SALUS POPULI SUPREMA LEX, OR, The Free THOUGHTS of a Wellwisher, For a good SETTLEMENT.  
IN A LETTER TO A FRIEND.  
By james Stewart  
Printed in the Year 1689.   

SALUS POPULI SUPREMA LEX, OR, The Free Thoughts of a Wellwisher, for a good Settlement, etc.  
Sir,  
THe settling of our Government, in this extraordinary meeting of the Estates, is a matter of that importance; that I cannot but wish I were as able to assist in it, as I am persuaded it is the duty of every man to contribute his best endeavours: And seeing it is like to be the grand Question, Whether we should call back the present King, or, at least, in his absence resolve on such a Regency, as may consist with the continuance of his Right; or rather plainly declare the Throne to be vacant, and supply it after England's Example. You shall have my Opinion as free from passion, as from particular interest, which I think is as little as any man's can be.  
I therefore humbly Conceive, that the Estates may, and aught, to declare the Throne to be vacant, and at the same time supply it, by setting up the Prince and Princess of Orange, after the example of England without variation.  
And my reason is one, and most evident, and demonstrative, viz. Because the Throne is de facto vacant, as being deserted, and that God from Heaven, presents to us, and the Highest Necessity determines us, to embrace their Highnessesses as the only Persons that can, and ought possess it. I know it was the method of England, first to take notice of the King's malversations, and thereupon, and upon his deserting. to find that he had Abdicat, and thereby rendered the Throne Vacant: But, tho' all good Men must perpetually regrate, the King's Fatal Addiction to the Romish Religion, and the Excesses it hath caused him to commit, and that now undoubtedly is the season to provide against these, and all other Errors in the Government. Yet seeing that some may be ready to affirm, that by our late Laws we have too amply impowered, & by our compliance, too manifestly encouraged him in these very courses, to make these his Majesty's charge: and that it is more becoming the Respect due to Sovereign Majesty in all events, and likeways more easy to our old and National kindness to the ancient Race, and Line; to forbear such direct and extraordinary accusations. (leaving these to others) I rather choose, and fix upon the medium of the Kings deserting as that, which in our case is yet more palpable and clear then in that of England, and abundantly conclusive of all I would infer from it.  
And that the King hath deserted the Throne, and us, is so apparent from that visible State of Anarchy, under which we have Laboured these months by past: That certainly all Considering men, in place of making it a matter of doubt, do rather Admire, and Praise the good Providence of the Almighty, who hath so graciously kept our peace, and prevented these ruining Mischiefs, to which such a Lawless condition, Joined to our former intestine Distempers, and Divisions. did exposeus. Our Kings it's true have of a long time resided in England, Personally absent from us, and some may say, that his going to any other of his Dominions ought not to alter the case: But the Desertion we speak of, being not a simple nonresidence, and personal absence, but a manifest abandoning, leaving us far more negligently, than he did England, without all Cause, Care, or Concernment; cannot be covered with this Pretence. If upon that great, and sudden pressure in England, that moved him to take such surprising measures; it had pleased his Majesty, to give any account of them, with what orders he might have thought necessary, to his Privy-Council in this Kingdom; something might be alleged to colour the Dereliction: But when nothing of this Nature was done, but the Government quite given up, in our greatest exigence, to the Conviction and Amazement of his own Privy Council, and all his Officers; who only increased the common consternation, by following their Master's example, the thing is but too certain. And therefore I shall only sum up its evidence with these two remarks. First, that the King's leaving us, as he did, in his, and our then circumstances, is so unaccountable in all other reasonings; that it seems plainly to say, that it was his majesty's good mind toward us, that we should follow England's fate, whatever it should prove. And next, that there appears so much of the Divine Sovereignty, overruling the King in the course he took in his departure; that it cannot but intimat to all Serious Observers, that thereby God thought good, to prepare the way for the happy choice, that he now presents.  
If then the King hath deserted the Kingdom, and its Government, the Throne is necessarily vacant: And if the Throne be vacant, nothing can hinder to Declare it to be so, unless Men do prefer Confusion, and Ruin to order and Safety.  
But because the Oaths of Allegiance, and Test, with other Engagements, seem to many, to be still binding; I shall resume the matter more particularly, in order to their Liberation and Relief. And therefore must, and do affirm from the most obvious evidence of things, that the Desertion we lie under is not only total, and absolute; but withal so causeless or rather pretenceless, beyond the case of England, without the least shadow of constraint, or reason; that a more notable and clear breach of the Fundamental Contract, whereon all Government, as well as ours, Subsists, can hardly be imagined. I cannot here digress, to prove the Being, and Nature, of this fundamental contract: All Men of Sense, do easily apprehend, that Government is a matter of Trust, and not of property or absolute Dominion; and that, tho' the ordinance in itself, as also that of Marriage, be of God, yet the establishing of it in this or that form, and upon this or that Person, and Family, is, after the parallel of the same Example, of man's free choice and agreement: It being Impossible to Imagine, how either the Hostility of conquest should terminat, or the vain old World pretence of Paternal power, the presumptive force of Prescription, or the true and genuine virtue of a Surrender, take place to introduce Government, without the supposition of this mutual Consent, and Contract, either employed, or expressed. And thus indeed, it is, and no other ways, that the Powers which in the first Sense, and in the Abstract are by the Apostle Paul truly said, to be of God; are yet in the second Sense, and in the Concrete, Justly called, by the Apostle Peter, the Ordinances of Man. We have too long been enured, by Men of Corrupt Designs, and practices, to a certain false Cant, that the King holds his Crown immediately from God Almighty alone. But now, Blessed be God, all Men not wilfully blind, do see, and the very Authors of this Language, begin to confess, that it is otherways; and that Government is founded in Consent, and truly and only best bound by this Fundamental Contract. Whereof the Essentials viz. That a King should rule, and Protect, and the People Obey, and Submit, in Righteousness, for the Glory of God, and the good of the Commonwealth, need no Record, more than the Necessary duties of Man and Wife in the Contract of Marriage, as being in both cases inseparable from the very Being of the Ordinances. And for the Naturals and Accidentals, as Lawyers speak, of this Contract of Government, they may be seen, and read, in the perpetual consuetude, and other Laws of the Kingdom; and are all confirmed by the mutual Stipulations, Promises, and Oaths customary, specially at Coronations, betwixt King and People.  
Our King then, as all others, being King by Contract, acknowledged by his accepting of the Government, and requiring of us the Oaths of Allegiance, and other engagements; which express our part of the contract, and no less necessarily suppose his: It is evident as the meridian light, that if he either Renounce, Abdicate, or totaly Desert, he wholly breaks his part, dissolves the Contract, and loses us, from our part, and all the promises, Oaths, and Tests by which we can be thereto bound. The compact of Marriage is certainly the most Divine, and binding, known amongst men; and here God is said to join, and in such a manner, that neither of the Parties though most free Contracters, and both consenting, may separate without his warrant: Yet if one of the Parties, specially the unbelieving, depart the Apostle pronounces distinctly from the Nature of the Contract, and God's mind in its institution, let him depart the other party is not in Bondage in such a case, either to his conjugal promise, or to any other Supervenient Oath, that may have interveened; But is as free from the Law of the Departer, or Deserter, as if he were naturally Dead: If then it be so in the business of Marriage, can any Man hesitat, but it must be much more so in the case of Government; the tye whereof, in the acknowledgement of all, falls many degrees short of the former's obligation: But so it is that the King hath deserted causelessly, totally, and absolutely, as hath been declared, and therefore in all Law, Reason, and Revelation, the Throne is vacant, and we are loosed from his Law, and all other supposable engagements.  
But you may say, in the Apostles words, to the same purpose, But God hath called us to peace, and therefore we ought neither to be hasty, nor peremptory, but seeing we know his Majesty's departure was not his free choice, and that after this little Secession rather than Desertion, he purposes to return, as he hath signified by his letters, we ought to wait for him; and not so lightly throw off our Allegiance, to which we are by Nature, and Religion, so strictly bound. I answer, that what ever was the manner of the King's departure from England, yet, as to us, it was a free choice, which hapening in such a juncture, and exposing us so dangerously to all the miseries of a Dissolution, is really Irreparable: specially seeing that by the same default of his, res non est integra. But the Kingdom being obliged by the most binding Law, to wit, Salus Populi Suprema Lex esto, and the most cogent necessity of self preservation, to fly and betake itself to his Highness Heavens-sent Protection; it is impossible for us to retreat from it, without a most ungrate perfidy toward the Prince, and Damnable folly toward ourselves, in rendering the whole Kingdom obnoxious to a greater Forfeiture, than can be secured against, by any offered Pardon and Indemnity, in our present circumstances. Admitting then, that his Majesty purposes to return; yet I say he must excuse us, since his offer is too late. But more especially because, as all good Men hear, and understand with regrate, he makes the offer by his Letters, in such a manner, as promises nothing, save a threatening Invasion of perfidious and cruel French and Irish Papists, to destroy our Religion, and make Britain a field of Blood, and an utter Desolation. Wherefore I must conclude, by way of Retortion, that seeing both God, and the King, have loosed us from our Allegiance, by his Majesty's Desertion, as hath been proved; and God, as you say, doth also call us unto peace: we should undoubtedly show ourselves, the most nottorious contemners of this sweet and Heavenly call, if after so great a deliverance, we should again bring back the King, with such a sevenfold worse attendance and thereby unavoidably render our Last Estate infinitely worse than our First.  
But you may still urge, why so peremptory, and severe, you resisted, and opposed King CHARLES the first, with Arms, and yet, even in the hottest of the War, when you entered into a League and Covenant for its more effectual prosecution, you reserved his Majesty's Sovereignty, and just Rights. Why then should the King's simple departure, be now accounted worse, to infer a Dissolution, and justify a Rejection, than what was reckoned in his Father to be a Hostile Invasion. It's answered, not to touch upon any invidious comparison of their Persons, nor yet upon his Majesty's woeful defection from the true Protestant Religion, whereby he hath too visibly brought on himself, the curse that his Grandfather did, in this case leave, and entail on his posterity, I say, the King's Desertion doth infer a Dissolution, and warrant a Rejection, albeit his Father's supposed Invasion was not carried that length; Because our wars with the Father were but an incident unhappy quarrel, amongst ourselves, as well as with our King; wherein, as it could not be said, that he had Deserted the Kingdom, or yet hostilly invaded it, by a Foreign Force; so we had all reason to reserve his Sovereignty and just Rights, in the probable prospect, of a good Composure, and Peace. Whereas our present King's Desertion is not only Causeless, Total, and Absolute, leaving the Throne vacant, to the evidence of every Man's sense; beyond all control, or excuse of reason, in the same manner as if he had been removed by Death, but in the just construction of Law, it imports such a voluntary Dereliction, as frees us from our former Allegiance, and lays on us an Indispensible Obligation of providing for a new Establishment. Si Rex enim Imperium abdicavit, aut manifeste habet pro. Derelicto, says Grotius, in eum post id tempus, omnia licent quae in Privatum.  
Having thus cleared the Nature and Import of the King's Desertion, and that the Throne being de Facto Derelinquished, we are in the same manner loosed from the Law, and Oaths of our Allegiance, as if he were Naturally dead, and his Race extinguished; specially when we cannot now think of his Return, had his Reign been ten times more justifieable, without the Horror of all the fatal consequences of Blood, Confusion and Desolation; it is evident that for the Estates to declare the thing as it is, and to proceed to a new and necessary settlement, is not attended with the least difficulty.  
And therefore I go on to the second point viz. That in this state of things, the Estates of the Kingdom ought to supply the vacancy of the Throne, by setting up their Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Orange, after England's example without variation. And the Reason I gave for it, was because, that God from Heaven presents them to us, and the highest necessity determines us to acquiesce in his good pleasure. And that God presents them, if there be any voice or language, in his providences, as certainly there is, it amounts in our case to a manifest Declaration. When after King Solomon's death, the Lord so ordered the matter in the Treaty betwixt Rehoboam, and the People, that by his imprudent Answer, he provocked the ten Tribes to Reject him; the Lord, by a Prophet, commands Judah to sit still, and desist from fight, for, says he, the thing is from me. Can any Man then doubt, that in the concurrence of the many signal providences (more remarkable both for Number, and Weight, then can be instanced from all our Histories) which at present surround us to show us the way, the Persons, whom God thus designs, aught to be Chosen and Embraced.  
It was an Inspiration from God, that moved his Highness, and all the Protestant Princes in Germany to resent so cordially the Distress of the Protestant interest abroad, and its Danger here with us. It was also another effect of the same Divine Influence; that excited his Highness raising up the Righteous Man from the East, and prevailed upon the Cautious and Warry Estates of the united Provinces, to set about so great, and incredible an undertaking, wherein a Man may justly doubt, whether the vastness of the expense, the hazard of the Seas, season, and tempests, or the Preparations and Forces of the Adversary, were more discouraging. But that God, should have so happily conducted thorough all these difficulties; turned, almost as one Man, the Hearts of all the People of Britain; and caused all the feared opposition to melt away, as Snow before the Sun, so that his Highness was without Battle, brought to London only with Joy & Triumph. This, This is the Lord's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes! Nor are the succeeding passages of his work, tho' not of so great a Lustre, of less significancy and moment, as to our present purpose: That his Majesty left England once and again so obstinately; neglected and ●●rgot Scotland totally; made the French King, that Enemy of God, and Man, his only refuge, and set up all his remaining hopes on Tyrconnel and his Irish Papists; that the meeting of the Estates in England, did so readily and unanimously settle the Sovereignty upon their Highnesses. And lastly that our Countrymen, going to London, with such different Interests, and Designs, should yet have carried along with them, so much of the Spirit and Sense of the Nation, as to agree, almost as one Man, to address to his Highness, to take on him the Government and call the present Convention: All these, I say, laid together and recommending none other to us, than the very next in blood to the King that hath forsaken us, must, after the vacancy of the Throne above demonstrate, appear to every one, that regards the work of the Lord, and considers the operation of his Hands, to be nothing less than so many Lines from God's Sovereign Power, and Wisdom, concentring to point out their Highnesses as the only Persons that ought and can possess it.  
I Grant for all that hath been said, that providences of whatsoever kind and number are no Rule of Duty; nor do I here pretend to adduce them as such; but it being already cleared, that thorough the King's Desertion, the Throne is vacant, the Government dissolved, and the Kingdom brought under the necessity of a new Establishment; I can hardly believe that any will be found so Refractory, as not to acknowledge, that such leading and persuasive Providences, are the best Designations of the Persons on whom we ought to fix.  
Yet, lest such there may be, I shall farther consider the last part of the Argument, and that is, That even the highest necessity determines us to follow England's Example in this Affair, without variation. And this, I think may easily be Illustrate, as well from the Inconveniences, and Mischiefs on the one hand, if we divide: as from the Advantages on the other, if we join entirely with them. And for the Inconveniences, the long and bloody Troubles, and Calamities, that this Kingdom suffered in its divided Estate from England, are yet too fresh in men's Remembrance, to suffer any to desire a relapse into it, unless it may be in this only prospect, that, according to the great change happened in our Circumstance, some may thereby now hope, for a speedy Conquest, as in any terms more desirable, than our best separate condition. The Conjunction of the two Kingdoms, under King JAMES the sixth, was a Blessing so long looked for, and acceptable, that when he applied to it, that saying, Quos Deus conjunxit nemo separet, he but spoke the true sense, and wish of both Nations: shall we then, when things are so much altered to the worse, be so unhappy as to aim at this unlucky separation? specially when it is most certain and visible, that the least apparent difference, betwixt England and us, at this time, would be a great encouragement to Enemies & discouragement to Friends, particularly our distressed Brethren in Ireland: And that if we do not directly call back the King (whereof I am sure the inevitable Evils above represented do raise in every honest man an extreme horror) We can take no other course distinct from that of England, without laying ourselves open to all their dangers, with very small assurance of their assistance. I know the boiling of our Scots blood, upon a little stirring of the old Emulation, industriously practised by Papists, and such as affect them, may readily throw up, What? are not we a free Kingdom, and much more ancient than that of England? Why should we then be tied to their Measures? specially to reject totally our King, Who, as to us, in respect of the English, is, as it were, of our Blood and Kindred. But first, after the recalling of the King, which is indeed the Point that all the Promoters of this humour aim at, there is no mids betwixt it, and an absolute rejection, that is not attended with most deterring Circumstances, as hath been already declared. Next, what doth all this vain talk signify? doth it add any thing to our strength, for preventing, or resisting, the abovementioned Inconveniences, which is the point that all Sober men ought mostly to heed; or is it not rather just like unto the Thistles Elevation, in King Joash his Parable, which after it had compared itself to the Cedar, was trodden down by a wild Beast that passed by, which infallibly would be our fate, in attending to such empty Counsels.  
Whereas on the other hand, if we go along, and hold with England in this Re-establishment, we have God to be our Guide and Leader, as hath been showed, and in the next place we may be assured, that as we are already threatened by the same hazard, and also rather more exposed to them, than they, so the holding the same course with them will always procure us ready, and effectual assistance; greatly animat all our Wellwishers, specially our Brethren in Ireland, and prove a happy Introduction to the long desired Union of both Kingdoms, which last motive of a good and perpetual Union, is of itself sufficient, to all Considering men, to preponderat all can be said on this head: it being indeed the only thing wanting to complete the happiness, and security of both Kingdoms; and that which seems reserved to the Prince of ORANGE, as the man of God's right hand, able to surmount, and adjust all the difficulties of so great a Work, and worthy to bear its Glory.  
Thus you have my opinion, and the Lord give all Concerned a true, and right understanding. If bare Infidelity or Difference in Religion were here adduced as causes, to make void the King's Title and Authority; the Westminster confession (tho' well enough cautioned, by the qualities of Just and Legal to exempt us from the late imposings) might yet occasion some to scruple: or if Malversations were the only ground, these might, as I have said, make the enquiry more uneasy, and the conclusion less unquestionable. But when the King himself hath loosed us, by such a manifest, and irreparable Desertion: And God from Heaven points out to us so desirable and Excellent a choice. And Lastly when the most powerful necessity of the Preservation of all that can be dear to us, oblidges us to embrace it: What can possibly demur true Protestants, and rational Men, to agree to it. Neither ought we to be alarmed at the Backwardness, and Refractoriness of some whose ill consciences of their former oppressions and violences, may desperately drive them to a more avowed opposition. Since beside that it must be in itself contemptible, nothing can more effectually defeat it, and all our other vain fears, than our Resolute and Unanimous concluding and adhering to such a Just, Necessary, and Happy Re-establishment.  
Adieu.