and they know K. James mortally hates them and never can forgive them His Fancy that Sweden should wish for an English King and his Heir both of that odious Religion which they have banished out of their Country with their lawful Queen who had embraced it is as peculiar and ridiculous as that Denmark which lends us Forces should hate King William for bringing one of their Blood Royal to so near a Possibility of the English Crown And England knows it is her Interest to have a King that will protect them from the fatal Ambition of France so that all his Politicks fail him and he must suppose us all as he did Pag. 2. to be Ideots and Madmen to be enticed into a Civil War with such Paltry Reasonings as these His last Exploit is to despise his Adversary and charge him again with Impudence and Emptiness for wondring any Man should be so weak as to believe that K. James's Restauration is the way to secure the Protestant Religion and here with his usual Confidence he undertakes to prove and answer all things but of his Performance let the Reader judge First Pag. 41. he will prove our Religion was in no danger of being over-turned by King James's Practices And here again all that Prince's open trampling on Law and Right all his Zeal by Promises and Threats to make Converts his Swarms of Priests his standing Army to protect them his Rage and Rigour against all that oppose his illegal Methods to bring Popery to be the established Religion are by this Jesuit in Disguise smoothed over or past by as nothing extraordinary nothing but a desire natural to Mankind to procure some ease to them of their own Perswasion c. But if this were all why did he not accept of that Liberty which his Loyal Protestant Parliament offered to grant that is Indulgence as to their Worship to all Papists and Liberty to preferr a certain number of others This he rejected with Rage and dissolved that Parliament only because this would not answer his design of putting all Power into Popish Hands And as to Liberty of Conscience the thing needs none of his Commendation The Roman Faith indeed needs severity without which no Nation under Heaven would endure it But our most Holy Faith can subsist without Compulsion and therefore this Nation was not against it if a further design had not been discovered We were sure K. James could not love Liberty of Conscience for its own sake first because Popery absolutely damns all other Religions And can a devout Papist give whole Nations leave to go to Hell Secondly because it neither is nor ever was allowed in any Popish Country where that Church had Power to persecute Thirdly because he used all means but open Force which he durst not practise to urge Men not half convinc'd to declare themselves Papists against their Conscience as divers of them now declare Wherefore Liberty of Conscience was known to be inconsistent with the Principles and Practices of his Church and contrary to his French Master's Copy as well as to his own Judgment and all this makes it plain he only pretended to love Liberty of Conscience to break the Church of England divide Protestants and set up Popery at the last So that the thing it self was as dangerous in his Hands as the Methods were unjustifiable The Counsel was given by Contzen the Jesuit long since That to divide Protestants by seemingly favouring all Parties was the ready way to bring in as our Author kindly calls it the Roman Religion At last it seems it is with him but a bare Supposition that some did intend by Liberty of Conscience Pag 42. to preferr Catholicks and propagate that Religion yet he thinks K. James understood the World and England so well that he would never attempt it It s now his Cue to make K. James very wise even in a Point where his zeal blinded him whereas just before he was the weakest Man alive and foresaw nothing and tho' he used the means this self contradicting Creature will not allow he wished for the End I am sure no body was in so much Grace with him as these Priests and new Converts whose warm Brain and enterprizing Faith intirely guided him And it is no thanks to K. James his or their good Intentions that these Projects did not succeed but to the early discovery of the Plot and the Nation 's brave opposing him in bringing it to effect But Truth will out and therefore finally he grants that which all England knows to have been plain Matter of Fact that K. James did every thing to advance Popery and suppress the Protestant Religion and then he guards himself with the little Progress that was made Which is false for in less than two years time after he pulled off his Mask there were many in the Court the Camp the Vniversities Inns of Court in all Cities and in the Country who really or feignedly turned Thousands more complyed and were ready to shake Hands with their Religion as soon as their Interest told them they might do it safely And what might have been the Consequence of our Passive Obedience as some expound it in a year or two longer is easy to judge But he would recall his grant again and says If the late King had by real Discoveries evidenced his Intentions to ruine the established Religion nothing but an universal Defection could have followed Oportet Mendacem esse Memorem He said Pag. 6th That the Army was quite Poysoned and that there was nothing sound and untainted in the whole Kingdom and Pag. 11th There was an universal Defection of his Children Servants Souldiers and Subjects Therefore by his own Rule K. James had made real publick and undoubted Discoveries of his Intention to ruine the established Religion Well but he urges That the Catholicks were but few However they daily encreased and had a Biggotted King to protect them from fear of Laws an Army after the designed Regulation ready to defend them the Sectaries generally on their side and wanted nothing but a pre-engaged Parliament to make them uppermost As to the Laws upon which he makes so large an Encomium as if they were a sufficient security to our Religion I grant they would have been so Pag. 43. if our King knowing this had not resolved to break through all these Fences and pick'd out Judges for his purpose who expounded the Laws as the King directed and set up his Dispensing Power at one blow to null them all Laws are 't is true as the Philosopher saith the Soul of a City but the Magistrate is the Soul of the Laws which are a dead Rule a meer Shadow when the Prince and his Judges conspire not to execute them and no Man dare claim the Benefit or need fear the Penalty of them What good did the Laws do any Protestant cited before the High-Commission-Court What hurt did they do to any illegal Officers Magistrates or
he would have no Bounds set to the Prerogative but his Will and his constant Actings accordingly For he told his Judges what he would have to be Law but this King enquires of his Judges what they think legal He grants the late King used a Dispensing Power and that too in other Instances besides Liberty of Conscience which Liberty our Author contrary to the Opinion of his Friend K. Lewis calls That desirable and necessary Good of Mankind Well let it be so where then is the Parallel Why K. James granted this against Law and without a Parliament and K. William grants the same Liberty not by a Dispensing Power or by Prerogative but by Parliament that is K. James he granted it arbitrarily K. William settles it by Law A most exact Parallel no doubt and a good proof of K. William's Design to be arbitrary To get off this Difficulty the Prince's Agents are topt upon us again and all the blame laid on him and them they managed poor K. James with invisible Wires who followed them blindfold to his Ruine And if he were so easily wheedled by corrupted Protestants may he not more easily be wheedled into illegal Acts by fierce and dangerous Papists And is it not then our wisest way never to wish for the return of a Prince so apt to be misled If he be in the best Humour in the World with the Bishops upon his Restauration how soon may some Popish Emissary incense him once more against them and run them again into the Tower and from thence to the Bar It was truly urged against King James that his Affection to Catholicks was too strong for the Law And he will prove King William guilty of the same Crime because in time of War he hires a few Foreign Papists into his Army Men who stay no where have no Interest to serve no Design but on their Pay and no Concern about the Religion of any Countrey which employs them which with inexpressibly Effrontery he saith is worse than K. James Cashiering in Times of Peace great Numbers of Military and Civil Protestant Officers and putting English and Irish Papists in their Places whose Interest obliged and inclined them to assist their King in changing the Laws and Religion of their Native Country Again he asks if Catholicks so he calls them falsely in most places not Roman Catholicks be not countenanced as much and do not exercise their Religion as freely now as ever I reply they are permitted but not at all countenanced Do their Fryars walk in their Habits Do they ring Bells and invite all People to see and hear their Foppery or make publick Shews Are they promoted to Churches and Colleges and to be Privy-Counsellors If not how absurd is his Query and where is his Parallel But he fancies we were safer when his Catholicks held their Liberty meerly by the Favour of English Protestants that is surely he means in King James his Time than now when Foreign Princes of the Romish Communion desire this King to tolerate them Now I dare appeal to the Papists Whether they did not believe it was King James not English Protestants who gave them the Liberty in that Reign And whether they did not think their Religion more likely to be restored by a Prince of their own Faith in League with France than by a Protestant King Confederate with the House of Austria And if they think their Religion likely to be restored by King William let them make it evident by fighting for him against the late King and his French Allies otherwise all these Suggestions are as groundless as they are malicious Yet upon a review of these Bug-Bears of his own dressing up Pag. 18. he is terribly affrighted and falls to pray to avert these imaginary Evils using at the same time all his Rhetorical Amplifications to excite us to run into certain and real Mischiefs by destroying this Government that can and will defend our Religion and Civil-Rights to set up another which will destroy both But the Cheat is so visible and his Parallels so ridiculous that no Man of Sense can be deluded by such Stuff Wherefore I conclude this Point and have shewed that King James was the Aggressor and hurt himself we injured no Body and only warded off the Blow which aimed at the very Vitals of our Church and our Ancient Government and which would have turned it from a Limited to an Absolute Monarchy a Change infinitetly worse for this Nation than our Author can pretend hath been made by this Revolution Which brings me to his second Pretence for restoring King James Pag. 19. viz. the settling the Government upon its old Basts And here while he seems to cite a long Passage out of his Adversary See the Pretences examined p. 10. he jumbles the Sense alters the Phrases puts in his own Comment and leaves out some of the Author's Words and then accuses the Writer whom he blindly and falsly guesses to be the Earl of Nottingham of Ignorance in the History and Affairs of England want of Judgment Disingenuity Impudence and what not But it will be easily proved to all that know that accomplished Peer and read this Libel this is not his Lordship's but this Libeller's own Character And his Reply to this Passage confirms the Observation for he owns that the Convention declared the Throne void therefore he mistakes in saying they made it void Declaring supposes a thing done already and he may as well charge a Judg with committing that Fact which he declares to be Treason as to say the Convention made the Throne void But we utterly deny his infallible Mark viz. That a Vacancy certainly proves a Monarchy Elective and that in an Hereditary Monarchy the Throne cannot be without a Possessor one Moment For Scotland is and ever was accounted to be no Elective but an Hereditary Monarchy yet upon the Death of Alexander there was a Vacancy for above five Years while the Hereditary Titles of six several Pretenders were under Examination And there was a Vacancy in England See Spotsw History of Scotland An. 1279. from the two and twentieth of August when King Richard the Third was slain till Henry the Seventh was declared King Yea there was more than a Moment between the Resignation of Edward and Richard the Second and the Entrance of Edward the Third and Henry the Fourth I grant that where there is no Doubt concerning the next Heir upon Cession or Death there the right Heir succeeds immediately But while the next Heir is ambiguous in an Hereditary Monarchy till the Title be examined cleared and declared none of the Pretenders can assume the Royal Dignity And his other Maxim of our Kings never dying is not literally true in any other Case but where there is a certain known and undoubted Heir So that an enquiry into and declaring the right Heir doth not make an Hereditary Monarchy Elective But he denies that the present Queen was the
Arbitrary Power I highly approve and would have transcribed it had it not been too long being a just Satyr upon King James his Effects to rule us Arbitrarily a true Description of the miserable Condition of the poor French who as he grants pag. 54. are all made Slaves And truly this whole Discourse is useful both as it arms us against our late Arbitrary Monarch's fresh Attempts by that Tyrant's Assistance and as it is a clear Vindication of the late Revolution and a deserved Encomium on those brave English-men who after the Example of their Ancestors nobly shook off the Shackles K. James was putting on them However Page 27. this can be no Motive to any body to rebel against K. William who as this Enemy confesses never yet pretended to this Title of Conquest and knows nothing what Books his Secretary licenses and that Book which moves this Author's Jealousy speaks only of a Conquest over K. James not over the People of England so that it makes nothing to his purpose K. William as his Declaration for Scotland assures us came to hinder the late King from taking away his Subjects Liberties and it was high time when that King in his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in Scotland Feb. 12. 1686. said in the very Phrase of the French Tyrant he would have his absolute Power obeyed without reserve and made them swear to assist and defend him and his Heirs in the exercise of this his absolute Power against all Deadly Now he that claims absolute Power and Obedience to it without reserve leaves his Subjects no Liberties he owns that his Will is not bounded by Laws or Priviledges and no Law can exempt a Subject in that case from obeying an illegal Command Yea he makes that enslaved People swear to put this heavy Yoke on their own Necks and to help him to destroy all that stood up for their Laws and Liberties And they were following this Copy in England when Jefferies would suffer no Lawyer to plead in the High-Commission-Court and without hearing the Cause gave Sentence in these Words It is the King's Pleasure that such and such be suspended fined deprived c. And the late King himself at Oxford would not hear the Magdalen-Fellows plead their Cause but in a Fury told them He would make them know he was their King and would be obeyed Now let this Gentleman declaim as much as he will against a King's infringing his Peoples Liberties it hurts not K. William but falls very heavy upon his own Master And so doth this eloquent Description of the Mischief of a Prince's assuming a Dispensing Power Page 28. which fatally threatens the Liberties of a People and as he saith makes them Tenants at Will for their Privileges wherein the Law gives them a Freehold And was it not time for the English to look about them when the late King claimed and exercised this Power in a thousand Instances But to avoid that natural Application he pretends to wonder that our Convention and Parliament since the Revolution never set Bounds between the Prerogative and the Peoples Rights Which is a notorious piece of Dissimulation for he knows when the Convention tendred the Crown to their Majesties in that very Declaration solemnly approved Feb. 12. 1688. these Bounds are set and the Subjects Liberties and Rights declared especially such as the late King had invaded to which K. William consented and this was enrolled both in the Parliament-Rolls and in the Chancery * Hist of Desertion p. 127. Yea this Author cites this Declaration three or four times by name 33 34 35. yet here he would insinuate there was no such thing only that he may slander the present King and Parliament With equal Confidence he accuses K. William upon the Reduction of Ireland for acting Arbitrarily because to spare the Effusion of his Subjects Blood he granted some Privileges to the Irish who laid down their Arms by his own Authority tho he confesses he got them afterwards confirmed by Parliament Which is no more Power than a General is often wont to assume in signing Capitulations without consulting his Prince And is this Criminal in a King that is allowable in some of his Officers He knows the late King in time of Peace granted both Privileges and Dispensations more contrary to Law and despised a Parliament's Confirmation affirming his Will to be sufficient Authority for the most illegal Grants From this he passes to harangue upon the Injustice of illegal Imprisonment and the Worth of Freedom which he sets off as the choicest part of our Magna Charta forgetting that K. James contrary to Law imprisoned many hundreds in all parts of England upon Monmouth's Invasion and clapt up seven Bishops Peers of the Realm most unjustly and almost daily broke in upon this dear Piece of our English Privileges in time of Peace But he that excuses this and will not see it Pag. 29. roars out at our present King for clapping up a few Jacobites and aggravates the Matter extreamly but saith not one word of the Occasion But 't is well known that while the French King and King James prepare to invade us from without the Papists and their Protestant Accomplices of that Party have laid divers treasonable Plots at home to destroy this Government and by railing by Libels and all other Methods have laboured to disturb the publick Peace to seduce their Majesties Subjects from their Allegiance and to take away their Majesties Lives and Crowns for which under any Government but this many hundreds of them e're now had paid their Heads But our Prince who like the brave Antoninus punishes all Offences more gently than the Law ordains * Vide Jul. Capitolin in Vitâ pag. 206. hath been content only to confine some of the chief of them to prevent their doing Mischief as the Safety of the Nation absolutely requires when Invasion was threatned and this is the Occasion of all this Noise As for the Benefit of Acts of Parliament which he saith they were denied I must observe they were Men generally that deserved no Protection from or Benefit by the Laws because they have not only refused to swear Allegiance to this Government but by Words and Actions declared they are sworn Enemies to it and resolve to overturn it as soon as they can Nor could the Government want Informations against them who had so often and openly discovered their Intentions But it was K. William his innate Clemency which would soften any but such ungrateful Creatures that made him forbid any Prosecution And most of these Men were set at Liberty so soon that his Majesty's Friends thought his good Nature prevailed over that Caution which seemed necessary while so many Plots had been laid and were actually carrying on Yea one of them upon whom actual Treason in the highest Degree was proved hath been pardoned after Conviction and Condemnation and of many hundreds guilty of Treason two only have suffered