Late Majesty commanded that it should when even we are govern'd at present by some of the very Laws that it made if only the passing an Act assented to by the King made it a Legal Session and which did determine but by express proviso against it sure then the Parliament must be reputed Legal too in which it was Past so that necessity which might occasion a defect did not make an Essential Nullity as he is pleas'd to name it more by Metaphysical Phraseology than any term of Law for then all its Acts must have been Null'd too which by the next we saw were only Confirm'd But besides if among my many Slips which the Dr. leaves to others to find out I mistake not now too the Continuance of the Parliament the Dissolving it self the Calling Another without the King's Writ was assented to by special Act of Car 1. which could not be Repeal'd till C. the Second was assembled amongst them to Repeal it and there to give it His Fiat Royal to make it more forceable or if it could 't is somewhat improbable from the unhappy Junctures of those Affairs that it could be expected before and therefore by the very first Act of the Session as if made to silence such Drs. it was declared That the Lords and Commons then Sitting were the Two Houses of Parliament and that notwithstanding the King 's Writ of Summons as much as if His Majesty had been Present at its Commencement and Call'd It and tho' by the next of the same Reign it was made Praemunire to defend what was done without the Royal Assent yet the Act for perpetuating the Parliament was past by the King Himself they continued till Military force pull'd them out of the House they met again after Secluded dissolved themselves and therefore 't was made Criminal too by the foresaid Act to say they were still in Being and if the bare Confirmation of former Acts shall imply an essential Nullity to the foregoing Parliaments the Dr. has ruin'd all his Reformation of King Edward by the Confirmations of Queen Eliz. and therefore the very Act that Confirm'd what was enacted by this convention before never questions it for a Parliament and calls it one but only dissipates all doubts from the difficulties that occasion'd the manner of its assembling I have met with heretofore some Lawyers that would not allow it to be such a formal Parliament but none ever yet went so far to continue his Metaphysicks as to question it for an Actual one I wish the Dr. would labour a little more in his own Province and prove to the World the Series of Our Protestant Ordination instead of the Succession of Parliaments not that I so much doubt it or that we may be asham'd to be oblig'd for it to the Church of Rome but because some people of late have taken so much pains to Impeach it and that I think from the faculty of the Dr. he would do better at the Naggs-head than in Westminster-hall But their is no need of any further defence to an Objection that is so needless and ill offer'd to baffle Dr. B. by imitation would be in a manner but abusing of my self 't is plain that the designs which some people had for power and Oppressing the Innocent even from his own confession more than the desires and distrust of some that were Guilty or the necessity that was for it hasten'd this dissolution of that peaceful Assembly and for his inconsiderate suggestion that the setting it for an example was a design of placing the Soveraignty in the people and courting a Common-wealth hee 'll see now we make it solely depend upon a sanction of the Kings and would he visit the Author he should see his error in a refutation of his of that pernicious Principle of perfect confusion by which he is bound to defend the very foundation of his state and 't is strange we must be reproacht for Courting a Common-wealth at the same time we are so vainly menac'd for having exprest against one too much of resentment SECT III. IT is no wonder to see the Dr. make His Late Majesty so Ill a Man when he had long before made Him so Bad a Christian were it not his Peculiar to Libel KINGS his Church might be mistrusted for that Loyal Deportment she ever paid him but as she had ever better thoughts of him in his Life time so she cannot be brought to entertain such Bad ones after his Death common Morality even with a Proverbial Authority commands us to speak well of the Dead t is hard if a King too and the Sacred Dust of Princes cannot put in for the priviledges of common Clay and Mortality to make him a man of Treachery and Design is too grosly invidious for a Prince that was Fam'd for good Nature even to a Fault it looks so much like one of the Meddals of the Dutch upon His Late MAJESTY and they you know alway have their Reverse that 't is among them I believe he learnt to value his Memory I much fancy these his Mysterious Designs were never so clear to the Dr till this transport and passion had enlightned his Eyes for Cholerick people are apt to see with Fire and Indignation and so fancy all Things in Flames that are about them this makes him fly so much to Smithfield Arguments and the Conversion of Dragoons under the easy Reign of a Merciful Monarch manifested in his inclinations to Mildness and Indulgence The late Celebrated Loyalist of the Long Parliament whose Meritorious Services he would magnify yet at the same time libels and defames them They will live and last in our Annals without his writing their History nor be much blemisht by his defamations those honourable Representatives that had sate so long at the Helm and steer'd so well that we still owe to them about Twenty Years quiet and tranquility who had they concur'd with what was their only defection their KING's Inclination to Indulgence and for which obstinacy by his own Maxims he must condemn them too had continu'd the repose they enjoy'd and perhaps prevented all the Distempers that have since disturb'd us these Gentlemen are so little oblig'd to this Dr. at Amsterdam as they were formerly to that of Salamanca and indeed the Obligation is just the same Oates accus'd them long agoe long before Dr. B. who it seems now begins to see with his Spectacles Designs more clearly that they were all Pensioners Creatures meerly Depending on the Crown tho' it appear'd even from the very List that was printed that it was only a malitious Libel and a Ly that not Ten of the Two Hundred had really receiv'd the least Allowance and even some of that was known to be for publick Services which then forsooth must most politickly be call'd secret only to countenance the scandalous Imposture of the Plot of the Papists this Design was then also clear to
had Interest enough to procure it could not by the same Power have continued it to them too Had the Late KING been so designing so resolute to introduce this Religion so much contended against He must from the Drs. Argument have stood to His Toleration and which he might have done too notwithstanding the Clamours of the Ensuing Parliament to suppress it and if an Army alone alarms the Dr. with this Absolute Power and must absolutely make any Monarch Arbitrary with which such fearful Authors have made such a formidable Noise then 't was about that time too there was a standing one afoot and 't is but an Argument against him for the quieting of all Minds and assuring of Men they may the better acquiesce when amidst an Army and under an Indulgence the Protestant Religion was entirely preserv'd nothing was alter'd in the establisht Church nothing in the Constitution of the State. His bitter Reflection that Dissenters were pawn'd to the Rage of the Church like the Iewels of the Crown for want of Money was only an Allegory forc'd in for a better inveighing against his Prince in a severer Sarcasm and a more invidious Expression by way of Figure 't is only a sublimer toucht of his Kindness to the Memory of His Majesty that is to be forgotten 't is but the Language of one that loves the Crown like the Famous Author of the Mercurius Politicus who as politickly knew how to render it contemptible by representing of it poor and so plainly call'd His Late Majesty the King of Beggars I confess the practising upon the necessities of the Prince was once a pretty Prologue and expedient to promote a Rebellion but I am sure the Church of England never lik'd it so well and will think Her self but little oblig'd to this pretious Iewel Her most gracious Son for exposing Her for such a Pattern that Her Loyalty was only a Pander for Oppression and for giving no Money till His Majesty had given Her up the Dissenters however the Observation as malitious as it is will do now no Mischief since our present Soveraign is as safe from the Consequences of it as above the Fears SECT IV. ANd now we are come to the true Province of Dr. B that looks indeed like one of his Seventeen defying of his Prince and reproaching of Him for faithless perfidious Designs to falsify all His Protestations and waiting but for an Oportunity to break through all his Promises I confess Liberty of Conscience and the Writ de Comburendo cannot consist and are as contrary things as the Dr. is sometimes even to himself but what occasion the King has given us to have the least suspicion or shadow of such an injurious Thought that after Liberty for a little while allow'd we shall come to the worst of Poenal Laws I cannot comprehend Is it because his Word was ever Sacred and was never violated but in Dr. B's Mouth Was it to be rely'd on even with an implicit Faith when he was but a Subject and a Successor And must it be the less believ'd now because his Character is much greater Does His Person partake more of Infirmity and human Nature when the Church stiles him next under GOD and nearer to the Divine Is it because 't is His Interest so to do when the Quiet and Tranquility of the State will depend upon his not doing it the Love of His Subjects and the Ease of Himself And Lastly Is it probable he 'l doe all this because possible to be done No the Dr. knows all this is good Sedition but bad Argument he knows with what difficulty the King is compassing for all His Dissenting Subjects an Establisht Toleration as sure any Prince would that was not himself of the National Church Establish't unless He could delight to see himself and his perswasion Criminals to the State and made obnoxious for their Faith to his Satutes and the Law sentenc'd in some Cases even to Death by some of those Sanctions to which in a Legal Sense himself is suppos'd to give their Life he knows that only for cancelling these Severities and some other absurd Inconsistencies in the present Constitution of our State his Prince Condescends to solicit the Repeal of these Laws and for it to gratify and indulge all his Subjects And yet even this the Dr. sees he knows will not be compas't but with much time care and caution and what these invidious Authors would observe but by extraordinary Methods and extrajudicial Proceedings does he think it so easy then when only the Laws and Tests are repeal'd with such difficulties to find a Parliament after a Session or Two that will establish severer Acts of Vniformity to the Church of Rome when that of England has but just lost Hers And another formal Repeal must be made before of the Toleration Establisht I need not take notice that the Number of Catholicks of Quality and Note was never yet enough to make an House and may be a long time before they be that the National Religion will be ever that which is the most generally receiv'd the former Treatise has superseded for it my Pains in this but it is easy for the Dr and a Man of Art that Iuggles with the Government with the turn of his Hand or the shaking of his Box to shuffle upon us from a preceding Protestant a very Loyal Catholick Parliament No 't is not the Proof that His Majesty has given that his Promises to this establisht Church are not to be rely'd on 't is not the Apparancy of his visible Interest that obliges him to Ruin and suppress the Protestant 't is not the possibility of doing it so easily were it so injuriously Design'd to be done 't is none of this that thus disturbs him no 't is his Zeal for his Religion 't is his Love for a particular Society 't is the Popes Power to dissolve these Promises and some private Doctrines that will instruct him in Aequivocations But will this Illuminato say that all this Calumny is new too his own peculiar Notion taken from Originals His Majesties Zeal has long been known to the World as well as His Courage and that to none more than his new Masters the Dutch and who have too much Honour in them to deny it His constant perseverance in a Faith which he too believes the True One Maugre the many Temptations to a Change and the Dangers that threatned his Continuance This I confess shews a well setled Zeal and somewhat like that which inspir'd some Primitive Professors of a Religion which we all agree to have been the True Catholick Faith A Zeal not subject to Flattery and as much above Fear 't is not Christian to make this Criminal and if he will introduce this Doctrine among the Dutch we must in his own Words believe there are Bramans there That His Majesties Favours are only extended to a particular Society is an invidious Assertion more dogmatically laid down
Her Reign to justify the Legality of all that She did even to those things that She confesses She dispens'd withal contrary to Law were we to play like Children at Cross-purposes the greatest non-sence and most insipid Answers would serve pass for the more Ingenious Diversion I told the Dr. what She dispens'd with contrary to the very Parliaments Act. It is Answered of something She did that was rounded upon an Act of Parliament but now because we 'll keep to the purpose we 'll examin this Her power in Ecclesiasticals founded on the First of Her Reign and see how far it makes for our Authors Apology he says this was in a great measure Repeal'd in the Year 1641. the Dr's Excellencies lying more in Chronology than the Statute-book It is a known Act of 17 th Charles the First that does in some measure as he says and I am glad he keeps to any repeal it I will not insist on the occasion of such a Repeal and the juncture of Affairs that forc'd it though I must confess the Reasons of Laws can never be recollected but by Reflection on the State of those Times in which they were made and that makes a sound Historian somewhat of the necessary part of a good Lawyer and from History 't is most deplorably known that this Repeal was procur'd in the Year that this Rebellion commenc'd by a Parliament the defence of which has been made Proemunire and High-Treason by that which enforced the Triennial Parl. into a perpetual one and which was afterward with so much abhorrence and such an ignominious Character repeal'd But all that appears of this Repeal of the 1 st of Elizabeth from the Opinion of the Lawyers and the examining the Act is the power of the Commissioners fining and imprisoning which was look'd upon as oppressive and therefore my Lord Cook in his Argument upon that case who for a time was no great Prerogative Lawyer or would not be so says that this Act was only a restoring to the King His antient Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction which the Commissioners extended so far as injuriously to fine Offenders upon it beyond their Power this usurped Power some people are of opinion is only by that Act repeal'd though I do not doubt but that Parliament would have willingly comprehended in it all the Inherent Antient Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction that ever appertain'd to the King and Crown and even by special Act here under Catholick Princes has been declar'd so so that indeed as the Dr. says it is but in a measure repeal'd and by express Words in the Repeal of Abuses of the Power only prevented so that it could not take away or deprive the Royal Authority from that unquestionable Prerogative of Commissionating any number of Persons in Ecclesiastical Matters that do not exercise such an extensive Iurisdiction and therefore to reflect upon the present Court that is of another nature and a new Creation as put down and repeal'd with that of Queen Elizabeths is no more an Argument than that Queen Elizabeths Commission was reviv'd when but so lately King Charles the Second delegated His Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction and Disposal of Preserments to some Persons that are most now living though perhaps some of them the readiest to Dislike their present Proceedings It is plain that the King's Power in Ecclesiastical Matters was never meant should be infring'd from that Repeal by this Ratification of it in the Late King's Time whatever the First Factious Legislators in it might intend for as you see this Late King did in a sort make use of it so in this very Ratification as the Dr. calls it is Provided that as it shall not extend to the Iurisdiction of Archbishops Bishops so neither to Vicar-Generals or Persons exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by the King's Commission If the Dr. will cavil only because the Word Court of Commission is not expres'd his Cause will hardly be the better for such a peevish Exception since the Constitution of a Vicar-general would be as little Kindness to the Church as it was in the Excesses of its first Establishment under Henry the Eighth which we see His Majesty as excessive as the Dr. would make Him has not hitherto reviv'd but should a Parliament restore the very Court of Queen Elizabeth it would be reckon'd among such men as illegal and only the King's Excesses in the Government I here shall help him to another Set of Excesses since such Prince's Proceedings must be call'd so when they do not quadrate with our Authors Subject and Design which at another time must pass for good Law when they make but the least for His purpose some People perhaps are of opinion That the Two Tests were past after a sort of Excess in the Government the World now knows one of them was made when the Parliament was exceedingly impos'd upon with Falsehoods and Perjuries and as exceedingly transported with a Zeal that look'd too so much like Fury so that if a man consider their origination and the Circumstances of Affairs when these Laws were made instead of keeping them upon the File after the rest are repeal'd there will appear more Reason even from the Doctor 's Excesses for repealing them the First The Conquest of the Kingdom gave a great Latitude to the 1 st William in point of Government which his Arms having acquir'd he found himself the less limited by the Laws though he profess'd to Rule by it and few of his Successors since that by their own Acts have oblig'd themselves but afford us Instances in greater Excesses of Government than any we can now complain of He is said to have invaded the Jurisdictions of the Prelates and seiz'd their Treasures not sparing his own dear Brother Odo William the Second tax'd his Subjects at pleasure by the Power of his Prerogative was as severe upon the Clergy and Westminster-Hall since the Seat of Iustice was look'd upon by the People as built on purpose to countenance his unjust Taxations The Ne exeat Regnum was repin'd at as a Grievance and in that Reign might be said to Commence The making Mutilation and Corporal Punishment Pecuniary in Hen. the First 's Reign the Confiscations and Bishop of Salisbury's Case in King Stephen's were made matter of Excesses in such Authors too Henry the Second resum'd by his own Act Lands that had been sold or given from the Crown by his Predecessors and against this Excess I think His present Majesty has given us good assurance in His last Declaration since the Dr. labours so much upon the absolute Power of the Former Of Richard the First it is Reported That he feign'd his Signet lost and so put out a Proclamation That those who would enjoy the Grants by the former old one must come and have it confirm'd by the New he pawn'd some of his Lands for the Ierusalem Journey and upon his Return would have resum'd them without Pay. The Exactions of King
come command their Votes or else certainly such an Assembly suppos'd of the Wisest as well as the greatest Men in the Nation could never have been prevail'd on for passing such Absurdities and Contradictions into Law for the making lawful Heirs illegitimate and then to legitimate again the self same unlawful Heirs to make one Daughter spurious and then another and at last to make them both to be legal Issue with the single Charm of Be it Enacted It is said of that Assembly that it can do every thing but make a Man a Woman but here I think they went pretty near that too and made Women what they pleas'd In the First Ann's Case Incontinency was made the Cause to divorce Her In the Second the Defect of natural Inclination and only upon sending down some Lords to the Lower House what Marriage he pleas'd was declar'd unlawful It was not the Roman Consistory that was Lords of the Articles then or else they had hardly parted so soon with the Supremacy though that invidious Reflection on that Honourable Constitution in Scotland must come a little unkindly from Protestants since if we believe the Bishop to those Lords they are much oblig'd for the helping on the Reformation in short since the Dr. lays such a mighty Weight upon his getting all warranted or confirm'd by Parliament it is but a weak Support for the Confirmation of his Cause for it will give some People the more occasion to observe that such was once our KING's Authority over Parliaments that they could obtain from the Civil Sanctions of the State to sacrifice the Sacred Authority of the Church Wives and Children Women and Men to his Lust and Anger His Parliamentary Warrant will do him but little Service in such Excesses since His present Majesty's Proposals I think are much more reasonable which he desires only so to be Warranted and if these Excesses are so ordinary in great Revolutions some Persons may think this unexpected Indulgence and Toleration as great a Turn The Dr. very wisely passes by without any Consideration all the Proceedings of Edw. the Sixths Reign in which some may think that some Excesses were Committed too and that even in the very two Points that His Majesty has solemnly declar'd to Defend us in Property and Religion In the very First Year of that Reign which the Dr. cannot be unacquainted with it being so of the Reformation too Did the Protector only by his Proclamation order all Enclosures to be laid open which for some time had been enjoy'd by the Lords and Gentry and was partly possess'd by them by Vertue of those Abby-Lands they had from the Crown The Duke knew this would gratify the Common People and being desirous to be popular he issues out this Commission of Absolute Power for all the Lords and Gentry look'd upon it as an Invasion of Property especially when they were in such a Tumultuous manner thrown down were Abby Lands to be thus invaded now by a Proclamation we might well complain of Excess In the same Year were Injunctions sent forth only the Order of the Council Board over all the Kingdom for altering all the Old Ceremonies and way of Worship in the Church of Rome several for opposing these Commissions and Injunctions as something like Excesses were punish'd or sent to Prison The Bishop of London was clap'd up in the Fleet only for scrupling an Obedience and that though he made most solemn submission which is more some People will say than what has been done by some Successor since upon a milder Test of Obedience and a Process less severe Gardiner was Committed to the Tower only for wishing these Proceedings might be delay'd till the King was more capable of the Government Durham Rochester and Chichester for the same Disobedience were so serv'd all of them dispossess'd of their Bishopricks and what was worse the Bishopricks Sees themselves dispossess'd reform'd from their Revenues These Excesses could not but create great Disorders in the State when they saw that what was call'd the King's Proceedings was allow'd to be Law for the regulating of the Church the several Rebellions of the West and North that follow'd meerly upon these Excesses of Reformation had too Tragical Conclusions to relate and so the Dr. took care lest they should be mentioned the suppression of which did not end without a Western and a Northern Campaign and a great deal of Blood and Severity Sir Will. Kingston's pleasant Cruelty in the West his Landlords the Millers Tragedy do declare Northumberland in the North is so well known that I 'le engage the Doctor confesses it a thing which help'd to facilitate Q. Mary to the Throne In short it appears plain from the History that the Protector saw that Reformotion could not be carryed on without Arms that therefore he made the War in Scotland a Pretence to take them up and for this he brought in Germans and Walloons though the coming over of our own Irish now is made a Terror and Astonishment the Elections of the Bishops was then given to the KING for the Ends of Reformation of which 't is now too late to repent In the next President we are reflected on again because Q. Elizabeth's Power in Ecclesiastical Matters was founded on an Act of Parliament which the Dr. says was in a great measure repeal'd in King Charles the First 's time and that Repeal again in Charles the Second's ratify'd this Authors Argument of a Parliamentary power was little to his advantage in his Reign of Hen. 8. not at all for his purpose in the First of Edward the Sixth for there those great Alterations in Church and State were made before the Parliament was call'd meerly by Injunctions Orders of the Protector or the Council Table and that absolute power authorised by the specious Name of the King's Proceedings This was the Original of that Arbitrary Law and Queen Mary might well write after such a Copy but the Dr. does most designedly misapply to our Presidents in Queen Elizabeth's time this Parliamentary power as well as he designedly and wisely omits it in K. Edw. Reign because he knew he could not apply it for if he 'll but examin one of the Cases I put him in the Queens Reign about Her dispensing with the Latin Service to be read in Collegiate Chappels and the Vniversities contrary to an express proviso of an Act of Parliament for the sake of Reformation and the applauded Opinion of Moor that the Queens power of Non Obstante was good even against the Non Obstante of an Act of Parliament to that Her Power he 'll find that some of Her Affairs and Proceedings were so far from being founded on Acts of Parliaments that She acted without them and upon Resolutions that were given to illude and invalidate their power so that in short the Dr. would apply the Case of the Court of Commission founded by the First of
Presidents to prove the Perfidiousness of Catholick Princes and the lewd Principles of their Religion since it must so unluckily lay open the Scandalous Progress of the Reformation abroad which our Protestant Authors and Dignify'd Church-men have been themselves blush'd at and asham'd and he may seem to deserve as severe an Execration for forcing me to revive so much of the Faults of the Reformers the Protestant Church and his Mothers Shame as that undutiful Son that discovered too much of his Fathers Nakedness 't is to be lamented to see what dissolute debauch'd and Atheistical Opinions the Licentiousness of Reforming produc'd in those Low-Countries we last treated of that of George of Delph and Nicholas of Leyden Grotius bewails as produc'd by this Liberty of the First Reformers and this Family of Love that set up there first were of Opinion that it was lawful to deny upon Oath any thing before a Person that was not of the same Family and Society this is such a Mental Reserve as the Dr. among the Iesuites can't easily discover 'T is to be deplor'd as well as admir'd and animadverted on the Miseries the Confusions and the Rebellions that the Reformation brought with it in all places abroad where ever it was carried on and as great an Enemy as they make the Pope and Society to all Monarchs and Soveraigns the most Antimonarchical Works you see that ever were publish'd did in that very juncture of time appear neither could it in common policy be avoided for the Changes in Church-Government and Religious Worship being for the most part made in opposition to the Supream Authority of the State the villifying of that was unavoidable and the deposing POWER the most politick Position that could be maintain'd Those Innovations that could not be made with their KING's Consent were best carried on by that pretty Expedient of tranferring Allegiance and when this Philip the second would not allow his Subjects all the Liberties they ask'd they had no other Recourse but to tell him he had forfeited his Right SECT IX THe Dr. tells us he could carry this view of History much farther but I think it is carried already a little too far for his Credit for the Faith of Roman Catholicks I am afraid in those times will abide a better Test than the Protestants Loyalty which is easier to be deplor'd and lamented than disprov'd and deny'd This Author found himself press'd in the former Treatise with matter of Fact where the Protestants in Germany find at present both Faith and Protection under Catholick Princes but that his malice must impute to their want of Power to do Mischief and the Circumstances of Affairs this Circumstances of Affairs I do not see but may serve our turns here too and hinder their power of doing Mischief since we have the Kings Word there shall be none done and the PROTESTANT Party so strong a Circumstance to prevent it His Propositions and Expedients of Pension and Indemnity for the Papists are pretty projects and worthy of such an Vndertaker but they would thank him more would he undertake too that when such Laws shall continue in force they may not hereafter be put in execution with a Non Obstante even to a Statute of Impunity and they be told beside with an Insulting Sarcasm you are rightly serv'd their Pensions will do them or their posterity but little good when once they get them again within the praemunire of the Tests and if the Legislators chance to have no more Charity for them than such Reflecters they may be hang'd by those that are so afraid of burning ruin'd with interpretation and most constructively destroy'd by those that will be too willing to void any Law that shall be made for their preservation and the Dr. himself does Menace as much in the very next page an Act of Oblivion will be made truly so by being it self forgot so that the sum of this hardiness of proposals comes to this handsome and easie definition they are always to continue the condemn'd Prisoners to the State to live upon the Basket and the favour of a Reprieve The Contest for Religion I confess is too great but I can see none that contend so much to prevail but such who are so contentious as to depress all different perswasions for fear of Vsurpation if the Test is the sole security against the Catholick Religion The Doctrine of the Church will much suffer in having only such a secular support from the State when even that can hardly defend it self for establishing such an unreasonable Law enacted meerly by the contrivance of such that then sate at the Helm whose Conduct was condemn'd by All whose Proceedings by themselves represented as seditious and that Zeal that animated such unjust undertakings found to have no other foundation but upon Falshood and Perjuries so that if the Question were impartially put it would come to this whither these Tests ought sooner be repeal'd than the rest of the Penal Laws they being more eminently fram'd from meer malice and mistake this prevailing Religion which he would now bring to this very period of time has been too long a prevailing to have so short an Epoche for its commencement and date and for almost this hundred and fifty year was never prevalent and whatever is the Prospect and Face of the State while the Church still continues in that station she would be as she has the best of Securities from so Gracious a King and a Toleration Establisht as well as the Church this Protestant Religion will not be so soon prevail'd upon but must needs be maintain'd in the mighty numbers of the free Professors of it The disservice he would insinuate we have done in putting the Iustices in mind of their Oaths one would think I had superseded the thoughts of in the same Treatise where I had appeal'd to himself to make an Essay in the point of the Dispensing Power where his malice might be manifested in the prosecution and his revenge frustrated by the Royal Authority's suspending of all the penalty and this a Resolution of those twelve men in Scarlet the deepness of whose Crimes he would so maliciously represent by the badge of their Office if he will perswade the Iustices of the Peace to prosecute Dissenters notwithstanding His Majesties Gracious Indulgence I am afraid he 'll do them no acceptable piece of Service and give them more perplexity than the trouble of repealing can create which doubtless must take off all Scruple about their execution the Members of the Coll. he 's pleas'd to Caress with their adhering to their Oaths were perhaps more true to their Zeal and an Obstinate Disobedience a Protestant Prince might have never met with that refractoriness and a Catholick Founder I fancy did never more directly design his Statutes against the Prerogative of a Catholick King but to shew that a stubborn obstinacy was a great ingredient in this Conscience Plea Nothing is more
Iohn and his exercising such a severe Authority over the Church Fining severely for suppos'd Crimes I suppose our Author thinks should be least mentioned because it produc'd the Barons Wars but no one will say they were the better Subjects whatever were the King's Excesses Henry the Third some say was so like his Father that he succeeded him if they must be call'd so in his Excesses too in resuming alien'd Lands in Fines in making advantage of the Vacancies of the Church The Proceedings of Edward the First against his Clergy putting them out of his Protection seising upon their Goods and Edward the Second's Confiscations after the Defeat of the Earl of Lancaster this Author will call Excesses too though I cannot see why they may not all have the more moderate Names of the King's Proceedings as well as when all things were so warranted in the Reign of Edw. 6 th As we had begun with these Observations on our King 's antiently Exercising of an Vnlimited Power which in other Treatises I have shewn and which our Author if he will shall call Absolute from the Reign of Edward 3 d. So here the Dr. may observe these Presidents deduc'd down to that Time too and so cannot but see that such Excesses are inseparable from the Government and perhaps a Prerogative that Soveraignty cannot well or will not be without and if Subjects must be allow'd to Censure and Reflect on their Princes Proceedings it is morally impossible that they can provide against all their Clamours and Complaints the Necessities of State will many times force them to some Excesses and Diversities of Opions and Parties and now the too much to be lamented Divisions in Religion will ever make those Proceedings seem just to one side that are look'd upon as injurious by the other Our Author will oblige the Roman Catholicks very much if he will justify for Law all the Proceedings of Queen Eliz. and I 'le engage he shall have the Thanks of the Society as heartily as he had that of the House for in the First Year before any Act of Parliament had past for Alterations Images were defac'd and Altars demolish'd by Her Proclamations She put down all publick Preachers but such as were Licens'd by Her Authority the business of the Reformation and Altering of Religion if we believe Baker was Carryed in Parliament but by Six Voices and will give Catholicks occasion to say That notwithstanding the present Clamours about Regulating Elections great Artifices were us'd then too to bring it about and but by Six Votes at last the Weighty Cause of Religion was over-ballanc'd 'T is certain that Excesses were then Complain'd of too and it was murmurred about even in the Lower House it self that the Parliament was pack'd that the Duke of Norfolk Earl of Arundel and Sir William Cecil for their own Ends had sollicited Votes and made a Party These Irregularities may serve to silence some Peoples unreasonable and indiscreet Clamors at present since they can be so soon retorted and which I urge only to shew the Consequence of such ill-manag'd Objections and not to justify and defend them SECT X. ANd now that I may be grateful in my Acknowledgments as I shall ever be for any Favours I must confess this Author has assisted me with one President more and the Dr. would do well to be so fair in some of his Writings as to own his Authorities It is the Case in the Late King's Time where he repeals an Act about the size of Carts and Waggons To Answer this our Author Appeals to the Lawyers and the Gentlemen of the Long Robe though he will not stand by the Judgment of the Twelve Men in Scarlet that to their knowledge some Laws are understood to be Abrogated without a special Repeal when some visible Inconvenience enforces it when this comes to be impartially considered it will be a granting of all that he contends against and the Tests and Poenal Laws will expire of their own Accord by this Authors inconsiderate Resolution It is one of the very Arguments of a late Catholick Lawyer upon the Dispensing Power and so as the Dr. wisely appeals to them they as civilly answer him that he is in the right The Dr. did not foresee the Dangerous Consequence amongst Lawyers of his visible Inconvenience for the Law has such an Aversion to this Inconvenience that it maintains as a Maxim that a Mischief is better suffered than an Inconvenience now putting the Case thus That a Legislative Power may possibly pass into Law what may prove a visible Inconvenience to the whole Kingdom or a great Part of it that a great part of the Kingdom and the King himself do judge the Test and Poenal Laws very inconvenient that they have been really found so to the Subject that the KING has in this Case too declared Himself satisfy'd of this Inconvenience and the People address'd against it as intolerable then from his own President and Concession it must be concluded that either these Laws must expire of themselves that there must be some Soveraign Power such as the KING 's to dispense with them and that it is very fit for a Parliament to repeal them for certainly it must conclude a Fortiori that the Inconvenience that is found in forcing of a Conscience is of a greater Consideration than an inconvenience in a Cart Wheel neither does that abrogating of his without a special Repeal make any difference for their expiring by disusance is indeed the self same thing as the Royal Disspensation for in Laws once made the Soveraign Authority is solely entrusted with their Execution and where the KING does not command the Iudges to execute or expresly forbid it no man of sense but will say that this is a perfect Dispensation Our Author is very unlucky in touching upon some Instances that do him some Disservice and in this more especially since I cannot but observe that when these Poenal Laws about Carriages and Encouragement of Navigation were so erroneously made and People solicitous about the repealing them one of the designs of the greatest Ministers of State that they then had in Holland was for embroyling us at home upon the same Account that they might appear the more formidable abroad as well as we weaken'd by those Severities that occasion'd our Divisions which visible Inconvenience was then too in the same manner upon the same Maxims dispenss'd with and prevented only 't is somewhat strange that this darling Liberty of theirs by which they were so gloriously founded and for so long time have so finely Flourish'd should seem so dangerous in our Country and from the goodness of the Soyl could only prosper in theirs but where Trade seems a sort of Religion 't is time to be jealous of such Neighbours that would also learn this Ecclesiastical Policy to make of their Godliness a Gain too Our Author says it is our saying that the KING 's Dispensing Power
Memoirs must not omit any thing that will afford as he thinks matter to deface the Memory of a Prince to whom the Church of England had the greatest Obligation the Life of the late Lord Rochester was not so severely Examin'd as this King's Actions are by this most faithful Historian 'T is a compendious way to Libel with a Reflection and Abuses may be easily fasten'd when the Authors Credit must pass muster for an Accusation One would have thought the Dutch might have been contented with their own Advocates and that the Considerer of their State had in these matters made as much of Apology for them as the Case could bear but it is with an ill Grace indeed and somewhat unnatural to see a sort of human Vipers work their Wits and their Way thorough the Bowels of their own Mother Country Englands Appeal and Marvel's Popery were the first and only Reflections that Libell'd these Actions till our Author came in with another Supplement but those being all such discontented Creatures Creatures depending on the Little Lord that then lost the greatest Place in the Law the Credit of such Authors is as much to be believ'd as the Conspiracy of the Court But this Attempt upon the Fleet when it comes to be examin'd has so much Colour for the Justice of that Encounter that there was first broke several Articles of Peace before that ever we could be said to begin the War those very Ships refus'd us in our own Channel the Right of the Flagg by which it was lawful for ours to seize or destroy them and the Captains that then Commanded had it for Express Commission to stand upon that Antient Regality and besides it is known that the Dutch had defended Van Ghent in the like obstinate denyal before so that now it could not be excus'd as a private Persons inconsiderate Default since whole Fleets were resolv'd to maintain it and their Masters had given them incouragement so to do this was I think an Heroical Breach too upon one of the Articles of Breda and all Leagues and Vnions if I am not out in my Reason and Law are such Acts as are Aggregate in themselves though the constituent Clauses that compose them have a great deal of individual Variety and Texture to the twisting them together of which if but one Twigg is taken out it presently loosens the whole Band We had been upon a long Accommodation and all fruitless Embassyes and Applications could not prevail so that even declaring of a War had it been actually design'd was never requir'd by the Laws of it in such a Case as previous and I 'le engage I 'le get their own Country-man Grotius himself to tell us so that the denouncing of it is many times conditional and then a Violation of Articles on one side is a sufficient Indiction without any necessity of declaring it on both we had demanded the Right of the Flagg and it was deny'd us This was by the Antients call'd a Clarigation and superseded ever rhat pure and absolute Denuntiation which himself confesses needless too when satisfaction is demanded from those that are resolv'd to offend and Servius his Exposition on the Leges Foeciales appears to be the same But since he desires Instances too the Romans in the Third Punick War without denouncing it surpriz'd the Carthaginians for some of their Violations so Cyrus did the Armenians David for Indignities the Ammonites and for more modern Examples the Great War of Sweden was carryed into Germany before it was heard of on the Continent that an Army was Landed on the Isle of Rugen because contrary to Articles the Emperour had oppos'd him in his War with the KING of Poland The reviving of old Differences was far from my Design but since the Dr. will not have such Actions to be forgotten it is a Duty I owe to the pious Memory of our deceased Prince to the Reputation and Honour of the Present to that Native Country that he so injuriously reproaches to defend them from those Calumnies that such a Deserter has cast upon them The Revolt and Defection of some States for which he so furiously pursues me I am afraid from the foregoing Relations of the Fact that he has forc'd me to will appear in spight of History to disguise it when even their own Authors do not pretend to excuse them from it but this Dr. thought he must do somewhat extraordinary for his new Masters to merit such a generous Protection and yet in this very Passage that he so pursues we only put it in the case words of a Common-wealth in general without specifying the particular Country to which we would apply it which for decency's sake and deference to that Allyance and Authority we did designedly forbear but since our Author is so unquiet I am afraid it was from the Result of the Application being so easy which himself perhaps made the sooner when he saw that somewhere it must needs touch but as Subjects are oblig'd to a real Friendship to all that are ally'd to their Lord and Soveraign so the necessity of such Obligation is somewhat superseded where such Authors are suffer'd to defame and defy him What other Authors have observ'd as we are neither oblig'd in Justice to Answer or defend so does it argue a defect of Matter fit for a Reflection in our own Treatise when he forces in Anothers to fill up the measure of his Animadversion But this I hope will appear too from the History of the States That if there were Roman Catholicks concern'd in the First Formation of their Government it was only so far as that they fought with them once for what was call'd their Antient Priviledges which as soon as they were confirm'd to them they were satisfy'd and return'd peaceably to their former Obedience In the Pacification at Gaunt tho' there was was omitted that Reservation of the deference that was due to the KING's Authority yet it was afterward by Explication annex'd and for that Don Iohn of Austria then the Governour confirm'd it under the Names and Title of the Perpetual Edict and that with the King's Consent and Approbration who after so many Troubles and Revolutions was glad to see his subjects tender their Obedience and by that their own Act thought it sufficiently secur'd But it seems there were those that design'd further some of the Eminent among the Calvinist's refus'd to subscribe that Article of Obedience to the KING's Authority which was afterward annex'd and so spoyl'd all the good Effects of this hopeful Pacification created such Jealousies and Disturbance that the Governour was forc'd to fly for his preservation to the strong Castle of Namur they chuse their Ruar model the Government anew frame an Oath to renounce all Obedience to Don Iohn the Governour and so zealous were the Reformers that the Iesuites of Antwerp for refusing it were plunder'd whose Loyalty then was the only Crime of this
Princes Thoughts he had surely no orders for the Printing and Publishing it in our State only to make the more disturbance to disperse it through the City only that there might be complaining in our streets was it not free then for every one to tell of it his Sense and Opinion or will those that allow all things Liberty in Holland confine an English man's Thought Or did he think it as requisite that every Reader of the Letter surreptitiously printed was to consult the Secretary's Office whither Mr. Fagel had feign'd it This Honorable Gentleman from his high Station that he has in the State and his celebrated Abilities in managing the Affairs of it could not imagine that it was the Duty of every Subject to the King of Great Britain to examine at his Peril whither a Paper printed and Publisht without any License were exactly the same with a Letter that was sent from the Pensioner of Holland our Animadversions were on a piece that by its Publication was an offence to the Publick and by being Surreptitious a Transgression of the Laws and so cannot by any prudent Statesman be improv'd into a Negotiation of State and our Ministers no more accountable to Mr. Fagel for our Animadversions than Mr. Fagel to our Ministers for his Publication Whatever was the knowledge and thoughts of other People this unauthoriz'd Publication empowred me to tell mine as far as I knew and that with Authority so that Mr. Fagel must be angry with those and punish them as they do deserve that thus publisht his Paper and not with those who without a Liberty of Conscience might be freely allow'd to tell their thought and I 'll engage to prove Mr. Fagel himself was of that Opinion when he made his Missive to our Envoy or else his Hand and his Heart do not go together for he tells us there That he finds himself very little concern'd in what is said in this Book that he foresaw well enough from the beginning that he should be attackt upon the account of His Letter in which it was indifferent to him what any Man thought of it But it seems these words have somewhat in them of the Reserve for the Close of the Letter explains it thus that the Author deserves to be punisht for an Attrocious Calumny was Mr. Fagel indifferent what any man thought of it and is the man to be punisht now for telling his thoughts Or does he mean a Man might have told his thoughts with Impunity if he had not been authoriz'd but deserves to be punisht now because he tells them with authority or would he have the Missive of the Pensioner of Holland be of more Force against the Parliamentum Pacificum and their Foreigner than a Memorial of His Majesty of Great Britain against his own Subject and the Author of so many Libels and Reflections The celebrated Prudence of this great Minister will not suffer me to suspect a person of such a Character as the defensive Reflection on this Letter gives him of so much inconsistency even in sense reason and the Rules of Government but I must submit it to the consideration of others since it seems at first sight not so agreeable with himself with their Civil or our English Law and he will not find from their Dutch that any thing that is in Print with a Lawful Authority can be call'd a Libel a Defamation or in their Language a Lastering much less the Author to be punisht as a Lastereer neither is the Imperial Law so little concern'd for the honour of its Legislators neither can it be imagin'd so absurd as to make those Criminals to the State that act with its Authority and are only zealously concern'd in its defence and Justification In short Mr. Fagel's Letter and Mr. Fagel's Authority are both alike unknown to me and so is that Authority by which the Paper was Publisht here I hope to himself but it may be observ'd here and that without Telescopes that these two Planets suppose of Mars and Saturn that have with such an ill aspect lookt upon a Treatise that seems only a Plea for Peace were very near in Conjunction the Reflexions and the Missives were clearly the Result of their Authors good Correspondence they look like Vouching for one another's Children at the Font for the Minerva of the Brain we know is the mother of Productions too but the best of it is the malice of both must miscarry and this Author would then only be punishable as he deserv'd had he been found divulging and dispersing such a dangerous Paper to make a Division amongst His Majesty's Subjects Neither can this Terrible Reproach of being an Attrocious Calumniator that is by the Lex Remnia of the Romans to be burnt in the Forehead for a Rogue frighten me from my Duty or affect me in Law I cannot find that Civilians call any Calumnies or Injuries Atrocious but from the Circumstances of the person or place where your own Magistrate is affronted in himself or his office and I having not yet translated my Allegiance and as I hope never shall cannot be said to offend Mr. Fagel so Atrociously unless I should become their Subject too assault him in their Senate-House or affront him as a Pensioner And yet after all this unaccountable resentment of this mighty Minister his Remonstrance against this Book looks in truth as if he had never read it and 't is very probable the person that is so concern'd in it might make it his business to give him a false account for so far was the Author from accusing the Pensioner of Holland for forging their Highnesses Names that in more places than one he reflects upon it as if himself had been abus'd and his own was forg'd he calls it a paper that must pass for the Pensioners and says that the Presses of London did more probably produce what perhaps was expedient to paum upon the Hague and if Holland had the honour to bring it to light this Pensioner of the States might be more likely the Dr. of Amsterdam And these Remarks were made to the best of our knowledge and which I can assert upon the Faith of a Christian so far was it from the Artifices of one as our Author says that knew they had order'd the Letter that he had some reason to believe besides the confidence of this Author that he himself had forg'd it so that this Missive of Mijn Heer the Pensioner would have come better from our Monsieur the Doctor tho' it would indeed have been but with an ill Grace for him to have desir'd our being punisht who so little deserved it that perhaps hath much merited as well as expos'd himself to the highest punishment that any Laws can inflict The Reflecter's malice is in nothing more remarkable than in endeavouring to pervert in the end of his Discourse that tender