the Judges of his Crown and Dignity the Discusser should have done well before he had made his Reflection upon so many Eminent Patriots to have consulted Grotius l. 1. c. 4 Par. 8. and the Example of Pausamias King of Lacedaemon there cited Certainly there was no such Impossibility but that a Free and Indifferent Parliament might have been chosen to deal equally between the King and the People For tho the King perhaps might be conscious that he could not so well rely upon the Kindness of those to whom he had always had such an inveterate Antipathy yet he might have rely'd upon the Justice of so many Great and Worthy Personages So that it is the Discusser himself who out-faces the Sun and tramples upon the Understandings and Senses of the whole Nation who makes these little Rhetorical Flourishes to palliate and obscure the Truth and to insinuate among the People as if Wrong and Injustice had been done where nothing was acted but what was a due debt to Self-Preservation And with the same Brazening the Discusser out-faces the Sun and tramples upon the Senses of the Nation to assert that a Desertion of the Government after such Proposals which were rather Assurances of his Safety was no Desertion He had been safer in the Affection of the People when all his evil Counsellers had been remov'd from about him he had been safer from the Importunities of his Priests and Jesuites He had been more secure from running himself into farther danger and safer in the Enjoyment of his Royal Dignity But he who had so Solemnly sworn to Establish Popery in England or die in the Attempt though himself no where safe perhapps but where he might be procuring his future Bliss by the Performance of his Vow The Discusser now advances to the King 's second withdrawing and puts the Question what the King had done to incur a forfeiture by his first Retirement Indeed what had he not done If the Discusser forgot in his Discussing Heat the Declaration presented to their Present Majesties would have rubb'd up his Memory Among the rest there was one That he had endeavoured to Subvert and Extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom by raising and keeping a Standing Army in the Kingdom in time of Peace without Consent of Parliament and quartering Souldiers contrary to Law and by causing several of his good Subjects to be Disâ—â—â—'d at the same time when Papists were both Arm'd and Employ'd Now to what purpose was all this but to Subject the Kingdom to the Tyranny of the Pope In such a case Bartlâ—y cited by Grotious l. 1. c. 4. per. 10. gives this for his Opinion Si Rex reguum alienet aâ—â— alij Subjiciâ—t amitti ab â—o Regnum To which Grotius himself adds Si Rex reipsa tradere regnum aut Subjicers molliatur quin ei râ—fisti in hoc pâ—sse non dubitâ— Aliâ—d est enâ—â—n Imperiuâ—â— aliâ—d habâ—ndi modus qui no 〈◊〉 obstarâ— pâ—test â—opâ—â—us After all this it cannot be imagin'd that the King returned the second time with an intention is govern unless he might govern at his own will and Pleasure as he did before But that would not be suffâ—r'd him for they who had now avoided the Yoke so near putting about their Necks would never endure it should come so near their shoulders again Therefore all the Probality in the World is on this side That the King perceiving that by taking the Goverment upon him again he should not be able to attain those Ends which he had made the Business of his whole Reign resolv'd to relinquish it altogether At which time being at liberty to go or stay his Departure must of necessity be accounted Voluntary and consequently an Absolute Abdication Lastly it is impossible that the King could be frighted out of his Dominions by the making of two or three Addresses to his then Royal Highness the Prince of Orange for it was no more than rationally he could expect would be done more especially from the City to the Person who next under God had deliver'd them from their Continual fears of Fire and Sword. Nor by the denying him a little Gold to Heal with which looks like an improbable Story of the Discusser's own framing These are Motions so inconsiderable for a King to forsake his Dominions that the Discusser seems to have Conjur'd them up meerly to degrade the Courage of the Absenting Monarch and to mortify his own Discussion But after all the Question may be fairly put whether Withdrawing in the Construction of our Law does not rather imply a Guilt than an Apprehension of Danger unless it be that of being call'd to an Account since the Query always propounded to the Jury is Did he fly for 't Which indeed ought to be the Legal Determination of this Dispute However the Disousser goes on and tells us We are to observe that to abdicate an Office always supposes the Consent of him who quits And this he affirms to be the meaning of the Word out of Salust Tully Livy and Grotius But both the Supposal and the Asseveration are false For Consent implies that the Question must be put Whether the Person will Abdicate or no Which never was put to any Abdicator in this World. Upon a forc'd Resignation it has But a forc'd Resignation is no Abdication Certain it is that Abdicarâ— signifies to renounce forgoe or abandon And the Motives to this Abdication are various and generally prevailing upon the Reason of the Person that Abdicates himself according to the Condition of Affairs and the Circumstances he is under And therefore tho a Magistrate may abdicate with the consent of others yet he rarely does it out of a natural Inclination Thus it cannot be imagined that Lentulus one of the Conspirators with Catiline abdicated the Pretorship with the Consent of his own Will for he was one of the most aspiring Men in the Universe but because he found himself so obnoxious that he could hold it no longer Thus Sylla abdicated the Dictatorship out of a Vain-glorious Opinion of Felicity that attended him and to shew that he had such an awe over the Romans that tho he were a Private Person no body durst call him to an Account for the Cruelties he had committed History tells us that Dioclesian abdicated the Empire for madness that he could not have his Will of the Christians How does the Discusser know but that King James abdicated the Government because he could not have his Will of the Protestants Charles the Vth abdicated the Empire because he found his wonted Good Fortune had left him Bernard Rasfield Bishop of Munster finding himself between two Grindstones the Persecution of the German Priests for going about to deprive them of their Concubines and the Pope's Excommunication if he did it not abdicated his Principality and Bishoprick that he might be at quiet Lastly to shew that Abdication does not always imply Consent Brutus compell'd Tarquinius
AN ANSWER TO THE DESERTION DISCUSS'D IF many of our Long-Rob'd Divines puft up with a Conceit of their own Parts would but keep closer to their Texts and their Duties most certainly our Peace and Union would be much firmer and more assured then it is For being sway'd by Interest and Profit they are more afraid of losing the Advantages of Earthly Preferment then the Treasures of Heavenly Felicity Unless they swim in their own Wishes and Desires all Things are out of Order The Church is in danger they cry here are Sharers coming in among Us And by an odd kind of Ecclesiastical Policy seem rather inclinable to return under the Yoke of Popery then to endure the Equality of a Dissenting Protestant rather to be at the check of a Pope's Nuncio then suffer the Fraternity of a Protestant Nonconformist They said nothing to the late King till he began to touch their Copy-holds then they call'd out for Help and now they are angry with their Relief because they are afraid of well they know not what And this is their Misfortune that if all things answer not the full Height of their Expectations they are the first that should be last dissatisfied If all things go not well as they imagine they presently grow moody and waspish and while they insinuate their empty Notions into others who admiring the fluency of their Pulpit Language either out of Ignorance or Laziness allow them a Prerogative over their Understandings the whole Nation must be embroyl'd by their Surmises and Mistrusts Else what had that Gentleman who wrote the Desertion Discuss'd to do to busy his Brains with a Subject neither appertaining to his Function nor proper for his Talent Why should he be setting himself up against the voted Judgment of the chiefest and greatest part of the Kingdom A Man of his Profession would have doubtless better employ'd himself in contemplating the Story of the Three Murmurers against Moses and there have learn'd a more sanctifi'd Lesson then to exalt his Sophistry against the Debates of a Solemn Assembly contriving the Publick Preservation For certainly never was a fairer Prospect then now since the many Revolutions under which the British Monarchy has labour'd of its being restor'd to its ancient Grandeur and Renown and of enjoying the Advantages of Peace and Prosperity in a higher measure then ever So that it must be look'd upon as the Effect either of a most pernicious Malice or a strange distraction of Brain for such Discussers as these to be throwing about the Darnel of their nice and froward Conceptions on purpose to choak the Expectations of so glorious a Harvest For they must be Men that want the government of right Reason within themselves as being enslav'd either to vicious Custom or partial Affection or else they would never run themselves and others with so much precipitancy into the shame and ignominy of upholding the subvertors of National Constitutions And all this to blacken and defame the noble Endeavours and prudent Counsels of those renowned Patriots that pursu'd the only means to rescue a languishing Monarchy from impending Thraldom and Ruin. He does not wonder he says that a Man of so much sense and integrity as his Friend is should be surprized at the Thrones being declared Vacant by the Lower House of Convention For how says his Friend can the Seat of the Government be empty while the King who all grant had an unquestionable Title is still living But the Discusser here forgot that it had been the resolv'd Opinion of two Parliaments already That there was no Security for the Protestant Religion the King's Life or the establish'd Government of the Kingdom without passing a Bill for disabling the Duke of York to inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and that unless a Bill were pass'd for excluding the Duke of York the House could not give any Supply to the King without Danger to his Person the Hazard of the Protestant Religion and Breach of the Trust in them repos'd by the People Upon which a Bill did pass the Commons and was sent up to the Lords for their Concurrence by which James Duke of York was excluded and made for ever uncapable to Inherit Possess or Enjoy the Imperial Crown of this Realm c. and he adjudg'd Guilty of High Treason and to suffer the Pains and Penalties as in Case of High Treason if after such a Time he should claim challenge or attempt to possess or exercise any Authority or Jurisdiction as King c. in any of the said Dominions 'T is true the Lords did not pass this Bill for Reasons well known yet was it such a mutilation to the Duke's Title to be disabled from succeeding in the Kingdom by the whole Body of the Commons who are the Representatives of the Nation that it can never be said that all Men granted his Title unquestionable as the Discusser imposes upon the World. Besides the many Instances in History of several Princes who have forfeited their Succession and consequently their Title to the Crown for revolting from the Establish'd Religion of the Realm But says the Discusser for I look upon his Friend and Him to be all one and that he does but put the Question with one side of his Mouth and answer it with the other I had thought our Laws as well as our Religion had been against the Deposing Doctrine That 's not the Question but whether a Prince may commit those Miscarriages in Government whether he may not so far peccare in Leges Rempublicam as to incur the Forfeiture of his Regal Power and whether a Prince may be allow'd to subvert the ancient Constitutions and Religion of a Nation and yet be said to be the Lawful King of that Realm These are the Questions For then it is not the Law that deposes him nor the Religion that justifies it But it is He that deposes Himself 't is the bad Advice of Evil Counsellors to which he Listens and which he follows to the ruin of the Kingdom contrary to the Original Contract between Princes and People grounded upon the Foundations of all Original Government I say 't is that Adhering to Evil Counsel which deposes a Prince by degrading him from a Lawful King to an Unlawful Tyrant and fenders him Liable to the Animadversion of the Law and the impeachments of the oppress'd and injur'd People To assert otherwise were to deprive all National Law and Religion of their self Defence which is against all the Law and Religion in the World. I am apt to believe that Christ himself had no very good Opinion of the lawfulness of Herod's Regality when he sent him that Message Go tell that Fox Herod Which I look upon as a Deposal and Degrading of that Arbitrary Prince by the Founder of our Religion in his own Breast and Judgment though he forbore the Execution of his Celestial Power And therefore it is not the Error of Religion but the Fault of
those that do not well distinguish that Religion suffers in her Doctrines For only he who governs according to Law is a King he that endeavours to subvert the Law is none Nor is every rambling and precipitate Brain to be Judg of this neither but the Solid Law and fundamental Constitutions of the Realm So that the Country Gentleman was mistaken in his Thoughts both of our Laws and our Religion However the pretended Scrupulous Country-Gentleman desires the Discusser to expound the State-Riddle of the Vacancy and to give him the Ground of the late extraordinary Revolution To which the Discusser gives no direct answer at present but desires his Friend to take notice That the Gentlemen of the Convention who declar'd a Vacancy in the Government lay'd the main Stress of their opinion upon the King's withdrawing himself For that since the Story of the French League and the Business of the Prince of Wales were pass'd over in silence most Men believed that the pretended Breach of that which they called the Original Contract was no more then a popular Flourish All which is such an imperfect peice of Incoherence that none but a madman would have thrust in by Head and Shoulders as the Discusser has done For how can it be inferr'd that the Breach of the Original Contract should be a Popular Flourish because the Clandestin League and the False Birth are hitherto pass'd over in silence As for the surreptitious Birth one would think it was sufficiently dilated upon in the Declaration of the Lords and why it is not farther brought upon the Stage there may be several Reasons given and among the rest because it may be thought that the Imposture will vanish of it self and so there will be no need of casting an Eternal Blot upon the memory of them that contriv'd and own'd it Then for the Clandestin League it Suffices that there is apparent Proof of it in Bank. But to call the Breach of the Original Contract pretended and a Popular Flourish is a york of Malitious Reflection which only serves to expose the Discusser to Publick censure For as there is nothing more certain then that there is an Original Contract between the King and People of England the Breach of which has cost the Effusion of so much Blood so is it as certain that that Original Contract was never so infallibly broken then it was of late Which as it is allow'd by all the Laws of God and Man to be a sufficient ground to seek a Remedy so was nothing more vigorously urg'd by the Convention Which might have convinc'd the Discusser that they did not pretend it for a popular Flourish But now lest the Country Gentleman should be shogg'd by seeing the Votes of so considerable a Meeting debated by a private Hand the Discusser reminds him That a Parliament and a Convention are two different Things The latter for want of the King's Writs and Concurrence having no share in the Legislative Power But the Discusser forgets that it was only a Convention of Lords that sent to Richard the Second to meet them at Westminster which the King at first promis'd to do but upon altering his Mind sent him another peremptory Message that if he would not come according to his Promise they would chuse another King and then proceeding farther according to that Power they had expell'd against the King's Will several of his chiefest Favourites from the Court constrain'd others to put in Sureties to appear at the next Parliament and caus'd several others to be arrested and committed to several Prisons If a Convention could do this where the King was present what signifi'd the Writs and Concurrence of an absent Prince Nor did they contend for Legislative Power but only met in a kind of embodied Dictatorship to take care of the present Necessity of Affairs But this says the Discusser was not justifiable for that the Nenessity which they pretended was either of their own making or of their own submitting to which is the same Thing But this is all Nonsence For if the Necessity was of their own making then were the Lords and Commons the Authors of all the Miscarriages which they laid to the late King's Charge If of their own submitting to then would they never have call'd out for succour and crav'd Relief from their Oppressions No They were those crying Grievances sum'd up in the Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembl'd at Westmister presented to their Present Majesties upon the Twelfth of February Last which when the late King could not justify them by force of Arms but fled for it not being able to answer his endeavours to subvert and Extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom put them to that necessity of assembling after an Unusual Manner to provide for the Common Safety How ever the Discusser will have it a Necessity of their own creating tho never so false For says he if the King had either not bin driven out of his Dominions or invited back upon honourable Terms they needed not have had recourse to such unusual singular Methods of proceeding And thus the Discusser rambles out of one Untruth into another For he fled from offer'd Treaty forsook the defence of his own Forces and left them to be disbanded in Arrears and without Payment slipt from his own Council by Night after he had appointed to meet them in Consultation the next Morning Nor could he justly suspect that any Violence would have been offer'd to Him in particular being so well assur'd as he could not choose but be of the Generous Inclination and profound Respect which the Prince had to his Person But if the Guilt of peculiar Miscarriages hasten'd his Departure or oversway'd him to leave the Helm of Rule without any Form or Face of Government That could ne're be call'd an Expulsion out of his Dominions And therefore when a certain Gentleman waiting on him at Feversham besought him to return to London he gave the Person this Reply That he was an honest Gentleman but knew not what he knew And when he had once abandon'd the Kingdom all forlorn without either Head or Conduct without Council or any Countenance of Authority then according to the Judgment of the Common-wealth of Venice in reference to the Succession of Henry the 4th it belong'd to the Nobility and chief Persons of the Land as they are the chief Defence of the Royal Authority to take care of the Publick Safety whether by usual or unusual Methods of proceeding it matters not and they have both the Authority of Law and Necessity to justify their Proceedings As for his being invited back upon Honourable Terms 't is well known how he return'd back and went through the City on the Sunday Night attended by his own Guards and lodg'd in White-Hall and this most certainly in order to an Accommodation Only because the Prince was coming to Town he was sent to and for the