the Enemies of GOD but their own which Laws have still been continued of course without design of executing them or any of them ad terrorem only on Supposition that the Papists relying on an External Power were incapable of Duty and true Allegeance to their Natural Soveraigns and Rightful Monarchs We of Our certain Knowledge and long Experience knowing that the Catholicks as it is their Principle to be Good Christians so it is to be dutiful Subjects and that they have likewise on all Occasions shewn themselves Good and Faithful Subjects to Us and Our Royal Predecessors by hazarding and many of them actually losing their Lives and Fortunes in their Defence though of another Religion and the Maintenance of their Authority against the Violences and Treasons of the most violent Abettors of these Laws Do therefore with Advice and Consent of Our Privy Councâ—l by Our Soveraign Authority Prerogative Royal and Absolute Power aforesaid Suspend Stop and disable all Laws or Acts of Parliament Customs or Constitutions made or executed against any of our Roman Catholick Subjects in any time past to all Intents and Purposes making void all Prohibitions therein mentioned pains or penalties therein ordained to be Inflicted so that they shall in all things he as free in all Respects as any of our Protestant Subjects whatsoever not only to Exercise their Religion but to enjoy all Offices Benefices and others which We shall think fit to bestow upon them in all time coming Nevertheless it is Our Will and Pleasure and we do hereby câ—mmand all Catholicks at their highest Pains only to Exercise their Religious Worship in Houses or Chappels and that they presume not to Preach in the open Fields or to invade the Protestant Churches by force under the pains aforesaid to be inflicted upon the Offenders respectively nor shall they presume to make Publick Processions in the High-Streets of any of Our Royal Burghs under the Pains above mentioned And whereas the Obedience and Service of Our Good Subjects is due to Us by their Allegiance and Our Soveraignty and that no Law Custom or Constitution Difference in Religion or other Impediment whatsoever can exempt or discharge the Subjects from their Native Obligations and Duty to the Crown or hinder Us from Protecting and Employing them according to their several Capacities and Our Royal Pleasure nor Restrain us from Conferring Heretable Rights and Priviledges upon them or vacuate or annul these Rights Hereable when they are made or conferred And likewise considering that some Oaths are capable of being wrested â—y Men of sinistrous intentions a practice in that Kingdom fatal to Religion as it was to Loyalty Do therefore with Advice and Consent aforesaid â—ass Annul and Discharge all Oaths whatsoever by which any of Our Subjects are incapacâ—â—ated or disabled from holding Places or Offices in Our said Kingdom or enjoying their Hereditary Rights and Priviledges discharging the same to be taken or given in any time coming without our special Warrant and Consent under the pains due to the Contempt of Our Royal Commands aâ—d Authority And to this effectâ— we do by Our Royaâ— Authority aforesaid Stop 〈◊〉 and Diâ—pense with all Laws enjoyning the said Oaths Tâ—sts or any of them particularly the first Act of the first Session of the first Parliament of King Charles the Second the Eleventh Act of the foresaid Session of the foresaid Parliament the sixth Act of the third Parliament of the said King Charles the twenty first and twenty fifty Acts of that Parliament and the thirteenth Act of the first Session of * Our late Parliament in so far allanerly as concerns the taking the Oaths or Tests therein prescribed and all others as well not mentioned as mentioned and that in place of them all Our good Subjects or such of them as We or Our Privy Council shall require so to do shall take and swear the following Oath allanerly I A. B. do acknowledge testifie and declare that JAMES the Seventh by the Grace of God King of Scotland England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. is rightful King and Supream Governour of these Realms and over all persons therein and that it is unlawful for Subjects on any pretence or for any cause whatsoever to rise in Arms against Him or any Commissionated by Him and that I shall never so rise in Arms nor assist any who shall so do and that I shall never resist His power or Authority nor ever oppose his Authority to his Persâ—n as I shall answer to God but shall to the utmost of my power Assist Defend and Maintain him his Heirs and Lawful Successors in the Exercise of their Absolute Power and Authority against all Deadly So help me God And seeing many of Our good Subjects have before Our pleasure in these Matters was made publick incurred the Guilt appointed by the Acts of Parliament above-mentioned or others We by Our Authority and Absolute power and prerogative Royal above-mentioned of Our certain Knowledge and innaâ—e Mercy Give Our ample and full Indemnity to all those of the Roman-Catholick or popish Religion for all things by them done contrary to Our Laws or Acts of Parliament made in any time past relating to their Religion the Worship and Excercise thereof or for being papists Jesuits or Traffickers for hearing or saying of Mass concealing of Priests or Jesuits breeding their Children Catholicks at home or abroad or any other thing Rite or Doctrrine said performed or maintained by them or any of them And likewise for holding or taking of Places Employments or Offices contrary to any Law or Constitution Advices given to Us or Our Council Actions done or generally any thing performed or said against the known Laws of that Our Ancient Kingdom Excepting always from this Our Royal Indemnity all Murders Assassinations Thefts and such like other Crimes which never used to be comprehended in Our General Acts of Indemnity And we command and require all Our Judges or others concerned to explain this in the most Ample Sense and Meaning Acts of Indemnity at any time have contained Declaring this shall be as good to every one concerned as if they had Our Royal pardon and Remission under Our Great Seal of that Kingdom And likewise indemnifying Our Protestant Subjects from all pains and penalties due for hearing or preaching in Houses providing there be no Treasonable Speeches uttered in the said Conventicles by them in which case the Law is only to take place against the Guilty and none other present prâ—vâ—ding also that they Râ—veal to any of Our Council the Guilt so committed As also execpting all Fines or Effects of Sentences already given And likewise Indemnifying fully and freely all Quakers for their Meetings and Worship in all time past preceeding the publication of these pâ—esents And we doubt not but Our Protestant Subjects will give their Assistance and Concourse hereunto on all Occasions in their respective Capacities In consideration whereof and the ease those of Our
think of the Laws of Burning the poor Servants of the Living God because they cannot give Divine Wership to that which they believe to be only a Piece of Bread The Representation he gives of this part of our History is so false that tho upon Q. Elizabeths coming to the Crown there were many Complaints exhibited of the illegal Violences that Bonner and other Butchers had committed yet all these were stifled and no Penal Laws were Enacted against those of that Religion The popish Clergy were indeed turned out but they were well used and had Pensions assigned them so ready was the Queen and our Church to forgive what was past and to shew all Gentleness for the future During the first thirteen Years of her Reign matter went on calmly without any sort of Severity on the account of Religion But then the restless spirit of that Party began to throw the Nation into violent Convulsions The Pope deposed the Queen and one of the Party had the Impudence to post up the Bull in London upon this followed several Rebellions both in England and Ireland and the Papists of both Kingdoms entred into Confederacies with the King of Spain and the Court of Rome the Preists disposed all the people that depended on them to submit to the Popes Authority in that Disposition and to reject the Queens These endeavours besides open Rebelion produced many Secret Practices against her Life All these things gave the rise to the severe Laws which began not to be enacted before the twentieth year of her raign A War was formed by the Bull of Deposition between the Queen and the Court of Rome so it was a necessary Piece of Precaution to decleare all those to be Traitors who were the Missionaries of that Authority which had stript the Queen of hers yet those Laws were not executed upon some Secular Priests who had the Honesty to condemn the Deposing Doctrine As fâ—r the unhappy Death of the Queen of Scotland it was brought on by the wicked Practices of her own Party who fatally involved her in some of them She was but a Subject here in England and if the Queen took a more Violent way than was decent for her own Security here was no Disloyalty nor Rebellion in the Church of England which owed her no sort of Allegeance IV. I do not pretend that the Church of England has any great cause to value her self upon her Fidelity to King Charles the First thoâ— our Author would have it pass for the only thing of which She can boast for I confess the cause of the Church was so twiâ—â—ed with the King`s that Interest and Duty went together tho` I will not go so far as our Author who says that the Lavs of Nature dictates to every Individual to fight in his own Defence This is too bold a thing to be delivered so crudely at this time The Laws of Nature are perpetual can never be cancelled by any special Law So if these Gentlemen own so freely that this is a Law of Nature they had best take care not to provoke Nature too much lest She fly to the Reliefe that this Law may give her unless she is restrained by the Loyalty of our Church Our Author values his Party much upon their Loyalty to King Charles the first but I must take the Liberty to ask him of what Religion were the Irish Rebells and what sort of Loyalty was it that they shewed either in the first Massacre or in the progress of that Rebellion Their Messages to the Pope to the Court of France and to the Duke of Larrain offering themselves to any of these that would have undertaken to protect them are acts of Loyalty which the Church of England is no ways in clined to follow and the Authentical Proofs of these things are ready to be produced Nor need I add to this the hard terms that they offered to the King and their ill usage of those whom he Imployed I could likewise repress the Insolence of this Writer by telling him of the Slavish Submissions thattheir Party made to Cromwel both Father and son As for their Adhering to King Charles the first there is a peculiar Boldness in our Authors Aâ—â—ertâ—on who says that they had no Hope nor Interest in that Cause The State of that Court is not so quite forgot but that we do well remember what Credit the Queen had with the King and what Hopes She gave the Party yet they did not so entirely espouse the Kings Cause but that they had likewise a flying Squadron in the Parliaments Army how â—oldly soever this may be denyed by our Author for this I will give him a proof that is beyond exception in a Declaration of that Kings sent to the Kingdom of Scotland baring date the 21 of April 1643. which is printed over and over again and as an Author that writes the History of the late Wars had assured us the clean draught of it corrected in some places with the King 's own Hand is yet extant so that it cannot be pretended that this was only a bold Assertion of some of the Kings Ministers that might be ill affected to their Party In that Declaration the King studied to possess his Subjects of Scotland with the Justice of his Cause and among other things to clear himself of that Imputation that he had an Army of Papists about him after many things said on that head these words are added Great numbers of that Religion have been with great Alacâ—ity entertained in that Rebellious Army against us and others have been seduced to whom we had formerly denyed Imployments as appears by the Examination of many Prisoners of whom we have taken twenty and thirty at a time of one Troop or Company of that Religion I hope our Author will not have the Impudence to dispute the Credit that is due to this Testimony but no Discoveries how evident soever they may be can affect some sort of men that have a Secret against blâ—shing V. Our Author exhorts us to charge our Principles of Loyalty and to take Example of our Catholick Neighbours how to behave our selves towards a Prince that is not of our Perswasion But would he have us learn of our â—ish Neighbours to cut our Fellow Subjects Throats and rebel against our King because he is of another Religion for that is the freshest Example that any of our Catholick Neighbours have set us and therefore I do not look so far back as to the Gunpowder-plot or the League of France in the last Age. He reproabhes us for failing in our Fidelity to our King But in this matter we appeal to God Angels and Men and in particular to His Majesty Let our Enemies shew any one Point of our Duty in which we have failed for as we cannot be charged for having preacht any Seditious Doctrine so we are not wanting in the Preaching of the Duties of Loyalty even when we see what they are like to
prejudice against these Laws that the very making of them discovered a particular Malignity against His Majesty and therefore it is ill Manners to speak for them The first had perhaps an Eye at his being then Admiral and the last was possibly levelled at him though when that was discovered he was excepted out of it by a special Proviso And as for that which past in 73 I hope it is not forgot that it was enacted by that Loyal Parliament that had setled both the Prerogative of the Crown and the Rites of the Church and that had given the King more Money than all the Parliaments of England had ever done in all former Times A Parliament that had indeed some Disputes with the King but upon the first step that he made with relation to Religion or Safety they shewed how ready they were to forget all that was past as appeared by their Behaviour after the Triple Alliance And in 73 though they had great cause given them to dislike the Dutch War especially the strange beginning of it upon the Smirna Fleet and the stopping the Exchequer the Declaration for Toleration and the Writes for the Members of the House were Matters of hard Digestion yet no saoner did the King give them this new assurance for their Religion then though they had very great Reasons given them to be jealous of the VVar yet since the King was Engaged they gave him 1200000 Pounds for carrying it on and they thought they had no ill Penniworths for their Money when they carried home with them to their Countries this new Security for their Religion which we are now desired to throw up and which the Reverend Judges have already thrown out as a Law out of date If this had carried in it any new piece of Severity their Complaints might be just but they are extream tender if they are so uneasie under a Law that only gives them Leisure and Opportunities to live at Home And the last Test which was intended only for shutting them out from a share in the Legislative Body appears to be so just that one is rather amased to find that it was so long a doing than that it was done at last and since it is done it is a great presumption on our Understandings to think that we should be willing to part with it If it was not sooner done it was because there was not such cause given for Jealousie to work upon but what has appeared since that time and what has been Printed in his Majesties Name shews the World now that the Jealousies which occasion'd those Laws were not so ill grounded as some well meaning Men perhaps then believed them to be But there are some times in which all Mens Eyes come to be opened IX I am told some think it is very indecent to have a Test for our Parliaments in which the King's Religion iâ— accused of Idolatry but if this reason is good in this particular it will be full as good against several of the Articles of our Church and many of the Homilies If the Church and Religion of this Nation is so formed by Law that the King's Religion is declared over and over again to be Idolatrous what help is there for it It is no other than it was when His Majesty was Crowned and Swore to Maintain our Laws I hope none will be wanting in all possible Respect to his sacred Person and as we ought to be infinitely sorry to find him engaged in a Religion which we must believe Idolatrous so we are far from the ill manners of reflecting on his Person or calling him an Idolator for as every Man that reports a Lye is not for that to be called a Lyar so that tho' the ordering the Intention and the prejudice of a misperswasion are such abatements that we will not rashly take on us to call every Man of the Church of Rome an Idolater yet on the other hand we can never lay down our Charge against the Church of Rome as guilty of Idolatry unless at the same time we part with our Religion X. Others give us a strange sort of Argument to perswade us to part with the Test they say The King must imploy his Popish Subjects for he can trust no other and he is so assured of their Fidelity to him that we need apprehend no Danger from them This is an old Method to work on us to let in a sort of People to the Parliament and Government since the King cannot trust us but will depend on them so that as soon as this Law is repealed they must have all the Imployments and have the whole Power of the Nation lodged in their hands this seems a little to gross to impose even on Irish-men The King saw for many Years together with how much Zeal both the Clergy and many of the Gentry appeared for his Interests and if there is now a Melancholy Damp on their Spirits the King can dissipate it when he will and as the Church of England is a Body that will never Rebell against him so any Sullenness under which the late Administration of Affairs has brought them would soon vanish if the King would be pleas'd to remember a little what he has so often promised not only in Publick but in Pivate and would be contented with the Exercise of his own Religion without imbroiling his whole Affairs because F. Petre will have it so and it tempts Englishmen to to more than ordinary degrees of Rage against a sort of Men who it seems can infuse in a Prince born with the highest Sense of Honour possible Projects to which without doing some Violence to his own Royal Nature he could not so much as hearken to if his Religion did not so fatally muffle him up in a blind Obedience But if we are so unhappy that Priests can so disguise Matters as to mis-lead a Prince who without their ill Insluences would be the most Glorious Monarch of all Europe and would soon reduce the Grand Lauis to a much humbler Fgure yet it is not to be so much as imagined that ever their Arts can be so unhappily successful as to impose on an English Parliament composed of Protestant Members Some REFLECTIONS on His Majesties Proclamation of the Twelfth of February 1686 7 for a Toleration in Scotland together with the said Pro-Proclamation I. THe Preamble of a Prâ—clamamaâ—ion is fst writ in hast and is the flourish of some waâ—tâ—n Pen but one of such an Extraordinary 〈◊〉 as this is was probably more severely Examined there is a new designation of his Majesties Authority here set forth of his Absolute Power which is so often repeated that it deserves to be a little searched into Prerogative Royal and Soveraign Authority are Terms already received and known but for this Absolute Power as it is a new Term so those who have coined it may make it signifie what they will The Roman Law speaks of Princeps Legibus solutus and Absolute