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
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
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
endeavour the same with his Holiness who says He cannot nor ought not to recede from what he has done otherwise it were in effect to submit to the Articles made in France by the Clergy in 1682 and consequently of too great moment to recant and therefore Submission ought to come from the Son and not from the Father I recommend my self Reverend Father to your Prayers and Blessing desiring you would continue to assist me with your Salutal Counsels and rest for ever Yours c. St. Iame's Feb. 9. III. The Answer of the Reverend Father la Chese Confessor to the Most Christian King to a Letter of the Reverend Father Petre Iesuit and Great Almoner to the King of England upon the Method or Rule he must observe with His Majesty for the Conversion of His Protestant Subjects Most Reverend Father WHen I compare the Method of the French Court which declares against all Heresies with the Policy of other Princes who had the same Design in former Ages I find so great a difference that all that passes now a days in the King's Council is an impenetrable Mystery and the Eyes of all Europe are opened to see what happens but cannot discover the Cause When Francis the First and Henry the Second his Son undertook to ruine the Reformation they had to struggle with a Party which was but beginning and weak and destitute of Help and consequently easier to be overcome In the time of Francis the Second and Charles the Ninth a Family was seen advanc'd to the Throne by the Ruine of the Protestants who were for the House of Bourbon In this last Reign many Massacres hapned and several Millions of Hereticks have been sacrificed but it answer'd otherways and his Majesty has shew'd by the peace and mild ways he uses that he abhors shedding of Blood from which you must perswade his Britannick Majesty who naturally is inclin'd to Roughness and a kind of Boldness which will make him hazard all if he does not politickly manage it as I hinted in my last when I mentioned my Lord Chancellor Most Reverend Father to satisfy the desire I have to shew you by my Letters the Choice you ought to make of such Persons fit to stir-up I will in few words since you desire it inform you of the Genius of the People of our Court of their Inclinations and which of them we make use of that by a Parallel which you will make between them and your English Lords you may learn to know them Therefore I shall begin with the Chief I mean our Great Monarch It is certain he is naturally good and loves not to do Evil unless desired to do it This being so I may say he never would have undertaken the Conversion of his Subjects without the Clergy of France and without our Societies Correspondence abroad He is a Prince enlightned who very well observes that what we put him upon is contrary to his Interest and that nothing is more opposite to his Great Designs and his Glory he aiming to be the Terror of all Europe The vast number of Malecontents he has caused in his Kingdom forces him in time of Peace to keep three times more Forces than his Ancestors did in the greatest Domestick and Foreign Wars which cannot be done without a prodigious Expence The Peoples Fears also begin to lessen as to his aspiring to an Universal Monarchy and they may assure themselves he has left those Thoughts nothing being more opposite to his Designs than the Method we enjoyn him His Candor Bounty and Toleration to the Hereticks would undoubtedly have open'd the Doors of the Low Countries Palatinate and all other States on the Rhine and even of Switzerland whereas things are at present so alter'd that we see the Hollanders free from any fear of danger the Switzers and City of Geneva resolv'd to lose the last drop of their Blood in their Defence Besides some Diversion we may expect from the Empire in case we cannot hinder a Peace with the Turks which ought to hasten his Britannick Majesty while he can be assured of Succors from the most Christian King. Sir his Majesty's Brother is always the same I mean takes no notice of what passes at Court. It has sometimes happen'd that the King's Brothers have acted so as to be noted in the State but this we may be assur'd will never do any thing to stain the Glory of his Submission and Obedience And is willing to lend a helping-hand for the Destruction of the Hereticks which appears by the Instances he makes to his Majesty who now has promised him to cause his Troops to enter into the Palatinate the next Month. The â—auphin is passionately given up to Hunting and little regards the Conversion of Souls and it does not seem easy to make him penetrate into Business of Moment and therefore we do not care to consult him which way and how the Hereticks ought to be treated He openly laughs at us and slights all the Designs of which the King his Father makes great account The Dauphiness is extreamly witty and is without doubt uneasy to shew it in other Matters besides Complements of Conversation She has given me a Letter for the Queen of England wherein after her expression of the part she bears of the News of her Majesty's being with Child she gives her several Advices about the Conversion of her Subjects Most Reverend Father She is undoubtedly born a great Enemy to the Protestants and has promoted all she could with his Majesty in all that has been done to hasten their Ruin especially having been bred in a Court of our Society and of a House whose hatred against the Protestant Religion is Hereditary because she has been raised up by the Ruin of the German Protestant Princes especially that of the Palatinate But the King having caused her to come to make Heirs to the Crown she answers expectation to the utmost Monsieur Louvois is a Man who very much observes his Duty which he performs to admiration and to whom we must ackâ—owledg France owes part of the Glory it has hitherto gained both in regard of its Conquests as also the Conversion of Hereticks to which latter I may say he has contributed as much as the King he has already shewed himself Fierce Wrathful and Hardhearted in his Actions towards them though he is not naturally inclin'd to Cruelty nor to harrass the People His Brother the Arch-bishop of Rheims has Ways which do not much differ from those of his Soul and all the difference I find between them is That the Arch-bishop loves his own Glory as much as Monsieur de Louvois loves that of his Majesty He is his own Idol and give him but Incense and you may obtain any thing Honour is welcome to him let it come which way it will. The least Thing provokes this Prelate and he will not yield any thing derogatory to his Paternity He will seem Learned he will seem a great
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
without Consent of Parliament By Committing and Prosecuting divers Worthy Prelates for humbly Petitioning to be Excused from concurring to the said assumed Power By issuing and causing to be executed a Commission under the Great Seal for erecting a Court called The Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes By Levying Mony 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 this Kingdom in time of Peace without Consent of Parliament and Quartering Souldiers contrary to Law. By causing several Good Subjâ—cts being Protestants to be Disarmed at the same time when Papists were both Armed and Imployed contrary to Law. By violating the Freedom of Election of Members to serve in Parliament By Prosecutions in the Court of Kings-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 Unqualified Persons have been returned and served on Juries in Trials and particularly divers Jurors in Trials for High-Treason which were not Freeholders And Excessive Bail hath been required of Persons committed in Criminal Cases to elude the Benefit of the Laws made for the Liberty of the Subjects And Excessive Fines have been imposed And Illegal and Cruel Punishments inflicted And several Grants and Promises made of Fines and Forfeitures before any Conviction or Judgment against the Persons upon whom the same were to be levied All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known Laws and Statutes and Freedom of this Realm And whereas the said late K. Iames the 2 d having abdicated the Government and the Throne being thereby vacant His Highness the Prince of Orange whom it hath pleased 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 Burroughs and Cinque-Ports for the Chusing of such Persons to represent them as were of Right to be sent to Parliament to Meet and Sit at Westminster upon the 22 d Day of Ianuary in this Year 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 having been accordingly made And thereupon the said Lord's Spiritual and Temporal and Commons pursuant to their respective Letters and Elections being now Assembled 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 Case have usually done for the Vindicating and Asserting their Ancient Rights and Liberties Declare That the pretending Power of Suspending of Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority without Consent of Parliament is Illegal That the pretended Power of Dispensing with Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority as it hath been assumed and exercised 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 Mony for or to the Use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative without Grant of Parliament for longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be granted is Illegal That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning are Illegal That the raising or keeping a standing Army within the Kingdom in time of Peace unless it be with Consent of Parliament is against Law. That the Subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Condition and as allowed by Law. That Election of Members of Parliament ought to be Free. That the Freedom of Speech and Debates or Proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or Questioned in any Court or place out of Parliament That Excessive Bail ought not to be required nor Excessive Fines imposed nor cruel and unusual Punishments inflicted That Jurors ought to be duly empannell'd and return'd and Jurors which pass upon Men in Trials for High-Treason ought to be Freeholders That all Grants and Promises of Fines and Forfeitures of particular Persons before Conviction are Illegal and Void And 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 Premises 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 Premises ought in any wise to be drawn hereafter into Consequence or Example To which Demand of their Rights they are particularly encouraged 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 intire Confidence that his said Highness the Prince of Orange will perfect the Deliverance so far advanced by Him and will still preserve them from the Violation of their Rights which they have here asserted and from all other Attempts upon their Religion Rights and Liberties The said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled at Westminster do resolve That William and Mary Prince and Princess of Orange be and be declared King and Queen of England France and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging to hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to them the said Prince and Princess during their Lives and the Life of the Surviver of them And that the sole and full Exercise of the Regal Power be only in and executed by the said Prince of Orange in the Names of the said Prince and Princess during their joint Lives and after their Deceases the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to be to the Heirs of the Body of the said Princess and for default of such Issue to the Princess Ann of Denmark and the Heirs of Her Body and for default of such Issue to the Heirs of the Body of the said Prince of Orange And the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons do pray the said Prince and Princess of Orange to accept the same accordingly And that the Oaths hereafter mentioned be taken by all Persons of whom the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy might be required by Law instead of them and that the said Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy be Abrogated I A. B. do sincerely promise and swear That I will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to their Majesties King WILLIAM and Queen MARY So help me God. I A. B. do swear That I do from my Heart Abhor
to return to his Government under such legal Restraints as shall give security to the most jealous Persons for the preservation of their Laws Liberties and Religion iâ— horribly decryed c. yet the only Reason against it is because it is vain Now Sir that Reason is so very good that it may perhaps justily that dreadful Consequence you so shrink at for though I do not doubt but you are a wonderful Legislator yet if Twenty wiser Men than you were joined with you to frame these new Laws yet let but a Popish Prince have the Supreme Executive Power and the Legal Prerogatives and he will break through all your Restrictions with wonderful Facility as we have seen by Experience But then if you leave him the Name and take away the Power of a King you set up a Common-wealth immediately which will not end with your Popish Prince but there will be stickling to keep all things in the same State in the following Reign of what Religion soever the Prince is which was the Reason why the Limitations offered by Charles II. in 1679 were rejected And let it be remember'd also how well that Prince that was supposed to be a Protestant kept his Word and the Solemn League and Covenant which he solemnly with Hands and Eyes lifted up to Heaven swore to observe in Scotland c. Well but we would have thought our selves very secure if the King would hâ—ve called a Free Parliament Yes Sir if he would have call'd it Freely so that it had been the production of his Will without Force but Sir it is notorious he was resolved the Parliament should either not be free or not meet and if your Memory will not serve you to recall the virulent Reflection on the humble Petition presented by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal the 17th of November last in which the Author tells us That the summoning a Parliament 〈◊〉 is so far from being the only way to preseâ—ve His Majesty and the Kingdom that it will be one of the principal causes of much Misery to the Kingdom c. and nothing would do then but driving the Prince of Orange out of the Kingdom with Force and Arms. Now I say Sir If you cannot remember this you shall never be trusted to frame Laws if I can help it There is another and a better Reason to refuse a Treaty than the fearing the King should comply Suppose that he should grant all that you can ask bating White-Hall the Reveâ—â—e the Title of King and the Right of calling Parliaments and making Peace and War What Security have we that he will acquiesce in this low restrained Estate Oaths Laws and Promises we had before but what did they signify Who shall be Guarantee what shall we do if he break out again In short quis eustodiet Custodes So that the many who desire a Treaty are desired to read the Enquiry into the presenâ— State of Affairs that they may not come into the Discipline of the severe Lady who has taught the Protestants in France and Piedmont a Lesson which England too must have gone through with if God and H. W. P. O. had not saved us But if the Convention should refuse to treat and Depose the King it would act without a Legal Power § 8. Why Sir here is no occasion to talk of a Deposition the King is gone of his own accord freely and they are only to consider whether we shall perish in a State of Anarchy reâ—al him and suffer over again all that is past and all that was intended but prevented or whether they shall recognize the next immediate Heir and enquire who that is Well but the next Heir it seems shall have small joy of it his whole Authority depending on a Convention that has no Authority In good time Will the Authority of this Prince when acknowledged depend on the Authority of the Convention Did Queen Elizabeth or King Iames I owe all their Authority to the Parliaments which recognized their respective Rights But no Man will think himself bound in Conscience to obey this Heir Have you Sir the keeping of all Mens Consciences or the knowledg of their Thoughts I can assure you mine is not in your custody § 9. All those who think themselves bound still by their Oath of Allegiance to defend the King's Person his Crown and Dignity c. will be greatly discontented Why Sir then they may go over into France and be admitted into his Guards and perhaps the generous Allowance given him by the French King will maintain them if their Heresie do not over-ballance their Loyalty and turn it into a Crime as it happened to the Hâ—gonots Well but they will never own any other whilst their own King lives Assuredly this is a wonderful Man if he could but as certainly inform us of the number as he can of the Thoughts and future Actions of these Loyalist's Well but if they should happen to be Persons of known Prudence Abilities Integrity Honesty though they were never so few and never so tame it would give a terrible stroke to this Toâ—tâ—ring Government Why Sir all or the greatest part of such Men in the Nation were a dreadful Body tho they were and ever will be few but Sir there must be a considerable Body of such Men first satisfied in the Convention a number without Doors are already satisfied and more will when the States have passed their Resolves and the remainder of the Men of this High Character who will still remain Discontented if they are any thing Peaceable though not over Tame will never be able to shock the most Tâ—â—tering Government in the World by their Examples how well soever he thinks of them Yet § 10. He endeavours to shew the number will not be small because many who joyned with the Prince are ashamed of what they have done and ask God pardon for is and are ready â—o undo it as far as they can Well Sir how many such do you know besides your self A List of these Men were worth the having and may perhaps be easily taken if one knew how to separate them from the rest however I should not fear greatly the terrible Shock of these wonderful Men till I had better information of their Numbers than you can possibly give us They were not willing to part with the King tho they were horribly afraid of Popery Why Sir has the King changed his Religion in France or are those Gentlemen so fond of the King that they would now be contented to suffer all that Popery threatned so lately Or are they become as weary of their Delivery as they were before of Popery Or will they sacrifice their Laws Religion old Foundations and Free Parliaments to their Allegiance to their King If you say Yes I have done if no then you would have what was not to be had and will not be contented with what may be hâ—d and if the Number of these Men is great farewel
when they might effect a Treaty in all probability with little or no Bloodshed by joining with a Prince of their own Interest who perhaps can shew more just Causes of a War than one Diss. I must confess what you have said seems to carry a great deal of Reason and Moderation with it which I must allow Ch. Let but a moderate Papist lend me one grain of his own Principles and I am confident he cannot but be of my Mind for may we but modestly measure the King 's future Proceedings had we trusted him with Victory by those we had already seen how dismal would the Prospect be Should we but recollect how barefacedly he has been striking at the Northern Heresy ever since the Oxford Parliament what Mercy could we expect How far some of the Protestant Nobility were engaged in an Association to assert their Rights I shall not here pretend to determine but this we may modestly presume That all their Crimes were seen through a Popish Magnifying-Glass and no Artifice neglected to ruine them An ingenious Gentleman was deservedly applauded for his Rhetorical Colours in the Narrative of that Conspiracy and I was well pleased with a Gentleman's Fancy who imagined another Interest would now engage him to atone for his unhappy Continuance in the High-Commission Court by Writing what he observed of the Popish Designs during his stay there Another eminent Instance of those Violences which were Encouraged above was the Presenting Two and fifty Persons in the County of Northampton as disaffected to the Government and branding them with all the Scandals imaginable many of which I personally know to be as Faithful to the Crown and in all Respects as honest and worthy Gentlemen as any in the Kingdom But to come nearer the Present Conjuncture how were our Law Properties and all prostituted by a few Dispensing Gentlemen some of them perfectly incapable of any Place of Trust and all of suspected Integrity How surprizing was it to see persons of the most contemptible Character placed among our Bishops and all the sacred Authority lodged in a Court which was erected against an express Act of Parliament What a Riddle was it that our learned Prelates hitherto the great Supporters of the Crown should be Imprisoned for acting according to their Consciences in refusing to Read that which pretended to establish the greatest Liberty of Conscience Could any one that saw Six hundred Scholars up in Arms and chearfully demonstrating their Loyalty in the Western Rebellion ever think to see the Fellows of Magdalen Colledg ingratefully turned out like Dogs and perhaps one of the finest Foundations in Europe become a Kennel for Miscreants who were more unworthy to be Members of an University upon the account of their Insufficiency than they were incapable of it by Law It seem'd almost a Jest to me to see in Christ-Church persons of that eminent Character and Learning superintended by a Wretch not fit for common Converse In which Society there is a Person in whom the Gentleman and the Scholar do very eminently meet and who for his happy Conduct and great Care to maintain the Repute of that Colledg during these Violences has certainly now all the Title to the Deanry that either merit or the common Rules of Gratitude can afford him But to proceed I say to see how all Freedom of Elections to Parliament was in a manner taken away how the Poll at Northampton was like to be Regulated by Powder and Bullet and the whole Government managed by Father Petre Pen Lob and a few more such mercenary Wretches and all this to introduce a Religion contrary to Scripture and destructive of all Society for which we expected great things would have been said while the Asserters of it had Command of the Press and the Countenance of a Prince yet nothing was produced but Fallacy and Nonsense These I say not to mention the subverting Succession a League with France and those horrid Murthers laid to the Court are Provocations too great even for Primitive Obedience But seeing these Violences have in all probability found their period and the Betrayers of God and their Country are now coming to Answer for themselves I shall leave further Reflections to a free and unbyass'd Parliament Diss. Ay but what was it that encouraged these Violences Was it not your unseasonable Zeal for an unlimited Obedience your Oxford Decree and such like Monuments of the Heats of that Age Ch. Why to tell you sincerely my Opinion in the Case I am perswaded there were Two Parties in the Nation undermining the Government the one by more secret and mysterious Methods endeavoured to introduce Popery the other by more evident and bare-faced Proceedings attempted the Extirpation of Monarchy Therefore the Generality of the Churchmen being more sensible of the Designs of the latter endeavoured to stand like Moses in the Gap with those you term unseasonable Doctrines which I also take to be the Occasion of the Oxford Decree for though in my own private Opinion I never approv'd of it but wished it might have perish'd in the same Rogus with the Books it condemned yet I am so well satisfied of the Learning and Integrity of those worthy Gentlemen who were chiefly concerned in it that I do really believe it was only promoted for the Preservation of the Government Diss. Ay you Churchmen have such a way of Respecting one another that you had like to have fooled us and your selves out of all neither could I ever find you were sensible of the approaching Calamities till Oppression touch'd your own Copy-holds Ch. What you object to us in this Case seems to redound to our greatest Honour for by our Principles we had always such a Reverence for Monarchy that we were willing to connive at the failings of a Prince as long as we could but having our Rights established by Law we knew when we came to be oppress'd The very Foundations of our Government were assaulted and so we were forced to make Enquiry into our Constitutions Diss. So then at length you will acknowledg the Prince of Orange not only to be a great but a just Deliverer Ch. Since I have been better acquainted with the horrid Designs of our Adversaries and found the Contest to be only between Papist and Protestant I am not only highly sensible of the Prince's Generosity but have inserted the Justice of his Cause from the marvellous Providences when have wrought his Success It is certainly part of his Character that as his first Pretences were modest so Fortune has not tempted him to exceed them and we have still all the Reason in the World to imagine that he only generously designed to relieve us from Oppression without any sinister Intent of making himself Great The Noble Cause he has undertaken is the Protestant Interest and I doubt not but the Lord of Hosts will fight his Battels Indeed the Success of this his first Enterprize has been so wonderful and surprizing that
it will make an Annal suspected and seem a Fable to Posterity For who will believe that a King who had he acted agreeably to the true Interest of Himself and People might have been almost the Balance of Christendom who was prepared with a standing Army and always Remarkable for his Conduct in War should be invaded by a near Neighbour Son and Nephew and now in a Months time so generally deserted by his Nobility Gentry and Military Forces as to choose before the Sword was drawn to fly for Refuge to a Prince whose Title he and his Ancestors had long disputed This I say as the Learned Dr. Burnet Argues at large was the Lords doing and ought to be marvellous in our Eyes Diss. It was indeed an unparall'd Act of Providence but now our Deliverance is so far Compleated what are you Churchmen willing to do towards an Accommodation and to the Healing of those Differences which in a great measure have contributed to the Growth of Popery Ch. Though it be far above my Character to dictate what is fittest to be done at so great and difficult a Conjuncture yet my humble Wishes are that the Guardians and Supporters of our Church may resolve upon such Condescentions as may satisfy reasonable Men and prevent any longer Dissensions amongst us Yet this I would advise you and your Party i. e. to stay till you are Invited and not to thrust your selves into our Church We are now in the hopeful Crisis of our Fever and therefore you ought to take care left by tampering too much you disturb Nature in those methods she has took to digest her Humours and so ruine all I am not ignorant that at the beginning of the Reformation when a Church was to be made out of a Church several Ceremonies were retained in Compliance to that Age which a violent Alteration would have too much surprized but now the Humours of Men being changed may justly be laid aside On the other hand I am perswaded with the Author of Foxes and Firebrands that Rome has all along been industrious to foment our Divisions by sending us Emissaries who could artificially dissemble a tender Conscience and make credulous People believe that all the Decencies of our Worship were nothing but â—oppery Superstition and the Remainders of Popery Therefore I say my Wishes are that a Free and Unbyass'd Parliament will tread the middle path bearing an equal Respect to the Decenies of our Church and the tender Consciences of reasonable Men. Diss. Well Neighbour I am heartily glad to see these happy effects of our Calamities and as I think there can be no Government so perfectly appointed as to satisfy all yet I approve so well of your Temper and Wishes that I hope we may all Unite upon such or the like terms Ch. Therefore to end our Dispute I shall only now detain you with my hearty Prayers that the Result of this ensuing Convention on Ian. 22. may be happily to settle the Crown and that in the succeeding Parliament the management of these Difficulties may fall into the Hands of such Wise and Unbyass'd Persons that Peace and Truth may be established upon everlasting Foundations and no sinister Interest interrupt so great a Design Diss. Sir you have infinitely encouraged me to wait upon you oftner we being I think now either both Churchmen or both Dissenters Ch. Sir The Design of this Conference was to tell you freely my Sentiments and I intend ere long to make it more publick being willing to provoke some more learned and judicious Pen to perfect what I have here weakly attempted Farewel His Majesties Letter to the Lords and Others of his Privy Councel JAMES R. MY Lords When we saw that it was no longer safe for Us to remain within Our Kingdom of England and that thereupon We had taken Our Resolutions to withdraw for some time We left to be communicated to you and to all Our Subjects the Reasons of Our withdrawing And were likewise resolved at the same time to leave such Orders behind Us to you of our Privy Councel as might best suit with the present state of Affairs But that being altogether unsafe for Us at that time We now think fit to let you know that though it has been Our constant care since Our first Accession to the Crown to govern Our People with that Justice and Moderation as to give if possible no occasion of Complaint yet more particularly upon the late Invasion seeing how the Design was laid and fearing that Our People who could not be destroy'd but by themselves might by little imaginary Grievances be cheated into a certain Ruine To prevent so great Mischief and to take away not only all just Causes but even Pretences of Discontent We freely and of our own accord redressed all those things that were set forth as the Causes of that Invasion And that we might be informed by the Councel and Advice of our Subjects themselves which way we might give them a further and a full Satisfaction We resolved to meet them in a Free Parliament And in order to it We first laid the Foundation of such a Free Parliament in restoring the City of London and the rest of the Corporations to their ancient Charters and Priviledges and afterwards actually appointed the Writs to be issued out for the Parliaments meeting on the 15 th of Ianuary But the Prince of Orange seeing all the Ends of his Declaration answered the People beginning to be undeceived and returning apace to their ancient Duty and Allegiance and well fore-seeing that if the Parliament should meet at the time appointed such a Settlement in all Probability would be made both in Church and State as would totally defeat his ambitious and unjust Designs resolved by all means possible to prevent the meeting of the Parliament And to do this the most effectual way he thought fit to lay a restraint on Our Royal Person for as it were absurd to call that a Free Parliament where there is any force on either of the Houses so much less can that Parliament be said to act freely where the Soveraign by whose Authority they Meet and Sit and from whose Royal Assent all their Acts receive their Life and Sanction is under actual Confinement The hurrying of Us under a Guard from Our City of London whose returning Loyalty We could no longer trust and the other Indignities We suffered in the Person of the Earl of Feversham when sent to him by Us and in that barbarous Confinement of Our own Person We shall not here repeat because they are We doubt not by this time very well known and may we hope if enough considered and reflected upon together with his other Violations and Breaches of the Laws and Liberties of England which by this Invasion he pretended to restore be sufficient to open the Eyes of all our Subjects and let them plainly see what every one of them may expect and what Treatment they shall find-from him if
at any time it may serve his Purpose from whose Hands a Soveraign Prince an Uncle and a Father could meet with no better Entertainment However the sense of these Indignities and the just Apprehension of further Attempts against Our Person by them who already endeavoured to murther Our Reputation by infamous Calumnies as if We had been capable of supposing a Prince of Wales which was incomparably more injurious than the destroying of Our Person it Self together with a serious Reflection on a Saying of Our Royal Father of blessed Memory when He was in the like Circumstances That there is little distance between the Prisons and the Graves of Princes which afterwards proved too true in His Case could not but persuade Us to make use of that which the Law of Nature gives to the meanest of Our Subjects of freeing Our selves by all means possible from that unjust Confinement and Restraint And this We did not more for the Security of our own Person then that thereby We might be in a better Capacity of transacting and providing for every thing that may contribute to the Peace and Settlement of Our Kingdoms For as on the one hand no change of Fortune shall ever make Us forget Our Selves so far as to condescend to any thing unbecoming that High and Royal Station in which God Almighty by Right of Succession has placed Us So on the other hand neither the Provocation or Ingratitude of Our own Subjâ—cts nor any other Consideration whatsoever shall ever prevail with Us to make the least step contrary to the true Interest of the English Nation which We ever did and ever must look upon as Our own Our Will and Pleasure thereof is That you of Our Privy Councel take the most effectual care to make these Our Gratious Intentions known to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about Our Cities of London and Westminster to the Lord Mayor and Commons of our City of London and to all Our Subjects in general and to assure them that We desire nothing more than to return and hold a Free Parliament wherein We may have the best Opportunity of undeceiving Our People and shewing the Sincerity of those Protestations We have often made of the preserving the Liberties and Properties of Our Subjects and the Protestant Religion more especially the Church of England as by Law establish'd with such Indulgence for those that dissent from Her as We have always thought Our selves in Justice and Care of the general Welfare of Our People bound to procure for them And in the mean time You of Our Privy Councel who can judg better by being upon the place are to send Us your Advice what is fit to be done by Us towards Our returning and the accomplishing those good Ends. And We do require you in Our Name and by Our Authority to endeavour so to suppress all Tumults and Disorders that the Nation in general and every one of Our Subjects in particular may not receive the least Prejudice from the present Distractions that is possible So not doubting of your Dutiful Obedience to these Our Royal Commands We bid you heartily Farewel Given at St. Germans on Laye the 4 4 Ianuary 1688 9. And of Our Reign the fourth Year By his Majesties Command MELFORT Directed thus To the Lords and Others of our Privy Councel of Our Kingdom of England Some Remarks on the late Kings pretended Letter to the LORDS and Others of his Privy Council IT begins thus My Lords When we saw that it was no longer safe for us to remain within our Kingdom of England c. His Majesty would have given great Satisfaction to the World in discovering where the Danger lay in tarrying here from whom and for what cause He is pleased to say farther We now think fit to let you know that though it has been our constant care since our first Accession to the Crown to govern our People with that Iustice and Moderation as to give if possible no occasion of Complaint c. I do not understand why his Majesty would not let us know these his Gracious Intentions before when they might have done Himself and Us Good. But quid verba audiam cum facta videam to what purpose are Words when we see Facts And as to his Moderation I appeal to the Pope himself or the French King who chiefly blame him for his Rashness and want of Temper and as for his Justice among a thousand publick Instances to the contrary he should remember his discountenancing and turning out of their Employments all such as would not enter into his Idolatrous Worship and comply with his illegal and arbitrary Designs Besides what Justice can Hereticks expect from a Prince who is not only a Papist but wholly devoted to the Order of the Jesuits and values himself for being a Member of those Reverend Cut-throats Yet more particularly upon the late Invasion seeing how the Design was laid and fearing that our People who could not be destroyed but by themselves The Design was to preserve the Nation from falling under the cruel Dominion of the French and to keep our selves from being dragg'd by the Hair of the Head to Mass and from undergoing all those Miseries which those of the same Religion and for the same Cause have endured now lately in France and Savoy To prevent so great a Mischief that is to say destroying our selves and to take away not only all just Causes but even Pretences of Discontent We freely and of our own accord redrest all those things that were set forth as the Causes of that Invasion I appeal to the common Faith of Mankind touching the Insinserity of these Words whether if this Invasion had not been these and worse Grievances had not followed And that we might be informed by the Counsel and Advice of our Subjects themselves which way we might give them a further and full Satisfaction We resolved to meet them in a Free Parliament c. The late Kings of England have been as desirous of a Parliament as Popes of a Free and General Council there being nothing they have more studiously avoided and greatlier feared But the Prince of Orange seeing all the Ends of his Declaration answered the People beginning to be undeceived and returning apace to their ancient Duty and Allegiance resolved by all possible means to prevent the meeting of the Parliament c. How far the Prince of Orange has been from preventing the meeting of a Parliament we need only consult our senses The hurrying us under a Guard from our City of London whose returning Loyalty we could no longer trust and the other Indignities we suffered in the Person of the Earl of Feversham when sent to him by us and in that barbarous Confinement of our own Person we shall not here repeat Do's any Man think the Prince of Orange would have had the same gentle Treatment from the King had he been in like manner under his Power And as to the
into utter Despair of the Continuance amongst them of the true Religion of Almighty God and of her Majesties Life and of the Safety of all her Subjects and of the Good Estate of this flourishing Commonweale For that she the said Queen of Scots had continually breathed the Overthrow and Suppression of the Protestant Religion being poysoned with Popery from her tender Youth and at her Age joyning in that false termed Holy League and had been ever since and was then a powerful Enemy of the Truth For that she rested wholly upon Popish hopes to be delivered and advanced and was so devoted and doted in that Profession that she would as well for the satisfaction of others as for the feeding her own Humour supplant the Gospel where and whensoever she might which Evil was so much the greater and the more to be avoided for that it slayeth the Soul and would spread it self not only over England and Scotland but also into all Parts beyond the Sea where the Gospel of God is maintained the which cannot but be exceedingly weakned if Defection should be in these two most violent Kingdoms For that if she prevailed she would rather take the Subjects of England for Slaves than for Children For that she had already provided them a Foster-father and a Nurse the Pope and King of Spain into whose hands if it should happen them to fall what would they else look for but Ruin Destruction and utter Extirpation of Goods Lands Lives Honours and all For that as she had already by her poyson'd Baits brought to Destruction more Noble-men and their Houses and a greater multitude of Subjects during her being here than she would have done if she had been in Possession of her own Country and arm'd in the Field against them so would she be still continually the cause of the like spoil to the greater loss and peril of this Estate and therefore this Realm neither could nor might endure her For that her Sectaries both Wrote and Printed that the Protestants would be at their Wits end Worlds end if she should out-live Queen Elizabeth meaning thereby that the end of the Protestant World was the beginning of their own and therefore if she the said Queen of Scots were taken away their World would be at an end before its beginning For that since the sparing of her in the Fourteenth Year of Q. Elizabeths Reign Popish Traitors and Recusants had multiplied exceedingly And if she were now spared again they would grow both innumerable and invincible also And therefore Mercy in that case would prove Cruelty against them all Namâ—st quaedam crudelis mâ—sericordia and therefore to spare her Blood would be to spill all theirs And for God's Vengeance against Saul for sparing the life of Agag and against Ahab for sparing the life of Benhadad was moâ—t apparent for they were both by the just Judgment of God deprived of their Kingdoms for sparing those wicked Princes whom God had delivered into their Hands And those Magistrates were much conmmended who put to Death those mischeivous and wicked Queens Iezabel and Athaliah And now I would desire our Grumbletonians especially they of the Clergy to consider how extreamly they have degenerated from the good and laudable Principles of their Fore-fathers They may see how urgent the Bishops and others in Queen Elizabeth's days were to have the Queen of Scots removed as above said and how they encouraged the Queen to assist the Dutch against their Soveraign Lord when he attempted them in their Religion and Laws but now they that first opposed One that has broken the Original Contract between King and People and done horrid things contrary to the Laws of God Nature and the Land yet when God out of his merciful Providence and singular favour to us all has inclined him being sensible of his own Guilt to leave the Throne these Very Men that first withstood him as I said begin to pitty him plead for him and extol him and continually both in Pulpit for one of them lately said there That a parcel of Attoms could as soon make a World as a Convention make a King and also in Coffee-houses mutter and grumble against the Proceedings of the great and Honorable Convention of the Kingdom and are busy in sending out and privately scattering their puling Pamphlets under the Titles of Mementoes Speeches and Letters empty of ought else but the spleen of a foolish and frustrated Faction Good God! what inconstancy folly and madness possesses the Breasts of these Men to what a miserable slavery would they lead us and how fond and eager do they seem to have him rule over Us who like the Stork in the Fable has and would make it his greatest delight to devour the best of free-born Subjects But I hope that in a little time they will know the Things that belong to the Kingdom 's Peace and dutifully pray for tho at present there is no uniformity in their Pulpits save in the Dissenters and submit chearfully and thankfully to him whom God has made the Glorious Instrument of our Deliverance from Popery and Slavery God save King William and Queen Mary ADVERTISEMENT ☞ THere is lately published the Trial of Mr. PAPILLON by which it is manifest that the then Lord Chief Justice Iefferies had neither Learning Law nor good manners but more Impudence than ten Carted Whores as was said of him by King CHARLES II. in abusing all those worthy Citizens who voted for Mr. PAPILLON and Mr. DUBOIS calling them a parcel of Factious Pragmatical Sneaking Whining Canting Sniveling Prickear'd Cropear'd Atheistical Fellows Rascals and Scoundrels c. as in p. 29. and other places of the said Trial may be seen Sold by Richard Ianeway and most Booksellers FINIS A TENTH Collection of Papers Relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England VIZ. I. Reflections upon our late and present Proceedings II. Some short Notes on a Pamphlet entituled Reflections upon our late and present Proceedings III. The Scots Grievances or A short Account of the Proceedings of the Scotish Privy-Council Justiciary Court and those commissioned by them c. IV. The late Honourable Convention proved a Legal Parliament V. The Amicable Reconciliation of the Dissenters to the Church of England being a Model or Draught for the Universal Accommodation in the Case of Religion and bringing in all Parties to her Communion London printed and are to be sold by Richard Ianeway in Queen's-head-Court in Pater-â—oster-Row 1689. Reflections upon our Late and Present Proceedings in England THO no Man wishes better to the Protestant Religion in general and the Church of England in particular than I do yet I cannot prevail with my self to approve all those Methods or follow all those Measures which some Men propose as the only Security both of the one and the other Never perhaps was there a more proper time wherein to secure our Religion together with our Civil Liberties than now offers it self if we have but the
same Ruin upon the Kingdom as those Barons did by their Delay Lastly If the Discusser will not be convinc'd by what has hitherto been said Let him examine the King 's own words and try whether he can pick out any better Construction out of them then that which I shall make Says the late King in his Letter to the Earl of Feversham Things being come to that Extrâ—mity that I have been forc'd to send away the Queen and my Son the Prince of Wales that they might not fall into my Enemies hands I am oblig'd to do the same thing and to endeavour to secure my self the best I can c. Expresâ—ions of a disponding Mind and only full of Grief for the Disappointment of the Popish Career The King was afraid of the Queen and his Son the Prince of Wales as he calls him and therefore deeming it convenient to send Them out of the way believes himself oblig'd to follow them 'T is true there might be some Reason perhaps for him to send Them away but none to send away himself not being under the same Circumstances For let it be Paternal or Conjugal Affection or both together What could be a greater Desertion than this for the sake of a Wife and a Son to leave three Kingdoms at six and sevens He speaks of securing himself as well as he can but mentions nothing of Danger only leaves it to the Lord Feversham and others to presume the Causes of his Fears But certainly the apprehension of Danger can never excuse a Sovereign Magistrate from the Desertion of his Dominions at the same time striving and strugling under the Pangs of the Dissolution of Government If such a Desertion of his Territories in that forlorn and languishing Condition to accompany the Tribulations of a Wife and a Son be not a perfect Abdication of his Territories the Words relinquish desert forgo abandon abdicate have lost their Signification Thus Lysimachus in Plutarch de sera vindicta Dei after he had surrendered his Person and Dominions to the Getae for a Draught of Drink in the extremity of a parching Thirst when he had quench'd his Thirst cryed out O pravum Hominem that for so small a Pleasure have lost so great a Kingdom He would be thought very unfit to be the Master of a Ship that should throw himself into the Sea when his Vessel and Cargoe were almost ready to perish And I will appeal to the Lord of Wemm himself whether if he were to try an Abdicating Prince upon this Point with the same Huffing and Domineering as he did Inferiour Offenders he would take it for a good Justification to say I had thought or I apprehended my Person to be in Danger Rather it becomes a Prince at such a time to exert his Courage and contemn his own when the publick Security lies at stake especially when the Remedy propounded was so easy as the Convoking of a Free Parliament But to withdraw at such a perillous Conjuncture from the Application of his desir'd nay almost implor'd Assistance What can the Discusser think of himself to deny so plain an Abdication And this I take to be the Opinion of the late King's Abdication intimated by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal assembled at Guild-Hall Decemb. 1688. where they are pleased to say That they did reasonably hope that the King having sent forth his Proclamation and Writs for a free Parliament they might have rested secure as doubtless the King might also have done in that Meeting But his Majesty having withdrawn himself c. they did therefore unanimously resolve to apply themselves to his Highness the Prince of Orange c. That is to say The King having withdrawn himself from the Cure of the Grand Distempers of the Nation and consequently Abdicated the Government they resolv'd to apply themselves to a more Skilful at least a more Willing Physician Which had the Discusser more considerately discuss'd when he wrote his Discussion would have sav'd him a great deal of trouble and expence Thus much for the Reasons which the Discusser brings to prove that the King before his withdrawing had sufficient Grounds to make him apprehensive of Danger and that therefore it cannot be call'd an Abdication That which follows being altogether grounded upon certain Statutes and Laws of the Land to the knowledg of which the Discusser seems to be a great Pretender is answer'd in a Word That they who pronounc'd the Throne Vacant understood the Latitude of their Power and the Intent and Limits of the Laws and Statutes of this Realm to that Degree that if nothing else the Consideration of that might have deterr'd the Discusser from the Presumption of appearing so vainly and scandalously in the World. Nor would I be thought so impertinent to transgress the Bounds of my own Understanding as he has done For indeed to tell ye the Truth if the Discusser should come to a Trial at Westminster-Hall I am afraid the Lawyers will certainly inform him that he has very much either mistaken or misquoted his Authors FINIS SATISFACTION tendred to all that pretend Conscience for Non-submission to our present Governours and refusing of the New Oaths of FEALTY and ALLEGIANCE In a LETTER to a FRIEND By R. B. late Rector of St. Michael Querne London And now Rector of Icklingham All-Saints Suffolk SIR I Cannot but admire at the Stiffness not to say Obstinacy of some in not complying with the present Government considering the late danger of Popery and that an Arbitrary Power was exercised amongst us by our late Rulers in asserting their Dispensing Power by the Mercenary Judges declared to be Law. You may remember in our late Conference upon this Subject you pleaded in Defence of your selves and others the Obligation you lay under to the Oath of Allegiance with your Subscription to the Doctrine of the Church of England contained in the 37 th Article and the First Canon of the Church but if it appear that all this is rather grounded upon Mistake than any solid Reality I will not question your ready Submission Oaths I confess are very strong Ties upon Men of Conscience and they are to be tenderly dealt with until that Prejudice be removed give me leave therefore with Sobriety and Meekness to enquire Whether that Oath be still in Force with the Obligation to it if not that Plea must vanish and disappear And here first let me remind you of the occasion of imposing the Oath of Allegiance it was injoyn'd to distinguish betwixt Church and Court Loyal and Disloyal Papists upon that horrid Gunpowder-Treason which hath left a Stain of Villany and Cruelty upon that Religion never to be wiped off Read over the Anatomy of that Oath made by K. Iames the First in his Book of the Defence of it And what is there in if that can stick upon any Protestant except that Clause of denying all Foreign Jurisdiction Prince or Potentate And this you seem'd to hint at when you said the