A BREVIATE FOR THE BISHOPS, IN VINDICATION OF THE PROCEED OF THE House of Commons▪  
FOR THE Settlement of the THRONE.  
To which is Annexed, A PROTESTANT Precedent, (exact Parellel with the Case of England) in the Reasons that moved the Convention of Sweden, to declare the Forfeiture and Exclusion of Sigismond the Third.  By a Person of Honour. 
IF Necessity, which is a great Branch of the Law of Nature, did not press us at this time, to come to some speedy and pertinent Determinations, as to the business, especially, of Settling the Government, that nicety, which seems to be promoted and set afoot in all our Counsels, might, considering the weightiness of the business in hand, rather claim the Just Commendation and Applauses of every good Man, than, as it seems now, fall under their Censure; and I may say, Indignation. If the matter Debated were extraneous, and the Kingdom within itself peaceably, and firmly settled; if the circumstances of our Affairs were ordinary and usual, and could admit of an unlimited time for their Decision; if we were secure from Injurious Resolutions of our Enemies abroad, or from the private Machinations of Dis-affected Persons at home: If these things were so, it were worthy the Wisdom of those, who by their unseasonable Scruples (so generally resolved against, and now again by them started) may seem either ignorant of the desperate languishing condition of these Kingdoms at present, or prejudiced and dis-affected to the peace and settlement of them for the future; I say, it were then worthy the Wisdom of these men, to dissect every particular of so Important an Affair, before they made any Determination of the General. As we all acknowledge the extraordinary circumstances of this juncture, so they themselves have not been a little contributing to this Happy Revolution: The Princes first Declaration tells us, he had the Invitation of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal. Was it Justice and agreeable to Conscience then, to call for Foreign Arms to assist us, against our own King, in the recovery of those Rights, Liberties and Properties, which contrary to Law, he had Invaded, and taken from us? And is it now become a Scruple in those same Consciences, to be confirmed in those Rights, etc. by the same Arms and Power? Is that pretended, absolute, unlimited Power, which in their Prayers and Sermons they have so often nibbled at, and endeavoured to retrench, now, in its just debasement become so Inviolable and Sacred, that it must become a Point of Faith entirely to submit to it? Has this small fit of fear and discouragement in our implacable Enemies, so well secured us from any future encroachments, that we need not be careful of any further Assurance? Has these men's Re-embellished Honours so obliterated the memory of the Dangers some of them so lately have escaped, and the rest justly feared, as to free them from all apprehensions for the future? What is it these Gentlemen would be at? What do they fear? Is it without Reason, without Justice, without Precedent, that we desire to be everlastingly secured from POPERY and SLAVERY? Not without Reason; for when we have seen many of our fairest Branches Lopped off, many of our Liberties Invaded, many of our Laws Perverted, and the Axe at last laid to the Root of our Government, 'tis high time then, I say, to provide for our Safety, and to put a stop to that current which would have quickly overrun and drowned us; not without Justice, for where my Life and Property is hunted after, and Assaulted, I may, by the Law of God and Man, repel the Injury, and stand in my own Vindication; not without Precedent, even in Protestant Kingdoms (not to mention the Romanists who both teach and practise the Deposing of Evil and Wicked Magistrates;) and though in England we may perhaps think the changes we have very lately seen among ourselves admit of no Precedent, it may easily be proved that what hath been done of late in this Nation, hath been in great part formerly presented and allowed of upon Foreign Stages; yea, and not many years out of the memory of some yet living, if we would but look into the Actions of other Regions, and those too wherein the Reformed Religion is professed, we shall find that they, by their public Records, acknowledged that in case of Tyranny and Oppression, it was lawful not only to defend their Lives and Liberties against all Assaults, but reduce and declare the persons so offending, incapable of holding the Government. A lively example of this, and almost exactly parellel with ours, was the Case of Sigismond the III. Hereditary King of Sweden, who by a Convention of the States of that Kingdom, was Excluded even with his Heirs, (a severity which both the Honourable Houses of Parliament here have with great Justice and Wisdom declined,) from that Crown for ever: Some of the Articles drawn up against him were these; first, For swerving from their received Christian Religion; as also, from his Oath and Promise, and Solemn Engagement made to his People at his Coronation, to Preserve their Rights and Privileges; as also, their Holy Reformed Religion Inviolated; for departing the Country without the consent, and unwilling to the States and Orders of the Realm; for exporting several Acts of great concernment out of the Cancellarie; for prosecuting such as would not embrace or favour the Romish Superstition; for contemning and endeavouring to Undermine and Annul those laudable Institutions and Laws made for the security of the Realm, and the Establishment of the Protestant Reformed Religion; for raising up what Enemies he could against his Native Country, thereby to involve his Subjects in a deluge of Blood, which he intended, and had almost effected; for inhumanely designing and suborning Russians and Villains, to Murder and Assassinate one of the chief Nobles, for no other reason, but that out of Conscience and Duty he would have persuaded him from those Irregularities and Notorious Breaches, of the known Laws of the Land. For these and many more Causes, as the sending his Son out of the Land, without the consent of the States, and causing him to be brought up and Educated in the Romish Superstition, did the Swedes (submitting the same to the judgement of all sincere and candid Arbitratours) justify their abdication for ever, of King Sigismond III. and his Heirs, from the Crown of Sweden, etc. and proceeded straight to the Constituting and Electing of Charles Duke of Sudermannia; vid. Spanheim 's hist. of Sweden, etc. And in conclusion, they pray for and doubt not of a sincere and candid Construction, a benign and favourable Acceptation, from all Christian Emperors, Kings, Princes, States, etc. of this their Legitimate Defence, and to Vindicate them and their most equal Cause from all Calumny, or Evil Interpretation whatsoever. The Circumstances relating to this present juncture in England, bear so near a resemblance almost in all those Grievances objected against the said Sigismond, that our late King by a sort of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to have breathed his Soul rather than to have Copied after him, though indeed in some cases, he has plainly outdone the Original, especially in relation to his supposed Son. And as our King thought sit to Copy a King of Sweden, I cannot apprehend how it can lessen our Judgements or Integrity, our Piety, or our Loyalty, to follow the example of the Swedes, excepting in the case of the Lawful Heirs (whom every good Englishman and Protestant, to their utmost Danger and Peril, are ready to defend and maintain) to take such measures for our future Security, and lawful Establishment, as shall not by any Humane Art or Endeavour, be liable to Interruption.   

LONDON, Printed for Joseph Bowers, at the Crown in Long-Acre. 1688/9.