And He has streyn'd the Point already and remov'd it to the Successor and his Adherents From the Expectant to the Occupant from the Duke to the King and so premeditates and Encourages a Rebellion in the very Body of his Proposition For His Majesty that now is must be Dead before the Libellers Device against the Successour can take Effect and King and Successour in This Case are all one Now upon This Principle there needs no more than to say that any King is a Papist to Depose him Nay admitting This Power to be in the People Acts of Parliament are but Matter of Course and they may do the thing even as well without giving any Reason for 't Upon the Ground of their Vnaccountable Prerogative It would be known too what his meaning is by the Parliament he speaks of that is Openly to oppose the Successour It cannot be understood of King Lords and Commons for the King is the Party Opposed and Excluded And then I would as willingly learn what kind of Opposition it is that he intends It must be an Opposition either of Force and Violence or an Opposition in the way of Argument Counsels and Debate It cannot be the Latter sure for what could be more ridiculous then to expect that a Prince should pass a Bill for the Deposal of Himself And if it be the Other we are e'en Half-Seas-Over already into a New Rebellion There is not such a Monster in Nature as a Headless Parliament We have had the Experience of it and without Rubbing the Old Sore or Reciting the Calamities it brought upon This Nation I shall only say This I cannot bethink my self of any sort of Oppression either in Religion Property or Freedom or of any One Crying sin in that Impious and Seditious Interval that scap'd us I could add several other Instances of the same Complexion with those above Recited which I shall forbear partly out of Respect and in part to keep my self within Compass For I must not Quit This Subject without giving further Evidence of a Confederacy against the King and Government like those that Rob the House under colour of Helping to Quench the Fire and in the very Instant of Pretending to save the Kingdom they are laying their Heads together how to Destroy it Witness the most Audacious Libel perhaps that ever flew in the Face of any Government It bears the Title of A Political Catechism concerning the Power and Privileges of Parliament taken as pretended out of His Majesties Nineteen Propositions of June 2. 1642. with a Construction and Application much at the rate of the Devils Gloss upon the Text to our Saviour upon the Pinacle of the Temple The Compiler of This Libel makes His Majesties Answer to be Effectually an Admittance of the Right and Reason of the Propositions and the Publisher of it recommends the Doctrine of 1642. to the Practice of 1679. We 'l take a short View First of the Quality of the Propositions Secondly of the Kings Sense upon them And after That of our Catechists New model of Government The main Scope of the Propositions is This. All Privy-Councellors and Ministers of State to be discharg'd and their places Supply'd by direction and Approbation of Both Houses And all to be Vnder such an Oath as They shall agree upon The Great Affairs of the Nation to be Transacted in Parliament and no Publick Act of the Kings to be Valid unless Subscribed by the Major part of the Councel Chosen ut supra The Number of the Councel to be Limited and all Vacancies fill'd by direction of Parliament All the Great Officers and Iudges to be so Chosen The Militia acknowledg'd to be in the Two Houses and They likewise to have the Approbation of the Tutors and Governors of the Kings Children and of Those that Attend them All Forts and Castles to be put into the hands of Persons approv'd of by the Two Houses The Kings Guards and Military Forces to be Discharg'd thô the Rebellion was Now begun No Peers Created in time to come to Sit and Vote in Parliament without the Consent of Both Houses c. There will need no Other Descant upon These Propositions being so Gross in themselves but only the Citing of some Passages out of His late Majesties Answer in Reflection upon them These Demands says the Late King are of That Nature that to Grant them were in Effect at Once to Depose both Our self and Our Posterity These things being past we may be waited upon bare-headed We may have Our hand kist the Stile of Majesty Continu'd to Vs and the Kings Authority declared by Both Houses of Parliament may be still the Stile of your Commands We may have Swords and Maces carry'd before Vs and please Our self with the sight of a Crown and Scepter And yet even these Twigs would not Long flourish when the Stock upon which they grew are Dead But as to True and Real Power We should remain but the Outside but the Picture but the Sign of a King c. And Again Thô we shall always weigh the Advices both of Our Great and Privy-Councel with the Proportionable Consideration due to them yet we shall also look upon their Advices as Advices not as Commands or Impositions Vpon Them as Our Counsellors not as Our Tutors and Guardians and upon Our Self as their King not as their Pupil or Ward Pag. 318. And Further Pag. 320. We call God to Witness that as for Our Subjects sake these Rights are vested in Vs So for Their sakes as well as for Our Own we are resolved not to quit them nor to subvert thô in a Parliamentary way the Antient Equal Happy Well-poised and never enough Commended Constitution of This Kingdom Nor to make Our self of a King of England a Duke of Venice and This of a Kingdom a Republick Moreover Pag. 322. The Common people when they find that all was done By them but not For them will at last grow weary of Journey-work and set up for themselves call Parity and Independence Liberty devouring the Estate which had devoured the Rest Destroy all Rights and Proprieties all Distinctions of Families and Merit And by This means the splendid and Excellently-distinguish'd Form of Government end in a Dark Equal Chaos of Confusion and the Long Line of Our many Noble Ancestors in a Jack Cade or a Wat Tiler After the Mockery of the Abovemention'd Propositions and the Kings Just and Prophetical Judgment made upon them we shall only Add that the Ruin of the Late King was as Certainly the Intent of Those Vndutiful Demands as it was the Effect of them in the Execution of the Powers claim'd Thereby and we may as reasonably conclude that the same Pretensions now over again are publish'd with the same Ends and that the Sufferance of This Licence will Naturally run into the same Consequences For the whole work of moving a Rebellion is but First to possess the people
been much better let alone and that out of divers respects in their due places to be consider'd First as to the Question it self it is a Ticklish Point to say what a King of Great Britain with his Two Houses of Parliament either Can or Cannot Lawfully do when perhaps it would puzzle the Three Inns of Court to State and Determine the very Priviledges of the Single House of Commons Secondly I do not know how far Private men may be allow'd to pronounce upon the Power of that Government to which they are Born Subject Thirdly This Particular Case renders the Undertaking more Invidious and Dangerous The King 't is true calls the House of Commons to Consult and Advise de Arduis Regui Of which Ardua That now in hand is undoubtedly the Chief but I cannot yet learn that the Soluta Multitudo were ever joyn'd with their Representatives in the Commission Fourthly what can be more Hazardous then the Probable Effects of this Dispute It Splits the People directly into Two Parties One of which is certainly in the wrong and the Publick Peace endanger'd upon the Division Beside that the People being made Iudges of a Case that they do not one jot Vnderstand it looks as if they were not call'd upon so much for their Opinion as for their Help The Publishing Manifesto's of this kind is not so much the Stating of a Case as the Pre-engaging of an Interest for it is not a Rush matter to the Multitude whether the thing be Lawful or Not according to the Law of the Land Let but Them be once possess'd that it is Reasonable and for the Common Good thô in Truth never so Inconvenient and Vnreasonable the Old Story of Self-preservation and Kings being Constituted for the Good of the People in their mistaken sense will make it Lawful And when it comes to That once the Government is Lost. A Popular Error upon the Matter here in Debate must necessarily draw after it a train of dismal Consequences as distraction of Thought in the bus'ness of Conscience and Duty an Aversion to their Superiors Irreverence to the Laws and a Spirit of Opposition to all Publick Acts of Civil Administration if not an Vsurpation of the Power it self And all This is no more then to pass a Sentence in a Case where we our selves have given 'em the Chair The very Exprosing of the Question is a kind of Reference as who should say Gentlemen can the Parliament disinherit the Duke or not And This They take for an Authority to proceed upon to an Arbitration Now on the Other side I cannot find so much as one Colourable Pretence of Advantage by the broaching of This Dispute to Countervail all these Mischiefs It is a great matter you 'l say the Clearing of a Truth especially of a Truth so necessary to be known that the safety and well being of every Particular man the Preservation of our King Kingdom and Religion depends upon the People's understanding this matter aright If either this suggestion be not put home or that the matter here suggested can be made good I shall submit my self to be better Instructed in it First as to the clearing of the Truth Magno Iudice se quisque tuetur The very Question is a Moot-point One Probable is set up against Another and the Learned Themselves are Divided upon 't There are Presidents produced on Both sides and Objections also on Both sides to Those Presidents And in short it must be the work of a Casuist as well as of a Common Lawyer to decide this Controversie How shall the Common people come to distinguish between the Right and the Wrong where the Doctors themselves Differ Or how is it possible to make any thing Clear to Those that want Capacities to Vnderstand it How shall They come to separate matter of Fact from Right To know what Presidents are Warrantable or what Cases Parallel and what not without any sort of acquaintance either with Law or History with the Intrigues of Parties and Factions or the secret Ressorts of State If it be said that These Books are written only for such as are Competent Judges of the Subject they Treat of my Answer is that it were well enough if they could be kept from falling into Other hands But lying open indifferently to All it is to be fear'd that the Argument does more hurt where it is not throughly understood then Good where it is And there is This further to be said that in all Cases of Appeal to the People whether they Vnderstand them or not they never fall of siding with those Propositions that Promise Liberty to the Subject and Fetter the Government So that their Partiality in One Case is as bad as their Ignorance in Another If it be agreed that a man cannot be the better for any thing that he does not Vnderstand or at least so far as he does not Understand it and that not one man of a thousand understands the Stress of the Point here in Issue the pretence of clearing the Truth falls to the ground Or however there is not one man of a Thousand the Better for 't But now on the Other side let us suppose the people so wise that every man that reads the Case sees through it This might serve to set some people Right and to Confirm Others But Right In What In the Critical Explication of a Riddle of State which would serve us just to as much purpose as the Knack of Solving other Common Riddles It would make us as many other Curiosities do only a little more Learnedly and Vnprofitably Troublesom It is not the Common peoples Province to dive into the Arcana Imperii and it is as little either their Duty or their Interest to intermeddle in the Mysteries of Government As the Vniverse it self is compacted into one Body by the Orderly Disposition and Contiguity of Parts So is every Political Society also bound up in One Community by a Regular Distribution and Subordination of Degrees Offices and Functions And is not all This the Work and Dictate of the same Almighty Providence He that made the World appointed the Order of it and assigned to every Part its proper Place and Station But to proceed now upon the admittance of a Supposition that the Subject matter of this Dispute is competently Vnderstood 'T is as Broad as 't is Long take it which way ye please And the very same thing to the People whether it goes For the Duke or Against him If they find that a Parliament Cannot Disinherit him they are but where they were before unless they should Impose it upon the Government by Force And what on the Other side if the Parliament may Legally Do it May they not as Legally yet Refuse it So that the People are ty'd up This way as well as the Other without any manner of Benefit beyond the bare knowledg whether the thing may
The Case Put Concerning the SUCCESSION OF HIS Royal Highness THE DUKE of YORK LONDON Printed by M. Clark for Henry Brome at the Gun in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1679. The Case Put Concerning the SUCCESSION OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS The DUKE of YORK THE Case of His Royal Highnesses Succession in regard of the present circumstances of Plots and Popery has been of late sufficiently agitated Pro and Con while the Advocates of Both sides pretend equally to support themselves upon Arguments drawn from Nature Scripture Law History Custom and Political Expedience Et Pila minantia Pilis Now as it is utterly impossible for a Contradiction to be Both ways in the Right so the Difficulty will not be much less for a Common man in a Proposition of this Nicety to distinguish betwixt the Truth and the Paradox and to determine upon which side the Reason lies Or what if the Contendents themselves should yet in some degree have left the very Pinch of the Point betwixt them For it is not the bare Citing of a piece of Scripture or a Record that does the business but the fair Expounding and Applying of it with a due Regard to the Context of Times Persons Interests Occasions and other Circumstances There is a great difference betwixt the Counsels of Factious Times and of Peaceable of Vsurpers and of Lawful Princes the Concessions of Kings in a Moral State of Liberty and of Kings under a kind of Duresse We should in fine distinguish betwixt the Sacred and Inviolable Resolutions that are founded upon Equity and the Common Good and those Temporary shifts which are only Invented to serve a present Turn of State Was there ever any Sedition that did not recommend and support it self upon some pretext of Law and President Was there ever any Heresie or Schism that did not advance it self under the Countenance of some Text And yet Heaven forbid that we should think ever the worse either of the word of God or of the Law of the Land for being made use of as a Cloak to so much wickedness He that has a mind to destroy the Discipline the Order or the very Doctrine of the Church of England shall Quote ye twenty Texts for 't and as many Presidents if there shall be occasion for Diverting or Cutting off the Succession nay for Deposing the King Himself and Changing the very Form of the Government This is no more then what has been actually done in the Memory of Man 'T is a hard matter to imagine a New Case So that let the Instance be what it will it is but looking back into Former Ages to match it where you shall be sure to find Choice of Presidents ready made to your hand like Cloaths in a wholesale Shop of all Sizes and Colours Wherefore we should have a care methinks of dealing in perverted Texts and Presidents The Devil himself fishes with these Baits and as some body says the Rabble swallow them whole without either examining or dreaming of the Danger till they feel the Hook in their Guts Or if I may change my Metaphor the Common people are caught just as we catch Larks 'T is but setting up a fiue Thing for a Wonderment they all flock to 't as far as they can see it and never leave Flickering about it till the Fowler has them in the Net A Pomp of words and Colours to the Multitude is but the Casting of the Sun in their Eyes from a Looking-Glass the more they look at it the less able are they to discern what the matter is and the great mischief is this they never take themselves to be so Clear-sighted as in those cases wherein they are Stark-blind They are akin to what d' ye call him 's Monsters their Eyes are in their Breasts and their Brains in their Bellies And therefore whoever would make an Interest with the Vulgar applies himself not to their Vnderstandings but to their Passions and Appetites He comes with Absolons Exclamation in his mouth Oh! that I were made a Iudg in the Land which seldom fails of being the Prologue to some approching Tragedy But let me try now if I can find my way back again There is an Assertion laid down That all the Human Acts and Powers in the world cannot hinder the Descent of the Crown upon the Next Heir of the Bloud This Position the Assertor undertakes to make Good by Scripture Law History and Reason And his Opponents on the other side undertake upon the very same Authorities to Overthrow it and I find a very Extraordinary Pen engag'd in the Controversie We shall enquire first How this Question came at this time to be set a Foot and then into the Quality of the Question it self There was a Bill brought into the House of Commons in May last which was Twice read for disabling His Royal Highness to Inherit this Imperial Crown because of his Departure from Vs to the Romish Communion The matter going no further and That Parliament being soon after Dissolv'd there came forth in Print a Pretended Copy of that Bill which was publish'd by a Person if a mans Affections may be judg'd by his Practices that has as little kindness for His Majesty as for his Royal Brother and not one jot more for the Church of England then for That of Rome Of both which Aversions there are Instances more then enow Beside that in the very same Pamphlet he carries an Inference from the Case of Foreclosing the Duke to the same Right of Removing the King himself in case of disability as he says to do the Kingdom any Good So that instead of pursuing the seeming ends of the said Bill that is to say the Preservation of His Majesty and the Protestant Religion by This Act of Exclusion he very fairly and for brevity sake Sweeps all together By the Character of the First Publisher we may Imagine the Intent of That Publication And it is further to be noted that the Anti-Ducal Party were the Aggressors and it would have lookt like a yielding of the Cause to have let the Subject fall without a Reply So that the Blame if any shall arise from this Matter must be laid at his door that mov'd the Question which Question is briefly This. Whether the Parliament of England may by the Laws of England Exclude the next Heir of the Bloud from Succession to the Crown Some are of opinion for it others against it But the Legality or Illegality of such an Act is a Point that I am not willing to meddle with either one way or other For whether the thing may Lawfully be done or not there may be Danger yet and Inconvenience in the putting of the Question So that in the Order of Reasoning it should be first agreed that this is a fit Question to be put before we joyn Issue upon the Merits of the Main Cause For my own part I think it had
be done or not If the Parliament will they May and if they will not they may let it alone But it many times falls out that Overtures of this Nature serve rather as a Temptation to the doing of some thing at a Venture then a simple and candid Deliberation whether a thing may be Lawfully done or no. Or what if This thing may Lawfully be done we are never the nearer yet if His Majesty has not as well the Will to do it as the Power And it seems more reasonable to believe that he has not then Otherwise having so expresly declared his mind to the Two Houses of Parliament against it in His most Gracious speech of May last in the words following I am as ready to join with you in all the ways and means that may Establish as Firm a security of the Protestant Religion as your own hearts can wish and This not only during My time of which I am sure you have no fear but in all future Ages even to the end of the world And therefore am come to assure you that what Reasonable Bills you shall present to be pass'd into Laws to make you safe in the Reign of any Successor so as they tend not to Impeach the Right of Succession nor the Descent of the Crown in the True Line and so as they Restrain not the Iust Right of any Protestant Successour shall find from Me a ready Concurrence And I desire you to think of some more effectual means for the Conviction of Popish Recusants and to expedite your Counsels as fast as you can that the world may see Our Vnanimity and that I may have the Opportunity of shewing you how ready I am to do any thing that may give Content and Satisfaction to such Loyal and Dutiful Subjects Now if so it be that the very Question it self thô handled with all the Simplicity of Thought Imaginable carries along with it so many Difficulties and Inconveniences and without any Benefit at all to the Publick as is already set forth what shall we say if upon a Fair and Temperate Examination of the Arguments employ'd for the support of this Disinheriting Proposition it shall appear upon Evident Reason and a Natural Deduction of Consequences that whether the Duke Stands or Falls the meer Ventilation of the Question opens a Gap to let in all those Calamities upon us by unavoidable Inferences which we propound to avoid by a Preventional Exclusion To say nothing either of the Boldness of the Argument from a Private Pen or of the Opposition of a Subject to the Solemn and Declared Will of his Sovereign And That Declaration too recommended to Us by a Previous Grant of the Thing in the whole World which we would be thought to set the highest value upon the Security of the Protestant Religion by all ways Imaginable to This and to Future Ages Truly the Trumping up of This Question has an Ill Visage any way but the doing of it directly against His Majesties Will made known with his own Lips to the Contrary This makes it look a great deal more Suspicious For to what End is it to put our selves in a Sweat upon a Question whether or no the King may Lawfully do such a Particular thing when he has told us before-hand that he Will not do it and the thing cannot be done Without him And the Other way it looks Worse and carries such an Innuendo along with it as who should say Look ye my Masters Here 's a thing the Government May do if they please and it is absolutely necessary to be done But if They Will not and so forth There 's no managing of this Discourse without making frequent mention of his Royal Highnesses Quality and Title and yet saving my Duty to him in all his Capacities I shall keep my self in these Papers upon a Punctual Noutrality as to His Pretensions My bus'ness being only to Acquit my self in what I ow to my Religion my Prince and my Country where I find any of these Sacred Interests Concern'd As for Instance where any Contemptuous Reflections are past upon the Person of the Duke His Majesty himself becomes a sufferer through the Indignities that are cast upon his Brother Or where the Same Argument that is levell'd at the Duke strikes the King too and the Government In These Cases I reckon my self to be at Liberty The Motives or Inducements to This Project of Exclusion together with the very Form it self are set forth in the Pamphlet abovementioned under the Title of A Copy of the Bill concerning the Duke of York viz. That James Duke of York Albany and Ulster having departed Openly from the Church of England and having publickly prosest and own'd the Popish ligion which hath notoriously given Birth and Life to the most Damnable and Hellish Plot by the most Gracious Providence of God lately brought to Light shall be excluded and disabled and is hereby excluded and disabled for ever from Possessing Having Holding Inheriting or Enjoying the Imperial Crowns and Governments of this Realm and These Kingdoms and of all Territories Countries and Dominions now or which shall hereafter be under His Majesties Subjection and of and from all Titles Rights Prerogatives and Revenues with the said Crowns now or hereafter to be enjoy'd And that upon the Demise or Death of His Majesty without Heirs of his Body whom God long preserve the Crowns and Governments of these Kingdoms and all Territories Countries and Dominions Now or which shall Hereafter be under His Majesties Subjection with all the Rights Prerogatives and Revenues therewith of Right enjoy'd and to be enjoy'd shall devolve and come upon such person who shall be next Lawful Heir of the same and who shall have always been truely and professedly of the Protestant Religion now Established by Law within this Kingdom as if the said Duke of York were actually dead c. Here is First to be consider'd the Ground of This Exclusion and Then the Extent of it The Ground of it is said to be the Dukes Departure from the Church of England to the Romish Religion as that which notoriously gave BIRTH and LIFE to the PLOT Now Dr. Tonge that knows better tells us that this is No New Plot but an Old one Continu'd and Dr. Oates most Expresly in the Twenty third Paragraph of his Narrative informs us That the English Fathers of St. Omers writing to Thomas Whitebread and Other Fathers Here pray'd them to prosecute their Design of taking away the King and if his Royal Highness should not comply with them to dispatch Him too For they did fear that not any of the Stuarts were men for Effecting Their Purposes And in this Letter Instructions were given to the Fathers to feel how his Royal Highness stood Affected In the Paragraph following the said Fathers render This Account to the aforesaid Letter That they had found that althô the Duke was a Good Catholick