in this method of demolishing the Regality nor is it unjust if good Subjects suffer it to be demolished both because of their own danger and their paramount obligation to the whole nor is it unjust if the Estates of the Realm add an Epicrisis that his late Majesty's removal from the Government was in this notion just and necessary It is certain that his removal from the Government though his Recession was not altogether forc'd and involuntary was the effect of the Prince's Arms * Driven out of his Dominions Letter to a Bishop p. 21 22. and of his Conduct of affairs and ought chiefly to be ascrib'd thereunto And that in an Exigence of the whole a Saviour-Prince may reasonably proceed to so great an extremity whereas if a Nation only be in danger of Persecution from their King their Saviour-Princes usually proceed no further than to divert the present storm And if a Saviour-Prince justly and necessarily proceedeth to so great an extremity the Nation is discharg'd from their former Allegiance the Right of Government belongeth no more to his late Majesty or his pretended Heir of the French Papal Interest but our Subjection and Allegiance to that line of Succession is at an end Which if the Nation be absolv'd from they necessarily become a free people sui juris if the next Heirs will make them such and the Crown becometh vacant The Revolution in this Nation is a Case of the whole and the Act of the Citizens of the whole A Transcendental to Civil and Municipal Law but not the less lawful for being so There was a second Design co-incident in time concurrent and complicate with the former part of it as the Nation is part of the whole but of separate consideration from it peculiarly redressive of the Grievances of the English Nation Multitudes of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation intent upon the saving their own Free-hold address'd a Neighbour-Prince to come to their rescue from an Hurricane of Popery and Arbitrary Power and to support the tottering Fabrick of their Government they assisted him by Associations and Arms both Subjects and Souldiers made a defection from the late King which issu'd in his Recession from the Kingdom and a Vote of the Convention of the Estates absolving the Nation from their Allegiance If this Scene of affairs be consider'd as one continu'd Design to demolish the late Regality it is not justifiable by English Law or English Divinity It is all one whether the People demolish the Regality by their own or another's hand But this Scene of affairs ought to be distinguish'd into three periods of time the Time before the Breach the Time of the Breach between King and People and the Time after it The Time before the Breach necessitated an Address to a Neighbour-Prince and a Desence of the Establish'd Religion and Laws the Lives and Liberties of the Subjects from a violent Rape During the Time of the Breach the Affairs of the Kingdom were in suspence and therefore the Breach may be consider'd as nothing more than a just and necessary Self-defence In the third period of Time the Estates of the Realm deliberate touching the remainder of Duty to their with-drawn King and proceed to a definitive Sentence That He had Abdicated the Government and the Crown was become vacant To make the Justice of this definitive Sentence appear part of it the vacating the Crown ought to be consider'd not in a separate and solitary notion but as the late Design redressive of the Grievances of the Nation was concurrent with another Design oppositive to that reigning Power and Interest ruinous to the whole So I understand this part of the definitive Sentence only as a concurrence with the former Mode of vacating the Crown and in such a notion it is necessarily just because the former Mode is certainly so With the former Mode of demolishing the Regality there was also a concurrence of his late Majesty's will to be gone and his Mode of Recession leaving no Commissioner withdrawing the Seals destroying the Writs for a Parliament is necessarily a Degree of Abandoning the governing of us If this Degree of Abandoning the Government be consider'd with its Antecedents subverting the Constitution violating the Fundamental Laws designing his People's ruin and such more and also with its Consequent that no provision can be made for the Government consistent with his Allegiance the Sum-total is suppos'd to amount to thus much No further Subjection or Allegiance is in equity demandable from the People And if no further Subjection or Allegiance of the People be in Equity demandable by the King He hath Abdicated the Government In this notion the late Revolution is of a better appearance than usually changes of Government are But we will suppose that in this notion it is not absolutely just yet because in the former notion and as to innocent Subjects it is unexceptionably just therefore a good Man may be rationally satisfy'd that the late Regality is justly and necessarily demolish'd V. The King in possession upon several accounts may justly demand the Allegiance of the People not upon the account of Conquest for there is no pretence to the Conquest of the People the contract also between the Prince of Orange and the Nation which we are * Letter to a Bishop p. 22. told of ought to protect the People from any such claim and altho' his Majesty may be said to have conquer'd our late King yet not at all as a common Conqueror contesting for Dominion or Possession but as a Saviour-Prince to the Nation and to the whole agreeably to the style of his Declaration and his publick Profession that He came not hither for any Interest but to save us from Popish slavery First therefore his Majesty is justly said to have a degree of Propriety in the People by Right of Redemption having done enough to Merit the Name of a Redeemer of the People according to the known Sentiments of Gratitude which is the main source of our Obligations A ruin'd People actually ruin'd in part and design'd for further degrees of ruin owe themselves to him and their former Sovereign deserveth to lose them for ever to a Saviour Prince having manifestly design'd to make them extremely miserable In the next place because of his just Propriety in the People and because of the vast Beneficence of his Government which obligeth to the Duties of Gratitude a Saviour-Prince in possession hath a better Right to the People's Allegiance than a Natural-unnatural Prince out of place that hath reduc'd his Right to none or next to none and therefore in case of competition the former is rather the rightful King. So if an Heir of the French-Papal Interest not fairly and legally ascertain'd to the Nation come in competition with the Queen it is a known rule of the Casuists In rebus dubiis melior est conditio possidentis Moreover if the Nation or the major part of it be fairly
and abandon'd it nor hath sought in an hostile way the destruction of his whole People or the Body of them which are total Modes of destroying his Right of Regality yet if it plainly appeareth that the kindness which he hath for Protestants the Body of his People and the usage which He designeth them cannot be much dissonant from his Neighbours Tell me with whom thou goest and I will tell thee what thou art saith the Spanish Proverb This can be thought nothing less than a partial Mode of destroying his Right of Regality approaching to a total If a King hath laid a design and manag'd it for several years of ruining his People in every thing that is dear to them in their Laws Liberties Property and Religion This also must be thought a partial Mode of destroying his Right of Regality approaching to a total for it approacheth to an Abdication of his People And there is the same reason for Abdicating the Government The Violation of Laws ought not to be aggravated beyond its just bounds no more than Recessions from the great Rule of Government the publick good but many heinous Violations of the Laws in several great instances the assuming a Power of Dispensing with Laws at pleasure and a declared resolution not to administer the Government according to Law are an Abdicating the legal English Government in a great degree they are such Violations of the Coronation-Oath as approach to a nulling the contract between King and People whatever that signifieth And if a Prince affecteth Arbitrariness at such a rate that nothing less will satisfie him than the administring all things according to his own will without regard to Oaths Laws Property if he altereth the whole Species of the Government or manifestly maketh it his design to exterminate it This is a total Abdication of our legal English Government and a deposing that officiary Dignity the legal Regality But that the string may not be over-stretch'd in any thing let all that hath been done in the late Reign towards the subversion of our constitution and the introduction of the French Mode of Government be thought nothing more than a partial destroying the Right of Regality approaching to a total A King may make such a Recession from the Government as may be a degree of abandoning the governing of us and there may be a fair appearance of a Conquest of the King For although there was no formal Declaration of War upon the King in the Prince of Orange's Discent it seem'd not an hostile aggression nor any thing more than a request of Right with the Sword in his hand yet it must be acknowledg'd that the Prince did expresly declare War against all those that oppos'd his designs which implieth a Declaration of War upon the King the King expresly declar'd War upon the Prince and therefore they were in the state of War the issue whereof was the King's removal from the Government and out of the Kingdom which carrieth a fair appearance of a Conquest of the King. A Conquest of the King is a Mode of total destroying the Right of Regality But because the Army of Multitudes of the Subjects and a desertion of the Souldiery were complicate with the Prince's Arms we will suppose this appearing Conquest of the King to be nothing more than a partial destroying the Right of Regality approaching to a total If a King be ruining at such a rate that He is as unfit for Government as an Idiot or Lunatick and if a Regency be necessary for the safety of the Nation This must be thought a partial destroying the Right of Regality approaching to a total There are some Doctrines in the Roman Church destructive of civil Society such as the principle of not keeping Faith with Hereticks If any King should expresly own this principle it would be totally destructive to his Right of Sovereignty in a Protestant Kingdom for He could have no Right to demand the Faith and Allegiance of the People nor could He be a capable object of Faith or Credit nor of Promises Contracts and Oaths if he doth not expresly avow this principle yet if it be highly probable from many indications that He is a Man of that principle This can be thought nothing less than a partial destroying the Right of Regality approaching to a total If Kings of the Pontifician perswasion manage Government at such a rate of Craft and Cruelty that there is no living for Protestant Subjects in Society with such Sovereigns insomuch that they have made it matter of dispute Whether a Nation of Protestants especially an unenslav'd Nation be bound to be Liege-Subjects to Kings of such a character that keep no Faith with them observe no Rules of Justice towards them stick at nothing to destroy them This must be thought a partial destroying the Right of Regality approaching to a total If a Ruining-King be thrown out of place this is a total destroying his Right of Regality in respect of his innocent Liege-Subjects whose Friendship and Adherence he hath justly forfeited as is before discours'd but because these are only part of the People let this be thought nothing more than a partial destroying the Right of Regality approaching to a total If upon a Breach between King and People justifiable on the People's part the King recedeth and there be no place for a tolerable re-coalition nor for any tolerable projects of Government consistent with his Allegiance This can be thought nothing less than a partial destroying the Right of Regality approaching to a total Breaches with the King are not easily reconcileable with the Law of God and of the Land nor with the Doctrine of the Church of England from the rise of the Reformation That 't is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King. But doubtless the Doctrine of due Non-resistance ought to be restrain'd to such resistance which is hurtful and destructive to the King agreeably to the usual sence of that Political Aphorism The King can do no wrong his Ministers only are accountable and punishable it designeth not to abridge the Body of the People of the Right of resisting an extravagant Prince in cases of evident and great necessity provided they contain themselves within the limits of just bounding their Prince and of just Self-defence and Self-security for beyond these bounds Protestants never pretended to proceed in their Oppositions to their Princes But there may be a Prince not to be bounded or brought to any thing which is the general sence of Wise men touching our late King the Estates of the Realm have adjudg'd that there was no reducing Him upon terms or conditions no place for Treaty they have debated the project of a Regent and determin'd it impracticable and that no provision could be made for the Government but by a new Establishment and a new Allegiance inconsistent with any measure of his Allegiance supposing them to have proceeded upon great Reasons and with
JUST PRINCIPLES OF COMPLYING With the NEW Oath of Allegiance By a Divine of the Church of England Licensed and Entred according to Order LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Black Bull in the Old-Bailey 1689. JUST PRINCIPLES Of Complying with the New Oath of Allegiance THE New Oath is certainly an intricate case and incumbred with no small difficulties But it will appear unexceptionably lawful if without intermedling with the Politicks of these times we suppose that there may be three Parties concern'd in an Oath of Allegiance A Ruining-Prince A Saviour-Prince And innocent Subjects The terms of ruining and destroying are ambiguous and may signifie in a lax or strict acceptation and therefore a Prince may be ruining and malificent in several degrees He may be so far ruining and malificent as to Abdicate his People from being his People whereby he loseth and forfeiteth all Title to them and their Allegiance * Grot. de J. B. ac P. l. 1. c. 4. S. XI Existimat Barclaius amitti Regnum si Rex vere hostili animo in totius populi exitium feratur quod concedo consistere enim simul non possunt voluntas imperandi voluntas perdendi quare qui se hostem totius populi profitetur is eo ipso abdicat regnum If a King maketh Himself a Destroyer of his whole people He Abdicateth the Kingdom according to Grotius and Barclay because the Will of destroying is inconsistent with the Will of being their governing Head. It is possible that a Bigotted pontifician Prince may not be in this notion a ruining Prince for although He manifestly designeth to subvert and extirpate the Protestant Religion and to introduce his own which every Prince desireth yet He may not design to extirpate the Body of Protestants out of his Kingdom But the World need not be told that the Principles of his Religion oblige Him to it And 't is not probable that the French King 's principal Allie would be better natur'd to his Protestant Subjects than his most Christian Majesty The sinking calamities which He was gradually introducing Popery and Gallican Slavery which have all manner of Evils in the Bowels of them as also his Combination with the common Enemy of Christendom ruinous to the State of Europe and the Protestant Party in Europe may justly denominate Him a ruining Prince at a Superlative rate The notion of a Saviour-Prince usually occurreth in History as in the instances of Ptolomy Antigonus and Demetrius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Under this notion our present King ought to be consider'd which is far more honourable than the style of a Kind de facto competible to every vile Usurper nor is He only a Saviour-Prince to these Nations but to harass'd afflicted Europe and the Reformed Churches abroad A Saviour-Prince may be such before his entrance upon the Government if with vast expence and hazard He becometh our Redeemer from the calamities of Popery and Arbitrary Power And being seated in the Government He subsisteth in the quality of a Saviour-King A man shall be an hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the tempest as rivers of water in a dry place as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land By innocent Subjects I understand Subjects unconcern'd in the Revolutions of Government who cannot be thought under any Obligatio delicti to their former King and who will not fail to judge of all his pretensions ex aequo bono Subjects are thought incompetent Judges of the Rights of Princes but they that dare not swear Allegiance to an Usurper against their rightful Sovereign must take upon them to make a judgment of his Pretensions that calleth himself by that venerable name Having thus represented the notion of Innocent Subjects and of two opposite sorts of Princes we may proceed to affirm I. If the main of our Allegiance to a Ruining-Prince out of possession be ceas'd and expir'd and the rest be forfeited by Him it is lawful to swear Allegiance to the King in possession The Law determineth our Subjection and Allegiance to the King in possession but the same Law and our Oath also determineth who it is that should be and be continu'd King in possession From whence it followeth That the Duties of Allegiance which is the business of being Liege-Subjects are of two sorts Bounden Duty to Government which is plainly legible in the Law Submission Obedience Tribute Gratitude and such more and bounden Duty of Friendship and Adherence to the rightful Governour commonly call'd the King de Jure If the rightful Governour was by fraud and violence kept out of possession or unjustly thrown out of place faithful Subjects in former Ages suppos'd themselves under an Obligation to this Jural King. Which supposition of theirs was not ill grounded as appeareth from the contexture of the old Oath of Allegiance from our Obligations to Justice and from the Nature of Fidelity and Friendship for the relation between Sovereign and Subject is a relation of Friendship amicitiae imparium but to this latter sort of the Duties of Allegiance a Ruining-Prince out of place can pretend no Title If He be kept out of possession faithful Subjects are not bound to introduce Him but rather to endeavour his legal Exclusion or if He be thrust out of place they are not bound to adhere to him own him reduce him fight or struggle for him they owe him nothing but may entirely forsake him and be glad that they are rid of him for by seeking their ruin He hath justly forfeited the Friendship of his innocent people and therefore the fidelity of their Friendship and all the Offices of Friendship which are otherwise due to a rightful Governour out of place The other sort of Duties of Allegiance Duties to Government the Law transferreth to the King in possession and they are deservedly given to a Saviour-King If therefore a Ruining-Prince be out of Place and governing Power the Bond or Relation between Him and his innocent People is entirely dissolv'd by a Cessation of one part and a Forfeiture of the other part of their Allegiance and the whole business of their Adherence Fidelity and Allegiance to him is at an end A faithful Subject will not easily forsake a tolerable Prince but there may be a Prince of such a character that there is no owning Him adhering to Him or suffering for Him with Honour and Conscience And if He ought to be intirely forsaken by his innocent Subjects they are not bound to reserve for Him any Allegiance nor to make his pretended Rights the matter of their care II. There are several Total Modes of destroying a King's Right of Regality and there are several Partial Modes of destroying it approaching to a Total If by this latter sort of Modes the Competitor-King's Right of Regality be sufficiently destroy'd innocent Subjects may swear Allegiance to the King in possession Suppose a King hath not alienated or given away his Kingdom nor thrown it away
all imaginable fairness and equity at what a rate hath his late Majesty destroy'd his Right of Regality For having upon other accounts reduc'd it to multifarious next to nothings He had brought things to such a state upon his Recession that any further adherence to his Allegiance was become impracticable and all provisions for the Government consistent with that Allegiance If it be unlawful to comply with the new Allegiance it must be Virtue and Duty to contest for some other establishment consistent with some degree of former Allegiance but no such Model is yet propos'd and probably the Quadrature of the Circle is of as easie investigation These several Modes of destroying the Right of Regality ought to be consider'd not only confusedly and in an heap but in orderly connexion and succession one ought to be super-added to another An imperfect Abdication of the Administration of Government and an imperfect Conquest may be thought sufficient to extinguish such a Right of Regality that was before dying and expiring or if some little of it still seemeth to remain yet if the Estates of the Realm have judg'd aright that all former Allegiance was become impracticable this little will be nothing more than such a rigor of Right that in common Equity is not demandable If upon a full and just computation of things it appeareth That nothing of the People's Subjection and Allegiance is reasonably and in common Equity demandable by the King out of place than his Right of Regality must be thought sufficiently destroy'd The Subjects must be bound to more than natural and reasonable Subjection and Allegiance if they be bound to such a degree of Allegiance which cannot in reason be demanded such Allegiance is like a pretended Debt that in common Equity is not demandable which no man in conscience is bound to pay and which He is absolv'd from before God. This Account of things pretendeth not to any Authority in the Nation to depose the King and to absolve the Subjects from their Allegiance by virtue of our ancient English constitution But it appealeth to common Equity which is germana justitia touching the total Non-obligation of innocent Subjects from their Allegiance which is no more a deposing the King than a Debtor's Plea of Absolution in Conscience from an undemandable debt is a deposing his Creditor or than a Servant's Plea of discharge from an undemandable Service is a deposing his Master III. Suppose the Competitor-King's Right of Regality be not reduc'd to none yet if it be reduc'd to next to none innocent Subjects may swear Allegiance to the King in possession For although good Subjects suppose themselves under an obligation to reserve an Allegiance for an undoubted rightful Governor yet not for such a Governor that hath either no Right at all or next to none for Niceties and Nothings confronted with mighty Motives and Obligations signifie nothing If the Competitor-King's Title to the Government be so extremely infirm and invalid it cannot create a valid Obligation upon the Subject to adhere to his Allegiance against the King that is in possession perhaps upon tolerable fair terms the Authority of the Nation publick Determinations and all the mighty Interests of our Country and Religion IV. They that suppose a Regality to be justly and necessarily destroy'd must suppose themselves discharg'd from its Allegiance and that they may confederate a new Allegiance for it cannot be said without a contradiction that a Regality justly and necessarily destroy'd retaineth the Right of Government and ought to subsist Some Ruining-Regalities ought to be bounded only and reduc'd to reason others ought to be demolish'd both upon the account of their vast Maleficence to their Subject-Nations and because the Interest of the whole necessarily requireth it which is the case of the late Regality A branch of a certain reigning Power and Interest ruinous to the Nation and to the whole * Philo. Opusc p. 158. No Artificer maketh the whole for a part but the part for the whole and if the part be for the whole it is Justice and Duty to destroy a part as Physicians do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †Porphyr Ap. Cyrill c. Jul. p. 166. for the necessary conservation of the whole It is Justice and Duty to demolish that part of a City whose standing is destructive to the whole it ought not to subsist no wrong or injustice is done to any if a part be demolish'd when the safety and interest of the whole necessarily requireth it for every part and its Rights are for the whole On the contrary it would be monstrously unjust and uncharitable to uphold a Cock-loft to the ruin of the whole House and to preserve a Cabin to the sinking a Ship. The best Account of our late Revolution and change of Government is Duty to the whole which in our case is Europe more especially Reformed Christendom and the safety thereof necessarily requir'd it He is a great stranger to the World who knoweth not that of late years there hath been in the World a reigning Power and Interest the French-Papal ruinous to the whole in all its branches and that the redemption of these Nations of Europe and of the Protestant Party in Europe from the reigning and ruining Power and Interest of France and its Allies is vastly just and necessary If this Nation had continu'd subject to that ruining Power and Interest such a posture would have been ruinous to the rest of Christendom being imploy'd to serve the French Interest which is no tolerable posture of humane affairs As a branch of that reigning Interest and because its standing is ruinous to the whole the late Regality like an House infected with a fretting Leprosie ought to be demolish'd But although it ought to be demolish'd yet not in the method of popular Fury by Subjects taking Arms to depose or destroy their King and then absolving themselves from their Allegiance the Christian Religion and Protestant Profession Nil nisi justum suadet lene but a just method will appear in this following Hypothesis In the late Expedition of our generous Prince there was a twofold Design and Undertaking complicate and conjunct yet of separate and distinct consideration the one respecteth the whole the other a part the one was oppositive to that reigning Power and Interest ruinous to the whole the other was redressive of the Grievances of the English Nation If in order to the first design the Citizens of the whole the Estates of Europe combine if one of their number an Independent Prince becometh a kind of Saviour and Redeemer to the sinking estate of Christendom and undertaketh a design either by the calmer or severer methods to break the Power and Interest of the common Enemy of Christendom in this Nation if in his just Expedition He proceedeth to a removal of his late Majesty and his Heir of the French-Papal Interest if he had any from the Government and Kingdom there can be nothing unjust