Parliament guilty of exercising an arbitrary Power if their Proceedings be not regulated by written Laws but by Salus Populi Ans For the Parliament to be bound up by written Laws is both destructive and absurd First it is destructive it being the Fundamental Court and Law or the very Salus Populi of England and ordained as to make Laws and see them executed so to supply their Deficiency according to the present Exigency of things for publick Preservation by the Prerogative of Salus Populi which is universally in them and but particularly in particular Laws and Statutes which cannot provide against all future Exigents which the Law of Parliaments doth and therefore are not they to be limits to this And it would yet be further destructive by cutting the Parliament short of half its Power at once for it being a Court both of Law and Equity as appears by the Power of making Laws which is nothing but Equity reduced by common Consent into Polity when ever it is circumscribed by written Laws which only is the Property of inferiour Courts it ceaseth to be supreme and divests it self of that inherent and uncircumscribed Power which Salus Populi comprehends Secondly as it is destructive so also it is absurd for the Legislative Power which gives Laws is not to receive Laws saving from the nature and end of its own Constitution which as they give it a being so they endow it with Laws of Preservation both of it self and the whole which it represents I would not herein be mis-understood as if the Parliament when as it only doth the Office of inferiour Courts judging between Party and Party were not limitted by written Laws there I grant it is because therein it only deals between meum and tuum which particular written Laws can and ought to determine so that its superlative and uncircumscribed Power I intend only as relating to the Universe and the Affairs thereof wherein it is to walk by its fundamental Principles not by particular Precepts or Statutes which are made by the Parliament between King and People not between People and Parliament they are ordained to be Rules of Government to the King agreeing with the Liberty and Property of the People and Rules of Obedience to the People without detainment of their Freedom by the Exercise of an illegal usurped and unconsented Power whereunto Kings especially in hereditary Monarchies are very prone which cannot be suspected by a Parliament which is representatively the Publick intrusted for it and which is like to partake and share with the Publick being but so many private Men put into Authority pro tempore by common Consent for common Good Nor is the Parliament hereby guilty of an arbitrary Government or is it destructive to the Petition of Right when as in providing for Publick-weal it observes not the letter of the Law First because as aforesaid that Law was not made between Parliament and People but by the People in Parliament between the King and them as appears by the whole tenour of it both in the complaining and praying parts which wholly relate to the King Secondly because of the common Consent that in the representative Body the Parliament is given thereunto wherein England in her Polity imitates Nature in her Instincts who is wont to violate particular Principles for publick Preservation as when light things descend and heavy ascend to prevent a Vacuum And Thirdly because of the equitable Power which is inherent in a Parliament and for publick Good is to be acted above and against any particular Statute or all of them And Fourthly because the end of making that Law to wit the publick Preservation is fulfilled in the breaking of it which is lawful in a Parliament that is chosen by the whole for the whole and are themselves also of the Body though not in a King for therein the Law saith Better a mischief than an inconvenience But it may be objected Though it be not arbitrary for the Parliament to go against written Law yet is it not so when they go against the Kings Consent which the Law even the fundamental Law supposeth in Parliamentary Proceedings This hath been answered That the King is juridically and according to the intention of the Law in his Courts so that what the Parliament consults for the publick Good That by Oath and the Duty of his Office and Nature of this Polity he is to consent unto and in case he do deny it yet in the Construction of the fundamental Law and Constitutions of this Kingdom he is conceived to grant it supposing the Head not be so unnatural to the Body that hath chosen it for good and not for evil But it will be answered Where is the Kings Negative Voice if the Parliament may proceed without his Consent I answer That there is no known nor written Law that gives him any and things of that nature are willingly believed till they be abused or with too much Violence claimed That his Majesty hath fundamentally a Right of Consent to the Enacting of Laws is true which as aforesaid is part of that honourable Trust constituted in him And that this Royal Assent is an Act of Honour and not of Absolute and Negative Power or Prerogative appears by these following Reasons First by his Oath at the Coronation mentioned in one of the Parliaments Declarations where he doth or should swear to confirm and grant all such good Laws as his People shall choose to be observed not hath chosen for First The word concedis in that Oath were then unnecessary the Laws formerly Enacted being already granted by foregoing Kings and so they need no more Concession or Confirmation else we must run upon this Shelf that all our Laws die with the old King and receive their being anew by the new Kings Consent Secondly hereby the first and second Clause in that Interrogatory viz. Concedis justas leges permittas protegendas are confounded and do but idem repetere Thirdly Quas Vulgus elegerit implies only the Act of the People in a disjunctive sense from the Act or Consent of the King but Laws already made have more than Quas Vulgus elegerit they have also the Royal Consent too so that that Phrase cannot mean them wherein the Act or Consent of the King is already involved Secondly by the Practise of requiring the Royal Assent even unto those very Acts of Subsidies which are granted to himself and for his own use which it is supposed he will accept of and yet Honoris gratia is his Royal Assent craved and contributed thereunto Thirdly by the Kings not sitting in Parliament to debate and consult Laws noâ— are they at all offered him by the Parliament to consider of but to consent to which yet are transmitted from one House to another as well to consult as consent to shewing thereby he hath no part in the consultory part of them for that it belongs only to the People in Parliament to discern and
upon the King and the Government For the writing an answer is no allowance but a condemning Nor can the Council allow any more than they can remit And tho it may justly be denied that the Council heard even the Earls own Explanation yet the hearing or allowing him to sit is no Relevant Plea because they might very justly have taken a time to consider how far it was fit to accuse upon that Head And it is both just and fit for the Council to take time and by express Act of Parliament the negligence of the King Officers does not bind them For if this were allowed Leading men in the Council might commit what Crimes they pleased in the Council which certainly the King may quarrel many years after And tho all the Council had allowed him that day any one Officer of State might have quarrelled it the next day As to the Opinion of Bellarmine Sanderson and others it is ever contended that the principles of the Covenant agree very well with those of the Jesuites and both do still allow Equivocations and Evasions But no solid Orthodox Divine ever allowed That a man who was to swear without any Evasion should swear so as he is bound to nothing as it is contended the Earl is not for the Reasons represented And as they still recommend That when men are not clear they might abstain as the Earl might have done in this case so they still conclude That men should tell in clear terms what the sense is by which they are to be bound to the State Whereas the Earl here tells only in the general and in most ambigious terms That he takes it as far as he can obey and as far as it is consistent with the Protestant Religion and that he takes it in his own sense and that he is not bound by it from making alterations but as far as he thinks it for the advantage of Church or State which sense is a thousand times more doubtful than the Test and is in effect nothing but what the taker pleases himself As to the Treason founded on His Majesties Advocate founds it first upon the Fundamental and Common Laws of this and all Nations whereby it is Treason for any man to make any alteration he shall think for the advantage of Church or State which he hopes is a principle cannot be denied in the general And whereas it is pretended That this cannot be understood of mean alterations and of alterations to be made in a lawful way It is answered That as the thing it self is Treason so this Treason is not taken off by any of these qualifications because he declares he will wish and endeavour any alteration he thinks fit and any alteration comprehends all alterations that he thinks fit Nam propositio indefinita aequipollet universali And the word any is general in its own nature and is in plain terms a reserving to himself to make alterations both great and small And the restriction is not all alterations that the King shall think fit or are consistent with the Laws and Acts of Parliament but he is still to be Judge of this and his Loyalty is to be the Standard Nor did the Covenanters in the last Age nor do these who are daily executed decline that they are bound to obey the King simply but only that they are bound to obey him no otherwise than as far as his Commands are consistent with the Law of God of Nature and of this Kingdom and with the Covenant And their Treason lies in this And when it is asked them Who shall be judge in this they still make themselves Judges And the reason of all Treason being that the Government is not secure it is desired to be known what way the Government can be secured after this paper since the Earl is still Judge how far he is obliged and what is his Loyalty And if this had been sufficient the Covenant had been a very excellent paper for they are there bound to endeavour in their several stations to defend the Kings person but when the King challenged them how they came to make War against him their great Refuge was That they were themselves still Judges as to that And for illustrating this power the Lords of Justitiary are desired to consider Quid Juris if the Earl or any man else should have reserved to himself in this Oath a liberty to rise in Arms or to oppose the lineal Succession tho he had added In a lawful manner for the thing being in it self unlawful this is but sham and Protestatio contraria facto And if these be unlawful notwithstanding of such additions so much more must this general reservation of making any alterations likewise be unlawful notwithstanding of these additions For he that reserves the general power of making any alteration does a fortiori reserve power to make any alteration tho never so fundamental For all particulars are included in the General and whatever may be said against the particulars may much more strongly be said against the general 2. The 130. Act Par. 8. James VI is expressly founded on because nothing can be a greater diminution of the power of the Parliament than to introduce a way or means whereby all their Acts and Oaths shall be made insignificant and ineffectual as this paper does make them for the Reasons represented Nor are any of the Estates of Parliament secure at this rate but that they who reserved a general power to make all alterations may under that â—eneral come to alter any of them 3. What can be a greater impugning of the Dignity and Authority of Parliaments than to say That the Parliament has made Acts for the security of the Kingdom which are in themselves ridiculous inconsistent with themselves and the Protestant Religion And as to what is answered against invading the Kings Prerogative and the Legislative power in Parliaments in adding a part to an Oath or Act is not relevantly inferred since the sense of these words And this I understand as a part of my Oath is not to be understood as if any thing were to be added to the Law but â—â—ly to the Oath and to be an interpretation of the Oath It is replied That after this no man needs to add a Caution to the Oath in Parliament But when he comes to take the Oath do the Parliament what they please he will add his own part Nor can this part be looked upon as a sense for if this were the sense before this paper he needed not understand it as a part of it for it wanted not that part And in general as every man may add his own part so the King can be secure of no part But your Lordships of Justitiary are desired to consider how dangerous it would be in this Kingdom and how ill it would sound in any other Kingdom That men should be allowed to reserve to themselves liberty to make any alteration they thought fit in Church or
nothing in the Test consistent with either And 3dly If the Protestant Religion and the Earl his reference to it be nothing then is not only the Council sadly reproached who in their Explanation declare this to be the only thing sworn to in the first part of the Test but our Religion quite subverted as far as this Test can do it But next for the Treason the Advocate says That the Earl expresly declares he means not by the Test to bind up himself from wishing or endeavouring in his station and in a lawful way any alteration he shall think for the advantage of Church or State whereby says he the Earl declares himself and others loosed from any obligation to the Government and from the duty of all good Subjects and that they may make what alterations they please A direct contrariety instead of a just consequence as if to be tied to Law Religion and Loyalty were to be loosed from all three Can there be a flatter and more ridiculous contradiction Next the Advocate pretends to found upon the fundamental Laws of this and all Nations Whereby it is Treason for any Man to make any alterations he thinks fit for the advantage of Church or State But first The Earl is not nor cannot be accused of so much as wishing much less endeavouring or making any alteration either in Church or State only he reserves to himself the same freedom for wishing which he had before his Oath and that all that have taken it do in effect say they still retain 2dly For a man to endeavour in his station and in a lawful way such alterations in Church or State as he conceives to their advantage not repugnant to Religion and Loyalty is so far from being Treason that it is the duty of every Subject and the sworn Duty of all His Majesty's Councellors and of all Members of Parliament But the Advocate by fancying and misapplying Laws of Nations wresting Acts of Parliaments adding taking away chopping and changing words thinks to conclude what he pleases And thus he proceeds That the Treason of making Alterations is not taken off by such qualifications of making them in a lawful way in ones station to the advantage of Church or State and not repugnant to Religion or Loyalty But how then Here is a strange matter Hundreds of Alterations have been made within these few years in our Government and in very material Points and the King 's best Subjects and greatest Favourites have both endeavoured and effectuate them And yet because the things were done according to the Earl's qualifications instead of being accounted Treason they have been highly commended and rewarded The Treasury hath been sometimes in the hands of a Treasurer sometimes put into a Commission backward and forward And the Senators of the College of Justice the right of whose places was thought to be founded on an Act of Parliament giving His Majesty the prerogative only of presenting are now commissioned by a Patent under the great Seal both which are considerable alterations in the Government which some have opposed others have wished and endeavoured and yet without all fear of Treason on either hand only because they acted according to these qualifications in a lawful way and not repugnant to Religion and Loyalty But that which the Advocate wilfully mistakes for it is impossible he could do it ignorantly is that he will have the endeavouring of alterations in general not to be of it self a thing indifferent and only determinable to be good or evil by its qualifications as all men see it plainly to be but to be forsooth in this very generality intrinsically evil a Notion never to be admitted on Earth in the frail and fallible condition of humane Affairs And then he would establish this wise Position by an example he adduces That rising in Arms against the King for so sure he means it being otherwise certain that rising in Arms in general is also a thing indifferent and plainly determinable to be either good or evil as done with or against the King's Authority is Treason and says If the Earl had reserved to himself a liberty to rise in Arms against the King tho he had added in a lawful manner yet it would not have availed because and he says well This being in it self unlawful the qualification had been but shams and contrariae facto But why then doth not his own reason convince him where the difference lies viz. That rising in Arms against the King is in it self unlawful whereas endeavouring alterations is only lawful or unlawful as it is qualified and if qualified in the Earl's Terms can never be unlawful But says the Advocate The Earl declares himself free to make all alterations and so he would make Men believe that the Earl is for making All or Any without any reserve whereas the Earl's words are most express that he is Neither for making all or any but only for wishing and endeavouring for such as are good and lawful and in a lawful way which no Man can disown without denying common reason nor no sworn Councellor disclaim without manifest Perjury But the Advocate 's last conceit is That the Earl's restriction is not as the King shall think fit or as is consistent with the Law but that himself is still to be judge of this and his Loyalty to be the standard But first The Earl's restriction is expresly according to Loyalty which in good sense is the same with according to Law and the very thing that the King is ever supposed to think Secondly As neither the Advocate nor any other hitherto have had reason to distinguish the exercise and actings of the Earlâ—s Loyalty from those of His Majesty's best Subjects so Is it not a marvellous thing that the Advocate should profess to think for in reality he cannot think it the Earl's words His Loyalty which all men see to be the same with his Duty and Fidelity or what else can bind him to his Prince capable of any quibble far more to be a ground of so horrid an accusation And whereas the Advocate says The Earl is still to be judge of this It is but an insipid calumny it being as plain as any thing can be That the Earl doth nowise design His thinking to be the rule of Right and Wrong but only mentions it as the necessary application of these excellent and unerring Rules of Religion Law and Reason to which he plainly refers and subjects both his thinking and himself to be judged accordingly By which it is evident that the Earl's restriction is rather better and more dutiful than that which the Advocate seems to desiderate And if the Earl's restrictions had not been full enough it was the Advocate 's part before administrating the Oath to have craved what more he thought necessary which the Earl in the Case would not have refused But it is believed the Advocate can yet hardly propose restrictions more full and suitable to Duty
Good and Faithful Subjects to Us and our Royal Predecessors by hazarding and many of them actually losing their Lives and Fortunes in their Defence though of another Religion and the Maintenance of their Authority against the Violences and Treasons of the most violent Abettors of these Laws Do therefore with Advice and Consent of Our Privy Council by Our Soveraign Authority Prerogative Royal and Absolute Power aforesaid Suspend Stop and disable all Laws or Acts of Parliament Customs or Constitutions made or executed against any of our Roman Catholick Subjects in any time past to all intents and purposes making void all Prohibitions therein mentioned pains or penalties therein ordain'd to be Inflicted so that they shall in all things be as free in all Respects whatsoever not only to Exercise their Religion but to enjoy all Offices Benefices and others which We shall think fit to bestow upon them in all time coming Nevertheless it is our Will and Pleasure and we do hereby command all Catholicks at their highest Pains only to Exercise their Religious Worship in Houses or Chappels and that they presume not to Preach in the open Fields or to invade the Protestant Churches by force under the pains aforesaid to be inflicted upon the Offenders respectively nor shall they presume to make Publick Processions in the High-Streets of any of Our Royal Burghs under the Pains above mentioned And whereas the Obedience and Service of our good Subjects is due to Us by their Allegiance and Our Soveraignty and that no Law Custom or Constitution Difference in Religion or other Impediment whatsoever can exempt or discharge the Subjects from their Native Obligations and Duty to the Crown or hinder us from Protecting and Employing them according to their several Capacities and Our Royal Pleasure nor Restrain Us from Conferring Heretable Rights and Priviledges upon them or vacate or annul these Rights Heretable when they are made or conferred And likewise considering that some Oaths are capable of being wrested by men of sinistrous Intentions a practice in that Kingdom fatal to Religion as it was to Loyalty Do therefore with Advice and Consent aforesaid Cass Annul and Discharge all Oaths whatsoever by which any of Our Subjects are incapacitated or disabled from holding Places or Offices in our said Kingdom or enjoy their Hereditary Right and Priviledges discharging the same to be taken or given in any time coming without Our special Warrant and Consent under the pains due to the Contempt of Our Royal Commands and Authority And to this effect We do by Our Royal Authority aforesaid Stop Disable and Dispense with all Laws enjoyning the said Oaths Tests or any of them particularly the first Act of the first Session of the first Parliament of King Charles the Second the Eleventh Act of the foresaid Session of the foresaid Parliament the sixth Act of the third Parliament of the said King Charles the twenty first and twenty fifth Acts of that Parliament and the thirteenth Act of the first Session of * Our late Parliament in so far allanerly as concerns the taking the Oaths or Tests therein prescrib'd and all others as well not mentioned as mentioned and that in place of them all our good Subjects or such of them as We or our Privy Council shall require so to do shall take and swear the following Oath allanerly I A. B. do acknowledge testifie and declare that JAMES the Seventh by the Grace of God King of Scotland England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. is rightful King and Supream Governour of these Realms and over all persons therein and that it is unlawful for Subjects on any pretence or for any cause whatsoever to rise in Arms against Him or any Commissionated by Him and that I shall never so rise in Arms nor assist any who shall so do and that I shall never resist His Power or Authority nor ever oppose His Authority to His Person as I shall answer to God but shall to the utmost of my power Assist Defend and Maintain Him His Heirs and Lawful Successors in the Exercise of their Absolute Power and Authority against all Deadly So help me God And seeing many of Our good Subjects have before Our pleasure in these Matters was made publick incurred the Guilt appointed by the Acts of Parliament above-mentioned or others We by Our Authority and Absolute Power and Prerogative Royal above-mentioned of Our certain Knowledge and innate Mercy give Our ample and full Indemnity to all those of the Roman Catholick or Popish Religion for all things by them done contrary to Our Laws or Acts of Parliament made in any time past relating to their Religion the Worship and Exercise thereof or for being Papists Jesuits or Traffickers for hearing or saying of Mass concealing of Priests or Jesuits breeding their Children Catholicks at home or abroad or any other thing Rite or Doctrine said performed or maintained by them or any of them And likewise for holding or taking of Places Employments or Offices contrary to any Law or Constitution Advices given to Us or our Council Actions done or generally any thing perform'd or said against the known Laws of that Our Ancient Kingdom Excepting always from this Our Royal Indemnity all Murthers Assassinations Thefts and such like other Crimes which never used to be comprehended in Our General Acts of Indemnity And We command and require all Our Judges or others concerned to explain this in the most ample Sense and Meaning Acts of Indemnity at any time have contained Declaring this shall be as good to every one concerned as if they had Our Royal Pardon and Remission under Our Great Seal of that Kingdom And likewise indemnifying Our Protestant Subjects from all pains and penalties due for hearing or preaching in Houses providing there be no Treasonable Speeches uttered in the said Conventicles by them in which case the Law is only to take place against the Guilty and none other present providing also that they Reveal to any of Our Council the Guilt so committed As also excepting all Fines or Effects of Sentences already given And likewise Indemnifying fully and freely all Quakers for their Meetings and Worship in all time past preceeding the publication of these presents And we doubt not but Our Protestant Subjects will give their Assistance and Concourse hereunto on all Occasions in their Respective Capacities In consideration whereof and the ease those of Our Religion and others may have hereby and for the Encouragement of Our Protestant Bishops and the Regular Clergy and such as have hitherto lived orderly We think fit to declare that it never was Our Principle nor will We ever suffer Violence to be offered to any Man's Conscience nor will We use Force or Invincible Necessity against any Man on the account of his Perswasion nor the Protestant Religion but will protect Our Bishops and other Minsters in their Functions Rights and Properties and all Our Protestant Subjects in the free Exercise of their
there being sincere Christians and true Englishmen among those of all Judgments and Societies of Protestants and among none more than those of the Communion of the Church of England It were the height of Wickedness as well as the most prodigious Folly to imagine that the Conformists have abandoned all Fidelity to God and cast off all care of themselves and their Country upon a mistaken Judgment of being Loyal and Obedient to the King The contrary is plain enough they knew as well as any that the giving to Caesar the Things that are Caesar's lay them under no Obligation of surrendring unto him the Things that are God's nor of sacrificing unto the Will of the Sovereign the Priviledges reserved unto the People by the Fundamental Rules of the Constitution and by the Statutes of the Realm And they understand as well as others that the Laws of the Land are the only measures of the Prince's Authority and of the Subjects Fealty and where they give him no Right to Command they lay them under no tye to Obey And though here and there a Dissenter has written against Popery with good Success yet they have been mostly Conformable Divines who have triumphed over it in elaborate Discourses and who have beaten the Romish Scriblers off the Stage Nor can it be thought that they who have so accurately related and vindicated the History and asserted and defended the Doctrine of the Reformation should either tamely relinquish or be wanting in all due and legal Ways to uphold and maintain it And though some few of the Nonconformists have with sufficient strength and applause used their Pens against Arbitrariness in detecting the Designs of the Royal Brothers yet they who have generally and with greatest Honour appeared for our Laws and Legal Government against the Invasions and Usurpations of the Court have been Theologues and Gentlemen of the Church of England Nor in case of further Attempts for altering the Constitution and enslaving the Nation will they shew themselves unworthy the having descended from Ancestors whose Motto in the high Places of the Field was nolumus Leges Angliae mutari They who have so often justified the Arms of the Vnited Netherlands against their Rightful Princes the Kings of Spain and so unanswerably vindicated their casting off Obedience to those Monarchs when they had invaded their Priviledges and attempted to establish the Inquisition over them cannot be ignorant what their own Right and Duty is in behalf of the Protestant Religion and English Liberties for the Security whereof we have not only so many Laws but the Coronation Oaths and Stipulations of our Kings And those Gentlemen of the Church of England who appeared so vigorously in three Parliaments for excluding the Duke of York from the Succession to the Crown by reason of a Jealousy of what through being a Papist he would attempt against our Religion and Priviledges in case he were suffered to ascend the Throne cannot be now to seek what becomes them towards him having seen and felt what before they only apprehended and feared For if the Law that entaileth the Succession upon the next of Kin and obligeth the Subjects to admit and receive him not only may but ought to be dispensed with in case the Heir thro' having imbib'd Principles which threaten the Safety and are inconsistent with the Happiness of the People hath made himself incapable to inherit we know by a short Ratiocination how far we stand bound to a Prince on the Throne who by Transgressing against the Laws of the Constitution hath abdicated himself from the Government and stands virtually Deposed For whosoever shall offer to Rule Arbitrarily does immediately cease to be King de jure seeing by the Fundamental Common and Statute Laws of the Realm we know none for Supream Magistrate and Governor but a limited Prince and one who stands circumscribed and bounded in his Power and Prerogative And should the Dissenters entertain a belief that the Conformists are less concerned and zealous than themselves for the Protestant Religion and Laws of the Kingdom they would not only Sin and offend against the Rules of Charity but against the Measures of Justice and daily Evidences from Matters of Fact For neither they nor we owe our Conversion to God and our practical Holiness to the Opinions about Discipline Forms of Worship and Ceremonies wherein we differ but the Doctrines of Faith and Christian Obedience wherein we agree 'T is not their being for a Liturgy a Surpliss or a Bishop that hath heretofore influenced them to subserve the Court in Designs tending to Absoluteness but they were seduced unto it upon Motives whereof they are now ashamed and the ridiculousness and folly of which they have at last discever'd Nor is the multitude of profligate and scandalous persons with which the Church of England is crowded any just impeachment of the Purity of her Doctrine in the Vitals and Essentials of Religion or of the Vertue and Piety of many of her Members For as it is her being the only Society established by Law that attracts those Vermin to her Bosom so it is her being restrained by Law from debarring them that keeps them there to her reproach and to the grief of many of her Ecclesiasticks Neither is it the fault of the Church of England that the Agents and Factors for Popery and Arbitrary Power have chosen to pass under the name of her Sons but it proceeds partly from their Malice as hoping by that means to disgrace her with all true English-men as well as with Dissenters and partly from their Craft in order thereby the better to conceal their Design and to shrowd themselves from the Censure and Punishment which had it not been for that Mask they would have been exposed unto and have undergone And I dare affirm that besides the Obligations from Religion which the Conformists are equally under with Dissenters for hindring the introduction of Popery there are several Inducements from interest which sway them to prevent its establishment wherein the Dissenters are but little concerned For though Popery would be alike afflictive to the Consciences of Protestants of all Persuasions yet they are Gentlemen and Ministers of the Church of England whole Livings Revenues and Estates have been threatned in case it had come to be established Nor would the most Loyal and obsequious Levites provided they resolve to continue Protestants be willing that their Personages and Incumbencies to which they have have no less Right by Law than the King hath to the Excise and Customs should be taken from them and bestowed upon Romish Priests by an Act of Despotical Power and of unlimited Prerogative And for the Gentlemen as I think few of them would hold themselves obliged to part with their purses to High-way-Padders though such should have a pattent from the King to rob whomsoever they met upon the Road so there will not be many inclined to suffer their Mannours and Abbey-Lands to which they have so
relate to the Executive Power which is in the King and not to the Legislative in which we cannot suppose that our Legislators who made that Law intended to give up that which we plainly see they resolved still to preserve entire according to the Antient Constitution So then the not resisting the King can only be applied to the Executive Power that so upon no pretence of ill Administrations in the Execution of the Law it should be lawful to resist him but this cannot with any reason be extended to an Invasion of the Legislative Power or to a total Subversion of the Government For it being plain that the Law did not design to lodg that Power in the King it is also plain that it did not intend to secure him in it in case he should set about it 4. The Law mentioning the King or those Commissionated by him shews plainly that it only designed to secure the King in the Executive Power for the word Commission necessarily imports this since if it is not according to Law it is no Commission and by consequence those who act in virtue of it are not commissionated by the King in the Sense of the Law The King likewise imports a Prince clothed by Law with the Regal Prerogative but if he goes to subvert the whole Foundation of the Government he subverts that by which he himself has his Power and by consequence he annuls his own Power and then he ceases to be King having endeavoured to destroy that upon which his own Authority is founded XV. It is acknowledged by the greatest Assertors of Monarchial Power that in some Cases a King may fall from his Power and in other Cases that he may fall from the Exercise of it His deserting his People his going about to enslave or sell them to any other or a furious going about to destroy them are in the opinion of the most Monarchical Lawyers such Abuses that they naturally divest those that are guilty of them of their whole Authority Infancy or Phrenzy do also put them under the Guardianship of others All the crowned Heads of Europe have at least secretly approved of the putting the late King of Portugal under a Guardianship and the keeping him still Prisoner for a few Acts of Rage that had been fatal to a very few persons And even our Court gave the first countenance to it though of all others the late King had the most reason to have done it at least last of all since it justified a younger Brother's supplanting the Elder yet the evidence of the thing carried it even against Interest Therefore if a King goes about to subvert the Government and to overturn the whole Constitution he by this must be supposed either to fall from his Power or at least from the Exercise of it so far as that he ought to be put under Guardians and according to the Case of Portugal the next Heir falls naturally to be the Guardian XVI The next thing to be considered is to see in Fact whether the Foundations of this Government have been struck at and whether those Errors that have been perhaps committed are only such Malversations as ought to be imputed only to human Frailty and to the Ignorance Inadvertencies or Passions to which all Princes may be subject as well as other Men. But this will best appear if we consider what are the Fundamental Points of our Government and the chief Securities that we have for our Liberties The Authority of the Law is indeed all in one word so that if the King pretends to a Power to dispence with Laws there is nothing left upon which the Subject can depend and yet as if Dispensing Power were not enough if Laws are wholly suspended for all time coming this is plainly a repealing of them when likewise the Men in whose hands the Administration of Justice is put by Law such as Judges and Sheriffs are allowed to tread all Laws under foot even those that infer an Incapacity on themselves if they violate them this is such a breaking of the whole Constitution that we can no more have the Administration of Justice so that it is really a Dissolution of the Government since all Trials Sentences and the Executions of them are become so many unlawful Acts that are null and void of themselves The next thing in our Constitution which secures to us our Laws and Liberties is a free and Lawful Parliament Now not to mention the breach of the Law of Triennial Parliaments it being above three years since we had a Session that enacted any Law Methods have been taken and are daily a taking that render this impossible Parliaments ought to be chosen with an entire Liberty and without either Force or Preingagements whereas if all Men are required beforehand to enter into Engagements how they will vote if they are chosen themselves or how they will give their Voices in the Electing of others This is plainly such a preparation to a Parliament as would indeed make it no Parliament but a Cabal if one were chosen after all that Corruption of Persons who had preingaged themselves and after the Threatning and Turning out of all Persons out of Imployments who had refused to do it and if there are such daily Regulations made in the Towns that it is plain those who manage them intend at last to put such a number of Men in the Corporations as will certainly chuse the Persons who are recommended to them But above all if there are such a number of Sheriffs and Mayors made over England by whom the Elections must be conducted and returned who are now under an Incapacity by Law and so are no Legal Officers and by consequence those Elections that pass under their Authority are null and void if I say it is clear that things are brought to this then the Government is dissolved because it is impossible to have a Free and Legal Parliament in this state of things If then both the Authority of the Law and the Constitution of the Parliament are struck at and dissolved here is a plain Subversion of the whole Government But if we enter next into the particular Branches of the Government we will find the like Disorder among them all The Protestant Religion and the Church of England make a great Article of our Government the latter being secured not only of old by Magna Charta but by many special Laws made of late and there are particular Laws made in K. Charles the First and the late King's time securing them from all Commissions that the King can raise for Judging or Censuring them if then in opposition to this a Court so condemned is erected which proceeds to judg and censure the Clergy and even to disseise them of their Freeholds without so much as the form of a Trial though this is the most indispensable Law of all those that secures the Property of England and if the King pretends that he can require the Clergy
ensuing shall presume so maliciously to call or alledge or object against any other Person or Persons any Name or Names or other words of Reproach any way leading to revive the Memory of the late Differences or the occasion thereof That then every such Person so as aforesaid offending shall forfeit c. It is no matter for the Penalty it is too cheap a one the King wishes it had been greater and therefore hath by His just Prerogative and 't is well for us He hath such a Prerogative added another Penalty more insupportable even His high Displeasure against all who shall swerve from this Clause in the Act. Give me leave to tell you that as many Name or Names or other words of Reproach are expresly against the Letter and punishable accordingly so evil and envious looks murmuring and discontented hearts are as directly against the Equity of this Statute a direct breach of the Act of Indempnity and ought to be be punished too And I believe they may be so You know Kings are in some sense called Gods and so they may in some degree be able to look into mens hearts and God hath given us a King who can look as far into mens hearts as any Prince alive and he hath great skill in Physiognomy too you would wonder what Calculations He hath made from thence and no doubt if He be provoked by evil looks to make a further Enquiry into mens hearts and finds those corrupted with the Passions of Envy and Uncharitableness He will never choose those hearts to trust and rely upon He hath given us a Noble and Princely Example by opening and stretching His Arms to all who are worthy to be His Subjects worthy to be thought Englishmen by extending His heart with a pious and grateful joy to find all His Subjects at once in His Arms and Himself in theirs and shall we fold our arms towards one another and contract our hearts with Envy and Malice to each other by any sharp memory of what hath been unneighbourly or unkindly done heretofore What is this but to rebell against the Person of the King against the excellent Example and Vertue of the King against the known Law of the Land this blessed Act of Oblivion My Lords and Gentlemen The King is a Suitor to you makes it His Suit very heartily That you will joyn with Him in restoring the whole Nation to its primitive Temper and Integrity to its old good Manners its old good Humour and its old good Nature Good Nature a Vertue so peculiar to you so appropriated by God Almighty to this Nation that it can be translated into no other Language hardly practised by any other People and that you will by your Example by the Candor of your Conversation by your Precepts and by your Practise and by all your Interest teach your Neighbours and your Friends how to pay a full Obedience to this Clause of the Statute how to learn this excellent Art of Forgetfulness Let them remember and let us remember how ungracious how undecent how ugly the Insolence the Fierceness the Bruitishness of their Enemies appeared to them and we may piously and reasonably believe that Gods Indignation against them for their want of Bowels for their not being Englishmen for they had the hearts of Pagans and Infidels sent a Whirlwind in a moment to blow them out of the World that is out of a capacity to do more mischief in the World except we practise their Vices and do that our selves which we pretend to detest them for Let us not be too much ashamed as if what hath been done amiss proceeded from the humour and the temper and the nature of our Nation The Astrologers have made us a fair excuse and truly I hope a true one all the motions of these last twenty Years have been unnatural and have proceeded from the evil Influence of a malignant Star and let us not too much despise the Influence of the Stars And the same Astrologers assure us that the Malignity of that Star is expired the good Genius of this Kingdom is become Superiour and hath mastered that Malignity and our own good old Stars govern us again and their Influence is so strong that with our help they will repair in a Year what hath been decaying in twenty and they only shall have no excuse from the Star who continue their Malignity and own all the ill that is past to be their own by continuing and improving it for the time to come If any body here or any where else be too much exalted with what he hath done or what he hath suffered and from thence thinks himself waranted to reproach others let him remember the story of Nicephorus it is an excellent story and very applicable to such Distempers He was a pious and a religious man and for his Piety and Religion was condemned to the fire when he was led to Execution and when an old Friend who had done him injury enough fell at his feet and asked him Pardon the poor Man was so elevated with the Triumph he was going unto with the Glory of Martyrdom that he refused to be reconciled unto him upon which he was disapointed of his end and for this Uncharitableness the Spirit of God immediately forsook him and he apostatized from the Faith Let all those who are too proud of having been as they think less faulty then other Men and so are unwilling to be reconciled to those who have offended them take heed of the Apostacy of Nicephorus and that those fumes of Envy and Uncharitableness and Murmuring do not so far transport and intoxicate them that they fall into those very Crimes they value themselves for having hitherto declined But My Lords and Gentlemen whilest we conspire together to execute faithfully this part of the Bill to put all old Names and Terms of Distinction into utter Oblivion let us not find new Names and Terms to keep up the same or a worse Disstinction If the old Reproaches of Cavalier and Round-head and Malignant be committed to the Grave let us not find more significant and better words to signifie worse things let not Piety and Godliness grow into terms of Reproach and disstinguish between the Court and the City and the Countrey and let not Piety and Godliness be measured by a morosity in Manners an affectation of Gesture a new mode and tone of Speaking at least let not our Constitutions and Complexions make us be thought of a contrary Party and because we have not an affected austerity in our looks that we have not Piety in our hearts Very merry Men have been very godly Men and if a good Conscience be a continual Feast there is no reason but Men may be merry at it You Mr. Speaker have this Day made a noble Present to the King Do you think if you and your worthy Companions had brought it up with folded Arms down-cast Looks with Sighs and other Instances of Desperation it
consult their own good but he comes only at the time of Enacting bringing his Royal Authority with him as it were to set the Seal thereof to the Indenture already prepared by the People for the King is Head of the Parliament in regard of his Authority not in regard of his Reason or Judgment as if it were to be opposed to the Reason or Judgment of both Houses which is the Reason both of King and Kingdom and therefore do they as consult so also interpret Laws without him supposing him to be a Person replenished with Honour and Royal Authority not skilled in Laws nor to receive Information either of Law or Councel in Parliamentary Affairs from any saving from that supreme Court and highest Councel of the King and Kingdom which admits no counterpoise being intrusted both as the wisest Counsel and justest Judicature Fourthly either the choise of the People in Parliament is to be the Ground and Rule of the Kings Assent or nothing but his Pleasure and so all Bills tho' never so necessary for publick Good and Preservation and after never so much pains and consultation of both Houses may be rejected and so they made meer Cyphers and we brought to that pass as neither to have no Laws or such only as come immediately from the King who oft is a man of Pleasure and little seen in publick Affairs to be able to judge and so the Kingdoms great Councel must be subordinated either to his meer Will and then what Difference between a free Monarchy and an absolute saving that the one rules without Councel and the other against it or at the best but to a Cabinet Councel consisting commonly of Men of private Interests but certainly of no publick Trust Ob. But if the King must consent to such Laws as the Parliament shall chuse eo nomine they may then propound unreasonable things to him as to consent to his own Deposing or to the lessening his own Revenue c. Ans So that the issue is whether it be fitter to trust the Wisdom and Integrity of our Parliament or the Will and Pleasure of the King in this case of so great and publick Concernment In a word the King being made the Fountain of Justice and Protection to his People by the fundamental Laws or Constitution of this Kingdom he is therefore to give life to such Acts and Things as tend thereunto which Acts depend not upon his Pleasure but though they are to receive their greater Vigour from him yet are they not to be suspended at pleasure by him for that which at first was intended by the Kingdom for an honourable way of Subsistence and Administration must not be wrested contrrry to the nature of this Polity which is a free and mist Monarchy and not absolute to its Destruction and Confusion so that in case the King in his Person should decline his Duty the King in his Courts is bound to perform it where his Authority properly resides for if he refuse that Honour which the Republick by its fundamental Constitution hath conferred upon him and will not put forth the Acts of it for the end it was given him viz. for the Justice and Safety of his People this hinders not but that they who have as fundamentally reserved a Power of being and well-being in their own hands by the Concurrence of Parliamentary Authority to the Royal Dignity may thereby provide for their own Subsistence wherein is acted the Kings juridical Authority though his personal pleasure be withheld for his legal and juridical Power is included and supposed in the very being and consequently in the Acts of Courts of Justice whose being he may as well suspend as their Power of Acting for that without this is but a Cypher and therefore neither their being nor their acting so depend upon him as not to be able to act and execute common Justice and Protection without him in case he deny to act with them and yet both so depend upon him as that he is bound both in Duty and Honour by the Constitution of this Polity to act in them and they for him so that according to that Axiom in Law The King can do no wrong because his juridical Power and Authority is always to controle his personal Miscarriages London's Flames Revivd OR AN ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL INFORMATIONS Exhibited to a Committee appointed by PARLIAMENT September the 25th 1666. To Enquire into the BURNING of LONDON WITH Several other Informations concerning other Fires in Southwark Fetter-Lane and elsewhere UPon the Second of September 1666. the Fire began in London at one Farriner 's House a Baker in Pudding-Lane between the Hours of One and Two in the Morning and continued burning until the Sixth of September following consuming as by the Surveyors appears in Print Three hundred seventy three Acres within the Walls of the City of London and Sixty three Acres and Three Roods without the Walls There remains Seventy five Acres and Three Roods yet standing within the Walls unburnt Eighty nine Parish Churches besides Chappels burnt Eleven Parishes within the Walls yet standing Houses burnt Thirteen thousand and two hundred Per Jonas Moore Ralph Gatrix Surveyors UPon the 18th Day of September 1666. the Parliament came together And upon the 25th of the same Month the House of Commons appointed a Committee to enquire into the Causes of the late Fire before whom the following Informations were given in and proved before the Committee as by their Report will more clearly appear bearing date the 22th of January 1666. and upon the 8th of February following the Parliament was Prorogued before they came to give their Judgment thereupon Die Martis 25 Septembris 1666. 18 Car. 2. Resolved c. THat a Committee be appointed to enquire into the Causes of the late Fire and that it be referred to Sir Charles Harbord Mr. Sandys Col. Birch Sir Robert Brook Sir Thomas Littleton Mr. Prin Mr. Jones Sir Solomon Swale Sir Thomas Tomlins Mr. Seymour Mr. Finch Lord Herbert Sir John Heath Mr. Milward Sir Richard Ford Mr. Robert Milward Sir William Lowther Sir Richard Vatley Sir Rowland Beckley Sir Thomas Allen Mr. Whorwood Mr. Coventry Serj. Maynard Sir John Talbot Mr. Morley Mr. Garraway Sir Francis Goodrick Col. Strangeways Sir Edward Massey Sir Edmond Walpool Sir Robert Atkins Sir Thomas Gower Mr. Trevor Sir Thomas Clifford Sir Henry Caesar Sir John Monson Sir John Charleton Lord Ancram Mr. Pepis Sir Richard Everard Mr. Crouch Mr. Merrel Sir William Hickman Sir Richard Brown Mr. Maynard And they are to meet to Morrow at Two of the Clock in the After-noon in the Speaker's Chamber and to send for Persons Papers and Records William Goldsbrough Cler. Dom. Com. October 9. 1666. Ordered that these Members following be added to the Committee appointed to Enquire into the Causes of the late Fire viz. Sir John Pelham Mr. Hugh Buscowen Mr. Giles Hungerford Sir William Lewis Sir Gilbert Gerrard Sir John Brampstone Mr. Milward Mr. Buscowen
certain that in all Absolute Governments the poorest Countreys are always most favourably dealt with When the Ancient Nobility and Gentry there cannot enjoy their Royalties their Shrevaldoms and their Stewardaries which they and their Ancestors have possessed for several hundreds of years but that now they are enjoyned by the Lords of the Council to make Deputations of their Authorities to such as are their known Enemies Can we expect to enjoy our Magna Charta long under the same Persons and Administration of Affairs If the Council-Table there can Imprison any Nobleman or Gentleman for several years without bringing him to Trial or giving the least Reason for what they do can we expect the same Men will preserve the Liberty of the Subject here I will acknowledge I am not well vers'd in the particular Laws of Scotland but this I do know that all the Nothern Countries have by their Laws an undoubted and inviolable Right to their Liberties and Properties yet Scotland hath out-done all the Eastern and Southern Countries in having their Lives Liberties and Estates subjected to the Arbitrary Will and Pleasure of those that Govern They have lately plundered and harrassed the richest and wealthiest Countries of that Kingdom and brought down the Barbarous Highlanders to devour them and all this without almost a colourable Pretence to do it Nor can there be found a Reason of State for what they have done but that those wicked Ministers designed to procure a Rebellion at any Rate which as they managed was only prevented by the miraculous Hand of God or otherwise all the Papists in England would have been Armed and the fairest Opportunity given in the just time for the Execution of that Wicked and Bloudy Design the Papists had and it is not possible for any Man that duly considers it to think other but that those Ministers that Acted that were as guilty of the Plot as any of the Lords that are in question for it My Lords I am forced to speak this the plainer because till the Pressure be fully and clearly taken off from Scotland 't is not possible for me or any Thinking Man to believe that Good is meant us here We must still be upon our Guard apprehending that the Principle is not changed at Court and that these Men that are still in Place and Authority have that Influence upon the Mind of our Excellent Prince that he is not nor cannot be that to us that his own Nature and Goodness would incline him to I know your Lordships can order nothing in this but there are those that hear me can put a perfect Cure to it until that be done the Scottish Weed is like Death in the Pot Mors in Olla But there is something too now I consider that most immediately concerns us their Act of Twenty two thousand Men to be ready to invade us upon all Occasions This I hear that the Lords of the Council there have treated as they do all other Laws and expounded it into a standing Army of Six thousand Men. I am sure we have Reason and Right to beseech the King that that Act may be better considered in the next Parliament there I shall say no more for Scotland at this time I am afraid your Lordships will think I have said too much having no concern there But if a French Noble-Man should come to dwell in my House and Family I should think it concern'd me to ask what he did in France for if he were there a Felon a Rogue a Plunderer I should desire him to live elsewhere and I hope your Lordships will do the same thing for the Nation if you find the same cause My Lords give me leave to speak two or three Words concerning our other Sister Ireland thither I hear is sent Douglas's Regiment to secure us against the French Besides I am credibly informed that the Papists have their Arms restored and the Protestants are not many of them yet recovered from being the suspected Party the Sea-Towns as well as the In-land are full of Papists That Kingdom cannot long continue in the English Hands if some better Care be not taken of it This is in your Power and there is nothing there but is under your Laws therefore I beg that this Kingdom at least may be taken in consideration together with the State of England For I am sure there can be no Safety here if these Doors be not shut up and made sure THE INSTRUMENT OR Writing of Association THAT THE True Protestants of ENGLAND entred into IN THE Reign of Q. Elizabeth FOrasmuch as Almighty God hath Ordained Kings Queens and Princes to have Dominion and Rule over all their Subjects and to preserve them in the Possession and Observation of the true Christian Religion according to his holy Word and Commandment And in like sort that all Subjects should Love Fear and Obey their Soveraign Princes being Kings or Queens to the utmost of their Power at all times to withstand pursue and suppress all manner of Persons that shall by any means intend and attempt any thing dangerous or hurtful to the Honour States or Persons of their Soveraigns Therefore we whose Names are or shall be subscribed to this Writing being Natural Born Subjects of this Realm of England and having so gracious a Lady our Soveraign Elizabeth by the Ordinance of God our most rightful Queen Reigning over us these many Years with great Felicity to our inestimable Comfort And finding lately by divers Depositions Confessions and sundry Advertisements out of Foreign Parts from credible Persons well known to her Majesties Council and to divers others That for the furtherance and Advancement of some pretended Title to the Crown it hath been manifested that the Life of our gracious Soveraign Lady Queen Elizabeth hath been most dangerously to the Peril of her Person if Almighty God her perpetual Defender of his Mercy had not revealed and withstood the same By whose Life we and all other her Majesties True and Loyal Subjects do enjoy an inestimable benefit of Peace in this Land do for the Reasons and Causes before alledged not only acknowledge our selves most justly bound with our Lives and Goods for her Defence in her Safety to persecute suppress and withstand all such Intenders and all other her Enemies of what Nation Condition and Degree whatsoever they shall be or by what Council or Title they shall pretend to be her Enemies or to attempt any Harm upon her Person but do further think it our bounden Duties for the great Benefit of Peace Wealth and Godly Government we have more plentifully received these many Years under her Majesties Government then any of our Forefathers have done in any longer time of any other Progenitors Kings of this Realm Do declare and by this Writing make manifest our bounden Duties to our said Sovereign Lady for her Safety And to that end We and every of us First Calling to Witness the Name of Almighty God do Voluntarily and
for securing all these appointed a Test to be taken by all who should be entrusted with the Government which bears expresly That the same should be taken in the plain and genuine sense and meaning of the words We were very careful not to suffer any to take the said Oath or Test with their own Glosses or Explications But the Earâ— of Argyle having after some delays come to Council to take the said Oath as a Privy-Councellor spoke some things which were not then heard nor adverted to and when his Lordship at his next offering to take it in Council as one of the Commissioners of Your Majesties Treasury was commanded to take it simply he refused to do so but gave in a Paper shewing the only sense in which he would take it which Paper we all considered as that which had in it gross and scandalous Reflections upon that excellent Act of Parliament making it to contain things contradictory and inconstant and thereby depraving Your Majesties Laws misrepresenting Your Parliament and teaching Your Subjects to evacuate and disappoint all Laws and Securities that can be enacted for the preservation of the Government suitable to which his Lordship declares in that Paper That he means not to bind up himself from making any alterations he shall think fit for the advantage of Church or State and which Paper he desires may be looked upon as apart of his Oath as if he were the Legislator and able to add a part to the Act of Parliament Upon serious perusal of which Paper we found our selves obliged to send the said Earl to the Castle of Edinburgh and to transmit the Paper to Your Majesty being expresly obliged to both these by Your Majesties express Laws And we have commanded your Majesties Advocate to raise a pursuit against the said Earl for being Author and having given in the said Paper And for the further prosecution of all relating to this Affair we expect Your Majesties Commands which shall be most humbly and faithfully obeyed by Edinburgh Nov. 8. 1681. Your Majesties most Humble most Faithful and most Obedient Subjects and Servants Sic Subscribitur Glencairne Winton Linlithgow Perth Roxburgh Ancram Airlie Levingstoun Jo. Edinburgen Ross Geo. Gordoun Ch. Maitland G. Mekenzie Ja. Foulis J. Drumond Novemb. 15. 1681. The Kings Answer to the Councils Letter C. R. MOst dear c. Having in one of your Letters directed unto us of the 8. Instant received a particular account of the Earl of Argyle's refusing to take the Test simply and of your proceedings against him upon the occasion of his giving in a Paper shewing the only sense in which he will take it which had in it gross and scandalous Reflections upon that excellent late Act of our Parliament there by which the said Test was enjoyned to be taken we have now thought fit to let you know that as we do hereby approve these your Proceedings particularly your sending the said Earl to our Castle of Edinburgh and your commanding our Advocate to raise a Pursuit against him for being Author of and having given in the said Paper so we do also authorize you to do all things that may concern the further prosecution of all relating to this Affair Nevertheless it is our express Will and Pleasure That before any Sentence shall be pronounced against him at the Conclusion of the Process you send us a particular account of what he shall be found guilty of to the end that after our being fully informed thereof we may signifie our further pleasure in this matter For doing whereof c. But as notwithstanding the Councils demanding by their Letter His Majesties allowance for prosecuting the Earl they before any return caused His Majesties Advocate to exhibit an Indictment against him upon the points of slandering and depraving as hath been already remarked so after having received His Majesties answer the design grows and they thought fit to order a new Indictment containing beside the former points the Crimes of Treason and Perjury which accordingly was exhibited and is here subjoyned the difference betwixt the two Indictments being only in the particulars above noted The Copy of the Indictment against the Earl of Argyle Archibald Earl of Argyle YOU are Indicted and Accused That albeit by the Common Law of all well-govern'd Nations and by the Municipal Laws and Acts of Parliament of this Kingdom and particularly by the 21st and by the 43d Act Par. 2 James 1. and by the 83d Act Par. 6. James 5. and by the 34th Act Par. 8. James 6. and the 134th Act Par. 8. James 6. and the 205th Act Par. 14. James 6. All Leasing-makers and tellers of them are punishable with tinsel of Life and Goods like as by the 107th Act Par. 7. James 1. it is statuted That no man interpret the Kings Statutes otherwise than the Statute bears and to the intent and effect that they were made for and as the makers of them understood and who so does in the contrary to be punished at the Kings will And by the 10th Act Par. 10. James 6. it is statuted That none of His Majesties Subjects presume or take upon him publickly to declare or privately to speak or write any purpose of reproach or slander of His Majesties Person Estate or Government or to deprave his Laws or Acts of Parliament or misconstrue his proceedings whereby any mistaking may be moved betwixt his Highness his Nobility and loving Subjects in time coming under pain of death certifying them that does in the contrary they shall be reputed as seditious and wicked Instruments enemies to his Highness and to the Commonwealth of this Realm and the said pain of death shall be executed against them with all rigour to the example of others And by the second Act Ses 2. Par. 1. Char. 2. it is statuted That whosoever shall by Writing Libelling Remonstrating express publish or declare any words or sentences to stir up the people to the dislike of His Majesties Prerogative and Supremacy in causes Ecclesiastick or of the Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops as it is now settled by Law is under the pain of being declared incapable to exercise any Office Civil Ecclesiastick or Military within this Kingdom in any time coming Like as by the fundamental Laws of this Nation by the 130th Act Par. 8. James 6. it is declared That none of His Majesties Subjects presume to impugn the Dignity or Authority of the three Estates or to procure innevation or diminution of their Power and Authority under the pain of Treason And that it is much more Treason in any of His Majesties Subjects to presume to alter Laws already made or to make new Laws or to add any part to any Law by their own Authority that being to assume the Legislative Power to themselves with His Majesties highest and most incommunicable Prerogative Yet true it is that albeit His Sacred Majesty did not only bestow on you the said Archibald Earl of Argyle
and others who offered to obey because it is the defaming the Law as ridiculous and inconsistent with that Protestant Religion and Leasing-making betwixt the King the Nobility and the people the misconstruing and misrepresenting as hath been formerly urged that puts the Earl in a worse condition And all those arguments might be as well urged for any who had uncontrovertedly contravened these Acts as for the Pannel Whereas it is pretended That the King emitted a Proclamation to satisfie Dissenters it is answered That the Proclamation was designed for none who had been Members of Parliament and so should have known the sense but it was designed for meer ignorants not for such as had defamed the Law which is still here charged upon the Pannel As to the Article of Treason it is conceived That it is unanswerably founded upon the Common Law discharging all men to make alteration of the Government as to which there needs no express Statute that being the very essence of Government and needing no Laws Like as it falls positively under all the Laws that discharge the assuming the Royal or Legislative power for to alter the Government is inseparably united to the Crown Like as the Subsumption is as clear the express words not bearing That the Earl reserves to himself a power to propose to His Majesty any alterations or to concur to serve His Majesty in making alterations but owning in most general and arbitrary terms to wish and endeavour any alteration he should think fit for the advantage of Church or State and not determining any thing that could bind him otherwise than according to his own pleasure for the word lawful is still subjected to himself and has subjoyned to it as he should think fit which governs the whole proposition and in that sense and as the words are here set down the greatest Rebel in Scotland will subscribe that Explanation for there is no man but will restrict himself to a lawful obedience provided he be Judge of the lawfulness And seeing all Oaths proposed for the security of Government require a certain depending upon the Legislator and not upon the Taker it is impossible that that end could be attained by any qualification how special soever which is made to depend absolutely upon the Taker and not upon the Legislator And we have often seen how little security there is in those specious words the very Covenant it self having not only the very words above-repeated but attesting all the world to be witnesses to their Loyalty and Sincerity And as to the former instances viz. Rising in Arms or opposing the lawful Successor there is no Covenanter in Scotland but will say he will do neither but in a lawful way and in his station and in a way consistent with his Loyalty for a man were mad to say otherwise but yet when they come to explain this they will only do it as they think fit and will be Judges themselves and then will tell us That defensive Arms are lawful and that no Popish Successor should succeed nor no Successor unless he subscribe the Covenant And whereas it is pretended That no clause in the Test does exclude a man from making alterations it is answered That the alterations which the Test allows are none at all but in subordination to Authority And as to the two points above mentioned it excludes all alterations as to these points And as to the making fundamental alterations this reservation allows to make any alteration and consequently fundamental alterations to preclude which Libertinism this excellent Law was invented Whereas it is pretended That the Pannel designs not to add any thing as a part of the Law but as a part of his Oath it is duplied Since the Oath is a part of the Law whoever adds to the Oath adds to the Law Whereas it is pretended That the Crime of Perjury cannot be inferred here because all Divines allow That the Taker of an Oath is still allowed to declare in what sense he takes the Oath and that this is clear from Sanderson p. 175. It is triplied That where there are two dubious senses Lawyers and Divines allow That the taker should clear himself which of the two he should take which is very just because to which soever of the two he determines himself the Legislator in that case is sure of him But here it is not pretended That there are two senses nor does the Pannel declare in which of the two he takes it or in what clear sence at all he takes it which is indeed liquido Jurare But here the Pannel neither condescends what particular clause of the Test is unclear nor after he has condescended upon the Articles does he condescend upon the sense but in general mysterious words where he can neither be followed or found out he only takes it in so far as it is consistent with it self and the Protestant Religion reserving the squaring all by his own Loyalty as he did in the beginning declare That he took it in his own sense by which general sense neither is the Government secure of any thing it does enjoyn nor could he be punished if he transgressed Nor can it be doubted but Perjury may be inferred by any equivocal or evading sense inter Jurandum as well as by breaking an oath afterwards which is very clear from Sanderson p. 138. The words whereof are alterum perjurii genus est inter Jurandum detorquere verba and which is farther clear by the 28. page but above all from the principles of Reason and the necessity of Commerce and Government For if men may adhibit such glosses even whilst they swear as may make the Oath useless what way will either Government or Commerce be maintained And he deceives as much that deceives in swearing salvis verbis as he who after he has sworn does break the Oath Nay and more too because the breaking may come from forgetfulness or other accidents but the evading by general Clauses which bind no man does from the first instance originally make all Oaths useless and dangerous and that this interpretation eludes the Oath absolutely is very clear from what hath been formerly debated For it may be argued That the Earl broke the Oath in so far as the first day he swears the Oath which bears to be without any evasion and must be so notwithstanding of whatever he could say And the next day he gives in this evasion which is a down-right violation of that Oath and inconsistent with it Nor was this Oath forced but voluntarily emitted to keep his own places And it was the greater Crime that it was done in the Council because that was to make it the more publick and consequently the more to misrepresent the Government After this debate which according to the custom of the Court was verbatim dictate by the Advocates of either side and written by the Clerk and so took up much time and the Court having sate at least twelve
him and it can give none to destroy its self and those it protects but the contrary Bracton in his Comments pag. 487. tells us Bracton p. 487. That although the Common Law doth allow many Prerogatives to the King yet it doth not allow any that He shall wrong or hurt any by His Prerogative Therefore 't is well said by a late Worthy Author upon this point That what Power or Prerogative the Kings have in Them ought to be used according to the true and genuine intent of the Government that is for the Preservation and Interest of the People And not for the disappointing the Councils of a Parliament towards reforming Grievances and making provision for the future Execution of the Laws and whenever it is applied to frustrate those ends it is a Violation of Right and Infringement of the King's Coronation Oath who is obliged to Pass or Confirm those Laws His People shall cluse And tho he had such a Prerogative by Law yet it should not be so used especially in time of Eminent danger and distress The late King in His Advice to His Majesty that now is in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 239. Tells him That his Prerogative is best shewed and exercised in Remitting rather than exacting the Rigor of the Laws there being nothing worse than Legal Tyranny Nor would he have him entertain any Aversion or Dislike of Parliaments The Late King's advice to His Majesty which in their right Constitution with freedom and Honour will never Injure or Diminish His Greatness but will rather be as interchangings of Love Loyalty and Confidence between a Prince and His people It is true some Flatterers and Traytors have presumed in defiance to their Countries Rights to assert that such a boundless Prerogative belongs to Kings As did Chief Justice Trisilian c. in R. 2â—s time Advising him that he might Dissolve Parliaments at pleasure and that no Member should be called to Parliament nor any Act past in either House without His Approbation in the first place and that whoever advis'd otherwise were Traytors But this Advice you read was no less fatal to himself than pernicious to his Prince Bakers Chron. p. 147 148 and 159. King James in His Speech to the Parliament 1609. Gives them assurance That he never meant to Govern by any Law but the Law of the Land tho it be disputed among them as if he had an intention to alter the Law and Govern by the absolute power of a King but to put them out of doubt in that matter tells them That all Kings who are not Tyrants or Perjured will bound themselves within the limits of their Laws And they that persuade the contrary are Vipers and Pests both against them and the Commonwealth Wilson K. J. p. 46. The Conclusion 1. IF this be so That by so great Authority viz. so many Statutes in force The sundamental of the Common Law the Essentials of the Government it self Magna Charta The King's Coronation Oath so many Laws of God and Man The Parliament ought ro sit to Redress Grievances and provide for Common Safety especially in times of Common Danger And that this is eminently so who can doubt that will believe the King so many Parliaments The Cloud of Witnesses the Publick Judicatures their own sense and experience of the manifold Mischiefs which have been acted and the apparent Ruine and Confusion that impends the Nation by the restless Attempts of a bloody Interest if speedy Remedy is not applied Then let it be Queried Whether the People having thus the Knife at the Throat Cities and Habitations Fired and therein their Persons fried Invasions and Insurrections threatned to Destroy the King and Subjects Church and State and as so lately told us upon Mr. Fitz Harris's Commitment the present Design on Foot was to Depose and Kill the King and their only remedy hoped for under God to give them relief Relief thus from time time cut off viz. Their Parliaments who with so much care cost and pains are Elected sent up and Intrusted for their help turned off ré infecta and rendred so insiguificant by those frequent Prorogations and Dissolutions Are they not therefore justified in their important Cries in their many Humble Petitions to their King Fervent Addresses to their Members earnest Claims for this their Birth-right here Pleaded which the Laws of the Kingdom consonant to the Laws of God and Nature has given them 2. If so what then shall be said to those who advise to this high Violation of their Countries Rights to the infringing so many just Laws and exposing the Publick to those desperate hazards if not a total Ruine If King Alfred as Andrew Horne in his Mirror of Justice tells us hanged Darling Segnor Cadwine Cole and Forty Judges more for Judging contrary to Law and yet all those false Judgments were but in particular and private Cases What death do those Men deserve who offer this violence to the Law it self and all the Sacred Rights of their Country If the Lord Chief Justice Thorp in Ed. 3d's time for receiving the Bribery of One hundred pounds was adjudged to be Hanged as one that had made the King break his Oath to the People How much more guilty are they of making the King break His Coronation Oath that persuade him to Act against all the Laws for holding Parliaments and passing Laws therein which he is so solemnly sworn to do And if the Lord Chief Justice Tresilian was Hanged Drawn and Quartered for Advising the King to Act contrary to some Statutes only What do those deserve that advise the King to Act not only against some but against all these Ancient Laws and Statutes of the Realm And if Blake the King's Council but for assisting in the matter and drawing up Indictments by the King's Command contrary to Law tho it is likely he might Plead the King's Order for it yet if he was Hang'd Drawn and Quartered for that What Justice is due to them that assist in the Total Destruction of all the Laws of the Nation and as much in them lies their King and Country too And if Vsk the under-Sheriff whose Office is to Execute the Laws for but endeavouring to aid Tresilian Blake and their Accomplices against some of the Laws was also with Five more Hang'd Drawn and Quartered What punishment may they deserve that Aid and endeavour the Subversion of all the Laws of the Kingdom And if Empson and Dudley in Henry the Eighth's time tho two of the King 's Privy Council were Hanged for Procuring and Executing an Act of Parliament contrary to the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and to the great vexation of the People so that tho they had an Act of Parliament of their side yet that Act being against the known Laws of the Land were Hang'd as Traytors for putting that Statute in Execution Then what shall become of those who have no such Act to shelter themselves under and who
that kind ought to have no place in judicial proceedings against suspected Criminals but truth is only to be regarded and for this reason the Judgments given in Court of humane Institution are in Scripture called the Judgments of God who is the God of truth Yet further If any benefit to the King could be imagined by making the Evidence to the Grand Jury publick it could not come in competition with the Law expressed in their Oath which by constant uninterrupted usage for so many Ages hath obtained the force of Law Bracton and Britton in their several Generations bear witness that it was then practised and greater proof of it needs not be sought than the Disputes that appear by the Law-Books to have been amongst the ancient Lawyers whether it was Treason or Felony for a Grand-Jury to discover either who was indicted or what Evidence was given them The Trust of the Grand Juries was thought so sacred in those Ages and their secrecy of so great concern to the Kingdom that whosoever should break their Oath therein was by all thought worthy to die Co. Instit 3d part p. 107. Rulls Indic 771. only some would have had them suffer as Traytors others as Felons And at this day it is held to be a high Misprision punishable by Fine and Impoverishment The Law then having appointed the Evidence to be given to Grand Juries in secret the King cannot desire to have it made publick He can do no wrong saith the old Maxime that is He can do nothing against the Law nor is any thing to be judged for his benefit that is not warranted by Law His Will Commands and Desires are therein no otherwise to be known He cannot change the legal Method or manner of enquiring by Juries nor vary in any particular case from the customary and general forms of judicial proceedings he can neither abridge nor enlarge the power of Juries no more than he can lessen the legal Power of the Sheriffs or Judges or by special Direction order the one how they shall execute Writs and the other how they shall give Judgments though these made by himself 'T is criminal no doubt for any to say that the King desires a Court of Justice or a Jury to vary from the direction of the Law and they ought not to be believed therein If Letters Writs or other Commands should come to the Judges for that purpose they are bound by their Oaths not to regard them but to hold them for null the Statutes of 2 E. 3.8 and 20 E. 3.1 are express That if any Writs or Commandments come to the Justices in disturbance of the Law or the Execution of the same or of right to the Parties they shall proceed as if no such Letters Writs or Commands were come to them And the substance of these and other Statutes is inserted into the Oath taken by every Judge and if they be under the most solemn and sacred Tye in the Execution of Justice to hold for nothing or none the Commands of the King under the Great Seal surely the Word or Desire of an Attorney-General in the like case ought to be less than nothing Besides they are strangely mistaken who think the King can have an Interest different from or contrary unto that of the Kingdom in the prosecution of Accused Persons His Concernments are involved in those of his People and he can have none distinct from them He is the Head of the Body Politick and the legal Course of doing Justice is like the orderly circulation of the Blood in the Natural Bodies by which both Head and Body are equally preserved and both perish by the interruption of it The King is obliged to the utmost of his Power to maintain the Law and Justice in its due course by his Coronation Oath and the Trust thereby reposed in him In former Ages he was conjured not to take the Crown unless he resolved punctually to observe it Brom. p. 1159. Mat. Paris p. 153. Bromton and others speaking of the Coronation of Richard the first delivered it thus That having first taken the Oath Deinde indutus Mantello ductus est ad Altare conjuratus ab Archiepiscopo prohibitus ex parte Dei ne hunc Honorem sibi assumat nisi in mente habeat tenere Sacramenta Vota quae superius fecit Et Ipse respondit se per Dei auxilium omnia supradicta observaturum bona fide Deinde cepit Corâ—nam de Altari tradidit eam Archiepiscopo qui posuit eam super caput Regis sic Coronatus Rex ductus est ad sedem suam Afterward cloathed with the Royal Robe he is led to the Altar and conjured by the Archbishop and forbid in the Name of God not to assume that Honour unless he intended to keep the Oaths and Vows he had before made and he answered By God's help he would faithfully observe all the Premises and then he took the Crown from off the Altar and delivered it to the Archbishop who put it upon the King's Head and the King thus Crowned is led unto His Seat The violation of which Trust cannot but be as well a wound unto their Consciences as bring great Prejudice upon their Persons and Affairs The common-Common-Law that exacts this doth so far provide for Princes That having their minds free from cares of preserving themselves they may rest assured that no Acts Words or Designs that may bring them into danger can be concealed from the many Hundreds of Men who by the Law are appointed in all parts of the Kingdom watchfully to take care of the King and are so far concerned in His safety that they can hope no longer to enjoy their own Lives and Fortunes in Peace than they can preserve him and the good Order which according to the Laws he is to uphold It is the joynt Interest of King and People that the ancient Rules of doing Justice be held sacred and inviolable and they are equally concerned in causing strict enquiries to be made into all Evidences given against suspected or accused Persons that the Truth may be discovered and such as dare to disturb the Publick Peace by breaking the Laws may be brought to punishment And the whole course of Judicial Proceedings in Criminal Causes shews that the People is therein equally concerned with the King whose name is used This is the ground of that distinction which Sir Ed. Coke makes between the Proceedings in Pleas of the Crown and Actions for wrongs done to the King himself In Pleas of the Crown or other common offences nusances c. Co. 3d. Inst pag. 136. principally concerning others or the Publick there the King by Law must be apprised by Indictment Presentment or other matter of Record but the King may have an Action for such wrong as is done is himself and whereof none other can have an Action but the King without being apprised by Indictment Presentment or other matter of Record
be advanced by the formality of Verdicts if Grand Juries be overawed or not suffered to enquire into the Truth to the satisfaction of their Consciences Every Man whilst he lives innocently doth under God place his hopes of security in the Law which can give no protection if its due course be so interrupted that frauds cannot be discovered Witnesses may as well favour Offenders as give false testimony against the guiltless and if they by hearing what each other saith are put into a way of concealing their villainous designs there can be no legal Revenge of the crimes already committed Others by their impunity will be encouraged to do the like And every quiet minded Person will be equally exposed unto private injuries and such as may be done unto him under the colour of Law No man can promise unto himself any security for his Life or Goods and they who do not suffer the utmost violences in their own persons may do it in their Children Friends and nearest Relations if he be deprived of the remedies that the Law ordains and forced to depend upon the Will of a Judge who may be and perhaps we may say are too often corrupted or swayed by their own Passions Interests or the impulse of such as are greater than they This mischief is aggravated by a commonly received Opinion that whosoever speaks against an accused person is the King's Witness and the worst of men in their worst designs do usually shelter themselves under that name whereas he only is the King's Witness who speaks the truth whether it be for or against him that is accused As the Power of the King 's the Power of the Law he can have no other intention than that of the Law which is to have Justice impartially administred and as he is the Father of his People he cannot but incline ever to the gentlest side unless iâ— be possible for a Father to delight in the destruction or desire to enrich himself by the confiscation of his Childrens Estates If the most wicked Princes have had different thoughts that have been obliged to dissemble them We know of none worse than Nero but he was so far from acknowledging that he desired any Man's condemnation that he looked upon the necessity of signing Warrants for the Execution of * Sne. Vit. Ner. Vtinam nescirem letteras Malefactors as a burthen and rather wished he had not learnt to write than to be obliged to do it They who by spreading such barbarous errours would create unto the King an interest different from that of his People which he is to preserve whilst they pretend to serve him in destroying of them they deprive him of his honour and dignity Justice is done in all places in the name of the chief Magistrate it being presumed that he doth embrace every one of his Subjects with equal tenderness until the guilty are by legal proofs discriminated from the Innocent and amongst us the King's name may be used in civil cases as well as criminal But it is as impossible for him rightly to desire I should be condemned for killing a Man whom I have not killed or a Treason that I have not committed as that my Land should be unjustly taken from me by a judgment in his Bench or I should be condemned to pay a debt that I do not owe. In both Cases we sue unto him for Justice and demand it as our right We are all concerned in it publickly and privately and the King as well as all the Officers of Justice are by their several Oaths obliged in their respective capacities to perform it They are bound to give their assistance to find out Offenders and the King's Attorney is by his Oath to prosecute them if he be required and he is not only the King's servant in such cases but the Nations or rather cannot otherwise serve the King than by seeing Justice done in the Nation Whensoever any Man receives an injury in his Person Wife Children Friends or Goods the King is injured in as much as he is by his Office to prevent such mischief and ought to be concerned in the Welfare of every one of his Subjects but the parties to whom the injuries are done are the immediate sufferers and the prosecution is principally made that they may be repared or revenged and other innocent persons secured by the punishment of Offenders in which the King can be no otherwise concerned than as he is to see his Office faithfully performed and his People protected The King's suit therefore is in the behalf of his People yet the Law leaves unto every man a Liberty in case of Treasons Murthers Rapes Robberies c. to sue in the King's name and crave his aid or by way of appeal in his own The same Law looks upon Felons or Traitors as publick Enemies and by authorizing every one to pursue or apprehend them teacheth us that every man in his place ought to do it The same Act whereby one or a few are injured threatneth all and every Man 's private interest so concurs with that of the publick that all depends upon the exact preservation of the Method prescribed by the Law for the impartial inquisition after suspected Offenders and most tender care of preserving such as are innocent As this cannot possibly be effected without secret and separate examinations the forbidding them is no less than to change the Course which is enjoyned by Law confirmed by custom and grounded upon Reason and Justice If on the other side any man believe that such as in the King's name prosecute suspected Delinquents ought only to try how they may bring them to be condemned he may be pleased to consider that all such persons ought according unto Law to produce no Witness whom they do not think to be true No Evidence which they do not believe good nor can conceal any thing that may justifie the accused No trick or Artifice can be lawfully used to deceive a Grand Jury or induce them to find or reject a Bill otherwise than as they are led by their own Consciences All Lawyers were anciently sworn to put no deceit upon the Courts for their Clients sake and there are Statutes still in force to punish them if they do it but there is an eternal obligation upon such as are of Counsel against persons accused of Crimes not to use such Arts as may bring the Innocent to be condemned and thereby parvert that which is not called the Judgment of Man but of God because Man renders it in the stead and by the Commandment of God such practices exalt the Jurisdiction of Tribunals but infect and polute them with that Innocent Blood which will be their overthrow And least of all can it be called a Service to the King since none could ever stand against the cry of it This is necessarily implyed in the Attorney General 's Oath to serve the King in his Kingly Office wherein the Law presumes he can
do no wrong But the greatest of all wrongs and that which hath been most destructive unto Thrones is by Fraud to circumvent and destroy the Innocent This is to turn a Legal King into a Nimrod a Hunter of Men This is not to act the part of a Father or a Shepherd who is ready to lay down his Life for his Sheep but such as the Psalmist complains of who eat up the People as if they eat Bread Jezebel did perhaps applaud her own Wit and think she had done a great Service to the King by finding out Men of Belial Judges and Witnesses to bring Naboth to be stoned but that unregarded Blood was a Canker or the Plague of Leprosie in his Throne and Family which could not be cured but by its overthrow and extinction But if the Attorney General cannot serve the King by abusing Juries and subverting the Innocent he can as little gain an advantage to himself by falsifying his Oath by the true meaning whereof he is to prosecute Justice Impartially and the Eternal Divine Law would annul any Oath or Promise that he should have taken to the contrary even though his Office had obliged him unto it The like Obligation lies upon Jurors not to suffer themselves to be deluded or persuaded that the Judges King's Council or any others can dispense with that Oath or any part of it which they have taken before God unto the whole Nation nor to think that they can swerve from the Rules set by the Law without a damnable breach of it The pwoer of relating or dissolving Conscientious Obligations acknowled in the Pope makes a great part of the Roman Superstition and that grand Impostor could never corrupt Kingdoms and Nations to their destruction and the Establishment of his Tyranny until he had brought them to believe he could dispense with Oaths taken by Kings unto their Subjects and by Subjects to their Kings nor impose so extravagant an Errour upon either until he had persuaded them he was in the place of God It is hard to say how the Judges or King's Council can have the same Power unless it be upon the same Title but we may be sure they may as well dispense with the whole Oath as any part of it and can have no pretence unto either unless they have the Keys of Heaven and Hell in their keeping It is in vain to say the King as any other man may remit the Oath taken unto and for himself He is not a party for himself but in the behalf of his People and cannot dispose of their Concernments without their Consent which is given only in Parliament The King's Council ought to remember they are in criminal Cases of Council unto every man in the Kingdom It is no ways referred unto the Direction of the Judges or unto them whether that secrecy enjoyned by Law be profitable unto the King or Kingdom They must take the Law as it is and render Obedience unto it until it be altered by the Power that made it To this end the Judges by Acts of Parliament viz. 18 Ed. 3. cap. 8. and 20 Ed. 3. cap. 1. are sworn to serve the People Ye shall serve our Lord the King and his People in the Office of Justice c. Ye shall deny to no man common Right by the King's Letters nor no other mans nor for no other cause and in default thereof in any point they are to forfeit their Bodies Lands and Goods This proves them to be the Peoples Servants as well as the Kings Further by the express words of the Commissions of Oyer and Terminer they are required to assist every man that suffers injury and make diligent inquisition after all manner of falshoods deceits offences and wrongs done to any man and thereupon to do Justice according to the Law so that in the whole proceedings in order unto Tryal and in the Tryals themselves the Thing principally intended which several persons are severally in their capacities obliged to pursue is the discovery of Truth The Withesses are to depose the Truth the whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth Thereupon the Council for the King are to prosecute The Grand Jury to present and the Petit Jury to try These are several Offices but all to the same End 'T is not the Prisoner but the Crime that is to be pursued This primarily the Offender but by consequence and therefore such Courses must be taken as may discover that and not such as may ensnare him When the Offence is found the impartial Letter of the Law gives the Doom and the Judges have no share in it but the pronouncing of it Till then the Judges are only to preside and take Care that every man else who is employed in this necessary Affair do his duty according to Law So that upon result of the whole transaction impartial Justice may be done either to the Acquittal or condemnation of the Prisoner Hereby it is manifest why the Judges are obliged by Oath To Serve the People as well as the King And by Commission To Serve every One that Suffers Injuries As they are to See that Right be done to the King and His injur'd Subjects in discovering of the Delinquent So they are to be of Council with the Prisoner whom the Law supposeth may be ignorant as well as innocent and therefore has provided that the Court shall be of Council for him and as well inform him of what Legal advantages the Law allows him as to resolve any point of Law when he shall propose it to them And it seems to be upon the presumption of this steady impartiality in the Judges thus obliged by all that is held Sacred before God and man to be unbyassed that the Prisoner hath no Council for if the Court faithfully perform their duty the Accused can have no wrong or hardship and therefore needs no Adviser Now suppose a man perfectly innocent and in some measure knowing in the Law should be accused of Treason or Felony If the Judges shall deny unto the Grand Jury the liberty of examining any Witnesses except in open Court where nothing shall be offered that may help to clear the Prisoner but every Thing aggravated that gives colour for the Accusation such Persons only produced as the King's Council or the Prosecutors shall think fit to call of whose Credit also the Jury must not inquire but shall be controll'd and brow-beaten in asking Questions of such unknown Witnesses for their own Satisfaction if they have any Tendency to discover the Infamy of these Witnesses or the Falshood of their Testimony How can Innocence secure any Man from being arraigned And if the Oath of the Judges should be as much forgotten in the further Proceedings upon the Trial where in Cases of Treason the Prisoner shall have all the King's Council commonly not the most unlearned prepared with studied Speeches and Arguments to make him black and odious and to Strain all his words and to alledge them
and it is in these Words Which all our Subjects are to obey without reserve And this is the carrying Obedience many sizes beyond what the Grand Seignior ever yet claimed For all Princes even the most violent Pretenders to Absolute Power 'till Lewis the Great 's time have thought it enough to oblige their Subjects to submit to their Power and to bear whatsoever they thought good to impose upon them but till the Days of the late Conversions by the Dragoons it was never so much as pretended that Subjects were bound to Obey their Prince without Reserve and to be of his Religion because he would have it so Which was the only Argument that those late Apostles made use of so it is probable this qualification of the Duty of Subjects was put in here to prepare us for a terrible le Roy le veut and in that case we are told here that we must Obey without Reserve and when those Severe Orders come the Privy Council and all such as execute this Proclamation will be bound by this Declaration to shew themselves more forward than any others to obey without Reserve and those poor pretensions of Conscience Religion Honour and Reason will be then reckoned as Reserves upon their Obedience which are all now shut out III. These being the grounds upon which this Proclamation is founded we ought not only to consider what Consequences are now drawn from them but what may be drawn from them at any time hereafter for if they are of force to justify that which is inferred from them it will be full as just to draw from the same premises an Abolition of the Protestant Religion of the Rights of the Subjects not only to Church-Lands but to all Property whatsoever In a word it Asserts a Power to be in the King to command what he will and an Obligation in the Subjects to Obey whatsoever he shall Command IV. There is also mention made in the Preamble of the Christian Love and Charity which his Majesty would have established among Neighbours but another dash of a Pen founded on this Absolute Power may declare us all Hereticks and then in wonderful Charity to us we must be told that we are either to Obey without Reserve or be burnt without Reserve We know the Charity of that Church pretty well It is indeed fervent and burning and if we have forgot what has been done in former Ages France Savoy and Hungary have set before our Eyes very fresh Instances of the Charity of that Religion While those Examples are so green it is a little too imposing on us to talk to us of Christian Love and Charity No doubt His Majesty means sincerely and his Exactness to all his Promises chiefly to those made since he came to the Crown will not suffer us to think an unbecoming Thought of his Royal Intentions but yet after all tho' it seems by this Proclamation that we are bound to Obey without Reserve it is hardship upon hardship to be bound to Believe without Reserve V. There are a sort of People here Tolerated that will be hardly found out and these are the Moderate Presbyterians Now as some say that there are very few of those People in Scotland that deserves this Character so it is hard to tell what it amounts to and the calling any of them Immoderate cuts off all their share in this Grace Moderation is a quality that lyes in the mind and how this will be found out I cannot so readily guess If a Standard had been given of Opinions or Practices then one could have known how this might have been distinguished but as it lies it will not be easy to make the Discrimination and the declaring them all immoderate shuts them out quite VI. Another Foundation laid down for repealing all Laws made against the Papists is That they were Enacted in King James the Sixth's Minority with some harsh expressions that are not to be insisted on since they shew more the heat of the Penner than the Dignity of the Prince in whose name they are given out But all these Laws were ratifyed over and over again by King James when he came to be of full Age and they have received many Confirmations by King Charles the First and King Charles the Second as well as by his present Majesty both when he represented his Brother in the Year 1681 and since he himself came to the Crown so that whatsoever may be said concerning the first Formation of those Laws they have received now for the course of a whole hundred Years that are lapsed since King James was full of Age so many Confirmations that if there is any thing certain in Humane Government we might depend upon them but this new coyned Absolute Power must carry all before it VII It is also well known that the whole Settlement of the Church Lands and Tythes with many other things and more particularly the Establishment of the Protestant Religion was likewise enacted in King James's minority as well as those Penal Laws so that the Reason now made use of to annul the penal Laws will serve full as well for another Act of this Absolute Power that shall abolish all those and if Maximes that unhinge all the Securities of Human Society and all that is sacred in Government ought to be lookt on with the justest and deepest prejudices possible one is tempted to lose the respect that is due to every thing that carries a Royal Stamp upon it when he sees such grounds made use of as must shake all Settlements whatsoever for if a prescription of 120 Years and Confirmations reiterated over and over again these 100 Years past do not purge some Defects in the first Formation of those Laws what can make us secure But this looks so like a fetch of the French Prerogative Law both in their Processes with Relation to the Edict of Nantes and those concerning Dependences at Mets that this seems to be a Copy from that famous Original VIII It were too much ill nature to look into the History of the last Age to examine on what grounds those Characters of Pious and Blessed given to the Memory of Q Mary are built but since K. James's Memory has the Character of Glorious given to it if the Civility of the fair Sex makes one unwilling to look into one yet the other may be a little dwelt on The peculiar Glory that belongs to K. James's Memory is that he was a Prince of great Learning and that he imployed it chiefly in writing for his Religion of the Volume in Folio in which we have his Works two thirds are against the Church of Rome one part of them is a Commentary on the Revelation proving that the Pope is Antichrist another part of them belonged more naturally to his Post Dignity which is the warning that he gave to all the Princes and States of Europe against the Treasonable and Bloody Doctrines of the Papacy The first Act he did
meet for the meaning of this seems plain that His Majesty is resolved that they shall never meet till he receives such Assurances in a new round of Closetting that he shall be put out of doubt concerning it VII I will not enter into the Dispute concerning Liberty of Conscience and the Reasons that may be offered for it to a Session of Parliament for there is scarce any one point that either with relation to Religion or Politicks affords a greater variety of matter for Reflection and I make no doubt to say that there is abundance of Reason to oblige Parliaments to review all the Penal Laws either with relation to Papists or to Dissenters but I will take the boldness to add one thing that the King 's Suspending of Laws strikes at the root of this whole Government and subverts it quite for if there is any thing certain with relation to English Government it is this that the Executive Power of the Law is entirely in the King and the Law to fortifie him in the Management of it has cloathed him with a vast Prerogative and made it unlawful on any pretence whatsoever to resist him whereas on the other hand the Legislative Power is not so entirely in the King but that the Lords and Commons have such a share in it that no Law can either be made repealed or which is all one suspended but by their consent so that the placing this Legislative Power singly in the King is a subversion of this whole Government since the Essence of all Governments consists in the Subjects of the Legislative Authority Acts of Violence or Injustice committed in the Executive part are such things that all Princes being subject to them the peace of mankind were very ill secured if it were not unlawful to resist upon any pretence taken from any ill Administrations in which as the Law may be doubtful so the Facts may be uncertain and at worst the publick Peace must always be more valued than any private Oppressions or Injuries whatsoever But the total Subversion of a Government being so contrary to the Trust that is given to the Prince who ought to execute it will put men upon uneasie and dangerous Inquiries which will turn little to the Advantage of those who are driving matters to such a doubtful and desperate Issue VIII If there is any thing in which the Exercise of the Legislative Power seems indispensable it is in those Oaths of Allegiance and Tests that are thought necessary to Qualifie men either to be admitted to enjoy the protection of the Law or to bear a share in the Government for in these the Security of the Government is chiefly concerned and therefore the total Extinction of these as it is not only a Suspension of of them but a plain repealing of them so it is a Subverting of the whole Foundation of our Government For the Regulation that King and Parliament had set both for the Subjects having the protection of the State by the Oath of Allegiance and for a share in the places of Trust by the Tests is now pluckt up by the roots when it is declared That these shall not at any time hereafter be required to be taken or subscribed by any persons whatsoever for it is plain that this is no Suspension of the Law but a formal repeal of it in as plain words as can be conceived IX His Majesty says that the Benefit of the Service of all his Subjects is by the Law of Nature inseparably annexed to and inherent in his Sacred Person It is somewhat strange that when so many Laws that we all know are suspended the Law of Nature which is so hard to be found out should be cited but the Penners of this Declaration had best let that Law lie forgotten among the rest and there is a scurvy Paragraph in it concerning self-Preservation that is capable of very unacceptable Glosses It is hard to tell what Section of the Law of Nature has markt either such a Form of Government or such a Family for it And if his Majesty renounces his Pretensions to our Allegiance as founded on the Laws of England and betakes himself to this Law of Nature he will perhaps find the Counsel was a little too rash but to make the most that can be the Law of Nations or Nature does indeed allow the Governours of all Societies a Power to serve themselves of every Member of it in the cases of Extream Danger but no Law of Nature that has been yet heard of will conclude that if by special Laws a sort of men have been disabled from all Imployments that a Prince who at his Coronation Swore to maintain those Laws may at his pleasure extinguish all these Disabilities X. At the end of the Declaration as in a Poscript His Majesty assures his Subjects that he will maintain them in their Properties as well in Church and Abbey Lands as other Lands but the chief of all their Properties being the share that they have by their Representatives in the Legislative Power this Declaration which breaks thro' that is no great Evidence that the rest will be maintained and to speak plainly when a Coronation Oath is so little remembred other Promises must have a proportioned degree of Credit given to them as for the Abbey Lands the keeping them from the Church is according to the Principles of that Religion Sacriledge and that is a mortal Sin and there can no Absolution be given to any who continue in it and so this Promise being an Obligation to maintain men in a mortal Sin is nul and void of it self Church-Lands are also according to the Doctrine of their Canonists so immediately God's Right that the the Pope himself is the only Administrator and Dispencer but is not the master of them he can indeed make a truck for God or let them so low that God shall be an easie Landlord but he cannot alter God's Property nor translate the Right that is in him to Sacrilegious Laymen and Hereticks XI One of the Effects of this Declaration will be the setting on foot a new run of Addresses over the Nation for there is nothing how impudent and base soever of which the abject flattery of a slavish Spirit is not capable It must be confest to the Reproach of the Age that all those strains of flattery among the Romans that Tacitus sets forth with so much just scorn are modest things compared to what this Nation has produced within these seven Years only if our Flattery has come short of the Refinedness of the Romans it has exceeded theirs as much in its loathed Fulsomeness The late King set out a Declaration in which he gave the most solemn Assurances possible of his adhering to the Church of England and to the Religion established by Law and of his Resolution to have frequent Parliaments upon which the whole Nation fell as it were into Raptures of Joy and Flattery but though he lived four
the Nature of a Bargain and the due Circumstances belonging to an Equivalent and will now conclude with this short Word Where Distrusting may be the Cause of provoking Anger and Trusting may be the Cause of bringing Ruine the Choice is too easie to need the being explained A LETTER From a Gentleman in the City To his Friend in the Country Containing his Reasons for not Reading the Declaration SIR I Do not wonder at your Concern for finding an Order of Council published in the Gazette for Reading the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in all Churches and Chappels in this Kingdom You desire to know my Thoughts about it and I shall freely tell them for this is not a time to be reserved Our Enemies who have given our Gracious King this Counsel against us have taken the most effectual way not only to ruine us but to make us appear the Instruments of our own Ruine that what Course soever we take we shall be undone and one side or other will conclude that we have undone our selves and fall like Fools To lose our Livings and Preferments nay our Liberties and our Lives in a plain and direct Opposition to Popery as suppose for refusing to read Mass in our Churches or to swear to the Trent Creed is an honorable way of falling and has the Divine Comforts of Suffering for Christ and his Religion and I hope there is none of us but can chearfully submit to the Will of God in it But this is not our present Case to read the Declaration is not to read the Mass nor to profess the Romish Faith and therefore some will judge that there is no hurt in Reading it and that to suffer for such a Refusul is not to fall like Confessors but to suffer as Criminals for disobeying the Lawful Commands of our Prince but yet we judge and we have the concurring Opinions of all the Nobility and Gertry with us who have already suffered in this Cause that to take away the Test and Penal Laws at this time is but one step from the introducing of Popery and therefore to read such a Declaration in our Churches though it do not immediately bring Popery in yet it sets open our Church Doors for it and then it will take its own time to enter So that should we comply with this Order all good Protestants would despise and hate us and men we may be easily crushed and shall soon fall with great Dishonour and without any Pity This is the Difficulty of our Case we shall be censured on both sides but with this Difference We shall fall a little sooner by not Reading the Declaration if our Gracious Prince resent this as an Act of an obstinate and peevish or factious Disobedience as our Enemies will be sure to represent it to him We shall as certainly fall and not long after if we do read it and then we shall fall unpitied and despised and it may be with the Curses of the Nation whom we have ruined by our Compliance and this is the way never to rise more And may I suffer all that can be suffered in this World rather than contribute to the sinal Ruine of the best Church in the World Let us then examine this Matter impartially as those who have no mind either to ruine themselves or to ruine the Church I suppose no Minister of the Church of England can give his Consent to the Declaration Let us then consider whether Reading the Declaration in our Churches be not an Interpretative Consent and will not with great Reason be interpreted to be so For First By our Law all Ministerial Officers are accountable for their Actions The Authority of Superiors though of the King himself cannot justifie inferior Officers much less the Ministers of State if they should execute any illegal Commands which shews that our Law does not look upon the Ministers of Church or State to be meer Machines and Tools to be managed wholly by the Will of Superiors without exercising any Act of Judgment or Reason themselves for then inferior Ministers were no more punishable than the Horses are which draw an innocent Man to Tyburn and if inferior Ministers are punishable then our Laws suppose that what we do in obedience to Superiors we make our own Act by doing it and I suppose that signifies our Consent in the Eye of the Law to what we do It is a Maxime in our Law That the King can do no Wrong and therefore if any Wrong be done the Crime and Guilt is the Ministers who does it for the Laws are the King 's publick Will and therefore he is never supposed to command any thing contrary to Law nor is any Minister who does an illegal Action allowed to pretend the King's Command and Authority for it and yet this is the only Reason I know why we must not obey a Prince against the Laws of the Land or the Laws of God because what we do let the Authority be what it will that commands it becomes our own Act and we are responsible for it and then as I observed before it must imply our own Consent Secondly The Ministers of Religion have a greater Tye and Obligation than this because they have the Care and Conduct of Mens Souls and therefore are bound to take Care that what they publish in their Churches be neither contrary to the Laws of the Land nor to the Good of the Church For the Ministers of Religion are not look'd upon as Common Cryers but what they Read they are supposed to recommend too though they do no more than Read it and therefore to read any thing in the Church which I do not consent to and approve nay which I think prejudicial to Religion and the Church of God as well as contrary to the Laws of the Land is to misguide my People and to dissemble with God and Men because it is presum'd that I neither do nor ought to read any thing in the Church which I do not in some degree approve Indeed let Mens private Opinions be what they will in the Nature of the thing he that reads such a Declaration to his People teaches them by it For is not Reading Teaching Suppose then I do not consent to what I read yet I consent to Teach my People what I Read and herein is the Evil of it for it may be it were no Fault to Consent to the Declaration but if I consent to Teach my People what I do not consent to my self I am sure that is a great one And he who can distinguish between consenting to Read the Declaration and consenting to Teach the People by the Declaration when Reading the Declaration is teaching it has a very subtile Distinguishing Conscience Now if consenting to Read the Declaration be a Consent to Teach it my People then the natural Interpretation of Reading the Declaration is That he who Reads it in such a solemn Teaching-manner Approves it If this be not
of the Peace and Vnity of this Realm 3. And that such Person or Persons so to be Named Assigned Authorised and Appointed by Your Highness Your Heirs or Successors after the said Letters Patents to him or them made and delivered as is aforesaid shall have full Power and Authority by Vertue of this Act and of the said Letters Patents under Your Highness Your Heirs and Successors to exercise use and execute all the premisses according to the Tenor and Effect of the said Letters Patents any matter or cause to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding So that I take it that all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was in the Crown by the Common Law of England and declared to be so by the said Act of 1 Eliz. 1. and by that Act a Power given to the Crown to assign Commissioners to exercise this Jurisdiction which was accordingly done by Queen Elizabeth and a High Commission Court was by her erected which sate and held Plea of all Causes Spiritual and Ecclesiastical during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth King James the First and King Charles the First till the 17th Year of his Reign Which leads me to consider the Statute of 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. which Act recites the Title of 1 Eliz. ca. 1. and Sect. 18. of the same Act and recites further Section 2. That whereas by colour of some Words in the aforesaid Branch of the said Act whereby Commissioners are authorised to execute their Commission according to the Tenor and Effect of the Kings Letters Patents and by Letters Patents grounded thereupon the said Commissioners have to the great and insufferable Wrong and Oppression of the Kings Subjects used to Fine and Imprison them and to exercise other Authority not belonging to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction restored by that Act and divers other great Mischiefs and Inconveniences have also ensued to the Kings Subjects by occasion of the said Branch and Commissions issued thereupon and the Executions thereof Therefore for the repressing and preventing of the aforesaid Abuses Mischiefs and Inconveniences in time to come by Sect. 3. the said Clause in the said Act 1 Eliz. 1. is Repealed with a Non obstante to the said Act in these Words Be it Enacted by the Kings most excellent Majesty and the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That the aforesaid Branch Clause Article or Sentence contained in the said Act and every Word Matter and thing contained in that Branch Clause Article or Sentence shall from henceforth be Repealed Annulled Revoked Annihilated and utterly made Void for ever any thing in the said Act to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And in Sect. 5. of the same Act it is Enacted That from and after the first of August in the said Act mentioned all such Commissions shall be void in these Words And be it further Enacted That from and after the said first Day of August no new Court shall be erected ordained or appointed within this Realm of England or Dominion of Wales which shall or may have the like Power Jurisdiction or Authority as the said High Commission Court now hath or pretendeth to have but that all and every such Letters Patents Commissions and Grants made or to be made by his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and all Powers and Authorities granted or pretended or mentioned to be granted thereby And all Acts Sentences and Decrees to be made by virtue or Colour thereof shall be utterly void and of none effect By which Act then the Power of Exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Commissioners under the Broad-Seal is so taken away that it provides no such Power shall ever for the future be Delegated by the Crown to any Person or Persons whatsoever Let us then in the last place consider Whether the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12 hath restored this Power or not And for this I take it that it is not restored by the said Act or any Clause in it and to make this evident I shall first set down the whole Act and then consider it in the several Branches of it that relate to this Matter The Act is Entituled An Act for Explanation of a Clause contained in an Act of Parliament made in the 17th Year of the Late King Charles Entituled An Act for Repeal of a Branch of Statute in Primo Elizabethae câ—ncerning Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical The Act it self runs thus Whereas in an Act of Parliament made in the Seventeenth Year of the Late King Charles Intituled An Act for Repeal of a Branch of a Stature primo Elizabethae concerning Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical It is amongst other things Enacted that no Arch-bishop Bisâ—â—p or Vicar-General nor any Chancellor nor Commissary of any Arch-Bishop Bishop or Vicar-General nor any Ordinary whatsoever nor any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Judge Officer or Minister of Justice nor any other Person or Persons whatsoever exercising Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power Authority or Jurisdiction by any Grant Lisence or Commission of the Kings Majesty His Heirs or Successors or by any Power or Authority derived from the King his Heirs or Successors or otherwise shall from and after the First Day of August which then should be in the Year of our Lord God 1641. Award Impose or Inflict any Pain Penalty Fine Amercement Imprisonment or other Corporal Punishment upon any of the Kings Subjects for any Contempt Misdemeanor Crime Offence Matter or Thing whatsoever belonging to Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Cognizance or Jurisdiction 2. Whereupon some Doubt hath been made that all ordinary Power of Coertion and proceeding in Causes Ecclesiastital were taken away whereby the ordinary Course of Justice in Causes Ecclesiastical hath been obstructed 3. Be it therefore Declared and Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority thereof That neither the said Act nor any thing therein contained doth or shall take away any ordinary Power or Authority from any of the said Arch-Bishops Bishops or any other Person or Persons named as aforesaid but that they and every of them exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction may proceed determine Sentence execute and exercise all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and all Censures and Coertions appertaining and belonging to the same before any making of the Act before recited in all Causes and Matters belonging to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction according to the Kings Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws used and practised in this Realm in as ample Manner and Form as they did and might lawfully have done before making of the said Act. Sect. 2. And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That the afore recited Act of Decimo Septimo Car. and all the Matters and Clauses therein contained excepting what concerns the High Commission Court or the new Erection of some such like Court by Commission shall be and is thereby repealed to dlintents and purposes whatsoever
any thing clause or sentence in the said Act contained to the contrary â—â—ithstanding Sect. 3. Provided always and it is hereby Enacted That neither this Act nor any thing herein conâ—â—ined shall extend or be construed to ravive or give Force to the said Branch of the said Statute wade in the said First Year of the Reign of the said Late Queen Elizabeth mentioned in the said Act if Parliament made in the Seventeenth Year of the Reign of the said King Charles but that the said Branch of the said Statute made in the said First Year of the Reign of the said Late Queen Elizabeth scall stand and be Repealed in such sort as if this Act had never been made Sect. 4. Provided always and it is hereby Enacted That it shall not be lawful for any Arch-bishop Bishop Vicar-General Chancellor Commissary or any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Judge Officer or Minister or any other person having or exercising Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to Tender or Administer unto any Person whatsoever the Oath usually called Ex Officio or any other Oath whereby such person to whom the same is tendred or administred may be charged or compelled to confess or accuse or to purge him or herself of any Criminal matter or thing whereby he or she may be liable to Censure or Punishment any thing in this Statute or any other Law Custom or Vsage heretofore to the contrary hereof in any wise notwithstanding Sect. 5. Provided always That this Act or any thing therein contained shall not extend or be construed to extend to give unto any Arch Bishop Bishop or any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Judge Officer or other person or persons aforesaid any Power or Authority to Exercise Execute Inflict or Determine any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Censure or Coertion which they might not by Law have done before the Year of our Lord 1639. 2. Nor to abridge or diminish the Kings Majesties Supremacy in Ecclefiastical Matters and Affairs nor to confirm the Canons made in the Year 1640. nor any of them nor any other Ecclesiastical Laws or Canons not formerly confirmed allowed or enacted by Parliament or by the established Laws of the Land as they stood in the Year of our Lord 1639. From the Title of the Act and the Act it self considered I gather First That it is an Explanatory Act of the 17th of Car. 1. as to one particular Branch of it and not introductive of any new Law Secondly That the Occasion of making it was not from any Doubt that did arise VVhether the High Commission Court were taken away or whether the Crown had Power to erect any such like Court for the future but from a Doubt that was made that all ordinary Power of Coertion and Proceedings in Causes Ecclefiastical was taken away whereby Justice in Ecclesiastical Matters was obstructed and this Doubt did arise from a Clause in 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. Sect. 4. herein mentioned to be recited in the said Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Thirdly That this Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. as appears upon the Face of it was made to the intent the ordinary Jurisdiction which the Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Persens had always exercised under the Crown might not be infringed but not to restore to the Crown the power of Delegating the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Letters Patents to Lay persons or any others and as to this nothing can be plainer than the VVords of the Act it self Sect. 2. Whereby 17 Car. 1. is repealed but takes particular care to except what concerned the High Commission Court or the new Erection of some such Court by Commission Neither did the Law-makers think this Exception in that Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Sect. 2. to be sufficient but to put the Matter out of all doubt in the Third Section of the same Statute It is provided and Enacted That neither that Act nor any thing therein contained should extend or be construed to revive or give force to the Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. Sect. 18. but that the same Branch shâ—â—â— stand absolutely Repealed And if so then the power of the Crown to delegate the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is wholly taken away for it was vested in the Crown by 1 Eliz. 1. and taken away by 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. and is in no manner restored by 13 Car. 2.12 or any other But there may arise an Objection from the VVords in the Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. that saith That that Act shall not extend to abridge or diminish the Kings Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and Affairs VVhence some Men would gather that the same power still remains in the Crown that was in it before 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. To which Objection I give this Answer That every Law is to be so constructed that it may not be Felo de se and that for the Honour of the Legislators King Lords and Comment Now I would appeal to the Gentlemen themselves that assert this Doctrine VVhether they can so construe the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. as they pretend to do without offering Viâ—lence to their own Reason For when the 1 Car. 1. ca. 11. had absolutely repealed the Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. that vested the power in the Crown of Delegating the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Enacts That no such Commission shall be for the future and the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Repeals the 17 Car. 1. ca. 12. except what relates to that particular Branch there can no more of the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and Affairs be saved by the saving in the 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. but what was left in the Crown by 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. And now I hope I have sufficiently evinced That all the Proceedings before the Ecclesiastical Commissioners are CORAM NON JVDICE and therefore have sufficient Reason to believe That the same would never have been set on foot by his present Majesty who had always the Character of JAMES the Just and hath promised upon his Royal VVord That he will invade no Mans Property had he not been advised thereunto by them who are better versed in the Canons of the Church of ROME than in the Laws that relate to the CROWN and CHURCH of ENGLAND A LETTER Writ by Mijn Heer Fagel Pensioner of Holland to Mr. James Stewart Advocate Giving an Account of the Prince and Princes of Orange's Thoughts concerning the Repeal of the Test and the Penal Laws SIR I Am extream sorry that my ill health hath so long hindred me from Answering those Letters in which you so earnestly desired to know of me what their Highnesses thoughts are concerning the repeal of the Penal Laws and more particularlarly of that concerning the Test I beg you to assure your self that I will deal very plainly with you in this matter and without reserve since you say that your Letters were writ by the King's knowledge and allowance I must
equally partake in publick Trusts and Employments He must pardon me if I not only say he is mistaken but that it is a down-right Falsehood and that herein he betrays his wonted ignorance or at least gives us a new discovery of the insincerity that is natural to him Nor would he have vented this in so general Terms but that he did foresee if he should have condescended to particulars how easy it would have been for persons of very ordinary acquaintance either with History or the World to have both contradicted and refuted him And if there were some one or other small City where by reason of the Fewness of those of one Religion to exercise the Government and to take care of the Welfare of the Society those of the other Religion are sometimes received into Employments in order to prevent the inconveniencies which the want of a competent number of Magistrates would be attended with and where the Jealousie and Fear of being swallowed up by some envious and potent Neighbour may lay them under a necessity of agreeing better together than otherwise they would or than the principles of some of them incline them unto must we thence conclude that it ought to be so in a great Kingdom where there is so vast a number of Protestants admirably qualified with Wisdom Interest and Estates to discharge all the Offices of the Government and to manage the universal care of the Society without running the hazard of the many mischiefs that would accompany the taking the Papists into partnership with them Nor could Mijn Heer Fagel in representing what is safe or unsafe to so great and noble a Nation take notice of what is practised upon necessity in some mean Town or Corporation supposing that it were there as our Author alledgeth without transgressing against all the Rules both of prudence and decency But as the Pensionary had no where in his Letter affirmed that there were not any States or Cities in which the Protestants and Papists bear Office in Government together but had only said that Reason and Experience do shew us how impossible it will be for them when joyned together in places of Trust and publick Employments to maintain a good Correspondence and to live peaceably with one another so this is found to be so just a truth and so pertinently observed that in all the places where it hath been practised tho not in Germany as our Author ignorantly suggests they have not only lived in continual heats and dissentions but have often come to open Hostility against each other Nor hath it meerly fallen out thus in private and particular States within themselves but the like evils have often followed and ensued where more States have associated into Union for the common preservation of the Generality and where the Government hath been in some in the hands of Protestants and in others executed by Roman Catholicks Of this we have diverse Examples in the Cantons of Switzerland where thro the Magistrates being in some Cantons of the Reformed and in others of the Roman Catholick Religion they have not only been often hindred from joyning and acting vigorously as they ought to have done for the interest of all and the benefit of the common Confederation and Union but they have sometimes come to open ruptures and have been embarqued in War against one another And forasmuch as our Author makes bold to say That there was never any Christian Kingdom where the Religion that the Prince professeth and which had in former ages been Dominant was so far laid aside and banished that his Subjects professing the same with himself were shut out and precluded from Trusts and Employments I will take the freedom to tell him that it is so gross and palpable a Falsehood that none but a person of his ignorance and impudence would have had the face to have asserted it For there are Christian Kingdoms that have done more than this amounts unto and who to prevent the danger of having Papists preferred to Trusts and Employments in case a Prince of their Religion should come to the Throne have been so wise as to declare Roman Catholicks incapable either of obtaining or keeping the Soveraignty And it was in the vertue of such a Law and by reason of the dread of it that Christina Queen of Sweden upon the having taken up a resolution to turn Papist chose to demit her Crown before she declared her self as knowing that immediately after such a Declaration she would have been deposed from the Throne and possibly not have had so liberal an allowance assigned her afterwards as by that conduct she did obtain Nor is it unknown to any except it be to such as our Author is for natural and acquired accomplishments that there were not only Laws in Scotland for precluding a Popish Prince from coming to the Government but that the same thing was imployed in the English Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy as being Oaths of such a frame and nature that it had been most incongruous to impose them upon Subjects to a King of the Roman Catholick Religion And tho these two Nations did not improve the advantage which they had by means of their legal provisions to hinder the present King from inheriting the Crowns of the respective Realms yet those Laws serve to inform us how far some Christian Kingdoms thought it lawful to go and to what heighth to Act not only against Popish Subjects but against Catholick Princes themselves Yea the time was that the very Papists were so far from condemning the having men of their Religion debarred from Trusts and Employments in Protestant Kingdoms under a Popish Prince that they made the Test Laws by which they are shut out from Offices and Declared incapable of them the great Argument against the necessity of having the Bill passed for excluding the Duke of York from the Crown and improved them as the main Engine for allaying the fears of the Nation under the apprehensions they had of his being a Roman Catholick and coming to the Throne But by their different Language now from what it was then all Englishmen understand how far they are to be believed in other cases and whether the many promises which they do make at this time in order to a further design and the putting a new Trick upon the Nation ought to be depended on by them whom they have already deceived And whereas upon Mijn Heer Fagel's having observed that the conduct of Roman Catholicks is much more severe towards Protestants than that of those of the Reformed Religion towards Papists our Author is pleased to reply that in order to judge as we should of that different procedure we are to consider whether it be not less just to banish a Religion that had been so long dominant as the Roman Catholick had been than to withstand the introduction of a new Religion that would depress and supplant the old All I shall say in reference to this is
which they cannot help but bear his Misfortune and Lot with Patience in himself and with Compassion and Charity towards them and have his Indignation raised only against that Court which forced them to be instrumental in their Oppression and Trouble The Protestant Dissenters could not be so far void of sense as to think that the Person lately in the Throne bore them any good-Will but his drift was to screw himself into a Supremacy and Absoluteness over the Law and to get such an Authority confessed to be vested in him as when he pleased he might subvert the Established Religion and set up Popery Forby the same Power that he can dispense with the Penal Statutes against the Nonconformists he may also dispense with those against the Roman Catholicks And whosoever owneth that he hath a Right to do the first doth in effect own that he hath a Right to do the last For if he be allowed a Power for the superseding some Laws made in reference to Matters of Religion he may challenge the like Power for the superseding others of the same kind And then by the same Authority that he can suspend the Laws against Popery he may also suspend those for Protestancy And by the same Power that he can in defiance of Law indulge the Papists the Exercise of their Religion in Houses he may establish them in the publick Celebration of their Idolatry in Churches and Cathedrals yea whereas the Laws that relate to Religion are enacted by no less Authority than those that are made for the Preservation of our Civil Rights should the K. be admitted to have an Arbitrary Power over the one it is very like that by the Logick of Whitehall he might have challeng'd the same Absoluteness over the other Nor do I doubt but that the eleven Judges who gratified him with a Despoticalness over the former would when required grant him the same over the latter I know the Dissenters have been under no small Temptations both by reason of being hindred from enjoying the Ordinances of the Gospel and because of many grievous Calamities which they suffer for their Nonconformity of making Applications to the K. for some Relief by his suspending the Execution of the Laws but they must give me leave to add that they ought not for the obtaining of a little Ease to have betrayed the Kingdom and Sacrifice the Legal Constitution of the Government to the Lust and Pleasure of a Popish Prince whom nothing less would serve than being Absolute and Despotical And had he once been in the quiet Possession of an Authority to dispense with the Penal Laws the Dissenters would not long have enjoyed the Benefit of it Nor could they have denied him a Power of reviving the Execution of the Law which is part of the Trust deposited with him as Supreme Magistrate who have granted him a Power of Suspending the Laws which the Rules of the Government precluded him from And as he might whensoever he pleased cause the Laws to which they were Obnoxious to be executed upon them so by virtue of having an Authority acknowledged in him of superceding the Laws he might deprive them of the Liberty of meeting together to the number of Five a Grace which the Parliament thought fit to allow them under all the other Severities to which they were subjected Nor needs there any further Evidence that the Prince's challenging such a Power was an Usurpation and that the Subjects making any Application by which it seem'd allowed to him was a betraying of the Ancient Legal Government of the Kingdom whereas the most Obsequious and Servile Parliament to the Court that ever England knew not only denied this Prerogative to the late King Charles but made him renounce it by revoking his Declaration of Indulgence which he had emitted Anno 1672. And as it will be to the perpetual Honour of some of the Dissenters to have chosen rather to suffer the Severities which the Laws make them liable unto than by any Act and Transaction of theirs to undermine and weaken either the Church or the State so it will be a means both of endearing them we hope not only to the Prince of Orange now by a miraculous Providence brought in amongst us but to future Parliaments and of bringing them and the Conformists into an Union of Counsels and Endeavours against Popery and Tyranny for ever which is at this season a thing so indispensibly necessary for their common Preservation Especially when through a new and more threatning Alliance and Confederacy with France than that in 72 the King had not only engaged to act by and observe the same Measures towards Protestants in England which that Monarch hath vouchsafed the World a Pattern and Copy of in his carriage towards those of the Reformed Religion in France but had promised to disturb the Peace and Repose of his Neighbours and to commence a War in conjunction with that Prince against Foreign Protestants For as the King 's giving Liberty and Protection to the Algerines to frequent his Havens and sell the Prizes which they take from the Dutch is both a most infamous Action for a Prince pretending to be a Christian and a direct Violation of his Alliance with the States General so nothing can be more evident than that he thereby sought to render them the weaker for him to assault and that he was resolved if some unforeseen and extraordinary Providence had not interposed and prevented to declare War against them the next Summer in order whereunto great Remises of Money were already ordered him from the French Court So that the Indulgence which he pretends to be inclinable to afford the Dissenters was not an effect of Kindness and Good-will but an Artifice whereby to oblige their Assistance in destroying those Abroad of the same Religion with themselves Which if he could once compass it were easie to foresee what Fate both the Dissenters and they of the Communion of the Church of England were to expect Who as they would not then have known whither to retreat for shelter so they would have been destitute of Comfort in themselves and deprived of Pity from others not only for having through their Divisions made themselves a Prey to the Papists at Home but for having been accessary to the Ruin of the Reformed State Abroad and which was the Asilum and Sanctuary of all those that were elsewhere oppressed and persecuted for Religion Gloria Deo Optimo Maximo Honos Principi nostri celcissimo pientissimo A Representation of the Threatning Dangers Impending over Protestants in Great Britain With an Account of the Arbitrary and Popish Ends unto which the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in England and the Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland are designed THey are great Strangers to the Transactions of the World who know not how many and various the Attempts of the Papists have been both to hinder all Endeavours towards a Reformation and to overthrow and subvert it
Means for preserving themselves 't is become a necessary Duty and an indispensible Service to Mankind to deal plainly and above-board that so by describing Kings as they are and setting them in a true and just Light we may prevent the Peoples being further imposed upon or if through suffering themselves to be still deceived they come to fall under Miseries and Persecutions they may lay all their Distresses and Desolations at the Door of their own Folly in not having taken care how to avoid what they were not only threatned with but whereof they were warned and advertised History of the Times For as I am not of Sir Roger l'Estrange's mind That if we cannot avoid being distrustful of our Safety yet it is extremely Vain foolish and extravagant to talk of it so I am very sensible how many of the French Ministers by painting forth their King more like a God than a Man and by possessing their People with a belief of Wisdom Justice Grace and Mercy in Him of which they knew him destitute they both emboldned Him to attempt what he hath perpetrated and laid them under Snares which they knew not how to disentangle themselves from in order to escape it Nor would the King of England have acted with that neglect of the future Safety of the Papists nor have exposed them to the Resentment and hereafter Revenge of three Nations by the Arbitrary and Illegal Steps he hath made in their Favor if he intended any thing less than the putting Protestants for ever out of Capacity and Condition of calling them to a Reckoning and exacting an Account of them which neither He nor they about him can have the weakness to think they have sufficiently provided against without compelling us by an Order of à la mode France Missionaries to turn Catholicks or by adjudging us to Mines and Galleys according to the Versailles President for our Heretical Stubbornness or which is the more expeditious way of Converting three Kingdoms to cause Murther the Protestant Inhabitants according to the Pattern which his Loyal Irish Catholicks endeavored to have set anno 1641. for the Conversion of that Nation Had his Majesty been contented with the bare avowing and publishing himself to be of the Communion of the Church of Rome and of challenging a Liberty though against Law for the Exercise of his Religion it might have awakened our Pity and Compassion to see him embrace a Religion where there are so many Impediments of Salvation and in doing whereof he was become obnoxious unto the Imprecation of his Grandfather who wished the Curse of God to fall upon such of his Posterity as should at any time turn Papists but it would have raised no intemperate Heats in the Minds of any against him much less have alienated them from the Subjection and Obedience which are due unto their Sovereign by the Laws of the several Kingdoms and the Fundamental Rules of the respective Constitutions Or could He have been contented with waving the rigorous Execution of the Laws against Papists of whatsoever Quality Rank or Order they were and with the bestowing personal and private Favors upon those of his Religion it would have been so far from begetting Rancor or Discontent in his Protestant Subjects that they would not only have connived at and approved such a Procedure and those little Benignities and Kindnesses but had the Papists quietly acquiesced in them and modestly improved them it might have been a means of reconciling the Nation to more Lenity towards them for the future and might have influenced our Legislators when God shall vouchsafe us a Protestant on the Throne to moderate the Severities to which by the Laws in being they are obnoxious and to render their Condition as easie and safe as that of other Subjects and only to take care for precluding them such Places of Power and Trust as should prevent their being able to hurt us but could bring no damage or inconvenience upon themselves But the King instead of terminating here and allowing only such Graces and Immunities to the Papists as would have been enough for the placing them in the private Exercise of their Religion with Security to them and without any threatning Danger to us He hath not only suspended all the penal Laws against Roman Catholicks but He hath by an usurped Prerogative that is paramount to the Rules of the Constitution and to all Acts of Parliament dispensed with and disabled the Laws that enjoin the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy and which appoint and prescribe the Tests that were the Fences which the Wisdom of the Nation had erected for preserving the Legislative Authority securing the Government and keeping Places of Power Magistracy and Office in the hands of Protestants and thereby of continuing the Protestant Religion and English Liberties to our selves and the Generations that shall come after us And as if this were not sufficient to awaken us to a Consideration of the danger we are in of having our Religion supplanted and overthrown He hath not only advanced the most violent Papists unto all Places of Military Command by Sea and Land but hath establish'd many of them in the chief Trusts and Offices of Magistracy and Civil Judicature so that there are scarce any continued in Power and Employment save they who have either promised to turn Roman Catholicks or who have engaged to concur and assist to the Subverting our Liberties and Religion under the Mask and Disguise of Protestants 'T is already evident that it is beyond the help and relief of all Peaceable and Civil means to preserve and uphold the Protestant Religion in Ireland and that nothing but Force and an intestine War can retrieve it unto and re-establish it there in any degree of Safety Nor is it less apparent from the Arbitrary and Tyrannous Oath ordained to be required of His Majesties Protestant Subjects in Scotland whereby they are to swear Obedience to Him without Reserve that our Religion is held only precariously in that Kingdom and that whensoever He shall please to command the Establishment of Popery and to enjoin the People to enter into the Communion of the Church of Rome he expects to have his Will immediately conformed unto and not to be disputed or controlled But lest what we are to expect from the King as to the Extirpation of the Reformed Religion and the inflicting the utmost Severities upon his Protestant Subjects that Papal Rage armed with Power can inable him unto may not so fully appear from what hath been already intimated as either to awaken the Dissenters out of the Lethargy into which the late Declaration hath cast them or to quicken those of the Church of England to that zealous care vigilancy and use of all Lawful means for preserving themselves and the Protestant Religion that the impendent Danger wherewith they are threatned requires at their hands I shall give that farther Confirmation of it from Topicks and Motives of Credibility Moral Political
that upon pretended Occasions arising from the Abuse of this Indulgence or for some alledged Crimes wherein they and all other Protestants are to be involved tho their supineness and excess of Loyalty continue to be their greatest Offences this Liberty will not only be withdrawn and the old Church of England Severities revived but some of the new à là mode à France Treatments come upon the Stage and be pursued against them and all other perverse and obstinate British Hereticks The Declaration for Liberty of Conscience being injurious to the Church of England and not proceeding from any inward and real good Will to the Dissenters it will be worth our pains to inquire into and make a more ample Deduction of the Reasons upon which it was granted that the Grounds of emitting it being laid under every Man's view they who have Addressed may come to be asham'd of their Simplicity and Folly they who have not may be farther confirm'd both of the Unlawfulness and Inconveniency of doing it and that all who preserve any regard to the Protestant Religion and the Laws of England may be quickened to the use of all legal and due means for preventing the mischievous Effects which it is shapen for and which the Papists do promise themselves from it The Motives upon which His Majesty published the Declaration may be reduced to three of which as I have already made some mention so I shall now place every one of them in its several and proper light and give such Proofs and Evidence of their being the great and sole Inducements for the Emitting of it that no rational Man shall be able henceforth to make a doubt of it The first is the King's winding himself into a Supremacy and Absoluteness over the Law and the getting it acknowledged and calmly submitted unto and acquiesced in by the Subjects The Monarchies being Legal and not Despotical bounded and regulated by Laws and not to be exercised according to mere Will and Pleasure was that which he could not digest the thoughts of when a Subject and had been heard to say That he had rather Reign a day in that Absoluteness that the French King doth than an Age tied up and restrained by Rules as his Brother did And therefore to perswade the Prince of Orange to approve what he had done in dispensing with the Laws and to obtain him and the Princess to joyn with His Majesty and to employ their Interest in the Kingdom for the Repealing the Test Acts and the many other Statutes made against Roman Catholicks he used this Argument in a Message he sent to their Royal Highnesses upon that Errand that the getting it done would be greatly to the Advantage and for the increase of the Prerogative but this these two noble Princes of whose Ascent to the Throne all Protestants have so near and comfortable a Prospect were too Generous as well as Wise to be wheedled with as knowing that the Authority of the Kings and Queens of England is great enough by the Rules of the Constitution without grasping at a new Prerogative Power which as the Laws have not vested in them so it would be of no use but to inable them to do hurt And indeed it is more necessary both for the Honor and Safety of the Monarch and for the Freedom and Security of the People that the Prerogative should be confined within its ancient and legal Channels than be left to that illimited and unbounded Latitude which the late King and his present Majesty have endeavored to advance and screw it up unto That both the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in England and the Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland are calculated for raising the Sovereign Authority to a transcendent Power over the Laws of the two Kingdoms may be demonstrated from the Papers themselves which lay the Dispensing Power before us in terms that import no less than his Majesty's standing Free and absolved from all Ties and Restraints and his being cloathed with a Right of doing whatsoever he will For if the Stile of Royal Pleasure to suspend the Execution of such and such Laws and to forbid such and such Oaths to be required to be taken and this in the virtue of no Authority declared by the Laws to be resident in his Majesty but in the virtue of a certain vagrant and indeterminate thing called Royal Prerogative as the Power exercised in the English Declaration is worded and expressed be not enough to enlighten us sufficiently in the matter before us the Stile of Absolute Power which all the Subjects are to obey without reserve whereby the King is pleased to chalk before us the Authority exerted in the Scots Proclamation for the stopping disabling and dispensing with such and such Laws as are there referred unto and for the granting the Toleration with the other Liberties Immunities and Rights there mentioned is more than sufficient to set the Point we are discoursing beyond all possibility of rational controll As 't is one and the same Kind of Authority that is claimed over the Laws and Subjects of both Kingdoms tho for some certain reasons it be more modestly designed and expressed in the Declaration for a Liberty in England that it is in the Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland so the utmost that the Czar of Mosco the great Mogul or the Turkish Sultan ever challenged over their respective Dominions amounts only to an Absolute Power which the King both owns the Exertion of and makes it the Fountain of all the Royal Acts exercised in the forementioned Papers And as the improving this challenged Absolute Power into an Obligation upon the Subjects to obey his Majesty without reserve is a Paraphrase upon Despotical Dominion and an advancing it to a Pitch above what any of the Ancient or Modern Tyrants ever dream'd of and beyond what the most servile part of Mankind was ever acquainted with till the present French King gave an Instance of it in making his mere Will and pleasure to be the Ground and Argument upon which his Reformed Subjects were to renounce their Religion and to turn Roman Catholicks so it is worth considering whether His Majesty who glories to imitate that Foreign Monarch may not in a little time make the like Application of this Absolute Power which his Subjects are bound to obey without reserve and whether in that case they who have Addressed to thank him for his Declaration and thereby justified the Claim of this Absolute Power being that upon which the Declaration is superstructed and from which it emergeth can avoid paying the Obedience that is demanded as a Duty in the Subject inseparably annexed thereunto That which more confirms us that the English Declaration and the Scots Proclamation are not only designed for the obtaining from the Subjects an Acknowledgment of an Absolute Power vested in the King but that no less than the Usurpation and Exercise of such a Power can warrant and support them are
Exercise of his Absolute Power against all deadly Nor is it difficult to assign the reason of the Deformity that appears in his Majesty's present Actings towards his Dissenting Protestant Subjects in those two Kingdoms For should there be no Restriction upon the Toleration in Scotland to hinder the greatest part of the Presbyterians from taking the Advantage of it the Bishops and Conforming Clergy would be immediately forsaken by the generality if not all the People and so an issue would not only be put to the Division among Protestants in that Kingdom but they would become an united and thereupon a formidable Body against Popery which it is not for the Interest of the Roman Catholicks to suffer or give way unto Whereas the more unbounded the Liberty is that is granted to Dissenters in England the more are our Divisions not only kept up but increased and promoted especially through this Freedom's arriving with them in an illegal way without both the Authority of the Legislative Power and the Approbation of a great part of the People it being infallibly certain that there is a vast number of all Ranks and Conditions who do prefer the abiding in the Communion of the Church of England before the joyning in Fellowship with those of the Separate and Dissenting Societies Upon the whole this different Method of proceeding towards Dissenting Protestants in Matters mere Religious shews that all this Indulgence and Toleration is a Trick to serve a present juncture of Affairs and to advance a Popish and Arbitrary Design and that the Dissenters have no Security for the continuance of their Liberty but that when the Court and Jesuitick end is compassed and obtained there is another course to be steered towards them and instead of their hearing any longer of Liberty and Toleration they are to be told that it is the Interest of the Government and the Safety and Honor of his Majesty to have but one Religion in his Dominions and that all must be Members of the Catholick Church and this because the King will have it so which is the Argument that hath been made use of in the making so many Converts in France They who now suffer themselves to be deluded into a Confidence in the Royal Word will not only come to understand what Mr. Coleman meant in his telling Pere de la Chaise that the Catholicks in England had a great work upon their hand being about the Extirpation of that Heresie which hath borne sway so long in this Northern part of the World but they will also see and feel how much of the Designs of Rome was represented in that passage of the Pope's Nuncio's Letter dated at Brussels Aug. 9. 1674. wherein upon the Confidence which they placed in the Duke of York which is not lessened since he came to the Crown he takes the confidence to write That they hoped speedily to see the total and final Ruin of the Protestant Party And as Protestant Dissenters have no Security by the Declaration and Proclamation for the continuance of their Liberty so they that have by way of Thanksgiving Addressed to the King for those Royal Papers have not only acted very ill in reference both to the Laws and Rights of the Kingdoms and of Religion in general but they have carried very unwisely in relation to their own Interest and the avoiding the Effects of that Resentment which most Men are justly possessed with upon the illegal Emission of these Arbitrary and Prerogative Papers I shall not enter upon any long Discourse concerning this new Practice of Addressing in general it having been done elsewhere some years ago but I shall only briefly intimate that it was never in fashion unless either under a weak and precarious Government or under one that took illegal Courses and pursued a different Interest from that of the People and Community As he who Ruleth according to the standing Laws of a Country over which he is set needs not seek for an Approbation of his Actions from a part of his Subjects the Legality of his Proceedings being the best Justification of him that Governs and giving the truest Satisfaction to them that are Ruled so he who enjoys the love of all his People needs not look for Promises of being assisted stood by and defended by any one Party or Faction among them there being none from whom he can have the least Apprehension of Opposition and Danger It was the want of a legal Title in Oliver Cromwel and his Son Richard to the Government that first begot this Device of Addressing and brought it upon the Stage in these British Nations and it was the Arbitrary Procedures of the late King as it is of his present Majesty and their acting upon a distinct Bottom from that of the Three Kingdoms that hath revived and does continue it Nor is there any thing that hath rendered those two Princes more contemptible abroad and proclaimed them Weaker at home than their recurring unto and solliciting the Flatteries and Aid of the Mercenary Timorous Servile and for low and personal Ends byass'd part of their Subjects and thereby telling the World that neither the Generality nor the most Honorable of their People have been united in their Interest nor Approvers of the Counsels that have been taken and pursued And if any thing did ever cast a Dishonor upon the English Nation it hath been that loathsome Flattery and slavish Sycophancy wherewith the Addressers both now and for some years past have stuffed their Applications to the two Royal Brothers The Throne that is sustained and upheld by the Pillars of Law and Justice needs not to hew out unto its self other Supporters nor lean upon the crooked and weak Stilts of the insignificant and for the most part deceitful as well as brib'd Vows of a sort of Men who will be as ready upon the least disgust to cry Crucifie to morrow as they were for being gratified may be in their Lusts Humors and Revenges and at the best in some separate Concern to cry Hosanna to day I shall decline prosecuting what concerns the Honor or Dishonor of him to whom the Addresses are made or how Politick or Impolitick the Countenancing and Encouraging them is and shall apply my self to this new Sett of Addressers and endeavor to shew how Foolish as well as Criminally they have acted Nor is it an Argument either of their Prudence or Honesty or of their acting with any Consistency to themselves that having so severely inveighed against the Addresses that were in fashion a few years ago and having fastened all the Imputations and Reproaches upon those that were Accessary to them which that Rank of Addressers could be supposed to have deserved they now espouse the Practice which they had condemned and in reference to as Arbitrary and unjustifiable an Act of His present Majesty as the most illegal one the late King was guilty of or the worst Exercise or Prerogative for which any heretofore either
Fear or Courtship have enrolled themselves into the List of Addressers and under pretence of giving thanks to the King for his promise of protecting the Archbishops Bishops and Clergy and all other of the Church of England in the free exercise of their Religion as by Law established have cut the throat of their Mother at whose breasts they have suck'd till they are grown fat both by acknowledging the usurped Prerogative upon which the King assumes the Right and Authority of emitting the Declaration and by exchanging the legal standing and security of their Church into that precarious one of the Royal Word which they fly unto as the bottom of her Subsistence and trust to as the wall of her defence And as most of the Members of the Separate Societies are free from all accession to Addressing and the few that concurred were merely drawn in by the wheedle and importunity of their Preachers so they who are of the chiefest Character and greatest reputation for Wisdom and Learning among the Ministers have preserved themselves from all folly and treachery of that kind The Apostle tells us that not many wise not many noble are called which as it is verified in many of the Dissenting Addressers so it may serve for some kind of Apology for their low and sneaking as well as for their indiscreet and imprudent behaviour in this matter And it is the more venial in some of them as being not only a means of ingratiating themselves as they fansie with the King who heretofore had no very good opinion of them but as being both an easie and compendious method of Attoning for Offences against the Crown of which they were strongly suspected and a cheap and expenceless way of purchasing the pardon of their Relations that had stood actually accused of High Treason Nor is it to be doubted but that as the King will retain very little favour and mercy for Fanaticks when once he has served his Ends upon them so they will preserve as little kindness for the Papists if they can but obtain relief in a legal way And as there is not a People in the Kingdom that will be more loyal to Princes while they continue so to govern as that Fealty by the Laws of God or Man remains due to them so there are none of what Principles or Communion soever upon whom the Kingdom in its whole interest come to lye at stake may more assuredly and with greater confidence depend than upon the generality of Dissenting Protestants and especially upon those that are not of the Pastoral Order The severities that the Dissenters lay under before and their deliverance from Oppression and Disturbance now seconded with the Kings expectation and demands of thanksgiving Addresses were strong Temptations upon men void of generosity and greatness of spirit and who are withal of no great political Wisdom nor of prospect into the Consequences of Councils and Tricks of State to act as illegally in their thanks as his Majesty had done in his bounty So that whatsoever Animadversion they may deserve should they be proceeded against according to their demerit yet it is to be hoped that both they and the Addressers of the former stamp may all find room in an Act of Indemnity and that the Mercy of the Nation towards them will triumph over and get the better of its Justice As it would argue a strange and judicial infatuation should they proceed to farther excesses and think to escape the Punishment due to one Crime by committing and taking sanctuary in another thro improving their Complements into actions of Treachery so all their hope of Pardon as well as of Lenity and Moderation from a true Protestant and rightly constituted Authority depends upon their conduct and behaviour henceforward and their not suffering themselves to be hurried and deluded into a cooperation with the Court for the obtaining of a Popish Parliament All their endeavours of that kind would but more clearly detect and manifest their treachery to Religion and the Kingdom it not being in their power to out-vote the honest English part of the People so as to help the King to such a House of Commons as he desires and were it possible that thro their assistance in conjunction with violence and tricks used in Elections and Returns by the Court such a House of Commons might be obtained as would be serviceable to Arbitrary and Papal Ends yet neither the King nor they would be the nearer the compassing what is aim'd at it being demonstrable that the majority of the House of Lords are never to be wrought over to justifie this illegal Declaration or to grant the King a Power of Suspending Laws at his pleasure nor to give their Assent to a Bill for Repealing the Test Acts and the Statutes that enjoyn and require the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy And if they should be so far left of God and betray'd by those among themselves whom the Court hath gained as to become guilty of so enormous an act of folly and villany and should the Election of the next Parliament be the happy juncture they wait for and the improving their interest as well as the giving their own Votes for the Choice of Papists into the House of Commons be what they mean by an essential proof of their Loyalty and of the sincerity of their humble Addresses See Mr. Alsop's Speech to the King and that whereby they intend to demonstrate that the greatest thing they have promised is the least thing they will perform for his Majesties service and satisfaction as in that case they will deserve to forfeit all hopes of being forgiven so it would be an infidelity to God and Men and a cruelty to our selves and our Posterity not to abandon them as betrayers of Religion expunge them out of the Roll of Protestants strip them of all that wherein free Subjects have a Legal Right and not to condemn them to the utmost punishments which the Laws of the Kingdom adjudge the worst of Traitors and Malefactors unto There are some who thro hating of them do wish their miscarrying and offending to so unpardonable a degree that they may hereafter be furnished with an advantage both of ruining them and the whole Dissenting Party for their sakes But as the love that I bear unto them and the perswasion and belief I have of the truth of their Religious Principles do make me exceeding sollicitous to have them kept and prevented from being hurried and transported into so fatal and criminal a behaviour so I desire to make no other excuse for my plain dealing towards them but that of Solomon who tells us that faithful are the wounds of a friend while the kisses of an Enemy are deceitful and that he who rebukes a man shall find more favour afterwards than he who flattereth with the tongue POSTSCRIPT SInce the foregoing Sheets went to the Press and while they were Printing off there is come to my hands a new
such Assemblies which times are as ancient as any Memory of the Nation it self hence I infer that no Summons from the King can be thought to have been necessary in those days because it was altogether needless Secondly The Succession to the Crown did not in those days nor till of late years run in a course of Lineal Succession by right of Inheritance But upon the death of a Prince those Persons of the Realm that Composed the then Parliament Assembled in order to the choosing of another That the Kingdom was then Elective though one or other of the Royal Blood was always chosen but the next in Lineal Succession very seldom is evident from the Genealogies of the Saxon Kings from an old Law made at Calchuyth appointing how and by whom Kings shall be chosen and from many express and particular Accounts given by our old Historians of such Assemblies held for Electing of Kings Now such Assemblies could not be Summon'd by any King and yet in conjunction with the King that themselves set up they made Laws binding the King and all the Realm Thirdly After the Death of King William Rufus Robert his Elder Brother being then in the Holy Land Henry the younger Son of King William the First procured an Assembly of the Clergy and People of England to whom he made large Promises of his good Government in case they would accept of him for their King and they agreeing that if he would restore to them the Laws of King Edward the Confessor then they would consent to make him their King He swore that he would do so and also free them from some oppressions which the Nation had groan'd under in his Brothers and his Fathers time Hereupon they chose him King and the Bishop of London and the Archbishop of York set the Crown upon his Head Which being done a Confirmation of the English Liberties passed the Royal Assent in that Assembly the same in substance though not so large as King John's and King Henry the Third's Magna Charta's afterwards were Fourthly After that King's Death in such another Parliament King Stephen was Elected and Mawd the Empress put by though not without some stain of perfidiousness upon all those and Stephen himself especially who had sworn in her Fathers Life-time to acknowledge her for their Soveraing after his decease Fifthly In King Richard the First 's time the King being absent in the Holy Land and the Bishop of Ely then his Chancellor being Regent of the Kingdom in his Absence whose Government was intolerable to the People for his Insolence and manifold Oppressions a Parliament was convened at London at the Instance of Earl John the Kings Brother to treat of the great and weighty affairs of the King and Kingdom in which Parliament this same Regent was depos'd from his Government and another set up viz. the Arch-Bishop of Roan in his stead This Assembly was not conven'd by the King who was then in Palaestine nor by any Authority deriv'd from him for then the Regent and Chancellor must have call'd them together but they met as the Historian says expresly at the Instance of Earl John And yet in the Kings Absence they took upon them to settle the publick Affairs of the Nation without Him Sixthly When King Henry the 3d. died his Eldest Son Prince Edward was then in the Holy Land and came not home till within the third year of his Reign yet immediately upon the Fathers Death all the Prelates and Nobles and 4 Knights for every Shire and 4 Burgesses for every Borough Assembled together in a great Council and setled the Government till the King should return Made a new Seal and a Chancellor c. I infer from what has been said that Writs of Summons are not so Essential to the being of Parliaments but that the People of England especially at a time when they cannot be had may by Law and according to our old Constitution Assemble together in a Parliamentary way without them to treat of and settle the publick Affairs of the Nation And that if such Assemblies so conven'd find the Throne Vacant they may proceed not only to set up a Prince but with the Assent and Concurrence of such Prince to transact all Publick business whatsoever without a new Election they having as great Authority as the People of England can deligate to their Representatives II. The Acts of Parliaments not Formal nor Legal in all their Circumstances are yet binding to the Nation so long as they continue in Force and not liable to be questioned as to the Validity of them but in subsequent Parliaments First The two Spencers Temp. Edvardi Secundi were banished by Act of Parliament and that Act of Parliament repealed by Dures Force yet was the Act of Repeal a good Law till it was Annulled 1 Ed. 3. Secondly Some Statutes of 11 Rich. 2. and attainders thereupon were repealed in a Parliament held Ann. 21. of that King which Parliament was procured by forced Elections and yet the Repeal stood good till such time as in 1 Henry 4. the Statutes of 11 Rich. 2. were revived and appointed to be firmly held and kept Thirdly The Parliament of 1 Hen. 4. consisted of the same Knights Citizens and Burgesses that had served in the then last dissolved Patliament and those Persons were by the Kings Writts to the Sheriffs commanded to be returned and yet they passed Acts and their Acts tho never confirmed continue to be Laws at this day Fourthly Queen Mary's Parliament that restored the Popes Supremacy was notoriously known to be pack'd inso much that it was debated in Queen Elizabeth's time whether or no to declare all their Acts void by Act of Parliament That course was then upon some prudential considerations declined and therefore the Acts of that Parliament not since repealed continue binding Laws to this day The reason of all this is Because no inferiour Courts have Authority to judge of the Validity or Invalidity of the Acts of such Assemblies as have but so much as a colour of Parliamentary Authority The Acts of such Assemblies being Entred upon the Parliament-Roll and certified before the Judges of Westminster-Hall as Acts of Parliament are conclusive and binding to them because Parliaments are the only Judges of the Imperfections Invalidities Illegalities c. of one another The Parliament that call'd in King Charles the Second was not assembled by the Kings Writ and yet they made Acts and the Royal assent was had to them many of which indeed were afterwards confirmed but not all and those that had no Confirmation are undoubted Acts of Parliament without it and have ever since obtained as such Hence I inferr that the present Convention may if they please assume to themselves a Parliamentary Power and in conjunction with such King or Queen as they shall declare may give Laws to the Kingdom as a legal Parliament The Thoughts of a Private Person about the Justice of the Gentlemens Vndertaking
Government is ours their Servants were Slaves and their Kings and Emperours Wills were their Laws their People had no Magna Charta's to show nor Fundamental Compacts and so could plead no injustice in any command the frame of the Government Warranted all those commands that had the Royal pleasure Their Political Power was more extensive than their Moral Power The People were wholly at the Mercy of the Prince All their Laws were Acts of Grace not fundamental Reserves and inherent Rights and therefore in Spirituals they had no Cause to resist and in Temporals they might not as was observed above If they had been under limited Governments as we are we might have heard of Blows as well as Words St. Paul was never so virulent with his Tongue as when he was smitten contrary to Law Obj. 3. But the Person of the King is sacred and must not he touched Answ I say so too but it is his just Power that makes him so And therefore in dangerous times he is to be counselled and perswaded to secure himself by keeping within the Sanctuary of the Laws and holding them forth for the Publick Good by gaining the Affections of the People and being content with that measure of Power that is proper to the Government For if he doth not Right may and ought to be defended and resistance for the Publick good of Illegal Commissioned Forces is not resisting the King's Person but his Forces nor his Power but his Force without Power If none would execute the King's contradictory Commands none would resist and if he will against all Justice Prudence and Perswasions joyn with wicked Men and wilfully expose himself to the mercy of blind Bullets charge is to be given to all that none kill him wittingly or wilfully the hand that lifted him up may not pull him down God forbid that any should think of killing him de industrâ or despair of his repentance before God does nothing past can prejudice a Penitent before God and I hope not before Men thus the King's person and power will be safe in the midst of a Civil War not so safe as in peaceable times but as safe as can consist with the Subjects Right when their Religion and Laws Liberty and Property are Violently invaded And therefore if any thing befall his person by their hands it is but a chance and accidental thing which may happen also in peaceable times This shows that Resisting the King 's illegal commission'd Forces in defence of their own just Rights is not resisting the Ordinance of God and consequently no Sin and then the Conscience is not tyed otherwise than the Laws of the Land and the particular Frame of the government tyes it Obj. 4. But to resist the King or his Commissioners is against the Frame of the Government it being a Monarchy and against the Laws and Statutes of the Realm Answ If it be so it is a great Sin but as it is certain this is a Monarchy so it is certain that it is limited in the Foundation otherwise the King would have all the Legislative Power and the Parliment no Authority or Right but derived from him and then he must be Arbitrary and we Slaves and all our Laws must be acts of Grace not Fundamental Rights Not from any inherent power reserved at the Institution to our selves and never submitted to the Princes but from the gracious condescention of an Absolute Monarch which is contrary to the Story of all times which shows that the people ever claimed Liberty and Property according to their Ancient Laws and Customs not as a Gift but as a Right inherent in themselves and never Transferred Aliened or Conveyed to any King but Declared Recognized and Confirmed to them by many I shall therefore suppose what I think none can upon sufficient grounds deny that the King is bound by all the sacred Tyes of God and Man to govern by the Laws and not otherwise neither by a Foreign Law nor by one of his own framing nor by any Word or Will contrary to Law seeing nothing can have the force of Law here but what has the joynt Consent of King and Parliament and that in a Parliamentary way and this shows us in the Terms of Submission that are sworn to on both sides The King and the people by a joynt consent makes Laws and make them the common Rule betwixt them the King swears to observe the Laws and the people swear to obey the King and to leave the Execution of the Laws to the King to be managed for the publick good Therefore as long as he governs by Law he and all his Ministers are safe enough from Resistance the Resister being lyable to be punished both by God and Man and the sole administration being left to the King Subjects all but himself to Criminal process and even himself to Civil but his person and power are safe in both he may be severe in the Execution of the Laws many times but not unjust As if he will not suspend a Burthensom Law or Revive an Antiquated one when the publick good requires it This may render him uncharitable or imprudent but he is safe yet For though he be bound to proceed according to Law yet he is not tyed to proceed always according to the best Methods when there are diverse But if he stop the Courts of Justice erect new ones or proceed contrary to Law he Acts without Authority and against his own Authority and puts on a kind of a Vizard that his Subjects can neither know him nor their Duty for it is the Laws that direct them to the person of the King and their own Duty without which they could know neither And if the End be not the publick good it is downright Injustice as well as politically powerless Necessity indeed may justifie a Political unlawful Act for the Publick good As in case of an Invasion to burn a garrison rather than it should be a refuge for the Enemy or to open Sluces and to drown a part of the Country for though these things have not the form of the Law they have the reason and that is Publick good And therefore it is not Law but Necessity not the King's Command but Publick good that warrants these Acts. And when Peace returns the Injured are to have satisfaction made by the Publick not as of Charity but as of Justice which shows that the Law looks upon it as a Trespass justified only by Necessity and the Publick good And the particular Persons here have reason to be quiet and make no resistance because they shall reap double benefit by it one in the Publick good and another from the Publick Treasure But it does not follow that if the King in an angry mood should command his guards to fire Newmarket because he had lost an Horse-race there or had a mind to have a Bonefire because he had won one that the Inhabitants might not resist them Obj. 5. By what Law
Cesar 's and both St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans and St. Peter in his General Epistle have very positively condemned that pernicious Maxim but without any formal Declarations made of the Rules or Measures of Government And since both the People and Senate of Rome had acknowledged the Power that Augustus had indeed violently usurped it became Legal when it was thus submitted to and confirmed both by the Senate and People and it was established in his Family by a long Prescription when those Epistles were writ so that upon the whole matter all that is in the New Testament upon this Subject imports no more but that all Christians are bound to acquiesce in the Government and submit to it according to the Constitution that is settled by Law XI We are then at last brought to the Constitution of our English Government so that no general Considerations from Speculations about Sovereign Power nor from any Passages either of the Old and New Testament ought to determin us in this matter which must be fixed from the Laws and Regulations that have been made among us It is then certain that with relation to the executive Part of the Government the Law has lodged that singly in the King so that the whole Administration of it is in him but the Legislative Power is lodged between the King and the Two Houses of Parliament so that the Power of making and repealing Laws is not singly in the King but only so far as the Two Houses concur with him It is also clear that the King has such a determined extent of Prerogative beyond which he has no Authority as for instance if he levies Money of his People without a Law impowring him to it he goes beyond the Limits of his Power and asks that to which he has no right so that there lies no obligation on the Subject to grant it and if any in his Name use Violence for the obtaining it they are to be looked on as so many Robbers that invade our Property and they being violent Aggressours the Principle of Self-preservation seems here to take place and to warrant as violent a Resistance XII There is nothing more evident than that England is a free Nation that has its Liberties and Properties reserved to it by many positive and express Laws if then we have a right to our Property we must likewise be supposed to have a right to preserve it for those Rights are by the Law secured against the Invasions of the Prerogative and by consequence we must have a right to preserve them against those Invasions It is also evidently declared by our Law that all Orders and Warrants that are issued out in opposition to them are null of themselves and by consequence any that pretend to have Commissions from the King for those ends are to be considerd as if they had none at all since those Commissions being void of themselves are indeed no Commissions in the Construction of the Law and therefore those who act in vertue of them are still to be considered as private Persons who come to invade and disturb us It is also to be observed that there are some Points that are justly disputable and doubtful and others that are so manifest that it is plain that any Objections that can be made to them are rather forced Pretences than so much as plausible Colours It is true if the Case is doubtful the Interest of the publick Peace and Order ought to carry it but the Case is quite different when the Invasions that are made upon Liberty and Property are plain and visible to all that consider them XIII The main and great Difficulty here is that though our Government does indeed assert the Liberty of the Subject yet there are many express Laws made that lodg the Militia singly in the King that make it plainly unlawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King or any commissioned by him And these Laws have been put in the form of an Oath which all that have born any Employment either in Church or State have sworn and therefore those Laws for the assuring our Liberties do indeed bind the King's Conscience and may affect his Ministers yet since it is a Maxim of our Law that the King can do no wrong these cannot be carried so far as to justify our taking Arms against him be the Transgressions of Law ever so many and so manifest And since this has been the constant Doctrine of the Church of England it will be a very heavy Imputation on us if it appears that though we held those Opinions as long as the Court and the Crown have favoured us yet as soon as the Court turns against us we change our Principles XIV Here is a true Difficulty of this whole Matter and therefore it ought to be exactly considered 1. All general Words how large soever are still supposed to have a tacit exception and reserve in them if the Matter seems to require it Children are commanded to obey their Parents in all things Wives are declared by the Scripture to be subject to their Husbands in all things as the Church is unto Christ And yet how comprehensive soever these Words may seem to be there is still a reserve to be understood in them and though by our Form of Marriage the Parties swear to one another till Death them do part yet few doubt but that this Bond is dissolved by Adultery though it is not named for odious things ought not to be suspected and therefore not named upon such Occasions But when they fall out they carry still their own force with them 2. When there seem to be a Contradiction between two Articles in the Constitution we ought to examin which of the two is the most evident and the most important and so we ought to fix upon it and then we must give such an accommodating sense to that which seems to contradict it that so we may reconcile those together Here then are two seeming Contradictions in our Constitution The one is the Publick Liberty of the Nation the other is the renouncing of all Resistance in case that were invaded It is plain that our Liberty is only a thing that we enjoy at the King's Discretion and during his Pleasure if the other against all Resistance is to be understood according to the utmost extent of the Words Therefore since the chief Design of our whole Law and of all the several Rules of our Constitution is to secure and maintain our Liberty we ought to lay that down for a Conclusion that it is both the most plain and the most important of the two And therefore the other Article against Resistance ought to be so softned as that it do not destroy this 3. Since it is by a Law that Resistance is condemned we ought to understand it in such a sense as that it does not destroy all other Laws And therefore the intent of this Law must only
Authorities out of this Realm as also for restoring and uniting to the Imperial Crown of this Realm the antient Jurisdictions Authorities Superiorities and Preheminences to the same of Right belonging and appertaining by reason whereof the Subjects of this Realm were kept in good order and disburthened of divers great and intolerable Charges and Exactions until such time as all the said good Laws and Statutes by one Act of Parliament made in the first and second Years of the Reigns of King Philip and Queen Mary were clearly repealed and made void by reason of which Act of Repeal the Subjects of England were eftsoons brought under an usurped Foreign Power and Authority and yet remained in that Bondage to their intolerable Charges and then Enacts that for the repressing of the said usurped Foreign Power and the restoring of the Rights Jurisdictions and Preheminences appertaining to the Imperial Crown of this Realm The said Act made in the first and second Years of the said late King Philip and Queen Mary except as therein is excepted be repealed void and of none effect The said Act of Primo Elizabethae proceeds First to revive by express words many Statutes that had been made in King Henry the Eighth's time and repealed in Queen Mary's and Secondly to abolish all Foreign Authority in these words viz. And to the intent that all Vsurped and Foreign Power and Authority Spiritual and Temporal may for ever be clearly extinguished and never to be used or obeyed within this Realm c. May it please your Highness that it may be Enacted That no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate Spiritual or Temporal shall at any time after the last day of this Session of Parliament use enjoy or exercise any manner of Power Jurisdiction Superiority Authority Preheminence or Priviledg Spiritual or Ecclesiastical within this Realm c. but the same shall be clearly abolished out of this Realm c. Any Statute Custom c. to the contrary notwithstanding Thirdly The said Act restores in the next Paragraph to the Imperial Crown of this Realm such Jurisdictions Priviledges Superiorities c. Spiritual and Ecclesiastical as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority had heretofore been or might lawfully be exercised or used c. Fourthly the Act impowers the Queen to assign Commissioners to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction And Fifthly For the better observation and maintenance of this Act imposes upon Ecclesiastical and Temporal Officers and Ministers c. the Oath commonly call'd the Oath of Supremacy which runs thus viz. The Oath of SUPREMACY I A. B. do utterly testify and declare in my Conscience that the Queen's Highness is the only Supream Governour of this Realm and of all other her Highness's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things and Causes as Temporal and that no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm And therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all Foreign Jurisdictions Powers Superiorities and Authorities and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear Faith and true Allegiance to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and lawful Successors and to my Power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminencies and Authorities granted or belonging to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm So help me God and by the Contents of this Book It cannot but be obvious to every impartial Peruser of the Statute especially if he have the least knowledg of what Condition the Government of this Nation was reduced to by Papal Encroachments and Usurpations That the Makers of this Law and the Sense of this Oath was no other in general than that the People of this Realm should bear Faith and true Allegiance even in Matters relating to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and lawful Successors and not to the Pope or any foreign pretended Jurisdiction What the several Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Queen her Heirs and Successors are in particular and what the Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities United and Annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm are in particular is not material here to be discoursed of though the several Statutes made in King Henry the Eighth's time and King Edward the Sixth's and revived in Queen Elizabeth's will unfold many of them and clear the distinction which the OATH makes betwixt Authorities granted or belonging to the King and Authorities united and annexed to the Imperial Crown and Mr. Prynn's History of the Pope's intolerable Usurpations upon the Liberties of the Kings and Subjects of England and Ireland together with Sir Roger Twisden's Historical Vindication of the Church of England in point of Schism will in a great measure acquaint the Curious how matters stood with us here with respect to Church-Government before the Pope had wrested the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction almost wholly out of the hands of our Kings our Parliaments and Courts of Justice In short those Jurisdictions c. are such as the Antient Laws Customs and Usages of the Realm or latter Acts of Parliament have Created Given Limited and Directed The Makers of this Law did not design to impose upon the People of England any new Terms of Allegiance but to secure the old ones exclusive of any Pretences of the Pope or See of Rome Nor are there any words in this Oath more strong more binding to Duty and Allegiance than are words which the old Oath of Fealty is conceived in which all Men were antiently obliged and may yet be required to take to the King in the Court-Leet at twelve years of Age which runs thus viz. You shall swear that from this day forward you shall be true and faithful to our Soveraign Lord King James and his Heirs And Faith and Truth shall bear of Life and Limb and terrene Honour And you shall not know nor hear of any ill or damage intended to him that you shall not defend So help you Almighty God This is as full and comprehensive as the Oath of Supremacy I do promise that I shall bear faith and true Allegiance to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and lawful Successors and to my power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions c. So that the true sense and meaning of the Oath of Supremacy is this viz. I will be true and faithful to our Soveraign Lord the King his Heirs and lawful Successors and will to my Power assist and defend all his Rights notwithstanding any pretence made by the Pope or any other Foreign Power to exercise Jurisdiction within the Realm all which Foreign Power I utterly renounce in Matters Ecclesiastical as well as Temporal The Oath of Allegiance is appointed by the Act of 3 Jac. 1. Chap. 4. Intituled An Act for discovering and repressing of Popish Recusants It
and filling up the Throne with K. William and Q. Mary 450 93. A Proclamation Declaring William and Mary King and Queen of England to be King and Queen of Scotland Edinburgh April 11. 1689. 452 93. The manner of the King and Queen's taking the Coronation-Oath 453 94. The Coronation-Oath of England 454 The Coronation-Oath of Scotland Ibid. 95. Proposals humbly offered to the Lords and Commons in the present Convention for Setling of the Government 455 96. The late Honourable Convention proved a Legal Parliament 457 97. The Present Convention a Parliament 459 98. The Thoughts of a private Person about the Justice of the Gentlemens undertaking at York Novemb. 1688. wherein is shewed That it is neither against Scripture nor Moral Honesty to defend their Just and Legal Rights against the Illegal Invaders of them occasioned then by some private Debates and now submitted to better Judgments 461 99. An Enquiry into the Measures of Submission to the Supream Authority and of the Grounds upon which it may be lawful or necessary for Subjects to defend their Religion Lives and Liberties 483 100. The Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy no Badges of Slavery 489 THE Earl of Clarendon's Speech ABOUT Disbanding the Army SEPTEMBER 13. 1660. My Lords and Gentlemen THE King tells you that he hath commanded me to say many particulars to you and the truth is He hath charged me with so many that I have great reason to fear that I shall stand in much need of His Mercy for omitting many things He hath given me in Command at least for delivering them in more Disorder and Confusion then Matters of such Moment and Importance ought to be to such an Assembly for which the King Himself hath even a kind of Reverence as well as an extraordinary Kindness I am to mention some things He hath done already and many things He intends to do during this Recess that you may see how well content soever he is that you should have Ease and Pleasure and Refreshment he hath designed Work enough for Himself The King hath thanked you for the Provision you have made that there may be no free Quarter during the time the Army shall be Disbanding and hath told you what He will do with that Money you have given Him if there should want wherewithal to Disband it And now I hope you will all believe that His Majesty will consent to the Disbanding He will do so And yet He does not take it unkindly at their hands who have thought that his Majesty would not Disband this Army It was a sober and a rational Jealousie No other Prince in Europe would be willing to Disband such an Army an Army to which Victory is entailed and which humanely speaking could hardly fail of Conquest whithersoever He should lead it and if God had not restored His Majesty to that rare Felicity as to be without apprehension of Danger at home or from abroad and without any Ambition of taking from his Neighbours what they are possessed of Himself would never Disband this Army an Army whose Order and Discipline whose Sobriety and Manners whose Courage and Success hath made it famous and terrible over the World an Army of which the King and His two Royal Brothers may say as the noble Grecian said of Aeneas Stetimus tela aspera contra Contulimusque manus experto credite quantus In clypeum assurgat quo turbine torqueat hastam They have all three in several Countries found themselves engaged in the midst of these Troops in the heat and rage of Battel and if any common Souldiers as no doubt many may will demand the old Roman Priviledge for having encountred Princes single upon my Conscience he will find both Favour and Perferment They have all three observed the Discipline and felt and admired and loved the Courage of this Army when they were the worse for it and I have seen them in a season when there was little else of comfort in their view refresh themselves with joy that the English had done the great Work the English had got the Day and then please themselves with the Imagination what wonders they should perform in the head of such an Army And therefore when His Majesty is so entirely possessed of the Affection and obedience of this Army and when it hath merited so much from Him can it be believed or imagined that He can without some regret part with them No My Lords and Gentlemen He will never part with them and the only sure way never to part with them is to Disband them should it be otherwise they must be exposed to the daily Importunity of His great Neighbours and Allies and how could He refuse to lend them His Troops of which He hath no use Himself His Majesty knows they are too good English men to wish that a standing Army should be kept in the howels of their own Countrey that they who did but in Bello pacis gerere negotium and who whilest an Army lived like good Husbandmen in the Countrey and good Citizens in the City will now become really such and take Delight in the Benefit of that Peace they have so honestly and so wonderfully brought to pass The King will part with them as the most indulgent Parents part with their Children for their Education and for their Perferment He will prefer them to Disbanding and prefer them by Disbanding and will always retain such a Kindness for them and such a Memory of the Service they have done him that both Officers and Souldiers after they are Disbanded shall always find such countenance favour and reward from His Majesty that He doubts not but if he should have Occasion to use their Service they will again resort to Him with the same Alacrity as if they had never been Disbanded And if there be any so ill amongst them as there can be but very few if any who will forfeit that Favour and Protection they may have from Him by any withstanding His Majesties Commands and the full and declared sense of the Kingdom His Majesty is confident they will be as odious to their Companions as they can be to any other honest Men. My Lords and Gentlemen I am in the next place by the Kings Command to put you in mind of the Act of Indemnity not of any Grants or Concessions or Releases He made to you in that Act I have nothing of that in charge no Prince hath so excellent a memory to forget the Favours he doth but of what He hath done against you in that Act how you may be undone by that Act if you are not very careful to perform the Obligations He hath laid upon you in it the clause I am to put you in mind of is this And to the intent and purpose that all names and terms of Distinction may be likewise put into utter Oblivion Be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That if any Person or Persons within the space of three Years next
would not have been a very melancholy Present Have not you frank and dutiful Expressions that cheerfulness and vivacity in your Looks rendred much more acceptable much more valuable No Prince in Christendom loves a cheerful giver so well as God Almighty does and he of all Gifts a cheerful Heart and therefore I pray let not a cloudy and disconsolate face be the only or the best sign of Piety and Devotion in the Heart I must ask your Pardon for misplacing much of this Discourse which I should have mentioned when I came to speak of the Ministers Bill they I hope will endeavour to remove these new marks of Dinstinction and Reproaches and keep their Auditories from being imposed upon by such Characters and Descriptions The King hath passed this Act very willingly and done much to the end of this Act before yet hath willingly admitted you to be Sharers and Partners with Him in the Obligation I may say confidently His Majesty hath never denied His Confirmation to any Man in Possession who hath asked it and they have all the effect of it except such who upon Examination and Enquiry appeared not worthy of it and such who though they are pardoned cannot yet think themselves worthy to be preferr'd His Majesty well knows that by this Act he hath gratified and obliged many worthy and pious Men who have contributed much to His Restauration and who shall always receive fresh Evidence of His Majesties Favour and Kindness but he is not sure that he may not likewise have gratified some who did neither contribute to His coming in nor are yet glad that he is in how comes it else to pass that he receives such frequent informations of Seditious Sermons in the City and the Countrey in which all Industry is used to alienate the Affections of the People and to infuse Jealousies into them of the King and His Government They talk of introducing Popery of evil Councellors and such other old Calumnies as are pardoned by this Act of Indempnity His Majesty told You when he was last here what Rigour and Severity He will hereafter use how contrary soever it is to his Nature in these Cases and conjured You My Lords and Gentlemen to concur with him in this just and necessary Severity which I am sure You will do with Your utmost Vigilance and that You will believe that too much ill cannot befall those who do the best they can to corrupt His Majesties Nature and to extinguish His Mercy My Lords and Gentlemen I told You I was to acquaint you with some things His Majesty intends to do during this Recess that You may see He will give no intermission to His Own thoughts for the Publick good though for a time He Dispences with Your Assistance He doth consider the infinite Importance the Improvement of Trade must be to this Kingdom and therefore His Majesty intends forthwith to Establish a Council for Trade consisting of some Principal Merchants of the several Companies to which he will add some Gentlemen of Quality and Experience and for their greater Honour and Encouragement some of my Lords of His own Privy Council In the next Place His Majesty hopes that a well-setled Peace and Gods great Blessing upon Him and You this Nation will in a short time flourish to that Degree that the Land of Canaan did when Esau found it necessary to part from his Brother For their riches were more then that they might dwell together and the land wherein they were could not bear them because of their cattel We have been Our selves very near this Pinacle of happiness and the hope and Contemplation that We may be so again disposes the King to be very solicitous for the Improvement and Prosperity of His Plantations abroad where there is such large room for the Industry and Reception of such who shall desire to go thither and therefore His Majesty likewise intends to erect and establish a Councel for those Plantations in which persons well qualified shall be wholly intent upon the good and advancement of those Plantations There are two other particulars which I am commanded to mention which were both mentioned and recommended to You by His Majesty in his Declaration from Breda The one for the Confirmation of Sales or other Recompence for Purchasers The other for the composing those Differences and Distempers in Religion which have too much disturbed the Peace of the Kingdom Two very weighty particulars in which His Majesty knows You have spent much time and concerning which he should have heard from You before this time if You had not met with great difficulties in the Disquisition of either For the First His Majesty hath not been without much thought upon the Argument and hath done much towards the Accommodation of many particular Persons and You shall not be at Your Journeys end before His Majesty will put that Business concerning Sales into such a way of Dispatch that he doubts not You will find a good Progress made in it before Your coming together again and I believe the Persons concerned will be very much to blame if they receive not good Satisfaction And some of You who stay in Town shall be advised and consulted with that Setlement The other of Religion is a sad Argument indeed It is a Consideration that must make every religious heart to bleed to see Religion which should be the strongest obligation and cement of Affection and brotherly kindness and compassion made now by the Wranglings of passionate and froward Men the ground of all animosity hatred malice and revenge And this unruly and unmanly Passion which no question the Divine Nature exceedingly abhors sometimes and I fear too frequently transports those who are in the right as well those who are in the wrong and leaves the latter more excusable then the former when men who find their manners and dispositions very conformable in all the necessary obligations of humane Nature avoid one anothers Conversation and grow first unsociable and then uncharitable to each other because one cannot think as the other doth And from this separation we intitle God to the Patronage of and Concernment in our Fancies and Distinction and purely for his sake hate one another heartily It was not so of old when one of the most ancient Fathers of the Church tells us That Love and Charity was so signal and eminent in the Primitive Christians that it even drew Admiration and Envy from their Adversaries Vide inquiunt ut invicim se diligunt Their Adversaries in that in which they most agreed in their very prosecution of them had their Passions and Animosities amongst themselves they were only Christians that loved and cherished and comforted and were ready to die for one another Quid nunc illi dicerent Christiani si nostra viderent tempora says the incomparable Grotius How would they look upon our sharp and virulent Contentions in the Debates of Christian Religion and the bloudy wars that have proceeded
me for he had something to say And I answered him If he had any thing to say I should be so civil to give him the hearing when I had time for then I was in haste Then he came the next Day with the same Request and I returned the Answer Then the third time being Wednesday he came again and used great Importunity and expressed some Kindnesses as if he had been a Suitor and prevailed with me to go into the Burrough with him to an Ale-house where were two Men more of his Company And after some little Discourse he propounded to me this wicked and horrid Design which I was to have been engaged in with them that is to let them into my Master's house to set it on fire And for a Reward they promised me two thousand Pounds which Sum I was to receive at the Fleece-Tavern in Holborn enquiring for a Room in the said Tavern called the Figure Nine Then coming out of the Ale-house they would fain have had me away with them saying Come let us take Coach and go into Fleet-street for said they there we have a Priest of ours who lodges at a Grocer's that shall confess you and give you the Sacrament I told him I could not possibly go then So this John Satterthwait went homewards with me almost to my Master's house and as we went along he charged me that I should not divulge it to any Person in the World living for if I did I should certainly die for it and that quickly in this World and be damned in the other Then he came on the next Day and gave me the same Charge to keep it secret And then on Saturday he came and enquired of me the best time that he might come to do this most horrid and devilish Action saying Would not Four or Five of the Clock be a good time And I said Yes Accordingly he came and conveyed himself into the Dye-house or thereabouts while Nine or ten of the Clock that Evening about which time the Fire was discovered Whereupon with the Fear and Dread he had put upon me I did deny it to the Company that came in to quench it but after that he was there whom I saw amongst the rest of the Company But I had much Horrour upon my Conscience and after some short time I confess'd the whole Crime for which I now die And my Examination before Justice Reading and Justice Freeman was all true And this I affirm and do desire all Protestants to believe that John Satterthwait kindled those three Fires in my Master's House First in the Dye-house by the Pump Secondly in the Buttery And Thirdly in the Garret Which last Fire he kindled whilst the People were putting out the other See the large Account of this called A Warning to Servants and a Caution to Protestants Printed in the Year 1680. An Account of the Firing Mr. Robert Bird 's House in Fetter-Lane April the 10th 1679. by the Perswasion of Nicholas Stubbs a Papist ELizabeth Oxley Servant to Mr. Robert Bird upon her Examination saith That about Michaelmas last she was acquainted with Nicholas Stubbs who had several times used many Perswasions to turn her Papist and after her shewing a liking to it and that he supposed she embraced that Perswasion in his Discourse to her at several times he told her that before the 28th of June next she should see all the Protestants destroyed that were in England that the Pope should be King over England that all that would turn to the Popish Religion should live far better than now they did that all the Land were Hereticks and it were a meritorious Act to destroy them and that all such as were Papists should have Marks upon their Hats whereby to distinguish them from Protestants that they might not be destroyed amongst them Adding that the Nation do believe that all things will be over before the 23d Day of June but they would be deceived for all should be destroyed at or before that time That the D. of Y. was the bravest Prince living and that he was gone out of the Kingdom lest the Hereticks should cut off his Head and he would not return till they were destroyed that the Lords in the Tower would not one of them suffer for they would come off well euough being to be tried by the Lords and that the Scaffolds were set up for fashion sake That she telling the said Stubbs that she was hired to live with one Mr. Bird about the middle of Fetter-Lane he used Perswasions to her at several times to set Fire on her Masters house telling her if she would do it he would give her 5 l. and gave her half a Crown and said he would have other Houses in Holborn Fired at the same time by others That she being with the said Stubbs on Sunday before the said Fire promised to Fire her Masters House on Thursday or Friday night following and accordingly on Thursday night she took a Candle and set Fire to her Masters Papers in his Study which were in a kind of a Press and they being on a Light Fire she shut the Doors and went up Stairs into her own Chamber in the top of the House and packed up her own things and undressed her self lest her Master should suspect her and there stayed till a great knocking was at the Door and the Watch-men crying out Fire whereupon she run down Stairs and cried Fire and her Master gave her the Keys to open the Door which done all Hands were employed to quench the Fire And she saith she did not set Fire on her Master's house out of any Malice to him nor with intent to rob him but meerly to carry on the Design which Stubbs had proposed to her and out of hopes of his Reward Nicholas Stubbs upon his Examination owns and sets forth to have used Discourses to the said Elizabeth as she declareth in her Examinations and saith he did perswade her to fire her Masters house and was to give her five Guineas for doing it besides half a Crown in Hand And saith that one Father Gyfford a Priest and his Confessor had put him upon this Business and told him it was no sin to Fire all the houses of Hereticks and Hugonots That he acquainted Flower alias Darby and one Roger _____ another Irish man that Lodged at the Coach and Horses in the same Street That the said Father Gyfford promised him a 100 l. for the same and told him he was to have the Money from the Church That they used to meet the said Gyfford and other two Persons in St. James Fields in the dark of the Evening and to discourse of these Matters and that the several Informations that he had given the said Elizabeth Oxley he had from the said Father Gyfford and saith Flower and Roger _____ told the said Stubbs they would carry on the said Fire and that they had Fire-Balls for that purpose and that they would fire other
out of the Hands of the Possessor than purely those of his own Conscience which is worthy Mr. Considerer's highest Consideration I shall only take notice of one Objection more and then conclude fearing I have too much trespass'd on your Patience already It 's very hard says he that a man should lose his Inheritance because he is of this or that Perswasion in Matters of Religion And truly Gentlemen were the Case only so I should be intirely of his mind But alass Popery whatever Mr. Considerer is pleas'd to insinuate in not an harmless innocent Perswasion of a Number of Men differing from others in matters relating to Christian Religion but is really and truly a different Religion from Christianity it self Nor is the Inheritance he there mentions an Inheritance only of Black-Acre and White Acre without any Office annexed which requires him to be par Officio But the Government and Protection of several Nations the Making War and Peace for them the Preservation of their Religion the Disposal of Publick Places and Revenues the Execution of all Laws together with many other things of the greatest Importance are in this Case claimed by the Word Inheritance which if you consider and at the same time reflect upon the Enslaving and Bloody Tenents of the Church of Rome more particularly the Hellish and Damnable Conspiracy those of that Communion are now carrying on against our Lives our Religion and our Government I am confident you will think it as proper for a Wolf to be a Shepherd as it is for a Papist to be the Defender of our Faith c. The Old Gentleman had no sooner ended his Discourse but I returned him my hearty Thanks for the Trouble he had been pleased to give himself on this Occasion and I could not but acknowledge he had given me great Satisfaction in that Affair what it will give thee Charles I know not I am sure I parted from him very Melancholy for having been a Fool so long Adieu I am thy Affectionate I. D. A Collection of Speeches IN THE House of Commons In the Year 1680. The Lord L. Speech My Lords MAny have been the Designs of the Papists to subvert this poor Nation from the Protestant Religion to that of the See of Rome and that by all the undermining Policies possibly could be invented during the Recess of Parliament even to the casting the Odium of their most Damnable Designs on the Innocency of his Majesties most Loyal Subjects We have already had a taste of their Plottings in Ireland and find how many unaccountable Irish Papists dally arrive which we have now under Consideration My Lord Dunbarton a great Romanist has Petitioned for his stay here alledging several Reasons therein which in my Opinion make all for his speedy Departure for I can never think his Majesty and this Kingdom sufficiently secure till we are rid of those Irish Cattel and all others besides for I durst be bold to say that whatsoever they may pretend there is not one of them but have a destructive Tenet only they want Power not Will to put it in force I would not have so much as a Popish Man nor a Popish Woman to remain here nor so much as a Popish Dog or a Popish Bitch no not so much as a Popish Cat that should pur or mew about the King We are in a Labyrinth of Evils and must carefully endeavour to get out of them and the greatest danger of all amongst us are our conniving Protestants who notwithstanding the many Evidences of the Plot have been industrious to revile the Kings Witnesses and such an one is R L'E who now disappears being one of the greatest Villains upon the Earth a Rogue beyond my Skill to delineate has been the Bugbear to the Protestant Religion and traduced the King and Kingdoms Evidences by his notorious scribling Writings and hath endeavoured as much as in him lay to eclipse the Glory of the English Nation he is a dangerous rank Papist proved by good and substantial Evidence for which since he has walked under another disguise he deserves of all Men to be hanged and I believe I shall live to see that to be his State He has scandalized several of the Nobility and detracted from the Rights of his Majesty's great Council the Parliament and is now fled from Justice by which he confesses the Charge against him and that shows him to be guilty My humble Motion is that this House Address to his Majesty to put him out of the Commission of Peace and all other Publick Employments for ever Speeches in the Honourable House of Commons Mr. Speaker IN the Front of Magna Charta it is said Nulli negabimus nulli differimus Justitiam we will defer or deny Justice to no Man to this the King is Sworn and with this the Judges are intrusted by their Oaths I admire what they can say for themselves if they have not read this Law they are not fit to sit upon the Bench and if they have I had almost said they deserve to lose their Heads Mr. Speaker The State of the poor Nation is to be deplored that in almost all ages the Judges who ought to be Preservers of the Laws have endeavoured to destroy them and that to please a Court-Faction they have by Treachery attempted to break the Bonds asunder of Magna Charta the great Treasury of our Peace it was no sooner passed but a Chief Justice in that day perswades the King he was not bound by it because he was under Age when it was passed But this sort of Insolence the next Parliament resented to the ruine of the pernicious Chief Justice In the time of Richard the Second an unthinking dissolute Prince there were Judges that did insinuate into the King that the Parliament were only his Creatures and depended on his Will and not on the Fundamental Constitutions of the Land which Treacherous Advice proved the Ruine of the King and for which all those evil Instruments were brought to Justice In his late Majesties Time his Misfortunes were occasioned chiesly by the Corruptions of the Long Robe his Judges by an Extrajudicial Opinion give the King Power to raise Money upon an extraordinary Occasion without Parliament and made the King Judge of such Occasions Charity prompts me to think they thought this a Service to the King but the sad Consequences of it may convince all Mankind that every illegal Act weakens the Royal Interest and to endeavour to introduce Absolute Dominion in these Realms is the worst of Treasons because whilst it bears the Face of Friendship to the King and Designs to be for his Service it never fails of the contrary effect The two great Pillars of the Government are Parliaments and Juries it is this gives us the Title of Free-born English-men for my Notion of Free-English-men is this that they are ruled by Laws of their own making and tried by Men of the same Condition with themselves The Two great
besides the Bill I have heard none proposed in this Parliament the last Parliament thought not fit to debate them they were so weak but hath this Plot been no longer than 1678. We gave 250000 l. to fight the Dutch and assist them that had a Design to subdue us and the Protestant Religion which is not well settled Have all the Laws been put in Execution against the Papists But a few Apprentices going to pull down a Bawdy-house with a Red Cloth on a Pole was made Treason but what hath been done with the Plot in the intervals of Parliament The Lords have confirmed the King in his Opinion but did not the Proviso for the D. come from the Lords House I believe the Lords do not fear him but I believe the Plot is more dangerous than ever To rely upon any Remedy but this Bill will expose your Selves and your Religion The Eighth Speech by an Honourable Gentleman You have heard several Propositions but first make an end of one It is long since we thought in this House we were not secure without the Bill some have not yet considered of it and I think we never shall To make an Act of Association against the D. is to say Let him be lawful King and then fight against him Another way is Banishment if it be during the Kings life truly you run into more dangers rather then remove them if you talk of Banishment during the D. Life that is Exclusion if the D. be a Papist exclude all Papists from inheriting Some talk of an Act pass they would not satisfie their Consciences I am sure a Vote to Exclude him will not Popery encreases upon hopes the D. may come to the Crown we ought to take care of this Presumption Will not Papists expect to have their Religion established when the D. is next I wonder men will pretend to plead for Loyalty to one that they may never come to use it some say Cannot the D. change his Religion Must not the Two Houses joyn Did not Queen Mary do it Regis ad Exemplum most will conform To make Arguments of this Bill is to lessen it the King bids you go on to other things let 's declare all other things are ineffectual without this Bill We cannot think our selves safe to rely on any thing else is not only insufficient but dangerous The Ninth Speech by an Honourable Gentleman Now I see the House is full so considerate I am bound to give my Thoughts The Reason the Verity of the Bill hath formerly been debated and Precedents are Printed to shew it hath been done It will be a Reproach to us when dead in our Graves if we do not whatever any Parliament did to preserve Religion When we received the Kings Message I was perswaded he was over-ruled by other men for he saith What shall come in a Parliamentary Way how comes the King to know what 's done in Parliament When Clifford set up bare-fac'd for Popery he brought the King to come frequently to the House of Lords Cranmer saith That King Henry the Eighth passed the Act of 6 Articles in an Un-Parliamentary way by the Kings coming and solliciting Henry the Fourth in a Record called The Indempnity of the Peers and Commons the King being in haste for Money sends a Message desires he may debate the matter with them they return Answer Parliaments ought to debate free It 's entred into the Rolls That the King shall neither come to one House or other Danby's solliciting could not move them the King comes and he prevails Some Lords have little Estates some little Consciences some less Religion The King calls it an Opinion and tells you he is confirmed in it by the House of Lords he may come to take up other Resolutions if the Parliament go away and leave this work undone The King is in the highest Danger though some men think they shall be accounted Loyal for opposing an Act of Parliament it is but a Nick-name King James in his Speech 1603 thought it his Security to comply with his Parliament Nay He would betray his Country and Posterity in not doing it Remember what care the last King took to have his Posterity maintain the Protestant Religion Remember Queen Mary broke her Word for Conscience sake every day a Security would draw me from the Bill Queen Elizabeths Association against the Queen of Scots in the Act of Parliament was an Exclusion she was but a Woman but had wise Counsellors Prelates then did not fear the frown of a Prince Surely when the King sees so many Gentlemen of this House so firm he will take their Advise and Prorogue them and then pass the Bill I find not a Man that hath understanding but saith We are undone without it We have not Compounded yet for our Throats as some at Whitehall have done there is no next best the only way to preserve the Protestant Religion is to pass the Bill what is as secure as this must be amounting to Exclusion We can't save his Personal Dignity but with the loss of our Laws and Lives too I would to God the King knew how well this House doth love him The Tenth Speech by an Honourable Gentleman Consider whether the Dis-inheriting of a lawful Prince be Injustice or not or whether we ought not rather to trust to the Providence of Almighty God The Eleventh Speech by an Honourable Gentleman I should be glad the last Gentleman would make it good that we are to trust to the Providence of Almighty God rather than do as he supposes an unlawful Act but can he prove it unlawful can the King Lords and Commons do an unlawful Act must we not have a Supream Power But to hint it to something is to say it is not Supream was there not Machinations every year against Queen Elizabeth but she took away the Scotch Queen I wonder we have this Answer till I consider who is at the Kings Ear and have had an Interest carried on so long The denial of this is the denial of every thing you see where there are divers Medicines yet but one conducing to the end you shall have a Popish King if that be allowed with Power to compel and corrupt you you shall have what you will to protect you but you shall be under the power of one to destroy you The Frogs must have a Government but they must have a Stork for their King Samson's Locks will be grown again by that time he comes in There is a Lion in the Lobby keep him out say I no says some open the Door we will chain him when he 's come in Would you have a King that would neither court you nor protect you you would have a Parliament to make Judges and Bishops then sure the Long-House will be Jure divino you can have no Security under the Copes of Heaven without this Bill A Copy of the Duke of YORK 's Bill WHereas James Duke of York is notoriously known
Zeal for the Protestant Religion of your Loyalty to his Majesty's Person and Government and of your faithful Endeavours for the Preservation of the Laws our Rights and Properties we now return you our most hearty Thanks and have unanimously chosen you to represent this County at the Parliament to be holden at Oxford the 21st of March next And though we have not the least distrust of your Wisdom to understand or of your Integrity and Resolution to maintain and promote our common Interests now in so great hazard yet we think it meet at this time of imminent Danger to the King and Kingdom to recommend some things to your Care And particularly we do desire 1. That as hitherto you have so you will vigorously prosecute the Execrable Popish Plot now more fully discovered and proved by the Trial of William late Viscount Stafford 2. That you will promote a Bill for excluding James D. of York and all Popish Successors from the Imperial Crown of this Realm as that which under God may probably be a present and effectual means for the preservation of his Majesty's Life which God preserve the Protestant Religion and the well-established Government of this Kingdom 3. That you will endeavour the frequent meetings of Parliaments and their sitting so long as it shall be requisite for the dispatch of those great Affairs for which they are convened as that which is our only Bulwark against Arbitrary Power 4. That you will endeavour an happy and necessary Union amongst all his Majesty's Protestant Subjects by promoting those several good Bills which were to that end before the last Parliament And that till these things be obtained which we conceive necessary even to the Being of this Nation you will not consent to bring any Charge upon our Estates And we do assure you that we will stand by you with our Lives and Fortunes in Prosecution of the good ends before recited The Address of the Town of Hertford February 21. 1680 1. To the Right Worshipful Sir William Cooper Baronet and Sir Thomas Byde Knight WE the Free-men and Inhabitants of the Burrough of Hertford in the County of Hertford having unanimously Chosen You our Representatives to Sit in the next ensuing Parliament to be holden at Oxford the 21st of March next cannot but with all Thankfulness acknowledge your most faithful Endeavours and unwearied Pains in serving us in the last Parliament searching into and discovering the late damnable Hellish Popish Plot The preservation of His Majesty's Person the Protestant Religion and the well established Government of the Realm To secure the Meeting and Sitting of frequent Parliaments to assert our undoubted Right of Petitioning and to punish such who would have betrayed those Rights To promote a happy Union amongst all His Majesty's Protestant Subjects to Repeal the Act of the 35th of Queen Elizabeth and the Corporation Act and particularly for what Progress hath been made in the Bill of Exclusion of all Popish Successors the principal Cause of all the Miseries and Ruine impending these Kingdoms in general beseeching You as now our Representatives to prosecute the same good Ends and Purposes until the Nation shall be throughly secured against Popery and Arbitrary Power both in Church and State And further in imitation of the ever Renowned City of London We Request You in our behalf to present our humble Acknowledgements to the Right Honorable the Earl of Essex and by him to all the rest of those Right Honorable Peers for their late Excellent Petition and Advice to His Majesty and for all the rest of all their Faithfull Services and Endeavours they have performed for the Protestant Interest of the Nation The Address of the Gentry and Free-holders of the County of Essex To Sir Henry Mildmay and John Lemot Honeywood Esquire Unanimously Re elected Knights for the Shire Feb. 22. 1680 1. Gentlemen THe Faithful Discharge of that Trust we formerly gave You is the true Inducement of our Chusing You again to be our Representatives being abundantly satisfied not only in Your Care and Prudence in General but also in Your Particular Care and Unwearied Diligence in Your Conscientious Endeavours to secure His Majesty's Royal Person the Protestant Religion and Government of the Realm To Unite all His Majesty's Protestant Subjects To Repeal the Act of the 35th of Elizabeth To Assert our just and ancient Rights and Priviledges and particularly that of Petitioning and to punish those who were studious to betray them For Your two excellent Addresses and Publishing Your Votes Endeavouring to secure the Meeting and Sitting of Frequent Parliaments To destroy and root out Popery by securing us against all Popish Successors and particularly by passing a Bill against James Duke of York without which we are highly sensible that all other means will be ineffectual and the Peace and Safety of the Kingdom and government it self left in great danger it being inconsistent with our Oath by which we swear against the Pope's Supremacy whil'st a Popish King himself owns it and it being against the Essence of Government that People should obey him who by his Principles as a Papist is bound to destroy them And as we do heartily thank You for Your past worthy Behaviour herein so we have chosen You to Act on our behalf in the next Parliament to be holden at Oxford in full trust and considence that with Courage and Integrity You will persevere in the same good Endeavours pursuing all things that shall be found for our Publick Good and Safety And in full Assurance that You will not consent to the disposal of any of our Moneys till we are effectually secured against Popery and Arbitrary Power And untill the Fleet and Garisons are settled in the hands of such as are Persons of known Loyalty and Fidelity to the King and Kingdom and true Zeal and Affection for the Protestant Religion and we do resolve by Divine Assistance to stand by You therein with our Lives and Fortunes 'T is observable That this Address being openly read to their Representatives and confirm'd by the Unanimous and loud Acclamations of the Free-holders for further demonstration that it was the Sense of each individual person of that Numerous Assembly it was offered that so many as agreed to it should say Ay upon which they all cried out Ay Ay. And if any were otherwise minded they were desired to express their Dissent by saying No At which there was Altum Silentium not one to be heard saying No. The Address of the Gentry and other Free-holders of the County of Surrey being in number about 2000 Feb. 23. 1680 1. To Arthur Onslow and George Evelin Esquires elected Knights for this County in the ensuing Parliament whose Session is appointed at Oxon the 21st of the following Month. WE the Free-holders of the County of Surrey having in the two former Parliaments chosen you to be our Representatives and being fully satisfied in your Faithfullness and Care to preserve the Protestant Religion
in the Statutes exprest We also order the before-recited Books to be publickly burnt by the hand of our Marshal in the Court of our Schools Likewise we order that in perpetual memory hereof these our Decrees shall be entered into the Registry of our Convocation and that Copies of them being communicated to the several Colleges and Halls within this University they be there publickly affixt in the Libraries Refectories or other fit Places where they may be seen and read of all Lastly We command and strictly enjoyn all and singular Readers Tutors Catechists and others to whom the care and trust of Institution of Youth is committed that they diligently instruct and ground their Scholars in that most necessary Doctrine which in a manner is the Badge and Character of the Church of England of submitting to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governors as unto them that are sent by him for the Punishment of evil doers and for the Praise of them that do well Teaching that this Submission and Obedience is to be clear absolute and without exception of any state or order of Men Also that all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks be made for all Men for the King and all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and Honesty for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour And in especial manner that they press and oblige them humbly to offer their most ardent and daily Prayers at the Throne of Grace for the preservation of our Soveraign Lord King Charles from the attempts of open Violence and secret Machinations of perfidious Traitors That he the Defender of the Faith being safe under the defence of the most High may continue his Reign on Earth till he exchange it for that of a late and happy Immortality The Case of the Earl of Argyle Or an exact and full Account of his Trial Escape and Sentence As likewise a Relation of several Matter of Fact for better clearing of the said Case Edinburgh 30. May 1682. SIR THE Case of the late Earl of Argyle which even before the Process led against him you was earnest to know was at first I thought so plain that I needed not and grew afterwards so exceedingly mysterious that I could not for some time give you so perfect an account of it as I wished But this time being still no less proper the exactness of my Narrative will I hope excuse all delays The design against him being now so clear and the grounds founded on so slender that to satisfie all unbyass'd Persons of his Integrity there needs no more but barely to represent matter of Fact I should think shame to spend so many words either on arguments or relation were it not lest to strangers some mystery might still be suspected to remain concealed And therefore to make plain what they can hardly believe though we we clearly see it At His Royal Highness arrival in Scotland the Earl was one of the first to wait upon him and until the meeting of our last Parliament the World believed the Earl was as much in his Highness favour as any intrusted in His Majesties affairs in this Kingdom When it was resolved and His Majesty moved to call the Parliament the Earl was in the Country and at the opening of it he appeared as forward as any in His Majesties and his Highness service but it had not sat many days when a change was noticed in his Highness and the Earl observed to decline in his Highness favour In the beginning of the Parliament the Earl was appointed one of the Lords of the Articles to prepare matters for the Parliament and named by his Highness to be one of a Committee of the Articles for Religion which by the custom of all Scots Parliaments and His Majesties instructions to his Commissioner at this time was the first thing treated of In this Committee there was an Act prepared for securing the Protestant Religion which Act did ratifie the Act approving the Confession of Faith and also the Act containing the Coronation Oath appointed by several standing Acts of Parliament to be taken by all our Kings and Regents before their entry to the exercise of the Government This Act was drawn somewhat less binding upon the Successor as to his own profession but full as strictly tying him to maintain the Protestant Religion in the publick profession thereof and to put the Laws concerning it in execution and also appointing a further Test beside the former to exclude Papists from places of publick trust and because the fines of such as should act without taking the Test appeared no better then discharged if falling in the hands of a Popish Successor and some accounting any limitation worse than an exclusion and all being content to put no limitation on the Crown so it might consist with the safety and security of the Protestant Religion it was ordained that all such fines and forfaultures should appertain the one half to the informers and the other half should be bestowed on pious uses according to certain Rules expressed in the Act. But this Act being no wise pleasing to some it was laid aside and the Committee discharged any more to meet and instead of this Act there was brought in to the Parliament at the same time with the Act of Succession a short Act ratifying all former Acts made for the security of the Protestant Religion which is the first of the printed Acts of this Parliament At the passing of this Act the Earl proposed that these words And all Acts against Popery might be added which was opposed by the Advocate and some of the Clergy as unnecessary but the motion being seconded by Sir George Lockhart and the then President of the Session now turned out it was yielded to and added without a Vote and this Act being still not thought sufficient and several Members desiring other additions and other Acts a promise was made by his Royal Highness in open Parliament that time and opportunity should be given to bring in any other Act which should be thought necessary for further securing the Protestant Religion But though several persons both before and after passing the Act for the Test here subjoyned did give in memorials and overtures yet they were never suffered to be read either in Articles 〈◊〉 Parliament but in place of all this Act for the Test was still obtruded and nothing of that nature suffered to be heard after once that Act past though even at passing it the promise was renewed As for the Test it was first brought into the Parliament without mentioning the Confession of Faith and after several hours debate for adding the Confession of Faith and many other additions and alterations it was past at the first presenting albeit it was earnestly prest by near half the Parliament that it might be delayed till
those vast Lands Jurisdictions and Superiorities justly forfaulted to His Majesty by the Crimes of your deceased Father preferring your Family to those who had served His Majesty against it in the late Rebellion but also pardoned and remitted to you the Crimes of Leasing-making and misconstruing His Majesties and his Parliaments proceedings against the very Laws above-written whereof you were found guilty and condemned to die therefore by the High Court of Parliament the 25th of August 1662. and raised you to the Title and Dignity of an Earl and being a Member of all His Majesties Judicatures Notwithstanding of all these and many other favours you the said Archibald Earl of Argyle being put by the Lords of His Majesties Privy-Council to take the Test appointed by the Act of the last Parliament to be taken by all persons in publick Trust you instead of taking the said Test and swearing the same in the plain genuine sense and meaning of the words without any equivocation mental reservation or evasion whatsoever you did declare against and defame the said Act and having to the end you might corrupt others by your pernicious sense drawn the same in a Libel of which Libel you dispersed and gave abroad Copies whereby ill impressions were given of the King and Parliaments proceedings at a time especially when His Majesties Subjects were expecting what submission should be given to the said Test and being desired the next day to take the same as one of the Commissioners of His Majesties Treasury you did give into the Lords of His Majesties Privy-Council and owned twice in plain judgment before them the said defamatory Libel against the said Test and Act of Parliament declaring That you had considered the said Test and was desirous to give obedience as far as you could whereby you clearly insinuated that you was not able to give full obedience In the second Article of which Libel you declare That you were confident the Parliament never intended to impose contradictory Oaths thereby to abuse the people with a belief that the Parliament had been so impious as really and actually to have imposed contradictory Oaths and so ridiculous as to have made an Act of Parliament which should be most deliberate of all humane actions quite contrary to their own intentions after which you subsumed contrary to the nature of all Oaths and to the Acts of Parliament above cited that every man must explain it for himself and take it in his own sense by which not only that excellent Law and the Oath therein specified which is intended to be a Fence to the Government both of Church and State but all other Oaths and Laws shall be rendered altogether useless to the Government If every man take the Oaths imposed by Law in his own sense then the Oath imposed is to no purpose for the Legislator cannot be sure that the Oath imposed by him will bind the takers according to the design and intent for which he appointed it and the Legislative Power is taken from the Imposers and settled in the taker of the Oath and so he is allowed to be the Legislator which is not only an open and violent depraving of His Majesties Laws and Acts of Parliament but is likewise a settling of the Legislative Power on private Subjects who are to take such Oaths In the third Article of that Paper you declare That you take the Test in so far only as it is consistent with it self and the Protestant Religion by which you maliciously intimate to the people That the said Oath is inconsistent with it self and with the Protestant Religion which is not only a down right depraving of the said Act of Parliament but is likewise a misconstruing of His Majesties and the Parliaments proceedings and misrepresenting them to the people in the highest degree and in the tenderest points they can be concerned and implying that the King and Parliament have done things inconsistent with the Protestant Religion for securing of which that Test was particularly intended In the Fourth Article you do expresly declare that you mean not by taking the said Test to bind up your self from wishing and endeavouring any alteration in a lawful way that you shall think fit for advancing of Church and State whereby also it was designed by the said Act of Parliament and Oath That no man should make any alteration in the Government of Church and State as it is now established and that it is the Duty of all good Subjects in humble and quiet manner to obey the present Government Yet you not only declare your self but by your example you invite others to think themselves loosed from that Obligation and that it is free for them to make any alteration in either as they shall think fit concluding your whole Paper with these words And this I understand as a part of my Oath which is a treasonable invasion upon the Royal Legislative Power as if it were lawful for you to make to your self an Act of Parliament since he who can make any part of an Act may make the whole the Power and Authority in both being the same Of the which Crimes above mentioned you the said Archibald Earl of Argyle are Actor Art and Part which being found by the Assize you ought to be punished with the pains of Death fortâ—ulture and escheat of Lands and Goods to the terror of others to commit the like hereafter An Abstract of the several Acts of Parliament upon which the Indictment against the Earl of Argyle was grounded Concerning raisers of Rumours betwixt the King and his people Chap. 20.1 Statutes of King Robert 1. IT is defended and forbidden That no man be a Conspirator or Inventer of Narrations or Rumours by the which occasion of discord may arise betwixt the King and his people And if any such man shall be found and attainted thereof incontinent be shall be taken and put in Prison and there shall be surely keeped up ay and while the King declare his will anent him Act 43. of Par. 2. King James 1. March 11. 1424. Leasing-makers forfault Life and Goods ITem It is ordained by the King and whole Parliament that all Leasingmakers and tellers of them which may engender discord betwixt the King and his people wherever they may be gotten shall be challenged by them that power has and ryne Lâ—â—e and Goods to the King Act 83. Par. 6. James 5. Dec. 10. 1540. Of Leasing-makers ITem Touching the Article of Leasing-makers to the Kings Grace of his Barons great men and Leiges and for punishment to be put to them therefore the Kings Grace with advice of his three Estates ratifies and approves the Acts and Statutes made thereupon before and ordains the same to be put in execution in all points and also Statutes and ordains That if any manner of person makes any evil Information of his Highness to his Barons and Leiges that they shall be punished in such manner and by the same punishment as
they that make Leasings to his Grace of his Lords Barons and Leiges Act 134. Par. 8. James 6. May 22. 1584. Anent Slanderers of the King his Progenitors Estate and Realm FOrasmuch as it is understood to our Soveraign Lord and his three Estates assembled in this present Parliament what great harm and inconveniency has fallen in this Realm chiefly since the beginning of the Civil troubles occurred in the time of his Highness minority through the wicked and licentious publick and private speeches and untrue calumnies of divers of his Subjects to the disdain contempt and reproach of His Majesty his Council and proceedings and to the dishonour and prejudice of his Highness his Parents Progenitors and Estate stirring up his Highness's Subjects thereby to misliking sedition unquietness and to cast off their due obedience to His Majesty to their evident peril tinsil and destruction his Highness continuing always in love and clemency toward all his good Subjects and most willing to seek the safety and preservation of them all which wilfully needlessly and upon plain malice after his Highness's mercy and pardon oft times afore granted has procured themselves by their treasonable deeds to be cut off as corrupt Members of this Commonwealth Therefore it is statute and ordained by our Soveraign Lord and his three Estates in this present Parliament that none of his Subjects of whatsoever Function Degree or Quality in time coming shall presume or take upon hand privately or publickly in Sermons Declanations and familiar Conferences to utter any false slanderous or untrue Speeches to the disdain reproach and contempt of His Majesty his Council and proceedings or to the dishonour hurt or prejudice of his Highness his Parents and Progenitors or to meddle in the Affairs of his Highness and his Estate present by-gone and in time coming under the pains contained in the Acts of Parliament anent makers and tellers of Leasings certifying them that shall be tryed contraveeners thereof or that hear such slanderous Speeches and reports not the same with diligence the said pain shall be executed against them with all rigour in example of others Act 205. Par. 14 King James 6. June 8. 1594. Anent Leasing-makers and Authors of Slanders OUR Soveraign Lord with advice of his Estates in this present Parliament ratifies approves and for his Highness and Successors perpetually confirms the Act made by his Noble Progenitors King James the First of Worthy Memory against Leasing-makers the Act made by King James the Second entituled Against Leasing-makers and tellers of them the Act made by King James the Fifth entituled Of Leasing-makers and the Act made by his Highness's self with advice of his Estates in Parliament upon the 22d day of May 1584. entituled For the punishment of the Authors of Slanders and untrue Calumnies against the Kings Majesty his Council and proceedings to the dishonour and prejudice of his Highness his Parents Progenitors Crown and Estate as also the Act made in his Highness's Parliament holden at Linlithgow upon the 10th of December 1585. entituled Against the Authors of slanderous Speeches or Writs and statutes and ordains all the said Acts to be published of new and to be put in execution in time coming with this addition That whoever hears the said Leasings Calumnies or slanderous Speeches or Writs to be made and apprehends not the Authors thereof if it lies in his power and reveals not the same to his Highness or one of his Privy Council or to the Sheriff Steward or Bayliff of the Shire Stewards in Regality or Royalty or to the Provost or any of the Bayliffs within Burgh by whom the same may come to the knowledge of his Highness or his said Privy-Council where through the said Leasing makers and Authors of slanderous Speeches may be called tryed and punished according to the said Acts The hearer and not apprehender if it lye in his power and concealer and not revealer of the said Leasing makers and Authors of the said slanderous Specches or Writs shall incur the like pain and punishment as the principal Offender Act 107. Par. 7. King James 1. March 1. 1427. That none interpret the Kings Statutes wrongously ITem the King by deliverance of Council by manner of Statute forbids That no man interpret his Statutes otherwise than the Statutes bear and to the intent and effect that they were made for and as the maker of them understood and who so does in the contrary shall be punished at the Kings will Act 10. Par. 10. King James 6. Dec. 10. 1585. Authors of slanderous Speeches or Writs should be punished to the Death IT is statuted and ordained by our Soveraign Lord and three Estates that all his Highness's Subjects content themselves in quietness and dutiful obedience to his Highness and his Authority and that none of them presume or take upon hand publickly to declaim or privately to speak or write any purpose of reproach or slander of His Majesties Person Estate or Government or to deprave his Laws and Acts of Parliament or misconstrue his proceedings whereby any misliking may be moved betwixt his Highness and his Nobility and loving Subjects in time coming under the pain of Death certifying them that do in the contrary they shall be reputed as seditious and wicked Instruments enemies to his Highness and the Commonwealth of this Realm and the said pain of Death shall be executed upon them with all rigour in example of others Act for preservation of His Majesties Person Authority and Government May 1662. And further it is by His Majesty and Estates of Parliament declared statuted and enacted That if any person or persons shall by writing printing praying preaching libelling remonstrating or by any malicious or advised speaking express publish or declare any words or sentences to stir up the people to the hatred or dislike of His Majesties Royal Prerogative and Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical or of the Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops as it is now settled by Law That every such person or persons so offending and being legally Convicted thereof are hereby declared incapable to enjoy or exercise any place or employment Civil Ecclesiastick or Military within this Church and Kingdom and shall be liable to such further pains as are due by the Law in such Cases Act 130. Par. 8. James 6. May 22. 1584. Anent the Authority of the three Estates of Parliament THE Kings Majesty considering the Honour and the Authority of his Supreme Court of Parliament continued past all memory of man unto their days as constitute upon the free Votes of the three Estates of this ancient Kingdom by whom the same under God has ever been upholden Rebellious and Traiterous Subjects punished the Good and Faithful preserved and maintained and the Laws and Acts of Parliament by which all men are governed made and established And finding the Power Dignity and Authority of the said Court of Parliament of late years called in some doubt at least some curiously travelling
before his being required or appearing to take the Oath there were spread abroad such Scruples and Objections by some of the Orthodox Clergy and others so that the Earl can never in any sense be construed in his Explication wherein he took the Oath to have done it animo infamandi and to declaim against the Government for the Scruples and Objections that were spread abroad by others were a fair and rational occasion why the Earl in any sense or explication which he offered might have said that he was confident the Parliament never intended to impose contradictory Oaths and this is so far from importing the insinuation and inferenâ— made by the Libel that thereby the Parliament were so impious as to impose contradictory Oaths as on the contrary considering the circumstances fore-mentioned that there were papers spread abroad insinuating That there were inconsistencies and contradictions contained therein the said expression was an high Vindication of the Honour and Justice of the Parliament against the Calumnies and Mis-representations which were cast upon it and was also a just Rise for the Pannel for the clearing and exonoration of his own Conscience in the various senses and apprehensions which he found were going abroad as to the said Test humbly to offer his sense in which he was clear and satisfied to take the Oath 7. To the Libel in so far as it is founded upon the Act of Parliament viz. Act 130. Par. 8. James 6. declaring That none should presume to impugn the Dignity or Authority of the three Estates of Parliament or procure any Invasion or diminution thereof under the pain of Treason as also in so far as it is pretended in the Libel That the Pannel by offering the sense and explication libelled has assumed the Legislative power which is incommunicable and has made a Law or a part of a Law It is answered The Libel is most groundless and irrelevant and against which the Act of Parliament is opponed which is so plain and evident upon the reading thereof that it neither is nor can be subject to the least cavillation And the plain meaning whereof is nothing else but to impugn the Authority of Parliaments as if the King and Parliament had not a Legislative Power or were not the highest Representative of the Kingdom or that any of the three Estates were not essentially requisite to constitute the Parliament And besides there is nothing more certain than that the occasion of the said Act its being made was in relation to the Bishops and Clergy and there is nothing in the pretended Explanation that can be wrested to import the least Contravention of the said Act or to be an impugning of the three Estates of Parliament or a seeking any innovation therein And it is admired with what shadow of Reason it can be pretended that the Pannel has assumed a Legislative power or made a part of a Law seeing all that is contained in the alledged Explication libelled is only a Declaration of the Earls sense in which he was satisfied to take the Oath and so respected none but himself and for the clearing of his own Conscience which justly indeed the Word of God calls a Law to himself without any incroaching upon the Legislative power And where was it ever debated but that a man in the taking of an Oath if as to his apprehensions he thought any thing in it deserved to be cleared might declare the same or that his exhibiting at the time of the taking of the Oath his sense and explication wherein he did take it was ever reputed or pretended to be the assuming of a Legislative power it being the universal practice of all Nations to allow this liberty and which sense may be either rejected or accepted as the Legislator shall think fit importing no more but a parties private sense for the exoneration of his own Conscience And as to that Member of the Libel founded upon Act 19. Par. 3. Queen Mary it contains nothing but a Declaration of the pain of Perjury and there is nothing in the Explication libelled which can in the least be inferred as a Contravention of the said Act in respect if it should be proved That the Pannel at the time of the taking of the Oath did take it in the words of the said Explication as his sense of the Oath it is clear that the sense being declared at the time of taking the Oath and allowed as the sense wherein it was taken the Pannel can only be understood to have taken it in that sense And although publick Authority may consider whether the sense given by the Pannel does satisfie the Law or not yet that can import no more though it was found not to satisfie but to hold the Pannel as a Refuser of the Oath but it is absolutely impossible to infer the Crimes of perjury upon it being as is pretended by the Libel the â—annel did only take it with the Declaration of the Sense and Explication Libelled 8. As the Explication libelled does not at all import all or any of the Crimes contained in the said Libel so by the common principles of all Law where a person does emit words for the clearing and exoneration of his own Conscience altho there were any ambiguity or unclearness or involvedness in the tenor or import of the expressions or words yet they are ever to be interpreted Interpretatione benigna favorabili according to the general Principles of Law and Reason And it never was nor can be refused to any person to interpret and put a congruous sense upon his own words especially the Pannel being a person of eminent Quality and who hath given great demonstration and undeniable evidences of his fixt and unalterable Loyalty to His Majesties Interest and Service and at the time of emitting the said Explication was invested and intrusted in publick Capacities And it is a just and rational interpretation and caution which Sanderson that judicious and eminent Casuist gives Praelect 2. That dicta facta principum parentum rectorum are ever to be looked upon as benignae Interpretationis and that Dubia sunt interpretanda in meliorem partem And there is nothing in the Explication libelled which without detortion and violence and in the true sense and design of the Pannel is not capable of this benign Interpretation and construction especially respect being had to the Circumstances wherein it was emitted and given after a great many Objections Scruples and alledged Inconsistencies were owned vented and spread abroad which was a rise to the Earl for using the expressions contained in the pretended Declaration libelled 10. These words whereby it is pretended the Pannel declares he was ready to give obedience as far as he could first do not in the least import That the Parliament had imposed any Oath which was in it self unlawful but only the Pannels scrupulosity and unclearness in matter of Conscience And it is hoped it cannot be a Crime because all men cannot
any thing a greater reproach on the Parliament or a greater ground of mislike to the people And whereas it is pretended That all Laws and Subsumptions should be clear and these are only inferences It is answered That there are some things which the Law can only forbid in general and there are many inferences which are as strong and natural and reproach as soon or sooner than the plainest defamations in the world do for what is openly said of reproach to the King does not wound him so much as many seditious insinuations have done in this Age and the last So that whatever was the Earls design albeit it is always conceived to be unkind to the Act against which himself debated in Parliament yet certainly the Law in such cases is only to consider what effect this may have amongst the people and therefore the Acts of Parliament that were to guard against the misconstruing of His Majesties Government do not only speak of what was designed but where a disliking may be caused and so judgeth ab effectu And consequentially to the same emergent reason it makes all things tending to the raising of dislike to be punishable by the Act 60. Parl. 6. Q. Mary and the 9. Act Parl. 20. James VI. So that the Law designed to deter all men by these indefinite and comprehensive expressions And both in this and all the Laws of Leasing-making the Judges are to consider what falls under these general and comprehensive words Nor could the Law be more special here since the makers of Reproach and Slander are so various that they could not be bound up or exprest in any Law But as it evidently appears that no man can hear the words exprest if he believe this paper but he must think the Parliament has made a very ridiculous Oath inconsistent with it self and the Protestant Religion the words allowing no other sense and having that natural tendency even as if a man would say I love such a man only in so far as he is an honest man he behooved certainly to conclude that the man was not every way honest So if your Lordships will take measures by other Parliaments or your Predecessors ye will clearly see That they thought less than this a defaming of the Government and misconstruing His Majesties proceedings For in Balmerino's Case the Justices find an humble Supplication made to the King himself to fall under these Acts now cited Albeit as that was a Supplication so it contained the greatest expressions of Loyalty and offers of Life and Fortune that could be exprest yet because it insinuates darkly That the King in the precedeing Parliament had not favoured the Protestant Religion and they were sorry he should have taken Notes with his own hands of what they said which seems to be most innocent yet he was found guilty upon those same very Acts And the Parliament 1661. found his Lordship himself guilty of Leasing-making tho he had only written a Letter to a private Friend which requires no great care nor observation but this paper which was to be a part of his own Oath does because after he had spoken of the Parliament in the first part of this Letter he thereafter added That the King would know their Tricks which words might be much more applicable to the private persons therein designed than that the words now insisted on can be capable of any such Interpretation And if either Interpretations upon pretext of exonering of Conscience or otherwise be allowed a man may easily defame as much as he pleases And have we not seen the King most defamed by Covenants entered into upon pretence to make him great and glorious by Remonstrances made to take away his Brother and best Friend upon pretence of preserving the Protestant Religion and his Sacred person And did not all who rebelled against him in the last Age declare That they thought themselves bound in duty to obey him but still as far as that could consist with their respect to the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties which made all the rest ineffectual And whereas it is pretended That by these words I take the same in as far as it is consistent with it self and the Protestant Religion nothing more is meant but that he takes it as a true Protestant His Majesties Advocate appeals to your Lordships and all the Hearers if upon hearing this expression they should take it in this sense and not rather think that there is an inconsistency For if that were possible to be the sense what need he say at all As far as it is consistent with it self Nor had the other part As far as it is consistent with the Protestant Religion been necessary for it is either consistent with the Protestant Religion or otherwise they were Enemies to the Protestant Religion that made it Nor are any Lawyers or others in danger by pleading or writing for these are very different from and may be very easily pleaded without defaming a Law and an Oath when they go to take it But if any Lawyer should say in pleading or writing That the Test was inconsistent or which is all one that it were not to be taken by any man but so far as it was consistent with it self and the Protestant Religion no doubt this would be a crime even in pleading tho pleading has a greater allowance than deliberate swearing has And as there is nothing wherein there is not some inconveniency so the inconveniency of defaming the Government is much greater than that of any private mans hazard who needs not err except he please Whereas it is pretended That before the Earl gave in this Explication there were other Explications spread abroad and Answers read to them in Council and that the Council it self gave an Explication It is answered That if this paper be Leasing-making or misconstruing His Majesties proceedings and Treasonable as is contended then a thousand of the like offences cannot excuse it And when the King accused Noblemen Ministers and others in the year 1661. for going on in the Rebellions of that Age first with the Covenanters and then with the Usurpers it was found no Defence That the Nation was over-grown with those Crimes and that they were thought to be duties in those days Yea this were to invite men to offend in multitudes And albeit sometimes these who follow the examples of multitudes may thereby pretend this as an excuse to many yet this was never a formal defence against Guilt nor was ever the chief of the Offenders favourable on that Head And it is to be presumed That the Earl of Argyle would rather be followed by others than that he would follow any example But His Majesties Advocate does absolutely decline to debate a point that may defame a constant and standing Act of Parliament by leaving upon record a memory of its being opposed Nor were this Relevant except it could be said the Council had allowed such Explications which reflected
Religion swears nothing 5thly That he that declares himself not tied up by the Test from endeavouring in a lawful way such alterations as he thinks to the advantage of Church and State consistent with Religion and Loyalty declares himself and all others loosed from the Government and all duty to it and free to make any and all alterations that be pleases And 6thly That he that takes the Test with an explanation and holds it to be a part of his Oath invades the Legislative Power and makes Acts of Parliament Upon which rare and excellent Propositions I dare say The Earl is content according to the best Judgment that you and all unbiassed Men can make either of their Truth or of my ingenuity in excerping them to be adjudged Guilty or not Guilty without the least fear or apprehension of the issue And in the third and last place I shall only intreat you to try how the Advocate 's reasoning will proceed in other Cases and what brave work may be wrought by so useful a Tool Suppose then a Man refuse the Test simply or falls into any other kind of Non-conformity either Civil or Ecclesiastick or pays not the King's Custom or other dues or lastly understands an Act otherwise than the Advocate thinks he should Is not his Indictment already formed and his Process as good as made viz. That he regards not the Law That he thinks it is unjustly or foolishly Enacted That he will only obey as far as he can and as he pleases and thereby renders all Laws useless and so reproaches the King and Parliament and impugns their Authority and assumes to himself the Legislative Power and therefore is guilty of Leasing-making Depraving His Majesty's Laws and of Treason of which crimes above-mentioned or one or other of them he is Actor Art and Part Which being found by an Assize he ought to be punished with the pains of Death Forfaulture and Escheat of Lands and Goods to the terror of others to do or commit the like hereafter And if there be found a convenient Judge the poor Man is undoubtedly lost But Sir having drawn this Parallel rather to retrieve the Earl's Case than to make it a precedent which I hope it shall never be and chusing rather to leave the Advocate than follow him in his follies I forbear to urge it further These things considered must it not appear strange beyond expression how the Earl's Explanation such as it is did fall under such enormous and grievous misconstructions For setting aside the Councils allowance and approbation which comes to be considered under the next Head suppose the Earl or any other person called before the Council and there required to take the Test had in all due humility said either that he could not at all take it or at least not without an Explanation because the Test did contain such things as not noly he but many other and those the best of the Loyal and Orthodox Clergy did apprehend to be Contradictions and Inconsistencies And thereupon had proponed one or two such as the Papers above set down do plainly enough hold out and the Bishop in his Explanation rather evades than answers would it not be hard beyond all the measures of Equity and Charity to look upon this as a designed Reflection far more a malicious and wicked Slander and the blackest Treason We see the Act of Parliament doth not absolutely injoin the taking of the Test but only proposeth it to such as are intrusted in the Government with the ordinary certification either of losing or holding their Trusts at their option We know also that in Cases of this nature it is far more suitable both to our Christian Liberty and the respect we owe to a Christian Magistrate to give a reason of our conscientious non-compliance with meekness and fear than by a mute compearance to fall under the censure of a stubborn obstinacy And Iustly It is certain and may safely be affirmed without the least reproach that Parliaments are not infallible as witness the frequent changes and abrogations of their own Acts and their altering of Oaths imposed by themselves and even of this Oath after it was presented which the Earl was not for altering so much as it was done as I told you before How then can it be that the Earl appearing before a Christian Council and there declaring in terms at the worst a little obscure because too tender and modest his Scruples at an Oath presented to him either to be freely taken or refused should fall under any Censure If the Earl had in this occasion said he could not take the Test unless liberty were given him first to explain himself as to some Contradictions and Inconsistencies which he conceived to be in it tho he had said far more than is contained in his contraverted Explanation yet he had said nothing but what Christian Liberty hath often freely allowed and Christian Charity would readily construe for an honest expression of a commendable tenderness without any imputation of reproach against either King or Parliament How much more then is his part clear and innocent when albeit so many thought the Contradictions to be undeniable yet such was his well-tempered respect both to God and Man to his own Conscience and His Majesty's Authority that before and not after the taking of this Oath to clear himself in the midst of the many Exceptions and Scruples raised of all ambiguitles in swearing he first applies himself for a satisfying Explanation to the Parliament the prime Imposers their true intentions and genuine meaning and then gathering it very rationally from the Oath 's consistency with it self and with the Protestant Religion the Parliament's aim and scope and so asserting the King and Parliament's truth and honour he places the relief and quiet of his own Conscience in his taking the Test with this Explanation and in declaring its congruity with his Oath and duty of Allegiance The third Head of the Earl's additional Defences is the further clearing and improving of his grounds of Exculpation above adduced and repelled Which were first that before the Earl did offer his Explanation to the Council a great many Papers were spread abroad by some of the Orthodox Clergy charging the Test with Contradictions and Inconsistencies 2dly That there was a Paper penned by a Reverend Bishop and presented and read in Council and by them allowed to be printed which did contain the same and far more important things than any can be found in the Earl's Explanation And consequently far more obnoxious to all His Majesty's Advocate 's Accusations 3dly That the Explanation upon which he was indicted was publickly by himself declared in Council and by the Council allowed so that the Oath was administrat to him and he received to sit in Council and vote by his Highness and the rest of the Members with and under this express qualification But to all urged for the Earl's Exculpation the Advocate makes
alledged irrelevancy thereof That in time coming all Criminal Libels shall contain that the persons complained on are Art and Part of the Crimes Libelled which shall be relevant to accuse them thereof swa that no exception or objection take away that part of the Libel in time coming He says That he finds no Act of Parliament more unreasonable for the Statutory part of that Act committing the Tryal of Art and Part to Assizers seems most unjust Seeing in committing the greatest questions of the Law to the most ignorant of the Subjects it puts a sharp Sword into the hands of blind men And the reason of this Act specified in the Narrative is likewise most inept and no ways illative c. What Reproaches What Blasphemies The Earl said not one word against any Act of Parliament But on the contrary That he was confident the Parliament intended no contradiction and that he was willing to take the Test in the Parliaments sense But here the Advocate both says and Prints it That an Act of Parliament is most unreasonable and most unjust and it's reason most inept and that it puts a sharp Sword in the hands of blind men Whereof the smallest branch is infinitely more reproachful than all can be strained out of the Earl's words But Sir Speculation is but Speculation and if the Advocate when his day comes be as able to purge himself of Practical Depravations as I am inclined to excuse all his Visionary Lapses notwithstanding of the famous Title Quod quisque juris in alterum statuorit ut ipse eodem jure utatur he shall never be the worse of my censure Murther will out Or the King's Letter justifying the Marquess of Antrim and declaring That what he did in the Irish Rebellion was by Direction from his Royal Father and Mother and for the service of the Crown Ireland Aug. 22. 1663. Ever honoured Sir LAST Thursday we came to Trial with my Lord Marquess of Antrim but according to my Fears which you always surmised to be in vain he was by the King 's Extraordinary and Peremptory Letter of Favour restored to his Estate as an Innocent Papist We proved Eight Qualifications in the Act of Settlement against him the least of which made him uncapable of being restored as Innocent We proved 1. That he was to have a hand in surprizing the Castle of Dublin in the Year 1641. 2. That he was of the Rebels Party before the 15th of September 1643. which we made appear by his hourly and frequent intercourse with Renny O Moore and many others being himself the most notorious of the said Rebels 3. That he entered into the Roman-Catholick Confederacy before the Peace in 1643. 4. That he constantly adhered to the Nuncio's Party in opposition to his Majesty's Authority 5. That he sate from time to time in the Supream Council of Kilkenny 6. That he signed that execrable Oath of Association 7. That he was Commissionated and acted as Lieutenant-General from the said Assembly at Kilkenny 8. That he declared by several Letters of his own penning himself in Conjunction with Owen Ro Oneale and a constant Opposer to the several Peaces made by the Lord Lieutenant with the Irish We were seven hours by the Clock in proving our Evidence against him but at last the King's Letter being opened and read in Court Rainsford one of the Commissioners said to us That the King's Letter on his behalf was Evidence without Exception and thereupon declared him to be an Innocent Papist This Cause Sir hath tho many Reflections hath passed upon the Commissioners before more startled the Judgments of all men than all the Tryals since the beginning of their sitting and it is very strange and wonderful to all of the Long Robe that the King should give such a Letter having divested himself of that Authority and reposed the Trust in the Commissioners for that purpose And likewise it is admired that the Commissioners having taken solemn Oaths To execute nothing but according to and in pursuance of the Act of Settlement should barely upon his Majesty's Letter declare the Marquess Innocent To be short There never was so great a Rebel that had so much favour from so good a King And it is very evident to me though young and scarce yet brought upon the stage that the consequence of these things will be very bad and if God of his extraordinary mercy do not prevent it War and if possible greater Judgments cannot be far from us where Vice is Patroniz'd and Antrim a Rebel upon Record and so lately and clearly proved one should have no other colour for his Actions but the King 's own Letter which takes all Imputations from Antrim and lays them totally upon his own Father Sir I shall by the next if possible send you over one of our Briefs against my Lord by some Friend It 's too large for a Pacquet it being no less in bulk than a Book of Martyrs I have no more at present but refer you to the King's Letter hereto annexed CHARES R. RIght Trusty and well-beloved Cousins and Counsellors c. We greet you well How far we have been from interposing on the behalf of any of our Irish Subjects who by their miscarriages in the late Rebellion in that Kingdom of Ireland had made themselves unworthy of Our Grace and Protection is notorious to all men and We were so jealous in that particular that shortly after Our return into this Our Kingdom when the Marquess of Antrim came hither to present his duty to Us upon the Information We received from those Persons who then attended Us by a Deputation from Our Kingdom of Ireland or from those who at that time owned our Authority there that the Marquess of Antrim had so misbehaved himself towards Us and Our late Royal Father of blessed memory that he was in no degree worthy of the least Countenance from Us and that they had manifest and unquestionable Evidence of such his guilt Whereupon We refused to admit the said Marquess so much as into Our Presence but on the contrary committed him Prisoner to our Tower of London where after he had continued several Months under a strict restraint upon the continual Information of the said Persons We sent him into Ireland without interposing the least on his behalf but left him to undergo such a Tryal and Punishment as by the Justice of that Our Kingdom should be found due to his Crime expecting still that some heinous Matter would be objected and proved against him to make him uncapable and to deprive him of that Favour and Protection from Us which we knew his former Actions and Services had merited After many months attendance there and We presume after such Examinations as were requisite he was at last dismissed without any Censure and without any transmission of Charge against him to Us and with a License to transport himself into this Kingdom We concluded that it was then time to give him
some instance of Our Favour and to remember the many Services he had done and the Sufferings he had undergone for his Affections and Fidelity to Our Royal Father and Our self and that it was time to redeem him from those Calamities which yet do lie as heavy upon him since as before Our happy Return And thereupon We recommend him to You Our Lieutenant that you should move Our Council there for preparing a Bill to be transmitted to Us for the Re-investing him the said Marquess into the possession of his Estate into that Our Kingdom as had been done in some other Cases To which Letter you Our said Lieutenant returned us answer That you had informed Our Council of that Our Letter and that you were upon consideration thereof unanimously of Opinion that such a Bill ought not to be transmitted to Us the Reason whereof would forthwith be presented to Us from our Council After which time We received the inclosed Petition from the said Marquess which We referred to the considerations and examinations of the Lords of Our Privy Council whose Names are mentioned in that Our Reference which is annexed to the said Petition who thereupon met together and after having heard the Marquess of Antrim did not think fit to make any Report to Us till they might see and understand the Reasons which induced you not to transmit the Bill We had proposed which Letter was not then come to Our Hands After which time We have received your Letter of the 18th of March together with several Petitions which had been presented to you as well from the Old Soldiers and Adventurers as from the Lady Marchioness of Antrim all which We likewise transmitted to the Lords Referees Upon a second Petition presented to Us by the Lord Marquess which is here likewise enclosed commanding Our said Referees to take the same into their serious consideration and to hear what the Petitioner had to offer in his own Vindication and to report the whole matter to Us which upon a third Petition herein likewise inclosed We required them to expedite with what speed they could By which deliberate Proceedings of ours you cannot but observe that no importunity how just soever could prevail with Us to bring Our Self to a Judgment in this Affair without very ample Information Our said Referees after several Meetings and perusal of what hath been offered to them by the said Marquess have reported unto Us That they have seen several Letters all of them the hand-writing of Our Royal Father to the said Marquess ☞ and several Instructions concerning his treating and joining with the Irish in order to the King's Service by reducing to their Obedience and by drawing some Forces from them for the Service of Scotland That besides the Letters and Orders under His Majesty's Hand they have received sufficient Evidence and Testimony of several private Messages and Directions sent from Our Royal Father and from Our Royal Mother with the privity and with the Directions of the King Our Father by which they are persuaded that whatever Intelligence Correspondence or Actings the said Marquess had with the Confederate Irish Catholicks was directed or allowed by the said Letters Instructions and Directions and that it manifestly appears to them that the King Our Father was well pleased with what the Marquess did ☞ after he had done it and approved the same This being the true state of the Marquess his Case and there being nothing proved upon the first Information against him nor any thing contained against him in your Letter of March 18. but that you were informed he had put in his Claim before the Commissioners appointed for executing the Act of Settlement and that if his Innocency be such as is alledged there is no need of transmitting such a Bill to us as is desired and that if he be Nocent it consists not with the Duty which you owe to Us to transmit such a Bill as if it should pass into a Law must needs draw a great prejudice upon so many Adventurers and Soldiers which are as is alledged to be therein concerned We have considered of the Petition of the Adventurers and Soldiers which was transmitted to Us by you the Equity of which consists in nothing but that they have been peaceably in possession for the space of seven or eight years of those Lands which were formerly the Estate of the Marquess of Antrim and others who were all engaged in the late Irish Rebellion and that they shall suffer very much and be ruined if those Lands should be taken from them And We have likewise considered another Petition from several Citizens of London near sixty in number directed to our Self wherein they desire That the Marquess his Estate may be made liable to the payment of his just Debts that so they may not be ruined in the favour of the present Possessors who they say are but a few Citizens and Soldiers who have disbursed very small Sums thereon Upon the whole matter no man can think We are less engaged by Our Declaration and by the Act of Settlement to protect those who are Innocent and who have faithfully endeavoured to serve the Crown how unfortunate soever than to expose to Justice those who have been really and maliciously guilty And therefore we cannot in Justice but upon the Petition of the Marquess of Antrim and after the serious and strict Inquisition into his Actions declare unto you That We do find him Innocent from any malice or rebellious Purpose against the Crown and that what he did by way of Correspondence or Compliance with the Irish Rebels was in order to the Service of Our Royal Father and warranted by his Instructions and the Trust reposed in him and that the benefit thereof accrued to the Service of the Crown and not to the particular advantage and benefit of the Marquess And as we cannot in justice deny him this Testimony so We require You to transmit Our Letter to Our Commissioners that they may know our Judgment in this Case of the Lord of Antrim's and proceeded accordingly And so we bid you heartily farewel Given at our Court at White-Hall July 10. in the 15th Year of Our Reign 1683. By His Majesty's Command HENRY BENNET Entred at the Signet-Office July 13. 1663. To Our Right Trusty and Right entirely Well-beloved Cousin and Counsellor James Duke of Ormond Our Lieutenant-General and General Governour of Our Kingdom of Ireland and to the Lords of Our Council of that Our Kingdom Vox Populi Or The Peoples Claim to their Parliament's Sitting to Redress Grievances and to provide for the Common Safety by the known Laws and Constitutions of the Nation SInce the wonderful Discovery and undeniable Confirmation of that horrid Popish Plot which designed so much ruine and mischief to these Nations in all things both Civil and Sacred and the unanimous Sense and Censure of so many Parliaments upon it together with so many publick Acts of Justice upon so many
of their fellows had been asked and answered to agree in one story especially if the Jury may not ask what questions they shall think fit for the satisfaction of their own Consciences but that they shall be so far under the correction and censure of the Judges as to have the questions which they put called by them trifles impertinent and unfit for the Witnesses to speak to yet if they be examined apart with that due care of sifting out all the Circumstances which the Law requires where every Man of the Jury is at full liberty to enquire into any thing for his clearer Information and that with what deliberation they think fit and all this be done with that Secrecy which the Law commands it will be almost impossible for a Man to suffer under a false Accusation Nor has the Law been less careful for the Reputation of the Subjects of England than for their Lives and Estates and this seems to be one reason why in criminal Cases a Man shall not be brought to an open legal Tryal by a Petit Jury till the Grand Jury have first found the Bill The Law having entrusted the Grand Inquest in a special manner with their good names they are therefore not only to enquire whether the fact that is laid was done by the party accused but into the circumstances thereof too whether it were done Traiterously Feloniously or Maliciously c. according to the manner charged which Circumstances are not barely matter of form but do constitute the very essence of the Crime and lastly into the Credit of the Witnesses and that of the party accused and unless they find both the Fact proved upon him and strong presumptions of such aggravating circumstances attending it as the Law requires in the specification of such Crime and likewise are satisfied in the credibility of the Witnesses they ought not to expose the Subject to an open Trial in the face of the County to a certain loss of his Reputation and hazard of his Life and Estate Moreover should this practice of publick Examination prevail and the Jurors Oath of Secrecy continue how partial and unequal a thing would it be to declare that to all the World which will blast a Man's good name and religiously conceal what they may know tending to his Justification To examine Witnesses perhaps suborned certainly prepared and have Evidence dressed up with all the advantages that Lawyers wits can give it of the foulest Crimes a Man can be guilty of and this given before some thousands against him and yet for the same Court to swear those whom the Law makes Judges in the Case not to reveal one word of those reasons which have satisfied their Consciences of his Innocence What is this but an Artifice of slandring men it may be of the most unspotted Conversation and of abusing Authority not so much to find Men guilty as to make them infamous After this Ignominy is fixed what Judgment can the Auditors and from them the World make but of high probability of guilt in the party accused and Perjury in the Jury This course if it should be continued must needs be of most dangerous consequence to all sorts of Men it will both subject every one without relief to be defamed and fright the best and most conscientious Men from serving on Grand Juries which is a most necessary part of their duty Now since there is in our Government as in every one that is well constituted there ought to be great liberty of Accusation that no Man may be encouraged to do ill through hopes of impunity if by this means a Method be opened for the blasting the most innocent Man's honour and deterring the most honest from being his Judges what remains but that every Man's Reputation which is most dear unto such as are good is held precariously and it will be in the power of great Men to pervert the Laws and take away whose Life and Estate they please or at least to fasten imputations of the most detested Crimes upon any whom for secret reasons they have a mind to defame The consequences of which scandal as they are very mischievous to every Man so in a Trading Country in a more especial manner to all who live by any vocation of that kind The greatest part of Trade is driven upon credit most Men of any considerable Employment dealing for much more than they are truly worth and every Man's credit depends as well upon his behaviour to the Government he lives under as upon his private honesty in his transactions between Man and Man so that the suspicion only of his being obnoxious to the Government is enough to set all his Creditors upon his back and put a stop to all his Affairs perhaps to his utter ruine What expedition and violence will they all use to recover their debts when he shall be publickly charged with such Crimes as forfeit Life and Estate Though there should not be one word of the Accusation true yet they knowing the Charge and the seeming proofs in the Court and the Consequences of it and not being acquainted with the truth as it appears to the Jury self interest will make his Creditors to draw in their effects which is no more than a new contrivance under colour of Law of undoing honest Men. If to prevent any of these mischiefs the Jury should discover their fellows and their own Counsel as the Court by publick Examination doth it would not only be a wilful breach of their Oath but a betraying of the trust which the Law has reposed in them for the security of the Subject For to subject the reasons of their Verdicts upon Bills to the censure of the Judges were to divest themselves of the Power which the Law has given them for most important Considerations without account or controul and to interest those in it whom the Law has not in this case trusted and so by degrees the course of Justice in one of the most material parts may be changed and a fundamental security of our Liberty and Property insensibly lost On the other hand if for fear of being unworthily reproached as Ignoramus Jury-Men obstinate fellows that obstruct Justice and disserve the King the Grand Jury shall suffer the Judges or the King's Counsel to prevâ—il with them to indorse Billa vera when their Consciences are not satisfied in the truth of the Accusation they act directly against their Oaths oppress the innocent whom they ought to protect as far as in them lies subject their Country themselves and posterity to Arbitrary Powers pervert the Administration of Justice and overthrow the Government which is instituted for the obtaining of it and subsists by it This seems to be the greatest Treason that can be committed against the whole Kingdom and threatens ruine unto every Man in private in it None can be safe against authorized Malice and notwithstanding the care of our Ancestors Rapine Murther and the worst of Crimes may
Time Place or Person could be found in it as hath ever been done by those who endeavour'd to raise Insurrections all was supplied by Innuendo's Whatsoever is said of the Expulsion of Tarquin the Insurrection against Nero the Slaughter of Caligula or Domitian The Translation of the Crown of France from Merovius his Race unto Pepin and from his Descendants unto Hugh Capet and the like applied by Innuendo unto the King They have not considered that if such Acts of State be not good there is not a King in the World that has any Title to the Crown he bears nor can have any unless he could deduce his Pedigree from the Eldest Son of Noah and shew that the Succession had still continued in the Eldest of the Eldest Line and been so deduced to him Every one may see what advantage this would be to all the Kings of the World and whether that failing it were not better for them to acknowledg they had received their Crowns by the Consent of Willing Nations or to have no better Title unto them than Usurpation and Violence which by the same ways may be taken from them But I was long since told that I must Die or the Plot must Die Lest the means of destroying the best Protestants in England should fail the Bench must be filled with such as had been Blemishes to the Bar. None but such as these would have Advised with the King's Council of the means of bringing a Man to Death Suffered a Jury to be packed by the King's Sollicitors and the Under-Sheriff Admit of Jury-men who are not Freeholders Receive such Evidence as is above-mentioned Refuse a Copy of an Indictment or to Suffer the Statute of 46 Ed. 3. to be read that doth expresly Enact it should in no Case be denied unto any Man upon any occasion whatsoever over rule the most important Points of Law without hearing And whereas the Stat. 25. Ed. 3. upon which they said I should be Tried doth Reserve unto the Parliament all Constructions to be made in Points of Treason They could assume unto themselves not only a Power to make Constructions but such Constructions as neither agree with Law Reason or Common Sense By these means I am brought to this place The Lord forgive these Practices and avert the Evils that threaten the Nation from them The Lord sanctify these my Sufferings unto me and tho' I fall as a Sacrifice unto Idols suffer not Idolatry to be Established in this Land Bless thy People and save them Defend thy own Cause and defend those that defend it Stir up such as are Faint Direct those that are willing confirm those that Waver Give Wisdom and Integrity unto all Order all things so as may most redound unto thine own Glory Grant that I may Die glorifying thee for all thy Mercies and that at the last thou hast permitted me to be Singled out as a Witness of thy Truth and even by the Confession of my Opposers for that OLD CAVSE in which I was from my Youth engaged and for which thou hast Often and Wonderfully declared thy Self CHAP. I. Of MAGISTRACY I. RELATION is nothing else but that State of Mutual Respect and Reference which one Thing or Person has to another II. Such are the Relations of Father and Son Husband and Wife Master and Servant Magistrate and Subject III. The Relations of a Father Husband and Master are really distinct and different that is one of them is not the other For he may be any one of these who is none of the rest IV. This distinction proceeds from the different Reasons upon which these Relations are Founded V. The Reason or Foundation from whence arises the Relation of a Father is from having Begotten his Son who may as properly call every Old Man he meets his Father as any other Person whatsoever excepting him only who Begat him VI. The Relation of an Husband and Wife is founded in Wedlock whereby they mutually consent to become one Flesh VII The Relation of a Master is founded in that Right and Title which he has to the Possession or Service of his Slave or Servant VIII In these Relations the Name of Father Husband and Master imply Soveraignty and Superiority which varies notwithstanding and is more or less Absolute according to the Foundation of these several Relations IX The Superiority of a Father is founded in that Power Priority and Dignity of Nature which a Cause hath over its Effect X. The distance is not so great in Wedlock but the Superiorty of the Husband over the Wife is like that of the Right hand over the left in the same Body XI The Superiority of a Master is an absolute Dominion over his Slave a Limited and Conditionate Command over his Servant XII The Titles of Pater Patriae and Sponsus Regni Father of the Country and Husband of the Realm are Metaphors and improper Speeches For no Prince ever Begat a whole Country of Subjects nor can a Kingdom more properly be said to be Married than the City of Venice is to the Adriatique Gulph XIII And to shew further that Magistracy is not Paternal Authority nor Monarchy founded in Fatherhood it is undeniably plain that a Son may be the Natural Soveraign Lord of his own Father as Henry the second had been of Jeffery Plantagenet if he had been an Englishman which they say Henry the Seventh did not love to think of when his Sons grew up to Years And this Case alone is an Eternal Confutation of the Patriarchate XIV Neither is Magistracy a Martial Power for the Husband may be the Obedient Subject of his own Wife as Philip was of Queen Mary XV. Nor is it that Dominion which a Master has over his Slave for then a Prince might Lawfully Sell all his Subjects like so many head of Cattle and make Money of his whole stock whenever he pleases as a Patron of Algiers does XVI Neither is the Relation of Prince and Subject the same with that of a Master and hired Servant for he does not hire them but as St. Paul saith They pay him Tribute in consideration of his continual Attendance and Imployment for the Publick Good XVII That publick Office and Imployment is the Foundation of the Relation of King and Subject as many other Relations are likewise Founded upon other Functions and Administrations such as Guardian and Ward c. XVIII The Office of a King is set down at large in the XVII Chap. of the Laws of King Edward the Confessor to which the succeeding Kings have been sworn at their Coronation And it is affirmed in the Preambles of the Statutes of (a) Prout Regalis Officii exposcit utilitas Marlbridge and of the Statute of Quowarranto made at (b) ficome le profit de Office Demaunde The Kingly or Regal Office of this Realm jo Mar. Sess 3. Cap. 1. Gloucester That the Calling of Parliaments to make Laws for the better Estate of the Realm and the more full
II. in regard to Religion faithfully related by his then Assistant Mr. Jo. Hudleston UPON Thursday the Fifth of February 1685. Between Seven and Eight a Clock in the Evening I was sent for in haste to the Queens Back-stairs at Whitehall and desired to bring with me all things necessary for a dying Person Accordingly I came and was order'd not to stir from thence till further notice being thus obliged to wait and not having had time to bring along with â—â—e the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar I was in some Anxiety how to procure it In this conjuncture the Divine Providence so disposing Father Bento de Lewis a Portugez came thither and understanding the circumstance I was in readily profer'd himself to go to St. James's and bring the Most Holy Sacrament along with him Soon after his departure I was call'd into the King's Bed-Chamber where approaching to the Bed side and kneeling down I in brief presented his Majesty with what Service I could perform for God's Honour and the happiness of his Soul at this last Moment on which Eternity depends The King then declared himself That he desired to die in the Faith and Communion of the Holy Roman Catholick Church That he was most heartily sorry for all the Sins of his life past and particularly for that he had deferred his Reconciliation so long That through the Merits of Christ's Passion he hoped for Salvation That he was in Charity with all the World That with all his Heart he Pardon'd his Enemies and desired Pardon of all those whom he had any wise offended and that if it pleased God to spare him longer life he would amend it detesting all Sin I then advertis'd his Majesty of the benefit and necessity of the Sacrament of Penance which Advertisement the King most willingly embracing made an exact Confession of his whole Life with exceeding Compunction and Tenderness of Heart which ended I desired him in farther sign of Repentance and true sorrow for his Sins to say with me this little short Act of Contrition O my Lord God with my whole Heart and Soul I detest all the Sins of my Life past for the Love of Thee whom I love above all things and I firmly purpose by thy Holy Grace never to offend thee more Amen Sweet Jesus Amen Into thy Hands Sweet Jesus I commend my Soul Mercy Sweet Jesus Mercy This he pronounced with a clear and audible voice which done and his Sacramental Penance admitted I gave him Absolution After some time thus spent I asked his Majesty if he did not also desire to have the other Sacraments of the Holy Church administred unto him He reply'd By all means I desire to be partaker of all the helps and Succours necessary and expedient for a Catholick Christian in my condition I added and doth not your Majesty also desire to receive the Pretious Body and Blood of our dear Saviour Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist His Answer was this If I am worthy pray fail not to let me have it I then told him it would be brought to him very speedily and desired his Majesty that in the interim he would give me leave to proceed to the Sacrament of Extreme Unction he replyed with all my Heart I then Anoyled him which as soon as perform'd I was call'd to the door whither the Blessed Sacrament was now brought and delivered to me Then returning to the King I entreated His Majesty that he would prepare and dispose himself to receive At which the King raising up himself said let me meet my Heavenly Lord in a better posture than in my Bed But I humbly begg'd His Majesty to repose himself God Almighty who saw his Heart would accept of his good intention The King then having again recited the fore-mentioned Act of Contrition with me he received the most Holy Sacrament for his Viaticum with all the Symptoms of Devotion imaginable The Communion being ended I Read the usual Prayers termed the Recommendation of the Soul appointed by the Church for Catholicks in his Condition After which the King desired the Act of Contrition O my Lord God c. to be repeated this done for his last Spiritual encouragement I said Your Majesty hath now received the Comfort and Benefit of all the Sacraments that a good Christian ready to depart out of this World can have or desire Now it rests only That you think upon the Death and Passion of our Dear Saviour Jesus Christ of which I present unto you this Figure shewing him a Crucifix lift up therefore the Eyes of your Soul and represent to your self your sweet Saviour here Crucified Bowing down his Head to kiss you His Arms stretched out to Embrace you His Body and Members all Bloody and Pale with Death to Redeem you And as you see him Dead and fixed upon the Cross for your Redemption So have his Remembrance fixed and fresh in your Heart beseech him with all humility That his most precious Blood may not be shed in vain for you And that it will please him by the Merits of his bitter Death and Passion to pardon and forgive you all your Offences and finally to receive your Soul into his Blessed hands and when it shall please him to take it out of this Transitory World to grant you a joyful Resurrection and an Eternal Crown of Glory in the next In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen So Recommending His Majesty on my Knees with all the Transport of Devotion I was able to the Divine Mercy and Protection I withdrew out of the Chamber In Testimony of all which I nave hereunto subscribed my Name JO. HVDLESTON Some REFLECTIONS on His Majesties Proclamation of the Twelfth of February 1686 7. for a Toleration in Scotland together with the said Proclamation I. THE Preamble of a Proclamation is oft writ in hast and is the flourish of some wanton Pen but one of such an extraordinary nature as this is was probably more severely Examined there is a new designation of his Majesties Authority here set forth of his Absolute Power which is so often repeated that it deserves to be a little searched into Prerogative Royal and Soveraign Authority are Terms already received and known but for this Absolute Power as it is a new Term so those who have coined it may make it signifie what they will The Roman Law speaks of Princeps Legibus solutus and Absolute in its natural signification importing the being without all Ties and Restraints then the true meaning of this seems to be that there is an Inherent Power in the King which can neither be restrained by Laws Promises nor Oaths for nothing less than the being free from all these renders a Power Absolute II. If the former Term seemed to stretch our Allegiance that which comes after it is yet a step of another nature tho' one can hardly imagine what can go beyond Absolute Power
called The Publick Occurrences which came out to day and cannot but set you right as to his News about the Reading of the Declaration on Sunday He tells you That several Divines of the Church of England in and about this City eminent for their Piety and Moderation did yesterday Read his Majesties late Declaration in their Churches according to the Order in that behalf but some to the great surprize of their Parishoners were pleased to decline it You in the Country are from this Account to believe that it was Read here by the generality of the Clergie and by the eminent Men among them But I can and do assure you that this is one of the most impudent Lyes that ever was Printed For as to this City which hath above a Hundred Parishes in it it was Read only in Four or Five Churches all the rest and best of the Clergy refusing it every where I will spare their Names who read it but should I mention them it would make you who knows this City a little heartily to deride H. C's Account of them And for the Surprize he talks of the contrary of it is so true that in Woodstreet where it was read by one Dr. M. the People generally went out of the Church This I tell you that you may be provided for the future against such an Impudent Lyar who for Bread 〈…〉 and put about the Nation the falfest of things I am Yours AN ANSWER To the City Minister's LETTER from his Country Friend SIR IT is not for me now to acknowledge my private Debt to you for the favour of your Letter since the publick is as much concern'd in it as I and if I may judge of all by the compass of my Neighbourhood and Acquaintance I may assure you they are not insensible of your Obligation though they are ignorant of the Author The Country as far as my Intelligence reaches has followed the Example of the City and refused to read the Declaration of Indulgence according to a certain Order said to be the Kings which we in the Country can scarce believe to be His. For it has neither been signified to the Ordinaries according to the usual manner nor could those that dispersed it give any Account whence it came to them I have heard indeed that an Act of Council concerning it has been published in the Gazette which I never saw and if I had I should scarce have thought Authentick For I always took that Paper as for its Authority to have been all of a piece and that we were no more bound to take notice of any Order published there under any penalty than we are to believe all the News from Poland or Constantinople Nay though this Order had come to us in due form yet had we had great reason to suspect something of surreption and surprize upon his Majesty in this matter and that it could not proceed from his Majesty's free and full consent for we cannot yet forget his repeated professions of kindness to us and of satisfaction in our Principles and Duty and having done nothing since which might forfeit his goed Opinion we are unwilling to believe that it is His Majesties own mind and pleasure to loud us with such an Order as we cannot execute with any congruity safety or good Conscience I. As to his Majesties Declaration We of all his Majesties Subjects are the least concern'd in it and with all duty be it spoken we cannot see that our legal Establishment receives any Addition by this Declaration For there are yet thanks be to God no Penal Laws to which our Congregations are obnoxious and therefore we do not stand in need of any Toleration Yet it is upon us only that the Reading of it is imposed An Act which cannot well be construed otherwise than as a soliciting and tempting our own people to forsake our Communion If this Declaration must needs be read in any Religious Assemblies ' in reason surely it should be in those who wholly owe their substance to it It would better have become the Roman than the Protestan Chappels But in the Koman Church Indulgence hath another signification and belongs to those only that frequent their Churches but not to such as leave them for with them this is the only sin that is not capable of Indulgence But the Priests desire to be excus'd lest while they proclaim Toleration to others they bring an Interdict upon themselves Or why I pray was not Father Pen Ordered to publish it in his Meetings Or the worthy Mr. Lob the reputed Father of this Project why had not he the benefit of his own Invention and a Patent for being the sole Publisher of it within his own Pound Or why was not my Lord Mayor's private and elect Congregation thought worthy of so great a grace Surely it is not to draw upon us the envy of the Distenters that the honour of publishing this Declaration is impos'd upon us alone when it belongs to all other Communions in the Kingdom except our own And it we refuse it I hope it will be imputed to our Modesty for we are not ambitious of being impertinent or busie bodies in other mens matters A certain person much greaten than he deserves but perhaps not so high is said to have used the Words of Rabshaketh upon this occasion That the Church of England Clergy should eat their own Dung Isa 36.12 This sentence might better have become a Messenger of the King of Affyria than a pretended Counsellour of our own Prince though some make a question to which King he belongs But God be thanked we are not yet so straitly besieg'd as to be reduc'd to that extremity and though by the permission of God We should be reduc'd to so miserable a Condition We should I hope by the Grace of God be content to endure that and worse extremities if possible rather than Betray or Surrender the City of God But before that comes it is possible that the Throat that belch'd out this Nasty Insolence may be stopp'd with something which it cannot swallow II. Besides there are some passages in the Declaration which in Conscience we cannot read to our People though it be in the King's Name for among others we are to Read these Words We cannot but heartily wish as will easily be believed that all the People of our Dominions were Members of the Catholick Church Our People know too well the English of this and could not but be strangely surpriz'd to hear us tell them that it would be an acceptable thing to the King that they should leave the Truth and our Communion and turn Papists The Wish of a King when solemnly Declared is no light insignificant thing but has real influence and effect upon the minds of Men. It was but a Wish of Henry the Second that cut off F. Becket then Archbishop of Canterbury Councils and Courts of Justice too often bend to a King's Wishes though against their own
pinches he is really concerned that Ireland is not altogether an independent Kingdom and in the Hands of its own Natives he longs till the Day when the English Yoak of Boudage shall be thrown off Of this he gives us broad Hints when he tells us That England is the only Nation in the World that impedes their Trade That a Man of English Interest will never Club with them as he phrases it or project any thing which may tend to their Advantage that will be the least Bar or Prejudice to the Trade of England Now why a Man of English Interest unless he will allow none of that Nation to be an able and just Minister to his Prince should be partial to ruine one Kingdom to avoid the least Inconveniency of the other contrary to the positive Commands of his King I cannot imagine For since it is the Governour 's Duty to Rule by Law and such Orders as he shall receive from His Majesty I know no Grounds for our Authors Arraigning the whole English Nation in saying That no one Man among them of what Perswasion soever will be true either to the Laws or his Majesty's positive Orders which shall seem repugnant to the smallest Conveniencies of England This is a glory reserved only as it seems for his Hero my Lord Tyrconnel The Imbargo upon the West India Trade and the Prohibition of Irish Cattel are the two Instances given It were to be wished indeed for the Good of that Kingdom that both were taken off and I question not but to see a Day wherein it shall seem proper to the King and an English Parliament to Repeal those Laws a Day wherein they will consider us as their own Flesh and Blood a Colony of their Kindred and Relations and take care of our Advantages with as little Grudging and Repining I am sure they have the same and no stronger Reason as Cornwal does at Yorkshire There are Instances in sevral Islands in the East-Indies as far distant as Ireland is from England that make up but one Kingdom and govern'd by the same Laws but the Wisdom of England will not judge it time fitting to do this till we of Ireland be one Mans Children either in Reality or Affection we wish the latter and have made many Steps and Advances towards it if the Natives will not meet us half way we cannot help it let the Event lie at their own Doors But after all I see not how those Instances have any manner of relation to the English Chief Governors in Ireland they were neither the Causes Contrivers nor Promoters of those Acts. The King and an English Parliament did it without consulting them if they had 't is forty to one my Lord of Ormond and the Council whose Stake is so great in Ireland would have hindred it as much as possible Our Author's Argument proves indeed That 't is detrimental to Ireland to be a subordinate Kingdom to England and 't is plain 't is that he drives at let him disguise it as much as he will but the conclusion he would prove cannot at all be deduced from it Shortly I expect he will speak plainer and in down right Terms propose That the two Kingdoms may be governed by different Kings Matters seem to grow ripe for such a dilloyal Proposition If these Acts and not the Subjection to an English King were the Grievances they would be so to the British there as well as to the Natives but though we wish them Repealed we do not repine in the mean time if the British who are the most considerable Trading part of that Nation and consequently feel the ill Effects of those Acts more sensibly can be contented why the Natives should not acquiesce in it unless it be for the forementioned Reasons I cannot see Our Author allows that there are different ways of obeying the King 't is a Point gained for us and proves there may be such a Partiality exercised in executing his Majesties Commands as may destroy the very Intent of them and yet taking the Matter strictly the King is obeyed but a good Minister will consider his Masters Intentions and not make use of a Word that may have a double Sence to the Ruine of a Kingdom nor of a Latitude of Power wherewith he is intrusted to the Destruction of the most considerable Party in it Far be it from us to think it was his Majesties Intentions to depopulate a flourishing Country to undo Multitudes of laborious thriving Families in it to diminish and destroy his own Revenue to put the Sword into Mad-mens Hands who are sworn Enemies to the British No! His Majesty who is willing that Liberty of Trade as well as Conscience should equally flourish in all parts of his Dominions that recommends himself to his Subjects by his Impartiality in distributing Offices of Trust and from that Practice raises his greatest Argument to move his People to Repeal the Penal Laws never intended that some general Commands of his should be perverted to the Destruction of that People his Intention is to protect His Majesty Great as he is cannot have two Consciences one calculated for the Latitude of England another for Ireland We ought therefore to conclude in respect to the King that his Commands have been ill understood and worse executed and this may be done as our Author confesses and the King undoubtedly obeyed but such an Obedience is no better than a Sacrifice of the best Subjects the King has in this Kingdom Our Author has given very good Reasons why the Natives may be well content with their present Governor but I cannot forbear laughing at those he has found out to satisfie the poor British with My Lord Tyrconnel's most Excellent Charitable English Lady His high sounding Name TALBOT in great Letters a Name that no less frightens the Poor English in Ireland then it once did the French a Name which because he is in possession of I will not dispute his Title to but I have been credibly informed that he has no relation to that most Noble Family of Shrewsbury though my Lord Tyrconnel presumes to bear the same Coat of Arms a Name in short which I hope in time Vox praetereae nihil A Second Reason is drawn from his Education We have heard and it has never yet been contradicted that my Lord Tyrconnel from his Youth upwards has constantly born Arms against the Brittish If our Author will assure us of the contrary I am apt to believe â—i Excellency will give him no thanks who lays the foundation of his Merit upon the Basis of his constant adherence to the Iâ—ish Party What use of Consolation can be drawn from this head by the Brittish is beyond my skill to conâ—preâ—â—nd A third Reason is drawn from his Stake in England the Author would do well to shew us in what Country this lies that we may know where to find Reprisals hereafter for since he offers this for our Security 't is fit
the Pamphlet whereof I have here given you my thoughts was more than a Fortnight on the way or else you had received this sooner I am Dubâ—â— 1688. SIR Your most Humble Servant A PLAIN ACCOUNT OF THE PERSECUTION Laid to the CHARGE of the Church of England THE Desire of Liberty to serve God in that Way and Manner which Men judge to be most acceptable to him is so Natural and Reasonable that they cannot but be extreamly provoked against those who would force them to serve him in any other But the Conceit withal which most Men have that their Way of Serving God is the only acceptable Way naturally inclines them when they have Power to use all Means to constrain all other to serve him in that way only So that Liberty is not more desired by all at one time than it is denied by the very same Persons at another Put them into different Conditions and they are not of the same Mind but have different Inclinations in one State from what they have in another As will be apparent by a short View of what hath passed in these Churches and Kingdoms within our Memory II. Before the late Civil Wars there were very grievous Complaints made of the Bishops that they pressed the Ceremonies so strictly as to inflict heavy Censures upon those called Puritans who could not in Conscience conform to them Now no sooner had those very Persons who thus complaned got their Liberty to do as they pleased but they took it quite away from the other and suquestred all those who would not enter into their Holy League and Covenant for the reforming all things according to the Model which they propounded Nay they were not willing to bear with Five Dissenting Brethren among themselves who could not conform to the Presbyterial Government And when these Dissenting Brethren commonly known by the Name of Independants had got a Party strong enough which carried all before them they would not allow the use of the Common Prayer in any Parish no not to the King himself in his own Chappel not grant to one of the old Clergy so much Liberty as to teach a School c. Which things I do not mention God knows to reproach those who were guilty of them but only to put them in mind of their own Failings that they may be humbled for them and not insult over the Church of England nor severely upbraid them with that which when time was they acted with a higher Hand themselves If I should report all that the Presbyterians did here and in Scotland and all that the Independants did here and in New England it would not be thought that I exceed the Truth when I say they have been more Guilty of this Fault than those whom they now charge with it Which doth not excuse the Church of England it must be confessed but doth in some Measure mitigate her Fault For the Conformable Clergy having met with such very hard Usage in that disinal Time wherein many of them were oppressed above Measure no wonder if the Smart of it then fresh in their Minds something imbittered their Spirits when God was preased by a wonderful Revolution to put them into Power again III. Then a stricter Act of Vnifamity was made and several Laws pursuant to it for the enforeing that Uniformity by severe Penalties But let it be remembred that none were by those Laws constrained to come to Church but had Liberty left them to serve God at Home and some Company with them in their own Way And let it be farther remembred that the Reâ—ion why they were denied their Liberty of meeting in greater Assemblies was because such Assemblies were represented as greatly endangering the publick Peace and Safety as the Words are in the very first Act of this Nature against â—uakers in the Year 1662. Let any one read the Oxford Act as it is commonly called made in the Year 1665. and that at Westminster in the Year 16â—â— and he will find them intended against Sedâ—â—ous Conventicles That is they wâ—â—â— made them were perswâ—dâ—d by the Jâ—suâ— Iâ—terest at first to look upon such Meetings as Nurseries of Sedition where bad Principles were infused into Mens Minds destructive to the Civil Government If it had not been for this it doth not appear that the Contrivers of these Laws were inclined to such Severities as were thereby enacted but the Nâ—nconformists might have enjoyed a larger Liberty in Religion It was not Religion alone which was considered and prerended but the publick Peace and Settlement with respect to which they were tyed up so straitly in the Exercise of their Religion Which to deal clearly I do not believe would have raught Rebellion but this was constantly insinuated by the Court Agents and it is no wonder if the Parliament who remembred how the Ministers of that Perswasion though indeed from the then Appearance of Popery had been the Principal Incouragers of that Defensive War against the King were easily made to believe that they still retained the same Principles and would propagate them if they were suffered among the People Certainly it is also that the Court made it their Care to have those Acts passed though at the same time they hindred their Execution that they might keep up both Parties in the height of their Animosities and especially that they might make the Church of England be both hated and despised by the Dissenters IV. Thus things continued for some time till wise Men began to see into the Secret and think of a Reconciliation But it was always hindred by the Court who never thought of giving Liberty by a Law but only by the Prerogative which could as casâ—ly take it away There was a time for instance when a Comprehension c. was projected by several great Men both in Church and State for the taking as many as possible into Union with us and providing Ease for the rest Which so netled the late King that meeting with the then Arch-bishop of Canterbury he said to him as I perfectly remember What my Lord you are for a Comprehension To which he making such a Reply as signified he heard some were about it No said the King I will keep the Church of England pure and unmixed that is never suffer a Reconciliation with the Dissenters And when the Lords and Commons also had not many years ago passed a Bill for the Repealing of the most heavy of all the Penal Laws against Dissenters viz. the Statute of 35 Eliz. 1. which by the Parliament is made against the Wicked and dangerous Practices of Seditiâ—â—â— Sectaries and disloyal Persons his late Majesty so dealt with the Clerk of the Parliament that it was shuffled away and could not be found when it was to have been presented to him among other Bills for his Royal Consent unto it A notable Token of the Abhorrence the Court then had of all Penal Laws and of their great Kindness to Dissenters V. Who may
that detain Church-Lands especially since the Papists themselves â—ehâ—mently accuse King Henry the eighth for sacrilegiously robbing of Religious Houses and seising of their Lands a great pâ—â—t of which Lands are to this very day possess'd by Papists Now though there may be some Plea for the Popes Authority in the interim of a general Council and in such things wherein they have made no determination yet in this matter there is no colour for any pretences since the Council of Trent was actually assembled within sew years after these Alienations and expresly condemned the possessors of Abby Lands and after all this was all consirm'd and ratified by the Pope himself in his Bulla Super conf gen Concil Trid. A. D. 1564. And tho' we have here the Judgment of the infallible See as to this matter in the Consirmation of the Trent Council yet because there be some that magnifie the Popes extravagant and unlimited power over the Church and pretend that he confirm'd the Abby-Lands in England to the Lay-possessors of them I shall shew Secondly That the Pope neither hath nor pretends to any such Power nor did ever make use of it in this matter under debate only I shall premise that whereas some part of the Canon Law seems to allow of such particular alienations as are made by the Clerks and Members of the Church with the consent of the Bishop yet such free consent was never obtained in England and as to what was done by force fraud and violence is of so little moment as to giving a legal Title that even the alienations that were made by Charles Martell who is among the Papists themselves as infamous for Sacriledge as King Henry the Eighth yet even his Acts are said to be done by a Council of Bishops as is acknowledg'd by Dr. Johnston in his assurance of Abby Lands p. 27. I shall proceed to shew First That the Pope hath no such power as to confirm these Alienations and this is expresly determined by the infallible Pope Damasus in the Canon-Law Caus 12.9.2 c. 20. The Pope cannot alienate Lands belonging to the Church in any manner or for any necessity whatsoever both the buyer and the seller lie under an Anathema till they be restored so that any Church-man may oppese any such Alienations and again require the Lands and Profits so Alienated So that here we have a full and express Determination of the infallible See And tho in Answer to this it is urg'd by Dr. Johnston that this Canon is with small difference published by Binius in the Councils and so as to confine it to the suburbicacy Diocess of Rome yet that this Answer is wholly trivial will appear First Because if the Bishop of Rome hath no Authority to confirm such alienations in his own peculiar Diocess where he hath most power much less can he do it in the Provinces where his power is less Secondly That in all Ecclesiastical Courts of the Church of Rome it is not Binius's Edition of the Councils but Gratian's Collection of Canons that is of Authority in which Book these words are as here quoted Thirdly Since this Book of the Popes Decree hath been frequently reprinted by the Authority and Command of several Popes and constantly used in their Courts this is not to be look'd upon as a Decree of Pope Damasus only but of all the succeeding Popes and in the opinion of F. Ellis Sermon before the King Decem. 5. 1686. p. 21. what is inserted in the Canon Law is become the whole Judgment of the whole-Church Fourthly It 's absolutely forbid by Pope Gregory the Thirteenth in his Bull presixed before the Canon-Law A. D. 1580. for any one to add or invert any thing in that Book So that according to this express Determination in the Popes own Law the Bishops of Rome have no power to confirm any such Alienations as have been made in England and agreeable to all this Pope Julius the Fourth the very person that is pretended to have confirm'd these Alienations declar'd to our English Ambassadors that were sent upon that Errand That if he had Power to grant it he would do it most readily but his Authority was not so large F. Paul's H. of Council of Trent Lond. A. D. 1629. And therefore all Confirmations from the Bishop of Rome are already prejudg'd to be invallid and of no force at all Secondly No Bishop of Rome did ever confirm them The Breve of Pope Julius the Third which gave Cardinal Pool the largest powers towards the effecting this had this express limitation Salvo tamen in his quibus propttr renem magnitudinem gravitatem haec Sancta sedes merito tibi videtur consulenda nostro prefatae sedis beneplacito confirmatione i. e. Saving to us in these matters in which by reason of their weight and greatness this Holy See may justly seem to you that of right it ought to be consulted the good pleasure and confirmation of us and of the holy See which is the true English to that Latin and that this whole Kingdom did then so understand these words is evident from the Ambassadors that were sent to Rome the next Spring Viz. Viscount Moitecute Bishop of Ely and Sir Edward Carn These being one to represent every state of the Kingdom to obtain of him a Confirmation of all those Graces which Cardinal Pool had granted Burnet's H. Ref p. 2. f. 300. So that in the esteem of the whole Nation what the Cardinal had done was not valid without the Confirmation of the Pope himself Now this Pope Julius and the next Marcellus both died before there is any pretence of any Confirmation from Rome but this was at length done by Pope Paul the Fourth is pretended and for proof of it three things are alledged First The Journals of the House of Commons where are these words After which was read a Bill from the Popes Holiness confirming the doing of my Lord Cardinal touching the assurance of Abby Lands c. Secondly a Bull of the same Pope to Sir Will Peters Thirdly The Decrees of Cardinal Peol and his Life by Dudithius To all which I answer First That it s confess'd on all hands that there is no such Bull or Confirmation by Pope Paul the Fourth to be any where found in the whole World not any Copy or Transcript of it not in all the Bullaria nor our own Rolls and Records tho' it be a matter of so great moment to the Roman Catholicks of England and what cannot be produced may easily be denied Nor can it be imagined that a Journal of Lay-persons that were parties concerned or a private Bull to Sir Will Peters or some hints in the Decrees and Life of the Cardinal will be of any moment in a Court at Rome whensoever a matter of that vast consequence as all the Abby Lands in England shall come to be disputed especially if it be observed that this very Journal of the House of Commonâ— is
Power in Ecclesiastical Matters truly stated HIS present Majesty having erected an High-Commission Court to enquire of and make redress in Ecclesiastical Matters c. Q. Whether such a Commission as the Law now stands be good or not And I hold that the Commission is not good And to maintain my Opinion herein I shall in the first place briefly consider what Power the Crown of England had in Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Matters for I take them to be synonymous Terms before 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. And Secondly I shall particularly consider the Act of 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. And Thirdly I shall consider 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. And by that time I have fully considered these three Acts of Parliament it will plainly appear that the Crown of England hath now no Power to erect such a Court. I must confess and do agree That by the Common Law all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was lodged in the Crown and the Bishops and all Spiritual Persons derived their Jurisdiction from thence And I cannot find that there were any Attempts by the Clergy to divest the Crown of it till William the First 's Time and his Successors down to King John the Pope obtained four Points of Jurisdiction First Sending of Legates into England Secondly Drawing of Appeals to the Court of Rome Thirdly Donation of Bishopricks and other Ecclesiastical Benefices And Fourthly Exemption of Clerks from the Secular Power Which four Points were gained within the space of an hundred and odd Years but with all the Opposition imaginable of the Kings and their People and the Kingdom never came to be absolutely inslaved to the Church of Rome till King John's Time and then both King and People were and so continued to be in a great measure in Henry the Third's Time and so would in all likelihood have continued had not wise Edward the First opposed the Pope's Usurpation and made the Statute of Mortmain But that which chiefly brake the Neck of this was That after the Pope and Clergy had endeavoured in Edward the Second's Time and in the beginning of Edward the Third to usurp again Edward the Third did resist the Usurpation and made the Statutes of Provisors 25 Ed. 3. and 27 Ed. 3. And Richard the Second backed those Acts with 16 Rich. 2. ca. 5. and kept the Power in the Crown by them Laws which being interrupted by Queen Mary a bloody Bigot of the Church of Rome during her Reign there was an Act made in 1 Eliz-ca 1. which is Intituled Keeble's Stat. An Act to restore to the Crown the ancient Jurisdiction over the Estate Ecclesiastical and Spiritual and abolishing all foreign Powers repugnant to the same From which Title I collect three things First That the Crown had anciently a Jurisdiction over the Estate Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Secondly That that Jurisdiction had for some time been at least suspended and the Crown had not exercised it Thirdly That this Law did not introduce a new Jurisdiction but restored the old but with restoring the old Jurisdiction to the Crown gave a Power of delegating the Exercise of it And as a Consequence from the whole that all Jurisdiction that is lodged in the Crown is subject nevertheless to the Legislative Power in the Kingdom I shall now consider what Power this Act of 1 Eliz. 1. declares to have been anciently in the Crown and that appears from Sect. 16 17 18. of the same Act. Section 16. Abolisheth all Foreign Authority in Cases Spiritual and Temporal in these VVords And to the intent that all the Vsurped and Foreign Power and Authority Spiritual and Temporal may for ever be clearly extinguished and never to be used or obeyed within this Realm or any other Your Majesties Dominions or Countries 2 May it please Your Highness that it may be further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate Spiritual or Temporal shall at any time after the last Day of this Session of Fâ—â—liament use enjoy or exercise any manner of Power Jurisdiction Superiority Authority Preheminence or Priviledge Spiritual or Ecclesiastical within this Realm or within any other Your Majesties Dominions or Countries that now be or hereafter shall be but from thenceforth the same shall be clearly Abolished out of this Realm and all other Your Highness's Dominions for ever any Statute Ordinance Custom Constitutions or any other Matter or Cause whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And after the said Act hath abolished all Foreign Authority in the very next Section Sect. 17. It annexeth all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Crown in these VVords And that also it may likewise please your Heghness That it may be Established and Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That such Jurisdictions Priviledges Superiorities and Preheminencies Spiritual and Ecclesiastical as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority hath heretofore been or may lawfully be exercised or used for the Visitation of the Ecclesiastical State and Persons and for Reformation Order and Correction of the same and of all manner of Errors Heresies Schisms Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities shall for ever by Authority of this present Parliament be Vnited and Annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm From these VVords That such Jurisdiction c. as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority had then-to-fore been exercised or used were annexed to the Crown I observe That the Four things aforesaid wherein the Pope had incroached were all restored to the Crown and likewise all other Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction that had been exercised or used in this Kingdom and did thereby become absolutely vested in the Crown Then Section 18. Gives a Power to the Crown to assign Commissioners to excrcise this Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in these VVords And that Your Highness Your Heirs and Successors Kings or Queens of this Realm shall have full Power and Authority by Virtue of this Act by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England to Assign Name and Authorize when and as often as Your Highness Your Heirs or Successors shall think meet and convenient and for such and so long time as shall pleass Your Highness your Heirs or Successors such Person or Persons being natural born Subjects to Your Highness Your Heirs or Successors as Your Majesty Your Heirs or Successors shall think meet to Exercise Vse Occupy and Execute under Your Highness Your Heirs and Succâ—ssors all manner of Jurisdictions Priviledges and Preheminencies in any wise touching or concerning any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction within these Your Realms of England and Ireland or any other Your Highness's Dominions and Countries 2. and to visit Reform Redress Order Correct and Amend all such Errors Heresies Schisms Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities whatsoever which by any manner of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power Authority or Jurisdiction can or may lawfully be Reformed Ordered Redressed Corrected Restrained and Amended to the pleasure of Almighty God the Increase of Vertue and the Conservation
from the publick and established Religion As to the first it is sufficiently known that according to the judgment of the Church of Rome we are Hereticks and that Heresie being Crimen laesae Majestatis Divinae we are therefore the worst of Traitors and liable to the Penalties of the greatest High Treason And thereupon we are not only declared to be infamous and sentenced to be deprived of all Honor and Dignity and to be incapable of all Offices and have our Estates confiscated and seised but we are condemned to be burnt and if that cannot conveniently be effected it is both made lawful and meritorious to extirpate us by War or Massacre as shall be best and most safe for the Church of Rome In order whereunto not only all Laws made for our Security are declared to be null and that no promises made unto us ought to be kept but all Princes that neglect to destory and extirpate us are proclaimed to be deposed And sutable hereunto has their carriage been for many ages to such as differ from them in Articles of Faith and will not joyn in their Superstitions and Idolatries In proof where of I neither need to insist upon the infinite Murders committed by the Inquisition the most Devilish Engine of Cruelty that ever the World was acquainted with nor to reflect so far backward as the Parisian and Irish Massacres or the infinite Slaughters perpetrated heretofore in France Germany and the Low Countreys c. seeing we have such fresh and doleful evidences of the mercy and gentleness of the Papal Church in the ungrateful inhumane perjurious and salvage persecutions executed so lately in France and Piedmont If it be the effect of Royal and Paternal affection in the King of England to his Subjects that all he endeavoureth is to treat them as becomes a common Father without making any distinction between one and another as our Author is pleased to call it in his Testimony concerning him what cruel Parents must many Princes of the Roman Communion be who act with that difference towards their people that while they cherish and embrace some they tear out the Bowels and suck the blood of others And if no Society destitute of such tender and Christian affections can merit the name of a Church we hence learn where to fasten the character of being the Mother of Harlots In that we not only know whose Doctrine it is that whom She cannot convert She ought to destroy but that we have observed her to have been in all Ages drunk with the Blood of Saints All the commendations our Author bestows upon the King of England are not only either so many accusations of His Majesties insincerity in the Papal Faith or infallible indications that both the King pardon the expression and his Minister are Hypocritical Dissemblers but they are stabbing and twinging Satyr's against Mother Church and the Holy Father and against his Brittanick Majesties dear Brother and Ally the French King Nor can we be guilty either of Crime or Indecency in the worst we can say of the Church of Rome and the Most Christian King seeing we have in equivalent Terms a President for it both from so good a Catholick and so wise a Minister of a great Monarch as our honourable Author is And tho I begin to grow weary of conversing with so impertinent a man yet I am bound to wait upon him a little longer and while the Reader can reap no advantage by any thing he says to see whether it be not possible to lay hold of an occasion from his Ignorance and Folly to communicate things that may be more solid and instructive The sixth thing therefore whereof I accused him and for which I promised to call him to an account is his egregious ignorance in relation to Government Laws Customs and matters of Fact Mijn Heer Fagel tells us that the Test Laws being enacted by King and Parliament for the Security of the Reformed Religion and the Roman Catholicks receiving no prejudice by them but being meerly restrained from getting into a condition to subvert it therefore Their Highnesses could not consent to their Repeal And he further adds that there is no Kingdom Common-wealth or any constituted Body and Society in which there are not Laws made for the safety thereof which not only provide against all attempts that may disturb their peace but which prescribe such conditions as they judge necessary for the discerning who are qualified to bear Employments To which he again subjoins that there is a great difference between the conduct of these of the Reformed Religion towards Roman Catholicks which is moderate and only to prevent their getting into a capacity to do hurt and that of those of the Roman Catholick Religion towards the Reformed who not being satisfied to exclude them from places of Trust do both suppress the whole Exercise of their Religion and severely persecute all that profess it And he finally adds that both Reason and the Experience of the present as well as past Ages do shew that it is impossible for Roman Catholicks and those of the Reformed Religion when joyned together in places of Trust and publick Employment to maintain a good Correspondence live in mutual peace and to discharge their Offices quietly and to the publick Good Now from these several passages which carry their own evidence along with them our Author takes occasion both to vent his foolish and ridiculous Politicks and to proclaim his ignorance in History and of the most obvious matters of Fact However we shall have the patience to hearken to what he hath been pleased to say and shall examine it piece by piece as we go along And the first thing he does is to acquaint us with a mighty Mystery of State and which none but so great a Minister could have been able to have revealed namely that tho the King and Parliament upon the first Revolution with respect to Religion and the introducing and setting up the Reformed Religion thought fit to make those Laws which they judged necessary for its preservation yet that it does not follow that his present Majesty and a Parliament would be of the same mind but that they might enact Laws of a differing Nature from the former and re-establish Religion into the same State in which it was before the Reformed Doctrine and Worship was set up We are much obliged to our Author for this discovery though I must add that this it is to trust a Fool with secrets for he will be sure to be blabbing For tho he subjoin that he will not say that matters would be pushed so far yet he hath already told us enough to make us understand both what his own hopes are and what is designed by the Papal party if they could compass a Parliament of a Complexion and Temper to their mind But there are two fatal things which lye in their way One is that neither progressing nor closeting bribing nor threatning can
some of the material Doctrines of the Roman Church may notwithstanding the Charity which we retain towards the Bulk of them make us justly apprehensive that one or more of their Leaders are intirely in the Interest of the Church of Rome For as the Popish Emissaries know how to put themselves into all shapes for the increasing and heightning divisions among Protestants and for the exposing as well as supplanting of our Religion so the design promoted in the foresaid Papers of destroying all the Legal Fences against Popery and of letting the Papists into the Legislative and whole Executive Power of the Government gives the World too much ground to suspect out of whose mint and forge writings of this stamp and mettle do proceed Secondly It should not a little contribute to augment our Jealousie that they who without being false to their Religious Tenets cannot joyn to assist Protestants in case the Papists should attempt to cut our Throats or endeavour to impose their Religion upon the Nation by Military force should of all men study to overthrow that Security which we have by the Test Laws whose whole tendency is onely to prevent the Papists from getting into a condition to extirpate our Religion and destroy us Is it not enough that they have rob'd the Kingdom of the Aid of so many as they have leavened with their Doctrine in case the King upon despairing to establish Popery by a Parliament should imploy his Janizaries to compel us to receive it and should set upon the converting Protestants in England in the way that the French Monarch hath converted the Huguenots but that over and above this they should be doing all they can to deprive us of all the Legal Security whereby we may be preserved from the Power of the Papists Surely 'twere not Charity and good Nature but stupidity and folly not to suspect the tendency of such a design when we find it pursued and carried on by a person that stiles himself a Quaker But then when besides this we find that 't is Mr. William Pen who is the Author of those Papers and the great Instrument in advancing this projection we have the more cause to suspect some sinistrous thing at the bottom of it For first he is under those Obligations to His Majesty which as they may put a biass upon his Understanding so they afford ground enough to Protestants to look upon him no otherways than as one Retained against them 'T was through his present Majesties Intercession with the late King that he obtained the Proprietorship of Pensilvania and from his Bounty that he had the Propriety of Three whole Counties bordering upon it superadded thereunto And as this cannot be but a strong Obligation upon so grateful a person as Mr. Pen why he should effectually serve the King and make his Will in a very great degree the measure of his actings so it ought to be an Inducement to others to be the more jealous of all he say's and not to surrender themselves too easily either to his Magisterial Dictates upon the one hand or to his smooth Flatteries upon the other He must have either laid a mighty merit upon the two Royal Brothers of both whose Religion we are at last convinced or he must have come under Obligations of doing them very considerable service in reference to that which they were most fond of compassing otherways we have little cause to think that he would have been singled out from all the rest of the Kingdom to be made the object of so special favour and of so eminent liberality For though there might be a debt owing to his Father Sir William Pen yet they must be extreamly weak who conceive there was no other motive to the forementioned Donation save Honour and Justice in the two Royal Brothers for having it discharged Seeing many of the noblest Families in England who had spent their Blood and wasted their Estates in fighting for the Crown while Sir William Pen was all along ingaged against it were not only left without all kind of Compensation for what they had eminently acted and as eminently suffered in behalf of the Monarchy but could never get to be reimbursed one farthing of the vast Sums which they had lent the late King and his Father upon the security of the Royal Faith Secondly Mr. Pen hath too far detected himself in these very Discourses not to give us ground to suspect what they are calculated for and whereunto they are subservient For besides his justifying the King's turning so many Gentlemen of the Church of England out of all Office and Imploy by saying they are not fit to be trusted who are out of the King's Interest he further tells us that the King being mortal it is not good sense that he should leave the power in those hands that to his face shew their aversion to the Friends of his Communion Letter first For as this implies no less than that they ought to have the whole Legal and Military Power of the three Kingdoms put into their hands that they may be in a condition to preclude the right Heir from Succession to the Crown or prescribe such Laws to her as they please in case they should think fit to admit her so a very small measure of Understanding will serve to instruct us what the Papists esteem to be an aversion to them and in what manner had they the power in their hands they think themselves obliged to treat us upon that account And as we have had occasion to know too much of his Majesties Temper and Design as well as to whose Guidance he hath implicitely resigned himself not to be sensible what he esteems his Interest so we need no other evidence what it amounts unto to be in it than the seeing so many displaced from all share in the administration whose Quality gives them a Right and their Abilities a fitness for the chiefest and most honourable Trusts and whom as the King by reason of their services to himself as well as the Crown cannot lay aside without the highest ingratitude so their known Loyalty to his person and zeal for the grandure of the Monarchy is such that nothing could take them off from concurring in his Councils and promoting his Designs but the conviction they are under of their tendency to the subversion of Religion and the altering of the Legal Government And as we have reason to suspect what the foresaid Papers are intended to promote both upon the account of the Author's being Quaker and because not onely of the many Obligations he is under to His Majesty but his being so intirely in his Interest as appears by his influence into Councils the great stroke he hath in all Affairs and from his being one of the King 's principal Confidents so upon looking into those Discourses we find several things obtruded on us for truth and proposed in order to wheedle and insnare us into an abrogation of the Laws
enacted for our security which to every ones knowledge are so palpably false that we have all the ground that may be both to question and suspect his sincerity and to conclude that his Masters do not purpose to confine themselves within the bounds that he is pleased to chalk out for them and which he undertakes they shall be contented with for their allotment For what can be remoter from Truth than that the Test Laws were designed as a preamble to the Bill of Exclusion as he phrases it Letter first and that they were contrived to exclude the Duke of York from the Crown as he expresseth it p. 15. of his Good Advice c. when it is most certain that as the Test in 73. was made long before there were or could be any thoughts of it and was enacted by a Parliament against whose Loyalty there can be no exception so there was a clause in the last Test Act by which it was provided that he should not be obliged to take it Again what can be more repugnant to experience than that the King onely desires ease for those of his Religion Good Adv. p. 44. and that the Papists desire no more than a Toleration and are willing upon those Terms to make a perpetual peace with the Church of England Good Advice p. 17. For do we not daily see Protestants turned out of all Places of Trust Authority and Command and Papists advanced into all Offices Military and Civil Could the King have been contented with a Non-execution of the Laws against those of his Communion and could they have been satisfied with such an Indulgence and have modestly improved it 'T is not improbable but that such a behaviour would have so far prevailed upon the ingenuity and good nature of the generality of Protestants that without needing to have been importuned they would have repealed all the Penal Laws against Roman Catholicks But the methods which have been pursued by his Majesty and them shews both that they aim at no less than the Domination and that we must be very willing to be deceived if we either credit Mr. Pen or suffer our selves to be influenced by him after his obtruding upon us for truths matters which our very senses inable us to refute It may justly make us question his sincerity and beget a suspition in all thinking people of the sinistrous design these Papers are adapted unto when we find him endeavouring to cajole the Nation to an abrogation of the Laws by which our Religion and Safety are secured by telling us That the King's word is enough for us to rely upon if they were gone Good Advice p. 49. and that he could easily pack a Parliament for Repealing them if he did not seek a more lasting and more agreeable security to his Friends Letter third p. 12. and that if they were abolished 't is below the Glory of our King to use ways so unlike the rest of his open and generous principles as to endeavour to get a Parliament afterwards returned that is not duly chosen Letter second p. 15. and that he is a Prince of that Honour Conscience and generoas nature as not by invading the Rights of the Church of England to become guilty of an injustice and irreligion he hath so often so solemnly and earnestly spoken against Letter second p. 11. He must needs take us to be strangely unacquainted with the whole Tenor of the King's Actings in England as well as in Scotland and Ireland and to be persons of very weak understandings and of an easie belief if he think we are to be imposed upon and decoy'd by such Topicks as these to absolish the Tests or that after what we have seen and felt contradictory to those Panegyricks and inconsistent with those beautiful and lofty Characters fastned upon his Majesty we should believe Mr. Pen to mean nothing but well and honestly towards the Protestant Interest in what he so earnestly solliciteth the Church of England and the Dissenters in the forementioned Papers to concurr and consent unto I do acknowledge that what he hath said about Liberty due to men in matters of meer Religion and by way of rebuke unto and reflection upon the Wisdom and Justice of those that either are or have been for persecution is very strong and convincing but I must withall add that it is all at this time very needless and impertinent For the Church of England is so sensible of the Iniquity as well as folly of that Method that there is no ground to suspect She will ever be guilty of it for the future They whom no Arguments could heretofore convert the Court whose Tools they were in that mischievous and Unchristian work and by whom they were instigated to all the severities which they are now blamed for by objecting it to them as their Reproach and Disgrace and by seeking to improve the resentments of those who had suffered by Penal Laws to become an united party with the Papists for their subversion hath brought them at once to be asham'd of what they did and to Resolutions of promoting all Christian Liberty for the time to come And should there be any peevish and ill-natur'd Ecclesiasticks who upon a turn of Affairs would be ready to reassume their former principles and pursue their wonted course we may be secure against all fear of their being successful in it not only by finding the Majority as well as the more learned both of the dignified and inferior Clergy unchangeably fixed and determined against it but by having the whole Nobility and Gentry and those Noble Princes whose right it will be next to ascend the Throne fully possessed with all the generous and Christian purposes we can desire of making provision for Liberty of Conscience by a Law Nor can I forbear to subjoyn how surprizing it ought to be to all Protestants that while Mr. Pen expresseth so much charity for the Papists he entertaineth so little for the Church of England He would perswade us that if the Penal and Test Laws were abrogated the Papists would be so far afterward from seeking to shake the Constitution of the Church of England or from breaking in upon the Liberty that is now vouchsafed unto Dissenters or from endeavouring to make their Religion National that they would not onely be contented with a bare Toleration but that upon their enjoyment of ease by Law they would turn good Countrymen and come in to the Interest of the Kingdom Letter first Whereas at the same time he would have us believe that all the Protestations of those in the Communion of the Church of England for exercising Moderation in time to come are but the Language of their fear that their promises are not to be trusted Good Advice p. 54. and that the Dissenters deserve to be begged for Fools should they be satisfied with any less assurance than the abolition of the Penal and Test Laws ibid. p. 55. 'T is enough not onely to excite
who had lived and died a cordial and zealous Protestant and whosoever had muttered any thing to the contrary would have been branded for a Villain and an execrable person But with what a scent and odor must it recommend his Memory to them to consider his having not onely lived and died in the Communion of the Church of Rome in contradiction to all his publick Speeches solemn Declarations and highest Asseverations to his People in Parliament but his participating from time to time of the Sacrament as Administred in the Church of England while in the interim he had Abjured our Religion stood reconciled to the Church of Rome and had obliged himself by most sacred Vows and was endeavouring by all the Frauds and Arts imaginable to subvert the established Doctrin and Worship and set up Heresy and Idolatry in their room And it must needs give them an abhorrent Idea and Character of Popery and a loathsom representation of those trusted with the Conduct and Guidance of the Consciences of Men in the Roman Communion that they should not onely dispense with and indulge such Crimes and Villanies but proclaim them Sanctified and Meritorious from the end which they are calculated for and levelled at And for his dear Brother and renowned Successor who possessed the Throne after him I suppose his most partial Admirers who took him for a Prince not onely merciful in his Temper and imbued with all gracious Inclinations to our Laws and the Rights of the Subject but for one Orthodox in his Religion and who would prove a zealous Defender of the Doctrine Worship and Discipline of the Church established by Law are before this time both undeceived and filled with Resentments for his having abused their Credulity deceived their Expectations and reproached all their Gloryings and Boastings of him For as it would have been the greatest Affront they could have put upon the King to question his being of the Roman Communion or to detract from his Zeal for the introduction of Popery notwithstanding his own antecedent Protestations as well as the many Statutes in force for the preservation of the Reformed Religion so I must take the liberty to tell them that his Apostacy is not of so late Date as the World is made commonly to believe For though it was many Years concealed and the contrary pretended and dissembled yet it is most certain that he Abjured the Protestant Religion soon after the Exilement of the Royal Family and was reconciled to the Romish Church at St. Germains in France Nor were several of the then suffering Bishops and Clergy ignorant of this though they had neither the Integrity nor Courage to give the Nation and Church warning of it And within these five Years there was in the custody of a very worthy and honest Gentleman a Letter written to the late Bishop of D. by a Doctor of Divinity then attending upon the Royal Brothers wherein the Apostacy of the then Duke of York to the See of Rome is particularly related and an Account given how much the Dutchess of Tremoville though without being her self observed had heard the Queen Mother glorying of it bewailed it as a dishonour unto the Royal Family and as that which might prove of pernicious consequence to the Protestant Interest But though the old Queen privately rejoyced and triumphed in it yet she knew too well what disadvantage it might be both to her Son and to the Papal Cause in Great Brittain to have it at that Season communicated and divulged Thereupon it remained a Secret for many Years and by virtue of a Dispensation he sometimes joined in all Ordinances with those of the Protestant Communion But for all the Art Hypocrisy and Sacrilege by which it was endeavoured to be concealed it might have been easily discerned as manifesting it self in the whole Course of his Actions And at last his own Zeal the Importunity of the Priests and the Cunning of the late King prevailing over Reasons of State he withdrew from all Acts of Fellowship with the Church of England But neither that nor his refusing the Test enjoyned by Law for distinguishing Papists from Protestants though thereupon he was forced both to resign his Office of Lord High Admiral c. nor his declining the Oath which the Laws of Scotland for the securing a Protestant Governour enjoyn to be taken by the High Commissioner nor yet so many Parliaments having endeavoured to get him Excluded from Succession to the Crown upon the account of having revolted to the See of Rome and thereby become dangerous to the Established Religion could make impression upon a wilfully deluded and obstinate sort of Protestants but in defiance of all means of Conviction they would perswade themselves that he was still a Zealot for our Religion and a grand Patriot of the Church of England Nor could any thing undeceive them till upon his Brother's Death he had openly declared himself a Roman Catholick and afterwards in the fumes and raptures of his Victory over the late Duke of Monmouth had discovered and proclaimed his Intentions of overthrowing both our Religion and Laws Yea so closely had some sealed up their Eyes against all beams of Light and hardned themselves against all Evidences from Reason and Fact that had it pleased the Almighty God to have prospered the Duke of Monmouth's Arms in the Summer 85. the present King would have gone off the Stage with the Reputation among them of a Prince tender of the Laws of the Kingdom and who notwithstanding his own being a Papist would have preserved the Reformed Religion and have maintained the Church of England in all her Grandure and Rights And though his whole Life had been but one continued Conspiracy against our Civil Liberties and Priviledges he had left the Throne with the Character and under the Esteem of a Gentleman that in the whole course of his Government would have regulated himself by the Rules of the Constitution and the Statutes of the Realm Now among all the Methods fallen upon by the Royal Brothers for the undermining and subverting our Religion and Laws there is none that they have pursued with more Ardor and wherein they have been more successful to the compassing of their Designs than in their dividing Protestants and alienating their Affections and embittering their Minds from and against one another And had not this lain under their prospect and the means of effecting it appeared easie they might have been Papists themselves while in the mean time they had been dispensed with to protest and swear their being of the Reformed Religion and they might have envied our Liberties and bewailed their Restriction from Arbitrary and Despotical Power but they never durst have entertained a Thought of subverting the Established Religion or of altering the Civil Government nor would they ever have had the boldness to have attempted the introducing and erecting Popery and Tyranny in their room And whosoever should have put them upon reducing the Nation
Establishment yet all other Protestants may very rationally promise themselves an Indulgence and that not only from the Mildness and compassionate Sweetness of her Temper but from the Influence which the Prince her Husband will have upon her who as he is descended from Ancestors whose Glory it was to be the Redeemers of their Country from Papal Persecution and Spanish Tyranny so his Education Generosity Wisdom and many Heroick Vertues dispose him to embrace all Protestants with an equal Tenderness and to erect his Interest upon the being Head and Patron of all that profess the Reformed Religion Had the late Duke of Monmouth been victorious against the Forces of the present King and inabled to have wrested the Scepter out of his Hand though all Protestants might thereupon have expected and would certainly have enjoyed an equal freedom without the liableness of any party to Penal Laws for matters of Religion yet he would have been careful and I have reason to believe that it was his purpose to have had the Church of Eng. preserved and maintained and that she should have suffered no alteration but what would have been to her Strength and Glory through an enlargement of the Terms of her Communion and what would have been to the Praise of her Moderation and Charity through her being perswaded to bear with such as differ from her in little things and could not prevail with themselves to partake with her in all Ordinances Upon the whole it is both the prudence and safety of Dissenters as they would escape Extirpation themselves and have Religion conveyed down to Posterity to unite their Strength and Endeavours to those of the Church of England for the upholding her against the assaults of Popish Enemies who pursue her Subversion As matters have been circumstanced and stated in England there hath not been an Affront or Injury offered or done unto her by the Court which did not at the same time reach and wound the Dissenters 'T is not her being for Episcopacy Ceremonies and imposed Set-Forms of Worship the things about which she and the Nonconformists differ that she hath been not long since maligned and struck at by the Man in Power and his Popish functo but it is for being Protestant Reformed and Orthodox Crimes under the Guilt whereof Dissenters were equally concerned and involved Being therefore in opposition to the common Cause of Religion that the late Court of Inquisition was erected over her Ecclesiasticks all Protestants jointly resented the Wrongs which she sustain'd and not only to sympathize with those dignified and lower Clergy which were called to suffer but to espouse her Quarrel with the same warmth that we would our own And as we are to look upon those of the Episcopal Communion to be the great Bulwark of the Protestant Religion and Reformed Interest in England so it was farther incumbent on Dissenters towards them and a Duty which they owe to God the Nation and themselves not to be accessary to any thing through which the legal Establishment of the Church of England might have been by an Act of pretended Regal Prerogative weakned and supplanted I never counsel the Dissenters to renounce their Principles nor to participate with the Prelatical Church in all Ordinances on the Terms to which they have straitned and narrowed their Communion For while they remain unsatisfied of the lawfulness of those Terms and Conditions they cannot do it without offending God and contracting Guilt upon their Souls nor will they of the Church of England in Charity Justice and Honesty expect it from them For whatsoever any Man believeth to be Sin it is so to him and will by God be imputed as such till he be otherwise enlightned and convinced nor are the Dissenters to be false and cruel to themselves in order to be kind and friendly to them But that which I would advise them unto is that after the maintaining the highest measure of Love to the conformable Congregations as Churches of Christ and the esteeming their Members as Christian Protestant Brethren notwithstanding the several things wherein they judge them to err and to be mistaken that they would not by any Act and Transactions of theirs betray them into a Despotical Power not directly nor indirectly acknowledge any Authority paramount unto and superseding the Laws by which the Church of England is established in its present Form Order and Mode of Jurisdiction Discipline and External Worship Whatsoever Ease arrived to the Dissenters through the Kings suspending the Execution of the Penal Laws without their Address and Application they might receive it with Joy and Humility in themselves and with thankfulness to God nor was there hereby any prejudice offered on their part to the Authority of the Law or Offence or Injury given or done to the conformable Clergy Nor is it without grief and regret that the Church-men have been forced to behold the harassing spoiling and imprisonment of the Nonconformists while in the mean time the Papists were suffered to assemble to the Celebration of their Idolatrous Worship without Censure and Controul And had it been in their power to remedy it and give Relief to their Protestant Brethren they would with delight and readiness have embrac'd the occasion and opportunity of doing it But alas instead of having an advantage put into their hand of contributing to the Relief of the Dissenters which I dare say many of them ardently wish and desire they were compelled contrary to their Inclination as well as their Interest to become instrumental in persecuting and oppressing them Nor does the late King covet a better and a more legal advantage against the Conformists than that they would refuse to pursue Dissenters and decline molesting them with Ecclesiastical Censures and civil Punishments So that their condition was to be pityed and bewailed in that they were hindered from acting against the Papists though both enjoyed by Law and influenced thereunto by Motives of self-Preservation as well as by tyes of Conscience while in the mean time they were forced to prosecute their fellow-Protestants or else to be suspended and deposed and put out of their Offices and Employments And tho I believe that they would at last have more Peace in themselves and be better accepted with God in the great Duty of their Account should they have refused to disturb and prosecute their Protestant Brethren and scorn to be any longer Court-Tools for weakning and undermining the Reformed Cause and Interest yet I could not but leave them to act in this as they should be perswaded in themselves and as they judged most agreeable to Principles of Wisdom and Conscience In the interim the Dissenters have all the Reason in the World to believe that the Proceedings of the Clergy and Members of the Church of England against them were not the Results of their Election and Choice but the Effects of moral Compulsion and Necessity Nor will any Dissenter that is prudent and discreet blame them for a matter
administred by any of them shall ever tempt me to say they deserve it or cause me to ravel into their former and past carriages so as to fasten a blot or imputation upon the party or body of them whatsoever I may be forced to do as to particular persons among them For as to the generality I do believe them to be as honest industrious useful and vertuous a people tho many of them be none of the wisest nor of the greatest prospect as any party of men in the Kingdom and that wherein soever their carriage even abstracting from their differences with their Fellow Protestants in matters of Religion hath varied from that of other Subjects they have been in the Right and have acted most agreeably to the interest and safety of the Kingdom But it can be no reflection upon them to recall into their memories that the whole tenor of the King's actings towards them both when Duke of York and since he came to the Crown hath been such as might render it beyond dispute that they are so far from having any singular room in his favour that he bears them neither pity nor compassion but that they are the objects of his unchangeable indignation For not to mention how the Persecutions that were observed always to relent both upon his being at any distance from the late King and upon the abatement of his influence at any time into Counsels were constantly revived upon his return to Court and were carried on in degrees of severity proportionable to the figure he made at Whitehall and his Brothers disposedness and inclination to hearken to him surely their memories cannot be so weak and untenacious but they must remember how their sufferings were never greater nor the Laws executed with more severity upon them than since his Majesty came to ascend the Throne As it is not many years since he said publickly in Scotland that it were well if all that part of the Kingdom which is above half of the Nation where the Dissenters were known to be most numerous were turned into a hunting field so none were favoured and promoted either there or in England but such as were taken to be the most fierce and violent of all others against Fanaticks Nor were men preferred either in Church or State for their learning vertue or merit but for their passionate heats and brutal rigours to Dissenters And whereas the Papists from the very first day of his arrival at the Government had beside many other marks of his Grace this special Testimony of it of not having the penal Statutes to which they stood liable put in execution against them all the Laws to which the Dissenters were obnoxious were by his Majesty's Orders to the Judges Justices of the Peace and all other Officers Civil and Ecclesiastical most unmercifully executed Nor was there the least talk of lenity to Dissenters till the King found that he could not compass his Ends by the Church of England and prevail upon the Parliament for repealing the Tests and cancelling the other Laws in force against Papists which if they could have been wrought over unto the Fanaticks would not only have been left Pitiless and continued in the Hands of the furious Church men to exercise their Spleen upon but would have been surrendred as a Sacrifice to new Flames of Wrath if they of the Prelatical Communion had retained their wonted Animosity and thought it for their Interest to exert it either in the old or in fresh Methods But that Project not succeeding his Majesty is forced to shift Hands and to use the Pretence of extending Compassion to Dissenting Protestants that he may the more plausibly and with the less Hazard suspend and disable the Laws against Papists and make way for their Admission into all Offices Civil and Military which is the first Step and all that he is yet in a Condition to take for the Subversion of our Religion And all the celebrated Kindness to Fanaticks is only to use them as the Cat 's Paw for pulling the Chesunt out of the Fire to the Monkey and to make them stales under whose Shroud and Covert the Church of Rome may undermine and subvert all the legal Foundations of our Religion which to suffer themselves to be Instrumental in will not in the Issue turn to the Commendation of the Dissenters Wisdom or their Honesty Nor is there more Truth in the King 's declaring it to have been his constant Opinion that Conscience ought not to be constrained nor People forced in Matters of mere Religion than there is of Justice in that malicious Insiuuation in his Letter to Mr. Alsop against the Church of England That should he see cause to change his Religion he should never be of that Party of Protestants who think their only way to advance their Church is by undoing those Churches of Christians that differ from them in smaller Matters Forasmuch as he is in the mean time a Member of the most Persecuting and Bloody Society that ever was cloathed with the name of a Church and whose Cruelty towards Protestants he is careful not to Arraign by fastning his Offence at Severity upon Differences in smaller Matters which he knows that those between Rome and us are not nor so accounted of by any of the Papal Fellowship It were to be wished that the Dissenters would reflect and consider how when the late King had emitted a Declaration of Indulgence Anno 1672. upon pretended Motives of Tenderness and Compassion to his Protestant Subjects but in truth to keep all quiet at home when in Conjunction with France he was engaging in an unjust War against a Reformed State abroad and in order to steal a Liberty for the Papists to Practise their Idolatries without incurring a Suspition himself of being of the Romish Religion and in hope to wind up the Prerogative to a Paramount Power over the Law and how when the Parliament condemned the Illegality of it and would have the Declaration recalled all his Kindness to Dissenters not only immediately vanished but turned into that Rage and Fury that tho both that Parliament addressed for some Favor to be shew'd them and another voted it a Betraying of the Protestant Religion to continue the Execution of the Penal Laws upon them yet instead of their having any Mercy or Moderation exercised towards them they were thrown into a Furnace made seven times hotter than that wherein they had been scorched before And without pretending to be a Prophet I dare prognosticate and foretell that whensoever the present King hath compassed the Ends unto which this Declaration is designed to be subservient namely the placing the Papists both in the open Exercise of their Religion and in all publick Offices and Trusts and the getting a Power to be acknowledged vested in him over the Laws that then instead of the still Voice calmly whispered from Whitehall they will both hear and feel the Blasts of a mighty rushing Wind and
Vows and Promises made to the King in their Addresses have undertaken to perform what others have the Conscience and Honesty as well as the Wisdom to refuse and decline Nor are the Divisions among Protestants only hereby upheld and maintained but our Animosities and Rancors are both continued and enflamed For while they of the established way are provoked and exasperated to see all the legal Foundations both of the Protestant Religion and their Church subverted the Addressing Dissenters are emboldned to revenge themselves upon the National Clergy in terms of the utmost Opproory Virulence and Reproach for their accession to the Sufferings which they had endured Surely it would have been not only more generous but much more Christian to have made no other Retaliations but those of forgiveness and pardon for the injuries they had met with and to have offered all the assistances they could give to their conformable Brethren for the stemming and withstanding the deluge of Popery and Tyranny that is impetuously breaking in upon the Kingdoms And as this would have united all Protestants in bonds of forbearance and love not to be dissolved through petty differences about Discipline Forms of Worship and a few Rites and Ceremonies so it would in the sense and judgment of all men have given them a more triumphant Victory over those that had been their imprudent and peevish Enemies than if they were to enjoy the spoils of the conformable Clergy by being put into possession of their Cures and Benefices The Relation I have stood in to the Dissenting Party and the Kindness I retain for them above all other make me heartily bewail their losing the happiest opportunity that ever was put into their hands not only of improving the compassion which their calamities had raised for them in the hearts of the generality into friendship and kindness but of acquiring such a merit upon the Nation that the utmost favours which a true English Protestant Parliament could hereafter have shewed them would have been accounted but slender as well as just Recompences Nor can I forbear to say that I had rather have seen the Furnace of Afflictions made hotter for them though it should have been my own lot to be thrown into the most scorching flames than to have beheld them guilty of those excesses of folly towards themselves and of treachery to Religion and the Laws of their Country which their present ease and a short opportunity afforded them of acquiring gain have hurried and transported so many of them into It plainly appears with what aspect upon our Religion the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience was emitted if we do but observe the advantages the Papists have already reap'd by it How is the whole Nation thereupon not only overflow'd with swarms of Locusts and all places filled with Priests and Jesuits but the whole executive Power of the Government and all preferments of Honor Interest and Profit are put into Roman Catholick hands So that we are not only exposed to the unwearied and restless importunities of Seducers but thro the advancement of Papists to all Offices Civil and Military if not Ecclesiastick the covetous become brib'd the timorous threatned and the profane are baited with temptations sutable to their lusts and they that stand resolved to continue honest are laid open not only to the bold affronts of Priests and Friers the insolencies of petulant Popish Justices the chicaneries and oppressions of the Arbitrary Commission Court but to the rage of his Majesty and the danger of being attack'd by his armed Squadrons To which may be added that by the same Prerogative and Absolute Power that his Majesty hath suspended the Laws made for the Protection of our Religion he may disable and dispense with all the Laws by which it is set up and established And as it will not be more illegal and arbitrary to make void the Laws for Protestancy than to have suspended those against Popery so I do not see how the Addressers that have approved the one can disallow or condemn the other For the King having obtained an acknowledgment of his Absolute Power and of his Royal Prerogative paramount to Laws on his exercising it in one instance it now depends merely upon his own will for any thing these thanksgiving Gentlemen have to say against it whether he may not exert it in another wherein they are not likely to find so much of their ease and gain There is a third Inducement to the emitting those Royal Papers which tho at the first view it may seem wholly to regard Foreigners yet it ultimately terminates in the subversion of our Religion at home and in the King 's putting himself into a condition of exercising his Absolute Power in whatsoever Acts he pleaseth over his own Subjects whether after the French fashion in commanding them to turn Catholicks because he will have it so or after the manner of the Grand Seignior to require them to submit their Necks to the Bow-string because he is jealous of them or wants their Estates to pay his Janizaries The United Provinces are they whom he bore a particular spleen and indignation unto when he was a Subject and upon whom he is now in the Throne he resolves not only to wreak all his old Malice but by Conquering and Subduing them if he can to strengthen his Absoluteness over his own People and to pave his way for overthrowing the Protestant Religion in Great Britain without lying open to the Hazards that may otherways attend and ensue upon the attempting of it And instead of expecting nothing from him but what may become a brave and generous Enemy they ought to remember the Encouragement that he gave heretofore to two Varlets to burn that part of their Fleet which belong'd to Amsterdam an Action as Ignominious as Fraudulent and that might have been Fatal to all the Provinces if through a happy and seasonable Detection and the Apprehension of one of the Miscreants it had not been prevented He knows that the States General are not only zealous Assertors of the Protestant Religion but always ready to afford a Sanctuary and a place of Refuge to those who being oppressed for the Profession of it elsewhere are forced to forsake their own Countries and to seek for Shelter and Relief in other Parts And as he is not unsensible how easie the Withdrawment and Flight is into these Provinces for such as are Persecuted in his Dominions so he is aware that if Multitudes and especially Men of Condition and Estates should for the avoiding his Cruelty betake themselves thither that they would not be unthoughtful of all Ways and Means whereby they might Redeem their Country from Tyranny and restore themselves to the quiet Enjoyment of their Estates and Liberties at home But that which most Enrages him is the Figure which the two Princes do make in that State of whose Succession to the Crown the Protestants in Britain have so near a Prospect and the Post
emitted his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience there were Commissions of Reprisal prepared and ready to be granted to the English East-India Company against the Hollanders but which were suppressed upon the Court 's finding that they whom the suspending the Execution of so many Laws and the granting such Liberties Rights and Immunities to the Papists had disgusted and provoked were far more numerous and their resentments more to be apprehended than they were whose murmurings and discontents they had silenced and allay'd by the liberty that was granted Now as it will be at this juncture when the Protestant Interest is so low in the World and the Reformed Religion in so great danger of being Destroyed a most wicked as well as an imprudent Act to contribute help and aid to the Subjugating a People that are the chief Protectors of the Protestant Religion that are left and almost the only Asserters of the Rights and Liberties of Mankind so it may fill the Addressers with confusion and shame that they should have not only justified an Act of His Majesty's that is plainly designed to such a mischievous End but that they should by the Promises and Vows that they have made Him have emboldned His Majesty to continue his purposes and resolutions of a War against the Dutch Which as it must be funestous and fatal to the Protestant Cause in case he should prosper and succeed so howsoever it should issue yet the Addressers who have done what in them lyes to give encouragement unto it will be held betrayers of the Protestant Religion both abroad and at home and judged guilty of all the Blood of those of the same Faith with them that shall be shed in this Quarrel That Liberty ought to be allowed to men in matters of Religion is no Plea whereby the King 's giving it in an illegal and Arbitrary manner can be maintained and justified Since ever I was capable of exercising any distinct and coherent acts of Reason I have been always of that mind that none ought to be persecuted for their Consciences towards God in matters of Faith and Worship Nor is it one of those things that lye under the power of the Sovereign and Legislative Authority to grant or not to grant but it is a Right setled upon Mankind antecedent to all Civil Constitutions and Humane Laws having its foundation in the Law of Nature which no Prince or State can legitimately violate and Infringe The Magistrate as a Civil Officer can pretend or claim no Power over a People but what he either derives from the Divine Charter wherein God the Supreme Institutor of Magistracy has chalk'd out the Duty of Rulers in general or what the People upon the first and original Stipulation are supposed to have given him in order to the Protection Peace and Prosperity of the Society But as it does no where appear that God hath given any such Power to Governors seeing all the Revelations in the Scripture as well as all the Dictates of Nature speak a contrary Language so neither can the People upon their chusing such a one to be their Ruler be imagined to transfer and vest such a Power in him forasmuch as they cannot divest themselves of a Power no more than of a Right of believing things as they arrive with a Credibility to their several and respective Understandings As it is in no Man's Power to believe as he will but only as he sees cause so it is the most irrational Imagination in the World to think they should transfer a Right to him whom they have chosen to govern them of punishing them for what it is not in their power to help Nor can any thing be plainer than that God has reserved the Empire over Conscience to himself and that he hath circumscribed the Power of all Humane Governors to things of a civil and inferior Nature And had God convey'd a Right unto Magistrates of commanding Men to be of this or that Religion and that because they are so and will have others to be of their mind it would follow that the People may conform to whatsoever they require tho by all the Lights of Sense Reason and Revelation they are convinced of the Falshood of it Seeing whatsoever the Sovereign rightfully Commands the Subjects may lawfully obey But tho the persecuting People for Matters of mere Religion be repugnant to the Light of Nature inconsistent with the Fundamental Maxims of Reason directly contrary to the Temper and Genious as well as to the Rules of the Gospel and not only against the Safety and Interest of Civil Societies but of a Tendency to fill them with Confusion and to arm Subjects to the cutting of one anothers Throats yet Governors may both deny Liberty to those whose Principles oblige them to destroy those that are not of their mind and may in some measure Regulate the Liberty which they vouchsafe to others whose Opinions tho they do not think dangerous to the Peace of the Community yet through judging them Erroneous and False they conceive them dangerous to the Souls of Men. As there is a vast difference betwixt Tolerating a Religion and approving the Religion that is Tolerated so what a Government doth not approve but barely permits and suffers may be brought under Restrictions as to time place and number of those professing it that shall assemble in one Meeting which it were an Undecency to extend to those of the justified and established way Now whatsoever Restrictions or Regulations are enacted and ordained by the Legislative Authority in reference to Religions or Religious Assemblies they are not to be stop'd disabled or suspended but by the same Authority that enacted and ordained them The King says very truly That Conscience ought not to be constrained nor People forced in matters of mere Religion But it does not from thence follow unless by the Logick of Whitehall that without the concurrence of a Parliament he should suspend and dispense with the Laws and by a pretended Prerogative relieve any from what they are Obnoxious unto by the Statutes of the Realm His saying that the forcing People in matters of Religion spoils Trade depopulates Countries discourageth Strangers and answers not the End of bringing all to an Uniformity for which it is employ'd would do well in a Speech to the Houses of Parliament to perswade them to Repeal some certain Laws or might do well to determine his Majesty to assent to such Bills as a Parliament may prepare and offer for relieving Persons in matters of Conscience but does not serve for what it is alledged nor can it warrant his suspending the Laws by his single Authority And by the way I know when these very Arguments were not only despised by his Majesty and rediculed by those who took their Cue from Court and had Wit to do it as by the present Bishop of Oxford in a very ill-natur'd Book called Ecclesiastical Polity but when the daring to have mentioned them would
the known Laws of the Kingdom and hath been done by no legal Court but by a Sett of Mercenary Villains armed with an Arbitrary Commission and who do as Arbitrarily exercise it And as the End unto which that Inquisition-Court was instituted was to rob us of our Rights and Privileges at the mere Pleasure of the King so the very Institution of it is an Invasion both upon all our Laws and upon the whole Property of the Nation and is one of the highest Exercises of Despotical Power that it is possible for the most Absolute and unlimited Monarch to exert Among all the Rights reserved unto the Subjects by the Rules of the Constitution and whereof they are secured by many repeated Laws and Statutes there are none that have been hitherto less disputed and in reference to which our Kings have been farther from claiming any Power and Authority than those of levying Money without the Grant as well as the Consent of Parliament and of Absolving and Discharging Debtors from paying their Creditors and of Acquitting them from being Sued and Imprisoned in case of Non-payment and yet in Defiance of all Law and to the Subverting the Rights of the People and the most essential Privilege and Jurisdiction of Parliaments and to a plain changing the ancient legal Constitution into an Absolute and Despotical Governing Power the King they say is assuming to himself an Authority both of imposing a Tax of 5 l. per Annum upon every Hackney Coach and of Releasing and Discharging all Debtors of whom their Creditors cannot claim and demand above 10 l. Sterling which as they will be signal Invasions upon Property and leading Cases for the raising Money in what other Instances he pleaseth by a Hampton-Court or a Whitehall Edict without standing in need of a Parliament or being obliged to a Dependance upon their Grant for all Taxes to be levied upon the Subjects as his Predecessoâ—s have heretofore been so they may serve fully to instruct us what little Security either the Dissenters have as to being long in the Possession of their present Liberty or Protestants in general of having a Freedom continued unto them of professing the Reformed Religion if we have nothing more to rely upon for preventing our being abridged and denied the Liberty of our Religion than we have had for preserving our Property from being Invaded and broken in upon We may subjoyn to the Clause already mentioned that other Expression which occurs in the foresaid Declaration viz. That as he freely gives them leave to meet and serve God after their own way and manner so they are to take special care that nothing be preached or taught amongst them which may any ways tend to alienate the Hearts of the People from his Majesty or his Government Which words as they import the Price at which the Dissenters are to purchase their Freedom whereof we shall discourse anon so they admirably serve to furnish the King with a Pretence of retrenching their Liberty whensoever he pleaseth nor are they inferted there for any other End but that upon a Plea of their having abused his Gracious Indulgence to the alienating the Hearts of his People from him they may be adjudged to have thereby deservedly forfeited both all the Benefits of it and of his Royal Favor Nor is it possible for a Protestant Minister to preach one Sermon which a Popish Critick or a Romish Bigot may not easily misconstrue and pervert to be an Alienation of the Peoples Hearts from the King's Person and Government And of which as we have heard many late Examples in France so it will be easie to draw them into President and to imitate them in England I might add the Observation of the ingenious Author of the Reflections on his Majesty's Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland Namely that whereas the King gives all Assurance to his Scots Subjects that he will not use invincible Necessity against any Man on the account of his Perswasion he does thereby leave himself at a liberty of Dragooning Torturing Burning and doing the utmost Violences all these being vincible to a Person of an ardent love to God and of a lively Faith in Jesus Christ and which accordingly many Thousands have been triumphantly Victorious over Nor is it likely that this new and uncouth Phrase of not using an invinsible Necessity would have found room in a Paper of that nature if it had not been first to conceal some malicious and mischievous Design and then to justifie the Consistency of its Execution with what is promised in the Proclamation Moreover were there that Security intended by these two Royal Papers that Protestant Dissenters might safely rely upon or did the King act with that Sincerity which he would delude his People into a Belief of there would then be a greater Agreeableness than there is betwixt the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in England and the Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland The Principle his Majesty pretends to act from That Conscience ought not to be constrained and that none ought to be persecuted for mere matters of Religion would oblige him to act uniformly and with an equal extention of Favor to all his Subjects whose Principles are the same and against whom he hath no Exception but in matters merely Religious Whereas the Disparity of Grace Kindness and Freedom that is exercised in the Declaration from that which is exerted in the Proclamation plainly shews that the whole is but a Trick of State and done in Subserviency to an end which it is not yet seasonable to discover and avow For his circumscribing the Toleration in Scotland to such Presbyterians as he stiles Moderate is not only a taking it off from its true Bottom matters of mere Religion and a founding it upon an internal Quality of the mind that is not dissernable but it implies the reserving a Liberty to himself of withdrawing the Benefits of it from all Scots Dissenters through fastening upon them a contrary Character whensoever it shall be seasonable to revive Persecution And even as it is now exerted to these Moderate ones it is attended with Restrictions that his Indulgence in England is no ways clog'd with All that the Declaration requires from those that are indulged is That their Assemblies be peaceably openly and publickly held that all Persons be freely admitted to them that they signifie and make known to some Justice of the Peace what places they set apart for these uses and that nothing be preached or taught amongst them which may any ways tend to alionate the Hearts of the People from the King or his Government Whereas the Proclamation not only restrains the Meetings of the Scots Presbyterians to private Houses without allowing them either to build Meeting-Houses or to use Out-houses or Barns but it prohibits the hearing any Ministers save such as shall be willing to swear That they shall to the utmost of their power assist defend and maintain the King in the
Proclamation dated at Windsor the 28th of June 1687 for granting further Liberty in Scotland and which was published there by an Order of the Privy Council of that Kingdom bearing date at Edinburgh the 5. of July This Superfoetation of one Proclamation after another in reference to the same thing is so apportioned and parallel to the late French method of emitting Edicts in relation to those of the Reformed Religion in that Kingdom that they seem to proceed out of one mint to be calculated for the same end and to be designed for the compassing and obtaining the like effects For assoon as an Alarm was taken at the publishing of some unreasonable and rigorous Edict there used often to follow another of a milder strain which was pretended to be either for the moderating the severities of the former or to remove and rectifie what they were pleased to call misconstructions unduly put upon it but the true end whereof was only to stifle and extinguish the Jealousies and Apprehensions that the other had begotten and excited and which had they not been calmed and allay'd might have awakened the Protestants there to provide for their safety by a timely withdrawing into other Countries if they had not been provoked to generous endeavours of preventing the final suppression of their Religion and for obviating the ruin which that Court had projected against them and was hastning to involve them under Nor does my suspicion of his Majesties pursuing the same design against Protestants which the great Louis glories to have accomplished proceed merely from that conjunction of Counsels that all the world observes between Whitehall and Versailles nor merely from the Kings abandoning his Nephew and Son-in-law the Prince of Orange and not so much as interposing to obtain satisfaction to be given him for the many Injuries Damages Spoiles and Robberies as well as Affronts done him by that haughty Monarch when one vigorous Application could not fail to effect it nor yet merely from that agreeableness in their proceedures through the King of England's imitating that Foreign Potentate and making the whole course that hath been taken in France the Pattern of all his actings in Great Britain but I am much confirmed in my fears and jealousies by remembring a passage in one of Mr. Coleman's Letters who as he very well knew what the then Duke of York had been for many years engaged in against our Religion and Civil Lberties and under what Vows and Promises he was not to desist from prosecuting what had been resolved upon and undertaken so he had the confidence to say that his Master's design and that of the King of France was one and the same and that this was no less as he farther informs us than the extirpating the Northern Heresie Had the King of England acted with sincerity from that noble Principle that Conscience ought not to be constrained nor People forced in matters of mere Religion as he would delude weak and easie People to believe and had not all his Arbitrary and illegal proceedings in granting Liberty to Dissenting Protestants been to subserve and promote other Designs which it is not yet seasonable and convenient to discover and avow he would have then acted with that conformity to the Principle he professeth to be under the Influence and Government of and with that consonancy and harmonious agreeableness in all the degrees of Indulgence vouchsafed to those of the Reformed Religion in England and Scotland that differ from them of the Established way that there would have needed no second Proclamation apporting new measures of Liberty and favour to Scots Dissenters seeing they would have had it granted them at first in the same latitude and illimitedness that it was bestowed upon the English Nonconformists But when Princes carry on and pursue mischievous designs under the palliations of Religion publick good and the Right of Mankind it comes often to pass through adapting their methods to what they mean and intend and not to what they pretend and give out that their crafty projections by being not sufficiently accommodated to their purposes prove ineffectual to the compassing what was aim'd at and this forceth them to a new Game of Falshood and Subtilety but still under the old varnish and gloss and obligeth them to have recourse to means that may be more proportioned than the former were for their reaching the End that they ubtimately drive at Thence it is that those Rulers who are engaged in the Prosecution of wicked and unjustifiable Designs are necessitated not only to apply themselves to opposite Methods towards different Parties and those such as must be suited and apportioned to their discrepant Interest without the accommodating of which they can neither hope to mould them to that tame and servile Compliance nor work them up to that active and vigorous abetting of their malicious and crafty Projections as is necessary for the rendring them Successful but they are forced to vary their Proceedings towards one and the same Party and that as well when the ways they have acted in towards them are found inadequate to the end unto which they were calculated as when the mischief hid under them comes to be too soon discovered This weak and short-sighted People fancy to arise from an uncertainty in Princes Counsels and from their being at no Consistency with themselves but they who can penetrate into Affairs and that do consider things more narrowly can easily discern that all this Variation Diversity and shifting of Methods in Rulers Actings proceed from other Causes and that it is their Stability and Perseverance in an illegal and wicked Design that compels them to those crooked and contrary Courses either for the gaining the unwary and ill-applied Concurrence of their Subject to the hastning Distress and Desolation upon themselves or for the throwing them into that Lethargy and under that Supineness as may hinder them from all Endeavors of obstructing and diverting the Evils that their Governours are seeking to bring upon them Nor is there a more certain Indication of a Princes being engaged in a Design contrary to the good and happiness of the Society over which he is set than his betaking himself to illegal ways upon pretence of promoting the ease and benefit of his People or according as he finds his Subjects to differ in their particular Interests his applying himself to them in Methods whereof the contrariety of the one to the other renders them the more proper and adapted to ensnare the divided Factions through accosting each of them with something that they are severally fond of Legal means are always sufficient to the pursuing and compassing legal Ends and whatsoever is for the general good of the Community may either be obtained by Courses wherein the Generality find their united Interest and common Felicity or else by Application to a Parliament freely and duly chosen which as it represents the whole Politick Society so there may be expected most Compassion and
That the using Torture without Evidence or in ordinary Crimes is contrary to Law That the sending of an Army in a Hostile manner upon any part of the Kingdom in a peaceable time and exacting of Locality and any manner of free Quarter is contrary to Law That the charging the Lieges with Law-burroughs at the King's instance and the imposing of Bands without the Authority of Parliament and the suspending the Advocates from their Imployments for not compearing when such Bands were offered were contrary to Law That the putting of Garisons on private Mens Houses in a time of peace without the consent of the Authority of Parliament is contrary to Law That the opinion of the Lords of Session in the two Causes following were contrary to Law viz. 1. That the concerting the demand of a Supply for a Forfaulted Person although not given is Treason 2. That Persons refusing to discover what are their private thoughts and judgments in relation to points of Treason or other Mens actions are guilty of Treason That the fining Husbands for their Wives withdrawing from the Church was contrary to Law That Prelacy and Superiority of any Office in the Church above Presbyters is and hath been a great and unsupportable Grievance and Trouble to this Nation and contrary to the Inclinations of the Generality of the People ever since the Reformation they having Reformed from Popery by Presbyters and therefore ought to be abolished That it is the Right and Privilege of the Subjects to protest for remand of Law to the King and Parliament against Sentences pronounced by the Lords of Session providing the same do not stop execution of the said Sentences That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King and that all Imprisonments and Prosecutions for such Petitions are contrary to Law That for redress of all Grievances and for the amending strengthning and preserving of the Laws Parliaments ought to be frequently called and allowed to sit and the freedom of Speech and Debate secured to the Members And they do claim and demand and insist upon all and sundry the Premisses as their undoubted Right and Liberties and that no Declarations Doings or Proceedings to the prejudice of the People in any of the said Premisses ought in any ways to be drawn hereafter in consequence and example but that all Forfaultures Fines loss of Offices Imprisonments Banishments Pursuits Persecutions and Rigorous Executions be considered and the Parties seized be redressed To which demand of the Rights and Redressing of their Grievances they are particularly incouraged by his Majesty the King of England his Declaration for the Kingdom of Scotland of the _____ day of October last as being the only means for obtaining a full Redress and remead therein Having therefore an entire Confidence That his said Majesty the King of England will perfyte the Deliverance so far advanced by him and will still preserve them from the Violation of the Rights which they have here asserted and from all other Attempts upon their Religion Laws and Liberties The said Estates of the Kingdom of Scotland do resolve That William and Mary King and Queen of England France and Ireland â—e and Be Declared King and Queen of Scotland to Hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdom of Scotland to them the said King and Queen during their Lives and the longest Liver of them and that the sole and full exercise of the Royal Power be only in and exercised by him the said King in the Names of the said King and Queen during their joynt lives And after their deceases the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdom to be to the Heirs of the Body of the said Queen Which failing to the Princess Ann of Denmark and the Heirs of her Body Which also failing to the Heirs of the Body of the said William King of England And they do pray the said King and Queen of England to accept the same accordingly And that the Oath hereafter mentioned be taken by all Protestants of whom the Oath of Allegiance and any other Oaths and Declarations might be required by Law instead thereof And that the said Oath of Allegiance and other Oaths and Declarations may be Abrogated I A. B. Do sincerely Promise and Swear That I will be Faithful and bear True Allegiance to Their Majesties King William and Queen Mary So help me God A Proclamation declaring William and Mary King and Queen of England to be King and Queen of Scotland Edinburgh April 11. 1689. WHereas the Estates of this Kingdom of Scotland by their Act of the Date of these Presents have Resolved That WILLIAM and MARY King and Queen of England France and Ireland Be and Be declared King and Queen of Scotland to hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdom of Scotland to them the said King and Queen during their Lives and the longest Liver of Them and that the Sole and Full Exercise of the Regal Power be only in and Exercised by the said King in the Names of the said King and Queen during their joynt Libes As also the Estates having Resolved and Enacted an Instrument of Government or Claim of Right to be presented with the Offer of the Crown to the said King and Queen They do Statute and Ordain that William and Mary King and Queen of England France and Ireland be accordingly forthwith Proclaimed King and Queen of Scotland at the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh by the Lyon King at Arms or his Deputs his Brethren Heraulds Macers and Pursevants and at the Head-Burghs of all the Shires Stewarties Bailliaries and Regalities within the Kingdom by Messengers at Arms. Extracted forth of the Meeting of the Estates by me Ja. Dalrymple Cls. God save King WILLIAM and Queen MARY The Manner of the King and Queen taking the Scotish Coronation Oath May 11. 1689. THis day being appointed for the publick Reception of the Commissioners viz. The Earl of Argyle Sir James Montgomery of Skelmerly and Sir John Dalrymple of Stair younger who were sent by the Meeting of the Estates of Scotland with an Offer of the Crown of that Kingdom to Their Majesties they accordingly at three of the Clock met at the Council-Chamber and from thence were Conducted by Sir Charles Cotterel Master of the Ceremonies attended by most of the Nobility and Gentry of that Kingdom who reside in and about this place to the Banqueting-House where the King and Queen came attended by many Persons of Quality the Sword being carried before them by the Lord Cardrosse and Their Majesties being placed on the Throne under a Rich Canopy they first presented a Letter from the Estates to his Majesty then the Instrument of Government Thirdly a Paper containing the Grievances which they desired might be Redressed and Lastly an Address to His Majesty for turning the Meeting of the said Estates into a Parliament All which being Signed by his Grace the Duke of Hamilton as President of the Meeting and
So that Conquest may make Way for a Government but it cannot constitute it Secondly There is a Supreme Power in every Community essential to it and inseparable from it by which if it be not limited immediately by God it can form it self into any kind of Government And in some extraordinary Occasions when the Safety and Peace of the Publick necessarily require it can supply the Defects reform the Abuses and re-establish the true Fundamentals of the Government by Purging Refining and bringing Things back to their first Original Which Power may be called The Supreme Power Real Thirdly When the Community has made choice of some Form of Government and subjected themselves to it having invested some Person or Persons with the Supreme Power The Power in those Persons may be called The Supream Power Personal Fourthly If this Form be a mix'd Government of Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy and for the easie Execution of the Laws the Executive Power be lodg'd in a single Person He has a Supream Power Personal quoad hoc Fifthly The Supreme Power Personal of England is in Kings Lords and Commons and so it was in Effect agreed to by King Charles the First in his Answer to the nineteen Popositions and resolved by the Convention of the Lords and Commons in the year 1660. And note That the Acts of that Convention tho' never confirmed by Parliament have been taken for Law and particularly by the Lord Chief Justice Hales Sixthly The Supreme Power Personal of England fails three Ways 1. 'T is dissolved For two Essential Parts fail 1. a King 2. a House of Commons which cannot be called according to Constitution the King being gone and the Freedom of Election being destroyed by the Kings Incroachments 2. The King has forfeited his Power several Ways Subjection to the Bishop of Rome is the Subjection against which our Laws cry loudest And even Barclay that Monarchical Politician acknowledges That if a King alienate his Kingdom or subject it to another he forfeits it And Grotius asserts That if a King really attempt to deliver up or subject his Kingdom he may be therein resisted And that if the King have part of the Supreme Power and the People or Senate the other part the King invading that part which is not his a just Force may be opposed and he may lose his Part of the Empire Grotius de Bello c. Cap. 72. But that the King has subjected the Kingdom to the Pope needs no Proof That he has usurp'd an absolute Power superieur to all Laws made the Peoples Share in the Legislative Power impertinent and useless and thereby invaded their just Rights none can deny 'T were in vain to multiply Instances of his Forfeitures And if we consider the Power exercis'd by him of late it will most evidently appear to all who understand the English Constitution that it admits of no such King nor any such Power 3. The King has deserted 1. By incapacitating himself by a Religion inconsistent with the Fundamentals of our Government 2. By forsaking the Power the Constitution allow'd him and usurping a Foreign one So that tho the Person remained the King was gone long ago 3. By Personal Withdrawing Seventhly The Supreme Power Real remains in the Community and they may act by their Original Power And tho every Particular Person is notwithstanding such Dissolution Forfeiture or Desertion subject to the Laws which were made by the Supreme Power Personal when in Being yet the Communities Power is not bound by them but is paramount all Laws made by the Supreme Power Personal And has a full Right to take such Measures for Settling the Government as they shall think most sure and effectual for the lasting Security and Peace of the Nation For we must note that it was the Community of England which first gave Being to both King and Parliament and to all the other Parts of our Constitution Eighthly The most Renowned Politician observes That those Kingdoms and Republicks subsist longest that are often renewed or brought back to their first Beginnings which is an Observation of Self-evident Truth and implies That the Supreme Power Real has a Right to renew or bring back And the most-ingenious Lawson observes in his Politica That the Community of England in the late Times had the greatest Advantage that they or their Ancestors had had for many Ages for this purpose tho God hid it from their Eyes But the wonderful Concurrence of such a series of Providences as we now see and admire gives ground to hope That the Veil is removed and the Nation will now see the Things that concern their Peace Ninthly The Acts done and executed by the Supreme Power Personal when in Being have so modell'd the Parts and Persons of the Community that the Original Constitution is the best justest and the most desirable The Royal Family affords a Person that both Heaven and Earth point out for King There are Lords whose Nobility is not affected by the Dissolution of the Government and are the subject Matter of a House of Lords And there are Places which by Custom or Charter have Right to choose Representatives of the Commons Tenthly There are inextricable Difficulties in all other Methods For 1. There is no Demise of the King neither Civil nor Natural 2. There is consequently no Descent 3. The Community only has a Right to take Advantage of the King's Forfeiture or Desertion 4. Whatever other Power may be imagin'd in the two Houses as Houses of Parliament it cannot justify it self to the Reason of any who understand the Bottom of our Constitution 5. By this Method all Popish Successors may be excluded and the Government secured in case all the Protestants of the Family die without Issue And this by the very Constitution of England And the Question can never arise about the Force or the Lawfulness of a Bill of Exclusion 6. The Convention will not be oblig'd to take Oaths c. Eleventhly If these things be granted and the Community be at Liberty to act as above it will certainly be most advisable not only for the Security and Welfare of the Nation but if rightly understood for the Interest of their Royal Highnesses to limit the Crown as follows To the Prince of Orange during his Life yet with all possible Honour and Respect to the Princess whose Interests and Inclinations are inseparably the same with his Remainder to the Princess of Orange and the Heirs of her Body Remainder to the Princess of Denmark and the Heirs of her Body Remainder to the Heirs of the Body of the Prince of Orange Remainder as an Act of Parliament shall appoint This will have these Conveniences among others 1. Husband and Wife are but one Person in Law and her Husbands Honour is hers 2. It puts the present Kingly Power into the best Hand in the World which without Flattery is agreed on by all Men. 3. It asserts the above said Power in the
Community 4. It will be some Acknowledgment to the Prince for what he has done for the Nation And it is worthy Observation that before the Theocracy of the Jews ceased the manner of the Divine Designation of their Judges was by God's giving the People some Deliverance by the hand of the Person to whose Government they ought to submit and this even in that time of extraordinary Revelations Thus Othniel Gideon Jephthah Sampson and others were invested by Heaven with the Supreme Authority And though Joshua had an immediate Command from God to succeed Moses and an Anointing to that purpose by the laying on of Moses's Hands Yet the Foundation of the People's Submission to him was laid in Jordan And I challenge the best Historians to give an Instance since that Theocracy ceased of a Designation of any Person to any Government more visibly Divine than that which we now admire If the Hand of Providence miraculously and timely disposing Natural Things in every Circumstance to the best advantage should have any influence upon Mens Minds most certainly we ought not here to be insensible If the Voice of the People be the Voice of God it never spoke louder If a Nation of various Opinions Interests and Factions from a turbulent and fluctuating State falls into a serene and quiet Calm and Mens Minds are strangely united on a sudden it shews from whence they are influenced In a word if the Hand of God is to be seen in Human Affairs and his Voice to be heard upon Earth we cannot any where since the ceasing of Miracles find a clearer and more remarkable Instance than is to be observ'd in the present Revolution If one examines the Posture of Foreign Affairs making way for the Prince's Expedition by some sudden Events and Occurrences which no Human Wisdom or Power could have brought about if one observes that Divine Influence which has directed all his Counsels and crown'd his Undertakings notwithstanding such innumerable Dangers and Difficulties with constant Honour and Success If one considers how happily and wonderfully both Persons and Things are changed in a little time and without Blood it looks like so many marks of God's Favour by which he thinks fit to point him out to us in this extraordinary Conjuncture I will trouble you but with one Consideration more which is That the two things most necessary in this Affair are Unanimity and Dispatch For without both these your Counsels will have little Effect In most things 't is good to be long in resolving but in some 't is fatal not to conclude immediately And presence of Mind is as great a Vertue as Rashness is a Vice For the turns of Fortune are sometimes so quick that if Advantage be not taken in the critical hour 't is for ever lost But I hope your Lordships and all those Gentlemen who compose this August Assembly will proceed with so much Zeal and Harmony that the Result of your present Consultations may be a lasting and grateful Monument to Posterity of your Integrity Courage and Conduct The Late Honourable Convention proved a Legal Parliament I. THE necessity of a Parliament agreed by the Lords and Commons Voting that the Throne is Vacant for there being a Vacancy there follows an immediate necessity of setling the Government especially the Writs being destroyed and the Great Seal carried away put a period to all publick Justice and then there must be a supply by such means as the necessity requires or a failure of Government II. Consider the Antecedents to the calling the Convention that is about three hundred of the Commons which is a majority of the fullest House that can be made above sixty Lords being a greater number than any part divided amounted to at this great Meeting the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council of the City of London by application to His then Highness the Prince of Orange desired him to accept of the Administration of Publick Affairs Military and Civil which he was pleased to do to the great satisfaction of all good People and after that His Highness was desired to Issue forth his Circular Letters to the Lords and the like to the Coroners and in their absence to the Clerks of the Peace to Elect Knights Citizens and Burgesses this was more than was done in fifty nine for the calling a Parliament in April 1660. for there the Summons was not real but fictitious i. e. in the names of the Keepers of the Liberties of England a meer Notion set up as a Form there being no such Persons but a meer Ens rationis impossible really to exist so that here was much more done than in 1659 and all really done which was possible to be invented as the Affairs then stood Besides King Charles the 2d. had not abdicated the Kingdom but was willing to return and was at Breda whither they might have sent for Writs and in the mean time have kept their form of Keepers of the Liberties c. But in the present case there was no King in being nor any style or form of Government neither real or notional left so that in all these respects more was done before and at the calling of this Great Convention than for calling that Parliament for so I must call it yet that Parliament made several Acts in all thirty seven as appears by Keebles Statutes and several of them not confirmed I shall instance but in one but it is one which there was occasion to use in every County of England I mean the Act for Confirming and Restoring Ministers being the 17th of that Sessions all the Judges allowed of this as an Act of Parliament tho never confirmed which is a stronger case than that in question for there was only fictitious Summons here a real one III. That without the Consent of any Body of the People this at the Request of a Majority of the Lords more than half the number of the Commons duly chosen in King Ch. the 2d. time besides the great Body of the City of London being at least esteem'd a 5th part of the Kingdom yet after the King's Return he was so well satisfied with the calling of that Parliament that it was Enacted by the King Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament that the Lords and Commons then Sitting at Westmiuster in the present Parliament were the two Houses of Parliament notwithstanding any want of the Kings Writs or Writ of Summons or any defect whatsoever and as if the King had been present at the beginning of the Parliament this I take to be a full Judgment in full Parliament of the case in question and much stronger than the present case is and this Parliament continued till the 29th of December next following and made in all thirty seven Acts as abovementioned The 13 Caroli 2. chap. 7. a full Parliament called by the Kings Writ recites the other of 12 Caroli 2. and that after his Majesties return they were continued till the 29th of December
and then dissolved and that several Acts passed this is the plain Judgment of another Parliament 1. Because it says they were continued which shews they had a real being capable of being continued for a Confirmation of a void Grant has no effect and Confirmation shews a Grant only voidable so the continuance there shewed it at most but voidable and when the King came and confirm'd it all was good 2. The dissolving it then shews they had a being for as ex nihilo nihil fit so super nihil nil operatur as out of nothing nothing can be made so upon nothing nothing can operate Again the King Lords and Commons make the great Corporation or Body of the Kingdom and the Commons are legally taken for the Free-holders Inst 4. p. 2. Now the Lords and Commons having Proclaimed the King the defect of this great Corporation is cured and all the Essential parts of this great Body Politique united and made compleat as plainly as when the Mayor of a Corporation dies and another is chosen the Corporation is again perfect and to say that which perfects the great Body Politique should in the same instant destroy it I mean the Parliament is to make contradictions true simul semel the perfection and destruction of this great Body at one instant and by the same Act. Then if necessity of Affairs was a forcible Argument in 1660 a time of great peace not only in England but throughout Europe and almost in all the World certainly 't is of a greater force now when England is scarce delivered from Popery and Slavery when Ireland has a mighty Army of Papists and that Kingdom in hazard of final destruction if not speedily prevented and when France has destroyed most of the Protestants there and threatens the ruine of the Low-Countries from whence God has sent the wonderful Assistance of our Gracious and therefore most Glorious King and England cannot promise safety from that Foreign Power when forty days delay which is the least can be for a new Parliament and considering we can never hope to have one more freely chosen because first it was so free from Court-influence or likelihood of all design that the Letters of Summons issued by him whom the great God in infinite Mercy raised to save us to the hazard of his Life and this done to protect the Protestant Religion and at a time when the people were all concerned for one Common interest of Religion and Liberty it would be vain when we have the best King and Queen the World affords a full house of Lords the most solemnly chosen Commons that ever were in the remembrance of any Man Living to spend Money and lose time I had almost said to despise Providence and take great pains to destroy our selves If any object Acts of Parliament mentioning Writs and Summons c. I answer the Prededent in 1660 is after all those Acts. In private cases as much as has been done in point of necessity a Bishop Provincial dies and sede vacant a Clerk is presented to a Benefice the Presentation to the Dean and Chapter is good in this case of Necessity and if in a Vacancy by the Death of a Bishop a Presentation shall be good to the Dean and Chapter rather than a prejudice should happen by the Church lying void Surely a fortiori Vacancy of the Throne may be supplied without the formality of a Writ and the great Convention turn'd to a Real Parliament A Summons in all points is of the same real force as a Writ for a Summons and a Writ differ no more than in name the thing is the same in all Substantial parts the Writ is Recorded in Chancery so are His Highnesses Letters the proper Officer Endorses the Return so he does here for the Coroner in defect of the Sheriff is the proper Officer the People Choose by Virtue of the Letters c. quae re concordant parum differunt they agree in Reality and then what difference is there between the one and the other Object A Writ must be in Actions at Common Law else all Pleading after will not make it good but Judgment given may be Reversed by a Writ of Error Answ The case differs first because Actions between party and party are Adversary Actions but Summons to Parliament are not so but are Mediums only to have â—n Election 2. In Actions at Law the Defendant may plead to the Writ but there is no plea to a Writ for electing Members to serve in Parliament and for this I have Littleton's Argument there never was such a Plea therefore none lies Object That they have not taken the Test Answ They may take the Test yet and then all which they do will be good for the Test being the distinguishing Mark of a Protestant from a Papist when that is taken the end of the Law is performed Object That the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy ought to be taken and that the new ones are not legal Answ The Convention being the Supream Power have abolish'd the old Oaths and have made new ones and as to the making new Oaths the like was done in Alfreds time when they chose him King vide Mirror of Justice Chap. 1. for the Heptarchy being turn'd to a Monarchy the precedent Oaths of the seven Kings could not be the same King Alfred swore Many Precedents may be cited where Laws have been made in Parliament without the King 's Writ to summon them which for brevity's sake I forbear to mention For a farewel the Objections quarrel at our Happiness fight against our Safety and aim at that which may indanger Destruction The Present Convention a Parliament I. THat the formality of the Kings Writ of Summons is not so essential to an English Parliament but that the Peers of the Realm and the Commons by their Representatives duly Elected may legally act as the great Council and representative Body of the Nation though not summoned by the King especially when the circumstances of the time are such that such Summons cannot be had will I hope appear by these following Observations First The Saxon Government was transplanted hither out of Germany where the meeting of the Saxons in such Assemblies was at certain fixed times viz. at the New and Full Moon But after their Transmigration hither Religion changing other things changed with it and the times for their publick Assemblies in conformity to the great Solemnities celebrated by Christians came to be changed to the Feasts of Easter Pentecost and the Nativity The lower we come down in Story the seldomer we find these General Assemblies to have been held and sometimes even very anciently when upon extraordinary occasions they met out of course a Precept an Edict or Sanction is mentioned to have Issued from the King But the Times and the very place of their ordinary Meeting having been certain and determined in the very first and eldest times that we meet with any mention of
at York Nov. 1688. Wherein is shewed That it is neither against Scripture nor Moral honesty to defend their Just and Legal Rights against the Illegal Invaders of them Occasioned then by some Private Debates and now submitted to better Judgments The present Undertaking of the Gentlemen at York Nov. 88. taken into Consideration wherein is shewed That it is neither against Scripture nor moral Honesty to defend their Just and Legal Rights against the Illegal and Unjust Invaders of them by way of Objection and Answer 1. THat it is not against Scripture is shewed Obj. 1 2 3. 2. That it is not inconsistent with the Frame of the Government in General Obj. 4. 3. Not against the Law but the Law-breakers Obj. 5. 4. Not Rebellion Obj. 6. 5. No Vsurpation of the Power of the Sword Obj. 7. 6. No unlawful Act in a moral Sense Obj. 8. 7. Not against true Allegiance Obj. 9. 8. Not against the Declaration in a Legal Sense Obj 10. 9. Not against Political Power but Force without Political Power Obj. 11. 10. Not against any Royal Prerogative in general Obj. 12. 11. Not against the Supremacy Obj. 13. 12. Not Criminal Disobedience Obj. 14. 13. Not incommodious or unsafe for the Publick in respect of the present and approaching Evils in removes Obj. 15 16. 14. No disparagement to the Frame of the Government that cannot otherwise decide an obstinate difference between King and People Obj. 17. Lastly The Conclusion shewing That Non-resistance of illegal Force does in effect make all Monarchs Arbitrary and the People Slaves The Thoughts of a Private Person c. MEn have three Rules to walk by which we may call Laws that is Nature Reason and Religion and answerable to these three a Christian hath three Principles that is Sensitive Rational and Spiritual which I take to be the distinction that St. Paul makes 1 Thes 5.23 I pray God your whole Spirit Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Nature considers all Men as single Persons and directs them to Self-interest and Self-preservation as the chief end Reason considers Men as sociable Creatures and directs them to unite the Government for the publick Good inclusive of their own Safety as the chief End And the Spirit considers Men as Candidates for Heaven and directs them to live according to the Word of God that they may attain Eternal Happiness the chief End of Man All these have the divine Warrant and are of force where the Lower is not superseded by the Higher A single Person is not to expose himself to ruin unless it be for the Publick good and the Publick are not to expose themselves to Beggary and Slavery unless it be for the Kingdom of Heaven Now though these Rules may be considered separate and apart yet they all ought to be in a Christian Government Laws for the publick Good do not destroy the Law of Nature but supersede it for a greater Good and the Laws of God do not destroy the Law of Reason but supersede it for a higher end and so makes it still more Reasonable to do so Nothing therefore can justifie a Private Injury but the Publick Good and nothing can hinder the Publick Good for being carried on but Sin For these Laws are not destructive but supportive of one another and all supportive of Man When a Man cannot defend himself by the Method and Measures of the Publick as in case of sudden Assaults he may by the Law of Nature break the Peace and smite his Adversary to save his own life because humane Laws can reward no Person 's obedience with so good a thing as life and therefore the publick good excepted his life is to be preferred before all forms of Law But it is not so with the Laws of God for if I be urged to deny my Faith or dye I must dye rather than break God's Law because God will give me a better Life and an infinite Reward Necessity can suspend a positive Law of Man that is merely such but it cannot supersede what is established by God or Nature an Act therefore that is civilly Unlawful may notwithstanding be Lawful because it is not Lawless but under a more extensive Law If it be according to the Laws of God or sound Reason the Conscience is safe and the Act commendable before God and good Men though it be against the form of Political Law For though it be against the Form it is not against the Reason of that Law and the Form not being extensive enough of Man's safety it must give place to necessity and absolve him of his duty when his duty would destroy him The Safety of Man shows us both the Necessity and End of humane Government for when private Persons found they could not be Safe they were willing to enter into Compacts and Associations and reposite their private Safety in the publick Interest And therefore if after this Association some of their Fellows will break the Covenants and go about to destroy the Rest it is lawful both by the Laws of God and Man for the injured to defend themselves and by the Laws and Compacts by them made and consented to on both sides for the publick Good Otherwise it would be unlawful to resist Injustice and consequently a Thief or a Robber Object 1. But you will say in all Governments there are Superiours and Inferiours and God has made Obedience a part of Religion and consequently conducive to a higher end than the Publick Good and therefore if the Governours break the Laws and introduce a Publick Evil for a Private Interest they must not be resisted upon pain of Damnation Answ This were a good Plea if it were true but God is not the Patron of Injustice and therefore he gives no Prince or Potentate more Authority over the People than the Tables of the Government express and of these there are diverse degrees Those that are Govern'd by the will of their Prince whose Word is a Law if he command their Persons for Slaves or Estates to serve his Ambition they must obey and God requires it of them because it is the Princes Right Arbitrary Princes have a Political Power to treat a Subject cruelly and inhumanely their Immorality is an offence against God not injustice to the Subject who had given up himself to be used at their discretion But those that are to rule by Laws made for the Publick good and such as render the Subjects Freemen not Slaves such as secures their Religion Liberty and Property if these Princes contrary to Law imprison their persons or seize their Estates they do it unjustly without God's Warrant or any Political Authority and may be resisted or else we might not resist the Devil should he creep into the Court in a Jesuits habit and Haman-like get a Commission to cut all our Throats If I be called to suffer for my Religion or the Faith of Christ I am bound to
owe Arbitraty Allegiance Allegiance is more in some Places and less in others but no Man can owe so much Duty to his Prince as not to have a Salvo for God and his Life and here we can owe none that is against our Laws and the Publick Good for that would destroy the Government Our Allegiance therefore must be bounded by our Laws and not by the King's Word or Will No Man can swear to obey the King's Word or Will simply but according to Law It would be Sin to tye our selves to think or speak or do what he would have us at large Our Allegiance therefore must be such as will consist with the Frame of our Government and that must be such as is couched in the Body of our Laws Other Allegiance there can be none but what is wrapt up in Courtesies and Formalities For it seems the King as well as the People is under the Law in some Sense under the direction of it though not under the constraint and therefore at his Coronation he does a kind of Fealty to the Laws and Government and swears Allegiance to them as to a Supream Lord. The Oath is not only Will you grant the Laws but will you grant and keep the Laws and Customs of England and the Answer is I grant and promise to keep them It is certain therefore no Allegiance to the King can be against Law to which he himself owes Allegiance The Case being thus far clear That the Allegiance sworn to is no other but our Legal Duty it does not hinder but that we may resist illegal Force When the King of the Scots swore allegiance to our King it did not deprive him of a just defence of his just Right by taking up arms if he were opprest And the King of England when he swore allegiance to the King of France made no scruple to take up arms against his Liege Lord in defence of his just Rights And the Old Lawyers tell us That the very Villain might in case of Rape and Murther arm against his Lord and if the Law arm a Villain against his Lord Subjects are worse than Villains if they may not arm against their Soveraign Lord's illegal Forces in defence of their Laws Lives Estates and the publick good but what makes it most evident is the Clause in King Henry's Charter which says If the King invade those Rights it is Lawful for the Kingdom to rise against him and do him what injury they can as though they owed him no Allegiance The Words are these if my Author fail me not Licet omnibus de Regno nostro contra nos insurgere omnia agere quae gravamen noster respiciant ac si nobis in nullo tenerentur Much to the same purpose is in King John's Charter which I find thus quoted Et Illi Barones cum communa totius terrae distringent gravabunt Nos Modis omnibus quibus poterunt scilicet per captionem Castrorum terrarum possessionum etalis modis quibus potuerint donet fuerint emendatum secundum Arbitrium eorum salva persona nostra Reginae nostrae Liberorum nostrorum Much may be said of this Nature about the Old Allegiance which was all couched in Homage and Fealty but this is enough to show that true Allegiance does not tye us from resisting illegal Force and Intolerable Incroachments upon our just Rights Obj. 10. But such Resistance would be against the Declaration which says It is not Lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King c. Answ The Latitude of the word Lawful causes the Scruple which at first View seems to tell us That it is sinful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up arms against the King c. But it is no good consequence to say That it is sinful because it is unlawful unless the Discourse be restrained to the Laws of God I must confess it is politically unlawful for Subjects in any Case or for any Cause whatever to take up arms against the King and those Commission'd by him because such a taking up arms here can have no political authority But it is morally lawful in all limited Governments to resist that Force that wants political power The regal power is irresistable in all Persons from the King to the petty Constable but it does not hinder but that all these Persons may be resisted when they do what they have no political power to They that have a limited power and a prescribed Duty may either act against or beyond their Commission and when they so do they may be resisted For such acts have no political power in them though the Persons have to other purposes If a Commission should be granted to a Company of Ruffians to plunder and massacre they might have something more of the King's Affections but no more of his authority than Private Robbers had and consequently might be resisted with equal Honesty None therefore can make this Declaration in its full Latitude but upon this presumption That the King and his Ministers keep perpetually within the Bounds of the Law otherwise they declare the King has an arbitrary power which is against the Fundamental Laws of this Land and a kind of Treason against the State For if he may not be resisted in any Case he may be under some moral restraint but under no political restraint and consequently the political frame of the Government must be arbitrary The meaning therefore of this Declaration can be no other but that a Man can have no Civil power or authority in any Case to take up arms against the King c. But this does not debar any man of the Natural Right of Self-defence by private arms against Inauthoritative Force Obj. 11. To this some reply that seeing God hath placed the Governing though limited Power in the King's Hand no Man may by any Natural Right or Private Defence resist his illegal Force God s Power must not be resisted though abused Answ There is a great difference between the abuse of power and the want of power and therefore this argument either supposes the power greater than it is or concludes ill The King and Parliament have indeed an arbitrary power I do not say Infinite but as Extensive as the frame of government will bear and therefore if they make a very grievous Law though they ought not for they are under a moral restraint though no political neither the King nor any of his Ministers may be resisted in the due Execution of it But the King has no power to burden us beyond or against Law and we may thank our own Weakness if ever he have Strength to do it This shows us there is a great difference betwixt the abuse of political power and the want of it Abused power must not be resisted but Force without power may The political power of arbitrary Princes is more extensive than their moral power And this tyes the Subject to Non-resistance when
as long as the King is safe and his just Power and Prerogatives the Government is in no danger and there is not the least Colour imaginable that those that have surrendered their Offices and Honours the Court and the King's Favour for preserving the Government and are now ready to hazard their Lives in defence of it will ever alter it No their design is to preserve it a greater Evidence of which they could not give at present than to petition for a Free Parliament Obj. 17. But this casts dirt upon the Frame of the Government leaving room for perpetual quarrelling Answ 1. Neither this nor any other Government that I know of affords absolute means of Peace and Preservation The Government is effectual enough so far as it reaches but it is not extensive enough If the Monarch were Arbitrary then no Cause could introduce Resistance the Nation might be at Peace but the Subjects could not be safe and Liberty and Property would be lost Therefore if Safety Liberty and Property be worth the preserving they must be defended when wicked Men would wrest them from us The Constitution of this Government is such That if the King and Parliament or the King and the Subjects differ about Fundamental Rights they have no way to reconcile the Difference but by their own Consent If the King without the Parliament could determine the Difference he would be Arbitrary and if the People or the Parliament could determine it without him they would be Supream and then it could be no Monarchy and if the Judges had the determining Power they would get the Supremacy from both and if a Foreigner were to decide the Matter he would seek his own Advantage so that they must either condescend for Peace sake to one anothers Proposals so as not to destroy the Government or they must suffer the Grievance and let the Quarrel fall for a time till the injurious can be worn to a compliance or they must fight it out for that is their going to Law the Souldiers are their Jury-men and Victory is their Verdict For the Question is not about breach of Government but whether that be the Government or no and seeing this Cause transcends the executive Part of the Government it cannot be decided by Legal Progress but by Law-makers and if they cannot agree Men are at liberty to join with that side they judg in the right Reason and Conscience must be their Guide the Law cannot and they that proceed on this ground are their own Warrants on either side for neither have a Legal Power to determine the other Therefore the Power of Judging is neither Authoritative nor Civil and so argues no Superiority in those that judg but only a Power residing in reasonable Creatures or judging of their own Act of which they never were devested by any lawful Authority and therefore may lawfully use upon such Occasions and though the Government does not Warrant a Civil War in such a case yet the End and Reason of this Government does For it being fram'd to prevent the exorbitant Power of the Prince for the publick Good he that fights for the publick Good against an Usurped Power or an Arbitrary Invader of the Governments Rights is justified by the design and intendment of the Frame and consequently by the Equity of the Government though not by any prescribed Form For seeing many things are morally honest and profitable that are not reduced into positive Laws Men cannot proceed to those things if at any time they become necessary by prescribing Forms of Law because they have none and so in this case the Question being not about Breach of Law but what is Law And the Law not able to satisfy both King and People each claiming contrary Rights from the same Laws the Decision of this Case though it be very good and profitable for this Nation yet has no prescribed form of Law to direct us to and therefore both King and People are to proceed according to moral Honesty to the end of the Government that is the publick Good The Conclusion of all which is That seeing resisting of Illegal and Arbitrary Forces in defence of the Laws and Publick Interest of the Land is not against the Scriptures and consequently no Sin nor against moral Honesty and consequently no Crime not against Law but Law-breakers not against true Allegiance or any Prerogative of the Crown no Rebellion no Usurpation of the Sword nor Criminal Disobedience and not incommodious or unsafe for the Publick in respect of the impendant Injuries and Hazards it removes nor inconsistent with the Frame of Government which cannot otherwise decide an obstinate Difference betwixt King and People I cannot but conclude it is a very worthy and virtuous Act to be in Arms for defence of the Laws the King 's just Rights and the Publick Good and consequently that those Gentlemen who are in Arms for defence of our Laws Liberties and Lives against Illegal Forces Arbitrary Commands and Usurped Powers are in a virtuous Post For if the Subjects Right might not be defended by this means it would be all lost it being all one in these days to have no Right and to have no sufficient means to defend it The Doctrine of Non-resistance plainly puts all we have into an ill King's hands and the good Ones will scarce part with what they are apt to love so dearly and we parted with so freely should we therefore preach this Doctrine to our Princes and tell them that they might take what we have without danger or opposition we should teach them to try our Patience if all must be referr'd to their Consciences they will soon without the help of a Jesuit find case enough and cause enough to secure that and leave the examination of them to the latter Day hatred of our Persons love of our Estates disgust at our Words or Actions or dislike of our Religion will soon judg us unworthy of our Liberty and Property as well as it has already done of our Offices Honours and Preferments Passion and Scorn Pride and Ambition Covetousness and Prodigality would all prey upon what we had with a quiet though not with a good Conscience but especially if the King were poor and necessitous either by wilful Profuseness or Negligence for Nature would even tell him in such a Case That we had all better want than he and then farewel Property the worst you could do him was but to pet and cry a bit and perhaps that might become a Pleasure to him too and then you had nothing to rest on but that God would give you the Kingdom of Heaven for beggering your selves impoverishing the Church and giving what you had to the Devil's Service an ill Ground for such costly Hopes to stand upon 2. This Doctrine renders Government prejudicial to the greatest part of Mankind depriving them of all just Defence For the illegal Force bars them of legal Defence and the Doctrine of Non-resistance
to publish all his Arbitrary Declarations and in particular one that strikes at their whole Settlement and has ordered Process to be begun against all that disobey'd this illegal Warrant and has treated so great a number of the Bishops as Criminals only for representing to him the Reasons of their not obeying him if likewise the King is not satisfied to profess his own Religion openly though even that is contrary to Law but has sent Ambassadors to Rome and received Nuntio 's from thence which is plainly Treason by Law if likewise many Popish Churches and Chappels have been publickly opened if several Colledges of Jesuits have been set up in divers parts of the Nation and one of the Order has been made a Privy Counsellor and a principal Minister of State and if Papists and even those who turn to that Religion though declared Traitors by Law are brought into all the chief Employments both Military and Civil then it is plain That all the Rights of the Church of England and the whole establishment of the Protestant Religion are struck at and designed to be overturned since all these things as they are notoriously illegal so they evidently demonstrate That the great design of them all is the rooting out of this Pestilent Heresy in their stile I mean the Protestant Religion In the next place If in the whole Course of Justice it is visible that there is a constant practising upon the Judges that they are turned out upon their varying from the Intentions of the Court and if Men of no Reputation nor Abilities are put in their places if an Army is kept up in time of Peace and Men who withdraw from that illegal Service are hanged up as Criminals without any colour of Law which by consequence are so many Murders and if the Souldiery are connived at and encouraged in the most enormous Crimes that so they may be thereby prepared to commit greater ones and from single Rapes and Murders proceed to a rape upon all our Liberties and a destruction of the Nation if I say all these things are true in fact then it is plain that there is such a dissolution of the Government made that there is not any one part of it left found and entire and if all these things are done now it is easy to imagine what may be expected when Arbitrary Power that spares no Man and Popery that spares no Heretick are finally established Then we may look for nothing but Gabelles Tailles Impositions Benevolences and all sorts of illegal Taxes as from the other we may expect Burnings Massacres and Inquisitions In what is doing in Scotland we may gather what is to be expected in England where if the King has over and over again declared that he is vested with an Absolute Power to which all are bound to obey without reserve and has upon that annulled almost all the Acts of Parliament that passed in K. James the Ist's Minority though they were ratified by himself when he came to be of age and were confirmed by all the subsequent Kings not excepting the present We must then conclude from thence what is resolved on here in England and what will be put in execution as soon as it is thought that the Times can bear it When likewise the whole Settlement of Ireland is shaken and the Army that was raised and is maintained by Taxes that were given for an Army of English Protestants to secure them from a new Massacre by the Irish Papists is now all filled with Irish Papists as well as almost all the other Imployments it is plain That not only all the British Protestants inhabiting that Island are in daily danger of being butchered a second time but that the Crown of England is in danger of losing that Island it being now put wholly into the hands and power of the Native Irish who as they formerly offered themselves up sometimes to the Crown of Spain sometimes to the Pope and once to the Duke of Lorrain so are they perhaps at this present treating with another Court for the sale and surrender of the Island and for the Massacre of the English in it If thus all the several Branches of our Constitution are dissolved it might be at least expected that one part should be left entire and that is the Regal Dignity and yet even that is prostituted when we see a young Child put in the reversion of it and pretended to be the Prince of Wales concerning whose being born of the Queen there appear to be not only no certain Proofs but there are all the Presumptions that can possibly be imagined to the contrary No Proofs were ever given either to the Princess of Denmark or to any other Protestant Ladies in whom we ought to repose any Confidence that the Queen was ever with Child that whole matter being managed with so much Mysteriousness that there were violent and publick Suspitions of it before the Birth But the whole Contrivance of the Birth the sending away the Princess of Denmark the sudden shortning of the Reckoning the Queen 's sudden going to St. James's her no less sudden pretended Delivery the hurrying the Child into another Room without shewing it to those present and without their hearing it cry and the mysterious Conduct of all since that time no satisfaction being given to the Princess of Denmark upon her Return from the Bath nor to any other Protestant Ladies of the Queen's having been really brought to bed These are all such evident Indications of a base Imposture in this matter that as the Nation has the justest reason in the World to doubt of it so they have all possible reason to be at no quiet till they see a Legal and Free Parliament assembled which may impartially and without either Fear or Corruption examine that whole matter If all these Matters are true in fact then I suppose no Man will doubt that the whole Foundations of this Government and all the most sacred Parts of it are overturned And as to the truth of all these Suppositions that is left to every Englishman's Judgment and Sense The Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy no Badges of Slavery THE Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the Crown of England having been invaded and broke in upon by the Power of the Court of Rome in K. Henry the Eighth 's time all Foreign Power was abolished and the Antient Legal Supremacy restor'd and by many additional Acts corroborated But all that was done of that kind in K. Henry the Eighth 's time was undone again in Queen Mary's and therefore in the first Year of Queen Elizabeth's Reign an Act of Parliament was made Intituled All Antient Jurisdiction restored to the Crown A Repeal of divers Statutes and Reviver of others and all foreign Power Abolished Which Act recites that whereas in the Reign of R. H. 8. divers good Laws were made and established as well for the utter extinguishment and putting away of all Vsurped and Foreign Powers and
recites the daily Experiences that many of his Majesty's Subjects that adhere in their Hearts to the Popish Religion by the Infection drawn from thence by the wicked and devillish Counsel of Jesuits Seminaries and other like Persons dangerous to the Church and State are so far perverted in the point of their Loyalties and due Allegiance to the King's Majesty and the Crown of England as they are ready to entertain and execute any Treasonable Conspiracies and Practices And for the better Trial how his Majesty's Subjects stand affected in point of their Loyalties and due Obedience Enacts that it shall be lawful for any Bishop in his Diocess or any two Justices of the Peace whereof one to be of the Quorum within the Limits of their Jurisdiction out of the Session to require any Person of the age of eighteen Years or above which shall be convict or indicted of Recusancy other than Noblemen c. or which shall not have received the Sacrament twice within the Year then next past or any Person passing in or through the Country unknown that being examined upon Oath shall confess or not deny him or her self to be a Recusant and to take the Oath therein after expressed viz. c. The Oath of Allegiance So that by the occasion of imposing the Oath and by the appointing it to be tendred only to Papists or suspected Papists it is apparent that the Design of the Law-makers was to detect such Persons as were perverted or in danger to be perverted in their Loyalty by Infection drawn from the Popish Religion The form of the Oath makes it yet more evident being wholly levell'd against any Opinion of the Lawfulness of deposing the King or practising any Treason against him upon pretence of his being excommunicated or deprived by the Pope and against any Opinion of the Pope's Power to discharge Subjects from their Oaths of Fidelity to their Princes It runs thus viz. I A. B. Do truly and sincerely profess testify and declare in my Conscience before God and the World that our Soveraign Lord King James is lawful and rightful King of this Realm and of all his Majesty's Dominions and Countries And that the Pope neither of himself nor by any Authority of the Church or See of Rome or by any other means with any other hath any Power or Authority to depose the King or to dispose any of his Majesty's Kingdoms or Dominions or to authorize any Foreign Prince to invade or annoy him or his Countries or to discharge any of his Subjects of their Allegiance or Obedience to his Majesty or to give licence or leave to any of them to bear Arms raise Tumults or to offer any Violence or Hurt to his Majesty's Royal Person State or Government or to any of his Majesty's Subjects within his Majesty's Dominions Also I do swear from my Heart that notwithstanding any Declaration or Sentence of Excommunication or Deprivation made or granted or to be made or granted by the Pope or his Successors or by any Authority derived or pretended to be derived from him or his See against the said King his Heirs and Successors or any Absolution of the said Subjects from their Obedience I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and him and them will defend to the uttermost of my Power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever which shall be made against his or their Persons their Crown and Dignity by reason or colour of any such Sentence or Declaration or otherwise and will do my best endeavour to disclose and make known unto his Majesty his Heirs and Successors all Treasons and traiterous Conspiracies which I shall know or hear of to be against him or any of them And I do further swear that I do from my Heart abhor and detest and abjure as impious and heretical this damnable Doctrine and Position That Princes which be excommunicated or deprived by the Pope may be deposed or murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do believe and in Conscience am perswaded that neither the Pope nor any Person whatsoever hath Power to absolve me of this Oath or any part thereof which I acknowledg by good and lawful Authority to be lawfully administred unto me and I do renounce all Parsons and Dispensations to the contrary And all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledg and swear according to these express words by me spoken and according to the plain and common Sense and Vnderstanding of the same words without any Equivocation or mental Evasion or secret Reservation whatsoever And I do make this Recognition and Acknowledgment heartily willingly and truly upon the true Faith of a Christian So help me God And the Statute of 7 Jacobi cap. 6. recites that Whereas by a Statute made in the third Year of the said King's Reign the form of an Oath to be ministred and given to certain Persons in the same Act mentioned is limited and prescribed tending only to the Declaration of such Duty as every true and well affected Subject not only by bond of Allegiance but also by the Commandment of Almighty God ought to bear to the King his Heirs and Successors Which Oath such are infected with Popish Superstition do oppugne with many false and unsound Arguments the just defence whereof the King had therefore undertaken and worthily performed to the great contentment of all his Subjects notwithstanding the Gainsayings of Contentious Adversaries And to shew how greatly the King 's Loyal Subjects do approve the said Oath they beseech his Majesty that the said Oath be administred to all his Subjects The Pope and Authority of the See of Rome run through the first Paragraph Notwithstanding any Declaration or Sentence of Excommunication c. Governs the second Paragraph Excommunicated and deprived the Pope are the material words in the third Paragraph The fourth is added in Majorem cautelam in opposition to the Popish Doctrine of Dispensing with Oaths Absolving Subjects from their Allegiance Equivocations Mental Evasions c. So that as the Oath of Supremacy did but enforce the Antient Oath of Fealty with an acknowledgment of the Queen 's supream Authority in Ecclesiastial Causes and things as well as Temporal and a Renunciation of all Foreign Jurisdictions so the Oath of Allegiance does but enforce the same old Oath of Fealty by obliging the Subjects of England expresly to disown any lawful Authority in the Pope or See of Rome to depose invade or annoy the King his Dominions or Subjects And notwithstanding any Sentence of Excommunication Deprivation c. by the Pope c. to bear Faith and true Allegiance to the King his Heirs and lawful Successors And to abjure that Position that it is lawful to depose Princes that are Excommunicated or Deprived by the Pope Whatever is added is either Oath over and above what was exprest in the old Oath of Fealty is but as Explanatory of it and branching it out
into such Particulars as time and occasion required So that the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance not having altered the terms of Allegiance due from the People of England to their Princes if their Princes by antient Laws of the Realm and by the Practice of our Forefathers were liable to be deposed by the great Councils of the Nation for Male-administration Oppressions and other Exorbitances for not keeping their Coronation-Oaths for Insufficiency to govern c. then they continue still liable to be deposed in like manner the said Oaths or any Obligation contracted thereby notwithstanding For the Practice of former times I shall begin with a very antient Precedent in the Kingdom of the West-Saxons viz. Cudred King of West-Saxony being dead Sigebert his Kinsman succeeded him in that Kingdom and held it but a small time for being puft up with Pride by the Successes of King Cudred his Predecessor he grew insolent and became intolerable to his People And when he evil entreated them all manner of ways and either wrested the Laws for his own Ends or eluded them for his own Advantage Cumbra one of his chief Officers at the request of the whole People intimated their Complaints to the Savage King And because he persuaded the King to govern his People more mildly and that laying aside his Barbarity he would endeavour to appear acceptable to God and Man the King immediately commanded him to be put to Death and increasing his Tyranny became more cruel and intolerable than before whereupon in the beginning of the second Year of his Reign because he was arriv'd to an incorrigible pitch of Pride and Wickedness the NOBLES and the PEOPLE OF THE WHOLE KINGDOM assembled together and upon MATURE DELIBERATION did by UNANIMOUS CONSENT OF THEM ALL drive him out of the Kingdom In whose stead they chose Kenwolph an excellent Youth and of the Royal Blood to be King over the People and Kingdom of the West-Saxons Collect. p. 769 770. ibid. p. 795 796. Cudredo Rege West-Saxiae defuncto Sigebertus Cognatus ejus sibi in eodem Regno successit brevi tamen tempore Regnum tenens nam ex Cudredi Regis Precessoris sui eventibus tumefactus insolens intolerabilis suis fuit cum autem eos modis omnibus male tractaret legesque vel ad commodum suum depravaret vel pro commodo suo devitaret Cumbra Consul ejus Nobilissimus prece totius populi Regi fero eorum querimonias intimavit Et quia ipse Regi suaserat ut leniùs Populum suum regeret inhumanitate depositâ Deo hominibus amabilis appareret Rex eum impiâ nece mox interfici jubens populo saevior intolerabilior quà m priùs suam tyrannidem augmentavit unde in principio secundi Anni Regni sui cum incorrigibilis superbiae nequitiae esset Congregati sunt PROCERES POPVLVS totius REGNI eum PROVIDA DELIBERATIONE à Regno VNANIMI CONSENSV OMNIVM expellebant Cujus loco Kenwolfum juvenem egregium de Regiâ stirpe oriundum in Regem super Populum Regnum Wex-Saxiae elegerunt Collect. 769 770. ibidem p. 795 796. This Deposition of King Sigebert appears to have been done in a formal and orderly Manner viz. in a Convention of the Proceres and the Populus totius Regni and it was done providâ deliberatione unanimi Omnium Consensu and consequently was not an Act of Heat Rebellion or Tumultuary Insurrection of the People But was what the whole Nation apprehended to be Legal Just and according to the Constitution of their Government and no breach of their Oaths of Allegiance Nor have we any reason to wonder that the English Nation should free themselves in such a manner from Oppression if we consider that by an antient Positive Law Enacted in K. Edward the Conf. time and confirmed by William the Conqueror the Kings of England are liable to be deposed if they turn Tyrants The King because he is the Vicar of the Supream King is constituted to this end and purpose that he may govern his earthly Kingdom and the People of the Lord and especially to govern and reverence God's holy Church and defend it from Injuries and root out destroy and wholly to extirpate all Wrong-doers Which if he do not perform HE SHALL NOT RETAIN SO MUCH AS THE NAME OF A KING And a little after The King must act all things according to Law and by the Judgment of the Proceres Regni For Right and Justice ought to reign in the Realm rather than a perverse Will It is the Law that makes Right but Wilfulness Violence and Force is not Right The King ought above all things to fear and love God and to keep his Commandments throughout his Kingdom He ought also to preserve to cherish maintain govern and defend against its Adversaries the Church within his Kingdom entirely and in all freedom according to the Constitutions of the Fathers and of his Predecessors that God may be honoured above all things and always be had before Men's Eyes He ought also to set up good Laws and approv'd Customs and to abolish evil ones and put them away in his Kingdom He ought to do right Judgment in his Kingdom and maintain Justice by advice of the Proceres Regni sui All these things the King in proper Person looking upon and touching the Holy Gospels and upon the Holy and Sacred Relicks must swear in the Presence of his People and Clergy to do before he be crown'd by the Archbishops and Bishops of the Kingdom Lamb. of the Antient Laws of England pag. 142. Rex autem quia Vicarius summi Regis est ad hoc est constitutus ut Regnum terrenum Populum Domini super omnia sanctam veneretur Ecclesiam ejus regat ab injuriosis defendat maleficos ab eâ evellat destruat penitus disper Quod nisi fecerit nec nomen Regis in eo constabit Et paulò post Debet Rex omnia ritè facere in Regno per Judicium Procerum Regni Debet enim Jus Justitia magis regnare in Regno quà m voluntas prava Lex est semper quod Jus facit voluntas autem Violentia Vis non est Jus. Debet verò Rex Deum timere super omnia diligere mandata ejus per totum Regum suum servare Debet etiam sanctam Ecclesiam Regni sui cum omni integritate libertate juxta Constitutiones Patrum Praedecessorum servare fovere manutenere regere contrainimicos defendere it a ut Deus prae coeteris honoretur prae oculis semper habeatur Debet etiam bonas Leges Consuetudines approbat as erigere pravas autem delere omnes à Regno deponere Debet Judicium rectum in Regno suo facere Justitiam per Consilâ—um Procerum Regni sui tenere Ista verò debet omnia Rex in propriâ personâ inspectis tactis sacrosanctis Evangeli is
commended or promised to stand by him For tho the Matter and Subject of the Arbitrary Act of him now upon the Throne be not as to every Branch of it so publickly Scandalous as some of the Arbitrary Proceedings of the late King were as relating to a Favor which Mankind hath a just Claim unto yet it is every way as Illegal being in reference to a Privilege which his Majesty hath no Authority to grant and bestow And were it not that there are many Dissenters who preserve themselves Innocent at this Juncture and upon whom the Temptation that is administred makes no Impression the World would have just ground to say that the Fanaticks are not governed by Principles but that the Measures they walk by are what conduceth to their private and personal Benefit or what lyes in a Tendency to their Loss and Prejudice And that it was not the late King's Usurping and exerting an Arbitrary and illegal Power that offended them but that they were not the Objects in whose Favor it was exercised 'T is also an Aggravation of their Folly as well as their Offence that they should revive a Practice which the Nation was grown asham'd of and whereof they who had been guilty begun to repent through having seen that all the former Declarations Assurances and Promises of the Royal Brothers which tempted to Applications of that kind were but so many Juggles peculiar to the late Breed of the Family for the deceiving of Mankind and that never one of them was performed and made good But the Transgression as well as the Imprudence of the present Addressers is yet the greater and they are the more Criminal and Inexcusable before God and Men in that they might have enjoyed all the Benefits of the King's Declaration without acknowledging the Justice of the Authority by which it was granted or making themselves the Scorn and Contempt of all that are truly Honest and Wise by their servile Adulations and their Gratulatory Scriblers unbecoming English-men and Protestants They had no more to do but to continue their Meetings as they had sometimes heretofore used to do without taking notice that the present Suspension of the Laws made their Assembling together more safe and freed them from Apprehensions of Fines and Imprisonments Nor could the King how much soever displeased with such a Conduct have at this time ventured upon the expressing Displeasure against them seeing as that would have been both to have proclaimed his Hypocrisie in saying That Conscience ought not to be constrained nor People forced in matters of mere Religion and a discovering the villainous Design in Subserviency to which the Declaration had been emitted so it were not possible for him after what he hath published to single out the Dissenters from amongst other Protestants and to fall upon all before Matters are more ripe for it might be a means of the Abortion of all his Popish Projections and of saving the whole Reformed Interest in Great Britain Neither would the Church of England-men have envied their Tranquility or have blamed their Carriage but would have been glad that their Brethren had been eased from Oppressions and themselves delivered from the grievous and dishonorable Task of prosecuting them which they had formerly been forced unto by Court-Injunctions and Commands And as they would have by a Conduct of this Nature had all the Freedom which they now enjoy without the Guilt and Reproach which they have derived upon themselves by Addressing so such a Carriage would have wonderfully recommended them to the Favor of a true English Parliament which tho it would see cause to condemn the King's Usurping a Power of Suspending the Laws and to make void his Declaration yet in gratitude to Dissenters for such a Behavior as well as in Pity and Compassion to them as English Protestants such a Parliament would not fail to do all it could to give them relief in a legal way Whereas if any thing Enflame and Exasperate the Nation to revive their Sufferings it will arise from a Resentment of the unworthy and treacherous Carriage of so many of them in this critical and dangerous Juncture But the Terms which through their Addressing they have owned the receiving their Liberty and Indulgence upon does in a peculiar manner enhance their Guilt against God and their Country and strangely adds to the Disgust and Anger which Lovers of Religion and the Laws of the Nation have conceived against them For it is not only upon the Acknowledgment of a Prerogative in the King over the Laws that they have received and now hold their Liberty but it is upon the Condition That nothing be preached or taught amongst them that may any ways tend to alienate the Hearts of the People from his Majesty's Person and Government He must be of an Understanding very near allied unto and approaching to that of an Irish-man who does not know what the Court-Sense of that Clause is and that his Majesty thereby intends that they are not to preach against Popery nor to set forth the Doctrines of the Romish Church in Terms that may prevent the Peoples being infected by them much less in Colours that may render them Hated and Abhorred To accuse the King's Religion of Idolatry or to affirm the Church of Rome to be the Apocalyptick Babylon and to represent the Articles of the Tridentine Faith as Faithful Ministers of Christ ought to do would be accounted an alienating the Hearts of their Hearers from the King and his Government which as they are in the foresaid Clauses required not to do so they have by their Addressing confessed the Justice of the Terms and have undertaken to hold their Liberty by that Tenor. And to give them their due they have been very Faithful hitherto in conforming to what the King Exacts and in observing what themselves have assented to the Equity of For notwithstanding all the Danger from Popery that the Nation is exposed unto and all the Hazard that the Souls of Men are in of being poysoned with Romish Principles yet instead of Preaching or Writing against any of the Doctrines of the Church of Rome they have agreed among themselves and with such of their Congregations as approve their Procedure not so much as to mention them but to leave the Province of defending our Religion and of detecting the Falshood of Papal Tenets to the Pastors and Gentlemen of the Church of England And being ask'd as I know some of them that have been why they do not preach against Antichrist and confute the Papal Dectrines they very gravely reply that by preaching Christ they preach against Anti-christ and that by Teaching the Gospel they refute Popery which is such a piece of fraudulent and guilful Subterfuge that I want words to express the knavery and criminalness of it What a reserve and change have I lived to see in England from what I beheld a few years ago It was but the other day that the Conformable Clergy