cause look well unless they could by artificial studied Words and Strains of Wit make the People esteem it as great a Benefit to live in the Apprehension and Expectation of being Slaves as in the Condition of Subjects unless they could by wheedling Amusements persuade them that their Lives Liberties and Properties are as safe under uncontrouled and Arbitrary Power
August Assembly presently cheerfully subscrib'd the Association wherein after they Sincerely and Solemnly Profess Testifie and declare That his present Majesty King WILLIAM is Rightful and Lawful King of these Realms they mutually promise and engage to stand by and assist each other to the utmost of their Power in the support and defence of his Majesties most Sacred Person and Government against the late King James and his Adherents Further they oblige themselves if the King should come to any violent and untimely death which God forbid to revenge the same on his Enemies and their Adherents Lastly To support the Succession of the Crown according to an Act made in the First Year of KING WILLIAM and QUEEN MARY The House of Lords also moved by the same amazing occasion as the Commons damn'd the Mischievous distinction DE FACTO and DE IVRE declaring that His present Majesty King WILLIAM hath A Right by Law to the Crown which Words one might be afraid of but that their Lordships ever Honourable and Sincere took care to secure them from Exception by the next Plain Righteous and Decretory Sentence And that neither the late King James nor the pretended Prince of Wales nor any other Person hath any right whatsoever to the same I can't see wherein this Declaration comes short of that of the House of Commons for here the Lords determine that King WILLIAM hath a Right by Law to the Crown and such a Right by Law that neither the late King nor the pretended Prince of Wales nor any other Person hath any Right whatsoever to the same then of Consequence He hath all the right to the Crown that can be all the right that ever Prince had or can have And is in their Lordships Judgments what the Commons have declar'd him Viz. our Rightful and Lawful King I am glad the Houses are so well agreed But alas neither has their happy Agreement nor the following hearty and just Votes of the Commons carried the Association of the Commons thro' the Kingdom with that success as might have been expected and as was due to so well advised a Sanction for the Publick good The reason of which disappointment I cannot imagine for I hope that Commoner's Chaplain was not in the right who openly told an Acquaintance that the Penalties inforcing the Association were only In terrorem But as if he had been able to give the Refusers Security many stood off and began to frame Exceptions against it To pass by the little Cavils and impertient Sarcasms started by vain and unquiet Men who are proud to tell the World with what unfair Equivocation they swallow'd the Oaths of Allegiance and consonant to that Scandalous Wickedness will affix a sense of their own devising to the Parliament Association or else Associate in a cold empty Form of their own drawing up to pass by every thing of this nature I shall only reflect on the grand Exception which is so common in the mouths of all the De facto Men. And that is this They have as their bounden duty does require that awful regard for the Divine Prohibition of Revenge that they can by no means agree to oblige themselves to revenge the King 's violent death upon his Treacherous Enemies To this I have several things to reply 1. Tho' with some Men the Blood of a King is so cheap that it may be spilt like Water on the Ground and they never trouble their hearts about it Yet I make no question but were it the Blood but of an Arch-Bishop of St. Andrew they would be very active to hunt the Murtherers from their Coverts and bring them to condign Punishment That these words may not be wrested I do avow that it was a necessary piece of Justice the Punishment of that Arch-Bishop's Murtherers But I argue a fortiori how necessary then is it to punish Wicked Regicides II. when a Noble Peer is impeach'd in Parliament for High-Treason the Lords Spiritual pretend to a Right of Siting and Voting among his Judges so that Clergy-Men are not willing to be wholly Sequestred from their share in legal Revenges III. When the House of Commons declar'd upon the occasion of the Popish Plot discover'd by Doctor Oates that if His Majesty King Charles that then was should come to any violent Death which they pray'd God to prevent tho' as 't is thought they were not heard they would revenge it to the utmost on the Papists None of this Clan of Non-Associators bawl'd against that Vote as unchristian and yet I do not see but King WILLIAM's Life is as precious and ought to be as dear to the Nation as ever King Charles's was besides I perswade my self that popish Assassines deserve not to be more severely treated than than any other Assassines IV. When any private Person unites with the House of Commons to revenge the Violent death of the King which God prevent he unites with the Representatives of the Body of the People for the just Execution of a legal Revenge V. He that is not willing to do his part towards the bringing the Assassines of the King to suffer the Law may be justly suspected as an Abettor of the Assassination if such a thing should happen which God prevent and if he be treated accordingly he is not worse treated than the old Lady Lisle VI. In a state of Nature every Man has a Right to preserve all his honest Interests against the Injuries of others and to punish such Injuries according as he judges they deserve to be punish'd In political Society every Man resigns up this natural right to the Community who intrust some chosen Man or Men to govern them by setled Laws made with their own Consent Now if wicked Assassines shall traiterously take off the chief Head or Heads that govern and so reduce the People to the unhappy Necessity of a new Choice from whence may arise infinite Mischiefs by Reason of the Differences of ambitious Pretenders the People seem reduc'd to a state of Nature and then every particular individual Person has a Right to be reveng'd of the Assassines It is true the English Government is Hereditary and by Act of Parliament setled after the Death or demise of King William on the Princess Ann and the Heirs of her Body but then there is Danger that Jacobite Zeal may wade thro' more Blood to make a clear Vacancy for a Royal Abdicator and if so there 's Reason for every true Englishman by the Parliaments Association to denounce Vengeance against the Assassines but the single loss of King William alone by violent sudden Treachery might chance to throw us into those Confusions that it is just and prudent to associate to be aveng'd of them that shall tear that dear Interest from us VII Let who will refuse the Association yet it is honestly and wisely done of them who enter into it for thereby they not only discharge the Duty which they owe to the King but also do
the Malitious Addresses of his furious Mistress as Testimonies of her passionate Fondness for him and so gave her that dominion over himself which he resolv'd to have over the Swedes He found the Pulse of the Church beat as high as his own they were even impatient to make their King their Tyrant supposing that their share in the Ecclesiastical part would be as Flourishing as his in the Civil and the violent Arch-Bishop of Vpsal fancied he should not be much the lesser Monarch of the two Christiern ill enough dispos'd of himself and always animated to mischief by his Hellish Erinnys quickly came to a resolution of destroying all the Senatours and Principal Noblemen that had been or were like to be Enemies of his Imperial Arbitrary Authority To facilitate the fatal Execution he put on a better countenance than the Withered Hagg his Spightful Favourite wore no cloud sate on his Royal Brow but all was clear and calm there proper as could be to perswade them to trust who once suspected him With this show of Gentleness and Affection then he invites the Lords to a Magnificent Feast at Sockholm Two Days they were highly treated and on the Third Massacred Yet was not the Imperial Tyrannick Thirst of Christiern satisfied for the Great Gustavus with some few Illustrious Patriots escap'd the Slaughter wherefore he sends fresh bloody Orders to his Troops who presently put the whole Town to the Sword sparing none except the Old and Ugly but them perhaps in Complement to Sigebrite Nay so utterly averse did this Tyrant then show himself to all Humanity that when a Swedish Gentleman could not restrain his Grief beholding such a Scene of Horrour he had him fastned to a Gibbet and his Bowels torn forth because of his tenderness and compassion This surprizing Bloody Start from a King to a Tyrant terrified the People so extreamly that it dispos'd them to do their parts to free themselves from their deplorable Condition Slavery may be the misfortune of a People but to submit to it can never be their Duty And I much question whether in the like Case our Advocates of Imperial absolute Sovereignty would not have been of the same mind with the Swedes and not by their Passive Obedience have acknowledg'd their ruine for their Religion Well! in a short time what the Swedes long'd for a Deliverer appear'd He was the injur'd Gustavus Ericson descended from the Ancient Kings of Sweden and Nephew to King Canutson Christiern had now not only Abdicated his Government by his Tyranny in the utter subversion of the Laws Rights and Properties of the People but being generally Hated Beaten and Forsaken he Consumated his Abdication by Flight and Gustavus the Generous Deliverer was by a Convention of the Estates with the Joy of the People chosen King of Sweden which he govern'd happily all the days of his Life A Philosopher being ask'd which was the most dangerous of all Beasts Answer'd of Wild Ones a Tyrant of Tame Ones a Flatterer These Tame Ones hunt the Game like Jacalls and with their plaguy yelping excite and guide the Wild Ones to the Prey and this they do in hopes that when their Lawless Masters are cloy'd they may satisfie their own Appetites with Reliques of that Destruction in which they had been instrumental This Jacall yalping in England was never more Fierce Eager and Loud than in the Reign of King Charles II. and it was a proper time for the Enemies of England and the Protestant Religion with the advantage of the shelter which he gave them to make preparation for the Triumphant Entrance of Popery and Slavery And at that time they did not neglect the opportunity witness the Dover Treaty The Popish Plot discover'd by Doctor Oates and many a bantering Sham that could not be brought to pass upon the People but then something that could make its one way came on Quo Warranto's like Bombs were thrown into Corporations which miserably destroy'd their Antient Charters Dispensing Judges were advanc'd Proper Sheriffs chosen and all unjust Arts used to dispose things for the easier plundering the Nation of their Liberties Properties and Religion These unrighteous Proceedings would hardly have been ventur'd on but for the Countenance that was giv'n them by the Doctrine of Passive Obedience a Doctrine not reveal'd by Jesus Christ nor recorded in his Gospel but stamp'd by latter Creation under the protection of which any King may play the Christiern or the Lewis safely and without controul This Creation stamped Doctrine grew in such Credit and Esteem that not a Man who did not give his Assent and Consent to the same could be allow'd to be a true Son of the Church scarcely to be a Christian. The unlimited Power of a King having been so strenuously asserted and so sucessfully in the Proceedings of those Times seem'd to make the death of King Charles very seasonable for the opening the Execution of the Grand Design in a barefac'd Subversion of the Religion and Laws of England King James at his first coming to the Crown seem'd to endeavour to take away the Apprehension and Terrour that was justly imagin'd to fill the Minds of People And in his first Speech declar'd so much tenderness for them and such a respect for the preservation of their Liberties and Properties that the cajol'd Parliament from an excess of Satisfaction shew I may safely say more Affection to him than ever Parliament did to a Protestant Prince and gave Money till he himself put a stop to the profuse and excessive Expressions of their Satisfaction It must be granted that the lives of some Professors are not so bad as the consequences of their erroneous Opinions And it was charitably thought by the Parliament that King James tho' a Papist would not Govern so Arbitrary as the encourag'd Doctrines of the Age gave him leave but they quickly perceiv'd their Error and found to their Sorrow that Popery and Arbitrary Power could no more be seperated than the double Monster that was shown in London of two Brothers one growing out of the side of the other who were so intimately conjoyn'd that the Life Decay or Death of the one was equally the Concern and Fate of the other For now he began to put his Imperial Laws in Execution and by dispensing with fairly abrogated all the Political which should have secur'd the Rights of the People but alas they were betray'd into his hands and he without Mercy dispatch'd them To me it seems almost impossible but that the Spiritual Defenders of the Absolute Power of an English King who deliver'd that Power to be Gospel and the Slavish Judges who declar'd it to be Law should have deplor'd the Wounds they have given to the Religion and Laws of their Country unless the hopes of a share in the Spoiles had prevail'd above all honest Considerations and unless they had been themselves as ready to embrace the Popish Religion as they had been instrumental to set it up Together
up Nominate or Elect 'T was the Thing they were to take care of and 't was high time it were done It was farther demanded of the Lords whither if there had been an Heir to whom the Crown had descended in the Line of Succession and this Heir certainly known their Lordships would have assembled without his calling Or would have either administer'd the Government themselves or advis'd the Prince of Orange to take it upon him A known Successor being in Possession of the Throne this would amount to High Treason and such a one must be in Possession if the Throne were not vacant Their Lordships were press'd to consider that they had concurr'd with the Commons in this Vote That it is inconsistent with our Religion and our Laws to have a Papist to reign over us Upon this it was askt Must not we come to an Election if the next Heir be a Papist The concluding Stroke was That if their Lordships would not allow the Throne to be vacant nor name the Heir who fill'd it the Nation would be left in in Confusion and Distraction but the Lords were not willing that should be left at their Doors therefore after they return to their House they sent a Message to the Commons on Febr. 7. 1688. That they had agreed to the above said Votes of the Commons without any Alteration I thought it necessary to the chief Purpose of this Discourse to set down some General Arguments of this Conference which is to be seen at large in Print and is most worthy to be read by all that think it worth their while to look into the Constitution of the English Government and to understand the Reason and Grounds of our late Settlement I would now demand of any one that had not given double Security to the Goddess of Errour by Swearing first to be always of his present Opinion and secondly never to examine the Reasons of it I would I say demand of any but such an over-prejudic'd Man by what other way or means the Nation could have been justly settled besides that way and those means by which the Representatives of the People conventionally assembled did settle it The Commons came to a Vote Jan. 28. 1688. That King James the Second having endeavoured to Subvert the Constitution of the Kingdom by breaking the Original Contract between King and People and by the advice of the Jesuites and other wicked Persons having violated the Fundamental Laws and having withdrawn himself out of the Kingdom hath abdicated the Government and that the Throne is thereby become vacant And after a long Conference betwixt the Lords and Commons the Lords on Febr. the 7th next following sent a Message to the Commons to acquaint them That they had agreed to the Vote sent them up of the 28th of January without any Alterations Here now was the whole Body of the Nation the Lords by themselves in their own Persons and the People by their Representatives agreed That King James had Abdicated the Government and that the Throne was vacant by which it is evident that there was as great a necessity to provide a Supply and that by way of Election as there was to have any Government at all for if a People without Government and desirous to settle a Government must not choose for themselves I would fain know who must It is not to be expected that God should miraculously interpose and for any Enemies or Neighbours to intermeddle is against the Nature of the thing because the end which the People seek in Government is to secure themselves against all that are or may be Enemies It remains therefore that they must choose for themselves both who shall govern them and by what measures The Lords indeed in the great Conference spake much of an Heir and argued strenuously for his Rights but knew not who that Heir was nor where to find him and there 's no being govern'd by the Lord knows who that is to be found the Lord knows where or as old Maynard phras'd it in the Clouds If the Lords had known of any Heir they had not admitted a Vacancy if the Votes of the Majority of the Representatives of the People had not supplied the Vacancy by resetling the old Constitution or framing a new which at that time they were at liberty to have done every one of them must have been left in a state of Nature which 't is every Man's Interest to get out of as soon as he can For tho' in a State of Nature no Man has a Lisence to do what he pleases every one being under obligation to the Dictates of Reason which is the Law of Nature yet in that State no Man has the Advantage of more than his single Wit and Strength to do himself Justice when he happens to be injur'd which Inconvenience is the great Motive that inclines Men to unite in Society and put themselves under such Form of Government as they like best When the Representatives of the People were conven'd to supply the Vacancy after that King James had sufficiently published that he would have nothing to do with the Government upon the Terms of the Constitution and according to the original Contract the Condition of the Nation seem'd to be the same as when the Original Contract was first made the People choosing their Ruler and agreeing the Laws by which he should rule them which Original Right can never be justly taken from them until the Champions of the Imperial Laws of a Tyrant and the Preachers of Passive Obedience Slavery can prove that the People were made for the Advantage of their Kingly Ruler and not the Kingly Ruler for their Advantage I know it has been affirm'd that breaking the Original Contract is a Language that hath not been long in use nor is known in any of our Law-Books or Publick Records but is taken from some late Authors and those none of the best received 'T is strange with what confidence some Men by the help of a little Artifice will advance the denial of Truths obvious and evident enough presuming that at the same time they shall by their Intimations and Insinuations establish their own wild pernicious and novel Notions Imperial Laws controuling the Political Jure divino Tyranny quiet Submission to illegal Violence commonly called Non-resistance sometimes disguis'd under the absurd Phrase of Passive Obedience this without Controversy is barbarous Language no Man ever yet in our Law-Books or Publick Records could find either name or thing Of what antiquity these Doctrines may be in the Writings of some Clergymen is not material for neither Christ nor his Apostles nor natural Reason requires any Man quietly to submit to illegal Violence and look upon a Tyrant as the Ordinance of God But yet there are among the Clergy some good Men who abhor these unchristian and unnatural Doctrines and none among them that can bring themselves up to the Practice of the same but even the Apologists are
the Forces he brought over with him were proportion'd to the Design of Relief and Assistance not of Invasion and Conquest He took not on him the Administration of Affairs for a time but at the Request of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal assembled in the House of Lords and of those Parliament Men that had serv'd in the Reign of Charles II. being assembled in the House of Commons and at the meeting of the Convention he gave up that Trust which had been committed to him but for a time and and left it to the Convention to lay such a Foundation for the Security of their Religion Laws and Liberties as they themselves should think good It was never yet objected to him by his most inveterate Enemies that by any Acts of Force or Arts of Corruption he endeavour'd to work on the Members of either House to labour his own Advancement But that was the free Election of the Majority after long Debates and Consultations on other Expedients He did not lay violent hands on the Crown but only accepted it when offer'd and upon the Conditions offer'd with it It is a Truth undeniably manifest that King William did not purchase to himself the Title of a King by any Fact of his own save that by his Vertue and his Merit he recommended himself to the Community and their Choice it was that made him King that 's the Fact and Deed he claims by and 't is the most Righteous and Lawful that can be without a Miracle which I think the Jure Divino Doctors do not pretend that we ought to wait for that so we may have a lawful King The Election of the Prince of Orange to supply the Vacancy of the Throne gives him as Rightful and Lawful a Title as the Election of any Community ever gave to the first elected King There 's nothing in the nature of a King De Facto but King William has shown his abhorrence of it when he took the Oath together with the Crown offer'd him by the Scotch Commissioners he demurr'd at one dubious Expression and call'd Witnesses that he did not intend by it to oblige himself to be a Persecutor as if he had said He would not be obliged by any means to Govern in any Instances as a Tyrant he would be no other than a Legal King In short if the Choice of a People whose King has broke the Original Contract and will not govern by Law but be the Law himself or nothing if this Choice cannot create a Rightful and Lawful King then the Fault must be in the Office but if the Office has no Fault in it and it has none that I know of I am sure there is no Flaw in the present Possessor's Title It is impossible that every Member of the Community should be pleas'd with the Settlement of the Crown but if a Party think much to be concluded by the Votes of the Majority they ought to withdraw their Persons from this Kingdom thus setled contrary to their likings and seek out some Country where Government is model'd more to their Mind For while they stay here and question the Right of King William what do they but ridicule and reproach their own Act In their Supposition that they have set up a King DE FACTO and no more they suppose that they have given a Man Authority to play the Tyrant and do Mischief they suppose that they have made Slaves of themselves and given away their Liberties and Properties they suppose they have done all that against their own Interest which they were angry that the late King attempted to do They will never vindicate their Honour unless they renounce their Distinction which I have prov'd ill-grounded I will next show the mischievous Consequences of it The mischievous Consequences of it are these I. It lessens the Honour of the King This Distinction was reviv'd in the first Infancy of our present Settlement by some disappointed Persons who when they found they could not serve their turns of the Prince of Orange whom with humble Supplications they had call'd in to their rescue from Popery and Slavery nor prevent his Election to the Crown presum'd that they should take from him by Artifice that which was confirm'd upon him maugre all their Opposition by Law It would have pleas'd them well to have been screen'd from the Tyranny of King James and protected in their Tyranny over their Brethren but missing their point there they thought they might safely restore the Divine Right to their late King who could no longer hurt them and as for the new elected Successor who seem'd not made to serve their Party-interest before all things else he should be to them but as an Usurper not have more than the empty Name of a King De Facto and De Jure nick'd this Contrivance to an hair impair'd the Fame of their envied Deliverer and gave them the ravishing Hopes of having their old Master again upon their own Terms They could not have started had they studied for it a more mischievous Reproach than this against their generous Deliverer for thus they charg'd his honest and well aim'd Declarations with want of Truth and Sincerity they rob'd his heroick Actions of their Civic Garland they plunder'd his happy Successes of much of the just Welcom and Esteem which was due to them from every free-born English-man Every dissatisfied Person that reviles the King's Honour with this illegal De Facto Title Assassinates his glorious Fame and comes but little behind if he does not exceed nor equal a Granvil Friend or Perkins We have reason to believe that our glorious King William values his honourable Fame more than his Life his honourable Fame may last thro' many Ages his Life cannot the Nation indeed is most concern'd in his Life Posterity in his Fame But we ought to be tender of the last for they who hold him but a King De Facto appear by their common Discourses very tender even of the Fame of his murderous Assassines what little Stains a Brace of those Miscreants had contracted are thought to have been done away by a Triumvirate of Absolvers I should be glad to see that Affront to the Government reproved by other Arguments besides what our Reverend Teachers use The Vncanonicalness and Vnrubricalness of the bold Deed not but that it might be Uncanonical and Unrubrical too for ought I know but I will swear that the Publick Absolution of Traytors who are not pretended to have declar'd their Sorrow for that devillish Treason which brought them to the Gallows no not so much as in the Ear of the Absolver was a more impudent piece of Roguery than ever was committed by the Gown in the Face of the Sun with a Reverend Grace and Solemnity I am afraid I digress but I hope I am within the Purlues of the Forest. It is the Distinction of De Facto and De Jure which I am to arraign and I charge it to be Mischievous
because it lessens the Honour of the King it draws King WILLIAM's Picture too like that of King James there 's Difference enough let but an ordinary Painter have the Shadowing it between a Tyrant that will not be limited by Law and a Rightful King who pretends to no Power but what the Law gives him Between the sternness of the one awing the Poor Scholars of Maudlin and the Martial heat of the other forcing proud Boufflers out of Namur It ought not to be forgot that this DE FACTO injury to King WILLIAM's Honour is an instance of unparalell'd ingratitude for he ventur'd Life and Fortunes for the Deliverance of our enthrall'd Nation and that upon the humble requests of the Chief of those very Men who now requite him with this Wicked Shameful and Ingrateful Distinction One would think it was not politickly done of them as it is plain was not done honestly for who would serve their interest another time if this be their way of Testifying their Sense of the Obligation They are a Generation difficult and hard to be pleas'd and possibly it were easier to teach them their Duty and make them Subscribe to RIGHTFUL AND LAWFUL KING than to gratifie all their Pretensions for whether they know it or no the honest English Men who were enough to carry it for the Election of King WILLIAM to supply the vacant Throne are enough to defend his Right and establish his Throne maugre all their restless endeavours to supplant him II. As their malevolent distinction lessens the honour of the King so it weakens the Government Unto a King DE FACTO only there is no esteem no Thanks no Allegiance due We may admire a difficult and great Atchievment but it must be a Vertuous Honest and Beneficent which wins our Esteem and Love we must be the better for it if it deserves our thanks we must have paid our thanks in giving the Hero the Right of a King or he can have no just claim to our Allegiance Some Men teach and pretend the Authority of the Church of England for it but therein they wrong their holy Mother that Allegiance is due to successful Usurpers and that Providence together with success grants them that Authority which the People ought to obey for Conscience sake When an unhappy interest with-holds us from professing our assent to an evident Truth we are many times tempted to profess and defend an evident and shameful untruth So it is in the case before us The De facto Men refusing to own the rightful and lawful Title of King WILLIAM are forc'd to say that Allegiance is due to Usurpers for well they know should they pursue their Principle as far as it would carry them they could have no pretence at all to his protection besides open and declar'd enmity against the Government under King WILLIAM's Administration was too much in all conscience to be endur'd Hence they found it requisite to labour to perswade the King that they were oblig'd to obey him tho' he had no right to govern them 'T was a strange Paradox this so very strange that had they not been endued with the uncommon wit and bouldness of guilding and varnishing it at the expence of the honour of God Almighty they had made bold with the honour of the King to very little purpose But it is my business to wash off the guilt and varnish and show the odd Paradox naked that no Consciencious weak mind be cheated thereby hereafter They would perswade the King that they were oblig'd to obey him tho' he had no right to govern them This is pretended first to have been the Opinion of some of the best Lawyers of former days and Instance is offer'd in Sir Edw. Coke the Judges in Baggett's Case the Lord Chief Justice Hales and the Lord Chief Baron Bridgman But the Lord Chief Justice Hales for what he says quotes Sir Ed. Coke only against Sir Edw. Coke's Authority many things are obvious besides that it stands singly on Baggett's Case the Parliament Roll recited in that Case is pointed directly against what Sir Edw. Coke is suppos'd to have asserted Lord Chief Baron Bridgman has said nothing in favour but much against the Paradox For a fair and full illustration of these particulars I refer to the Review of Dr. Sherlock 's Case of Allegiance Printed in the Year 1691. As our Law is not chargeable with so foolish and unrighteous an injunction as that which requires obedience to Kings in possession Kings falsely so call'd who have no right to govern so much less is it to be defended from the words of Holy Scripture But as it sometimes happens in other Cases so in this where Men have the least reason for it there they put the greatest trust There is not a Text in the Bible which commands Obedience to Tyrants or Usurpers The Scope of the places and the evident reason of things all along evinces that the Kings Magistrates and other Superiours whom we are commanded to obey have a lawful Authority to govern Yet by artifice and dextrous shifting the Sails our De facto Men hope to weather the point Their method is to refer all events to the over-ruling disposals of Providence so as if Providence left nothing to the free will of Man Indeed if it were the positive Will of God that Ambitious Men should grasp Sceptres and Arbitrarily Lord it over cheated or conquer'd People then we ought to obey Tyrants and Usurpers for Conscience-sake but then the Argument would prove too much for such Ambitious Men being the Ministers of God's Providence and executing only what he would have them they ought not to be called Tyrants and Usurpers they have according to this reasoning from Providence a lawful Tittle But the Sophistry in this way of arguing from Providence is plainly discover'd and refuted by distinguishing between the Will and the Permission of God Almighty When those things that ought to be done and which are just and good are done then the Will of God is complied with when contrary things are done then the Will of God is resisted and oppos'd for as Dr. Sherlock has excellently observ'd We are to learn our duty from the law of God not from his Providence the Providence of God will never justify any action which his Law forbids Let me add nor can we without the highest impiety ascribe an unlawful action to his over-ruling influence he does not so much as give leave to the attempts of Ambitious Men he is not pleas'd with Usurpation and Tyranny and therefore it is impossible for him to require that Obedience be paid to Usurpers and Tyrants God for many wise Reasons permits the Affairs of the World to go on as they are mov'd by the force of Natural Causes thence it comes to pass that Craft and Cruelty often prevail over Right and Innocence But God has not made the misfortunes of honest Men their Duty neither Reason nor Revelation forecloses them from
himself and without his Parliament no good Prince not He. All that he desir'd was only to be permitted to raise Money now and then upon occasion in the Intervals of Parliament and not that neither but in Cases of pure Necessity when the Safety of his good Subjects absolutely requir'd it And how could it be deny'd him who lov'd his People so well to judge of Cases of Necessity But the Power of raising Money being once gone the deluded People presently perceiv'd that they had purchas'd their Slavery with it For now all Power fell easily into the Hands of the King In vain it was to dispute with him any Civil Rights not yet parted with by name or even the publick Profession of Religion For the Power of Raising Money is in effect the Power of doing all things just so is it with the Article of Infallibility admit but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that first false Article and you must stand with his Holiness for nothing but believe thro' thick and thin in spight of Sense and Reason Well! the French King became by the abovesaid Artifice at perfect Liberty to be or not be a Tyrant which he pleas'd Let no one ask how he govern'd himself for did ever Man grasp at the Power to do Mischief without the purpose If there have been such mysterious Riddles of irregular Vertue yet the French King 's after Lewis XI were no instances of it In them it plainly appear'd how effectually the temptation of unlimited Power works on Ambitious Nature Ambitious Nature seldom or never esteems any thing enough if there be any thing at all out of her Possession It has not been enough for Lewis the XIV to be the Law but he must be the Religion also of his Slaves With a great many it was Argument enough to be of the Religion he requir'd because it was his while his Spiritual Dragoons disputed more forcibly with those of a more backward Faith The Priests had stood altogether idle and unconcern'd in this Conversion but for the merit of that flattering Doctrine A King is accountable to none but God but to make amends for their being less serviceable than the Military Men their unaccountable King shall be stil'd the Vicegerent of God nay the very Image of the Most High tho' they spoil the Argument in the First Chapter to the Hebrews for the Divinity of Christ. I wonder they do not maintain That their King is accountable to none but himself For if he prescribes them their Religion as well as dictates their Law he is their Idol God as well as their Royal Tyrant But as I noted Ambitious Nature never esteems any thing enough when there is yet something out of her possession therefore Lewis the XIV is for advancing his Tyranny over his Neighbours also To this purpose his method has long time been to corrupt the Courts of Princes by his Lovis d'Ors to surprize Un-armed Countries and Ill-provided Forts by breach of his Oaths Thus his Treachery has many Years purvey'd for his Cruelty and his Cruelty shed Torrents of Blood to quench the raging Thirst of his Ambition He has plunder'd the Monuments of the Dead and the Altars of his own Gods nor Fearing nor Reverencing one more than the other He has broke his Leagues with Christian Princes as long as they would trust him has kept them something better indeed with the Turk for it was his Interest tho' the Turk is not his only Allie for he has the Devil and the Pope beside What good understanding there is between him and the Pope the World sees and he that will not grant him to be in League with the Foul Fiend also must believe that there 's no Devil in Hell or no Monkish Conjurer in France to bring those mighty Potentates together Is there any difference between Neighbouring States Lewis will interpose to settle it and never leave 'till he has settled or made it wider Is any Prince or Princess to be Married He proposes a Match for them some Bastard Son or Daughter of his own well pre-instructed what returns to make him for their Preferment Is there any Candidate labouring for a Sovereign Bishoprick or Coadjutorship who has very little reason to support his pretences Lewis the Grand will serve his hopeless interest out of his own free mischievous Generosity When he prospers he fights for the glory of his Majesty When his Affairs are in some danger he labours only to extirpate Heresie but in neither of these Cases thinks it improper to assist an Heretical Noble Revolter against his Catholick Lord and Master In sending abroad Embassadors he choses Huguenot Ravigni for England a stout Toper for Germany a bold Marquess for Rome a grave Clergy-man for Spain In short he makes himself all things for all that he may confound all Nations and turn the World into a Wilderness This is the French Original which some unhappy men among us have studiously set themselves to Copy Now in the First place God be prais'd then due thanks paid to King William our Deliverer and every Noble Afferter of our English Liberties in the Convention-Parliament for that the work of those unhappy Copyers was disturb'd and so they could never finish their Piece but they gave us a plaguy sketch of it in the last Reign But there is another Original Draught of a Tyrant set forth in that excellent History of the Revolution in Sweden wherein many particulars bear a perfect resemblance of our Late Times as to the great Transactions both in France and England which is not to be wonder'd at but rather to be consider'd as a good Evidence that all Tyranny is alike for tho' the Streams from the same Fountain may run in several Ways and Channels yet they all tend to the same Ocean of Blood After the Death of the Brave Steno the Worthy Administratour of Sweden Christiern II. succeeded his Father in the Kingdom of Denmark and obtain'd the Crown of Sweden by Conquest This Prince was not more ambitious to make others his Slaves than he was himself to become the Slave of Sigebrite a Woman who had neither the Charms of Youth or Beauty to Captivate him But this notwithstanding her Power was as great over him as if she had seem'd intit'led to it by all the Perfections which Nature could have bestow'd upon her It is hard to be imagin'd how an Old Dutch Woman could obtain this absolute Dominion over a haughty Monarch unless it were by perswading him to assume the same over others The Inhumane Polities of this She-Favourite were extremely agreeable to the fierce and cruel Disposition of Christiern He look'd upon the Antient Liberties of his Subjects as inconsistent with his Royal Honour and Dignity and she tempted him to sacrifice a whole Senate to his Arbitrary Ambition This this was the pleasing Conjuration that charm'd him whose Nature was not so pardonably wicked as to dote on Youth and Beauty The Tyrant receiv'd
forbid it they actually did use all Arts to make the People apprehend the sadness of their case and that the being without Priests was being without God in the World One Morning therefore they celebrated Mass they eat up all their Gods and concluded the Service without blessing the People But the Senate stood firm to their Order and the People were quiet and content to take care of their own Souls which so troubled these Holy Fathers that several alter'd their minds and were content to stay and do their Duties most of the Capuchins in the Territories of Berscia and Bergamo wisely consider'd that they could not live half so well without their Flock as their Flock without them therefore when they saw they could not help it they associated with the Senate and celebrated Divine Service as before notwithstanding the Pope's Interdict I will not say That every thing in this Story which relates to the Senate of Venice and their Clergy runs paralel with the Circumstances between the Government and our Clergy-dissenting-Associators but if any one shall say that there is no manner of Resemblance between the one and the other I must beg his Pardon What may or may not be fitly applied the Reader shall freely judge I will not labour to prepossess him with my Notions yet I will make bold to affix one Note to the Story and That 's this It was not with the Popish Religion nor its Ministers that the Senate had a Difference only this they firmly resolv'd that none should be Ministers of Religion for them that would not own that the Senate had a Rightful and Lawful Authority to govern the Republick by what Decrees they pleas'd without asking leave of the Pope The Readers Trouble shall be over when I have told him it is not the Church of England nor Ministers of the Church of England as such that I have here tax'd for I heartily and sincerely profess a profound Veneration to the Right Reverend Fathers in God my Lords the Archbishops and Bishops that are as faithful to his Majesty King WILLIAM and the Interest of their Country as Paolo Sarpio Veneto better known by the Name of Father Paul was to the Senate of Venice I highly esteem and regard all the inferior Clergy whose Honesty and Loyalty keeps even Paces with the House of Commons the Representatives of the People of England and equals them to those Venetian Ecclesiasticks who prefer'd the Decrees of the Senate their Lawful Governors before the Interdiction of their Holy Medling Spiritual Father the Pope POSTSCRIPT OF the Mischiefs which flow from the seditious Distinction of a King De Facto and De Jure there is no end as oft as I think of it new Instances of its Mischievousness occur to my mind For might not a French Commissioner at a Treaty of Peace from hence take occasion to argue after this manner As it was said in behalf of the Dutch when they first refus'd the Bank of England's Bills Why should they take them when the English among themselves would not So it may be said in behalf of the French King Why should he own King William for Rightful and Lawful King of England c. when so many of the Clergy enjoying their Tythes and Pulpits and not a few of the Laity in publick Office and Imployment will not Might not the Monsieur pursue the Raillery thus When the Government does not think fit to impose the Lawfulness of King William's Title on the Consciences of the Clergy and all other Officers and Magistrates commissionated by his Majesty why should it be impos'd on the Conscience of the French King who is none of King William's Subject but a Crown'd Head as well as himself I know not what could be reply'd to this argumentative Raillery which mingles Reason and Reproach together unless that English Subjects of all Orders and Degrees should be better taught their Duty for the future and then the French King would stand with us for nothing When once those wretched Inventions of Usurpation Conquest and Desertion Branches of the De Facto Doctrine are penally restrain'd as by English Law they might and ought to be there 's not a Clergyman of an hundred but shall justify the choice of the People and speak honourably of the Conventional Parliament there 's not a Lay-Magistrate but shall know under whom and for whom he was created and dare as well be as betray King William or his Country Let Clergy-men and Lay-men be compell'd to Associate in the Form of the House of Commons to defend their Rightful and Lawful King William and to revenge his untimely Death which God prevent and a very little compulsion will doe for the most backward of them are only a little Knavish or so not obstinate and there shall not be a Mercenary Villain found that will be hir'd to lift up a hand against him not a Crown'd nor Decrown'd Head so foolishly wicked as to go about to hire them Note That this should have been inserted among the Arguments which are offer'd against the Non-Associators who scruple the word Revenge A Parliament-Association with the Royal Assent is in all its Parts as Legal as any other Parliamentary Act with the same Royal Assent and if the Supream Authority of a Nation may decree what sort of Punishment they judge most proper to be inflicted on Thieves and Robbers House-breakers and Murderers nothing hinders but that they may decree what Punishments they please to be inflicted on those Treacherous Assassines that shall kill King William And if the Supream Authority of a Nation may lawfully Authorize all and every Person of the Nation to kill a mischievous Out-law where e're they find him no Reason can be giv'n why they may not Authorize all and every Person of the Nation to be reveng'd according to the utmost of their power of the Treacherous Assassines that shall kill King William It is the interest of the Nation that such Treacherous Assassines should not scape Vengeance it is therefore the prudence of the Parliament to Commission every particular Man against them FINIS Some Books sold by John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultery THE Life of the Reverend Mr. Richard Baxter Published by Mr. Mathew Sylvester Folio Mr. Lorrimers Apology for the Ministers who Subscribed only to the Stating of Truths and Errors in Mr. William's Book in Answer to Mr. Trail's Letter 4 o Mr. Lorrimer's Remarks upon Mr. Goodwin's Discourse of the Gospel 4 o Dr. Burton's Discourses of Purity Charity Repentance and seeking first the Kingdom of God Published with a Preface by Dr. John Tillotson late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury In 8 o Bishop Wilkin's Discourse of Prayer and Preaching Mr. Adday's Stenographia Or the Art of Short-Writing Compleated in a far more Compendious way than any yet Extant 8 o Mr. Addy's Short-Hand Bible The London Dispensatory reduced to the Practice of the London Physitians wherein are contained the Medicines both Galenical and Chymical that are now in use those out of use omitted and those in use not in the Latin Copy here added By John Peachey of the College of Physitians London 12 o Atkin's English Grammer Or the English Tongue reduced to Grammatical Rules Composed for the use of Schools 8 o Cambridge Phrases for the use of Shools 8 o The Dying Man's Assistant Or Short Instructions for those who are concern'd in the Preparing of Sick Persons for Death Being also no less worthy the Consideration of all Good Christians in time of Health As shewing the Importance of an Early Preparation for their Latter End with regard as well to their Temporal as Eternal State 12 o Books sold by R. Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane THE History of Religion Written by a Person of Quality 1694. A Twofold Vindication of the late Archbishop of Canterbury and of the Author of The History of Religion The first part defending the said Author against the Defamations of Mr. Fr. Atterbury's Sermon and both those eminent Persons against a Traiterous Libel titled The Charge of Socinianism against Dr. Tillotson consider'd In two Letters to the Honourable Sir R. H. The Second containing Remarks on the said Sermon and a Reply to the same Libel Wherein some Right is done to that great and good Man Dr. Tillotson in the Points of the Original of Sacrifices the Sacrifice of Christ Future Punishments c. and a Word in Defence of the Eminent Bishop of Salisbury By another Hand 1696. Twelve Dissertations out of Monfieur Le Clerk's Genesis Concerning I. The Hebrew Tongue II. The manner of Interpreting the Bible III. The Author of the Pentateuch IV. The Temptation of Eve by the Serpent V. The Flood VI. The Confusion of Languages VII The Original of Circumcision VIII The Divine Appearances in the Old Testament IX The Subversion of Sodom X. The Pillar of Salt XI The coming of Shiloh XII The several obscure Texts in Genesis Explain'd and illustrated Done out of Latin by Mr. Brown To To which is added a Dissertation concerning the Israelites Passage through the Red Sea By another Hand 1696. * Jovian