parts thereof And as to the first we will find That he was so far from Governing according to Law that so soon as he thought himself out of the danger of the Monmouth Rebellion by his Victory over him in the West and Triumph on Tower-hill and that his severe Prosecution of the remainder of that Party had secured him against all other opposition his whole Government was a perfect opposition to the Law after that most of the great Employments of the Nation were disposed of by him to persons by Law uncapable of them At Court we had a Secretary and Privy-Seal Lords of the Treasury and Privy-Counsellors with their President of that sort in the Administration of Justice we had Judges Sheriffs Justices of the Peace with a long c. of unqualified persons in the Cities our Mayors and other Magistrates were so the Army which was wholly against Law was made more illegal by its unqualified Officers and the other persons whereof it consisted the Tower in ill hands and the very Church not free of such Vermin the chief Government of Ireland given to one that designed to dismember it from this Crown Were not our Persons imprisoned against Law witness the Seven Bishops Were we not disseised of our Estates against Law and without Tryal witness Dr. Hough Were not Taxes levied on us without and against Law witness the Custom-house Books Were not some of us Hanged up as Criminals without any colour of Law at least less than was for the Dispensing Power or Ecclesiastical Commission so little as could not satisfie him that was well satisfied in both the other These are Instances of the breach of the Law in the case of our Liberties Lives and Properties and that our Souls might be endangered were not Schools and Churches opened to the Romish Clergy Had any of their Converts the reward due to them by Law and to keep us under these Oppressions without redress Were not our Parliaments put off and Prorogued from time to time and not suffered to sit at the end of three years as the Law requires This was the condition of the Executive Power And as for the Legislative it was far worse and wholly over-thrown by the claim of an Absolute power to which we were to submit without reserve the Dispensing with the Ecclesiastical Laws implied a Power of Dispensing with all the rest and the Dispensing with any one was an Usurpation on the Legislative For to what end should the Parliament make Laws if they were to be of force only during the King's pleasure If that were so all their costs and pains could not ensure them one Law for so long time as would be requisite for their Journey home and as the Suspension of one Law is certainly the making of another As for instance the Law imposes Twelve-pence for not coming to Church on Sunday the Proclamation suspending that Act enacts that I may stay at home or go to a worse place without paying any thing so it seems to me that the last is the higher Power for to controle an Act requires more Authority than contributed to the first making of it as the daily experience of our Courts shews us the King's-Bench controles the rest but no inferiour Court puts any check to the proceedings thereof Lastly The Kings of England never claimed nor exercised such a Power before 62 and 72 and then the Endeavours were but faint the Crown wished for such a Power and afterwards on the Remonstrance of the Commons promised it should never be drawn into Consequence or Example The imposing Taxes and Oaths on the Subject was always looked upon as another branch of the Legislative Power but both were exercised by the late King As to the last part mentioned we have seen the late King corrupting the Elections by the meanest Arts a perpetual regulation of the Corporations until they could find a Sett of Men that would engage to chuse such persons as should be recommendeâ— by the Court and daily displacing all persons that would not engage their Votes But this was not all the injury done us in relation to the House of Commons we had Sheriffs and Mayors not qualified for their Offices so not capable of guiding the Elections Formerly under weak Princes and in ill times there has been attempts made against the Constitution of the Kingdom but never so Universal an one or with such success as now neither was it ever attempted before this Reign to pack a whole House of Commons New Creations has done something of that sort on the Peers and there has been Irregularities in particular Elections but it was never attempted before to rob us of the whole House of Commons at present the Crown neither claims nor aims at any of these things now the Law runs in its old channel and that it may still do so the King has given us Judges of the ablest of their profession and the Chancery from a State-Courtâ— is now become a Court of Conscience the Crown pretends to no absolute Authority either in suspending or altering our Laws the King concurs with his People in all Laws they have prâ—pared for his Royal Assent and wishes to be no greater than the Laws of England make him with respect to the House of Commons he has seized on no Charters nor used any Regulations but the present Members of that House are the most unanimously chosen that ever any were And now let the World judge whether our Religion Laws and Liberties are not in a better condition than in the late Reign Our Author tells us that the second Article shews the ways and means King James used to effect what he was charged with in the first which is an assuming and exercising a Power of dispensing with and suspending Laws and the execution of them without Act of Parliament Our Author is so modest as not to deny this or the fatal consequences thereof to the Kingdom but excuses it as done by colour of the Prerogative whereas the Prerogative is nothing but the Law of the Land and a part of it with which the King is intrusted for the good of his People He then tells us That the present Parliament have made some Acts that Abrogate old and others that are new Laws But unless he shews us that the King assumes 〈◊〉 Power to himself the Times are not parallel and that is what he promised to make appear Our Author in this and in other Sections is witty or thinks himself so upon our present Parliament calling them Self-created and that they have assumed God's Prerogative of creating themselves out of nothing as if God had done so For the taking off that Assertion and clearing of that matter I must desire you to remember that the Essential parts of an English Parliament are the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons chosen by the several Shires and Towns of the Nation as their Representatives Now the Convention that met at Westminster the 22d of
the Test of Scotland when he represented his Brother there and lastly from the severe prosecution of the Dissenters in the beginning of his own Reign in all his Kingdoms and as to Scotland the 8th of May 85. he passed an Act of Parliament there making it Death to preach or be present at an House or Field-Conventicle which severity would certainly have lasted to the end could he have brought the Church of England to have complied with his unreasonable Desires in relation to the Test And if we look into his Letter which carried the first Indulgence to Scotland and into the Proclamation itself we shall find several Restrictions that do not seem to flow from that principle He thereby recommends the rooting out of the Field-Conventiclers with all the Severities of the Law and the most vigorous prosecution of his Forces And then except the Papist only the Quakers and the moderate Presbyterians were tolerated which either were so few or by a Court-interpretation might have been declared so that had the matter gone smoothly with the Papists it might easily have been rendred useless to all but themselves and surely no other Reason could be given for restraining them from using their Barns or Out-Houses or building Meeting-Houses a Quaker's Conscience knew no difference between a Barn Church or Meeting-House where-ever the Spirit moved he must hold forth notwithstanding the Restrictions of the Proclamation Thirdly If the easing scrupulous Consciences had been the late King 's only Aim he would have been contented with the Repeal of the Penal Laws and not have insisted so stifly for the Repeal of the test-Test-Acts also nothing therein being any restraint on any Dissenter's worship unless they believed God would not hear their Prayers unless they were in Scarlet or in an Alderman's Gown And he was so fond of his Design of Repealing the Test-Acts that thô he found how averse the generality of the Nation were thereunto thô he found by Pensionary Fagel's Letter what was the Prince and Princess of Orange's Opinions in the matter how they did concur with him in the Repeal of the Penal Laws but not of the Test-Acts because those Acts had no other tendency but the Security of the Established Religion and keeping the Papists from the means of oveâ—turning it with other plain and solid Reasons yet he still persisted in his Design and was no ways satisfied with the Distinction made of the Test from the Penal Laws as appears by Mr. Stewart's Letter of October the Nineteenth 1687. From hence I think it appears more clearly than from the mouth of many Witnesses that the late King 's main Design was to get the Papists into Both Houses of Parliament where new Creations could have made a majority in the House of Peers and a House of Commons might as easily have been made Popish by force or fraud in the Elections or Returns to facilitate which we wanted neither Sheriffs nor Regulators and then how easie had it been for them to enact Laws to destroy our Religion we having before-hand Repealed all those made for its preservation And to those that require a Witness we have Coleman telling us That a general Liberty of Conscience is the best way to introduce Popery and the greatest blow to the Protestant Religion here that ever it received since its birth that King Charles's Renuntiation of his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience was an injury to the Papists and their Designs And why should we not rather believe him than the Author especially since we know that it is an old Maxime of the Society And further it is not to be imagined that Coleman and his Confederates would have been so zealous in their time in promoting Liberty of Conscience and with the assistance of France barely for the Ease of the Nation The whole Kingdom was lately so sensible of this and so plainly saw whether this Project tended that the Dissenters thô they had not forgotten the smart of the Penal Laws at least the Men of Reason amongst them desired their continuance rather than by Repealing them as demanded to run the hazard of loosing the Protestant Religion after which surely we need produce no further proof to this point Our Author next tells us how much the late King hated Hypocrisie and that he looked upon it as the most detestable Vice In answer to which I shall only say that if he was a Papist so early as most people believe he dissembled many Years with God and Man if attending at the Prayers of our Church and receiving the Sacrament there be so in a Papist I know not how to evade this but by saying he abstained from both as soon as he was a Papist But if this take off one Objection it lays him open to another as ill viz. In so silently parting with his Religion as not to call to one of our many Clergy-men that were at hand for help This shews he had but little value for the Old and if so I should suspect he had not all the Zeal for the New that he pretended but this as it is in the dark so there let it remain until the Secrets of all Hearts are opened But there is another thing looks very like Hypocrisie and a dissembling his Religion when the whole Nation seemed satisfied what it was and that is prosecuting people by Actions of Scandalum Magnatum and Indictments for calling him a Papist many Instances whereof might be given in both Kingdoms this was certainly as much below the Honour of a Gentleman as the Sincerity of a Christian But not to enlarge hereon our Author in pag. 4 tells us That the late King chose the easiest Methods and used all the caution and moderation imaginable to effect his Design which he calls only The making of all Parties live easie under his Government And tells us the Opinion of some Lawyers and the Judgment he had to support his Dispensing Power opened the Door for the admission of both kind of Dissenters to Places of Trust Military and Civil but that he made but little use of it till necessity compelled him to it In answer to which I must say That the Methods the late King took to procure the Repeal of the Penal Laws and Test were not only mean if going round a great part of the Nation to sollicite Votes or closseting to that end were so but also violent if displacing all Men from their Offices and Imployments that would not promise to consent to the Repeal nay they must go further to secure their Places and promise to be aiding and assisting thereunto were not the changes of Corporations as violent as scandalous Lastly The universal inquiry how Men designed to Vote if Elected Parliament-men and what sort of Members they designed to chuse was not only unusual and without precedent but took away and destroyed the very Essence of an English Parliament freedom both of Choice and Debate But now as to the instance by which our Author proves
January last was composed of these not a County City or Borough of England but appeared there by their Representatives and the whole Peers did or might have appeared by themselves or Proxies so that here was a Parliament in substance and the Author will not pretend that any thing was wanting but the King 's Writ to call them together To which I say first That anciently when Parliaments met at the King's Court on fixed times as the Feast of the Nativity and other Feasts every year we have no account of any Summons because the Time and Place of meeting being known that was needless But these Times are so dark that I will not insist much on this nor on the Election of our Kings in the Saxon Times which was done by an Assembly convened certainly without the King 's Writ or any Authority from one I confess that in the ordinary Administration of Affairs the King's Writ is requisite to bring the Nation to a great Council But this is not required so much for any Authority derived from thence as to keep up an agreement and harmony in the Government if this were otherwise all Members could sit in the House of Commons that have such a Writ authorizing their Election which not so especially in long-liv'd Parliaments such as King Charles the Second's was there a Majority of the House might have been of such as were Elected by vertue of a Warrant from the Speaker In 73 about Thirty Members Elected by vertue of the King's Writs were not suffered to sit but were dismissed the House and the Speaker Issued Warrants for new Elections so that in these cases the Authority seems to proceed more from the Speaker's Warrant than the King 's Writ But I say that from this usual practise it does not follow that the Estates may not Assemble otherwise in extraordinary Cases As in this Hereditary Monarchy Suppose the Royal Family were extinct must the Nation remain still in confusion never come into any form of Government because we cannot have the King 's Writ to Summon a Parliament that is unreasonable therefore the Representatives of the Nation must meet and settle the Government without any Writ of Summons this is no impossible supposition though it never happened in this Kingdom because it has happened in other places and upon such occasions the Government has been re-settled by the States Next Supposing that on the Death of the reigning King his Son or Successor is far distant this is no fictitious supposition because it really happened In what condition must we be until the return of our King or directions from him The Authority of our Judges Sheriffs c. determined with the King's Life so they cannot act therefore in this necessity to avoid Anarchy and Confusion the States of the Kingdom must meet and settle the Government by appointing Officers and doing what else is requisite for the safety of the Kingdom And this they did upon the Death of Henry the Third without any Writ or Authority from his absent Son After the Death of William Rufus the Crown of this Kingdom was given to King Henry by an Assembly of the people not chosen by Writ this shews also the regard they had in those days to the Lineal succession These instances shew that the King 's VVrit of Summons is not so essentially necessary to the Being of Parliaments but that the people of England may and have assembled in some cases without them of which we have a very late instance in the Parliament to which the Royal Family is much obliged and to which the Nation was more obliged than to any but the one now sitting I mean the Parliament that brought back the Royal Family This Parliament met without the King 's VVrit and was called in the Name of the Keepers of the Liberties of England and yet fate made Laws and acted as a Parliament with King Charles the second for several Months together and yet no Man can say there was so great reason for their continuing together as for the present Parliaments we had not then so many Enemies abroad and at home the Kingdom was in full quiet the French and Irish were not then our avowed Enemies nor ready to devour us a forty days delay then had not put us in the power of either of them as probably it had now done and if the King had now taken that course the consequence had only been the trouble of Electing the same persons a-new and postponing the necessary preparations for our security for two Months at least And if we further compare the Case in question with these I have mentioned we will find that it has much the advantage in other circumstances for that Parliament laboured under more difficulties than the want of VVrits of Summons a doubt that the Long Parliament was then in being by vertue of King Charles the First 's unfortunate Act that it should not be dissolved without their own consent and in 59 King Charles was at Breda or not much further off and he would gladly have Issued VVrits if they had been desired of him but his Brother cancelled and tore those he had once Issued that Parliament met without any request from the Body of the people this at the Express request of the City of London and almost the whole Nation and if that Parliament was called by those that Exercised the chief Authority in the Nation so was this by him that at our own desire had taken the Administration of Affairs upon him though the Royal Line was not extinct yet in October last the Kingdom was left as much in confusion and without government as if that misfortune had befallen us a Parliament by VVrits we could not have and without a Parliament it was impossible to settle the Kingdom so that we had no choice but either to continue without any Government as we were or to meet in Parliament as we did which being formerly done in other Countries as well as our own And since the King is pleased to consult with them we must acquiesce in their Judgments and obey them as the Legislative power of this Kingdom notwithstanding our Author's Jests here and his Assertions in the fourth Article That this is done without precedent or colour of Law The third Article Article is His committing and prosecuting the Bishops for humbly Petitioning to be excused from consenting to the said assumed Power of Suspending the Laws and their execution For answer to which our Author refers us to what he said on this subject before and therefore so do I. He tells us further on this Head That the present Government remembring the Proverb Felix quem faciunt is resolved to avoid the Rocks the last split upon which I look upon to be no ill news For now if we will take the Author's word there will be no further attempts against our Church or Religion our Laws or Properties but God-bethanked we have better assurance than the Author
struggle for Mastery occasioned what was so done It were but a small improvement of this Observation to shew that our Author broaches this Doctrine with the same design now when prudent and pious Endeavours are using to remove all stumbling-blocks out of the Dissenter's way in coming to our Churches which I hope will meet with the wished-for success notwithstanding all the endeavours of Rome and Hell to the contrary Next our Author goes to demonstrate That the overthrow of the Church of England or especially of Protestanism was never designed and this he thinks he does by the King 's so often declaring the contrary and by the sence he and his Juncto had that their Converts were but few and by the late King 's granting a safe retreat and liberal contribution to the French Protestants and by the paucity of the Papists in his Army To which I say that from all these it does not follow that the destruction of the Church was not designed for unless the King's Word were like the Laws of the Medes and Persians unalterable it will be but a loose Consequence the King promised not to do it therefore he will not it conculdes much stronger the Principles of his Religion obliege him to it therefore he will endeavour it When this Argument was used soon after the Gracious assurance given us at the first Council or first Session of Parliament where the same was again repeated it had so much colour of an Argument that it deceived many especially when there was subjoyned to it That these promises and assurances came from a Prince that valued his word so much as never to have broken it Buâ— now that we have seen him break through Laws that he had sworn as well as promised to maintain the very pretence to an Argument is vanished for as there is more Injustice so there is more of Dishonour in the one than the other When we examine his other instances they will prove as inconclusive for he could not deny a retreat to the fugitive Hugonots without allaruming his own Subjects and discovering his Designs too plainly to the most short-sighted and they were not then ripe for such a discovery After such an action who would have believed him that it was his Opinion That Conscience ought not to be forced If he had endeavoured either by fair or foul means to have preserved the Edict of Nantes to have supported that most distressed part of Mankind from their King's Barbarities as Queen Elizabeth did and his Father attempted it would have been a better proof of his love for Liberty of Conscience than either his Declarations or a small Charity afforded to a few fugitives which I must call but small when I consider what the Elector of Brandenburgh did for those poor people that great Man not only offorded them a safe retreat when they came into his Dominions but by a solemn Declaration invited them to take shelter there and to assist them in their Journey appointed his several Agents in Holland Hamburgh Francfort and Cologne to furnish all such of them as should desire it with what Vessels and Provisions they should stand in need of for the Transportation of themselves their Goods and Families to whatsoever Town in his Dominions they should pitch upon for the place of their abode But his kindness did not rest here for he provided Houses and Lands for them and their Heirs and where it was necessary he provided them all Materials for Repairs and Building where Houses were built on new Foundations they had Ten years Exemption from all Taxes and Duties and Six years where they were only repaired And for a further encouragement he made them Free of all his Towns and Corporations without paying any thing for the same and lest they might be oppressed he set over them a Jurisdiction composed of persons chosen by themselves and if any difference happened between them and a German this person was to joyn with the Magistrate in deciding the same and maintained one of their own Ministers for them in every Town with several other great favours If King James had taken this course our Author might have insisted on it at least as an heroick Act but since he did not set out a Fleet or so much as one single Ship to assist those poor people in their flight and when with difficulty they had gotten here he left them to their shifts and the charity of the Nation I do not see what he could have done less especially if we consider one discouragement that went along with it It is true he suffered them to breathe of his Air but would not suffer them to sigh or complain of the usage they had met with in France but at the instance of the French Ambassador ordered the Account they had written thereof to be Burnt by the hand of the Hangman which was accordingly done the fifth of May 86 and the Royal Exchange was made the place of Execution that the account thereof might fly the easier over France by our Merchant's Letters to their Correspondents there which as it proved a discouragement to those in France not to take sanctuary here so it so much frightned those that were then here that many of them thereupon removed to the West-Indies and other places where the French King's Ministers had not so much power being justly jealous that that power might soon be improved to a forcing them back But since our Author lays so much stress on this Act if ye examine the matter a little further we shall find these poor people owe the compleating of their misery to the late King For though the Tyrant began to oppress his Protestant Subjects some years ago which from time to time encreased as his Interest did at our Court yet he never ventured on the total suppression of the Reformed Religion nor revoked the Edict of Nantes until October 85. that the late King was on the Throne for as much his friend as King Charles was yet he did not know how far a Parliament might have influenced him to resent that matter therefore he forbore it until all was sure on this side the Water Next as to the Number of Papists in the Army they will appear very many if we consider two things First that there were fewer of them to be had in England than of other Men fit to be Souldiers and yet their proportion was greater with respect to the Army than to the Kingdom otherwise there had not been above two or three in a Regiment all that exceeded that number seems to be the effect of industry and pains rather than chance Next we must remember the little time the late King had for this mighty business he had little more than three years for the Raising his Army which at first to avoid offence was to be Protestant but a few Officers whose Loyalty he had experienced and having had the benefit of their Services in the late time of need and
Council and put them upon some difficulty and that there was no expedient to be found but either to acquit or commit them This seems strange and is not only a reflection on the Lawyers of the Board but on those learned Gentlemen that were attending for surely none of the four were so ignorant they could have told the King you may and ought to dismiss them for this time with a Reprimand and acquaint them that as soon as the Term comes which was not far off an Information should be exhibited against them for their Seditious Libel and that if they did not appear to answer the same Process would issue against them those that had been Chief Justices of that Court and the King's Council knew this very well but that did not answer their ends they were in hast and by this method the Term might have been spent without any Tryal And what is more they would not have known how to have avoided the Archbishop's Presence to the affair they were to have in hand soon this looks so like their Politicks that it finds greater belief than any positive proof we have for it deserves The next Assertion is That the Bishop's Tryal was managed favourably and that over-sights were committed in the want of proof and suffering the dispencing Power to be so fully argued These were certainly over sights but they were such as were not to be remedied by any diligence and should have been considered before the Prosecution was resolved on for it was obvious to the meanest capacity that the Bishops would make that defence but their rage blinded them in more particulars than our Author mentions else they had never forgotten that the Archbishop was not at White hall or that he had not done any Act in the County where they laid their Venue I formerly mentioned their want of proof of the publishing and I might here add those other ingredients of a Libel Falsity and Malice had they not been transported with Rage or something more extravagant could they hope that twelve English-men would believe it unlawful to Petition the King had not their former success with Juries been great they would never have attempted so extravagant a thing With what patience the late King endured the rejoycing at the Bishop's acquittal I know not but it would seem by the Proceedings of his Ecclesiastical Commissioners and their Order of the 12th of July to all the Chancellors of the Kingdom to return them the Names of all such of our Clergy as did not Read the King's Declaration on the 16th day of August following that he was not resolved to let the matter end so and though the Jury had acquit them he had a Sett of Commissioners that knew better the sin of disobeying his Majesty's Commands and if destruction had not come suddenly upon them it is not to be imagined what Examples we should have had of his fury if we compute according to the Durham pattern we should have had at least Five thousand suspended Ministers in the Kingdom which does many times exceed the Numbers that were deprived either on King Edward or Queen Elizabeth's Reformation And then as to the King's Justice in the matter of which our Author says none have reason to complain it was making a Petition a Libel and the delivery of it to himself in his Bed-chamber or Closet a Publishing of it and surely there was as little Justice or Clemency in the last part of the Tragedy to displace the Judges for discharging their Consciences and declaring the Law to be as really it was was so arbitrary that the Great Lewis could have done no more if his Commands had been contradicted and to do that so suddenly after the Tryal and to supersede them before they had finished the Circults to which they had been appointed did so much proclaim his rage that few people will be perswaded that he would patiently have endured the Huzza's our Author speaks of if he had known how to help it He supposes we will lay no great stress upon the King 's placing some Roman Catholicks in Colledges it being known that the Kings of England have in all Ages dispenced with Qualifications required by the Vniversity-Statutes especially since the Judgment for the Dispencing Power How this Judgment comes to be urged here I do not see unless it be because the word Dispence is used in both for that Judgment as extravagant as it was had no influence on our Universities for that great reason That nothing ought to hinder the King of the Use and Service of his Subjects has no force here unless we allow that the corrupting the Youth of the Nation was the service the King had for those Popish Emissaries and then that other reason That the Laws of England are the King's Laws does not come up to the present case because the Magdalen-Statutes are also the Founder's Laws and therefore not to be changed without his or his Successor's consent but supposing the King had such a Power by the Law was that the way he swore to support the Church of England was not that trusting our Sheep and Lambs to the Wolf to keep In this particular as in all others of Honour or Profit the Papist had the better much of the Dissenter in whose favour we do not find one Mandate to the University These are the particulars our Author says gave the greatest cause of clamour and the reason was because they shaked the Foundations of our security and vested the whole Legislature in the King in the support of which Usurpation he was resolved to ruin all that thwarted him on the meanest pretence this made his Rule odious and terrible to the Subject How could we account any thing either of Religion or Property our own when the doors were opened and we were only beholden to the Jesuit's modesty for not entring and stripping us of as much of either of them as they thought fit Before I have done with this Head I must desire you to take notice of our Author'â— modesty in reckoning the late King's injuries to the Church of â—ngland if he had pleased he might have instanced more as the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge's Case who for refusing to admit Alban Francis a Benedictine Monk on the King's Mandate to the degree of Master of Arts without taking the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy appointed to be taken by several Acts of Parliament was deprived of that Office and also suspended ab officio beneficio of his Mastership of Magdaten-Colledge during his Majesty's pleasure This sentence was pronounced the 7 th of May 87 and never relaxed until the General Jubilee on the Bishop's Address October 88. His four new Bishops and keeping Bishopricks vacant all that fell in his time in Ireland and making worse use of some in England entertaining a Nuntio publickly at Court setting a Jesuit at Council-Table were no great Complements to the Church of England nor their publick Schools and Mass-houses the
thought them too many and endeavoured to make them sewer both by tearing so great a Limb as Magdalen from the University and shutting Twenty-seven of them out of the Church by the cruel Decree of the 18th of October 87. And how little he regarded those good Men that helped our Church to flourish may be seen by the Worthies he preferred to the Sees of Oxford and Chester and his preferring Farmer to Dr. Hough that he did this out of kindness to the Church our Author dare not say but he may tell me and that truly that in the See of Bristol it was otherwise and that therefore the King did not always design a scandal or injury to the Church by those he preferred in it I have too great a veneration for the Christian Courage and Sufferings of that Bishop not to make him an Exception out of that Rule But then we must remember he was preferred before his Fears of opposition from the Nation were quit off him and if we consider how many of the Lay-Protestants preferred by him in the beginning of his Reign were afterwards displaced and his after-carriage to that Bishop we may conclude that his High Commission would soon have rectified that mistake by a Deprivation if his fault was any thing greater than not Suspending Dr. Sharp or as great as the Bishop of Dunkell's giving his Vote in Parliament against the Repeal of the Test had it not received an unexpected dissolution But notwithstanding all his Suspensions Deprivations Imprisonments and other favours to our Clergy our Author tells us that many of the Dissenters were brought into the Communion of the Church by the unanswerable Writings of that time against Popery that these should influence them more than those learned ones set out a little before for their Conviction shews that the terrour of Popery wanted not its force in perswading them to that prudent Conduct But how to draw an Argument from hence in praise of the late King or his Times I see not unless those straying Sheep were brought back to the Fold by the diligence of his Shepherds Was any of those Pieces written by Sa. Oxon or did the famous Rippon's Sermon contribute thereunto Not so much I dare say as it did to the Preacher's Bishoprick I must confess the Reasons for Abrogating the Test Mr. Sclater's and Obediah's Pieces contributed thereunto but it was by setting ingenious Men to write Answers to them Before I close this Section I must again put you in mind of what I sormerly hinted to you That the Indulgence coming at the nick of time when things were healing very fast and when the great Scare-crow the approaches of our Church to Popery was experimentally confuted it looks as if some-body designed to widen our Breaches and to disappoint the Church of that satisfaction which was not more earnestly desired by us than dreaded by them As to the fifth in which our Author tells us That the Church of England is in danger and pretends to prove it by the late Act of Toleration I say first that the late King 's being larger must have endangered it more if the Act let in Turcism as our Author falsly suggests it keeps out Idolatry and at once frees us from God's Judgments due to that crying Sin and in a great measure from Popish Contrivances for now the Jesuits must work in the dark as they did formerly which as it much retards their designs so it occasions many mistakes to the frequent frustrating thereof the Act requires the professing of Faith in Father Son and Holy Ghost and thereby excludes Mahometism which the Proclamation does not Next I say it is pretty strange to find one that has said so much for Liberty of Conscience and a Proclamation granting it making the Act for Toleration dangerous Is it not lawful for their present Majesties to Signalize their Reign on the same Principle our Author pretends King James designed Or is the present Liberty the worse or more dangerous to Church or State becausâ— it comes as it ought to do in a regular and legal way from the Legislative Power Is it the worse because it does not alter the Constitution of our Government Had it been the less hurtful if like the late King 's it had placed the Royal Will and Pleasure above our Laws Does the King in the present Toleration claim an Absolute Power which we are bound to obey without reserve And does he thereby impose an Oath on us not only to submit to that Power but to assist and defend him in the Exercise thereof Since in these several particulars it has the advantage of the late King 's I doubt not but it will be more satisfactory to all people and that the Church will receive Ease as well as Enlargement by it 6. But Episcopacy is Abolished in Scotland and from thence sprung the Covenant that destroyed it here formerly our Author might as well have told us it was so at Geneva What has the Declaration of their Estates to do with the Government of our Church they do not so much as pretend to it only declaring it a Grievance to that Kingdom If the Author had but known how unlike the Scotch Bishops were to ours how unable they were of late to do any thing but mischief how little difference there is between no Episcopacy and Bishops during pleasure he would the less lament the loss but in truth the Abuses might have been redressed by other and easier methods good Laws might have restored Episcopacy to its antient Purity for otherwise and by that Argument we ought to Abolish Judges here because they have abused their Power being like the Scotch Bishops by their tenure Slaves to the Court though this is unreasonable and better methods have been taken but if we had chosen the other course certainly the loss would never have been less lamented than now when we are bleeding of the Wounds they have given us The Scotch I think should have remembred that the Protomartyr of the last Reign was one of those Tenants at Will and that Dr. Bruce was thrust out of the Bishoprick of Dunkell for opposing the Repeal of the Test These Nations ought to remember that it was he set us the glorious Example of despising the Honours and Profits of this World when they came in competition with the Preservation of the Protestant Religion But it is not fitting to be too positive in this matter relating to the Church of Scotland since it is uncertain what expedients his Majesty's Wisdom may find out for the satisfaction of that divided Nation But he tells us there is a Party in our Parliament endeavouring the same thing but who told him so he does not say if we judge of them by their Actions neither the Coronation-Oath nor the Address of the 16th of April last shews any thing of this and in the King's Answer thereunto and in the Speech that occasioned that Address we have his Majesty 's repeated Assurances
's or his King's word And though this were a sufficient reason for the mild course taken by the new Act injoyning the Oaths yet certainly the Nation does attribute that course very much to the mild Nature of the King who would not too hastily exact a Complyance nor too severely punish the want of it though certainly the accepting of him for King and swearing Allegiance to him is a matter of far greater moment than any opposition King James met with from the Church and so might deserve a severer punishment than for not obeying an illegal Mandate Our Author misses no opportunity of telling what is doing in Scotland but he is not so forward to tell us News from Ireland He tells us the Scotch Clergy are obliged to pray for the King and Queen under pain of Deprivation and pray why should they not But does not tell us that the Bishop of Dunkell was deprived by the late King for Voting or Arguing in Parliament according to his Conscience neither does he give us any account of the pretended Act of Parliament in Ireland taking away many of the Rights of the Clergy without any pretended fault nor of their Act repealing the Acts of Settlement which almost renders useless another of their Acts attainting our Nobility Gentry and Clergy only for being in England Here is Fangs and Claws with a witness and of so weak a Government that one would think these Acts were designed for nothing else than to shew the Temper of the Man and those that influence him The fourth Article is against the Court of the Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes To which he says That the Statute repealing the first of Elizabeth hath a Salvo for the King's Supremacy so that there was an appearance of Law to justifie that Commission and that our Parliament meddle with Ecclesiastical matters also Our Author is pretty modest in this Answer pretending but to an Appearance of Law to justifie the late Commission-Court So that now I am not only to argue against the Court but also to shew how little that very Appearance really was which I think will be best done by considering the Statutes of 170 Car. primi C. 110. and the 13. Car. secundi Cap. 12. In the first we will find that the Clause of the Statute of the Queen which Erected the first Ecclesiastical Commission-Court is repealed In this I do not find any Salvo for the King's Supremacy but there is a Clause of another nature to wit That no new Court shall be Erected with the like Power Jurisdiction or Authority as the former had or pretended to have and that all such Commissions made or to be made by his Majesty his Heirs or Successors and all Sentences and Decrees by colour thereof shall be utterly void and of none effect By the 13th of King Charles the second part of this Statute is repealed but what relates to the High Commission or the new Erecting of such another Court is not this Statute has the Salvo I suppose our Author means So that now the matter is shortly thus The first Statute suppresses the High Commission-Court in being and prohibits the Erecting of any such other for the future and Enacts some other things forreign to this matter which by Charles the second 's Statute are repealed But as to the High Commission-Court it confirms the former with the Author 's Salvo that this Act shall not extend to abridge the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs Now though this Statute had by this Clause been Felo de se yet still by the first Statute the Erecting any such new Court is prohibited for the Salvo only is That nothing in that Act shall abridge the King's Supremacy but does not say that nothing in the former shall To obviate this our Author put his Salvo in the first rather than in the other But I say further That though the Salvo had been where our Author would have it or that the Clause had been That nothing in either of the Acts should abridge the Supremacy or to make the matter a little plainer Suppose it had been literally worded provided that the King by his Supremacy may Erect such a Court when he thinks fit the matter had been but little mended for the Enacting part that no such Court should be Erected had been good and the Proviso void for it is a known Rule in Law That the Proviso or Exception must not wholly destroy the preceding Grant though it may lessen or qualifie it As for instance If one grant to me all his Trees and afterwards adds a Proviso except all his Trees the Grant is good and the Proviso void because it would tender the Grant wholly useless but he may except all his Trees in such a place or twenty or any number by name because there is a subject both for the Grant and Exception So a Proviso in the Act might have preserved the Supremacy in Wales or any particular place but being general it is void or rather has no operation on the matter positively Enacted though it may preserve the Supremacy in other matters This Article complains as much of the Executing as the Issuing this illegal Commission To which since our Author says nothing I will only add That though the Law had been plain for the Prerogative in this case as to the Erecting of the Court yet since King Charles who was looked upon as a Protestant did not think fit to put this Power in execution during the Twenty-four years he lived after the Statute which implies That either there was no need of such a Court or that he thought he had no Power of Erecting it it was a bold step in the late King to venture on it but perfect madness as he managed the matter When the Statute was in force the Proceedings were for the Correction and Reformation of such Offences as by the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction could lawfully be corrected and reformed during the continuance of that Court which was near an hundred years The Proceedings there were only against persons that disobeyed the King's Laws never one was punished by them for not obeying a Letter but the Bishop of London the disobeying the King 's Arbitrary and Illegal Mandates was never looked upon as a crime before the late times And for a further instance and proof of their illegal Proceedings the Commissioners that acted in pursuance of the Statute could not proceed against persons for small Crimes or such as could be remedied by the ordinary For which reason we find in our Books that a Prohibition went out of the Temporal Courts to stop their Proceedings against one for Adultery as Judge Hutton tells us in Isabel Peel's Case unless in such Cases as were very exorbitant and notorious Now unless we have lost another the most secret Adultery of the Commandments is a greater Offence and a little more expresly prohibited than the Contempts punished in that Court. In Drake's Case a Prohibition went to stop
their Proceedings against him for Alimony although this was one of the Articles their Commission authorizes them to hear and determine Here the Court looked on their Authority to be from the Statute not the Commission This is a full Judgment and many more might be instanced against those that assert That the King by his Supremacy or the Common Law could Erect such a Court though the Statute were repealed for in this Case he gave Authority to decree Alimony in Cases of severity but because the Statute gave none such their Proceedings were stopped by a Prohibition It is wonderful to me and seems something like an infatuation That the Projectors of that Court did not to gain some credit to it and in return for all the mischiefs they intended find out some real Criminals to make Examples of so that the Nation might sometimes be satisfied with their Judgments though they could not be with their Jurisdiction When we see vengeance over-take notorious Offendors it is but rarely that we inquire whence the blow comes and if we do we are seldom over-strickt in the matter But since they omitted this common piece of Policy after-times will rather suspect that they had not Power by the Commission to punish such Offendors then either that so populous a Nation should want fit Objects for their wrath or that so famed Politicians should contemn so prudent a course All the account I can give of this matter is that Quos Jupiter vult perdere prius dimentat The fifth Article is Levying Money for other time and in other manner than the same was granted by Parliament this he confesses ought not to have been done by the Petition of Right and some older Statutes he mentions which is a Confession of the justness of the Complaint But then what he did of this kind he says was by vertue of a Lease King Charles the Second was impowred to grant for three years This is another instance how small a matter was sufficient lately for Appearance of Law good enough to wrest the Legislative Power out of its proper course For this Lease our Author here speaks of was pretended but to be made by the Commissary of the Treasury the Fifth of February the day before King Charles dyed and when he was lying void of all reason and sence if not of life This looks so like a trick that it supersedes all necessity of enquiry Whether King Charles had power to make a Lease of that part of his Revenue granted him for Life only for any longer time than his Life But to shew the illegality of that Proceeding and the insincerity of the Author I will give the full account of this matter And first it is to be observed that the late King upon his first coming to the Crown levied Money on several Branches of the Revenue setled on King Charles for Life The Subsidies of Tonnage and Poundage and other sums of Money payable on Merchandises Exported and Imported were granted expresly by the Statute to King Charles during life yet the late King by his Proclamation of the 9th of February directs that the same shall be Collected as in the time of his Brother Herein he pretends to no other Law for this but that it is his Will and Pleasure the necessity â—f the Government requiring the same there is no three years Lease in this Case nor any pretence that King Charles did or could make any such so that as to this our Author's assertion is false But indeed as to the Excise the late King made use of that pretence and by his Proclamation of the 16th of February tells us That the late King's Commissioners of the Treasury did on the fifth of February contract and agree with Sir Peter Apsly Sir Benjamin Bathurst and James Grahme that they should receive the Duty of Excise for three years from the date thereof at the Rent of 550000 Pounds per annum And being certified by the Opinion of the Judges that the said Contract is good and valid in Law to the intent that the said persons may have no pretence of with-holding their Rent and that the Subjects may not incur the Penalties inflicted by the Laws of Excise for not making due Entries or Non-payment or concealing any part of the said Duty during the said three years He does publish to all his Subjects that the Judges have certified him their Opinions that the said Contract hath continuance notwithstanding the decease of his Brother His Will and Pleasure therefore is and he thereby Commands the Commissioners of the Excise and other Officers that they be Aiding and Assisting to the said persons in Collecting and Levying the said Duties and that all persons chargeable with the payment thereof do make due Entries and pay the same upon the pains and penalties to be inflicted thereupon according to the Laws of Excise Though these Proclamations were equally illegal yet the first was certainly the more generous it goes roundly to work and tells us in plain terms he wanted the Money and therefore would take it whereas the other pretends to be countenanced by the Law but instead thereof has only that of the Lawyers the Moiety of the Rent therein mentioned is a fair sum to be gained for three years by the private Opinion of the Judges which is sufficiently confuted by a bare stating of the Case The Excise was granted by two Acts of Parliament the one Moiety by one Act the other Moiety thereof by another The first is called a Grant of certain Impositions for the increase of his Majesty's Revenue during his life And Enacts That the Duties therein mentioned shall be paid to the King during his life ' the other Act lays the same Imposition on the several Liquors therein mentioned and Enacts expresly That the same shall be paid to the King his Heirs and Successors for ever Which being the Statutes of one Parliament shews plainly that it was intended that the one half of the Duty should dye with the King otherwise there was no need of two Acts and the reason of the difference is obvious for the last Moiety of this Duty was granted to the Crown in satisfaction of the Profits of the Court of Wards and for the Abolishing of the King 's Pre-emption and Purveyance in which the Crown had an Inheritance In both these Acts there is a Clause for making Leases not exceeding three years which was laid hold on to continue this Tax on us for three years longer than the express time we granted Had this Lease been made bona fide and in King Charles's health it would have been but a frivolous pretence but considering the time it was made it was the smallest way ever was laid hold of by a sinking Cause Our Author comes next to represent our present Condition to us and though he make a fearful Picture of it it is not so dreadful as Popery and Arbitrary Power in their best Dress He says we must pay great
of the Geneva-Cuit but sure it does not therefore follow that it was not done I must confess I do not know the time it was done in England but I can tell our Author it was twice done in Ireland before the fears of this last Revolution made them rob us of our Horses and other Goods as well as Arms and both after the suppression of Monmouth's Rebellion If the Parliament have no other Instance to justifie this Charge surely these are sufficient for we were both good Subjects and Protestants And if it be considered that many of us lived in danger of their private Villains a numerous swarm that infest all retired places in hopes of Plunder and that we were all in danger of their publick and general hatred with some other circumstances that might be mentioned the disarming us was the more unkind to us and hazardous to the Protestant Interest He further pretends That the necessity of Self-preservation made the late King at last arm Papists What was done of this sort since October 88 that he heard of the intended Invasion has some colour of a pretence but that is none for what was done before And if enquiry were made into the new Levies which our Author calls 20000 Men I believe but few Papists in proportion to the old Army will be found amongst them and the reason is all the Papists that could be found before were in-listed But as to them I have said enough already The eighth Article is The Violating the Freedom of Election of Members to serve in Parliament To which our Author says That if this be meant by purchasing peoples Votes it might have been rectified by the Committee of Elections but if it be meant of regulating Corporations and the Quo Warranto 's he says King James 's Parliament that would not yield to the taking away the Test was Elected in the same method and that the present Speaker Mr. Powle was Elected by vertue of a late Charter of King Charles the Second To the first of these I say That if the King had purchased but a few Votes that Irregularity might have been remedied as the Author says though not without much charge and trouble But if by such indirect courses he had gotten a Majority of the House it was not remediable because the House would never censure those that were no more guilty than themselves As to the other it is true the service that Parliament did the Nation in that one Act of so early opposing the Growth of Popery has made amends for any Irregularities that were in the Election of them But what had we no more Regulations of Corporations after the Calling of that Parliament Did one Repulse put the King so much in despair of gaining his Point that there was no enquiry what persons Gentlemen would chuse hereafter for Members Were no persons displaced from their Imployments of Honour and Profit for not engaging how to Vote both in the House and at Elections But may be our Author does not think this any Violation of our Freedoms for clearing whereof I need say no more than I have already done which sufficiently shews how little the Author says to this Accusation of the Violating our Freedom in Elections the rest he says gives us a fair instance how inconsistent he is with himself In the beginning he tells us the Committee of Elections may rectifie the Miscarriages of Elections and yet in a few Lines afterwards we find him Mutinying against the Speaker's Election though approved of by that Committee and the House also so that Mr. Powle being declared duly Elected by the proper Judges I need say no more of the matter in Answer to the Author but for the satisfaction of those that are strangers thereto and that they may not be imposed upon by the Author or any of the other Pamphlets that harp on this string I will lay the state of that Case before them And first it is to be observed that there has been many Debates about the Election of New-Windsor from whence the Speaker is Returned And the Question as in this Case has always been Whether the whole Inhabitants of the Town or the Corporation had the Right of Electing their Representatives to serve in Parliament And to say the truth it has been vexata questio and resolved both ways But then I say That if the Author be true to any principle he will lay but little weight on the former Resolutions against the Speaker's Right since they were the Parliaments of 1640 and 79 that so adjudged it But without insisting on the disorders and struggles of those times I say we have the Resolution of the Parliament 61 for us wherein it was Resolved That the Right of Election is in the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses not exceeding Thirty in number So that Judgments being on both sides we are to enquire as in all such cases which is supported by the best Reasons and doubtless they are on our side for the Resolution in favour of the Populace was grounded upon the mistake that Windsor was a Borough by Prescription whereas the Inhabitants were incorporated by a Charter of the Fifth of Edward the First the Clause wherein Quod de cetero sit liber Curgus and the Name Nova Windsor are great presumptions that the Town was not then very Old or a Burrough before which is more plain when we consider that those are really words of Creation not of Confirmation and we have no foot-steps of any return from this Town before this Charter One of the first is the 30th of his Reign and there it is said that the Mayor and Common Burgers elegerunt and so it is in the 29th of Henry the sixth Now if this be not very plain the Community or Body of the Burgesses the subsequent usage puts the matter beyond all doubt where it is expresly said That the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses elegerunt as 35 H. 6. 1 Ed. 6. 14. 30th and 43. of Eliz. 1. 7. 18 and 20. of King James the first 1st and 3d of King Charles the first and the 13th of King Charles the second So that here is a full Jury of Parliaments to justifie what has been done in this case and then all these and some older and darker Returns are under the Common Seal and dated at the Guild-Hall both Evidences of corporation-Corporation-Acts From all which I think it very plain That the Right of Election is in the Corporation and that from the beginning it has been so but were it otherwise the Author is a Misrepresenter in this Case because the Contest was not occasioned by a late Charter of King Charles the Second's but was upon a Point contested before his Reign and afterwards in his Reign before the Regulation of Corporations was thought upon Next our Author says This Violation of our Freedom was but intended never put in execution no more was the destruction of our Religion and Liberties God Almighty was pleased in mercy to
us to over-throw their Babel when they had almost brought it as they fancied to perfection And urges further That the King being willing to have his last intended Parliament as free as his People could desire had actually restored the old Charters to all the Corporations in England long before the Prince Landed Here the Author nifies the King's good intentions to us and would have us look upon his last Acts of kindness as the sole effects of his Goodness when alas they proceeded only from his Fears which will appear plain if we consider the Times of the several Passages relating to this matter The 9th of September New-Stile Mr. d' Avaux's Memorial to the States-General telling them of the strict Alliance between the two Crowns tells us of the Preparations making against us and came to our Court the 10th of September Old-Stile After ten days Consideration a Parliament is resolved on and the 21st the King by his Proclamation assures us of his kind Intentions to the Nation and Church and therein tells us he is willing the Roman Catholicks should remain incapable of being Members of the House of Commons a mighty favour The 26th of September the Lord-Lieutenants were authorized to grant Deputations to such Gentlemen as had been lately removed from the Lieutenancy and such Gentlemen were to be restored to the Commission of the Peace as had been lately laid aside The 28th of September his Majesty by Proclamation acquaints the Nation with the intended Invasion and recalls the Writs for the Parliament The 2d of October the King declared he would restore the Charter of London and gives us a General Pardon of the same date The 5th he Dissolves the Ecclesiastical Commission The 17th of October the other Corporations of the Kingdom are restored all which favours were conferred on us after they were terrified with the News of the Invasion so that we may rest fully assured they were the first fruits of that blessed design and the meeting of the Parliament was discharged Twenty days before the Restitution of the Corporations which by our Author's computation is a long time otherwise the Corporations were not restored long before the Prince Landed as our Author says they were The 9th Article is against Prosecutions in the King's Bench for Matters and Causes cognisable only in Parliament and by divers other arbitrary and illegal courses The last Clause is omitted and so might all our Author thinks fit to say in answer to the first being only That be doubts not but those Judges câ—n justifie their Proceedings and that some Parliaments have brought matters before them that were not properly cognisable by them But what those things are he does not tell us but be it so and let them and their Advocates justifie them if they can But in the mean time does it follow that because one Court exceeds its bounds sometimes that therefore the King's-Bench may or how does this make the Parallel between the present and the late Times If he had told us that our Speaker had been Prosecuted in the King's-Bench for his Actings as such and Fined 5 or 10000 l. he had said more to the purpose than he has done in the whole Book The Author says the tenth Article is about partial corrupt and unqualified Juries But he should also have added That divers Jurors in Tryals for High Treason were not Free-holders He knew the consequence of this matter in the brave Lord Russel's Case and therefore thought fit to pass it over in silence but tells us That the noise against Graham and Burton for such practises is now ouer for want of proof To which I say the thing is obvious though the steps of those that managed this work of darkness is not yet made plain and no wonder though the same should never happen considering how few persons but those concerned can have any knowledge of it it is not likely the party corrupted will proclaim his own villany and shame so that if the said persons if they were the managers do but keep their own Counsel no positive Witnesses can be had against them But then considering the Nature of the Case the great Sums of Money said to be laid out privately at Law will satisfie Men not over-credulous But if our Author will have a little patience he may hear what proof there is against those Gentlemen the House of Commons having lately ordered a Charge to be brought In against them which was not done sooner because they had matters of far greater importance to dispatch The eleventh Article is requiring excessive Bail in Criminal Cases to elude the benefit of the Laws made for the Liberty of the Subject The truth of this is not denied neither is it justified only the late Acts suspending the Habeas Corpus Act are exclaimed against which I must say is one of the greatest favours imaginable to those most concerned in it if it but prevent them from running too far in dangerous courses it had been a great Blessing to the Lord Dundee and his Family if the Estates of Scotland had committed his Person when they first observed him tampering though my kindness for some of those unfortunate persons then in custody makes me hope they were kept there as well to secure themselves as the Government yet I believe there are not many of them dare pretend to that innocency It must not be forgotten in this place how his Majesty like him whose Vicegerent he is mingles Mercy with his Justice and that he sent one of these Prisoners a considerable Sum of Money to support him from want not knowing how plentifully he might be provided from his own Estate with which it was not easie for him to hold any Communication our Author will find it hard to give me such an instance of Generosity in his King I have only one Remark more on this matter which is That if all Princes were endued with such Moderation and Clemency as our present King there would be but little need to secure us by Laws against that Wolf the Prerogative and that it is much better trusting Power with some Kings than others The late King could commit seven of our Peers at one time without and against the Law whereas his Majesty though encompassed with avowed Enemies in two of his Kingdoms and some as discontented as the Author in the third And though by the late Statutes he had Power to commit I may say at his pleasure yet I believe those so committed by him will scarce exceed the number lately carried to the Tower at one time so that upon experience of his prudent Moderation and that he does not use his Power for the Oppression of those that do not love him I see not why the Parliament may not continue this Trust for some time longer at least until Ireland be as well setled as the rest of the Kingdoms The 12th Article is by our Author made up of two I suppose on purpose to lessen the
and that as soon as conveniently could be it should be called in at the value it issued out and accordingly so it was But that is not practicable now at least to the advantage of any more of the Nation than the last Possessors all the other hands it passes through being certainly losers if in the Neighbourhood it be not as much valued as my Silver one which doubtless it will not be It is no strange thing to have Money inhanced something above the intrinsick value it has been the misfortune of most States to be forced in difficult times to make use of this expedient to increase their Coin But then as there always was an assurance from such Government that it should not only be received in all Payments to be made at the Exchequer but also called in at last so there was also some proportion or deâ—orum kept in the Advancement Thus in the worst of the late times when the Duke of Ormond Coined his own Plate and all that the respect to him or the Cause that he defended could gather together he thought it sufficient to add a tenth part and so made Five shillings out of Four and six-pence So in the Harp-money we find a fourth part added and a Nine-pence was issued out for a Shilling So that in the first Case I had Nineteen pounds instead of Twenty pounds and in the worst Fifteen pounds whereas from King James and his People I shall receive but Sixteen shillings Eight-pence for my Twenty pounds which is but the Twenty-fourth part of what I ought to have received This is the first time that ever any thing pretending to the Name of a Government was so Bankrupt as to issue Money that did not carry intrinsick value above the Twenty-fourth part of its Name The Story of the Frogs in the Fable was formerly so Satyrically applied that our Author should have avoided the bringing it into our Memory but he writes without considering the Consequences or how severely his Allegations may be returned England is 'twixt York and Thee The Fable of the Frog He the devouring Stork and Thou the Log. So he justifies the late King 's retiring into France because all Princes and States besides France were actually engaged against him without considering the other edge that there was little Conscience and less Prudence in disobliging all the States of Europe in favour of France or how from hence we may argue That that King who has all the States of Europe on his back will be able to afford but little relief to his Exiled Ally And one would think the usage the late King met with when he was last in France was no temptation to run the risque of a second Command to retire out of the Territories of his most Christian Majesty But in this we must excuse him for certainly he has not only forgotten the Usage he met wiâ—â— there but also that ever he was there otherwise he would not have added to the Causes of his first Exile But then this Reciprocal Love between France and Him was no Argument why he might not have stayed at home his Fear was not from the Rabble as our Author says for they Huzza'd his return from Feversham but the truth is he feared a Parliament and that they would secure the Religion and Liberties of the Subject and so ruin all his hopes of establishing Popery which it seems he feared more than the Abdicating of his Crowns Our Author pretends he would have gone to Scotland but that his Fleet had deserted him and there was danger in the Land way To which I say a single Ship could have carried him to Scotland as well as France but then it was offered him to chuse his place of Residence and at what distance from the Parliament and with what number of Guards he pleased but he liked not this because it supposed a Parliament But since his Fears were so strong upon him that stay he durst not why did he not leave us some sort of Government Was there no Ballast so proper for his Ship as the Broad Seal which was never carried beyond Sea but once before and it was then reckoned as a crime in him that did it though the Cardinal left the King behind him but we had neither shadow nor substance left us which is the first Act of Kindness he ever did this Nation freeing us thereby from those Chains wherewith we had â—ashly bound our selves Towards the latter end our Author would perswade us That it is a Calumny cast upon the late King to say he endeavours to be re-instated singly upon a Popish Interest and goes about to prove this by his Proclamations A weak Argument this time of the day but he enforces it by the good treatment he gives the Irish Protestants But our Author might as well prove that the French King expects the Possession of the Palatinate and the neighbouring Territories from his kind usage of the inhabitants though King James's Army cannot take Towns the â—â—â—nch way yet to shew the World they have learned someâ—â—â—â—g from the French General sent to assist them they have burned them the French way and in this have been so good Scholars that they have out-done their Masters so that all his labour is not lost for they have lately Burned more Towns in Vlster than the King of France in Germany some of them we can reckon as in the County of Derry Newtown Lemaâ—addy-muffe Monymore Dawsons-bridge Kilrea Ballyagby in the County of Donegall Raphae Donegall in Tyrone-Omegh Castleâ—arfeild in Down Newry in the Counties of Cavan and Monaghan Castlesanderson Farnam and other good Houses if not some Towns which is one proof that what they did of this sort was out of rage and malice and not with any design to incommede or prejudice the English Army For what great relief could an Army find in one House But what puts this matter beyond all dispute they left the Town of Strabane seituate within ten Miles of Derry unburnt in the middle of their Rage and Flames because it belonged to the Earl of Abercorn who is a Papist and Lord Strabane of that Kingdom and all this havock has been made since the late King's Arrival there It is needless after this to mention the Plunderings and Robberies of every Protestant in the Kingdom but in fact so it is that not one of them has escaped and if this should be excused as done against his Will and without his Consent and as the out-rage of a cruel and ill-paid Army if it be so let him be blameless but then do not tell us of the good Treatment he hath given the Irish Protestants If the blame thereof be taken from him and placed to the account of the War he has justice done him without pretending to any Merit from his kindness to the Protestants which will be much lessened if we consider that not one single Man of the Nation has been redressed Flocks of Cattel cannot be
so spirited away but some part of them may and have been found out but little Restitution to the Proprietors and less of Punishment on the Offendors Then again though Robberies might have been in the Country and at a distanâ—â— from him yet it is something strange that he could not pâ—serve the place of his own Residence and the Country about it from such Violences for which he has done so little that no part of the Kingdom has greater reason to complain than they From these Considerations I am as much satisfied that the Royal Assent accompanied these Rapines as that it did that far greater one the Repeal of the Acts of Settlement How the Advocates of King James will maintain this Treatment of his Protestant Subjects I cannot tell neither can I tell how to reconcile his Speech to his pretended Parliament on the 7th of May proposing their relief against the Acts of Settlement as he softly phrased it and his Declaration to his pretended Subjects in England dated the day after that most Gracious Speech wherein he tells us That the Priviledges and Properties of his Protestant Subjects was his Care unless they say it was his Care and Endeavour how to destroy them We have heard of Mr. d'Avaux's demand That all Protestants should be dismissed the Council-Board for otherwise he could not disclose his Master's Secrets there which was immediately done We have heard from one of his Lords That both the late King and his Popish Council would rather hazard and lose Forty Crowns than be obliged to the Protestants for the possession of the Kingdom and design to re-gain his Dominions by the Arms of good Catholicks and the glorious Monarch of France and their reason for this is very comfortable to all English-men and Protestants being that in the first Case he must be tied and fettered with Conditions but in the other Case he would come in free and boundless and like an Absolute Conqueror might do what he pleased I thought I had done with our Author when I cast my Eye on a line as true as most of the rest That the King never tempted any of the Men of Honour to change their Religion I never had the honour of being Closetted so know not the Discourses usually practised there but it would be some disparagement to his and his Father-Confessor's Zeal to think that always forgotten But without insisting on that it is not to be imagined that so many turned Apostates without temptation or that the Treasurer's Staff carried none with it Our Author makes him kinder herein than his Promise in the Scotch Declaration not to use invincible necessity The Reflections due to this have been done by so much a better hand that I will forbear And having thus done with the Author it is time to draw to a Conclusion In order to which I will only observe upon the whole matter That the Subjects of this Kingdom during the Reign of King James were in so miserable a condition that they could call nothing their own but their Fears and sad Apprehensions of the worse things that were preparing for them When we heard we were to Obey without reserve we could not forget the Times of our happy Ancestors whose Obedience was guided by the known Laws of the Land and lament our own and Childrens fate that were to be ruled by the Arbitrary Will of one Man for whose Prudence and Moderation we could have no security When we saw a Power to Suspend some Laws put in Execution we could not but look on all the rest as lost since our Tenure was so precarious When we saw our Clergy so much oppressed in those early days we did not doubt Father Peter's Will or Power to improve that Spirit of Persecution as far as a blind Zeal or the French Pattern could carry it When we saw an Army maintained in time of Peace we could not forbear thinking sometimes on the French Dragoons and their way of Propagating the Faith In a word when we saw the strange Methods that were taken to procure a right House of Commons we could not but fear that our Misery would be perfected by those we formerly thought the Preservers of our Liberties and Properties And now that it hath pleased God to put an end to all these things and that we are not only free but have a long prospect of Happiness before us not to be destroyed but by our selves not to be lessened or impaired but by the influence of such Discourses as the Author 's on weak or unwary Men. Let us remember how much it concerns every one of us to oppose those designs which tend only to bring us into the same slavery we have so lately escaped The same did I say Alas as ill as we were before the Abdication upon his return that would be a desirable State unless we believe he has learned Mercy in France or that he is less a Papist than he was or of less Arbitrary Principles When Gratitude for the highest Obligations both the setting and keeping the Crown on his Head could not preserve us our Laws or Religion what must we expect from his Anger and Revenge And if we consider with what severity the weak Endeavours of Monmonth and his Party to Dethrone him were punished It is hard to imagine what Punishment is reserved for those that have actually displaced him or taken him at his word which he accounts the same thing and we must not think that his Thunder would only pursue those that have been active in the late Revolution but the whole Nation must be struck with it that it may not be in their power to do the same thing again and it would be a mighty Army he would think big enough to secure him from the like affront and of what sort they must be is not hard to determine I know it is needless to inlarge on these hints because you are fully perswaded that it is the most prudent as well as just Course to remain contented with the present Government and to contribute in our several Stations what in us lies to the support thereof FINIS ERRATA PAg. 3. Line 31. for October Read November P. 4. l. 32. r. so served P. 7. l. 34. r. November P. 37. l. 3. r. December P. 40. l. 19. after another r. Commandment In the same Line dele of the Commandments P. 41. l. 17. r. Commissioners P. 43. l. 10. r. twig instead of way P. 44. l. 36. r. support him P. 48. l. 11. r. Burgus P. 49. l. 5. r. Magnifies P. 52. l. 26. dele first of BOOKS Printed for Jâ—seph Watts at thâ— Angel in St. Pauls Church-yard THE History of Ireland from the First Conquest of it by the English to this time in two Parts Folio The Trial of the Lord Russel c. Of Colonel Sidney Folio Of Edward Fitzharris c. An Exact Diary of the late Expedition of his Majesty into England Quarto Representation of the Threatning Dangers Impending over Protestants in Great Britain before the coming of their Majesties King William and Queen Mary Treatise of Monarchy in two Parts 1. Concerning Monarchy in General and second concerning this Particular Monarchy Wherein all the Questions occurrent in both are stated disputed and determin'd Discourse of the Opposition of the Doctrine Worship and Practice of the Roman Church to the nature designs and characters of the Christian Faith by Gilbert Lord Bishop of Salisbury Quarto The True Test of the Jesuits or the spirit of that Society Disloyal to God their King and Neighbour Quarto Monsieur Jurieu's Account of the Extasies of the Shepperdess of Saou in Dauphine Quarto Reformed Devotions in Meditations Hymns and Petitions for every Day in the Week and every Holiday in the Year Twelves Cro. C. 114. Cro. C. 220.