the Laws to which he was Sworn he should be Perjured And by what reason can a man be obliged to observe his Oath to a person that being mutual obliged to him hath notoriously violated his Oath and becomes a perjur'd Person it is well resolved by Amesius de Juramento l. 4. c. 22. Quum aufertur ratio Juramenti Juramentum cessat ratione eventus Qui easus est eorum qui Juraverunt se obedituros domino aut prinoipi alieui qui postea cessat esse talis When the reason of an Oath doth cease the obligation of the Oath ceaseth also by reason of the event which is the case of such who have sworn to obey a Lord or Prince who afterward ceaseth to be so King John's Confirmation of an Original Contract Anno 1214. upon granting the great Charter and that of the Forest it was enacted at Running-Mead That 25 Barons should be elected as Conservators of the Liberties thereby granted who upon Violation of them might no redress being made within 40 days after notice enforce the King by seizing his Castles and Lands and as a Security the four chief Captains of the Castles of Northampton Kenelworth Nottingham and Scarborough were sworn to the Barons and that none should be placed in them but such as the Barons thought to be faithful and also the Castles of Rochester and others which of right belonged to the Archbishop of Canterbury were delivered up and others to the Barons But the King by help of some Forreigners regain'd them all and was Master of all England except the City of London whose Suburbs he burnt And then the Bishops and Barons swore at St. Edmonds on the high Altar That if King John did not observe his Grants they would compel him to it by withholding their Allegiance and seizing his Castles and when the King would not restore their Liberties and Properties they raise an Army under Robert Fitz-Walker and regain all their Castles enter London and resolved never to desist until their Charters were better secured The King being generally forsaken having not above seven Knights with him whereas the Barons and Knights were reckoned 2000. besides Esquires of good Note He sent to the King of Morocco offering the Kingdom to him who having enquired into the difference between the King and his People despised the offer as Matthew Paris relates it He offered it also to Pope Innocent to be made Tributary to him if he would excommunicate the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Barons that he might be revenged on them all which notwithstanding they maintain the War and they elect Lewis of France for their King and their Actions were approved by the Peers of France assembled at Lyons I have read that in the Clause of the Charter confirm'd by H. 3. it was provided that if the King should invade those Rights it was lawful for the Kingdom to rise against him and do him what injury they could as owing him no Allegiance And much to this purpose is quoted out of King John's Charter in these words Et illi Barones cum communa totius terrae destringent gravabunt nos modis omnibus quibus poterint scilicet per captionem Castrorum terrarum possessionem aliis modis donec fuerit emandatum secundum arbitrium eorum And the practice of the Nobles and Commons in those days do evidence that they had some such Grants from their Kings for their justification and perhaps much more then doth now appear for it was made an Article against Richard the Second that he had erazed and imbezled the Records to the great dammage of the People and the disinherison of the Crown But this King Henry the Third upon a grant of the thirtieth part of his Subjects Goods ratified their Charters and Swore to preserve them inviolably as he was a Man a Christian and a King crowned and anointed and the Archbishop of Canterbury with the other Bishops denounced a Sentence of Excommunication against all such as should invalidate the Priviledges granted by the Charters throwing down on the ground the lighted Candles which were in their hands and saying So let every one who incurs this Sentence be extinct in Hell. And here I cannot forbear to repeat that Article of the Magna Charta which yet appears in the original Grant or Confirmation which the Bishop of Salisbury says he hath in his own hands under the great Seal See the Bishop of Sarum 's Pastoral Letter p. 27. whereby it is provided That in case the King should violate any part of the Charter and should refuse to rectifie what be had done amiss it should be lawful for the Barons and the whole People of England to distress him by all the ways they could think on such as the seizing on his Castles Lands and Possessions provision being only made for the safety of the persons of the King and Queen and their Children Now this being a fundamental Law and Contract and never repealed may abundantly justifie all that hath been done by the People of England in the late Revolution For whereas it is objected that the late Laws and Declaration That it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms and that it is unlawful for both Houses of Parliament to levy War offensive or defensive against the King and the Recognition made the first of King James do supersede all former Laws I answer That such fundamental Laws cannot be abrogated without a particular recital of them and an express abrogation so that those Laws mentioned in the Charters for the restraint of illegal Actions and those that gave the Heretochs the power of the Militia and Officers by Sea and Land not being particularly repealed cannot be abrogated by those hasty Acts which have been since made for though the Militia be by those hasty Acts granted to the King yet it must be understood that they were so granted in trust and confidence that it should be imployed for the protection and safety of the People and Sir Edward Cooke in his Institutes on Magna Charta alloweth that the King hath no power over the Militia to Muster his Subjects but only in such cases and in such manner as the Parliament by special Acts hath prescribed and therefore those Heretochs or Lord-Lieutenants which had the power of the Militia for the word Heretoch by Selden in his Titles of Honour p. 603. is compounded of Here which signifies Exercitus and Togen ducere signifies Dux exercitus sive navalis sive terrestris and signifies a Commander of an Army by Sea or Land. See Spelman p. 232 348. That the Sheriffs of every County who had the Posse Comitatus or the power of raising the Militia were to be chosen by the People in the County-Courts is evident by express words of King Edward the Confessor's Laws Cap. de Herotochiis as Lambard's Arch. p. 135. and Sir Edward Cooke 3 Edw. 3. c. 17 19. And by the Articles against Richard the Second
despaired of it It was doubtless a commendable action of the Men of Israel to rescue Jonathan from the Fury of his Father Saul who sought to destroy his life as well as to defeat David of the Crown to which God had appointed him to succeed And it is as commendable in our Nation to commit the defence of the Crown of England to that Heroick Person who hath so wonderfully restored it to the right Line And who can pretend any Injury is done in that case wherein all Parties that are concerned do expresly agree and acquiesce Object But this was not agreeable to the Declaration of the Prince of Orange at his first coming to England Ans 1. The Prince declared That he would refer all Matters in question to the Determination of a Parliament freely Elected which doubtless he would have done had the late King been as willing to confide in the good will of his own People as the Prince was but having not Confidence to abide the Decision of a Parliament he frustrated that end of the Prince Ans 2. One end of the Prince's Invasion was to vindicate the Title of his Lady and that which he also had to the Crown which being by the late King's rashness and precipitation made void it was necessarily devolved on the Convention to supply and in the circumstance wherein we were they could not do otherwise Object The Convention is no Parliament and therefore can make no Laws much less can it dispose of the Crown Ans Though the Convention want the formality of being called by the King 's Writ yet it hath the power and authority of a Parliament and in some cases greater as hath been shewn and may thus farther appear In the 36 of Edward the Third we have this Clause in the Statute That for maintenance of these Acts viz. Magna Charta and others relating thereunto for the Publick Good and for the redress of Publick Greivances which daily happen a Parliament shall be holden every year as was ordained by another Statute viz. 4 Edw. 3. c. 14. These Laws were never yet formally repealed and the reason of a Law continuing it is reason the Law should be still in force especially when it concerns our Magna Charta and other Statutes made to prevent the Mischiefs and Grievances which daily happen And Judge Vaghan in his Reports says That in cases which depend on fundamental Principles millions of Presidents to the contrary are to no purpose So that the neglect of observing such a fundamental Law as maintains our Magna Charta cannot make those Laws void In the Act for Triennial Parliaments made in the Reign of Charles the First it was provided That if the King should fail to call a Parliament according to those Statutes viz. 4 36 Edw. 3. The People should meet without any Writs at all and choose their Parliament-men This Triennial Act of Charles the First was repealed by another Act for Triennial Parliaments at the return of Charles the Second because it was thought that it intrenched on the King's Prerogative to which as the effect shews they were too much devoted wherein yet they took notice That because by ancient Statutes of the Realm made in the Reign of Edw. the Third Parliaments were to be held very often it was enacted That within three years after the determination of that present Parliament Parliaments should not be discontinued above three years at most and should be holden oftner if need required but were omitted from October 1685 to the time that the Convention meâ— i. e. above three years Now if ever there was need for calling a Parliament it was in the case of our late Revolution and seeing the late King did then refuse to call a Parliament it was necessary that the People should for the maintenance of our Magna Charta and other Statutes relating thereunto otherwise we had been left without a remedy in our greatest extremity therefore I conclude that the Convention had the power of a Parliament and from thence that by the Statute 13 Eliz. this present Parliament had the power of limiting the Descent of the Crown which they have devolved on the present King and Queen and that they are legally in the possession of it and all the Laws made by the present Parliament are obligatory to the Subjects Concerning the Declaration That it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever to take Arms c. What provocations the late great Indignities which both the Royal Family and all Loyal Families had suffered in the late Rebellion I need not say and what opposition was made by some Parliament-men of both Houses at the passing of the Declaration and by what secret and unsuspected Arts and Insinuations they were moved to pass it but certainly if the effects of it had been foreseen and they had considered maturely what ill conclusions might be inferred from those premises such as the establishing an Arbitrary Power and ruling by a standing Army and destroying many wholsome and fundamental Laws they would never have contributed to the establishing of their own Slavery by a Law. Of this design the Parliament-men in both Houses became sensible And when in the thirteenth Session of the Parliament 1675 the like Declaration was required as a Test of all Parliament-men in either House and of all Officers of Church and State viz. I A. B. do declare That it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King c. there was great opposition made against it as a Bill of dangerous consequence insomuch as it was debated five several days in the House of Lords before it was committed to a Committee of the whole House The Lords that opposed it were of great Quality for Paris and Interests their Names as I find them were Buckingham Bridgewater Wâ—â—â—chester Salisbury Bedford Dorset Aliâ—bury Bristol Dembigh Pagist Hollis Peter Howard of Berks Mohun Stamford Hallifax Delamore Eâ—re Shaftsbury Clarendon Grey Roll Say and Seal Wharton Audley Fitzwater The Bill was intituled An Act to prevent the Dangers which may arise from Persons disaffected to the Government Divers amendments and alterations were proposed some would have it run thus in the second part of it I do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by the King's Authority against his person or against those that are Commissioned by him according to Law in time of Rebellion or War c. And as to the third part concerning Church-Government some would have it run thus I do swear not to endeavour by force or fraud to alter c. Others thus I do swear that I will not endeavour to alter the Protestant Religion now by Law established in the Church of England But the first part about taking up Arms was most hotly disputed And first they debated the Form whether there should be any Oath in the Bill Here they argued against the multiplying of Oaths and that there was really no Security to any State by
A FULL ANSWER To all the Popular Objections That have yet Appear'd For not Taking the Oath of ALLEGIANCE TO THEIR PRESENT MAJESTIES Particularly offer'd to the Consideration of all such of the DIVINES OF THE Church of ENGLAND And Others as are yet UNSATISFIED SHEWING Both from Scripture and the Laws of the Land the Reasonableness thereof and the Ruining Consequences both to the Nation and Themselves if not Complied with By a Divine of the Church of ENGLAND and Author of a late Treatise entituled A Resolution of certain Queries concerning Submission to the Present Government Licensed and Entred according to Order London Printed and are to be sold by R. Baldwin in the Old-Bailey 1689. A full ANSWER To all the Popular Objections That have yet Appear'd For not Taking the Oath of Allegiance TO THEIR Present MAJESTIES c. A REQUEST TO ALL Such as are yet Unresolved IN THE Case of Allegiance THere are few Men so ancient or wise who may not still improve their Judgments and be made sensible of their Errors and without shame do that which St. Augustin did to his great reputation make their Retractations The effects of the Prejudices and Prepossessions of the Mind are like those of the Disease of the Body called the Jaundice which represents things black or yellow according to its own distemper only that of the Mind is far more incurable than that of the Body It is with Men as with new Vessels whatever strong Liquors are first infused to them they still retain a smack and savour of them No Tyranny is with more difficulty cast off than the Prejudice and Prepossessions of such Principles by which we have been in our first Education captivated and dogmatized No less than a Miracle could divert St. Paul from that furious temper wherein he had been educated as a Pharisee To evidence the truth hereof I shall only instance in some learned and pious Men that have been educated in the Church of Rome who having been instructed from their youth that they ought to believe as the Church believes that their Church is guided by an Infallible Spirit that the Pope is Christ's Vicar and Plenipotentiary are prepared to receive and believe all the Dictates of that Church though contrary to the Scriptures to Reason and Sence with equal veneration as the written Word Hence it is that they swallow the Doctrines of the Popes Supremacy to depose one Prince and set up another as he shall see cause of his Infallibility in coining new Articles of Faith forbidding what Christ commanded and commanding what Christ forbid of Transubstantiation and Worshipping of Wafers and Images and offering more Prayers to the Virgin Mary than to God and their Saviour and some of them esteem her Milk of equal vertue with Christ's Blood and it is unaccountable how deaf they are to all those charming Arguments which from Scriture Reason and Sence have been irrefragably urged against them Now though the grandeur of that Church and the interest of some Men therein may thus captivate many yet I cannot nor can my Brethren impute this blind obedience and implicit belief of learned Men and such as are piously inclined to any thing more than to the prejudices of their Education And we cannot but think it their duty to search the Scriptures to consult their own Reason and the Arguments of such sober learned and pious Men as differ from them in such Doctrines Nor is it impossible but we who have been educated in the Church and Kingdom of England may have our Judgments captivated by some false Opinions and Principles concerning the Power of our Kings and the Allegiance of Subjects for the rectifying of which it is necessary to reflect on those times wherein we had our Education which I suppose was with many others as with my self about the Year 41 but with the most of my Brethren since that time whereof I shall give this brief account It is evident to all Men of sober principles that have had any true relation of the rise and progress of those unhappy Divisions and Wars that they were begun and continued by a factious and discontented Party under the vain pretences of the great danger that threatned our Religion and Liberties which War abating some groundless Fears and Jealousies occasioned by some unusual Acts of that best of Kings and the best are not free from all faults to which the iniquity of those times that reduced him to great exigence had necessitated him had no other cause but the ambition of some the discontent of others and the hopes of the Jesuits on one side and of other Sects on the other side to raise themselves by the ruine of the established Church to which that blessed Prince was so devoted as well as to the welfare of his Subjects both in respect to the Laws and Liberties that he sacrificed his Life for their preservation as by the event through the great mercy of God it proved to be for though that bloody War wrought great confusion and destruction both before and after the death of the Royal Martyr yet the dissention of his enemies occasioned the discovery of each others wicked designs and practices which are still in remembrance and abundantly justifie that gracious King as do also many gracious condescentions and overtures for peace against all their assaults and usurpations Wherefore when after divers confused revolutions it pleased God by a Miracle of Mercy to recal the Royal Family and to establish the King on his Throne the Church in its Rights and the People in their Liberties it is no wonder if some transports of Loyalty and Joy did carry the People to some degree of excess for the people had now before their eyes a lively Image of Charles the First in the meekness and mercifulness of Charles the Second And whereas the Parliaments under Charles the First had abridged him of a necessary Revenue that under Charles the Second granted him even above his desires and as event proved more then was consistent with the welfare of the Nation neither was the Clergy backward in their expressions of Loyalty who with Mephiboseth 2 Sam. 19.30 were content not only to part with some of their just Possessions to those that had usurped them but ready to say Yea let them take all for as much as my Lord the King is come again in peace to his own house And now it was that the Parliament prudently considering what Miseries the Nation endured by the fall of the Crown made it their chief work to re-adorn and fix that by inlarging the Revenue making new Statutes to secure the King's person against traiterous Conspiracies and requiring the people to declare that it was not lawful on any pretence whatsoever c. And divers things and persons did tempt the King to think himself an absolute Prince Finch an ancient Lawyer did attribute to the King all the Divine Perfections viz 1. That of Soveraignty All Lands being held
of him no Action lying against him 2. Omnipotence having power of Life and Death over all his Subjects whom he might command to serve in his Wars 3. Omniscience by his Intelligence at home and abroad 4. Majesty in that nothing could be taken from him and being an inviolable Majesty 5. Infinity and Ubiquity being present in all his Courts and in all places with all persons 6. Perpetuity in that the King never dies 7. Justice in that the King can do no wrong 8. Perfection in that he is never in Infancy hath no corruption of Bloud but the Crown assoils all Crimes 9. And Truth in that he cannot be estoped or presumed to declare a Falshood 10. And lastly Clemency in dispensing with Laws and pardoning Offenders Nor are some Statesmen much behind Hobs de Cive c. 12. s 1 2. says That the Rules of Good and Evil Just and Unjust Honest and Dishonest are the Civil Laws and therefore whatever the Legislator commands that is to be accounted good what he forbids is to be accounted evil and therefore it is a wicked Speech that Kings are not to be obeyed unless they command just things That before Empires were established there was no such thing as Just or Unjust whose natures are relative to a command and that every action is in its own nature indifferent and that it becomes Just or Unjust is from the Law of the Emperour wherefore those that are Emperours make things Just which they command to be done and those things Unjust which they forbid but private men that would assume to themselves the cognizance of Good and Evil do aspire to be like Kings which cannot consist with the safety of Government Such blasphemous and pestilential Doctrines would confound Heaven and Hell and turn Men into Devils and Order into Confusion The Doctrines of such as Sibthorp and Manwaring on these Principles might deserve to be consured for saying too little rather than too much and Nero Dioclesian and all other Tyrants be justified in all their Cruelties against innocent Christians This were not only to stamp a Divine Character on all Kings but to grant them a Divine Nature whose will is the only Law. Now although these venomous Eructations of an Atheistical Spirit have not poysoned many yet some have been infected by them and the Opinion of an Absolute and Arbitrary Power in the King which the late King challenged to himself prevailed with too many and the many Addresses made to him in compliance therewith and the Doctrine of Non-resistance and Passive Obedience made him presume of effecting that Design the effects whereof were seen and felt in this Nation and had not God in his great Mercy created an unexpected Deliverance for us our condition might by this time have been as deplorable as those of our Neighbouring Nations And now my Bretheren I hope that as none of you can approve of the King of France his Violation of his solemn and repeated Edicts on the behalf of his Protestant Subjects and of the barbarous Cruelty executed on his Loyal and Innocent Subjects to make them Proselites to his own Perswasion so neither can you approve of those Endeavours which tended to the same end which are less justifiable in our Case where the Protestant Religion is established by Law than where Popery was so settled Nor can I blame the Hollanders for shaking off that Iron Yoak which the House of Austria would have rivited on their Necks It will therefore be no disparagment to any person to pursue a melius Inquirendum on those Principles which he hath assumed I know my Bretheren will not account it so in any learned Papist or other Dissenter nor think it a shame to any such if upon better information he should alter his Judgment especially when he shall find that many serious learned and uninterested men do upon very probable Reasons differ from him I have therefore chosen to deal mostly on the Authorities of such Men being prevented by the Learned and Elegant Author of the Case of Allegiance in the Rhetorical and Rational part And having in some haste drawn up my former Treatise I desire the Reader to add these to their proper places And first to qualifie the extravagant Expressions of Finch I oppose the Judgment of Fortescue who fol. 25. says Ad hanc potestatem a populo effluxam Rex habet quo non licet ei alia potestate populo suo dominari principatu namque nedum Regali sed politico populo suo dominatur The King is to Govern his People by no other Power then that which flows from his People i. e. a Political not a Regal Power And p. 32. Ad tutelam legis subditorum Rex erectus est The King is set up for the Safeguard of his Subjects Laws To the Freaks of Hobs the Concessions of King Charles the First in answer to the nineteen Propositions may be a full Answer There being three kinds of Government Absolute Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy and all having particular Conveniencies and Inconveniencies The Experience and Wisdom of your Ancestors hath so moulded this out of a mixture of those as to give this Kingdom the Conveniencies of all three without the Inconveniencies of any one as long as the Ballance hangs even between the three Estates and they run joyntly in their proper Channels The ill of Absolute Monarchy is Tyranny of Aristocracy Faction and Division of Democracy Tumults Violence and Licentiousness The good of Monarchy is Uniting a Nation under one Head the good of Aristocracy is the conjunction of Counsel in the ablest persons for the Publick good the good of Democracy is Liberty and the Courage and Industry which Liberty begets The Lords being trusted with Judicatory Power are an excellent Screen and Bank between the Prince and the People by just Judgment to preserve the Law therefore the Power legally placed in both Houses is more than sufficient to prevent and restrain the Power of Tyranny and the Power of punishing is already in your hands according to Law. That Kings are bound by the Coronation-Oath we have the Acknowledgement of Edward the Third c. 15. declaring thus in Parliament We considering that by the Bond of our Oath we be tied to the Observance and Defence of such Laws c. King James the First speaks to the same purpose as King Charles the First did If says he we take the People as one Body or Mass then as the Head is ordained for the Body and not the Body for the Head so must a Righteous King know himself to be ordained for his People and not his People for him For though a King and his People be Relata yet can he be no King if he want People and Subjects Having met with two Discourses pertinent to the present Occasion in the Writings of Pufendorf a learned Civilian I have thought fit to translate them the Books being rarely in the hands of my Brethren The one describes the Nature of
Fortescue tells Hen. 6. That the King cannot alter the Laws of his Kingdom for he governs his People not only by a Regal but a Political Power when it is said the Princes Will hath the force of a Law this saith he is to be understood of a Regal or Absolute Power from which a Political Power much differs for such can neither change the Law nor charge the People with new Impositions against their Wills. And Bracton l. 1. c. 2. Leges Anglicanae cum fuerint approbatae Regis Sacramento confirmatae mutari non poterint and he adds l. 1. c. 17. Temperent ergo Reges Reges potentiam suam per legem quae est fraenum potentiae Let Kings therefore restrain their Power by the Law which is the Bridle of their Power and l. 1. c. 8. Rex in justitiâ recipiendâ minimo de populo comparatur The King in receiving Judgment is compared to the meanest of his People Claudius Sesil a French Historian says as much of their Kings That the Parliament was set as a Bridle to him though they have now cast it off Judge Jenkins says to this purpose We do hold only what the Law holds The King's Prerogative and the Peoples Liberties are both determined by Law and Charles the 1st in his Declaration at York says That his Prerogatives are built on the Laws of the Land And when the Parliament would have him grant an extraordinary Power to the Lords Lieutenants he tells them in his Answer to both Houses That if they would have him to grant more Power to those Lieutenants than by the Law of the Land was in the King himself it was fit that the same should be by some Law first vested in him with a Power to transfer it And Judge Jenkins says speaking of the Oath of Supremacy We do not swear that the King is above all Law nor above the safety of the People but his Majesty and we will swear to the contrary the Law and Safety of the People are his Honour Safety and Strength As to the Objection made from the Declaration viz. That it is not lawful on any pretence to take Armes against the King c. from the Statute 13 of Ch. 2d c. 6. That it is unlawful for the Parliament to levy War offensive or defensive against the King. Thô that be not much to their case who did not take up Arms against him or those that were duly commissioned by him There is a full answer given by the Earl of Clarendon to Mr. Hobbs who extended the King's power beyond the Law In dangerous circumstances says he men are not to resort so much to the words of Submission as to the intention of the Lawgivers which could not be that the Prince should have power to take away the lives of his innocent Subjects nor could such a Submission be ever supposed to be the mind of the Contractors For suppose that the late King had come armed with some Irish Papists into the House while that Parliament sate with a purpose to destroy them would they tamely have submitted and kept their Swords by their sides when the Swords of the Irish were aimed at their Throats If such a case had been proposed they would never have made such a Law as should be written in their bloud and therefore that Law must have some other interpretation such as this That a Defence against illegal actions committed by persons that are not qualified by Law is not levying War against the King for if any one or many be sent to take away my life without a due Trial he is not sent by the King for the Law is the King 's autoritive Command and that alloweth me a fair Trial for my life which if it be denied I may and ought to defend it against all such as come to take it away contrary to Law. And the Magna Charta declares such Commissions to be null where the words are That neither we i. e. the King nor our Heirs shall procure or do any thing whereby the Liberties hereby granted shall be infringed and if any such thing be procured it shall be of no force Now the Liberty granted Ch. 1. of that Charter is That no man should be punished or condemned but by Trial Per Sacramentum proborum legalium hominum de vireneto that is by a Jury of honest and lawful men of the Neighbourhood And this priviledge was purchased by the fifteenth part of the Subjects Goods and so becomes their Inheritance it is Libertas multoties empta If we may resist a person that is not qualified by Law though he act a thing that is just much more when a person that is not qualified comes to act an unjust thing for no man can want authority to defend his life against him who wants authority to take it away And not to resist in such a case is not only against the Law of Nature but against our own Law which always intends the good of innocent persons but such a Law would destroy the foundation of all our other Laws and the Government itself for it would turn a Limited into an Absolute Monarchy To make a Commission valid first the person that grants it must have just authority 2dly The person commissioned must be legally qualified 3dly It must be for the execution of a lawful action and malum ex quolibet de fectu the want of any of these renders the Commission illegal for the King himself hath no authority to grant Commissions against the rules of the Law for the executing of his own Will nor can any one execute such a Commission without Law but he is in danger of being judged by the Law And hence it is that the Acts of Pardon and Indemnity are extended to such as under Charles the First and Second acted by legal Commissions because they might have done in the heat of War what might have been judged Criminal in times of Peace St. Paul himself was much moved and shewed a kind of Resistance when he was but gently at the Command of the high Priest because it was contrary to Law And Bishop Hall in his practical Cases Decad. 2. Case the First says If a Thief rob me of my Treasure and flies my Conscience would not strike me if I pursue him and so strike him that he dies and our Law hath provided for the indemnity of such as slay another se defendendo as in the Case of Simpson mentioned by Sir Edward Cook in the fourth part of his Reports p. 333. when one would have seized him and carried him away was slain in the Attempt by Simpson it was adjudged to be done in his own Defence and found a chance medley and Simpson was acquitted And by the like Reason if a multitude of Armed Men that have no Authority or are not qualified by Law do assault me to take away my Life or my Goods I may resist them and as every Constable in case of an unlawful
the Parliament the King of France would assist him with his Power and Purse to have such a new one as would be for their purpose which was the subduing of a pestelent Heresie that had domineer'd over a great part of the Northern World a long time of which there were never such hopes of success since the death of Queen Mary God having given us a Prince who is become I may say to a Miracle zealous of being the Author and Instrument of so glorious a Work. See the Collection of Letters p. 118. So that by what was designed by the Duke and French King and hath since been jointly and vigorously acted we have full assurance of a League with France for our utter ruin and they are Fools or Mad-men that having such clear light and experience to guide them will suffer themselves to be blindfolded a second time and be led to destruction So that what Joab said to David is much more applicable in our Case Thou lovedst thine enemies and hatedst thy friends for thou hast declared this day that thou regardest neither the Prince nor his Servants for this day I perceive that if the King had prevailed and all they had died then it had pleased thee well So fond was David of his Absolom 2 Sam. 19.6 It is not necessary that abdication of an Office should alway be an act of the will. Lentulus is said to abdicate the Consulship because he could hold it no longer having been one of the Conspirators with Gatiline And Silla abdicated the dictatorship thinking to find a better opportunity be to revenged on his enemies And Dioclesian left the Empire because he could not effect his will against the Christians These were mixt actions partly through constraint and partly voluntary yet were accounted abdications And our King had involved us in so many miseries that nothing but his desertion of us or our opposing of him could deliver us God prevented the latter and the King granted the former Pufendorf de interregno p. 272. determines that if a King abdicates the peace of his Kingdom and be of an hostile mind or departs from the Rules of governing which he expresseth thus Modum habendi potestatem immutare that then the ground of the Subjects obedience is made void And in the Digests l. 49. Tital 15. de Capt. we have this Maxim Qui fuget ad eos cum quibus nulla est amicitia à fide suscepta transfugit and that the late King hath so done is an evident truth And it is as true that to desert a Government rather than to keep it on just and legal terms is to abdicate it for an abdication may be as expresly signified by real deeds as by any form of words whatsoever As to the League with France for making King James as Absolute as King Lewis and inable him notwithstanding his Oaths and Publick Declarations to the contrary to extirpate the Protestant Religion there wants not sufficient evidence of the endeavours of the Court of France for many years together by correspondence with the late K. while he was Duke of York and assum'd on him the chief administration of Publick Affairs Nor of a too fond if not a willing compliance of Charles the Second to that end Some wise men have thought that the great Revenues granted to the Crown the declaring the Militia to be wholly in the King the binding up not only the Subjects but the Parliament by Oaths and Declarations not to resist the King or those that were commissioned by him on any pretence or cause whatsoever by vertue whereof an hundred Irish or French might have come into the House of Parliament and out all their Throats and they not have dared to draw a Sword in their own defence all which things were against or as far besides the Laws of the Land as of Reason and Common Prudence for doubtless had it been proposed whether those Laws might have been so interpreted they would speedily have made an alteration in them All these I say have been observed by wise men to have been the designs of such as designed to introduce an Arbitrary Government and facilitate the bringing in of Popery though they that acted did not intend to serve the ends either of France or the Crown of England so far On this Errand was the Dutchess of Orleance some years since sent into England to assure Charles the Second of the Assistance of the King of France in reducing the Parliament to the King's pleasure to this end were Tolerations and Indulgences granted French Whores admitted with great power and pomp and all things so well prepared though more slowly and secretly in the Reign of Charles the Second that there wanted nothing but James the Second's ascending the Throne to give a Consummatum est to that design of bringing in both Popery and Slavery upon us And that being effected too soon alas for England then notwithstanding the Coronation-Oath the many Publick Protestations to maintain the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and of whose Loyalty he was well satisfied and that he never desired to be more great and happy than he might be by the established Laws yet all these were forgotten and trampled under foot Jesuits and Papists being admitted at Court and into the Privy-Council the King's Conscience submitted to their Conduct the Pope's Nuncio publickly entertained and feasted at the Guild-hall an Embassador sent to Rome Popish Bishops set up with power of Jurisdiction Protestant Bishops put into the Tower the Nobles closetted and such as would not comply to betray their Religion and Country were turn'd out of all the chief Offices by Sea and Land and others put into their room and in all places of Judicature Judges and Juries were adapted for the prosecution of that design there wanted only a complying Parliament and to that end Quo Warranto's were issued out against the Charters and alterations made in them fit for that design Addresses were procured for taking off the Test and Penal Laws i. e. for introducing of Popery by Law an Army of Irish Papists brought in and another prepared in France So that our destruction was much nearer than we believed Monsieur D'Avaux Embassador for the King of France in Holland in his Memorial told the Estates that the Friendship and Alliance between his Master and the King of England did oblige him to assist the King of England and to look on the first act of Hostility by Sea or Land as a Rupture of Peace Coleman's Letters spake to the same effect and the event hath demonstrated the truth of all that was thought to be but groundless fears and jealousies for on the approach of the Prince of Orange these dark mists vanish'd the Nation awaked out of their deep slumber and resum'd their ancient valour and resolution to defend their Religion Laws and Liberties against Popery and Arbitrary Government which seized on us as an armed man. And he that doth not now