THE DEBATES IN Deposing Kings; And of the ROYAL SUCCESSION OF GREAT BRITAIN.  
The Succession to the Crown of Great Britain.  
THE Monarch of Great Britain has Right to the Imperial Crown of this Island by Inheritance, according to the Laws of GOD and Nature, and the fundamental Constitutions of the Realms of England and Scotland, which both agree in this, That, upon the Death of the King, the next of the Kindred, though born out of the Dominions of Great Britain, or born of Parents, not Subjects of Great Britain, is immediately King before any Proclamation, Coronation, Publication, or Consent of Peers or People.  
The Rule of Inheritance, given by GOD himself to the People of Israel, is this: If a man die, and have no Son, than he shall cause his Inheritance to pass unto his Daughter. And if he have no Daughter, than ye shall give his Inheritance unto his Brethren.  
Agreeably to which Rule, the Crown of Great Britain descends, as an inalinable Heritage, from the Father to the Eldest Son and his Heirs; for want of Sons to the Eldest Daughter, and her Heirs; for want of Daughters to the Brother and his Heirs; and for want of Brethren, to the Sister and her Heirs.  
And so unalterable is this Course of Descent, that no Act, no Crime, no Attainder of Treason, can bar the next of Blood from being King in the instant of Time, his Predecessor does not so much die, as by a State- Metempsychosis transmit his Life, his Breath, or his Soul into the Nostrils, the Body of his Successor.  
For Hereditary Monarchy being (as it has been clearly demonstrated) an immediate Ordinance of GOD, founded in the Prime Laws of Nature, and the Laws of GOD and Nature being (as all Christians acknowledge) absolutely immutable, it is a Madness to think, that any Act of Parliaments can change this unchangeable Law, or, with the least Colour of Justice, altar the Right of Succession.  
This was well known to all our ancient Parliaments, that were neither overawed by any prevailing Faction seduced by designing Intrigues, nor yet vainly flattered themselves with an Omnipotent Power to create and annihilate Kings: In one of which the States of the Realm unanimously answered King Edward the IIId. ask their Advice in matters, relating to the Crown: That they could not consent to any thing in Parliament, that tended to the Disherison of the King, and his Heirs, or the Crown, whereunto they were sworn. From whence Sir Edward Cook concludes, That it is a Law and Custom of Parliament, that no King can alien the Crown from the right Heir, though by consent of the Lords and Commons. And elsewhere affirming King John's Resignation of the Crown to the Pope to have been utterly void, he alleges this Reason: Because the Royal Dignity is an Inherent inseparable to the Royal Blood of the King, descendable to the next of Blood to the King, and cannot be transferred to another.  
And although by the Treasons and Conspiracies of ambitious, disloyal, and designing Persons, the Crown has now and then been transferred from one Family to another, yet does it appear in Story? that since the time of the Norman Conquest the right Heir was never yet kept out beyond the second Descent. And to the Honour of the English Parliaments we can aver, that never any Usurper (though armed with Power) laid claim to the Crown in Parliament, but by pretending to be of the Right Line; nor did ever the Parliament allow of such Pretence, if false, but awed by Fear and a vast Army. And whenever, the Terror of such armed violence being removed, the true Heir was enabled to claim his Right, the Parliament, notwithstanding all such pretended Acts, readily submitted themselves to their legitimate Prince, as being bound thereunto by the Laws of GOD and Nature.  
Thus although Henry, Duke of Lancaster, backed by an Army of forty or fifty thousand men, under Pretence of a feigned Title from Edmund Crouchback, forced his Nature Sovereign, King Richard the IId. first to resign, and afterwards to be deposed from his Crown, which, waving his former pretended Title, he caused to be entailed upon himself, his four Sons, and the Heirs of their Bodies, by Act of Parliament, whereby he thought to have secured it to his Posterity for ever; Yet, notwithstanding these cautious Provisions, seconded by the Valour and prodigious Success of that noble Prince Henry the Vth. when in the year 1460. this Entail was alleged against Richard Duke of York, laying claim in Parliament to the Crowns of England and F●ance, as being the next Heir to Lionel Duke of Clarence, elder Brother to John of Gaunt, of whom the House of Lanchaster was descended, the Duke of York unanswerably replied, That, if King Henry the IVth. might have obtained the said Crowns of England and France by Title of Inheritance, Descent, or Succession, he neither needed, nor would have desired, or made them to be granted too him in such wise, as they be by that Act: Which (said he) taketh no place, neither is of any force, or effect against him, that is right Inheritor of the said Crowns as accordeth with the Laws of GOD, and all Natural Laws. Which Answer of the Duke of York, and his Claim to the Crown, was by the same Parliament expressly recognized and declared to be Good, True, Just, Lawful, and Sufficient.  
And when in the same year Edward Earl of March, eldest Son to the said Duke of York, upon the death of his Father, took possession of the Crown by the Name of King Edward the IVth. his Title was in full Parliament by all acknowledged in these words: Knowing also certainly, and without doubt and ambiguity, that by GOD's Law, and the Law of Nature, He (viz. the said King Edward) and none other, is, and aught to be true, Rightwise, and Natural Liege and Sovereign Lord: And that he was in right, from the Death of the said Noble and Famous Prince his Father, very just King of the same Realm of England. And so little Respect was given to the aforementioned Act of Entail, that it was not so much as repealed, being esteemed from the very beginning null and void in itself. Nor indeed were any Acts of Henry the IVth. Vth. or VIth. (styled Kings in Deed and not of Right) deemed to be in force, but such, as were expressly confirmed by Edward the IVth. in the same manner, King Charles the IId. confirmed the judicial Proceed of the late Usurpation.  
As little Success had that Monster of Nature, Richard Duke of Gloucester, who, being by the Interest of several factious Lords chosen Protector to his Nephew, the young K●●g Edward the Vth. and having by that means gotten into his hands the Military Force of the Nation, pretending, that the Children of his Brother King Edward the IVth. were illegitimate, laid claim to the Crown, which he not only entailed by Act of Parliament upon himself and his Issue, but the better to secure it in his Line, caused the Innocent young King, and his only Brother, the Duke of York, to be barbarously murdered in the Tower; yet did he within three years lose both his Crown and Life to Henry Earl of Richmond, on whom, and his Heirs, it was again by Act of Parliament entailed, which yet would little have availed him or his Posterity, had he not prudently (according to his promise, by which several of the Nobility were induced to assist him) married Elizabeth, eldest Daughter of King Edward the IVth. and immediate Heiress of the Crown, whereby, happily turning his Usurpation into a lawful Sovereignty, he secure himself in the Throne.  
But that his Issue by any other Lady could not have had better Success against the Princely House of York, than Adonijah had against Solomon, may more than probably be presumed, if we shall consider, what Fate attended the many mad Acts, made by Henry the VIIIth. about the Succession.  
This haughty Prince, whose capricious Humour none of his Parliaments durst gainsay, having after above twenty years' Cohabition divorced his Queen, a chaste and virtuous Lady, did in the twenty fifth year of his Reign disinherit by Act of Parliament the Lady Mary his Daughter by her, settling the Crown by special Words, for want of Issue Male, on his Issue Female by the Lady Anne Bullen: To the observation of which Act the whole Nation was obliged by an Oath, imposed the year following, the Refusal of which Oath was adjudged Misprision of Treason. And yet in the twenty eighth year of his Reign he bastardized and made illegitimate to all intents and purposes (as he had done formerly the Issue of Queen Katherine) the Issue betwixt him and the Lady Anne Bullen, barring them to claim, challenge, or demand any Inheritance, as Lawful Heir, or heirs to him by Lineal Descent; making it Treason for any one (notwithstanding their former Oath) by Words, Writing, Printing, or any other exterior Act directly, or indirectly to call any of the Children, born under the unlawful Marriages of Katherine and Anne Bullen, legitimate; and enacting, that case he had no Issue by Jane (his then Queen) he might dispose of the Crown to whatsoever person or persons, he pleased, the whole Nation being bound to the observance of this Law by the Sanctimony of an Oath, the refusal whereof was made High Treason. After all this, in the thirty fifth year of his Reign he by another Act entailed the Crown on himself, Prince Edward, and the Princesses Marry, and Elizabeth, (without repealing the former Acts, or taking the least notice of their being so signally bastardized (and for default of Heirs of their Bodies, on such person or persons, as he should nominate by his Letters Patents under his Great Seal, or by his last Will in writing, signed by his most Gracious Hand, the whole Nation being again sworn to observe his pleasure herein: Consequently whereunto he by such his last Will and Testament solemnly bequeathed the Crown, upon failure of his own Issue, to the House of Suffolk, and his Act of Parliament lay) the Issue of his Elder Sister, means from the Throne, (as much in him, and his Act of Parliament lay) the Issue of his Elder Sister, whose Royal Blood he affirmed the cold Air of Scotland, to have frozen up in the North. Yet when after the Death of his Three Children, reigning successively, these disinheriting Statutes (the last whereof was confirmed by Act of Parliament in the first year of Queen Elizabeth, in whose thirteenth year there passed also an Act, That it should be Treason, during her Life, and a Praemunire afterwards, to assert▪ that the Imperial Crown of England could not be disposed of by Act of Parliament) came to the Test, they had not the Honour to be repealed, but were held null and void from the beginning, as being notoriously repugnant to the Laws of GOD and Nature, and the common Customs and Constitutions of the Realm. And the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons assembled in Parliament (notwithstanding all these unrepealed Acts (having confessed the Inestimable and unspeakable Blessings accrueing from the Union of England and Scotland under one Imperial Crown in the Person of King James, lineally, rightfully and lawfully, descended of the most Excellent Lady Margaret, Eldest Daughter, of the most renowned King Henry the VIIth. and the high and noble Princess Queen Elizabeth, his Wife, eldest Daughter of King Edward the IVth. proceeded to the Recognition of his Title in these Words: We, being bounden thereunto both by the Laws of GOD and Man, do recognize and acknowledge that immediately upon the Dissolution and Decease of Elizabeth, late Queen of England, the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England, and all the Kingdoms, Dominions, and Rights, belonging to the same, did by inherent Birthright, and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come to your most Excellent Majesty, as being lineally, justly, and lawfully next and sole Heir of the Blood Royal of this Realm: And that by the Goodness of GOD Almighty, and lawful Right of Descent Your Majesty is under one Imperial Crown of the Realms and Kingdoms of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland the most potent and mighty King. And thereunto we most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige ourselves, our Heirs, and our Posterities for ever. And some years after it was by all the Judges of England expressly resolved in calvin's Case: That King James his title to the Crown was founded upon the Laws of Nature, viz. by inherent Birthright, and Descent from the Blood Royal of this Realm.  
All Acts of Parliament then for excluding from the Throne the next Heir of the Blood Royal, on whom the Crown descends by the Laws of God and Nature, by inherent Birthright, and undoubted Succession, being ipso facto null and void, it is not to be wondered, that his present Sacred Majesty so constantly declared, that he would never consent to alter the Descent of the Crown in the right Line, as not being willing, by showing, his People a Method of disposing the Succession, to shake at the same time the Title of his own Possession: Since it is evident, that the Heir apparent, or next of Blood hath the same Right to enjoy the Crown after his Predecessors Death, as the Actual Possessor hath to it, during his Life.  
But well far the noble Lords of England, who (with a Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari) rejected that abominable Bill, which, though it would, if passed an Act, have been of no greater Force or Validity, than the Wild Ordinances of the Rebellious Parliament of 1640. yet might it (as they were) be made use of to induce the deluded Multitude to hazard their Souls, Bodies, and Estates by a damnable Opposition of their Lawful Sovereign, and to raise up a Contest in this Nation, not unlike to the old Yorkish and Lancastrian Quarrel, the Thoughts whereof every good Man must certainly dread, when he shall seriously consider, how that War lasted about sixty years, and cost the Kingdom its whole Treasure, and the Lives of above two hundred thousand of the Commons, besides several Kings and Princes, and Nobles without number.  
So sensible was the renowned Queen Elizabeth, of those fatal Consequences, which necessarily attend so unjust an Act, as that of altering the Succession, that, although for Reason's obvious enough (and needless here to be mentioned) she yielded to pass an Act, whereby it was made Treason to say that she and her Parliament could not dispose of the Crown, yet could she never be brought to give her Consent to the actual disposing thereof, though the next Heir, then alive, was not only a Papist, but her own Rival to the Throne. Nay she was so averse to any such Act, that (as Camden, tells us,) She never heard any thing more unwillingly, than that the Title of Succession should be called into question. And therefore she sent Mr. Thornton Reader of Law in Lincolns-Inn, to the Tower, because in his Reading he called in question the Queen of Scots Title to the Crown. And when the Lord Keeper Bacon was accused by the Earl of Leicester for having intermeddled against the Queen of Scots Right to the Succession, and for being privy to a Book, wherein Hales went about to derive the Title of the Crown of England, in case the Queen should die without Issue, to the House of Suffolk, Hales was therefore committed to the Tower, and Bacon, though denying it, was not without great difficulty restored to favour. So likewise, when in the eighth year of her Reign, Bell Mounson, and a great Number of the House of Commons, thought it their Right, as Representatives of the whole Kingdom, whereof they do not in reality represent the sixth part, to decide and settle the Succession, the Queen by a Princelike Speech in the  speedily suppressed their insolence. In like manner when in the thirty fifth year of her Reign Mr. Peter Wentworth and Sir Henry Bromley delivered a Petition to the Lord Keeper, desiring the Lords of the Upper House to be Suppliants with them of the Lower to Her Majesty for entailing the Succession of the Crown, for which they had a Bill ready drawn, the Queen highly displeased hereat, charged her Council to call the Parties before them: Whereupon Sir Thomas Henage, sending for them, commanded them to forbear the Parliament, and not to go out of their several Lodgings. They were after called before the Lord Trease●er, Lord Buckhurst, Sir Thomas Henage, by whom Wentworth was committed to the Tower, Sir Henry Bromley, and other Members of the House of Commons, to whom he had imparted the matter, being sent ●o the Fleet. So careful was this prudent Queen to keep the People from presuming to intermeddle with the Succession.  
The same Consideration, that the Altering or Diverting the Succession in an hereditary Monarchy, where the Kings (deriving their Royal Power from GOD Almighty alone) do succeed lineally to the Crown, according to the known Degrees of Proximity in Blood, cannot be attempted without involving the Subjects in Purjury and Rebellion, and exposing of them to all the Fatal and Dreadful Consequences ●f a Civil War, not only caused the Estates of Scotland from an hearty and sincere Sense of their Duty to recognize, acknowledge, and declare, That the Right to the Imperial Crown of that Realm is (by the Inherent Right, and the Nature of the Monarchy, as well as by the Fundamental and unalterable Laws of the Realm) transmitted and devolved by a Lineal Succession according to the Proximity of Blood; And that upon the Death of the King or Queen, who actually Reigns, the Subjects of that Kingdom are bound by Law, Duty and Allegiance to obey the next immediate and lawful Heir, either Male or Female, upon whom the Right and Administration of Government is immediately devolved; And that no Difference in Religion nor no Law, nor Act of Parliament, made, or to be made, can alter or divert the Right of Succession and Lineal Descent of the Crown to the nearest and lawful Heir, according to the Degrees aforesaid; nor can stop or hinder them in the full, free and actual Administration of the Government, according to the Laws of the Kingdom; but are obliged for the preservation of the Peace and Tranquillity of that Kingdom, with Advice and Consent of the said Estates of Parliament, to declare, That it is High Treason in any of the Subjects of that Kingdom, by Writing, Speaking, or any other manner of way, to endeavour the Alteration, Suspension, or Diversion of the said Right of Succession, or the debarring the next lawful Successor from the immediate, actual, full, and free Administration of the Government.  
Nor is it to be doubted, but that the Commons of England, who now begin to grow sensible of those Precipices of Ruin, whereinto they were ready to tumble through the Contrivances of those malicious Incendiaries, that by terrifying the People with panic Fears, and Arbitrary Power endeavoured to kindle a Fire of Rebellion in this Nation, will, whenever it shall please their Majesty to call a Parliament, show themselves no less Zealous (than the Scots) to assist and defend (according to their Oaths) the Rights and Privileges, the chiefest whereof, upon which all the rest depend, as on a Corner Stone, is the unalterable Hereditariness of the Monarchy, and thereby defeat the Designs of those cursed Achithophels', who labour by involving us in Confusion to establish their beloved Democracy, the very worst of Tyrannies.   
FINIS.  

LONDON, Printed for H.I. 1688.