and Contradiction as ever was made use of to illustrate the Romish Anti-evangelical Mysteries of Priestcraft A KING DE FACTO is just as much as a Rightful and Lawful Usurper or a Mild and Gracious Tyrant Our honest Ancient Lawyers were not wont to flatter Ambitious Princes with such odd and wickedly devis'd Distinctions at the expence of their Countries Honour and Safety A King with them was but of one sort Viz. The Creature of the Law The Ordinance of the People The King says Bracton has a Superiour God also the Law by which he is made King A King is made and ordain'd says Fortescue for the Defence or Guardianship of the Laws of his Subjects and of their Bodies and Goods whereunto he receiveth power of his People Let Kings therefore it is the monition of Bracton temper their power by the Law which is the Bridle of Power These Famous and Learned Lawyers would certainly have thought it very ridiculous that the Title of a KING should be deriv'd only from the Notion of a Fact and the Exercise of his Kingship made to consist in the Execution of the Imperial Law of his Will Between such a King as this and a People there can never be a good Understanding but they will be eternally at variance for their Interests are distinct and separate and cannot but often happen to be directly contrary to one another I wish the Clergy Advocates of Imperial Power would but well weigh the reasoning of the Reverend Mr. Hooker a justly celebrated Writer and I hope they will take his Word for more than a Ceremony I will Transcribe a Passage they that like it not let them answer it He says That for any Prince or Potentate on Earth of what kind soever to exercise Government and not either by express Commission immediately and personally receiv'd from God or else by the Authority deriv'd at first from the consent of the People upon whom he imposes Laws is no better than meer Tyranny for Laws they are not which Poitical Approbation hath not made so but approbation they only give who personally declare their consent or by others in their Names by right originally deriv'd from them as in Parliaments c. But all of this Learned Wise and Good Man's order are not of his excellent true Christian Spirit some of them among those that best understand this matter in spight of Reason and common use of Speaking will set themselves up for such imperious Dictators of Words that the word King must needs signifie an Absolute Monarch But what if it should be admitted to signifie so sometimes in some Countries yet this is plain and undeniable it does not signifie so always nor so at all in England The bare Word or Title KING does not distinstly inform us what Power belongs to him that must be known by examining the Constitution of the State wherein he presides Perhaps some may object that if a King has not an Absolute Power he is dignified with a name which does not belong to him But this is like all the rest a positive stroke of Arbitrary Philosophy Words signifie as custom and common consent make them there is nothing in the nature of Words themselves but that TYRANT might have signified a Just a Gracious Prince a Father of his Country and KING a faithless cruel Tyrant a Lewis or a James The Gibberish of a KING DE FACTO and the Cant of an IMPERIAL LAW are of the same nature and design levell'd at the two Northern equal and equally hated Heresies the Protestant Religion and Monarchy limited by Law Mr. Johnson observing how long and how troublesomely the Nation had been haunted with the Word DE FACTO out of pure kindness to his Countrymen try'd to lay the Goblin but tho' he had exercis'd many a stubborn Devil in his time nay once not only rescued and restor'd some possess'd Creatures but thrown the very Devil himself into flames yet has he not been able to lay this DE FACTO Goblin Perhaps I ought not to pretend to more powerful Charmes than he however I will repeat the Exorcism there may be something in that And who knows but 't is towards day-break with the Common People if they once begin to discern the Priestcraft and State-craft of the distinction a little matter will rid all King WILLIAM's Dominions of the Mischeivous Phantom The plain English of a KING DE FACTO is of or from Fact or Deed. A KING DE FACTO must denote one that by the means of some Fact or Deed is denominated a KING DE FACTO in contradistinction to DE IVRE implies an unrighteous forcible an illegal violent Act. A KING DE FACTO then is a false King a wrong King a King who carries Usurpation and Tyranny in his very Title A King so far remov'd from Rightful and Lawful that he has not no not a right by Law unless the Law of his Sword a King that has no right to govern the People but the People a very good one to take away his DE FACTOSHIP from him But there is nothing in this false and dishonourable Title of a King DE FACTO that can be affix'd to King WILLIAM without the most impudent and malicious injustice tho more of it than the Advocates of the late King are well aware of really agrees to their Abdicatour If they who administred the Coronation Oath to the late King left out the Provision in the Ancient Oath for the Peoples enjoying St. Edward's Laws and added a special clause in favour of the Clergy's Canonical Priviledges if they Clogg'd the promise of securing the Civil Rights of the Nation with a Salvo for Kingly Prerogative then we may safely say that the late King was no more than a King DE FACTO from the very first and all the Oaths that were made to him are of no Obligation he not being the Person he was taken for But supposing that the late King did oblige himself by solemn Oath to Govern according to Law without any unrighteous Omission Addition or Salvo yet when he notoriously violated that sacred Oath by claiming an imperial arbitrary Power above and contrary to Law and by exercising the same in very many and those the most dangerous Instances that could be then he disclaimed all the Legal Title he could ever be supposed to have had tho' he continued indeed but too long afterwards a King De Facto a King in Possession doing all the despight he could to our Old English Constitution and our Holy Reform'd Religion But this false and dishonourable Title of a King de facto as I said just now cannot be affix'd to King William without the most impudent and malicious Injustice for he came over upon the earnest Sollicitation of Lords Spiritual and Temporal and other Subjects of all Ranks to deliver the Nation from Popery and Slavery To this purpose he declar'd himself in Words the Truth of which was clear enough from matter of fact for
A FREE DISCOURSE Wherein the DOCTRINES Which make for TYRANNY Are Display'd The TITLE of our Rightful and Lawful King WILLIAM Vindicated And the unreasonableness and mischievous Tendency of the odious distinction of a King de Facto and de Jure discover'd By a Person of Honour Quo sis Africane alacrior ad tutandam Rempublicam sic habeto Omnibus qui Patriam conservaverint adjuverint auxerint certum esse in Coelo ac definitum locum ubi beati sempiterno aevo fruantur Somn. Scip. è l. 6. Ciceronis de Republica London Printed for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultrey and Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane 1697. A FREE DISCOURSE Wherein the DOCTRINES Which make for TYRANNY Are Display'd I HAVE never been Conscious to my self that the Temptation of any base Interest or the Apprehension of any threatning Danger could corrupt me to betray or force me to decline that which I well knew to be the true Interest of my King and Country and therefore have I constantly look'd upon those that made it their Business to break in upon the just Rights of the one or the other as unhappy Contrivers to involve the Nation in a consuming Debt to Tyranny or Confusion which the People shall be sure to pay out of their Enjoyments in Life Liberty and Property Of Consequence therefore I must with grating Affliction have observ'd how strenously this vile Design has been labour'd from towards the latter end of King Charles the 2d to this present time Under the screening shelter of that Prince Popery and Arbitrary Power were favour'd and cherish'd with all the Art and Industry which Men of slavish Principles and profligate Consciences could devise and apply till the twin Monsters were thought arriv'd at that fulness of prodigious Stature as no longer to need his Life for their Concealment or Protection As a good Preparative for the Introduction of Arbitrary Power in which are all the hopes of Popery pernicious Pamphlets were publish'd in which it was magisterially asserted That the Realm of England was such a compleat Imperial Soveraignty as wherein the King had full perfect and intire Jurisdiction from God alone and that his Subjects ought rather to suffer Death wrongfully than resist him It was speciously granted indeed That there were Political Laws to secure the Rights of the Subject but it was stifly maintain'd That the Imperial Laws which ascertain'd the Rights of the Sovereign Prince were superiour to the Political and might and ought to determine when the Political Laws should be observ'd when not As much as to say The Rights of the Subject should be secure from all Invasion but that of their King Well! that 's worth something tho' the Clown in the Greek Epigram would not have much valued it For said he a little irreverently indeed but very plainly and to the purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hercules that defends my Flock from the Wolf has ever and anon a fat Sheep for Sacrifice the Wolf has no more for prey I lose on both sides for 't is all one to me whether the God has it roasted or Isgrim raw The Judges in King James's time very leernedly stated and decided the Matter pronouncing That in Cases of Necessity the King might dispense with the Laws and that he was Judge of the Necessity These Gentlemen seem to have had some Modesty tho' no more Conscience than the other or perhaps this little show of Modesty was a cast of their Wit they made use of the Fowler 's cunning stalkt under shelter to get a full shoot at the Peoples Liberties which was the Quarry they aim'd at and dead they laid it beshrew their hearts for their pains But 't was a sorry piece of cunning which would never have taken but that the Game they shot was ' tangled in a Net before Who sees not that if the King may dispense with the Laws in Cases of Necessity and be Judge of the Necessity he may dispense with them as often as he pleases wherefore his learned Sages of the Law might have spar'd their Wit and more ingenuously with open boldness have asserted and declar'd like Richard the 2d That the King's Will was the Law This is what the false Coiners of the cheating distinction of Imperial and Political Laws and the corrupt Putters of Necessity-Cases which makes the People's Slavery the one thing necessary would fain be at But the Design is so wicked and odious that to own it in plain words were the way to overthrow it In truth subtle Distinctions and Cases which have never happen'd are like to make the most of this bad Market Thus all in the Land of Metaphysicks where every Period or Page of famous School-Divinity harbours wild Notions of Religion which cannot be explain'd and made intelligible much less prov'd and ascertain'd by clear Reason the Sons of Science supernatural the Mystic Adepti introduce them with proper Terms of Art Terms useless to any other purpose and settle and ' stablish them for ever i.e. as long as ever they can be settled and establish'd on the unexamin'd Foundation of perplexing Distinctions There were not wanting among the eminent Clergy who as if they would go a length K. Richard never dream't on seem'd to intimate That the King's Will was not only the Law but the Religion of the Country too and Passive Obedience the only wretched Portion of the unpeopled People for then they were no longer a People but a plunder'd and enslav'd Rabble left only Tenants at Will for their Lives Liberties and Properties In such a wretched Case it would become the unpeopled People to have always their Loins girt Shoes on their Feet and Staves in their Hands not like Israelites taking leave of their hard Masters and going to set up for themselves but like the Shepherds of Cremona waiting for the terrible Sentence Veteres migrate coloni Be gone ye old English Race of strubborn Free-holders ne're trouble your selves how ye shall drive your Flocks but leave such things behind you haste haste you have nothing to pack up unless your old Wives and young Children haste and make room for naked Colonies of tres humble Monsieur Serviteurs that shall not dare to call their Wooden Shoes their own but Soul and Body become all Obedience let with Spiritual Curb or Temporal Snaffle Priest or Tyrant ride them The design of changing our Legal into an Arbitrary Government was copy'd from the French Original In France t was laid in the Reign of Lewis the XI and took effect to the destruction of the Rights of the People by destroying the Power of Parliaments The destruction of the Power of Parliaments was carried on by very sober paces by the most easie and modest Encroachments that People weary of their Liberties could have wish'd for The King did not pretend to raise Money when he pleas'd by
the Malitious Addresses of his furious Mistress as Testimonies of her passionate Fondness for him and so gave her that dominion over himself which he resolv'd to have over the Swedes He found the Pulse of the Church beat as high as his own they were even impatient to make their King their Tyrant supposing that their share in the Ecclesiastical part would be as Flourishing as his in the Civil and the violent Arch-Bishop of Vpsal fancied he should not be much the lesser Monarch of the two Christiern ill enough dispos'd of himself and always animated to mischief by his Hellish Erinnys quickly came to a resolution of destroying all the Senatours and Principal Noblemen that had been or were like to be Enemies of his Imperial Arbitrary Authority To facilitate the fatal Execution he put on a better countenance than the Withered Hagg his Spightful Favourite wore no cloud sate on his Royal Brow but all was clear and calm there proper as could be to perswade them to trust who once suspected him With this show of Gentleness and Affection then he invites the Lords to a Magnificent Feast at Sockholm Two Days they were highly treated and on the Third Massacred Yet was not the Imperial Tyrannick Thirst of Christiern satisfied for the Great Gustavus with some few Illustrious Patriots escap'd the Slaughter wherefore he sends fresh bloody Orders to his Troops who presently put the whole Town to the Sword sparing none except the Old and Ugly but them perhaps in Complement to Sigebrite Nay so utterly averse did this Tyrant then show himself to all Humanity that when a Swedish Gentleman could not restrain his Grief beholding such a Scene of Horrour he had him fastned to a Gibbet and his Bowels torn forth because of his tenderness and compassion This surprizing Bloody Start from a King to a Tyrant terrified the People so extreamly that it dispos'd them to do their parts to free themselves from their deplorable Condition Slavery may be the misfortune of a People but to submit to it can never be their Duty And I much question whether in the like Case our Advocates of Imperial absolute Sovereignty would not have been of the same mind with the Swedes and not by their Passive Obedience have acknowledg'd their ruine for their Religion Well! in a short time what the Swedes long'd for a Deliverer appear'd He was the injur'd Gustavus Ericson descended from the Ancient Kings of Sweden and Nephew to King Canutson Christiern had now not only Abdicated his Government by his Tyranny in the utter subversion of the Laws Rights and Properties of the People but being generally Hated Beaten and Forsaken he Consumated his Abdication by Flight and Gustavus the Generous Deliverer was by a Convention of the Estates with the Joy of the People chosen King of Sweden which he govern'd happily all the days of his Life A Philosopher being ask'd which was the most dangerous of all Beasts Answer'd of Wild Ones a Tyrant of Tame Ones a Flatterer These Tame Ones hunt the Game like Jacalls and with their plaguy yelping excite and guide the Wild Ones to the Prey and this they do in hopes that when their Lawless Masters are cloy'd they may satisfie their own Appetites with Reliques of that Destruction in which they had been instrumental This Jacall yalping in England was never more Fierce Eager and Loud than in the Reign of King Charles II. and it was a proper time for the Enemies of England and the Protestant Religion with the advantage of the shelter which he gave them to make preparation for the Triumphant Entrance of Popery and Slavery And at that time they did not neglect the opportunity witness the Dover Treaty The Popish Plot discover'd by Doctor Oates and many a bantering Sham that could not be brought to pass upon the People but then something that could make its one way came on Quo Warranto's like Bombs were thrown into Corporations which miserably destroy'd their Antient Charters Dispensing Judges were advanc'd Proper Sheriffs chosen and all unjust Arts used to dispose things for the easier plundering the Nation of their Liberties Properties and Religion These unrighteous Proceedings would hardly have been ventur'd on but for the Countenance that was giv'n them by the Doctrine of Passive Obedience a Doctrine not reveal'd by Jesus Christ nor recorded in his Gospel but stamp'd by latter Creation under the protection of which any King may play the Christiern or the Lewis safely and without controul This Creation stamped Doctrine grew in such Credit and Esteem that not a Man who did not give his Assent and Consent to the same could be allow'd to be a true Son of the Church scarcely to be a Christian. The unlimited Power of a King having been so strenuously asserted and so sucessfully in the Proceedings of those Times seem'd to make the death of King Charles very seasonable for the opening the Execution of the Grand Design in a barefac'd Subversion of the Religion and Laws of England King James at his first coming to the Crown seem'd to endeavour to take away the Apprehension and Terrour that was justly imagin'd to fill the Minds of People And in his first Speech declar'd so much tenderness for them and such a respect for the preservation of their Liberties and Properties that the cajol'd Parliament from an excess of Satisfaction shew I may safely say more Affection to him than ever Parliament did to a Protestant Prince and gave Money till he himself put a stop to the profuse and excessive Expressions of their Satisfaction It must be granted that the lives of some Professors are not so bad as the consequences of their erroneous Opinions And it was charitably thought by the Parliament that King James tho' a Papist would not Govern so Arbitrary as the encourag'd Doctrines of the Age gave him leave but they quickly perceiv'd their Error and found to their Sorrow that Popery and Arbitrary Power could no more be seperated than the double Monster that was shown in London of two Brothers one growing out of the side of the other who were so intimately conjoyn'd that the Life Decay or Death of the one was equally the Concern and Fate of the other For now he began to put his Imperial Laws in Execution and by dispensing with fairly abrogated all the Political which should have secur'd the Rights of the People but alas they were betray'd into his hands and he without Mercy dispatch'd them To me it seems almost impossible but that the Spiritual Defenders of the Absolute Power of an English King who deliver'd that Power to be Gospel and the Slavish Judges who declar'd it to be Law should have deplor'd the Wounds they have given to the Religion and Laws of their Country unless the hopes of a share in the Spoiles had prevail'd above all honest Considerations and unless they had been themselves as ready to embrace the Popish Religion as they had been instrumental to set it up Together
with the first Exercise of an Arbitrary Power the Popish Religion began to appear on the Stage and the Monks and Friars enter'd to act in their proper Habits Seminaries were set up in several places and Houses fill'd with those Religious Furies Father Peter a Jesuit was made of the Privy Council and reign'd Chief Minister Thus from the Spring of Imperial i.e. Arbitrary Power an over-flowing Deluge broke forth threatning miserable occasions for the Religious Exercise of that Fatal Duty Passive Obedience King James no sooner altered from what he seem'd to be in his first Speech but the People alter'd from what they were Their Satisfaction in their new King vanish'd and from the hopes of living happy Subjects under him they sank into the Apprehensions of becoming despis'd and ear-boar'd Slaves A general Consternation fell upon the whole Body of the People and even those Clergy-men that were the Tools to Subvert their own Religion and the Civil Rights of their Brethren were afraid that themselves should feel the Thunder with which they had arm'd their Tyrant This brought them quickly to interpret away the grammatical plain mischievous Sense of Passive Obedience and as for the Exercise of it that they were so far from practising being above their own Ordinances that no honest Men were more forward to invite and joyn with a Deliverer than these Shifters The miserable Condition of England at that time did not only move Compassion in our Neighbours but as we have reason to believe put them in mind that the Disease we labour'd under was catching and if it was not timely repell'd by their Assistance it would not be long before they lamented their own Fate They were therefore for our and for their own sakes aiding and assisting to our rightful and lawful King the then Prince of Orange whom God and his own Vertue prompted to attempt our Deliverance The difficulties that threatned this attempt were great and discouraging but he who was incapable of fear despis'd the Dangers Landed some Forces at Torbay and met a Success answerable to the justness of his Cause and the greatness of his Courage But before he set forward to take off all Suspicions that might reasonably arise where an Army came that might pretend to Conquer as well as to relieve he put forth a glorious Declaration Proclaiming that his Expedition was intended for no other end but to have a Free and Lawful Parliament Assembled soon as possible to secure to the whole Nation the free enjoyment of their Laws Rights and Liberties to preserve the Protestant Religion and cover such as would live peaceably under the Government as becomes good Subjects from all persecution on the account of Religion Papists themselves not excepted King James was now reduc'd to that wherein he seem'd always to place his greatest trust an Army for the Preachers had forsook him and their own Slavish Doctrines sometime before with the Army then he advanced to Salisbury but found that they were a part of injur'd English Men seeing himself therefore deserted by them as well as by his Chaplains who invested him with his illegal Arbitrary Power and all the honest English he left the Kingdom thus he did as it were Sign and Seal his own Abdication which was grown as full and perfect as obstinate Tyranny could make it And as his Act and Deed the Nation took it then the Lords and the Commons represented in their chosen Trustees settled the Crown and Royal Dignity on King William and Queen Mary the exercise of Regal Power on their glorious Deliverer only Thus did they restore the Old Constitution of redem'd England in King Lords and Commons There was before the settlement of the Crown Feb. 4. 1688. a great Conference between the Lords and Commons chiefly on two Particulars Voted by the Commons 1. That King James had Abdicated the Government 2. That thereby the Throne became vacant The Lords insisted on altering the Word Abdicated and in the place thereof to insert Deserted Also they were not willing to willing to admit those Words The Throne is thereby become vacant The exception against the Word Abdicated was that in the common acceptation of the Civil Law it imports a voluntary express Act of Renuntiation which was not in this case and did not follow from the Premises To this the Commons answer'd that the doing an Act inconsistent with the being and end of a thing about which it is conversant or which shall not answer the end of that thing but go quite contrary That Act shall be construed an Abdication and formal Renunciation of that thing This they exemplified Thus the Government is under a Trust and any acting contrary to that Trust is a Renuntiation of that Trust tho' it be not a Renuntiation thereof by a formal Deed. For Act and Deed is as plain and full a Declaration as a Writing can be He that acts contrary to a Trust is a Disclaimer of that Trust tho' he does not disclaim it by a formal Deed. From all this they drew these just Consequences That King James having Acted contrary to his Trust had Abdicated his Government and that having Abdicated it the Throne is thereby become Vacant But the Lords insisted that the Throne could not be Vacant because there was an Heir and that in a Successive Kingdom an Abdication of the Government by a Tyrannous breach of Trust could be a forfeiture only as to that Person who Tyrannically breaking his Trust does Abdicate the Government but not as to the next Heir so as to put him by and make the Government elective Therefore the Abdication of King James the II. could not prejudice the next Heir and then by consequence the Throne was not vacant The Commons upon this demanded that the Lords would tell them with whom the Throne was fill'd The Lords only answer'd in general that it was sufficient to know that there were Heirs to take by lineal Succession tho' they did not or could not expressly name the particular Person whose right it was to fill the Throne And therefore tho' they could not say who fill'd the Throne yet they had reason to conclude it was not Vacant The Commons then represented to the Lords that their Lordships would neither agree that the Throne was Vacant nor say how it was full and desir'd to know who was King if King James was not or were they to be always in that doubtful Condition For none could be King James his Heir during his Life the Crown could not descend till his Death The Lords replied That tho' the King be not dead Naturally yet if he is so Civilly the next of course ought to come in as by Hereditary Succession The Commons replied That their Lordships held it a difficult thing to go upon the examination who is Heir and demanded if that was not clear whether they were always to remain under the difficulty As for the Commons they were not concern'd what Words were us'd Fill
himself and without his Parliament no good Prince not He. All that he desir'd was only to be permitted to raise Money now and then upon occasion in the Intervals of Parliament and not that neither but in Cases of pure Necessity when the Safety of his good Subjects absolutely requir'd it And how could it be deny'd him who lov'd his People so well to judge of Cases of Necessity But the Power of raising Money being once gone the deluded People presently perceiv'd that they had purchas'd their Slavery with it For now all Power fell easily into the Hands of the King In vain it was to dispute with him any Civil Rights not yet parted with by name or even the publick Profession of Religion For the Power of Raising Money is in effect the Power of doing all things just so is it with the Article of Infallibility admit but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that first false Article and you must stand with his Holiness for nothing but believe thro' thick and thin in spight of Sense and Reason Well! the French King became by the abovesaid Artifice at perfect Liberty to be or not be a Tyrant which he pleas'd Let no one ask how he govern'd himself for did ever Man grasp at the Power to do Mischief without the purpose If there have been such mysterious Riddles of irregular Vertue yet the French King 's after Lewis XI were no instances of it In them it plainly appear'd how effectually the temptation of unlimited Power works on Ambitious Nature Ambitious Nature seldom or never esteems any thing enough if there be any thing at all out of her Possession It has not been enough for Lewis the XIV to be the Law but he must be the Religion also of his Slaves With a great many it was Argument enough to be of the Religion he requir'd because it was his while his Spiritual Dragoons disputed more forcibly with those of a more backward Faith The Priests had stood altogether idle and unconcern'd in this Conversion but for the merit of that flattering Doctrine A King is accountable to none but God but to make amends for their being less serviceable than the Military Men their unaccountable King shall be stil'd the Vicegerent of God nay the very Image of the Most High tho' they spoil the Argument in the First Chapter to the Hebrews for the Divinity of Christ. I wonder they do not maintain That their King is accountable to none but himself For if he prescribes them their Religion as well as dictates their Law he is their Idol God as well as their Royal Tyrant But as I noted Ambitious Nature never esteems any thing enough when there is yet something out of her possession therefore Lewis the XIV is for advancing his Tyranny over his Neighbours also To this purpose his method has long time been to corrupt the Courts of Princes by his Lovis d'Ors to surprize Un-armed Countries and Ill-provided Forts by breach of his Oaths Thus his Treachery has many Years purvey'd for his Cruelty and his Cruelty shed Torrents of Blood to quench the raging Thirst of his Ambition He has plunder'd the Monuments of the Dead and the Altars of his own Gods nor Fearing nor Reverencing one more than the other He has broke his Leagues with Christian Princes as long as they would trust him has kept them something better indeed with the Turk for it was his Interest tho' the Turk is not his only Allie for he has the Devil and the Pope beside What good understanding there is between him and the Pope the World sees and he that will not grant him to be in League with the Foul Fiend also must believe that there 's no Devil in Hell or no Monkish Conjurer in France to bring those mighty Potentates together Is there any difference between Neighbouring States Lewis will interpose to settle it and never leave 'till he has settled or made it wider Is any Prince or Princess to be Married He proposes a Match for them some Bastard Son or Daughter of his own well pre-instructed what returns to make him for their Preferment Is there any Candidate labouring for a Sovereign Bishoprick or Coadjutorship who has very little reason to support his pretences Lewis the Grand will serve his hopeless interest out of his own free mischievous Generosity When he prospers he fights for the glory of his Majesty When his Affairs are in some danger he labours only to extirpate Heresie but in neither of these Cases thinks it improper to assist an Heretical Noble Revolter against his Catholick Lord and Master In sending abroad Embassadors he choses Huguenot Ravigni for England a stout Toper for Germany a bold Marquess for Rome a grave Clergy-man for Spain In short he makes himself all things for all that he may confound all Nations and turn the World into a Wilderness This is the French Original which some unhappy men among us have studiously set themselves to Copy Now in the First place God be prais'd then due thanks paid to King William our Deliverer and every Noble Afferter of our English Liberties in the Convention-Parliament for that the work of those unhappy Copyers was disturb'd and so they could never finish their Piece but they gave us a plaguy sketch of it in the last Reign But there is another Original Draught of a Tyrant set forth in that excellent History of the Revolution in Sweden wherein many particulars bear a perfect resemblance of our Late Times as to the great Transactions both in France and England which is not to be wonder'd at but rather to be consider'd as a good Evidence that all Tyranny is alike for tho' the Streams from the same Fountain may run in several Ways and Channels yet they all tend to the same Ocean of Blood After the Death of the Brave Steno the Worthy Administratour of Sweden Christiern II. succeeded his Father in the Kingdom of Denmark and obtain'd the Crown of Sweden by Conquest This Prince was not more ambitious to make others his Slaves than he was himself to become the Slave of Sigebrite a Woman who had neither the Charms of Youth or Beauty to Captivate him But this notwithstanding her Power was as great over him as if she had seem'd intit'led to it by all the Perfections which Nature could have bestow'd upon her It is hard to be imagin'd how an Old Dutch Woman could obtain this absolute Dominion over a haughty Monarch unless it were by perswading him to assume the same over others The Inhumane Polities of this She-Favourite were extremely agreeable to the fierce and cruel Disposition of Christiern He look'd upon the Antient Liberties of his Subjects as inconsistent with his Royal Honour and Dignity and she tempted him to sacrifice a whole Senate to his Arbitrary Ambition This this was the pleasing Conjuration that charm'd him whose Nature was not so pardonably wicked as to dote on Youth and Beauty The Tyrant receiv'd
hop'd for the other suspected and fear'd such a new dismal Scene of Affairs And for ought I know the Establishment and Security of the Government under King WILLIAM may be owing more to what has been done against it than to what has been done for it Perîssem nisi perîssem I think it was the Saying of the brave Themistocles by which I suppose he design'd to declare that it was his Opinion he had not arriv'd at that Heighth of Greatness if he had not been ruffled oppos'd and banish'd and I am very fully satisfied that if it had not been for this last devillish Invasion and Assassination-Plot we had not in haste declar'd King WILLIAM our Rightful and Lawful King nor associated for the Preservation of his Life by threatning to revenge his violent Death There is a difference between those that were to have had their part in the Assassination and those that were concern'd only in the Invasion The Assassines are not able to devise any the least colour to take off from the Heinousness of their intended Villany Perkins was a little asham'd of this infamous Design but as for the Promoters of the Invasion their Treason was but Consonant to their old mischievous Distinction of a King De Facto and De Jure Some of the Assassines have met their deserv'd Fate but the simple Invaders have hardly been scar'd yet if they shall not be call'd to an Account also who bid fair for slaying Ten Thousands of the People and so making up in Numbers a Sacrifice equal to that of their King they will not only be confirm'd that they have distinguish'd well but prompted more vigorously to pursue the fatal end and purpose of their threatning Distinction And this indeed is enough and enough to cool the Zeal and to discourage the Endeavours of them that are otherwise very well dispos'd to serve the Interests of King WILLIAM their Country and the Protestant Religion Our King himself is not capable of endangering his own just Rights or the Safety of the People of England unless by his singular Mercy and Goodness which like his fearless Valour knows no Bounds as for the Representatives of the People it may be Reasonably presum'd they will at last provide that the De Facto Jacobites shall not have the Temptation of Impunity to attempt to subvert the Liberties of the Nation and to destroy the Lives of all that love their Liberties They have indeed according to the Trust reposed in them honestly endeavour'd and advanc'd some Paces towards such a necessary Provision by their Noble Just and Righteous Association But there remains a great deal more for them to do still lest what they have already done be frustrated and render'd all together ineffectual for their Association is no sooner drawn up subscrib'd by a great Majority and the Session prorogu'd But Ante-Associations are form'd against it by some of the Clergy not indeed in broad Words directly contrary but in cold and empty Flourishes of their own devising and such borrowed Expressions as they imagine capable of an interpretation that will not utterly subvert their Distinction of a KING DE FACTO and DE IVRE Which Distinction while it Reigns unpunish'd KING WILLIAM does not reign secure Several of the Ante-Associations were drawn up so little favouring the Title of His present MAJESTY so little consulting the Security of his Administration that it was scandalously manifest the Subscribers associated only in lewd Hypocisy to avoid the Envy of Non-associating to sham the Authority of the Nation with some deceitful Complements but in Reality and Truth to preserve their dear Distinction Such Associations therefore as these were rejected as they well deserved nor could all the Academic Elegance bestowed upon them help them through the officious Hands of Friends to his Majesty's gracious Acceptance But these Gentlemen carried it highly if his Majesty would not accept such Association as they had drawn up he should have none at all from them This being observ'd by other Persons of the same Order they wisely consider'd what Inconveniences might possibly happen from not Associating at all and therefore determin'd to comply but resolv'd to come off as cheap as they could They would venture to Associate but not with their Parishoners in the Form prescrib'd by the House of Commons except here and there an honest Parson that had no Priestcraft in him wherefore they carefully abstain from declaring it to be their perswasion that His present Majesty King WILLIAM is Rightful and Lawful King of these Realms and as for his Violent and untimely death should it happen which God prevent they oblige not themselves to revenge it upon his Enemies and their Adherents But let us see What do they give us in the room of RIGHTFUL AND LAWFUL KING and instead of making it the utmost danger to kill him Why They borrow some words from the Association of the House Lords and insert the same among some empty Flourishes of their own upon which I note that altho' the Form of the Association of the House of Lords be in the Literal Plain and Obvious Sense and in the Sense by them intended Truly Just and Highly Loyal yet when Clergy-men who are represented by the House of Commons and not by the House of Lords shall Associate in the Language of the latter and not of the former it is a manifest sign that they dislike the Association of the House of Commons and that tho' the Association of the Lords tends to the same Just Noble and Necessary Purposes yet in their Opinion it may be interpreted to signifie something less It cannot be imagin'd that any of the Clergy should decline the Association of the House of Commons by whom they are represented if they were perswaded that the same was a Just and Righteous Association it cannot be imagin'd that they should prefer the Phrase of the House of Lords by whom they are not represented if they were firmly perswaded as I declare my self to be that that Phrase did come fully up to the Sense of the House of Commons and could not possibly be interpreted to signifie with a Jacobite abatement something favourable to their mischievously applied distinction of a King De Facto and De Jure Now in this their Practise they do a great injury to both Houses they audaciously slight the one and wickedly traduce the other What reward so high a Misdemeanour may deserve I take not upon me to pronounce but I hope I may have leave to say that these Clergy-Association-Separatists have not that unquestionable fair pretence to His Majesties Special Graces and Favours as the voluntary Subscribers of the Association of the House of Commons indeed they may considering the Wonderful Generosity of the King expect as much Forgiveness as they shall need and more Grace and Favour than they are dispos'd to deserve But it were a Presumption very like Impudence in them to hope that His Majesty King WILLIAM should prefer
them before his best affected Liege People who Associate as is most Just and Proper Fair and Unexceptionable with their Representatives in Parliament Heartily Sincerely and Solemnly Professing Testifying and Declaring that His Present Majesty King WILLIAM is Rightful and Lawful King of these Realms c. And that they will stand by one another in revenging his untimely death which God prevent upon His Enemies and their Adherents It was a very sharp Reflection and I would very fain perswade my self an unjust one that of Mr. Dryden For Priests of all Religions are the same but it grieves my Soul to think that so necessary an order of Men Protestants as well as Papists should be so generally given to oppose the Proceedings of the State Old and Crazy is the Body I cannot say which I carry about with me but which is carried about for me but yet I am in hopes that it will hold out till all His Majesties Subjects represented by the Commons be taught the necessity of Subscribing the Association of the House of Commons for I well remember how before the end of their last Sessions they set their own Members a day to Subscribe it or declare their Refusal also the Names of Refusers were requir'd to be return'd from all or most Towns of the Kingdom which was setting and a distinguishing Mark upon them and it is not reasonable to suppose that they will suffer their August Assembly and Wise Councils to be so contemptuously us'd as they must be if that Form of Association which their Wisdom judg'd absolutely necessary to save the Honour and Life of the King the Lives Liberties and Religion of the Subject happen to be disappointed by particular Forms of Association devis'd by some Discontented Ecclesiasticks who refuse to declare that His present Majesty King WILLIAM is Rightful and Lawful King of these Realms and have so very little love for His Person that who as will may Assassinate him for all them with impunity O the Christianity of these Gentlemen Whose Consciences will not serve them to be aiding and assisting any just Orders of Legal Revenge If this be Christianity commend me to the Manners and Doctrine of Heathens But why should Christianity be reproach'd for their sakes That Holy Institution neither injures the Civil Rights of particular Persons nor alters the Grand Reason on which Political Societies Kingdoms and Commonwealths are founded and preserv'd Salus populi the good of the People is the grand Reason on which Political Societies are founded the good of the People requires that Enormous Wickednesses should not escape unpunished he that has it in his power but will not contribute to the Legal Punishment of an Infamous Assassin is wanting in the duty which he owes to that Body Politick whereof he is a Member In short every Member of a Body Politick is in strict justice oblig'd to endeavour as far as in him lies to bring to Legal Punishment the Bloody Villain that shall murder the meanest of his Fellow Subjects this is a duty which by the Fundamental Reason of Society is owning from every single Person to the Publick how much more strongly does it oblige if a brave Prince should fall which God forbid by the Treacherous Cruelty of ingrateful Miscreants prompted by a disappointed Tyrant and supported by a Faithless Enchroaching Foreign Enemy It is a very odd thing that any Men should pretend Conscience for their forbearance of that action which they are bound in duty to perform tho' they look no farther than their being Members of a Body Politick There is no Government upon the face of the Earth that will take them in upon other conditions than their agreeing to be reveng'd upon those Assassines whose desperate Malice shall wound the Publick in so noble a part as her Chief Officer And therefore we have good reason to hope that since the Government knows her boldest Enemies who mindful of the Advice from Rochester will not Associate with us at all and her No-friends who will not Associate in the form of the House of Commons since I say the Government knows them intus incute fully and throughly as she well may after Seven long Years troublesom experience that she will now at last take the necessary security that security which Providence hath so loudly and so oft proclaim'd to be the only necessary by which not only the Government but by the blessing of God even the Enemies thereof may be brought to their right Wits and sav'd from cruel Tyranny and foolish Superstition This looks some may object as if I wish'd that the Association of the House of Commons might be impos'd on the Clergy I might reply if that really was my wish I know no great harm which would follow but I rather choose with all softness to clear the purpose of my Writing I remember to have read some Author who vindicating the practice of the Church which sometime had been in compelling Men to Conformity when he was asham'd to affirm in express terms that violence might be offer'd to Mens Consciences in matters about Religious Worship He gave this turn to the matter they might lawfully be compell'd to consider I mean no more as to our Dissenting Associators And I am perswaded let the Government give them but one good Argument able to move them to consider the matter they will never stand with their Representatives for the Phrase of RIGHTFUL AND LAWFUL KING no nor the Word REVENGE neither which when the Parliament threatned against the King's Enemies they never dream'd it would scare the Clergy For the ground of this my perswasion I will tell the Reader a Story When Pope Paul the Vth. quarrell'd with the Venetians the Imprisonment of a brace of Ecclesiastick Villians was the least thing that troubled him But the great Offence was from Two Decrees the First commanding that no more Churches should be Erected within the City Precincts the Second that no more Lands should be alienated to the Ecclesiasticks without leave had from the Senate It seems the Senate were for Governing the Republick by such Decrees as they judg'd necessary for the Publick Good The Pope Excommunicates the Duke and Senate lays their Dominions under his Interdict the Jesuits Associating on the side of his Holiness obey the Interdict and refuse to say Mass for this the Senate banishes them but the People Associating with the Senate instead of mutining for the Holy Fathers now ready to depart each Man with the Hoast at his Neck intimating that they and JESUS CHRIST were both taking their leave together bid them be gone with a vengeance The Senate pursu'd their steaddy Resolutions with an Order that all Ecclesiasticks who would not continue the Celebration of Divine Service should retire out of their Dominions upon this many of the Holy Men especially the Capuchins had the Courage to make a noise of departing they intended to have gone out in Procession with the Sacrament but that the Senate