A DEFENCE OF THE Present Government UNDER King William & Queen Mary. SHOWING The Miseries of England under the Arbitrary Reign OF THE Late KING JAMES II. THE Reasonableness of the Proceedings against him, and the Happiness that will certainly follow a peaceable Submission to, and Standing by King William and Q. Mary.  
By a Divine of the Church of England.  
LONDON, Printed for R. Baldwin in the Old-Bayly. 1689.   

Licenced,  
May 16. 1689. J. Phraser.   

A DEFENCE OF THE Present Government.  
WHat miserable Circumstances we lay under, during the late arbitrary Reign; by Rapes and Violences committed upon our Religion and Laws, by the impudent Violation of the most sacred Oaths and Promises, by the Invasion of Property, and general Corruption of Justice, is a thing so palpable and notorious, that 'tis almost incredible any men but Papists should be in Love with it; and yet by sad Experience we find there is a degenerous Race of Protestants among us, that seem to be fond of their former Slavery, and, like the Children of Israel, are hankering after the Flesh pots of Egypt; they are infatuated with the name of Divine Right of Monarchy, and being carried headlong with that fallacious Notion, fall into a Frenzy and Madness against the present Lawful Authority.  
Almighty God has no where determined in his Word a Model for our Civil Government, but has left us, as all other Nations, to such a Form as shall be agreed upon by the People; and where this Agreement is not, 'tis not properly Government but Tyranny; for without it the Judicious Mr. Hooker says, 
Eccl. Pol. l. 1. c. 10. p. 86.  There is no reason why one man should take upon him to be Judge or Lord over another; because for the Manifestation of this their Right, and men's more peaceable Contentment on both sides, the Assent of them who are to be governed seemeth necessary. And a little after he says, All public Regiment, of what kind soever, seemeth evidently to have risen from deliberate Advice, Consultation, and Composition between men, judging it convenient and behooveful.  
And what he says concerning the Power of Government, he applies to the Power of Making of Laws, whereby to govern, and shows, That the lawful Power of making Laws to command whole politic Societies, belongs so properly to the same entire Societies, that for any Prince or Potentate, of what kind soever upon Earth, to exercise the same of himself, and not either by express Commission Immediately and Personally received from God; or else by Authority derived at first by their Consent upon whose Persons they impose Laws, it is no better than mere Tyranny. And he adds, Laws they are not therefore, which public Approbation hath not made so.  
The Judgement of this great Man I could back with very many good Authorities; but there is no need, he alone being Instar Omnium, Equal to All, whose Five first Books of Ecclesiastical Polity have been received as Oracles, even by those very Persons who now differ from him.  
When this Author makes for them, as he does abundantly in vindicating Church Ceremonies, than he is the LEARNED & JUDICIOUS Mr. HOOKER, but when he goes against their Interest, though not against the Truth, than he is decried, and branded with being Erroneous. But 'tis not Mr. Hooker's Fate alone to be thus dealt with; for they treat all Authors as ill, that are against their Exotic and new fangled Notions of Sovereignty and Allegiance: For when the Author is not for them, they resolve to be against the Author, though it should be against Reason.  
The Jewish theocracy is no Precedent to the English Monarchy; there God immediately governed; he gave that Nation all their Laws, Moral, Judiciary, and Ceremonial; but we can make no pretence to such a Divine Conduct; we must have recourse to the wholesome Laws and Customs of our Country, for our Direction in Civil Proceedings.  
Neither our Saviour, nor his Apostles, intermeddled with Civil Government, but left that as they found it. Christ's Kingdom was not of this World, and therefore he and his Apostles meddled no farther with the Kingdoms of the World, than to teach all their Duties in their respective Stations, the Magistrates to rule, and the People to obey in the Fear of God. I know not where they command a Passive Obedience to Illegal Violence; if the Law be for a Man, it cannot be Rebellion in him to defend himself by it; but if the Law be against a man, than he has a proper Reason for the exercise of Non-resistence.  
The Apostle bids us be subject to the Higher Powers▪ because the Powers that be, are ordained of God. Rom. 13. 11. But he does not command us this without restraction, for Rulers must not be Terror to good Works, but to the evil, being appointed for the punishment of evil Doers, and for the Praise of them that do well. 1 Pet. 2. 14. This is the End of their Government, and the reason of our Obedience.  
When they govern as according to the Laws of our Country, and discourage Vice by Punishing it, and encourage Virtue by Rewards; Resistance is then Rebellion with a Witness; but when Rulers fail in all this, and of Nuysing Fathers (which they should be) degenerate into bloody Murderers of their Country, (which they ought not to be,) Resistance is not Rebellion, but a just and lawful Defence against unjust and unlawful Oppression.  
The Standard then of our Civil Government is the Law of the Land, It is superior to all Orders and Banks of Men, and looks with an equal Aspect upon the Prince and People. According to this Law we ought to be governed, and when contrary to this Law we are invaded, (as we were in the late King's time in every thing that was near and dear to us,) we may justly defend ourselves against such illegal Doings at home, and join with a Stranger that will take upon him to protect us against the Cruelties of an Arbitrary Power. In such a Case as this we may take the best means we can for our Safety. Must the Lives of Innocent Millions be endangered to gratify One Man's Arbitrary Lust? Must Popery be set up contrary to our Laws and Oaths, as well as Scripture, and the best Antiquity? Must we deny our Senses and Reason to become Christians? Must we be forced to embrace a Religion that has not so much Charity in it as Mahometanism, and much less moral Justice and Honesty? And must we be content to wear the Chains and Fetters of Ecclesiastical and Civil Slavery, when we may enjoy a Gospel Service, which is perfect Freedom, and live under the easiest and best of Governments? Should we consent to all this, as it cannot be avoided if the late King's Interests must be advanced, Bedlam or Bridewell were the fittest place for us.  
There has nothing been done (saving some enormities of the Mobile) in this great and wonderful Revolution, but is justifiable before God and the World, from Scripture, from Reason, and the Constitution and Practice of this Kingdom. Let us go according to the Apostle's Advice, Stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath (by his Glorious Instrument) made us free, and be not entangled again with the Yoke of (the Roman) bondage. Gal. 5. 1.  
Let the Scruples of those which refuse to take the Oath of Allegiance to K. William and Q. Mary weigh nothing with us: For doubtless we are discharged of our Obligation to the late King James, and among others for these Reasons; his Arbitrariness, breach of Contract, withdrawing his Protection, selling us for Slaves to a Foreign Prince and State, and conspiring against us in a hostile manner.  
And the Crown being now K. W's and Q. M's by Right and Fact, being settled upon them by a Parliament lawfully called, lawfully chosen, and lawfully proceeding, notwithstanding all the factious and slanderous Pamphlets, The Dissertion discussed, The History of the Convention, or, New-Christened Parliament, etc. We are obliged in Conscience to bear Faith and true Allegiance to their Majesties, and when required to swear the same.  
They are our lawful Governors, We live under their Protection, and therefore they deserve our Allegiance.  
There are some Laymen as well as Divines, that lodge the supreme Power solely in the Person of the King, and make him anuputheros, unaccountable to any but God. They farther say, He can do no Wrong, and the whole guilt of Maladministration lies upon his Ministers, but He is Innocent.  
But these are Maxims that were first invented by Court Parasites, and Flatterers, raised by the Prince's Favour, and live by his Bread, and have ever since been maintained by a Generation of the same Stamp.  
Were our Government an absolute Monarchy, an Exception would not lie; but being limited, the King is accountable to the Kingdom represented in Parliament, for all the Outrages and Oppressions committed by his means; otherwise Laws and Parliaments would be useless, Liberty and Property empty Names. And whereas, say they, the King can do no Wrong, unless it be understood with this limitation, He acting by, and according to Law, He may, no doubt, be altogether as Arbitrary as the Grand Signior.  
These are pernicious Positions, and advance the English Monarchy too high, because they infer an Inerribility in the King, which is as dangerous to the State, as Infallibility to the Church.  
Let then every true Patriot and Englishman fix here: That the King is entrusted with the Executive power of the Law for the good of the People, and the People are to obey and assist him in the Execution of this high Trust; but if he abuses this Power, as the Disserter did, to the monifest Oppression of his People, the People represented in Parliament may take that Trust from him, and give it to another, who will govern them in Justice and Clemency, and defend them in their Religious and Civil Rights.  
And now (methinks) 'tis strange that any who are called Protestants, should declare Love for the Reformed Religion, and yet say, they cannot in Conscience Renounce the late King. The Protestant and Popish Interest are as contrary as Fire and Water, and a Popish Head upon a Protestant Body, is like committing a Flock of harmless Sheep to the Custody of a Ravenous Wolf: They shall be kept, but it is only for Prey and Destruction.  
We cannot have a Popish King without a Popish Religion, either tolerated, or authorized in this Nation. Tolerated it may be for a time, as 'twas in the late violent Reign, but that Toleration was purely to get strength enough to it, till it was able to weather all Opposition, and then to have given it the Protection of a Law; so that the Adherence to, and Espousing of the late King's Cause, can signify no less in the natural tendency and construction of it, than an Affection for Popery, and the miserable consequences thereof, the Loss of English Liberty and Property; seeing the one cannot be had without the other.  
It is now farther made apparent; that His Interest and the French King's are linked together, their Counsels and Designs the same, Both conspiring in one great Plot, to extirpate the Protestant Religion in General.  
What Friends then his Favourers are to the Reformed Religion, may be seen plain enough without the help of Spectacles. Whereas we ought to Oppose him as a public Enemy, even with our Lives and Fortunes; and, as a Branch of our just Allegiance to their present Majesties, discover all Treasonable Attempts and Practices against them, and vigorously support their Crown and Dignity against the blasphemous Harangues, and seditious Libels, that are too frequently vented among us.  
But (alas!) how soon have some men forgot both the Day, and the glorious Instrument of our Deliverance? What Murmuring and Discontent, what false Fears and Jealousies, what unkind Returns and Prejudices, would, if it were possible, darken the Son of the most Heroic Prince, and pervent the Ends of the most christianly generous Enterprise in the World? Were we not appointed as Sheep for the Slaughter? But God sent him to interpose between the Knife and the Sacrifice. When the great Tree of our Government was in a manner quite cut down by the Romish Axes, he came and secured it from falling, and made it grow again even to a Miracle. If ever a Deliverer was worthy of the chief Seat in our Affections, it must be this Incomparable Prince. Trophies and Statues, and Panegyrical Orations, are fit for those Ambitious Monarches who have no Real and Intrinsic Worth; but the Unparallelled Virtues of our Excellent Deliverer, as they are far above such poor, perishing Pageantry, so his Merits will be get him a more lasting Monument of Love, Loyalty, and Gratitude in the Hearts of his People.  
In a word, We are, under God, indebted to Him for all that we have, for our Religion, our Laws, our Lives, our Liberties and Estates. What an Infamy than will it bring upon us and our Memories to be ungrateful?  
I would therefore advise all those who go under the Denomination of Protestants, and yet appear sticklers for the late King's Interest, to make timely Retractation, and endeavour to compensate the Disservice they have done the Protestant Cause, by a cheerful and hearty compliance with the present Government, and by paying hence forward a conscientious Obedience to their gracious Majesties K. William and Q. Mary.  
And particularly, let those of the Clergy, whose past Obstinacy has been a constant Lecture of Rebellion to the, People, change their Text, and let their future good Example be a Sermon of Obedience. Let them do their Duty as Divines, and leaving civil Things to the civil Powers, approve themselves the Ambassadors of Christ, by preaching those Healing Doctrines of Humility, Peace, and Love, and by speaking all the same thing. And that they may not frustrate one of the most glorious Ends of his Majesty's Declaration, (Decl. p. 13.) printed at the Hague, Octob. 8. 1688. the Establishing of a good Agreement between the Church of England and all Protestant Dissenters; Let them (whether Fathers or Sons of the Church) be entreated to lay down all Anger and Dissension about Indifferent Things, and that Spirit of Persecution which by Estranging our Brethren, and hindering their Union, hath formerly too much weakened our own, and strengthened the Roman Party.  
Consider our Saviour hath recommended to us the Spirit of Love, Meekness, and Moderation; and the Apostle hath commanded us to have no Divisioms, but to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life.  
What a monstrous Folly and Madness is it to differ about Indifferent Things, and not at all necessary to Salvation? To quarrel about the Bark, about the Shell and Carcase of Religion?  
Remember we have striven so long already about Rites and Accidents, that we had almost lost the very Substance of true Religion. God in his Mercy has delivered us, let us sin no more, lest we provoke him still to scourge us.  
If this passionate but modest Address may prevail to influence those for whom it is writ, then shall the Hopes and Designs of Rome and France de defeated, our Fears shall vanish, our Religion and our Laws shall triumph, and the Golden Age be restored to these Kingdoms.  
FINIS.