by the king and queen, a proclamation for discovering and apprehending the late bishop of ely, william penn, and james grahme england and wales. sovereign (1689-1694 : william and mary) 1691 approx. 3 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2009-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a66297 wing w2588 estc r38089 17166347 ocm 17166347 106117 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a66297) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 106117) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1624:32) by the king and queen, a proclamation for discovering and apprehending the late bishop of ely, william penn, and james grahme england and wales. sovereign (1689-1694 : william and mary) mary ii, queen of england, 1662-1694. william iii, king of england, 1650-1702. 1 broadside. printed by charles bill and thomas newcomb ..., london : 1690 [i.e.1691] "given at our court at whitehall the fifth day of february 1690/1. in the second year of our reign." reproduction of original in the harvard university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng jacobites. great britain -history -william and mary, 1689-1702. 2008-02 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2008-07 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2008-08 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2008-08 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-09 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion monogram of 'w' (william) superimposed on' m' (mary) diev et mon droit honi soit qui mal y pense royal blazon or coat of arms by the king and queen , a proclamation for discovering and apprehending the late bishop of ely , william penn , and james grahme . marie r. whereas their majesties have received information , that francis late bishop of ely , william penn esquire , and james grahme esquire , with other ill-affected persons , have designed and endeavoured to depose their majesties , and suvvert the government of this kingdom , by procuring an invasion of the same by the french , and other treasonable practices , and have to that end held correspondence , and conspired with divers enemies and traitors , and particularly , with sir richard grahme baronet , ( viscount preston in the kingdom of scotland ) and john ashton gent. lately attainted of high treason ; for which cause several warrants for high treason have been issued out against them , but they have withdrawn themselves from their usual places of above , and are fled from justice : their majesties therefore have thought sit , by and with the advice of their privy council , to issue this their royal proclamation ; and their majesties do hereby command and require all their loving subjects to discover , take and apprehend the said francis late bishop of ely , william penn and james grahme , wherever they may be found , and to carry them before the next justice of the peace , or chief magistrate , who is hereby required to commit them to the next goal , there to remain until they be thence delivered by due course of law ; and their majesties do hereby require the said justice or other magistrate , immediately to give notice thereof to them or their privy council . and their majesties do hereby publish and declare to all persons that shall conceal the persons above named , or any of them , or be aiding or assisting in the concealing of them , or furthering their escape , that they shall be proceeded against for such their offence with the utmost severity according to law. given at our court at whitehall the fifth day of february , 1690 / 1. in the second year of our reign . god save king william and queen mary . london , printed by charles bill and thomas newcomb , printers to the king and queens most excellent majesties . 1690. a song. on his majesties birth-day abell, john, 1653?-ca. 1716. 1694 approx. 2 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2009-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). b02374 wing c604a estc r173400 52211728 ocm 52211728 175459 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. b02374) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 175459) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 2737:19) a song. on his majesties birth-day abell, john, 1653?-ca. 1716. carney, d. 1 sheet ([1] p.) printed by william weston printer & stationer to the kings most excellent majesty, [dublin] : 1694. caption title. three stanzas and a chorus, without the music. signed at end: by mr. d. carney: and set by mr. abell master of his majesty's privat musick. evidently jacobite, from its contents, and from the fact that abell was a follower of james ii. william weston is located in dublin.--cf. bradshaw irish coll.; clancy. reproduction of the original in the university of texas, austin library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng james -ii, -king of england, 1633-1701 -songs and music -texts. jacobites -poetry -17th century. political ballads and songs -england -early works to 1800. 2008-03 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2008-04 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2008-05 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2008-05 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-09 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a song . on his majesties birth-day . ( 1 ) forgive , great sir ! if less vvee pay , then vvhat is due , to this great day ; wee vvant apollo to inspire strains , fitt to grace your birth-day quire. blest numbers , and imortal layes , and anthems of an endlesse praise . are vvorthy you ; and only fitt to be to you , great sir ! the proper harmonie . ( 2 ) duty and love is all our aym , and these , and more your vertues claym : in all your crosses who e're knew , the least resentment come from you , in words , or frowns , or any thing , beneath the grandeur of à king ? in all the turns of fate , you act your part , a king , like david after god's own heart . ( 3 ) duty , and love is all our aym , and these , and more your vertues claym ; in highest dangers voyd of fear , or pride , when victories you bear : piety , and goodness fill your minde ; your foes , when vanquish'd mercy find : your justice may , in time , o'retake , and aw those men , your profer'd kindnesse cannot draw . chorus : duty , and love is all our aym , and these , and more your vertues claym ; a mighty power , your kingdoms to regain ; a goulden age , and nestor's years to reign . by mr. d. carney : and set by mr. abell master of his majestys privat musick . printed by william weston printer & stationer to the kings most excellent majesty . 1694. by the king and queen, a proclamation for the apprehending of sir james montgomery, charles mackallough, and thomas smith england and wales. sovereign (1689-1694 : william and mary) 1694 approx. 4 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2009-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a66313 wing w2604 estc r38095 17187311 ocm 17187311 106123 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a66313) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 106123) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1624:38) by the king and queen, a proclamation for the apprehending of sir james montgomery, charles mackallough, and thomas smith england and wales. sovereign (1689-1694 : william and mary) mary ii, queen of england, 1662-1694. william iii, king of england, 1650-1702. 1 broadside. printed by charles bill, and the executrix of thomas newcomb, deceas'd ..., london : 1693/4 [i.e. 1694] "given at our court at whitehall, this eighteenth day of january, 1693/94. in the fifth year of our reign." reproduction of original in the harvard university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng montgomery, james, -sir, d. 1694. jacobites. great britain -history -william and mary, 1689-1702. 2008-02 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2008-03 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2008-04 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2008-04 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-09 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion monogram of 'w' (william) superimposed on' m' (mary) diev et mon droit honi soit qvi mal y pense royal blazon or coat of arms by the king and queen , a proclamation , for the apprehending of sir james montgomery ; charles mackallough , and thomas smith . william r. whereas sir james montgomery being in custody for high treason , did upon tuesday night last make his escape , by the help and assistance of charles mackallough and thomas smith , and all the said persons , do absent and abscond themselves , flying from iustice ; we have therefore thought fit , by the advice of our privy council , to issue this our royal proclamation , and do hereby require and command all our loving subjects whatsoever , to discover , take and apprehend the said sir james montgomery ( being a little thin man about fourty years of age , usually wearing a brown periwig , and looks very pale and wasted with sickness ) and the said charles mackallough ( being about two and thirty years of age , a slender little man , wearing his own hair , being of a dark brown colour and lank , his eyes gray , and eye-brows brown , he speaks thick , and with a broad scotch accent , thin visaged and of an indifferent ruddy complexion , and hath a small rising ridge on his nose ) and also the said thomas smith ( who is about fourty years of age , a middle sized man , his hair short and black and a little curling , his eye-brows black , and hath a thin pale face , with a small scar on his right cheek ) and such of them as shall be apprehended to carry before the next iustice of peace , or chief magistrate of city or town corporate ; whom we do hereby require to commit them to the next goal , there to remain , until they shall be thence delivered by due course of law. and we do hereby require the said iustice or chief magistrate , immediately to give notice thereof to vs or our council . and we do hereby promise , that whosoever shall discover and apprehend the said sir james montgomery , charles mackallough and thomas smith , or any of them , shall have and receive the rewards following , that is to say , for the said sir james montgomery the sum of five hundred pounds , and for each of the said other two persons the sum of one hundred pounds . and we do hereby authorize and require our present commissioners of our treasury , and our high treasurer and commissioners of our treasury for the time being , to make payment of the said sums accordingly . and we do hereby publish and declare , that if any person or persons , after this our royal proclamation , shall directly or indirectly , conceal harbour , retain , keep or maintain any of the said offenders , or shall contrive or connive at any means , whereby they or any of them may escape from being taken or arrested , such person or persons shall be prosecuted with the utmost severity of law. and we do hereby declare , that in case the said charles mackallough and thomas smith , or either of them , shall discover and apprehend the said sir james montgomery , so that he shall be brought before our chief iustice of the kings bench , or some other of the iudges of the said court , or iustice of peace , or chief magistrate of city or corporation , such of them so discovering and apprehending the said sir james montgomery , shall not only have and receive our gracious pardon for his or their offence aforesaid , but shall also have and receive the said reward of five hundred pounds before promised for the apprehension of the said sir james montgomery . given at our court at whitehall , this eighteenth day of january , 1693 / 4. in the fifth year of our reign . god save king william and queen mary . london , printed by charles bill , and the executrix of thomas newcomb , deceas'd , printers to the king and queens most excellent majesties . 1693 / 4. the jacobite conventicle a poem. ames, richard, d. 1693. 1692 approx. 26 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 15 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-12 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a25269 wing a2984 estc r14298 11920913 ocm 11920913 50958 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a25269) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 50958) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 47:37) the jacobite conventicle a poem. ames, richard, d. 1693. [4], 22, [2] p. printed for r. stafford, london : 1692. attributed to richard ames. cf. bm. advertisement: p. [2] at end. reproduction of original in british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng jacobites -poetry. 2005-03 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2005-04 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2005-05 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2005-05 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the jacobite conventicle . a poem . for fools are stubborn in their way , as coins are hardned by th' allay , and obstinacy's ne'r so stiff , as when 't is in a wrong belief . hudibras , part 3. canto 2. london : printed for r. stafford , 1692. the preface . in the days of whig and tory , when the loyal pulpits sounded with harrangues of obedience and submission , and the poor dissenter was forced to creep by owl-light into some private house to worship his god in secret , when loud hems echoed through the churches , by way of approbation , to a clinching period against the cromwellians and new anti-royallists , and the meeters drag'd through the streets by constables and watchmen , when that bouncing loyalty took place of all the other vertues , and none were to be saved out of the pale of the church of england : who would have thought to have seen such a change of affairs ? but above all , to have seen a conventicle ( that word of odious sound ) composed of a few discontented persons , who yet call themselves the church of england protestants ; surely copernicus was not much in the wrong , when he said the world went round , and the sun stood still ; but conscience , they say , is a sacred thing , and ought not to be violated ; but at the same time , is it not a great riddle , that man's conscience should boggle at a lawful oath , and yet be quiet enough under an vnlawful debauch , pretend loyalty to government , and yet run counter to all its commands , fast and revel on the days appointed for fasting and humiliation , say they are of an established church , and yet meet in an vnlawful conventicle ; aver they love their countrey , and yet wish well to the french dragoons ? if these are not so many contradictions , let the world judg , for they whose minds can swallow such contrarieties , are fit to believe transubstantiation , and undoubtedly will prove as errand biggots to the church of rome , should another revolution happen , as they are now ( to what they falsly call themselves the true members of ) the church of england . the jacobite conventicle . tedious have been our hopes , and long our prayers , within the compass of the three past years , how oft in private have we met to mourn , and whine and snivel for our lord's return ? our wishes too , how strangely were they crost , when the french fleet drew near the english coast , when we expected our deliverance near , from choaking oaths and taxes so severe ; a glimps of heaven we having then in view , but ah ! how soon that gawdy scene withdrew , leaving a dismal prospect in its room , of thousand miseries are yet to come ; must still our thoughts endure the wracking pain , always to hope , and wish , but yet in vain ? nay , heaven it self , to add to our dispairs , seems to neglect and put by all our prayers : is there no hopes that wretched , cheated we , shall once more taste of luscious liberty ; once more be thought the favourites of the nation , and trample o're the men of abdication ? those rogues , who to increase their guilty score , found out a word was never heard before . yet there a time may come , ( but when it will , exceeds the reach of learned gadb'ry's skill ) when loyalty shall meet in due regard , and those that dare be honest , find reward . the time may come — when right will have its place , and lie no longer under black disgrace . to skill in stars , tho i make no presence , methinks i view it in the present sense ; methinks i see th' approaching smiling years , roul on a-pace to recompence our tears . fly fast , ye weeks , ye months , post quickly on , and settle j — once more upon his throne . but hold — to what strange notions am i brought by the too strong impulses of my thought ? to church i 'll go — that word , good heaven , forgive , the church shall be my odium while i live : i hate the priest , who has a double face , religion's scandal , and his gown 's disgrace . give me the man with conscience void of blame , is in all turns of government the same , who hates rebellion , nor can treason bless , and does not judge of actions by success : that man should never starve while i was able , i 'de serve him with my purse , my bed , my table ; his doctrine i much sooner would believe , than a spruce bishop's in his white lawn sleeve : such men i 've heard , and hope to hear agen . bless me ! 't is late — the clock has just struck ten , but hold — before to fetter . lane i go , 't is requisite the entrance-word i know : last sunday 't was commandement the fifth , and now st. germains is the shibboleth : 't is so — and now with eager steps i fly to the true church of england's ministry , to hear a sort of men who ever knew , still to be faithful , loyal , firm and true , who from their souls detest the swearing vice , eeither to get or keep a benefice . thus i in temple-cloysters walking , o're-heard a man t' himself a talking : but if for lye you this will chalk ; at least i thought he thus would talk ; for by a discontented phiz , one sometimes reads a thought which lies , full fifteen fathom under water : if this is false , thank erra pater for in his book , the fourteenth chapter , about an astrological rapture , he says , — but why do i thus strive to tell you what you wont believe ? but i my self being somewhat curious , did follow this old huncks penurious , through streets , lanes , alleys and by-ways , more than are found in stow's surveys , traversing almost as much ground , as on new-market heath is found , leading me such a dainty jaunt , as if one on an errand sent , missing his way , which did not hap well , should go by lambeth to white-chappel ; how'ere at last , in lane of fetter , than which , there is not many better , in magpye-court , or yard , or alley , for which 't was , faith , i cannot tell ye , he stopt at door , which stood at jar , and whisp'ring softly in the ear , of one whose looks declar'd suspicion , receiv'd into the house admission : i seeing this , with confidence , whate're might be the consequence , went boldly up , and gave the sign , ( the word i mean ) and so got in ; but by their jealous looks and eyes i plainly read their strange surprize , to see one to their meeting come , whom they believ'd was none of them ; they star'd — and i forgot to blush , but boldly to the midst i rush , and sate me down upon a hassock , expecting clergy-man in cassock , that holy smith who blows the coals of discontent , and saves their souls , by telling them that no salvation can be to men of abdication , and that a hell is still appointed for those resist the lord 's anointed . but he , it seems , was not come yet , but staid behind to take a whet of white wine , in a brimming taster , in mem'ry of his absent master , which might his spirits better quicken ; but now the plot begins to thicken , folks to the place in clusters trolling , ( as snow-balls gather by their rolling , so fast , altho the room was large , 't was cram'd as full as gravesend barge , ' tho different sexes , different ages , ( for some were youths and some were sages ) made up this private congregation , yet envy , discontent and passion , in face of every one appear'd , both of smooth chin and grisly beard , as plain as is the light in phaebus , when he looks down on mortal rebus . nor could the grinning smile conceal the passions , which in breast they feel , as if these people took delight , only to wait on god for spite ; soft buzzing whispers fill the room , and into close committees , some retire , to give their thoughts a vent , and drevil forth their discontent , which poyson , as the one spits forth , the other licks it up , in troth . a man perceiving of a dry nod , came to a little private synod , or junto , which was just behind me , to prate they fall , and did not mind me ; but not in words so soft and butter'd , but i could hear each word they vtter'd ; quoth one , i wonder what a devil should make the parliament so civil , such taxes on the land to draw , we must make bricks , yet have no straw ; if they go on , 't is plain and clear , the french , which we so idly fear , as soon will make descent on finland , as e're attempt to land in england . within three years we shall become the poorest state in christendom ; all nations will on us be pissing , and we become the scorn and hissing , of all the kingdoms which are known , 'twixt us and land of prester john. besides , the mony which is rais'd pays not the english , god be prais'd ; no , poor contented villains , they must venture on , yet have no pay , except a little small subsistance , a very trifling small assistance , just to keep life and soul together , against the force of wind and weather , whilst brandenburgers , danes and dutchmen , sweeds , germans , and all other such men , are duly paid off to a penny , and long arrears they have not any . you speak the very truth on 't neighbour , replies his friend ( with thought in labour to be deliver'd of some matter , which sore opprest his pia mater ) if our forefathers were complaining , that rome was still their purses draining ; by peter's pence , and such taxation , how just are now the cries o' th' nation ? four shillings first in every pound , did fine estates most largely wound , ( estates as well as bodies needing , for their healths sake a timely bleeding ) the double excise , which all men reckon'd , to hold but one year , lasts a second , and it may still for ought that we know , till day of judgment so continue ; but that which was the topping sole act of the last sessions , was the poll act , where each man must , or nill , or willing , for 's head , pay quarterly a shilling , when most mens brains in head which rest , sir , are hardly worth a single tester ; but 't is much better sure in one sense to pay for head , than pay for conscience , for faith i should be very loth to pay two pounds or take an oath . the oaths ! — as soon i 'de swallow rats-bane , or any other payson that 's bane , ( rejoyns a third ) o'bomination , what swallow down my own damnation ; a butter'd hedg-hog i could better digest , than of the oaths a letter . but pray what news have y' in the city ? sure matters there go very pretty , and guineas into guild-hall go , as if our land were mexico , or as each merchant there a dweller , had found a golden mine in 's celler : well , if their faith for things above , like that for things below , does prove , 't is ten to one , and two to eleven , they all of them will meet in heaven . they say the king and all his allies , ( speaks a fourth man amongst these fellows ) intend , as folk's report most true is , to pull down pride of mighty lewis , and william for a wager carries his arms into the heart of paris , and of the strange opinion some are , that all this must be done this summer : well , they may please their idle fancies , with such like tales and state romances ; but i believe they 'l find more odds , than giants did that fought with gods ; alas , their mighty preparations , made of the scum of several nations , are not to france so formidable , as are to us a city rabble ; you 'll find their mighty hopes defeated , and they most miserably cheated . hold , let 's forbear our idle tales , hes come , — who is 't ? — why mr. sh. — a precious man. — hist , silence there , at which all instantly forbear , and looking at the ministers , — god bless you , sir. his surplice on , and then prepare to joyn with him in common-prayer , nor psalms nor prayers does he omit any , till coming to that place i' th' littany , wherein oblig'd by name to pray , for those who bear the sovereign sway ; he did in 's prayers no name put in , but those of gracious king and queen ; which prayer , no sooner did it reach the ears of them all , — but — we beseech thee , echoed more loud by persons there , than the responce to any prayer , which in the liturgy we read , from the lord's prayer to nicene creed . the service done , i then expected t' ave heard a singing psalm directed ; but having got the pious qualms , their souls were not in tune for psalms , for how can ever captives bring their minds into a frame to sing ? tho it is plain that fetters none they had , but what themselves put on ; but if they would have tund their throats , to sternholds or to hopkins notes , it would , according as 't is reckond , have been to psalm call'd seventy second , lord give thy judgments to the king , therein instruct him well , and with his son that princely thing , lord , let thy justice dwell . but now the priest was to pulpit gone , at least to what might pass for one ; after a short prayer , not forgetting of king and queen , to mind his knitting , who with a zeal most mighty fervent , were thought of by their suffering servant ; remembring likewise most devoutly , to pray for mother church most stoutly , the church of england , which they fancy , none out of their communion can see ; the church , opprest , distrest and warried , and in a sence spiritually carried captive away , whilst its adorners are forc'd to preach and pray in corners . this done , and th' audience composing themselves for hearing , or for dozing ; t● a bible of geneva size , himself devoutly priest applies , and from a thousand various texts , this part of scripture strait selects . rom . 13. 1 , 2. let every soul be subject to the higher powers , &c. whosoever therefore resisteth the power , resisteth the ordinance of god , and they that resist , shall receive to themselves damnation . the text ( quoth he ) beloved , plainly holds forth , that every one should mainly strive who should most enriched be with the dear jewel loyalty : i do not mean the counterfeit , which every one that swears can get , to save their purses , having a mind ; theirs is a bristol stone — no diamond ; but i do mean that sacred jewel , which flattering arts , nor open cruelty of men , e're with all their bluster , could make it lose its sparkling lustre ; a good , by holy writ commended , with thousand blessings still attended , a virtue which the very angels practise above , or it were strange else , none of them daring to rebel , since lucifer , and his crew fell , a virtue all have here i hopen ; but now my text begins to open. let every soul , &c. let every soul , — man , woman , child be with this holy virtue fill'd , for there 's not one in all the nation excepted in this proclamation , tho there are thousands senseless elves , who wickedly except themselves , and foolishly suppose that they were born to govern , not obey ; ah! parents , for i must be true t' ye , and tell you that it is your duty , to let your children hazard at all , learn , as just as they can prattle , the criss-cross-row of loyalty , before they learn their a. b. c. tell 'em the dignity of crown'd heads , and make 'em learn to hate the round-heads ; tell 'em , there nothing is in nature , so. monstrous as a whiggish creature ; tell 'em — nay tell em anything t' advance the glory of a king ; indeed 't is plain without correction , that loyalty implies subjection . let every soul be subject , &c. that is , let every soul be ready , with a fixt mind , resolv'd and steddy , to part with life , estate , and all , when e're it is his prince's call ; but never let him hum and haw , and question if 't is done by law , his princes will to him should be the rule of law and equity ; but now beloved let 's discourse of what is meant by higher powers . let every soul be subject to the higher powers . that is , that every soul should be subject alone to monarchy ; a government which you and i know , most certainly is jur ' divino , above all other governments , which are in earths most wide extents : alas ! what man a live is able . t' endure the ruling of a rabble , but common-wealths why should we rob , of th' glory of a ruling mob ; distinctions , they know no other , than well met friend , and hale well brother ; but amongst all the ruling powers of monarchy , there 's none like ours ; isay , not as 't is now — alas ! my meaning is , as once it was , when good king — but i 'll leave the rest by your good judgments to be guest , whilst in few words i shall rehearse the meaning of the second verse : whosoever therefore resisteth , &c. beloved , 't is a dreadful curse , but good enough , were 't ten times worse , for those who meddle in state-matters , and will be kings and monarch-haters ; tho most men make a recreation of that so common word damnation , but they will all to hell be carried , as sure as judas call'd iscariot , who in the smallest point or thing , or thought , rebel against their king , to whom the title still we give of god's true representative ; no wonder then that god is jealous , when 'gainst his vice roy they 'r rebellious ; what mighty havock have ye done , ye wicked men of forty one ; nay , i might farther here rejoyn , ye belial's sons of eighty nine ; nay laugh not , for , for all your jearing , there 's not one barrel better herring : fight 'gainst your king ! — how my blood curdles ? have you a mind to lay on hurdles ? and whether you are low or high born , with a psalm end your days at tyburn ; but my belov'd , 't is plain and clear that there are no such persons here , we are all — here a sudden noise , to silence put the preachers voice , when instantly without much rabble , an officer that 's call'd constable , attended by some musqueteers , entred the room and spoil'd their geers : genteels ( quoth he ) without much preface , you all my prisoners are in the place ; none answering him upon that score , obedience passive were all o're ; some few escap't , but those he guest , were but blind biggots to the rest ; the priest too , having slipt off habit , soon got away like cased rabit , the now detected conventiclers , who are for loyalty such sticklers , were carried 'fore a magistrate , where little 't would avail to prate ; the oaths were tendred , and none willing to take 'em , each pay forty shilling ; patient in suffering with applause , not for the old , but good new cause . fiis . postscript . ah me ! how great a cordial's hope , when sawcy fear don 't interlope ? how sweetly at the tett we tipple , till fear puts wormwood on the nipple ? how hot was t'other day's discourse , that mighty force of foot and horse , headed by ever valiant j — s , were come almost to mouth of thames ; nay , some to carry on the joke , swore he would land at puddle-dock ; but expectation is a blessing , surmounts the pleasure of possessing ; yet 't is a question worth solution , who 'd gain by such a revolution ? unless we think ropes , fire and axes , are milder things than modern taxes ; or when from pockets rome takes toll , is better than a quarter poll , and think the levies of commission , more cruel than the inquisition ; if words , of mind , the true intent is , these men are sure non compos mentis , and bedlam must be sure enlarg'd , when 't is with such state-blockheads charg'd , where they themselves may hourly tickle , and keep each day a conventicle . advertisement . chuse which you will , liberty or slavery ; or , an impartial representation of the danger of being again subjected to a popish prince . chuse which you will, liberty or slavery: or, an impartial representation of the danger of being again subjected to a popish prince character of a bigotted prince. ames, richard, d. 1693. 1692 approx. 45 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 16 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-12 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a25258 wing a2975ad estc r213413 99825801 99825801 30191 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a25258) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 30191) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1803:31) chuse which you will, liberty or slavery: or, an impartial representation of the danger of being again subjected to a popish prince character of a bigotted prince. ames, richard, d. 1693. [4], 22, [2] p. printed for r. stafford, london : 1692. by richard ames. the same sheets as "the character of a bigotted prince" with different title page. the "bigotted prince" is james ii. with a half-title. with a final advertisement leaf. reproduction of the original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng james -ii, -king of england, 1633-1701. jacobites -early works to 1800. great britain -kings and rulers -succession -early works to 1800. great britain -politics and government -1689-1702 -early works to 1800. 2005-03 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2005-04 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2005-05 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2005-05 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion chuse which you will , liberty or slavery : or , an impartial representation of the danger of being again subjected to a popish prince . london : printed for r. stafford , 1692. chuse which you will , liberty or slavery ▪ &c. advertisement . the jacobite conventicle . a poem , is just published . price 6 d. the character of a bigotted prince , &c. it has been the great unhappiness of the kingdom of england , for some years last past , to be troubled with two very different sort of persons of quite contrary tempers ; the one party of so very costive a faith , that they could believe nothing , and the other of so easy a belief that they could swallow every thing ; the first of these could not see the sun of truth in its brightest meridian ; and even mathematical demonstration signified nothing in order to persuade them ; they could not ( or at least would not ) see their native country hurried to the very jaws of ruine , and imitated nero in his stupidity , who could unconcernedly tune his harp when rome was in flames ; every thing about em seem'd pleasant and gay , they never suffered their minds to be rufled with anxious thoughts for the future , so they enjoy'd the present , and observ'd in the literal ( but corrupted ) sence the command of our saviour , to take no care for the morrow ; the most surprizing relations mov'd them not a jot , and they gave as equal a credit to an information or confession upon oath , as they would have allow'd to a chapter in rablais his history of garagantua . the other were of a quite different stamp , they could credit the most improbable stories , and the most far fetcht lyes were with them esteem'd as oracles ; they were ever at coffee-houses or places of such resort , still listning to every idle pamphleteer's discourse , with more attention than to a sermon ; they could not see a chimney on fire , but immediately some treachery they believ'd was in agitation ; and a drunken midnight quarrel in the streets allarm'd their thoughts into the belief of a massacre ; they had nothing in their mouths but plots and designs ; and holy writ it self stood upon the same bottom in their creed with some witnesses depositions ; their imagination hag-rid with suspicions and fears , daily presented them with such frightful scenes , that they were not only uneasy to themselves , but likewise to all about them , which render'd their days unpleasant , and their nights unquiet , insomuch that some of them durst not go to bed for fear next morning they should wake and find their throats cut. from these two very corrupt humours in the late times , were produced those two odious characters of whigg and tory , which were handed about so long in jest , that they soon turn'd earnest , and he was thought either a knave or a blockhead who would not suffer himself to be dignified or distinguished by one of those titles . this humour continued for some years with great violence and disorder , during the latter end of the reign of k. charles the second ; in all which time t is obvious whoever wore the crown , a great person then at court manag'd affairs at the helm . that great prince ( who had seen both the extreams of a prosperous and an adverse fortune ) by his death yeilded the throne to his only brother , in the beginning of whose reign the two discriminating names before mention'd seem'd to have been utterly forgotten ; the former in seeing a prince the darling of their thoughts and wishes now become a monarch , and the latter in their mistaken apprehensions of his unexpected clemency in affording them liberty of conscience . the storm was now abated , and mens tempers grew more compos'd , the virtues of the soveraign fill'd every mouth with his praises ; his goodness , his justice , and his piety was the theme of common discourse , and nothing but the name of james the just heard in the most ordinary conversations . it does not become a subject too nicely to inquire into the miscarriages of a crown'd head ; but this must be confest , very ill things were done , even to the alteration of the fundamentals both of our religion and government ; and this must be own'd by every one whose ears are not stopt by invincible prejudice or partiality . 't would be vain labour to descend to particulars in a discourse which is design'd to be of another nature . the jewish feast of tabernacles , tho' long time abrogated by the coming of our saviour , hinders not , nor forbids me to reflect on the dangers i escap'd in the wilderness . i may lawfully , i think , select such days in the year to consider how corporations were regulated , bishops imprison'd , and other irregularities committed in the late reign , without assembling a conventicle , and there in some lewd harrang swell every miscarriage to a prodigious greatness . the actions of princes ( evil ones especially ) are their own proper heralds , and every one of his subjects carries some short remarks of his reign in their memories . i do not believe that history can parallel the joys and triumphs of any nation upon their deliverance from oppression , with the universal triumphs of the english upon the never to be forgotten late revolution ; they seem'd like men kept a long time in durance , and now were blest with the sweets of liberty ; nay , even some of our present murmerers themselves were most forwardly active to shew their zeal for the then prince of orange , who by his coming seem'd to open the scene of a new world , and restore the english to the poet's time of the golden age again . but like true israelites , we long again for the onions and garlick of egypt , and would fain be under our old task-masters once more ; the wound which was seemingly heal'd , is now broke out again , and what we lost in the antient tory , we find reviv'd in the modern jacobite . we were told in a prophetick discourse some years since , what treatment we were to expect if a prince of the romish communion should settle upon the throne ; the effects of which every one who is not wilfully blind must acknowledg . did he not drive jehu-like in a full carreer to rome ? were not his emisaries in every great town in england regulating corporations , and poisoning the minds of the people with popish doctrins ? were not all places of trust both civil and military fill'd up with those of the romish faith , or others whom he made use of for his own ends ? were they not come to an excessive hight of impudence both in their sermons and discourses ? was not the torrent swell'd so high that they hourly expected the deluge ? were not the fences of the law ( the security of the subject ) attempted to be broke down ? and magna charta , when in opposition to the princes will , be valued no more than a cancell'd deed of conveyance ; was not an embassador sent to rome , and a nuntio entertain'd here ( to settle the protestant religion no doubt ) and a thousand other practices committed as directly opposite to the interest of the english nation , as fire is contrary to water . was all this done in a corner ? were not their actions as barefaced as the sun ? and after all this , and the deliverance we enjoy , must we go into the house of bondage again , and put on those fetters we so lately shook off ? let the seeming warmth of this parenthesis be a little excus'd ; yet i must confess , such considerations as these are almost valid enough to justify a passion , and make anger appear no fault ; for were the roman catholicks the only asserters of the rights of the late king james , the wonder would be little ; bodies often sympathise at a distance , and they by several obligations are bound to wish him success ; and while they terminate in empty hopes , let them still regale themselves with their airy diet ; i pity the deluded creatures , but cannot blame them , because they act upon their own principles ; and 't would be as unnatural for them not to pray for his return , as for a cardinal , in hopes of the popedom , to wish success to the protestant forces ; or a calvinist to drink a health to monsieur catinat : but when a sort of men guided , as they pretend , by the dictates of an unerring conscience , shall at this time of day openly declare for an exploded interest , and these protestants too , men no ways leven'd with popery , or any of her doctrin's , but zealous maintainers of the church of england , devout and pious , charitable and just , in the chief employments of the church , and the brightest of the golden candlesticks : for these so openly to declare their aversion to this present government , and their fondness for the last , is what does not a little elevate and surprise ( to use an expression of mr. bays ) and comes almost as near to a miracle as transubstantiation . a late very eminent doctor of the church , when the prosecution was violent against the dissenters , wrote a most learned tract , concerning the nicety of a scrupulous conscience ; wherein he very curiously anatomizes the several meanders and turnings of that invisible operation , and proves that humour , discontent and interest do frequently wear the livery of conscience . how nice soever some may be in point of religion , i wish these gentlemen could acquit themselves from the forementioned disguise with which they masquerade their political conscience . one would wonder what strange bewitching sophistry the church of rome makes use of to blind the understandings of her votaries , to that degree , that they are continually mistaking their own interest , and tamely to deliver up their bodies , souls , reputation and fortunes for the reversion of purgatory hereafter , only for the slight gratification of their humours here ; and i appeal to the greatest asserter of king james his interest , if they can produce any crown'd head in england since the conquest , who was half so infatuated and bigotted to the interest of the see of rome , as the late king : indeed we read of a religious edward , and a pious , devout henry ; but our english history cannot afford us one instance of a prince who would sacrifice his own honour , his kingdoms safety , his interest abroad , and the love of his subjects at home , meerly out of a mistaken zeal to the advancement of the romish faith ; the most solemn oaths and protestations esteem'd do more than words of course ; and that which was held sacred amongst all mankind , valued as nothing in competition with a command from the apostolick chair : the old lady at rome with all her wrinkles , has still some charms to subdue great princes ; and tho she has abus'd , depos'd , and murther'd so many of her lovers , yet she finds every day some new admirers who are proud of her charms ; a practice which comes as near a miracle , as any that church in her legends can boast of ; and i hope some passages in the late reign are not so forgotten , but they may serve to justify the truth of the assertion . indeed for our amusement we were once told by a popular pen , that allowing a king upon the english throne , principled for arbitrary government and popery , yet he was clog'd and shackl'd with popular and protestant laws , that if he had ne're so great a mind to 't , there was not a subject in his dominions would dare to serve him in his design . how true this assertion has since prov'd , let any indifferent person judge ; the late king himself both dar'd and found no small number of his subjects as resolute as their master , to alter the whole frame of the english government ; he found not men only of his own communion , but men of all religions , or rather of no religion at all , whose desperate fortunes push't 'em on to the most daring enterprises ; ' his single command added life to their motions ; and no wonder he found tools to work withal , when all the obligations of law were shrunk into the small compass of a princes will , and the musty lines of magna charta dwindled to a sic volo , sic jubeo . several other artifices were us'd , to let us conceive a popish prince no such terrible bugbear as common fame represents him ; as that the idolatrous superstition of the church of rome was by a long series of time so worn off the minds of the people , and the reformation so strongly rooted , the church of england so firmly establish'd , the romanists so detested for their innovations in doctrin and absurdity in ceremonies , &c. that it was impossible ever to fix popery here : but , alas , 't was meer delusion , we quickly saw through the juggle , and the state-quacks discover'd their leigerdemain tricks too openly ; and had not almighty god by a most surprising , and almost unparllel'd providence deliver'd us , i know not by this time , but that the name protestant had been as odious in england , as the term of hugonot is now in france ; and the dominicans and franciscans left their cells in lincolns-inn-fields and the savoy , to have sung their regina coelorum in all the cathedrals in england . i am not ignorant how some persons do still magnifie the merits of the late king , as to his private virtues , as his being descended of the blood royal , his inviolable tenderness for his friend , the exact correspondency of his mouth and heart , his courage against the dutch , &c. but these were glimmering rays of his , which shin'd upon some few only ; for when he came to his meridian , they chang'd their nature , and the scorching beams of his zeal for his religion got the ascenednt of all his other accomplishments , which so clouded his discerning faculties , that he mistook his friends for his enemies , and his enemies for his friends ; the most sage and deliberate advices given him in opposition to beloved jesuits , were censur'd as intrenchments upon his prerogative , and the single ipse dixit of father peters , valued above the joynt council of the realm ; the colledges of oxford and cambridg esteem'd as nurseries of hereticks , and the president and fellows of magdelen colledg most illegally ejected from their just rights , to receive upon the foundation a sort of sparks who were neither schollars nor gentlemen . priviledg was swallow'd up by prerogative , and know i am your king , was a supersedeas to all manner of humble petitions and remonstrances ; his priests , those fatal scorpions , he so hugg'd in his bosom , were the chief incendiaries , and contrary to our known laws , swarm'd over from doway and st. omers , greedily gaping after preferments , which they needed not have wanted , could his will alone have placed them in ecclesiastical dignities ; they must be humbly content with titular and imaginary bishopricks in nubibus , till the stubbern hereticks who enjoy'd 'em , would at once part with their reasons and their livings together . but the greatest occasion of his arbitrary government , and the aera from whence he may date all his late misfortunes , was his friendship with the french king , a right son of ishmael , whose hand is lifted up against every man's , and every man 's against his ; a man who has not one single virtue to counterballance that prodigious stock of vices which harbour in his breast ; a man who has built a reputation upon the ruins of his neighbours kingdoms ; and yet with this gallick nimrod did the unnfortunate king james contract a mo●● lasting alliance . i perceive i am stopt in my assertion , and a little dabler in politicks challenges me to prove the contract : 't is true , we cannot shew the original deed , with their signets and names affixt to it ; but he must surely be delivered over to unbelief , who cannot credit such circumstances as serve to clear the matter from all doubt or hesitation : who promoted the marriage of the duke with the princess of modena ? who defraid the charges of her journy , and paid the greatest part of her fortune , but the french king ? if this will not satisfie , pray examine coleman's letter to sir william throgmorton ; the duke 's then agent at the french court , where he tells him , that when the duke comes to be master of our affairs , the king of france will have all reason to promise himself all that he can desire ; for according to the dukes mind , the interest of the king of england , the king of france , and his own , are so closely bound up together , that 't is impossible to separate them one from the other , without the ruin of them all three ; but being joyned , they must notwithstanding all opposition , become invincible : there are other letters between mr. coleman and father le chaise which carry such undeniable marks of a contract between king james when duke of york and louis le grand , that none but those devested of common sense , can have reason to doubt it : if this is not throughly convincing , let any one consult the memorial given in by monsieur d' avaux , the french embassador at the hague , sept. 9th 1688 , which if the curious reader desire to see at length , i refer him to the 1st vol. of mercurius reformatus , or the new observator , no. 5. wherein the ingenuous author of that paper , does prove it beyond all possibility of contradiction . there are several other arguments as unquestionable as the former , which for brevity's sake , i omit . and now 't is time to breath a while , and consider what are the those regal virtues , of which , if a prince has not a share , he will hardly answer the expectations of his people , nor the ends of government ; they are generally recon'd to be piety , prudence , justice , and valour ; but if his piety degenerates into biggottism , his prudence into unsteady timerousness , his justice into acts of cruelty and severity , and his valour into rashness and obstinacy ; what ever his flatterers may say of him , yet certainly he is unfit to govern. let the reader apply the character where he pleases , and find a crown'd head whereon to fix these four vices , by another name call'd virtues . how much of the comparison may fall to the late king's share , we know not ; but of his bigottry , zeal , ( or what other name you please ) to his religion , i believe by this time the world wants not to be convinc'd ; for if for arguments sake we should allow ( what we cannot believe ) viz. a merit in religious actions , certainly the late king has bid the fairest for cononization , after his death , of all the crown'd heads who have liv'd these two centuries , who would sacrifice three kingdoms to the capricios of a priest ; but be it unto him according to his faith ; and indeed it is but just he should expect a crown in heaven , if for its sake he has lost one on earth . this in a few lines we have given the character of a bigotted unfortunate prince : but leaving him at his devotions , let us a little return homewards , and observe a sort of men who are so very impatient under this government , that their very looks express their discontent ; they are as uneasy , tho in the sun-shine of liberty , as the slaves at algeirs are with their chains ; they cannot take an oath to a government that will protect 'em , and nothing will ever satisfy them , but the return of their old master . good god! to what stupidity is mankind arriv'd ? to dislike the most easy government in the world , to espouse that which is the most barbarous in its nature : a government that in measures of cruelty exceeds ev'n the most savage communities on the coast of india ! a government so debauch'd with false religion , that considering the interest of mankind , and the ill usage it exposes mens persons and fortunes to , it could be almost wisht that such a religion had never been known in the world. in the name of wonder , what would these gentlemen have ? they were many of them ( at least many pretended to be ) uneasy under the last , when popery and arbitrary government seem'd to come as an armed man ; and now they are almost beyond the possibility of such fears , they murmur : of what mercurial temper are the english compos'd , that they can never be setled ? popery was once their terrour , and now that is remov'd , they fear they know not what ; like men in feavers , they are restless in this bed , and when remov'd to another , are as uneasy in that . i appeal to any of them , if the pressures that gawl their shoulders , either in their persons or fortunes , was not brought upon themselves by their own perverse obstinacy , for which conscience is still the pretence ; the government would have them live easy , and enjoy their estates and preferments both civil and ecclesiastical , nor would molest them while quiet they might sit under their vines and under their fig-trees , but they will not ; and if men will turn themselves out of all , in compliance to a humour , who can help it ? it must be confest , that when once the persons of kings grow contemptible , or little in the eyes of their subjects , their smallest miscarriages are magnified to that degree , as very often terminates in their ruin : but there is an errour on the other hand , when the worst actions of princes shall be thought innocent ( for according to some persons creed , a king can do no wrong ) and the belief of passive obedience is carried so high , that even his arbitrary proceedings shall be winkt at : this is to exceed even the arts of the turkish policy , who pay not a greater veneration of their grand signiors , than some of our zealots do to the late king , they solemnly drink his health upon their knees , and pray for him in their private devotions affectionately ; nor do they forget him in the publick liturgies of the church , for every one knows the secret mystery of bless and protect the king our governour . to be short , nothing will serve them but his return , to redeem them out of their imaginary bondage ; for this they wish , for this they pray : nay , the jews themselves do not at this day with greater impatience and mistaken zeal expect the coming of the messias , than these kind of men do for the restauration of king james to his crown and dignity . let us therefore a little examin what specious pretences they have for such an ambition ; and tho indeed they are as shy of revealing the secret , as they would be of a fairy treasure ; yet by some expressions occasionally dropt in conversation , 't is not very hard to conjecture some of them . as first , they are great pretenders to moral justice ; they say king james had a great deal of wrong done him , and being their soveraign prince , they are obliged to see him righted . are they so ? but who gave them the commission ? their conscience , they will tell you , but their conscience is so great a riddle , that it will never be expounded ; their conscience would have king james in his throne again , tho never so much bloodshed and miseries might ensue ; their fondness to his person closes their eyes and stops their ears to all the calamities their fellow subjects must necessarily suffer by such a revolution ; nay , this very conscience of theirs , was one of the chief occasions which prompted the late king to commit those arbitrary actions in his shortliv'd reign ; they told him he might do what he pleas'd , and for for his actions , was accuntable to none but god , tho he should turn upside-down our laws , religion , and liberties , and that we were tamely to submit our necks to the blow when ever he should command it , in spite of laws , tho it were in the power of our hands to save our selves by a just defence . no wonder then upon such considerations as these , and prompted by the native cruelty of his own religion , he permitted those unaccountable actions to be committed ; and he is as much beholding to those fiery sticklers for the loss of his crown , as he was to father pretre's , and other jesuetick advice . it is the nature of mankind to covet liberty , and to have all things about them easy and free : now i would ask these gentlemen what greater freedom they can expect , were their beloved prince reinstated in his throne again , than what they now enjoy ? are not their fortunes secur'd to them by the best laws in the world ? who goes about to invade their properties , or devest them of their estates ? yes , they reply , some bishops and other ecclesiastical persons have lost their livings and means of subsistence , because : — yes , the because is very well known , because they cannot take the oaths . it would have been wisht , that those reverend persons would have inform'd the world with the reasons of their non-compliance , which might have regulated the unthinking minds of some of their bigotted followers , who out-do even the votaries of the church of rome in an implicit faith ; and believe 't is not lawful for them to swear to the government , because dr. such a one refuses the oaths . a very pretty conclusion ; but allowing it to be conscience in their own acceptation , i believe when humour , prejudice , and some other niceties are separated from it , the thing call'd conscience will appear in this case but an airy notion . some of the most moderate of them , i confess , who are great lovers of the late king , could wish him here again without the assistance of the french ; but if their faith was but as strong and powerful as their hopes , they might certainly remove mountains , and joyn the alps to st. michaels-mount in cornwall ; but these are wishes as improbable as they are impossible to be effected ; for you may as easily separate heat from fire , or moisture from water , as divide the interests of king james , from those of lewis the fourteenth ; no , no , like hippocrates his twins they must live and dye together ; and therefore these fort of men deserve rather our pity than our laughter . but there are another sort who will have their old master return again , though by never such indirect means ; and are as glad when they hear of the success of the french arms , as they would be to receive the news of the death of some decrepid relation of theirs , who by his exit , leaves them a plentiful estate . and let mons and flanders , savoy , and all the confederate countries be reduc'd to heaps of ruins , so their dear king may come to his throne again , though he enter'd the city of london with luxemburgh and boufflers at the head of fifty thousand french dragoons . these are hopeful protestants i'faith , blessed reformers and defenders of the christian church ; fresh straw and a dark chamber , cooling purges , leeches and blood-letting are only fit for such as these ; they are mad beyond the cure of hellebore : but because it is necessary sometimes to answer a fool according to his folly. let us ask em what mighty mischiefs have the dukes of savoy , and bavaria , the electors of brandenburgh , mentz , and cologne , the emperour of germany , the king of spain , and the vnited provinces ▪ done these gentlemen , that they are so mighty angry with them , and could wish the sculls of all their subjects were to pave the way for king james his accession to a forfeited throne ? how came these involv'd in the quarrel ? must king james his supposed right , like pharoah's lean kine , swallow up all other princes properties ? what has he done to be so much the darling of mankind , that other mens glories must be ecclips'd to make his glimmering rays shine the brighter ? are great britain , france and ireland , to be the only goshen , and must there be darkness all over europe besides ? these men are a most strange sort of political predestinarians , who will allow no peace nor plenty to any but their master and his friends ; and it is hard to be determin'd , whether folly or madness has the greatest share in the composition of their hopes . all pity and humanity to their fellow creatures is laid aside , and they seem to exceed the indian cannibals in acts of cruelty , for how severe they may be to strangers , they yet seldom devour those of their own tribe ; no man that hears 'em discourse , can certainly keep within the bounds of moderation ; for who ever has the patience to hear their arguments , will certainly expect better . reasons in bedlam , from the lucida intervalla of a lunatick . the love of ones country , was ever by the most polite nations , esteem'd as the characteristical mark of a noble soul , and vincit amor patriae , seem'd to be written in indelible marks upon their breasts ; for this the ancient greeks and romans were famous , remarkable to this purpose is the relation livy gives us of curtius a noble roman , who when the earth was sunk with a wide gap in the middle of the forum , and it was told , it would not come together again , unles some prime young nobleman were put into it ; he to deliver his country , mounted on horse-back , rode into the gaping chasma : but we on the contrary , have a sort of men amongst us , who would gladly see their native soyl over run with a knot of villains , to gratifie one mans lust of power on the one hand , and their unaccountable humour on the other . i would fain ask them , supposing the possibility of such success , whether the french arms are so well bred , as to distinguish them from the rest of the english sufferers by such a revolution ( to which that of the goths and vandals in italy , was but a civil visit ) ? i fear like tarpeia the vestal virgin , who covenanted with the sabines to betray the capitol to them , for what they wore on their lest arms ; but when they were entred , into of bracelets which she intended , they threw their targets upon her , and pressed her to death ; so would these very men suffer in the common calamity ; for the french , as well as other nations , agree in this , that though they love the treason , they hate the traytors . to invert a little the words of mr. dryden to the reader , before his poem of absalom and achitophel , every man is a knave or an ass on the contrary side ; and there 's a treasury of merits in sam 's coffee-house , as well as in richard's at the temple ; but the longest chapter in deuteronomy has not curses enough for well-wishers to the french. it was the speech of a moderate gentleman in the long parliament , when the faction in the house of commons was high against the bishops , and the establish'd church , gentlemen , ( says he ) let us see the model of your new intended superstructure , beforè you pull down the old one . if we should ask some of these fiery bigots for the interest of the late king , what advantages they can propose to themselves by his return ; unless like the unrewarded poor expecting caviliers at the restauration of king charles the second , they can be content to be loyal and starve ; for if the latter end of king james his imaginary reign , should be of a piece with his first real beginning , he will still neglect his truest friends , and stick close to flattering enemies . with so deep a root has the advice of a chancellor , about the year 1660 , still remain'd in the breasts of the princes , oblige your enemies , and your friends will be true to your interest . but i have wandred from my subject , by a long , but i hope , not very impertinent digression , and therefore ( asking my reader 's pardon ) return to my subject , or rather the applicatory part of it . we have seen the character of the prince and his bigotted followers ; and as all things are best set off by examples , let us now draw a parallel or landscape of the two different complexions of the reigns of king william and queen mary , and king james , and what we are unavoidably to expect , should almighty god in the course of his providence , for our punishment , and the gratification of some restless spirits , bring king james to his throne again : of the ease and tranquility of the first we are certain , but of the horrour of the latter , the most terrible ideas we can form of it in our imaginations will come short of the life ; for as the safety we now enjoy , almost exceeds our hopes ; so the stripes we must then feel , will transcend our very fears . in the person of the king , we have a prince who is truly ( what the historian says of titus ) humani generis deliciae , who has centred in his person all the valour and wisdom of his ancestors : a prince so truly great , that those lawrels which add such lustre to anothers brow , look but faintly on his , he needing no additional varnish to set off his native goodness : a prince , born to be the arbiter of christendom , whom all the crown'd heads and states of europe adore as the only person who must break the jaws of the french leviathan : not the greatest dangers which so terrify pusilanimous minds , can at all move him , who caring not for an inactive inglorious greatness , expos'd his sacred person to rescue these ungrateful kingdoms from the moct insupportable tyranny of arbitrary power ; since which , in ireland he gave most invincible proofs both of his courage and conduct ; the united force of europe could not concert their measures against france , till his presence influenced their counsels at the hague , to which he went through a thousand perils at sea ; after a short return , he is now gone again to flanders to head that prodigious army : victory seems to accompany him in attempts of war , and his worst enemies must own him to have the very soul of courage . in the person of the queen , we have a second queen elizabeth ; but with respect to her sacred ashes , we may say , the copy far exceeds the original . never did a crown'd lady shew more conduct and magnanimity than when the french fleet was upon our coast , when her illustrious husband was fighting in ireland : a princess , whose thousand charms make her fit to rule , and command even respect from her very enemies ( if any such there are ; ) her majesty is temper'd with so much mildness , that at the same time , she neither invites nor forbids access ; the glory of her own sex , and the admiration of ours . under these two illustrious persons is england , &c. at this time govern'd by the most exact laws that ever were made , the prerogative of the king not dominaring over the priviledges of the people , the church of england flourishes , not withstanding the peevishness of some of her votaries ; and the dissenters enjoy their liberty of conscience without design : the great blessing of this nation , viz. the parliament , does frequently meet , and their votes are unanimous for supplies for the nations good : the taxes by them levied are ( excepting by some few discontented spirits ) willingly paid , and the people satisfied that their mony is employ'd for the uses intended , not lavishly and unaccountably thrown away on pensioners , &c. every man enjoys his plentiful or ▪ competent fortune , with all the freedom imaginable ; no tricks are made use of to decoy us into slavery ; from the very prospect of which , the king designs by his utmost endeavours to free us by appearing himself in person at the head of the confederate army , in opposition to the power of france : he designing to rescue the glory of the english nation from that stupidity , the luxury , and effeminacy of the late reigns had obscur'd it with ; and we have nothing to render us unhappy but our own groundless fears and jealousies , in which unaccountable humour , if we still persist , like the seditious amongst the jews , we shall do our selves more mischief within the walls , than our enemies could possibly do without , when the glory of their city and nation yeilded to the arms of the romans , who could never have conquered them , had not their murmurers within done more execution to themselves , than all battering rams of titus could possibly effect against their walls . but now to shew the reverse of the medal . if king jame's return to re-assume his justly forfeited right , as no human reason can possibly suppose him to come in without the assistance of the french , let us consider what a field of blood will our country be ; he coming in like a conqueror , will make us quickly feel the difference between the easy government we now live under , and the insupportable tyranny we must then endure ; his imaginary zeal for the defence of the protestant religion , being long since quench't by the affronts he pretends to have suffered by those of that communion ; then will rome erect her standard in defiance to all the methods of the reformation , and popery become the standing religion of the nation . it cannot be suppos'd that the instructions he has receiv'd from his great patrone lewis , will easily be forgot ; and he who when in a private capacity would ever hardly forgive one whom he suppos'd had done him wrong , will now be hardly brought to forget a national indignity ; he will never certainly listen to any overtures of capitulation ; and 't is impossible to believe that things can be ever accomodated between an incens'd prince , and ( as he supposes ) a rebellious people . he has not so long breath'd in the air of france , as not to learn its tyrannical and arbitrary maxims ; and the ( as he thinks ) meritorious zeal of propagating his own religion , will let him stick at nothing , how arbitrary soever , to establish it . we may indeed imagin him to be of a merciful nature , and that all shall be forgotten as if never done , and that an act of indemnity will make all even again ; but those who are so blinded as to believe these fair promises , et them but look into an act of his own , dated at his residence in dublin . and in a proclamation of his , to his pretended subjects in scotland , may 4. 1689. he is most graciously pleas'd , not only to incourage his friends to be destoryers of mankind , but likewise offers them pardons for such inhuman cruelties : telling them in the said proclamation , 't is his pleasure they should rise in arms , and assault and destory , and what ever blood-shed and slaughter , mutilations or fire-raisings should be done to these rebels , ( as he calls the scotch ) his proclamation should be their sufficient warrant for such acts. if this is his kindness for the scotch nation , can we think the english will more civilly be treated ? no , no , let us no longer amuse our selves with fancies of his clemency and kindness . we live under a government where we may be hapy if we please , and nothing but our discontent can render us miserable ; for as certain as there is a providence , if ever such a fatal revolution should happen , not savoy , nor piedmont , nor all the places where the arms of the french have ravag'd , were ever such scenes of blood and confusion as england will be . we are now in our crisis , and a few months will , in all probability , determine the fate of europe in general , and of our own country in particular ; and upon the success of the confederate army , headed by our most victorious prince , depends the liberty or slavery of the most civiliz'd part of the world. postscript . at the conclusion of this discourse , i imagin some smiling reader finding fault , and by his looks would seem to tell me the landskips are as ill drawn as they are ill design'd , and that the lyon is not so fierce as he is painted , nor will the return of a prince of the romish commifon be so terrible to his protestant subjects as i would seem to represent . but in answer to this , i must acquaint the gentleman , that i fear i have communited an error on the other hand , and instead of adding fierce colours to make the piece seem tremendous : i have used such faint shadows as do not heighten the picture . partiality and prejudice are very ill spectacles , and but too often cause a false medium . i have seen a picture , which if one lookt obliquely upon , on the left hand were represented the heads of three fair ladies ; but if you chang'd the position of your body , and stood on the right hand of the design , the very same picture shew'd you a monkey and two parrots . i know not on which hand my reader 's judgment stands , which valued faculty of ours we find to be very often deluded ; for if i may apply a place in holy writ , very pertinent to this purpose , only exchanging the case of the father for that of the son ; they who form such terrible ideas of the imaginary severities they feel under the present reign , where they are only beaten with rods , will at the return of their idoliz'd prince , be chastis'd with scorpions . finis . books printed for r. baldwin . new predictions of the fate of all the princes and states in the world. price 4. sodom fair : or the market of the man of sin. containing , a true account of the prices of the pope's pardons and dispensations ; being a treatise very useful and necessary for all young english papists , who intend to take holy orders , or travel through italy ; and all such as intend to be cheated both out of their souls and mony. to which is added the history of adultery , as it is now at rome by law established ; with the life of clement the sixth , and blasphemous bull which he published for the year of jubile , 1350. a journal of the late motions and actions of the confederate forces against the french , in the united provinces , and the spanish netherlands . with curious remarks on the situation , strength and rarities of the most considerable cities , towns and fortifications in those countries . together with an exact list of the army . the present state of christendom consider'd , in nine dialogues , between i. the present pope alexander the viii . and lewis the xiv . ii. the great duke of tuscany , and the duke of savoy . iii. king james the second , and the marescal de la feuillade . iv. the duke of lorrain , and the duke of schomberg . v. the duke of lorrain , and the elector platine . vi. louis the xiv . and the marquis de louvois . vii . the advoyer of berne , and the chief syndic of geneva . viii . cardinal ottoboni , and the duke de chaulnes . ix . the young prince abafti , and count teckly . the character of a bigotted prince, and what england may expect from the return of such a one ames, richard, d. 1693. 1691 approx. 44 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 14 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-12 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a69451 wing a2975ab estc r9100 13274820 ocm 13274820 98713 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a69451) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 98713) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 450:8 or 1663:3) the character of a bigotted prince, and what england may expect from the return of such a one ames, richard, d. 1693. [4], 22, [1] p. printed, for richard baldwin ..., london : 1691. "licensed, may the 9th, j.f. 1691." includes half-title page. attributed to ames by wing. the "bigotted prince" is james ii. item at reel 450:8 identified as wing c1963 (number cancelled in wing 2nd ed.). item at reel 1663:3 has advertisement, "books printed for r. baldwin," on p. 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng james -ii, -king of england, 1633-1701. jacobites. great britain -kings and rulers -succession. great britain -politics and government -1689-1702. 2005-03 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2005-03 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2005-04 judith siefring sampled and proofread 2005-04 judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the character of a bigotted prince , &c. the character of a bigotted prince ; and what england may expect from the return of such a one. licensed , may the 9th , j. f. 1691. london : printed , for richard baldwin , at the oxford-arms in warwick-lane , 1691. the character of a bigotted prince , &c. it has been the great unhappiness of the kingdom of england , for some years last past , to be troubled with two very different sort of persons of quite contrary tempers ; the one party of so very costive a faith , that they could believe nothing , and the other of so easy a belief that they could swallow every thing ; the first of these could not see the sun of truth in its brightest meridian ; and even mathematical demonstration signified nothing in order to persuade them ; they could not ( or at least would not ) see their native country hurried to the very jaws of ruine , and imitated nero in his stupidity , who could unconcernedly tune his harp when rome was in flames ; every thing about 'em seem'd pleasant and gay , they never suffered their minds to be rufled with anxious thoughts for the future , so they enjoy'd the present , and observ'd in the literal ( but corrupted ) sence the command of our saviour , to take no care for the morrow ; the most surprizing relations mov'd them not a jot , and they gave as equal a credit to an information or confession upon oath , as they would have allow'd to a chapter in rablais his history of garagantua . the other were of a quite different stamp , they could credit the most improbable stories , and the most far fetcht lyes were with them esteem'd as oracles ; they were ever at coffee-houses or places of such resort , still listning to every idle pamphleteer's discourse , with more attention than to a sermon ; they could not see a chimney on fire , but immediately some treachery they believ'd was in agitation ; and a drunken midnight quarrel in the streets allarm'd their thoughts into the belief of a massacre ; they had nothing in their mouths but plots and designs ; and holy writ it self stood upon the same bottom in their creed with some witnesses depositions ; their imagination hag-rid with suspicious and fears , daily presented them with such frightful scenes , that they were not only uneasy to themselves , but likewise to all about them , which render'd their days unpleasant , and their nights unquiet , insomuch that some of them durst not go to bed for fear next morning they should wake and find their throats cut. from these two very corrupt humours in the late times ; were produced those two odious characters of whigg and tory , which were banded about so long in jest , that they soon turn'd earnest , and he was thought either a knave or a blockhead who would not suffer himself to be dignified or distinguished by one of those titles . this humour continued for some years with great violence and disorder , during the latter end of the reign of k. charles the second ; in all which time 't is obvious whoever wore the crown , a great person then at court manag'd affairs at the helm . that great prince ( who had seen both the extreams of a prosperous and an adverse fortune ) by his death yeilded the throne to his only brother , in the beginning of whose reign the two discriminating names before mention'd seem'd to have been utterly forgotten ; the former in seeing a prince the darling of their thoughts and wishes now become a monarch , and the latter in their mistaken apprehensions of his unexpected clemency in affording them liberty of conscience . the storm was now abated , and mens tempers grew more compos'd , the virtues of the soveraign fill'd every mouth with his praises ; his goodness , his justice , and his piety was the theme of common discourse , and nothing but the name of james the just heard in the most ordinary conversations . it does not become a subject too nicely to inquire into the miscarriages of a crown'd head ; but this must be consest ; very ill things were done , even to the alteration of the fundamentals both of our religion and government ; and this must be own'd by every one whose ears are not stopt by invincible prejudice or partiality . 't would be vain labour to descend to particulars in a discourse which is design'd to be of another nature . the jewish feast of tabernacles , tho' long time abrogated by the coming of our saviour , hinders not , nor forbids me to reflect on the dangers i escap'd in the wilderness . i may lawfully , i think , select such days in the year to consider how corporations were regulated , bishops imprison'd , and other irregularities committed in the late reign , without assembling a conventicle , and there in some lewd harrang swell every miscarriage to a prodigious greatness . the actions of princes ( evil ones especially ) are their own proper heralds , and every one of his subjects carries some short remarks of his reign in their memories . i do not believe that history can parallel the joys and triumphs of any nation upon their deliverance from oppression , with the universal triumphs of the english upon the never to be forgotten late revolution ; they seem'd like men kept a long time in durance , and now were blest with the sweets of liberty ; nay , even some of our present murmerers themselves were most forwardly active to shew their zeal for the then prince of orange , who by his coming seem'd to open the scene of a new world , and restore the english to the poet's time of the golden age again . but like true israelites , we long again for the onions and garlick of egypt , and would fain be under our old task-masters once more ; the wound which was seemingly heal'd , is now broke out again , and what we lost in the antient tory , we find reviv'd in the modern jacobite . we were told in a prophetick discourse some years since , what treatment we were to expect if a prince of the romish communion should settle upon the throne ; the effects of which every one who is not wilfully blind must acknowledg . did he not drive jehu-like in a full carreer to rome ? were not his emisaries in every great town in england regulating corporations , and poisoning the minds of the people with popish doctrins ? were not all places of trust both civil and military fill'd up with those of the romish faith , or others whom he made use of for his own ends ? were they not come to an excessive hight of impudence both in their sermons and discourses ? was not the torrent swell'd so high that they hourly expected the deluge ? were not the fences of the law ( the security of the subject ) attempted to be broke down ? and magna charta , when in opposition to the princes will , be valued no more than a cancell'd deed of conveyance ; was not an embassador sent to rome , and a nuntio entertain'd here ( to settle the protestant religion no doubt ) and a thousand other practices committed as directly opposite to the interest of the english nation , as fire is contrary to water . was all this done in a corner ? were not their actions as barefaced as the sun ? and after all this , and the deliverance we enjoy , must we go into the house of bondage again , and put on those fetters we so lately shook off ? let the seeming warmth of this parenthesis be a little excus'd ; yet i must confess , such considerations as these are almost valid enough to justify a passion , and make anger appear no fault ; for were the roman catholicks the only asserters of the rights of the late king james , the wonder would be little ; bodies often sympathise at a distance , and they by several obligations are bound to wish him success ; and while they terminate in empty hopes , let them still regale themselves with their airy diet ; i pity the deluded creatures , but cannot blame them , because they act upon their own principles ; and 't would be as unnatural for them not to pray for his return , as for a cardinal , in hopes of the popedom , to wish success to the protestant forces ; or a calvinist to drink a health to monsieur catinat : but when a sort of men guided , as they pretend , by the dictates of an unerring conscience , shall at this time of day openly declare for an exploded interest , and these protestants too , men no ways leven'd with popery , or any of her doctrin's , but zealous maintainers of the church of england , devout and pious , charitable and just , in the chief employments of the church , and the brightest of the golden candlesticks : for these so openly to declare their aversion to this present government , and their fondness for the last , is what does not a little elevate and surprise ( to use an expression of mr. bays ) and comes almost as near to a miracle as transubstantiation . a late very eminent doctor of the church , when the prosecution was violent against the dissenters , wrote a most learned tract , concerning the nicety of a scrupulous conscience ; wherein he very curiously anatomizes the several meanders and turnings of that invisible operation , and proves that humour , discontent and interest do frequently wear the livery of conscience . how nice soever some may be in point of religion , i wish these gentlemen could acquit themselves from the forementioned disguise with which they masquerade their political conscience . one would wonder what strange bewitching sophistry the church of rome makes use of to blind the understandings of her votaries , to that degree , that they are continually mistaking their own interest , and tamely to deliver up their bodies , souls , reputation and fortunes for the reversion of purgatory hereafter , only for the slight gratification of their humours here ; and i appeal to the greatest asserter of king james his interest , if they can produce any crown'd head in england since the conquest , who was half so infatuated and bigotted to the interest of the see of rome , as the late king : indeed we read of a religious edward , and a pious , devout henry ; but our english history cannot afford us one instance of a prince who would sacrifice his own honour , his kingdoms safety , his interest abroad , and the love of his subjects at home , meerly out of a mistaken zeal to the advancement of the romish faith ; the most solemn oaths and protestations esteem'd no more than words of course ; and that which was held sacred amongst all mankind , valued as nothing in competition with a command from the apostolick chair : the old lady at rome with all her wrinkles , has still some charms to subdue great princes ; and tho she has abus'd , depos'd , and murther'd so many of her lovers , yet she finds every day some new admirers who are proud of her charms ; a practice which comes as near a miracle , as any that church in her legends can boast of ; and i hope some passages in the late reign are not so forgotten , but they may serve to justify the truth of the assertion . indeed for our amusement we were once told by a popular pen , that allowing a king upon the english throne , principled for arbitrary government and popery , yet he was clog'd and shackl'd with popular and protestant laws , that if he had ne're so great a mind to 't , there was not a subject in his dominions would dare to serve him in his design . how true this assertion has since prov'd , let any indifferent person judge ; the late king himself both dar'd and found no small number of his subjects as resolute as their master , to alter the whole frame of the english government ; he found not men only of his own communion , but men of all religions , or rather of no religion at all , whose desperate fortunes push't'em on to the most daring enterprises ; his single command added life to their motions ; and no wonder he found tools to work withal , when all the obligations of law were shrunk into the small compass of a princes will , and the musty lines of magna charta dwindled to a sic volo , sic jubeo . several other artifices were us'd , to let us conceive a popish prince no such terrible bugbear as common fame represents him ; as that the idolatrous superstition of the church of rome was by a long series of time so worn off the minds of the people , and the reformation so strongly rooted , the church of england so firmly establish'd , the romanists so detested for their innovations in doctrin and absurdity in ceremonies , &c. that it was impossible ever to fix popery here : but , alas , 't was meer delusion , we quickly saw through the juggle , and the state-quacks discover'd their leigerdemain tricks too openly ; and had not almighty god by a most surprising , and almost unparllel'd providence deliver'd us , i know not by this time , but that the name protestant had been as odious in england , as the term of hugonot is now in france ; and the dominicans and franciscans left their cells in lincolns-inn-fields and the savoy , to have sung their regina coelorum in all the cathedrals in england . i am not ignorant how some persons do still magnifie the merits of the late king , as to his private virtues , as his being descended of the blood royal , his inviolable tenderness for his friend , the exact correspondency of his mouth and heart , his courage against the dutch , &c. but these were glimmering rays of his , which shin'd upon some few only ; for when he came to his meridian , they chang'd their nature , and the scorching beams of his zeal for his religion got the ascenednt of all his other accomplishments , which so clouded his discerning faculties , that he mistook his friends for his enemies , and his enemies for his friends ; the most sage and deliberate advices given him in opposition to beloved jesuits , were censur'd as intrenchments upon his prerogative , and the single ipse dixit of father peters , valued above the joynt council of the realm ; the colledges of oxford and cambridg esteem'd as nurseries of hereticks , and the president and fellows of magdelen colledg most illegally ejected from their just rights , to receive upon the foundation a sort of sparks who were neither schollars nor gentlemen . priviledg was swallow'd up by prerogative , and know i am your king , was a supersedeas to all manner of humble petitions and remonstrances ; his priests , those fatal scorpions , he so hugg'd in his bosom , were the chief incendiaries , and contrary to our known laws , swarm'd over from doway and st. omers , greedily gaping after preferments , which they needed not have wanted , could his will alone have placed them in ecclefiastical dignities ; they must be humbly content with titular and imaginary bishopricks in nubibus , till the stubbern hereticks who enjoy'd 'em , would at once part with their reasons and their livings together . but the greatest occasion of his arbitrary government , and the aera from whence he may date all his late misfortunes , was his friendship with the french king , a right son of ishmael , whose hand is lifted up against every man's , and every man 's against his ; a man who has not one single virtue to counterballance that prodigious stock of vices which harbour in his breast ; a man who has built a reputation upon the ruins of his neighbours kingdoms ; and yet with this gallick nimrod did the uunfortunate king james contract a most lasting alliance . i perceive i am stopt in my assertion , and a little dabler in politicks challenges me to prove the contract : 't is true , we cannot shew the original deed , with their signets and names affixt to it ; but he must surely be delivered over to unbelief , who cannot credit such circumstances as serve to clear the matter from all doubt or hesitation : who promoted the marriage of the duke with the princess of modena ? who defraid the charges of her journy , and paid the greatest part of her fortune , but the french king ? if this will not satisfie , pray examine coleman's letter to sir william throgmorton ; the duke 's then agent at the french court , where he tells him , that when the duke comes to be master of our affairs , the king of france will have all reason to promise himself all that he can desire ; for according to the dukes mind , the interest of the king of england , the king of france , and his own , are so closely bound up together , that 't is impossible to separate them one from the other , without the ruin of them all three ; but being joyned , they must notwithstanding all opposition , become invincible : there are other letters between mr. coleman and father le chaise which carry such undeniable marks of a contract between king james when duke of york and louis le grand , that none but those devested of common sense , can have reason to doubt it : if this is not throughly convincing , let any one consult the memorial given in by monsieur d' avaux , the french embassador at the hague , sept. 9th 1688 , which if the curious reader desire to see at length , i refer him to the 1st vol. of mercurius reformatus , or the new observator , no. 5. wherein the ingenuous author of that paper , does prove it beyond all possibility of contradiction . there are several other arguments as unquestionable as the former , which for brevity's sake , i omit . and now 't is time to breath a while , and consider what are the those regal virtues , of which , if a prince has not a share , he will hardly answer the expectations of his people , nor the ends of government ; they are generally recon'd to be piety , prudence , justice , and valour ; but if his piety degenerates into biggottism , his prudence into unsteady timerousness , his justice into acts of cruelty and severity , and his valour into rashness and obstinacy ; what ever his flatterers may say of him , yet certainly he is unfit to govern. let the reader apply the character where he pleases , and find a crown'd head whereon to fix these four vices , by another name call'd virtues . how much of the comparison may fall to the king's share , we know not ; but of his bigottry , zeal , ( or what other name you please ) to his religion , i believe by this time the world wants not to be convinc'd ; for if for arguments sake we should allow ( what we cannot believe ) viz. a merit in religious actions , certainly the late king has bid the fairest for cononization , after his death , of all the crown'd heads who have liv'd these two centuries , who would sacrifice three kingdoms to the capricios of a priest ; but be it unto him according to his faith ; and indeed it is but just he should expect a crown in heaven , if for its sake he has lost one on earth . this in a few lines we have given the character of a bigotted unfortunate prince : but leaving him at his devotions , let us a little return homewards , and observe a sort of men who are so very impatient under this government , that their very looks express their discontent ; they are as uneasy , tho in the sun-shine of liberty , as the slaves at algeirs are with their chains ; they cannot take an oath to a government that will protect 'em , and nothing will ever satisfy them , but the return of their old master . good god! to what stupidity is mankind arriv'd ? to dislike the most easy government in the world , to espouse that which is the most barbarous in its nature : a government that in measures of cruelty exceeds ev'n the most savage communities on the coast of india ! a government so debauch'd with false religion , that considering the interest of mankind , and the ill usage it exposes mens persons and fortunes to , it could be almost wisht that such a religion had never been known in the world. in the name of wonder , what would these gentlemen have ? they were many of them ( at least many pretended to be ) uneasy under the last , when popery and arbitrary government seem'd to come as an armed man ; and now they are almost beyond the possibility of such fears , they murmur : of what mercurial temper are the english compos'd , that they can never be setled ? popery was once their terrour , and now that is remov'd , they fear they know not what ; like men in feavers , they are restless in this bed , and when remov'd to another , are as uneasy in that . i appeal to any of them , if the pressures that gawl their shoulders , either in their persons or fortunes , was not brought upon themselves by their own perverse obstinacy , for which conscience is still the pretence ; the government would have them live easy , and enjoy their estates and preferments both civil and ecclesiastical , nor would molest them while quiet they might sit under their vines and under their fig-trees , but they will not ; and if men will turn themselves out of all , in compliance to a humour , who can help it ? it must be confest , that when once the persons of kings grow contemptible , or little in the eyes of their subjects , their smallest miscarriages are magnified to that degree , as very often terminates in their ruin : but there is an errour on the other hand , when the worst actions of princes shall be thought innocent ( for according to some persons creed , a king can do no wrong ) and the belief of passive obedience is carried so high , that even his arbitrary proceedings shall be winkt at : this is to exceed even the arts of the turkish policy , who pay not a greater veneration of their grand signiors , than some of our zealots do to the late king , they solemnly drink his health upon their knees , and pray for him in their private devotions affectionately ; nor do they forget him in the publick liturgies of the church , for every one knows the secret mystery of bless and protect the king our governour . to be short , nothing will serve them but his return , to redeem them out of their imaginary bondage ; for this they wish , for this they pray : nay , the jews themselves do not at this day with greater impatience and mistaken zeal expect the coming of the messias , than these kind of men do for the restauration of king james to his crown and dignity . let us therefore a little examin what specious pretences they have for such an ambition ; and tho indeed they are as shy of revealing the secret , as they would be of a fairy treasure ; yet by some expressions occasionally dropt in conversation , 't is not very hard to conjecture some of them . as first , they are great pretenders to moral justice ; they say king james had a great deal of wrong done him , and being their soveraign prince , they are obliged to see him righted . are they so ? but who gave them the commission ? their conscience , they will tell you , but their conscience is so great a riddle , that it will never be expounded ; their conscience would have king james in his throne again , tho never so much bloodshed and miseries might ensue ; their fondness to his person closes their eyes and stops their ears to all the calamities their fellow subjects must necessarily suffer by such a revolution ; nay , this very conscience of theirs , was one of the chief occasions which prompted the late king to commit those arbitrary actions in his shortliv'd reign ; they told him he might do what he pleas'd , and for his actions , was accuntable to none but god , tho he should turn upside-down our laws , religion , and liberties , and that we were tamely to submit our necks to the blow when ever he should command it , in spite of laws , tho it were in the power of our hands to save our selves by a just defence . no wonder then upon such considerations as these , and prompted by the native cruelty of his own religion , he permitted those unaccountable actions to be committed ; and he is as much beholding to those fiery sticklers for the loss of his crown , as he was to father pretre's , and other jesuetick advice . it is the nature of mankind to covet liberty , and to have all things about them easy and free : now i would ask these gentlemen what greater freedom they can expect , were their beloved prince reinstated in his throne again , than what they now enjoy ? are not their fortunes secur'd to them by the best laws in the world ? who goes about to invade their properties , or devest them of their estates ? yes , they reply , some bishops and other ecclesiastical persons have lost their livings and means of subsistence , because : — yes , the because is very well known , because they cannot take the oaths . it would have been wisht , that those reverend persons would have inform'd the world with the reasons of their non-compliance , which might have regulated the unthinking minds of some of their bigotted followers , who out-do even the votaries of the church of rome in an implicit faith ; and believe 't is not lawful for them to swear to the government , because dr. such a one refuses the oaths . a very pretty conclusion ; but allowing it to be conscience in their own acceptation , i believe when humour , prejudice , and some other niceties are separated from it , the thing call'd conscience will appear in this case but an airy notion . some of the most moderate of them , i confess , who are great lovers of the late king , could wish him here again without the assistance of the french ; but if their faith was but as strong and powerful as their hopes , they might certainly remove mountains , and joyn the alps to st. michaels-mount in cornwall ; but these are wishes as improbable as they are impossible to be effected ; for you may as easily separate heat from fire , or moisture from water , as divide the interests of king james , from those of lewis the fourteenth ; no , no , like hippocrates his twins they must live and dye together ; and therefore these sort of men deserve rather our pity than our laughter . but there are another sort who will have their old master return again , though by never such indirect means ; and are as glad when they hear of the success of the french arms , as they would be to receive the news of the death of some decrepid relation of theirs , who by his exit , leaves them a plentiful estate . and let mons and flanders , savoy , and all the confederate countries be reduc'd to heaps of ruins , so their dear king may come to his throne again , though he enter'd the city of london with luxemburgh and boufflers at the head of fifty thousand french dragoons . these are hopeful protestants i'faith , blessed reformers and defenders of the christian church ; fresh straw and a dark chamber , cooling purges , leeches and blood-letting are only fit for such as these ; they are mad beyond the cure of hellebore : but because it is necessary sometimes to answer a fool according to his folly. let us ask 'em what mighty mischiefs have the dukes of savoy , and bavaria , the electors of brandenburgh , mentz , and cologne , the emperour of germany , the king of spain , and the united provinces done these gentlemen , that they are so mighty angry with them , and could wish the sculls of all their subjects were to pave the way for king james his accession to ae forfeited throne ? how came these involv'd in the quarrel ? must king james his supposed right , like pharoah's lean kine , swallow up all other princes properties ? what has he done to be so much the darling of mankind , that other mens glories must be ecclips'd to make his glimmering rays shine the brighter ? are great britain , france and ireland , to be the only goshen , and must there be darkness all over europe besides ? these men are a most strange sort of political predestinarians , who will allow no peace nor plenty to any but their master and his friends ; and it is hard to be determin'd , whether folly or madness has the greatest share in the composition of their hopes . all pity and humanity to their fellow creatures is laid aside , and they seem to exceed the indian cannibals in acts of cruelty , for how severe they may be to strangers , they yet seldom devour those of their own tribe ; no man that hears 'em discourse , can certainly keep within the bounds of moderation ; for who ever has the patience to hear their arguments , will certainly expect better reasons in bedlam , from the lucida intervalla of a lunatick . the love of ones country , was ever by the most polite nations , esteem'd as the characteristical mark of a noble soul , and vincit amor patriae , seem'd to be written in indelible marks upon their breasts ; for this the ancient greeks and romans were famous . remarkable to this purpose is the relation livy gives us of curtius a noble roman , who when the earth was sunk with a wide gap in the middle of the forum , and it was told , it would not come together again , unless some prime young nobleman were put into it ; he to deliver his country , mounted on horse-back , rode into the gaping chasma : but we on the contrary , have a sort of men amongst us , who would gladly see their native soyl over-run with a knot of villains , to gratifie one mans lust of power on the one hand , and their unaccountable humour on the other . i would fain ask them , supposing the possibility of such success , whether the french arms are so well bred , as to distinguish them from the rest of the english sufferers by such a revolution ( to which that of the goths and vandals in italy , was but a civil visit ) ? i fear like tarpeia the vestal virgin , who covenanted with the sabines to betray the capitol to them , for what they wore on their left arms ; but when they were entred , into of bracelets which she intended , they threw their targets upon her , and pressed her to death ; so would these very men suffer in the common calamity ; for the french , as well as other nations , agree in this , that though they love the treason , they hate the traytors . to invert a little the words of mr. dryden to the reader , before his poem of absalom and achitophel , every man is a knave or an ass on the contrary side ; and there 's a treasury of merits in sam 's coffee-house , as well as in richard's at the temple ; but the longest chapter in deuteronomy has not curses enough for well-wishers to the french. it was the speech of a moderate gentleman in the long parliament , when the faction in the house of commons was high against the bishops , and the establish'd church , gentlemen , ( says he ) let us see the model of your new intended superstructure , before you pull down the old one . if we should ask some of these fiery bigots for the interest of the late king , what advantages they can propose to themselves by his return ; unless like the unrewarded poor expecting caviliers at the restauration of king charles the second , they can be content to be loyal and starve ; for if the latter end of king james his imaginary reign , should be of a piece with his first real beginning , he will still neglect his truest friends , and stick close to flattering enemies . with so deep a root has the advice of a chancellor , about the year 1660 , still remain'd in the breasts of the princes , oblige your enemies , and your friends will be true to your interest . but i have wandred from my subject , by a long , but i hope , not very impertinent digression , and therefore ( asking my reader 's pardon ) return to my subject , or rather the applicatory part of it . we have seen the character of the prince and his bigotted followers ; and as all things are best set off by examples , let us now draw a parallel or landscape of the two different complexions of the reigns of king william and queen mary , and king james , and what we are unavoidably to expect , should almighty god in the course of his providence , for our punishment , and the gratification of some restless spirits , bring king james to his throne again : of the ease and tranquility of the first we are certain , but of the horrour of the latter , the most terrible ideas we can form of it in our imaginations will come short of the life ; for as the safety we now enjoy , almost exceeds our hopes ; so the stripes we must then feel , will transcend our very fears . in the person of the king , we have a prince who is truly ( what the historian says of titus ) humani generis deliciae , who has centred in his person all the valour and wisdom of his ancestors : a prince so truly great , that those lawrels which add such lustre to anothers brow , look but faintly on his , he needing no additional varnish to set off his native goodness : a prince , born to be the arbiter of christendom , whom all the crown'd heads and states of europe adore as the only person who must break the jaws of the french leviathan : not the greatest dangers which so terrify pusilanimous minds , can at all move him , who caring not for an inactive inglorious greatness , expos'd his sacred person to rescue these ungrateful kingdoms from the moct insupportable tyranny of arbitrary power ; since which , in ireland he gave most invincible proofs both of his courage and conduct ; the united force of europe could not concert their measures against france , till his presence influenced their counsels at the hague , to which he went through a thousand perils at sea ; after a short return , he is now gone again to flanders to head that prodigious army : victory seems to accompany him in attempts of war , and his worst enemies must own him to have the very soul of courage . in the person of the queen , we have a second queen elizabeth ; but with respect to her sacred ashes , we may say , the copy far exceeds the original . never did a crown'd lady shew more conduct and magnanimity than when the french fleet was upon our coast , when her illustrious husband was fighting in ireland : a princess , whose thousand charms make her fit to rule , and command even respect from her very enemies ( if any such there are ; ) her majesty is temper'd with so much mildness , that at the same time , she neither invites nor forbids access ; the glory of her own sex , and the admiration of ours . under these two illustrious persons is england , &c. at this time govern'd by the most exact laws that ever were made , the prerogative of the king not dominating over the priviledges of the people , the church of england flourishes , not withstanding the peevishness of some of her votaries ; and the dissenters enjoy their liberty of conscience without design : the great blessing of this nation , viz. the parliament , does frequently meet , and their votes are unanimous for supplies for the nations good : the taxes by them levied are ( excepting by some few discontented spirits ) willingly paid , and the people satisfied that their mony is employ'd for the uses intended , not lavishly and unaccountably thrown away on pensioners , &c. every man enjoys his plentiful or competent fortune , with all the freedom imaginable ; no tricks are made use of to decoy us into slavery ; from the very prospect of which , the king designs by his utmost endeavours to free us by appearing himself in person at the head of the confederate army , in opposition to the power of france : he designing to rescue the glory of the english nation from that stupidity , the luxury , and effeminacy of the late reigns had obscur'd it with ; and we have nothing to render us unhappy but our own groundless fears and jealousies , in which unaccountable humour , if we still persist , like the seditious amongst the jews , we shall do our selves more mischief within the walls , than our enemies could possibly do without , when the glory of their city and nation yeilded to the arms of the romans , who could never have conquered them , had not their murmurers within done more execution to themselves , than all the battering rams of titus could possibly effect against their walls . but now to shew the reverse of the medal . if king jame's return to re-assume his justly forfeited right , as no human reason can possibly suppose him to come in without the assistance of the french , let us consider what a field of blood will our country be ; he coming in like a conqueror , will make us quickly feel the difference between the easy government we now live under , and the insupportable tyranny we must then endure ; his imaginary zeal for the defence of the protestant religion , being long since quench't by the affronts he pretends to have suffered by those of that communion ; then will rome erect her standard in defiance to all the methods of the reformation , and popery become the standing religion of the nation . it cannot be suppos'd that the instructions he has receiv'd from his great patrone lewis , will easily be forgot ; and he who when in a private capacity would ever hardly forgive one whom he suppos'd had done him wrong , will now be hardly brought to forget a national indignity ; he will never certainly listen to any overtures of capitulation ; and 't is impossible to believe that things can be ever accomodated between an incens'd prince , and ( as he supposes ) a rebellious people . he has not so long breath'd in the air of france , as not to learn its tyrannical and arbitrary maxims ; and the ( as he thinks ) meritorious zeal of propagating his own religion , will let him stick at nothing , how arbitrary soever , to establish it . we may indeed imagin him to be of a merciful nature , and that all shall be forgotten as if never done , and that an act of indemnity will make all even again ; but those who are so blinded as to believe these fair promises , let them but look into an act of his own , dated at his residence in dublin . and in a proclamation of his , to his pretended subjects in scotland , may 4. 1689. he is most graciously pleas'd , not only to incourage his friends to be destroyers of mankind , but likewise offers them pardons for such inhuman cruelties : telling them in the said proclamation , 't is his pleasure they should rise in arms , and assault and destroy , and what ever blood-shed and slaughter , mutilations or fire-raisings should be done to these rebels , ( as he calls the scotch ) his proclamation should be their sufficient warrant for such acts. if this is his kindness for the scotch nation , can we think the english will more civilly be treated ? no , no , let us no longer amuse our selves with fancies of his clemency and kindness . we live under a government where we may be hapy if we please , and nothing but our discontent can render us miserable ; for as certain as there is a providence , if ever such a fatal revolution should happen , not savoy , nor piedmont , nor all the places where the arms of the french have ravag'd , were ever such scenes of blood and confusion as england will be . we are now in our crisis , and a few months will , in all probability , determin the fate of europe in general , and of our own country in particular ; and upon the success of the confederate army , headed by our most victorious prince , depends the liberty or slavery of the most civiliz'd part of the world. postscript . at the conclusion of this discourse , i imagin some smiling reader finding fault , and by his looks would seem to tell me the landskips are as ill drawn as they are ill design'd , and that the lyon is not so fierce as he is painted , nor will the return of a prince of the romish communion be so terrible to his protestant subjects as i would seem to represent . but in answer to this , i must acquaint the gentleman , that i fear i have committed un error on the other hand , and instead of adding fierce colours to make the piece seem tremendous : i have used such faint shadows as do not heighten the picture . partiality and prejudice are very ill spectacles , and but too often cause a false medium . i have seen a picture , which if one lookt obliquely upon , on the left hand were represented the heads of three fair ladies ; but if you chang'd the position of your body , and stood on the right hand of the design , the very same picture shew'd you a monkey and two parrots . i know not on which hand my reader 's judgment stands , which valued faculty of ours we find to be very often deluded ; for if i may apply a place in holy writ , very pertinent to this purpose , only exchanging the case of the father for that of the son ; they who form such terrible ideas of the imaginary severities they feel under the present reign , where they are only beaten with rods , will at the return of their idoliz'd prince , be chastis'd with scorpions . finis . books printed for r. baldwin . new predictions of the fate of all the princes and states in the world. price 4. sodom fair : or the market of the man of sin. containing , a true account of the prices of the pope's pardons and dispensations ; being a treatise very useful and necessary for all young english papists , who intend to take holy orders , or travel through italy ; and all such as intend to be cheated both out of their souls and mony. to which is added the history of adultery , as it is now at rome by law established ; with the life of clement the sixth , and blasphemous bull which he published for the year of jubile , 1350. a journal of the late motions and actions of the confederate forces against the french , in the united provinces , and the spanish netherlands . with curious remarks on the situation , strength and rarities of the most considerable cities , towns and fortifications in those countries . together with an exact list of the army . the present state of christendom consider'd , in nine dialogues , between i. the present pope alexander the viii . and lewis the xiv . ii. the great duke of tuscany , and the duke of savoy . iii. king james the second , and the marescal de la feuillade . iv. the duke of lorrain , and the duke of schomberg . v. the duke of lorrain , and the elector palatine . vi. louis the xiv . and the marquis de louvois . vii . the advoyer of berne , and the chief syndic of geneva . viii . cardinal ottoboni , and the duke de chaulnes . ix . the young prince abafti , and count teckly . political aphorisms, or, the true maxims of government displayed wherein is likewise proved ... : by way of a challenge to dr. william sherlock and ten other new dissenters, and recommended as proper to be read by all protestant jacobites. harrison, thomas, fl. 1690. 1690 approx. 83 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 21 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-11 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a70333 wing h917c estc r35445 15305734 ocm 15305734 103398 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a70333) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 103398) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1189:4 or 1672:21) political aphorisms, or, the true maxims of government displayed wherein is likewise proved ... : by way of a challenge to dr. william sherlock and ten other new dissenters, and recommended as proper to be read by all protestant jacobites. harrison, thomas, fl. 1690. [8], 31, [1] p. printed for tho. harrison ..., london : 1690. attributed to harrison by wing and nuc pre-1956 imprints. advertisements: [1] p. at end. item at reel 1189:4 identified as h140 (number cancelled). reproduction of original in the cambridge university library and university of illinois (urbana-champaign campus). library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng sherlock, william, 1641?-1707. -case of resistance of the supreme powers stated and resolved. jacobites. divine right of kings. great britain -politics and government -1689-1702. 2004-06 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2004-06 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-07 judith siefring sampled and proofread 2004-07 judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-10 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion political aphorisms : or , the true maxims of government displayed . wherein is likewise proved , that paternal authority is no absolute authority , and that adam had no such authority . that there neither is or can be any absolute government de iure , and that all such pretended government is void . that the children of israel did often resist their evil princes without any appointment or soretelling thereof by god in scripture . that the primitive christians did often resist their tyrannical emperors , and that bishop athanasius did approve of resistance . that the protestants in all ages did resist their evil and destructive princes . together with a historical account of the depriving of kings for their evil government , in israel , france , ●●●in , portugal , scotland , and in england before and sin●● the conquest . by way of challenge to dr. william sherlock , and ten other new dissenters , and recommended as proper to be read by all protestant iacobites . he that being often reproved , hardneth his neck , shall suddenl● be destroyed , and that without remedy , prov. 29. 21. london , printed for tho. harrison at the west end of the royal exchange in cornhill . 1690. the preface . after all the signal deliverances god hath vouchsafed to these brittish islands , and the many eminent appearances of divine providence in our late happy revolution , even to this day , one would think no protestant should repine at this happy and advantageous change , from an arbitrary to a legal monarchy , but reckon it his felicity to have lived to this day , to see the imperial crown of england worn by a protestant king and queen ; an happiness which our fathers wished and longed for in king charles the first 's and second 's time , but could not obtain , the evil consequence thereof this nation hath sufficiently felt ; therefore i may well say , o thrice happy england , didst thou know thy happiness , and hadst an heart to be thankful for it ! who could have thought , that notwithstanding the visible hand of god in this unparallel'd revolution , we should still have amongst us a korah , a dathan , and an abiram , a murmuring still in our streets ? our fore-fathers never bought their liberty at so cheap a rate as we have done now , which makes it so much despised and slighted at present , as if liberty could never be good without wading through a sea of blood to obtain it . we commend our fore-fathers for standing up for their rights and priviledges , ( without which we should have been slaves to this day ) and yet that we should condemn one another for the same thing , though our religion , which is infinitely more dear to us than a few worldly liberties , lies at stake , is such an intollerable folly that succeeding ages will hardly give credit to . but what is more strange , is , that some protestants are for the restauration of the late king james , with the young impostor , the consequence whereof can be nothing less than slavery , and the total subversion of the protestant religion in england , as well as the endangering it throughout the world. but that the world may see what rare notions of civil government our murmurers have , i shall here set down some of the sayings of one of their mighty pillars of passive obedience , dr. william sherlock , as they are in his case of resistance of the supreme powers . no man wants authority ( says the dr. pag. 59. ) to defend his life against him who has no authority to take it away ; but yet he tells you most learnedly , p. 113. that the prince is the powers or authority ; ( not the laws ) and in p. 198. that the king receives not his sovereign authority from the law ; and in p. 89. he sayes , that there could not be greater nor more absolute tyrants than the roman emperors were , and yet they had no power over the meanest christian , but by an express commission from heaven : and he tells you further , p. 116. that when we resist our prince , we resist the ordinance , constitution and appointment of god. what invincible arguments are these for passive obedience , which makes god the author of all the outrages , cruelties , rapin●s and blood-shed that have been committed in the world by sovereign princes ! but i think the dr. has taken the right way ( if there be any ) to establish the doctrine of passive obedience without reserve . st. peter exhorted the christians to submit to every ordinance of man for the lords sake ; which plainly signifies ( sayes the ingenious dr. p. 146. ) that whatever hand men may have in modelling civil governments , yet it is the ordinance of god , and princes receive their power from him : what a rare argument is this for tyranny , oppression , and idolatry , &c. for according to the doctor 's notion , if the legislative authority of a nation should abolish the christian religion , and set up paganism , mahometanism , and popery , and make never such unjust and tyrannical laws , yet it would be the ordinance of god. since i can hardly find throughout all the doctor 's book , he knows what any part of civil government is , and least he should take an established religion to be no part thereof , i shall make bold to tell him , that when a religion is established by the legislative authority of any nation , it becomes part of the civil government , and is to be defended and supported by the administrator of that government . the dr. hath many more as rare arguments as these , but for brevity sake i omit them , these being sufficient to shew upon what rock this sort of men build their notions of passive obedience . i challenge all the new dissenters in england , and all the conformists who have sworn allegiance to their majesties only as king and queen de facto : but more particularly , dr. will. sherlock , shadrach cook , john leke , dr. francis thompson , person , dr. — audley , will. gefford of suffolk , john hart of tanton , wood , cuff , john norris of cambridge , richard stafford , and the author of the history of passive obedience , together with sir r. lestrange and all his pupils , to answer the following tract . i desire these learned men to resolve me this case of conscience , whether or no those who joyned with or assisted the prince of orange , upon his arrival , are not guilty of rebellion ? and whether or no those divines and laicks who invited him over , are not more guilty of rebellion , ( according to the doctrine of passive obedience , without reserve , as being the first cause thereof ) than they that joyned with him upon his first arrival ? and whether upon the bishops refusing to disown their inviting him over , it does not follow that they did invite him over , and upon their refusing to subscribe to the form of an abhorrence of the invitation , it did not plainly imply , that they disowned the doctrine of passive obedience , and allowed the resisting of arbitrary power ? and when they desired the prince of orange ( our present king ) to take upon him the administration of the government , it did not imply that king james had deserted the government , and that the throne was thereby become vacant ? the reason why i take this unusual way of writing by way of challenging of particular men , is , because in a general challenge no man would reckon himself concerned in it : for what is every ones business , is no body's business ; and because the dissenters from the present government do assert , that ( the late ) king james is de jure still , and that obedience is due to him during his life , and that dr. sherlock and many others can prove the doctrine of passive obedience , without reserve , to be a true doctrine , and they hope to hear it preach'd with as much zeal as ever . these are the reasons that induced me to challenge particular men , and to write this tract , that there might be no plea for the resurrection of this absurd , nonsensical , sheepish , slavish , inhumane , bow-string doctrine , which one sucks in with his milk ; another he takes it to be the distinguishing doctrine of the church ; and another believes it , because it has been told him from the pulpit ; and a fourth because a great many ingenious and learned men have declared it to be a true doctrine : thus we become wise by tradition and example , having an implicit faith to believe whatever our guides declarr to be the doctrine of the gospel , though it be never so contrary to the iustice and goodness of almighty god , and to undenyable reason . if the church in its reformation from popery had retained transubstantiation , no doubt but we should have had as many and as zealous asserters of that doctrine as of passive obedience without reserve , the one being as false as the other is impossible . i remember the saying of a passive obedience man , if an angel ( sayes he ) came down from heaven , and preacht any other doctrine than passive obedience , as it was lately taught us , i would not believe him . o what a commendable thing is it to be true to ones principle , though it be never so ridiculous or false , or tends never so much to the inslaving or destruction of our countrey ! i have hitherto ( says cato ) fought for my countreys libety , and for my own , and only that i might live free among free-men . i wish that every english-man could say that he had either sought or done something else for the good of his countrey , which is the ambition of t. h. political aphorisms : or the true maxims of government displayed . it is evident that no rule or form of government is prescribed by the law of god and nature ; for that then they would be both immutable , and the self-same in all countries . for the better proof whereof , it is necessary to shew , how far government proceeds from nature , and how far from man ; to wit , that man is sociable , and inclined to live together in company , which proceeds from nature , and consequently also from god , that is author of nature ; from whence do proceed all private houses , then villages , then towns , then castles , then cities , and then kingdoms and common-wealths ( as aristotle saith in his book of politicks ) . tho government in like manner , and jurisdiction of magistrates , which does follow necessarily upon this living together in company , be also of nature ; yet the particular form or manner of this or that government , in this or that fashion , as to have many governors , few , or one , and those either kings , dukes , earls , or the like ; or that they should have this or that authority more or less , for longer or shorter time , or be by succession , or election themselves and their children , or next in blood : all these things ( i say ) are not by law natural or divine ( for then , as hath been said , they should be all one in all countries and nations ) for god said , gen. 2. 18. it is not good that man should be alone , i will make him an help-meet ( or assistant like unto himself ) : so that as this first society of our first parents was of god , and for so great purpose as the one to help and assist ( not destroy or inslave ) the other : so all other societies , as proceeding from this first , stand upon the same ground of god's ordinance , for the self-same end of mans utility or happiness ; all which is confirmed by the consent and use of all nations throughout the world ; which general consent cicero calleth ipsam vocem naturae , the voice of nature her self . for there was never yet any nation found either of ancient times , or of later days , by the discovery of the indies , or else-where , where men living together , had not some kind of magistrate , or superior to govern them ; which evidently declareth , that magistracy is also from nature , and from god that created nature ( though not in this or that particular form : ) which point our civil law doth prove in like manner , in the beginning of our digest , do origine iuris civilis & omnium magistratuum , of the beginning of the civil law , and of all magistrates , which beginning is referred to the first principle of natural instinct , and god's institution . though common-wealths and government of the same by magistrates are of nature ; yet the particular forms or manner of governments are not of nature , but are lest unto every nation and country to chuse what form of government they like best , and think most fit for the natures and conditions of the people . by the state of nature we are all equal , there being no superiority or subordination one above another ; there can be nothing more rational , than that creatures of the same species and rank promiscuously born to all the same advantages of nature , and the use of the same faculties should also be equal one amongst another , without god by any manifest declaration of his will had set one above another , and given him superiority or soveraignty . were it not for the corruption and viciousness of degenerate men , there would be no need of any other state ; for every one in that state being both judg and executioner of the law of nature , which is to punish according to the offence committed . men being partial to themselves , passion and revenge is very apt to carry them too far in their own cases , as well as negligence and unconcernedness makes them too remiss in other mens . this makes every one willingly give up his single power of punishing to one alone , or more , as they shall think most convenient , and by such rules as the community , or those authorized by them to that purpose , shall agree on , with intention in every one the better to preserve himself , his liberty and property . what is it but flattery to the natural vanity and ambition of men , too apt of it self to grow and increase with the possession of any power , who would perswade those monarchs in authority , that they may do what they please , because they have authority to do more than others ; since rational creatures cannot be supposed , when free , to put themselves into subjection to another for their own harm , which were to put themselves in a worse condition than in the state of nature , wherein they had liberty to defend their lives and properties against the invasions of any man or men whatsoever ; whereas by giving up themselves to the absolute arbitrary power of any man , they have disarm'd themselves , and armed him to make a prey of them when he pleases . i have been the longer in speaking of the state of nature , and the natural instinct to society and government , for that it is the fountain of all the rest that ensueth in a common-wealth , but if we respect god and nature , as well might all the diversity of governments , which have been , and now are in the world , have followed one law , as so different , but that neither god , nor nature ( which is from god ) hath prescribed any of those particular forms , but concurreth or permitteth such which the common-wealth appoints . can any man say that god and nature did not concur as well with italy when it had but one prince , as now when it hath so many , and the like with germany , and also with switzerland , which was once one common-wealth under the dukes and marquesses of austria , and now are divided into thirteen cantons or common-wealths , under popular magistrates of their own ? england also was first a monarchy under the britains , and then a province under the romans , and after that divided into seven kingdoms at once , under the saxons , and after them of the danes , and then the normans , and then the french , and now a monarchy again under the english ; and all this by god's providence and permission , who suffered his own peculiar people the jews to be under divers manner of governments at divers times ; at first under patriarchs , abraham , isaac and jacob ; then under captains , as moses , ioshua , and the like ; then under judges , as othoniel , ehud and gideon ; then under high priests , as eli and samuel ; then under kings , as saul , david , and the rest ; then under captains and high priests again , as zorobbabel , iudas maccabeus , and his brethren ; until the government was lastly taken from them , and they brought under the power of the romans . and last of all that god does concur with what magistrate or magistrates the community thinks fit to appoint , is plain by the testimony of holy scripture , as when god said to solomon , by me kings rule , and nobles , even all the iudges of the earth , prov. 8. 16. that is , by his permission they govern , tho chosen by the people ; and st. paul to the romans avoucheth , that authority is not but of god , and therefore he that resisteth authority , resisteth god , rom. 13. which is to be understood of authority , power and jurisdiction in it self according to the laws of every country . all politick societies began from a voluntary union and mutual agreement of men , freely acting in the choice of their governours , and forms of government . all kings receive their royal dignity from the community by whom they are made the superiour minister and ruler of the people . aristotle , cicero , augustin , fortescue , and all other politicians agree , that kingdoms and common-wealths were existent before kings ; for there must be a kingdom and society of men to govern , before there can be a king elected by them to govern them ; and those kingdoms and societies of men had ( for the most part ) some common laws of their own free choice , by which they were governed , before they had kings , which laws they swore their kings to observe , before they would crown or admit them to the government , as is evident by the coronation-oaths of all christian and pagan kings continued to this day . the safety of the people is the supreamest law ; and what they by common consent have enacted , only for the publick safety , they may , without any obstacle , alter when things require it , by the like common consent . the lawful power of making laws to command whole politick societies of men , belongeth so properly unto the same intire societies , that for any prince or potentate , of what kind soever upon earth , to exercise the same of himself , and not by express commission immediately and personally received from god , or else by authority derived at first from their consent , upon whose persons they impose laws , it is no better than meer tyranny . laws they are not therefore , which publick approbation hath not made so . hooker 's eccl. pol. l. 1. § . 10. whosoever ( says aristotle ) is governed by a man without a law , is governed by a man , and by a beast . as every man , in the delivery of the gift of his own goods , may impose what covenant or condition he pleases ; and every man is moderator and disposer of his own estate . so in the voluntary institution of a king , and royal power , it is lawful for the people , submitting themselves , to prescribe the king and his successors what law they please , so as it be not unreasonable and unjust , and directly against the rights of a supream governour . no man can be born an absolute king ; no man can be a king by himself ; no king can reign without the people . whereas on the contrary , the people may both be , and are by themselves , and are in time before a king. by which it appears that all kings were and are constituted by the people , because , by the law of nature , there is no superiority one above another ; and god has no where commanded the world , or any part thereof , to be governed by this or that form , or by this or that person ; therefore all superiority and authority must , and does proceed from the people , since , by the law of god and nature , there is no superiority one above another . aristotle saith , that the whole kingdom , city , or family , is more excellent , and to be preferred before any part or member thereof . succession was tolerated ( and appointed in the world ) to avoid competition , and inter-regnum , and other inconveniences of election . 't is plain , from what hath been said , that all government proceeds from the people . now i will prove that they have authority to put back the next inheritors to government , when unfit or uncapable to govern : and also to dispossess them that are in lawful possession , if they fulfil not the laws and conditions by which , and for which their dignities were given them ; and when it is done upon just and urgent causes , and by publick authority of the whole body , the justice thereof is plain ; as when the prince shall endeavour to establish idolatry , contrary to the laws of the land ; or any religion which is repugnant to the scripture , as popery , &c. or to destroy the people , or make them slaves to his tyrannical will and pleasure : for as the whole body is of more authority than the head , and may cure it when out of order ; so may the weal-publick cure or purge their heads , when they are pernitious or destructive to the body politick ; seeing that a body civil may have divers heads by succession or election , and cannot be bound to one , as a body natural is : which body natural , if it had ability to cut off its aking or sickly head , and take another , i doubt not but it would do it , and that all men would confess it had authority sufficient , and reason so to do , rather than the other parts should perish , or live in pain and continual torment : so may the body politick chuse another head and governour in the room of its destructive one ; which hath been done for many ages , and god hath wonderfully concurred therein ( for the most part ) with such judicial acts of the common-wealth against their evil princes ; not only prospering the same , but by giving them commonly some notable successor in place of the deprived , thereby both to justify the fact , and remedy the fault of him that went before . first , king saul was slain by the philistines by god's appointment , for not fulsilling the law and limits prescribed unto him . ammon was lawful king also , yet was he slain , for that he walked not in the way prescribed him by god , 2 king. 21. and david and jesiah were made kings in their rooms , who were two most excellent princes . shal●m , pekahiah , and pekah , three wicked and idolatrous kings of israel , were , by god's just judgment , slain one after another . and all the kings of israel , who violated the covenant and conditions annexed to their crowns , did , for the most part , lose their lives , and underwent the utter extirpation of their posterities from the crown . rehoboham ( for only ) threatning to oppress the people , was deserted by them , who chose jeroboham his servant in his stead , which was approved on by god. if i should instance all the kings over the children of israel whom god permitted ( and appointed ) to be slain , and those that were carried away captive by the heathens for their unjust government , i should be too copious . but i will leave the hebrews , and give you several examples of the depriving of evil princes of the government , in france , spain , portugal , &c. and last of all in scotland and england ; and of the happiness and prosperity that did attend those kingdoms upon such acts , which can be imputed to nothing but the blessing of almighty god which attended those proceedings ; and by consequence he approved thereof , and does approve of such acts. there has been two great changes made of the royal line in france ; the first from pharamond to the line of pepin , the second from pepin to hugo capet . childerick the third was deprived for his evil government , and pepin was chosen king in his stead , whose posterity reigned for many years after him , and were brave kings , as history doth testify . lewis the third , and charles sirnamed le-gross , were both deprived by the states of france for their ill government , and such who were thought more worthy , appointed in their stead . all french histories do attribute to these great changes that have been made by the people , the prosperity and greatness of their present kingdom . henry the third , before he was king of france , was chosen king of polonia : but for departing thence without leave , and not returning at his day , was deprived by publick act of parliament . if i were to mention all the acts of this nature throughout europe , i should be too tedious , therefore i will mention only some few . in spain , flaveo suintila was deprived for his evil government , together with all his posterity , and sissinando chosen in his room . don pedro , sirnamed the cruel , for his injurious proceedings with his subjects , they resolved to dethrone him ; and to that intent sent for a bastard brother of his , named henry , that lived in france , desiring him to come , with some french men , to assist them in that act , and take the crown upon himself . which he did , by the help of the spaniards , and slew him in fight hand to hand , and so enjoyed the crown , as doth his off-spring to this day . this henry was a most excellent king , as well for his courage in war , as for his other brave qualities . in portugal , don sanco the second , was deprived , by the universal consent of all portugal , and don alanso his brother set up : who , amongst other great exploits , was the first that set portugal free from all subjection , dependance , and homage to the kingdom of castile . and his son , who was his successor , builded and founded above forty great towns in portugal : who was likewise a most rare prince , and his off-spring ruleth there to this day . cisternus , king of denmark , for his intolerable cruelty , was deprived , and his wife and three children disinherited , and his uncle frederick was chosen king in his stead , whose off-spring remaineth in the crown . in scotland , the nobility and gentry , &c. took arms against durstus their king , for his intolerable cruelty , and slew him and his confederates in battel , ( and put by his sons , lest they should imitate their father's vices ) and elected even , his brother , king ; who leaving a bastard son , the kingdom was conferred on him . crathy cinthus having surprized and slain donald for his tyranny , he was unanimously elected king. ethus was , for his evil government , deprived , and gregory made king in his stead . buchanan , a scots-man , speaking of his country , saith , that it was free from the beginning , created it self kings upon this very law , that the empire being conferred on them by the suffrages of the people ; if the matter required it , they might take it away by the same suffrages . of which law many footsteps have remained even to our age. i will end this narration with examples out of england , ( before and since the conquest ) archigallo , emerian , vortigern , sigibert king of the west-saxons ; beornred , and alured king of northumberland , were all deprived of their thrones for their evil government , and such who were thought more worthy preferred in their stead . king edwin being deprived for his unjust government , the crown was given to his brother edgar , who was one of the rarest princes that the world had in his time , both for peace and war , iustice , piety , and valour : he kept a navy ( saith stow ) of three thousand and six hundred ships , distributed in divers parts for defence of the realm , and he built and restored forty seven monasteries at his own charge , &c. the crown of england hath been altered by the community , and settled upon those from whom they expected more justice than from the right heirs ; witness the electing and crowning of edelwald and casebelian ; egbert not next in blood , edward , adalston , and harold , who were all illegitimate ; and edred , against the right of his two nephews , canutus a foreigner , and hardiknute , without title , and edward the confessor , against the right heirs . after the conquest , anno. 1087. robert the elder brother was put aside , and william rufus , the third son of william the conqueror , was elected : after whose death , henry the first , his younger brother ( though not next heir ) was chosen by the people , not summoned by writ . after the death of henry the first , stephen was chosen king against the right of mand , the daughter of henry the first . after his death henry the second was admitted king , against the right of his mother maud. after the death of richard the first , king john ( earl of morton ) was elected , and arthur the right heir disinherited . henry the third was chosen against the right of eleanor prince arthur's sister . at the death of henry the third , the states of the kingdom met and setled the government , by appointing officers , and what else was necessary for the defence of the realm , and edward the fourth was set up by the people during the life of henry the sixth . now it is plain , that the kings and queens of england , ever since william rufus's time , have proceeded from those who were set up by the people against the next heirs . king edward the second , richard the second , and richard the third , were , for not governing according to the laws of the land , deprived of the government , and edward the third , and henry the fourth and seventh , were preferred in their rooms , which were most rare and valiant princes , who have done many important acts in this kingdom , and have raised many families to nobility , put down others , changed states both abroad and at home , altered the course of descent in the blood royal , and the like ; which was unjust , and is void at this day , if the changes and deprivations of the former kings were unlawful , and consequently all those princes that have succeeded them ( which yet never failed of a constant lineal descent ) were usurpers ; and those that do pretend to the crown of england at this day , have no title at all , ( which was yet never denied ) for that from those men they descended , who were put in the place of the aforementioned , deprived by the common-wealth : and this is , and hath been the custom and practice of all kingdoms and common-wealths , to deprive their princes for their evil government ; and that god hath , and does concur with the same , is plain from the examples before-mentioned , of the prosperity and happiness that hath attended those acts. the barons , prelates , and commons took a solemn oath , that if king john should refuse to grant and confirm their laws and liberties , they would wage war against him so long , and withdraw themselves from their allegiance to him , until he should confirm to them by a charter , ratified with his seal , all things which they required : and that if the king should afterwards peradventure recede from his oath , as they verily believed he would , by reason of his double-dealing , they would forthwith , by seizing on his castles , compel him to give satisfaction . he afterwards breaking his oath and promise , the barons said , what shall we do with this wicked king ? if we let him thus alone he will destroy us and our people ; it is expedient therefore that he should be expelled the throne , we will not have him any longer to reign over us : and accordingly they sent for lewis the prince of france , to be their king , and swore fealty to him , but they afterwards discovering that he had sworn that he would oppress them , and extirpate all their kindred , they rejected him , and set up henry the third . the bishops of hereford , lincoln , and several earls , barons and knights for each county , being deputed to go to edward ii , and demand a surrender of the crown , said to him , that unless he did of himself renounce his crown and scepter , the people would neither endure him , or any of his children , as their soveraign ; but disclaiming all homage and fealty , would elect some other for king who should not be of the blood ; upon which the king resigned his crown , &c. by the common usage of england , which is the common law of england , kings may be deprived for evil government , and others set up in their stead , is plain from the afore-going examples . richard the first being taken prisoner by the emperor in his return from the holy land , it was decreed , that the fourth part of all that year's rents , and of all the moveables , as well of the clergy as of the laity , and all the woolls of the abbots of the order of cistersians and of semphringham , and all the gold and silver chalices , and treasure of all churches , should be paid in towards the ransom of the king , which was done accordingly . if all this was given for the liberty of one man ; certainly much more ought to be given now , when all our liberties and properties , and even our religion too lies at stake , if necessity required it , which god forbid . by the law of nature , salus populi , the welfare of the people , is both the supream and first law in government , and the scope and end of all other laws , and of government it self ; because the safety of the body politick is ever to be preferred before any one person whatsoever . no human law is binding which is contrary to the scripture , or the general laws of nature . religion doth not overthrow nature , whose chiefest principle is to preserve her self ; and god doth not countenance sin in the greatest , but rewards the punisher , witness jehu , &c. the end for which men enter into society , is not barely to live , but to live happily , answerable to the excellency of their kind , which happiness is not to be had out of society . all common-wealths are in a state of nature one with another . as magistrates were designed for a general good ; so the obligation to them must be understood so , as to be still in subordination to the main end ; for the reason of all law and government is the publick good. government being for the benefit of the governed , and not for the sole advantage of the governours , but only for theirs with the rest , as they make a part of that politick body , each of whose parts and members are taken care of , and directed in their peculiar function for the good of the whole , by the laws of the society . the end of government being the preservation of all as much as may be , even the guilty are to be spared where it can prove no prejudice to the innocent . the publick power of all society is above every soul contained in the same society ; and the principal use of that power is to give laws unto all that are under it , which laws in such cases we must obey , unless there be reason shewed which may necessarily inforce that the law of reason or of god doth injoyn the contrary . hooker eccl. pol. l. 1. §. 10. t. cicero saith , there is one nature of all men ; that even nature it self prescribes this , that a man ought to take care of a man who ever he be , even for this very cause , that he is a man. if otherwise , all human consociation must necessarily be dissolved ; therefore , as there are two foundations of justice : first , that no hurt be done to any ; next , that the profit of all , if it can be done , be advanced . that all magistates and governours do proceed from the people , is plain from the following examples in scripture ; deut. 16. 18 , 19. the children of israel are commanded to make judges and officers throughout their tribes . deut. 17. 14 , 15. when thou art come into the land , &c. and shalt say , i will set a king over me , like as all the nations that are about me : thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee , whom the lord thy god shall choose : one from among thy brethren shalt thou set over thee ; thou mayst not set a stranger over thee . so god did only reserve to himself the nomination of their king ; by which he designed to make his people more happy than they could expect by their own peculiar choice ; he knowing the heart of man , and corruption of his nature , would be sure to nominate such who was most fit to govern his people . god did not require the jews to accept of him for king whom he should chuse , but left it to their own free will , whether they would accept him or no , is plain from the following examples . upon the death of saul , david was set up by the appointment of almighty god , yet there was only the tribe of judah that followed david and made him king , eleven tribes following ishbosheth , saul's son , whom they made king ; and though david had a long war against the house of saul , yet he calls them not rebels , neither do we find that god punished them , or sent any judgment upon them for not accepting of david as king ; and when rechab and banah had slain ishbosheth , and brought his head to david at hebron , saying , behold the head of thine enemy ! yet david , instead of rewarding them , caused them to be slain for killing of ishbosheth , whom he calls a righteous person , not a rebel : after whose death all those tribes came to david , and made a compact with him for the performance of such conditions which they thought necessary for the securing of their liberty before they made him king : 2 sam. chap. 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. the making of solomon king by david his father , was not thought sufficient without the peoples consent , else why did the people anoint solomon , and make him king the second time . we read , judg. 8. 21 , 22 , 23. that after gideon had slain zebah and zalmunna with the midianites , the children of israel said unto gideon , rule thou over us , both thou and thy sons , and thy sons son also ; for thou hast delivered us from the hand of midian . but he refusing their offer , they afterwards made his bastard-son abimelech king , though he had threefoore and ten lawfully-begotten sons . zimri having slain baasha king of israel , reigned in his stead , but the children of israel hearing thereof , rejected him , and made omri the captain of the host king of israel , 1 kings 16. 15 , 16. the kingdom of edom appointed a deputy to rule over them instead of a king , and gave him royal authority , there being then no king in edom , 1 kings 22. 47. see macchab. 9. 28 , 29 , 30. & 13. 8 , 9. & 14. 41 to 49. by which it is further apparent that their kings and governours were chosen by the people . as propinquity of blood is a great preheminence towards the attaining of any crown , yet it doth not bind the common-wealth to yield thereto , and to admit at hap-hazard every one that is next by succession of blood , ( as was falsly affirmed by r. l'estrange and many others , when the parliament would have disinherited the duke of york as unfit to govern this nation , he being a papist ) if weighty reasons require the contrary , because she is bound to consider well and maturely the person that is to enter , whether he be like to perform his duty and charge to be committed to him : for to admit him that is an enemy or unfit to govern , is to consent to the destroying of the common-wealth . see how god dealt in this point with the children of israel , 1 sam. 8. after he had granted to them the same government as the other nations round about them had , whose kings did ordinarily reign by succession as ours do at this day , and as most of the kings of the jews did afterwards : yet that this law of succeeding by proximity of birth , though for the most part it should prevail , yet he shewed plainly that upon just causes it might be altered , as in the case of saul , who left behind him many children , yet not any of them succeeded him , except ishbosheth , who was not his eldest son , who was anointed king by abner the general captain of that nation , to whom eleven tribes followed , until he was slain ; and then they chose david . and jonathan , saul's other son , so much praised in holy scripture , being slain in war , his son mephibosheth did not succeed in the crown , though by succession he had much greater right to it than david . god promised david that his seed should reign ( for ever ) after him — yet we do not find this performed to any of his elder sons , nor to any of their offspring , but only to solomon his younger and tenth son. rehoboam , the lawful son and heir of king solomon , coming to shichem , where all the people of israel were assembled together for his coronation and admission to the crown , ( for until that time he was not accounted true king ) who refusing to ease them of some heavy impositions which they had received from his father , ten tribes of the twelve refuse to admit him their king , and chose jeroboam his servant , and made him their lawful king , and god allowed thereof ; for when rehoboam had prepared an hundred and fourscore thousand chosen men , who were warriours , to reduce those ten tribes to the obedience of their natural prince , god commanded them to desist by his prophet shemaiah , and so they did . these and the like determinations of the people about admitting or refusing of princes to reign or not to reign over them , when their designments are to good ends , and for just causes , are allowed by god , and oftentimes are his own special drifts and dispositions , though they seem to come from man. he who is set up or made king by the consent of the people , hath a just title against the next heir of the blood and his issue , who are put by the crown ; else most of the princes now reigning in europe would be usurpers , and want good titles to their crowns , they or their ancestors being set up by the people , which were not the right heirs of the royal stock . the laws of the commonwealth is the very soul of a politick body . kings and emperors always have been , are , and ought to be subject to the laws of their kingdoms ; not above them , to violate , break or alter them at their pleasures , they being obliged by their coronation-oaths , in all ages and kingdoms , inviolably to observe them : for st. paul saith , a prince is the minister of god for the peoples good , and tribute and custom are paid to him , that he may continually attend thereto . the defence and procuration of the common-wealth is to be managed to the benefit of those who are committed , not of those to whom it is committed . a just governour for the benefit of the people , is more careful of the publick good and welfare , than of his own private advantage . allegiance is nothing but obedience according to law , which when the prince violates , he has no right to obedience . there is a mutual obligation between the king and people , which whether it be only civil or natural , tacit , or in express words , can be taken away by no agreements , violated by no law , rescinded by no force . a kingdom is nothing else but the mutual stipulation between the people and their kings . the supream authority of a nation belongs to those who have the legislative authority reserved to them ; but not to those who have only the executive , which is plainly a trust when it is separated from the legislative power ; and all trusts by their nature import , that those to whom they are given are accountable , though no such condition is specified . if the subject may in no case resist , then there can be no law , but the will and pleasure of the prince : for whoever must be opposed in nothing , may do every thing ; then all our laws signify no more than so many cyphers : and what are the law-makers but so many fools or mad-men , who give themselves trouble to no purpose ? for if the king is not obliged to govern by those laws that they make , to what purpose are the people to obey such laws ? whether another has right to my goods , or , if he demand them , i have no right to keep them , is all one . if the king sue me by pretence of law , and endeavour to take away my money , my house or my land , i may defend them by the law ; but if he comes armed to take away my liberty , life and religion , which are mine by the laws of god and man , may i not secure them with a good conscience ? every man has a right to preserve himself , his rights and priviledges , against him who has no authority to invade them : and this was the case of moses , who seeing an egyptian smiting an hebrew he slew him . and samson made war upon the philistines for burning his wife and her father , who were both but private persons , who knew they could have no other kind of justice against them , but what the law of nature gives every man. we ought ( saith the learned junius brutus in his discourse of government ) to consider that all princes are born men. we cannot therefore expect to have only perfect princes , but rather we ought to think it well with us if we have gained but indifferent ones : therefore the prince shall not presently be a tyrant if he keep not measure in some things , if now and then he obey not reason , if he more slowly seek the publick good , if he be less diligent in administring justice . for seeing a man is not set over men as if he were some god , as he is over , beasts , but as he is a man born in the same condition with them : as that prince shall be proud , who will abuse men like beasts ; so that people shall be unjust , who shall seek a god in a prince , and a divinity in this frail nature . but truly if he shall wilfully subvert the republick ; if he shall wilfully pervert the laws ; if he shall have no care of his faith , none of his promises , none of justice , none of piety ; if himself become an enemy of his people , or shall use all or the chiefest notes we have mentioned , then verily he may be judged a tyrant , that is , an enemy of god and men : and by how much longer he is tolerated , the more intolerable he becomes , and they may act against him whatever they may use against a tyrant either by law or just force . tyranny is not only a crime , but the head , and , as it were , the heap of all crimes ; therefore is he so much the more wicked than any thief , murtherer , or sacrilegious person , by how much it is more grievous to offend many and all , than particular persons . now if all these be reputed enemies , if they be capitally punished , if they suffer pains of death , can any invent a punishment worthy so horrid a crime ? the laws are the nerves and sinews of society ; and as the magistrate is above the people , so is the law above the magistrate , or else there can be no civil society . he who makes himself above all law , is no member of a common-wealth , but a meer tyrant . if a magistrate , notwithstanding all laws made for the well-governing a community , will act plainly destructive to that community , they are discharged either from active or passive obedience , and indispensibly obliged by the law of nature to resistance . is it not reasonable and just i should have a right to destroy him who threatens me with destruction ? for by the fundamental law of nature , man being to be preserved as much as possible , when all cannot be preserved , the safety of the innocent is to be preferred ; i say , he who having renounced his reason , the common rule and measure god hath given to mankind , by endeavouring to destroy me , is thereby become as a beast of prey , and ought to be treated accordingly . the laws ( says tully ) are above the magistrates , as the magistrates are above the people . he who is destructive to the being of another , hath quitted the reason which god hath given to be the rule betwixt man and man of justice and equity , hath put himself into the state of war with the other , and is as noxious as any savage beast that seeks his destruction . no man in civil society can be exempted from the laws of it : for if there be no appeal on earth , for redress or security against any mischief the prince may do , then every man in that society is in a state of nature with him , in respect of him . thucidides l. 2. saith , not only those are tyrants who reduce other into servitude , but much rather those , who when they may repulse that violence , take no care to do it ; but especially those who will be called the defenders of greece and the common country , but yet help not their oppressed country . if a man may be a wolf to a man , nothing forbids but that a man may be a god to a man , as it is in the proverb . therefore antiquity hath enrolled hercules amongst the number of the gods , because he punished and tamed procrustes , busyris , and other tyrants , the pests of mankind , and monstets of the world. so also the roman empire , as long as it stood free , was often called the patrocine against the robberies of tyrants , because the senate was the haven and refuge of kings , people and nations . it is as lawful , and more reasonable , to prevent the overthrowing of our religion , laws , rights and priviledges , fro● any man or men whatsoever amongst our selves , as from a foreign power ; because one acts contrary to the laws of god and the country , and the other being not subject to the laws of the country , can be no ways bound by it . it was thought no injustice in the ship to call out the prophet , when they found he was likely to prove the wrack of them all ; and the almighty shewed he approved of their act , by quieting the storm when he was gone . the scripture , that hath set us none but good example , tells us , that some princes should not have one of their race left that pisseth against the wall : now what were their faults but idolatry and oppression of their people ? then how can it be a sin in a nation to free themselves from an idolatrous and oppressing king ? when it is done by the greatest and most considerable part thereof , it does silently imply a consent of god ; for it cannot be covetousness or ambition that moves such a multitude . when once the christian religion is become a part of the subjects property by the laws and constitutions of the country , then it is to be considered as one of their principal rights : and so may be defended as well as any other civil right ; since that those different forms of government that the jews were under , is no rule for the government of any nation or people whatsoever . the principles of natural religion give those who are in authority , no power at all , but only secure them in the possession of that which is theirs by the laws of the country . that cause is just which defends the laws , which protects the common good , which shall preserve the realm : and that cause is unjust which violates the laws , defends the breakers of the laws , protects the subverters of the country . that is just which will destroy tyrannical government ; that unj●st which would abolish just government ; that lawful which tends to the publick good , that unlawful which tends to the private . but alas , that bug-bear dagon of passive obedience , is a notion crept into the world , and most zealously , and perhaps as ignorantly defended : here all our laws and decrees , by which we are governed , are of the peoples choice ; first made by the subject , and then confirmed by the king. here a king cannot take our sons and daughters , our fields and vineyards away , unless we please to give him them . where was the doctrine of passive obedience , when elisha prayed for blindness to come upon those who were sent by the king of syria to fetch him ? and when he commanded the door to be shut , and the messenger to be held fast who was sent for his head by the king of israel ? and when azariah , with fourscore valiant priests , thrust out uzziah , their lawful king , out of the temple ? and when elijah destroyed the two captains with fire from heaven , with the hundred men under their command , who were sent at twice , by king ahaziah , to fetch him ? and when the children of israel slew amasiah , their lawful king , for his idolatry , without any appointment in scripture , or prophecy of his downfal ? and yet that is no where called rebellion , neither were they punished by his son , whom they had made king in his father's stead . and when mattathias slew the king's commissioner , for compelling men to idolatry ? and when mattathias and his friends pulled down the altars which were adapted to idols , 1 macc. 2. 25 , 45. where was the doctrine of passive obedience when the edomites revolted from jehoram , and made themselves a king ? and libnah did also revolt , because of his evil government , 2 chron. 21. without any appointment , or foretelling of their revolt by god in scripture , or being call●d rebels . and when saul's subjects swore that saul should not kill jonathan ; and they reseued him that he died not ? 1 sam. 14. 45. and when david ( though a private man ) armed himself with six hundred men , no doubt but he designed to have fought saul and his army , if the men of keliah would have assisted him , and have been true to him ; when he enquired of the lord , whether the men of keliah would deliver him and his men into the hands of saul ? upon the lord 's answering , they would deliver them up , he and his men departed the city , 1 sam. 23. can any man imagine their meaning was to run up and down the country together , and fly before saul and his army , if they had been able to cope with any number he could bring or send against them ? if resistance was unlawful , and a sin , surely david , a man after god's own heart , would have known it ; and then he would not have involved the six hundred men that came to his assistance in the sin of rebellion , but have told them , that the prince was not to be resisted , though never so great a tyrant . where was the doctrine of passive obedience , when constantine the great aided the oppressed christians and romans , against the tyranny and persecution of the emperors , maxentius and maximinius , with force of arms , with which he conquered those persecutors in several battels , fought against them at the christians earnest importunity ? and when the primitive christians resisted lucinius their emperor , for persecuting them contrary to law ; and constantine the great joined with them , who held it his duty , saith eusebius , to deliver an infinite multitude of men , by cutting off a few wicked ones , as the pests and plagues of the time. and when the primitive christians of constantinople opposed asper's being made emperor ; but leo being named , they consented thereto . and when the christians , under the king of persia , resisted him for persecuting them , and was assisted by theodosius the roman emperor , who told the king of persia , he was ready to defend them , and no ways to see them suffer for religion ? and when the christians of armenia the greater , made a league with the romans for the securing of their persons and their religion , against the persians under whom they lived ? and when the novatians , assisted by the orthodox , resisted and beat the macedonians , though they were assisted by constantius the emperor , with four thousand men to drive them from paplelagonia ? and when the primitive christians destroyed julian's idolatrous temple in his reign ? where was the doctrine of passive obedience , when the lutheran churches defended themselves against the emperor charles the fifth ? and when the protestants of austria took up arms , anno 1608 , against matthias king of hungaria , for denying them the free exercise of their religion ? and when queen elizabeth assisted the hollanders against their lawful soveraign ? and when she assisted the protestants of france , against their lawful soveraigns charles the ninth , and henry the third ? and when king charles the first , and the bishops and clergy of england assisted the protestants of france ? and when the protestant princes of germany invited gustavus adolphus , king of sweeden , to come into germany to assist the protestants against their lawful prince for persecuting them ? and when the protestants joined with him upon his arrival ? and when king charles the first assisted them with men from england ? so that , according to this christian doctrine of passive obedience , queen elizabeth , and king charles the first , with the bishops and clergy of england , and several other princes and states , have been guilty of st. paul's damnation ; for they that are a ding and assisting to rebels , are as guilty as those that are actually in it . lucifer calaritanus , a famous christian , wrote a book against constantius the emperor , which he sent him to read ; wherein he calls him , and his idolatrous bishops , blasphemers ; and charges him with inviting the christians to idolatry , and tells him , he ought to be put to death for so doing , by the command of god , in deut. 13. where god says , that he that ( but ) intices secretly to idolatry , shall be put to death . and this was approved on by the great bishop athanasius , and those christians that were with him , who calls it , the light of truth , the doctrine of the true faith : how came you ( says he to calaritanus ) to understand the sense and meaning of the scripture so perfectly , if the holy ghost had not assisted you in it ? now i would sain know , whether he that is aiding and assisting towards the bringing in of idolatry , ( as the popish religion is ) is not as worthy of death , as he that only inticeth to idolatry ? and this is the case of many who call themselves of the church of england , who are for the restoration of king james , and by consequence of idolatry . surely if god had commanded the yoke of subjection to the tyrannical will of princes , 't is strange that neither the prophets , elisha and elijah , nor azariah , nor david with his followers , nor the jews under their kings , nor the primitive christians after their religion was established by laws , nor any of the reformed churches , should not have known this doctrine of passive obedience . in the barons wars , under simon of monfort , the king and his sons were taken prisoners ; but the prince escaping , fights simon and kills him : the historians of those times calls him not a rebel or a traytor , but a martyr for the liberties of church and state. if resistance be unlawful upon any account whatsoever , then were all those people guilty of rebellion , who in all ages have resisted or turned out their evil and destructive kings and governours ; and then the jews were guilty of this sin , for slaying and turning out several of their kings , without any appointment from god in scripture . so likewise the primitive christians did involve themselves under the guilt of st. paul's damnation , for resisting of their kings and emperors ; and likewise the christians in all ages since , who have resisted their princes by turning them out , &c. and then bishop athanasius , ( author of our creed ) and those christians with him , did also come under the guilt of st. paul's damnation , for approving of calaritanus's book , which , according to the doctrine of passive obedience , was a treasonable and rebellious book ; for the incendiaries to rebellion , are as guilty as they that are actually in it . and then all those princes that have been set up by the people , in the room of those whom they have turned out , ( for their evil government ) were usurpers ; and consequently all those who have succeeded them , where the descent of the blood is altered , are intruders , usurpers , and no lawful kings . were the doctrine of passive obedience , without reserve , a true doctrine , no doubt but we should have had a better account thereof than from a few court-divines , who have most learnedly interpreted the will and pleasure of the prince against the laws of nature , or of the country , to be the powers which st. paul requires obedience unto , under the pain of damnation . so by consequence the law ceaseth to be the powers ; then we are in a worse condition than in the state of nature . with what face can any man assert that passive obedience , without reserve , is the doctrine of the gospel ? which is charging god with as palpable a contradiction as any two things can be , it being diametrically opposite to the law of self-preservation , which is the law of nature , and the decree of the almighty , which law is sacred , and not to be infringed by any man. god never commanded any thing contrary to the law of nature , unless it were in the case of abraham in commanding of him ( as a tryal of his faith ) to offer up his son isaac . protection is the only cause of allegiance and obedience , is plain , from the example of david and his six hundred men , who were protected from saul and his army , by achish king of the philistines , who gave them ziklag to live in , and david and his men fought for the philistines against the geshurites , gezrites and the amalekites . and subdued them . david owed no allegiance to saul , who sought his destruction , is plain ; for when achish told david that he and his men should go with him to fight against the children of israel ; david offered his service , and said to achish , surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do . then achish said unto david , therefore i will make thee keeper of my head for ever . so david and his men went in the rear of the army ; and when the lords of the philistines would not let david and his men fight for them , lest they should betray them into the hands of saul and his army , then david expostulated with achish , and said , what have i done ? and what hast thou found in thy servant , so long as i have been with thee unto this day , that i may not go fight against the enemies of my lord the king ? 1 sam. chap. 27 , 28 , 29. this is a plain case , that david intended to fight saul and his army . now the intention of the mind is as bad as the act ; and yet it is no ways said , that david repented thereof , or of his arming the six hundred men ( before mentioned ) with design to sight his lawful soveraign king saul . the primitive christians took protection to be the only cause of allegiance : for when julian the apostate was chosen emperor of the romans , ( not by the free consent of the people , but ) by the souldiers , during the life of constantius the lawful possessor of the throne . the christians did not reckon themselves obliged to fight for constantius against julian ; for they troubled not their heads with the rights of princes . agustus , tho he had violently usurped the throne , yet he was confirmed in it by the people and senate of rome , who established it in his family by a long prescription , when st. paul's and st. peter's epistles were wrote , of obedience to the laws to kings and magistrates : so that we see that obedience was required to an usurper under the pain of damnation , when the government was confirmed to him by the people , that is , by the majority , for it cannot be thought that every body consented thereto . apolonius thyanaeus , writing to the emperor domitian , saith , these things have i spoken concerning laws ; which if thou shalt not think to reign over thee , then thy self shalt not reign . in matrimony , which is the nearest and strictest obligation of all others , by which those who were two , are made one flesh , if one party forsakes the other , the apostle pronounceth the party forsaked to be free from all obligation , because the party deserting violates the chief conditions of marriage , &c. 1 cor. 7. 15. and shall not the people be much more absolved from their allegiance to that king who has violated his oath , and the laws of the land , the very cause for which they swear allegiance to him ? absolute monarchy is inconsistent with civil society ; and therefore can be no form of civil government , which is to remedy the inconveniencies of the state of nature . no man , or society of men , have power to deliver up their preservation , or the means of it , to the absolute will of any man ; and they will have always a right to preserve what they have not power to part with . no power can exempt princes from the obligation , to the eternal laws of god and nature . as no body can transfer to another more power than he has in himself , and no body has an absolute arbitrary power over himself , or over any other , to destroy his own life , or take away the life and property of another ; therefore a man cannot give such authority to any , or subject himself to the arbitrary power of another : for the law of nature is an eternal rule to all men , whose actions must be conformable to that law , which is the will of god. for the fundamental law of nature being the preservation of mankind , no human law can be good or valid against it ; and much less the will and pleasure of a prince against the law and custom of the country , which shall be prejudicial to the subject . as the happiness and prosperity of kingdoms depend upon the conservation of their laws ; if the laws depend upon the lust of one man , would not the kingdom fall to ruin in a short space ? but the laws are better and greater than kings , who are bound to obey them . then is it not better to obey the laws , rather than the king ? who can obey the king violating the law ? who will or can refuse to give aid to the law when infringed ? it is impossible any body in a society should have a right to do the community harm . all kings and princes are , and ought to be bound by the laws , and are not exempted from them , and this doctrine ought to be inculcated into the minds of princes from their infancy . let the prince be either from god , or from men , yet to think that the world was created by god , and in it men , that they should serve only for the benefit and use of princes , is an absurdity as gross as can be spoken ; since god hath made us free and equal : but princes were ordained only for the peoples benefit , that so they might innocently preserve human and civil society with greater facility , helping one the other with mutual benefits . in all disputes between power and liberty , power must always be proved , but liberty proves it self ; the one being founded upon positive law , the other upon the law of nature . with what ignorance do some assert , that adam was an absolute monarch , and that paternal authority is an absolute authority ? for that the father of a family governs by no other law than by his own will , and the father is not to be resisted by his child ? and that adam had a monarchical , absolute , supream , patornal power ? and that all kingly authority is a fatherly authority , and therefore irresistable ? and that no laws can bind the king , or annul this authority ? how could adam be an absolute monarch , when god gave him the herbs but in common with the beasts ? gen. 1. 29 , 30. can it be thought that god gave him an absolute authority of life and death over man , who had not authority to kill any beast to satisfy his hunger ? certainly he had no absolute dominion over even the brutal part of the creatures ( much less over man ) who could not make that use of them as was permitted to noah and his sons , gen. 9. 3. where god says , every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you ; even , as the green herbs , have i given you all things . is it not as reasonable to believe , that god would have cursed adam if he had killed his son abel , as cain for killing him ? cain was very sensible every one had , by the law of nature , a right to kill him for being guilty of blood , when he said , every one that found him should slay him , gen. 4. 14. god made no exemption to the greatest man living who should be guilty of innocent blood , when he said , he that sheddeth mans blood , by man shall his blood be shed , gen. 9. 6. neither noah or his sons were exempted from this great law ; and therefore could have no absolute authority : since god has no where given any man such authority , there can be no such authority ; for the community cannot make themselves slaves by investing such an authority in any man : should they do it , it is not binding , it being against the law of nature . if noah was heir to adam ( i ask ) which of noah's sons was heir to him ? for if by right it descended to all his sons , then it must have descended to all their sons , and so on ; if so , then are all men become equal and independent , as being the off-spring of adam and noah : if it descended only to the eldest , and so on , then there can be but one lawful monarch in the world , and who that is , is impossible to be found out ; so that paternal monarchical authority , take it which way you will , it comes to just nothing at all . where human institution gives it not , the first-born has no right at all above his brethren . no man has an absolute authority over the creatures ( much less over mankind ) because they were given ( for the use of all men ) as occasion should serve : should any man or men destroy them for their will and pleasure , beyond what is necessary for the use of man , or for his preservation , it would be a sin , and therefore could be no authority ; for god authorizes no man to commit a sin , tho he often permits it . the law of god and nature gives the father no absolute dominion over the life , liberty or estate of his child , and therefore he can have no absolute authority ; and where there is no absolute authority , there can be no absolute subjection due . there is an eternal obligation on parents to nourish , preserve , and bring up their off-spring , and under these circumstances obedience is due , and not otherwise . what is a father to a child more than another person , when he endeavours to destroy him ? nay , is he not so much the more odious as the act is more barbarous , for a father to endeavour to destroy his own off-spring , than for another person endeavouring it ? certainly in such a case no passive obedience can be due , it tending to his destruction ( not for his good ) which is no fatherly act , and therefore not to be submitted to . he that lets any person whatsoever destroy him , when it is in his power to preserve his life by defending himself , does tacitly consent to his own death , and therefore is guilty of his own blood as well as he that destroys him : whereas by defending himself , there can be but one guilty of blood , ( which is the invader ) in which defence , if he kills the other , his blood lies at his own door : by which it follows , that passive obedience to unjust violence is a sin , but resisting such violence is no sin , but the duty of every man. the first duty that i owe is to god , the second to my self in preserving my self , &c. the third to my parent and soveraign , in obeying them in all things reasonable and lawful . by all the precepts in scripture which require obedience to parents , homage and obedience is as due to the one as to the other ; for 't is nowhere said , children obey your father , and no more ; the mother is mentioned before the father in lev. 19. 3. ye shall fear every man his mother , and his father . sure solomon was not ignorant what belonged to him as a king , or a father , when he said , my son , hear the instructions of thy father , and forsake not the law of thy mother : and our saviour says , matth. 15. 4. honour thy father and mother . and ephes. 6. 1. children , obey your parents , &c. if paternal authority be an absolute authority , i ask , whether it be in the eldest of the family ? if so , whether a grandfather can dispense with his grand-child's paying the honour due to his parents by the fifth commandment ? 't is evident in common sense , the grandfather cannot discharge the grand-child from the obedience due to his parents , neither can a father dispense with his child's obedience due to the laws of the land ; therefore the obedience required to parents in scripture is not to an absolute authority , for there can be no absolute authority where there is an authority above it . with what folly and ignorance do some assert , that the kings of england are absolute , as proceeding from william the conqueror ? to which i answer , that a conqueror has no right of dominion ( much less any absolute authority ) over the wife and children of the conquered , or over those who assisted not against him . conquest may claim such a right as thieves use over those whom they can master , which is a right of tenure , but no tenure of right . conquest may restore a right , forfeiture may lose a right , but 't is consent only that can transact or give a right . there is no other absolute power , than over captives taken in a just war. if the possession of the whole earth was in one person , yet he would have no power over the life or liberty of another , or over that which another gets by his own industry , for propriety in land gives no man authority over another . william the conqueror made a league or compact with the nobles and lords of the land , to the performance of which , he takes an oath to observe the ancient laws of the realm , established by his predecessors the kings of england , and especially of edward the confessor ; as likewise did henry the first , with the emendations his father had made to them . stephen who succeeded henry , made a compact , and promiseth a meloration of their laws according to their minds . william rufus , henry the first , and stephen get the consent of the people by promising to grant them their usual laws , and ancient customs . henry the first , richard the first , king john , and richard the second , oblige themselves at their coronations to grant them , and then the people consented to own them as their king ; and richard the first , and king john were conjured by the arch-bishops not to take upon them the crown , unless they intended to perform their oaths . if any king refused so to do , the nobles thought it their concern to hinder his coronation , till he had either made or promised this engagement . what can be more absurd than to say , that there is an absolute subjection due to a prince , whom the laws of god. nature and the country , have not given such authority ? as if men were made as so many herds of cattel , only for the use , service and pleasure of their princes . but some do object , that the anointing of kings at their coronations makes their persons sacred , unquestionable and irresistable , for any tyrannical or exorbitant actions whatsoever . to which i answer , that every christian's baptism is a sacrament of christ's institution ; a spiritual unction and sanctification which makes a person as sacred , yea more holy than the anointing of kings can or doth of it self , ( that being no sacrament ) a truth which no christian can , without blasphemy , deny : and yet no christian is exempted from resistance , censure , or punishments , according to the nature of his crime ; and therefore the anointing of kings at their coronations cannot do it ; it being a ceremony of the jews , not instituted by christ , or any ways commanded to be continued by the apostles , or their successors ; it signifying only the chusing or preserring one before another , and so became the ceremony of consecrating to any special office , and so was ordinarily used in the enstalling men to offices of any eminency . the reign of a good king resembles that of heaven , over which there is but one god , for he is no less beloved of the vertuous than feared of the bad ; and if human frailty could admit a succession of good kings , there were no comparison , power being ever more glorious in one , than when it is divided . 't is not the title of a king , but the power ( which is the laws ) which is invested in him , which makes the difference betwixt him and other men in the executing of this power : his person is sacred , and not to be resisted , he being above every soul contained in the same society , and therefore cannot be resisted , or deprived of his office by any part , or by the whole community , without the greatest sin of robbery and injustice imaginable . if a government ( say some ) may be disturbed for any unlawful proceedings of the governour , or his ministers , how can any government be safe ? to which i answer , that it is not lawful for every private man to fly into the bosom of his prince , for he is no competent judg , be he of never so great a quality ; else a king was the most miserable man living , lying at the mercy of every desperate fellow's censure . it is impossible for one , or a few oppressed men , to disturb the government , where the body of the people do not think themselves concerned in it , and that the consequences seem not to threaten all ; yea when it does , yet the people are not very forward to disturb the government ; as in king charles the second's time , when the charters were condemned , and seized upon in order to make us slaves , and the laws perverted to the loss of many innocent lives , and many other oppressions too many to insert , and yet no body offered to disturb the government ; i say , till the mischief be grown general , and the designs of the rulers become notorious , then , and then only , will the people be for righting themselves . whosoever , either ruler or subject , by force goes about to invade the rights of either prince or people , and lays the foundation for overturning the constitution and frame of any just government , he is guilty of the greatest crime , i think , a man is capable of , being to answer for all those mischiefs of blood , rapine and desolation , which the breaking to pieces of governments brings on a country ; and he who does it , is justly to be esteemed the common enemy and pest of mankind , and is so to be treated accordingly ; and how far the late king james was guilty of this , i leave the world to judg . finis . the author's advertisement . just as i had finished this book , i received a reply to my former book , which i thought to have answered ; but finding the arguments to be frivolous and weak , and my necessary avocations allowing me but little time , therefore i forbore answering it . advertisements . the doctrine of passive obedience , and jure divino disproved . price 1 d. the letter which was sent to the author of the doctrine of passive obedience and jure divino disproved , &c. answered and refuted . wherein is proved , that monarchy was not originally from god. that kings are not by divine appointment , but that all government proceeds from the people . that the obedience required in scripture , is to the laws of the land , and no otherwise . that resisting of arbitrary power is lawful . that the oath of allegiance to the late king james was dissolved before the prince of orange ( our present king ) landed . that upon the non-performance of an oath on one side , the other becomes void , is plainly prov'd from several examples in scripture . that protection is the only cause of allegiance ; and that obedience or allegiance is due to the present government , is proved from scripture , law and reason : and those texts of scripture which relate to government , or monarchy , are explained . price stitch'd 6 d. both written by the same author , and printed for tho. harrison . the doctrine of non-resistance or passive obedience, no way concerned in the controversies now depending between the williamites and the jacobites by a lay gentleman of the communion of the church of england, by law establish'd. bohun, edmund, 1645-1699. 1689 approx. 108 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 21 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2008-09 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a28559 wing b3451 estc r18257 12395582 ocm 12395582 61155 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a28559) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 61155) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 271:2) the doctrine of non-resistance or passive obedience, no way concerned in the controversies now depending between the williamites and the jacobites by a lay gentleman of the communion of the church of england, by law establish'd. bohun, edmund, 1645-1699. [2], 38 p. printed for richard chiswell ..., london : 1689. attributed to edmund bohun. cf. bm. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng jacobites. great britain -history -revolution of 1688. great britain -kings and rulers -succession. 2006-06 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2006-06 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2007-06 ali jakobson sampled and proofread 2007-06 ali jakobson text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the doctrine of non-resistance or passive obedience no way concerned in the controversies now depending between the williamites and the iacobites . by a lay gentleman , of the communion of the church of england , by law establish'd . cruces nec colimus , nec optamus . london , printed for richard chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard , mdclxxxix . the doctrine of non-resistance , or passive obedience , no way concern'd in the controversies now depending , &c. i have with some impatience and wonder beheld the bandying of the non-resisting doctrine to and fro in this disturbed kingdom , for so many months , and to so little purpose ; because i am not able to comprehend what any of the contending parties would be at , nor why that doctrine , rather than any other , should be made now the subject of our disquisitions and enquiries . for what if god has forbidden us upon pain of damnation , to resist our lawful princes when they do amiss ; and has reserved to himself the censure and punishment of his own ministers , as i'believe all lawful princes are such ; and that god has for great and wise reasons tied up our hands ; doth it therefore follow from hence , that james is still the lawful king of england ? or that when he was so , we that believe the non-resisting doctrine , were bound to sight for him , whatever he did ? and on the other side , what can the friends of their present majesties pretend to palliate their contempt and scorn of the doctrine of passive obedience ? it was indeed dangerous to them when he first entered england , because all that believed themselves bound by it , were obliged not to take up arms for him against king james ; and so consequently it deprived him of their assistance : but when he had once subdued the forces , and obtained the throne of that infatuated monarch ; of what use can it be to him to have his subjects so frequently told , that it is lawful for them to take arms and defend themselves , their rights and religions against him ? i doubt not but his majesty intends to govern us with the utmost clemency and mercy according to our laws : but when neither moses nor david could always please their subjects ; it is to be feared the best of princes may at one time or other need the influence of the doctrine of passive obedience to restrain the madness of the people : and therefore they can be no friends to government in general ; nor to him , or his , in particular , who are so zealous to have the doctrine of non-resistance extirpated out of the world. the consequence of which , is , that it is lawful for every man to rebel against his lawful prince , whenever he think● it necessary . my design therefore in this discourse being to put an end , as far as i can , to this unseasonable dispute . i shall endeavour to prove these particulars , as to the friends of the late king. 1. that th●se that believed it , were not thereby bound to assert the mis government of james the second . 2. that seeing he has deserted his throne , and withdrawn his person and seals , they are not thereby obliged to endeavour the restoring of him . the doctrine of passive obedience doth not oblige a subject to assert the mis-government of his prince : for it supposeth the prince may command what he ought not , and then it obligeth me to suffer rather than to resist my prince , or to break the commandments of god , or the laws of my country , or do any other ill action in obedience to his commands . now what is this to the purpose ? king james had notoriously subverted all our constitutions and laws , both in church and state , and would suffer no redress ; the church of england , on the other hand , petition'd him from time to time by her bishops and nobility , to suffer a parliament to meet and redress our grievances ; but this he would not yield , and what should they do in this case ? why , said the jesuit , in the answer to the petition of the 17 th of november , 1688. ( when they had set forth , that in their opinion the only visible way to preserve his majesty and this his kingdom , would be the calling of a parliament regular and free in all its circumstances . ) i hope to make it out , that the summoning a parliament now , is so far from being the only way to effect these things , that it will be one of the principal causes of much misery to the kingdom . and , i am sure , both our duty to god and our holy religion , as well as to his majesty and our country , doth plainly enjoyn us to use one other effectual means , &c. which is the keeping inviolably to our allegiance to our sovereign ; and effectually joyning with him to resist all his enemies whether foreign aggressors , or native rebels . that is , let the king do what he please to you , you are bound to fight for him and expel the prince of orange , and subdue all his adherents . i can very well remember what small effect this oratory had then upon the minds of all men. there did not seem to be one protestant in the nation , who could not distinguish between the doctrine of non-resistance and that of actually aiding a prince to destroy and enslave his people . his late majesty however persisted in his opinion , that no parliament could be holden till the prince of orange was driven out ; and the clergy and nobility in theirs , that this was the only visible way to preserve the late king and kingdom : which imply'd , that all fighting was dangerous to both , till this was done . and accordingly , as we had no disloyal exhortations from press or pulpit to perswade men to fight against their prince ; so neither had we any to perswade us to fight for him : but the thing was committed to god to determine as he thought fit . in this our bishops , clergy , nobility and gentry ; and in general all the children of the church of england behaved themselves like good christians and good subjects too ; this difficult case could then be no otherwise well and justifiably managed ; and if some few forgot their duty , and declared too soon for the prince of orange , his now majesty ; this they only are responsible for ; those that adhered to the late king till he actually left the nation and the government , fell for want of the first mover , are not responsible for their miscarriage if it was one . in the primitive times , when this doctrine was best both understood and practised , their loyalty was one of their lesser virtues , upon which they never valued themselves . it would have been then a mean piece of virtue for a man to have alledged he had been ever loyal to his prince , when a rebel or a traytor christian was a thing they looked upon with horror and affrightment ; they expected martyrdom every moment , and were preparing for it at all times ; they were told then , at their first admission into the church , that they must expect persecution , and every one who took up that profession , did it with that expectation : and the religion being contrary to the established laws , whoever came in to it , knew beforehand that at one time or other he might be called to lay down his life for it , and when it happened , it was no new or unexpected accident , but foreseen and provided for . but then they were not so silly as to be fond of their persecutors , or to wish or fight for it : we are ( said tertullian ) defamed as enemies to the emperour's majesty ; tamen nuaquam alainiani , nec nigriani vel cassiani inveniri potuerunt christiani ; yet never was any christian found like albinus , pescennius , niger or avidius cassius vsurping the throne , and invading the government . they prayed for the emperor , and performed all the duties of good subjects till he persecuted them , and endeavoured to destroy the church of god ; but then they changed their notes , quales erg● leges ist , quas adversus nos soli exequuntur impii , injusti , turpes , truces , vani , dementes ? what laws are these which none ever put in execution against us , but impious , unjust , base , barbarous , vain and mad princes ? who ever pleaseth may see enough of this laid together in jovian , pag. 161. and 162. there is not one of those princes who persecuted the church , but he is represented to the world by the fathers and church historians in the blackest characters . that little book that was written by lactantius to shew the dismal ends , and sad catastrophies of the persecuting princes , shews how far they were from being fond of persecution or persecutors ; and by what hand soever the enraged fool fell , the deliverance was ascribed to god , who makes use of such instruments as he thinks fit to punish bloody and tyrannical men. and let any man shew me that the primitive christians were discontented when they were delivered , if he can . so far were some of the ancient fathers from fighting for the persecuting princes , when they hapned to be dethroned or invaded , that they would not suffer a baptised person to list himself in the service of a pagan prince , tertullian , de corona , cap. 11. to which purpose he alledgeth that passage of our saviour . he that takes the sword , shall perish by the sword : but then , saith he , plane si quos militia praeventos fides posterior invenit , alia conditio est . those who were admitted to baptism after they were listed in the service of the emperor , were not under the same obligation . and we have the passion of one maximilian , an african , who suffered martyrdom for no other cause , but for that he would not serve the emperor as a soldier . and the council of a●les , which first admitted baptized persons to take up arms , limited the grant to times of peace ; which was all one with the saying , they would not allow it under pagan princes . from all which i may reasonably infer , they did not think themselves bound to bestir themselves for pagan or persecuting princes , as if the church must have perished , if they had not had the honour to preserve every prince god had set over them till he had ended his reign and his life together . yet in all these times the doctrine of passive obedience was at the highest never call'd in question , never doubted of . it is as true also , the roman emperors , under whom they lived , were absolute independent princes , whose will was the law ; and the constitution of the empire differed vastly from that of england . so that we are not under the same obligations they were , because our princes have not the same legal powers the roman emperors had : but then , i doubt not , but we are as much bound to submit to the legal commands of a king of england , as the primitive christians were to the legal commands of their princes . but this was no part of the controversie under the reign of james ii. who had as little law as reason for what he did . i could never meet with one single protestant , how discontented soever he was , that james ii. is not still king of england , who would pretend to justifie or excuse any of his actions ; no , they all grant his design was certainly to extirpate the protestant religion , to enslave , and consequently to extirpate the english nation : but then say they , what of all that , no evil is to be done ; we ought not to rebel to save a church or a nation . why , what then ? supposing all this were true , what is this to them ? have any of them rebelled ? yes , say they , all that have sworn allegiance to their present majesties , have made defection from james ii. who tho' he were never so bad a man , is still our lawful prince , and we are bound to swear allegiance to no other , as long as he is alive . to this i reply , if the things laid to the charge of james ii. in the prince of orange's declaration , are true , and i think no body questions that , for all the same things , in a manner , are complained of in the bishops proposals , but one or two , which were too high for any subject to take notice of ; why then , i say , that prince had a just cause to make war upon james ii. and if he was conquered by him , he has as good right to our allegiance , on that score , as ever any conquering prince had . but this is not all , it is well known , his now majesty offered to submit all his controversies to the decision of an english parliament , which is more , perhaps , than was ever done by any invading prince before ; but james ii. was resolved , that neither he nor we should have any right or redress ; but rather than submit to that , he would go make a voyage to his most christian majesty for his assistance to make a second conquest of us . there has been much bandying , whether james ii. went voluntarily away , or were forced ; and this is a question not worth one farthing , at the bottom . for if he went voluntarily , he was forced ; and if he was forced , he went voluntarily . i suppose no man ever said or thought he freely resigned the crown , but that his mis-government had raised such jealousies and discontents in the minds of his subject , that they neither could nor would fight for him till he had in parliament done right , first to his people , and then to the prince . this he was resolved not to grant , be the event what it would ; and when he saw himself deserted by all the world , still he persisted in his resolution ; and after he had promised a parliament , broke his word with the prince and the nation , and withdrew his person and seals , and left us in anarchy and confusion . now , i say , he was not forced to do this : he might , and as the case stood , he was bound to have granted a parliament , and then he might have staid with good safety to his person and sovereignty . now , if there be nothing asked of a prince by his neighbour-prince upon an invasion , but what he ought to grant and may grant ; he is forced by no body but himself , if he will run away from his people , rather than do them and his neighbour right . but then , when we say , his retreat was voluntary , we do not pretend there was no force made use of , but that it was not made use of to that end . all that was asked by the prince or his own subjects , was a free and legal parliament ; and all the force that was used was to that end : and this he might and ought to have granted ; but if he would not , the prince is not to be supposed to have brought 14000 men , only to make a vain shew with all , but either to force him to do him right , or force him out of his kingdom . this prince was no subject to king james , nor to any other prince , and consequently was no rebel : he had as well good right as a good cause to invade this injurious prince who had injured both him and his good subjects , and without a war would do no right either to the prince or us . for the prince had tried all fair waies before he tried force , as is notoriously known to all the world. but our jacobites prate of the force that was used against him by another sovereign prince , as injurious , only because it was force . why , the prince was no subject , and if james ii. would do him no right without force ( tho' we that were then his subjects had no right to compel him ) he might lawfully compel him by force to do what he ought to have done without it , but would not . what stupidity is it to deny a sovereign prince may make use of force against a neighbouring prince that has done him wrong ? well , but say they , his subjects ought to have fought for king james : to which i say , why did they not , who hindred them from fighting ? no , they would not fight , or , which is all one , they durst not ; and now he is gone , they think to make him amends , by a fullen disclaiming of the present king's sovereignty . but tho' they will not swear , they will promise to live peaceably under this king : that is , they will not own him for the lawful king of england , but they will submit to him as they did to oliver cromwel , till they have an opportunity to dethrone him , and deliver him into the hand of king james ; and for this they would be allowed the same condition with those subjects that have sworn allegiance to him . is this reasonable ? will they admit a servant or a rival on the same terms into their own families ? well but some of his subjects forsook , and others of them fought against him , and almost all the rest stood still , and would not fight for him . 1. what is this to them , if they have done as much for him as they could or ought , they shall answer for no body but themselves . 2. what was the reason , and who gave the cause of this general desertion ? 3. it is denied that king james his subjects were bound to stand by him and fight for him . he had notoriously invaded and destroyed all our civil and religious rights and liberties , and designed the ruine and destruction both of them and us , and would give us no assurance , we could rely on , to do otherwise for the future ; and therefore if it were unlawful to resist him , it was also as unlawful to assist and enable him to destroy the true religion , the english liberties and immunities ; nay the very nation . now jovian tells us , pag. 272. whosoever acts contrary to law , in this realm , to the prejudice of any other person , must be subject to make reparation by law ; against which the king himself can protect no man , as long as the courts of law are kept open ; ( this has been sufficiently confuted ) so that there can be no tyranny , nor any persecution , but a most exorbitant and illegal persecution , which must presuppose , that justice is obstructed , the laws and lawyers silenced , the courts of judicature that up , and that the king governs altogether by arbitrary power and the sword. ( the courts were indeed open , but we know for all that , no man could have any redress ; but the consequences were the same as if they had been shut up . ) but to suppose this ( saith the doctor ) is plainly to suppose the utmost possibility , which is next to an impossibility , a possibility indeed in theory , but scarce to the reduced into practice , for in such a violent vndertaking all good men would withdraw from the service and assistance of the king ; ( mark that ) and the bad durst not serve him , because if he died , or repented of his vndertaking , they must be answerable for all the wrongs and illegalities they were guilty of in his service . and a little lower he tells us , to shut up the laws or obstruct and pervert justice , would prove an exceeding difficult and almost impracticable undertaking , because all his good subjects , and all the bad too , that tendered their own safety , would desert him ; nay foreigners , upon this account , would make a difficulty to serve him , because he could not protect them against his own laws . now all this was done and averred in the face of the sun , this possibility was brought into act , and things driven on to the utmost extremity ; and the only question then was , whether we should intail this arbitrary tyrannical exorbitant persecution on our posterity , without any hopes or possibility of redress , or whether we should withdraw from his service , and secure our rights and religion by it ? and this was done by all but the irish and papists , both good and bad , in a manner , as the doctor foretold it would ; and to me it seems altogether justifiable . i know the doctor means only a civil recess ; but if it was highly punishable and infamous to have persisted in a co-operation and assistance of these things , it was worse and more punishable to have fought for them . and from hence i conclude , all that did withdraw from the service of the late king , when they saw he was resolved on these illegal exorbitant courses , are not to be blamed ; and that the best of the primitive christians would have done the same thing , if it had been their lot to have fallen under such a prince . tertullian , de corona , c. 12. expounds that place of scripture , give unto caesar the things that are caesar's , and unto god the things that are god's . give the man to god , and the penny to caesar . the man bore god's image , as the penny did caesar's ; and when god and caesar were in opposition , the whole man was god's right . so far were they from thinking , their loyalty to their prince obliged them to be disloyal to their religion , even then when they never thought of resisting , their hands were tyed up neither to assist nor resist a against persecuting prince , they would do neither of these tho' they ( perished . and are not we still under the same obligations as to the latter as well as to the former ? for shame , let no man boast of that loyalty to his prince , which makes him disloyal to god and his church , to whom his duty is first owing ; for in this case it is our undoubted duty , to obey god rather than man. art thou then ( saith tertullian ) a servant and soldier to two , to god and caesar too ; certainly thou wilt not be for caesar when thou owest thy service to god : even in common things , i yield to the better : or i believe thou wilt be for the better . so far were they then from valuing themselves upon the score of their loyalty to their prince . the disloyalty of two other parties have made the church of england take into the contrary extreme ; and as a jesuit wished it might do her much good , in scorn : so she had like to have paid too dear for the pretence ; and they that would now again sacrifice her to their interest and reputation , are , to speak softly , none of her best friends . they pretend we have not suffered enough for our religion , to justifie our resistance ? why , according to their principles we are never to resist , whatever we suffer , but to suffer on till there is not one man left to resist . now did ever any man , before they , complain , that for the elect's sake god had shortned those . daies ▪ if they think we have not suffered enough for our religion , they may be pleased to go for france or ireland and there make up what is wanting : but if they love company , and would needs have us suffer with them too , i do not understand the favour . if they are prodigal of their own lives and fortunes in this world , they ought to be tender of other men's ; cruces nec colimus , nec optamus ; we neither worship nor wish for crosses , said octavius , a primitive christian : and it is madness to desire to be , and to bring others into affliction and trouble , when god doth not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men , and hath sent us a deliverance , before we expected it , and sooner than some men are well-pleased . they have another objection , which is full as extravagant as this ; if , say they , king william has conquered king james , why doth he not claim the crown by conquest ? why , he that has several rights to the same thing , may use his best , and wave the rest . nemo juro suo quod cum damni periculo conjunctum est , uti cogitur ; no man is bound to produce an invidious title : should king william have treated us as a conquered people , they would have been the first that would have complaimed ; who now complain , only , because they have not that case . the truth is , they would have him claim as a conqueror , that they might thence take occasion to ruine him ; but he has the right of a conqueror , and the right of a lawful successor too ; and tho' his own personal right of succession is more remote , that of his lady is immediate ; and by it be claims , to our great good , and his immortal honour : and they , in the mean time , might , if they pleased , be as satisfied in the right he has by conquest , as the saxons were , when king william i. won the crown in a battle , and wore it , under the pretence of an election , because he could lay no claim to it by succession : and henry . vii . twisted his right by conquest with his descent from lancaster , and his right by marriage . but these men seem not to care which way our ruine come , if we may but be miserable ; we have not suffered enough under king james , but he , too , would fain come in by conquest ; and if ever he get the crown again that way , these gentlemen will have no reason to complain of the want of sufferings . tertullian , who wrote his apology for the christians , in or about the year of christ cc. as pamelius stateth the time , in his annals of the life of that father , saith in his first apology , c. 37. if we christians would become your publick and declared enemies , or secret revengers of our own wrongs , should we want force and number to support it ? we exceed the moors , the marcomans , and the parthians , or any other one single nation in the whole world ; we are but of yesterday , and yet we have filled all your places , your cities , your islands , castles , corporations , councils , tribes , companies , palace , senate and forum or market-place ; and we have left you nothing to enjoy alone but your temples ; now we who so willingly lay down our lives , are we not thereby fitted and prepared , do you think , to manage any war , tho' we were very much inferior in number ; if our religion did not oblige us , rather to suffer death than to inflict it ? we might without arms or resistance , barely by disagreeing with you , and the envy of a separation , very much endager and disquiet you ; for if so great a part of the empire , as we now make , should break it self off from the rest , and retire into any remote corner of the world , it would certainly confound your dominions , to lose so many subjects , be their quality what it will ; yea , our very departure from you would be a severe punishment ; the desolation and silence we should leave behind us , would strike you with an horror and amazement , as if the world were expiring ; you would be forced to seek for new subjects to supply our places ; and perhaps we should leave you more enemies than subjects or defenders . this place has been often cited to prove the doctrine of passive obedience ; and in truth it is a noble testimony of the faith and patience of those saints : but then the church continued after this under pagan and persecuting princes one hundred and ten years , and something more , in which short time there is reckoned about twenty nine emperors ; their times being short , and their ends bloody ; they almost all of them pershing by the sword. did any of the primitive christians in those days make any scruple to submit to the prevailing power ? the same author , in this very apology , puts the question to the pagans , vnde cassii , nigri , & albini , &c. de romanis ( nisi fallor ) id est , de non christanis . from whence are all your vsurpers , traitors , and rebels ? they were ( if i am not deceived ) all romans , that is , no christians . those very loyal pagans , that persecuted the poor christians , because they would not sacrifice for the safety of the empire and emperor , those loyal pagans , who would swear falsely by all their gods , rather than by the single genius of the emperor , they were the men that so frequently deposed , murthered , and destroyed their princes ; that in one hundred and ten years there was about thirty of them , and scarce three in all that time that died a natural death . but where the numerous body of loyal christians in the mean time , who , as he tells scapula , were so great a multitude that they were almost the greatest part of every city ; and as he tells us in the other apology , they were fit to have undertaken any the most dangerous war , though they had been inferiour in numbers , who so stoutly and fearlessly suffered deaths , that were extraordinarily dreadful for their religion ? why did they not appear in the defence of some of these poor miserable emperors , who were thus slaughtered one upon the neck of another ? how could they satisfie their consciences to pay their allegiance to thirty emperors in one hundred and ten years , and suffer above twenty of these to be deposed and murthered without ever in the least concerning themselves what became of them , or who was in the imperial throne . certainly here was some reason for this , it was not cowardice ; never in any age were there greater numbers of heroical martyrs than in this century ; four of the ten persecutions fell in this short period of time ; and they bore them with all the bravery that any of their ancestors had shewn . the deposing doctrine was not then dreamt of ; at the end of this dreadful century they were as innocent as at the beginning of it , there was never a traytor or usurper to be yet charged upon the christian church . well , but what then , why did they suffer the pagans to murther their princes at this rate ? how could they in conscience pray for thirty emperors in one hundred and ten years , most of which were stained with the royal bloods of their predecessors ; and who had no other . title than that of a prosperous usurpation and a successful rebellion ? let the iacobites of our age come forth now , and try if they can justifie these primitive christians in all this ; let them produce their arguments and form apologies for them , which shall not at the same time be unanswerable objections against their own practice . all that i can say for these holy menl , is this , they followed the example of our saviour ; and , as he said in another case , who made me a judge and a divider of civil inheritances , or of the titles and claims of princes ? so they said here , who has given us power or command to interest our selves in these things ? if we do our duty and submit to and pray for those powers that we find set over us , by men as the instruments , by god as the great disposer of crowns and scepters , we are safe ; for it is he that ruleth in the kingdoms of men , and sets over them the basest of men , such as oliver cromwel was , kings given to sinful nations in his wrath , and sometimes as suddenly again taken away in his anger ; and at others continued longer for the tryal of his people or the chastisement of wicked men. st. austin saith , let us ascribe the gift of kingdoms and imperial powers to none but the true god ; he that gives eternal felicity in the kingdom of heaven to none but the pious : but the earthly kingdom , both to the good and to the bad , as he pleaseth , who is not pleased with injustice : for though we should in this case say all we know , yet it would at last be impossible for us , to search the hearts of men , and by a clear discovery to judge of the justice of ( god in relation to ) kingdoms . that one true god therefore , who needs neither the approbation ( judgment ) nor assistance of men , when he pleased , and as far as he pleased , gave the empire of the world to the romans , who gave it before that to the assyrians and persians . and a little lower , he that gave the kingdom or empire to marius , gave it to julius caesar ; he that gave it to augustus , gave it also to nero ; he that gave it to vespasian and titus , two merciful sweet princes , gave it also to domitian , a most cruel prince : and that i may not be forced ( saith he ) to run through all the particulars , he that gave it to constantine , a christian , gave it to julian an apostate , whose great parts and sacrilegious and detestable curiosity was deceived by the love of empire ; who trusting afterwards in those vain oracles to which he was too much addicted , and being too secure of the victory they had promised him , burnt his navy on the tigris , which should have supplied his army with provisions , and rashly pursuing irrational designs , was deservedly cut off in the enemies country . now i would fain have our jacobites tell me , whether the same true god has abandoned the government of the world , and when he did so ? did he give the empire of the world to nero , to domitian , to julian the apostate , all usurpers , and some of them murderers of their predecessors ? nay , to marius , who was the very image of oliver cromwel ? and has he not since that done any thing of that nature ? did not he that gave the kingdom of england to king james , give it also to king william ? did not the primitive fathers submit to , and pray for nero , domitian and julian , though murderers and usurpers , as well as to claudius , titus , and constantius . it was well known , claudius left a son , whose birth was never questioned , and that nero was set up by the intriegues of agrippina his mother ; yet st. paul owned his power to be god , rom. 13. for in that princes reign , this epistle was written , as bishop pearson proves in his annals of st. paul , pag. 15. but the christians were few in number then . well , but they were numerous enough in the second and third century , but they were all of st. augustin's mind then too , and left god to dispose of the kingdoms of the world as he thought fit . now how did they know that he had given the empire in their times to this of that man , but by the event ? and was that sufficient to justifie them in their acquiescing in , and submitting to , the will of god thus discovered and will not the same be sufficient to us too ? is not the same providence as powerful and as vigilant in our times as in theirs ? for my part i was none of them that did , or durst have resisted or rebelled against king james : but when he chose rather to leave his kingdom , than to do his subjects right ; it was just with god and men to confirm the election he had made ; and seeing he would not continue in the station , god had placed him in ( that of a regular and limited monarchy ) but aspired to an absolute and unlimited arbitrary empire , and persecuted those who had set him up and preserved him in his throne ; it was just , i say , that god should say unto him as he did to saul , because thou hast rejected the word of the lord ; he hath rejected thee from being king. seeing you have provoked and deserted your people , and have fled into a strange country , when you might by observing your oath and your laws , have lived happily in your own ; you shall the fruit of your own folly , and i will give it to a neighbour of thine that is better than you . now i would fain know of my country men , who are still dissatisfied , what i or any of the other members of the church of england , who never resisted king james till he left us , have done more than the primitive christians did in the like circumstances ; and i would have them produce but one example in all those times of a christian that did scruple to submit to , or pray for , the prince that was set over him , be his title what it would . and when his hand is in , let him shew me the christian that desired the restitution of dioclesian or liciniu ; two persecuting princes , who were as manifestly laid aside as king james was or could be ; supposing he was purely forced , and that there was nothing of his will in it , which yet were a very extravagant supposition . 2. i come now to the second thing , i proposed to examine , whether those who stand for the non-resisting doctrine are by it bound to endeavour the restitution of james the second , now he had deserted the throne , and withdrawn his person and seals ? i have in part anticipated this enquiry in the former part , as it was impossible to do otherwise , by shewing the primitive christians who owned and practised this doctrine to the highest , did yet never concern themselves for the titles or successions of their princes , but submitted to those they found in the throne , good , or bad , by what right , title or pretence soever they came in . the only reason that be given for this , is what i have assigned out of st. augustin , viz. that the kingdoms of the world were so particularly under the government of god , that no person could usurp them without his particular gift and providence . they did not in this case make any difference between his approbation and permission : they knew and acknowledged this thing was managed in such manner , that it was impossible for man sometimes after the utmost search to find out the reason of it ; but yet they said also with st. augustin , god could approve nothing but what was just , and in this be sure nothing could happen but what he approved : no force , no fraud ever prevailed against any prince that was in possession , but by the will , and approbation of god almighty . the only objection that can be made against this , is , that this will seem to make god the author or approver of the ill things that have been done to good princes in the several ages of the world. to which i reply , that god has very great reason and justice in all his actions , though it is not always known to men. the best of men have been guilty of great offences , some of which have not been known to men in general , and others that were known have not been committed to writing , and are lost ; but when all things shall in the last day be discovered , then it will appear , that god was just in all his ways , and righteous in all his works . and though god has pleased to settle the kingdom of the world in certain families and persons as he thought fit , yet he has not thereby bound up his own hands so , that let them do what they please , every person that is by his providence exalted to a throne must necessarily reign till his death , and shall then be succeeded by none but his next right heir . god never made a personal promise to any family , but that of david ; and after that to jehu : but in the family of david ( as the promise was in part conditional ) there were many false steps , and aberrations from the true rules of an hereditary succession ; and for the sins of solomen , god rent ten of the tribes out of the hand of rehoboam his son , which never after returned under the house of david ; and though this is stiled a rebellion , yet god owns that this thing was from him , 1 king. 12. 24. and the family of jehu ended in the fourth desent , as it was foretold . now put these two together , that there is a particular providence , that particularly concerns it self in the disposing of crowns , against which neither fraud nor force can prevail : and , that god has an absolute right , as well as full power to dispose of the kingdoms of the world as he please ; and accordingly has in every age of the world , de facto , disposed of them ; and the conclusion will be , that whosoever ascends a throne , and reigns in any kingdom , doth it by the will and appointment of god : and in this no wrong is done by god , for he may dispose of what is his own , when and how he please : all princes are gods ministers and deputies , and , when he please , he may lay them aside , and set up others in their stead . and this in general is true of all princes , good and bad ; but as to the latter , to what purpose are prayers and tears stiled , the arms of the church against persecuting princes , if they were of no force ? to what purpose should men cry unto the lord , because of the king , if he were resolved never to hear them ; or which is all one , never to help them ? and the difficulty is the same yet ; if i may not accept of a deliverance , when it comes . why , if god is pleased to put an end to the life of an ill prince , and to set up the next immediate successor , then i may say i am delivered ? but when did god oblige himself to this ? that he would exercise this most sovereign jurisdiction , over princes , only one way ; and that every prince should be succeeded by none but his next immediate heir : where has he obliged us to accept of no other deliverance , and to reject all other successors but those that we took to be right , with the loss of our lives and fortunes ? did the primitive fathers of the church act or write thus , or how come we to be under other laws than they were ? if james ii. governed us as he ought , according to his laws and his oath , we are bound , in gratitude , to desire the continuance of his government , and to be much concerned that we are not still under his scepter ; for he was once the undoubted rightful king of england : but if it was otherwise , if he persecuted that church , he promised and was bound to protect , and did not treat us like englishmen , but like slaves , what reason have we to desire , now we are delivered , to be again brought into the same circumstances we so lately groaned under ? nero , domitian and decius , the three first persecutors of the christian church , all of them perished by the sword ; but valerian , the fourth , as he is reckoned by lactantius , did not escape neither ; at illum deus novo ac singulari poenae genere adfecit , ut esset posteris documentum adversarios dei s●pe dignam scelere suo recipere mercedem : god took a new course with him , and inflicted upon him a new kind of punishment , that he might teach posterity , that the enemies of god do often meet with a recompence worthy of their wickedness ; for he being taken prisoner by the persians , lost not only his sovereignty , which he had most insolently abused , but his liberty also , which he had deprived others unjustly of ; and he continued in wretched servitude to the day of his death ; not only destitute of help or pity , but scorned and trodden upon by his proud enemy . did the christians of this age petition for their old persecutor , did they refuse to be under the milder government of his son gallienus , because the father was still living , tho' in captivity ? no , he tells us , that this was added to his punishment ; that though he had a son , which succeeded in the empire , yet there was no revenger of his captivity and slavery , nec omnino repetitus est , nor was he , in the least , ever demanded or desired . next after him arose † aurelian , a mad and a rash prince , who was cut off in the beginning of his rage : after him came * dioclesian , who was hardly persuaded to begin a persecution , but raged more than any of his predecessors ; soon after he fell into a sickness , and was thought by the violence of it to have been dead ; but tho' he escaped with his life , he was a long time disracted , and was forced by galerious , imperio cedere , to resign the empire , in the year 305. † and although he lived to the year 313. which was nine years after he was deposed , none of the christians of that age desired he should again ascend the throne . one of the last of the pagan princes , that persecuted the church , was licinus , upon whom constantine made war , for that very cause , and reduced him to a private life , in thrace , in the year 324. and in the year 325. put him to death , for endeavouring to recover his throne : but neither here did the christians , that were his subjects , desire again to be under their pagan persecuting prince , rather than under their deliverer , constantine . julian the apostate was the last pagan prince that reigned in the roman empire , and he perished in persia , by an unknown hand , within two years and one month ; and was followed , both living and dead , with the detestation of that , and all the succeeding ages . s. ambrose , as he is cited by grotius , de jure belli & pacis , saith , this apostate had many christian soldiers under him , who when he commanded them , to stand to their arms , against the common enemy of their country , obeyed him ; but when he commanded them to sight against the christians , then they acknowledged the emperor of heaven : that is , they refused to serve him in this . and the famous thebean legion made this their apology , we offer our service against any enemy ; but we esteem in an impiety to stain them with the bloods of innocent men : you may command our hands against the wicked and your enemies , but we cannot butcher the pious , and our fellow-subjects . we do well remember , that we took up arms for , and not against our countrymen ; and we have ever fought for justice , for piety , and the preservation of the innocent : these things have hitherto been the rewards of our dangers . shall we , oh sir , ever be able to keep our faith and our promise to you ; if we now fail of performing our promise to our god ? they were then said to be led into france , to fight against the bagaudae , a sort of outlawed christians , who were forced , by the iniquity of the times , to take up arms under dioclesian ; and were all of them destroyed by maximianus ; so that if that story be true , it is a pregnant testimony , that he doctrine of passive obedience doth not oblige any man to lend his assistance to the ruine of the true religion . beside these pagan princes , there were some arian princes , who treated the catholicks of their times very hardly ; and though none of the christians of those times rebelled against them , yet neither would the catholicks assist the arian princes against the catholick bishops , as is plain in the story of s. ambrose , and the many tumults at constantinople , antioch and alexandria , in those times ; and when these princes sell by the justice of god , in civil or foreign wars , their ends were looked upon as deserved : thus valens perished in thrace , and valentinian , the younger , at vienne , the one by the hands of the goths , and the other by the procurement of arbogastes , an usurper ; and the untimely deaths of these two princes , proved the exaltation of theodosius , the resettler of the catholick religion , and the extirper of arianism , in the roman empire . in all the various events of these times , the providence of god ordered things for the good of his church , and the christians of those times , left them to his disposal , and submitted to those he set over them , quietly , and without disputing their rights or titles ; whereas procopius , who claimed the empire , as cousin to julian the emperor , perished in the attempt , without pity , or the regard of the church . there is no part of the reign of james ii. that has not been examined and represented by many pens ; so that it were a needless , but an ungrateful task for me , to rip it up again ; it may suffice to say , in general , never any of our princes so openly attempted the ruine of the english liberties , or went so far in it ; never did any man more openly endeavour the ruine of an established religion , or by more illegal courses than he : nor laws , nor oaths , nor promises , nor gratitude could restrain him ; he broke through all the barriers god and man had put in his way , and seemed resolved to ruine us or himself ; no remonstrances from abroad , no petitions at home , could work upon him , till he saw the sword coming to cut up the gourd he had planted , and was so fond of ; then indeed , he seemed to relent and to give back ; but still he would be trusted ; he would yield up nothing , but so as that he might , when the danger was over , re-assume the same again . an english parliament was the thing , in the world , he most hated , because he foresaw , if it was free , there was an end , for ever , of the hopes of setting up popery in this kingdom ; and that was his main and almost only design ; and yet , as fond as he ever seemed to be of an absolute and uncontroulable power , if he had been of our church , he would not have hazarded all for it , but he would have managed things with some reserve ; but the jesuites he took into his bosom , and his queen , especially , spurred him on ; and put him upon these courses , only by representing to him the glory and merit of extirpating the northern heresies , and settling the catholick religion in england . well , but what has he done since he left us , that may give us any assurance , we were mistaken , as to what was past , or may hope for better usage for time to come ? why , there have been some general promises made : in the letter , pretended to be sent to the lords and commons of england , and after wards printed in london , he , or some other person for him , tells us ; we are resolved , nothing shall be omitted on our part ( whenever we can with safety return ) that can contribute towards the redress of all former errors , or present disorders , or add to the securing of the protestant religion , or the property of every individual subject ; intending to refer the whole to a parliament , legally called , freely elected , and held , without constraint ; wherein we shall not only have a particular regard to the church of england , as by law established , but also give such indulgence to dissenters , as our people shall have no reason to be jealous of , not expecting , for the future , any other favour to those of our own persuasion , than the exercise of their religion in their own private families . this letter bears date at s. germans en laye , feb. 3. 1688-89 : the letter to the convention of scotland runs in a higher strain . we think fit to let you know , that we have at all times relied upon the faithfulness and affection of you , our ancient people , so much , that in our greatest misfortunes , heretofore , we had recou●se to your assistance , and that with good success to our affairs : so now , again , we require of you to support our royal interest , expecting from you what becomes loyal faithful subjects , generous and honest men , that will neither suffer your selves to be cajoled , nor frighted into any action misbecoming true hearted scotchmen ; and that to support the honour of the nation , you will contemn the base example of disloyal men , and eternise your names , by a loyalty suitable to the many professions you have made to vs : in doing whereof you shall chuse the safest part , since thereby you will evite the danger , you must needs undergo ; the infamy and disgrace you must bring upon your selves in this world , and the condemnation due to the rebellious , in the next ; and you will likewise have the opportunity to secure to your selves and your posterity , the gracious promises , we have so oft made of securing your religion , laws , properties , liberties and rights , which we are still resolved to perform , as soon as is possible for vs to meet you safely in a parliament , of our ancient kingdom : in the mean time , fear not to declare for vs , your lawful sovereign ; who will not fail on our parts , to give you such a speedy and powerful assistance , as shall not only enable you to defend your selves from any foreign attempt , but put you in a condition to assert our right against our enemies , who have depressed the same by the blackest of vsurpations , the most unjust , as well as the most unnatural of all attempts ; which the almighty god may for a time permit , and let the wicked prosper , yet then must bring confusion on such workers of iniquity . we further let you know , that we will pardon all such as shall return to their duty , before the last day of this month , inclusive ; and that we will punish with the rigor of our laws , all such as shall stand out in rebellion against vs or our authority . given on board the s. michael , march. 1. 1689. a jesuit , who printed a small paper , under the title of advices given to his r. h. m. the prince of orange , by one of his most faithful servants . your emissaries ( saith he ) made use of the mantle of religion , to create in the minds of the people ( of england ) false impressions , of the designs of the king their master ; whilst they who knew the bottom of the business ( the jesuites ) and his true intentions as well as you , are fully perswaded , that this is a good prince , who desireth nothing but to pass the remainder of his life in peace ; and who would be well-contented to obtain from his parliament , the free exercise of his own religion , without giving the least disturbance to that which the greater part of his subjects profess . it is not possible for you to take too much care to hinder this truth from spreading it self amongst the people , &c. thus the late king promiseth and threatneth ; and the true hearted jesuite , who would not for the world speak one tittle of untruth , to an heretick of the first magnitude , voucheth for him , and would make the whole society , that holy society , which has so great an influence over the mind and actions of that good prince , garantee for the performance of all these fine things : nay , i will undertake , if the english hereticks will once more put their heads into the yoke , that lewis the fourteenth , too , shall pass his royal word and unquestionable faith , that james the second shall , for the future , keep his faith with them , in spite of all the canons of the church of rome to the contrary , as well as he himself has his to his own protestant subjects . the letter to the convention of scotland , was dated on board the s. michael , a french ship , then in the road of brest ; and the late king was then passing in her into ireland ; where he arrived the 12 th of march at kinsale , with twelve french men of war , three fire-ships and eight merchant-ships . now , notwithstanding the king's promise of pardon to those of brandon , several were indicted at the assizes , insomuch that thirty or forty of them fled and came to bristol ; being frighted at the bloody proceedings against one mr. brown of cork , who was hanged , drawn and quartered at the same assizes . several petitions were also preferred for the pardons of sir thomas southwel and captain mills and many others , who being taken in their way to the north , were carried to galloway ; and there tried and condemned to die , but the king rejected their petition ; but however , reprieved them for three weeks , deferring it till his arrival at dublin , to which place he set forward on the 21st of march. nor was the rest of his proceedings , in that miserable kingdom unlike this beginning , all the english being plundered of all their horses and arms first , then of their cattle and houshold-stuff , and at last of their very cloaths , that they might be reduced to a necessity of perishing by hunger , nakedness and want ; and great numbers of them destroyed by pretended legal proceedings , because they would not at first summons open their doors , and suffer the rabble to plunder them of all they had ; which i have had from some of my near relations , who fled on that account . the twenty fifth of march a proclamation was issued by him for the sitting of a parliament the 7th of may , at dublin , as it accordingly did : wherein they passed these acts. i. an act to levy 20000l . a month for 13 months . ii. for repealing the act of settlement , and restoring old preprietors . iii. for liberty of conscience . iv. for taking off penal laws and oaths . v. for taking off all writs of error and appeals to england . vi. for taking off valuation money and other rights from the clergy . vii . for repealing the act of the 23d . of october , 1641. viii . no benefit of clergy for two years . ix . all patents for offices void . x. ireland to be independent of england . they seized in the mean time all the protestants estates who fled into england ; and all this they effected by the 26th of june . 1. after this they passed an act for repealing poyning's law. 2. against counterfeiting foreign coins . 3. and an act for the attainting of many hundreds of the nobility and gentry of ireland , who were fled to england . but the town of london-derry holding out , and an army being every day expected from england , the 18th of july this parliament was prorogued till october : and notwithstanding their act for liberty of conscience , and the dreadful expectation of a sudden revenge from england , the popish clergy took possession of the tithes and church revenues ; and many of the protestant clergy , were clapt up in prison , in order to be sent into france . all that our discontented party , here in england , have to say to all this is , that we must not believe all is told , as out of ireland ; but they mean , that we must believe nothing of it , but call in king james , and try if he will use us at the same rate . we have a proverb , that experience is the mistress of fools ; and certainly none but such will come a second time under her discipline , when they have so lately tried it ; and see every day hundreds of the nobility , gentry and clergy of ireland flee hither to save their lives , with the loss of all besides , who agree very exactly one with another in these dreadful stories . now let it be considered , that nothing was asked by the bishops , in their proposals , and by the lords spiritual and temporal in their petition of the 17th of november , but a free and legal parliament , and the redress of our grievances ; and that this was the principal thing insisted on by the prince of orange in his declaration ; viz. that a free and legal parliament might settle and adjust all things in difference or dispute ; and that it was obstinately refused till the 28 th of that month , and then granted when it could be no longer denyed , the greatest part of the nobility and army being then gone over to the prince . let also that passage in the proclamation of the 30th of november be considered . for the reconciling all publick breaches and obliterating the very memory of all past miscarriages , we do hereby exhort and kindly admonish all our subjects to dispose themselves to elect such persons , for their representatives in parliament , as may not be byassed by prejudice , or passion , but qualified with parts , experience and prudence proper for this conjuncture , and agreeable to the ends and purposes of this our gracious proclamation . and after this , that by his message of the 8th of december , sent by the three lords to the prince of orange , he promised , that he would consent to every thing that could be reasonably required for the security of those that came to it ; that is , to the parliament . and that the 10th of december he sent for the lord mayor and aldermen and sheriffs of london to whitehall , and again passed his word to them , that though the queen and child were gone for france , he would stay with them ; and though this evening he received such an answer from the prince to his proposals , that he could not but acknowledge , it was fairer than he could or did expect ; yet after all these solemn ingagements he burnt the writs for the summoning a parliament , and went the very next morning away for france , as his roman catholick friends had foretold he would above a fortnight before . and who accordingly sent a letter to him whilst he was at salisbury , perswading him to come back from thence , and withdraw himself out of the kingdom , and leave it in confusion ; assuring him , that within two years or less the nation would be in such disorder , that he might come back and have his ends of it : that is , ruine both our civil rights and our religion . when all these solemn promises were thus easily broken , or rather never intended to be kept at the very time they were made , and all those he has since made have been violated in ireland , where only he had power to keep or break his word , what can we conclude , but that , as a minister of state told our planters , it is very undecent , not to say undutiful , to tax ( this ) king with his promises ; who of all mankind has shewn the least regard in time past to them , and for time to come can never be blamed for any breach ? the parties that take his word being alone responsible for their incorrigible folly . some of these men have confessed to me , that if ever he be restored they expect to be treated as they were before ( without truth , justice or mercy ) but yet if it be his right , he must have it . and they cannot think his right can be determined but by death or a voluntary surrender , or a conquest made by meer foreigners , to the utter ruine of the english nation . and they will admit no answer to these their scruples , but what shall be palpable , convictive to that degree that they can make no objection against it . now if they admit all the dreadful consequences that attend this relapse , and yield up both church and nation to certain and inevitable ruine , only that they may not be damned for perjury and disobedience to a king that has left them when he might have staied ; and now offereth to return and do what he then refused ; what shall we also consent and sacrifice our selves and our posterity to the humour or scruples of these men ? shall we suffer the english church , liberties , and the very people of england to be destroyed to gratifie two or three hundred persons ? i have been told from good hands , that one of our bishops said , though he could not satisfie his own scruples , yet he thought the english nation fools if ever they suffered king james to return ; and i may from hence reasonably conclude the far greatest part of our scruplers are satisfied in the main , and do heartily wish they could also be of the same mind with the rest of their brethren in the rest ; so that the cause is half obtained against them , and those that shall finally persist will , i hope , not meet with much compassion , it being scarce possible there should not be a very great deal of will in so much blindness . our neighbours abroad have observed with wonder , that england was delivered from an arbitrary government , which threatned the ruine and desolation of the whole nation , and the destruction of our religion , without the shedding any of our blood , and that the army of our deliverer has committed no disorder or rapine in any of our places through which it passed . now one would think the manner of our deliverance were a mercy almost equal to the deliverance ; no , they cry , if king william the third had entered england as william the first did , and had slain fifty or sixty thousand english men in a battle , then it had been a true conquest , and would have justified our submission , and god would not have been offended with us if we had transferred our allegiance from the beaten james to the victorious king william . now if men were like beasts , altogether distitute of the use of reason , and capable of no reflection but the terrour of a brandished and irresistable sword , then there might perhaps be some force in this reason : but if a man is conquered whenever he is brought to submit to another ; the noblest as well as the most effectual conquest is that of the pen ; swords conquer bodies only , reason and interest , justice and mercy , subdue souls too , and at once bring the whole man under ; whereas brutish force can triumph over none but the brutish half of a man. a lyon or a woolf may master my body and bring me under his power , so that i neither can nor durst resist him ; but none but an hero can bring me to a willing submission when i am free , none but an hero would with his own hazard deliver me from slavery when i were oppress'd . st. peter saith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . by whom a man is overcome , him he must serve ; that is , he cannot resist him ; and it is as true , he whom i neither can nor durst resist , has conquered me . when james the second was desired to leave whitehall and go to ham ; and sent to his now majesty for leave to go rather to rochester , than to any other place ; it was a plain confession he was no longer free , i. e. that he was brought into bondage , and consequently that he was conquered : if conquest be nothing but the depriving a man of the power of resisting , as i take it to be ; and that servitude or bondage is nothing but the effect of that deprivation . and in his letter from rochester he saith , he did not think it convenient to expose himself to be secured so as not to be at liberty to effect it ( to redeem the nation from slavery ) and for that reason to withdraw , &c. that is , he left england , because as long as he staied in it he was a captive and liable to be secured . and by consequence he was conquered . the roman catholicks too , and those few of the church of england , who still adhere to him , were conquered by force of arms ; for they durst not resist , nay they durst not print the reasons why they will not comply , which is a plain confession they are subdued . the rest of the nation too was conquered not by the sword , but by the justice of his arms ; and his kindness to a miserable enslaved people designed for ruine . and after all this , to query whether it is a real conquest , is very absurd . but every conquest will perhaps not create a just and good title , but here it is confessed the present king had the most just cause to make a war upon james the second , that ever man had , by them who scruple to submit to him ; he managed this war also with the utmost justice , he did not enter into it till he had tried all other ways to obtain justice , and was denied it and persecuted into boot , he offered to submit all his pretences to an english parliament : and when that was rejected he managed the war with so exact a disciplie , with so little injury to the rest of the nation , that the want of the effects of war , blood and rapine , is objected against his victory . every man has not the right of making a conquest : a subject that rebels against his prince is but a victorious traytor if he prevail ; but william the third was a sovereign prince when he entered england , and by the law of nations had a right to vindicate his , and his ladies injuries , and obtain by the sword , what he could not get by a fair treaty . but to what end is war allowed at all , if the cause and the effect must be separated , and the most just war in the end leave the conqueror in the same state he was before ? no , but all subjects , right or wrong , are bound to stand by their lawful princes in their most unjust quarrels : and if at last they are subdued , their allegiance must be reserved for the injurious beaten prince till he die or freely resign ; that is , victorious sovereign prince and a prosperous rebel , and a just and an unjust war , shall , according to these men's notion , have the same effect . evagrius , in his apology for the christian religion against zozimus the pagan historian , thus bespeaks him : let us , if you please sir , consider the ends of those princes who imbraced the pagan superstition , and the deaths of those princes that were christians . did not caius julius caesar the first of them that obtained the empire of rome , perish by treachery ? and was not caius caligula murthered by his own souldiers ? was not nero slain by one of his own servants ? did not galba , otho and vitellius all perish by the sword in the space of sixteen months ? did not domitian poison his brother titus , and then he himself fall by the sword of one stephanus ? what will you say of commodus ? did not narcissus lay violent hands upon him ? and did not pertinax and julian fall by the same means ? antoninus , the son of severus , slew geta his brother , and soon after fell by the sword of martialis himself . was not macrinus the emperour taken captive by his own souldiers , and being led about the streets of byzantium afterwards , was he not most traiterously slain by them ? aurelius antoninus the emperour who was born at emisa , a city of syria , was slain with his mother . to what end should i speak of maximinus , who was slain by his own souldiers ? of gordian , who fell by the swords of his too who were stirred up to it by philip ? and were not philip and decius both slain by their foreign enemies ? gallus and velusianus by their own armies ? and had not aemilian the same fate ? was not valerian taken prisoner , and carried about by the persians till he died ? was not galienus , the son of valerian , slain by treachery , and carinus beheaded , and so the empire fell into the hands of dioclesian and those he associated to him in the empire ; of which maximianus herculius , and his son maxentius and licinius all fell by the sword ? but from the time constantine , a christian prince , became emperour , to this , see if you can find any one who has reigned in constantinople , except julian the apostate and valens the emperour , who have fallen by the hands of their own subjects or of foreigners , who both so grieviously afflicted the christians ; nor has any tyrant usurped against any of our princes except basiliscus , who rose up against zeno the emperor , and drove him from his palace ; but was afterwards overcome by zeno , and put to death . you cannot assign any other emperor , but these two , that was slain in all this time . this happened in the year of christ 476. and licinius was put to death in the year 325. so that in the space of 151. years no christian prince had been deposed or murthered by domestick or foreign enemies in the east : and whereas , i observed before in the latter times of the pagan superstition , in the space of 110. years , there were twenty nine emperors in this period , which makes 151 years , there was but twelve , of which number julian and valens were cut off by the justice of god for persecuting his church . now the force of all this argument lies in this , that the providence of god watcheth over pious princes to preserve them from violence : and as he suffereth not persecuting princes to end their daies in peace , he looks graciously upon his servants to preserve their souls from violence and wrong , because they are such . but if it is said he has suffered some good princes to be oppressed as he did henry the sixth and charles the first ; i say the judgments of god are sometimes unscrutable , and those that have any hand in such actions , shall doubtlessly be responsible for it . but as for those who are meerly passive , as they could not hinder the ill things that happened in their times , they may and ought to commit them to god ; who in his due time will punish all unjust usurpers , either in their persons or in their posterity . but then this new doctrine of standing by wicked persecuting princes , to the apparent and visible ruine of the church , or at least of those that imbrace it , was never heard of in the church before , was never taught or practised by the primitive christians ; and is not any part of the doctrine of passive obedience or non-resistance : as they would not rebel against their princes , how wicked or cruel soever they were ; so neither would they against god , whose only right it is to dispose of the kingdoms of the world ; without whose approbation as well as permission , no force ever did , or ever shall , prevail ; who when he pleases punisheth the wicked , and when he pleaseth pulls down not only unjust usurpers , but those who have the justest title . the great thuanus makes this reflection on the deposition of christian the second , king of denmark if princes will reign well and happily , they must govern their affections , and not out of a violent lust of insulting over their subjects give up themselves to the conduct of their passions , or otherwise they ought to assure themselves , god is a severe revenger , alway ready and delighting to pluck off their thrones the most proud and insolent who shall abuse that power he has intrusted them with . nor is this less true of lawful princes , than of unlawful usurpers , no title can exempt a prince from being responsible to the justice of god , and he will use his power as he thinks fit , and punish one man after one manner , and another in another ; some in this world , and others in the next ; and the church in the best of times accordingly left it to him to dispose of the government of the world : and as she did not anticipate his judgments by disturbing the peace of the world , whatsoever she suffered ; so neither did she think her self more wise or just than he , but submitted to those he was pleased in his providence to set over her ; and would certainly have been very thankful for such a deliverance as we of the church of england have had , by the ministery of our king , who like another constantine has delivered us out of the hands of our enemies , who designed to enslave and ruine us and our posterity for ever . the primitive church in the best times took the words of st. paul in their plain and literal sense , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the powers that are , ( i. e. in possession ) are ordained or ordered of god. they never formalize or make any exception , but conquest , election , usurpation , were to them all alike , if once the man was established in the throne ; and whereas they so frequently affirm , empires are given by god , according to that of tertullian , apolog. cap. xxx . we invocate for the preservation of the emperors , the eternal , true , living god , him whom the emperors themselves would wish propitious above all others , for they know who gave them the empire ( they know it as men , ) and who ga●e them their breath . they feelingly know that he i● the only god in whose power they only are , &c. there is no power but that of god that can touch the person , the power or the life of any prince . thus soz. in his ecclesiastical history , lib. vi. c. 35. reprehends the vanity of the pagan philosophers who had been too inquisitive to find who should succeed valens ; and the over great severity of that prince in executing many who had no hand in it , because their names began with the letters pretended to be discovered . if ( saith he ) these things are once agreed to depend ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) on the motion or course of the stars , we ought to expect ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) the prince that is thus decreed for us , whosoever it is : but if these things are ordered by the counsel of god , why do men prie curiously into them ; for the fore-sight or endeavours of men can never find out the will of god. and if is were possible , it is not fit to be done , because the wisest of men cannot order them ( the succession of princes ) better than god. the ancient fathers and primitive christians do every where ascribe the setting up and pulling down of princes to god only , as they do raine and other such things ; and you shall never find any exception , of lawful , or unlawful powers , that were supreme in fact in the writings of the first ages . to this purpose , see that passage of st. augustin de civitate dei , lib. v. c. 21. cited above . some have alledged in answer to this , that we in england are under other circumstances than the primitive church were , both in relation to our laws and our oaths ; for the law , sir edward coke in his pleas of the crown , chap. 1. p. 7. saith , upon the 25 e. 3. c. 2. this statute is to be understood of a king in possession of the crown and kingdom ; for if there be a king regnant in possession of the crown , although he be rex de facto & non de jure ; yet he is seignior le roy within the purvieu of this statute , and the other that hath right and is out of possession , is not within this act. nay , if treason be committed against a king de facto & non de jure , and after the king de jure cometh to the crown , he shall punish the treason done to the king , de facto . and a pardon granted by a king de jure , that is not also de facto , is void , for which he cites 11 h. 7. c. 1. 4 e. 4. 1. 1 ed. 4. 1 , 2. the words of the statute are as followeth . the king our sovereign lord calling to his remembrance the duty of allegiance of his subjects of this realm , and that they by reason of the same are bound to serve their prince and sovereign lord for the time being in his wars , for the defence of him and the land , against every rebellion , power and might reared against him , and with him to enter and abide in service in battel , if case so require ; ( 2 ) and that for the same service what fortune ever fall by chance in the same battle against the mind and will of the prince ( as in this land some time passed hath been seen ) that it is not reasonable , but against all law , reason , and good conscience , that the said subjects going with their sovereign lord in wars , attending upon him in his person , or being in other places by his commandment within this land or without , any thing should lose or forfeit for doing their true duty and service of allegiance , &c — that for the said deed and true duty of allegiance he or they be in no wise convict or attaint of high treason , ne of other offences for that cause by act of parliament or otherwise by any process of law whereby he or any of them shall lose or forfeit life , lands , tenements , &c. or any other things , but to be for that deed and service utterly discharged of any vexation , trouble or loss . and if any act or acts or other process of the law hereafter thereupon for the same happen to be made contrary to this ordinance , that then that act or acts or other process of the law , whatsoever they shall be , stand and be utterly void . ( 5 ) provided always that no person or persons shall take any benefit or advantage by this act which shall hereafter decline from his or their said allegiance . which is to be understood of the king in being , as the rest is , and against the same king. to this statute it is alledged , that the title of the crown was then so ambiguous and uncertain , that it was hard to know where the right lay ; which is a meer cavil . the title was as well known then as it is now , and is a thing of that nature , that it can never be universally known ; but the greatest part of mankind take those that are set over them , without further inquiry ; nor is it reasonable any man should suffer for obeying them whom he cannot nor ought to resist : so that what some have said , that every one is bound to take notice of the right title at his peril is true , if the person is in possession , but false if he is out of possession . conquest , a voluntary surrender , and a wilful desertion of a crown , will put an end to the best founded title in the world , as i think is universally agreed ; so that if the party pretending , has a title , why is he not in possession too ? if he is outed by his own act , i am absolved ; if by the force and power of another , why then , he is conquered : and both waies ( especially if i had no hand in it ) i am , and ought to be absolved before god and man. but then not only the three estates of england , but all the princes and sovereign states in christendom ( except the king of france ) have allowed king william and queen mary , as the rightful sovereigns of england ; which is a kind of giving judgment against the late king , after hearing what has been alledged on both sides . so that this case is determined by all the ways that are possible ; and must absolve any man that submits now to that which is the only supreme power in england . as to the oaths taken to the late king , they create no new obligation upon us as to the extent or duration of our allegiance ; i was under the same obligations of allegiance , before i was sworn , as i was afterwards ; and every subject of england , oweth , by the laws of england , a natural allegiance to his prince before he is sworn , as every man ows naturally obedience to god , before he entreth into the baptismal covenant : and so the primitive christians were under the same obligation to their princes we are , tho' i do not find they ever swore any allegiance to them . 2. this allegiance is no everlasting obligation as to time ; death , a voluntary resignation , a wilful desertion , or a lawful conquest will put an end to it . 3. it is no wild , unlimited obedience , whilst it lasteth , but is plainly limited by the laws of god and the laws of the land , and if i obey further actively , i am responsible to god and man for it . i come now to the words of the oaths , which may seem to create any scruple ; which in the oath of supremacy i suppose may be these . i do promise that from henceforth i shall bear faith and true allegiance to the king's highness , his heirs and lawful successors ( and to my power ) shall assist and defend all jurisdictions , priviledges , preheminences and authorities granted or belonging to the king's highness , his heirs and successors , or united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm . where first i observe , no man is bound beyond his power , but that all those who stuck to the late king , till he left the nation , and another took possession of his place , are thereby disabled and freed from attempting any further . 2. that the authorities i am to defend are such only as belong to the crown of england by the laws of england ; which are to limit my allegiance ; but by the law of england , my allegiance is now transferred to another , and cannot be due to two in opposition each to other ; so that if i persist in my allegiance to james ii. i am punishable by these very laws ; therefore my allegiance , which was a legal allegiance is determined . that in the oath of allegiance , which may be objected , is this , i will bear faith and true allegiance to his majesty , his heirs and successors , and him and them will defend , to the uttermost of my power , against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever , which shall be made against his or their persons , their crown and dignity , by reason or colour of any such sentence or otherwise , &c. now this oath , which binds us to the person , as the other did to the power , is capable of the same limitation , and is to be limited both as to its duration and extent , by the laws of england , and the law of nations ; and therefore is determinable the same way the other was . the power , and uttermost power , reserved and expressed in these oaths , is a legal power , and therefore no man is by these oaths bound to exert his natural power for any prince , when he may by the laws of england be punished as a traytor for so doing ; it being a legal and not an illegal allegiance we promise by them . if king james would have been contented with the preheminences , priviledges , authorities and jurisdictions granted and annexed , or belonging to the crown of england , i believe no body questions but he had been still king of england ; but by grasping at others , which did not belong to him , he cut off his own succours , and hindred those that otherwise would have defended him and them from doing it : he would not be content with those that belonged to him , and they could not fight for , or defend any other ; and between these two his power fell to the ground , by his own default ; and his withdrawing put an end to his sovereignty ; and put our present king and queen in the actual possession of all those legal jurisdictions , priviledges , preheminences and authorities , which he was formerly vested with ; and it is now the same sin to resist them , it was formerly to resist him . there may possibly be some , who will lightly regard what ever i or any other man of this age can say to them ; will they then vouchsafe to hear one of the most noble and royal orators that ever spoke to men , constantine the great , in his oration to the holy assembly . chap. 24. of the calamitous deaths of decius , valerian and aurelian , three emperors who persecuted the church . and now i ask thee , o decius , who didst once insult over the calamities of the just , who didst hate the church , who didst inflict such punishments on those who lived most piously : what art thou doing in the other world ? with what and how dreadful circumstances art thou surrounded ? yea , the remainder of thy life ( after it ) in this world , and the manner of thy ▪ death shew thy felicity , when thou and all thy army fell in the scythian fields : and the celebrated roman empire , by thy fall became ( after this ) contemptible to the goths . and thou , o valerian , when thou didst enter into a bloody war against the servants of god , hast thereby made his justice known to men ; being taken prisoner by the persians , and kept in chains in thy purple and royal robes . after which thou wert flea'd ( being dead ) by sapores , king of persia , and thy skin , by his order , ta●●ed and kept as an eternal trophy of thy misfortune . and thou , o aurelius , the unjustest and most wicked incendiary , how much hast thou discovered his justice , whilst madly invading thrace , thou wert cut off in the field , and didst de●ile the surrows of the publick road with thy wicked blood ? chap. 25. of dioclesian , who basely resigned the empire , and was struck with lightning for persecuting the church . dioclesian also , after a wicked slaughter and cruel persecution , condemning himself , through distraction , was reduced to a private life , and punished with the restraint of a mean house . what did he get by his war against our god ? why , that he was ever after afraid of thunder and lightning . nicomedia saith this , and they who saw it will not be silent ; among whom i my self was one . the palace was consumed , and his very chamber burnt with fire from heaven ; and thereupon wise men foretold what would follow , for they could not conceal their thoughts , nor suppress their resentments at the ill things were done , but openly and publickly , with assurance , said one to another , what madness is this ? what boasting in human power for a mortal to begin a war against god , and injuriously to affront the most chast and holy religion ? and without any cause or provocation to contrive the destruction of so many just men , and of so numerous a people ? what a famous master and teacher of modesty to his subjects will he appear ? how rarely he teacheth his soldiers to take care of their countrymen ? why , they stab their fellow subjects bravely , who in fight never saw the back of a beaten enemy . at last the providence of god undertook the avenging this impiety , tho' not without the publick hurt ; for so much blood had been shed by him , that if he had slain as many of the barbarians as he did of his own subjects , we might have procured a long peace by it . but the whole roman army being then in the hand of a mean-spirited prince , who had acquired it by force , his whole army perished , when god was pleased to think fit to restore the romans to their ancient liberty . the voices of oppressed men , who cryed to god for help under their burthens , and begged the return of their natural liberty ( are not forgotten ; ) nor the praises they returned when they had regained it , and saw an end of their calamities : did they not declare to all the world , how much they admired the singular providence and paternal love of god to men , when their liberty , and the equity of their contracts was restored ? that is , when they were delivered out of the hands of perfidious tyrants , and became subject to a prince who would keep his faith and promise to them . they may be pleased to consider , how much of this was our case ; and ask their consciences , if the self-same divine justice and providence has not appeared in our times also , and whether we have not as much reason as they to be pleased and thankful . having thus dispatched what i think fit for the present to be offered to the friends of the late king ; i come now to that part of the nation , who being satisfied and highly pleased with the present state of affairs ; may therefore be called , in contradistinction , the williamists . many of these of late have appeared very pertly against the doctrine of non resistance and passive obedience ; and discoursed of it with a contempt and scorn , as if it were one of the worst and most exploded doctrines in the whole world ; and full as antichristian as that of deposing kings , and disposing of their kingdoms . now , these two being directly contrary each to other , in all probability one of them is true . if we of the church of england are not in the right with the scriptures , and all primitive antiquity on our side ; it is fairly probable , they of the deposing church are ; for their claim is older than the peoples : but the mischief is , the devils is older than either ; for he pretended to our saviour , when he had shewed him all the kingdoms of the world , and made a conditional tender of them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . all this power and glory is delivered into my hands , and i give it to whomsoever i will : now this was long before people or pope put in any claim , and before the latter of these had any being . the pope , it is true , claims under the people , but the devil in his own right : but i believe neither of them can shew their charter , though the devil claimed by a grant ; and so i shall leave him and them , pope and all , in the intire possession of their several rights , if any they have . the doctrine of non-resistance has been often proved the genuine doctrine of the best ages of the church ; and that so fully and clearly , that those who would not yield to the force of the proof , have not been able to deny the truth of it , but have been forced to pretend it was only temporary , and doth not oblige all ages ; which is hardly sense ; or that the church is now in other circumstances than she was then ; which is not true neither ; for in some places she is now under the same or worse circumstances ; than she was in the three first centuries , and consequently , they at least , are under the same obligations the primitive christians were ; and therefore this very doctrine is of eternal verity , and will have its use till the end of the world. the command is general , the examples of it are general , and it is now confessedly necessary in turky , and all countries where christianity is oppressed ; and by consequence every where , except some body can shew , we have one gospel for the afflicted , and another for the prosperous daies of the church ; or one remedy , viz. that of patience was prescribed to our ancestors , and another directly contrary to us ; which if any man can shew , when and where it was done , i shall be very thankful . but it may be pretended it has been stretched too far ; and that some of the church of england have written too much in favour of wicked and tyrannical princes , even to the encouraging them to do worse than otherwise they would : to this i say , the heat of controversie has in other instances mis-led men as well as in this ; and the doctrine of non-resistante is nevertheless true , tho' their notions of it should happen to prove too loose or too large . let it then be fairly and truly stated once for all , and then let it be as it ever has been , the glory of the church of england , and the bulwark of all religious kings and states , against the rage of mutinous and rebellious spirits , who pretend to sight for god's truth , against the laws and governments of their countries . if any man thinks some of the things that were done in the heat of the late revolution cannot be justified , without exploding this doctrine : i say those are the faults of a few men , and better it is to leave them to their own master , than to set up our selves against the doctrines of christianity to excuse them . the men of our generation have all the infirmities that have gone along with the former ; and being so highly provoked by a handful of perfidious ungrateful miscreants , what wonder is it if the temptation , which was so strong , prevailed over the restraint , and made them guilty of some irregularities , which according to the strict rules of the gospel , cannot be justified ; such things have happened in the best of the former ages , and will happen again in those that shall follow us . but the rule of christianity ought to be preserved , notwithstanding , and delivered down to our posterity just as we received it . those that have appeared against this doctrine have done their majesties two great injuries . first , they have exasperated the dissatisfied party in the nation , and made them harder to be won over ; they concluding , that this revolution was not the work of god , because so many of those who have defended it , have made it their business to ridicule or confute the doctrine of passive obedience , as if there were no other way than that to justifie it . but then they are well assured this is as certain a principle of the christian religion , and was ever practised by the primitive church in the five first centuries ; and from thence they conculde , the men that do this and all other that joyn with them , have made a defection from this doctrine , and from the church of england ; and they think themselves bound in conscience to oppose all those that are thus united , lest they should seem betrayers of this loyal , holy , excellent doctrine , and of the honour of that church that hath ever taught it . secondly , they have deprived them , as much as in them lies , of that religious awe and reverence , which is due to all crowned heads and sovereign states . if they are the ministers of god , if they are the powers ordained by god , then is all resistance of them a sin against god. but these men write as if it were lawful to resist when they pleased , and whom they pleased ; which , if it is true , i am very confident it will not be long before they will pretend they have cause , or some other for them ; and so all princes shall be deprived of their best safegard , the fear of god over-awing their subjects , as the just avenger of such as rebel against their rightful , lawful princes , and the laws of their country . as there must be in every country a supreme power lodged somewhere , against which there is no appeal but to god ; so that power must be acknowledged to be sacred and irresistable , by the laws of christianity : and this is as true of commonwealths as monarchies , for wheresoever the supreme power is lodged , it is the ordinance of god , approved by his word , and settled by his providence , whosoever then resisteth that power , resisteth the ordinance of god , and shall receive to themselves damnation . he , then , that shall endeavour to destroy this obligation , and to persuade men they are not bound in conscience to submit to the laws and lawful governors of their country , contradicts this plain doctrine of the apostle , and exposeth the supreme powers in all countries to the rage and fury of the multitude , or any faction that is potent , and thinks it self injured ; and consequently he is an enemy to all government . but then though i am bound not to resist , i am not equally bound to assist , my hands may be tied both ways ; if i live in a pagan country , where christianity is persecuted by the supreme power , i must suffer and ought not to resist ; but then i am not to lend my assistance to that state to encourage or enable it to destroy this religion , but i must be meerly passive in that case . and this was the case of england , we were persecuted against law , by a handful of men , who expected to ruine us by our own hands ; and we were bound not to assist them in this wicked and foolish project ; and for want of our assistance they could not justifie or carry on the enterprize : and when they came to be called to an account by a prince who was no subject , and consequently was not under the obligation of not resisting their injustice and oppression ; so they fell an easie victim to his arms , and we were delivered out of their hand , not by any resistance we made , but by refusing to assist them ; and they that went no farther than this ( which it is certain the greatest part of the nation did not ) are justifiable by the strictest rules of christianity , and the practice of the best ages . to conclude , i would advise even those who have no kindness for the doctrine of non-resistance , to speak modestly of it ; it has such characters of divinity to shew , that it will deserve this respect at their hands , if they are christians : and as to those that are not , those that despise all revealed religion ( for they of late have been very witty against it ) they ought to shew some reverence to it , for the sake of government , and to preserve the peace of the world in which that sort of men have a greater interest than others ; for their all lies in this world , and they pretend to nothing in the next ; and if the world be imbroyled , let the pretence be what it will , their happiness must necessarily be very much abated , and perhaps their machines destroyed , and then there is an end of them . finis . licens'd , august 27. 1689. j. fraser . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a28559-e150 history of the desertion , p. 48. ad scapulam c. 2. apolog. c. xxxv . f●seb . h. e. lib. 7. c. 1. lib. 10. c. x. de vita . const . lib. 2. c. 2. tertul. apol. cap. 6. anno christi 295. cum ecclesia pace gauderet : & proinde in maximilianum animadvertitur ob spretam militiam , non ob fidem christia●am . grotius . cap. 2. tanta hominum multitudo , pars pene major civitatis cujusque . dan. 4. 17. de civitate dei , lib. v. cap. 21. lactantius de mortibus persecutorum . euseb . h. e. lib. viii . c. 13. euseb . l. 7. c. 13. missis literis persecutionem adversus nostros commotam sedavit . † euseb . h. e. l. 7. c. 30. p. 231. * euseb . l. 8. c. 13. lactantius de mortibus persecut . † jaacius & chronicon alexandrinum , say , he lived to the year 316. lib. 1. cap. 1. § 9. socratis h. eccl. lib. 2. cap. 12 , 13 , 27. ☞ bishop ken. l● vrai interet des princes chretiens , p● 176. hist . eccl. lib. iii. cap. 41. see the 1. collect , for the 5 th of novemb. thuanus , ann. 1559. rom. 13. 11 h. 7. c. 1 magna cha . c. 29. 2 e. 3. c. 8. constantini oratio ad sanctorum caetum . 