VII. THERE can be nothing which the Favourers of this Gentleman have to reply to these Obfervations, but this, that when he is once fettled upon the Throne, he will then confult the Interests of the Brittish Nation only, and disappoint the Expectations of the Courts of France or Spain. I have fhewn, that he cannot do this, confiftently with Gratitude, Honour, or Juftice. But if, notwithftanding, it is still infifted, that he will,-I afk, What Security can we have, that fuch a Prince will be more conscientious in performing his Engagements to Us, over whom he will confider that he hath an indefeasible Property, than to others, over whom he hath no fuch Claims, and to whom he hath been so much obliged, and fodeeply engaged?

BESIDES, it will not be in his Power to act in this Refpect as he pleases. France, enlarged by Conqueft, having her Frontiers fecured by the Rhine, her Commerce encreased and raised upon the Destruction of ours, and in Poffeffion of all the Ports of Flanders, which are within a few Hours fail of our own Coasts, could eafily compel the distracted and divided People of Great Britain, funk in Trade, deftitute of Credit, and without Finances or Allies, to fubmit to her own Terms. And it is evidently no more the Design of that Crown to raise the Power of the Pretender to a State of Independence, capable of turning his Arms against her, than it is to favour the Interefts of the prefent Royal Family. For whenever fhe affifts, fhe doth it with no other View, than of making Tools of the Party affifted, by efpousing their Interefts in fuck a Manner as fhall make them fubI

fervient

8

fervient to her own; which, in the Nature of Things, must be contrary to the Intereft of Great Britain.

WHAT then can be expected from the Suc-: cefs of the Pretender?-Nothing certainly in point of National Advantage: So that there can be urged no Motives of that Sort to induce any one to embark in the Undertaking, or even to countenance a Spirit of Difaffection.

VIII. LET us therefore examine in the next Place, how the Matter ftands, and on which Side the Argument would conclude in point of DUTY.

the

1. It is an undoubted Maxim, founded in the Reafon of Things, that Protection and Allegiance are reciprocal. As therefore we have received the one, we ought the more chearfully to pay other, and be vigorous in the Support of a Government, which hath fo long protected us in the Enjoyment of all our Rights, Civil and Religious; and that in a greater Degree than ever was known before. i ›

2. BOTH Prince and People have entered into mutual Stipulations, and the moft folemn Engagements to affift and defend each other; which therefore, neither Party have a Right to break through at Pleasure: Now let any one look over the Declaration of Rights and Liberties made by the Lords and Commons in the very Year of the Revolution, viz. 1688, and fay, whether he thinks in his Confcience, that the People are debarred of the full Pof

feffion

feffion of any one of them. And if they are not, how can any Man of Honour or common Honesty be free from his Engagements?--More efpecially a CHRISTIAN, after having, in the moft folemn Manner, called God to witness to the Sincerity of his Profeffions of Loyalty and Obedience?

3. SHOULD any one be fo weak, or ignorant of our free Conftitution, as to doubt of the Title of the present Royal Family (which in every View hath a much better Original, and Plea of Right, than any other Family fince the Time of the Saxons, who by the bafest Treachery ufurped the Government from their Masters:) Nay even fuppofing there was a real Defect,*-Why, St Paul hath decided in fuch a Cafe, that an established Constitution, which answers the general Ends of Go-. vernment, is not to be refifted, because the Title happens to be controverted: A defective Title being the very Pretence of the Jews, and Judaizing Chriftians, for their Reluctance to obey the Roman Government, viz. Because, in their Opinion, it was not ordained of GOD. And yet the Apoftle would by no means admit of this Plea, but lays it down as a general Rule, that every fettled Government [The Powers THAT BE] exercising that Office for the Good of the People, is fo far ordained of God, as to have a fufficient, and therefore in that Sense a Divine Right, to the Loyalty of the Subject; which Service he cannot refule without committing a very heinous Sin.

* See my IId Differtation against Mr Chubb, viz. on Rəm. xiii. Printed for T. Trye, Holborn.

4. THIS Declaration of the Apostle, concerning Obedience to the Powers in Poffeffion, is incorporated into, and made an effential Part of our Conftitution both in CHURCH and STATE.

As to the CHURCH, the fame Doctrine is contained in the Homilies, where King John, though a most notorious Ufurper, is ftiled, Our natural Lord and Sovereign; and it is observable, that before the Civil Wars, there is not one Inftance that the contrary Pofition was ever held. Nay farther, the very Convocation exprefly called together by the firft King of the Stuart Line reigning in England, to deliberate on fuch Points, gave their Judgments as follows; "If any Man fhall "affirm, That when any new Forms of Go, "vernment, begun by REBELLION, are after tho"roughly settled, the Authority in them is not "of GOD; or that any who live within the Ter"ritories of fuch new Governments, are not "bound to be fubject to God's Authority, which is there executed, - he doth greatly err."*

AND

Bishop Overall's Convocation Book, CANON XXIII. Page 59. N. B. This Quotation is brought with no other View, but to fet forth the Senfe of the Clergy of the Church of England at that Juncture, concerning controverted or defective Titles in the reigning Powers,-defective I mean, with regard to Claims before Poffeffion, or the Pretenfions of a Rival; for after Poffeffion, the Subject is precluded, according to the Senfe of this Canon, from making any Objections against the Lawfulness of obeying fuch a Government, or giving Countenance to the Pretenfions of a Rival, that would disturb it when once quietly established.

AND with respect to the STATE,* It hath been the conftant and invariable Maxim of the Common Law of England to afcribe the fame Powers and Prerogatives, Ecclefiaftical, Civil, and Military, to a King de Facto, as to a King de Jure. And to prevent any Poffibility of Doubt on this Head, the Legiflature itself paffed an Act, the 11th of Henry VII. exprefly limiting the Obedience of the Subject to the King for the Time being. After this, it might appear fuperfluous to recite the Authority of the Courts of Judicature, in which the Statutes of both Sorts of Kings are always allowed to carry equal Force and Obligation;-or the Opinions of the most eminent Lawyers, who are confequently the beft Judges of the English LEGAL Conftitution, and yet never made any Scruple to affert, that the Loyalty of the Subject was limited to the King in Poffeffion.

IX. But even allowing that all these Arguments are inconclufive, and that nothing can make Amends for the Want of a regular Succeffion of the next of Kin ;-the grand Question therefore is, Who hath the beft Pretenfions to the Crown by Virtue of this Succeffion? +The Stuart Family can have no Right; for their Claim must descend from King John, who was not only a grofs Ufurper, but

* THOSE Who wish to have a clearer and more perfect View of all these Points, would do well to confult that excellent Book of Dr Higden on the English Constitution, with the Defences annexed to it.

+ SEE this proved at large in Ballantyne's Hereditary Right of King George II. afferted: Sold by M. Cooper in Pater-Nofter Row.