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 J A. 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 Iames Montgomery of Skelmerly and Sir Iohn 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 3 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 read to Their Majesties the King returned to the Commissioners the following Answer When I engaged in this Undertaking I had particular Regard and Consideration for Scotland and therefore I did emit a Declaration in relation to That as well as to this Kingdom which I intend to make good and effectual to them I take it very kindly that Scotland hath expressed so much Confidence in and Affection to Me They shall find Me willing to assist them in every thing that concerns the Weal and Interest of that Kingdom by making what Laws shall be necessary for the Security of their Religion Property and Liberty and to ease them of what may be justly grievous to them After which the Coronation-Oath was tendred to Their Majesties which the Earl of Argyle spoke word by word distinctly and the King and Queen repeated it after him holding Their Right Hands up after the manner of taking Oaths in Scotland The Meeting of the Estates of Scotland did Authorize their Commissioners to represent to His Majesty That that Clause in the Oath in relation to the rooting out of Hereticks did not import the destroying of Hereticks And that by the Law of Scotland no Man was to be persecuted for his private Opinion And even Obstinate and Convicted Hereticks were only to be denounced Rebels or Outlawed whereby their Moveable Estates are Confiscated His Majesty at the repeating that Clause in the Oath Did declare that He did not mean by these words That He was under any Obligation to become a Persecutor To which the Commissioners made Answer That neither the meaning of the Oath or the Law of Scotland did import it Then the King replyed That He took the Oath in that Sense and called for Witnesses the Commissioners and others present And then both Their Majesties Signed the said Coronation-Oath After which the Commissioners and several of the Scotish Nobility kissed Their Majesties Hands The Coronation-OATH of England The Arch-Bishop or Bishop shall say WIll You solemnly Promise and Swear to Govern the People of this Kingdom of England and the Dominions thereto belonging according to the Statutes in Parliament agreed on and the Laws and Customs of the same The King and Queen shall say I solemnly Promise so to do Arch-Bishop or Bishop Will You to Your Power cause Law and Justice in Mercy to be Executed in all Your Judgments King and Queen I Will. Arch-Bishop or Bishop Will You to the utmost of Your Power Maintain the Laws of God the true Profession of the Gospel and the Protestant Reformed Religion Established by Law And will You Preserve unto the Bishops and Clergy of this Realm and to the Churches committed to their Charge all such Rights and Priviledges as by Law do or shall appertain unto them or any of them King and Queen All this I Promise to do After this the King and Queen laying His and Her Hand upon the Holy Gospels shall say King and Queen The Things which I have here before Promised I will Perform and Keep. So help me God. Then the King and Queen shall kiss the Book The Coronation OATH of Scotland WE William and Mary King and Queen of Scotland Faithfully Promise and Swear by this Our solemn Oath in presence of the Eternal God that during the whole course of Our Life we will serve the same Eternal God to the uttermost of Our Power according as he has required in his most holy Word reveal'd and contain'd in the New and Old Testament and according to the same Word shall maintain the True Religion of Christ Jesus the Preaching of his Holy Word and the due and right Ministration of the Sacraments now Received and Preached within the Realm of Scotland and shall abolish and gainstand all false Religion contrary to the same and shall Rule the People committed to our Charge according to the Will and Command of God revealed in his aforesaid Word and according to the Landable Laws and Constitutions received in this Realm no ways repugnant to the said Word of the Eternal God and shall procure to the utmost of Our power to the Kirk of God and whole Christian People true and perfect Peace in all time coming That we shall preserve and keep inviolated the Rights and Rents with all just Priviledges of the Crown of Scotland neither shall we transfer nor alienate the same That we shall forbid and repress in all Estates and Degrees Reif Oppression and all kind of wrong And we shall Command and Procure that Justice and Equity in all Judgments be keeped to all Persons without exception as the Lord and Father of all Mercies shall be merciful to uâ— And we shall be careful to root out all Hereticks and Enemies to the true Worship of God that shall be Convicted by the true Kirk of God of the aforesaid Crimes out of Our Lands and Empire of Scotland And we faithfully affirm the things above written by Our Solemn Oath God save King WILLIAM and Queen MARY FINIS a a Distinct. 19. cap. a Caus. 25. q. 1. cap. 11. b b Cap. Vergent de Hereticis c c Cap. Infam 6. q. 1. p. 297. d d Suar. de Fide disp 12. §. 9. n. â— l. 2. c. 29. e e Cap. de Haer. f f Aâ—zoâ— Tom. 1. l. 8. c. 12. q. 7. g g Cap. 2. Sect. fin de Haer. in 6. h h Cap. cum secundum Legis de Haer. Inno III. cap. de Vergentis i i Vasque in Suar. disp 22. S. 4. n. 11. k k S. 1. n. 5. l l Cap. Vergent de Haer. m m Cap. ad abolendum de Haâ—r Suâ—r Dis. 23. Bul. Vrb. 4. Inno. 4. n n Jac. de Gra. decis l. 2. c. 9. n. 2. o o Bonacina Diano Castro Molanus c. Car. Allen. ad mon. to Nobl. Peop. p. 41. p p â—riess of P. G. 13. Clem. 8. q q 5. Ies. Trial p. 28. r r Col. Lr. â—o the Internâ—ncio s s Prance 's Nar. p. 4. t t Caus. Ep. p. 189. u u Five Ies. Tâ—iâ—ls p. 2â— x x Caput Offiâ—â—â—m y y Bonâ—ciâ—â—a dâ— prinâ— prat Disp. 3. q. 2. z z Parson 's Philop. p. 109. a a Becan Cont. Aug. p. 131 132. In Fowlis p. 60. b b Oats 's Nar. p. 4. N. 5 c. c c Hist. Ref. p. 110. a a Prout Regalis Officii exposcit utilitas b b Sicome le profit de Office Demaunde The Kingly or Regal Office of this Realm Mar. Sess. 3. cap. 1. Give us a King to judg us 1 Sam. 8.5 6 20. 18 Edw. III. 20 Edw. III. Cap. 1 2. 1 Iac. 1. cap. 1. 35 H. 8. cap. 1. 6 E. 6.11.1 2 3. Om. 10. 1 El. 6. 1 El. 3. Church-man
of all the Judges of England that even the known and undoubted Prerogative of the Iewish Kings do not belong to our Kings and that it is an absurd and impudent thing to affirm they do Coke 11. Rep. p. 63. Mich. 5. Iac. Note upon Sunday the Tenth of November in the same Term the King upon Complaint made to him by Bancroft Arch-bishop of Canterbury concerning Prohibitions was informed That when Question was made of what matters the Ecclesiastical Judges have Cognizance either upon the Exposition of the Statutes concerning Tythes or any other thing Ecclesiastical or upon the Statute 1 Eliz. concerning the High-Commisâ—ion or in any other case in which there is not express Authority by Law the King himself may decide it in his Royal Person and that the Judges are but the Delegates of the King and that the King may take what Causes he shall please to determine from the Determination of the Judges and may determine them himself And the archâ—Archâ—bishop said That this was clear in Divinity That such Authority belongs to the King by the Word of God in Scripture To which it was answered by me in the presence and with the clear consent of all the Justices of England and Barons of the Exchiquer That the King in his own Person cannot adjudg any Case either Criminal as Treason Felony c. but this ought to be determined and adjudged in some Court of Justice according to the Law and Custom of England And always Judgments are given Ideo consideratum est per Curiam so that the Court gives the Judgment And it was greatly marvelled that the Arch-bishop durst inform the King that such Absolute Power and Authority as is aforesaid belonged to the King by the Word of God. CHAP. III. Of OBEDIENCE I. NO Man has any more Civil Authority than what the Law of the Land has vested in him nor is he one of St. Paul's Higher Powers any farther or to any other purposes tâ—an the Law has impowered him II. An Usurped Illegal and Arbitrary Power is so far from bâ—ing the Ordinance of God that it is not the Ordinance of Man. III. Whoever opposes an Usurped Illegal and Arbitrary Power does not oppose the Ordinance of God but the Violation of that Ordinance IV. The 13 th of the Romans commands Subjection to our Temporal Governours because their Office and Imployment is for the Publick Welfare For he is the Minister of God to Thee for good Verse 4. V. The 13 th of the Hebrews commands Obedience to Spiritual Rulers because they watch for your Souls Verse 17. VI. But the 13 th of the Hebrews did not oblige the Martyrs and Confessors in Queen Mary's Time to obey such blessed Bishops as Bonner and the Beast of Rome who were the perfect Reverse of St. Paul's Spiritual Rulers and whose Practice was murdering of Souls and Bodies according to that true Character of Popery which was given it by the Bishops who compiled the Thanksgiving for the Fifth of November but Arch-Bishop Laud was wiser than they and in his time blotted it out The Prayer formerly ran thus To that end strengthen the Hands of our Gracious King the Nobles and Magistrates of the Land to cut off these Workers of Iniquity whose Religion is Rebellion whose Faith is Faction whose Practice is murthering of Souls and Bodies and to root them out of the Confines of this Kingdom VII All the Judges of England are bound by their Oath and by the Duty of their place to disobey all Writs Letters or Commands which are brought to them either under the Little Seal or under the Great Seal to hinder or delay common Right Are the Judges all bound in an Oath and by their Places to break the 13 th of the Romans VIII The Engagement of the Lords attending upon the King at York Iune 13. 1642. which was subscribed by the Lord Keeper and thirty nine Peers besides the Lord Chief Justice Banks and several others of the Privy-Council was in these words We do engage our selves not to obey any Orders or Commands whatsoever not warranted by the known Laws of the Land. Was this likewise an Association against the 13 th of the Romans IX A Constable represents the King's Person and in the Execution of his Office is within the purview of the 13 th of the Romans as all Men grant but in case he so far pervert his Office as to break the Peace and commit Murther Burglary or Robbery on the High-way he may and ought to be resisted X. The Law of the Land is the best Expositor of the 13 th of the Romans here and in Poland the Law of the Land there XI The 13 th of the Romans is received for Scripture in Poland and yet this is expressed in the Coronation-Oath in that Country Quod si Sacramentum meum violavero Incolae Regni nullam nobis Obedientiam praestare tenebuntur And if I shall violate my Oath the Inhabitants of the Realm shall not be bound to yield me any Obedience XII The Law of the Land according to Bracton is the highest of all the Higher Powers mentioned in this Text for it is Superiour to the King and made him King Lib. iii. cap. xxvi Rex habet Superiorem Deum item Legem per quam factus est Rex item Curiam suam viz. Comites Barones and therefore by this Text we ought to be subject to it in the first place And according to Melancthon It is the Ordinanee of God to which the Higher Powers themselves ought to subject Vol. iii. In his Commentary on the fifth Verse Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake He has these words Neque vero hac tantum pertinent ad Subditos sed etiam ad Magistratum qui cum fiunt Tyranni non minus dissipant Ordinationem Dei quam Seditiosi Ideo ipsorum Conscientia fit rea quia non obediunt Ordinationi Dei id est Legibus quibus debent parere Ideo Comminationes hic posite etiam ad ipsos pertinent Itaque hujus mandati severitas moveat omnes ne violalationem Politici status putent esse leve peccatum Neither doth this place concern Subjects only but also the Magistrates themselves who when they turn Tyrants do no less overthrow the Ordinance of God than the Seditious and therefore their Consciences too are guilty for not obeying the Ordinance of God that is the Laws which they ought to obey So that the Threatnings in this place do also belong to them wherefore let the Severity of this Command deter all Men from thinking the Violation of the Political Constitution to be a light Sin. Corolary To destroy the Law and-Legal Constitution which is the Ordinance of God by false and Arbitrary Expositions of this Text is a greater Sin than to destroy it by any other means For it is Seething the Kid in his Mothers Milk. CHAP. IV. Of LAWS I. THere is no natural
so Important and Laudable a Cause and not to be hindred and prevented by those that were evil inclined towards it it was necessary to pass over into that Kingdom accompanied with some Military Forces hath thereupon made known his Intentions to their Highnesses and desired Assistance from their Highnesses that their Highnesses having maturely weighed all things and considered that the King of France and Great Britain stood in very good Correspondence and Friendship one with the other which their Highnesses have been frequently very well assured of and in a strict and particular Alliance and that their Highnesses were informed and advertised that their Majesties had laboured upon a Concert to divide and separate this State from its Alliances and that the King of France hath upon several occasions shew'd himself dissatisfied with this State which gave cause to fear and apprehend that in case the King of Great Britain should happen to compass his Aim within his Kingdom and obtain an absolute Power over his People that then both Kings out of Interest of State and Hatred and Zeal against the Protestant Religion would endeavour to bring this State to Confusion and if possible quite to subject it have resolved to commend His Highness in his undertaking of the above said Designs and to grant to him for his Assistance some Ships and Militia as Auxiliaries that in pursuance thereof His Highness hath declared to their Highnesses that he is resolved with God's Grace and Favour to go over into England not with the least insight or intention to invade or subdue that Kingdom or to remove the King from his Throne much less to make himself Master thereof or to invert or prejudice the Lawful Succession as also not to drive thence or persecute the Roman Catholicks but only and solely to help that Nation in re-establishing the Laws and Priviledges that have been broken as also in maintaining their Religion and Liberty and to that end to further and bring it about that a free and lawful Parliament may be call'd in such manner and of such Persons as are regulated and qualified by the Laws and Form of that Government and that the said Parliament may deliberate upon and establish all such Matters as shall be judged necessary to assure and secure the Lords the Clergy Gentry and People that their Rights Laws and Priviledges shall be no more violated or broken that their High and Mightinesses hope and trust that with God's Blessing the Repose and Unity of that Kingdom shall be re-established and the same be thereby brought into a Condition to be able powerfully to concur to the common benefit of Christendom and to the restoring and maintaining of Peace and Tranquillity in Europe That Copies hereof be delivered to all their Foreign Ministers residing here to be used by them as they shall see occasion The P. O's Letter to the English Army Gentlemen and Friends VVE have given you so full and so true an Account of our Intentions in this Expedition in our Declaration that as we can add nothing to it so we are sure you can desire nothing more of us We are come to preserve your Religion and to restore and establish your Liberties and Properties and therefore we cannot suffer our selves to doubt but that all true English-Men will come and concur with us in our desire to secure these Nations from POPERY and SLAVERY You must all plainly see that you are only made use of as Instruments to enslave the Nation and ruine the Protestant Religion and when that is done you may judg what ye your selves ought to expect both from the cashiering of all the Protestant and English Officers and Souldiers in Ireland and by the Irish Souldiers being brought over to be put in your places and of which you have seen so fresh an Instance that we need not put you in mind of it You know how many of your fellow-Officers have been used for their standing firm to the Protestant Religion and to the Laws of England and you cannot flatter your selves so far as to expect to be better used if those who have broke their word so often should by your means be brought cut of those Straits to which they are reduced at present We hope likewise that you will not suffer your selves to be abused by a false Notion of Honour but that you will in the first place consider what you owe to Almighty God and your Religion to your Country to your Selves and to your Posterity which you as Men of Honour ought to prefer to all private Considerations and Engagements whatsoever We do therefore expect that you will consider the Honour that is now set before you of being the Instruments of serving your Country and securing your Religion and we will ever remember the Service you shall do Us upon this Occasion and will promise unto you that We shall place such particular Marks of our Favour on every one of you as your Behaviour at this time shall deserve of Us and the Nation in which we will make a great Distinction of those that shall come seasonably to joyn their Arms with Ours and you shall find us to be Your Well-wishing and Assured Friend W. H. P. O. An Account of a wicked Design of Poysoning the PRINCE of Orange before he came out of Holland ALSO A Relation from the City of Orange of a strange METEOR representing a Crown of Light that was there seen in the Air May the 6 th 1688. In a Letter from a Gentleman in Amsterdam to his Friend in London Octob. 1. 1688. SIR THE two inclosed Relations are sent me from an Eminent Divine now at the Hague you will do well to make them publick The poysoning Business I doubt not but was contriv'd by a sort of Men that in all Ages stick at nothing to carry on their Bloody Religion An Account of a Design of Poisoning the PRINCE of ORANGE THere is a Man of Lunenburg Wolfenbuttel who being fallen in Debt in Amsterdam upon his Father's Death his Brother taking no Care of him was put in Prison and brought extream low yet he was brought out by the means of a Friend And soon after a Man who pretended to know him and to have seen him before though the German believes he never saw him seem'd to take pitty on him seeing him in a Coffee-House and gave him a Ducatoon and promised he should never want so he entred into a great familiarity with him but would never let him know where he lodged only he gave him Appointments in Coffee-Houses and Taverns and fed him from time to time with Mony At last after some weeks he drew him into a secret Walk in the Grounds that are not yet built and ask'd him if he had a Heart to do a bold Thing The German said he had if it were not such a Thing as might bring him to a Scaffold The other said There was no Danger only it would require a little hardiness Then he ask'd an
taste of the Method whereby he will maintain his Army And you may see of what sort of People he intends his Army to consist and if you have not a mind to serve such Masters then stand not by and see your Country-men perish when they are endeavouring to defend you I promise this on my Word and Honour to every Tenant that goes along with me That if he fall I will make his Lease as good to his Family as it was when he went from home The thing then which I desire and your Country does expect from you is this That every Man that hath a tollerable Horse or can procure one will meet me on Boden-Downs to morrow where I Randezvouz But if any of you is rendred unable by reason of Age or any other just Excuse then that he would mount a fitter Person and put five Pounds in his Pocket Those that have not nor cannot procure Horse let them stay at home and assist with their Purses and send it to me with a particular of every Man's Contribution I impose on no Man but let him lay his Hand on his Heart and consider what he is willing to give to recover his Religion and Liberty and to such I promise and to all that go along with me that if we prevail I will be as industrious to have him recompenced for his Charge and Hazard as I will be to seek it for my self This Advice I give to all that stay behind That when you hear the Papists have committed any Out-rage or any Rising that you will get together for it is better to meet your Danger than expect it I have no more to say but that I am willing to lose my Life in the Cause if God see it good for I was never unwilling to die for my Religion and Country Prince GEORGE'S LETTER TO THE KING SIR WIth a Heart full of Grief am I forced to write that Prudence will not permit me to say to your Face And may I e'er find Credit with your Majesty and Protection from Heaven as what I now do is free from Passion Vanity or Design with which Actions of this Nature are too often accompanied I am not ignorant of the frequent Mischiefs wrought in the World by factious Pretences of Religion but were not Religion the most justifiable Cause it would not be made the most specious Pretence And your Majesty has always shewn too uninterested a Sense of Religion to doubt the just Effects of it in one whose Practices have I hope never given the World cause to censure his real Conviction of it or his backwardness to perform what his Honour and Conscience prompt him to How then can I longer disguise my just Concern for that Religion in which I have been so happily educated which my Judgment throughly convinces me to be the best and for the Support of which I am so highly interested in my Native Country and is not England now by the most endearing Tie become so Whilst the restless Spirits of the Enemies of the REFORMED RELIGION back'd by the cruel Zeal and prevailing Power of France justly alarm and unite all the Protestant Princes of Christendom and engage them in so vast an Expence for the support of it can I act so degenerous and mean a part as to deny my Concurrence to such worthy Endeavours for disabusing of your Majesty by the Reinforcement of those Laws and Establishment of that Government on which alone depends the well-being of your Majesty and of the PROTESTANT RELIGION in Europe This Sir is that irresistable and only Cause that cou'd come in Competition with my Duty and Obligations to your Majesty and be able to tear me from you whilst the same Affectionate Desire of serving you continues in me Could I secure your Person by the Hazard of my Life I should think it could not be better emploied And wou'd to God these your distracted Kingdoms might yet receive that satisfactory Compliance from your Majesty in all their justifiable Pretensions as might upon the only sure Foundation that of the Love and Interest of your Subjects establish your Government and as strongly unite the Hearts of all your Subjects to You as is that of SIR Your Majesty's most Humble and most Obedient Son and Servant The Lord CHURCHIL'S LETTER to the KING SIR SInce Men are seldom suspected of Sincerity when they act contrary to their Interests and though my dutiful Behaviour to your Majesty in the worst of Times for which I acknowledg my poor Services much over-paid may not be sufficient to incline You to a charitable Interpretation of my Actions yet I hope the great Advantage I enjoy under Your Majesty which I can never expect in any other Change of Government may reasonably convince Your Majesty and the World that I am acted by a higher Principle when I offer that violence to my Inclination and Interest as to desert Your Majesty at a time when your Affairs seem to challenge the strictest Obedience from all Your Subjects much more from one who lies under the greatest personal Obligations imaginable to Your Majesty This Sir could proceed from nothing but the inviolable Dictates of my CONSCIENCE and a necessary concern for my RELIGION which no good Man can oppose and with which I am instructed nothing ought to come in Competition Heaven knows with what partiality my dutiful Opinion of Your Majesty hath hitherto represented those unhappy Designs which inconsiderate and self-interested Men have framed against Your Majesty's true Interest and the Protestant Religion But as I can no longer joyn with such to give a pretence by Conquest to bring them to effect so will I always with the hazard of my Life and Fortune so much Your Majesty's due endeavour to preserve Your Royal Person and Lawful Rights with all the tender Concern and dutiful Respect that becomes SIR Your Majesty's most dutiful and most obliged Subject and Servant The Princess ANNE of Denmark's LETTER to the QVEEN MADAM I Beg your pardon if I am so deeply affected with the surprising News of the Princes being gone as not to be able to see You but to leave this Paper to Express my humble Duty to the King and your Self and to let You know that I am gone to absent my self to avoid the King's Displeasure which I am not able to bear either against the Prince or my self and I shall stay at so great a distance as not to return before I hear the happy News of a Reconcilement And as I am confident the Prince did not leave the King with any other Design than to use all possible means for his Preservation so I hope You will do me the Justice to believe that I am uncapable of following him for any other End. Never was any one in such an unhappy Condition so divided between Duty and Affection to a Father and a Husband and therefore I know not what to do but to follow one to preserve the other I see the general
present at the Sermon At London likewise things succeed no worse Every Holy Day at preaching People so frequent that many of the Chappels cannot contain them Two of ours Darmes and Berfall do constantly say Mass before the King and Queen Father Edmund Newil before the Queen Dowager Father Alexander Regnes in the Chappel of the Ambassador aforesaid others in other places Many Houses are bought for the Colledg in the Savoy as they call it nigh Somerset-house London the Palace of the Queen Dowager to the value of about eighteen thousand Florins in making of which after the Form of a Colledg they labour very hard that the Schools may be opened before Easter In Ireland shortly there will be a Catholick Parliament seeing no other can satisfy the King's Will to Establish the Catholick Cause there In the Month of February for certain the King hath designed to call a Parliament at London 1. That by a Universal Decree the Catholick Peers may be admitted into the Upper House 2. That the Oath or Test may be annulled 3. Which is the best or top of all That all Penal Laws made against Catholicks may be Abrogated which that he may more surely obtain he desires every one to take notice that he hath certainly determined to dismiss any from all profitable Imployments under him who do not strenuously endeavour the obtaining those things also that he will Dissolve the Parliament with which Decree some Hereticks being affrighted came to a certain Peer to consult him what was best to be done to whom he said the Kings pleasure is sufficiently made known to us what he hath once said he will most certainly do if you love your selves you must submit your selves to the Kings Will. There are great preparations for War at London and a Squadron of many Ships of War are to be fitted out against a time appointed what they are designed for is not certain The Hollanders greatly fear they are against them and therefore begin to prepare themselves Time will discover more Liege 2. Feb. 1688. II. A Letter from the Reverend Father Petre Iesuit Almoner to the Kiâ—g of England written to the Reverend Father la Cheese Confessor to the most Christian King touching the present Affairs of ENGLAND Translated from the French. Most Reverend Father IF I have fail'd for the last few days to observe your Order it was not from want of Affection but Health that occasion'd the neglect and for which I shall endeavour to make amends by the length of this I shall begin where my former left off and shall tell you That since the appearing of a Letter in this Town written by the Prince's Minister of Holland which declares the Intentions of the Prince and Princess of Orange relating to the Repealing the Test or to speak more properly their Aversion to it This Letter has produc'd very ill Effects among the Hereticks whom at the return of some of our Fathers from those Parts we had perswaded that the Prince would comply with every thing relating to the Test that the King should propose to the next Parliâ—ment in case he should call one to which I do not find his Majesty much inclin'd But the coming of this Letter of which I have inclos'd a Copy has serv'd for nothing but to incourage the Obstinate in their aversion to that Matter The Queen as well as my self were of Opinion against the sending of any such Letter to the Hague upon that Subject but rather that some Person able to discourse and perswade should have been sent thither for all such Letters when they are not grateful produce bad Effects That which is spoken Face to Face is not so easiâ—y divulg'd nor any thing discover'd to the People but what we have a raind the Vulgar should know And I believe your Reverence will concur with me in this Opinion This Letter has extreamly provok'd the King who is of a temper not to bear a refusal and who has not been us'd to have his Will contradicted And I verily believe this very affront has hastned his Resolution of re-calling the English Regiments in Holland I shew'd his Majesty that part of your Letter that relates to the Opinion of his Most Christian Majesty upon this Subject which his Majesty well approves of We are interested to know the Success of this Affair and what Answer the States will give The King changes as many Heretick Officers as he can to put Catholicks in their places but the Misfortune is that here we want Catholick Officers to supply them And therefore if you know any such of our Nation in France you would do the King a pleasure to perswade them to come over and they shall be certain of Employments either in the old Troops or the New that are speedily to be rais'd for which by this my Letter I pass my Word Our Fathers are continually employ'd to convert the Officers but their Obstinacy is so great that for one that turns there are five that had rather quit their Commands And there are so many Male-contents whose Party is already but too great the King has need of all his Prudence and Temper to manage this great Affair and bring it to that Perfection we hope to see it in ere long All that I can assure you is That here shall be no neglect in the Queen who labours night and day with unexpressible Diligence for the propation of the Faith and with the Zeal of a holy Princess The Queen Dowager is not so earnest and Fear makes her resolve to retire into Portugal to pass the remainder of her days in Devotion she has already ask'd the King leave who has not only granted it but also promised that she should have her Pension punctually paid and that during her Life her Servants that she leaves behind her shall have the same Wages as if they were in waiting She stays but for a proper Season to imbark for Lisbon and to live there free from all Stories As to the Queen's being with Child that great Concern goes as well as we could wish notwithstanding all the Satyrical Discourses of the Heriticks who content themselves to vent their Poyson in Libels which by night they disperse in the Street or fix upon the Walls There was one lately found upon a Pillar of a Church that imported That such a day Thanks should be given GOD for the Queen 's being great with a Cushion If one of these Pasquil-makers could be discover'd he would but have an ill time on 't and should be made to take his last Farewel at Tyburn You will agree with me most Reverend Father that we have done a great thing by introducing Mrs. Celier to the Queen this Woman is totally devoted to our Society and zealous for the Catholick Religion I will send you an account of the progress of this Affair and will use the Cypher you sent me which I think very admirable I can send you nothing certain of the Prince and Princess
Theologian and will seem to be a good Bishop and to have a great care of his Diocess and would heretofore seem a great Preacher I have hinted in my last the Reasons why I cannot altogether like him which are needless to repeat The Arch-bishop of Paris is always the same I mean a gallant Man whose present Conversation is charming and loves his Pleasures but cannot bear any thing that grieves or gives trouble though he is always a great Enemy of the Iansenists which he lately intimated to Cardinal Camus He is always with me in the Council of Conscience and agrees very well with our Society laying mostly to Heart the Conversion of the Protestants of the three Kingdoms He also makes very good Observations and Designs to give some Advice to your Reverence which I shall convey to you I do sometimes impart to him what you write to me My Lord Kingston has embrac'd our good Party I was present when he Abjur'd in the Church of St. Denis I will give you the Circumstances some other time You promised to send me the Names of all Heretick Officers who are in his Majesty's Troops that much imports me and you shall not want good Catholick Officers to fill up their places I have drawn a List of them who are to pass into England and his most Christian Majesty approves thereof Pray observe what I hinted to you in my last on the Subject of the Visits which our Fathers must give to the Chief Lords Members of the next Parliament those Reverend Fathers who are to perform that Duty must be middle-aged with a lively Countâ—nance and fit to perswade I also advised you in some of my other Letters how the Bishop of Oxford ought to behave himself by writing incessantly and to insinuate into the People the putting down the Test and at the same time calm the Storm which the Letter of Pentionary Fagel has raised And his Majesty must continue to make vigorous Prohibitions to all Booksellers in London not to print any Answers as well to put a stop to the Insolency of Heretick Authors as also to hinder the People from reading them In short you intimate to me That his Majesty will follow our Advice It 's the quickest way and I cannot find a better or fitter to dispossess his Subjects from such Impressions as they have received His Majesty must also by the same Declaration profess in Conscience that if complied with he will not only keep his Word to maintain and protect the Church of England but will also confirm his Promises by such Laws as the Protestants shall be contented with This is the true Politick way for by his granting all they cannot but consent to something His most Christian Majesty has with great success experienced this Maxim And though he had not to struggle with Penal Laws and Tests yet he found it convenient to make large Promises by many Declarations for since we must dissemble you must endeavour all you can to perswade the King it is the only Method to effect his Design I did also in my last give you a hint of its Importance as well as the ways you must take to insinuate your selves dexterously with the King to gain his good Will. I know not whether you have observed what passed in England some Years since I will recite it because Examples instruct much One of our Assisting Fathers of that Kingdom which was Father Parsons having written a Book against the Succession of the King of Scots to the Realm of England Father Creighton who was also of our Society and upheld by many of our Party defended the Cause of that King in a Book Intituled The Reasons of the King of Scots against the Book of Father Parsons And though they seem'd divided yet they understood one another very well this being practised by order of our General to the end that if the House of Scotland were Excluded they might shew him who had the Government the Book of Father Parsons and on the other Hand if the King happened to be restored to the Throne they might obtain his good Will by shewing him the Works of Father Chreighton So that which way soever the Medal turn'd it still prov'd to the advantage of our Society Not to digress from our Subject I must desire you to read the English Book of Father Parsons Intituled The Reform of England where after his blaming of Cardinal Pool and made some observations of Faults in the Council of Trent he finally concludes That suppose England should return as we hope to the Catholick Faith in this Reign he would reduce it to the State of the Primitive Church And to that end all the Ecclesiastical Revenue ought to be used in common and the Management thereof committed to the care of Seven Wise Men drawn out of our Society to be disposed of by them as they should think fit Moreover he would have all the Religious Orders forbidden on Religious Penalties not to return into the Three Kingdoms without leave of those Seven Wise Men to the end it might be granted only to such as live on Alms. These Reflections seem to me very judicious and very suitable to the present State of England The same Father Parsons adds That when England is reduced to the True Faith the Pope must not expect at least for Five Years to reap any benefit of the Ecclesiastical Revenue but must leave the whole in the hands of those Seven Wise Men who will manage the same to the Benefit and Advancement of the Church The Court goes this day for Marli to take the Divertisements which are there prepared I hope to accompany the King and will entertain him about all Business and accordingly as he likes what you hint to me in your Letter I shall give you notice I have acquainted him with his Britannick Majesty's Design of building a Citadel near Whitehal Monsieur Vauban our Engineer was present After some Discourse on the Importance of the Subject his Majesty told Monsieur Vauban that he thought it convenient he should make a Model of the Design and that he should on purpose go over into England to see the Ground I have done all I could to suspend the Designs of our Great Monarch who is always angry against the Holy Father both Parties are stubborn the King 's natural Inclination is to have all yield to him and the Pope's Resolution is unalterable All our Fathers most humbly salute your Reverence Father Roine Ville acts wonderfully about Nismes amongst the New Converts who still meet notwithstanding the Danger they expose themselves to I daily expect News from the Frontiers of the Empire which I shall impart to your Reverence and am with the greatest Respect Yours c. Paris March 7. 1688. Popish Treaties not to be rely'd on In a Letter from a Gentleman at York to his Friend in the Prince of ORANGE's Camp. Addressed to all Members of the next Parliament THE Credulity and Superstition of
have heard forfeit all Right either to chuse or be chosen in any Publick Councils And then all Laws which have been made for the Protestants and against the Popish Religion will be null and void as being enacted by an incompetent Authority as being the Acts of Hereticks Kings Lords and Commons who had forfeited all their Rights and Priviledges But Thirdly suppose our Laws were valid as enacted by competent Authority and such good and wholsome Provisions as were those Statutes made by our Popish Ancestors in those Statutes of Provisoes in Edward the I. Edward the III. Time and that of Praemunire in Richard the II. and Henry the IV. for Relief against Papal Incroachments and Oppressions Yet being against the Laws and Canons of Holy Church the Sovereign Authority they will be all superseded For so they determine That when the Canon and the Civil Laws clash one requiring what the other allows not the Church-Law must have the observance and that of the State neglected And Constitutions they say made against the Canons and Decrees of the Roman Biâ—hops are of no moment Their best Authors are positive of it And our own Experience and Histories testify the Truth thereof For how were those good Laws before-mention'd defeated by the Pope's Authority so that there was no effectual Execution thereof till Henry the 8 th's Time as Dr. Burnet tells us And how have the good Laws to suppress and prevent Popery been very much obstructed in their Execution by Popish Influence An Answer to a late Pamphlet Intituled A Short Scheme of the Usurpations of the Crown of England c. THE World may very justly wonder at several Passages in this ill-designed and as ill-writ Pamphlet which the Author has taken the pains to collect from some petty Grubstreet Chronicle Henry II. is call'd an Usurper pag. 4. because he accepted of the Crown of England in his Mothers Life-time tho' by her not opposing his Claim it may very reasonably be concluded that she freely consented to his Promotion as the most effectual means to secure the Crown to her Posterity But we are told That a Crown is no Estate to be made over in Trust If our Author's meaning is that a Crown is an Estate which the Possessor cannot divest himself of by a voluntary Resignation both Reason and a multitulde of Examples in several Ages and â—ations prove that the Principle our Author has laid down is founded on a gross Mistake Therefore if our Author designs to publish any more Schemes of Usurpation let him first inform us what it is and how far it extends lest the World should accuse him of having as notoriously usurped to himself the Title of a Writer as any of our Princes ever did the Crown of England He would perswade his Readers to believe that God punish'd King Edward III. and King Henry V. for their Usurpations with frequent and unexpected Victories in the acquisition of which tho' there was some English Blood shed as it was impossible it should be otherwise yet the Enemies paid an excessive Price for it after the defeat of their great Armies and the Imprisonment of their King they being forced to buy their Peace upon such Terms as our conquering Usurpers pleased to impose Nor did ever any well-wisher to the English Nation deny that these Two Princes were the Glory of their Age and of our British History If I should reckon up all the evident Mistakes and false Inferences in this Libel it would be too tedious since a careless Eye cannot easily overlook them If the Pamphlet finds so undeserved a Reception in the World as to need a Second Impression the Author is desired to add to it this Postscript which being founded on the Principles asserted by him will shew the World that he hath wilfully and perhaps partially forborn to speak of as notorious an Usurper as any that are mentioned in his Scheme Queen Mary the Off-spring of an Incestuous Marriage had no other unquestionable Divine Right to the Crown of England than what was given her by an Act of Parliament made in her Father's Reign and the common Consent of the Nobility and People after the Death of her Brother King Edward VI. whose disposal of the Crown by Letters Patents under the Great Seal being directly contrary to the former Entail of it limited by a higher Authority His Sister the Lady Mary was acknowledged Queen Therefore according to our Author 's abstruse Notions She as well as her Grand-father Henry VII must be reckoned among the Usurpers of the Crown of England Let us now see what success attended her and whether the Nation was happy under her Government As soon as She saw her self fixed in the Throne She imprisoned and deprived several of the Protestant Bishopâ— contrary to the then Establish'd Laws of the Realm She intruded Popish Bishops into the Sees thus declared vacant the small remainder of the Protestant Bishops who had beâ—n called to Parliament by Writ were nevertheless violently thrust out of the Parliament-House for refusing to worship the Mass. The Members of the House of Commons in her First Parliament were chosen by force and threats the Free-holders were hindred by violence from exercising their Right of chusing Representatives false Returns were made and those who were for the Reformed Religion tho' duly elected were by force expelled the House So that we cannot wonder at the Statues made in this pretended Free Parliament which was in every Thing influenced by the Court-Party Shortly after her Marriage with the haughty jealous Spaniard of which She her self felt the ill Consequences was justly disliked by the Nobility and Commonalty Her base Design of setting up a Supposititious Child for Heir to the Crown was not only happily defeated but deservedly exposed to the Censure of the Nation Her Design to erect the Spanish Inquisition in England was disappointed Calais after having belonged to the Crown of Englâ—nd about two hundred and eleven Years and which was gained with great difficulty after eleven Months Siege was in the depth of Winter lost in a Weeks time And quickly after all the English Territories were with small difficulty recovered by the French. We must not forget how exactly She put in practice the base treacherous and destructive Principles of the pretended Catholick Religion in these remarkable Particulars She barbarously used her only Sister the Lady Elizabeth and designed to have taken away her Life for no other Cause but her firm adherence to the Protestant Religion She imprisoned and burnt Arch-Bishop Cranmer who had formerly sheltered her from her Father's Fury She deprived and imprisoned Judg Hales who alone resolutely opposed King Edward the Sixth's Will and preferred Judg Bromley to be Lord Chief Justice though he had without any reluctancy prepared the Letters-Patents for her Exclusion The Inhabitants of Norfolk and Suffolk who were the first that took up Arms for her upon her Promise to permit them the Exercise of their Religion
the said Mather caused a Petition from the Town of Cambridge in New-England to be humbly presented to His Mâ—jesâ—y which because it doth express the Deplorable Condition of thaâ— People it shall be here inserted To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty The Petition and Address of John Gibson aged about 87 and George Willow aged about 86 Years as also on the behalf of their Neighbours the Inhabitants of Cambridge in New-England In most humble wise sheweth THat Your Majesty's good Subjects with much hard Labour and great Disbursements have subdued a Wilderness built our Houses and planted Orchards being incouraged by our indubitable Right to the Soil by the Royal Charter granted unto the First Planters together with our Purchase of the Natives as also by sundry Letters and Declarations sent to the late Governour and Company from His late Majesty Your Royal Brother assuring us of the full enjoyment of our Properties and Possessions as is more especially contained in the Declaration sent when the Quo Warranto was issued out against our Charter But we are necessitated to make this our Moan and Complaint to Your Excellent Majesty for that our Title is now questioned to our Lands by us quietly possessed for near sixty Years and without which we cannot subsist Our humble Address to our Governour Sir Edmond Andross shewing our just Title long and peaceable possession together with our Claim of the benefit of Your Majesty's Letters and Declarations assuring all Your good Subjects that they shall not be molested in their Properties and Possessions not availing Royal Sir We are a poor People and have no way to procure Money to defend our Cause in the Law nor know we of Friends at Court and therefore unto Your Royal Majesty as the publick Father of all your Subjects do we make this our humble Address for â—elief beseeching Your Majesty graciously to pass Your Royal Act for the Confirmation of Your Majesty's Subjects here in our Poâ—sessions to us derived from our late Governour and Company of this Your Majesty's Colony We now humbly cast our selves and distressed Condition of our Wives and Children at Your Majesty's Feet and conclude with the saying of Queen Esther If we Perish we Perish Thus that Petition Besides this Mr. Inc. Mather with two New-England Gentlemen presented a Petition and humble Proposals to the King wherein they prayed that the Right which they had in their Estates before the Government was changed might be confirmed And that no Laws might be made or Moneys raised without an Assembly with sundry other particulars which the King referred to a Committee for Foreign Plantations who ordered them into the Hands of the Attorney-General to make his Report The Clerk William Blathwait sent to the Attorney-General a Copy wherein the Essential Proposal of an Assembly was wholly left out And being spoke to about it he said the Earl of Sunderland blotted out that with his own Hand likewise a Soliciter in this Cause related that the said Earl of Sunderland affirmed to him that it was by his Advice that the King had given a Commission to Sir Edmond Andross to raise Moneys without an Assembly and that he knew the King would never consent to an Alteration nor would he propose it to His Majesty When of late all Charters were restored to England it was highly rational for New-England to expect the like for if it be an illegal and unjust thing to deprive good Subjects here of their Antient Rights and Liberties it cannot be consistent with Justice and Equity to deal so with those that are afar off Applications therefore were made to the King and to some Ministers of State. It was urged that if a Foreign Prince or State should during the present Troubles send a Frigate to New-England and promise to protect them as under their former Government it would be an unconquerable temptation yet no Restoration of Charters would be granted to New-England which has opened the Eyes of some thinking Men. Thus hath New-England been dealt with This hath been and still is the bleeding state of that Country They cannot but hope that England will send them speedy Relief especially considering that through the ill Conduct of their present Rulers the French Indians are as the last Vessels from thence inform beginning their cruel Butcheries amongst the English in those parts And many have fears that there is a design to deliver that Country into the Hands of the French King except his Highness the Prince of Orange whom a Divine Hand has raised up to deliver the Oâ—pressed shall happily and speedily prevent it FINIS A SEVENTH Collection of Papers Relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England VIZ. I. Proposals humbly offered in behalf of the Princess of Orange II. The Heads of an Expedient proposed by the Court-Party to the Parliament at Oxford in lieu of the Bill for Excluding the Duke of York III. An Account of the Irregular Actions of the Papists in the Raign of King Iames the Second with a Method proposed to rid the the Nation of them IV. The Present Convention a Parliament V. A Letter to a Member of the Convention VI. An Answer to the Author of the Letter to a Member of the Convention Licensed and Entred according to Order London printed and are to be sold by Richard Ianeway in Queen's-head-Court in Pater-noster-Row 1689. Proposals humbly offered in behalf of the Princess of Orange Jan. 28. IT is a Maxim of the Law of England concerning the Government That there is no Interregnum Of necessity there must be a Change in the Person yet there is a Continuation of the Government Which shews the Prudence and Perfection of the Constitution in preventing that which of all things is most Deplorable a Failure of Government This Rule is therefore of that Importance as not to be given up upon the trivial Saying of Nemo est haeres viventis 'T is true the common and ordinary cause of a Change in the Person that is invested with the Royal Authority is Death But we are now in a rare and extraordinary Case where the King is living and yet may be said to be divested of the Royal Office as having by his Encroachments upon the Peoples Rights provoked them to resort to Arms and being vanquished by that Force followed with a total Defection from him and his Relinquiâ—hing the Kingdom thereupon without providing any ways for the Administration of the Government This seems to be a Cesser of this Government and may in Civil and Politick Construction amount to as much as if he had died But because this is a Cess of that nature that requires a Judgment to be made upon it it seems necessary to have a Convention of the Estates of the Nation to make a Declaration thereupon for 't is not for private Persons to determine in the Cases aforesaid how or when the King has lost his Government and till such Authoritative Declaration made the King may be supposed in
to the Liberties Laws Religion and Priviledges of England and its Wealth and Inhabitants too and what is left you may be pleased to divide amongst your Men of Character To all this he assures us § 10. There will be a Thousand Occasions of Discontent Juâ—â— a Thousand neither one more or less besides those springing from the sense of Loyalty and Conscience Strange that these Two should be so troublesome as to equal if not exceed the whole Thousand that went before He that had been before so liberal of his Informatiâ—n now sets us to guess in § 10. How many will be discontented in the new Court for want of Preferment Why Sir If you please to inform me how many days in February shall be clear and how many shall be cloudy I will fall a guessing how many in the new Court shall be pleased and how many shall be dissatisfied but when I have done it will not be worth the while because this ever happens and Courtiers have an old way of keeping these Malecontents in hope till they fall off or gain what they desire and so if there should happen to be a Thousand of them they will not be able to shock the Government if there is no other cause of Discontent than that Well but here Duty and Discontent will mix because they are sensible of their Mistake when it is too late For as they ought not to have fought for Popery nor against the Laws and Liberties of their Country so neither â—ught they to have deserted the defence of the King's Person and Crown but have brought the Prince to Terms as well as the King Why Sir Nemo tenetur ad impossibilia The King was never brought to Terms nor perhaps never will So that if they 〈◊〉 Fought at all it must have been for Popery and against both our Laws and Liberties Sir shew when and where the King offered us or the Prince any Terms and I will pass my word you shall be employed to frame Laws for the Convention which is certainly a good Employ for one that is so expert at it as you pretend to be Well § 13. A heavy Tax must be laid upon the Nation to defray the Charge of this Expedition Why Sir Are you of the Privy Câ—uncil to the Prince Surely he will be able to find some other Cause or not make the Tax so very heavy But Men will be very sorry to lose their King and pay so dear for it too Yes doubtless a Gracious King is a great Loss but if he will be gone and inâ—olve us in a War too Taxes must be pâ—id yea heavy Taxes to support the Charge of it or Louis will in a short time teach us what the Prince's Expedition was worth whatever it cost But this is not all we must part with our Church too the crazy Title will require the giving the Church to the Dissenters § 14. The Dissenters have or late acted very well and perhaps if a wise Man has the mannaging of them and the Popish Emissaries be carefully looked after we may compound the Quarrel better cheap than the parting with our Church Sir I am well assured a great deal less will for the present content them and the King is not Immortal and whenever he Dies the Crazy Title will be Soâ—â—red again if no Body be to blame for giving it another terrible Shock § 15. Should the King be Deposed or any other ascend the Throne it will be necessary to keep a standing Army to quell such Discontents You may be a good Law-framer for ought I know but I will swear you are no States-Man this whole Section is meer Whimsey borrowed from the Dutch Design Anatomized who had the folly to talk of Governing England by an Army of Dutch and Germans but why God knows except it were because a few were brought over to deliver us and cannot presently be returned back to Holland The Prince is both a wise and a good Prince and knows the Consequence of keeping those Forces long here better than a Thousand such Law-framers Supposâ— the King should return with a Foreign Force to recover his Kingdom how ready will the Men of Conscience be and the Men of Discontent to joyn with them nay to invite him Home again This looks so like a Roman Catholick Zeal that if I were not assured he is a Church of England-Man I could not believe but it was a Disciple of St. Omers But will the Conscientious Men invite the King home again with all his Apostolick Vicars Jesuits Ecclesiasticall Judges Dispensing Power and a round Army of French Dragoons to teach us the French Faith after the French Fashion Are these the Men of Character Prudence Ability Integrity or of Conscience either Would one of the Primitive Christians have talked thus have stood for a Licinius against a Constantine Well if the King comes in a Conqueror we shall wish we had Treated Truly I shall not I had rather be forced than deceived for then I know what I have to trust to and I would not willingly be accessary to my own Ruine Well suppose this unanswerable stuff is over-voted § 17. We are to bring good proof the Prince of Wales is an Imposture or else we hâ—d better let it alone Very good the Negative is to be proved we may guess by this what kind of Laws you Sir would frame Well but if this be not done the Discontented Men will have a plausible pretence to quarrel What the Conscientious Men will do we must guess but in all probability they will not be better qualiâ—ed What if the Princess of Orange be a Lady of that eminent Virtue that she should scruple to sit upon her Father's Throne whilst he lives Well his Majesty has deserted his Throne and Kingdom when he needed not except he had pleased and some Body must sit upon his Throne though he is yet Alive Now if it be her Right after his Death why not now Our Author is at his Prayers that God would give her Grace to resist the Temptation and I at mine That the Author may never be one of her Chaplains till he is better inform'd The rest of that Section is not unanswerable but not worth answering He has all along supposed the Prince of Orange Crown'd yet in the 19th Section he proves he can have no Right to it neither by Descent nor Gift and truly I am of the same mind for many Reasons and especially for the sake of the Three alledged by him Sect. 20 21 22. and for some others too of as great weight which may be found in the Lord Virulam 's History of Henry VII And yet our Case now before us has three Difficulties that had not 1. A King living 2. A Prince of Wales true or false 3. A Nation divided in Religion to which I might perhaps add the Excessive Power of France and the Excessive Zeal of this Generation to preserve the Descent of the Crown in the
'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 SEVERAL QUERIES Relating to the present Proceedings in Parliament More especially recommended to the Consideration of the BISHOPS I. HOW the House of Commons can answer it to those People whom they Represent if now they have an Opportunity they do not settle the Government upon such a Foundation as will be likely not only to preserve the Nation from Foreign Enemies but also from falling into the like unhappy Circumstances which it is but just now escaped out of and which in a great measure have proceeded from a want of a right Settlement of Publick Affairs at the Restauration of King Charles the Second II. Whether this can be done without altering the Succession since the Birth of the Prince of Wales is not proved supposititious though perhaps no Body doubts but it is so And supposing it proved so Whether it would not be more feasible to make a President now than to try the Experiment first when the next Right of Succession is claimed by the Infanta of Spain or perhaps some Prince her Heir too strong to resist without the Assistance of the Prince of Orange especially if there happen to be such Divisions amongst Us as are at this Time III. Whether it can be immagined to be worth the Prince of Orange's while to leave Holland where he is the chief Man and become a Subject in England nay and have such an uncertain Interest in his stay here that if his Wives Life chance to drop perhaps he may be banished in a Years time and not have a Place as things may happen to put his Head in For his Interest in Holland must necessarily fall into other Hands And no Body knows what fallings out may happen betwixt Us and the Dutch or what other Contingencies may happen that may give cause of Disgust IV. Whether considering the present State of Affairs the Strength of the King of France and the Irish Rebellion to say nothing of the Effects which the Entreaties and subtile Insinuations of a Father must necessarily have upon any one that is good natur'd it be safe to trust the Administration of Affairs to a Woman though never so vertuous And whether we shall be able to protect our selves against all these formidable Enemies and bring things to a due Settlement without the Assistance of the Prince of Orange whose Foreign Alliances are such as we can never hope to obtain if we confer the Crown upon any other V. Whether it would be a greater real Kindness to the Princess of Orange to make her sole Queen after such a manner as she will be likely to be turned out again or to make her and her Husband joint King and Queen during their two Lives I say her Husband who is a Prince not only able to defend her and her Kingdom from all the Dangers that may happen but also to take all the Trouble which may occur in the Administration of Affairs off her Hands so that she will enjoy all the Pleasure of being Queen without any thing of Trouble And we may add to this that if it had not been for him she had never enjoyed the Crown nor the Nation their Freedom VI. Whether the Terms the Parliament shall make with one that can pretend no Right to the Crown but what they give him will not be more likely to be kept by him than by one that pretends a Title and will be flatterâ—d up both by Lawyers and Divines I mean the Scum of them with Notions of a Right jure Divino and a Prerogative which cannot be parted with or abolish'd though by the King's Consent or Act of Parliament VII Whether the House of Commons upon these Considerations and divers others too long to mention will not think it necessary that the Prince and Princess of Orange be crowned King and Queen for their two Lives And whether it can be imagined that the Commons should so far betray their Country as to recede from this Point so necessary for its Preservation notwithstanding all the Disturbances which the Bishops shall make in the House of Lords and though they do not meet with the Concurrence of that House so soon as in reason might be expected VIII Whether the House of Lords will suffer themselves any longer to be imposed upon by the Bishops in a thing that will be so injurious to the Nation as it will be not to comply with the House of Commons in this great Point which must necessarily put such a damp upon Trade that it will certainly be the Ruin of many hundreds of Families in the Nation whose dependance are upon Handy-Craft-Trades to say nothing of the Disadvantages which may accrue by such a Delay to the poor Protestants in Ireland and admitting they should whether the Circumstances of Affairs would not in a little time force them to a compliance with the House of Commons IX Whether the Prince of Orange will not shew himself one of the unkindest Men in the World if he doth not stick by these People till he seeth them secured that have ventured their Lives and Fortunes for Him and their Country in confidence of his Protection and whether he as Head of the Protestant Religion be not obliged to stand by the 48 Protestant Lords and House of Commons that have served their Country so faithfully X. Whether it would not be Prudence in the Bishops supposing their Designs be good as I would hope they are to shew their readiness to assist the Nobility and Gentry in carrying on this great Work whereby they might settle the Church upon the surest Foundation the Laws of God and of the Land and continue themselves in the Affections of the People XI Whether all the Protestant Blood which shall be spilt in Ireland by reason of these long Delays will not be justly laid at the Bishops doors if they proceed after the same manner they have begun And lastly To answer the great Objection that we shall lose the Kingdom of Scotland if we make the King Elective for this Turn Whether the Scots can chuse any body that will be more agreeable to their Interests than the Prince of Orange and supposing they can Whether it be not madness to imagine since they have a different Parliament different Laws and a different Original Contract so that the King may commit a Forfeiture there when he hath committed none here or a Forfeiture here when he hath committed none there that they will not place the Crown upon him without any respect to what is done here whether we make it a Forfeiture or only a bare Demise A Protestant Precedent offer'd to the Bishops for the Exclusion of K. James the Second IF Necessity which is a great Branch
of the Law of Nature did not press us at this time to come to some speedy and pertinent Determinations as to the business especially of settling the Government that Nicety which seems to be promoted and set afoot in all our Counsels might considering the Weightiness of the business in hand rather claim the just Commendation and Applauses of every good Man than as it seems now fall under their Censure and I may say Indignation If the matter debated were extraneous and the Kingdom within it self peaceably and firmly settled if the Circumstances of our Affairs were ordinary and usual and could admit of an unlimited time for their Decision if we were secure from injurious Resolutions of our Enemies abroad or from the private Machinations of disaffected Persons at home If these â—hings were so it were worthy the Wisdom of those who by their unseasonable Scruples so generally resolv'd against and now again by them started may seem either ignorant of the desperate languishing condition of these Kingdoms at present or prejudic'd and dis-affected to the Eâ—ace and Settlement of them for the future I say it were then worthy the Wisdom of these Men to dissect every particular of so important an Affair before they made any Determination of the General As we all acknowledg the extraordinary Circumstances of this Juncture so they themselves have not been a little contributing to this happy Revolution The Prince's first Declaration tells us he had the Invitation of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Was it Justice and agreeable to Conscience then to call for Foreign Arms to assist us against our own King in the recovery of those Rights Liberties and Properties which contrary to Law he had invaded and taken from us And is it now become a Scruple in those same Consciences to be confirm'd in those Rights c. by the same Arms and Power Is that pretended absolute unlimited Power which in their Prayers and Sermons they have so often nibbled at and endavoured to retrench now in its just Debasement become so Inviolable and Sacred that it must become a Point of Faith entirely to submit to it Has this small fit of Fear and Discouragement in our implacable Enemies so well secur'd us from any future Enchroachments that we need not be careful of any further Assurance Has these Men's Re-embellish'd Honours so obliterated the Memory of the Dangers some of them so lately have escap'd and the rest justly fear'd as to free them from all Apprehensions for the future What is it these Gentlemen would be at what do they fear Is it without Reason without Justice without Precedent that we desire to be everlastingly secur'd from Popery Slavery Not without Reason for when we have seen many of our fairest Branches lopp'd off many of our Liberties invaded many of our Laws perverted and the Axe at last laid to the Root of our Government 't is high time then I say to provide for our our Safety and to put a stop to that Current which would have quickly over-run and drowned us Not without Justice for where my Life and Property is hunted after and assaulted I may by the Law of God and Man â—epel the Injury and stand in my own Vindication Not without Precedent even in Protestant Kingdoms not to mention the Romanists who both teach and practise the Deposing of evil and wicked Magistrates and though in England we may perhaps think the Changes we have very lately seen among our selves admit of no Precedent it may easily be prov'd that which hath been done of late in this Nation hath been in great part formerly presented and allowed of upon Foreign Stages yea and not many Years out of the Memory of some yet living if we would but look into the Actions of other Regions and those too wherein the Reform'd Religion is professed we shall find that they by their publick Records acknowledged that in case of Tyranny and Oppression it was lawful not only to defend their Lives and Liberties against all Assaults but reduce and declare the Persons so offending incapable of holding the Government A lively Example of this and almost exactly parallel with ours was the Case of Sigismond the Third Hereditary King of Sweden who by a Convention of the States of that Kingdom was Excluded even with his Heirs a Severity which both the Honourable Houses of Parliament here have with great Justice and Wisdom declined from that Crown for ever Some of the Articles drawn up against him were these First For swerving from their received Christian Religion as also from his Oath and Promise and Solemn Engagement made to his People at his Coronation to preserve their Rights and Priviledges as also their Holy Reform'd Religion Inviolated For departing the Country without the Consent and unwilling to the States and Orders of the Realm For exporting several Acts of great Concernment out of the Cancellarie For prosecuting such as would not embrace or favour the Romish Superstition For contemning and endeavouring to undermine and annul those laudable Institutions and Laws made for the Security of the Realm and the Establishment of the Protestant Reformed Religion For raising up what Enemies he could against his Native Country thereby to involve his Subjects in a Deluge of Blood which he intended and had almost effected For inhumanely designing and suborning Russians and Villains to Murder and Assassinate one of the chief Nobles for no other Reason but that out of Conscience and Duty he would have perswaded him from those Irregularities and notorious Breaches of the known Laws of the Land. For these and many more Causes as the sending his Son out of the Land without the Consent of the States and causing him to be brought up and educated in the Romish Superstition did the Swedes submitting the same to the Judgment of all sincere and candid Arbitratours justify their Abdication for ever of King Sigismond the Third and his Heirs from the Crown of Sweden c. and proceeded strait to the Constituting and Electing of Charles Duke of Sudermannia vid. Spanheim 's Hist. of Sweden c. And in conclusion they pray for and doubt not of a candid Construction a benign and favourable Acceptation from all Christian Emperors Kings Princes States c. of this their Legitimate Defence and to vindicate them and their most equal Cause from all Calumny or eâ—il Interpretation whatsoever The Circumstances relating to this present Juncture in England bear so near a resemblance almost in all these Grievances objected against the said Sigismond that our late King by a sort of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to have breath'd his Soul rather than to have copy'd after him though indeed in some Cases he has plainly out-done the Original especially in relation to his supposed Son. And as our King thought fit to Copy a King of Sweden I cannot apprehend how it can lessen our Judgments or Integrity our Piety or our Loyalty to follow the Example of the Swedes excepting
Conscience sake If his Majesty now of Great Britain out of some deep Sense that he being a Roman Catholick cannot rule and be true to his Religion which he may suppose does oblige him to an Establishment thereof by all the ways and means of his Church though never so destructive to ours but it will be to the Hurt not Good of us who are Protestants hath been pleased to withdraw himself from his Government to make us more quiet and happy We are in all Gratitude to acknowledg his Piety Goodness and Condescention to be so much as very few of his Subjects could ever have suspected But if it be out of another Mind he hath done it We have still more Reason to bless Almighty God who does often serve his Providence by Mens Improvidence and cutting off Mens Ends from their Means he uses their Means to his own Ends when he is pleased to work Deliverance for a People as he hath at this Season so graciously and wonderfully done for Us that there is nothing more needful even to the most scrupulous Conscience than an humble and awful Acquiescence in the Divine Counsel to give Satisfaction in this Matter King IAMES the First his Opinion of a KING of a TYRANT and of the English Laws Rights and Priviledges In two Speeches The First to the Parliament 1603 the Second 1609. In his Speech to the Parliament 1603 he expresseth himself thus I Do acknowledg that the special and greatest Point of difference that is betwixt a Rightful King and an Usurping Tyrant is in this That whereas the proud and ambitious Tyrant doth think his Kingdom and People are only ordained for satisfaction of his Desires and unreasonable Appetites The Righteous and Iust King doth by the contrary acknowledg himself to be Ordained for the procuring of the Wealth and Prosperity of his People and that his great and principal worldly Felicity must consist in their Prosperity If you be Rich I cannot be Poor if you be Happy I cannot but be Fortunate And I protest your Welfare shall ever be my greatest Care and Contentment And that I am a Servant it is most true that as I am Head and Governour of all the People in my Dominion who are my natural Subjects considering them in distinct Ranks So if we will take in the People as one Body then as the Head is ordained for the Body aâ—d not the Body for the Head so must a Righteous King know himself to be ordained for his People and not his People for Him. Wherefore I will never be ashamed to confess it my principal Honour to be the great Servant of the Common-Wealth and ever think the Prosperity thereof to be my greatest Felilicity c. In his Speech to the Parliament March 21. 1609 he expresseth himself thus IN these our Times we are to distinguish betwixt the State of Kings in the first Original and between the State of settled Kings and Monarchs that do at this Time Govern in Civil Kingdoms For even as God during the Time of the Old Testament spake by Oracles and wrought by Miracles yet how soon it pleased him to settle a Church which was Bought and Redeemed by the Blood of his only Son Christ then was there a Cessation of both He ever after governing his Church and People within the Limits of his revealed Will. So in the first Original of Kings whereof some had their beginning by Conquest and some by Election of the People their Wills at that Time served for a Law yet how soon Kingdoms began to be settled in Civility and Policy then did Kings set down their Minds by Laws which are properly made by the King only but at the Rogation of the People the King 's Grant being obtained thereunto and so the King came to be Lex loquens a speaking Law after a sort binding himself by a double Oath to the Observation of the Fundamental Laws of his Kingdom Tacitly as by being a King and so bound to protect as well the People as the Laws of his Kingdom and expresly by his Oath at his Coronation So as every just King in a settled Kingdom is bound to observe that Paction made to his People by his Laws in framing his Government agreeable thereunto according to that Paction which God made with Noah after the Deluge Hereafter Seed-time and Harvest Summer and Winter Cold and Heat Day and Night shall not cease so long as the Earth remains And â—herefore a King Governing in a settled Kingdom leaves to be a King and degenerâ—tes into a Tyrant as soon as he leaves off to rule according to his Laws In which Case the King's Conscience may speak unto him as the poor Widow said to Philip of Macedon Either Govern according to your Law aut ne Rex â—is or cease to be King and tho no Christian Man ought to allow any Rebellion of People against their Prince yet doth God never leave Kings unpunished when they transgress these Limits For in that same Psalm where God saith to Kings Vos Dii estis Ye are Gods He immediately thereafter conclude But ye shall die like Men The higher we are placed the greater shall our Fall be Vt casus sic dolor as the Fall so the Griâ—f the taller the Trees be the more in danger of the Wind and the Tempest beats sorest upon the highest Mountains Therefore all Kings that are no Tyrants or Perjured will be glad to bound themselves within the Limits of their Laws and they that perswade them the contrary are Vipers and Pests both against them and the Common-Wealth For it is a great difference betwixt a King's Government in a settled Estate and what Kings in their Original Power might do in Individio vago As for my part I thank God I have ever given good proof that I never had Intention to the contrary And I am sure to go to my Grave with that Reputation and Comfort That never King was in all his Time more careful to have his Laws duly observed and himself to govern thereafter than I. That Just Kings will ever be willing to declare what they will do if they will not incur the Curse of God. I will not be content that my Power be disputed upon but I shall ever be willing to make the Reason appear of all my Doings and rule my Actions according to the Laws And afterwards speaking of the Common Law of England which some conceived he contemned saith to this purpose That as a King he had least cause of any Man to dislike the Common Law for no Law can be more favourable or advantageous for a King and extendeth further his Prerogative than it doth and for a King of England to despise the Common Law is to neglect his own Crown It is true that no Kingdom in the World but every one of them hath their own Municipal Laws agreeable to their Customs as this Kingdom hath the Common Law. Nay I am so far from disallowing the Common
Law as I protest that if it were in my Hand to chuse a new Law for this Kingdom I would not only prefer it before any other National Law but even before the very Judicial Law of Moses for conveniency to this Kingdom at this Time tho in another respect I must say both our Law and all Laws else are very inferiour to that Judicial Law of God for no Book nor Law is perfect nor free from Corruption except only the Book and Law of God. And therefore I could wish that some Corruptions might be purged and cleared in the Common Law but always by the Advice of Parliaments for the King with his Parliament here are Absolute in making or forming any sort of Laws First I could wish that it were written in our Vulgar Language for now it is an old mixt corrupt Language only understood by Lawyers Whereas every Subject ought to understand the Law under which he lives since it is our Plea against the Papists that the Language in God's Service ought not to be in an Unknown Tongue according to the Rule in the Law of Moses That the Law should be written in the Fringes of the Priests Garment and should be publickly read in the Ears of all the People so me thinks ought our Law to be made as plain as can be to the People that the excuse of Ignorance may be taken from them for conforming themselves thereunto Next our Common Law hath not a settled Text being chiefly grounded upon old Customs which you call Responsa Prudentum I could wish that some more certain were set down in this case by Parliament for since the Reports themselves are not are not always so binding but that divers times Judges do disclaim them and recede from the Judgment of their Predecessors It were good that upon a mature deliberation the Exposition of the Law were set down by Act of Parliament and such Reports therein confirmed as were thought fit to serve for Law in all times hereafter and so the People should not depend upon the bare Opinions of Judges and uncertain Reports And lastly there be in the Law contrary Reports and Precedents and this Corruption doth likewise concern the Statutes and Acts of Parliament in respect there are divers cross and cuffing Statutes and some so penn'd as they may be taken in divers yea contrary Sences And therefore could I wish both those Statutes and Reports as well in the Parliament as Common Law to be once materially reviewed and reconciled And that not only Contrarieties should be scraped out of our Books but that even such Penal Statutes as were made but for the use of the time for breach whereof no Man can be free which do not now agree with the condition of this our time might likewise be left out of our Books which under a tyrannous and avaricious King could not be endured And this Reformation might we think be made a worthy Work and well deserves a Parliament to be set of purpose for it c. And as to the Point of Grievances tells them That there are two special Causes of the Peoples presenting Grievances to their King in time of Parliament First For that the King cannot at other times be so well informed of all the Grievances of his People as in time of Parliament which is the Representative Body of the whole Realm Secondly The Parliament is the highest Court of Justice and therefore the fittest place where divers Natures of Grievances may have their proper Remedy by the establishment of good and wholsome Laws Wherein he addresses himself especially to the Lower House who as representing the Body of the People may as it were both Opportunè Inopportunè in Season and out of Season I mean either in Parliament as a Body or out of Parliament as private Men present your Grievances unto me I am not to find fault that you inform your selves of the particular Grievances of the People Nay I must tell you ye can neither be just nor faithful to me or to your Countries that trust and employ you if you do not for true Plaints proceed not from the Persons employed but from the Body represented which is the People And it may very well be that many Directions and Commissions justly given forth by me may be abused in the execution thereof upon the People and yet I never receive Information except it come by your means at such a time as this is Proposals to this present Convention for the perpetual Security of the Protestant Religion and the Liberty of the Subjects of England Humbly Offer'd by the Author of the BREVIATE AFter the Great Blessings that seem designed for the whole Nation from the happy Agreement between the Two Houses in that great Point before them the Vacanâ—y of the Throne I cannot but crave Pardon and leave to put the Representatives of the Nation in remembrance that though this Vacating of the Throne opens so large a Door to our Great and many Deliverances yet our lasting Security is not intirely compleated here and that thâ—refore they baulk not the next Point which is as stoutly to be asserted viz That the Power now of setling the Government and filling the Vacancy is reverted to the Community whereof they are the Representatives This is an opportunity we are like never to have again in the World and a Precedent ought to be made for the Ages to come It is not to be thought after an Agreement on the first Point but that this Convention is willing to invest the Prince of Orange with the Government during his Life for they say both the Princesses are willing it should be so and no prejudice to either But how this can be orderly done until the Power be asserted let the Wisdom of the Nation consider and lay it well to Heart There is One main objection If the Convention chooâ—e a King and Queen at this Time then will the Government be for ever Elective But this is a great Mistake for we must know it is the Constitution of a Government which makes it Elective or Hereditary and not One Actual Choice or single Precedent This being note that well by a Convention not a Parliament whilst in the present Juncture that Vacancy in the Throne which may never happen again to the End of the World leaves us no other Expedient of reestablishing our Government then by Electing Our Governour When an Hereditary Kingdom is set up that was none before the Person on Necessity must be by Election at first though at the same time the Compact of Obedience to the Person so Elected and to his Heirs in Succession after him may be such that what at first was in the peoples Power and Right to give after submission payed will never lie in their Power to resume back The Case is the same here And if we understand then when it is resolved that the Throne is vacant or Government dissolved which is all one the meaning is not
is evident no Man can serve two Masters Secondly It 's highly necessary and prudent rather to vest the Administration in the Husband than in the Wife 1. Because a Man by Nature Education and Experience is generally rendred more capable to Govern than the Woman Therefore 2. the Husband ought rather to Rule the Wife than the Wife the Husband especially considering the Vow in Matrimony 3. The Prince of Orange is not more proper to Govern as he 's Man and Husband only but as he is a Man a Husband and a Prince of known Honour profound Wisdom undaunted Courage and incomparable Merit as he 's a Person that 's naturally inclin'd to be Just Merciful and Peaceable and to do all Publick Acts of Generosity for the Advancement of the Interest and Happiness of Humane Societies and therefore most fit under Heaven to have the solâ— Executive Power A LORD'S Speech Without Doors To the Lords upon the present Condition of the Government My Lords PRay give me leave to cast in my Mite at this time upon this great Debate and though it be with an entire dissent to some Leading Lords to whom I bear great reverence it is according to my Conscience and that is the Rule of every honest Man's Actions My Lords I cannot forbear thinking that a greater Reproach can hardly come upon any People than is like to fall upon us Protestants for this unpresidented usage of our poor King We feared the security of our Religion because of Him and are now like to Violate a great part of it by forfeiting our Loyalty towards Him Religion is the Pretence but some fear a New Master is the Thing This I take to have been to Business of to Day for notwithstanding we see how feeble a thing Popery is in England that it is beaten without Blows and routed so effectually that it can never hope nor we justly fear it should return upon us and consequently our Religion pretty secure yet I don't see that this satisfies us unless the King goes also He must be turned away and the Crown change its Head for if the Crown be not the Quarrel more than Property and his Majesty's Person than his Religion Why did not the Prince stop when he heard a Free Parliament was calling by the King's Writs where all Matters especially that of the Prince of Wales might have been considered or at least where his Majesties Commissioners of Peace met â—im Who advised him â—o adâ—ance and give his Majesty that apprehension of â—is own insecurity and if any thing but a Crown would have served him Why was a Noble Peer of this House clapt up at Winsor when his Majesty sent him on purpose to invite the Prince to St. Iames's a Message that affected all good Mens Hearts more then any thing but his Majesty's return it look'd so Natural and Peaceable But it seems as if it had been therefore affronted for the Invitation could not have been received without the King 's remaining King and who was there that did not lately say it should be so I and who is there now that does not see it is not so We can my Lords no longer doubt of this if we will remember that the same Night the Prince should have answered his Majesty's kind Message The King's Guards were changed and at midnight the Prince's Guards were clapt upon hiâ— Majesty's Person and which is yet more extravagant to accomplish the business Three noble Lords in view were sent to let him know It was not for his safety or the Princes honour that he should stay in his own Palace A strange way my Lords of treating ones own King in his own House I cannot comprehend how it was for the Prince's Honour the King should go against his Will or how it was against his Honour that his Majesty should be safe in his own House I leave it with your Lordships to think who could render the King's stay unsafe at White-hall after the Dutch Guards were posted there My Lords this I confess is the great Iniquity that sticks with me and deserves our severest Scrutiny and Reflection that after driving our King away we should offer to â—ddress our selves to any Body to take the Government as if he had formally disserted it It becomes us rather to ask Where the King is how he came to go and who sent him away I take the Honour of the Peâ—rage of England to be deeply ingaged both at Home and Abroad to search but this Minor and especially those who are now present most of whom owe their share iâ— thâ—t noble Order to his Majesty his Brother Father or Grandfather It is not unreasonable to believe the King had not gone at first but upon some Messagâ— sent and Letters received to take care of his Person for that nothing less than the Crown was intended but being not out of his own Territories and therefore no Dissertion Abdication or Remise as the Criticks of the Conjuncture we are under pretend for the King may be where â—e will in his own Kingdom we â—ee while it was in his choice to go he returned and by as good as our advise too so that we cannot in truth say his Dissertion is the cause for it is plainly the Effect of our late extraordinary proceedings If any should say He needed not have gone now it is a great mistake for â— King ought to go if he cannot stay a King in his own Kingdom which Force refused to let him be And to stay a Subject to another Authority had been a meaner forfeiture of his Right then can in justice be charged upon his Retirement Wherefore his going must and will lie at their Doors that set him an hour to be gone out of his own Palace Many are angry and yet pleased that he is gone for France but where my Lords should he go Flanders dared not receive him Holland you could not think he should go to and Ireland you would have liked less and when we consider how far a League with France has been made the cause of his Misfortune though to this day it is in the Clouds what other Prince had the same Obligation to receive and succor him Therefore whatever Arts are used to blacken his Retreat we cannot with any shew of Reason imagine that he could think himself safe with us that had exercised Soveraign Power without him our Soveraign Lord and under the protection of a Forraign Prince and his Army though at the same time we had Sworn Allegiance to him and that it was unlawful for us to take up Arms against him under any Pretence whatever My Lords if this be not virtually and in effect to pull the Crown off his Head and dethrone him unheard I am to learn my Alphabet again This is short warning to give Kings for us at least my Lords that boast of Loyalty and were brought to these Seats by the favour of the Crown What can other Nations think of the Nobility of
Skill and Honesty rightly to improve this critical Opportunity but if we shall either let it slip or abuse it we may in vain hereafter wish that we had been wise in time and have cause to repent of our Error when it will be too late to correct it What we do now will transmit its good or ill Effects to after-Ages and our Children yet unborn will in all probability be happy or miserable as we shall behave our selves in this great Conjuncture They are likely to enjoy their Religion Laws and Liberties according to the old English Standard if we shall now take the right course to secure them But if we do ingage in wrong Counsels and build upon false Foundations instead of a Blessing we may leave a Curse to our Posterity and entail upon them Popery Slavery Arbitrary Power and all the miserable Consequences of a divided Kingdom which as sure as the Word of God is true can never stand Let us not therefore be too hasty but pause a while let us make a stop look about us and consider First What we have done Secondly With what Intent we did it Thirdly What it is that some Men would be at And Fourthly Whether we can in Honour and Conscience join with them in the Designs now in hand I shall confine my self to these Heads But here before I enter upon any of them I shall take it for granted that the Prince of Orange hath done a great thing for us and under God hath wrought such a Deliverance for the Nation as ought never to be forgotten and can never be sufficiently requited He must be mentioned with Honour and Gratitude so long as the Protestant Name shall be remembred He came not as the antient Romans and Saxons to conquer and lead in Triumph after him our Religion and Laws our Lives and Liberties but to defend preserve and secure us in them all To this end he undertook this dangerous and chargeable Expedition which hath hitherto proved as much to our Advantage as it will be to his lasting Reputation What he has done argues that he is moved by an higher Principle than any this World affords and can overlook his own Ease and Security when the Publick Good and the Concerns of Christianity require his seasonable Assistance I could easily make a Panegyrick upon his Vertues and equal him to the most famous Grecian or Roman Captains but I need not set forth his Praises which do so loudly and yet so silently speak for themselves I need not draw any tedious Parallels betwixt his Highness and the Worthies of other Ages since I am I question not herein prevented by all who have read the History of former Times and are Witnesses of what he with so much Courage Mildness and Prudence hath done in this 1. Things prospered so well under his Conduct that all of us were ready to submit our selves to his Direction and come under his Protection as the Tutelar Genius of the Nation The Effects of his Enterprise have been so strange so wonderful and surprising that had we not seen we should scarce have believed them As soon as the Prince was landed with what Joy and universal good Wishes was the News received How forward were all sorts of People to declare for his Highness How willing were they to lend him an helping Hand for the accomplishing his great Work How did we all generally concur and unanimously agree to forget our Obligations to our Sovereign and assist the Prince rather than the King against our selves and his own true Interest Nay the Army it self soon began to go over chusing rather to he under the imputation of Cowardise and Disloyalty which yet a true English-man had rather die than really deserve than to be instrumental in enslaving their Native Country and bringing it again under the Papal Yoke In short all Orders of Men Ecclesiastick Civil and Military had their Eyes fix'd upon the Prince of Orange as their Common Deliverer were resolved to espouse his Cause and accordingly after the King was withdrawn did put the Regal Administration into his Hands 2. So far we have gone this we have done and we hope that the case being extraordinary and Necessity giving a Dispensation the Intent of our proceeding will at least excuse if not justify us if we have not kept our selves within the Common Laws of Action For let every Man lay his Hand upon his Heart and seriously ask himself for what Reason and with what Intent he became a Party in this general Defection Was it utterly to ruin the King and subvert the Government Was it because he was displeas'd with the ancient Constitution and had a mind to mould and fashion it to his liking Was it because he had an Intent to shake off the Government that easy equal and well-poised and never-enough to be commended Government as King CHARLES I. calls it of the English Nation Was it any honest Mans meaning to subvert this Government to make way for his own Dreams of some Poetical Golden-Age or a Fanciful Millenium Was it let me ask again to divest the King of all Power to protect his Subjects and then to pronounce roundly that all the Bonds of Allegiance to him are dissolved Was the end of our uniting together to bind his Hands and then prick this Doctrine upon the points of our Swords Protection and Allegiance are Duties so reciprocal that where the one fails wholly the other falls with it Was it to frighten the King out of his Dominions and then to vote that he hath Abdicated his Government Was this the Intent and were these the Reasons of our Declaring for the Prince of Orange No certainly whatever some obnoxious and ambitious Men might aim at all good Christians and worthy Patriots had other Intentions and were led on by other Motives They were sensibly concerned for the Preservation of their Holy Religion in the first place their Lives their Laws and Liberties in the next After the way which some call Heresy so were they desirous still to worship the God of their Fathers And after that manner which some might say was Rebellion so they thought themselves oblig'd to stand up for the Laws and Liberties of their Forefathers For these Ends and for bringing about these worthy Purposes they withdrew themselves from the Kings personal Service that they might be the better enabled to serve his real Interest They hoped by this means to deliver him from his evil Counsellors and secure both him and his Subjects from the evil and pernicious Practices of some wicked and unreasonable Men. 3. These and such like were the Inducements which prevailed with all well-affected and honest Men to withdraw from his Majesty and suspend the actual Exercise of their Allegiance for the present that they might afterwards exert it according to the fix'd and stated Rules of Law Conscience and right Reason But now how contrary is this to those new Models which some politick Architects are
matter of Fact doth not back and maintain them And this is an Advantage which I would not have us give our Adversaries in these things no more than we have done in the matters of Dispute betwixt them and us Here we have proved all our Charges against their Religion let us therefore prove or else not so eagerly insist upon these Accusations brought against their Persons I shall add nothing further but my real Wishes That I could tho with the loss of all that 's dear to me in this World contribute to the utter Exclusion of Popery by all lawful means and I do and shall always pray for a Blessing upon their Designs who sincerely endeavour to procure a Settlement of the Religion Liberties and Properties of the Subjects upon so sure a foundation that there may be no danger of the Nations relapsing into the like miseries at any time hereafter Some short Notes on a Pamphlet entitled Reflections upon our late and present Proceedings in England A Man must read much of this Author 's profound Work before he can fathom the Depths of it and find what his Design is or whether indeed he has any Design at all unless it be that of making a Book He tells us at length after much Strugling and a tedious Repetition of what every body knows perhaps better than himself That all Orders of Men Ecclesiastick Civil and Military did put the Regal Administration into the Prince of Orange's Hands and that the Intent of our Proceedings will at least excuse if not justify us I would have this knowing Gentleman inform the World into what Hands the Regal Administration could be better put And if the Nation could not do better whether this their Action does not justify it self But says he a little above How did we all generally concur and unanimously agree to forget our Obligations to our Soveraign And in Page 4 he tells us That the Prince of Orange hath done a great thing for us and wrought such Deliverance for the Nation as ought never to be forgotten and can never be sufficiently requited I do not at all doubt but this Gentleman can more easily write half a dozen such Books as this is than reconcile these notable Passages He acknowledges we have been rescued out of the Hands of him that hated us and would have destroyed us without a cause and yet reproaches us with forgetting our Obligations to our Soveraign In Page 5. he has this sharp Question Let every Man ask himself for what reason he became a party in this general Defection Was it to divest the King of all Power to protect his Subjects c. To repeat these Absurdities is a sufficient Answer to them And then again in the next Page That whatever some obnoxious and ambitious Men might aim at all good Christians had other Intentions They were sensibly concerned for the Preservation of their Holy Religion in the first place Their Lives their Laws their Liberties in the next And after the way which some call Heresy so were they desirous still to worship the God of their Fathers and after that manner which some might say was Rebellion so they thought themselves oblig'd to stand up for the Laws and Liberties of their Forefathers What measures of Obedience this Man is for and what he would have us to do or not to do I am not able to divine from his Book for he seems to dislike in one place what he approves in another But he tells us in Page 6 7 of his Fears of the Government being undermined both in Church and State and that he shall be reduced to the Dutch or some other foreign measures which can never be well received in England till an Act be past to abolish Monarchy Episcopacy c. If this Gentleman's Distractions be not so great as to hinder him the use of his two chief Senses he may now perceive that his Fears are as vain as others perceive his Reasoning to be But in Page 8. he states a notable Question for he supposes his Father to be as churlish as Cain and as poor as Job and yet maintains he is his Father O admirably put But what 's this to a King 's apparent Design of ruining and enslaving a People who have the same both Natural and Civil Right to their Lives and Liberties as he has to his But shall we run says he into Popery and perhaps Slavery too and is not the Deposing a Popish Doctrine p. 11. and as for Slavery Must not a standing Army be necessarily kept up to maintain a Title founded only on the consent of the fickle and uncertain People If the Lords and Commons of England are this fickle and uncertain People I know not where our Author will find more substantial Folks unless he fancies they are to be met with amongst the Mobile And as to the Popish Deposing Doctrine I have already shewed our case comes in no sort near it for the late King's Religion did not hinder his possessing himself of the Throne neither was that the Cause of his leaving it for he might have enjoyed it and made the best of it as to himself in all Freedom but he thought it beneath him to stop here and not impose his false Worship on all his Subjects trampling all the Laws of the Kingdom under his Feet and thereby claiming not only an absolute Empire over the Bodies but the Minds of his Subjects Our Author likewise shews himself a notable Well-wisher to our Religion and Liberties when he represents a standing Army page 11. in the present Exigency of Affairs to be such a Grievance and that too under a Prince who has not been only born and educated in the greatest Aversion to Popery and the only Prince uncorrupted by the French King but whose Genius and Interests do every ways so answer the Necessity of our Nation that we have no other cause of Fear or Trouble but at the sense of our own Unworthiness of so great a Blessing He seems in p. 12 and 13 to be in great Labour left the Prince of Orange should make himself a King contrary to the express Terms of his Declaration and Pretences of coming over here To which may be answered that he has in no sort violated that Declaration for he did not thrust himself into the Throne and as to his being so now both de jure and de facto this being a matter decided by the Justice Wisdom and Supream Authority of the Nation it 's foolish Presumption and no less conceited Ignorance for any private Person to argue it Our wise Author seems to be moreover concerned and greatly troubled at the Effects produced by the third Declaration for he says It did more harm to the King's Affairs than all the other Papers publisht at that time whence he concludes its plain that Sophistry and Tricks are made use of if they will but do the Business What would this Man have would he have both to
Necessity of their own creating tho never so false For says he if the King had either not bin driven out of his Dominions or invited back upon honourable Terms they needed not have had recourse to such unusual singular Methods of proceeding And thus the Discusser rambles out of one Untruth into another For he fled from offer'd Treaty forsook the defence of his own Forces and left them to be disbanded in Arrears and without Payment slipt from his own Council by Night after he had appointed to meet them in Consultation the next Morning Nor could he justly suspect that any Violence would have been offer'd to Him in particular being so well assur'd as he could not choose but be of the Generous Inclination and profound Respect which the Prince had to his Person But if the Guilt of peculiar Miscarriages hasten'd his Departure or oversway'd him toleave the Heâ—m of Rule without any Form or Face of Goverment That could ne're be call'd an Expulsion out of his Dominions And therefore when a certain Gentleman waiting on him at Feversham besought him to return to London he gave the Person this Reply That he was an honest Gentleman but knew not what he knew And when he had once abandon'd the Kingdom all forlom without either Head or Conduct without Council or any Countenance of Authority then according to the Judgment of the Common-wealth of Venice in reference to the Succession of Henry the 4 th it belong'd to the Nobility and chief Persons of the Land as they are the chief Defence of the Royal Authority to take care of the Publick Safety whether by usual or unusual Methods of proceeding it matters not and they have both the Authority of Law and Necessity to justify their Proceedings As for his being invited back upon Honourable Terms 't is well known how he return'd back and went through the City on the Sunday Night attended by his own Guards and lodg'd in White-Hall and this most certainly in order to an Accommodation Only because the Prince was coming to Town he was sent to and for the avoiding any Disturbance that might be prejudicial to his Person was humbly desir'd to retire to Ham-House with Liberty to make choice of what Persons he thought fit to attend him Which he promised to do but recollecting himself and desiring to know whether he might not return back to Rochester word was sent him the next Morning that he might do as he pleas'd All this while here was no Constraint put upon him so that he could not be said to be driven out of his Dominions but that it was his own Choice to forsake it Notwithstanding all this The Discusser will undertake to prove That the King before his withdrawing had sufficient Grounds to make him apprehensive of Danger and therefore it could not be call'd an Abdication But through the whole Pursuit of his Argument the Discusser most wretchedly mistakes the Point quite mistaking the Effects for the Causes For says he Had not the King great Reason to retire to secure his Person and his Honour when he had met with so many unfortunate Disappointments with so many surprising and unparallel'd Accidents When part of the Army was revolted and the Remainder too apparently unserviceable When the People had such fatal and unremoveable Prejudices against his Service When there were such terrible Disorders in the Kingdom and all Places were either flaming or ready to take Fire What should a Prince do when he had scarce any thing left him to lose but himself but consult his Safety and give way to the irresisâ—able Evil These are very great Disappointments and evil Accidents indeed to befal a Prince But the Discusser forgets to tell ye That the Prince brought all these Inconveniencies upon himself The Discusser tells ye that part of the Army revolted but he omits to tell ye that it was out of a Generous Principle for that being Protestants they would not embrue their Hands in the Blood of their Fellow-Protestants and Countreymen nor be Instruments to enslave the Nation He tells ye of terrible Disorders in the Kingdom but does not tell ye it was time for the People to be in Disorder when they saw such Incroachments upon their Ancient Franchises such Inundations of Popery flowing in upon their Consciences and such a rapid Violence of French Thraldom tumbling in upon their Necks He complains that all Places were either flaming or ready to take Fire but forgets to tell you who were the Incendiaries These therefore with several others of the same Nature being the true Causes that drew the foresaid Inconveniencies upon the King it follows that tho the Secondary Constraint of his withdrawing might be occasion'd by the Effects yet the Primary Cause of his withdrawing proceeded from the First Causes which produced the Effects Consequently such a Retiring was voluntary and not forc'd because he may be justly said to fly from something of dreaded Punishment rather then pursuing Danger from which he was always at a distance â—ar enough off but dubious what would become of him as to the Former The Discusser makes many other grievous Complaints to justify the King's First withdrawing for hitherto he is altogether upon that but when he comes to sum up all In short says he when the Forts and Revenue were thus disposed of when the Papists were to be disbanded and the Protestants not to be trusted when the Nation was under such general and violent Dissatisfactions when the King in case of a Rupture had nothing upon the matter but his single Person to oppose against the Princes Arms and those of his Subjects when his Mortal Enemies were to sit Judges of his Crown and Dignity if no farther when Affairs were in this tempestuous Condition to say that a Free and Indifferent Parliament might be chosen with the Relation to the King 's Right as well as the People's and that the King had no just visible Cause to apprehend himself in Danger is to out-face the Sun and trample upon the Understandings and almost upon the Senses of the whole Nation As for the Fortified Towns it was but Reason that his then Highness the Prince of Orange who came over to rescue the Nation from Arbitrary Violence and Oppression should demand them to be put into his Power well Knowing them to be then in the Hands of Irish Papists and Cut-Throats of whom the People stood in Perpetual Fear and who were rather a Consternation then Security to the Kingdom And the same reason holds in Relation to the Revenue For all the World knows what Vast Sums had been Squander'd away by the late King when Duke to keep off the sitting of Parliaments and to buy off the Members when they Sate and when that Money was spent so much to the Detriment of the Realm what Sollicitations were made to the French King for more to carry on the Popish Cause and Interest It was as well known how the Revenue had of late
Counsellors whom he had pardoned and was in Honour bound to protect them having himself forced them to be Criminals 3. The third was The consenting to the entire Ruin of Popery in England by hanging many of his Priests and Jesuits and banishing all the rest and pulling down all the Schools and Chappels they had erected all over England a sure Sign they were built upon an Immortal Prince of Wales though this was done before by the unaccountable Zeal of the Mobile 4. He foresaw such a Parliament would not only damn the Ecclesiastical Court that Beast with seven Heads and the Dispensing Power but would in all probability lessen his Revenue and bind up the Prerogative which his great Spirit could not bear 5. The Prince he foresaw would have demanded some Forts to be put into his Hands and the Parliament for their Security so said he If I stay I shall be but a Nominal King of England and only be an Instrument to ruin my Religion my â—riends the Monarchy and the Child also At first he alledged That the Disorders the Preparations to repel the Invasion caused would not suffer a Parliament to meet Secondly After the Prince was landed that all the Countries he had under him would not be free Thirdly That all that had joined with him ought not to sit but when he saw the whole Army and Nation the Roman Catholicks excepted of the same mind mere Force drove him to consent to Call a Parliament and when he had again considered the Consequences of it he at last resolved to throw up the Crown and Government all at once rather than to submit to all these Hardships He seems to have had at the same time a fluttering hope that 1. We should never be able long to agree after he had made it impossible for us to have a Legal Parliament by burning the Writs 2. That the Church of England Principles would when the fear and disorder was over form for him a potent Army in the Nation And 3. That the French King would lend him potent Forces and good store of Mony and if he recovered the Throne by force he should be freed of all these Miseries and have what he only wanted before a Popish Army to insure the Slavery of England for ever Now I would desire those Protestants who pretend now too late to be so zealous for him to consider whether what I have said would not have been expected from him by them for their Security and what they would have done had he called a Parliament and refused them all these things and have insisted That they should have taken his Word as to the Birth of the Prince of Wales have suffered him to have been educated in France and have suffered the Army the Prerogative the Ministers and the Revenues to have continued entirely as they were upon a Promise He would have used them better for the future If they say No They would have had the best Security that Law or Reason could have required Then all the hard things I have mentioned must have been granted them and I much question whether he would now return to the Throne on those terms If they say We ought however to have treated with him have offered him terms I say it would have come to a separate Treaty and the Church the Liberties of the Nation and the Government would have been ruined that way and when all had been done no Bond that he could have broken would have held him longer than the Necessity had continued The only Advantage we could pretend to have by the coming over of the Prince of Orange with an Army was to force the King to what he would never have yielded without that Force Now when he had accordingly passed his Word to the Nation in the Proclamation of the Thirtieth of November That there should be a Free Parliament and to the Prince of Orange in his Message by the three Lords That he would consent to every thing that could reasonably be required for the Security of those that come to it and yet without any Provocation would burn the Writs and resolve to withdraw his Person before these Lords couâ—d possibly return him any Answer for he promised the Queen to follow her who went away the day before him I say this breach of his Word so solemnly made and given both to the Nation and the Prince shew that he was not Master of himself but turned about by others whither they pleased Now suppose the Prince had suffered him to continue at Whiteâ—al and to call a Third Parliament what aâ—surance could he have given that in the end of another forty days we should not have the same trick play'd us and then in March or April have been left in the same state of Confusion we were in in December to the certain Ruin of these three Kingdoms and Holland into the bargain And when all had been done the Scruples would have been the same they are now the Obligations of the Oath of Allegiance the same and the sin of Deposing a Lawful Prince who resolved to do the Nation no Right would have been much greater and more scandalous than barely to take him at his Word and since he had left the Throne empty when he needed not to resolve he should ascend it no more Lastly Suppose the Prince had been Expelled by the King Would the King have then granted us what he would not grant us now Would he not have Disbanded his Protestant Army and have kept the Irish Forces in Pay and have every day encreased them What Respect would he ever after this have shewn to the English Laws Religion or Liberties when he had no longer any thing to fear The memory of what happened after the Monmouth defeat though effected only by Church of England Men will certainly never be forgotten by others whatever the Bigots of this sort of Loyalty may pretend or say That Expression of the Lord Churchil's in his Letter That he could no longer joyn with Self-interested Men who had framed Designs against His Majesty's true Interest and the Protestant Religion to give a pretence by Conquest to bring them to effect ought to be seriously considered by all the Protestants of the Nation This one Argument prevailed upon him when he ran the hazard of his Life Reputation and Fortunes and now they are all on the other side I should consider very seâ—iously if I were one of them what Answer I could make to this turned into a Question in the Day of Death and Judgment before ever I should Act the direâ—t contrary to what he has done For my part I am amazed to see Men scruple the submitting to the present King for if eveâ— Man had a just cause of War he had and that creates a Right to the thing gained by it the King by withdrawing and disbâ—nding his Army yielded him the Throne and if he had without any more Ceremony ascended it he had done no more
A Collection of Papers Relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England VIZ. 1. The Humble Petition of Seven Bishops to his Majesty 2. Articles recommended by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to all the Bishops and Clergy within his Jurisdiction 3. Proposals of the Arch-Bishop with some other Bishops to his Majesty 4. Petition of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for Calling a Free Parliament With his Majesty's Gracious Answer 5. Vindication of the aforesaid Petition 6. Extract of the States General their Resolution 7. Prince of Orange his Letter to the English Army 8. Account of a Design to Poison the Prince of Orange before he came out of Holland 9. A Relation of a Strange Meteor representing a Crown of Light seen in the Air near the City of Orange 10. Lord Del r's Speech to his Tenants 11. Prince of Denmark's Letter to the King. 12. The Lord Churchil's Letter to the King. 13. Princes Ann's Letter to the Queen 14. A Memorial of the Protestants of England to the Prince and Princess of Orange 15. Prince of Orange his Declaration of Novemb. 28. 1688. from Sherborn-Castle Printed in the Year 1688. To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of William Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and divers of the Suffragan Bishops of that Province now present with him in behalf of themselves and others of their absent Brethren and of the Clergy of their respective Diocesses Humbly sheweth THAT the great averseness they find in themselves to the distributing and publishing in all their Churches your Majesty's late Declaration for Liberty of Conscience proceeds neither from any want of Duty and Obedience to your Majesty our Holy Mother the Church of England being both in her Principles and in her constant Practice unquestionably Loyal and having to her great Honour been more than once publickly acknowledg'd to be so by your Gracious Majesty Nor yet from any want of due tenderness to Dissenters in relation to whom they are willing to come to such a Temper as shall be thought fit when that Matter shall be considered and settled in Parliament and Convocation But among many other Considerations from this especially because that Declaration is founded upon such a Dispensing Power as has been often declared Illegal in Parliament and particularly in the Years 1662 and 1672 and in the beginning of your Majesty's Reign and is a Matter of so great Moment and Consequence to the whole Nation both in Church and State that your Petitioners cannot in Prudence Honour or Conscience so far make themselves Parties to it as the distribution of it all over the Nation and the solemn publication of it once and again even in God's House and in the Time of his Divine Service must amount to in common and reasonable Construction Your Petitioners therefore most humbly and earnestly beseech your Majesty that you will be graciously pleased not to insist upon their distributing and reading your Majesty's said Declaration And Your Petitioners as in Duty bound shall ever pray Will. Cant. Will. Asaph Fr. Ely. Jo. Cicestr Tho. Bathon Wellen. Tho. Peterburgen Jonath Bristol His Majesties Answer was to this effect I Have heard of this before but did not believe it I did not expect this from the Church of England especially from some of you If I change my Mind you shall hear from me if not I expect my Command shall be obeyed THE ARTICLES Recommended by the ARCH-BISHOP of CANTERBURY To all the Bishops within his Metropolitan Iurisdiction the 16 th of Iuly 1688. SIR YEsterday the Archbishop of Canterbury delivered the Articles which I send you inclosed to those Bishops who are at present in this place and ordered Copies of them to be likewise sent in his Name to the absent Bishops By the Contents of them you will see that the Storm in which he is does not frighten him from doing his Duty but rather awakens him to do it with so much the more vigor and indeed the Zeal that he expresses in these Articles both against the Corruptions of the Church of Rome on the one hand and the unhappy Differences that are among Protestants on the other are such Apostolical Things that all good Men rejoyce to see so great a Prelate at the Head of our Church who in this Critical Time has had the Courage to do his Duty in so signal a manner I am Sir Yours London Iuly 27 1688. Some Heads of Things to be more fully insisted upon by the Bishops in their Addresses to the Clergy and People of their respective Diocesses I. THat the Clergy often reade over the Forms of their Ordination and seriously consider what Solemn Vows and Professions they made therein to God and his Church together with the several Oaths and Subscriptions they have taken and made upon divers Occasions II. That in Compliance with those and other Obligations they be Active and Zealous in all the Parts and Instances of their Duty and especially strict and exact in all Holy Conversation that so they may become Examples to the Flock III. To this end that they be constantly Resident upon their Cures in their Incumbent Houses and keep sober Hospitality there according to their Ability IV. That they diligently Catechise the Children and Youth of their Parishes as the Rubrick of the Common-Prayer-Book and the 59th Canon injoyn and so prepare them to be brought in due time to Confirmation when there shall be Opportunity and that they also at the same time expound the Grounds of Religion and the Common Christianity in the Method of the Catechism for the Instruction and Benefit of the whole Parish teaching them what they are to believe and what to do and what to pray for and particularly often and earnestly inculcating upon the Importance and Obligation of their Baptismal Vows V. That they perform the Daily Office publickly with all Decency Affection and Gravity in all Market and other Great Towns and even in Villages and less populous Places bring People to Publick Prayers as frequently as may be especially on such Days and at such Times as the Rubrick and Canons appointed on Holy Days and their Eves on Ember and Râ—gation Days on Wednesdays and Fridays in each Week and especially in Advent and Lent. VI. That they use their utmost Endeavour both in their Sermons and by private Applications to prevail with such of their Flock as are of competent Age to receive frequently the Holy Communion and to this end that they administer it in the greater Towns once in every Month and even in the lesser too if Communicants may be procured or how-ever as often as they may and that they take all due Care both by Preaching and otherwise to prepare all for the worthy receiving of it VII That in their Sermons they teach and inform their People four times a Year at the least as what the Canon require that all Vsurp'd and Foreign Jurisdiction is for most Just Causes taken away and abolish'd in this Realm and no
manner of Obedience or Subjection due to the sâ—me or to any that pretend to act by virtue of it but that the King's Power being in his Dominions highest under God they upon all Occasions perswade the People to Loyalty and Obedience to his Majesty in all things Lawful and to patient Submission in the rest promoting as far as in them lies the publick Peace and Quiet of the World. VIII That they maintain fair Correspondence full of the kindest Respects of all sorts with the Gentry and Persons of Quality in their Neighbourhood as being deeply sensible what reasonable Assistance and Countenance this poor Church hath received from them in her Necessities IX That they often exhort all those of our Communion to continue stedfast to the end in their most Holy Faith and constant to their Profession and to that end to take heed of all Seducers and especially of Popish Emissaries who are now in great numbers gone forth amongst them and more busie and active than ever And that they take all occasions to convince our own Flock that 't is not enough for them to be Members of an Excellent Church rightly and duly Reformed both in Faith and Worship unless they do also reform and amend their own Lives an so order their Conversation in all things as becomes the Gospel of Christ. X. And forasmuch as those Romish Emissaries like the Old Serpent Insidiantur Calcaneo are wont to be most busie and troublesome to our People at the end of their Lives labouring to unsettle and perplex them in time of Sickness and at the hour of Death that therefore all who have the Cure of Souls be more especially vigilant over them at that dangerous Season that they stay not till they be sent for but enquire out the Sick in their respective Parishes and visit them frequently that they examine them particularly concerning the state of their Souls and instruct them in their Duties and settle them in their Doubts and comfort them in their Sorrows and Sufferings and pray often with them and for them and by all the Methods which our Church prescribes prepare them for the due and worthy receiving of the Holy Eucharist the Pledg of their happy Resurrection thus with their utmost Diligence watching over every Sheep within their Fold especially in that critical Moment lest those Evening Wolves devour them XI That they also walk in Wisdom towards those that are not of Our Communion and if there be in their Parishes any such that they neglect not frequently to confer with them in the Spirit of Meekness seeking by all good Ways and Means to gain and win them over to our Communion More especially that they have a very tender Regard to our Brethren the Protestant Dissenters that upon occasion offered they visit them at their Houses and receive them kindly at their own and treat them fairly where-ever they meet them discoursing calmly and civilly with them perswading them if it may be to a full Compliance with our Church or at least that whereto we have already attained we may all walk by the same Rule and mind the same thing And in order hereunto that they take all Opportunities of assuring and convincing them that the Bishops of this Church are really and sincerely irreconcileable Enemies to the Errors Superstitions Idolatries and Tyrannies of the Church of Rome and that the very unkind Jealousies which some have had of us to the contrary were altogether groundless And in the last place that they warmly and most affectionately exhort them to joyn with us in daily fervent Prayer to the God of Peace for an Universal Blessed Vnion of all Reformed Churches both at Home and Abroad against our common Enemies and that all they who do confess the Holy Name of our dear Lord and do agree in the Truth of his Holy Word may also meet in one Holy Communion and live in perfect Unity and Godly Love. An Account of the late PROPOSALS of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with some other Bishops to his Majesty In a LETTER to M. B. Esq SIR I Am much surprized at the ill Constructions some People make of the Actions of those Bishops who have lately waited upon the King especially considering that most of them are the very Men who not many Months ago appeared so publickly and so courageously even to the hazard of all the Interests they had in this World in Defence of our Protestant Religion and the Laws of the Land. In order to the removing all groundless Jealousies and unreasonable Surmises in an Affair of so great Consequence which our Popish Enemies will I am sure be very ready to foment and keep up I have here sent you the Heads of those Matters which were proposed by them to the King. They waited upon Him not as a Party separate either from the Nobility or Gentry whom they could I believe have wished his Majesty would rather have called for at this Juncture or from the rest of the Bishops or Clergy of England but as Persons whom the King was pleased upon Reasons known only to his Royal Breast to command to attend upon Him. The Heads which I send you are not taken from any Copy of the Paper which my Lords the Bishops presented to the King. I understand that all their Lordships have been extreamly careful to prevent the publishing of any Copies and that they still refuse to communicate any tho they now lie under no Obligations to the contrary However I do assure you with all faithfulness that these Heads which I am now sending you are true Contents obtain'd by another Method which in prudence you will imagine not fit for me to disclose You have already been told from me that every one of these Bishops were sent for up out of their Diocesses by Expresses from his Majesty whom they first waited on in a Body on Friday the 28 th of September I cannot upon the strictest inquiry find that any thing passed betwixt the King and them at that first attendance upon Him besides general Expressions of Favour and Protection from his Majesty and general returns of Duty and Loyalty from the Bishops This was matter of Admiration to us all here who could not believe but that the King had other Intentions of a nearer and more particular Concern when he first resolved to send so far for some of these Bishops but these Alterations in Councils are Things not sit for you or I to meddle with However my Lords the Bishops were not satisfied herewith concluding as I suppose that his Majesty would not have sent for them so far if he had not intended to have advised with them in this Juncture and to give them the liberty of offering Him such Counsels as they thought necessary at this Time And therefore when his Grace my Lord Archbishop of Canterbury waited on the King alone the first time on Sunday morning Sept. 30. being indisposed when the other Bishops attended on Friday their Lordships did