The only difficulty that remains, is, Who will be judge of the prince's actions, to know when he is a tyrant, and when not? If it were allowed to the Prince himself, he would be too partial. If we should constitute a right in the people, they would be too apt to misconstrue the prince's actions, which should ever receive the most benign interpretation that the subject can admit. So that, to shun both inconveniencies, the controversy must be decided by the laws of the kingdom. There is just such a plea betwixt the Church of Rome and the Protestants, concerning a judge of controversies. They contend for the Pope as Christ's Vicar, and reject the scriptures, which we believe are the only Rule of Faith; and that, in them, all things, which relate to salvation, are clearly set down, so that those of the meanest capacities may easily understand them. In a politic state the supreme magistrate is sworn to rule according to the fundamental laws of the kingdom, which we must suppose are known both to king and people; because they are a rule to direct the government of the one, and a measure of the obedience of the other, and were fairly enacted at the first constitution. It is true, indeed, that if a law, made by the civil power, contains any obscurity, the sole power of interpreting that law belongs to the lawgivers; but we must imagine the fundamental laws full of perspicuity, and, except there be a notorious violation of them, resistance can never be lawful. What has been said on this general head, will not answer the design of this paper, if it cannot be applied to the present state of affairs in England. For it is of no purpose to prove, that tyranny is to be resisted by arms; unless we make it appear, that the English government had altogether degenerated into tyranny; and that the taking up of arms, under the auspicious conduct of his highness the Prince of Orange, was no rash act, but done after mature deliberation, and with all the circumspection that an affair of so great importance did require. The great and earnest endeavours to have the bill of exclusion passed, did sufficiently evince what fears and jealousies the parliament had of the danger to which their religion and liberties would necessarily be exposed under a popish successor. His Majesty's behaviour since he came to the crown, has clearly demonstrated that these fears were not groundless; for, not being content to introduce the popish religion, so much contrary to law, he hath endeavoured to alter the whole frame of the constitution, and swallow up all our liberties and privileges, in an arbitrary and despotic power‡. First, The first step was made against the freedom of parliaments (which makes up a great part of the government, by their having a share of the legislative power lodged in them) by their issuing quo warranto's against all the burghs and corporations in England. The most part of them, either through fear or force, did surrender their charters to the king, who placed such magistrates in them, as he was In King Charles the Second's time, against the Duke of York, a papist, afterwards King James the Second, whose principles were destructive of our religion and ecclesiastical state, and all the laws by which our church was established. ↑ King James the Second. See his commission for erecting an Ecclesiastic Commission Court. most assured of, and, by this means, did altogether invert the freedom of election. Secondly, Nothing could be more contrary to law, than the erecting of seminaries of Priests and Jesuits in all the capital cities of his dominions; yea, such confidence hath he reposed in that order, that he hath committed the direction of his conscience to one of its fathers, and was not ashamed to own himself a son of their society. Thirdly, His pretence to a dispensing power was no mean breach of his coronation oath; for, by it, he usurped the whole legislative power; and would have imposed on the people (in procuring the votes of the twelve mercenary judges) if they had not wisely foreseen the dangerous consequences, and feared that his majesty would farther oblige his Roman Catholic subjects, by repealing all the laws that were enacted in favour of the Protestant religion. It was by virtue of this dispensing power, that the ecclesiastic commission was established; the Bishop of London suspended; the Fellows of Magdalen College turned out: and, because the bishops of England would not so far justify his illegal pretences, as to cause their clergy to read the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience+ from their pulpits, they quickly saw all the fair promises made them evanish, and the Loyal Church of England was first branded with the infamous character of trumpeters of rebellion, and afterwards treated as the worst of criminals; a very bad recompence for that great zeal with which they had ever preached up the impracticable doctrine of non-resistance. Fourthly, In prosecution of the blessed design of reducing heretics to the see of Rome, all ways were taken to discourage protestants, who were not only debarred from offices and employments of any trust, unless upon such conditions, as the court pleased to impose, but were even turned out of those that had been heritable to their families; and a great part of the militia was intrusted to Roman Catholics, of purpose to overawe the parliaments, in case the next assembly should have proved stubborn. : Fifthly, Though by many laws the holding correspondence, any way with Rome, be declared high-treason, yet hath his majesty had his resident there, and received his nuncio here, to the great scandal of all good Protestants, and true-hearted Englishmen for it is in effect a subjecting the kingdom to a slavery from which our ancestors had most gloriously delivered us. These things were acted in the face of the sun, and none can deny them without renouncing the most comfortable of all his senses; yea, the king himself did sufficiently acknowledge them, by his sudden restoring the city charters, Magdalen College, and some other of the grosser sort of abuses, upon the first information he got of the Prince's|| Declaration. The king's old age, and the fair prospect of a Protestant successor, made us suffer these things patiently, because we hoped to be very shortly delivered from them; but, to despair us, and cut off all our Father Peters, a Jesuit, and one of his privy council. + Calculated to introduce popery, against all the laws in force against that superstition. As shall be more particularly shewn in the course of this miscellany. Of Orange. hopes, and to punish the Prince and Princess of Orange, for refusing to comply with the king's will, there is a sudden rumour spread of the queen's being with child, which, as it did alarm the whole kingdom, so it made these, who were most concerned, be at some pains to be assured of the truth of it; and yet, after the most exact enquiry, their doubts were increased, The court was not ignorant of all this, and yet would not give themselves the least trouble to satisfy them, though they had the greatest interest in the world to do it. The place of the queen's lying-in was so uncertain, and the management of the birth so mysterious; the sending away the Princess of Denmark, the imprisoning the bishops in the Tower, gave more than probable grounds to suspect an imposture; and though these be but presumptions, and have not the strength of a full probation, yet they transfer a necessity of eliding them by clearer evidences. Thus, our religion, liberties, and laws being ready to sink, when gentle methods had proved ineffectual, when addresses and supplications, even from the most loyal part of the nation, were counted so many acts of treason, it was high time to recur to that remedy which nature seems to dictate to every individual in its own defence. That zeal, with which his highness the Prince of Orange had ever espoused the Protestant interest, against all its adversaries, made the nobility and gentry of England unanimously pitch on him as the fittest person to be their deliverer; and, both he and his Princess being so nearly interested in the succession, no rational man can blame him for appearing in arms, and demanding satisfaction that way, which hitherto had been refused him. If the remedy had been delayed, it is more than probable, the greater part of the nation had fallen a sacrifice to popery and arbitrary government. I shall conclude all with a short reflection upon his majesty's leaving the kingdom, and going for France, which action alone hath done him more hurt, than all the rest together; for, by depriving us of that protection, which we might expect from his government, he looses his subjects from that allegiance they swore unto, upon no other condition, than so long as they should enjoy so great a benefit: neither can any, who knows his majesty's temper, impute his flight to fear or cowardice, but rather of his being conscious of a certain guilt, which did banish him from one of the greatest stations in the world, and robbed him of that bravery and resolution, that he is naturally attended with; and which though he had wanted, yet innocency had supported him, and made him out-brave all the malicious calumnies of his enemies, with such an heroic constancy of mind, as seldom or never fails to come off victorious. The Princet had also acquainted him in his declaration, that he had no other design in coming to England, than to refer all the grievances of the nation, and his own pretences, to a free parliament. Neither the king, nor any man else, could ever accuse this prince with • Afterwards Queen Anne, who was married to Prince George of Denmark. + Of Orange. the least breach of promise: and, though he had been wanting in that reverence that is due to the character of an uncle and father-in-law, yet the prince's own interest had secured the king from any harsh treatment; for, if any thing had been attempted against his person, the nation's eyes had been opened and would have seen clearly, that these specious pretences of liberty and property were but so many delusions, and such a treatment certainly had deserved the greatest resentment. But if the king must needs go, can he find no place for shelter but France? Where so much Protestant blood hath been so lately shed*, with the greatest cruelty and barbarity that ever was heard; he cannot be ignorant that his subjects have a natural aversion for that nation, and that this close and constant correspondence with its monarch, gave them just jealousies to apprehend, that there was more than an ordinary friendship betwixt them, which was every day increased, by his copying so near the methods that had been used in that nation, for suppressing the protestant religion, and establishing arbitrary government. And, if the king have any hopes to reduce his subjects by invading them on the head of a French army, he will find them but illgrounded; for, instead of reconciling them to him, so dangerous and improper a method would even alienate the hearts of his best friends, and Britain would shew itself as forward to fight against popery and tyranny, as it was averse from giving proofs of its courage, when it must needs have been fatal to liberty and the protestant religion. Against the faith of solemn treaties and national laws. + Of which jealousies we can have no better idea than what is strongly conveyed to posterity by an ingenious author, who wrote soon after, in these words: Though I was never much surprised and alarmed with popular or artificial fears and jealou"sies (which will perhaps make a noise, even in the most promising seasons, as long as the world "endures) yet, when matter of fact is notoriously plain and evident; when tyrannical, base, and "undermining principles are seconded with power, revenge, and successful issues; it is a weak "piece of bravery merely to defy danger, and rank folly and stupidity not to be nationally con "cerned. "The politics of France are now fairly legible in speeches and bravadoes, in actions and me"naces, and many self-evident tokens of a designed usurpation; and we are not only to expect "the same burning effects from the same damning cause; but have also too just and apparent "reason to fear, that we shall be graduated up, through all the decent forms of ingenious cruelty, and the several stages of torture to a more solemn and ceremonious death, if ever Popery "lift up its head in England. "Perhaps, the more dull and half-witted priests may content themselves with a short fiery "trial; with the plain and old-fashioned way of sacrificing heretics to the Roman idol; and I "have charity to believe, there are many kind and good-natured Romanists amongst us, who are "so much our friends, as to shrink and tremble even at the thoughts of such barbarities as these. "But all their good wishes prove but vain and plausible nothings, when the insolent Jesuit has "got the ascendant, and is roaring up and down with racks, wheels, and damnation in his "mouth, and all the terrors of the ten persecutions. And what will a Not swearing, or, Who would "have thought it, signify, when our gates are set open to that Royal Thunderer, who has been "so far influenced by his beloved oracles, and the omnipotent charms of canonical executioners, "as to give no rest either to the world or himself; and whose magnified conduct bears a near "resemblance to that awful sort of majesty, which Mr. D―n presents us with, in his notable "description of a bull after this manner : James II. While monarch-like, he ranged the listed field, VOX REGIS. As an APPENDIX to what hath been said, we shall presume to annex part of King James the First's Speeches to the Parliaments in 1603 and 1609, who was grandfather to King James the Second: As also his Advice to his Son in his Basilicon Doron; which Appendix is entitled Vox Regis, or the Difference betwixt a King Ruling by Law, and a Tyrant by his own Will; and at the same time declaring his Royal Opinion of the Excellency of the English Laws, Rights, and Pri vileges, viz In his speech to the parliament 1603, he expresseth himself in these words, viz. DO acknowledge, that the special and greatest point of difference that is betwixt a rightful king, and an usurping tyrant, is this: that 'whereas the proud and ambitious tyrant doth think his kingdom and people are only ordained for satisfaction of his desires, and unrea'sonable appetites; the righteous and just king doth, by the contrary, ' acknowledge himself to be ordained for the procuring of the wealth and prosperity of his people; and that his great and principal worldly 'felicity must consist in their prosperity: if you be rich, I cannot be 'poor; if you be happy, I cannot but be fortunate; and, I protest, your 'welfare shall ever be my greatest care and contentment. And, that I ' am a servant, it is most true, that as I am head and governor of all the 'people in my dominion, who are my natural subjects, considering 'them in distinct ranks, so if we will take in the people as one body, 'then as the head is ordained for the body, and not the body for the 'head, so must a righteous king know himself to be ordained for his 'people, and not his people for him. 'Wherefore I will never be ashamed to confess it my principal ho'nour, to be the great servant of the commonwealth, and ever think the prosperity thereof to be my greatest felicity, &c. In his Speech to the Parliament, March 21, 1609, he expresseth himself as followeth : 'IN these, our times, we are to distinguish betwixt the state of kings ' in the first original, and between the state of settled kings and monarchs, that do at this time govern in civil kingdoms: for even as 'God, during the time of the old testament, spake by oracles, and ' wrought by miracles; yet, how soon it pleased him to settle a church '(which was bought and redeemed by the blood of his only Son Christ) 'then was there a cession of both: he ever after governing his church ' and people within the limits of his revealed will. So in the first ori'ginal of kings, whereof some had their beginning by conquest, and 'some by election of the people, their wills at that time served for a law; yet how soon kingdoms began to be settled in civility and 'policy, then did kings set down their minds by laws, which are pro'perly made by the king only; but, at the rogation of the people, the 'king's grant being obtained thereunto; and so the king came to be 'lex loquens, a speaking law, after a sort, binding himself, by a double |