preservation of our Religion Liberties and Properties that were all lately like to have been swallowed up in monstrous confusions if the special Spirit of God had not inspired Your Heart to prevent it Here not to mention the imputation of Enthusiasm cast upon His Majesty which such a Master of Reason would be asham'd to pretend to what is the scope of both these Addresses but to work His Majesty into an apprehension of Treasonable and Rebellious Designs against His Person and the Government carried on by Two Parliaments than which none ever exprest a greater care and providence for the preservation of both This is the only saving Card that the men of this Interest have to play to make the King jealous and fearful of his Parliaments and consequently to breed a diffidence in them of Him that the foundations of the Government being renderd thus unsteady they may upon a favourable juncture overturn it and erect their own new Model And to accomplish this design 't is not only the method of these whiffling Boroughs already mentioned and of others I might recite as Weymouth Thetford c. but of deeper heads The University of Cambridge it self reflecting on these Parliaments speaks of them in these terms That factious and malicious men have not proceeded to plunder and sequestration to violate our Chapels rifle our Libraries and empty our Colledges as once they did next to the over-ruling providence of God is only due to the Royal care and prudence of Your sacred Majesty who gave so seasonable a check to their arbitrary and insolent undertaking What could be spoken more malicious or what if his Majesty could be induc'd to believe it true could possibly tempt him more to resolve never to put himself into the danger of the like Assembly And that we need not question their desire and design os cashiering Parliaments they take upon themselves a power of repealing an Act of Parliament for they make bold to affirm That no Religion no LAW no fault or forfeiture can alter the Succession whereas the Statute of 13 Eliz. has made it Treason to affirm that the LAWS and Statutes made in Parliament do not bind the Right of the Crown and the descent limitation inheritance and governance thereof It were needless to recite the like assertions in other Addresses for these are enow to convince any man of the design that is not engag'd in it and those that are will never be convinc'd but by a Parliament which in due time may perswade them to recant And to make his Majesty more favourable to their purpose and lest his Wants and necessities should be stronger Arguments to Him for assembling a Parliament the only Legal means of supplying them than their Insinuations for staving him from it they first accuse the late Sessions for unreasonably obstructing his Majesties demands of supplies of mony so Northumberland and then to put Him into a readier method of furnishing himself the County Palatine of Durham in their late Anti-Associations as they call it thus express themselves And that we may not only verbally express our Loyalty we do as in Duty and Allegiance bound give this Assurance That our Lives and Fortunes sha l be ready and that we will CONTRIBVTE MONEY to our uttermost Abilities when ever your Majesties occasions shall require No mention at all of a Parliament but both by the words and the whole scope and drift of this Address it is plain they mean a voluntary Contribution whenever His Majesty shall signifie that his occasions require it Thus by these few passages we see how industriously they are engaged in carrying on the leading half of the Popish Plot viz. Arbitrary Government we shall next inquire what assistance they afford the following half to wit the extirpating the Protestant Religion and introducing of Popery And I doubt not but to make it appear they are thorough pac'd in this also In the Parliament that began Octob. 21. 1680. there were two Bills that had each two Readings and were Committed upon the debate of the House the one for Uniting of his Majesties Protestant Subjects the other for exempting his Majestie 's Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the Penalties of certain Laws whether they would have passed or no is uncertain however they were quash'd by the Prorogation of the Parliament But there was a third Bill which passed both Houses intitled An Act for the Repeal of a Statute made in the thirty fifth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth As the late Long Parliament repealed the Statute de Haeretico comburendo for fear if Popery should once again get the upper hand it would be executed upon Protestants as it was in Queen Marys daies so this present Parliament foreseeing that this Act of Queen Elizabeth that was made against the Prownists and Barrowists of those daies as appears in the Journals of Parliament of that Queen lately published by Mr. Starkey was likely to be perverted to the ruin of the Estates Liberties and it might be Lives of Protestants in the daies of a Popish Successor and thinking it prudent to provide even against the present dangers from the Common Enemy the Papists by bearing a gentler hand over the dissenting Protestants on whom this Act was in part executed and thereby uniting them more firmly in Interest and Affection with the Church of England I say upon these considerations this present Parl. thought fit to repeal that Act of 35 Eliz. But at the end of the Sessions when this Bill should have been presented with the others that were expedited unto his Majesty for his approbation and passing it into an Act there was no fight or tydings of it By whose default it was thus smother'd there has been no opportunity since to find out However some of our late Addressers throw the odium of it upon his Majesty telling him That he was unwilling to pass his Royal Assent to any Act which may repeal that of 35 Eliz. Vide Kents Address How these Gentlemen come to understand the King's mind in this case I know not Sure I am it is very unlikely but his Majesty would have passed this Bill recommended with the concurrent advice and consent of both Lords and Commons if it had been tendred to Him seeing he has alwaies profest so great a regard to tender Consciences and himself from his own motion granted them an Indulgence against this and several other Acts of Parliament which every one may remember how difficultly he was prevailed with by the Parliament to retract saying he was resolved to stand by it But these men would have it believ'd that He 's now otherwise inclin'd and besides if their Insinuations of his Majesties command to stifle it were true it were palpable that He had shaken the very Constitution of Parliaments according to which all Bills that have past both Houses ought to be presented to his Majesty But no truly Loyal Subject will believe so gracious a King
it is obvious to say that it is a Solecism and Non-sense to affirm that any one is a man's Heir or Successor while himself lives for the Successor only commences such at his Predecessor's death And therefore he that intentionally swears Allegeance to the former in the life-time of the latter is in plain terms a Traytor For the plain intent and meaning of the Oath is no more than this That seeing in Monarchies that are hereditary there is no Interregnum but upon the death of the present Soveraign his Successor is immediately invested in his power it is prudently provided by this Oath that the Subjects Allegeance shall not be suspended till the new Soveraign's Coronation that thereby the mutual stipulation might be renewed but as the Heir 's entring upon the Gevernment does imply that he accepts it upon the same conditions as his Predecessor held it so does this Oath as effectually bind the Subject before the Coronation as after And hereby are very great hazards and inconveniences prevented for Multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labra and the Coronation being usually perform'd with great pomp and ceremony many accidents may happen before all things can be prepared for the Solemnity that may require the utmost service of the people and therefore 't is requisite they should in the mean time be under his command But now all the question is Whether such a particular man has so unalterable a right to be such a ones Heir that no Crime can forfeit that right no Power annul it What the Crime in our present case is we should better have known if the hasty dissolution of so many Parliaments and a Noli prosequi had not hindred But that we may resolve this Query let us make a Fiction of Case Suppose the present King and his Ancestors for several Generations sincere and hearty professors of the Protestant Religion swearing at their Coronation that they will defend and protect it as the most considerable branch of the Law of the Land And suppose him that expects to be Heir perverted from this to the Popish Religion notwithstanding the examples of his Ancestors and the Commands of his Martyr'd Father to the contrary Suppose his principal Servant and greatest Confident braging of the apparent likelihood of rooting out this pestilent Northern Heresie and of the zeal of his Master in the Cause declaring that his Master's and a Neighbouring Monarch's Interest the most dangerous enemy to his Country are inseparable Suppose this Confident also actually engag'd in contriving the Murther of the present Monarch to hasten his Master's coming to the Crown Supposing all this we can hardly imagine a Crime to be blacker or a person more obnoxious to a suspicion of designing the subversion of the establisht Religion and in it of the Government if ever he should be seated in the Throne So that if any Crimes can be a sufficient cause of Exclusion or if any person can be put by his pretensions to the Crown these are the Crimes and this is the person that demerit it And now let us consider whether a Parliament have not a power to inflict such a punishment on such offences It is from the Laws enacted by Parliament that such a Fact has such a punishment awarded to it That Felonies are punished with Death as well as Murder though it be otherwise in many Countries and also by the Divine Law That Words without any other Overt Act are as Treasonable and render the Speakers liable to the same death and like forfeit of Estate as actual Assassinating the King would do The Parliament can make saying that which in the nature of the thing is not impossible to be true to be Treason The King alone to those offences that by the Law deserve death can appoint banishment or perpetual imprisonment c. if they respect himself only but if the people be interested then can He with the two Houses inflict what punishment they please They can Attaint any man or take off the Attainder as they see good They can legitimate a Bastard or illegitimate one that is born in lawful Wedlock Of both we have Instances in Q. Mary and Q. Elizabeth for both of them in 28 H. 8. were declared illegitimate whereas one of them must needs be legitimate and in 35 H. 8. they were both of them rendred inheritable to the Crown which must needs be as much as legitimate though one of them must necessarily be illegitimate the latter being born while the former's Mother was living For if according to the determination of the Universities domestick and foreign the Brother by the Law of God might not Marry the Relict of his Brother then King Henry's Marriage with Queen Mary's Mother that had been his elder Brother Prince Arthur's Wife was unlawful and consequently null in it self ab initio before the declaration of it in Parliament in Ann. 24. of his Reign or if it was not unlawful nor null then must his Marriage with Queen Elizabeths Mother be certainly unlawful and consequently Queen Elizabeth illegitimate They can Divorce a man from his Wife for other causes than Adultery so that the Parties shall be at liberty to Marry others Non obstante our Saviour's declaration as to the Jewish Oeconomy yea they can and have granted such a power to Doctors Commons that Impotency in the Man shall be a sufficient cause for divorce or a nullity as we had an Instance about four years ago in one Rowley and Mrs Pitman his wife And by the way if impotency be a sufficient cause for dissolving the sacred tye of Marriage because the main end of Marriage the propagating mankind is thereby frustrated it may be equally reasonable to debar such an one the Espousal of the Government as 't is notorious before hand is perverted to an utter incapacity of answering the ends of it And on the other side the Parliament can grant a divorce if the Woman be incapable of generation and so was Henry the eighth in the 32 year of his Reign divorced from his Queen the Lady Anne of Cleve who survived to the fourth year of Queen Mary but the King married again within little more than a month after this divorce But to proceed The two Houses can give away the whole Kingdom to the King so as to make him sole possessor of all and He and they can dispose of or alienate the Crown-lands or any branch of the King's Revenue as they please They can banish any man and make him in worse condition than an Alien and on the other hand can naturalize any Foreigner In a word they have an unbounded absolute dominion over the Lives Liberties and Estates of any subject in the Kingdom and such is every one but the King himself We have had Instances of Queens being beheaded in relation to which we shall not need to inquire whether they were really guilty of the Crimes laid to their charge 't is sufficient to observe that
capable of being perverted to so great an Invasion of the Rights or breach of the Rules of Parliament let such ill-designing flatterers suggest what they please But where ever the fault of this miscarriage lay our Addressers were heartily glad of it and Petition the King that he will put this Act of 35 Eliz. in execution for the safety of the Church his Majesties Sacred Person and Government So Ripon Sussex c. They accuse the Two Houses as enemies to our Church and Religion which they endeavour'd to undermine and ruine when they went about to Repeal this Act which is a chief Bulwark of both So Holland in Lincolnshire Now one would think the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled better knew what would maintain our Religion than these men but the truth is our Religion is not the same with the Parliament and them and so no marvel if what will maintain the one's would ruine the other's They call their Religion that which is establisht by Law and this they will defend with their Lives and Fortunes In this protestation the rankest Papist in England will joyn with them believing Magna Charta to be the firmest Law and Popery to stand as unshaken thereupon as an House founded upon a Rock for all the blasts and billows of suppos'd Heretical Kings and Parliaments all whose Acts and Ordinances against Holy Church a Papist reckons to be in themselves void And considering all the circumstances even a charitable man may be pretty confident that this expression Religion establish'd by Law is commonly us'd in this sence when he observes that a Gentleman presum'd to be no very zealous Protestant in a late Print is represented as promising to stand by it and to endeavour to preserve it But this by the way Hence it is that our Addressers account it matter of highest Joy and Satisfaction to understand the King's resolution to maintain the Succession of the Crown in its due and legal course of Descent Oh how it tickles their fancies to have hopes of a Popish Successor So Ely cannot but REJOYCE to find His Majesty expresly professing himself in his own Royal Judgment so nearly concerned in Honour Justice and Conscience to preserve the rightful Succession of the Crown in its Legal descent Thus Northumberland do with the greatest TRANSPORT of JOY and THANKFVLNESS return His Majesty their most humble and express acknowledgment for opposing with such incomparable resolution the Arbitrary and unnatural proceedings against the undoubted right of his Succession in the person of his Royal Brother the greatest Example of Trust Duty and Obedience to his sacred Majesty They would almost persuade one this Royal Brother absented himself from the King's Chapel in obedience to his Majesties Command or else they will give the Dissenters leave to style themselves his Majesties most dutiful and obedient Subjects in imitating so great an Example But to the Point I said above that the prejudices of natural affection c. that the King is byassed by may permit him to stand fair in the opinion of hearty Protestants notwithstanding his opposing the Bill of Exclusion and this entailing a Popish Successour might be matter of their patience and submission but to be so transported with Joy hereupon as our Addressers express themselves to be is a plain token they never intend to be burnt for Hereticks when such a one comes to the Crown but will with Derbyshire c. most heartily to the utmost expence both of their Lives and Fortunes assist support maintain and defend such a Successor with the Regalia's and Prerogatives of his Crown and the Religion and Government both of Church and State as establisht by Law I believe these Gentlemen are not so devested of Flesh and Blood nor have so perfectly learn'd of the Apostle to rejoyce in tribulation but that Fire and Faggot would drive them into sadder apprehensions if they knew not of a Trick to escape them But this is the ground of their Triumph that in such an ones Reign they shall be able to take a fuller revenge on the Schismatical Dogs than the present mild Laws and more indulgent Prince will permit them Who sees not how their fingers itch to be at it that observes their illegal and inhumane treatment of honest and peaceable Protestants at Bristol c. even whilst Laws to punish them for such barbarities are in force to what Cruelties then will not their Fury carry them when it shall be encourag'd and spurr'd on by Law and the Commands of a Jesuited King What shall I say of their preferring Popery before Presbytery of their accounting Calvin a worse man than Ignatius Loyola and his Doctrines more or at least as pernicious What construction can a man put upon their incredulousness of a Popish Plot that has been so sufficiently attested to be real while they profess their firm belief of a Presbyterian Plot that has twice at least been detected by the King and Council to be forg'd and Fictitious in the cases of Dangerfield and Fitz-Harris and was never yet believ'd by any Jury What rejoycings at the acquittal of Wakeman Gascoyne c. and what applause of the fairness of their Tryals but when a Protestant comes to be acquitted where is the man amongst them that shall I say is glad nay that does not with Durham in their Anti-Association complain of packt Juries and with the Middle-Templers of Juries perverting the Laws and usurping to themselves an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Dominion Which of them exclaims not presently like Norfolk against partial Grand Juries such as can violate their Oaths to procure impunity for Treason and think it merit to affront and oppose the Government Into what Tory's Heart ever did it enter or which of their Tongues ever made the motion to Abhor the most damnable Conspiracy of the Papists to Murther the King Massacre his Subjects and subvert the Protestant Religion but when a Sham-Association and yet that only to prevent a Popish Successour's coming to the Crown is obtruded upon the World then nothing but Death and the Cobler Treason Rebellion Can such men think any man so blind as not to see how they stand affected 'T were needless to observe how generally they have got by heart Thompson's two Letters to prove Sir Ed. Godfry Murthered himself and of what weight those absurd and contradictory suggestions seem to them what impressions the dying Jesu t s Speeches have made upon their Consciences and how charitably scrupulous they are grown whilst they question not but Colledge dyed with a Lye in his mouth What Clergy-man that has taken L'estrange for his Guide and those are more than a good many that will confess the Pope to be Anti-Christ or the Church of Rome to be Idolatrous let Vsher Mede Moore Stillingfleet c. demonstrate it never so plainly They must needs acknowledge they 'l tell you that there are many corruptions in the Church of Rome BUT what Constitution