Consideration of Affairs Abroad which makes it fit for you to expedite your Business not only for making a Settlement at home upon a good Foundation but for the Safety of all Europe The Lords having declar'd by a Vote of that House That Popery was Inconsistent with the Government of England the Commons upon the 28th of January passed the following Vote viz. Resolved THat King James the Second having endeavour'd to Subvert the Constitution of this Kingdom by breaking the Original Contract between King and People and by the Advice of Jesuits and other Wicked Persons having withdrawn himself out of this Kingdom hath Abdicated the Government and that the Throne is thereby Vacant This Vote occasion'd several Conferences between the two Houses of Lords and Commons in the Painted Chamber at Westminster the Substance whereof as they are transmitted * 〈◊〉 Debate at large between the House of Lords and House of Câ—â—â—â—â—â— to us will be occasionally produc'd in the Sequel But on the 7th of February the Lords sending a Message to the Commons that they had Agreed to the Vote sent them up on the 28th of January last without any Alterations on the 12th of February following both Houses Unanimously Agreed to Declare as followeth The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster VVHereas the late King James the Second by the Assistance of divers Evil Counsellors Judges and Ministers employ'd by him did endeavour to Subject and Extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom By Assuming and Exercising a Power of Dispencing with and Suspending of Laws and the Execution of Laws without Consent of Parliament By Committing and Persecuting divers Worthy Prelates for humbly Petitioning to be excus'd from Concurring to the said Assumed Power By Issuing and Causing to be Executed a Commission under the Broad Seal for Erecting a Court call'd The Court of Commission for Ecclesiastical Affairs By Levying Money for and to the Use of the Crown by Pretence of Prerogative for other Time and in other Manner than the same was Granted by Parliament By Raising and Keeping a Standing Army within the Kingdom in Time of Peace without Consent of Parliament and Quartering of Soldiers contrary to Law By Causing several good Subjects being Protestants to be Dis-arm'd at the same time when Papists were both Arm'd and Employ'd contrary to Law By Violating the Freedom of Elections of Members to Serve in Parliament By Prosecutions in the Court of King's Bench for Matters and Causes Cognizable only in Parliament and by divers other Arbitrary and Illegal Courses And whereas of late Years Partial Corrupt and Unqualify'd Persons have been Return'd and Serv'd on Juries in Trials and particularly divers Jurors Serv'd in Trials for High Treason which were not Free-holders And Excessive Bail had been Required of Persons Committed in Criminal Causes to Elude the Benefit of the Laws made for the Liberty of the Subject And Excessive Fines have been Impos'd And Illegal and Cruel Punishments Inflicted And several Grants and Promises made of Fines and Forfeitures before any Conviction or Judgment against the the Persons upon whom the same were to be Levy'd All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known Laws and Statutes and Freedom of this Realm And whereas the late King James the Second having Abdicated the Government and the Throne being thereby Vacant His Highness the Prince of Orange whom it hath pleas'd Almighty God to make the Glorious Instrument of Delivering this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power did by the Advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and divers Principal Persons of the Commons cause Letters to be written to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being Protestants and other Letters to the several Counties Cities Universities Boroughs and Cinque-Ports for the Choosing such Persons to represent them as were of Right to be sent to Parliament to Meet and Sit at Westminster upon the 22th Day of January 1688. in order to such an Establishment as that their Religion Laws and Liberties might not again be in danger of being Subverted Upon which Letters Elections have been made And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons pursuant to their respective Letters and Elections being now Assembl'd in a Full and Free Representative of this Nation taking into their most Serious Consideration the best Means for attaining the Ends aforesaid do in the first place as their Ancestors in like Cases have formerly done for the Vindicating and Asserting their Antient Rights and Liberties Declare That the Pretended Power of Suspending of Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority without Consent of Parliament is Illegal That the Pretended Power of Dispencing with Laws or the Exercise of Laws by Regal Authority as has been Assum'd and Practis'd of late is Illegal That the Commission for Erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes and all other Commissions and Courts of the like nature are Illegal and Pernicious That Levying of Money to or for the Use of the Crown by Pretence of Prerogative without Grant of Parliament for a longer Time or in other Manner than the same is or shall be Granted is Illegal That it is the Right of the Subject to Petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning is Illegal That the Raising or Keeping a Standing Army within the Kingdom in Time of Peace unless it be by Consent of Parliament is against Law That the Subjects being Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Condition and as Allow'd by Law That the Election of Members of Parliament ought to be Free That the Freedom of Speech and Debates or Proceedings in Parliament ought not to be Impeach'd or Question'd in any Court or Place out of Parliament That Excessive Bail ought not to be Requir'd nor Excessive Fines Impos'd nor Cruel and Unusual Punishments Inflicted That Jurors ought to be duly Impannell'd and Return'd and Jurors which Pass upon Men in Trials for High Treason ought to be Free-Holders That all Grants and Promises of Fines and Forfeitures of particular Persons before Conviction are Illegal and Void That for Redress of all Grievances and for the Amending Strengthening and Preserving of the Laws Parliaments ought to be held frequently And they do Claim Demand and Insist upon all and singular the Premisses as their Undoubted Rights and Liberties and that no Declarations Judgments Doings or Proceedings to the Prejudice of the People in any of the said Premisses ought in any wise to be drawn hereafter into Consequence or Example To which Demand of their Rights they are particularly Encourag'd by the Declaration of His Highness the Prince of Orange as being the only Means for Obtaining a full Redress and Remedy therein Having therefore an Entire Confidence that His said Highness the Prince of Orange will perfect the Deliverance so far advanc'd by him and will still preserve them from the Violation of their Rights
Laws do not only totally exclude Papists from Military Offices but injoin them to be Disarm'd also Notwithstanding James the Second did not only Arm them but put them into the First Employments of the Army and all other Stations And was so fond of them that no Consideration either of Quality Loyalty or Merit except he was a Papist could Recommend any Man to this King's Favour or give him Title to the common Kindness of a Civil Reception but all were Smil'd or Frown'd on as they were distinguish'd by their Religious Principles Men may live happily under a Government and yet be excluded from having any Office or exercising any Authority under it and therefore the late King's Fondness and the Papists Forwardness to thrust themselves into Employments gave a great Suspition that it was for no good End that he put Wise and Experienc'd Men out to make room for a sort of Raw Papists who being not us'd to Publick Business were not capacitated for it No Man can imagin that the late King made this bold Adventure in Employing Papists for nothing or that he would disoblige the Body of his People for their sakes only without designing some other Advantage to himself by it He must have some peculiar Service for these Unqualify'd Favourites to do in which the rest of the Nation would not inter-meddle The Contest was between the King 's Absolute Power on the one side and our Laws and Religion on the other And therefore to know what Work their King had for them to do and to what End he would have employ'd these Services here is but to see Vide State of Ireland under the Reign of the late King James what Use he put them to in Ireland and how they demean'd themselves towards Protestants where the Scene was open'd and all manner of Violences committed upon Protestants by his Authority He also corrupted the Exercise of Justice on which depends the Safety of the Nation and the Stability of the Throne The Judges were Tamper'd with and Admitted upon Condition of favouring and promoting the late King 's Arbitrary Power and the Popish Interest Those Judges were Depos'd who were fix'd in their Religion and Resolutely defended the True Interest of their Country and others put into their Places of no Honour Integrity or Capacity but known Temporizers or Papists who were excluded by the Laws of their Country Upon this follow'd very Arbitrary and Illegal Proceedings in the Courts of Judicature A Prosecution was carry'd on against Seven Reverend Prelates for Petitioning the King to Redress their Grievances and giving their Reasons why they could not obey his Arbitrary Commands Causes were Try'd in the Court of King's Bench that were only Cognizable in Parliament Partial Corrupt and Unqualify'd Persons were Return'd and Serv'd on Juries in Cases of High Treason that were not Free-Holders Great Bail requir'd of Persons Committed in Criminal Causes Excessive Fines Impos'd for small Offences Illegal and Cruel Punishments Inflicted without Example or Law to warrant them And for a finishing Stroke The late King was also pleas'd to Grant and Seal a Commission to several Unqualify'd Persons to Examine the Revenues and Search into the Foundations of all the Hospitals in the Kingdom and see to what Uses they were first given by their Benefactors And into the Estates that some time ago belong'd to Monks Friars and other Religious Orders of the Romish Church with Intent to Restore them to the Papists who complain'd to the late King that they were Wrongfully Depriv'd of them In brief Never any Prince in so short a time committed so many Irregularities and made such Inroads upon our All as James the Second did by his Dispencing Power in England his Absolute Power without Reserve in Scotland and his Actual and Absolute Destruction of the Liberties and Religion of the Protestants in Ireland To which if we add the more than seeming Probability of the late King 's Leaguing with France for the Extirpation of the Northern Heresie 't will compleat his Design and make the intended Ruin of England unavoidable for more Hands would have made lighter Work and Experienc'd Artists would have finish'd it sooner I will not urge this League as a plain and positive Truth tho' I am strongly inclin'd to believe it and therefore shall only produce my Reasons and leave them with the Reader to judge as he pleases Mr. Coleman who must be presum'd to know much of his Master's Mind being in the same Interest and the Tool he work'd with in all his Secret Practices gives great Suspicion of the Truth of this Combination in a Letter to Sir William Throgmorton Feb. 1. 1678. You well know saith he that when the Duke comes to be Master of our Affairs i. e. to be King of England the King of France will have Reason to promise himself All things that he can desire And in a Letter to Father Le Chaise Confessor to the French King he says That His Royal Highness was convinc'd that His Interest and the King of France 's were the same And whether he ever thought fit to change his Mind since his Accession to the Crown his own Actions will better declare than any Gloss of mine In this State of Amity Things continu'd between the French King and the Duke of York till he was King And when the Prince of Orange's Fleet was preparing for his Noble Expedition into England they seem'd to rest on the same Foot for Monsieur le Comte d' Avaux the French King's Ambassador at the Hague in a Memorial to the States General acquaints them That his Master knowing the great Preparations for War that their Lordships were making both by Sea and Land was not without some Design form'd answuerable to the greatness of those preparations and his Master believing that it threaten'd England he had Commanded him to declare on his part that the Bands of Friendship and Allyance between him and the King of Great Britain will oblige him not only to assist him but also to look upon the first Act of Hostility that shall be committed by your Troops or your Fleet against his Majesty of Great Britain as a manifest Rupture of the Peace and a Breach with his Crown To this Memorial the States of Holland gave Answer That they Arm'd after the Example of their Neighbours to be ready upon Occasion 'T is true the French Ambassador does not mention the League in express words yet he gives very shrewd Hints that there was some such thing as a League or an Equivilent between the two Crowns and so the States of Holland took it For in their Answer to the English * The Marquiss d'Arbaville Ambassadors's Memorial their Lordships tell him That they were long since fully convinc'd of the Allyance which the King his Master had treated with France and which has been mention'd by Mr. Le Comte d'Avaux in his Memorial The Industry and Care that has been us'd to stifle this League does also
Injury So that the Inference from these Premisses will utterly overthrow the Objection of our Adversaries in favour of the late King James For if a Patron that out of a Principle of Cruelty exposeth the Life of his Slave makes a Forfeiture of his Property in him much more may a Prince for the same Reason forfeit all his Interest in his Free-born Subjects And if a Natural Father who seeks the Destruction of his Son does therefore lose all just Claim to that Son's Obedience much more may a Prince who is but a Casul Political Father and is invested with that Relation only by Agreement and Compact may a Fortiori for the same Reason make a just Forfeiture and lose all just Claim to the Obedience of his Political Children So that the Convention of the Estates Assembl'd at Westminster in Deposing the late King and conferring the Crown upon our Gracious King William the Third have done nothing against the late King James but what they were necessitated to do and what they are justify'd in doing by the greatest Authorities in the Christian World At the late King 's Going off and making no manner of Provision for the Administration of the Government the Nation seem'd to be in the same Condition they were in when the Original Contract was first made and the same Care was requisite to settle the Distracted Affairs of the Realm under that Confusion wherein he left it as if we never had been bless'd with any Settlement at all and consequently the Convention upon the Vacancy of the Throne had Power to Model Things as the present Circumstances of the Publick exacted without being confin'd to the Presidents of former Ages and yet so great was the Modesty of that Venerable Assembly and their Care to prevent Innovations that they did nothing but what had been already done upon the like Occasion many Hundred Years before How the Clergy the Barons and the Commons deported themselves towards King John five Hundred Years ago and Deposing him and Electing Lewis of France I have already acquainted you and therefore shall say no more here than that the Grounds of their Proceedings were for Re-gaining those Franchises that were notoriously invaded by that Arbitrary Prince and are contain'd in the Great Charter of England King Edward the Second tracing the same Arbitrary Methods the Barons send him word That * Trussell 's Hist p. 2â—6 unless he put away Peirce Gaveston that corrupted his Counsels and squander'd his Revenue and also addicted himself to Govern by the Laws of the Land they would with one Consent Rise in Arms against him as a Perjur'd Person And so they did and Beheaded his Minion Gaveston notwithstanding the King 's earnest Sollicitation for his Life The same Fate attended the Spencers And a Parliament being call'd without his Consent at length himself was Depos'd who confess'd the Sentence of his Deposition was just that he was sorry he had so offended the State as they should utterly Reject him but gave the Parliament Thanks that they were so * Trussell 's Hist p. 218. gracious to him as to Elect his Eldest Son their King King Richard the Second being laps'd into the same Misfortune of Affecting a Tyrannical Government the Lords and Commons declare unto him then at Eltham That †Knighton An. 1386. in case he would not be govern'd by the Laws Statutes and Laudable Customs and Ordinances of the Realm and the Wholsome Advice of the Lords and Peers but in a Head-strong Way would exercise his own Will they would Depose him from his Regal Throne and promote some Kinsman of his of the Royal Family to the Throne of the Kingdom in his stead But this Warning having no Effect at length a Parliament is Call'd without the King's Consent or Approbation by Henry Duke of Lancaster They requir'd him to Resign his Crown which tho' he condescended to and actually perform'd it as directed yet the * Trussell l. 2. p. 43. Parliament then Sitting thinking this Abdication not sufficient to build upon because the Writing might be the Effect of Fear and so not Voluntary and Spontaneous they thereupon proceed to a Formal Deposition in the Names of all the Commons of England upon the Articles Exhibited against him which consisted of Twenty nine Particulars and the greatest part of them relating to the Affairs of that Time in which this Age is not concern'd I have contracted them into a narrower Compass than in the Trussell's Hist Original without omitting any thing that is material and are what follows viz. That King Richard the Second wasted the Treasure of the Realm That he Impeach'd several Great Lords of High Treason that Acted for the Good of the Kingdom by Order of Parliament That he perverted the Course of Justice and took away the Lives and Estates of certain Noble-Men without Form of Law That he affirm'd All Law lay in his Head and Breast and that all the Lives and Estates of his Subjects were in his Hands to dispose of at pleasure That he put out divers Knights and Burgesses Legally Elected and put in others of his own Choice to serve his Turn That he Rais'd Taxes contrary to Law and his own Oath And Banish'd the Archbishop of Canterbury without Just Cause or Legal Judgment pronounc'd against him For these Reasons he was formally Depos'd by Parliament who at the same time Consented that Henry Duke of Lancaster should be Crown'd King tho' the Right of Blood was in Edmund Earl of March because now Henry the Fourth had signaliz'd himself in Delivering the Nation from the Tyranny of Richard the Second And after the same manner tho' with a more Free and Absolute Election proceeded the late Convention of Estates in Deposing James the Second and filling the Vacant Throne with our present Monarch William the Third who under God was the Glorious and Happy Instrument of Freeing England from the Tyranny of the late King These Proceedings I have already prov'd to be consentaneous to all Laws And to confirm it shall only add That amongst all the Unfortunate Princes that have been laid aside by their Subjects none were more justly Dethron'd than James the Second We read of some Princes that were Depos'd because they were Infected with the Leprosie but I think none will pretend that Leprosie under the Law was as Incompatible with the Government as Tyranny and Setting up of Idolatry was at this Juncture for that Disease was not in the power of Oziah to help but Tyranny was the Efflux of the late King 's Arbitrary Will and the Gratification of his Sensual Appetite Besides Leprosie is but a Disease in the Body but Tyranny in the Soul Leprosie was but a Ceremonial Evil but according to this manner of Speaking Tyranny is a Moral Evil. Leprosie does but infect Tyranny destroys King Childeric of France was Depos'd for Slothfulness and neglecting the Affairs of the Kingdom and it it must be acknowledg'd this shameful
into Scotland with the Lord Seaford without being able to obtain a Pardon for his Life or Estate From this and other Instances that might be given we may see their Popish Juggling for when an Act of Parliament is made against a Papist 't was no less than Treason to question the King 's Pardoning and Dispencing Power but when an Act bears hard on a Protestant and their King as he pretends has a Mind to Ease them then the King has no Power to Dispence he cannot grant a Pardon his Hands are bound up by Law So that the End of Setting up this Dispencing Power was only to shelter Papists from the Law and ruin Protestants for the Papists in their Hearts we see are as much against it as the Protestants To go on The late King declar'd in Council that he would publish such a Proclamation in England as he had done in Scotland and that none should have Employments under him that would not co-operate in taking off the Penal Laws And he began to execute these Resolutions with a Conduct full of Violence and Injustice The Lord Bishop of London was put out of the Privy Council and Suspended from his Episcopal Office because he would not Suspend Doctor Sharp now Archbishop of York without Legal Process The Earl of Rochester was depriv'd of his Office of Lord Treasurer because he would not change his Religion And the Duke of Sommerset lost his Office because he would not violate the Laws of the Kingdom in performing the Honours at the Reception of the Pope's Nuncio as is usual at the Introduction of Ambassadors To say in Excuse of this that James the Second turn'd out Great Officers of State because they would not obey him and concurr with his Intensions is to publish a Truth that ought to have been Conceal'd by his own Party because it was an evident Demonstration that his Intentions were Unjust and level'd against our Laws and Religion In Things Lawful tho' not Expedient he found a Tacit Compliance nay some of them to keep him in Temper perhaps comply'd further with him than the Strictness of the Law would justifie as Men pull down some Houses at a Fire to preserve the whole Town from Burning But to comply in all things had been to forfeit their own Honours to justifie his Illegalities and Tyranny 2. The Second Means that the late King James employ'd for the Destruction of the Religion and Liberties of England was granting an Ecclesiastical Commission directly contrary to Law This declar'd by what Methods he intended to govern for every Step he made was a new Project to assert his Arbitrary Power and acquaint his Subjects that he would make all Laws Useless that all Power should rest in his own Hands and the Administration be Issu'd from no other Source but his own Will and Pleasure for there was no Occasion for such a Commission but only to shew what he would be at and declare his Purpose to ruin the Church of England Therefore the Commissioners were Devoto's of the Court for the Archbishop's Name was put in but to grace the Matter They knew before that he would not Act and therefore to colour the Sham they oblig'd him to ask Leave to be absent To make this Commission more Illegal a Papist is appointed one of the Commissioners and the whole cloathed with as Absolute a Power as the late King himself was aspiring after They had not only Power to Repress and Punish all Abuses punishable by the Ecclesiastical Laws and to proceed against Offenders by Interdiction Suspention Excommunication Perpetual Imprisonment c. but they had also Power to Exercise their Authority in all Parts of England to Visit Cathedral-Churches the Universities Colleges Parishes Schools and Hospitals to Judge in all Causes and make new Laws Rules Orders and Statutes and Abolish the Old ones as the present Necessity requir'd notwithstanding any Privilege Statute Exemption or Prerogative to the contrary Which was such a boundless Stretch of Power as never had nor I hope never will have any other President than it self Thirdly He pursu'd his Arbitrary Methods by 3. Setting up Popery in Opposition to the National Religion to Ruin his Protestant Subjects and force the whole Kingdom under Subjection to the Papal Laws which had already sentenc'd them to Destruction and that nothing less could be the Design of this Unhappy Monarch will evidently appear if we consider how Popery represents us to the World and how Papists think themselves oblig'd to treat us under those Characters The modestest Terms the Popish Writers can afford the English Protestants is That they are a Pack of Sacrilegious Usurpers of their Church's Patrimony and a Nest of Obstinate Hereticks that ought to be Sacrific'd to their Revenge and Rooted out of the World by any Means whatsoever and this say they is always to be attempted by every good Prince according to Bellarmine's Salvo Ne sint fortiores nobis Unless they be too strong to be subdu'd For otherwise even Massacres are never condemned but when they are unsuccessful And how then they would have us'd us if they could have established their Mischiess by Laws as Bloody as their Minds let the Marian Persecution acquaintus And why should we tempt them again whose Religion is Cruelty and smells so much of Fire that the very Smoak makes us tremble The Laws of England always intend the Preservation of the Subject but Popery when Triumphant in respect of Protestants is destructive to all Laws contrary to the Law of Society to the Law of Government to the Law of Empire to the Law of Royalty and especially to the Laws of a Mix'd Monarchy such as England's are and Protestants can never be safe where 't is Regnant First 1. Popery is against the Laws of Society in all Protestant Countries as well as in England for according to the Romish Tradition the Reform'd are all Hereticks and as such are Ipso Facto depriv'd of the Right they had to their Goods their Children their Liberty their Privileges and even of their Country and ought to be regarded only as Robbers * Becan Theol Scol p. 1. cap. 15. quaest 6. Thieves Murtherers Rebels and Traytors condemn'd to Death by the Church and ought to be deliver'd to the Secular Power to be Executed And to compleat the Tragedy that Holy Church appoints prodigious Recompences to Princes that Exterminate them and Anathematize those that refuse it Now whilst a Popish Prince lies under the Persuasion that his Protestant Subjects are such as his Church represents them that they are not a People nor have Right to any thing they possess he lies under so great a Temptation to destroy them that they had no Reason in the World to trust him with their Lives or suffer him to set up a Power that will inevitably destroy them Secondly 2. It is not less Incompatible with the Law of Government for that is design'd to Protect and Defend And how can that